Carne Vale

CARNE VALE CHAPTER NINETEEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, sorry about work...Only a few more weeks until break! Tim will have to find something to do during the day, though... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me all glowing and happy because they archive. :) Readers/Reviewers: Sorry the last one was so short...let's blame it on the pixies. Nasty little buggers with sharp teeth, the ones that got to me were...



Logan wondered, not for the first time, how he wound up doing these things. Pietro sat in the passenger seat of the station wagon, eyes glazed and skin a pallid gray, while Amara, Kitty, Rogue, Jean, Rahne, Jubilee, Tabby and Wanda were crammed into the back two rows of seats. Not a word was spoken but the silence was deafening. Wanda had not unbound Pietro's powers enough to let him run with any degree of satisfaction and now, the youth looked sick with pain. As Logan swung the boat of a car into the Boardinghouse driveway, Jean closed her eyes and murmured, "Just Blob. No one else, not even a flicker..."
Kitty said worriedly, "Can't Mystique hide from teeps?"
Logan nodded gruffly. "I go in first...Rogue, keep a hand free," he jerked his head in the direction of Pietro. "Wanda..."
"I know. You don't have to tell me my job," she snapped. Being with so many X Men at one time and on cordial terms no less was making her jumpy.
Logan snuffed in an animal sound of disdain and eased out of the car, leaving the door open for quiet's sake. Pietro swayed towards the opening but was jerked roughly back by Amara, her hand on the seatbelt strap making his head jerk back and a soft gurgle escape his throat. "I don't like how he looks," the Nova Roman murmured under her breath to Kitty.
"Me either...Wanda, can you let him go a little more?"
"No!" Wanda's eyes crinkled and Pietro gurgled louder.
"Wanda," Rogue warned, wiggling her bare fingers in a threat.
"Don't think I won't bind you, too," the girl sometimes known as Scarlet Witch snarled. "Pietro," she added in a sing-song voice, switching to Russian, thinking she could not be understood. She said something to him softly that made Kitty gasp and stare. "What?"
"I don't like your brother, but even I couldn't be that cruel!" Kitty looked horrified, her fingers creeping to cover her lips.
Wanda looked briefly startled. "You speak Russian?"
Rogue grinned. "Yeah, so watch yourself, witchy-poo."1
"Bite me, Living Dead Girl."2 Wanda slid out of the car and jerked Pietro's door open roughly. "Come on, blondie."
Pietro fell out of the car and stared up at his sister as if seeing her for the first time. "Wanda..." he whispered. "Sorry..."
"You and your father...too late for you both," she snapped, drawing her foot back for a kick. Rogue's gloved hand on her throat, exerting just enough pressure to make her intent known, paused Wanda's actions. "Protecting loverboy?"
"Nah...that band sucked,3" Rogue smiled. "Just don't need to fill out any police reports."
Wanda stared at Rogue for a long moment and a smile crept to the corners of her lips. "Game point. Next time, I get to kick him."
"Next time, I may let you," Rogue smiled back, releasing the girl's neck. "Come on." They pulled Pietro to his feet and joined the others now waiting on the porch.
The front door was still laying where it had been kicked in, Logan standing just on the other side of the fallen wood. "Where we puttin' him?"
"His room, I guess," Kitty said. "Where is it?"
Wanda shrugged. "Any is as good as nothing...find an empty one and pitch him in." Logan took Pietro from between her and Rogue and trudged up the stairs with him. His powers were still bound, the strain of holding him for so long showing clearly on Wanda's face. "What did he want with you?" She directed her question to Rogue.
"Not me...her." She pointed to Tabby. "All of us, really."
Tabby snorted her derision. "Pietro is one fucked up little dude."4 As if she never left, she flounced into the sitting area and sprawled on the ruined sofa. "He thinks he's working for Mystique, trying to get the Brotherhood back together."
Wanda's eyebrows crept up. "The Brotherhood fell apart?"
"Uh, like, duh!" Kitty rolled her eyes. Jean's subtle snort made the other girl flush at her own outburst. "Tabby's right in front of you, obviously not here anymore, Amara and Lance are in each other's pockets and you pretty much knew Todd and Rogue were together. Jubilee and Remy are thick as thieves5, too, "
Jean smiled tightly. "All present and accounted for except for Blob. And he's somewhere in the basement..."
Jubilee said sotto voce, "Probably fell through the floor..."
