Constant Craving

CONSTANT CRAVING CHAPTER FORTY-ONE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Mad Queen of Plotbunnies, is supergroovy and wonderful for beta-ing. And she is getting tons of Ted-kissies for the choir thing. ;) Vampyre: The future is comin' on... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink will have little altars everywhere for archiving (shameless Ya Ya moment there...lol). Readers/Reviewers: The Killer Kitties (tm) have signed the treaty and are now conscientious objectors. They're sitting next to their owner and looking disdainful about the whole thing. ;) The ducks are holding out but have created a lovely paen to your reader-ness out of green peas and butter. They're weird. The Platypi gave me the finger (which was impressive since they don't have any) and are hiding under their trailer...Poor dears...lol.


Todd felt her before he saw her. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he felt the gooseflesh race down his arms. Something wicked this way comes...yo.1
"Hey, Toad-man...how's it hangin'?" Tabby chirped. Her eyes were ringed by shadows but she smiled brightly, as if nothing were wrong.
Gritting his teeth, Todd responded with false amity, "Low and to the left." He turned slowly and fixed a vacant expression on his face he grinned crookedly at his old housemate. "You up for some Hellraisin' today?"
"Always," she grinned. "What've you got in mind?"
"Dunno...we can go into town and knock shit over." Todd shrugged, seizing the first dumb idea that flitted across his mind, something Blob would have suggested.
"Think we got some spray paint at the Boardinghouse..." She shuddered briefly, thinking of who waited for her there. "Want to go see if Lance is in and we can send him to get it?"
"Sure...why not?" Todd ambled after her, clenching and unclenching his jaw in frustration. He wanted to hate Tabby for what she had done to them in the past and what she would most likely do in the future, but he was tempered by pity. _No one deserves this shit...being abandoned is the worst thing anyone could have happen to them... _

"Where's Lover Boy?" Rogue asked, popping her gum.
Kitty shrugged. "Probably filming _Behind the Music _ for VH1.2"
"Smart ass!" Rogue snapped, throwing a pillow at her friend. "It's been too quiet around here lately and if it's quiet, it means Kurt is up to something."
"I think he said something about taking his sisters to town for a movie and lunch." She looked up from her latest issue of Cosmo and quirked a brow. "What do you think he's up to?"
"I don't know...I haven't seen Todd all day and Amara's been grumbling for Lance for the past hour or so..." Rogue rolled off Kitty's bed and onto her feet. "Think Jean has an idea where they are?"
"Jamie might. I saw him earlier..." Kitty wrinkled her nose as a thought struck her. "I saw him and Rahne skulking around the pier earlier...we may not want to interrupt them..."
"Ew." Rogue shuddered.
"Says the woman who gets slimy kisses from her boyfriend?" Kitty made gagging noises.
"Better than blue fur on my pillow."
"You haven't lived until you've slept with guy with a tail." Kitty winked at Rogue and giggled as her friend turned red.
"That's way too much info...besides, it's not like you have much of a base for comparison!"
They had walked out into the hallway and were still outside Kitty's door when they were interrupted by Scott. "I can tell you where they went...Tabby wrangled them into an old fashioned day of Brotherhood mayhem."
Rogue and Kitty eyed each other warily. "What do you mean, mayhem?" Rogue finally asked, not wanting to really hear the answer. "Knocking over old ladies in parking lots?"
"More like graffiti and random vandalism." Scott made a face of disdain. "In broad daylight, too..."
"Well, looks like she's taking them into her confidence," Kitty sighed. "Or at least trusts them some."
"I, for one, ain't gonna stand here and wait for them to come home in handcuffs...I'm gonna go lookin'," Rogue said roughly. Kitty's hand on her arm stopped her forward progress, however. "What?"
"If you go looking, there'll be a fight. Let it lie, sweetie. Just let Todd and Lance see what they can see and they'll tell us when they get back."
Scott nodded. "Kitty's right...we need to talk to the Professor anyway. He sent me to find you two. He's already talked to Jean, Jamie and Rahne. You, me and Kitty are next, then Jubilee, Remy and Kurt when he gets back."
"Divide and conquer, huh?" Rogue sighed. "Fine, lets get it over with..."

