Fractals

Fractals Chapter Three (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… boy yogurt. *makes face * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are smooshy goodness for archiving/hosting! :) ProPhile is away but he’ll be happy to read the last chapter when he gets back. Morgan: I’m worried… *poke * Readers/Reviewers: The platypi send their love, but the ducks seem a bit bitter. Who knows, with ducks… *GLOMPS * To everyone for reading and reviewing as you can…

“Why are you skulking?”
“I’m not skulking.”
“Dude,” Todd snorted, dropping from his perch on the low garden wall. “I fucking perfected skulking. You’re skulking. What’s the deal?”
Jamie frowned and continued walking (not, he told himself firmly, skulking), hoping Todd would lose interest and not pursue. The soft thud and shuffling behind him told Jamie otherwise. “Nothing’s the deal,” he sighed, not turning to face Todd as the amphibious teenager loped up beside him. “Dinner’s in an hour.”
Todd blinked at the nonsequitor and kept pace. “Dude, ain’t taking the bait. What’s wrong? You’ve been mopey for days and frankly, you’re giving Lance a run for his money in the sullen department, ya know.”
Jamie snorted. “Don’t care. I’m allowed to think, right? I don’t need a monitor.” With that, he walked a little faster and was glad when Todd did not try and keep up.
“Weird kid,” Todd commented, staring after him as Scott rounded the corner of the house, sweaty from lawn work. “Think he’s knocked a screw loose.”
Scott shrugged. “Whatever. Between me and my shower, man.”
Todd sighed and trudged after Scott for a short distance. “Jean still not talking to ya?”
The older mutant paused and frowned, glaring over at him as they neared the boathouse. “None of your business.” His glance raked over Todd and his frown deepened. “What the Hell happened to you?”
“Fell in the lake,” he shrugged, pushing a damp strand of hair out of his eyes. “Actually, Jono pushed me. But I can’t prove it.”
Scott took a moment to appreciate the mental image that statement provided, willing himself not to laugh out loud. “What’d you do to piss him off?”
“Nothin’,” he muttered. “Not like the lake is a bad thing… it’s kinda nice. A little too cold for my liking but eh. It’s wet. Nice bugs.”
“Right…good bugs. Noted.” He recommenced his trudge to the boathouse, not quite minding that Todd was still tagging along. “So why the skulking?”
Todd smi fle fleetingly. “Got kicked outta the kitchen, man. Kurt’s mom don’t like it if you stick swampy fingers in her food.”
Scott made a mental note to avoid dinner that night. “So…” they reached the door of the boathouse and he raked grimy fingers through his sweaty hair. “Jean…been asking about me?”
Todd spoke before he could remind himself to lie. “Nah, not really. Just goes on about school a lot.” He bit his tongue as soon as he realized that was more than likely the wrong thing to say. “Well, I think I heard her say something to Jubilee…”
“See you at dinner, Todd,” Scott sighed, shoving the door open and slamming it shut behind him as Todd sputtered.
In the resounding silence that fell, Todd mentally kicked himself. “Fanfuckingtastic,” he muttered. “Now no one is gonna talk to me.” He began a slow walk back to the mansion, turning over the day’s events in his head. Rogue had gone into town with Jubilee, Remy and Cecilia, only to return in an unusually chipper mood and close herself up in her room and refuse to come out no matter how often he knocked or called to her through the door. Jubilee would not tell him what had put his girlfriend in such a good mood and Remy was on his cell phone, seething at someone in Cajun French. Belladonna, Todd guessed, only to have his suspicions proved true when Jubilee shouted at Remy shortly after their return. Everyone, he thought glumly, had better things to do than to talk with him or even just sitthe the same room. Even Lance was busy, trying to make heads or tails of Amara’s current obsession, maps. She had decided that Nova Roma must be recorded somehow, some where, and she was determined to locate it. Lance had been seconded as her, in Todd’s word, bitch. He sighed again and finally realized where he was—the garage. The station wagon sat, pinging softly as it cooled after the drive to and from the city. The Jeep was nearby, still radiating heat from the same drive a few hours previous. Scott’s beloved red sports car, still in the process of being fixed after the incident with the raccoon and the pine tree, glared at him accusingly from it’s protected spot away from the door. Todd bit his lip, considering. _No one will notice… It’ll be good to get into town for a while. Maybe waste my five bucks at the arcade or somethin’… _ Almost automatically, he went to the small box on the wall where the keys were kept and plucked the ones for the Jeep from their peg. _Dinner’s in an hour, _ he thought. _I’ll be back way before then. _

Kurt smiled affectionately as his mother chided Jubilee for picking at the noodles. “She’ll smack your hand with the spoon if you’re not careful,” he warned his friend.
“If she can catch me,” she responded glibly, plucking another piece of pasta from under Mrs Wagner’s watchful gaze and dodging the half hearted swat with said spoon. “See?”
rt srt snorted. “She let you have that one.
“Kurti, be good. You’re making my soufflé fall.” His mother’s words bore no true censure in them, though. “Where’s Kitty? I thought you said she would be down in a minute.”
“She will,” Kurt assure her, winking at Jubilee as she snatched another noodle and disappeared into the rec room. “She just wanted to freshen up first.”
His mother raised an eyebrow. “You two need to pick better times.”
“Mutti!”
“Anyway,” she went on, stirring something thick and glutinous in a crockery bowl, “Kitty and I have things to discuss.”
“Sooner than I’d planned,” Kitty put in, entering the kitchen with a strange, detached expression on her features. “My mother just called on the private line. My father died this morning.”

A/N Jamie/Rahne next chapter!