begmetwice | A mall on the mainland [Wednesday afternoon]

A mall on the mainland [Wednesday afternoon]

Normally, Irene would not be caught dead in any place that had a vague, lingering smell of soft pretzels. But she also hadn't especially felt like taking a portal (or other, more conventional means of travel) to New York or an alternate London or Paris for her usual habit of dropping a small mortgage on a new dress, either, so a mall it was.

And after all, shopping was shopping, even if she could see a Claire's (ugh) from within the department store she'd dragged Kitty.

"Want to make bets on whether we'll go somewhere warm for the spring trip?" Irene asked, eyeing some obviously newly-displayed swimsuits. "Because I'd really love to invest in something new to laze about prettily in."

[for she who is narratively mentioned!]

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"Tiptoeing around one another?" Irene smiled. "You've not lived with a boyfriend before, have you? It's so funny how once you officially move things seem different, even if you were over there practically every day before, anyway."

"Yeah. And not bad," she added quickly. "But this stuff was his, and I'm used to it being his, but now it's ours... And I've lived with boyfriends, but they were teammates, so we just lived in the same house with other people, and we had separate rooms. I thought it'd be like that and it's definitely different than that. I just need to get over myself."

"Living in a whole house of blokes and you happen to be dating one is totally different from just living with your boyfriend," Irene mused in agreement. "My last girlfriend was my live-in assistant, so I've been there a bit. It's just a matter of getting used to seeing each other all the time and ensuring you still have your own space, and all that -- and you're probably set up well with that considering your interdimensional commute and all."

"Sort of," Kitty said, picking up a shirt before making a face at it and putting it back quickly. "My computer stuff's set up in Natasha's- I mean, the spare room, so if I needed I can just head in there, and I know like everyone in town so I'm not always home. Seeing him all the time's not a problem, though. I still got all mushy-feeling when I had to leave overnight last week."

"Awwwwwwww." Even Irene couldn't help but make that noise at that, seriously. "I can't believe I'm asking this, but were there other...you know, big conversations associated with you moving in there?"

"How big?" Kitty checked.

Irene just hummed 'Here Comes the Bride' and raised her brows.

Kitty shook her head. "Nah. Neither of us are ready for that, definitely. At this point I figure it'll happen someday, and if it doesn't, it's because neither one of us wanted to risk asking just in case it's too soon, because we're both dumb."

"I tend to sequester myself in the anti-marriage camp," Irene admitted, "for a number of reasons -- but for what it's worth, I wouldn't try to talk you out of it if you two did, or anything."

That was practically endorsement from her, so yay!

"But were there other big conversations?" she wondered. "Since you clarified, and all."

"Not at that time," she said. "Kids have come up before, but that's what happens when you have a weekend a year where they start hopping portals in from alternate universes. We're not planning anything, or anything."

"Wait, that's a thing?" Irene probably should have looked a little less terrified and maybe a little more pleased for Kitty, but no one had warned her that she might find herself a mother some weekend.

"Oh, god, did no one tell you about that?" Kitty asked.

"I honestly cannot think of anything I want less than children," Irene replied, looking sad. "Can I opt out?"

Nope.

"Nope. You might be lucky and not get any, though? And if you do it's only for a weekend."

And it ended in soul-crushing every time, but hey.

"Will their father be joining them?" Irene wondered. "Because that's another thing -- if they're meant to be my biological offspring, the list of candidates there is quite small."

Which meant that there would be an incredibly bratty genius showing up for her, of course. Oh well.

"Nope. Though if the other parent's in Fandom already you probably have to deal with them too. Also the other parent can be a woman, or probably not have another parent at all," Kitty said. "Alternate universes can get kinda weird."

"Oh, so it's not even necessarily someone who I would have children with?" Irene asked, looking even more alarmed. "I might have a child turn up who is the offspring of myself and the Prime Minister? Lovely. I may have to start researching babysitters now -- there's a billion teenagers about, surely one of them might like to make a little extra scratch that weekend."

"If my kid with Derek shows up again I'm sure she'd do it," Kitty told her. "But she'll charge you as much as she can possibly get away with, fair warning."

Irene waved a hand at that, but Kitty was getting a curious look. "I'm having the hardest time imagining what sort of child you and Derek would produce," she admitted. "Other than a very attractive one, at least."

"She's what I wish I looked like at sixteen, which is really unfair," Kitty admitted. "She's a mutant and will tell anyone who listens that she's an X-Man, and she's actually really great. I'm sort of sorry she's never gonna happen, but she can visit as much as she wants."

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A mall on the mainland [Wednesday afternoon]

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