Secret Bonding

A/N: I am *sooo* very sorry I haven't updated this story in such a long time. I deeply apologize to those who have been following this, and waited for an update. Anyway, here it is! I hope you'll like it.

The epilogue is coming soon, so be patient.

Chapter 4

Raven didn’t think she had ever felt as melancholy and broken as she did when she went to mansmansion to see Rogue again, only two days after her last visit. That time she’d been in good spirits, but now she was no trace of such in her. This was it. Probably she’d never see Rogue again after this; at least not as a lover.

She left the Brotherhood lair in the morning, after having promised Erik she’d be back in the evening. Erik had been cold and distant ever since their confrontation a couple of days ago, but Raven didn’t really care. She didn’t exactly crave his intimacy at this point either.

“You are going to talk to her, and that’s all,” Erik had told her before she left. “Don’t get sentimental. Make sure the girl understands. You are not seeing her again after this. Do you understand, Raven?”

“Crystal,” she had replied, not showing him any of the emotions she felt.

Once she reached the X-mansion, she morphed into Bobby, who she knew had been Rogue’s boyfriend for a short while. Erik had clearly told her not to let anyone know she was there, and she wasn’t going to. This time she’d be very discrete.

Trying to look like a normal teenage boy, she took a deep breath before knocking on Rogue’s bedroom door. She was quite sure her lover was in there, because she hadn’t seen her anywhere else yet. Rogue had told her that she and Bobby were still friends, so she assumed he coming to see her was nothing unusual.

Rogue opened after a few secondsokinoking great as usual, wearing a short-sleeved black shirt, black jeans and her usual long gloves. Her long hair was pulled into a ponytail, but the sexy white streaks that Raven loved so much, were hanging loosely around her pretty young face.

“Bobby?” she asked with mild surprise when she saw her visitor. Despite that they were still friends, her ex boyfriend didn’t come to see her very often. Especially not alone.

Mystique quickly stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “It’s not Bobby, it’s me,” she said in her normal voice and morphed back into herself.

Rogue’s face burst into a happy smile when she saw her lover, and as usual she threw herself into Raven’s arms without hesitation.

“Hi!” she exclaimed, revelling in the heat and solidness of Mystique’s blue body, that she didn’t have to be afraid of hurting. “What are you doing here?”

Despite that it hurt, she had to catch Rogue’s arms and hold them steadily in place. She recalled what Erik had told her about not becoming sentimental, and she started to think it was a good piece of advice. It would be a lot easier if she didn’t.

“We have to talk,” she said seriously and sat down on Rogue’s bed. “Come here.”

The happy expression was instantly erased from Rogue’s face when she heard the grim tone in her lover’s voice. She also noticed the strained expression on Raven’s face, and started to fear something serious had happened.

“Raven, what’s wrong?” she asked anxiously and sat down next to Mystique, trying to catch the other woman’s eyes.

“Marie…” she began, not quite knowing how to continue. “There is something I must…tell you.”

“What?” Rogue asked confusedly.

Mystique knew it would hurt the girl, but still he figured being straightforward would be the easiest and least painful way to say it.

“I can’t see you anymore,” she told her shortly. “I came here to tell you that.”

At first Rogue’s face displayed no emotions, but after a few seconds of uncomfortable silence she gasped and started to shake her head, like she refused to believe what she’d just heard.

“Why?” she asked in a small voice. It mostly sounded like a whimper.

Raven sighed. “Erik came prying into my room, and found your emails in my computer. He knows. He told me I can’t see you anymore. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?!” Rogue snorted. “I can’t believe this! You do it because of *him*? *He* told you you can’t see me? Raven… I didn’t think you were so…weak!”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Mystique hissed with glowing eyes. “Erik did not “ask” me not to see you anymore. It was an order. He told me he’d kick me out if I didn’t do what he said. It’s not because I want to, but because I must!”

Rogue was still shaking her head. “Leave him,” she said harshly.

“I can’t do that,” Raven replied.

“Why not?”

