Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Tim claims Dond Jnd Joris stole your voice to keep you home more...I'm sure they could be bribed with cookies. In fact, I'm positive that they can. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are nifty monkeys for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: I am such a little review whore. *sigh * Thank you!!! And the armadillos have taken the ducks' roller skates. This isn't going well for our feathered friends.



Jono tried not to listen, really. At least he was prepared to tell anyone that who caught him eavesdropping on Paige and Jubilee. "Look, girl," Jubilee said tiredly, "just tell him you like him already!"
Paige sighed longingly. "I think he likes someone else or something...he's so closed off and won't tell me anything!"
"Didn't you two have a thing the other night?" Jubilee sounded like she was chewing gum, smacking during her pauses. "I mean, you were gone a long time..."
Jono wondered who they were talking about. The last time he had seen Paige had been just after her inadvertent flashing on the pier. She had found him in the basement again, contemplating his guitar in one of the newly finished rooms. None of the furniture had been put in yet so he was sitting on the floor when she came in. He had tried not to look as morbid as he felt but Paige caught his mood quickly, sitting against the wall across from him and just staring. When he demanded to know what she was doing, she had said simply, "Waiting."
_*For what? * _
"You to stop moping."
_*I'm not moping. I'm thinking. _ *
"You think too much...want to go into town and catch a movie or something? Kitty says they've got an actual drive through here..."
_*No thanks. Nothing playing I want to see. _ *
"You have no idea what's on."
_*Still... _ *
"Fine, Jono. Be a twit. See where that gets you..." She had risen to her feet in an obvious huff, brushing construction dust off her backside with furious slaps.
_*Where are you going? * He had risen when she did, putting the guitar down on the floor carefully and deigning to approach her, albeit slowly.
"Lance asked me out for this evening and I wasn't sure about going...I think I will after all." As an afterthought, as if she were feeling guilty, she said, "Rogue, Todd, Amara and Sam are coming with us."
*_Who? _ *
"If you'd come out of your hole long enough, you'd know their names by now," Paige said tersely, leaving him alone in the semi-dark of the room.
Now, as Jubilee attempted to encourage Paige to divulge her affections to whoever this mystery person was, Jono wondered if it were Lance or himself they were discussing. _Must be Lance _ , he thought. _She didn't spend that long with me and she did go on that date with him... _
"Jono, are you spying on my sister?" Sam asslylslyly, whispering so the girls would not overhear. He had come up on Jono's left, from the door leading out to the back patio and smelled of sweat and slightly of perfume.
_*No. I'm examining the integrity of the plaster...holding up well. _ * He tapped his fingers on the molding around the door. _*Just fine... _ *
"I didn't know you could be sarcastic in psychic voice..." Sam grinned faintly. He liked Jono, for some reason that he could not quite define. He thought the other mutant would probably be good to pal around with, lacking the childish behaviors of some of the others at the Institute and seeming more mature than his actual years. "What're they talking about?"
_*Some guy your sister likes. Jubilee is trying to get her to tell this bloke she likes him. _ *
"Better not be Alvers," Sam growled, his chipper demeanor slipping. "I'll kick his ass."
_*I think Lance is too wrapped up in Amara to give Paige serious thought...though if your sister likes him, she's in for some heartache, eh? _ * Jono leaned against the wall in a seemingly casual pose, feeling a bit guilty for hoping that Lance did break Paige's heart.
"Like I said...kick his ass."
Paige suddenly sighed loudly, an exasperated sound that made them both jump. "I mean, he's seen my breasts! If that's not some sort of Freudian invitation, I don't know what else to do!"
"He's what?" Sam yelled, blowing their cover and storming into the room. "Who? That Alvers guy? Where is he?"
"No, Sam!" Paige snapped, not afraid of his outburst but irritated at his breech of privacy. Jono edged into view, though she did not really see him, so focused was she on her brother. "Were you eavesdropping? Damn it, I'm not eight years old any more! I'm seventeen, for Pete's sake, so treat me like it!"
"I wasn't eavesdropping!" he fibbed, looking a bit bashful. "I just overheard..."
Jubilee noticed Jono standing there first. She smirked at him knowingly, making him appallingly aware that she knew very well that he had been listening and why. "I think," she said loudly, cutting through the sibling argument, "that Paige's would-be boyfriend is her own business. And whoever's seen her tits is her own business, too."
