Fractals

Fractals Chapter Thirty Two (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… *shimmy * You’re missed dancing! InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are loverly and nice for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile: More smut soon. Ish. Morgan: *GLOMP * Readers/Reviewers: If you have cold weather, SEND IT TO SOUTH TEXAS! *ahem* Thank you.


Dinner seemed to go well enough, to the casual observer. Only the participants felt the undercurrent of nervous tension that ran between the tables, weaving it’s way into conversation and manners. Rogue shifted her silverware around her plate and glanced at the new girl, sitting across from here. “It’s usually not so quiet,” she said as if the girl had asked her a question. “We’re just…um…”
“New semester blues,” Lance muttered around a mouthful of potatoes. “We’re moping.”
The red haired girl raised her eyebrows. “I just thought you guys were really quiet. Is it because of those pictures?”
Rogue did her Southern upbringing proud. She set her fork down, dabbed her lips with a napkin and replied in a long, slow drawl, “We’re not at liberty to discuss that, sugar.”
Lance snorted. “Sugar? Damn, Rogue, you’re weird.”
Todd sniffed defensively. “Shut up, yo. Don’t talk ‘bout my woman like that.”
Rogue rolled her eyes and leaned forward. “It’s a new semester so we’re all kind of stressed. You know, all summer, no work, no worries.” She winced as Amara had the gall to laugh bitterly at that. “ANYway,” Rogue ground out, “sorry your first day here is so weird.”
“Oh, yeah,” Todd piped up. “I want my snake back from Paige!” At the pointed looks shot his way, he shrugged. “What? He was cold so I brought him in! Then Paige and Theresa go scarin’ him… poor little guy. He’s gonna need therapy!”
Lance elbowed him sharply. “Dude, I told you, no snakes in the bedroom!”
Rogue rolled her eyes as the argument degraded from there. “Sorry,” she muttered, gesturing to Lance and Todd. “They’re best friends,” she added, hoping that would explain everything.
The new girl nodded. “So…Rogue, huh? Why’d your parents name you that?” She raked her eyes over the goth teenager and asked, “Or is it a nickname?”
Rogue’s expression became a mask. “My parents didn’t name me Rogue and it ain’t a nickname. It’s my name.” She stabbed her green beans brutally with her fork. “Sometimes it’s best you don’t ask things around here,” she said darkly. “Not everyone’s a talker.”
Amara saved the girl from any sort of response she might have made to Rogue, though she did it unintentionally. “What did you say your name was?” she asked, running her finger around the rim of her water glass.
“Jenny,” the girl replied. “Jenny.” She began to fidget under Amara’s intense scrutiny. “And you are…?”
“Amara,” Lance said plainly as Amara took a breath to spout her full imperial name and title. “Just…Amara.”
Jenny, Rogue, Todd and Lance all winced as Amara shoved herself away from the table and glared down at her boyfriend. “Thank you, Lance, I had all but forgotten how naked I am here among the peasants!”
There was a tense, silent few moments after Amara gathered her dishes and swept away to the kitchen before Todd asked, trying to lighten the mood, “So, Jen, what’s your power, huh? Sort of the ice breaker around here…”
Jenny turned bright red and began to closely examine her plate. “Um, I’d rather not say. It’s sort of…um…”
“I understand,” Lance said brightly. “You got a dumb one, didn’t you? Like the ability to turn paper into wax or something.”
“Uh, no…” Jenny glanced up at Rogue frantically, but found no help from that quarter. The other teenager was pushing her dinner around morosely, lost in some dark introspection that threatened to radiate across the table and consume everyone in her path. “It’s… it’s not that.”
Todd bounced in his seat, his mouth full of mashed potatoes. “I know! It’s growing fur in your ears when it’s cold out!”
“No,” Lance said a bit more loudly, “it’s something REALLY dumb, like turning plaid!”
“Children,” Storm’s voice cut across the chatter. Lance and Todd jumped. She had come up behind them quietly and was now standing with one hand each of their backs. “The meeting has been rescheduled,” she informed them, sparing a glance to Jenny. “Please inform the others who were to attend before the end of dinner. Do it quietly,” she added, patting them on the back sharply. “Then come see me about your botany tests.”
Jenny perked up considerably at this. “Meeting? Is there a meeting tonight? About what? Was I supposed to go? Do I need to bring a pen and paper?”
Rogue shoved her plate away and leaned across the table to pin Jenny with a look. “No, you weren’t supposed to go, it’s none of your business and apparently it’s been canceled.” On that note, she stood, took up her plate, silverware and glass, and departed the table on a wave of dark mood.
“Dude,” Lance said, “your girlfriend is PMSing big time.”
“Tell me about it,” he sighed, then grinned. “You don’t know the half.”
“Ew. Shut up. Just…ew.” Lance shook himself theatrically and turned to Jenny. “Rogue’s just touchy. Kind of. She’s all pissy about this mutants in the paper thing.”
“Oh…” Jenny smiled brightly. “I heard about that. Pictures and everything!”
“Yeah,” Lance sighed. “Pictures and everything.”
“Well, isn’t that a good thing?” she asked, standing to follow Lance and Todd as they cleared their places at the table. “I mean, now everyone can see you guys for what you are and be, like, all impressed and stuff.”
Lance and Todd exchanged glances. “Yeah, right,” Todd snorted. “And they can be like all anti-mutant and stuff. And then we can be like all dead and stuff.”
Jenny protested this. “I don’t think so! I mean, who would want to kill a mutant! It’d be like… killing a unicorn or something!”
Todd stopped and turned to face her. “You know, you’re not real bright, are you? You’re talkin’ like this ain’t gonna affect you at all. You’re one of us, sweetcheeks. Think about that next time you wanna run your mouth off ‘bout how cool it would be if the world knew all about us.”
Jenny stood in the middle of the hall between the kitchen and the dining room as Todd and Lance stalked away. “I have,” she muttered. “You don’t know the half of it.”