Just Another Day

Kimmy stared at her mother's boyfriend. He looked like he was sleeping. She poked him.

"Leave me alone, Kitty."

She giggled. "Not Mommy."

Lance groaned. "Where is Mommy?"

"Left. Work."

Opening his eyes slowly, Lance stared at the girl. "So it's just you and me?"

"And Corn," she said, holding up her stuffed cat. Lance wasn't sure why the thing was named Corn, but he had grown accustom to it and no longer asked questions.

"Of course Corn," Lance said, laying his head back down.

Climbing up into the bed with him, Kimmy asked, "Breakfast?"

"Soon," he mumbled. He had just gotten off work three hours ago and was tired. "Your mom just left?"

"Yep," she said, laying her head down next to his. "See Daddy today?"

He sighed. Kimmy always asked him that, everyday. Her father had left her when she was two and her memory of him wasn't really there, but she still felt the need to ask apparently.

"No," Lance said. The room shook slightly, but he shifted his thoughts to something else.

"Lance mad," Kimmy observed. "Ground shake!"

"Shhh," he said, closing his eyes again. "Hey, Kim? Wanna go get me a drink from the kitchen?"

Kim shook her head. "No."

Groaning, Lance got out of bed. "Well, come on then. I'll go with you."

"Breakfast?" Kimmy asked, following him.

"Yep," Lance said, going to the fridge.

"Eggs?"

Lance looked around the nearly empty fridge. He and Kitty weren't homeless by any account, but they weren't rolling in money either. There were no eggs. "How about left over pizza?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright," Lance said. When he and Kitty had first gotten back together, he was skeptical about his ability to take care of a child. Now though, nearly a year and a half later, it was hard for him to imagine life without her.

"Gonna get dressed?" She asked him as he put the pizza in the microwave.

"What?"

"No clothes."

"I'm wearing clothes, Kimmy."

"Not shirt."

"I'm wearing an undershirt and jeans because it's hot. What else do you want me to wear?"

"Shirt," the four year old said, crossing her arms. "I wear shirt."

"That's because you're a girl."

Kimmy frowned. "No!"

"What?" He picked her up with one arm. "You don't think you're a girl?"

"No," she said. "You girl."

"I'm a girl?" Lance smiled at her. "Hardly."

Kimmy giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Gonna watch Barney?"

Lance held in a sigh. How he hated that purple monstrosity. If he turned on the news and found out that the creator of Barney had died, he would jump for joy, something he rarely did on any occasion.

"Sure," Lance said as the microwave dinged. He took out the plate with pizza on it before walking into the living room. The apartment was small, but he had lived in a lot smaller places.

Lance sat Kimmy down on the couch before sitting next to her. Kimmy frowned. "One plate?"

"If I got you a plate, then I'd have to wash two plates. It's a lot easier to just share a plate."

Kimmy considered this before grabbing a piece of pizza. "No shirt?"

Lance groaned, handing her the plate. "Fine, I'll go put on a shirt. Be right back. Don't move, alright?"

Kimmy nodded, eating her food. Lance went back into his bedroom and changed clothes. Sighing, he realized that he needed to do laundry. He almost thought about making Kitty do it, but then that would start a fight, and he'd have to sleep on the couch. That was not how he planned to spend the next few nights.

"Don't put Corn in the food," Lance yelled, walking back into the room.

Kimmy looked up. "Corn eats too!"

She had taken Corn and put the toy's face into the pizza. Lance shook his head, going to sit back down. "Corn is dirty, Kimmy."

"No!" She crossed her arms. "No dirty. You're dirty."

God, sometimes… "Today we're doing laundry."

"Clean clothes?"

"Yep," he said, taking the plate back from her.

"See Pete?"

As Lance was not allowed to use the apartment buildings washer and dryers (You break a few washers one time and you're suddenly a bad person), he now went over to Pietro's house and used his. Kimmy was not able to say Pietro and just called him Pete instead.

"Yep," Lance said, turning on the TV. "Look, Barney's off."

Kimmy frowned as he put it on the news. To get back at him, she licked all the pieces of pizza.

"Kim," he complained, frowning. Then he looked at the TV.

In more recent years, the mutant hate had died down, but it was not dead completely. Though he was no longer an active member of S.H.I.E.L.D., he still felt a strong need to help. If it wasn't for Kitty and Kimmy, he'd probably still be out there, doing what he could.

At the moment, the station was covering the massacre mutants at an all mutant apartment building. Lance changed the channel before Kimmy could notice what was going on.

"Go now?" Kimmy asked him. "Go see Pete?"

He looked down at the spit covered pizza. "Sure."

Pietro shook his head, watching Kimmy play with his dogs. "I don't know, Lance. I think you should get a dog."