"So what do you suggest?" The Professor asked over steepled fingers.
"I want to her her money, help her...she's being a real bi...er...pain, but all she wants is help!" Kitty said with a defiant tone to her voice.
"Kitty, if we give her money, she's going to get an abortion..." Rogue began, only to be silenced by the Professor tapping on the arms of his chair.
"We're not going to get into a philosophical debate over this...The idea that's coming across from me after talking with several of you is that you want to help Tabby. Despite all she has done, all this insanity she has caused around here...you want to help her."
Scott quirked a corner of his mouth as he realized the truth of the Professor's words. "Yeah, I guess we do."
The Professor sighed. "Children, sometimes I think you are too emotionally vested in this hero thing..."

Jamie lay flat on his back, staring at the whispy clouds drifting in the cold blue sky. "Did the sky look like this in Scotland?"
"Aye, sometimes," Rahne sighed. "Sometimes it didna'..."
"Be vague, why doyou?you?" he asked with a trace of a smile in his voice.
"I don't like thinking about Scotland much. It makes me homesick a bit."
"You can go visit you know..."
"No. No more than you can go home yourself." Rahne rolled onto her side to look at her boyfriend. "Jamie, what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, eyes sliding to the side to avoid looking at her.
"We...in the woods that day...we did something I thought we were both ready for....do you regret it?"
"No." He knew he was turning red but forced himself to face her anyway. "Rahne, I've never been with another girl. I mean, I kissed Jubilee once but that was nothing...really nothing. I just don't know what to feel or think right now."
"Feel what you feel," she said softly, "be honest with yourself and with me and neither one of us will get hurt."
Jamie flopped back to look at the sky for a long moment before saying, "You make my heart feel prickly."
"Excuse me?"
"When I look at you, when I think about you...I get this prickly feeling in my chest and my heart goes weird." He made a face of deep thought and said, "I read some of Kitty's and Jean's books and magazines and I watched those old movies of Kurt's...I thought love was supposed to sweep you off your feet and be all romantic."
"Not for everyone..."
"Yeah, that's what Jubilee said. And Kurt." Jamie sighed and faced Rahne again. "People always want love. I mean, every one in the world is looking for love, getting over it, missing it, finding it...I just don't want to lose it before I know if I have it."
Rahne quirked a brow. "Oddly enough, I followed that." She scooted closer and lay her head on Jamie's chest. "I can tell you honestly that I love you, Jamie. Don't go all shaky on me...I love you. I don't want to get married-we're only fifteen, for crying out loud-and I don't want to even think about life after high school right now. I just know you make my heart prickly too...and I think that's good enough for us."
"Me too..." he sighed, bending his head to meet her kiss. She tentatively touched her tongue to his lower lip and he parted willingly for her, little electric thrills sending signals to his brain that made all the blood head south in a hurry. His hands held her face to prolong the kiss and finally, as they broke for air, he murmured, "Maybe that's Tabby's problem."
"Huh?" Rahne's brain was not focusing on anyone other than Jamie at that moment, his comment short circuiting her wiring.
"Maybe...if she knew someone cared about her, if she knew she was at least loved a little...she wouldn't be so, you know..."
"Bitchy?" Rahne sighed and let her head drop back to his chest. "Sometimes I think I grew up to fast...you're innocent Jamie, but not childish."

