Ray was up to something. Kitty wasn't sure what, but the redhead was being sneaky, and she has been avoiding her ever since the theater. Maybe she'd said something wrong, or maybe one of her friends had said something that chased the other girl off, but whatever it was, the telepath was being terse over text and she couldn't even send her a mental telegram. Kitty couldn't bring herself to send something naughty, but she was tempted. She just wanted to know that everything was okay before embarrassing herself.

She was so distracted that she hadn't heard someone calling her name until a hand smacked the back of her head. "Hey!"

"Katya," Ilyanna said, leaning forward and peering at her inches from her face. "Your brain is a million miles away. Do you want to go out for lunch? I need some advice."

Kitty leaned back in her chair and stretched with a groan. "Okay, sure, where do you wanna go?"

"I am feeling like Chinese."

As it turned out, Chinese to the teleporter literally meant China. For the first few minutes, Kitty was confused. Everyone spoke English? It was only after she paid closer attention to Ilyanna that she realized the blonde had cast some kind of translation spell.

Kitty shrugged and stuffed her hands in her coat pocket as they walked away from the street vendor with a bag of food. "You know we're gonna get yelled at for abuse of powers, right?"

"Are you afraid of getting in trouble?" Ilyanna grinned at her friend, then pushed the bag at her.

Taking it, the brunette shook her head. "No, of course not. At worse I'll get to sit there and make faces at Ms. Frost."

"She is not so bad. She cares about teaching. That is more than you can say about a lot of teachers."

"She teaches ethics."

"Who better to know the difference between right and wrong, than someone who has seen both sides?"

The way Ilyanna was looking at her made her feel uneasy. More uneasy than the subject of conversation was making her. "Yana, are you okay?" She put her hand on her friend's arm.

"I do not know. I have not felt okay in a very long time." She hugged her arms to her chest in an uncharacteristic display of vulnerability.

"You're not...attracted to Frost are you?"

Ilyanna smiled. "Ten ten would bang, but no. That is not the problem."

She wrinkled her nose, but said nothing else of it, instead pulling her friend towards a bench so they could sit and stuff their faces. "Then what's the problem?"

"There is someone I like," Ilyanna said, after a long moment's hesitation and in a tone that made it seem as though she was moving heaven and earth just to admit it.

"You want relationship advice. From me?" Kitty nearly dropped her precious bag of food. She sat down. This was a sit-down kind of conversation. "You remember how well it went with your brother right?"

"Da." She waved her hand and sat next to her friend. "But things seem to be going well with… You know."

Kitty was sure that Ilyanna's tail was lashing, and she reached behind her to tug on it and remind her to keep it hidden. "You're jealousy is cute but endearing. Wait."

Ilyanna's eyes widened. "Nyet! Not you!"

"I'm not crushable?" Kitty had some ideas, but she never had gotten a look at who Ilyanna had been with the one time she'd phased in on them.

"Katya I am going to kill you." The demoness smacked her palm against the back of Kitty's head. "I am...you are my friend. I do not want to lose you because you would rather be getting into some red-head's tight fitting jeans." She wouldn't quite admit it, but she had nursed a crush on Kitty when the brunette had been dating her brother, but by the time that had ended Ilyanna's eyes had wandered.

"You're not gonna lose me. I know I was screwing up, but I'm trying to do better." Kitty wrapped her arm around Ilyanna. "And Ray's been kind of distant lately. I need to talk to her."

"If she hurts you I am leaving her in Limbo."

"Yana."

"Just for a little bit."

"Yana."

Ilyanna puffed her cheeks out. "Fine. I just don't want you hurting."

"I think she's just busy, that's all. So … who is it?" Was she finally going to tell her? Kitty wanted to turn the conversation back around to Ilyanna's woes, because she didn't want to deal with the idea that Rachel might have gotten tired of her.

"She knows," Ilyanna said, reluctant to say the name. "But it does not matter. We are very clear on the boundries of our friendship. And it is the kind with benefits. That is all." Besides, she had no soul. She wasn't supposed to feel anything any more.