Wanda and Tabby said as one, "It's been reinforced."
Rogue spoke up, hearing Logan tromp down the stairs. "If we live you here, are you going to kill him?"
Magneto's daughter smiled. "I may...do you want me to?" She eyed Rogue openly, making Kitty inhale sharply at the implication, which seemed lost on the recipient of the look.
"Not really..."
Rahne, from her position near the door, looking mightily bored, "So Pietro's gone nutty, we're letting him go, and the day's normal as blueberry pie?"
"Well," Jean said. "Sort of..." Amara cursed under her breath and Jean felt moved to explain. "We're keeping a monitor on him, hoping he'll lead us to Mystique."
"A monitor?" Wanda asked incredulously.
"It's based on something Forge cooked up back in the day..." Jean dug in her pocket and pulled out what looked like a plain silver box, length and width of a deck of playing cards but thinner. She pressed the sides and it opened into an L-shape, a small screen on one part and a series of small buttons on the other. "Scott and Kitty fiddled with the circuitry and came up with this version."
"Like a tracking device," Kitty explained. "But internal."
"Internal?" Amara sounded amused. "I haven't heard this part..."
Jean looked a little uncomfortable. "Um, Beast may have put it somewhere...delicate...during his exam of Pietro."
"Delicate?" Tabby did not know whether to laugh or cry from mirth.
Logan's deep voice said, "Yeah, delicate. Let's just say he won't be able to think really happy thoughts without it...pinching...until the device is removed."
"Oh?" Seven sets of interested female eyes turned towards him, making him want to blush at the indelicacy of it all.
"It's just under the skin of his...um...stuff. So it can't accidentally fall off or out."
There was a creaking silence before Wanda burst out laughing. "I think I could like you people after all!"

Kurt and Scott struggled under the weight of a rather large sofa, the pitch of the stairs making balance difficult for anyone. "When did Tabby get so much crap?" Scott panted.
"When Kitty discovered discdiscount store sold furniture!" Kurt replied, just as winded. "I've got to sit down!"
"Hold on..." With some maneuver Sco Scott propped his end of the sofa against the railing on the stairs, sitting one step below to brace his back against the side of the piece of furniture. Kurt wedged his end against the opposite railing and sank down just above it. "Man...this is the last time I help a girl move!"
"What are you complaining about? Me and Jamie got stuck with the boxes of clothes! Seventeen! Seventeen verdammten boxes!" Kurt sighed. "I wonder if she has any juice?"
"Kitty brought you a bunch of snack food..." Scott let his head loll back against the sofa. "Were you serious about earlier? The hotel and all?"
"Ja." Kurt paused to catch his slowly recovering breath. "I'm telling you, man, this is going to be impossible! Everything I see reminds me of her!"6 He groaned softly as he glanced up and happened to notice Kitty, standing with Jubilee one floor above, his view including a glimpse up her shirt where she leaned over, letting the fabric fall away from her body.
Scott tried not to laugh and failed. "It's just sex, Kurt! It's not the most important thing in the world!"
"I know, I know..." he sighed, rising to resume their trek up the stairs. "But with Kitty and me, it's not just sex! It's like..."
"I swear, if you say a union of souls or some other poetic junk, you're carrying this thing yourself."
"Um...never mind."

Kitty made a tiny mewling noise and said, "Damn it, even with his holo on, he's all sexy and sweaty..."
Jean peered over the balcony and said, "I'm going to have to trust you on that one. I'm not seeing it..." She grinned as Scott looked up, though and thought, _But I am seeing *that. * Hello, nurse!7 _
Kitty sighed painfully. "I want to respect Kurt's wishes and all, but this is so hard...I mean...difficult." She turned away from the view and walked through the sliding glass doors to Tabby's bedroom. "I know sex isn't the most important part of a relationship, but with me and Kurt it's like..."
"Psychic, remember? I know." Jean colored slightly at the sexual imagery flitting across Kitty's mind. "Think I should help them with the couch?" she asked to change the subject.
"Just make sure no one can see..." Kitty returned to the closet, helping Tabby hher her myriad of clothing on the racks.
"Did I hear you right? You gave up sex?" Tabby asked in some amazement. "If I weren't knocked up, I'd be out getting laid right now!"
"Anyone ever tell you that you have a sad life, Tabby?" Kitty sighed.
"Nope. Most people I talk to are too busy groaning my name." She flashed Kitty a lascivious smile and the other girl laughed unwillingly. "So you can't fuck him...find a hobby."
