Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER TWENTY THREE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE(tm)...I'm missing a muse. Is it on your side of the ocean? It's about yay big, kind of cute, has a tail...You'll know it when you see it. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me giggle with girlish glee because they archive. :) Readers/Reviewers: You know, one of the armadillos suggested that I get some sort of fic author therapy so the characters stop having so much angst...I think they're just jealous. ;)



Pietro was sorely regretting having done Magneto's bidding, bringing Tarot to him. The girl looked haggard, wounded on layers that were invisible to the naked eye but evident in her demeanor. No longer was she cocky and self-assured. She slumped in the easy chair in Magneto's study, dark circles under her eyes and her lips dry and cracked, spots of blood dotting her chin where she had been unable to wipe it away. "Are you okay?" he asked softly, ignoring his father's glare bravely.
"Fine," she said dully. "Magneto needed proof that I was not here to turn against him and I gave it to him."
"How?"
"By performing a simple task," Magneto put in smoothly. "Almost painless, wasn't it?"
"Yes, sir," she breathed, the effort to form words almost too painful to bear. "May I have my cards now, please?"
Magneto reached into a hidden pocket in the folds of his cloak, the man obviously dressed for going out, and produced her slightly worn pack of cards. "I think you've earned them for now. Here." He tossed them with some accuracy onto her lap. "Something you did not tell me, though, during our...session. Why hasn't Emma come looking for you? Why is she letting you go so easily?"
"That's the rule, the cardinal rule," Tarot said softly, her eyes restless. "If you're lost, you're lost. We do not jeopardize the group for the sake of one member's stupidity."
Magneto laughed outright, sounding much like his old self, pre-illness. "That is absolutely magnificent! What a thing to live by..."
Pietro forced a smile when his father looked his way. It was getting harder and harder to keep the pretense up, the more he saw of the "great idea," as Magneto called it. At first, he had been sure that he would be giveigneign over the Brotherhood when it was reestablished, but each progressive step of Magneto's plan was more gruesome than the last, the sheer lack of caring or even a veneer of caring for other humans (norms and mutants), made Pietro feel very, very ill when he thought of it. "Much better than Xavier's group."
Magneto's smile thinned but did not vanish entirely. "Yes, rather...Incubus! Show yourself!"
Pietro took in a deep breath, waiting in some fear. He did not want to be possessed again-it scared him nearly to the point of losing control of bodily functions. Tarot seemed to be thinking something similar as she began to tremble visibly, her breath becoming audible wheezing, her eyes watering and wide. "It's okay," Pietro said softly, earning a snort and glare from Magneto. "Incubus won't hurt you."
"Not right now, anyway," a voice said from seemingly nowhere. Pietro gasped, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as the room grew chill.
"Lovely special effects, Incubus," Magneto said, sounding bored. "What news do you have for me?"
As Pietro watched, the voice seemed to take a form, vaguely human but not entirely corporeal. He (for Incubus did indeed seem to be a he in name and in voice, at least) was a thick opaque shape, shimmering with hidden lights and if he looked at him just right, Pietro could make out some details, like general height and a hint of shading. _Fuck me hard...this is so fucked up... _ As he stared, the shimmering form moved towards Tarot and seemed to touch her briefly before moving away again. "Emma is trying to double cross you, it's true," the nearly disembodied voice said, "but she thinks she will get away with it. She doesn't know..."
"Doesn't know?" Magneto asked, settling into a fulsome leather armchair and tapping his fingers against the arm rests. "Incubus, I am a very tired man. This is becoming tedious..."
Incubus seemed to shimmer more brightly before his voice snapped, "Then I suggest you let me bring Emma to you. Consolidate, as it were. It's fine well and good that you are manipulating her to your ends, but going at it like some egomaniacal twit only draws out the inevitable!"
The silence was crushing. Tarot cowered back against the seat as if she were a puppy expecting to be kicked. Pietro did not know where he was going to run to, but he was prepared to run faster than he ever had in his entire life to get there as Magneto stood, a slight creak of his joints belying his age as he prowled the room, his face set in rigid lines and anger palpable. Finally, after a very long time, he spoke in ponderous, almost exhausted tones. "Then bring Emma to me. Bring them all. We will deal with it from here. I give you twenty four hours to have the rest of the Hellions here. I know your secret, Incubus. If I do not have them in a day's time...you will be destroyed."
