Carne Vale

CARNE VALE CHAPTER SIXTEEN-17)-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, I think Tim got to Billy and Joaquin. They've been more solicitous than usual...either that or they're up to something devious....hmmm... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me feel all shiny and special for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: (You know who you are)-in light of an email one of y'all sent me yesterday...{Hugs} And an extra cookie to the email sender! (you know who you are, too! * g *)

Jubilee liked to have her music blaring full blast as she worked on her routines and today was no exception. Blocking out everything save for the vault in front of her, she did not notice she was being watched. All she knew was that she was annoyed as Hell that they had finally gotten around to changing the height of the vault1 after she had worked out her routine to compensate for the lack thereof. So distracted was she by the sudden shift in her thoughts towards her irritation with the IOC, she bobbled on her dismount and landed hard on the mat, the thud jarring her teeth. "Fuck!" she swore loudly, shoving herself to her feet and dusting the talc off her hands, succeeding only in smearing it on her thighs and rear. She trudged back to the start of her run and took a deep breath, only to turn it into a scream as a hand descended onto her shoulder.
"Jubilation! It jus' me!" Remy did not let go of her shoulder but spun her to face him, glaring at the ringing in his ears.
Jubilee's mouth snapped shut when she saw who it was. "What? I'm busy!"
"I see dat...you do real well in de fall-on-yo-ass comp'tition. We need ta talk!"
By dint of will, Jubilee did not jerk away and stomp off in a huff. Through gritted teeth, she said, "I don't want to talk to you right now. I'm still mad at you and I just need to have that for a while! Go talk with your ex wife or something!"
Rather than let her go and sulk away as he had done the past several times during similar encounters, Remy set his jaw and, before Jubilee could react, scooped her up in his arms and was striding from the gym, oblivious to her shouts in every language she knew and the thumping of her fists against his chest. "You stop hittin' me Jubilation an' mebbe I put you down!"
Jubilee did not stop but hit him twice more before grabbing a double fistful of his shirt. She was caught tightly in his arms and could not squirm away and did not want to use her powers on him, so she tried to shake him. "Damn it! Let me go! You're kidnapping me!" She took a deep breath and scream, "Help! I'm being abducted!"
"If you bein' abducted, I a monkey's uncle!"
"Thought I saw you at the zoo the other day," she snapped childishly, finally giving up struggling. She looked up to see they were nearing the Danger Room. "Why are we going in there? Put me down!" She tried to move again only to find his grip tightened exponentially. "Shit!"
"Gal, we gonna need ta wash yo' mouth out wit soap if you keep talkin' like dat!" he said firmly, kidding with her but she did not realize that.
"Hypocrite! You curse ten times more than I do on any given day! And put me down!" The doors to the Danger Room hissed open and Remy walked to the middle of the room before letting her go unceremoniously. Jubilee hit the floor with a thump harder than the one she took while vaulting. "Bastard."
"Oui, mais I a loveable bastard." Remy stood over Jubilee, one foot on either side of her ribs, pinning her to the floor so she could not move. "Now keep yo'mouth shut an we get dis over wit!" Jubilee jerked her chin in mute acquiescence, letting him stare at her for a long moment in assessment. "Here." He dropped a folded piece of paper on her chest and eased his stance enough for her to work her arms free, wondering if he would regret that action in a moment.
Jubilee's face remained neutral as she read the note from Belladonna, scrawled in a crabbed copperplate hand. At the bottom was a postscript from St John, written in pencil and messy with his distress. "She's gone?"
"Oui. She lef' today while we at de boardinghouse." Remy moved to one side, sitting on the floor next to the prone girl. "She say she not wanna cause me distress..."
"I know...I read it." She refolded the letter with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Remy. This is my fault."
"Quoi?" His red eyes narrowed. "Jubilee, I de one not tellin' ya I been married..."
"But Belladonna is the last tie to your past and because of me, she went away." All of her anger was subsumed beneath guilt. "I probably could've gotten to like her if..."
"Yeah...if. Look, my life 'fore comin' here not somethin' I too proud of. Mebbe it bes' she gone an' dat chapter closed, eh?"
Despite his words, Jubilee saw how sad Remy looked. "Don't lie to me, Cajun. That's like me saying that maybe it'd be better if I'd never been a mall rat or a street punk. We wouldn't be who were are if we weren't who we were."
Remy smiled. "You talkin' to Kitty lately?"