“I just can’t, okay? Don’t ask that of me. I…I belong with Erik. I just… I can’t…”

“You can’t what? Live without him? Good God! Of course you can! Leave the stupid shit-head, and stay here instead. I am sure the professor would let you stay, if you talk to him…”

“Oh, sweet thing, you don’t understand…” Mystique sighed dramatically. “It’s just not that easy. I mean… He took care of me when I had no one else… He helped me, he protected me… he probably saved my life. I just can’t leave him. I’d be lost.”

She knew now she did not stay with Erik because of love, but because of safety and old habit. She knew he’d always be there for her in case she needed help, and in return he wanted her to be loyal to him.

“How can you do this to me?” Rogue asked, now with tears gleaming in her eyes. “Was it all just a game for you? Huh? Were you merely playing with me?”

“Of course not!” Raven objected hotly. “I care about you, Marie. I always have. I wanted to… give you a chance to…know what it’s like to…feel physical love, and I did. But…” She swallowed, dreading the reaction she would probably receive. “…but it wasn’t more than that. I know you don’t really love me. You just think you do, because I was your first.”

Rogue smiled a joyless smile. “Yes, Raven, you werefirsfirst,” she agreed. “My first and only, too. It’s not like I can seek comfort in someone else’s arms after you’ve left me,” she added acidly, and the words burned the very core of Raven’s soul.

“I am sorry…” she said again, because she couldn’t come up with anything better.

“Well, when you go back, can you please punch Magneto from me, and give him my regards? Tell him that if I ever see him again I will suck him dry. And don’t be sorry. It won’t make things better.”

“I know it won’t change anything, but at least you know how I feel,” Mystique said softly and gently placed her arm around her young lover’s shoulder, fearing Marie would throw it away, but she didn’t. “I came here because I wanted to tell you face to face. Or would you have preferred a phone call? Or an email? I thought this was the best way.”

Rogue just shrugged. “I don’t know. When are you leaving?”

“I promised Erik I’d be back this evening.”

Rogue glanced at her wall clock. It was 2:16 PM. “Well, I suppose that gives us a little time. Can we make love one last time? It will probably be my last chance to ever touch anyone.”

Raven sighed and stared down at her hands that lay in her lap. She should say no, and she knew that. Making love now would only make this a lot more difficult, and besides, Erik would not be happy if he found out. But how could he? she then thought. It’s not like he can smell it or anything.

“We mustn’t…” she murmured. “I should be leaving. The sooner the better.”

“Please? I don’t want our last time to end like this. Please…” The younger woman grasped her older lover’s blue hands and squeezed them. “Let it be something worth to remember,” she pleaded.

Mystique raised her head and looked into Rogue’s large brown eyes. Then she carefully extended her hand and seized her by the jaw. “We can’t,” she said.

“Oh yes, we can!” her lover exclaimed and pulled Raven into a rough, desperate kiss. “You can’t just leave me like this! Let’s enjoy each other one last time. Okay?”

“Alright,” Raven whispered.

Rogue leaned out and kissed Raven’s blue lips, exploring the cavern of her lover’s mouth with her hot little tongue. Mystique couldn’t help but moan into the kiss, and eagerly began sucking on Rogue’s tongue, countering with her own.

The girl’s hand gripped her left breast, rolling her nipple between her index finger and thumb. Rogue began to unbutton her own blouse with her other hand and then started wriggling out of her jeans. This would be their last time ever. She really had to make sure it would be perfect. Once she was undressed, she felt Raven’s long, skilful fingers slide in between her legs and make contact with her wet centre, and she moaned when those fingers found the small bundle of nerves hidden beneath her folds, which she had touched so many times herself, usually in bed at night, while thinking of her lover.

“Lie down,” Mystique instructed her, and made Rogue lie prone on the bed, her fingers not leaving the younger woman’s hot wet cavern for one second.

While sliding downwards, she kissed Rogue breasts, and briefly dipped her tongue in her lover’s belly button. Her skin was so soft, so white, so flawless… And so deadly. Raven was the only living person on the face of the earth who could touch that skin. To everyone else it was poison.