Incubus became more for a moment, infinite faces flashing rapid-fire across the shimmering air before he vanished entirely. Turning to Pietro, Magneto said tersely, "Take Tarot and go to the Institute. Bring me the Russian now. I want Tabitha here no later than seven o'clock tomorrow. If you fail me, Pietro," he said, suddenly much too close for the teenager's liking, "you will suffer."

"So how's the sister?" Piotr asked as Kurt settled at the table, hours after everyone had eaten dinner and gone about weekend pursuits.
"Fine, thank you," he responded stiffly. He knew it was almost childish, but he wanted to stomp his foot and pitch a fit, demand that Piotr stay the Hell away from Kitty. The girl in question, though, chose that moment to make an appearance in the kitchen, phasing through the door between the kitchen and the mudroom with Baby in tow. "Liebes," he said clearly, motioning for her to join him at the table.
"Hey, sweetie," she yawned, leaning over to kiss his cheek as she sat and pulled Baby into her lap. "Little guy hadn't been out all day. Remind me to pinch Rogue later."
"She was busy all day," Piotr said, coloring slightly. "Todd..."
"Ah," Kitty and Kurt said together, though with very different inflections.
Piotr swirled the juice in his glass around seemingly mindlessly, though he was staring at Kitty the whole time, feeling an unwelcome and very strong pull of jealousy as she laid her head on Kurt's shoulder, murmuring something sleepily to him and stroking the dog's head at the same time. Kurt reached up to push hair out of her face and smiled at her, an expression that she returned before kissing his cheek again. "Piotr," she said, making him start guiltily, "you hear from Sergei lately?"
"Nyet," he said, eyeing her carefully. He did not think she had told Kurt of Sergei's possible guilt in Erika's accident, but he could not be entirely sure. In Russian, he said, "Have you said anything?"
"Nyet," she echoed, responding in kind, "I told you I wouldn't. As much as I love Kurt, I haven't broken my promise to you."
Kurt's ears pricked up when they started speaking in Russian. He caught the word for "No" and his own name and became even more suspicious of Piotr's motives than he was before. "No fair," he said jovially, peeling the label from his bottle of root beer as if he had not a care in the world, "speak a language I know!"
Kitty turned a full-on smile in his direction and said, "It's nothing, baby. Just chatter."
Piotr fought the urge to kick Kurt's shins from across the table as the blue mutant kissed Kitty again, this time on the lips. And, the Russian noticed, Kurt seemed to give him a vaguely mocking glance as his lips lingered on hers, his fingers twisting in her hair for a moment before he said "I think I'm going to bed now..." in a very suggestive tone.
Kitty blushed and set the dog on the floor. "Um...night Piotr!" she said hastily just before she disappeared with Kurt in a puff of sulfurous smoke, leaving the puppy and Piotr staring at each other accusingly.
"That is a disturbing mental image," he finally said to the dog.
"Isn't it, though?"
Piotr was rather pleased that Roulette's sudden appearance did not make him jump. "Where did you come from?"
"Well, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much...or lust for each other..."
Piotr rolled his eyes. "Listening long?"
"Long enough. You've got to get over her, Piotr. She's just fluff...he deserves her."
Moved to defend Kitty, Piotr frowned. "Kitty is very smart. And beautiful. And kind."
"She sounds like a regular Girl Scout," Roulette drawled, sitting across from Piotr. "She's so wrapped up in her goody two shoes boyfriend and being an X Man that she has no idea there's a world outside here."
"I don't think you know her well enough to make that statement."
"I know her as well as you do," Roulette said, knowing she hit a sore point when Piotr glared. "You know," she said, rising to move arouns the table and stand beside his chair, "it's a shame that you're just going to moon over the girl when you have other opportunities right in front of you..."
