Constant Craving

CONSTANT CRAVING CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather is supergroovy and Ted is her loveslave. And he won't dance, no matter what I say...;) Kristen and Lucas are thankful for that...they had a run-in with Ted and the shower and it just didn't end well... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink get extra special Cornish pixies bearing banners of praise and thanks for archiving. :) Vampyre: I'd check on Murdoc if I were you...he's been too quiet lately... Readers/Reviewers: Okay. Ducks are in little tuxedos and fishnets (let me tell ya, the drakes were kind of pissed about that one), the Killer Kitties (tm) are in camouflage for some reason, and the platypi are, as we say down here, nekkid. Oy. Happy Chanukah, ya'll...(Just waiting for Yule, I am...)


Storm stirred her cup of tea idly, watching the honey melt from the spoon as she plumbed the liquid depths. She felt awkward about having tried to talk to the girls but at the same time a strange relief. _It would be rather nice to have female confidants every once in a while...I don't want to have deep, in depth sex talks or anything, but another female or two to talk with...someone who doesn't make a face when I say the word "cramps "bl "bloated." _ With a resigned sigh, she took a sip of her hot drink and nearly started as Jean sauntered in, a green face mask drying on her face and hair in a towel turban. "New look?"
"Jubilee's on a beauty kick...you should see what she has on..." Jean spoke tight-lipped, tr not not to crack the mask and incur the wrath of Jubilee.
"I'm almost afraid to ask..." Storm smirked into her tea, a sense of equilibrium returning. "What on earth is that between your toes?"
"Cotton balls...she's painting nails, too..." She made a small "aha" noise as she found a straw in the silverware drawer, also the repository for fast food menus and random bits of carry-out detritus. With a satisfied nod, she popped the top of a can of ginger ale and sipped through the straw, sighing. "Thirsty," she said after a moment.
"Jubilee does like to keep you talking..." Storm said with a trace of humor. Logan ambled in then, looking slightly worse for wear. "Hurricane Wagner has made landfall, I take it?"
Logan shook his head tiredly. "You don't know the half of it...What the Hell is on your face, Red?"
"Avocado and honey..."
"Girls," Logan snorted. "You know they are all three like different versions of Kurt's moods? The little one was about to drive me bonkers on the trip up..." he sighed again. "I'm going out for Mexican...that avocado shit is making me hungry. You guys want?" Jean shook her head and made a noise that sounded like "diet" while Storm raised a brow. Logan smirked. 'Think about it...I'm gonna go get my keys."
Jean bit her lip. Kitty had said she wanted nothing to do with Jean's sudden urge to play Cupid because "it would be, like, so creepy! Logan's my father, almost!" Jubilee had thrown herself full out into the plan, saying that she needed something to do if they weren't going to be holding out on the guys anymore. _Now or never...may as well get the ball rolling. _ "Storm," she said, not even bothering to prevent the mask from cracking anymore, "could you make me a of of tea?"
Storm looked at her narrowly. Jean was not the type to ask someone to do something if she could do it herself. "Sure...something wrong?"
"Er...nails are wet!" she said, holding up the glossy red digits. Storm cocked her head to one side in regard but got up and started the kettle anyway. "So...how are...things?"
"_Things _ are fine. Why do you ask?" Storm knew Jean meant her relationship with Logan, she knew Jean had seen her mental picture of their throes of passion. _Maybe I don't want a female confidant...this is very uncomfortable. _
Jean accepted the cup of tea from her and added honey, setting the tea bag aside before she answered. "Well, I just wondered because you seem like you have something on your mind. Oh, I'm not scanning! I promise!" she added hastily, seeing Storm's cross expression. "And I'm sorry about last night...I didn't mean to see that picture you sent."
Storm sighed. "I'm sure that's my own fault. I should keep a better reign on my thoughts sometimes..."
Jean wanted to get Storm out before Logan came back so she could get started. _Checking...okay. He's still upstairs. Can't find his keys... _ A little twist of the ether sent key keys skittering from where they had fallen to the side of his dresser when he took his clothes off the night before to the most distant corner under his bed. "I think I saw Todd out in your rose garden earlier...is he intted ted in plants, do you know?"
Storm sat up straight. "_My _ rose garden? Todd Tolensky? In _my _ rose garden? I'll...I'll be right back." She quickly stood and walked calmly from the room, her steps becoming staccato as soon as she cleared the door.
Jean allowed herself a smile and sent Logan's keys sliding into view again. After a moment, she heard him come down the stairs. "Okay, you decide if you...hey, where's Storm?"
"Rose emergency, I think." Jean shrugged, standing. She held out the untouched cup of tea and said, "she made this cup of tea, though...it's cold out and you need to stay warm."
"Jean, I'm pretty impervious to cold, you know..." Logan took the proffered cup anyway. "She made this?"
_Let him think she did it for him... _ "Yep...ugh. My face is setting. I'd better go clean this off." She walked splay-toed to the door before turning and saying, "You know, I don't think she had a coat on when she went out there...you might want to take her jacket out to her, since you'll be passing the garden on the way to the garage anyway." Jean shrugged as if she did not care one way or another and padded into the rec room before levitating herself just far enough so that her feet did not touch the floor and drifting up the stairs. _And Cupid takes the field...Logan's up at bat and Storm is ready to receive... _

