Paradigm Shift

PARADIGM SHIFT CHAPTER THIRTY TWO (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), I think I found Steed. He's been...*sigh * packed... sorry 'bout that... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are good and nice and wonderful for archiving. :) ProPhile is a very busy smutbunny and kicking himself for suggesting a plot devoid of much smut. :p Readers/Reviewers: Did you know you can't pack Killer Kitties (tm) and their Minions (tm) ? Apparently, there's international laws against vengeful felines being shipped...



"So..."
"So."
"Yep..."
"Yep."
Rogue sighed and looked around the boathouse distractedly. "Look," she finally said, "I don't know what we're doing here...we didn't talk much even when I was with y'all..."
Toad shrugged. "I'm kinda waitin' for ya to jump me or somethin'."
Rogue felt the expression on her face become incredulous. "Do you _want _ me to?"
"Hell no!" Toad stood and began pacing the length of the wood paneled den. "What am I doing here?" he muttered to himself more than her.
"I brought you back here..."
"Why?"
"Well," she said slowly, not quite sure herself, "for a couple of reasons..." She stretched her legs out in front of her, suggesting nonchalance. She heard him pause in his pacing and sighed inwardly as she realized it was put up or shut up time. "Me an' Jubes an' Amara were goin' to go put the fear of God into Lance last night, for what he did to Kitty..."
"And you got lost."
"We weren't lost! We were taking the long way!"
"That's not what I heard..."
"Don't make me touch you." Rogue turned in her seat to glare at the other teenager and found him much closer than she expected, staring back at her with oddly luminous eyes. "You know," she said suddenly, "I think I left some soda in the fridge from last time we were all out on the lake...you want one?"
He watched, vaguely amused, as she practically leapt off the couch and crossed into the small kitchen and began rummaging through the refrigerator. "Sure...something with caffeine," he said, hopping over the back of the couch and settling in against one arm. "So, if you're not gonna tell me why I'm here, I'll guess. You want to know about Mags. Well, can't help ya. We haven't seen him in forever and a day and none of us feel much like lookin', not even that Remy guy he sent to watch us."
"I couldn't give a rat's ass about Magneto," she said plainly, tossing him a can of soda and opting to sit on the coffee table rather than next to him on the couch. "I don't really know why I dragged you back here..."
Staring at the top of his soda can, he said quietly, "I wasn't goin' to the river. I was avoidin' home. I can't stand it there no more." He opened the soda dejectedly, sighing at the faint hissing, popping sound that resulted from the action. "It's fucking nuts there. I left somethin' like that to come here an' I'll be damned if I stay there jus' cause I can't go back to Brooklyn."
Rogue frowned. She felt a foreign tugging in her chest and was not sure if it was pity or caring or something else entirely. "We used to talk some, didn't we?" she asked, seemingly out of the blue. "I mean...before I came here, you an' me, we used to talk to each other..."
"A little." He took a sip of his drink and made a face. "What the Hell is this?"
"Ah...strawberry kiwi. Sorry."
"I may never forgive you for that," he said, shuddering in exaggeration.
"Hey, I got pineapple. I don't even *like * pineapples. Feel honored I gave you the good one." She smirked and took a sip of her rather tart soda.
"Rogue, what're we doing?"
"You've asked me that." She sighed again and stood, towering over him for a moment before sitting next to him. "Okay, here's the deal...and if you laugh at me I swear to God..." she let the threat hang, unspoken, in the air for a moment before she continued. "Me an' Evan ain't really together any more..."
"You and bonehead were an item?" he laughed, nearly spilling his soda. "I thought all that weirdness at the carnival was a one off or something. A pity date!"
"Shut up...he's not so bad..." she mumbled, blushing. Toad snorted and earned a sharp kick to his ankle for his trouble. "He's not. He's just not...well, he's not for me is all."
"Okay...."
Rogue made a frustrated noise aet het her head fall back against the couch. "I so suck at this. Okay, here's the thing. Want to go out sometime?"
"Wha...." Toad stared into his soda can for a minute. "Are you sure this is pop? I think I'm hallucinating..."
"Forget it!" she said, embarrassed. "I didn't say anything. I'm gonna make a sandwich. Want one?"
Feeling slightly vertiginous, he got up and followed her into the kitchen. In near silence, he watched her make a cheese sandwich and throw it onto a paper plate in sheer frustrated embarrassment, setting to work on another before he finally spoke. "Um, why did you ask me that?"
"Because I figured you were hungry since neither of us has eaten since we got here..." she said, obviously avoiding the real question. She could feel him staring at her and sighed roughly, stabbing the mayonnaise with the plastic knife she had been using before she turned to face him. "Because I wanted to. Someone pointed something out to me and it made me think that maybe...well, I'd like to get to know you better."
"Why?"
"Why not?"
Toad spread his arms and said, "Have we met? Hello? I'm _Toad _! I spit slime! I'm green!"
"You're not green..."
"Green_ish _! I eat bugs!"
"Yeah, you should stop that...that's kinda gross," she said, feeling safer when he was being defensive.
"Rogue!"
"Just say no, you don't want to go out. That's fine...it's not the first time I've been turned down and it won't be the last," she said, feigning a carelessness she did not feel.
Toad made a sound somewhere between a growl and a sigh, rubbing his eyes in a gesture of frustration before he said, "It's not that I don't want to go out with you it's just...."
"Okay," she broke in, "you're kind of green, you do that whole slime thing...and the bug thing is pretty nasty. But look at me..."
Toad frowned. "There's nothing wrong with you!"
She smirked then, the expression broadening into a smile. "Yeah, I am pretty hot, huh?" He stared at her for a moment before bursting into laughter. "What?" she said, joining him. "I'm not?" He was laughing too hard to respond and she poked him in the side. "It wasn't that funny..."
He nodded. "I know...but this whole thing is fucked up. I'm in a boathouse which is nicer than the Boardinghouse ever could be, you're making sandwiches and you asked me out...it's fucking surreal..."
She shrugged. "Surreal would be if Jean and Scott got married or something. This isn't surreal." She was still smiling though as she hopped up to sit on the counter. "So is that a yes or a no?"
Toad fell quiet, sobering quickly. "I...uh..."
"No, it's not some dare, no, I don't want to know about Magneto, and no, I am not trying to get you to join the X Men. I just want to go to a movie or something with you."
"In public?"
"Yes, you dork, in public."
"Really?"
"Toad..."
"Okay. Yeah. Okay..." He was pretty sure he could not feel his knees as the reality of everything sank in. "I'd...I'd love to go out with you sometime."
"Tonight?" She slid off the counter and found herself much closer than expected. They stood, barely two inches apart, as she waited for his answer. He nodded slowly, seemingly holding his breath as she looked down at him, the slight difference in their heights enough to necessitate him looking up at her. "Okay...tonight then," she said quietly. "Seven?" He nodded again, swaying closer almost against his will. Her hands shot out to steady him, holding him still much closer than before, his exposed skin dangerously close to hers. "Careful," she murmured, feeling the rise and fall of his breath against her where their fabric-covered skin touched.
"Sorry," he muttered, trying to pull away but finding himself held nearly painfully in her grasp. "Rogue...we can't..." his protest was cut off by a swift movement on her part. She unwound part of the diaphanous scarf from around her neck and covered his mouth with it, pressing her lips against his through the barrier. He stood stock-still for a long moment before he found it within himself to kiss her back, slowly relaxing into the embrace. Tentatively, he rested a hand on her shoulder, leaning into the kiss, when a shrieking claxon broke the silent afternoon. "I didn't do anything!" he cried, leaping away from her and clinging briefly to the kitchen wall.
"Shit!" Rogue snapped. "Someone's broke through security!"


