Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men, Shakespeare, or any songs by Melissa Etheridge. Don't sue me, I'll cry. The few lines at the beginning and end are from the song "No Souvenirs" by Melissa Etheridge, which is on her album Brave and Crazy. The quotes late in the story are from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Rating: PG

Summary: Kitty decides whether or not she should be with Lance. (Evolution 'Verse; semi-AU. Kitty POV) MAJOR ANGST WARNING!!!

Author's Note: This story is semi-AU, meaning it isn't completely alternate universe, but it doesn't really go along with the show completely either. Basically, it takes place after "Hex Factor," and ignores anything that may come after it. (Which it sort of has to, seeing as at this current time, the two part season finale has not yet aired.) Anyway, it diverges from what is sure to be the path the show takes by having Lance leave town following the battle in the mall between the Brotherhood and the X-Men. (I just don't see the writers doing that…)

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Romeo Makes a Phone Call to Juliet

By: Addie Logan

 

 

Hello, hello this is Romeo
Calling from a jackpot telephone

 

He didn't say what made him leave. Maybe it had finally been too much from him. Maybe seeing child turn against parent, follower against leader, lover against lover had been enough to disillusion even the jaded.

Lover against lover.

I think that was what got to him the most. It had to be—if it hit him at all the way it did me. Standing across from him, a few feet and a million miles between us, and knowing. Knowing once and for all that he was my enemy. My loyalties demanded that I turn a cold shoulder to love, just like I knew in the back of mind might happen someday.

I never expected it to be that hard.

The pain was even greater than that of suffering my first real defeat. Looking across at him then, I wished I had listened to him when he told me—begged me—to get out of there before things got bad. Not because of the outcome of the battle. Difficult as it was, I could face losing. No, I wish I'd left before I'd had to face the awful truth.

We weren't just Lance Alvers and Kitty Pryde, two high school kids feeling the effects of first love.

We were Avalanche and Shadowcat.

We were soldiers.

We were enemies.

We were at war.

My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.

The words sprung up into my mind, and I could not push them away. I could taste them bitter, resting in my mouth, wanting to be said, but I refused to let them be. I did not want to be Juliet, dying for the first taste of young love. I'd always been more practical than that. I'd always been reliable, steady, with a good head on my shoulders. Could I risk it all for this? Could I go to Lance, offer up my love, only to risk losing everything around me?

I wouldn't die for him. I knew that. I don't know if he would die for me. And I wouldn't turn away from the X-Men. Loyalty means more to me than romantic happiness.

I've never been sure where Lance's loyalties lie. He left the Brotherhood once, and I hoped maybe that meant they lay with me. Even after he'd left, I'd kept hoping.

It was that hope that kept me from leaving Lance behind long ago. It lead me to grasp for time with him when I could, never letting anyone know how much he meant to me, how close we were. I kept hoping that he'd change his mind about our relationship, let everyone know what he told me, late at night on the phone when no one else could hear, or in those rare moments where we got to be alone. I'd even asked him to that silly little school dance, hoping that if he went with me, and everyone saw us together, then it would all be out in the open. Then, we could be together for real.

I hated the secrecy, the denial, the silence.

Romeo and Juliet hid their love from the world.

It wasn't until after tragedy struck that everyone knew how deep their love ran.

What I had with Lance became the most real for me when I looked across and saw my enemy. How easy it had been for me to walk into battle against the Brotherhood! Even when Lance had pleaded with me to leave, I hadn't realized what was going on. The Brotherhood was our enemy in name only—had been for a long time.

That wasn't the case anymore. Mystique was back, and she had waged a war.

Suddenly, it all became painfully, blindingly clear, and I understood what it was to be a "star-crossed lover."

There was no glamour in that phrase, no romance. It wasn't at all how they presented it in movies, in books, in songs. It was real. So real.

Put a whole new spin on the phrase "love your enemies."

But I didn't know where this love would take me. Would it end up hurting me, or worse, one of my friends? Would someone I love die the way Tybalt had died? Was love worth that?

Was anything worth that?

I wondered if Lance thought somewhere around the same thing. He disappeared shortly after that battle. I made myself to stop thinking about it. In the end, we were victorious, but the Brotherhood was still comprised of our enemies.

If Lance came back, he'd still be my enemy, too.

My only love sprung from my only hate.

I didn't want that, and maybe he didn't either. I convinced myself that's why he left. He didn't want to have to face what it meant to love me and be against me at the same time.

I didn't expect to hear from him again.

Time went by and I didn't. I filed my memories of him away in the part of my heart marked "lost love," and went on with my life, convincing myself that someday the pangs I felt whenever something evoked a vision of him in my mind would go away. For a while I had myself convinced it had.

Then I heard his voice.

It was deeper, rougher than I remember. The time since I'd last seen him had wrapped itself around the sound, making him seem older as if weeks had become years. And he made such a simple request.

"Give me a reason to come back."

One thought went through my mind.

For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo

I didn't want that. I didn't want to be Juliet, and I didn't want Lance to be Romeo.

I didn't want us to end as a tragedy.

So I gave him such a simple answer.

"I can't."

The line went dead, and I'm still not sure if who it was that ended the call first.

I did the right thing.

I know I did the right thing.

You can't love your enemy, not like that. It only ends badly, and there are already enough chances for pain like that in my life.

I lay back on the bed, clutching the cordless phone, wiping tears from my eyes, being thankful that I spared myself from the pain that letting myself continue to love Lance would cause.

It was Lance's voice I heard in my mind now, with mine always coming right behind, saying the words that I knew I shouldn't want to take back.

Give me a reason to come back.

I can't.

 

Oh wait, wait I guess I'm just too late
Oh you made up your mind
Love shouldn't be so hard…

*** *** ***

I'm thinking about making this a series with different short fics like this told from both Lance and Kitty's perspective, but I need reader input. Is it worth continuing like that? If you liked it or hated it either one, let me know!!!