Disclaimer: X-Men: Evolution doesn't belong to me!

I am a hardcore Lancitty fan and I couldn't help noticing that there are very few Lancitty oneshots that don't involve violence and/or angst. And, to be honest, this one does involve a bit of angst, but it's mostly just good ol' fluff. Now I have nothing against the Lancitty stories out there, but I felt that there weren't enough, so I wrote another one. So enjoy!

Insomnia

Kitty couldn't sleep.

This wasn't a new phenomenon; with the threat of Apocalypse looming ever closer, she had often laid awake at night, wondering what the future would bring.

But the battle had been won and Apocalypse was currently falling through the mists of time, hopefully never to be seen again.

And that wasn't what was keeping her awake.

Within hours of returning to Bayville, her parents had phoned. For a brief moment, Kitty had felt a crippling fear that they would pull her home, making her leave behind her new family. That fear, however, had soon turned to hurt and disgust, when she realised that their 'reputation' had been sullied by the emergence of her powers and they were giving her a choice: come home or stay away.

She chose to stay away and spent the rest of the day in the company of the New Recruits who had done their best to keep her smiling.

But, strangely enough, it wasn't that either that was keeping her awake.

The reason for her insomnia wasn't even in the mansion.

He was at the Brotherhood, probably fast asleep himself.

Lance Alvers.

Otherwise known as Avalanche.

As his face floated into her mind once again, Kitty groaned, rolled over and pulled her pillow over her head.

Why couldn't she stop thinking about him?

A snide voice in her head answered her. He saved your life…

If he'd come in the first place, we wouldn't have been in danger! Another voice that sounded a lot like Kitty but snobbier answered.

You don't know that…

He told you to get lost when you asked him for help!

But he came anyway…

That wasn't for you; he must have had some ulterior motive.

Like what? He cares about you!

Oh, please! He was probably playing me the whole time!

You love him…

I hate him.

No, you don't. You never did.

Kitty had no response to that. Maybe, she thought wryly, this is what Rogue feels like, with everyone in her head. Maybe I should go and talk to him.

Unable to drive this new thought from her mind, Kitty got out of bed and walked over to the doors, phasing out onto the balcony so as not to wake Rogue.

As the cool night breeze played with her hair and refreshed her mind, she toyed idly with the idea of going to the boarding house to see if she could wake Lance.

A very light tremor shook the ground beneath her and she narrowed her eyes, peering into the trees outside the Institute fence.

"I don't believe it…" Hurrying back into her room only to grab a robe, Kitty climbed down from the balcony as gracefully as her namesake. She crept across the grounds, knowing where the sensors and cameras were and taking care to avoid them. Finally, she reached the fence and phased through it. "Lance?"

"Hey, Pretty Kitty."

Kitty looked up into the tree and could just make out her ex-boyfriend sat on one of the branches. "What are you doing here?"

"I needed to talk to you." Lance admitted, jumping down. "And then I got here and realised I had no way of actually talking to you. Aside from breaking in, of course, but something tells me that you wouldn't appreciate that."

"No, I wouldn't." Kitty agreed. "Why now? It's one in the morning."

"I couldn't sleep." Lance responded. "I need to tell you why I said no when you came and asked us for help. I didn't realise it was as serious as it was. I mean, come on! You're the X-Men; why would you need our help?"

"If you didn't think we needed help." Kitty raised an eyebrow, "why did you come and help?"

Lance sighed. "Because…Magneto can be a right bastard when he's himself. But possessed? And then, when I mentioned that Wanda had gone with you, Pietro freaked out, saying that he'd kill her and I realised that, if you were hurt out there and I could have prevented that, I would never have forgiven myself. When we landed and I saw you lying there…" he took a shaky breath "…I swear, Kitty, everything stopped for a minute."

Kitty shook her head. "Lance, I don't understand you. Sometimes I'm just another X-Man and sometimes you look at me like I'm the only other person in the world. Which is it?"

"You scare me." Lance confessed. "And hear me out, because it does make sense. When I was a kid, my parents fought a lot. Mom would shut me in another room, but I could still hear her screaming…then one day, they were fighting, I was trying to get through to them and I heard gunshots. I finally broke the door down and Mom was lying there in a pool of her own blood, a gun in her hand, staring at my dad's dead body. Just listen."

Kitty shut her mouth again, wondering how he knew she'd been about to say something.

"Then the cops turned up. They didn't even pay any attention to my mom's injuries, just started booking her and carted me off to foster care. They didn't let me go to her funeral; said she'd clearly been a bad mother and I was better off without her. She wasn't though. She was the best mom a kid could ask for."

He sighed, turning his gaze to one of the many surrounding trees. "There was only one person at that children's home who gave a damn about me and that was Samantha. She ended up fostering me, actually, her and her husband. Then they found out she was pregnant. Everything went fine until she actually had the baby; there were complications and neither of them made it. So I went back into the system. After that, there was no one who cared. Until you."

He forced his eyes back to hers and she had to fight not to gasp at the pure emotion in them. "You scare me, because everyone who cares about me ends up hurt."

"And you're basing this on two people?" Kitty questioned. "Lance, no one should have to go through what you did, but it's not your fault! And I am not the only person who cares about you; what about the Brotherhood?"

"Yeah, well, they're different." Lance shrugged. "Life's already screwed them over. But you… you don't need all this, Kitty. Thing is, I don't want you to get hurt, but at the same time…it hurts. It's been over a year since we broke up and it still hurts."

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes.

