Devourer of Sins

DEVOURER OF SINS CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Ted is planning something for Valium-Times Day (he knows y'all aren't big on that there, but he's doing it anyway...) Beware of pink dolphins and Kristen and Lucas bearing lace hearts... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are spiffy and groovy and every other superlative I can think of for archiving. I drink ouzo in your honor. Hmmm...maybe I should drink water in your honor so I don't get alcohol poisoning or something... Readers/Reviewers: Ducks aside for the moment, thanks for all the feedback . I really appreciate it and I'm ecstatic y'all are still reading after alllllllllllllll this.....

Her leg hurt. A lot. Well, she allowed, not as much as getting punched in the face or getting her hair caught in the blow dryer that one time, but it hurt. Her sojourn to town had left Rogue feeling guilty, expecting to be caught out at any time. As it was, she had told Jean only that she was going to get some "female stuff," and would be back soon. Three hours later, she was just slipping in the service entry near the laundry room, ignoring the low voices in the foyer as she crept towards the hall bathroom to check her handiwork. _There's probably a better answer to this than bodily harm _ , Rogue thought to herself, peeling her pants off the sticky patch of blood on her upper leg. _Maybe I'm taking this Goth thing too far...eh. At least it wasn't my septum or something. A tragus ring would look cute, though...okay, enough. _ She dabbed at the remaining seepage with a piece of toilet tissues and righted her clothing, slipping out of the bathroom as quietly as she could. The people in the foyer were gone, so she walked more boldly to the stairs, only slipping into the shadows when Bobby and St John came skulking by, holding hands with St John looking over his shoulder every few steps. _Oh, get over yourselves! We all know! Yeah, yeah, cute couple, aren't we jealous! Gah! _ Rogue suppressed a sigh of envy over the ease of the boys' relationship, despite St John's reluctance to be public. Bobby forgave him his shyness and loved him for all he was worth, the then some. There was no jealousy between them, Rogue reflected. _Maybe I'm defective...I didn't even wait to see what was going on, just jumped to conclusions... Damn it, this had better work. _ Wincing slightly over the mild throb in her thigh, Rogue knocked boldly on Todd's door. Lance opened it and looked only mildly startled before asking, "Whaddaya want?"
She could see Todd crouched near his bed, studiously ignoring her presence. "Lemme in. Want to talk to Todd."anceance slapped his hand on the wooden doorframe to block Rogue's entry. "Nope-he doesn't feel like seeing you."
"He felt like it yesterday!" Rogue shoved hard against Lance's chest but the taller teenager did not budge enough to let her pass.
"It was extenuating circumstances!" Todd called from across the room. "Unless you got another corpse out there, you know what I need to hear before I'll talk to ya again..."
Rogue stepped back and stripped one glove from her arm. Holding her hand out towards Lance's bare face, she growled, "Let me in or so help me God, I'll do it!"
"Sorry, man! Gotta go!" Lance yelped to Todd, ducking around Rogue and dashing towards the stairs.
"Pussy," Todd snapped. He shoved a box back under the bed and stood slowly, glaring at Rogue. "I'm still mad at you."
"I know," she sighed, her bravado slipping back under her skin. "I think...I think I have an answer to your question."
"Huh?" Todd brightened briefly, then his eyes clouded over. "You don't think I'm fucking around with Rahne anymore?"
Rogue crossed her arms tightly over her middle and looked at the toes of her boots rather than at Todd's intense gaze. "I hate myself for accusing you of that...I fucked things up with us and nearly did the same to Rahne and Jamie. Todd, I don't say this much, but I'm sorry."
"You tell Rahne and Jamie that?"
"I will," she swore, looking up finally, eyes slightly overbright. "I promise!"
Todd felt himself melt a little at her fervent tone, but made himself stay back, afraid if he touched her outstretched hands, he would forget everything he had asked of her and let her get away with anything she wanted to from there on out. "What else?"
"Oh...um..." she blushed as she pushed the door shut, locking it behind her. "Okay, I had no idea how to prove it to you, that I love you, I mean. I'm not too good with words so I figured a gesture, you know?" As she spoke, she was unfastening her pants.
"Rogue..." he said warningly.
"Not that, Todd! Listen...I decided a gesture would be best, you know? Something you could see whenever you wanted, something that I couldn't take back no matter how mad I got, something I wouldn't _want _ to take back...it took me a long time to do this and it hurt like Hell, so you have to know how much I wanted to prove my love to you..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting her jeans fall to the floor with a soft thud.
Todd stared. It was human nature, he allowed. He had to. Rogue shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she watched him watching her, his eyes traveling from her bare hip to the bright cotton of her thong then to the top of her thigh. She knew he saw it when he gulped and then his mouth fell open. "Rogue! Is that...how did....wha?"
"I, um, found a picture I liked and had the guy at the tattoo place make a transfer for me..."1 She shrugged sheepishly and gently touched the design, shiny with antibiotic ointment. "I told 'em I was chickening out and they let me take it when I left cause I designed it, so they couldn't say it was their flash.2 I got some ink from the only other shop in town..."
"You stole it?" he crowed, her expression telling him all he needed to know without her saying a word.
"Shhhh! Let's just say being in the Brotherhood kind comes back to haunt ya sometimes, ya know?" Rogue sighed and smeared the gel around on that tattoo a little more. "It took me two hours but I did it..."
"There's better ways than this, you know," Todd said seriously. "What if you decide you hate me in a month or something?"
"I won't...but that's why I didn't get your name tattooed on me. That's why I chose the picture...besides, it's how I think of you..." she said quietly, turning bright red. "Sorry if it's creepy or something..."
Todd blinked at her sudden turn for the self pitying. "Actually, I love it. It's cool. Not every girl will cause herself pain for a guy...Though now that I say it out loud, it's kind of _Fatal Attraction _ -ish, ain't it?"
"Shaddup, Todd." Rogue was smiling, though, so he knew she was teasing. She bent to pick her pants back up but he stopped her by crossing to her in an odd step-jump, putting his hand on her arm to pause the action. "What?"
"I want to look closer..." he said, dropping to his knees. He gently traced the outline of the small green frog (Toad, he thought to himself, correcting the image) wearing a lopsided yellow crown, his finger not touching her skin but close enough that it nearly drove them both to distraction. "You see me like this, huh?"
"Well, yeah...cute, green and bloody."
"You're weird."
"I know. I love you anyway."
"Me, too," he sighed, pressing a kiss to her gloved palm. "Oh! Your Christmas present!"
"Nearly forgot," Rogue said, lying through her teeth.
_*Everyone, please come to the Danger Room immediately. We are having an urgent meeting to discuss safety matters... _ * The Professor's voice was the mental equivalent of cold water on a flame.
"Later?" Rogue asked.
"Later," Todd sighed.


