Constant Craving

CONSTANT CRAVING CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather is super special in her beta-ness. Ted throws rose petals at her feet and Kristen, Lucas and Dodo go about their merry way caroling in preparation for Yule. They like to get an early start. ;) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink will be blessed with hordes of wood nymphs and satyrs to do their bidding...or whatever. ;) Vampyre: Hello? Readers/Reviewers: Okay. The ducks are in some sort of Thanksgiving frenzy. They're chaining themselves to the grocery store down the road in a protest on behalf of their turkey cousins. I tried to tell them that I'm a vegetarian and there's no turkey here, but one of the buggers bit me. And those Killer Kitties (tm) laughed!!! I think the platypi goaded them...they're devious bastards.


Logan knew Kitty wanted something and he was afraid to ask just what it was. She was lurking outside the kitchen, watching him sip his coffee and occasionally popping in, opening her mouth to say something, then popping out. _Whatever it is, it can't be good. _ After the fifth pop-in, he set his coffee down with a sigh and waited. Number six came and he said quickly, "Half-Pint, park it!"
She made a small 'eep' noise and scurried to sit in one of the wooden chaset set around the table. She was still in her pajamas as a testament to the absurdly early hour, too early for her to even do yoga or even contemplate street clothes. Logan gazed steadily at her, daring her to back out again. At his raised brow, Kitty straightened and cleared her throat. _It's Logan...he won't, like, bite...will he? Oy. _ "Logan, you love me, right?"
_Oh, no... _ "Why?"
"Why?" she asked in surprise. "What do you mean why?" Kitty scowled, making an expression so cute Logan almost laughed aloud at her consternation.
"Half-Pint, I figured out a long time ago that when a woman asks a question like that, I'm headed for trouble." Logan sighed again and finished his coffee. "You've got ten minutes before I'm supposed to meet Lance and Rogue in the Danger Room...think you can get the words out before then?"
Kitty nodded. "Okay, it's like this...I made some arrangements for some guests to come in really, really, really early tomorrow..."
"_How _ early?" Logan felt the faint thumping of a headache start behind his right eye. _I need more coffee...lots and lots of coffee...is it too early for Molsons?1 "L "Like, I dunno..." she traced the wood grain idly. "About...seven-ish."
"When is seven-ish?"
"Um, ten past...."
Logan sighed. "And what do you need me to do?"
Kitty perked up at Logan's seeming acquiescence. "Okay, here's the deal...remember all that money I had left from Yaya's will? Well, I had no idea what to do with it-well, the part that the Professor didn't have me put aside in a college fund, and the part I put aside for...er...other reasons..." Kitty did not feel it was the time to go into detail about her special savings account she had set up, one she called her Future Fund. _I don't think Logan would like to know I was planning on bankrolling Kurt's college career under the aegis of the Prydakos Scholarship for Blue Mutants...heh. And he doesn't need to know that I am planning on a huge freaking wedding, either... _ "So since Kurt's been kind of out of sorts lately cause we've been, er, fighting and stuff...I wanted to do something nice for him."
"Make it trot, Kitty..." Logan said, rising and putting his cup in the sink. "Walk and talk..."
She scampered to keep up as he led the way towards the Danger Room. "Kurt's sisters are coming in for a week or so and..."
"Whoa...back the truck up, sweetheart..." Logan paused, one hand holding the elevator door open. "A week or so?"
"Well, yeah...they're on Fall break. And Kurt really, really misses them..."
Logan sighed again, a common occurrence around Kitty, he found. "The Professor knows about this?"
"Yes! He even let me set up one of the old storage rooms upstairs as a guest room...it was hard to do without Kurt noticing, but I bribed Beast to help with the heavy lifting!"
"How the Hell'd you do that?"
"Told him I'd set up his new computer system today." Kitty shrugged. "Easy cheese."
Logan let the elevator door slide closed. _ I'll catch the next one..._ "So...you want me to pick up the Elf's sisters at BF in the morning because?"
"Well, I want it to be a surprise and he'd catch on real quick if I were gone...besides," she sighed, leaning against the wall, "And he's been kind of...um...jealous lately. I don't want to ruffle his fur."
Logan gave Kitty his best paternal scowl. "You playing with him, Half-Pint, making him jealous on purpose? Some sort of girly game?"
Kitty looked decidedly horrified and shrank from his accusation. "Never! God, I'd never do something so terrible! It's just...we're still kind of new at this whole together thing. I mean..." she sighed and chewed on her lower lip. "Okay, it's like this. It's not a question of loving each other...I mean, not even a little. It's just that we've both been burned in the past and we're kind of a little shaky about this whole implicit trust thing."
Logan frowned. "I don't think it's a trust problem, Half-Pint. Kurt's very, ah, passionate. His emotions run hot more often than cold and jealousy is like a vent, a failsafe valve, as it were. He doesn't know how to handle all these feelings he has for you so they come out all...twisted."
Kitty felt a ghost of a smile flit across her face. "You been watching _Doctor Phil? _ "2
"Ah, stow it, Kid..." Logan said gruffly but not hiding a smile. "I'll pick the girls up...but you gotta promise me something."
"What's that?" Kitty was doing a mental happy dance. She wanted his sisters' visit to be a total surprise and the only way she could think of to keep it that way was to be in his sight all day, not doing anything remotely suspicious.
"You try and settle things down with Kurt...I don't know what is wrong with him lately, but he's been wound tighter than a bowstring for a week..."