"I didn't mean what I said." Kitty stated suddenly. "In the parking lot. I wish I hadn't said it. But I was so mad at you…"

"I'm glad you said it." Lance told her. "Gave me a reality check. They always told me I'd be nothing but a hood. I thought I'd proved them wrong." He sighed. "I guess I'm stuck here."

At any other time, Kitty would have taken this as a guilt trip, and maybe it was. But now, she heard the words for what they truly were: the honest truth.

"You have proved them wrong." She heard herself say. "You are not a hood."

"Oh really?" Lance asked. "Prove it."

"You said earlier that if I'd gotten hurt, you'd never have forgiven yourself." Kitty reminded him. "A hood wouldn't care. No, this time, you hear me out. I have spent nearly every waking moment since that happened wishing that it hadn't."

Lance frowned. "What about Apocalypse?"

"I said nearly every waking moment." Kitty pointed out. "Didn't you even stop to wonder why I'm awake at one in the morning?"

"No." Lance admitted. "Why are you awake at one in the morning?"

"I couldn't stop thinking about you." Kitty answered. "I don't want to play games anymore, Lance; I'm too tired to play games. I'm too tired to lay awake and wonder if you're messing with me or if you really care about me. I'm too tired to worry about what the X-Men, the Brotherhood, my parents or anyone else might think."

"Kitty…"

"And don't get started on the 'I don't want you to get hurt' line." Kitty interrupted. "Because I think you'll find that I am perfectly capable of looking after myself."

Lance stared at her for a second, then smiled. "Oh, I know, Kitty. That's just one of the reasons why I love you so much."

Kitty blinked. "Pardon?"

Lance flinched. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

"Yeah." Kitty whispered; for some reason, her voice didn't want to work. "You did."

In the darkness, her hand found his and his fingers tightened around her, neither gaze wavering.

Despite the dim light, Kitty could make out his face, his dark eyes reading her expression for any sign of a response.

Still her voice wouldn't work.

How could it?

How could she put how she felt into words like that?

You know… It was that voice again. There are ways of telling him without words.

Kitty ignored it, finally regaining the power of speech, possibly due to the rush brought on by the suggestion. "I love you too."

"Wow…" Lance's face lit up. "I…wow…"

Kitty giggled nervously, glancing back at the mansion to make sure that no one else had felt the earlier tremor.

Lance seemed to have read her mind, because he said, "How about I take you out to dinner tomorrow night?"

Kitty smiled brightly. "I'd like that. Might be a good idea if I meet you away from here, though; Scott's warming up, but he's still not too happy about you."

"That's fine." Lance told her. "How about the lamp post just down the road? Say…six?"

"Six-thirty." Kitty replied. "Danger Room session."

"Ah, of course." Lance nodded. "Okay, so I'll see you then?"

"Yeah." Kitty agreed breathlessly.

Kiss him! The voice urged.

Kitty ignored it. Or maybe she didn't; she wasn't entirely sure who moved first.

All she knew was that, as though pulled together like a magnet, his mouth was on hers and their lips were devouring each other hungrily.

As her back hit the tree, Kitty vaguely thought to herself that things were moving to fast, but the sensation of his hands on her waist, of his body pressed against hers, of his tongue entwined with hers in a sort of primal dance…it lifted any coherent thought in her mind and swept it away on what could only be described an avalanche of emotion.

His lips left hers and almost immediately reattached themselves to her neck, causing her to moan aloud, her hand running through his hair, revelling in the softness of it.

It took her a few minutes to realise that he was no longer kissing and suckling at the soft skin, only resting his head there.

"Lance…?"

Lance lifted his head and pressed his lips to hers once again. "God, I love you."

"I love you too." Kitty giggled lightly as his hands ran up her sides, sending a shiver through her.

"We have to stop." Lance murmured against her lips.

"Do you want to stop?" Kitty asked knowingly.

Lance chuckled, sending a rush of…something right through her. "Hell, no. I'd give everything I own – which, admittedly isn't much – to stay here, but we have to stop. My self-control is good, Kitty, but it's not this good. And unless you want us to end up in a situation that neither of us is prepared for, we have to stop."

"Well, if you're giving me a choice…" Kitty trailed off and burst out laughing at his dumbstruck expression. "Honestly, the look on your face! You, like, give me an opening like that and expect me not to take it?"

Lance grinned at her. "Well, to be honest, Miss Pryde, I wasn't expecting it from you. Someone like Pietro, maybe, but not you."

Kitty smirked. "And why would you be having a conversation like this with Pietro?"

Lance groaned. "Oh, forget I said anything."

Kitty pondered for a moment. "No, too much fun. I'll remind you tomorrow."

"Oh, I'm sure you will." Lance kissed her again. "You should get back inside."

"Yeah." Kitty stood on tiptoes and kissed him hard, feeling his arms wrap around her waist to steady her. Breathing heavily, she pulled away slightly, resting her forehead against his. "I love you."

"I love you too." Lance whispered, releasing her. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Kitty phased back through the fence and climbed, using a combination of a nearby tree and her powers, back up to her balcony. Why is it easier getting down than getting up?

Once on the balcony, she turned back and blew a kiss to where she knew he was standing, before letting herself into her room.

As she slipped her robe off and hung it on the back of her door, Rogue stirred. "That you, Kit?"

"Yeah." Kitty whispered, climbing into her own bed. "Go back to sleep."

"Insomnia again?" Rogue asked sleepily.

"Yeah." Kitty smiled, into the darkness, lightly touching her swollen lips with her fingers. "But I think I found a cure for it."

AN: