Who: Kitty and Evie What: Meeting each other while out and about. When: Yesterday morning before the snow really started flying Where: Somewhere around Orange County Warnings: Pretty low
America was an entirely new animal to Evie. California was kind of intimidating to her in a strange way. It shouldn’t be considering she’d grown up in London. She was used to the hustle and bustle of people in a city around her. But there was just something different here. Maybe she was still jetlagged despite having been here for a couple weeks. Or maybe it was the fact she was so far away from her brother that was making her feel off.
It was definitely the latter because as much as Jacob sometimes made her want to strangle him and as often as she had to clean up messes he made, she still loved him and he was her twin. And he was the only family she had left. She was still grieving for her father, or not grieving as she tended to not handle those kinds of emotions well at all.
So instead of letting things get to her, Evie decided to go for a run. In the snow. Why was there snow in southern California? She didn’t know, but it was what it was. She’d ask questions later. She dressed in her military fatigues, leaving the jacket open, with a white shirt underneath and her dog tags around her neck. Pulling her hair into a ponytail, she went for a run. It was a longer one as she was still somewhat learning the layout of the area surrounding her apartment.
After running for a half hour, she finally slowed down and caught her breath as she looked around for a place to get something to drink.
“Really, I should know by now to bring water with me,” she commented as she brushed a couple loose strands of hair out of her face.
“Here.” Someone held out some water in a bottle that had an odd x-logo on one side. That someone was a young brunette woman, hair pulled up into a loose tail. Kitty had been taking a walk, though she was mostly looking to get into trouble. She did have a penchant for sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. She wore fuzzy boots, jeans, and a Hannakuh sweater. Only it was a Menorahsaurus Rex instead of an actual Menorah on the sweater. “Someone once taught me to always be prepared.”
“Oh, thank you,” she said with a smile as she took the offered bottle and took a drink from it. “My teacher would be sorely disappointed in my not heeding that lesson today.” She took one more drink before handing it back. “I like your sweater.” Evie wasn’t Jewish, but she respected the holiday.
“Thanks. I saw it and I had to have it. I also have one with Darth Vader.” Because of course she did. “Mine would to, whenever I forget that kind of thing.” Kitty grinned, resting her hands on her hips. “New in town?”
It didn’t look like Evie had been prepared for the weather either.
“The Darth Vader one must get quite the reception.” Evie chuckled. She had a straight forward English accent. It wasn’t really the posh accent, but it wasn’t brash like the Cockney accent either. “Yes, I just moved here about two weeks ago now. This weather is definitely not what I expected.” She glanced up at the sky momentarily. “I hadn’t thought southern California got snow. Perhaps my research was incorrect.” Evie had, of course, done her research before she’d moved. Because she had to plan things out down to the detail. Moving required a lot of planning and forethought regardless of what her brother tended to think.
“Climate Change. Became a kind of regular thing a few years ago and it hasn’t been the same since.” Though they’d hit a tipping point, the snow wasn’t really related. It was just an easy enough excuse. “Always surprises newcomers. A lot of things in Orange County tend to do that.”
Kitty clasped her hands behind her back, suddenly missing London. It had been years, but she’d loved her time there.
“And people say climate change isn’t real,” Evie said with a roll of her eyes. Clearly all they needed to do was to come to Orange County and see the snow here that definitely wasn’t the norm for this area. “I suppose this shall be more of an adventure than I initially thought.” She said with a smile. And then her manners hit her.
“Oh! I’m sorry, my name’s Evie Frye, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She introduced, holding her hand out in a friendly greeting.
“Adventure is what makes life worth living.” Kitty took Evie’s hand and shook it. “I’m Kitty Pryde. Welcome to Orange County.” Hope you survive the experience.
“You can say that again. At least it’s just another experience to add to my resume. Survived the effects of climate change in southern California would look good on it, wouldn’t you agree?” Not that Evie would actually put that on her resume. She had plenty of other things to put on a resume instead.
Kitty grinned at her. “Not the strangest thing that would be on mine, not by a long shot.” She looked Evie over. “Army?” Admittedly she wasn’t up on her military designations, especially the British, but it seemed like a fair guess.
“Sounds like you’ve got some stories there,” Evie replied with a smile. Then at the question, she straightened a little more out of pride. “Yes, I am. I served a tour in Afghanistan. Not the best place to be, but there could be worse places.” Like Syria. God Evie wanted to go into Aleppo and help those poor people. But she had her orders, and she wasn’t about to go against them.
