Quitting Time

[goawayleavemealone]

Pete wipes his face as he heads from his office down to the lab. After the day he's had, he's itching for a cigarette, but resisting; hesitant to break a three day streak without one.

He'd spent the better part of the day helping to place the hybrids safely, make sure each one was taken care of, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for something else out of the ordinary, trying not to be too distracted to notice something else in the works.

Leads had been a bust, which was equally frustrating.

He steps into the lab, finding that Alistaire had gone for the day, and that Kitty was still sitting in front of a group of laptops, slumped over, fast asleep.

Pete sighs deeply and steps over, kneeling down next to her chair and patting her knee gently. "Oi, Pryde."

Comments

[enduring_pryde]

She glanced at him, giving him a sly smile. "Yep. That's the plan." She knew he was reiterating to keep a level head. "So am I making you hot and bothered or just a little bothered?" She asks casually.

[goawayleavemealone]

He laughs a little and shakes his head. "You already know the answer to that, Pryde."

He walks down the street, toward the little bakery at the corner with late hours, his shoulder close to hers as they walk, his hands in his pockets.

[enduring_pryde]

"I do but I wanted to hear you say it." She said she would follow his lead, but she never said she wouldn't be needling him a little. And it would be healthy to talk about feelings and the like. She wasn't going to let things go unsaid again.

"So Lady Jacqueline wasn't anything like how you said she would be to me."

[goawayleavemealone]

He grins a little, glancing at her.

"She's English, and a woman of title at that. Polite might as well be her middle name," Pete shrugs. "She also knows a good thing when she sees one, and you putting your computer goddess skills to work for us is definitely a good thing."

[enduring_pryde]

"Mmhmm. I'm intending to demonstrate the strengths I can bring to your team. I'm used to being in charge," she says with a laugh.

[goawayleavemealone]

"Yes, I know, Madame Headmistress," he teases.

[enduring_pryde]

"Head Mistress, Team Leader," she nods. "It's good being somewhere where I can be me. It's been a long time." She smiles. "So where is the bakery?"

[goawayleavemealone]

"Just round here," he says, walking around the corner to a small bakery and opening the door for her, nodding for her to go in.

It's small and cozy, warmly lit, and the smell of coffee and, bread and tea wafts through the shop.

Behind the counter stands an older woman: short, and frizzy-haired, she's got her back to them, kneading some bread dough on the counter.

"Welcome to the bake shop with no name," Pete grins. "Opened in 1939, and a popular after-hours stop for spooks around these parts."

[enduring_pryde]

"How cute and quaint. And here I thought you showed me all of your spy haunts in London." They had spent many hours at The Crown. "Is it bad that I kind of want one if everything?" She hadn't gotten a chance to eat lunch. It had been a long time since their breakfast in New York.

[goawayleavemealone]

"We didn't make it this way too often back then," Pete points out," he mutters, looking at their options.

"We can make that happen," Pete grins. "I'm starvin' too."

[enduring_pryde]

"No we didn't. I want to see any of your other favourites too. I also would love to hit that Bletchley Park pub, the Bletchley in Chelsea." Because a pub where you have to figure out puzzles in order to get your drink sounded fun.

"Great. And which ones are your favourites? Let's start there."

[goawayleavemealone]

Pete grins, amused. "Yeah, I know it. We can go another night."

He looks in at the pastries and grins. "I like the Cornish pasties, and the croissants." He taps the glass gently.

[enduring_pryde]

"Yes. I like those too. Let's get some rugelach, crodoughs, a variety of muffins. Mmm. Apple Danish."

[goawayleavemealone]

Pete blinks at her rapidly. "Right. When did you start eating like me?*

In the back of his head, an alarm goes off, wondering if she's...

No. She wouldn't do that. She wouldn't drop that in his lap.

[enduring_pryde]

"Really when I went to college a few years ago. But also what I'm ordering isn't just for me: it's for you too. Since our shopping trip went bust we need something edible in your apartment."

[goawayleavemealone]

Pete grins at her and nods, stepping up to the counter. He feels stupid for worrying but it's hard not to.

"Lo Minnie. We'll have two of everything to go, thanks. And two large coffees."

[enduring_pryde]

She grins. "Thank you, Minnie." She pats Pete on the hand reassuringly.

[goawayleavemealone]

He glances at her, and pays for everything, handing kitty one of the coffees and carrying his own and the bag of food.

"Right. Home."

[enduring_pryde]

"Wonderful." She takes her coffee and takes a sip. "I should have you know that I am still a cheap date." She still preferred the simple pleasures. "Do you ever think about what might have happened if you hadn't left Muir?"

[goawayleavemealone]

He freezes for a moment, caught off guard by the question, and opens his mouth, thinking it through.

"Sometimes," he admits. "But I know what woulda happened. We'da worked it out for a little bit longer. Tried to make it last, but...but we were a mess, Pryde, and you woulda wound up leaving to go back to the X-Men one way or the other."

He knows that's true. She had been too young, and he'd been too volatile. They hadn't been good for each other then.

He starts walking again. "We can catch a cab a few blocks from here."

[enduring_pryde]

"Me too. You're right. We both had growing up to do. I wasn't in a very good head space while we were together. I hit rock bottom when my dad died."

She runs a hand in her hair. "I used to have this reoccurring dream of you showing back up in my life. Having some business in New York. And you end up taking me back to England." She smiles. "The reality of it was way better than the dream." She raises an eyebrow. "We can also Uber."

[goawayleavemealone]

"Rather actually keep the cabbies in work," Pete mutters as they keep walking.

He used to think about what it would be like for Kitty to show back up in his life, out of the blue. He used to think about finding her and trying to pick up where they left off.

But the truth is that he never really know if that's what she wanted, of if he'd just be getting in the way of her new life.

[enduring_pryde]

"That's fair," she says with a nod and follows his lead for the few blocks.

"You know, I spent more of my adolescence in the UK than I did with the X-Men. It's kind of a place for the misfits of the misfits. Not just people who are Mutants, but people who don't know how to live normal lives, or can't live normal lives." They weren't at a time in society where someone like Kurt could live with humans. There was more anger and hostility toward them more than ever.

"I've known for a long time that I want more in my life than just a costume. It's seductive to so many of us. You can lose yourself in it. But never really me. I've always been the poster child for integration. An example of someone who had the Xavier education and can show people we aren't very different. I was brought up for this. I've seen a lot of different sides to the issue. I've talked with Magneto for hours about this very topic. And Logan. Ororo. Scott. Kurt. I only keep going back because I didn't find myself fitting anywhere else. But I did on Muir. I finally got somewhere."

[goawayleavemealone]

He lets her talk, and wonders what his life would have been like had he told his family he was a mutant before he left home.

The "I'm leaving now, thanks for all the bloody memories and oh by the way I'm a fucking mutant" thing he'd pulled before walking out the door of his parents' house had been...

Well.

"I never really fit in anywhere, either," he comments. "But I don't think it's a specifically mutant problem. Common among mutants, yeah, but...it always seemed more of a people problem to me."

He gazes at her. "Muir was good. You seemed happy there, for a bit."

[enduring_pryde]

"It's not strictly a Mutant problem but being a Mutant can exacerbate the problem. Not only do you have to deal with the normal changes everybody goes through, but oh look suddenly now you have the power to kill everybody you love if you don't learn how to control your powers. Or your ability is pretty mundane. You are a master at languages. You can create holographic matrix sculptures. You can talk to plants. Still. We really are different for our abilities but we have every right to live a mostly normal life if we choose to. And that's truly what I would like." She smiles softly. "A mostly normal life with ypu."