Kitty wanted to sink through the floor. _If I feel this bad, what must Kurt feel like? _
"Ist sie immer so ruhig? - Deinen Briefen nach hätte ich sie mir lauter vorgestellt."1 Katja asked worriedly. Kurt had managed to get his pants on and herd the girls out the door and into the downstairs study where they were scattered among the chairs and end tables.
"Sie ist aufgeregt2," he sighed. "Kitty, you okay?"
"I'm just, like, wishing for a meteor to hit me now..."
"What are you so embarrassed about? My sisters just saw me naked!" Kurt felt torn between laughing and hiding. "Speaking of sisters...what are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you. In fact..." Kurt did smile then, a broad grin spreading across his face as he swept first Erika then Katja into his arms.
"What about me?" Anja asked plaintively.
"I can't hug you from across the room!" Kurt said laughingly. Anja launched herself at him and was enveloped in a tight bear hug, eight arms and one tail making a Gordian knot of sibling affection and love. "Kitty, did you arrange this?" Kurt managed to free his neck from Erika's grasp and craned around to see his girlfriend, still sitting on the chaise lounge.
"Um...yeah. Kinda..." she shrugged sheepishly.
"Kinda?" Katja said with surprise. "Kurt, your girlfriend arranged the whole thing! She called Mama last week to make arrangements to send us here and kept the whole thing secret from you! Doesn't she get a hug, too?"
"I think he was going to give her more than a hug when we got here..." Anja sniggered.
"Iiih! Jungen-Bakterien3!" Erika giggled. She pulled out of the embrace to poke Kurt in the back and sing-song, "Kurt hat 'ne Freundin! Na, na na naa naa!"4
Kitty groaned. Kurt merely smirked and said, "Ja, and one day you will have another sister, so be nice!" He chanced a glance at Kitty and found her blushing hotly. "Vas? Like you don't think about it?"
"Kurt..." she sighed.
"Ja, ja...I know. We'll talk later!" Freeing himself completely, he asked "Are you girls hungry?"
"Oh! I have a cake!" Kitty said, perking up considerably. Apparently, all four Wagner siblings shared the same love of sweets judging my the near-identical looks of anticipation on their faces at the mention of cake. Kitty was buried under the sound of excited voices, eager to share news that had passed since they had last seen each other as Kitty led them to the kitchen. Todd was there, hunched over a bowl of cold spaghetti and looking sad. "Todd," Kitty murmured.
"What the Hell..." he said, looking up sharply as the cadre of Wagners entered, chattering in German. "There's four of 'em?"
Kurt rolled his eyes at the sight of Todd in his bathrobe. "Äh, das ist Toad. Nicht anfassen! Du könntest Warzen bekommen5"
Kitty mumbled, "Rogue seems to be pretty wart-free," before Kurt nudged her in the ribs.
Erika stepped forward and peered at the slightly hunched boy. "Why are you called Toad? Your parents did not name you that, did they?"
"Nope..." a slow grin spread over Todd's face. Before Kurt could pull his sister back, Todd slapped her wrist with his tongue.
"Cool!" Erika crowed. "That's better than Kurt's mutation!"
Todd snickered. "Wanna see what else I can do?"
"Todd, don't!" Kitty cried as he pushed his char back.
"Ah, I ain't gonna get hurt!"
Kurt, still smarting from his sisters' assessment of his mutation, groaned, "Todd, quit showing off..."
"Let him show us!" Katja said excitedly. "This is cool!"
Kitty and Kurt leaned wearily against each other as Todd spat a wad of his goop onto his hand and showed the girls how it was viscous and could harden. "Now," he grinned happily. "I think Rogue's out of her room...If you'll excuse me..." With a leap, he was out of the room and the Wagner girls crowded the door way to see him carom off the rec room wall and leap again to the stairs.
Kitty sighed. "That can't be good for him to do right after getting out of the hospital..."
"Well, he seems to be doing okay..." Kurt shrugged. "He's not so bad, you know."
Kitty could not help smiling. "I heard you guys were making nice..."
"Ja," he looked over to where his sisters were still crowded, talking excitedly. "Does this mean we're...um...good again?"
Kitty bit her lip. "We'll talk." With a hasty peck on Kurt's cheek, she ducked into the fridge without a second thought and came back out holding the cake. "What?" Three pairs of eyes were looking at her in stunned amazement. "Something on my nose?"
"You phased, Katzchen," Kurt said, raising his eyebrow. "They've never seen that before."
"Oh...er...sorry."
Katja breathed, "How can you not think that's the coolest thing on the planet, Kurt?"
Anja nodded. "Does everyone here do stuff like that?"
Kurt shrugged. "We all have...gifts...as the Professor calls them. You'll meet everyone tomorrow...hey, how long are you down for?"
Kitty plopped a large slice of cake in front of him. "A little over a week...the rest of their fall break." In total disregard for her diet, Kitty joined them for chocolate cake. She felt Kurt's eyes on her and each time she checked, he was looking at her with a shining affection that made her stomach tremble. _This is good...this feels right. Which can only mean there's big bad mojo6 on the way... _

