Kitty and Illyana | Backdated to 8/15/17
Aug. 15th, 2017 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainIllyana gets back from meeting with Tommy and she and Kitty get serious about Yana's past.
It was nearly curfew when Illyana opened the door to the room she shared with Kitty and slipped inside. Overall, it'd been a pretty decent night. She still wasn't entirely sure if she and Tommy were dating or just screwing around as a distraction, but that was okay. She wasn't altogether sure what the difference was, anyway
It hadn't escaped her attention that he hadn't promised they were going to Disney after the mission, but that was okay, too. She wasn't sure she'd have believed him, anyway.
"Hey," she offered with a tired smile as she crossed over and plopped down on her bed. "Gossip Girl was right. Just kissing the guy works pretty well."
Kitty glanced up from where she was huddled on her bed, the glow of her laptop on her knees. She pursed her lips briefly, but managed a smile for her new friend. "Yeah. Good."
Illyana pushed herself up on her elbows, her forehead furrowing. "Yeah, good? What kind of response is 'Yeah, good'?"
"It means. It means. Good. You know. Ugh," Kitty sighed and rubbed her head. "Sorry, I'm just kind of keyed up about tomorrow. I've had a lot on my mind."
"Ugh, yeah, I hear you." Illyana was prepared to flop back down and leave it at that, but a look at Kitty suggested there was more to it than that. "Are you okay?" she asked, her forehead furrowing as she sat up fully.
Kitty looked at her for a moment, then glanced back down at her screen, not really processing what was on it. "It's, um. It's not really the right time."
"Oh. Okay." Feeling a little hurt for no good reason she could think of, Illyana lay back down.
Thirty seconds went by in silence, and Kitty finally sat up, pushing her computer off to the side. "I read your essay."
For a long moment, Kitty's words didn't sink in, though Illyana found herself sitting back up to stare at the other girl. She'd read... finally, it clicked, and Illyana felt the blood drain from her face. "Oh."
That was it, then. Kitty knew - well, at least as much as Illyana'd told the Professor. She figured that would be more than enough.
"I shouldn't have," Kitty admitted with a little frown. "It was open on your computer and it was right there. I'd never seen you work so hard on anything before and I thought... well, I mean, whatever I thought, it was snooping, and I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Illyana replied as the implications sank in further. She pushed her hand back through her hair and tangled it in the back. "I mean, it was going to come out sooner or later, anyway. Probably tomorrow." She tooka deep breath, exhaled, and forced herself to meet Kitty's eyes. "You want me to move out? I'll make up some story for the Professor, tell him I broke your computer or something. He'll believe it."
Kitty blinked at her. "What? No. Why would you even think that?"
Illyana tilted her head and gave her an "I'm not stupid" look. "Because I'm pretty sure most people would have a major objection to sharing a room with a demon sorceress?"
"You're not a demon," Kitty argued. "No more than I am. And even if you were, I think I know you pretty well by now. I love being friends with you. I don't care where you came from. Although. Geez, Yana, talk about baggage. If you ever wanna talk? You know I'm here."
Illyana chewed at her lip for a long moment, her eyes skirting from Kitty's. Much as she appreciated the unexpected vote of support, Kitty didn't know everything, did she? "I...didn't put everything in that essay," she admitted. "So you might want to hold off on the 'you're not a demon' part."
Kitty closed her laptop and pulled her legs up to sit cross legged on her bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No?" Illyana let go of her hair, dropping her hands to her lap, and pulled her legs in to sit cross legged as well. "I was kinda trying to avoid it, actually. But I don't think I'm going to be able to."
"We don't have to," Kitty told her softly. "I know it's the night before the mission. Everyone's nerves are on end. It can wait until you're ready. But I promise I'm not going to kick you out of the room."
"I appreciate that." Illyana's lips quirked up just a bit in acknowledgement, then dropped again as she sighed. "The mission's the problem, though. I'm the emergency escape plan. And it's easy for Tommy to say that we just need to avoid needing an emergency escape, but somehow, I doubt it'll work out that way. I don't have that kind of luck."
"So what's the problem?" Kitty asked. "If you do it fast enough, no one will ever know how the teleportation works. Or is it that you're not sure of the accuracy?"
"Well, I'm a lot more accurate if I take the time to visualize where I'm going," Illyana admitted. "But either way? I'm not sure I can go so fast that no one's going to notice that they've been pulled into another dimension. Especially if they're attacked by anything."