“More than one,” Kitty assured her. The pride was readily apparent, and she nodded at Evie. “There can be worse places, but I can’t imagine what that was like.” It was a half-truth. She’d lived wars in her dreams. Wars and exterminations. And there was the history of her people, Jew and Mutant alike. Like her friend sang, god help the outcasts.
“It was difficult. I lost some friends there, but I would go back in a heartbeat if I was given orders to.” Evie didn’t have a deathwish, she just had a deep-seeded need to help people and do good wherever she could. She was lucky to have come out of there uninjured and without much issue. “I like doing some good wherever I can.”
Kitty understood that. Rushing headlong into danger to help others was what kept her coming back to the X-Men, even if she would have been better served trying to have a normal life. As a downside it sometimes left her feeling embittered and angry.
“I’m sure there’s things you can do here that might do some good. Volunteer work, that sort of thing.” Kitty stuffed her hands into her pants pockets.
“Oh I plan on it, if I have enough free time. I’m working with the local branch of the CIA for the time being as a liaison type of officer.” Evie was finding things were interesting with the CIA, and she was certain she’d be getting little sleep if shit kept happening in the world at the rate it currently was.
That made sense. It also made Kitty a little nervous. Anything involving the letter agencies and the Orange County phenomenon made her nervous. Especially as the CIA technically wasn’t supposed to operate in the US. Not that she believed they followed their own rules. But she wasn’t going to judge someone for something until she had a reason to. It had nothing to do with Evie being hot. “Well, if you want to work with kids, a friend of mine owns a place you should check out.”
Evie’s duties with the CIA only involved sharing intelligence on terrorism and education on counter-terrorism. Given her experience and personal knack for weeding out terrorists. Given the volatile atmosphere across the world, sharing intelligence was a top priority when it came to terrorism. “What’s it called? I’ll definitely have to look into it.”
Too bad that required agencies actually cooperating. Kitty had seen files she shouldn’t have in her hacking days, and the CIA and FBI in particular had a long standing grudge against each other.
Of course her hacking days were still these days, but shh.
“Jean Grey Outreach Center. They help kids in bad places, including those just shy of ending up in jail. It’s a lot of good work.”
The internal disputes between agencies weren’t her department, and she didn’t even know a lot of the history between the CIA and FBI. All Evie knew was that if the west stood a chance against terrorism and protecting their borders, information needed to be shared. It was a reason why the Secret Intelligence Service, more commonly known as MI6, had sent her as a liaison. They believed she could do some good and spread some intelligence while teaching some of the finer points of what she’d witnessed and knew about terror groups.
“That is definitely some good work. If my brother were here and he was still young, I’d throw him in that program. Might help him grow up a bit.” Evie had long felt her brother could use a good dose of growing up and getting his life in order. But the two just had different approaches to life, and Evie could never understand how he lived his. It drove her insane.
Kitty grinned cheekily. “If you want my opinion, you could still throw him into it. I don’t think anyone would mind, even adults need a kick in the ass sometimes.”
“I may keep that option open,” she chuckled. “He’d protest of course, but he’s just free spirited, in a way, to the extreme.” The exact opposite of herself, to be precise. “I suppose you could say we are the stereotypical twins being polar opposites.”
“I’m an only child, but I kind of have some experience with that,” Kitty said. She got a wistful look. “I’m the mom to two twelve year old twins, they were the siblings of my late wife and they can be a handful. They’ve been staying with my dad back in Chicago.”
Evie winced slightly, then gave Kitty a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry for your loss. Though twins can be rather a handful and a half.” She and Jacob had given people a run for their money. Of course, as much as she loved her father, she had memories of when he hadn’t been there, when he had seemingly ignored his children’s very existence. But she believed he more than made up for that when he finally had grieved enough to raise his own children.
“They’re identical enough that they can pass for each other without even me knowing half the time.” And they liked to prank sometimes. Which was usually fun. “Tell me you did that.”
“Only when we were very young. We had our grandmother going really good until she grew wise to us.” They’d only looked similar when they were very young. Nowadays, they simply looked like siblings. Jacob was taller and more gruff. Evie was an odd blend of elegant and muscled from her military training. And she still worked out regularly.
It was something that Kitty had noticed, and she was almost polite enough to not stare. Her bigger problem was she tended to end up tongue tied a lot. “It’s really hard to put one past grandma.”
“Especially my grandma considering she raised my brother and I for the first several years of our lives. One would think we wouldn’t been able to pull that off.” Not that Evie was complaining, it had been fun while it had lasted.
