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She Was Loved
by Pirate Turner
She was a ghost among the living. Every one she had ever truly loved had died, leaving her all alone though in a sea of people wherein even her friends and family could not truly understand her suffering. She had loved a man who had left her for a dream that she saw right through from the beginning. She had loved a woman whom she had lost to a terrible sickness and another who she had been forced to relinquish to the most terrible future she could imagine so that a good man whose world needed him could live. She had loved another man whom she had lost to one foolish mistake, a kiss to another's lips that, though it had meant nothing to her at the time, had ultimately destroyed her entire world.
Then there was the man who considered himself her soul mate. Her own feelings about him were mixed, though she'd had no doubt at one time that she'd loved him. He had left her so long ago, and she had been so naive at the time. Rachel and even Piotr's own sister, Illyana, had taught her more about the true meaning of love than any man she'd ever known, but he was the only one who still reached out for her, still longed for her, still claimed to love her.
But none of that mattered for she could never touch him. She'd been in this fix before, unable to touch, unable to solidify her body for even the scantest of seconds, but her friends had found a solution. Now even those most brilliant minds upon the face of the Earth had failed her. There was no solution this time. There was nothing but pain, nothing but suffering, for Kitty knew that, this time, she would die a ghost among her people.
She gazed into the eyes of the one friend who came closest to understanding her pain, and he cooed softly at her. "Oh, 'Heed . . . " Kitty cried, wishing that she could at least stroke her best friend's head to reassure him. Yet there was no more that she could do to reassure him than there was that could be done for her. She bent her head and cried. Tears slipped down her face, and Lockheed cooed as he tried to catch them only to have even them splash straight through his body.
Kitty sobbed. She would spend the rest of her life as a ghost, unable to touch any one, unable to show love or be loved, and there was nothing that could be done to save her this time. As Lockheed cooed again and looked at her in confusion, the remainants of Kitty's heart broke even further. "I'm sorry, 'Heed . . . " she sobbed. "I'm so sorry . . . "
Maybe she shouldn't have come back. Maybe it would have been easier for them all if she'd just stayed away and remained a ghost to their memories.
Lockheed cooed, flapped his wings a single time, and rose before her. He cocked his purple head slightly to one side and studied her miserable, crying face. Then, very carefully, he flicked his tongue out and licked where her tears ran. Though his tiny tongue passed through her tears and flesh, Kitty understood, and she smiled through her tears.
"Oh, 'Heed," she cried, "I love you too!" She was a ghost amongst the living, but she was a ghost who was very much loved. As she gazed into the concerned eyes of her very best friend in all the world and listened to his reassuring coos, she began to think that just maybe, as long as Lockheed loved her, there might yet be a way.
She'd been through so much in her life. They had been through so much together, and they'd always found a way to survive. This, too, would pass. It had to for she had to be able to hold her most loved friend in her arms again.
"Coo," Lockheed spoke reassuringly again, and Kitty nodded.
"Coo," she answered. "There's gotta be a way, 'Heed, and we'll find it. I want to stroke your wings again and rub your tummy."
"Yoo will."
Kitty looked at him in shock, and then she smiled again. She shook her head. "Why, you little dragon! Wisdom was right all that time ago, wasn't he?"
"Coo."
She quirked a brow. "'Heed?"
He bobbed his scaly, purple head up and down as he continued to hover in the air before her. "Yes," he answered. "Sorry." His tail swished. "Shoulda told ya sooner. I didn't wanna lose ya to 'im."
"You couldn't lose me, Lockheed." She grinned mischievously. "I'm a ghost. You can't kill a ghost."
"Yoo live. Yoo my bestest friend. Yoo live. We together now but we touch 'gain too."
She nodded and ached to wrap her arms around him. "You're right, of course, 'Heed. Thank you."
He nodded. "Belcome. I wuv you, Kitty."
"I love you, too, Lockheed!" She knew she did. She loved Lockheed more than any one else she had ever known, more than any of the ones she'd dated or given her heart to, more than her two-legged best friends, and more even than her parents, including her adopted father, Wolverine. He was her very best friend in the whole wide world, and she was touched by his love and devotion. She needed no other as long as she had him, but then Kitty heard a ruckus from inside the mansion and felt a fist plow into the other side of the wall that she leaned against.
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT'S GOTTA BE DONE," Logan roared, "WE'VE GOTTA FIND A WAY TO GET HER BACK!"
Kitty's smile grew, and her tears finally subsided. She even hummed a little bit, a tune that it took her a moment to realize was one that she'd once sang along to with Logan and the radio. Though it was not in the way of the story books and fairy tales she'd cherished growing up nor in the way all little girls thought they would be by the time they grew to be as old as she had become, Kitty knew she was loved. She might be a ghost, temporarily, but she would live, and one day, eventually, many, many, many years from now, die loved. In the end, that, and the love of her family and friends, was all that really mattered.
"I love you too, Wolvie," Kitty whispered on the night breeze. Then she grinned at Lockheed. "You wanna go watch a movie?"
"Yup." He nodded.
"Let's go do it. You can pick it out." As they went back inside and headed for their room, Kitty called, "'Heed?"
"Uh huh?"
"I love you!" She smiled at him.
"I wuv you too, Kitty!" For the first time since she'd returned home this time around, Kitty's heart was filled with love, hope, and confidence for now she knew again, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she was loved and anything was possible with love.
The End