Devourer of Sins

DEVOURER OF SINS CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, Ted's a little worried...he found dragon tracks around the bed mor morning. Lucas and Kristen are mum, but I think Dodo knows something about it... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are de-fricking-lightlful people for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: New problem with the duck situation...it seems part of the vampyre duck madness involves singing the score to musicals, which infuriates the platypi. They keep chasing me as I belt out "Climb Every Mountain." Stop me before I sing again! Thanks for all the reviews-they feed the review monster and keep him from coming out from under my bed at night... :)



Jamie glowered. He was not sure if he was actually glowering, though, he just thought he was. He hoped it did not make him look stupid, because he wanted Rahne to see how mad he was. She had not told him anything about hanging out so much with Todd and Jamie was wont to believe that meant she was hiding something from him. Even as he glowered, Rahne was chattering away with the other mut lau laughing when Todd snorted at something she said. _ook over here, Rahne! Pissed boyfriend! Hello! _ He cleared his throat, hoping to get her attention, only to have Rahne bend close to whisper something in Todd's ear. Jamie actually felt the snap behind hyes yes as his temper finally let go. "! Th! That does it!" he shouted, leaping to his feet. "I've had enough!"
"Jamie, what're you on about?" Rahne asked, her face bearing no traces of the smile so recently given to Todd. "You're making a scene!"
Indeed, the other teenagers in the room had all turned to stare. Jubilee and Jean were open-mouthed while Remy seemed vaguely amused. "You and...and..." H" He jabbed an accusing finger at Todd from across the room. "Carr on on like that!"
"Like what?" Rahne asked, approaching Jamie with a slight air of menace. "Like friends?"
Jamie was taken aback for a moment, the possibility of simple friendship never having entered into his estimation of the relationship between Rahne and Todd. _Why would Rogue be so pissed if they were just friends? No, there has to be something more! _ Shaking his head slightly, Jamie closed the distance between himself and Rahne, foreheads nearly touching. "Like...l..mo..more than that! Like you're both o...o...to...something!"
"I. Don't. Fucking. Believe. You." Rahne bit out. She was so angry she could spit nails. "How _dare _ you accuse me of cheating on you? How _ dare_ you?"
Out of one side of his mouth, Remy murmured, "Run now, homme..." as he shuffled his ever-present deck of cards.
Jamie swallowed roughly and jerked his chin in defiance of Rahne's anger. "What am I supposed to think? You've barely spoken to me since you guys got back from D.C., you're always together...Rogue's pissed as Hell and Kitty told me...she said..."
"What did Kitty tell you?" Todd said, breaking into the conversation. "She's been in the infirmary pretty much since they got back from Mexico. She has no idea what's going on..."
Jamie had not thought of that. "Then why did she say that in the kitchen?"
"What did she say, Jamie?" Jean asked, rising to join the small group. Rahne was still fuming, glarit Jat Jamie through narrowed eyes, making the younger mutant back up a few hesitant steps. Jean sighed and edged into Jamie's line of vision, distracting him from his angry girlfriend.
"She said that...maybe Rahne bailed on our date because she'd rather have gone out with Todd, that she didn't want me to go to town with her at all..."
Todd sighed. "Sixteen years and no play. Now, I can't shake 'em with a stick..."
"Shut up, Toad!" Jubilee said tartly. "Sorry...Todd..."
"Wouldould Kitty say that?" Rahne asked, still angered but not as much as a few moments previous.
Jean closed her eyes, the start of a headache heralding the evening to come. _Where is Kitty now _ ? She scanned the mansion, filtering extraneous mental chatter, focusing her attention on the one voice she could not find. "Where's Kitty?"
"I'll go find her," Jubilee offered, sliding to her feet.
Jean nodded absently as she scanned again. Jamie asked softly, "What's wrong?"
All attention had been diverted from the argument between Rahne and Jamie, Jean noted. "Kitty's...I don't know."
Remy raised a brow. "Blockin' ya, is she?" He smiled faintly, amused at Jean's predicament. "She might not wanna be disturb, eh? Mebbe she wid Kurt."
Jean brightened. "Kurt! Ourseurse!" Steeling herself in case she burst in on something she would rather not know about, Jean did a mental search for Kurt. _Panic, sore tail, what's wrong with Katzchen? Why is she sleeping so much? God, she's beautiful...What's this sparkley stuff? She's warm...so soft...I'll help you get better Kitty...I love you I love you I love you... _ Jean sighed. "Found him...give me a sec..." *_ Kurt...it's me. * _
She practically heard his sigh when he responded. _*Who else would it be? The Professor knocks first. * _
_*Ha. Where's Kitty? * _
_*Right here with me...she burst some stitches and is in the infirmary...She's not feeling well so she's going to spend the night here. * _
Jean knew Kurt well enough to detect the deception, even without her psychic abilities. _*Kurt...the truth. There's people down here looking for her. She's stirred up a hornet's nest. * _
_*What did...okay. Kitty kind of flipped out. All of her stitches were burst, there was white stuff everywhere...Jean, she's not well. * _
_ * Give me a minute. * _ "Kitty," she said, addressing her ersatz audience, "isn't feeling well. We'll have to find out what she was up to later."
Jubilee bounced back into the room then, doing a small pirouette and planting a kiss on Remy's cheek before announcing, "Logan says to bug off, leave Kitty alone, she ain't feelin' good. That last part was him."
"We know...why the good mood, chere?" Remy asked, pulling her back into his lap.
"Cause...I know what I'm getting for Christmas!" They degraded into a snuggle, making Todd shift uncomfortably and clear his throat, murmuring something about finding Lance before disappearing from the room.
Jamie looked first at Jean, then the kissing couple in the armchair, and finally at Rahne. "I'm still mad at you, you know."
"Why?" she demanded, hands on her hips and glare in full force.
"Because...you acted like I didn't exist. You ignored me and hung all over Todd,"
"I weren't hanging all over Todd! If you really must know," she snapped, pushing against his chest with the flat of her hand, "he helped me pick out your damn Christmas present and I helped him get Rogue's. We are friends, Jamie, like it or not. If you canna deal with me bein' friends with another guy, I'm going to need to seriously rethink our relationship."
The air in the room was tense for a long moment. Jamie finally sighed brokenly and held his hands out, palms up, in a gesture of supplication. He really did not want to do this here, in front of people, but he would if he had to. "I'm sorry. I'm a dick for being so jealous. I just couldn't help thinking that maybe you wtiretired of me or something, that maybe you saw me as a kid after all..."
Rahne looked startled for a brief moment before she responded. "You stupid cow1," she breathed. Oddly, she found the idea of Jamie being jealous flattering in a twisted way. "You honestly think I'd leave you for someone else?" He nodded dumbly, looking steadily at the toes of his old sneakers, peeking out from the ragged hem of his jeans. Rahne threw her arms around his neck and whispered fiercely in his ear, "Why the Hell would I do that when I just figured out how fun you are?"
Jamie blushed crazily, catching the full import of her words. "Uh...ah...I mean..."
"That be our cue, eh, ma cherie?" Remy stood and threw Jubilee across one shoulder. "An to all a bon nuit!" he caroled merrily, Jubilee putting up only a token protest as he carried her from the room, waving over his shoulder at their friends.
"Night! Merry Christmas!" the Asian girl called from the area of the stairs.