“Ever think that she let you get away with it?” Kitty liked to think she’d be that kind of grandmother some day, if the twins wanted to have kids. Though the thought of being a grandmother before 40 was kind of a weird one. It was possible though.
..They’d already had the talk tight?
“I wouldn’t put it past her to do that.” Evie said with a chuckle. “She’s a very intelligent woman. I suppose it would’ve been easier for us if we’d been the same gender.” Even young there had been some differences between her and her brother that were able to be picked up on.
“They’re a boy and girl, too.” Hormones could do that to a person. Kitty nodded at her. “Maybe someday I’ll be that kind of grandmother. Hopefully a long ways in the future.” Or she’d luck out and they’d both be gay and then she wouldn’t have to worry about accidental pregnancies.
“Hopefully. If you do get that opportunity, at least you had some practice with the twins. It might make you more like that kind of grandmother.” Or not, she supposed it depended on what one experienced in their life up to that point. As for Evie, she hadn’t put any thought towards children. For her, the job came first.
“Thanks. I guess I’ll find out.” Kitty gestured at the water bottle. “You can keep it, I’ve got more where that came from and it’s…more durable than your standard water bottle.” It went way beyond military grade durable, too. “You could probably roll a tank over that.”
“Are you sure? This is a really nice water bottle.” Evie felt a little odd just taking the water bottle from someone she’d just met. She looked it over a little closer. “A tank? Perhaps I could put it to the test if I get deployed again.”
“I know some people who know some people, you’d be surprised at what you can get in my line of work. I do logistics and information for the local Agency.” OCA? “The Agency” didn’t really have a good ring to it but she hadn’t named it.
“Having contacts is certainly a good thing.” Evie didn’t question further because she understood the concept. She had her own network of knowing people who knew people and so on so forth. Sometimes having them could save her ass if she found herself in too tight of a pinch.
“You might have yourself another one, if you ever need it.” Kitty was going to have to do some digging on this woman. Figure out just who she was and what she was doing. Dangerous work, but Kitty liked a little danger.
That piqued Evie’s interest. “That’s good. If you need something of me as well, simply ask.” Being military alone said she had a lot of skills, and she could add muscle if that was needed. But Evie had other talents as well. Ones she wasn’t about to reveal in a first conversation. Talk of terrorism wasn’t exactly a good topic for first meetings with someone not connected to anti-terrorism efforts.
“Good to know.” Kitty tossed her a little mock salute that was surprisingly accurate to British salutes versus American ones. “Any place you want to see? I’m good at giving tours.”
“Points of interest? I like history and museums. Libraries. A place to get good tea. I’m still learning my way around here, and I’m open to suggestions.” Evie was willing to try most things once. Except anything that went against her need to meticulously plan things. She wasn’t exactly the spontaneous or impulsive type.
“There’s a lot of history, most of it off the beaten path. I know a few people that frequent the museums and where the best library in town is.” Kitty folded her arms. “If you want more excitement or physical activity, I can name a gym and I know a few places where things can get a little more violent.”
Cage matches. Kitty was into cage matches.
“A gym, most definitely. How about something like a shooting range, or a climbing wall?” Evie didn’t always sit at a shooting range, but now and then she liked to go if she needed to think or work something out. “Though what kind of more violent are we talking about?”
“The Outreach Center has a shooting range below ground, and also some climbing walls, but it’s a very long drive.” Kitty tapped her chin. “I think I can find some places in the city for you. And the other thing is kind of...Well have you ever seen Fight Club? Only with more rules and less anarchy.”
“Thank you, I do appreciate that.” Evie was looking forward to having a list of things to do and places to see when she had some time. “Ah, I see. That may be an option if a punching bag won’t do the job. Or my brother irritates me enough.”
“Let me give you my number. If you’re up for a friendly fight you can give me call.” Kitty knew well enough that a punching bag wasn’t always enough. Sometimes you needed a real opponent.
“I would like that. Sometimes it’s just best to have a real opponent.” Not to mention it could keep both of them on their toes to have a friendly fight. Adjusting to a different fight style and all of that. Evie pulled out her phone to add Kitty into her contacts.
“I’m free most mornings, kind of one of those people who get up too early,” Kitty said. 9am felt late to her. Some of her exes had hated that, but she’d had a little fun with pranking them that way on occasion.
“I tend to be an early riser myself. Military days and all.” One of the quirks Evie had picked up being in a war zone was sleeping anywhere at any time under any conditions. She also picked up the ability to wake up and be instantly alert. One had to be in such areas of the world.
It made sense. Maybe someday Kitty could talk to her about why that was something she actually understood. She nodded at her. “Makes sense. Is this where I tell you to give me ten more laps?”
