Constant Craving

CONSTANT CRAVING CHAPTER THIRTY (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather gets tons and tons and tons of muse kibble for beta-ing; Billy and Joaquin are on their way over with it now. Don't worry-Ted will find somewhere to put it for you. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are super wonderful for archiving. They get lots and lots of muse-worship for doing it! Vampyre: I think the dungeon is a little full... Want a few more anyway? ;) Readers/Reviewers: This is getting weird. The ducks and Killer Kitties (tm) are banding together against the platypi. Apparently, the duckbilled critters ate the ducks' cranberries and the Kitties are looking for a fight...it's a mercenary situation...



Scott peeked into the rec room with a satisfied smile. _Good...for once, it's empty... _ Hurriedly, he went to the kitchen and grabbed a six pack of sodas and a bag of chips, balancing it with one arm while trying to grab a popsicle out of the freezer with his free hand. _ C'mon...get outta there! The movie starts in five minutes... _ The forces of Fate were with him and the cherry-lime popsicle broke free of the box with a faint snap, bringing a smile to Scott's face as he dashed back to the rec room. _Love them cherry pops...I wonder if Jean would ever... _ "Hey!"
"Bug off, Summers...I'm watching something." Lance sprawled out on the couch in defiance of Scott's glare.
"No you're not! I'm watching...something...in here!" He dropped his snacks, save for the popsicle, onto the recliner. "Get."
"Nope...you weren't in here so I dibs the telly." Lance smirked, flipping through the myriad satellite channels. "Go...I dunno...stare at Jean or something."
"Look, Lance, I was here first!"
"What up, yo?" Todd said with something of his old bravado. He clutched a small pillow to his chest and walked rather than loped into the room, but otherwise seemed cheerful. "We gonna watch it, Lance?"
"Yeah...soon as Summers makes like a tree and _leaves1 _ "
Todd rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Scott...let us have three hours...we just wanna watch a movie. You've got a t.v. in your room!"
"But it isn't hooked to the satellite dish. Besides, this is the _big screen _ ." Scott settled himself defiantly in the recliner, rearranging his snacks to rest in his lap. "I'm here first."
Lance sighed, remembering what Amara had asked him to do. "Scott, please. We're trying to be nice here..."
"So am I!" he snapped. "Great...Remy."
"Hey y'all...it on yet? Scott..." he nodded casually to the teenager but shot Lance and Todd a look as if to say "What's he doing here?"
"He won't leave...says he was here first," Lance supplied.
"Ah." Remy sat on one end of the couch, Lance on the other. Todd settled into the wingback chair across from Scott and the four commenced glaring. "Well...seem we got us a Mexican standoff."
Scott snorted. "Way to be PC, man...What's so important that you can't let me watch my movie in peace?"
Lance and Todd exchanged glances then looked askance at Remy, who nodded briefly. "If you must know," Lance said haughtily, "we're going to watch _Bridget Jones' Diary. _ "
Scott blinked twice before shaking his head. "_Bridget Jones' Diary _ ? You're fucking with me right?"
Todd straightened. "You got a problem with that?"
He could not help the laugh that bubbled forth. "No, no!" Scott had to pause and catch his breath. Remy was looking dangerously like hitting him and Lance was already on his feet. "It's just...that's what I was going to watch, too!" He let out a whoop of laughter and almost fell out of his seat.
Todd grinned then, a snort of laughter adding to the mirth. Lance raised his eyebrow, staring at the teenager Kitty referred to as Fearless Leader, doubled over in gales of laughter. "Homme," Remy whispered, "je pense qu'il est fou..."2