Kitty frowned thoughtfully. "Then we'll make it a last, last resort. The boys are fast - I mean, Tommy and Jean-Paul are. That just leaves me, you, and Remy. If we have to bail fast, I can grab Remy and phase him out of there, and you can teleport yourself."
"I promised," Illyana pointed out. She ran her hand back through her hair and met Kitty's eyes, then shrugged. "Sooner or later, everyone's going to find out, anyway. If I have to do it, I have to. I'm not going to let anyone else get hurt because of me."
"Else?" Kitty asked gently.
There was a long pause before Illyana answered, during which she gave serious consideration to telling Kitty she'd misspoke. Finally, though, she took another deep breath. "Just...well, just before I left there. Belasco's old apprentice - her name was Ashake - she showed up, and fought Belasco. He set Cat on her, and..." she swallowed hard. "I had to. I couldn't let her kill Ashake - they'd been friends, y'know? Before Belasco turned Cat into a demon. And I..." She shook her head, unable to bring herself to say the words. "It was too late, though. Ashake was already dying; Cat had clawed her. Too deep to heal, even if Belasco would have let me. And Belasco was gloating that he finally had her back and was going to offer her soul to his Masters, so she'd be lost forever. And she looked at me, and I knew what she wanted me to do."
Her teeth worried at her lip again, and finally, she looked up. "I killed her. It was the only thing I could do for her, and I did it."
"So you were forced to kill two innocent people because of Belasco," Kitty murmured softly.
"I wasn't forced," Illyana corrected. "I chose to. He wasn't exactly happy about it." Which was probably the understatement of the year, given his reaction. She sighed and leaned her head into her hand. "I paid the price. It's just...there are no good choices in Limbo, only bad and worse. This...well, it was the best thing I could do for either of them."
"Yes..." Kitty agreed slowly. "It was. And you were brave to do it. What do you mean you paid the price?"
Instead of answering, Illyana got up and walked over to her dresser. She ruffled around for a minute, then pulled out a large, round locket on a chain, carried it over to Kitty and flipped it open. Inside, there was an etched pentagram, at the points of which were small round holes. Three were filled, with small orbs that glowed silver. "One more piece of my soul." Illyana grimaced and shrugged. "He'd already taken two - what's one more, right?"
Kitty just stared. She didn't know how she could handle 'demon' and 'magic' so easily, but find herself looking at a piece (three pieces) of someone's soul and suddenly hit a roadblock in her own head.
Yeah. That was what Illyana had kind of figured. She flipped the amulet shut and shrugged. "I told you to hold off on the 'you're not a demon' part. Three fifths of me kind of is."
She didn't know why it hit her so hard. That casual disregard for something as beautiful as a trapped soul. And tears just started sliding down Kitty's face. Before she knew it, she was wrapping her arms around Illyana, squeezing her tight.
Huh? Illyana resisted the urge to pull back, and instead tentatively wrapped her arms around Kitty in turn. "Umm..." she let that trail off, uncertain as to what she should say. Or why Kitty was hugging her. Or crying. Except she kind of liked the hug anyway, so she just rubbed slow circles on Kitty's back like she vaguely remembered someone having done to her as a child, and hoped that would help. And that Kitty would eventually explain.
Kitty held the hug for a five-beat, then slowly pulled back, wiping at her face with the heel of her hand. "I'm sorry. It's just. Your soul. I'm...I'm so sorry."
"It's...okay?" Illyana bit her lip, her eyes dropping towards the floor, and shrugged. "I chose it. Or, well, once, anyway. The other two times, not so much."
Kitty couldn't just keep saying 'sorry', so she nodded quietly. "Look, um. Whatever happened to you, you're welcome here. I'm not gonna judge."
Illyana stared. This wasn't going the way she'd expected, at all, and she wasn't altogether sure what to do. "I, umm...thanks. I appreciate that." Her lips quirked up a bit. "I'll make sure to keep any visiting demons on my side of the room."
"All I ask is that they clean up after themselves," Kitty smiled sideways.
"I'll make sure of it." Illyana's lips twitched, and she shook her head and leaned in and hugged Kitty again. Just because.
Kitty squeezed her close. "Come on. Let's get some sleep. We've got that recon tomorrow."
"Ugh, thanks for the reminder." Illyana dropped her arms and stepped back. "I shouldn't complain, though." She offered something resembling her usual impish smile. "I got a makeout session out of it."
Kitty grinned and started putting away her electronics. "Yeah? So you guys are dating now?"