Evie nearly made a quip about only if Kitty was prepared to race her, but Kitty hadn’t made a challenge to that effect nor was she Evie’s brother. Evie tended to always race her brother, one of their childhood games that neither of them had really grown out of. She missed him and the feeling hit her like a brick. She’d been doing well to ignore that. “You could if you really wanted to.” She said with a smile to mask her inner emotions.
“How many people tell you to drop and give them twenty?” Kitty asked, laughing. She’d used to sit on Piotr when he did that. Rachel too. Xi’an had been the one to sit on her.
“A few. My brother likes to say that to me more often than is completely necessary.” Evie responded with a laugh. Sometimes even going through with it was fun. Especially if she just wanted to show off.
“He sounds like he’d be fun at a party.” Just from this short amount of information Kitty thought she knew a couple of people that might have gotten along with Evie’s brother.
“More like he’s the life of the party and gets way too carried away with that role.” Evie wasn’t the type to go to parties, it wasn’t her style. And she preferred to remain in full control of her faculties.
“Reminds me of a friend of mine. Her name’s Jubilee and the name fits.” There was a sudden pang of missing people, but Kitty ignored it. Any Dreamer would understand, though she didn’t know if Evie qualified yet.
“Sounds like my brother would get along well with her.” Evie understood missing people that weren’t here. Her father was dead, her brother and all of her friends were on the other side of the world. She’d spent Christmas alone for the first time in her life. “Though he would probably drag me out somewhere if he were here saying I needed some fun and that I couldn’t be all work.”
“That part would be my job. You really can’t be all work all the time. Sometimes you have to play a little bit so the working gets easier.” Kitty had a smile on her face like she’d be more on Evie’s brother’s side in that particular case.
“But work can be fun, too.” Most people would probably think that Evie was crazy for thinking her particular line of work was fun, but she actually did enjoy doing the research and gathering intel. Though seeing the way Kitty smiled, she had to chuckle. “I think you’d make fast friends with my brother.”
“Yeah, it can.” LIke when she hacked the Pentagon. Or any time she got to hit bad people. Kitty wasn’t inherently violent, but she’d had certain teachers and anger issues. “I probably would.”
“So it sounds like you know all the fun places around here?” Evie asked with a smile. “I suppose it won’t kill me to at least give them a shot. I have just always been more studious than I have going out.” Evie preferred books and studying to going out to clubs or anything else her brother tended to get into.
“I can get you into the special parts of Disneyland,” Kitty said, eyes flashing with the potential mischief one could get up to in parts of Disneyland.
That was entirely curious. Evie’s eyebrows arched in intrigue. “Oh really? What parts would those be?” She’d never been to Disneyland. Which wasn’t much of a surprise when she wasn’t from here.
“There’s some backstage areas, and a few places not many people go that are still open. If you’ve never been there you’ll need two or three days to really see everything there is to see. You should check it out!” Full grown adults could enjoy Disney too. Sometimes it was nice to release one’s inner child.
“Fascinating! And no, I have never been to Disneyland. Perhaps I should go sometime.” Though it sounded more like something Jacob would be at home in. A place to let out his inner child, though sometimes Evie felt like he’d never actually grown up.
“Make a day of it,” Kitty suggested. “Once things settle down for you. You might welcome the down time. You might like some of the quieter areas, anyway. There’s a lot to do even if you don’t do well with crowds. But you definitely need to do the faster rides.”
“Crowds don’t bother me much. Not much bothers me, really. So I think I could survive Disneyland. Though it wouldn’t hurt to know about the lesser traveled areas in case I need a quiet break.” Evie had been lucky that she hadn’t come back with PTSD. However, gunshots tended to put her on edge and come on high alert.
“That’s good. Too many people and some people just need to ghost away.” Kitty took a few steps onto the snow, and didn’t seem to sink into it at all.
“Luckily, that’s not me. At least not typically. Sometimes I prefer being alone, but that’s entirely different.” When Kitty stepped onto the snow, Evie noticed how she didn’t sink in at all. Her brow furrowed in confusion. “You must be rather light on your feet,” she commented.
“I’m a dancer. Well I was when I was a teenager. I do martial arts now, and the experience really helped.” Kitty spun in a pirouette. Actually, she was cheating with her powers. Because Kitty Pryde liked to be clever.
“That would explain it. Dancing must translate rather easily into martial arts. What form, or forms, of martial arts do you do?” Evie asked, rather curious. She didn’t have martial arts training, only what she learned in the army for combat techniques and the like.
