One Life“Wrapped up in the darkness of every day, chained by my freedom
The dreams we had together were so bright,
I could no longer look myself directly in the face.”
Peace.  That was the word he was looking for.  He was at peace for the first time in what seemed like his whole life.  Content simply to lay in the cool sheets, staring in half-lidded contentment at the slightly dingy ceiling, it was a rare moment for him.  Weekends weren’t normally packed with important business, but in the abscence of work, crushing boredom filled in and he usually found tedious little things to fill his time.  Today he had nothing to do for a few hours and he was more than content to spend that time dozing lazily and revelling in how decadent something as mundane as simply stretching his legs felt.
Next to him, Kitty whined a little in her sleep and turned over restlessly.  Lance thought briefly of waking her, but decided to let her sleep.  Whatever she was dreaming about must have calmed down, since her breathing had evened out and the almost childlike frown had been smoothed from her face.  She’d had a busy day previously and the flight down to DC probably hadn’t helped matters any.  Of course, their rathor vigorous activities after getting to his apartment probably hadn’t either, he thought with a smirk, but she’d been the one who jumped him and he refused to be held accountable for any resulting consequences.The smell of cheap coffee brewing eventually won out over the bed and its sleeping contents and he spent a minute trying to remember where his underwear had gotten tossed before the siren call of the bathroom temporarily overrode everything else.  Emerging from the bathroom, having found his underwear hanging unceremoneously from the sink faucet, he made his way to the kitchen, picking up stray articles of clothing as he went.  Depositing them on the couch, he fixed himself a cup of coffee and rummaged around in the fridge for the few groceries he'd bought for the occassion.  Just some staples like eggs, cheese, milk, a few veggies and some cereal.  He didn’t cook much, as the impressive amount of old take-out boxes he’d tossed out during his mad fit of cleaning the day before could attest, but he did know enough to get by if he had to and, hell, it wasn’t like he had something better to do until Kitty got up.“Lance?” As if on cue, her muzzy voice floated over the sound of the slowly heating pan.  She stood in the doorway from the bedroom, dressed-- no, swimming in one of his shirts, hair askew, eyes slightly puffy and squinting at him in childlike quizzicalness.  “What’re you doing?”“Morning to you too,” he replied, not quite sure if he managed to suppress the big dopey grin that threatened to streak across his face like a drunken frat boy.  “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”Rubbing an eye with the heel of her hand, she shook her head and shuffled over to the table to plop herself into a chair.  “No, I woke myself up.  Are you cooking?”“Your faith in me is amazing, isn’t it?” he sardonically tossed her way, quickly squashing the slight irritation he felt at her surprise.  Actually, if he was being honest, it was mostly his irritation at himself for never seeming to be able to rise above her expectations.  Without even trying, she could make him feel like he’d been slacking off on any sort of progress toward being some kind of decent human being.  It was his own fault and he knew that, but damn it, it was like she could just walk in the room and make him feel like the biggest loser in the world.  Felt like high school all over again.Not until he felt her hands snake around his waist did he realize how wrapped up in his own thoughts he’d been; he hadn’t even heard her get up.  Thinking for a second that she’d somehow picked up on his sudden mood switch, a spear of guilt stabbed at him and he cursed himself for wallowing in self-pity.“Kitty, you okay?”  In response, she buried her face into his back and tightened her grip. “Yeah.  I just--” she faltered and his guilt intensified.  “I dreamed about Rachel last night.”Oh.  Well shit.  The guilt evaporated almost instantly and he twisted around in her grip to look her in the face.“I haven’t even thought about her in months,” she continued.  “Feel pretty lousy about that.”Rachel had been a good friend of Kitty’s her junior and senior years.  She had also been incredibly messed up.  Lance didn’t know the whole story but he did know that she was supposed to have been from the future, or at least a future.  That whole part had been really confusing, frankly, and he wasn’t even sure if she really was where she claimed to be from.  But he did know that in her future, life for mutants and humans alike was pretty bleak.  Sentinels as far as the eye could see, mutants in concentration camps and mass graveyards,