Illyana wrinkled her nose and shrugged as she went over to her dresser, put her amulet away beneath her bras, and pulled out an oversized Xavier's t-shirt she was using as pajamas. "I don't think so? I think we both just didn't want to think." She grinned a little. "I'm not sure how good a girlfriend I'd be, but I'm apparently an awesome distraction."
"I'm not even sure how that works," Kitty made a face. "But if it helped you guys, then sure, why not?"
"It did. Besides, I kinda figure if we're gonna date, I should probably tell him what he's getting into first." Illyana made a face as she pulled off her top and replaced it with the tee. "It doesn't exactly seem like the right time though, y'know?" Not with them going into a place where he'd essentially been tortured the next day. He had enough on his mind already.
"No, I get it," Kitty smiled across from her, throwing back the covers and dropping onto her bed. "I've been too busy to really think about talking to Bobby."
"Has he asked you out again yet?" Illyana asked, turning towards Kitty as she shimmied out of her jeans and let them fall.
"No. I mean, it wasn't a date, right? And I've got other stuff to think about," Kitty suspected she was telling Illyana as much as she was telling herself. She lay back, staring up at the ceiling. "Like tomorrow."
"Tomorrow." Illyana slipped into her bed and lay down, her posture mirroring Kitty's. "What're you thinking?"
"About tomorrow?" Kitty asked, tapping a panel behind her to turn out the room's lights.
"Yeah," Illyana confirmed.
"I'm thinking that we're probably not going to find anything - but if the Professor is sending an entire team of us, he's probably expecting trouble," Kitty told her quietly.
"Tommy said - not tonight, but back on the Fourth - that he figured The Professor was putting together a private army." Illyana paused. "I'm not sure how I feel about that," she admitted. "But...Tommy told me a little about what happened there, and I'm a lot less okay with that."
"Yeah," Kitty sighed. "I'd already started to get the feeling that the Prof had a plan. He's got people studying the X-gene, and he's finding all of these students so quickly. I've even heard that some kids were saved from mobs."
Illyana wrinkled her nose - she hadn't heard that, but she couldn't say she was surprised, either. "So, if he is? We're what, the infiltration team?" She paused again and groaned. "Actually, we're part of it, right? That's who's going tomorrow."
Kitty wrinkled her nose as well. "I don't know. But as long as we're looking into people who hurt mutants? I'm okay with it."
"Yeah," Illyana agreed, closing her eyes. "I think I am, too."
It was nearly curfew when Illyana opened the door to the room she shared with Kitty and slipped inside. Overall, it'd been a pretty decent night. She still wasn't entirely sure if she and Tommy were dating or just screwing around as a distraction, but that was okay. She wasn't altogether sure what the difference was, anyway
It hadn't escaped her attention that he hadn't promised they were going to Disney after the mission, but that was okay, too. She wasn't sure she'd have believed him, anyway.
"Hey," she offered with a tired smile as she crossed over and plopped down on her bed. "Gossip Girl was right. Just kissing the guy works pretty well."
Kitty glanced up from where she was huddled on her bed, the glow of her laptop on her knees. She pursed her lips briefly, but managed a smile for her new friend. "Yeah. Good."
Illyana pushed herself up on her elbows, her forehead furrowing. "Yeah, good? What kind of response is 'Yeah, good'?"
"It means. It means. Good. You know. Ugh," Kitty sighed and rubbed her head. "Sorry, I'm just kind of keyed up about tomorrow. I've had a lot on my mind."
"Ugh, yeah, I hear you." Illyana was prepared to flop back down and leave it at that, but a look at Kitty suggested there was more to it than that. "Are you okay?" she asked, her forehead furrowing as she sat up fully.
Kitty looked at her for a moment, then glanced back down at her screen, not really processing what was on it. "It's, um. It's not really the right time."
"Oh. Okay." Feeling a little hurt for no good reason she could think of, Illyana lay back down.
Thirty seconds went by in silence, and Kitty finally sat up, pushing her computer off to the side. "I read your essay."
For a long moment, Kitty's words didn't sink in, though Illyana found herself sitting back up to stare at the other girl. She'd read... finally, it clicked, and Illyana felt the blood drain from her face. "Oh."
That was it, then. Kitty knew - well, at least as much as Illyana'd told the Professor. She figured that would be more than enough.
"I shouldn't have," Kitty admitted with a little frown. "It was open on your computer and it was right there. I'd never seen you work so hard on anything before and I thought... well, I mean, whatever I thought, it was snooping, and I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Illyana replied as the implications sank in further. She pushed her hand back through her hair and tangled it in the back. "I mean, it was going to come out sooner or later, anyway. Probably tomorrow." She tooka deep breath, exhaled, and forced herself to meet Kitty's eyes. "You want me to move out? I'll make up some story for the Professor, tell him I broke your computer or something. He'll believe it."