“Jeet Kun Do and Judo.” Also Ninjitsu but that wasn’t really a real world martial art and had come from her dreams. Jeet Kun Do was a close translation to her style and she’d studied that in this world anyway.
“Very nice. I have always admired martial arts, though never quite took any up. I opted for sports instead.” Evie was a rather talented football player. Football meaning soccer here in America. But it had kept her in shape before she’d gone into the military.
“They’re all a lot of work.” Kitty wasn’t going to disparage people who did sports. She knew too many and knew what kind of work it was required to keep in shape and to actually improve at it.
“Indeed they are. Martial arts, sports, all of it requires work to remain in shape and improve.” These days Evie was more likely to be found in a gym lifting weights than she was playing football.
“What did you play?”
“Football. Real football, not the American football.” Evie responded. “It’s been a while since I’ve kicked a ball around, though.” It was a little awkward to do that on one’s own.
"Favorite team?" Kitty asked, eyes glittering with mischief. She had her own favorite teams, and the way British Football worked is many of those were mutually exclusive to other fans.
Football was basically a way of life in England. Competition between fans could be just as fierce as competition on the pitch itself. Sometimes moreso. “Chelsea. Lifetime Chelsea fan here.” Evie said with a smirk.
“Oh good, if you’d said Manchester we might have had a problem. I dated a Manchester guy when I was living in London.”
“Oh lord no, definitely not Manchester,” she responded with a light laugh. “I feel I should offer sympathy for you having dated a Manchester guy.”
“Yeah, we lasted a week. The Chelsea guy lasted a lot longer and we almost married.” She hadn’t realized she was bisexual until Xi’an though, so she didn’t know what kind of soccer any potential british girlfriend might have been into.
“I’m surprised that you lasted an entire week.” Evie chuckled. “Though at least the Chelsea guy lasted longer. Cheering for the same team tends to help those matters.” Football tended to break up relationships rather quickly at times, after all.
“Definitely helps.” She’d gotten cold feet and left the country, so she tried to avoid thinking about that. “Though anyone that hates the Chicago Cubs is right out.” That was a deal breaker.
The mention of the Chicago Cubs briefly brought a note of blankness to her face, as though she didn’t know what that was. But in the time she’d been here, she had heard of them. “The baseball team, correct? Is it a strike against me if I’m indifferent on them?”
“Not at all. But it’s a big deal where I’m from, considering it took them 108 years between wins of the sport’s biggest championship. Being a Cubs fan means being...very stubborn and always hopeful.” And a little cynical, too.
“Understandable. In that respect, I certainly can relate with you. I am known to be stubborn and yet hopeful myself.” Evie said with a smile. “Though it’s good to hear your team did finally win. Did you have a party to celebrate?”
“Oh yeah, one hell of a party!” Kitty flashed a grin. “I was there, had tickets with my dad and the kids. It was definitely worth it! I was screaming on the network let me tell you.” Which reminded her. “Oh! If you want to connect with more people, there’s a local social network called Valar. Might be worth checking out.”
“Now that was undoubtedly amazing to witness.” Evie grinned, knowing what that kind of excitement could be like. “Oh, really? Perhaps I shall have to check that out. Especially if people are just as nice and welcoming as you.” She wasn’t exactly flirting. At least not consciously. She just thought Kitty was nice to stop and be so welcoming.
Kitty tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled. It was really hard for her to not flirt with people. Especially pretty British people. “Thanks. Most people are pretty friendly but there are a fair share of trolls and grumps.”
“Thank you for the warning, though that does sound like it’s about par for the course.” There was a mix of friendly people and grumps pretty much anywhere in the world. Evie didn’t expect this place to be any different.
“Hope I see you online,” Kitty replied. Though that might be more of a curse than a blessing. She already knew she needed to google this woman, see what kind of Evie Frye she pulled up. Which could be a dangerous thing, both for who that person could be and how popular they were with the porn artists.
“Same here. Thank you again for the water bottle.” Evie said with a smile. It was a nice gesture, even if she still felt a little awkward simply taking it. But she wasn’t going to look this gift horse in the mouth. She had no reason to suspect Kitty of anything subversive. She wasn’t a behavioral expert, but Kitty seemed genuine to her. And she might as well look into this network thing. Might be the easiest way to meet people since she didn’t really go out much.
“You’re welcome. Again welcome to the OC and watch out for the crazies.” Kitty tossed off a playful salute, then turned to go.
“I’ll do my best.” Evie laughed lightly, returning the salute before she took another drink of water. She gauged where she was, then resumed her run.