"What? Like knitting?"
"Dumbass. No. A self-gratifying hobby. With toys." Tabby shook her head at Kitty's relative innocence, returning her attention to hanging up clothes.
"A self...Oh, my God! Tabby!" Kitty shrieked, batting at the other girl's arm. "That's perverted!"
"What is?" Rogue and Amara had entered, carrying another box of clothes and the taller girl had caught Kitty's comment.
"She said I should...you know...with things!"
Amara raised a brow. "Is this a private game or can anyone play?"
Jean said from across the room, "She suggested that Kitty get herself some...adult novelties...to relieve the inevitable while Kurt's off sex for Lent."
Jubilee's gale of laughter from the vicinity of the bathroom, joined by Rahne's snickers, made Kitty blush furiously. "We can take Kitty shopping for her first vibrator!" the Asian girl laughed.
"Shut up!" Kitty cried, clapping her hands over her ears. "What would I do with one of those anyway?"
"You mean you don't know? Maybe you X Freaks _are _ as dumb as I thought!" Wanda, not helping but milling, sat down on the edge of the bed. "I'm sure they have instructional videos on the subject."
Kitty made a noise that sounded like "Gah!" and hid herself in the depths of Tabby's closet.
Rogue, holding a handful of silky material that resolved itself to be a rather oddly cut skirt, said to Wanda, "You know, if you're not here to help, what are you doing?"
Wanda stood and sauntered over to Rogue. A quick look told her that Kitty, Tabby and Amara were busy within the closet and the other girls were unpacking bathroom items. "I wanted to watch you."
"Pardon?"
"You're interesting. Anyone ever tell you that?" She plucked the fabric from Rogue's hands and dragged it through her own fingers. "You know what my powers are, don't you?"
"Of course...I was there when wt, rt, remember?"
Wanda smirked. "If you're ever interested," she made a quick movement and Rogue found her neck and mouth covered by the fabric like a veil, "I'm sure even I could get over seeing Todd naked..." Wanda pressed a quick, dangerous kiss to Rogue's neck and wandered in the direction of Jean, peering over the balcony again.
"Wha..." Rogue felt woozy. _Well, that'd explain why she never fell for Todd or Lance... _
Jubilee's cheery voice broke her from her stunned reverie. "We're going to take Kitty shopping when we're done here!"
"No, you're not!" Kitty cried, storming from the closet to shake a fistful of hangers at her friend. "No way am I ever using one of those...those _ things_!"
"Why not?" Amara asked easily. "They're quite...interesting..."
"Oh, geez! You have one?" Kitty asked in disbelief.
Amara looked at her like she had grown another head. "Three, actually. Among other things..."
"Um, I have one," Jubilee allowed, not even blushingTwo,Two," Rogue said, still reeling from Wanda's actions.
Rahne shrugged. "Not yet, but I'm willing...Isn't there an age limit?"8
"I'll get you one for your birthday," Jubilee giggled. "Jean?"
"No thanks...one is enough for me."
Wanda smirked. "Used toad tad to leave it when I bailed on the Brotherhood."
Tabby laughed. "Two, and ben wa balls9."
Kitty groaned and hid her face in her hands. "What else goes on around the Institute that I don't know about?"
Amara grinned. "Lots of stuff...Oh, that reminds me. No one come to the kitchen tonight after twelve and before two. And don't use the spatula tomorrow until I can wash it."
"Eeeeeew!" came the chorus of vaguely disgusted voices.
Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Come on, Kitty. You never get off?"
", yo, you mean alone?"
"We all know you do with Kurt. We've all either caught you or heard you or both!" Rogue sighed.
"Well...maybe a little. Sometimes." _More lately... _ She knew she was red as a beet. "This is embarrassing!"
Rahne made a chuffing noise. "About to get more so...we've got company..."
Scott, Kurt and Jamie stood, open mouthed, at the door. "We were looking for the bathroom!" Jamie squeaked.
"What'd you hear?" Kitty said, eyes tightly closed.
"Nothing. Nothing at all. Oh, look, a rainbow!" Kurt said hurriedly, dashing over to look at a prism hung in Tabby's window.
Scott, slightly pink, dove for the bathroom. "Nature calls!" he said through the door.
"I'll bet..."Jubilee snickered. "Where's the rest of the guys?"
"Lance and Todd are in the kitchen, looking for something to drink."