Kitty blinked at her. "What? No. Why would you even think that?"
Illyana tilted her head and gave her an "I'm not stupid" look. "Because I'm pretty sure most people would have a major objection to sharing a room with a demon sorceress?"
"You're not a demon," Kitty argued. "No more than I am. And even if you were, I think I know you pretty well by now. I love being friends with you. I don't care where you came from. Although. Geez, Yana, talk about baggage. If you ever wanna talk? You know I'm here."
Illyana chewed at her lip for a long moment, her eyes skirting from Kitty's. Much as she appreciated the unexpected vote of support, Kitty didn't know everything, did she? "I...didn't put everything in that essay," she admitted. "So you might want to hold off on the 'you're not a demon' part."
Kitty closed her laptop and pulled her legs up to sit cross legged on her bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No?" Illyana let go of her hair, dropping her hands to her lap, and pulled her legs in to sit cross legged as well. "I was kinda trying to avoid it, actually. But I don't think I'm going to be able to."
"We don't have to," Kitty told her softly. "I know it's the night before the mission. Everyone's nerves are on end. It can wait until you're ready. But I promise I'm not going to kick you out of the room."
"I appreciate that." Illyana's lips quirked up just a bit in acknowledgement, then dropped again as she sighed. "The mission's the problem, though. I'm the emergency escape plan. And it's easy for Tommy to say that we just need to avoid needing an emergency escape, but somehow, I doubt it'll work out that way. I don't have that kind of luck."
"So what's the problem?" Kitty asked. "If you do it fast enough, no one will ever know how the teleportation works. Or is it that you're not sure of the accuracy?"
"Well, I'm a lot more accurate if I take the time to visualize where I'm going," Illyana admitted. "But either way? I'm not sure I can go so fast that no one's going to notice that they've been pulled into another dimension. Especially if they're attacked by anything."
Kitty frowned thoughtfully. "Then we'll make it a last, last resort. The boys are fast - I mean, Tommy and Jean-Paul are. That just leaves me, you, and Remy. If we have to bail fast, I can grab Remy and phase him out of there, and you can teleport yourself."
"I promised," Illyana pointed out. She ran her hand back through her hair and met Kitty's eyes, then shrugged. "Sooner or later, everyone's going to find out, anyway. If I have to do it, I have to. I'm not going to let anyone else get hurt because of me."
"Else?" Kitty asked gently.
There was a long pause before Illyana answered, during which she gave serious consideration to telling Kitty she'd misspoke. Finally, though, she took another deep breath. "Just...well, just before I left there. Belasco's old apprentice - her name was Ashake - she showed up, and fought Belasco. He set Cat on her, and..." she swallowed hard. "I had to. I couldn't let her kill Ashake - they'd been friends, y'know? Before Belasco turned Cat into a demon. And I..." She shook her head, unable to bring herself to say the words. "It was too late, though. Ashake was already dying; Cat had clawed her. Too deep to heal, even if Belasco would have let me. And Belasco was gloating that he finally had her back and was going to offer her soul to his Masters, so she'd be lost forever. And she looked at me, and I knew what she wanted me to do."
Her teeth worried at her lip again, and finally, she looked up. "I killed her. It was the only thing I could do for her, and I did it."
"So you were forced to kill two innocent people because of Belasco," Kitty murmured softly.
"I wasn't forced," Illyana corrected. "I chose to. He wasn't exactly happy about it." Which was probably the understatement of the year, given his reaction. She sighed and leaned her head into her hand. "I paid the price. It's just...there are no good choices in Limbo, only bad and worse. This...well, it was the best thing I could do for either of them."
"Yes..." Kitty agreed slowly. "It was. And you were brave to do it. What do you mean you paid the price?"
Instead of answering, Illyana got up and walked over to her dresser. She ruffled around for a minute, then pulled out a large, round locket on a chain, carried it over to Kitty and flipped it open. Inside, there was an etched pentagram, at the points of which were small round holes. Three were filled, with small orbs that glowed silver. "One more piece of my soul." Illyana grimaced and shrugged. "He'd already taken two - what's one more, right?"
Kitty just stared. She didn't know how she could handle 'demon' and 'magic' so easily, but find herself looking at a piece (three pieces) of someone's soul and suddenly hit a roadblock in her own head.