"A bit...sounded like her, huh?"
"A bit." Remy tugged on her hand and pulled Jubilee up. "You still mad at ol'Remy?"
She scrunched her face into an expression of deep consideration. "A little...I'm mad that you didn't feel like you could tell me and I'm mad that you never had the fucking thing dissolved when you first left New Orleans."
"Jubilee, you need ta unnerstan' dat Belladonna were my first love. When I leave Nawlins, I be tinkin' ta return one day an' be wit her 'gain. She didn' wanna do dat, I find out later. She tell de Guilds not to let me back when dere were a time when dey may have. She decide mebbe we too young, an' we were, and she decide she wanna be on her own. She tell me she still love me like I was den, mais now," he made a small gesture with his hands, bespeaking a lingering sadness for the boy he used to be, "she not love dis Remy LeBeau. She finally decide to lemme back in Nawlins jus' to make sure no feelin's left. When she see I bring y'all wit me, she get scared an' hide cause she didn' know y'all were mutants, too." Remy looked down at Jubilee's eyes, wide with interest despite herself. "She very mad at me fo' not tellin' her I bring friends wit me. Tell ya de truth, chere, I didn' wanna go 'lone. I was 'fraid o' temptation."
Jubilee closed her eyes briefly. "You were afraid you'd be tempted to stay with Belladonna? Or in New Orleans?"
"Both, un peut.2" He sighed roughly and laid back onto the floor of the Danger Room, staring at the round lights in the ceiling. "Hard ta believe, mais sometime, I feel outta place here. I miss home jus' like you miss yo' ol' home. Belladonna be like an icon o' home to me, somethin' I build up in my mind as bein' bettah den it really were."
Jubilee nodded sadly and said, "I understand. Like me and Ev..."3 She hid a grin as Remy sat up suddenly and glowered. "What?"
"Who dis 'Ev' you talk 'bout? An' why you never talk 'bout him 'fore?"
"Why, Remy...he's just someone from my past I didn't think you needed to know about," she said sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes. She felt a pang of loss at the memory of her friend, the only person to know she was a mutant before coming here because he was one, too. _Hope you're getting a goough ugh from this, Ev. I'll kick your ass in the next life if you make fun of me! _
Remy caught on to her game, her attempt at relieving the days-long tension, and growled low in his throat, leaning forward to grip her shoulders and drag her roughly towards him, crushing her against his chest as he laid back and drew her head down to his for a kiss. Jubilee was not stunned as such but merely hesitant. She pressed her hands against his chest tentatively and relaxed into the embrace, her lips softening in light of his seeking tongue, deepening the kiss as she whimpered softly. One quick movement and Jubilee was on her back, Remy's breath tickled her collarbone as he kissed her, tiny licks mingling with soft suckles as he murmured against her skin, endearments in Creole and English as he pushed her leotard down her shoulders. She made a strangled, small "oh!" and clutched at his shoulders as he kissed the span of skin between her neck and her breasts, making her arch towards his touch. "Remy, should we be doing this?" she gasped as he exposed her breast, brushing his lips across one peaked nipple.
"Mon Dieu, oui!" He was hungry for her, even a few days without her being too long. "Jubilation, you forgive me?"
"Shut up, Remy," she breathed. "Just keep doing _that." _


The movie theatre was dark and almost too cool to those patrons coming in from the chill March weather. "Where's Jubilee?" Scott hissed, settling next to Jean in the row before Kurt, Kitty, Amara and Lance. Rogue and Todd sat huffily on either side of Scott and Jean while Bobby, St John, Jamie and Rahne were several rows down and one section over, eager to find some place to be alone with their respective others.
Jean rolled her eyes in the dark. "Jubilee and Remy are making up. Loudly. Remind me to mop the Danger Room floor when we get back."
"Eeeeeew! Jean!" Kitty said loudly, making several people intent on the dancing hot dog caroming across the screen shush her. "Eeeeew, Jean!" she said more quietly.
"Sorry, Kit, but it's true." The lights dimmed further and Jean smiled. "Talk to ya after the movie."
Kitty settled against her seatback, bracing her feet on the seat in front of her. Kurt looked over at her and grinned. "What? Sometimes being short is nice!" she said with a smile in her voice. "At least people aren't staring at me now..."
"They weren't staring at you before, Katzchen," Kurt whispered above the previews. "You're just self-conscious!"