"I think there's some soda in the cooler in the den," Jean said, pushing past Jamie to go look.
Jamie looked over at Rahne. "You were kidding, right? I mean...you don't need one of those things, do you?"
"Sure baby...kidding." She looped her arm through his and started leading him through the door. "Let's get some soda before Lance drinks it all..." Craning her neck to look back at the girls, she mouthed, _So not kidding! _
Kitty, through gritted teeth, said, "Kurt, I'm not going to go get one of those things..."
"Huh? Oh, well you know, if it makes you feel better... I mean, if you want to...Oh! Bathroom's free!" Scott was nearly bowled over as Kurt ran headlong into the small room and slammed the door behind him. The sound of pipes groaning and water running were heard shortly.
"What the Hell is he doing?" Logan asked, coming into the room to see where everyone had gone.
"Cold shower," Jubilee said.
"Yeah," Wanda spoke up from the corner of the bed, "It got really hot in here all of a sudden..."

"Hank?" Cecilia spoke softly so as not to startle the large mutant. "Hank?"
"Yeeeees?" he crooned, looking into the depths of the world of the specimen in the slide.
"My work is missing."
"I'm sorry..." he looked up distractedly. "Did you say your work was missing?"
"Yes...all those papers, the work I've been devoting all my time to for the past three years..." A note of panic crept into her voice. "Where could it have gone?"
Hank stood from the lab table, shoving the stool back roughly. "Maybe you misplaced it while you were unpacking..."
"No, I put it in the drawer and haven't looked for it until now. I wanted to see what you thought about some of my theories," she said, coloring slightly. "Since you're more expert in this than I am..."
"I'm flattered, but my expertise is mostly from trial and err Bea Beast sighed. "I digress..." A sneaking suspicion made him frown. "I don't want to think that one of the children could've taken it..."
"What's in it for them?" she said, running her hands through her riot of curls. "It's above their heads!"
"Maybe," Beast said slowly. "Maybe for some of them..." Two names sprang to mind. "I need to find two of my charges..."
"Hank! You don't really think they took it?"
"Who else could have done it aside from someone within the institute?"
Despite the relative certainty of just such a happening, Cecilia did not want to blame any of the teenagers Beast put such stock in. "Maybe you're right...maybe I misplaced it..."
"Cecilia," he said gently, taking her wrists in one of his hands, "don't upset yourself. I hate to say it, but despite their extraordinary evolutionary advances and, in some cases, intelligence, they're still teenagers and prone to acts to gross stupidity."
"Hank, let me look one more time through my things before you call whoever it is you think did it..."
Beast sighed at her pleading tone. "This isn't going how I had hoped it would."
"What?"
"I had hoped, by having you stay here, that you would see that mutants could be an active part of society without sacrificing their special advantages for the sake of normalcy. I had wanted you to see that the work we do here, the lives we're helping these students build, is vital and maybe you'd want to be a part of it..."
Cecilia blinked at him like a bunny. "Is there something you're trying to say that I'm not getting? I know you aren't trying to get me to join the X Men or whatever it is you call yourselves..."
"No," he sighed. "We've already been around the block on that one. It's just that...Damn it, I feel like some untried schoolboy here. Cecilia, I care for you. I care for you very much and I would like to pursue a relationship with you." Beast felt idiotic and brave all at once. "I'm sorry I can't phrase that more prettily...I had planned to tell you tonight over dinner and MMMPH!" Whatever else he was about to say was cut off by the application of Cecilia's lips to his, all thoughts of her missing paper momentarily put aside.
1 Anyone else remember Sid and Marty Kroft's HR PUFFNSTUFF? They were puffin' stuff... One of the characters was named Witchy Poo...weird.
2 Another Rob Zombie reference. Gotta get some new CD's...
3 God, I'm old. Who else remembers the 80's? LOL...
4 Stolen from the movie PARENTHOOD. Keanu Reeve's character on his young brother in law after finding out he's been hiding tons of porn.
5 I just keep coming back to that pun, don't I?
6 From the first NAKED GUN movie. He's lamenting his ex and says that line while the camera pans to a two very breast-like water towers, among other things...
7 Animaniacs moment. And I think the Marx Brothers as well.
8 Most places, you have to be 17 or 18 to buy one. In Texas, they're illegal so you have to get a "Muscle Massager." *snort *
9 Look it up if you don't know... Geez, I feel like a pervert now. LOL.