"Shut up, Jubilee," Sam snapped.
"Don't you tell me to shut up!" the Asian girl snarled. "I'll kick your ass seven ways to Sunday if you ever say that to me again!"
Sam wheeled on her, face red with ire. "Don't go encouraging my sister to throw herself at some guy!"
_*Sam, I think you're overreacting! _ *
"Paige is too sheltered to know how to deal with some horny teenage boy!"
Paige shrieked in frustration. "I'm _what? _ You have no earthly idea what I got up to while you had your happy ass down at the mine or off with the Stabler brothers back home! For all you know, I did the entire Kentucky National Guard every weekend!"
Sam's face went from red to white and back to red again, his lips compressing into a thin line as Paige glared at him. "Paige," he said slowly, tightly, "don't talk like that, make yourself out to be some sort of whore. You were raised same as I was and I know you ain't done nothin' with nobody..."
Lance chose the worst possible time to cut through the rec room on the way to the garage. Paige's eyes lit with angry mischief. She grabbed Lance's shirtfront and dragged him close, her grip like iron as she pulled him into a kiss. Jono felt a shaft of pain at the sight of Paige's lips on Lance, her tongurtinrting out to seek entry and entangle with the other teenager's. Lance kissed her back on reflex at first, before tensing and trying to pull away. Paige would have none of it, though, holding the kiss until a rumble shook the floor beneath their feet, Lance trying to break the kiss with the only method he could think of. "That's what you think," she snapped at Sam, stomping past him with an apologetic look at Jono. She brushed the back of her hand across her mouth as she passed the British teenager, a gesture which heartened him somewhat even as he felt raging jealousy course through his being.
Lance was backing away from Sam, his hands held palms-out to ward off the taller mutant's immanent attack. "I swear, I didn't know that she was gonna do that!"
Sam was as close to foaming at the mouth as he ever wanted to be. The thought of Lance touching Paige in any way, shape or form was bad enough, but to see them kissing, even if it was Paige that started it, was the last straw. He punched Lance square in the jaw, sending him sprawling.
_*Sam, _ * Jono put in loudly, _ * you're overreacting._* He reached out his hand and pushed against Sam's chest, keeping him off of Lance until the lanky teenager could regain his footing. Paige shot Jono a grateful glance as she reached for her brother. Sam, however, was quicker than she was and grabbed Lance by the front of his shirt, pushing him out of the rec room, through the hall and out the front door, Lance all the while struggling for puse ose on the floor and swinging at Sam, unable to land a solid strike due to the position in which he was being held. Once outside, Sam flung him to the ground.
"Big mistake, dude," Jubilee crowed. She was enjoying the fight and not making a move to intercede, as if she could do much to come between the two much larger teenagers without using her powers. Instead, she took a seat on the step leading to the front door and waited for it all to break loose.
Paige ran towards her brother, fretting the whole while. "Sam, leave him be! He didn't know I was gonna kiss him! He's in love with Amara!"
Sam wheeled around and drew up short, nearly bowling over his sister. "Well, she ain't in love with him! She was just kissing me in the gazebo!"
The ground rumbled again, not a small shake as it had been by the pool, but a long, rolling rumble that made the porte cochere s and and a few shingles from the roof. Jubilee jumped to her feet with a startled yelp. "Lance! Stop it!"
Jono reached Paige and tried to pull her back out of harm's way but she would not be moved. "Sam..."
"Keep your fucking hands off Amara!" Lance snarled, the ground opening between his feet, a small fracture that threatened to grow.
Sam seemed bry tay taken aback. He had heard about Lance's powers but did not quite believe it until now. Shaking off his surprise, he said in a low voice that was full of threat, "You may be in love with her, but she sure as Hell didn't seem to be in love with you...in fact," he hissed, stepping closer, "she didn't say your name once during the entire time we were in the gazebo."
Lance struck then, the ground opening wide and sending Sam tumbling backwards in fforffort to avoid the growing crevasse. Lance had flung himself forward, pushing Sam to the ground while the Southerner was off balance, landing in a heap of tangled limbs and curse words. "Get off him!" Paige cried, though no one was quite sure just who she was yelling at. By now, every mutant at the institute had come outside to see what the commotion was, the earth tremors drawing those that had not been alerted by the shouting. "Jono, do something!"