She eased Rogue’s thighs apart and the first touch of her tongue against the girl’s glistering, pink nether lips was intoxicating for them both. Rogue cried out in ecstasy and grabbed Raven’s hair almost forcefully, slamming her face against her crotch.

Mystique didn’t really mind it. She was used to rough partners and nothing Rogue did could actually hurt her. The girl’s small hands in her hair were nothing compared to the huge paws of the feral mutant Sabretooth, for example, which she had experienced a number of times.

She licked her lover’s sex, parting her labia with her tongue, and using one finger to add extra pressure to her clit. Rogue was moaning and squealing indiscriminately, her cries of passion loud enough to sound all over the mansion. Normally Raven would have told her to keep her voice down, as there was always a risk they would be discovered, but now she didn’t care.

Using her skilful tongue to lap at Rogue’s clit, she penetrated her vagina with two of her fingers, and slowly began to thrust them back and forth. The delicious friction made the young woman buck her hips, desperate for even more stimulation.

Mystique grinned up at her, and firmly held her hips down. “No, you don’t, sweet thing,” she said. “Let me do my work and just lie down and relax.”

Rogue whimpered in frustration. Often when Mystique said that it meant it would take long – too long, perhaps – before she’d reach her peak.

“Please, Raven… Please…” she breathed, stroking Mystique’s tousled red hair. “Make me come…”

“You sure you don’t wanna wait?”

“Yeah… Now. Please.”

“Okay.”

Raven began to pump her fingers in and out again, as she simultaneously nibbled at Rogue’s clit, now swollen and exposed, usually concealed beneath her warm, silky folds of flesh.

It didn’t long before the young woman climaxed, and pleasure, so intense it almost felt like pain, surged through her entire body, making her feel light-headed and heavy at the same time. She lay completely still for a few minutes, panting heavily, and waiting for her heart rate to return to normal. Her pulse certainly never went this high when she was running during gym classes!

Raven crawled up beside her, and threw a slim, yet heavy arm across her chest.

“So, was that good?” she asked with a slight, half-hearted smile.

“Good?! No, it was fucking fantastic!” Rogue panted. “Maybe it will make up for…some of the lonely nights that are awaiting me in my future,” she added then, almost having forgotten it was probably her last incredible orgasm ever.

“Oh sweet thing…” Mystique sighed, resting her forehead against Rogue’s temple. “I wish it weren’t so, I do, believe me…”

“I hate him…” Rogue whispered.

“Who?”

“Magneto. Wasn’t it enough that he tried to kill me? Does he have to take away everyone dear to me as well? Why, Raven? Why can’t he just…die!”

“Marie…” Raven tried. “That wasn’t very fair. You have people who care very much about you. You know I belong with Erik.”

“He took John, too…” Marie said sullenly.

“Erik didn’t “take” John,” Mystique explained. “John chose to go with Erik himself.”

“And you? Why do you go with him?”

“Because I have to. We’ve been through this, and you know my answer to that question.”

“You never gave me an answer. Not really,” Rogue reminded her.

Mystique sighed. She was thinking maybe her young lover was right in that. Really, why did she stay with Erik? Because that’s what everyone expected of her? Because she owed him that? Frankly, she didn’t know anymore.

“When will you leave?” Rogue asked, realizing she would get no answer from Raven to why Erik was so important to her.

“In a couple of hours, maybe… Until then, I’m all yours.”

Rogue smiled weakly, and rolled over, so she lay half-atop Raven, resting her chin on the older woman’s slim shoulder.

“I haven’t done you yet…” she said, once again claiming Raven’s lips, tasting her own juices of arousal on them.

“No, you haven’t…” Mystique agreed, returning her lover’s kiss.

But Rogue never had the chance to return the favour, or even to end the kiss properly, because suddenly the door to her room was thrown wide open, and Logan stood in the doorway, looking as though he’d just run a mile or two in cheetah-speed.

“Marie, what…” He didn’t get any further, before the words stuck in his throat.

The two lovers never really had time to understand what was going on, before Logan was already standing by their bed, and despite that Mystique’s reflexes normally could impress just about anyone, she had no time to react now. With a ferocious growl, Logan tore her off the bed and away from Marie, sending her flying into the nearest wall with an audible crash.

