Fractals

Fractals Chapter Four (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… *counts months till April * InterNutter (HAPPY BIRTHDAY), TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are marshmallowy goodness for archiving/hosting! ProPhile: *poke * Morgan: *happy dance * Readers/Reviewers: Wheeee…it’s back! The ducks rejoice! The Killer Kitties ™ plot evilly…

Jamie had the worst headache he could ever remember having. He blamed a combination of Rogue’s loud music, Amara’s loud voice and Rahne’s reticence to talk as the main culprit. He suspected it was a migraine, because the smell of dinner made him nauseated1, driving him out of doors where the aroma of onions cooking did not wreak havoc on his insides. He found himself ensconced in the gazebo after escaping Todd’s conversational attempts and he sighed with relief. The cool, green tinged light did not hurt his eyes and the smell of grass was faint enough to be almost soothing as he stretched out on the old wooden bench lining one of the walls of the wooden structure. It was barely evening and the mansion was crowded with students, most of whom he did not know, nervous and annoyed about the impending semester, seventy two hours or less away. He could hear the very faint murmur of voices from within the house, filtering through the screened back door and the window to the dining hall, left open on the mild early autumn evening. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, trying to clear his mind. All he could do lately, it seemed, was worry about Rahne. He was reluctant to bring it up to anyone for fear of being told he was obsessed when, in his mind, it was simple worry. He had tried mentioning something to Kurt about it but had been the recipient of a multi-hour lecture on the history of excommunication in the Catholic Church which made him more glad than ever that he had been raised without a specific religion. A loud, crystalline crash from the direction of the house, followed by Amara’s sharp, shrill swearing in Latin made him wince. He held his breath, waiting for another outcry or worse, but none came. _Must’ve thrown something at the wall. Again. _ Amara had become more irrational in her outbursts of late, he noticed. She would throw a fit over the least thing while something major would leave her cold. Lance seemed to be the only one who could effect her to any degree, especially when she was obsessing over something herself. Jamie sighed again and turned his thoughts inward, back to his current situation. Rahne was being secretive, finding every and any excuse to avoid talking about things between the time she left for Scotland and her return. He half wondered if she had even gone home at all or if she had found some way to avoid it and lurked around Glasgow for two weeks, hoping no one caught her and confronted her.
“Hey.”
Jamie opened one eye to see the object of his thoughts standing, looking ruffled, just inside the doorway to the gazebo. “Running?”
“A bit… didn’t get much chance to at ho… In Scotland,” she corrected mid-sentence. She edged into the space and set on the very edge of the bench opposite Jamie, as if ready to bolt. “Why are you lying down?”
“Headache,” he answered simply, sitting up and swinging his feet to the ground. “So…”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Um, sorry about earlier, the avoiding and all. But I don’t really have that much to say other than the bit about meeting with the archbishop soon.” She spread her fingers on her knees and frowned. “I am wondering, though, if this is all really worth it.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, itching to sit next to her but fearing she would turn him away, wanting to be isolated.
Rahne’s glance flickered up to his before settling on the dark green ivy creeping up the lattice work, sheltering them from the rest of the world. “This whole thing. The church doesn’t want me so why fight it? Why should I do all of this, jump through hoops, when all that will happen is I will be told I’m going to Hell.”
“What would you go to Hell for?” he pondered aloud. “I’ve never figured out why those religious sorts decide who’s going to their versions of Hell. Everyone has different reasso aso as near as I can figure, everyone is going to Hell whether they’re good or not, if you listen to those types.”
Rahne’s gaze pinned him as she stared, agape, for a full ten seconds before bursting out laughing. “It’s your Hell, you burn in it, eh?2 Somehow I think that missed being in the Baltimore Catechism3.”
Jamie blushed. “Sorry. I guess I mean… you want this. You believe this way and why should you let ‘em take it away from you? What was the reason anyway?”
Rahne sighed loudly. “Doesn’t matter. I’m just so tired…” She raked her fingers through her disheveled hair, her pigtails eschew from her run. “Want to go get some dinner?”
“I don’t feel so well,” he admitted. “ The smell was making me woozy.”
“Ah. I’ll sit with you then.”
“You don’t have to,” he urged. “You need some real food after that airplane crap.”
She smiled, looking suddenly very tired. “I’ll be fine.” Seeking to divert his attention away from worrying over her current state, she said “It’s going to be weird sharing a room with Kitty.”
He blinked, redirecting his train of thought, and replied, “So long as she and Kurt don’t try to keep having their midnight visits in there, you’ll be okay, I think.”
She snickered. “Well, she’s only home for the weekend. I’ll be surprised if she even comes out of his room, period.”
“What’s the wit with her and Mrs Wagner anyway?”
Rahne stretched her legs out in front of her, closing her eyes. “All I know is that Kitty and Kurt’s mom were going to go see the Professor’s lawyer friend tomorrow morning and the only reason I know that is because Mrs Wagner didn’t know I could hear her earlier when she was talking to Logan.” She shrugged and opened one eye. “Come sit with me. I’ve missed you.”
Jamie moved across the gazebo, swallowing against the wave of nausea and the reeling in his head. Once he was seated, she slipped her arm around his shoulders and tilted her head so that he could lay his on her shoulder. “I missed you, too.”
“Jamie,” she said slowly, thinking, “if things have to change between us, will you still be my friend?”
‘Huh?”
“Never mind,” she sighed, squeezing his arm. “Just crazy talk.”
Jamie nodded slowly but his new headache had nothing to do with the old.


1 Migraines can cause a range of other problems ranging from nausea to vision problems to outright hallucinations.
2 I saw that on a pin somewhere… “It’s your Hell, burn in it!”
3 The end all be all for Catechism in the United States (not sure about outside of it) for a very long time.