"Yeah, that's all I need," Lance said. He was in a bad mood. On the way to Pietro's house, he got cut off by another car, which always pissed him off.

"Where's Kitty?"

"Work," Lance said, putting clothes in the washer. Kimmy, who was in the other room with the dogs, looked up.

"Mommy?"

"She's at work, you know that," Lance said to the girl, not turning around. "Play with the dogs and be happy."

Pietro shook his head, walking out of the wash room, and into the living room with Kimmy. "Hey, Kim."

"Hi," she said, still looking down at the dogs. One was a lab and the other was a German Shepard. "Broughted my pet."

He frowned. "You've got a pet?"

She nodded, holding up her dragon doll. "Lockheed!"

Lance turned his head. "Kimmy, did you take that out of your mom's stuff?"

"No," Kimmy said, in her normal lying tone. She didn't realize that she had a lying tone, of course. She thought that she was an awesome liar. "It's mine. My Lockheed!"

"You're mom's going to kill you," Lance mumbled, closing the washer.

"Why does your girlfriend have a stuffed dragon anyways?" Pietro asked.

"I don't know," he said, walking into the room. "Just don't get it dirty, Kim."

She nodded, holding the toy close to her chest. "Okay!"

"Where's Corn anyways?"

"Home. Watch home."

"Oh, he's our guard?" Lance asked, amused slightly. "From what?"

"Sentinels."

Lance and Pietro both looked down at her. Lance was the first to speak. "What are you talking about? You don't know anything about those."

"Yes! See 'em."

"When?" Pietro asked. A few years ago, the S.H.I.E.L.D. and the X-men had almost killed Nimrod and hadn't seen from him since. That was two years before Kim was even born. Right after that, Kitty and Lance had broken up and she started dating Kim's father.

"On computer," Kim explained. "Seen 'em with Scott."

Lance sighed, shaking his head. "Kitty had taken her to the X Mansion a few days ago."

Kim nodded. "See Scott, Gamble and Rawr-g."

"What's a Rawr-g?" Pietro asked Lance. "And who's Gamble?"

"Rogue," he said. "Gambit."

Kim nodded again. "And Jean and Wolfsbane. Oh, and Storm. Beast too. Rawr-g nice. Gamble scary. Sound funny too."

Pietro shook his head. "Hey, Lance, ever think about getting back with S.H.I.E.L.D? Could really use your help right about now, you know. Did you hear about-"

"I don't want to talk about that right now," Lance said, sitting down next to Kim. "Hey, Kimmy, you know what?"

"What?"

"Where's going to sleep when we get home."

"No. Too big for naps," the four year old complained.

"Well, I'm not," Lance said, yawning. Pietro shook his head.

"Never mind, Lance."

"About what?"

"Coming back to S.H.I.E.L.D. We don't need you."

Lance was sleeping again, just like he had wanted the whole day. Kim was next to him, not sleeping.

"Lance?"

"I'm sleeping, Kim."

She groaned, cuddling against him. "I'm cold."

He pulled the blanket up around the more. "Better?"

"No."

Sighing, he reached out and pulled her to him. "Now better?"

"No."

"Kim, what do you want me to do?"

"Watch TV."

"How would that help your coldness?"

She shrugged. "Lance?"

"What?"

"I love you," Kim said, giggling.

"Yeah, I know."

She yawned, closing her eyes again. "Nap?"

"Oh, now that you've woken me up you want to sleep? Is that it?"

"Yes," she said. "Night-night."

Lance sighed as she fell asleep. Try as he might, he couldn't fall back asleep. Leave it to Kim to keep him awake even while she was asleep.

"Hey."

He looked up. "Hey, Kitty Cat."

She walked into the room, sighing. "How was Kim today?"

"She woke me up after you left, licked all of the pizza, and wouldn't let me sleep."

Kitty gave him a funny look. "Doesn't seem like she's keeping you from sleep now."

He sighed, looking down at the girl in his arms. "Yeah, but now I'm not tired."

Kitty shook her head. "So today was a good day?"

"Yep," he said, smiling at her. "Did the laundry too."

"Good. Any accidents?"

"Huh?"

"You know what I mean. Did you…get angry today?"

"No," he said.

"No earthquakes?"

He smiled. "Just a little tremor."

"Why?" She asked, getting into bed with them. It was a small bed and it was a tight fit, but it was comfortable, being so close to each other.

"She was just asking about…him again."

"She just does that out of habit."

"I know," Lance said.

"She thinks of you as her dad, you know."

"Yep," he said, holding the little girl close to him.

"Oh, and Lance?"

"What?"

"What was Lockheed doing in the living room?"

He knew he forgot something.