Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED, CHAPTER TEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm)--there's a strange little Scottish man talking to Billy now. He bears a strong resemblance to the emcee from CABARET... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me happy because they archive. :) Readers/Reviewers: I'm too tired to think of something witty, so...thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"What did you say your name was again?" Jean felt her brows creeping upwards in slight disbelief.
"Jennifer. But call me Roulette."
"Right...Roulette." Jean nodded slowly, not quite sure if she was the victim of a joke or not. The motley crew of recruits stood in the foyer at shortly after eight in the morning. "Empath, Roulette, Sunspot. Right."
The shortest of the three bowed. "You can call me Roberto," he said, rolling the r's unnecessarily.
"Sure...Roberto. Um...Scott!" Jean was feeling a slight buzz whenever she looked at Empath and she was not entirely sure that was a good thing. Her mental shields were up and in full force, but it was as if someone were trying and nearly succeeding to breach them. "Scott, these are the rest of the new recruits."
"Nice to meet you," he said, coming to stand next to Jean. "I have to say that we're a little surprised that there's three of you...we had only been told to expect Sunspot."
"Roberto," Jean said flatly, without the rolling r's. "Apparently, they wanted to come with him because they were..."
"Disenfranchised," Roulette supplied with a smile to Scott. "What's your name?"
_Mine _, Jean thought petulantly. Instead, she smiled at the girl as Scott supplied his name, edging slightly closer to her as he did so. "So, Roulette," the red head asked with a note of irritation, "why do you think you were disenfranchised?"
"You know how it is...people don't understand you. You blow something up..." She shrugged. "Things happen."
"Ah...well." Jean looked towards the rec room, hoping for a sign of Storm or Beast but finding none. "Well, let's get you guys to some rooms then!" _*Scott, put the two guys in that spare room in the basement that Cecilia stayed in while she was here and put Roulette in the other one. They'll just have to deal with the sounds of construction for a day or two! _ * Even in the foyer, the sounds of the hastily hired and much overpaid workers were audible, the banging of hammers too loud in the still morning. Scott nodded faintly and Jean smiled again at the newcomers. "Well, I'm going to go start some breakfast. Feel free to rest up-it's summer break here so there's no rush on things." She did not add that they would be expected to be up and moving far earlier once Logan got back from Germany with Kurt. She felt that was a nasty little surprise best left for later.
Scott led the small group off, pointing out features of the mansion as he went, Roulette cooing over this knick knack or that. Jean snorted. _Not a chance in Hell, blondie. I married him so neener neener neener! _ Ignoring her childish bent, Jean padded into the kitchen and was brought up short by Kitty, staring morosely into a cup of cold tea and Amara, poking at soggy cereal. "Morning, Jean," Kitty said dully.
"Kurt get out okay?" she asked, fishing in the cabinet for a bowl to stir batter in. "I didn't even hear the Blackbird leave..."
"They left earlier than they planned. The Professor had a sudden meeting out of state somewhere...he didn't say," Kitty sighed. "Kurt's really bad. He was out of it and wouldn't even eat chocolate."
"Wow. That is bad...when are they coming back?"
"As soon as the doctor the Professor put them in touch with can get a bed open at Cedars-Sinai. A few days, at most." Kitty shoved the tea aside and looked at Jean anxiously. "You know more about medical stuff than I do...what do you think is going to happen to her?"
"I really can't say, Kit," Jean said after a moment's pause. "Beast would be the one to talk to."
"Beast," Amara said shortly, "is too wrapped up in Cecilia right now to give you a straight answer."
"Oh?" the other two girls asked as one. Jean paused from stirring the pancake batter to fix an interested gaze on Amara. "Do tell..."
Amara sighed, stabbing dejectedly at the cereal before her. "Cecilia is apparently okay with a dating thing now and Beast is all giddy about it. I don't understand old people."
"What's wrong with you this morning?" Jean asked, returning her attention to the batter. "You're more surly than usual."
"Men are useless. Get a pet and they do the same thing...make a mess, get in the way, shedfurnfurniture..." She glanced at Kitty then, knowing full and well how Kurt's winter coat tended to leave fine blue hairs everywhere as the weather grew warmer, no matter how often he brushed and groomed. "The only things pets aren't good for is...well, there's some home appliances to take care of that matter."
Kitty raised an eyebrow at the Nova Roman. "You're just pissed because Lance didn't break his date with Paige after you coerced Sam into going out with you."
Amara ignored Jean's snort and said sharply, "I'll have you know that I could care less what that man-whore does."
"Liar," Jean said, tapping the side of her head. "You can't lie to me."
"I wasn't lying to you," she said stiffly. "I was lying to Kitty."
Kitty giggled, despite her deep worry over Kurt and Erika. Sobering, she said, "Look, I know Lance better than anybody here almost and I can tell you with great certainty that he won't play games like this. If you hurt him, he'll hurt you back. He won'titatitate to kiss Paige in front of you or more...if he thinks it'll get to you. Can I ask what you two fought about?"
Amara frowned, tempted to say no, but instead, she forced the words from her mouth. "It started off with me getting on his case about how much pot he's been smoking lately. He got pulled over while we were out the other day and nearly got caught for carrying. I sort of tore into him then and it devolved into an argument over me picking on him versus him lying to me about cutting back to quit..." She sighed painfully. "What makes it suck so hard is that even Todd was against me! Todd! Todd Tolensky picked on me!"
Jean fought an urge to laugh. "Well, he's Lance's best friend...he felt moved to defend him."
"Speak of the Devil," Kitty muttered under her breath, bringing a halt to all conversation.
Todd and Lance sauntered in, yawning and scratching alternately. "I smell pancakes," Todd finally said after a jaw-cracking yawn.
"I haven't even started cooking them yet."
"Wistful thinking?" he said, sitting down next to Kitty. Leaning over, he said conspiratorially but not quite softly enough, "Thanks for the help on the whole...thing...with the people..."
Kitty nodded, aware that Lance was narrowing his eyes at them. "Um, well, I didn't really do anything..."
"But you can," Todd said with strong certainty. "You will."
Kitty shook her head helplessly. "We'll see..."
Amara, pretending that she was not looking at Lance standing across the kitchen from her, pretending not to notice her, said with false brightness. "I'm _really _ looking forward to going out with Sam tonight...Todd, would you and Rogue like to come along since Kurt and Kitty can't?"
Todd felt his eyes go wide. "Er...no?"
"Nonsense," Amara said with a touch of hardness to her words, "you'll come and lit."it."
Lance snorted. "Bossy."
"Some people like that," she purred, pushing past him to head towards the stairs. "I need to go start getting ready...body parts don't wax themselves!"
Lance waited a full minute before exploding. "She can't fucking be serious about this date tonight! She can't like him!"
Jean sighed, pouring batter onto the hot skillet. "It's a date, not a lifelong commitment."
Kitty nodded. "You know, she's just trying to get to you. She's mad that you asked Paige out."
"Well, I'm pretty fucking mad that she wanted a break!" tty tty sighed. "Remember when we were in elementary school and you got sea monkeys?" Lance nodded, elbowing Todd when he snickered. "Remember that you overfed them because you thought they looked too skinny and they all died? This is the same deal."
"Amara is like a sea monkey?" he asked with some confusion. "Huh?"
"Okay, a better example," Kitty said, sighing again. "Okay...I think I got it. Remember my science fair project in fifth grade with the meal worms?"
"Kitty, stop!" Jean cried, throwing up her hands. "Lance, Amara loves you for some reason but she needed a break because all that love was making her lose herself! She was afraid she was becoming someone she didn't like!"
"You got all that from meal worms and sea monkeys?" Todd asked, impressed.
"No, I got all bec because Amara projects like crazy!" Jean slammed a plate of slightly burnt pancakes onto the table. "What Kitty was trying to say is that you need to show Amara attention, but don't smother her."
"And don't try to hurt her," Kitty put in. "If you go out tonight after all, don't be all over Paige like a blanket when it's Amara you want. Say something to her!"
"Like what?" Lance said, annoyed.
Todd gave Kitty a 'please help!' look and she sighed. "I'll make up some note cards. Todd can carry them and give you cues."
"no dno de Kitty," Jean said dryly.
"I prefer Kitty de Bergerac."


