The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER CHAPFIFTFIFTEEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, I'm send Kristen and Lucas over with electric blankets in case the blizzard makes it too cold for you... But then again, Ted can keep you warm. ;) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me feel tingly all over for archiving! Readers/Reviewers: The Killer Kitties (tm) are lug...g...I can see their eyes in the shadows and it's a little creepy... The platypi haven't been heard from in days and that makes me worry, too...




"This has got to be the most fucking stupid thing you've ever made me do..." Todd muttered with chattering teeth. "If we get caught..."
"If you shut up," Lance snapped, "we _won't _ get caught! Make that part rounder..."
"Rounder? Lance, you're arms are longer...this is gonna be lopsided...and what the Hell are you writing?"
"Shut the fuck up and spray!" Lance shook his can of spray paint viciously, the rattling noise shockingly loud in the otherwise quiet schoolyard. "Just paint, damn it..." Todd and Lance were actually quite good at graffiti. In fact, it was one of their few talents they were proud of. They alone knew the mystery behind who painted the mural of Principal Kelly and a stranglue-lue-skinned woman on the War Memorial Bridge supports in what passed for downtown Bayville, as realistic as possible when rendered in spray paint. Todd sniffed in the cold air, feeling his sinuses drying with each passing second as the smell of propellant and paint wafted over him. Grumbling to himself about Lance being a dumbass, he clung to the wall with his amphibian ability and strove to complete his part of the design Lance commanded, a strangely ornate rose of some sort under which Lance was spraying a phrase in silver and black paint. "How's it coming?" Lance asked, startling Todd into falling to the ground.
"Well, it was fine...now I think I dislocated something..." Todd stared at the thick white and gray clouds, trying to catch his breath. The fall had not been far but he had landed on the concrete walkway running next to the building, flat on his back.
"Stop being a wuss and get up!" Lance reached out a hand to help his friend up but a crunching noise around the side of the building, moving towards them, made Todd leap to his feet without help. "Shit! Someone's coming!"
Todd looked left and right, then finally up. "C'mon!" He leapt up, glad it was only one story on this side of the school, and looked behind him to see Lance alternately panicking and giving him a dirty look. _Fuck... _ Lance apparently saw a hiding spot because he disappeared from Todd's line of vision before he could say anything. With careful movements, wary of the slightest sound, Todd made his way to the far edge of the roof, the side where the footsteps were coming from, and peered over the edge. Pietro was pausing for breath, walking in a circle, obviously having been running, and not paying much attention to what was going on around him. Todd edged closer, trying to get a better view, when a resounding crack splintered through his ears. _Huh. The ground's coming closer...damn it! Am I falling again? _ The ground answered his question with a bone-jarring thud. Todd's world went black for a brief moment, then white and icy.
"You little _puke! _ " Pietro growled, shoving Todd's face in the snow. "You following me now? Is that it? You fucking jerk off! I don't know what you did to Rouge, but there's no way she wants to be with you!"
Todd sputtered, tasting blood from his split lip and vaguely certain his nose was broken, before he felt a rumble beneath his chest. "Lance..." he said, somewhat muffled by the snow, "don't!"
Pietro had stopped his mashing of Todd's face into the ground and had his fist raised to wallop him when the rumbling started. "Lance is here? Good...both of you rejects at once!"
Lance's growl of anger was subsumed by the roll of earth beneath them. Pietro pitched backwards and Todd rolled away at the same time, both laying flat on their backs as a crack opened, running between them by sheer luck as opposed to any skill on Lance's behalf. "Pietro, fuck off!" Lance shouted. lef left, we're gone...quit bitching like the fucking pansy you are!"
Another strong jolt made Todd feel as if his bones were going to vibrate from his body. A can of spray paint rolled by and the chunks of fallen masonry that had carried him to the ground were joined by additional pieces of the gym. "Lance..." he said thickly, the blood from his nose and lip running down his throat, "I think you'd better stop..."
Pietro struggled to his knees amidst the falling chunks of brick and shaking earth. "You two fucking follow me out here? Is that it? Gonna try and gang up on me?"
"Oh, please!" Lance snorted, the rumbling of the earth stopping and his hands coming up to cover his eyes. "You are so not fucking worth it...Brotherhood trash," he spat. He did not seem to realize what he said, his growing migraine blurring further thought. "I'm outta here..."
Todd, one eye on Pietro, got up shakily and followed Lance as quickly as he could. His face was throbbing and he was somewhat appalled to find there was snow in his underwear, but he did not dare slow down. He did not want for Pietro's more base instincts to kick in and have him try to cull the weak animal from the herd. He knew the other teenager was still back there, watching him, muscles twitching with the need to run, and, no doubt, Todd thought to himself, coming up with the most inventive tortures to exact on Monday. "Lance, man," he said as they neared where they had hidden the Jeep, off school grounds at the convenience store across the way, "what're we gonna do?"
"What'd ya mean? We're goin' home..." Lance turned and saw Todd for the first time. He saw the swelling nose, the split lip, the limp as a result of his first fall. "Dude, you look like shit..."
"That's about how I feel, too...Do you, uh, do you realize what you said to Pietro?"
Lance snorted, a derisive statement on his lips, when the full imprecations of what he had said sank in. "Oh, shit," he breathed.
Todd flashed a bloody grin and let himself into the car. "Yep...I'm not gonna be the only one getting my ass kicked Monday!"
"I am not," Lance snapped, getting into the driver's seat, " getting my ass kicked Monday!"
"Lance is getting his ass kicked, Lance is getting his ass kicked," Todd sing-songed. "Ow!" His nose throbbed particularly hard as Lance shoved him in a semi-rough manner.
"So long as Amara sees what we did, I don't care..."
"Man, you are whipped like the family pig."
"Todd, want your ass kicked twice?"
"Shuttingupnow." Todd could not help the snicker, though, that rose to his throat, no matter how painfully his nose throbbed.

