Kitty brought the video game because she was trying to think of something they could do together, that didn't cost money, that he might be into. She knew what he'd rather be doing, she could still feel his hands as she tugged down the back of her shirt and pushed her hair out of her eyes... but she just wasn't sure how far she wanted to go, and she was a little nervous to be in the house alone with him. It wasn't about trust. She trusted him. But they'd only gotten back together, like, a week ago. And Kitty wanted to prove to herself - and to her friends - that she and Lance had a real relationship. They could make this work. It wasn't all fighting and making up in the jeep and... fighting again.

Lance hooked up the colored wires to the back of the TV and dug around for the remote. Then he clicked through a few options on 'input' and nothing came up. There was nothing warming up in the console either. "Kitty, you sure this thing works?"

"What?" He caught her staring at him, and raised his brows. "Yeah, of course it works." She got up and crossed the room to crouch down in front of the TV next to Lance. She tried the 'power' button, and nothing happened. The light didn't even light up as 'red' (off, but plugged in). She double-checked what Lance had done with the cords behind the TV but everything looked good. "Jamie was just playing it today," she insisted, "It was totally fine this afternoon."

"Something happened to it," he replied, "It ain't coming on."

The Game Cube was totally fried. "What-" she hesitated in sudden realization, "Oh my god, I phased it."

"When?"

Kitty buried her face in her hands with an embarrassed groan, sitting on the floor. Her voice was muffled as she mumbled in response, "When I was coming out to meet you," because she walked right through the fence like an idiot. Her heart sank. She raised her head. "I am so in trouble. Everyone's going to be pissed."

"Over some video game?" he asked dubiously, "Don't you guys have a ton of other stuff to do?"

"Yeah, but we only have one Game Cube."

Lance didn't roll his eyes but Kitty could see in his face that he wasn't taking this seriously. She frowned at him and he fumbled for a response, settling on, "Hell, Kitty," he was doing the best he could to come up with something vaguely sympathetic for what he thought was stupid, "Just tell 'em I broke it." That's what they'd think anyway.

"No way," she couldn't believe he'd even suggest that. She would never let him take the blame for something dumb that she did. "I took it, I broke it, I need to replace it." That was the only solution she could see: she had to go to the store and pick up a new one, and bring it home (if no one noticed, maybe she didn't have to admit that she took it in the first place).

"Those things are expensive."

"I know." Lance knew better than to suggest she get Xavier to cover it - even though that'd be a lot easier (and cheaper) than what she was thinking. Kitty glanced hopefully to him, and he knew what was coming. "Will you give me a ride?"

"You wanna do it now?" That didn't mean he wasn't still annoyed.

"Please?" When else was she going to do it? It had to be now because she didn't want to go home empty-handed.

"Yeah, alright," he sighed, "I'll get my keys."

"Thanks," she put a hand on his arm when he started to stand, "I'll make it up to you, I promise." His expression softened and Kitty gave him a quick kiss. Then he helped her up and she followed him to the front door.

It only took an hour - even with the holiday traffic - and Kitty carried the new and in-perfect-working-condition gaming console into the boarding house. The first thing she wanted to do was try it out. Lance was being a really good sport. She showed him how to use the controller and how to select his player and vehicle customization.

"Why would you pick Bowser?" she asked him with a laugh, "Of all the characters..."

"It's the only one that doesn't look weird."

Kitty begged to differ. "He's a giant turtle with spikes," she pointed out, "That's totally normal," not, "Plus, he's the bad guy."

"Yeah, I know." Lance played one of the old Mario games when he was a kid with one of his foster brothers. He couldn't remember the guy's name now - it was a long time ago 'cause by the time he was twelve, he was in a group home - but he remembered the game. Sort of. "Do you always play that girl?"

"Princess Peach is the best." Everything she drove was pink. She was Kitty's favorite character, and in Double Dash she liked to pair her with Yoshi (that was Kurt's go-to character - and they did make a great team). "And she's going to kick Bowser's butt."

Lance smirked in response. "You're all talk, princess."

