Forever

FOREVER—CHAPTER 28 (NC-17)

 

 

A/N Thanks so much to Foxfeather for all her support and
help! Check her stuff out—lots-o-yummy
slash and fun bits… J And thanks
tons to InterNutter for use of her springboard and letting me abuse the hell
out of it!

 

Thanks tons and oodles to all those who reviewed! I’m all a-flutter…. J You guys are loverly.

 

 

For this chapter, “This” is a conversation in the
past.

This
is a thought.

 

 

 

Rogue sank
into the pile of bubble with a protracted sigh, hoping that this second attempt
at relaxation would be successful.
Closing her eyes she adjusted the tub-side radio to the local college
station, known for it’s eclectic mix of punk, thrash and oddball songs before
feeling around for her latest bath-read, a waterproof book of vaguely erotic
stories[1]
she had found on her last trip to the mall; she thought it was funny at first
that it was specifically designed to be read in the tub but since her walk
earlier, she thought a little release might not be such a bad idea. Damn him for being nice to me. Rogue opened her eyes and stared at the cool
blue tile bordering the tub and growled to herself in a mix of pleasant
nervousness and self-loathing. Caught
me crying then had to fucking be sweet. He’s fucking Brotherhood! I should hate him! Pietro had found her as she tried to get
lost in the woods, wandering deeper and deeper into the small nature preserve
that was the pride of the Concerned Ladies of Bayville Conservation Society. A wide jogging trail encircled the area and
Rogue grew angrier each time she found herself on the path. The damned woods are curse, I tell
you. Cursed! Pietro had whizzed by as a blue blur twice
before she realized what she was seeing.
He noticed her on his third pass-she could tell because he had slowed
enough that she could make out a distinct shape. The fourth and final pass, he was still faster than a normal
human but he was slow for himself.

“What’s wrong? Pity party?”

“Fuck off, Pietro.”

“Fine—you
want to mope, mope. I’m running.”

“Wait!”

“What? C’mon—move it along.”

“Why’re
you running out here?”

“Eh. Lance is off at the hospital or something
and Tabby is bitching and moaning about cops.
Toad is chain smoking and Blob ate everything, so I’m bored. Besides, helps me think.”

“What
you need to think about?”

“What
are you crying about?”

“I asked
you first.”

“MYOB.”
“Ditto.”

“Is it
the touch thing?”

“Why
does everyone think it’s the touch thing?”

“Because
it always is.”

“Pietro,
I don’t want to talk about it with you.
With anyone. I’m going!” Rogue had gone ten feet down the trail
before Pietro appeared in front of her again.


“If it’s
the touch thing, I think you’re doing it wrong.”
“What?”

“You
want the wrong people to touch you.”

“How you
figure?” She noted with some passing interest that he was twisting a wild
violet between his fingers, a variety known as “shy violet” for its tendency to
close its petals when touched.

“Because…
I just do.” In a flash, he had been
gone. Rogue shook her head at the
strange encounter, experiencing a passing dizziness, and felt something fall
into her shirt from the vincinty of her ear.
If that’s a spider… She
frantically dug around her cleavage only to receive the surprise of her life—a
violet, with its stem twisted into a knot, rested between her fingers. Fuck me.
He didn’t get drained. I got a
little dizzy, but he didn’t even slow down…

The tub was
getting tepid and hook ook was still unread when Rogue roused herself from her
memory. Pietro touched me. What does this mean? What does anything mean? I just know that I am a little more okay
with the Remy-Jubes thing than yesterday and I think I’m even okay with Pietro
and the violet…I’d be even better with a pint of mint-mocha chip…

 

The sound
of the heart monitor was preventing Lance from dozing off. Kitty sat, reading a women’s magazine from
the waiting area, at Amara’s head while Lance lay on the couch, long legs
hanging off the end. “Does that thing
have a mute button?”

“Huh? Oh…no.
Why don’t you go home and sleep?
You look tired.” Kitty put her
magazine to one side and looked at Lance assessingly through the yellow light
filtered in from the hallway.