Amara heard the dull thumping in the hallway and groaned. _The sun is barely up...I'd hate to have to toast someone before I have my tea. _ Stumbling very un-princess-like to the door, she cracked it open to growl into the hall, "Whoever is doing that, shut the Hell up or I will singe you."
There was a snort and a scuffle, Rahne finally replying, "If ye so interested in peace an' quiet, get yer ass out here to help!"
Amara opened the door a little wider and groaned at the sight before her. Rahne was bodily blocking the door to the recently converted storage room across from Amara's quarters, her arms and legs braced across the doorframe. Tabby was trying to shoulder past her with a large duffle bag and Lance was sprawled on the floor, one hand cradling his still bruised jaw. "Babe," he said through clenched teeth.
"What the _ Hell_ is going on out here?" Amara bit out.
Rahne rolled her eyes and redoubled her efforts against Tabby. "This daft cow thinks she's movin' in!"
"Over my cold, rotting corpse!" Amara snapped, flinging her door wide. "Lance, on your feet. Tabby..." she growled as Lance rose, still rubbing his jaw. The blonde chanced a glance at Amara only to see a fist flying at her.
"Bitch!" Tabby screeched, ducking. The unfortunate side effect of this was that Amara's punch landed squarely on Rahne's chin. The upside was that Amara did not hit very hard, especially if she had only been up for a few minutes. The down side was that Rahne bit so deeply into her tongue, blood spurted like a gory fountain.
There was a momentary pause as all eyes followed the wide swath of blood coursing from Rahne's mouth. Finally, Lance made a noise that was a cross between a gag and a cough, setting Amara and Tabby back into motion. "What the fuck do you think you're doing here?" Amara yelled, raising her fist for another attempt. She was grabbed from behind by Lance and lifted off her feet before she could do further damage. "Hey!"
Tabby grinned, her split lip courtesy of Kitty trickling blood with the effort. "I've got _permission _ to be here, you little cu..."
"You finish that word," Rahne said thickly, blood and tongue combining to make her almost unintelligible, "I'll bite you so hard you'll wish you'd never been born."
Lance set Amara's feet back on the ground but did not let her go; he could feel her muscles twitching in his grasp and knew that, with even a little leeway, she would be on Tabby like white on rice. "Who gave you permission, Boom Boom?"
With a smug smile, she said sweetly "The Professor."
"Um...guys...I think I might need medical help here..." Rahne garbled.
"Go downstairs and see Beast then," Amara snapped. "Why the Hell would the Professor give you permission to stay here?"
"Because I asked him to," Kurt intoned sadly from his doorway. The scuffle had awakened him and he felt sick at the sight of Tabby riding roughshod over his friends.
"What?" a trio of stunned voices chorused.
"I, um, asked the Professor if she could stay for a while. Because she...she needs somewhere to be." Kurt swallowed hard and averted his eyes. He knew that, despite his best-albeit frantic-efforts, he did not secure all the copies of the video tape Tabby had tricked him on. His conversation with the Professor had been stilted and full of holes, Kurt knowing that the man could tell he was lying about something. "Tabby is going to help Amara with the, um, penance for the boathouse."
"Not bloody likely," Amara snorted. "Are you going to let me go now?" she snapped at Lance.
Rahne looked very woozy. "I'm going to faint!" she stated just before she hit the ground. Tabby made an "ew" face and stepped back from the prone girl.
"Damn it!" Kurt growled. He was at Rahne's side in two strides, taking her by the arm and 'porting away, presumably to the infirmary.
Lance glared at Tabby. "I don't know what you're up to, but there is no way in Hell you're stg heg here!"
Tabby giggled hollowly, a false cheer over her empty heart. "Just watch me..."

