FFic: Spidey/Colossus AU - Part 2
Stepping Stones
By The Odd Little Turtle Named Froggie
(Marvel owns the characters. I, sadly, do not. Not making a profit, but input is nice. Star Wars is used as a reference only and all characters, phrases of that particular fandom are trademarked by Lucas Films Ltd., et al.
This is a Kiotr AU and has nothing to do with past, present or future continuity in X-Men or Spider-Man comics. Thus, AU. No BND/OMD (or whatever the initials are). No secret wars, no messiah babies, and no Limbo.
Special thanks goes to author376 for all the great advice and back and forth comments.
For clarification, Piotr is five years older than Kitty. I haven’t figured out Spider-Man’s age, but he’s a college student and currently a bachelor.)
#
Kitty put down her pen, closed her physics book and took off her glasses. Her physics course at Columbia University was killing her on top of advanced ninth grade studies, saving the world, ballet class, and computer programming lessons she, Hank and Doug were giving the students on the weekends. She couldn’t understand why her parents didn’t just let her graduate early and allow her to enroll full time in college. It wasn’t like she was going to party all the time. She was a superhero with a secret identity. The teenager knew that she would be too busy getting others out of trouble than getting herself into trouble. Besides, Kitty didn’t just want to take physics and genetics courses, which were all that were available, since those were the only courses being personally taught by Professor Xavier. She wanted to attend Columbia University’s recently renamed School of International and Public Affairs. And she couldn’t while still enrolled in high school. Kitty wanted to be the first-ever mutant ambassador to the U.N.
“Man, I’m beat,” she murmured, pinching her nose.
She sighed dramatically. “All of this for what?” she lamented passionately. It bugged her to no end that her parents thought that since she was genius, she had to be a doctor, and she had to graduate from high school when she was eighteen. Well, she would show them. She hadn’t quite figured out the complete plan, but she was getting there. “When will I ever need this? When will this end?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Pun’kin,” Logan said from the doorway, startling her. “What’s with all the drama?”
She blinked, a grin spreading across her elfin face. Logan was one of her favorite people. He was like a big hairy older brother with claws. He was short and grumpy and tough and smelled of cigars and whiskey. Kitty absolutely adored him. After two years of being on the team, she knew the man called Wolverine would never tell her a lie or betray her. She bounced up from her chair and all about steamrolled him.
To his credit, the feral mutant looked completely out of his element, standing there- a scowl on his hirsute face, an unlit cigar held in his teeth-in the doorway of a room that looked like Barbie and the Chicago Cubs had gotten into a bar room brawl with Star Wars, Dazzler, and several celebrities and no one won, but he stood his ground. After all, Wolverine was the best at what he did. Even it was putting up with his favorite hyperactive teenager.
“Wolvie!” She threw her arms around him and bombarded him with questions. He’d been gone for nearly three weeks tracking a ninja organization called the Hand. “How was your trip to Japan? Is Lady Mariko alright? Have you rescheduled the wedding?”
Logan said nothing only hugged her back. Tilting her head back, she peered at his face to look deeply into his silvery blue eyes. She saw great sorrow and vulnerability there. She had seen that look when Jean had died and when Lady Mariko had stopped the wedding the first time under the influence of Mastermind.
“I’m sorry, Logan,” told him and meant it. She took his face in her hands and pressed a tender affectionate kiss to his forehead before embracing him once again. Knowing that he wouldn’t talk about it until he was ready, and, quite possibly, that he would go to Ororo before talking to her, Kitty didn’t say anything more. The only thing that she could do was lend him her strength.
After a moment, he cleared his throat awkwardly and pulled away. “Ya got mail, kiddo,” he told her, the vulnerable look completely gone from the depths of his eyes. He held up the letter to the light of her ceiling fan, eying the letter from Queens suspiciously. “So who’s this Piotr?”
When Kitty screamed with glee, Logan nearly dropped the letter to hold his ears, but sucked it up, because, y’know, he was the Wolverine and all. She snatched it eagerly and flopped on her bed just looking at the envelope.
She looked at him brightly after a moment. “He wrote!”
“Guess I should leave you two alone then,” Logan groused, wondering who this boy was, and why he was writing his Pun’kin, and who allowed it to happen to begin with.
I swear, I’m gone for five minutes and the kid gets herself in to thickest pile of-
“I met him while fighting the Doom-bots,” Kitty told him, her eyes shining bright, “in fact, Scott and Ororo both agree that if he and Spider-Man hadn’t showed up when they had, it could have been a whole lot worse.”