Piotr looked up sharply, Roulette's eyes wide and seemingly innocent but he knew better. "Why should I want these other...opportunities?"
"Because," she said, becoming more forward as she edged her way onto his lap, sliding her arms around his neck, "they're very willing. They can show you all sorts of things you never imagined..."
Piotr laughed aloud at that. "I would not make such assumptions, Roulette."
"If I were Kitty," she said tersely, "you wouldn't still be sitting here. You'd have me up against the counter, fucking me silly."
"Don't talk about Kitty like that!" He tried to shove her away, but her nails dug into the back of his neck, stilling him as she stared into his eyes.
"I'm not...I'm talking about you. One One hand slid down to her pocket and withdrew a poker chip, turning it over and over between her fingers.
"What's that?"
"Good luck charm," she said, smiling slightly. It was a white chip, a positive influence for her powers, and as she fingered it, she could feel a subtle shift in the atmosphere between them. Piotr was not looking at her with suspicion but rather growing interest and maybe, she dared to hope, some need for what she was offering. "Piotr, I want to let you in on a little secret..."
"What would that be?" He pushed his drink aside and found himself running the fingers of one hand lazily up and down her back.
Roulette smiled a little more brightly. "Oh, I can't tell you yet...I want it to be a surprise."
"Really?" he said, just slightly more interested than he had been a moment before. "Why is that?"
"Nuh-uh," she said, giggling somewhat childishly and leaning against his chest. "First I want to do something for you... I like you, Piotr. I think you're a nice guy and I think Kitty's a twit for not seeing that you'd be sooooooo much better than Kurt."
He could not help but feel a little assuaged at her assessment. "Nice am I?"
"Mmmm. Very," she purred, wriggling slightly on his lap, making certain parts of his anatomy decide Kitty could be temporarily forgotten. "You know," she said in his ear, her voice throaty in a contrived attempt at sounding seductive, "if you want to, I can pretend..."
He caught on fast. "Nyet!" Piotr stood suddenly, taking her with him by way of his grip on her arms. She stood, staring up at him and looking slightly scared until he relaxed fractionally. "Just...just you."
Roulette smiled. "Mudroom's the closest one with a door," she pointed out. Piotr nodded and let her lead him in there. She wasted no time with preliminaries, pulling her shorts down and kicking them off over her shoes as he unfastened his belt and jeans. "The door locked?"
"Da..." He looked at her for a long moment, feeling absurdly guilty for doing this. _Kitty isn't yours...this isn't breaking her trust at all. _ That thought, though, made him feel all the worse. That is, until Roulette, stepped closer, reaching between them to grasp his length in her hand and smiled up at him. "Now?" he asked, somewhat surprised.
"I idle high," she said, the meaning going completely past him. Roulette debated drawing things out and going to her knees before him, but realized how short on time she was running and pulled him closer by virtue of her grip on his member, backing up until she was against the wall. "Now," she breathed.
Piotr did not listen to the voice in his head berating him for drowning his sorrows over Kitty in Roulette's somewhat dubious charms. Instead, he lifted her and pressed against her center as her legs went around his waist. Her welcome heat was a balm to wounded pride and ego as she threw her head back, accommodating his size more readily than either had expected. She moaned softly as he began to move within her, her shoulders thudding against the wall with each thrust. Her nails dug into his neck again as she moved as best she could, rubbing her folds against his length and making him grit his teeth with the effort it took to keep from groaning loudly. Roulette's positive influence was still in effect, though, making the encounter proceed much more quickly than it should have. Soon, Piotr felt her climax around his length, warm and wet and grasping and drawing his own from within his body. He shuddered hard, pressing her against the wall as he released inside her, not giving a thought to protection or even, honestly, caring about it. He had a shameful thought about Kitty then as he orgasmed, wishing it were her and not Roulette, but soon it was over and he found himself staring down at the blonde as she pulled her shorts back on. "That," she said with a smile, "was fanfuckingtastic. Do it again later?"
"Um..."
"Come with me for now...I'm going for a walk...maybe some fresh air will do you good," she suggested, taking his hand and not giving him a chance to answer. "Just out to the woods..."