In the study the Orb began to glow softly as Kitty and
Illyanna spoke, their hands held just above it. The light from the Orb
became brighter and brighter until an image finally appeared within
it. Dr. Strange wore a heavy cloak, his normally trim goatee grown out
into a beard, but the biggest difference in his appearance was in his
eyes. Despite the hardships that he was likely going through, he
looked oddly happy.
Illyanna smiled slightly, "How are things going?"
The Doctor gave them a grin, "We're making real progress. The
rebel forces are coming together nicely, and we're getting the other
great powers of the realm on our side." He looked at the two of them
thoughtfully, "And on Earth?"
"Interesting," Kitty smiled. She softly began to summarize the
past few weeks, and his eyes widened slightly when she got to the
recent encounter in the Witching Hour.
"Dr. Fate," Strange murmured. He shook his head, a little
smile on his face, "I think you two are making a name for yourselves."
Clea's face appeared in the image. She smiled at them, "I
wanted to thank you, for freeing Stephen from his duties so that he
could come here to help us." The white haired sorceress snuggled in
close, showing that she had other reasons to be happy having the
Doctor there.
"Yes, well," Dr. Strange blushed.
Illyanna smiled slightly, covering her face with her hand. "We
should really let you get back to work," she tried to get her
expression as deadpan as possible.
Kitty gave the blonde a scolding look before looking back at
the Orb, "We'll contact you again in a week or so."
"I'll look forward to it," he smiled gently, then Dr.
Strange's image was gone.
Illyanna chuckled softly, "That was do cute."
Kitty nodded, "Yeah. The Doc. really does look happy, doesn't
he?"
The expression on Illyanna's face became more grave as she
said, "Yes, he does. So what are we going to do if he decides to stay
there?"
Kitty smiled wryly, "When we first became his apprentices, I
figured I'd train here for a few months, get my magic under control,
then go back to the X-Men."
"And?" Illyanna prompted her when Kitty stopped.
"I don't think I can do that anymore," Kitty admitted. She
reached out to take Illyanna's hand, "I'm so happy here, with you,
doing what we do. I wouldn't want to give it up."
"I'm glad," Illyanna drew her close, kissing her gently.
"We should probably go tell the Professor and the others that
we won't be rejoining the teams," Kitty said, clearly reluctant to
break off the kiss.
"Probably," Illyanna agreed before drawing her into another
deep kiss. She smiled wickedly, "But not today."
"You're relentless," Kitty murmured, but she was smiling.
"And you're not?" Illyanna inquired as they moved back to the
bedroom, the slim blonde gently guiding her lover with a hand on her
arm.
"Maybe so," Kitty laughed, phasing out of Illyanna's grasp.
She ran forward, stopping in the doorway to the bedroom. With a slight
frown of concentration Kitty phased again... her clothes dropping to
the floor around her.
"Whoa," Illyanna blushed, her eyes going wide.
"Last one in bed's a rotten egg." Kitty scampered towards the
bed, a laughing Illyanna running after her as she slammed the door
shut behind them.
The stepping disk shimmered for a moment by the front door of
the mansion and Kitty and Illyanna jumped out smoothly. It was early
in the afternoon, both girls having risen just a bit late, and they
had contacted the Professor shortly before arriving.
"I can't believe we slept in," Illyanna blushed as both girls
took a moment to make sure their clothes were fine.
"I can," Kitty blushed. Her white shirt was crisp and straight
and the long black skirt she had picked out looked quite respectable,
but somehow she still felt nervous.
"Pryde!" Illyanna blushed, 'Yeah, I guess we were up pretty
late last night.' Her outfit was pretty close to Kitty's, but instead
of a skirt she had picked out a pair of slacks.
Kitty stepped forward, about to open the door, then she
hesitated. "Before I would have gone straight in," she murmured, then
rang the doorbell.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," they heard the grouchy voice
approaching the door. It opened, Logan looked out at them in surprise,
then smiled. "Well look what the cat dragged in," he pulled Kitty and
Illyanna into a firm hug.
"Hey, easy on the ribs," Illyanna laughed, even as Logan let
them go. His nose almost seemed to twitch, and a smile teased his
lips. "What?" she blinked.
"Congratulations, you two," Logan grinned.
Kitty blinked, "How did you know.. ?"
"Your scents," Logan tapped his nose with a finger as his
smile widened slightly, "you don't have scents combine like that
unless you're doing it."
"You don't mind?" Kitty asked tentatively.
"Nah," Logan lead them inside, "I had a buddy in the army that
way." He snorted at the look they gave him, "Sadly, I don't go that
way."
Illyanna shook her head, "Now there's a mental image that I
did not need." She looked over at him curiously, "How do you think the
others are going to take it?"
"The Prof. probably already knows," Logan mused, "and I think
the rest of us will be okay with it." He shrugged, "Being a mutant
don't leave much room for prejudices towards anybody else."
"You're a wise man," Kitty hugged Logan, smiling. She focused
her concentration, feeling for the Professor, then she smiled. "The
Prof.'s in his study."
"Nice trick," Logan noted. He gave them a wave, "I'll catch up
with you two later, all right?"
"Got it," Illyanna waved as the two headed off towards the
study. More quietly she added, "That went pretty well."
"Let's hope he takes it well when he finds out we're not
coming back to be X-Men," Kitty answered. They reached the door, Kitty
about to knock when..
"Come in," Professor Xavier called out.
They went in together, taking in the Professor sitting at his
desk, looking out the window at the greenery. He turned back with a
smile, "It's good to see you in person." He waved them to seats by the
desk, "Was it all right to leave the Sanctum unguarded?"
"The automatic defenses can protect it for awhile," Illyanna
calmly answered, "and they're also set to let us know if there's any
breech." She looked him over carefully, then nodded grimly, "You look
pretty stressed, sir."
Kitty had to agree, "Is there anything we can do?"
The Professor smiled wryly. "I regained the use of my legs
awhile back," he reminded them, "but learning to actually use them
again is taking it's toll."
"I'm sorry to say there's no magical short-cuts to physical
therapy," Kitty admitted.
"There's something we wanted to tell you," Illyanna said a bit
nervously.
"You couldn't come up with something better than that line?"
Kitty murmured.
"I don't see you coming up with anything better," Illyanna
answered.
"What did you want to tell me?" the Professor tried to get
them back on track.
"Oh," Kitty blushed. She started, "We're lovers...
"I know," the Professor said calmly.
".. and we intend to stay on as Dr. Strange's apprentices
and/or successors." Kitty paused, an odd look on her face, "You know?"
"You might work on improving your mental shielding," the
Professor's cheeks colored, "you tent to project when your mind is
otherwise... occupied."
"You mean," Illyanna's face was red, even as Kitty looked open
mouthed at him, "that you heard us when we were..." He nodded, and
Illyanna groaned softly.
"If it helps any," the Professor smiled wryly, "I doubt anyone
else picked it up. And I'm happy for you both."
Kitty's face was still beet red as she murmured, "Thank you."
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