Carne Vale

CARNE VALE CHAPTER THIRTY ONE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, is a superwonderful chica for beta-ing even when she's stricken with the dreaded sinusitis from Hell. Foxy, expect three bunny-ear clad dancers to appear about....now. :) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly for archiving. Readers/Reviewers: The ducks seem to be taking offense to the duck-tape comment the other day. They tried to flip me off but can't due to a distinct lack of fingers, but someone taught them how to curse so they told me to go do something physically impossible...*shrug * They're foul mouthed fowl. Sorry...the pun pixies attacked. * g * Mille grazie to everyone who reviewed and to everyone who is still reading. You make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and that's a good thing. ;)



Beast slapped several thick folders down on his desk with a glower. "What're those?" Cecilia asked with a yawn. It was past her usually bedtime and she sorely wanted to sleep, but Beast's agitation was enough to keep her up for a bit longer.
"Medical files on Kurt, Kitty, Jubilee and Remy. The thickest are Kurt and Kitty." He opened one of the folders and inserted several more pieces of paper before saying, "Sometimes I wish I had gone into emergency medicine as opposed to internal."
"Those are for their entire lives, right?" Cecilia asked, finger the corner of Kurt's folder. "I mean, this isn't just the records _you've _ made on them..."
"Would it make you feel better if I said these dated from their birth?"
"Yes." She paused and looked up at him with a frown. "But they don't do they?"
"No...these are just since they've been at the Institute. Their records from childhood are stored in another file cabinet." Beast sighed and sat down, pressing his fingers to his temples and closing his eyes. "I just don't understand why they keep getting hurt. Yes, I know how they get hurt, but you'd think those with such a close bond as most of these students have would not fight."
Cecilia smiled gently. "You're an only child, aren't you?" Moving around the desk, she laid an arm across Beasshoushoulders and leaned on him in an approximation of a hug. "They fight _because _ they're close. They feel slights more strongly than if they did not care so much for one another. If it makes you feel any better, Jubilee was already trying to apologize to Kitty when I came in here."
"A little better," Beast allowed, leaning against her in return. "Why did she hit her?"
"Men. Rather, a man..." Cecilia shook her head ruefully. "I wonder if I was like that when I was a teenager?"
Beast turned towards her, Cecilia ending up standing between his knees as a matter of course. "I highly doubt it. You're far too intelligent to be irrational like that."
Cecilia snorted. "Remind me to tell you about my tattoo sometime."
"Your what?"
"Good night Hank," she sing-songed, patting him on the head before she sauntered from his office.
"No, really," he called after her. "Your _what?" _

"I feel like Karl Malden."1
"You look fine," Scott assured Kitty, though somewhat unconvincingly. He took the handmirror from her and laid it on the instrument tray by the exam table. "You need help getting back to your room?"
"Just run interference for me, okay?" Kitty slid off the table with a wince, the jolt of hitting the floor making her nose throb harder. "I can't believe Jubilee hit me! She's got one Hell of a left..."
"I can't believe you kissed Remy!" Scott hissed, mindful of Kurt in the next room. "What the Hell were you thinking?"
"Whoa, there," Kitty said, holding up her hands in a "stop it" gesture. "_He _ kissed _me _, for one thing, and for another, he did it so he would stop feeling so weird about Evan kissing Jubilee."
"Is thome ome strange chick logic?" Scott asked, preceding her to the door and ushering her through by the elbow. "Cause I'm not getting it!"
"Ask Remy," Kitty said darkly. "Tell him that if he doesn't tell you, I'm going to print up broadsheets and post them all over the mansion and every where he goes in town. He owes me _big time." _
Scott looked at her quizzically but it was obvious that Kitty was done talking about the incident for the time being. "Why am I rug ing interference?"JubiJubilee ambush...she keeps wanting to apologize but I don't want to hear it right now. I'll talk to her later...now, I want to go to sleep." Kitty trailed behind Scott, letting him play protector and peek around corners as he lead her to her room in relative silence. "Scott," she said before she opened the door, "can you make sure Kurt doesn't hear about this from anyone other than me?"
"The only person who really saw anything was Jubilee...Do you think she'd blab?"
"In a heartbeat, but because she wants to vent, not to gossip...Just tell her I'll accept her apology if she keeps her mouth shut until I can talk to Kurt myself."
"Okay...I'll see what I can do." Scott carefully hugged Kitty and said, "Just try and get some rest. I'll bring your homework up after the rest of us get back from school."
