So it takes him a while

[goawayleavemealone]

It takes him a while to pick up the bloody phone and call, because...

Well, things are busy. It's not an actual walk in the park to run a government intelligence agency, and he has a lot on his plate with that, to say nothing of his crazy ol' dad, who's been sick and a sister who hasn't been around much recently.

But he shoulda called sooner.

it's not that he doesn't care. He cares, it's just...

It's Pryde.

It's Pryde and she was gonna marry the bloody Russian.

Still.

Shoulda called sooner.

So he taps her icon in his contacts, sits back in the chair at his office, and he waits.

Comments

[enduring_pryde]

She hadn't been taking any calls. She left a voice mail on Piotr's voicemail and regretted it as soon as she did it.

She left him at the altar. Their marriage wasn't going to be inevitable, no matter on glimpses ftom possible futures. She wasn't those women. Those weren't her life.

Leading the X-Men felt like a chore and less like a calling. She had leadership skills, yes, but this felt more like the job nobody else wanted and so dependable, diplomatic, and stupid Kitty took the mantle. It drove Scott insane. He couldn't stand up to the bar that the Professor set.

Thirty plus years and the dream had morphed into something it was never meant to be. The costs and the losses had been many. Were they worth the cost?

And much of that had shaped her into the woman she was now. Yes, she was passionate about people seeing Mutants as people, gifted and equal. It seemed to be a never-ending struggle and she personally saw no end.

In some twisted way, her relationship with Piotr felt not very different. They were stuck with one another, for better or worse. Like they had been fucking betrothed or something.

And she had gone along with it. Eventually it would feel right. Quill had been a blast at first, but when things got serious, Kitty wanted to run. Piotr made her feel like she was stuck. Twenty years to life. And how exactly had either one of them grown? Like, was this the best they were gonna get?

And Yana saw through it. She wanted thrm both happy but she recognised this wasn't right, either. Sharing in one's misery does not a happy person make.

The ringing of her phone shocks her out of her thoughts. It was an unknown number, but London judging by the area code.

"London calling to the faraway towns..." She smiles to herself And answers.

"Oh I think I know who this is." She doesn't have the heart to say any kind of biting comment besides that. "Who told you? Meghan or Brian?"

[goawayleavemealone]

He has to grin a little. He's missed that voice.

Not that he'll admit that to anyone. Ever.

As pleasant as she sounds right now, which, to be honest, is a little jarring considering it's him calling, he knows her better.

She's been spiraling, and holding it together by the skin of her teeth.

"Meg spilled the beans over tea last week," Pete says. "Woulda called sooner but things have been a right mess over here. Holding up A'right?"

[enduring_pryde]

Talking with her ex, with Wisdom, wasn't likely the best idea she had, but she wanted to see where this went.

A decade after their brakeup and they had gotten to a place where was only light, baseless grumbling between them. No really hurtful digs against one another. Playful antagonism was a phrase that came to mind. Holding each other at arms length. The attraction never faded. The temptation was always there.

She sighs and closes her eyes. Of course it was Meggan. "You know I haven't or you wouldn't have called." It wasn't to gloat. They both were beyond that sort of behaviour. "I'm the mess around here."

[goawayleavemealone]

He takes a breath.

It's not like he wants to talk about Pryde and the Tin Can. Ever.

But...

She'd been there for him when Maureen...

It's only fair. It's the right thing to do.

"Yeah," he says quietly. "Look, if you need to talk or...I dunno. I just..." He rubs his eyes. He knows he'll regret his next words, and he says them anyway. "I'm here if you need me."

He braces for impact. He knows that she's never needed him. He knows that right now, in all of this, he's probably the last person on Earth she wants to talk to, especially with all her mates around.

But he's not a complete bastard. Mostly. Sometimes.

"Anyways," he says. "I'll leave you be, then aye? A lot goin' on an all."

[enduring_pryde]

She needed a drink. And a hug. She needed to be held. She closes her eyes, tears slipping out and skimming her cheeks. "I wish you were here." She speaks in a whisper. He made the offer and she was going to take it. She needed his presence. She had taken the offer quickly, but when you feel like you're drowning, what else do you do when offered a life preserver? His outside perspective, and yet intimate knowledge of her, would give her the objectivity she had been craving.

"Can you come? Would you be able to do this for me?" It was a lot to ask of him and in most other cases she wouldn't have, but he had caught her in the right state of duress and said the right words. She had no need to feign strength when they both knew the truth.

[goawayleavemealone]

Gordon Bennett is he in trouble.