Jean could only stare in stunned amazement. Remy, Lance, Todd and Scott were staring fixedly at the screen, Renee Zellweger going through her paces as Bridget Jones in a fairly passable British accent, her Texas twang only noted by the keenest of ears. _What the Hell... _ Jean was careful to keep her presence hidden, kneeling next to one of the larger ficus trees littering the downstairs area.
"If I were a chick, I don't think I would've gone for that editor guy," Lance said around a mouthful of chips.
"I dunno, man...he's kinda got that 'I'm-so-bad-I'm-good thing going on. Whaddya think, Remy?" Todd asked.
"Why you askin' me? I not be noticin' dat sorta ting!" Remy threw a handful of popcorn at Todd without even looking to see if he hit.
"You're the resident expert on that attitude, man," Scott said, swilling his soda. "At least that's what the girls think."
Remy snorted. "I don' care what de gals be tinkin'...'cept Jubilee."
"Aww..." Lance said mock-sweetly. "Remy's smitten."
"Remy's whipped, more like," Scott intoned. Jean stiffened, expecting an outburst from one or more of the former Brotherhood members but instead was almost shocked when Remy burst out laughing.
"Dat mebbe true, homme, mais dere's no way else I wanna be wit her..."
There was a general murmur of something like acquiescence before they settled back into silence, apparently fixated on the love life of the heroine. Jean backed slowly from the room and nearly screamed when she ran into something warm and fuzzy. "Just me," Kurt whispered. "What's going on?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you..." Jean muttered, shaking her head as she walked off.
Kurt stared after her in mild confusion before going into the rec room. "Aw, man! I knew I'd miss part of it!"
"Hey, Elf," Scott said, tossing him a soda. "We got company."
"So I see..." Kurt raised a brow at Remy and Lance, nodding once at Todd before dropping to sit on the floor in front of the coffee table. "What'd I miss?"
"You've seen this twice...you know what happens..." Scott muttered.
"Ja, but it was with Kitty...you know we never see most of the movies we rent..."
"Things come up?" Todd sniggered.
Kurt looked at the shorter boy and felt amusement rather than annoyance. "You could say that..."
Lance shushed them and they watched the rest of the movie in relative silence, broken only by the crunching of chips or the occasional pop as someone opened a can of soda. Finally, over the end credits, Lance said, "Who else thinks this has been surreal?"
Remy murmured, "We didn't fight, eh?"
Scott felt more laughter burble in his chest. "It took Renee Zelleweger to bring us together..." He was met with a barrage of pillows and snack food, returning the attacks good-naturedly.
"What the Hell is going on in here?" Logan was fairly certain that what he was seeing was not a brawl. In fact, he was disturbingly reminded of what he knew about slumber parties full of preteen girls.
"Nothing!" chorused the five teenagers, looking as innocent as possible in the midst of the mess they had created.
"Well, clean this _nothing _ up! And try not to have fun doing it...it's late and you're loud!" Logan stomped off, grinning broadly as soon as his back was to them. _Well. Looks like water is finding it's own level... _