Kitty was beyond mad. Tabby taking the room she had set up _especially _ for Kurt's sisters was the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of her temper that day. She had spent most of the morning trying to coax Rogue from her room only to be the recipient of several rude phrases that, to Kitty's ears, sounded physically if not legally impossible. Kurt had found her in the kitchen, trying to make a chocolate-frosted fudge cake, and promptly ate all the frosting before she could stop him. His innocent expression was so endearing that she almost did not get mad at him. Seething inside, she told him that if he left then and there, she would let him have the entire tub of Cool Whip she bought that morning. Kurt had nodded, not as cheerful as he usually would have been but still not as upset as the previous day, and trundled from the kitchen in search of Scott and the Playstation. _Poor baby. He's all mopey...I'll make nice later. I wonder if I still have that perfume he used to follow me around sniffing at in school? _
She had only found out about the bedroom an hour after lunch. Amara had let it slip, although she did not know the room itself was a secret. Kitty had lost all capacity for speech then and there, pushing her lunch away and storming from the kitchen to verify the Nova Roman's statement. Tabby grinned at her like the Cheshire Cat, sweeping her arm around the chaos for Kitty to see. "You like? There was this perfectly good room just _standing _ here...found it all by my lonesome! The Professor was gonna have me room in with Jubilee but Kurti was sooooooo sweet to ask ol' baldy if I could stay in this one..."
"Kurt...._Kurt _ ..." Kitty sputtered. In some detached part of her mind, she realized that yes, people really _do _ see red when they reach a certain level of anger.
"Oh, yeah...he was such a dear." Tabby propped her chin on her hand and adopted a dreamy expression. "Oh! He wanted me to give you this!" Tabby rummaged in her duffle bag and tossed Kitty a thin envelope. "Said it was a surprise."
"Why didn't he just give it to me himself?" _I don't like the sound of this... _
"Dunno...now if you don't mind...scram so I can get pretty...I've got my eye on that Summers guy...he's hot, huh?" she winked broadly.
Kitty could not suppress the snort that issued forth. "Good fucking luck getting past Jean."

Kurt froze in his tracks at the most unholy howling noise he had ever heard in his life. It took a second before he realized that it was not a howl, but a scream and that scream was coming from Kitty. "Katzchen!" He leapt to his feet, dislodging the game controls from his lap and knocking Scott's soda over. They were both running towards the stairs when Kurt vanished, reappearing by Kitty's side. She had stopped screaming and was staring, breathing shakily, at something in her hand. "What is it?" he asked frantically, stopping just short of shaking her. Kurt reeled at the feel of her hand on his face, sharp and stinging.
"You bastard!" she hissed, shoving the object at his chest. "_Never _ even _try _ to make me feel bad about _anything _ again!"
Kurt was almost afraid to look, but look he did. It was a still shot, obviously off the video feed, of Tabby with her arms around his neck. The shot captured them just as Kurt had put his hands on her waist to shove her away, but for all intents and purposes, it looked like a passionate embrace. "Liebes..." he groaned.
"I don't want to hear it!" she pushed past him and through the throng of mutants who had come running at the sound of her scream. "Tabby!" she bellowed, making even Logan's ears ring in the garage. "Get your sorry ass out here!"
"You rang?" the blonde said in honeyed tones, emerging from her purloined room.
Oblivious to the crowd behind her, Kitty shoved Tabby back into the room and got in her face, growling, "You watch your back, Tabby. You don't pull shit like this and not expect to get busted. I'm not as forgiving as Kurt. I have a _long _ memory and a short temper..._ don't fuck with me_." With a final jab to the girl's chest, Kitty pushed her way back down the hall, past the various well wishers and onlookers, stopping as she reached Kurt's apprehensive form. "I'm not mad at you. I trust you. I know that there's an explanation for that picture but right now, I don't want to hear it. I'll be in the Danger Room killing things if anyone needs me..."
Scott was the last one to filter down the hall. "Man," he breathed, clapping Kurt on the shoulder. "She's a hellion, isn't she?"
"Ja," he sighed sadly, "but she's mein hellion..." With a dejected expression on his face, he groaned, "What am I going to do?"
"Kitty will understand...she knows you love her and Tabby is no good...just let her cool off. I mean, hell, how would you like it if you saw her kissing someone?"
"I'd kill him," he stated simply, making Scott wonder if he was being facetious or not.
"Well, there ya go...Let her get this bloodlust out of her system and it'll be okay. Tomorrow is another day..." he said cheerily before disappearing down the stairs.
_Ja...tomorrow...Wednesday...hey! Wednesday. Kitty-day...I can handle this so long as she's okay tomorrow... _
1 Canadian beer
2 Advice show w/a rather annoying psychologist dispensing quite empirical advice. Came off of Oprah's show, originally.