"Oh, we'll see who's all talk," Kitty replied, and she selected the Star Cup. It was one of her favorites, and she thought the 'Sherbet Land' track - with the ice skaters in those creepy little ghost masks - seemed appropriately festive for mid-December. The split screen appeared with Peach on top, Bowser on the bottom and after a few seconds, the countdown began. Three... two... one.

Kitty hit 'A' for a rocket start and Peach shot into first place. "What's that? 'All talk'? I don't think so," she declared in a giddy, sing-song voice, as her character turned the first corner, blew straight through the rainbow question mark, and skated across the rink into the cavern. Her first 'item' was a banana peel - not super useful - but she was feeling confident.

"Shit." Lance got off to a slower start - and he was in fourth until somebody hit his character with a red shell. Bowser spun out of the control and ended up in sixth.

"Come on, Lance, you can't let Mario get the best of you," Kitty urged him as the little plumber in the red hat swerved in front of his kart. She was so busy glancing at his screen that as she started her second lap, Princess Peach ran right into an iceberg. That knocked Kitty into second place.

"Got it." Bowser got a mushroom and accelerated past his Italian-stereotype-of-a-foe.

At the start of the third - and final - lap Kitty had pulled back in first. Lance had been all over the place - not a bad job, by the way, for someone who was playing for the first time - and he was in fifth when he got the spiny shell.

"Oh no, don't shoot that."

"Why not?"

"It's gonna go straight for me!" That's what the item did - it targeted the person in first. "And I'm so close to winning! Don't-" He shot it. He shot the blue shell at her. "You jerk! You blue-shelled me!"

"Didn't I say I wasn't gonna go easy on you?"

Kitty could hear the warning sounds of the impending attack blaring out of the TV but she couldn't get around it - and no kidding, literally one turn away from the finish line the blue shell smashed into the cart. By the time Princess Peach righted herself, Kitty pulled into fourth place.

Lance? He got third.

Kitty tossed down her controller and immediately scooted over into swatting range and smacked him in mock outrage, "I can't believe you did that. I had that gold medal!"

"My bad." He did not look even remotely apologetic. In fact, he was smug. Kitty moved to hit him again for the smirk and caught her by the wrist and pulled her close. "Looks like I win."

"What? No way, neither of us won." The scoreboard on the screen spelled it out for them.

"I beat you. That means I win."

"So not how it works," Kitty protested, trying to improvise a loophole as Lance put down his controller and turned towards her. He still hadn't let go of her wrist, but he wasn't hurting her so she didn't phase out of his grasp, "If it's not first place, it doesn't count. We have to rematch."

"That wasn't in the rules." He pinned her back against the couch, kneeling over her. His weight indented the whole thing, and she was briefly worried that with both of them on one side of this old sofa, it was going to tip over.

Kitty smiled up at him and her voice was a little unsteady when she challenged, "Since when do you follow the rules?"

She could hear the ego in his words when he replied, "I don't." He kissed her and released his hold on her wrist. Kitty interlaced her fingers with his and squeezed when she felt his tongue brush against hers. Lance ran his other hand down her side, brushing skin where her shirt had gotten hiked up from wriggling against the couch cushions and she laughed into the kiss because it tickled. She nearly bit his lip by accident, and he grinned against her mouth.

With an arm around her waist, he shifted positions and Kitty ended up on her back on the couch - and he was trying to help her, but he didn't notice where she'd left her controller and the back of her head smacked right into it. "Ow! Oh God, ow."

"What's wrong?"

"This... thing." Kitty let go of Lance to reach under her head for the joystick digging into her neck. She pulled it free and he took it from her, dropping it on the floor. "Hey, watch it! Last thing we need is to have to go buy another one of those."

"That fucking game," he muttered in response.

"It's still on," Kitty reminded him, although she didn't know how he could have forgotten. The music was still blaring loud and clear from the TV - and it was, like, obnoxiously upbeat. "Isn't this totally romantic?" Kitty started to laugh, "It's right out of a chick flick." No, no it wasn't. You would never have this kind of a soundtrack while making out on the couch.

"I'm gonna shut this shit off."

"Are you sure?" she teased him, "You don't love it? It's not your new favorite song?"