"Damn it...It's Friday, isn't it?" Kitty felt her headache increasethe the thought of the quiz she was going to miss and the project she needed to go to the school library for. "Damn," she said again. "Could you ask Jean to check out some books for me? Just a sec..." she disappeared into her room and came out with a sheet of paper, her looped writing in a neolumolumn down one side of the page. "As many of these as she can...Tell her I'll love her forever if she does it."
Scott quirked a smile. "You're just free and easy lately aren't you?"
"Scott!" she cried, before blushing prettily. "That was mean!"
"Trying to lighten the mood!" he said, holding his hands up in self-defense against her pummeling. He stopped his laughing suddenly, glancing down the hall towards the stairs. "Uh-oh...you'd better get to bed, Kit. Here comes trouble!"
"Huh?" She leaned forward to peer a round Scott to see Kurt, followed closely by Jubilee, zig-zagging down the hall, still somewhat influenced by his painkillers. "Fuck."
"Later, Kitty...sorry!" Scott disappeared faster than Pietro ever aspired to, leaving Kitty alone with a sullen-looking Asian girl and Kurt's scowling visage.
"Hi, Fuzzy," she said softly, not even looking at Jubilee.
"Did you do it or did he?" Kurt asked without mblemble.
"What do you think?" Kitty snapped.
"I'm not sure right now...you tell me."
"One word for you..._Amanda _." Kitty felt a spike of mildly irrational irritation-after all, she and Kurt had come to terms about the Amanda incident and she had forgiven him for what had happened-and could not help the venom in her words.
Kurt recoiled slightly and glared at Jubilee, wishing she would leave. "Jubilee said she saw you and Remy kissing in the hall."
"She saw Remy kissing me. And if she bothered to ask him, he would tell her the same thing and even tell her why," Kitty said tersely, joining in the basilisk glare Kurt was giving their friend.
Jubilee, sounding nothing like her usual bouncy self, said, "I'm sorry, Kitty...I just overreacted. Remy hasn't come out of his room since Scott took you to see Beast hours ago and he won't tell me what was going on." Reaching out a tentative hand to touch her friend's shoulder, dropping it back to her side as an afterthought, she said, "I know that whatever was happening wasn't what I thought it was."
Kurt seemed to have the wind out of his sails, looking at Kitty like she was a wounded puppy. "I know you didn't mean what happened, Schatz...blame the painkillers or what ever you want, but I just snapped without thinking."
Kitty did not know who to speak to first. "My face hurts," she mumbled miserably. "Jubilee, I'm not going to tell you all of Remy's reasons for kissing me because that's for him to do, but I will say it was because he was jealous and felt like he needed to even things out since Evan kissed you."
Kurt and Jubilee looked at each other in a nearly comically double take. Kurt said "So because he was jealous, he decided to cheat on Jubilee and make you cheat on me?"
"It wasn't cheating, not in his mind..." Kitty frowned, not knowing how to explain it. "It meant nothing to him, like kissing grandma or something, but..."
Kurt nodded in understanding. "I know. You reacted anyway. I know." He sighed and tried to scratch his cast-covered arm with little success. "I love you, Katzchen, and I was so angry when Jubilee told me that I wanted to scream or break something...preferably Remy. I still may," he added darkly.
Jubilee looked briefly panicked before her face slid into a mask of calm. "I'm sure he'll explain it in a way that'll make it seem sensible..."
"What the fuck sort ofsiblsible thing could make your boyfriend, the one who professes to love you to distraction, to kiss my girlfriend, who I know loves me when he knows I could port him into a truck?" Kurt asked, growling slightly for emphasis.
Kitty could feel the mild analgesic Beast had given her kick in. "Look, you two fight it out. I'm going to bed." She turned and shuffled into her room, Kurt's short words to Jubilee not even registering beyond the fact he was speaking. Kitty was mildly surprised to hear her door shut behind her and knew Kurt was there. "I'm going to sleep for a while...can we hash this out later?"
"Nein. I want to talk to you now." He sounded so serious that Kitty felt chilled. She did not turn around as he crossed to her, standing so close behind her that his breath tickled the back of her neck and made her think very unserious thoughts. She felt the shivers start down her spine as he used fingers tips to coax her to turn and face him, very gently pulling her arm with all the force of a feather. "Katzchen, I know it's been a very hard...I mean difficult sixteen days for us and I just sort of panicked when Jubilee told me...I thought for one moment that maybe you were seeking pleasure elsewhere."