Pietro lay panting on the floor, Lance's knee on his chest, pressing the air from his lungs. "What the fuck you think you're playing at?" Lance growled for what had to be the third time in five minutes, exerting more pressure against the slighter teenager. Pietro grimaced and shoved hard against his assailant, dislodging him enough to escape from beneath his knee. Wordlessly, he scrambled to his feet and aimed a hard kick at Lance's ribs, sending him sprawling.
"Fuck you, Alvers, in this world and the others!" He grabbed the packet that Magneto had sent him for an turned to run from the room, only to slam into a rather large, immovable barrier. "Fred!" he gasped, having nearly forgotten about the other resident of the boardinghouse. "Move it!"
"What's goin' on in here?" he asked in his rumbling voice, shoving Pietro back with one hand. "You two are fightin' again..."
"Fred," Pietro said, nearly desperately, "I have to go! I need to get somewhere now!"
Lance rose to his feet and stalked forward. "You ain't gotta go anywhere!" he snarled. "What've you got in your hands?" He grabbed for the sheaf of papers Pietro held but met empty air as they were jerked away, faster than he could see.
Fred frowned deeply. "You two are fightin' an' those two women are all weird..."
"Women?" Pietro and Lance asked at once. "Wanda and Rogue?" Lance asked, halfway hoping the two had returned. "Tabby?"
"Nope...some scary lookin' blue lady and a tiny girl. Looks like she got dipped in yellow paint or somethin'." Fred shrugged. "Figured you recruited 'em or somethin'."
Pietro groaned. Mystique he knew from the description. The other, he had not idea and did not care to. "Move, Fred. Please."
"Yes, move Fred. Please." The cool voice made them all pale. Fred lumbered to one side and revealed Magneto standing behind him, looking vaguely disgusted to be in the boardinghouse. He held Mystique in one hand, his thumb pressing against her windpipe, making her choke slowly. On the floor some distance away, Jubilee lay in a heap. "You three disappoint me greatly. These two were far from subtle and yet, you did not even realize they were in your own home, your headquarters... I am deeply, deeply, disappointed." He regarded them all with disdain, his eyes lighting on Pietro. "I see you have retrieved what I sent you for. Good." He held out his free hand as Mystique struggled weakly in his grasp.
Pietro nodded, somewhat relieved. _At least it's the Magneto from my world... _ "Here, sir..." he handed the papers over without hesitation.
Magneto nodded. "Good boy. Gather the girl and follow me. You two," he said, addressing Fred and Lance, "would do well to be more obedient to Remy. I sent him here for a reason..."
Fred frowned. "He ain't here. He an' Pietro left...heeeeeey...how'd you get back so fast?" he said, cocking his head at the blond teenager.
A flicker of annoyance and mild fearfulness crossed Magneto's face and he dropped Mystique to a gasping heap on the floor. "Pietro, quit dawdling. Gather the girl and come with me. Lance, you are to find Remy for me. Immediately." He bent and picked up Mystique, the strain bringing white lines to the corners of his mouth as he tried not to let his recent weakness show. Pietro followed him, picking Jubilee's slight form up easily. "Now, Lance, " Magneto ordered over his shoulder as he marched slowly down the stairs. Things were not going as planned.