Jean had made her excuses to Jamie and Rahne, certain that they had not even registered her departure, so invested were they in kissing as if the sun would not come up tomorrow. She made her way to the infirmary, yawning the whole while and thinking of Scott and their own planned tryst for that evening. _Kitty is causing so much trouble lately...it's always the quiet ones. Kurt, I'd expect weird shit from, but Kitty...she's little Miss Middle America...well, kind of. Not really. Oh, fuck it. Part and parcel of being a mutant...weird shit happens to us. _ Kurt was curled around Kitty in the small hospital bed when Jean came in, Beast nodding once to her as she passed his position before the computer. "Hey," she said softly, careful not to wakety. ty. "Want to tell me what's going on?"
Kurt did not disengage from the hold he had on Kitty but merely slanted his eyes to look at Jean. "She's not home in her head...when she opens her eyes, they're blank."
"What?" Jean settled into the plastic chair beside the bed. "Has she said anything?"
"Not really," Kurt said so quietly Jean almost did not hear him. "She said some things, but...nothing that made me think she was really there." He softly stroked Kitty's arm, his three findeneadneading the soft flesh near her shoulder in a gesture that Jean was sure was unconscious on his part. "I'm scared for her, Jean."
"Me, too..." She sighed and leaned closer. "Has the Professor been up?"
"Ja...he didn't tell me anything." Kurt's tail, free of it's splint but still mildly swollen, tapped idly on the edge of the bed. "Jean, I think this is like that weird Shiva thing she had going on."
Jean frowned. "I don't think it's quite the same...that time, it came from inside her. She was still Kitty, but it was like she had an imaginary friend, of sorts..."
"And now?" Kurt murmured, clenching his fist around a handful of sheets.
"I can't read her. It's like I'm blocked again, like in Mexico..."
"You think this has something to do with the trip?"
"She didn't start acting weird until we got back, did she? Maybe...maybe she was given something in the food you guys ate that made her...strange." Jean's eyes narrowed. She had a niggling suspicion an outside force was at work, something stronger than pyschotropics. "We need to talk to the Professor again in the morning."
"Ja...What time is it?" he asked, stifling a yawn.
"A little after ten...aren't you going to Midnight Mass?"
Kurt finally pulled away from Kitty, albeit regretfully, before answering. "I want to, but I don't think I am. I don't want to leave Kitty..."
Jean laid a placating hand on his arm. "I'll sit with her if you want to go to Mass. You can't hide out in here forever...go, do what you need to do. She'll be in good hands. I promise."