"Kurt," she said quietly, not sure whether she should be mad or not, "you know that's not..."
"Hear me out. I said it was for a moment. I was still mad when I came up here and it made me say some things I want to apologize for."
"Consider it done," Kitty said in a fit of understanding. "I know how I felt when I found out you and Amanda kissed...I know how much it hurt and how angry I was. I won't say let's pretend it never happened, but let's agree to not let it happen again, huh?" She reached up to rest her fingers on his upper arm, his own hand still on hers. She offered him a smile and was rewarded with a snicker. "What?"
"We must either be verdammten sexy or have some sort of mutant pheremone issues-everyone keeps wanting to kiss us."
"Or hit us," she giggled before saying "Ow!"
"Mein Katzchen," he sighed fiercely, pulling her to him in a hard, one-armed embrace, careful of her nose. "We are going to have the most interesting stories to tell our children, ja?"
"Mmmm," she responded, closing her eyes as she pressed her ear against his chest. "So long as we don't tell them _everything _ we do!"
"Not even I'm that liberal," he said, stroking her hair. "I had an interesting talk with Father Dominic," he segued. "He said that maybe I'm being too hard on myself."
"I think I like this priest."
Kurt's chuckle vibrated against her ear as he said, "I've been thinking a lot about it and if a priest says I'm too...intense...about this, then it must be true. No offense to you, Schatz." He took her murmur as acceptance and continued. "I can still keep my promise not to...be together...while not causing myself a shtemptemper."
"How do you mean?" she asked, tilting her face to look at him.
"Well, I've sort of...modified things a bit. Hugging and holding hands is okay, but nothing more together...and I've sort of decided that I can...um..." He made some vague gesture with his broken arm.
"Take matters into hand?" she asked archly. "Love yourself? I got a million of these, you know..."
"That'll do," he sighed, embarrassed. "At least according to what the Church teaches now, it's not a sin..."
"Was it ever?" she asked with a taint of amusement. "At least you won't be so...blue."
"Kitty!" They were interrupted by a knock on her door. "Why aren't they all at school?" he sighed into her hair.
"Because they have almost an hour before they need to be there," she said, disentangling herself and heading to the door. "It's probably Jubilee...oh, don't let me forget! I've got something to tell you!" she said as she pulled the door open. "Hey, lookee. I'm psychic."
Jubilee shifted her weight from side to side, looking slightly guilty. "Um, Kitty? I've figured something out. A way to make things right and square all corners."
"I don't like the sound of this," Kitty sighed. "Look, after school, we can all sit down and have a talk, okay? Like adults."
Remy appeared, obviously coming from his room and looking harried. "Jubilation, you don' need ta do dis..." He looked away when he saw Kitty, her injury making him feel pangs of guilt. "Kitty's right...jus' wait till later."
"No," Jubilee shook her head, looking past Kitty at Kurt for just a moment before returning her attention to the girl. "This all started because Evan kissed me. Kitty, I want to kiss Kurt."
"Nein!" Kurt said loudly, pushing forward to stand even with Kitty, just outside the door. "No offense, Jubilee, but nein!"
Jubilee looked disappointed for a moment, then a smile touched her lips. "Okay, if not you then..." She grabbed Kitty by the shoulders and dragged her forward. Kitty uttered a squeak of protest as Jubilee pressed her mouth over hers. Kurt and Remy stared, agog, as Jubilee bent Kitty back theatrically, true to her showy nature, and deepened the kiss. Kitty never closed her eyes once, staring in a strange mix of horror and disorientation at Jubilee. After what seemed like forever but was really a moment, Jubilee righted Kitty, broke the kiss and smiled. "Okay. All's done. We're happy." She patted Kitty on the head, ignoring the girl's stunned, pale expression and turned to Remy. "There. We're all even now, okay? The last person I kissed wasn't Evan, Kurt got a free show to get him through Lent, and we've all kissed Kitty. My work here is done!" She waved at Kurt and skipped down the hall to go downstairs.
Kitty regained her facilities to see Kurt and Remy staring at her, their expressions indescribable. Gathering her dignity around her like a cloak, she raised her chin and said, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful2," she said, turning on her heel and shutting the door behind her.
Kurt looked at Remy and blinked twice. "So..."
"So..."
"First dibs on the downstairs shower!"
1 Famous actor (he was in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE if you need a reference, lol) who had quite a large nose.
2 Tag line from a commercial for hair dye. I can't remember what brand...*shrug *