Kurt was bone-tired. His sisters had insisted on going to every shop in town, even the ones that were uninteresting or not their cup of tea, "just in case" some item was lurking just out of sight behind fishing lures or motor oil. As soon as the door to the mansion opened, he sent them and their myriad bags up to Kitty's room, choosing the rec room for himself to collapse in. _My feet will never be the same. _ Tapping his holo, Kurt reverted to his normal blue form and sighed, stretching his sore legs out before him. _Where is everyone? _
"Scott, Kitty and Rogue are talking to the Professor," Jean murmured, entering via the kitchen, arms laden with a bowl of popcorn and a large bottle of lemonade. "I'm wng fng for _The Never-Ending Story _ to start," she said by way of explanation when he eyed her snack. "Where's the girls?"
"Going over their purchases...I think they bought most of Bayville."
"Did you see...anything odd in town?"
"Now that you mention it," Kurt said, "I could have sworn I saw Lance disappearing down one of those alleys near the mall, the one where the skateboarders used to hang out before the cops drove them off."
"Todd with him?"
"Didn't notice...I just thought I made a mistake and the guy only looked like him. Why?"
"Lance and Todd went into town with Tabby. We were just a bit worried about what they were getting up to..."
Kurt rolled his eyes. "No good, probably...Lance and Todd may be coming over to our side of things but vandalism is their forte. They're the ones who tagged the school with that mural of the principal and the donkey..."
"Ew...that was them? I had nightmares for a week after that!" Jean shuddered and handed Kurt the popcorn. "Snack?"
"Of course..." Kurt munched a handful of popcorn as Jean flipped the movie on. "You know, I've been thinking...there has to be a way to get Tabby out of here without putting her on the street."
Jean nodded. "Scott looked some stuff up online this morning and figured out that the only way to get her into a shelter or hospital or something is with a parent or guardian's permission, so that's out..."
"I was thinking of putting her in a canoe and sending her down the river with a sign that says "Scandalous Slut on Board..." but Kitty tells me that's not nice."
"Kitty's a smart girl," Jean snorted, an unwilling smile tugging her lips upward. "We could make her a place here, to make sure she doesn't hurt herself..."
"Tabby's dumb but she wouldn't hurt herself." Kurt lolled his head back on the couch. "I take that back...I have no idea what goes through that girl's head."
"I don't think she even knows most of the time..." Jean sighed. "Shhhh...I like Falcor."3

Kitty almost did not see Erika sitting in the window seat in her room, so quiet was the girl. In fact, she was so startled when Erika said her name that she phased through the floor up to her thighs before she stopped herself, levering herself out with a grimace of embarrassment. "Sorry...Natural reaction." From below, Kurt's voice called 'Hello, Liebes...' as she pulled free of the floor. "Doesn't happen often, but it's often enough to be annoying..."
Erika giggled briefly before Kitty's tired expression made her sober. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, just had to talk with the Professor about this whole Tabby thing..." Kitty sighed and sat on the floor next to her bed, pulling a pillow down to squish between her knees and chin. "I don't know what to do."
Erika smiled. "I do. Well, Katja, Anja and I do..."
"Do tell..." Kitty murmured, feeling charitable despite misgivings. _This isn't a game, Erika...do you know that? _
Erika leaned forward and asked earnestly, "Do you really have money from your grandmother? I hate to be so crude, but I know you said something about using it to help Tabby..."
Kitty's ears pricked with interest. "Well, yes, I do have an inheritence." _Even without the chunk I have earmarked, it's more than I need... _
"Okay, here's the idea..."

Todd and Lance were not quite sure where Tabby had run to when the sirens wailed behind them, only that she had gone there fast. "For a pregnant chick," Todd gasped, "she's fast!"
"Nitwit. She's only a month or two...want to impress me...jump that fence at nine months!" Lance said, short of breath himself, as they dove into the woods bordering the school. Neither one wanted to check behind them to see if the cops were still running after them, pressing themselves onward through the underbrush. "If she ain't at the mansion, we're gonna hafta tell someone," Lance panted as they neared the stream that led from the river, cutting through the forest in a cold ribbon.
"Dude, I'm gonna kick her ass for trying to steal that shit..." Todd made a choking noise and fell back. "Gotta stop...chest hurts..."
Lance skidded to a halt. "Shit, man...is it..."
"No, no...just too much runnin'," Todd gasped. "Rogue'd kill me if I dropped dead."
"I'll kick your ass if you do..." Lance said, bent at the waist to catch his breath. "Now what?"
"Now," a man in blue said, bursting from the brush, "you're under arrest..."




1 MacBeth Shakespeare
2 Oh, I'm not the only one who remembers the band Lover Boy. Fess up. And I know I'm not the only one who watches those sad VH1 documentaries about failed bands...
3 Falcor... "I'm a luck dragon!"