Scott found Jean half-asleep in Kitty's infirmary room. Beast had long since gone to bed, leaving the two girls alone in the small hospital wing. Scott nudged Jean's shoulder until she woke fully, blinking in the half light of the room. "Wha?" she finally managed, unhinging her jaw in a wide yawn.
"You forgot," he whispered sulkily.
"No, I just promised Kurt I'd stay here unti got got back from Mass. What time is it, anyway?"
"A little before one a.m." Scott pressed his lips into a thin line, trying to be mad but not quite working up to it.
"He should be back soon, then...can you wait?" she asked, smiling a little.
"If I have to," he sighed. Kitty stirred in her sleep and Scott peered over at her. "What's with her anyway?"
Jean gave him the pat line about Kitty popping her stitches and not feeling well, ending with, "I think she had some painkillers or something."
"You sure that's it?" Scott asked, leaning close. "You aren't a very good liar, you know."
Jean sighed. "C'mon...out in the hall." She took Scott's hand and led him to the short, dark hallway between Beast's rooms and the infirmary, the faint red glow of the smoke detector's tiny light glinting dully off of Scott's glasses. "I don't want to disturb her," she explained before he could ask why the departure. "I don't know how much, if anything, I should or can tell you...we-Kurt, Kitty and I-have to talk to the Professor tomorrow."
Scott ran his hand through his hair, exhaling sharply. "All this weirdness is fucked up, you know..."
"Tell me about it," she sighed, leaning her cheek against his chest. "Sorry I missed our..er...date."
"It's okay...when Kurt gets back, we can still make it, if you want." Scott was more eager than he was willing to let on, shifting carefully to avoid her feeling his arousal against her hip.
"Or..." she said, pausing for a moment to see if the signals she was picking up on were actually what she suspected, "we could just do it now."
"Pardon?" Scott felt his brows creep up exponentially, eyes widening at Jean's low tone. "Are you sure? I mean, you're under stress..."
"Sex," she stated firmly, "is life affirming. I think I need to be affirmed about now." She captured his mouth in a kiss, her tongue thrusting immediately between his parted lips. Scott grunted in surprise but kissed back quickly enough, his hands tightening on her hips as he pressed her against the wall.
"Here?" he murmured, pulling away just enough to form word. Jean answered by claiming his mouth again, pressing her breasts to his chest and sliding her ankle behind his calf, holding him to her. _I guess so _ , he thought before his mind degraded to pink mush. Hands scrambled to push aside clothing, exposing just the flesh that needed to be, caresses desperate and hungry in the dark corridor, Jean's soft moans as Scott's fingers found her core and teased her to wetness muffled against his m. .
Scott slid his hands to her thighs and lifted her so that Jean was pinned to the wall, his body holding her in place as he awkwardly slid into her, filling her with a sharp thrust. Jean gasped and jerked, her head hitting the wall with a dull thud. They froze in mute panic, listening for the sounds of Beast emerging from his room to demand to know what was going on. When no such interruption came, Scott chuckled nervously. "Um..."
"Shut up," she murmured, biting his lip. Scott smiled against her mouth and continued his attentions, Jean's fingers digging into his neck as the waves of intensity grew stronger, making her gasp in the quiet, filling his ears with the sounds of her growing climax. Scott felt hightighten around him, convulsing against him as she struggled to remain silent, failing only slightly as she hissed out her breath. Several short, sharp thrusts and Scott joined her in completion, feeling his ejaculate seeping out of her and onto his bare thighs. Jean slid down to stand on her own feet and adjust their clothes. All finished, Scott motioned for her to be quiet and led her back into Kitty's room. The girl had not moved. Jean smiled at him and kissed the corner of his mouth. "When Kurt gets back..."
Scott nodded. "Meet me later..."

Kitty chewed her lip nervously. She had heard it all, her head flooded with the sounds of Jean and Scott having sex not ten feet away from her. It was like her senses were a hundred times greater than before, sounds magnified to insane volumes, the smallest noise crashing like thunder behind her eyes. She could _smell _ Scott on Jean, their mingled sweat and the scent of sex heavier in the air than she knew it should be. _How does Logan keep from going crazy? _ Kitty did not turn around as she heard Jean settle into the plastic seat again, her skin still warm from the hallway and smelling, to Kitty, like soap and sweat and rosemary, for some reason. K kno knotted her fingers into the pillowcase as she heard Jean drift into a doze again, the sound of her soft snores echoing. _God, I know I haven't be really talkative lately, but there's something wrong with me. I can think for myself now, but I'm afraid she's going to come back, make me be wrong and sick again. I don't know how to make it stop...please, God, make it stop. Bring Kurt back soon-she stays away when he's near me... She felt a painful tug behind her eyes and tears trickled down her cheeks. No, God...not again... _
1 Yeah, I know-would've worked better with a girl, but I like that line. It's from Bridget Jones' Diary when her parents get back together. It's sweet, really...