"I thought he'd _never _ shut up!" Roulette sighed, falling face-down onto the bed Empath had claimed. "God, he could have give the tour naked and I'd still have been bored!"
"Ew." Empath poked her in the side. "Up. I want to sleep."
"No way, man." Roberto was unpacking messily, looking intent. "Emma ain't gonna be gone long and when she comes back, that Professor dude comes back."
"I don't understand why she went to Canada. That's not out of the country."
"Shut up, Roulette. It is so another country." Empath gave up trying to move her and instead lay down next to her.
"It's just America without Disney Land."1
Roberto threw a sock at them both. "She went there because Magneto's there. Duh."
The blonde rolled onto her back and looked at Roberto upside down. "That Mystique broad with him?"
"Hell no," the Hispanic youth snapped. "You're dumb as toast, aren't you? Didn't you read the dossier Firestar gave us?"
"The print was too tiny. Gave me a headache...besides, with Empath to manipulate their minds, why should be have cover here? We fuck up, he can mindfuck 'em."
Empath sat up, glaring. "I'm not some cure-all for your big mouth, Jennifer."
"Roulette," she nearly shouted. "Jennifer is a name. Roulette is _me _."
"Whatever," Roberto snorted. "I'm goin' up to mingle and _blend. _ Empath, fill her in on who she's supposed to be while we're here."
Empath rolled his eyes as the younger teenager shut the door behind him. "He thinks he's lord and master sometimes."
"Just because Emma picked him to come here first..."
"He has a point though...while we're here, you're not a hardass smart aleck. You're just a scared mutant, trying to understand your place in the world. I have a file for you somewhe."
."
"Fuck the file," Roulette sighed. "This is stupid. Why can't we just gank the lot and go?"
"Finesse, my dear," Empath drawled, rising to his knees above Roulette. He fixed her with a heady gaze and smiled. "Do things right, take our time...we don't want to rush and make a mess."
"Speak for yourself," she muttered, returning the heated look.
He leaned over her, his face close to hers, and murmured, "Just play nice and do as you're told...and just think, it'll be one more thing to piss Tarot off when we get back."
Roulette smiled at him, lips parted invitingly. "Empath," she purred, running a hand down his chest to his growing arousal, grasping him through his clothes. Suddenly, she squeezed hard, digging her nails in. As he yelped, she said, "You try any of your fucking mind tricks on me again, and I'm handing it to you on a plate."

A/N Next chapter... Magneto, Pietro, and Institute smut! (not involving those two...*gag* )



1 Stolen from The Changeover by Margaret Mahy