“I am
tired, but I can’t leave…” He sat up,
reaching one hand out to gently untangle Amara’s IV line from around her
fingers. “I promised her.”

“You know,
I never suspected you could be…I dunno…nice.”

“Ouch.”

“Well..” Kitty leaned on her elbows and raised her
eyebrows.

“Well
what? Just because I’m nice to Amara
and…”

“An ass to
everyone else?”

“You just
don’t understand, Kitty. I’m Brotherhood. We’re harder than you, we’ve seen more than
you and we understand the way of the world better than you.”

Kitty
snorted delicately. “You sound like
Amara—she’s always on about how much better she is than us.”

“Well, she
is.”

“Whaaaa….?”

“Look at
her!” Lance waved a hand over the sleeping girl. “She’s smart, she’s gorgeous, she’s devious, she knows how to get
shit done…”

“And she
puts out?”

Lance was
dangerously quiet. After a long moment,
he said, “That was low.”

‘I know…I’m
sorry.” Kitty stood and began
pacing. “You know, I feel guilty, like
this is my fault. If I hadn’t slept
with Kurt, then none of this would have happened.”

A voice
scratchy from breathing dry hospital air cut through the room, “If you want to
assign blame, it’s Rogue’s fault for not knocking.”

Lance and
Kitty turned with some surprise to Amara.
The Nova Roman’s eyes were still closed but she had moved the oxygen
tube away from her nose, causing several disturbing blips on the monitor
alarms. “Amara! Honey, put that back!”

Lance moved to do just that while
Kitty stared, goggle-eyed. Did he
just call her Honey? Oy. “Amara,”
Kitty said when she found her voice, “Scott’s coming to get me soon…do you want
to see him?”

“No.” The dual answer made Kitty
fight back a strange giggle.

“Okay…Look, Amara…I don’t know what
to say. I just want you to know that I’m not mad.”

“Frankly Kitty, I wouldn’t care if
you were. I just hate failure.” Amara turned her face to Lance, effectively
shutting out Kitty. Lance bent to
murmur something in her ear and Amara let out a weak chuckle. Kitty had the feeling it was something at
her expense. There was a knock on the
door that made them all look up sharply.


“Miss Aq…Aquilla?” A policewoman enterautiautiously, as if she
expected a pillow to be thrown at her.

“Yes?” Even while bea Ama Amara managed a princess attitude and
posture. Lance fell back, his face
shuttered with an emotion Kitty could not name as soon as Amara slipped into
royal-mode.

“I’m Officer Keenan. I’m here to take a statement.” The woman entered fully and Kitty saw that
she was pleasantly plump, putting her in mind of someone’s mother or favorite aunt
rather than a gun-toting police officer.


“Is this official?” Lance seemed very concerned.

“Well, if Miss Aquilla wants to
press charges, that can be arranged.”
Officer Keenan took the chair that Kitty offered and produced a small
notebook. “Are you Mister Alvers?”

“Yeah.” Lance straightened in his seat and put on his best I’m not
doing anything officer—honest! expression.


“And you, miss, are you involved in
this in any way?”

“Oh, er…no.” Kitty backed towards the door.

“In that case I’ll have to ask you
to leave.”

Amara and Lance exchanged
almost-relieved glances and Kitty nodded, sending Amara a small wave before
shutting the door behind her. Well. Now what? The hallway was empty, so close to the end of visiting
hours. Scott was nowhere in sight so
Kitty chose to wait in the small area provided. This is sucky. One little event—well, not so little—but one
event sets all this in motion. A
butterfly flaps its wings in Central Park and it rains in Tokyo.[2]
Curling her knees to her chest,
Kitty allowed herself to doze fitfully until a hand on her shoulder made her
jump to wakefulness. “I don’t wanna go
to school, Mom!”

“Kit,
it’s just me…”

“Oh. Hey Scott.
Ready?”

“Yeah—how’s
she doing?” Scott gazed at the closed
door with some worry. Lance was in
there with her, after all…

“Last
I saw, she was giving a statement to Bayville’s finest. C’mon—let’s get out of here. I need to sleep.” And a Kurt-kiss. Lots of Kurt-kisses. Make the pain stop. Scott sighed, seemingly reading her
mind, and they went out to the car.
Kitty flipped through the local stations before finally shutting off the
radio and laying her head back. “Mind
if I doze?”