She trailed off, and started to sort through her food, hands shaking. But her hands weren't supposed to shake. She started to itch, the magic infusing her body making her skin crawl. The cracked ground of Limbo haunted her vision. Her friends battered and bloodied and beaten, the soulsword dripping with their blood. The terrified, defiant look on Dani's face...

Kitty rubbed her hand at her leg, a scar there starting to throb. "Ilyanna." She moved her hand to her friend's leg. "Hey. Hey snap out of it."

People were staring, and Ilyanna could feel the weight of her horns on her head. She reeled the magic, slowly and painfully back. "I told you, it doesn't matter. I have no soul. I cannot love. She is afraid. But she'd never admit it."

So this person was a she. Kitty couldn't think of many people who it could be. "That's bullcrap. You have a soul. And why would she be afraid?" Kitty's scar throbbed again. Was it someone who'd been there when they'd got sucked into Limbo?

Ilyanna leveled a sarcastic look in Kitty's direction, her eyes glowing faintly red at first. "Even you are afraid."

"Afraid for you." She hugged her friend, until the Russian girl seemed to have calmed down. Kitty pushed Ilyanna back onto the bench. "You wanted advice, I'm going to give you advice. Does she even like girls?"

The blonde snorted. "Definitely."

"Uh, that's a stupid question. Uh...of course she does." Kitty waved her hand and flushed deeply.

"The sex is earthshattering."

"But it's more than just sex to you, isn't it."

"Da." Ilyanna puffed her cheeks out again and shook her head. Time for her own subject change. "Are you going to talk to Rachel about this distance thing?"

"Only if you talk to your mystery girl about your feelings."

Ilyanna's eyes widened in alarm. "That is not fair, Katya!"

Kitty got an infuriating smirk on her face. "I know you want to believe that you're some soulless monster, but you care too much for that to be true."

The blonde looked sad. Or possibly disappointed. She turned her attention back to her food. Katya didn't understand. Feeling things was dangerous. And her 'mystery' woman had been very clear on where they stood.

But her friend was right, she did care, and that was why she suddenly teleported Kitty right in front of Rachel's door. She stared at the fading portal. What was she afraid of? She had her own conversation to look forward to, and stepped onto a disk. Once Magik made up her mind on something, she did it.

Kitty ported in nearly on top of Rachel. Flailing her arms as she fell, Kitty landed hard on her butt. The red-head tripped over her and landed next to her in a sprawl of limbs. Rachel pushed herself up by the elbows. "Uh hi?"

"Ilyanna is a dead woman," Kitty said, groaning. She smiled sheepishly at Rachel. The older woman's hair had gotten a little mussed in the fall, and her cheek was smudged, and she was utterly enchanting. So much so that Kitty forgot the reason she was here. Almost.

She straightened and gave Rachel a stern look. "You've been avoiding me."

Rachel's face fell and she sighed, blowing a puff of hair out of her face. She gathered up what she dropped, really quickly before Kitty could see what it was. "Okay come inside. I have a good excuse I swear." She unlocked the door and stepped inside with Kitty behind her. She made her way over to her tiny little kitchen and set her cargo down. Then she stepped aside so that Kitty could see what she'd gotten.

Kitty stared, a little bemused. Rachel had an expectant and slightly trepidatious look on her face. The brunette lifted a hand to rub at the back of her neck. "Did you… Ray did you just copper marigold me?"

"I...what?"

"Dragon Age thing, I'll explain later." She walked up to the redhead and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. "Ray, you've been so squirrely, is this why?" She gestured at the monstrosity on the table.

"I wanted to do something romantic for you. You're so wonderful to me and I just wanted…" Rachel looked almost bashful. "To do something nice. You don't like it, do you."

"It's unique," Kitty assured her, then pulled Ray's head back and kissed her. "Just next time you want to do something like this? You kinda had me freaking out wondering if I'd done something wrong."

"I'm sorry." Rachel started to beat herself up over it. "I just didn't want you to find out what I was doing and you're too smart for your own…" Her breath caught in her throat as Kitty's lips started the nuzzle around that general vicinity. "Uhm. Hi there."

"You got me something and that...really means a lot to me," the brunette murmured, lifting her face to Rachel's again. "Next time. Chocolates and flowers."

"Noted."