"No." Lance didn't think she was being funny. He reached for Kitty's controller to turn off the music. He only ended up hitting 'start' for the next race. "Goddamnit." Kitty covered her mouth with one hand to try to stifle the laughter as Lance got off the couch and tried to find the remote. She took advantage of his absence to push herself up into a sitting position. She drew her legs up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees, watching him with amusement.

"You wanna give me a hand?" he asked her, and Kitty shook her head.

"I'm kind of enjoying the show," she replied innocently.

It looked like he was thinking about some kind of comeback, but then his eyes swept the floor again and he saw the remote. "Found it." Finally. He turned off the TV and the music abruptly cut out - it was pretty repetitive stuff, so Kitty thought that was a good call.

Her good humor faded slightly when he looked at her from across the room. His gaze was heated when it met hers, a dark brown that looked almost black in the uneven light of the boarding house, and Kitty bit her bottom lip. He followed that movement and closed the distance between them in three strides or less. When he kissed her this time it was demanding and a little rough, but he cradled her head against the arm of the couch and knelt between her legs so she didn't feel the press of his entire body weight on top of hers.

"Lance," Kitty pulled away and her voice was breathy. She had to try twice more to get his attention. "You were my first kiss." She had never confessed that to him before, she guessed because she didn't want to sound like a loser.

"What?" His gaze was totally unfocused, and Kitty blushed. Her gaze kept drifting to his lips. He was amazing, it was amazing, he made her feel... like she had lightning running through her body. Everything felt so good and so intense and it turned her brain to mush. She could barely string those five words together - and now he wanted her to repeat them?

"I mean, my first real kiss," she managed, "It was you." And he could probably do the math from there - he wasn't just her first kiss, he was her first... boyfriend. She wasn't exactly 'popular' in Northbrook and her parents were super overprotective so her dad wouldn't have let her date even if there were boys who were interested.

"Really?" He sounded surprised, and seemed to be working out the rest of it in his head.

"When was yours?" Kitty touched his chest, smoothing out an impossible wrinkle from his black AC/DC shirt.

"My what?"

"Your first kiss?"

His expression cleared slightly and he braced his arms against the arm of the couch, looking down at her. He had to think about the answer. "Uh, thirteen... or something like that."

"Thirteen?"

"Yeah."

"So I'm... not your first girlfriend?"

"No."

He said that emphatically enough that it made Kitty bristle. She dropped her hand from his chest. If she could've crossed her arms, she would've. "Well, how many girlfriends have you had?"

"Uh..." That many? He couldn't even count them all? "Enough, but c'mon," he saw her face, and tried to salvage the conversation, "They weren't... serious."

"What about us?" she asked, glancing up at him, "Are we serious?" He didn't answer right away and she gave a wry smile, "My friends don't think so." Because she and Lance were so off-and-on, most of the X-Men thought she was a glutton for punishment or... something.

Lance narrowed his eyes. "Do you care what they think?" Kitty looked away and he sighed, muttering, "'Course you do."

"I do, but..." but she was still here with him despite that - because she believed that they were wrong about him. They didn't know him the way that she did, and most of them had never really given him a chance. "But they don't decide who I like. Don't be mad, Lance." She touched his cheek, slid her fingers over the scruff of his chin - he needed to shave - and she pushed his hair out of his eyes.

He looked down at her, at her lips, and he tolerated her messing with his hair which was kind of a big deal. "I'm not mad." His voice was even, but low. The pitch made Kitty's stomach tighten but she forced herself to focus. This was important.

"So?" she asked him, prompting him about the question she'd asked, "Do you think we're serious?"

"What d'you mean?" He was stalling.

"I mean," Kitty got a little frustrated, "When you think about us, what do you want?" What did he see for the two of them? Did he think about that kind of stuff?

"You." That's all he said, and then his jaw clenched slightly - like maybe he thought it was a trick question. When she didn't say anything in response, he repeated - looking her straight in the eye, "I want you, Kitty."

"I want you too." The words were barely above a whisper, but it was all the confirmation Lance needed - and he kissed her hard, winding his fingers through her hair. Kitty enthusiastically responded, and she mumbled between kisses that she didn't want to fight anymore and that she missed him. He didn't want to fight with her either. But that's usually how it was - they didn't want to fight with each other but the X-Men and the Brotherhood...