He thought maybe she'd vent to him, or tell him to leave her alone, or just change the subject.

This, he wasn't prepared for.

He squeezes his eyes shut. Saying yes to this is a terrible idea, and he knows it.

He knows that he'll have to put up with all of the x-wankers, and he knows that he'll have to deal with the fact that Pryde is emotional, and on the rebound, and that she'll either punch him in the throat or kiss him until he can't breath. He knows, too, that there's a very good chance that Rasputin will be around at some point, and that never goes well.

And on the other hand, when has he ever been able to say no her?

"Pryde, come on, don't - don't cry," he says. "It may take me a bit to work some things out, but I can get there. Probably be on a flight later tonight."

[enduring_pryde]

It might come as a surprise to some but Kitty was very tactile for someone who could render herself intangible. Wisdom seemed to know innately. She never had to ask.

"Thank you, Pete." Relief fills her voice. She would prepare one of the guest rooms. "Oh. You know that the mansion is now in Central Park?"

[goawayleavemealone]

He snorts. "Right. You would put the bloody school in the middle of the city with some of the worst traffic on earth," he grumbles, rubbing his face.

"I need to take care of a few things here...let Brian know...ask Faiza to look after me dad, and then I'll be there, probably sometime in the early morning."

[enduring_pryde]

"We needed to be among the people. Westchester had us too far removed." She runs her hand through the back of her hair. "Okay. Text me your arrival information and I will meet you at the airport."

[goawayleavemealone]

"Yeah. See you soon."

He hesitates for a moment, not sure if he should hang up yet. The crying is definitely worrisome.

Not that she's never cried before but...for her to be this vulnerable? And with him?

He's definitely in trouble.

"Bye, Pryde."

[enduring_pryde]

"See you soon." She ends the call and leans back in her chair. She saved his number and went to take care of the guest room.

Ray, I'm having a guest coming to stay at the mansion for a few days. Will you please make sure that nobody disturbs us when he arrives tomorrow morning? She was so tired and didn't feel up to dealing with anyone's objections.

---

Some hours later she found herself in International Arrivals at JFK. She had gotten herself halfway presentable. She didn't mess with her short hair and just pulled a beanie over it. How long had it been since she had seen Pete? Not within the last three years, and so much had happened in that time.

[goawayleavemealone]

Even with his jet lag and her (admittedly silly) beanie, it's not hard to pick her out of the crowd.

Not that there's that much of a crowd this early in the morning on a Monday.

He rubs at his unruly dark hair, and curses himself for not trying to get more sleep on the flight, but at least he'd gotten some paperwork done.

Now, he shoulders his bag as he steps up to her, giving her a tentatively wry grin.

"You'll be thrilled to know that I did not get drunk on the way here," he says. "That, my darlin, is some bloody character growth."

[enduring_pryde]

"And here I thought that was the entire point of a red eye flight," she muses with a slight smirk. When he becomes within arms reach she wraps her arms around him, enveloping him in a tight hug. Though she had been the one to reject Piotr, she still was in some need of consoling. There were things she needed to say and she knew nobody else would be able to give her the advice she was looking for. Her friends and family had a tendency of saying what she wanted to hear. And poor Yana. Her best friend felt like she was at fault for breaking them up when it wasn't about that at all.

"What do you say to breakfast? My treat."

[goawayleavemealone]

He instinctively wraps his free arm around her, resting his chin on top of her head.

"I say, who are you and where's Pryde?" He jokes. "You hate watching me eat." He pulls away and looks at her appraisingly.

Paler than normal, sad look in her eyes.

He has to wonder if she's worse off without the bloody Russian; if maybe, despite his own feelings for this woman, she'd be happier with the big, dumb bastard.

He hates that. He'll stand aside if he has to of course but Christ he hates that idea.

"I am starvin' though," he grins. "lead the way."

[enduring_pryde]

They've had a few times since their relationship ended that they had a couple quiet moments of intimacy, of consoling. Few and far between. There were clear and present dangers in getting too close, namely getting back together. Their lives were so far removed from one another now, but a relationship was feasible. Hell, not that long ago she was maintaining a long distance relationship with someone in outer space. London was a short flight over the Atlantic. Kitty was out of excuses. For everything. Pete included.

"I do but I like your company more, so I will subject myself to that." She knows full well what he's going to see when he studies her. Her eyes are puffy from lack of sleeping but not from crying.

She smiles and gives his hand a light squeeze before letting it go. "There's a hole in the wall breakfast place a few minutes from here." Away from prying eyes and ears.