Yeah. That was what Illyana had kind of figured. She flipped the amulet shut and shrugged. "I told you to hold off on the 'you're not a demon' part. Three fifths of me kind of is."
She didn't know why it hit her so hard. That casual disregard for something as beautiful as a trapped soul. And tears just started sliding down Kitty's face. Before she knew it, she was wrapping her arms around Illyana, squeezing her tight.
Huh? Illyana resisted the urge to pull back, and instead tentatively wrapped her arms around Kitty in turn. "Umm..." she let that trail off, uncertain as to what she should say. Or why Kitty was hugging her. Or crying. Except she kind of liked the hug anyway, so she just rubbed slow circles on Kitty's back like she vaguely remembered someone having done to her as a child, and hoped that would help. And that Kitty would eventually explain.
Kitty held the hug for a five-beat, then slowly pulled back, wiping at her face with the heel of her hand. "I'm sorry. It's just. Your soul. I'm...I'm so sorry."
"It's...okay?" Illyana bit her lip, her eyes dropping towards the floor, and shrugged. "I chose it. Or, well, once, anyway. The other two times, not so much."
Kitty couldn't just keep saying 'sorry', so she nodded quietly. "Look, um. Whatever happened to you, you're welcome here. I'm not gonna judge."
Illyana stared. This wasn't going the way she'd expected, at all, and she wasn't altogether sure what to do. "I, umm...thanks. I appreciate that." Her lips quirked up a bit. "I'll make sure to keep any visiting demons on my side of the room."
"All I ask is that they clean up after themselves," Kitty smiled sideways.
"I'll make sure of it." Illyana's lips twitched, and she shook her head and leaned in and hugged Kitty again. Just because.
Kitty squeezed her close. "Come on. Let's get some sleep. We've got that recon tomorrow."
"Ugh, thanks for the reminder." Illyana dropped her arms and stepped back. "I shouldn't complain, though." She offered something resembling her usual impish smile. "I got a makeout session out of it."
Kitty grinned and started putting away her electronics. "Yeah? So you guys are dating now?"
Illyana wrinkled her nose and shrugged as she went over to her dresser, put her amulet away beneath her bras, and pulled out an oversized Xavier's t-shirt she was using as pajamas. "I don't think so? I think we both just didn't want to think." She grinned a little. "I'm not sure how good a girlfriend I'd be, but I'm apparently an awesome distraction."
"I'm not even sure how that works," Kitty made a face. "But if it helped you guys, then sure, why not?"
"It did. Besides, I kinda figure if we're gonna date, I should probably tell him what he's getting into first." Illyana made a face as she pulled off her top and replaced it with the tee. "It doesn't exactly seem like the right time though, y'know?" Not with them going into a place where he'd essentially been tortured the next day. He had enough on his mind already.
"No, I get it," Kitty smiled across from her, throwing back the covers and dropping onto her bed. "I've been too busy to really think about talking to Bobby."
"Has he asked you out again yet?" Illyana asked, turning towards Kitty as she shimmied out of her jeans and let them fall.
"No. I mean, it wasn't a date, right? And I've got other stuff to think about," Kitty suspected she was telling Illyana as much as she was telling herself. She lay back, staring up at the ceiling. "Like tomorrow."
"Tomorrow." Illyana slipped into her bed and lay down, her posture mirroring Kitty's. "What're you thinking?"
"About tomorrow?" Kitty asked, tapping a panel behind her to turn out the room's lights.
"Yeah," Illyana confirmed.
"I'm thinking that we're probably not going to find anything - but if the Professor is sending an entire team of us, he's probably expecting trouble," Kitty told her quietly.
"Tommy said - not tonight, but back on the Fourth - that he figured The Professor was putting together a private army." Illyana paused. "I'm not sure how I feel about that," she admitted. "But...Tommy told me a little about what happened there, and I'm a lot less okay with that."
"Yeah," Kitty sighed. "I'd already started to get the feeling that the Prof had a plan. He's got people studying the X-gene, and he's finding all of these students so quickly. I've even heard that some kids were saved from mobs."
Illyana wrinkled her nose - she hadn't heard that, but she couldn't say she was surprised, either. "So, if he is? We're what, the infiltration team?" She paused again and groaned. "Actually, we're part of it, right? That's who's going tomorrow."
Kitty wrinkled her nose as well. "I don't know. But as long as we're looking into people who hurt mutants? I'm okay with it."
"Yeah," Illyana agreed, closing her eyes. "I think I am, too."