That dog had bothered her. Staring at her like that, like it knew her... It had taken her a moment to realize this "dog" was in fact human, human in animal form. "Sinner!" she had screeched. "I can see your sins writ on your face! How dare you profane my presence?" The dog had growled, circling slowly about her nude form, the cold making its breath puff in small clouds. "I'll have your blood on my skin for warmth! Leave!" The dog had snapped and turned, running Hell bent for leather across the grounds towards the large house in the distance. She watched until the dog disappeared around the side of the dwelling, waiting for some sign that people would be coming to look for her. _I'll kill them all if I have to...their sins are for me to devour...Make me strong... _ She mentally ticoff off the laundry list of sins she had been collecting-lust, jealousy, vanity, and the worst, mocking the gods with their forms. _No one makes light of our power...we must teach them, mustn't we? Yes...teach them... _ The cold was seeping and she knew she did not have long before she must find warmth. Cold would render her useless, she knew, though she had never witnessed such a destruction. She knew that he whom she had left in the cold would be gone, but she could not stay and watch. She had wanted to, she smiled. Death was balm to her soul, death made her peaceful. She looked again at her legs and saw the veins standing out, stark blue and purple in pale flesh. _Soon...warmth soon... _ Carefully, she made her way towards the iron gate, her feet not leaving a track in the snow. She could smell life and it's bitter tang, sin and it's appetizing aroma. It was drawing her to the narrow drive, her naked form moving faster, trying to reach warmth before it left.
"Hey," the man called, barely looking up. "You got a phone? My car's got a flat and...hey! You're naked!"
She smiled slowly. Nudity was a state she was comfortable with and found useful most times. _Easier to clean... _ "Phone?" The word tasted odd to her, her mouth working against it as she closed in on the man. He was staring at her dumbly, half-smile wavering on his features. At the last moment, he saw her eyes and knew with visceral certainty that she was not human, not even close.

"I was with Kurt!" Kitty wailed, clinging to said mutant desperately.
The Professor pressed her palm to his forehead and sighed. "I believe you, Kitty...but this is highly unusual." _Today is shaping up to be one of those days... _ "Now, we are going to have a meeting about what's going on. Don't give me that look, Kurt. I feel things are escalating to a point where the other residents need to be apprised of the situation in case things...take a turn for the odd." _In case? Who am I fooling? They already have! _ By the look on his charges' faces, he knew that they were thinking the same thing.
"Could it have been Mystique?" Scott asked, his face still tinged a dull red from the embarrassment of being caught under the tree with Jean. "She's the only shapeshifter I can think of..." Rahne cleared her throat and Scott amended, "The only shapeshifter who can imitate people that I can think of..."
"I woulda picked up Mystique a mile away," Logan said. "Besides, naked isn't her style...if she's gonna be someone, she goes all out."
"Then who could it be?" Kurt said, barely restraining his snarl. "Kitty was with me, so we know it's not her...who the Hell would wander around naked in the cold, much less someone who is trying to pass themselves off as Kitty?"
Rahne scowled. "Like I said before, she smelled like Kitty but there was something chemical about her..."
"Chemical?" Logan said, leaning forward. "Strong? Like what?"
"Like medicine...kinda strong. Not overpowerin' but present..." Rahne wrinkled her nose. "Like that brown stuff Beast uses belowstairs."
"Betadine," the Professor said. The image of white powder falling from a body bag, a disembodied arm and a glass slide falling from another flashed through his mind. The rest of the teenagers were filtering into the foyer then, so the Professor said, "Kitty, I'll need to see you afterwards...I may have something important to show you." _*Hank, prepare your lab for a minor procedure. _ *
_* Oh? _ *
_ *I want you to take a sample of Kitty's blood and tissue from the area of her wound. I have an idea... * _



1 I love those copy machines that they use to make the transfers to tattoo on your skin... Keep in mind that homemade tattoos aren't really a good idea, but if you're hell bent on doing it, get ink from a supplier and don't use it from your pen. And it's gonna hurt. Professional tats move faster and yeah, they're not comfortable, but not nearly as painful as sloooowly punching the pattern into your skin w/a needle...Mine didn't hurt much if that helps any... prolly not...lol.

2 Those designs already on the walls or books at the shops. Sometimes if you want to take the design w/you they won't let you since it's their intellectual property...