Rogue thought she had made it out to the gazebo unnoticed. Huddled against the cold and darkening evening with her wool coat drawn tight around her, she rested her head against one of the wooden posts and stared into the woods rimming the Institute. "Hey, babycakes..."
"Todd..." _God, help me... _
He came out of the darkness grinning fit to burst. "That name bother you?" he asked.
"Babycakes? Eh. Better than honey. Who wants to be called bee vomit?" she asked, sounding flat.
"What's wrong with you?" Todd sat close, but not touching her.
Rogue sighed again and held up a gloved hand. "It's okay. I'm covered." When he did not take her hand, she reached for his, only to feel his muscles tense ae toe touched him. "Afraid of me now?"
"No, it isn't that! I swear...It's just..." Todd sighed and slid his fingers between hers, drawing his hand to his mouth and kissing the back in a chivalrous gesture she would have expected from Kurt but coming from Todd, it seemed t. t. "I feel really bad about making you freak out the other day."
"You mean when you died? Or when you drained yourself? Or when you gave me so many memories that I wasn't sure where you began and I ended?" Rogue's voice broke. "I wanted to shake you until your eyes rolled back, you know that? _Never scare me like that again, damn it! _ " she shouted.
Todd's eyes were wide. "My memories?" he whispered.
"I know, Todd...I know about Brooklyn, I know about the Boardinghouse, I know about...about your dad." She scooted closer and laid her head on his shaking shoulder. "If it makes you feel better, I accidentally slapped Beast with my tongue...how the hell do you keep that thing from falling out of your mouth?"
Todd sighed. "It just gets that way when I want it to...it isn't like I have a reel in my throat with yards of tongue on it." He let his head fall back against the railing and asked softly, "You don't hate me?"
"Of course not," she sighed. "I was just scared as Hell..." _Should I tell him about Beast's theory? I don't want him to panic and think I'm hinting about marriage or something... _ She settled for a partial truth. "Todd...Beast may have found why I was able to touch you."
"What?" He sat bolt upright and grabbed her by her shoulders. "Can you do it again? Was it a fluke? What? Tell me!"
Rogue smiled faintly and said, "Well, it looks like it's tied to um, girl things. And I may be able to touch once a month, but only for a little while."
Todd colored slightly. "Oh...it's tied to your, um...ya know...monthly..."
"Yeah, I know..." she laughed softly. She pulled him back to her and sighed as he settled against her. Even through her coat, she could feel the heat off his body. "Are you in a bathrobe?"
"Um, yeah...finished freaking out Kurt's sisters and I saw you walk across the foyer so I came out after you...didn't want to lose you in the dark so I just dashed out."
"Let's go inside before you freeze...the cold can't be good for you." She drew him to his feet and they headed across the grass, followed by an unseen figure.
Todd shrugged. "Eh. I just slow down a lot. I think it's the toad thing...you know...amphibious...cold blood..."
Rogue laughed again. "Sweetie, your blood is _anything _ but cold!" His startled "eep" was cut off by the closing door.
The figure that had followed them broke free from the shadows and glared up at the mansion, fingering the baggie in it's coat pocket. The garage was a dark blot on the mansion, the exterior lights not yet on. _Good _ , they thought, _makes it easy...Kurt is going to Mass tomorrow and he'll invariably drive the Jeep...This is child's play. _ The garage door was unlocked and the person slid it up far enough to slide under. The array of cars before them gave pause. _Better safe than sorry... _ Methodically, they put pinches in each car from the baggie, saving the bulk of it for the Jeep. Placing the baggie of marijuana under the front seat, the broke the taillight on the way by. _Hello, traffic stop... _

Tabby's nose was red with cold as she shook her bottle of orange juice in the kitchen and turned to walk by Scott. "Hey," he nodded, trying to be nice. She snarled and continued on. Bitch...huh. Garage door's open...wonder what she was doing out there?


1 Is she always this quiet? From your letters, I thought she'd be louder...
2 She's upset.
3 Ew! Boy germs!
4 Kurt has a girlfriend! Neener neener neener!
5 Ah. This is Toad. Don't touch him! You'll get warts!
6 MIBII moment...