Logan had read about the incident in the paper while in Madripoor when he was searching for one of the Hand’s ringleaders before going back to Japan for the last time. Most of the eastern seaboard was still without power because of an electrical surge that had shorted out everything, including the Doom-bots. Xavier’s School was luckily on its own power source and could function normally. Crossing into the hot pink-walled room, inwardly cringing at the color, Logan grabbed her computer chair and turned it around, straddling it, chin braced on his arms as he chewed the end of his cigar. “You guys seemed ta have done just fine. Talk ta me, kid.”
She took a deep breath, and he knew he was in for an ear full, and it was going to come out in one sentence. When Kitty got started, it was like a windup toy that was on automatic redial. There were only certain times she paused for air. He’d have to get the actual details from Ororo or one of the others. But as she started talking, he knew he missed this, missed this connection he had with the kid, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Even though she was talking about a boy. The way she was describing him though, Logan wondered about this Colossus from Russia and his age and his intentions toward his Pun’kin. Spider-Man was at least in his twenties by now, and superheroes didn’t get kid sidekicks often. Not in New York anyway. And Wolverine had seen the two in action a year or so ago in Manhattan while Wolverine had been a bystander. Well, okay, the adamantium claw to the big toe didn’t help matters much and only caused the Hulk to get angrier, but Logan had been trying to help draw the Hulk away from the crowd. He still wished he could have since the wall crawler’s face when Hulk had screamed at him.
And suddenly the story was over with Kitty’s proclamation, “Okay, now, get out. I’ve gotta read my letter!”
Oh, yeah. Logan already didn’t like this Colossus at all. But he only smiled at her doe-eyed look, giving her peck on the forehead before striding to the door and leaving just as quietly as he came, his scowl melting back into place as he stalked the corridor like the trained killer he was. Cyke had a lot of explaining to do.
Kitty, meanwhile, tore open the envelope, dumping out the contents in front of her. Unfolding the neatly creased letter, she studied the scrolling script of the man of her dreams.
“Dear Katya,
“It was a pleasure meeting you and the X-Men as well. Spider-Man and I were glad to be of assistance. If you ever need us again, please be in touch. It seems you enjoy being a superhero. You make an excellent choice for the X-Men. I do not know why you would have been placed on a training team if you were already a full member of the X-Men.
“I did not realize you were injured in the battle. I am sorry that you got an eye full. I hope your vision is better and you are well. What was thrown in your eye? You should have told me and I would have seen to your injury. I am very happy to have helped you receive good scores on your physics exam. I am lucky to be such a conductor for electricity, though New York, New Jersey, and Delaware are not very happy with me right now.
“The photographs you sent with your last letter got bent in the mail, but they were not too damaged. Thank you for sending them. I especially thought your single photo was pretty, and keep it in my wallet to show my friends my new friend.
“As for your many questions, little one, I am not sure where to start, but I suppose I will begin with your first question. No, I have never been in space. My older brother, Mikhail, is a cosmonaut. I received a letter from him last month, though most of what he had to say had been blacked out, and I’m not exactly sure if he doing fine or not. I will have to wait a few more letters to piece together our code words.
“Yes, I am from Russia, though I have lived in America for five years and am a citizen. I was raised atheist, but I attend mass at Christmas with my roommate, Peter and his aunt. The Ust-Ordinsky Collective Farm near Lake Baikal in Siberia is my true home. Our closest city is Irkutsk. We get our supplies from there. I have two cousins, an aunt and an uncle in America, and I came with them to support my parents and little sister back home. We came by boat and had to be smuggled out of Союз Советских Социалистических Республик. That is pronounced Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik. I have seen in the news that it is called the USSR or the Soviet Union here in America. My uncle, aunt and cousins moved to California when my uncle’s job transferred him last year.
“There is no place like Russia! It is a truly magnificent country. You have never seen anything like it. The weather in summer is perfect for farming and the countryside is beautiful. During the winter, the snow is the purest white. Lake Baikal contains more water than all the American ‘Great Lakes’ combined, and it is also known as the ‘Blue Eye of Siberia’.
“My birthday is July 8th. I will be twenty-one. My little sister’s birthday is at the end of January. She will be eight this year. I miss her and wish she were here with me. Do you have any siblings?
“I do not have any photographs of my parents or sister, but I have drawn them for you and enclosed them. There is also a sketch of you from the photographs that you sent me, but I’ve added Lake Baikal as the background so that you will know its beauty. I have also enclosed photographs of my roommate, Peter Parker, and myself and a few of our friends, Mary Jane and Colleen. Peter is a professional photographer and developed the pictures himself the darkroom he made out of his closet.
“I think you being a ninja who can walk through walls is very neat. You must have been through an ordeal to be so skilled at such a young age. If you ever need to talk about it, feel free to write.