Logan growled to himself, the sight of Storm bent over the dishwasher doing nothing to ease his frustration. "Where're the kids?"
"Huh?" Rahne looked up from where she was hunched over her homework on the kitchen table and followed the direction of Logan's gaze. "Um, I'm gonna...go...find... Jamie! Where are ye?"
Logan did not even notice the clattering departure of the Scottish girl as he advanced on Storm, who was studiously ignoring him as she loaded silverware into it's appointed compartment. "I said, where're the kids?"
"Hmmm?" she murmured, slowly turning to face him with a slight smile on her face. "Oh, Scott, Rogue and Jamie are in one of the basements watching a movie on that ancient television from your room, and Rahne went to join them, I guess. I'm not sure where the others are...why do you ask?"
Logan did not answer but stalked forward, pressing her back against the counter in short order, his arousal fast becoming obvious against her hip as he seized her mouth in a passionate kiss, making the silverware in her hand clatter to the floor. Her hands stole around his neck and her fingers dug into his skin as she opened her mouth beneath his, sighing as his tongue swept inside her mouth. "I thought," he murmured into her ear after a moment, "you were going to meet me upstairs."
"Dishes," she breathed, "had to be done before dinner."
" Ro, you are not being funny..."
"Um, Logan?" Lance's voice at the doorway made the adults leap apart at speeds heretofore unrecorded by man.
"What?" the older man snapped, glowering at the lanky teenager with a look that would fell Sabertooth.
"Todd...kind of broke his nose." Lance, fighting a smirk at Logan's situation, stepped to one side to reveal a much-bruised and bloodied Todd, leaning on the doorframe.
"Hi..."
Storm moved quickly. "Come with me, Todd...let's go to the infirmary."
Logan sighed harshly. "An hour, Ro!"
"Sure, Logan, sure!"
Logan groaned inwardly in frustration and noticed Lance openly smiling. "What?"
"Nothing, man, nothing...just sympathizing."
"Go sympathize in the basement with the others." Logan took him roughly by the arm. "I gotta check on 'em anyway...come on..."
Lance, in a fit of good humor, let Logan lead him down the labyrinth-like passageways of the basement sublevels until they came to a little-used areth ath a blue light emanating from under the door. Logan shoved the door open and pushed Lance through, entering after to take in Amara, Rogue, Jamie, Rahne, Scott and Jean staring at the movie on the screen. "What're you guys watching?" Lance asked.
"_Red Dawn _ ," Jean said, waving for silence.
As one, the right fist of everyone in the room shot up and there was a chorus of "Wolverines1!" before a hush fell over the room again.
Logan snorted. "You kids," he said finally, "are weird." He looked over to see Lance had settled close to Amara but was keeping some distance, as was Jean from Scott. "What's with the lack of touchy feely?"
Jamie looked up briefly before returning his attention to the screen. "Oh...fights. Weirdness..."
"Weirdness?" Logan squatted next to the boy and waited for elaboration.
Jamie sighed and, reluctantly breaking his visual lock he she screen, turned to Logan again. "Jean's pissed because Scott implied other guys didn't look at her as a sexual being-her words, not mine-Amara is in a weird mood because she's Amara...something about Patricia Garrison. Lance said he'd show her...No idea what that meant. And Kurt and Kitty have some weird vibe going on but I'm not getting into it."
"Where's Remy and Jubilee?" Logan asked, quite sure of the answer already.
"Some things," Jamie sighed "I just don't want to know..."
Logan snorted. "You're a smart kid, Jamie...so what's this movie about..." He found himself unwillingly pulled into the group, settling on his haunches as Patrick Swayze waxed heroic.
"Okay, there's this nuclear bomb, see..."
It wasn't until over an hour later that Logan realized he had spent his allotted Storm-time with teenagers in a basement. It's official... I am a fucking idiot.

The drive back to the Institute was silent but not tense. Kurt kept sliding his gaze to Kitty, who, in turn, was sneaking looks at him. He felt oddly aware of her, like she was the same but different. "Katzchen," he asked suddenly as they pulled into the garage, "what brought on the sudden...er...passion earlier?"
Kitty smiled cryptically as she carefully extricated herself from the Jeep, holding her skirt down with one hand and bracing herself on the door with the other. "I just realized I don't appreciate you like I should sometimes...that's all!" She winked at him and trotted in her clunky boots to the door, phasing from sight as Kurt watched her go, lust mixing with affection and confusion. _Something is up with her...Kitty has always been...affectionate...but this was different. She was almost desperate. Maybe I'm projecting, but she's up to something. _

Kitty tapped her foot impatiently as the phone rang and rang and rang. Finally, Tabby answered with a grunt, clearly roused from deep sleep. "I did it...I wore that skirt and...did that other thing we talked about..."
"Good for you..." Tabby yawned and sighed. "Now, don't forget about Monday. Let Amanda see you hanging on him...And let him see you flirting, got it?"
Kitty sighed painfully. "I don't know if I can do that last part, Tabby..."
"Trust me, Kitty...you need to get and keep his attention, right?"
"Um, yeah..." _I'm not so sure now... _
'Then do what we talked about and it'll all be fine..."
Kitty found herself holding a dead phone, the buzzing silence of the connection enforcing her feeling of guilt over what she was about to do. _Maybe things'll be different Monday and Amanda won't even look twice at Kurt...And maybe Lance will wear tights and dance Swan Lake...God, why did I agree to this? _

1Red Dawn was the movie Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey made BEFORE Dirty Dancing. "Wolverines" was the name of one of the factions in the movie and they would do the fist thing...dork moment, I'm over it.