The drive takes nearly half an hour but they are given a booth almost immediately after arriving. It's a local haunt, with tacky wallpaper and plastic flowers for decor.

[goawayleavemealone]

He grins up at their waiter politely, ordering himself a coffee, before turning his gaze back to Kitty.

"Right," he takes, taking a breath and knocking his knuckles gently against the table. "So. If I'm up to date on current events, you're head mistress of the X-school. You're leading a team. And you were gonna get married, and then...decided at the last minute that you didn't want to. And now, you're sitting here with me, who you are being very nice to, which hasn't been exactly par for the course in recent history."

He has a grin a little. "So I have to wonder what's goin on in that big brain of yours."

When the coffee comes, he nods to their waiter. "Ta, mate." He sips it black, and looks at the cup approvingly. He'll probably drink at least three more of these before they leave.

[enduring_pryde]

While Kitty orders a full meal of eggs, turkey sausage, toast, and tea.

"That is an accurate summary, yes. And a lot is going through my brain. I thought marrying Piotr was the right thing to do after all of this time. Like we were just delaying the inevitable. I did have unspoken reservations. Things between him and me--it's like a dance he and I always find ourselves in." She knits her brows. "Which is different from you and I. You and I have never been in a rut. While me and Piotr, we are just two people who try to do what we think people expect us to do and yet always seem unhappy and dissatisfied with the results." There, she said it. "It was a whole lot easier when he was dead. I could let him go." She presses her lips together. "But to be up there, hearing the vows. It was surreal. And my entire being was screaming no, this isn't right. This isn't what I want. For twenty years I have been 'his Katya' and no. I don't want to be anymore. Neither of us really know what the other is about. But what I do know, truthfully, I've never been the person he wanted. And I'm okay with that."

She smiles softly at first but the smile starts to grow. "And you're really the only person I can talk with about this. You know the history, you've seen me and you've seen him at our worsts." Piotr was lucky she didn't murder him for the beating he gave to Pete. "You--I don't know why or how, but you've always let me be me with no expectations." She thanks the waiter for her tea and adds cream and sugar. "I know why I reacted the way I did with you, all of those years ago. I was so scared of fucking up one of the best things in my life that I fucked it up. What has happened between me and Piotr is not the same."

[goawayleavemealone]

He downs the rest of his coffee as he talks, and when the waiter comes back with a refill, he orders eggs, bacon, toast and home fries.

He drums his fingers on the table and sits back, not meeting her eyes. "Kitty." He takes a breath. "You were how old when you met him? What? Thirteen? It's hardly realistic to base a long-lasting relationship off of the feelings of a little girl - one, I might add, that he took advantage of."

He'd nearly shit a brick when Kitty had admitted just how young she was when she and Piotr had initially got together. Say what you will about their age gap, but Pryde was a legal adult when they'd got started. She'd been just fourteen when she and Rasputin first got together, and Pete had been furious at the other man, who had been nearly twenty.

He sips more coffee. "And if you never bothered to really get to know each other as adults, it's not wonder this hasn't worked out with the two of you. He still sees you as 'his Katya' which isn't healthy. You're an adult now. You're complete different people."

He stays silent for a long moment, glancing at her. "As for you an' me...I..." he looks away from her again, rubbing at his hair. "Look, I only ever wanted you to be happy. That meant letting you be you. To say nothing of the fact that I-"

He stops.

Out of all the things she needs to hear right now, how he feels about her probably isn't one of them. She's already going through enough without him adding more bullshit to an already large dumpster fire. He's also not at all ready to admit to her that despite having gotten on with things, he's never quite gotten over her properly.

In the same breath, the last thing he needs is to be her bloody rebound.

"Anyway."

[enduring_pryde]

"I was thirteen and a half and Piotr was nineteen when we met. We didn't start dating until after I was fifteen. But then he met someone and was immediately smitten. Had a child with her." She smiles awkwardly. "I know this was never the best relationship. I think I kept trying because of the history too." She raises an eyebrow. "And just for the record: Piotr and I didn't have sex until after you and I slept together." Even twenty-one to her fifteen, she knew that she was being taken advantage of. Maybe not intentionally, though she couldn't say for sure either.

"We tended to go along with how we had a history together and were more or less comfortable with one another."

She nods. "And you let me go when you thought that was what I wanted too. No, I get it. You've always let me make my own choices and didn't try to steer me into ones that you thought were best for me." She takes another sip of her tea.

"This time, I would like to let Piotr go. He's on leave in Russia at the moment. No idea when he'll be back."