“I would very much like to be friends though I am surprised you would want to be friends with me. I am a mere laborer with very little education. You said you take college courses at Columbia. What courses are you taking? I have a few weeks left of night courses, and I will receive my GED. Then I will begin the enrollment process in college.
“I am looking forward to a long friendship with you through correspondence. Please write back soon.
“Your friend,
“Пётр
“Piotr Nikoleivitch Rasputin
“Spider-Man’s Friend, Colossus”
Kitty held the letter out in front of her happily. He wrote! He wants to be my friend! Piotr even answered all my questions!
“Yeess!” she squealed, hugging the letter to her breast and fell back on the bed in a fit of giggles. Only after a few moments did she remember that he had enclosed pictures and dug into the envelope for her treasures.
The first thing she found was the drawing of herself with a pretty lake and mountain behind her. The picture blurred as tears welled up in her eyes. “Is this how he sees me?” she wondered aloud. Sniffling, she gave a smile as she noticed she’d been depicted in the costume Piotr had last seen her in as she sat hugging her knees like that of the photo she’d sent to him. Though it was a mere black and white sketch, she knew her own designs well enough to be able to pick the pink and purple costume out of the closet. Kitty giggled. He really did think she was a good X-man.
Instead of refolding the drawing, she pinned it on the corkboard on her wall next to her collage of grainy pictures and headlines of Colossus and Spider-Man from the Daily Bugle and Daily Globe. Her favorite picture was that of Colossus hitting the Green Goblin’s glider with a two handed strike and the accompanying headline, “Green Goblin Given Colossal Clap!”
The next sketch was of what she presumed to be his parents and little sister. They were an older couple and the little girl with large eyes and elfin features looked out of place sitting between them. She wondered what it would be like to have a little sister or even children of her own. She also wondered if Professor Xavier could use his contacts to get Illyana into the States with her brother. If Piotr was sending money home to them, then she surmised there must be a great deal of poverty. Her heart squeezed, wanting to do everything in her power to help them. With a sigh, she pinned this picture on her cork board too. They were posted near a headline that read, “Mutant Menace! Spider-Man and Colossus Team-Up to Terrorize!”
There were two photos.
The first, Kitty flipped over to read Piotr’s masculine script. “Myself and my roommate Peter Parker. This was taken last year. We are at Manahan’s in Manhattan. We are celebrating Colleen’s birthday. She is the brunette in the other picture with us.”
Kitty frowned. Woman. She toyed with the idea that this Colleen may have already gotten Piotr, but set the thought aside quickly when she turned the picture back over to gaze at the stolen moment of time. Piotr was grinning devilishly into the camera, raising his beer bottle to the cameraman. She enjoyed everything about him, from his jet-black hair cut in a crew cut and his vibrant ice-spoked blue eyes ringed with dark lashes, to his aquiline nose and generous mouth and his cleft in his bare chin. He towered over Peter Parker who sat beside him also raising a beer bottle to the cameraman. Peter was in the middle of saying something, so his mouth was open wide and his smiling dark eyes were flashing. Though handsome, Peter appeared disheveled, with a mop of brown hair and mismatching clothing. She pegged him as a nerd right off, thinking happily, Piotr likes nerds!
The other photo featured Piotr and Peter and two women. Kitty took a breath, sizing up the competition. Both women were gorgeous. Kitty assumed the red-head was Mary Jane. She looked like she could be a model or actress. Kitty couldn’t recall ever seeing a set of eyes so green. Mary Jane had her arm looped through Peter’s, her red hair cascading onto his shoulder as they both smiled for the cameraman. The brunette, Colleen, had high, exotic cheek bones and full moist lips. And boobs. Let’s not forget those. Kitty looked down at herself. Nope. Not old enough yet. Colleen leaned on Piotr’s shoulder, smiling seductively for the cameraman. Piotr’s face was flushed, but he was smiling happily into the camera.
Feeling depressed suddenly the teenager flipped the picture over to read its back. “From left to right: me, Colleen, Mary Jane, and Peter. Colleen’s birthday last year. She no longer hangs out with us. She is dating someone named Scott Summers that Peter knows.”
Relieved, Kitty let out a sigh. So, that’s Colleen Wing that Cyke talks about sometimes.
Both photos were added to her board near a grainy photo of Spider-Man swinging on his webbing and Colossus running. The headline below it read, “Commie Colossus Stalks Spider-Man!”
As she hunted around her desk for more paper to write another letter, Professor Xavier’s mental voice rang loudly in her head, “My X-Men! Join me in the War Room immediately!”