Raven could feel her head smashing into the plaster, and after that everything went dark for a few seconds, and she fell to the floor, slumped in a heap of normally graceful, blue limbs. She didn’t have time to rest for long. Logan seized her by the throat with one hand, and extracted his claws on the other, which he then put to Mystique’s throat.

“What were you doin’ with her?!” he snarled in her face, looking wild and furious. His nostrils were distended, his eyes large and bulbous, almost looking like they were about to pop out of their sockets, and his lips were pulled back in a feral grimace, exposing his small, but sharp and fully visible canines.

Logan pressed his deadly adamantium-claws even closer to her throat. “What were you doing, you sick fuck?” he repeated, tightening his hold of her to the point she almost couldn’t breathe.

“I…was…” Mystique murmured, still dizzy from the blow to her head, and quite unable to understand how she could have gotten herself such a predicament.

Marie was screaming now. To begin with, she clutched the sheets to her nude body, and simply gasped in terror, but when she had come to her senses, she started screaming at Logan.

“Logan, stop!” she cried. “Stop it! Let her go! You hear me?! Stop!”

“Marie, get out of here!” Logan hissed in reply, not taking his eyes off the blue woman, still firmly held in his grip. “I’ve got her. Get out, Marie. Go get Cyke and Storm.”

“Logan, no!” Marie said. “She hasn’t done anything! Let her go, right now! You’re hurting her!”

Logan snorted in confusion and disbelief, like he really couldn’t believe what Rogue was asking him to do. Let her go? Was she insane?

“I can’t let her go!” he yelled. “She was fucking molesting you!”

“No, she was” Ro” Rogue cried in reply. “Logan, listen to me!”

But Logan wasn’t interesting in listening, it seemed. To him, Mystique was just an enemy, and there was no way in hell he was going to let her slip out of his hands once he had her caught. He pressed the tip of his middle-claw against the underside of her jaw, and almost took pleasure in watching her swallow nervously. One more millimetre, and he would pierce her blue skin and draw blood. Maybe he would even leaver her yet another scar.

Rogue jumped out of bed, not paying any attention to her nudity now. All she cared about was to stop Logan from doing something foolish and hurting her lover. She grabbed his forearm and pulled.

“Stop it!” she yelled. “Logan, stop it! You’re hurting her!”

Logan finally turned his head and looked at Rogue over his shoulder. She was naked, and that alone was enough to distract him, but he did not retract his claws, and maintained his firm hold of Mystique’s throat. He had had so many dreams about Marie, about her young, firm body, about touching her untouchable soft skin, and making gentle love to her in a large bed with silken sheets. He passed his eyes over her body – probably his one and only chance to see her without the clothing she always hid under – before turning back to give Mystique his undivided attention.

Logan was still looking feral, but the look in his eyes had lost some of its deadly gleam. He finally retracted his claws, but did not release his hold of the blue woman’s throat. Instead he slammed her against the wall once more, and with a certain satisfaction watched her grimacing in pain.

“What the hell were ya doin’ here?!” he hissed in her face, his fangs exposed.

“I…I came to see Marie…” Raven croaked, glancing over Logan’s shoulder at Rogue, who was still regarding the scene with a shocked and puzzled expression on her face. Her eyes were wide open, and she was clenching her teeth so hard Raven could see her facial muscles flexing under her skin.

“Let her go,” she said once more, but in a much calmer voice this time, sounding more like a plea than a command. “Logan, please. She hasn’t done anything to me.”

Logan moved his gaze between the two women, and wasn’t quite sure who to trust. The shapeshifter was shrewd, no doubt about it, and she was also as slippery as an eel, and there was a chance she’d slip out of his hands if he loosened his hold but a little.

Another thought suddenly occurred to Logan. If what Rogue said was true, then what the hell *had* they been doing?

Hesitantly he released Mystique, who clutched at her sore throat, gulping for air, clearly relieved. She made no sign to move, but Logan was still watching her closely.

