WHO: Kitty and Doug WHAT: Someone is dreaming, and needs an old friend’s help. WHEN: The day of World Series, Game 5 WARNINGS: None, really. STATUS: Closed and Complete
Doug grinned as he scrubbed his face and hair with a towel, and flipped open his phone. He had just woken up from a truly freaky dream, and that was after being just in from surfing and the tides and rises were awesome, and there was no-one he wanted to tell more about it than Kitty Pryde. Old time friend, and still someone he liked to poke now and then, Kitty was smart and pretty, and on a whole different wavelength from him. But he could dig it, and was more than willing to just chat, and tell her about the waves.
After all, sharing things was fun!
Besides the World Series was not going as his friend might hope, and he wanted to cheer her up. Or at least be there for her, should the worst happen. Maybe he could fly in and poke her in person. He grinned as he dialed her on the phone and waited.
***
It had been a rough few days, but Kitty was hoping the Cubs could turn it around in Game 5. Sure, it was a vain hope, she was a Cubs fan, she knew this. But it was still a hope. (Boy would she be ecstatic later). She ushered the twins into her dad’s house and pulled out her phone without looking at it. “Hello?”
***
Doug smiled as he heard her voice. “Hey, Kitty. How’s being a Cubs fan doing?” He could imagine, but what use was a friend but to listen to another vent. If she wanted to, anyway. She also sounded a little busy.
“Is that the munchkins I hear in the background?”
***
“Not good. But it’s not over yet. We’re heading to the stadium a little later.” Kitty still had hope. She was stubborn. She always had hope. She smiled, looking at the twins. “Yeah, that’s them.”
***
Doug grinned as he heard her stubbornness right through the phone. She had spirit, he gave that to her. “Good on you. Kick some ass for me.”
He chuckled as he heard her.
“How are they doing?”
***
“They’re good.” Kitty set her pack on the ground and maneuvered past two kids and a dog. The dog had been a surprise, no one had told her about the dog. “How are you doing?”
***
Doug smiled as he listened. He liked her little family. “Good. I always liked those shorties.”
He paced as he spoke, thinking out loud. “I… had a dream last night, Kitty. And you were in it. It started out pretty normal, save I was a computer geek of all things. And we were friends, but I had a crush on you. That was weird. We hacked some sinister guys computers, and nearly got killed by something ominous, then there was an evil school… And, like, you were a superhuman, a kind of being called a mutant… and so was I.” And there it was. His weird ass dream.
***
Kitty nearly dropped her phone, and then started at it for a moment before putting it back to her ear. It was probably best to not deny it, and she sounded like she wasn’t even that surprised. Despite the phone dropping. “Were you...really good with languages?”
***
The sheer lack of surprise in her voice was kind of scaring him. “Ah… yeah, I think so… yeah. I remember the whole thing, like several weeks time passed all at once, while not much would happen, but then there would be weird shit.”
He swallowed again. “Why do I have the feeling you know more than you’re letting on, Pryde?” Bleedthrough from the dreams he didn’t even realize at that moment. ‘Pryde’ was one of the ways dream!Doug referred to Kitty, whereas Doug himself had always used her first name.
***
“Because you’re too smart for me to just lie to,” Kitty replied There was a little laugh in her voice. “And I may or may not have had similar dreams. More real than real.”
***
“May or may not, huh?” Doug blew out a long breath of air, and nodded. “Alright then. I’m coming back to the OC. I think this is something i need to learn more about, and face to face. What do you say?”
He started packing his stuff up as he spoke, moving around. He knew his car would be here soon, and then he could get to the hotel, pack up the rest, and head home.
It was time.
***
“It's going to suck,” Kitty said. “Some of it is good, but some of it is really bad.” At least he’d come back to life. That had been a relief. A bit of a shock, considering. But a relief. She wondered if he’d dream of being Douglock. Part of her had never fully accepted that they weren’t the same person.
***
“That bad, huh?” He nodded to himself. Man, this was going to be interesting. “Want to have pizza and coffee when I get there?” It would take him a couple of days to close out everything and get on the road.
He figured by then the World Series would be over and he could either celebrate with her, or console her.
***
“We definitely can!” Kitty smiled. She’d rather he didn’t dream at all. But once you started, there was no stopping it. “I never say no to pizza.”
***
Doug nodded as he listened, taking a long breath and wondering if he would have a chance to regret this. Probably. But eh, what the heck. Doug and Kitty, together again, for the first time… sort of.
“Sweet! In that case, I’ll leave you to corral the munchkins. Tell them I said hi. I’ll get my sorry ass moving and see you in a few days, okay?”
He grinned as he finished packing his beach stuff up and heard a car far out the drive. GOod. almost time to get out of here. Suddenly he was very ready to be away from the beach.
***
“I’ll see you in a few!” Kitty actually felt cheerful enough about this. She had a lot of friends that she missed. And seeing Doug was more pleasant memories. Despite his death, anyway. At least she knew that for people like them? Death was merely an inconvenience.