“Go
on ahead…” I need a woman’s opinion.
A woman who knows Jean type of opinion.
“You asleep yet?”

“Not
even close.”

“Okay,
well, here it is. Jean kissed me.”

Kitty
slowly sat up and cracked one eye open.
“Tongue or no tongue?”

“What?”

“Tongue
or no tongue? I can’t assess the
situation unless I know for sure.” She
was fully awake now, all trace of drowsiness gone.

“Um,
a little tongue…she, uh, she licked my lower lip.” His own tongue darted out and mimicked the action
unconsciously.

“Ah…well,
then.” Kitty smirked and closed her
eyes, laying back against the headrest.

Scott
waited a good five minutes, until they were pulling through the gates of the
institute before demanding “Well?”

“Not
gonna say. You need to figure this one
out on your own. I’m going to bed. Later, big brother Scott.” Kitty phased
herself out of the just-stopped car and vanished inside the house, leaving
Scott sitting, perplexed, behind the wheel.

 

Kurt
was no where to be found so Kitty figured he was in his room. It was just past eight in the evening and
the mansion was relatively quiet for a Thursday—it was spring break so no one
had a sporting event, no one had rehearsals or study groups or random outings
to go to or come from, so Kitty took some time to make herself a cup of tea,
nodding a greeting to Scott when he finally wandered by. Poor guy. He and Jean are like blind guys in the dark feeling up an
elephant or whatever. It’s so big they
can’t tell what it is.[3]
She downed the still-hot tea in
one gulp, wincing at the sudden flare of pain in her throat. At least I know I’m still alive… Kurt had not appeared as of yet so she
decided to make it up to him in the morning and go to bed without hunting him
down to say good night. Shouldn’t
have phased out of the car. Kitty
forced herself up the stairs, acutely aware of the heaviness of her legs and
arms, seemingly dragging her down. Gravity
is evil Wish I could fly… In her
exhaustion-induced giddiness, Kitty held out her arms like wings and made
cooing bird-noises as she reached her room.
Nope. Not gonna work. Good night, moon. Kitty let herself into the now-bare room,
empty of most knick-knacks from repeated trashings. Night night for Kitty.
Without changing, she flopped face-first on her bed and fell into a
blissful sleep. So blissful that she
did not hear Jubilee enter a few minutes later.

“Kit?”
“Unh?”

“Hey—thought I heard you come
in. Look, I kinda need to talk to
someone and well, you’re cool and all…”

“Mmmm?” Kitty twitched a little in her sleep and Jubilee took it as in
invitation to sit down.

“It’s about Remy… See, Rogue talked
to me today and she was all weird like she was sad but then she said that she
was cool with me and Remy. The thing
is, okay, I love Remy. But he probably
doesn’t love me-love me and just loves me-likes me or loves me-lusts
for me. Ya know? Well, anyway,”
Jubilee got comfortable, smacking her gum.
Thirty minutes and several incoherent Kitty-noises later, the Asian girl
left with a load off her mind and singing under her breath.

“Kitty?” Rogue tapped on the door,
entering when Kitty grunted. “You busy?”


“Mph.”

“Kay…well, I need to talk to
someone and you seem as good a person as any, ya know. Rogue toed the carpet until Kitty made
another noise and she took that as an indication that she should sit. “I think I’m over the Remy thing. I mean, he’s hot and all but he’s all…ya
know. And Jubilee is all…ya know. Ya know?”


“Unga.”

“Yeah…but the thing is, I’m not
over it-over it but I think there’s something…over it.” Rogue let out a puff of air and a mirthless
laugh. “I think I like someone…someone
who can touch me a little but not a lot…”

“Riereo?” Kitty mumbled around a mouthful of pillow.

Did she say Pietro? “Uh, why
do you say that?”

“Grhp.”