"Kurt! I could hear the whispers! I look like I was beaten up!"
"Well, you were!" He chance lying his arm across the back of her seat and did not fail to notice her stiffen suddenly before relaxing, careful not to touch him. Part of him felt a pang of regret over making his promise but the sight of Scott before him and the knowledge that the other teenager would certainly rub it in about the lack of self control kept Kurt from feeling too bad.
Kitty was sorely tempted to lean against Kurt as she so often did while they watched movies or television, but resisted. Instead, she tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her skull and the sore ache of her muscles as she stared at the screen, wondering who told Jennifer Lopez she could act. A slight noise to her left made Kitty roll her head in a lazy movement to look at who was talking only to snap back and stare, wide-eyed at the screen. "Oy."
"What's wrong? Do yeed eed more Tylenol?" Kurt asked, hyperaware of her presence next to him.
"Nope. Fine. All fine. Movie good, me fine. Watch J. Lo." Kitty nodded as firmly as her head injuries would let her, muttering "All fine" to herself several times.
Kurt's lips pressed into a thin line and he narrowed his gaze at her. "If you say so..."
Kitty nodded again. "I do..." She slanted her eyes sideways again and gulped. Amara was leaning away from her, the arm between her seat and Lance's raised4 and Lance's hand tangled in her hair. Though Kitty could not quite make out what Amara was doing for sure, she had a very good idea given the fact her head was in Lance's lap and Lance seemed to be near fainting, judging by the expression on his face. _She's either very good or it's been a while _, Kitty thought in a detached manner. _I need to ask her just what she's doing to get that reaction...Gah! Snap out of it, Pryde! Pay attention! Jennifer Lopez is being all doe-eyed and non-actory again... _
Kurt was still chancing peeks at Kitty and noticed her distraction, but all he saw when he looked past her was Lance with his eyes closed. _Wonder where Amara went? Lance has the right idea. This movie is dull as a bag of hammers. _ He stifled a yawn and cracked his neck, noticing Todd craning his neck to look at Rogue, who herself appeared to be on the verge of murder. _Reminder-never take Rogue to see Jennifer Lopez movies. Though, she did like *The Cell *.5 Must've been the psycho-ness of it all. _ His eyes drifted and lit on Scott, his face buried in Jean's neck, the red head biting her lip and throwing her head back in an effort not to maoiseoise as her boyfriend left love-bites all over her pale skin. _Erk. Look away...look away...There's St John and Bobby. Damn it. Looks like they're out of the closet in public after all...Is it wrong for me to find that vaguely titillating that they're kissing so...passionately? Damn it, Wagner! Don't watch that! You'll need extensive reprogramming! Where's Jamie and...FUCK! Is everyone against me this month? _ Kurt sank lower into his seat, suddenly keenly aware that the whole world seemed to be going into mating season without him.
Kitty leaned over and whispered, "Are you okay?" though she did not look at him as she asked.
"Ja, ja...great. Never been better. I'm going to get some water. Want anything?"
"Soda'd be nice."
Kurt nodded and leaned forward to stand, but Kitty had not moved away. Instead, they found themselves barely an inch apart. Kitty blinked and parted her lips to say something, whatever it was Kurt never found out. He closed his eyes and kissed her, regretting and rejoicing at once. She made a muffled noise of surprise but kissed him back, leaning into the kiss fervently. Kurt dug his fingers into the arms of the seat and whimpered in his throat, knowing what he was doing violated his penance and feeling guilty for not really wanting to stop.
It was Kitty who broke away, panting slightly, eyes glazed but coherent. "Kurt, I'm so sorry!"
"Nein, Schatz...don't be!" He pulled away quickly and stood, edging out of the row then bolting for the doors.
Rogue looked back. "What's up?" she whispered.
"Apparently, everyone," Kitty growled. "And there's not a damn thing I can do about it!"
1 Thank you-you know who you are... ;) I didn't know they changed the vault heights for gymnastics until she told me so...
2 A little
3 Aer cer comic reference. Everett was sort of a crush for Jubilee but he died before anything was resolved. However, he was in Massachusetts and not Salem Center and it was when Jubilee was with the school there. I just mucked with the natural order of things is all...:)
4 Some places may not have those theatres yet, with the nifty seats you can move the arms out of the way between... Nice for those of us who like to sprawl.
5 That'll mess you up late at night...lol.