Suddenly, the front door to the boarding house swung open and smashed into the wall loudly.

"Yo, anybody home?"

"Knock, knock Lance!"

"Oh my god," Kitty gasped. It was Toad. And Blob. Before she could push Lance off of her, Toad bounded into the living room looking just as slimy as ever. He was so gross and sallow-skinned and he smelled, like...

"Heeeey, somebody's gettin' some-"

"Lance, get off!"

"Get out of here!" Lance yelled at Toad as Kitty squirmed out from under him, his expression murderous. A warning quake shuddered through the house and Toad hopped out of the way of a chunk of plaster.

"Man, c'mon, we live here!"

"I thought I told you to get lost!" Lance was on his feet and Kitty was mortified, hurriedly brushing her fingers through her hair and smoothing out her clothes.

"Yeah, you did," Blob joined in, lumbering into the room, "'Til eleven."

"It's eleven o'clock?"

"Can't you read a watch, X-Geek?"

"Shove off, Toad." Another tremor rumbled through the house and Toad retreated.

"Man, fine. But this shit is wack."

"Yeah." Blob chorused his disgruntled agreement but even he didn't want to take on Lance. The two of them left the room - but not the house. As Toad hopped upstairs, he ranted to Blob loudly about how 'bros before hoes' didn't mean nothing anymore. And how there weren't enough flies around the restaurant dumpsters in December. Ugh, gross.

"Lance, I've gotta get home. I'm already late." Kitty scrambled to unplug the Game Cube, and she stuffed that into its box and put the rest of the stuff into her bag: controllers, game case, the extra candles from her little menorah. She was sure that Toad was going to slime all over it but she didn't blow the candles out. It was for Lance.

"Yeah, I know."

"It's kind of lucky they walked in, huh?"

"Yeah. 'Lucky.'" He laid the sarcasm on thick in those two words alone, and she flashed him an uncharacteristically shy smile. He smiled back, some of the aggressive tension easing out of his shoulders. "Here, lemme get that." He took the bag from her and gave the room a once-over to make sure she had everything. Kitty did the same. Then they went out to the jeep.

Lance took her home and the ride was quiet because neither of them really wanted to make the drive. He put on some music - classic rock, stuff she didn't know, stuff that came out before either of them were born - but he turned off the radio when he parked outside the mansion.

11:15. A quarter past curfew. And even the prospect of the Professor - or worse, Logan - waiting up for her didn't make her bolt out of the passenger's seat. She didn't want to leave. Neither of them said anything for a couple minutes, and Kitty just listened to the idling of the jeep. She glanced sideways at Lance and he looked so serious in profile.

"I had fun tonight," she finally broke the silence, voice subdued. When he looked at her, she smiled.

He smiled back. "Yeah, me too."

"I'm going to miss you over break," she really wanted to see her parents but... she was still going to be bummed on the plane tomorrow. Because she'd be thinking about him.

Lance leaned over and kissed her - and she took that as a 'me too', twisting in her seat to be closer to him. Their relationship was more than making up in the jeep, but that didn't mean she didn't still like it. The kiss lasted until something crackled on the intercom outside the front gate.

What she heard? "Are you coming in or what?" It was Bobby, and with him, people were snickering - probably the New Recruits. She barely heard the message through the window of the passenger's seat, but it was enough to remind her that they had an audience (again).

Kitty broke the kiss with a rueful glance over her shoulder. "I better go," she said. It was almost 11:20 now. She was really pushing it.

"Yeah."

"Call me?"

"When?"

Kitty shrugged. "Whenever. Tomorrow night?"

"Alright."

"I'll see you later."

"Yeah. See you later."

It was hard for Kitty to get out of the car, but the front gates swung open for her (which she was grateful for - so she didn't make the same mistake twice with the tech she'd brought from the Institute). She made it two steps before she heard the window roll down behind her. And his voice.

"Hey Kitty."

"Yeah?" She turned to face him, expression questioning.

"Happy Hanukkah."

She smiled at him. "Happy Hanukkah, Lance." She was still smiling after he pulled away from the curb and she walked back to the Institute. Nothing could ruin tonight. It was the best gift she could have asked for.