Ah—she guessed. “Well, the
point is, there’s someone I like but don’t like. Or maybe I like Remy but don’t like
him and I’ve got the two confused…”
Kitty made another noise and Rogue took it as an encouragement. Half an hour alter, Rogue was whistling a
rock song and smiling to herself.
Jubilee was already well into a pint of Chubby Hubby when Rogue strode into
the kitchen. “Any mint-mocha left?”

“Um, yeah—behind Storm’s Tofutti.”[4] Jubilee gestured vaguely with her spoon and
Rogue investigated, coming up with a pint of heaven and joining Jubilee at the
table. “Talk to Kit?”

“How’d you know?”

“You look like I
feel—weightless.” Jubilee smiled around
a mouthful of ice cream and incited a laugh from Rogue. “Why do we let men get us so worked up
anyway?”

“We’re thinking with our
little misses.”[5] Jubilee found that it was indeed possible to
spray ice cream through her nose. Rogue
stifled a hard laugh at the site and grabbed some paper towels, passing them to
the girl as Remy strolled into the kitchen.

“Merde…” He made a hasty retreat only to be stopped by Rogue’s strident
tones.

“Hey, LeBeau. Get your sweet ass in here. We wanna talk to ya.” Remy edged back into the room, one hand
going to the pocket where he kept his deck of cards. “Calm down—we ain’t gonna hurt ya.”

“Nah—not unless you want us
to…” Jubilee and Rogue exchanged
glances then burst out in laughter.

“Uh, I see you two done got all
your prollems fixed, eh?” Remy stayed
out of arm’s reach for either girl but relaxed slightly at their evident
camaraderie.

“Eh. Maybe. We just got some
talking done and I thnk…”

“…I think we’re on the road to
recovery.” Jubilee finished.

“Yeah—we’re Inappropriate
Men-aholics.”

“Hi, my name is Jubilee and I’ve
been off men for three days.”

“Hi, Jubilee!” Rogue caroled. The girls giggled again and Remy could not
fight the smirk that crossed his features.

“So what you want to talk to me
‘bout?”

“Ah, well. That’s the interesting
part.” Rogue shoved another spoon of ice cream in her mouth and motioned for
him to sit. “No? Okay, then stand… What
I want to talk to you about is Jubilee.”

“And what I want to talk to
you about is Rogue.”

Remy felt—and looked—trapped. “Uh…”

Rogue grinned. “Park it,
LeBeau. It’s gonna be a long night.”

 

Kurt searched high and low for
Kitty with no success. As a last resort,
he checked the kitchen again and found Remy trapped by Jubilee and Rogue’s
penetrating stares. “Have you seen Katzchen?”

“Yeah—talked to her a while
back. She’s in her room.”

“Ditto—she’s just chillin’.”

Kurt nodded and ‘ported himself
upstairs, just outside Kitty’s door.
“Kitty?” When he got not reply, Kurt
gently turned the knob and peered into the darkness. “You in here?”

“Mph.” Kitty’s subconscious thought that this was getting real old, real
fast.

“Oh, mein Engel. You’re so tired…” Leaving the door cracked
for modesty’s sake, Kurt made his way to Kitty’s bed and knelt beside her. “Poor Darling…” Kurt found himself becoming
profoundly old fashioned all of a sudden, removing Kitty’s shoes and tucking her in, murmuring endearments to her
as she slept soundly. “Too tired for
your own good…” Giving into temptation, Kurt lay next to her, on top of the
sheets with one arm draped around her waist.
“So warm…you’re fire, you know.”
Kurt sighed and settled into the mattress. “Katzchen, I think I know what you’re planning for the arbitrator
and I want you to know that I think you’re wonderful for figuring this
out.” He planted a small kiss beneath
her ear and she murmured, snuggling against him and hook her leg through
his. Gott im Himmel. This is going to be a long night…

 

 





[1] I so don’t
remember the name of this book, but it’s around here
somewhere…quite…interesting!

 

[2] Popular
expression to explain chaos theory.

[3]
Kitty-version of the old fable.

[4] Kinda decent
vegan icecream. No dairy, all soy.

[5] Er, what a
nun at my middle school called female sex organs.