And Along Came Delirium

By the time Remy and Cate returned from their long lunch outing that also included a few beers at a little dive just outside of Bayville, Rogue and the rest of the X-Men that were already home. The eighteen year old goth met them outside the garage where they were enjoying a leisurely cigarette before entering their non-smoking home.

“What the hell happened this mornin,’ Cate?” she demanded. “Ya missed training, ya missed breakfast, and if looks could kill, Logan would‘ve fried Scott‘s ass.”

“Cherie had a bit of a run-in with de Cyclops, petite,” Remy explained, knowing that his friend was still a little bitter about the whole thing. Hell, he was pissed too. Scott and the Cajun didn’t get along spectacularly well in the first place and he had crossed the line when he insulted his friend.

“Really,” Rogue fumed. “Do Ah have to take the gloves off?”

“It’s okay, Rogue,” Cate told her. “Scott was just being as ass during training and I didn’t want to run into him again.”

“’Just being an ass?’” Remy spat, irritated that Cate was downplaying the incident, in his opinion. He dropped his cigarette and pulled Cate close, lifting the side of her tank top, baring the nasty bruise on her side that she’d sustained during ‘training.’ “Tbordborders on abuse, ma cherie. He’ll receive more than that when he faces Gambit in the Danger Room tonight.”

“We all get banged up in training, Rem,” Cate sighed after pulling away from him. “That’s not what he did wrong. It’s what he said to me.”

Rogue didn’t ask what was said, but instead took a look at the hurt in her friend’s eyes and headed back into the mansion, her jaw set in determination. She didn’t understand how Scott, the person who’d went out of his way to make her feel welcome at the mansion, could go out of his way to try and make Cate uncomfortable there.

She was really sick of the way people were treating her friend. Apparently they had forgotten what it had been like to leave life as they had known it when they came to the Institute. Rogue, she remembered all too well what it had been like to go from living with the Brotherhood to becoming an X-Man. She also knew what it was like to be alienated just because of the clothes she wore and the kind of music she listened too.

The team leader was found in the library, several books spread on the table before him. He heard Rogue before he saw her.

“What is wrong with ya, Scott Summers?” she demanded the moment she flew in the room. “What kinda example are ya settin’ for the rest of us by treatin’ Cate like shit? Especially since most of the team don’t like her anyway. So c’mon, tell me.”

‘Great. First Logan, then Remy, the Professorw Row Rogue. As if I don’t already know what a jackass I am,’ Scott thought, closing his books. It was apparent that he wasn’t about to get any more studying done. Not that he didn’t feel bad, because he felt like shit. He took all of the anger meant for Jean out on her complete polar opposite when she was most vulnerable. He was still nursing his bruised ego regarding the breakup and when he saw the redhead sneak in that morning after her date with Warren, he took it out on the easiest target--Cate.

Cate, who was both a total pain in his ass and the object of some of his most vivid masturbatory fantasies. The woman rarely followed protocol, often questioned his authority, and still had issues with following the rules. And yet she had Logan eating out of her hand, which completely confused him. On the other hand, she had a strange allure that made Scott want to let go of the fearless leader facade that he wore twenty-four/seven and let her corrupt him. While he wasn’t sure if her even *liked* Cate, he sure did lust after the blue-haired punk. Yes, even the goody-goody fearless leader had impure thoughts from time to time. Most of those times featured a spunky blue-haired woman in nothing but fishnet and knee-high platform boots. And every now and then, Rogue even took part in the festivities. ‘Mmm...Cate and Rogue...definite fantasy fodder...’

Shaking his head as if to rid himself of those particular thoughts, he turned to the woman in front of him.

“I’m already aware that I fucked up, Rogue,” he stated, looking the angry Southerner in the eyes. “I was pissed and taking it out on Cate was convenient.”

“Ah know she doesn’t fit in here yet, Scott,” she replied in a less heated tone, “but ya gotta be patient with her. Ya were with me. Give her a chance. And get off your ass and apologize,” she added before leaving him alone again.

~*~*~

Scott decided to make his move after dinner. Cate normally went out to the fountain in the courtyard for a solitary cigarette and he figured it would be best if he kissed her ass with no one around.

“I can’t believe I’m familiar with her smoking habits,” he mumbled as he made his way toward her.

Cate was sitting on a bench in front of the fountain, one leg crossed gracefully over the other. She was wearing a pair of snug leather pants that dipped low below her navel, offering a peek of the tl tal tattoo inked there and a snug black Ramones tee that left little to the imagination. After Rogue (and yes, he’d checked her out), she had what was probably the best rack in the mansion. He regarded her from the shadows for a moment, trying to figure out what he was going to say. The first thing that came to mind was ‘Punish me like the bad little boy I am,’ but decided against it.

“Why so frustrated, Scott?”

‘Shit. I must be projecting like mad. Damn her empathy and damn the effect she has on me.’

With a sheepish grin, he stepped forward and gestured to the bench.

“Mind if I take a seat?”

She simply shook her head and continued to puff away.

“I, uh, just wanted to--”

Without a glance in his diion,ion, Cate silenced him with the hand still holding her cigarette.

