Fractals

Fractals Chapter Seventeen (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… welcome to the collective. ;) InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are wondermous for archiving/hosting! ProPhile: Smut in eighteen! Morgan: you alive? Readers/Reviewers: Thank you!!!!! And the ducks send their love…

Jamie rubbed his aching temples. Todd’s advice had been confusing at best, shocking at worst and overall difficult to follow. He had been tempted to ask the older teenager if he even knew what he was saying or was just talking to hear his own voice, but thought better of it. _Besides, _ he had reasoned, _maybe it’ll make sense at the end. _ Six hours later, and it still made no sense. “If I listened to him,” he sighed to Sam as they shoved one of the beds against the far wall, “Rahne would either burst into tears, kick my ass, or both. Or worse.”
Sam nudged the bed into place with his knee and grinned. “He’s talkin’ out his ass. Rogue wouldn’t let him get awith ith even half that shit. Todd’s cool but he talks big sometimes. Just nod and smile an’ it’ll all be fine.”
Jamie rolled his eyes and gave the bed a final shove. “I don’t know. Rahne’s just all weird since she got back. It’s like she’s afraid of me or hiding something…” He looked around guiltily as if someone might overhear them before whispering, “Every time I try to bring up certain things she…you know…” he gestured with wide eyes.
“She… waves her hands randomly?”
“No!” he sighed. “She…um…does stuff…”
Sam smirked and sat down on the edge of the bed. “And you’re complaining because why?”
“I want her to talk to me not…wait… I want that, too…” Jamie sat on the edge of the bed next to Sam, then sighed and fell over backwards. “I don’t get her.”
Sam laughed outright at that. “Just because she’s your girlfriend doesn’t mean you to to understand every single thought that goes through her head. You don’t have to have some sort of perfect mind meld to be happy.”
“But I just want to understand what she’s going through and why she’s so upset. I mean, I can kind of get it but I just wish she’d talk to me, you know?”
Sam nodded. Theresa was secretive herself, secretive to the point of giving him a headache on more than one occasion whenever he would try to find out what was bothering her or why she was in a bad mood. “Just let it go. That’s the only way to deal with it and keep your sanity. If you follow her around always asking what’s wrong and begging her to tell you, you’ll either become so whipped it’s not funny—well, it’s funny but not to you—or she’ll ditch your ass for being clingy.”
Jamie blinked in surprise. He had not thought of that possibility. He had assumed that showing concern would get her to open up to him. “So… Todd was right? Just be all like I don’t care?”
“No!” Sam jabbed him in the side. “Don’t be a dick about it. Just don’t be all girly.”
“That’s sexist,” Jamie pointed out dryly, sitting up. “Girls, or females, aren’t always clingy.”
“You know what I mean!” Sam groaned. “Don’t be all begging her to tell you what’s wrong and moping when she doesn’t. Ask her, if she says she doesn’t want to talk about it or acts all withdrawn, move on. Change the subject.”
Jamie thought about that for a moment. “So… treat her like I would you?”
“To a point… I don’t think punching her in the ribs and calling her a jackass is a good way to start a conversation.” Sam pretended to be thoughtful for a moment before adding, “But telling her you think Rogue has a nice ass might do wonders for your love life.”
Jamie blushed furiously. “Shut up! You know what I mean!”
Sam laughed again. “Yeah, I know what you mean… but just don’t stress about her. Let her have some breathing room and be there when she needs ya.” He stood and popped his back, yawning widely. “I have an evening Danger Room session with Logan, the sadist… I think he’s still pissed off about whatever happened in town earlier.”
“Yeah, what was that about?” Jamie mused, following Sam out into the hall. “All three of ‘em were twitchy.”
Sam shrugged, ambling towards the stairs. “The way I figure it, so long as it’s not my fault, it’s not my problem.”
They reached the bottom of the stairs and drew up short. Standing just inside the door was a massive form they had not seen in a very long time. “P…Piotr,” Jamie stuttered, stricken again by just how large the other mutant was. “Um… you get lost?”
Piotr raised a brow and glowered. “I have come to speak with Frau Wagner,” he said, his accent thicker than they remembered. “Is she in?”
“Um…”Jamie looked askance at Sam, who was staring at Piotr. “I don’t know.”
Sam was jolted from his silence by a sharp kick to his ankle. “I think she’s still here. I know Kitty wanted to go shopping earlier and Kurt and Mrs Wagner were going with her but I think they’re back…” He realized he was babbling. There was something menacing about Piotr, knowing that he was in the Brotherhood and that he was capable of quite a bit of physical harm if he so chose. “I’ll go find out!” Sam disappeared in a flash that would have made Pietro jealous.
Jamie found himself staring up at Piotr and felt that he needed to say something to break the tense silence. “So… who let you in?”
“Some girl,” he shrugged. “She had…gills, I think.”
“One of the new kids,” Jamie nodded. “So… how’s… things?”
Piotr raised a brow. “Things are…fine.” He eased his stance and folded his hands behind his back in an odd sort of military attention. “And how is Aikaterine?”
Jamie had to think for a moment. “Kitty? She’s fine. School and all that…”
“Ah, she is in college now? Where?”
Jamie did not like the sudden glint in Piotr’s eye. “I think you had a thing for Anja. Or Katja. One of those “ja” names that sounds like it should be “ya”. Kurt’s sister…”
Piotr’s expression grew closed. “That is none of your business.”
“But it is mine,” Mrs. Wagner said, sailing through the entrance from the rec room, Sam in tow, Kurt following mutinously. “What is the occasion?”
Piotr stood up straight and tried his best to look like the sort of person a mother would want her daughter to see romantically. “I feel that I have a duty to warn you of something.”
“Is this a threat?” Kurt growled, starting forward.
Astrid grabbed his tail to hold him back. “What is wrong, Piotr?” If it was a threat, she decided, she would see to it he was in the nearest scrap yard before dawn.
“The Brotherhood is going to go public as mutants in one week. I heard it with my own ears. I will be…punished… if it is found out that I was here. But I feel you should know… I care very much for your daughter and it pains me when she feels pain. If something were to happen to you,” he glanced at Kurt, “her family, I would never forgive myself for not doing something when I could have.”
“What do you think will happen?” Astrid breathed.
“Bad things,” Kurt, Jamie, Piotr and Sam said as one.
Logan’s voice rumbled down the hall. He was talking to someone about new sims for the Danger Room and their voices were growing closer. “I have to go,” Piotr said hurriedly, yanking the door so hard that the hinges screamed in protest. “Just know, in one week, it will come to a head.”
Logan stopped in the foyer, Kitty at his side, staring at the assembled, variously stunned, group. “What?”
Kurt glanced at his mother, still holding his tail, and sighed. “Looks like we’re coming out of the mutant closet.”