Jono twitched slightly. _* What? Er...yeah... _ * He moved closer to the grappling duo and projected, * _ Stop it!* _
"Jono..." Paige said plaintively. Sam was currently kneeling on Lance's chest, the pinned teenager turning an alarming shade of purple. Sam was much heavier than Lance, but not many could beat Lance for sheer anger.
_*Sam, get off of Lance before I... _ * he was cut off as Lance shoved Sam away, pushing him into Jono and sending the black-clad mutant to the ground in a heap of black cloth and raging energy. The fall jostled the covering over his face and a bright burst of light shone forth, drawing silent gasps from the gathering crowd. Only Kurt had seen him fully-not even the Professor had the dubious honor of seeing Jono in his full glory. As it was, Sam took the opportunity of the collective pause to smash his fist into Lance's ribs.
Roberto dashed forward, his feet finally moving of their own accord. He had been standing in the bright sunlight, though not for very long. He knew that he had enough extra energy to lift Sam from Lance and did so, throwing the larger teenager several yards and pulling Lance to his feet. "Enough, okay?" the Brazilian teenager shouted. "Enough!"
"What got into you?" Roulette demanded from somewhere behind Rogue, standing near the entry way and witnessing the fight. "Come over all caring..."
"Shut up, Roulette...I'm sick of you!" Roberto did not make eye contact as he stalked into the mansion, shouldering Empath roughly as he did so.
"That was...odd." Storm watched Roberto leave, his strange behavior niggling at the back of her mind, some inner sense trying to make her see a large picture when the only thing before her was a single detail.
Logan nodded. "I'll say...I'm thinkin' we have a weak link here."
"What do you mean?" she murmured, letting him take her by the elbow and lead her towards the mansion's side entrance. They had come out to stop the fight only to find they were superfluous. Logan's grip was tight but not painful, though he seemed to be exceedingly tense. "What's going on, Logan?"
"Kitty's got the systems back in order and has some temporary pass codes set up until Chuck gets back to reset them to his liking...She found a trail, she calls it, that indicates whoever downloaded the files sent them to that Emma Frost person before deleting them."
"If they were deleted..."
"I don't know how she did it, she just did it," Logan said shortly, not liking to admit that computers mystified him and he was just happy if he could turn the damn things on without getting an error message. "She said they did it badly, whatever that means. Like they didn't really know how to do much other than get rid of immediate evidence."
Storm nodded. "Why do you think Roberto is a weak link?"
"I dusted the keyboards for fingerprints..."
"How...enterprising of you,e sae said dryly.
Logan looked a little embarrassed at that. "All the computers in public areas showed heavy use...lots of prints. But the one from Chuck's study, the one everything is run off of...it only had two sets. His and Roulette's."
"How'd you get Roulette's?" she asked. "No, wait...let me guess. The old snag her drinking glass trick?" When Logan blushed, she laughed softly. "I love you, even if you are a cornball sometimes."
"Cornball?" Logan asked with his brows raised.
"Sorry. Been around lee lee a lot today. You were saying?"
"They all came together...one of 'em is up to no good so they're all under suspicion."

"Rogue, what're you doing?" Todd hissed, startled. He had been minding his own business, ruminating the fight between Lance and Sam and wondering when it would finally be resolved. As it was, Lance was on the warpath, looking forra wra who seemed to have disappeared entirely. Todd had decided to lurk in the gym, a relatively lonely place of late, that dead time of year between the end of the semester and the start of summer school, just before the full realization of time off actually set in. No one was using the room unless they had to, and they always found reasons not to. He had been so lost in thought that he did not hear Rogue entered, slipping up behind him and kissing the nape of his neck where his shirt covered the skin.
"I'm sneaking up on you," she said, a laugh in her voice. "You know what tomorrow is?"
Something in her tone made Todd feel very warm inside, especially in certain areas. "Already?"
"Mmmhmmm...I swear, it gets worse every month, the waiting..."
Todd turned in her arms to face her, the danger of their proximity at once nerve wracking and exciting. "It's probably because we've been trying more stuff every time."
Rogue blinked at that. "Probably..." A short laugh and then, "I didn't expect you to get all serious."
