driftfleet | [snuggle up real close everyone]

[He does smile then, even as he shakes his head.] We're not dating, Kitty. We just.. keep each other company.

In bed? Without clothes? If it was a movie what would the rating be? Stop me when this gets weird. [It's well past weird.]

[Now he is smiling, his grin widening with each guess.] Now Kitty, what have I told you about a gentleman's affairs?

Now the first thing she did the morning after the dance when she saw Winn and me together was to congratulate me on getting laid. These were her words. [She practically blushes just retelling it. Partially because she just said "getting laid" to Kurt and it feels a little weird and wrong.]

[Kurt chuckles fondly, his expression hinting toward warmth.] That sounds like her. I wish I'd been awake to join in the congratulations.

Uh huh, and would you have been nice about it? Poor easily nervous boyfriend. What had you sleeping in so late anyway? Have a bit too much at the dance? Should I have been chaperoning?

Kitty. Putting the fact that I hate mornings, I want you to think about the questions you're asking for just a minute.

[She slows down and looks at him.] What? [Just tell her things. Must everything be pulling information out of unwilling men who love her? Seriously.]

[He's trying really hard not to laugh at her.] I did have a bit to drink, but I also had very lovely company after I was done with the party. How do you think I got all the dye off?

I didn't think it was friction! [Oh god. Actually blushing this time.] Wrath or someone else?

[Okay now he is laughing. Give him a minute, Kitty.

..Maybe two.] I've only been with one person in the Fleet!

[She looks faux put out as he continues to laugh and eventually just rewraps herself around him, feeling the way he shakes with laughter.] Well, at least I'm reasonably sure Wrath won't be jealous of your clingy best friend. [Can she just decide they're best friends? Everyone else is gone. She's just as likely to use the term family. Just a little differently than Rogue or Mystique.]

I don't think she'll mind. [Is it telling that his thoughts turn first to trust rather than Wrath and he not promising each other exclusivity? He's chalking it up to long habit of monogamy and moving on. Moving past the pang in his chest as well, because while he doesn't object in the least, the phrase 'best friend' will always remind him first of Bobby.]

["Best friend" has been a moving target for her for awhile now. In the prison it could have been applied to Allen, Chuck, Reid, Ton, and Pavel. But here in her new prison it's Kurt and even back home maybe it was Kurt. She would have said Piotr and she knows his was Bobby, but as a friend Kurt was her speed in a way Piotr never was. Though she had a lot of deep relationships with various X-Men that just didn't get clear titles. She'd never use "mom" or "dad" for any of them, but it could be applied to a few.]

She is pretty easy going. She also didn't seem all that eager about the idea of relationships. I think her exact words were "dating, bah." when she found out Winn and I were more than a fling. [Maybe just feeling Kurt out with this because she's not sure where he stands. She only recently learned of his wife so she's fresh in her mind, but also not a permanent fixture there.]

[Bobby was his best friend because he was Kurt's first. Jean and he both were the first to try talking to the scared little boy who wouldn't come down from the rafters, but it was Bobby who would sit for hours cracking jokes like Kurt was laughing at them. Eventually, he did.

Wrath's reaction gets a little smile and no surprise.] That's better for both of us. I'm too old and tired to fall in love again, and I made my wife a promise anyway. Probably I'm breaking part of it with Wrath, but.. [Kurt trails off with a shrug, his chin and line of sight dropping.] Linda knew I was never perfect.

Kurt... [She looks at him softly before her voice turns firmer.] One, you're not old. Older than me, yes, but not actually old. [She can understand why he'd think so. Hell, she thinks that of herself sometimes. The exhaustion is real and life expectancy is so limited that it's a miracle to survive a day let alone another year back home. The age they have was hard fought and you feel the weight of it.] Two, I don't know what this promise was, but I can't believe the woman you loved asked you to be alone and sad once she was gone.

I'm not saying you have to go fall in love with Wrath. Just...don't be so shut down to the idea of it with someone sometime. I mean, I wasn't exactly expecting it after Piotr and it still hasn't always been good to me, but I'm still glad it happened.

I promised her on our wedding day that I would love her until the stars burned out. If I keep no other promise to her, I'm going to keep that one. [Even so sad, Kurt smiles faintly at the memory of his wife on her wedding day.

He's still smiling when he looks back up, the corners of his mouth twisting wryly.] I shouldn't have told you that. You'll worry, and that's not what I want for you here.

One love doesn't have to replace another.

[She crinkles her face at him.] Don't you dare hide things from me to protect me, Kurt Darkholme. I'm not a teenager anymore. I will find out, and you will be punished.

[He actually chuckles at that, the wicked grin he offers only a little strained.]

Oh will I? You should be careful with threats like that, Kätzchen. You never know when a man might have developed a taste for that kind of treatment.

Okay, ew. [Not actually disgusted. Just not sure how to play off of it right now.] You clearly need Wrath keeping you in line.

But seriously, it means a lot to me that you're here. As much as people go in these places I still never expected to see anyone from home. Really from home. And I know things have changed—I have a year of prison under my belt you have extra years of hell. But if we can't be ourselves around each other then when can we?

[This next part is harder to say somehow just because it's true and vulnerable and she can't remember the last time she might have said it if ever.] I love you, you fuzzy jerk.

[Something in his face softens, and Kurt reaches to cup a cheek in one of his hands.] I love you too, you atrocity of a woman. And it makes me so happy to see the woman you've become; peace has been good to you, and so has Winn.

I'll do whatever I need to protect that in you, even if it means lying to you, or breaking your heart. [Breaking other people's hearts. Bones. Bodies. His own code of honor, though there's not much left of it to break. He'd tried to convince X-Force to kill an innocent boy for fear of what he'd become, and that's exactly why Kurt needs to lie to her. The man she remembers backhanded his own mother for less.]

[He begins and she feels whole in a way she didn't realize she'd been missing. She has a piece of her life back that is welcome and familiar. But she's frowning by the time he finishes. Wondering how much of that promise is him knowing what lengths he'd go to for her and how much is happening already. Have there been lies? And a part of her that grows still and cold wondering if there is an implied threat to Winn even after he said he's been good to her.]

Kurt. [She does her best to keep her voice even.] I'm your teammate. [An equal.]

Your friend. [Family.]

That's not how to help me. That's not what I need from you.

Yes, it is. [His thumb swipes over her cheekbone, tracing the curve over and again.]

You want the man you remember from home, that you could trust without reserve because you know he would never stop fighting. You don't want the man who'd lost everything even before the last battle. Even if those monsters hadn't broken through, there was nothing left for me. Do you understand what I'm telling you?

[Part of her still wants to sink closer despite the things he's saying. SHe can't manage to pull away either, standing there, transfixed.]

You're telling me you've been pretending to be who you were and not being who you are all this time. [She doesn't ask it like a question, but she still wants him to tell her she got it wrong. She doesn't want it to be that. She does want to trust him even if there will always be some reserve now because of Piotr.]

They're not that different. All I have to do is pretend.. to be happier than I am. It's easy around you, because you do make me happy. Wrath too, and I've made a couple of distracting friends.

It's.. not just for you, either. I want to be the man you remember, but I think I buried him with Linda. [Not really. Just in so much pain that sometimes he can't feel it, or anything at all beyond the ache in his bones.] But I don't.. I haven't lied to you, Kitty. I just haven't told you everything.

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