She starts to smile again. "Do you know why I like having you around, Pete? You make my life simple. As crazy as my life has been, and as crazy as I know yours has been, I never felt the weight of the world on my shoulders around you. I think I was trying to capture that feeling with Piotr--give to him what you have given so effortlessly to me. And yet, that isn't who he is, nor do I think who he wants to be. His idea of simple living is vastly different from mine." But hers and Wisdom's seemed compatible.

[goawayleavemealone]

"Even if you didn't have sex, you were too young, and he knew it," Pete grumbles into his coffee cup. "No way in hell he didn't."

He grins at little at her as he sets his cup down and lets the waiter set down their food, nodding his thanks, before turning back to Kitty. "Look, I'll be honest. I had no idea what was best for you. I'm fair certain it wasn't me, though. Most days, I don't even know what's best for me, not that that's a shock to you."

He digs into his eggs, letting them run into his home fries, before taking a big forkful and chewing. "As for 'simple,' I don't know if anything about your lives - or mine for that matter - was ever simple. I just...you X-People. You tend to dramatize and catastrophize everything, and there's no need, aye?"

He takes another bite, and then another sip of coffee. "It might be a very British way of looking at things, but life's gonna keep rolling along no matter what we do or don't do. You just sort of get on with it, best you can."

He grins at her again. "And you have, I think. Maybe the Rasputin thing is a mess, yeah, but...you're doin' a'right. You're gonna be fine."

[enduring_pryde]

"Of course he knew it. But fifteen year old me was persistent as ever. The whole affair has been rather juvenile. I don't think the taking advantage of was completely one-sided, me being a minor or not. Especially in the years that followed."

She shrugs. "I wouldn't say that. You always made my life more interesting and caused me to smile or start laughing. Or get pissed off or annoyed. I consider those things simple because they're very human. With all of the UK's other prejudices, the overall acceptance of mutants and altered humans there is much better than what happens here. Even with Excalibur, I felt like a person who was living her life. I didn't have to continually go out of my way to prove my ability to live a normal life." Being sanctioned by the government helped, of course. The X-Men at many times have been outlaws.

She watches Pete and picks up her tea and takes a long sip. "I'm not suggesting to you to be the rebound, but having you back in my life on a semi regular basis would be nice."

[goawayleavemealone]

"You know, if you miss Blighty, there's always a spot on my team with your name on it. Meggan'd be through the roof to have you around. Alistaire and Brian, too..."

He sips his own coffee, lifting an eyebrow. "Good. Because, if I'm honest, the last thing I can handle is being your rebound. I've got enough problems back home between work and my bloody family." He takes a breath. "But I have missed you."

It's an understatement, and he's probably just getting himself into more and more trouble with all of this; with her being in a vulnerable emotional state.

He eats more, going quiet, wondering where the hell any of this is going, and just how many dirty looks he'll get when they get to the school, or if he should just turn around and go home.

[enduring_pryde]

"I do. I really do. And it's so very tempting. I might." She nods. "I might just take you up on it. Leading the X-Men isn't what I had hoped. It feels more like I am taking up a task that nobody else wants anymore. And maybe that's for the best. Maybe..." she shrugs again and waves the waiter over for a refill of her tea.

"I know," she says, looking back at him. "And I would never put you in that position. "And I figured you did. Calling me, checking on me, even coming all of the way out here? You still care about me." She begins to pick at her toast and eggs. "And I'm not taking you away from anyone, am I?"

[goawayleavemealone]

"I bet you're good at it though," Pete says. "Leadin' the X-Men, keepin' 'em in line, I bet you're brilliant."

"Nah, there's no one right now." He gazes at her, setting his fork down. "D'you know what, though? I have an idea."

He's going to regret this.

He's going to regret this a lot and he doesn't care, because-.

Well.

"I think we should head back to the school, you should leave the Blue Elf in charge, pack a bag, and come back with me for a while, cuz I think you need a break from all this bollocks."

[enduring_pryde]

"I am. We're making a difference. We're inspiring people--which is great. The main idea I want to convey is that we have gifts that can be of service to people and shouldn't be immediately taken as a threat. I've had varying levels of success with that."

When he tells her that there isn't anyone else, her smile brightens a touch.

"Oh goodness, I can definitely use a break." And it wasn't like she wouldn't be among her friends and family. Brian, Meggan, even Alistaire she had known for years. These were the people who had been there during her late teens and early adulthood. Completely different environment.

"And if Kurt doesn't want it, Ororo is there too. It's not like I won't be leaving the X-Men in the best of hands." She nods and adds cream and sugar to her second cup of tea. "Yeah. Let's do this."