"You're kidding."
"Nope, totally serious. They were watching a chick movie and _talking _ !" Jean shook her head in undisguised amusement. "_Bridget Jones _ , of all things!"
Kitty giggled and nudged Jubilee in the ribs. "You think we girlified 'em? Deprived them of our company so long that they're losing their testosterone?"
Jubilee snorted. "Hardly. If Remy's...ah...amorous attempts last night are anything to go by, I think we're all gonna have trouble walking once this stalemate is over!"
"Ew...thanks for that picture, Jubes..." Kitty wrinkled her nose and flung her ponytail holder at the Asian girl. "You guys seen Rogue?"
Jean sighed. "She's hiding in her room still. She won't come out because, and I quote, 'I think mah brain is gonna leak outta mah ears if'n I see Todd!'," she said in quite possibly the worst Southern accent any of them had ever heard.
"Wonder why?" Jubilee murmured, tapping her thumbnail against her tooth. "I think this calls for some recon..."
"Jubilee, she won't let us in her room," Jean said somewhat tiredly, having already covered this topic earlier when the other two girls wanted to get the Goth out to go shopping.
"Chica, you got a world-class lock pick right here! _And _ ," she said, holding Kitty's arm up like she had won a race, "hel-_lo _ ! She can walk through walls!"
"No way, Jubes! I'm not gonna bust in on Rogue! I value my life!" Kitty twisted from Jubilee's grasp and scooted around to sit next to Jean on the bed. "Maybe she's pissed about Tabby...I mean, she did catch her and Pietro that time..."
Jean shook her head. "No...Rogue is so over Pietro it isn't even worth considering. But," she said thoughtfully, "you guys notice that Tabby seems to trying to turn us against the guys?"
"Huh?" Jubilee said, concentrating more on her toenail painting than Jean's words.
"She kissed Lance in front of Amara, she kissed Kurt and made sure Kitty found out...that leaves Remy, Scott and Jamie."
"Ew...You don't think she'd, like, molest Jamie or anything?" Kitty could not picture Jamie kissing anyone, let alone Boom Boom.
Jubilee raised her eyes to meet Kitty's. "I think Rahne would tear Tabby's face off if that happened. If I didn't kill her first for messing with Remy. If that even happens."
Jean frowned. "I just know that I don't like her being here, reparations for the boathouse or no. Amara's so pissed about it that she's doing some weird rites in her room..."
"Rites?" Kitty raised a brow.
"Yeah...burning...stuff...smells like hair or something." Jean shuddered. "She was chanting something in Latin earlier. I tell you, it was like Exorcist."
"Not unless her head spins around and she spits out pea soup," Jubilee sighed, twisting her nail polish shut. "So where do we stand?"
"Well," Kitty said, taking up the mantle of leader-pro-tem. "If this seeming truce with the guys holds...we're back to normal."
"Whoo! Jubes gets some!" Jubilee cried, flinging her arms up.
Jean groaned. "Jubilee, I swear, you and Remy are the _ most_ oversexed people I've ever met."
"Try sharing a wall with Amara...the shit she and Lance get up to...eeeesh," she replied.
Kitty made a faint noise of disgust. "Okay. I'm, like, officially grossed out now." A staccato knock on the door made them all freeze and look at each other expectantly. "You expecting any one?"
"Not me!" Jean said as Jubilee shook her head.
Kitty shrugged. "Come in!" Storm peered into the room, opening the door far enough to stick her head in. "Hey! Come on in!"
"Girls," she said in her usual cool demeanor, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind her.
_This looks serious... _ Jean raised an eyebrow at her friends, their faces bearing the same expressions as hers. "What's wrong?"
"What makes you think something is wrong?" Storm asked, still standing near the door. "How is everything between you and your...respective others? Are things settling back to normal?"
_Ooooh. Topic change. _ "Getting better!" Kitty chirped. "We should be right as rain by the first night of Chanukah."
Jubilee and Jean exchanged glances of their own. They had forgotten that Chanukah started right after Thanksgiving this year, that it would be Kitty's first without her blood kin. Storm saved them from further talk of the holiday by saying, somewhat hurriedly, "Well, I am very glad to hear it. I actually came here to...talk...about your relationships. But now that I know everything is fine, I'll be going."
"Hold up," Jubilee said firmly, feeling brave. "Something is going on with you...what is it?"
"I'm sure that I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Oh, really...you're flustered-well, as flustered as you can be, you're talking fast, you slunk in here...Storm, what's going on?"
Jean added, "We want to help..."
Storm sighed. She saw that she had dug her own grave on this and it was time to pay the piper.3 Stiltedly, she moved to sit in Kitty's armchair, folding her hands in her lap primly but looking steadily at her knees. "You are well aware that I am the only female among the adults here. This presents some interesting issues for me as well as the men. I have no one to discuss...female issues...with."
"Like periods and junk?" Jubilee offered.
"Well, not to put too fine a point on it, that is one of the issues that comes up from time to time."
Jean had a flash, a mental picture that would haunt her for months to come. Logan, face twisted in a grimace of pleasure, hands-Storms, judging by the skin tone-resting on his shoulders. _I think I'm going to freak out now. _ Storm look up at her sharply and she knew then that the woman had heard her thoughts. Jean blushed hotly and murmured, "Sorry." _Oh, God...it's like walking in on your parents going at it! _
Storm straightened visibly, tossing her hair back over her shoulders and looking at the girls full-on. "My issue is thus: I am considering a relationship with someone rather special to me and I am not sure how to handle it."
Kitty perked up. If there was one thing she loved, it was playing Cupid. If there were two things, it was playing Cupid and hearing juicy gossip, especially about the adults of the mansion. "Anyone we know?" she asked.
Jean averted her eyes from Storm's semi-glare. The weather witch said calmly, "I do not think that is really any of your concern!"
"Of course it is, Storm!" Kitty said, rolling her eyes. "How do you expect us to help you if we don't know who the guy is? It is a guy, right?"
"Yes," she said shortly.
"Well, if we know who it is, we'll know how you should handle things...so to speak. I mean, if it's Beast, he'll be cool about everything-those intellectual types are always so mellow. You can be totally open about your relationship and he won't mind."
Jubilee added, "Is it the Professor? Somehow, I can't see that..." she shook her head. "But I think he'd be the keep-it-on-the-Q.T. type...ya know, keep private lives private and all that."
Jean merely sighed and looked away. Kitty nudged her. "Don't you have a guess?"
"No," she and Storm answered together.
Kitty opened her mouth to say something but Jubilee made a surprised, gurgling noise. "Logan!"
"What?" Storm 's eyes were wide.
"It's so obvious! He's the only other adult guy here, _and _ he's the one most likely to make things all... you know...wonky." She bounced to her knees and clapped happily. "Oh, we can so help, right, Kitty?"
"I dunno now...I mean, Logan's like my father and all...that'd just be weird...No offense, Storm."
"None taken," she murmured, rising to her feet. "I'm sorry to have interrupted your evening...I think it is best for all involved if we pretend this never happened." She moved coolly from the room, leaving a trio of shocked girls in her wake.
After a long, tense moment, Jean grinned slowly. "Girls," she murmured, "we have a mission..."

1 I am sooooooo sorry for that one. Back to the Future was on the other day and well...yeah.
2 "I think he's crazy."
3 Could I possibly throw in any more colloquialisms?