Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men Evolution okay? I just got this cute idea after watching "Joyride." This takes place during the story.

A Kitchen Snack

I could get used to this, Lance thought to himself as he dried himself off from his shower and got dressed. The training stuff is lousy, but at least the food is good. Nice warm showers and a decent bed to sleep in. He yawned as he left to go into his room. And the best part is I get to live in the same house as Kitty! Hey! What are they doing?

He saw a few of the other X-Men recruits sneaking around. What are they up to? He thought as he followed them. Quietly he made his way past most of the rooms. He snuck past the kitchen. Wait a minute…He looked inside. He couldn't have seen what he thought he saw. But there it was. Kitty's head was on a plate. Lance responded to this shocking scene the only rational way he knew how.

He fainted.

"Lance! Lance wake up!"

A familiar voice called to him through the darkness. He recognized the voice and opened his eyes wide. "Kitty!" Lance gasped and grabbed her by the shoulders. "You're alive! You're not dead!"

"Dead?" She gave him a puzzled look. "What are you talking about?"

"I was walking by and I saw your head…" He nervously pointed to the table. "It was on a plate! I…I…"

"Oh that. I was getting a snack and I dropped something under the table. I heard a noise so I peeked out."

"Oh," Lance felt slightly relieved and extremely embarrassed.

"Lance, you didn't faint when you saw me did you?" Kitty raised an eyebrow.

"Me? Faint?" Lance put on an act of bravado. "No way! Come on Kitty! You know I'm tougher than that!"

"Then why were you lying unconscious on the floor in your underwear?"

Lance couldn't answer that. He turned bright red under her amused gaze. Kitty giggled wildly. "Lance you have no idea how cute you look right now!"

"It's not that funny," Lance muttered sheepishly.

"Come on Lance," Kitty smiled. "You don't have to pull that macho tough guy act. It's me, remember?"

"Well…" Lance absently ran his hand through his hair. "You're not gonna tell anyone are you?"

"No way!" Kitty protested. "I mean I think you've got it tough enough around here. I think it's totally unfair how Scott and the others are treating you! But don't give into them, okay?"

"Hey I can handle Summers," Lance pointed to himself. "Compared to Pietro and Toad that guy's easy to be patient with!"

"Hey I was getting a snack! Wanna bite?" Kitty helped him up.

"Well, I am a little hungry," Lance admitted. "Why not?" He followed her inside the kitchen. His eyes widened when he opened the refrigerator. "Man you guys have a ton of stuff! At the Brotherhood House we never had this much food! And that's before Blob has a crack at it!" He grabbed several items and started eating straight from the refrigerator. "Oh man," He munched between bites. "This is good stuff!"

"Uh you know Lance there's this amazing new invention," Kitty remarked, folding her arms. "It's called a table."

"Huh?" Lance looked at her, a block of cheese stuffed in his mouth. He shrugged his shoulders in apology. He took an armload of food to the table. Kitty joined him.

"Man I knew you X-Gee- Uh, Guys had it good," Lance smiled. "But I had no idea how good!"

"Well I take it you're adjusting to living here," Kitty smiled munching on an apple.

"It's not that bad," Lance shrugged, still eating. "Food's good. And it's nice not having to shower at school."

"Why is your shower broken?" She asked.

"Well when the city shut off the water again…" Lance stopped realizing he said too much.

"Are you saying that there's no water at the Brotherhood House?" Kitty's eyes widened in disbelief. "How do you use the bathroom and everything?"

"You really don't want to know," Lance groaned at his own stupidity.

"But how can there be no water and stuff?" She asked.

"Mystique paid our bills remember? No Mystique. No money." He looked at her shocked expression. "Hey! It's not that bad! I mean we get food using the Quicksilver Delivery System and what spare change Toad and Tabby get. And we have a lot of fun over there! I remember this one time Tabby got Toad mad, so he did a little redecorating of her room! You should have seen the glitter everywhere! And what we did with her…well, we got her back! Oh and then there were the all weekend silly string wars and food fights! And the time we went out of town and crashed this party!" Lance laughed. "Man did we cause trouble! What a wild night that was!"

"You miss them, don't you?" Kitty asked.

Lance sobered up. "Yeah," He admitted. "I have to admit, I feel a little guilty about leaving them behind. But it's not like they would have come with me anyway."

"Why?" Kitty asked. "Why do they hate us so much? Why did you?"

"It's complicated," Lance sighed. "I guess hating you guys is what keeps us going half the time. Makes us feel like we don't always have the short end of the stick if you get my meaning. Plus a lot of it has to do with pride. You see where most of us come from, nobody's nice to you unless they want something. You even get used to being treated like trash! No matter how many times you tell yourself that you're just as good as everyone else…you can't help but look around and see all the nice things everyone else has. Good loving families and all you've got is…" He closed his eyes. "You can't help like feeling that something's wrong with you. Like you're damaged goods or something. It makes you hard. It happened to me."

Kitty held his hand. "Lance what happened to you?"

Lance looked at her with an expression of pain. "Kitty…Someday I can tell you about my life before I met you. But not now. I just don't wanna deal with it, you know. Just don't ask please?"

"Okay," She sighed.

"I'm not hungry anymore," Lance got up. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Lance," Kitty called out to him as he started to leave the kitchen. "I'm glad you're here now. I just wish it didn't take so long."

"So do I," Lance sighed. "G'night Kitty." He walked back to his room, trying to push the pain of the past out of his head.

Lance sighed as he went into his room and closed the door. He felt tired and saddened. Then he remembered something. "She thinks I'm cute!" His eyes widened and he danced around. "I'm cute! I'm cute! Yesssss!" He threw himself onto the bed and went to sleep, believing in his dreams for the first time in a long while.