"You were expecting maybe mushy and a little perverted?"
"Hoping," she smiled. "So, we're all alone here..."
"In a room open to the public," he pointed out.
"Everyone's too busy trying to goad Lance and Sam into another fight. We'll be fine for a little while." She was wearing gloves, he noticed vaguely. Rogue had tended not to wear gloves while at home of late out of a growing comfortableness with her own mutation and a growing trust in others. She noticed him staring at her hands and her smile broadened. "You're wondering about the gloves."
"Yeah," he said, his voice a little higher than he would have liked it. Rogue had proceeded to press against him as much as she could, seemingly shifting her weight from one foot to the other but really rubbing her breasts across his chest, the thin materialher her t-shirt showing the lace pattern of her bra almost clearly, the cold air of the gym making certain aspects of her anatomy quite obvious.
"Well, all the better to touch you with my dear," she mock-growled, parodying the old faerie tale. Putting her words into action, she swayed away from him just enough to slip her hand under the waistband of his pants, making him jump slightly in surprise. When he gasped as her fingers began teasing his hardening length to full arousal, ducked her head to whisper in his ear, "I just couldn't wait until tomorrow to touch you...though I'll be much happier when I can feel you."
"Marie," he breathed, using her real name as he tended to when they were alone.
"I like hearing you say my name," she said against his hair, unbuttoning his jeans to make things easier for them both. He was already pushing against her hand, setting the pace for her ministrations as she closed her fingers around his member, stroking him. "Say it again."
"Marie," he said again, a little louder and more raggedly. They had nearly made it a point not to engage in the physical aspect of their relationship unless it was the safe time for touching, at least until she got her mutation under better control, but sometimes they slipped up. Sometimes, times Todd and Rogue both looked forward to more than they would let on, they would not be able to stand being unable to touch skin-to-skin any longer and one would come to the other, touching as much as they c, dr, drawing out the gasps and sighs and moans that they staved off as long as possible.
Rogue closed her eyes and bit her lip. She wanted to do so much more but she forced herself to hold off, to wait until the next day when it would be safe. Doing what she was doing to Todd was just something to dwell on, the act of making him climax nearly as pleasurable for her as their actual joining. She was extremely aroused herself and wanted relief then and there, but did not want to endanger Todd. Instead, she concentrated on what she was doing, forcing her own desire to the side until she could go to herm anm and be alone again, dwelling on these few minutes when they could be alone. She increased the rhythm he had previously set between them, passing her satin-clad thumb over the seeping head of his arousal and feeling the moisture through the protective fabric. She murmured a noise of encouragement low in her throat as he dropped his head to rest against her breast, not quite kissing her there, but rather nuzzling her, his slightly open mouth leaving a heated trail as he passed it across the swells of flesh. His hands clenched at her hips suddenly and painfully and his teeth grazed across one of her nipples as his body stiffened. "Come for me, Todd," she whispered.
He groaned against her right breast, his release against her hand lengthy, drawing gutteral sounds of completion from deep in his chest. "God, Marie," he finally said, her hand still against him even as he softened, "you're going to be the death of me, you know that?"
"You'll die smiling," she said, carefully pulling away. She shed her gloves and handed them to Todd. "To clean up," she said, coloring slightly. That was one aspect of their physical activity she still felt awkward about. He had just finished the necessary activity and thrown the gloves away, hiding them in the bottom of the trashcan in the corner near the door, when Jean burst in. "Great timing," Rogue sighed.
"Have you guys seen Kurt, Kitty, Roulette or Empath?"
"No," Todd said, looking and sounding a little shaken. He was still out of breath and feeling very floaty. "Maybe they all went out together?"
Rogue and Jean snorted at the same time as if to say "Not likely." Jean shook her head for added emphasis and said, "Kitty never came back from her trip to town with Roulette earlier and she's missing temple...Kurt and Empath just vanished. So did Amara, come to think of it..."
Rogue frowned. "Maybe Roulette went with Kitty..."
"Kitty left wearing shorts and a tank top. She would never go to services like that."
"Damn," Todd sighed. "I should've joined up sooner. This place is loads more interesting than the Brotherhood."

A/N Kurtty next chapter, Magneto, Pietro, Emma...oodles of mutants.