“If this is just the requisite apology regarding this morning, save it. If you would like to discuss the various issues you have with me, then fine.”

‘Because I don’t want to go all girlie when you say how sorry you are, that it’ll never happen again and then forgive you right off so I can jump you in good conscience,’ she mentally added. ‘Stupid preppy boy with your khakis that fit your firm ass so wonderfully and Abercrombie and Fitch shirts that show off that yummy chest--’

“Talk about being put on the spot,” Scott muttered from his place next to her.

“I heard that,” she grumbled back, relieved to orn orn from her naughty thoughts.

“Look, Cate, I don’t know what to say besides I’m sorry for being a total jerk.”

With a sigh, Cate extinguished her cigarette butt in the coffee can she kept stashed underneath the bench and faced the perplexed teen. From what she could see, the teen did look sorry but if it was only because of the ‘talkings to’ he’d received from Logan, the Professor, Rogue, and Remy, she didn’t know.

‘Scotty-boy sure feels sorry,’ she mentally mused. ‘Kinda guilty, very frustrated, and...oh hell...lusty? Somewhat aroused? An aroused Scott sitting next to me. Not happening, so so so not happening. Or is it?’

A wicked grin stole across Cate’s face. She couldn’t help it. Really. It was the perfect time to test Logan’s theory. It was really a no lose situation. If her friend was right, she would possibly be gaining a new boy-toy and he was wrong--well, she‘d have a good ole time fuc wit with his head.

“We can start with what you said about Remy and I, Scott,” she nearly purred and his face reddened almost instantly.

“Um, a-about that--”

“No,” she interrupted, “let me talk. You seem to be under the impression that Gambit and I are more that friends, that I’m using him for my own gratification” she paused, “sexual gratification at that. You couldn’t be farther from the truth. Remy is sex on legs, but we’ve never gone beyond chaste goodnight kisses,” she clarified. “And as far as ‘getting off’ goes, I’ve never even thought of Rem while getting *myself* off. *He’s* not the one I think off at times like that, Scott.”

Scott’s look of complete shock was well worth her little monologueot tot to mention the complete aura of horniness that came with said look. Maybe Wolvie was right after all.

~*~*~

Once that smile crossed her lips, Scott had to fight the urge to flee. And she had to mention getting off. Not cool. The last image he needed was of Cate in bed, gloriously nude, running her hands over her smooth white skin, stealing lower and lower until...

“Scott? You still with me?”

‘You have no idea.’

“Of course,” he replied, collected as could be while a hard-on threatened to rage below the belt. “I was mistaken and I do apologize. I had no right whatever to question your relationship in the first place, but you have to understand that anything affecting the team is my first priority.”

“Yeah, I’m getting that. I’m not like a lot of the others here--I’m sure that you know that by now, but I’m not a bad seed, Scott, just different.” While she had discussed her relationship with Remy in a fairly flirty manner, that was said with hurt. “Remy and Rogue are my best friends and I’d never do anything that I thought would endanger them or their places here.”

Now *that* made him feel like shit. She spoke of them passionately and the fire in her expression assured him that it was the truth. Rogue was right--they had to give her a chance. Hell, Boom Boom hadn’t been all too different from Cate several ways and they’d shown the blonde far more patience than they had the woman before him.

Maybe it was because Cate was older than most of them and all of the adult X-Men were pretty much bastions of responsibility, well, except for Gambit some of the time and that couldn‘t be blamed on her. He’d been like that since the beginning. Pyro was still growing out of his delinquent phase, but since he was only seventeen they’d excused his antics.

Yeah, he’d really fucked up with Cate.

“I apologize, Cate,” came his quiet reply a few moments later. “You’re right and I have been an asshole.”

“Enough with the guilt, Summers,” she grinned. “While we’re having this Hallmark moment, I suppose I must admit that I haven’t been the model X-Chick--gimme time, though. But,” she warned, “I am who I am. Don’t expect me to turn myself into a Jean Grey clone. Ain’t gonna happen.”

That struck a chord in him. There was only one Jean. And there was only one Cate. Scott wanted Cate to be Cate. Only maybe not so much of a pain in his ass.

“I’ll never ask you to change who you are, Cate,” he promised with intensity. He could tell that that pleased her. A genuine smile lit her face and to his pleasure and surprise, she inched closer to him.

“I’m very glad to hear that, Scott. Because there are habits and tastes that are very much a part of me.” She paused for a moment and her next words rolled off her tongue like honey. “I have certain desires and every intention of fulfilling them.”

Even through the ruby quartz, Scott could see her gaze darken and all of a sudden, he knew who she thought of when she did get off. Cate’s gaze was intense, searing. He’d seen that look on two other women in his life--Jean and Taryn. Then it overjoyim, im, but now, even though it gave him a hard-on that could pierce steel, it scared him all the same. Wanting what the woman before him had to offer didn’t necessarily mean that he was ready.

Scott’s desire washed over her as intensely as the orgasm Logan had shared with her earlier, but with that desire was fear. Maybe she’d taken things a little too far.

‘Guess I’ll do him a favor and throw the ball in his court.’

“I think we’ve come to an understanding, Scott,” she sweetly intoned. “You know where to find me.”