“Please, Logan, get out,” Rogue said, now blushing furiously. She was aware that they had been caught in a *very* revealing position, and that she was now standing here before Logan, stark naked. Still, she stood her ground and resisted the urge to cover herself up with her arms. Instead, she let her hands hang along her sides, balled into fists.

“The fuck, Marie…” Logan said, in a mixture of shock and disbelief. “Were you… No, fuck me, you can’t mean that!”

The questions all seemed to hit Logan at the same time. Why Why? Mystique? When? Was Marie a…?

“Marie, were you two… I mean… are ya a dyke?”

“That’s none of your business!” Rogue hissed in reply, furious at the condescending word Logan used to describe what she shared with Raven. “Why did you even come here? Jesus, can’t you knock?!”

“What was I supposed to do?” Logan yelled in reply. “You were fucking screaming, so I had to come in and see how you… And when I saw her on top of you…What did you want me to think?! She’s… she’s an enemy!”

“She is my lover!” Marie said, emphasizing every word.

“I have to tell the professor,” Logan said. “This is… outrageous. I can’t believe you…”

“No!” Rogue exclaimed ferociously and grabbed Logan’s arm almost spasmodically. “Don’t do that! I’m not going to see her anymore. This was our last time. Logan, please don’t tell the professor, or anyone else. At least not before we can talk. Please, leave now. I’ll come by to see you later, okay? Please…until then…”

Logan looked hesitant, and passed his eyes over to Mystique, who was still standing leaned against the wall, silent, rubbing the back of her head with her hand.

“Okay,” he agreed after a few moments of hesitation. “But if she hurts you…”

“She won’t,” Rogue stated, and the tone of her voice was almost enough to convince Logan that she was right.

Giving the two women one last look each, Logan then left the room, and was even considerate enough to close the door behind him.

Raven breathed out when he was gone, and withdrew her hand from her head. A sticky, red substance covered it, and she knew it could be nothing but her own blood. The smash into the wall had caused her a wound, and apparently something else too, since she was feeling a bit light-headed.

The two lovers regarded each other across the room for some time, without speaking, but they both had a pretty good idea what the other was thinking. Then Rogue saw the blood on Raven’s hand.

“What happened? Are you hurt?” she asked in a worried voice.

“It’s just a cut. I’ll be fine,” Mystique replied, wiping her bloodied hand on a tissue. “It’s nothing.”

“I…I’m sorry…”

“For what? It wasn’t your f, sw, sweet thing.”

“Yes, it was,” Rogue concluded sadly, realizing that her screams were probably what attracted Logan to her room. He was always so protective of her. If she didn’t know better, she’d almost believe he was in love with Swe Sweet Logan. She couldn’t really blame him for his actions. He had only done what was expected of him in a situation like that.

“I should probably go now…” Mystique sighed, putting an end to the uncomfortable silence. “Erik’s waiting for me.”

She approached the young woman, and bent down one last time to kiss her cheek, but only her cheek this time. They weren’t lovers anymore.

A large tear drop was slowly tricking down Rogue’s pink cheek, and Raven could feel the taste of it on her skin when she kissed her.

“Don’t cry, sweet thing,” she tried, wiping the girl’s tears away with her thumbs. “You’ll find someone else. I’m sure you will. We just weren’t meant to be together anyway.”

“Goodbye, Raven,” Marie said in a thick voice, not wanting to postpone the inevitable any longer. “I do wish you well, despite that I really hate you for doing me this…”

“I wish you well too, Marie,” Mystique replied seriously, and then the young woman wrapped her arms around her throat, clinging to her much like a frightened child not wanting to be separated fros mos mother. At last Raven felt forced to grab her wrist and pry her arms away, using little, or no force.

“Goodbye, Marie,” she said in a fairly neutral voice before morphing into Bobby Drake again, in order to leave the X-mansion unnoticed.

They exchanged one last brief glance, and this time Rogue did not try to stop her. Raven slipped out of her room, and started making her way toward an exit. Maybe they would never see each other again, or if they would, they’d meet as enemies during battle.