Galatea

Galatea Chapter Twenty Nine (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta...tiny nervous roar... I subbed those stories... InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are lovely as bunnies for archiving/hosting. * G* ProPhile is a talented smutmuse (not as pervy as it sounds, folks). Readers/Reviewers: Things are picking up! :)


Amara examined the silver tongue stud in the mirror and smiled in faint satisfaction. The swelling was down and she only had the slightest lisp. The only problem was, she kept playing with it. So far, Lance had not noticed her addition but he would soon, she knew, if she did not stop rolling her tongue around to feel the cool metal on the roof of her mouth. She forced her face into lines of bland normalcy and re-entered the rec room, shutting the door to the hall bathroom behind her. "Okay, I'm ready..."
Lance looked up from his stack of books and sighed. "Maybe I'm not the best person to do this... I mean, I failed government and I'm *from * here..."
She smiled and sat down next to him on the sofa. "I have a phenomenal memory. It's a gift from the gods." Selecting a book at random, she opened to a section on Constitutional law. "Um...wow."
"Yeah, I know. Failed, remember." He sighed and leaned back in his seat. "They're not gonna test you tomorrow, are they? I mean, aren't there classes you have to take or something?"
"I don't know." She shrugged. "I am Nova Roman. I am Nova Roma itself, by birth, despite my father. I do not wish to give that up."
Lance raised an eyebrow. "Amara, you realize they might arrest you?"
"For what?"
"For being here illegally."
"That," she said after a moment's pause, "is stupid."
He snorted. "Yeah, well... Look, maybe you could...I dunno...leave?"
"And go where?"
"Hide?"
"Nice," she sighed. "Hide." She flipped a few more pages and looked up sharply. "We were supposed to spend a day together."
"We are."
"No," she said plaintively, "together-together. I hold you at arm's length too much..."
"Uh...huh?"
She closed the book and smiled prettily. "I am too..." she paused, trying to remember the word. "I'm too bossy. I mean to rectify that."
"Amara, have you been smoking what's in my sock drawer?" our our books of naked women?"
"No, the...never mind." He leaned forward and took the book from her, fixing her with a concerned gaze. "Are you feeling okay? You're acting really..."
"Nice?"
"Strange, but for you it's the same thing."
She frowned momentarily but soon the smile was back. "Of course I'm fine." She crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap. "Now, let me think...Okay. I mean to stop keeping you at a distance so you should know about the box under my bed..."
"I'm not sure I want to."
"Oh, you won't mind. You see, a few months ago, we took Kitty shopping for a sexual device and..."
"Okay, stop. I'm having a lot of mental images right now and I'm not sure how to feel about any of them so...stop."
Amara frowned again, this time deeply. "I do not want us to exist solely because of sex, Lance."
"We don't," he insisted, moving closer and slipping his arm around her shoulders.
She looked at his hand where it rested on her arm and raised a delicate brow. "You sure?"
He made an aggravated noise in his throat and rolled his eyes. "Yes! I am VERY sure!"
"I think that..."
"You what?"
"I think that..."
"Stick out your tongue."
"No." She pressed her lips together in a childish gesture.
"Amara..." Suddenly inspired, he grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her, leaning her back against the arm of the couch. Her lips remained pressed together despite his best efforts and he was about to give up as he felt her hands grow very warm against his chest when she sighed.
Amara felt a twinge of annoyance as Lance tried to part her lips but gave in as she realized it was far more interesting than studying and besides, it was more in line with her "be cooperative" goal. She sighed and slid her hands to rest on the back of his neck, opening for him. She knew the exactly when he noticed the tongue ring and exactly when he became annoyed. "Happy Birthday?"
"Amara...when...why..." He pushed away and glared. "Is this because of that damned magazine?"
She held her breath for a long moment, trying to keep her temper. "Are you insinuating that I am so insecure that I would find your pornography a threat and therefore take it upon myself to imitate that...whore!" She wriggled free and stood, her arms crossed defiantly, forgetting all promises of compliance and docility.
"I just think you got mad because I was...you know and you did that because..." He gulped, Amara's glare like fire itself. "Um..."
"Cave,"1 she breathed. "I pierced my tongue because I wanted to, not because you were masturbating ovome ome harlot with a tongue stud and fake breasts!"
"Amara," he groaned, "come on!"
"Do you think I need to compare myself to her?"
"What? No!"
"Then why do you think I did it?"
"You're giving me a headache..."
"I did not pierce my tongue for you," she lied. "I did it because...because!"
"Amara, come back!"
"I have homework to do."
He grabbed her wrist as she passed the couch and pulled her down, her muted squeak of outrage loud in the still room. "You have no idea how serious this thing tomorrow is, do you? To them, Nova Roma doesn't even exist! Amara, if they decide to deport you, you have nowhere to go...you'd be in federal detention forever."
"I am Princess of Nova Roma. They will not..." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I apologize, Lance. Of course, you're right. Please help me study for this interview?"
"Sure," he said after a beat, surprised at her sudden turn. "Um..."
She sighed and smiled tightly, squirming out of his lap to sit next to him. "I am at your disposal."
He blinked and frowned. "Ooooookay...let's start with...um...here..." He opened to a random page and glanced at her again. "You okay?"
"Don't start that again," she growled. "I'm fine. Teach me."
He highly doubted she was even close to fine, but sighed. "Okay, in 1812..."


A/N Next chapter is loooooooooooooong. Jean/Scot, Kurtty, Rogue/Todd, Emma/Sean...lots-o-stuff.
1 Beware or warning. Ca-vay