Carne Vale

CARNE VALE CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, Dodo's on his way back, safe and sound...I'm making him leave the mermaid behind, though... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are super wonderful lovely people for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: I adore you people. Really, I do, with all my little heathen heart. Especially in ligh som some fic bashing that's been going on around the net lately... Even those of you with complaints are sweet. :) I'm sending the ducks to give you all big, lickity kisses for me. ;)


It seemed to Kurt, when he looked back on it later, that Tuesday evening and all of Wednesday had become one, long blur that culminated in confusion. School was canceled for Wednesday, Pietro was missing, Wanda did not seem to be leaving any time soon, and, from what he could gather, Mystique was verging on the civil and speaking with the Professor, sequestered in his study with Logan standing guard. Kitty had settled into a seemingly permanent expression of harried agitation as she rushed around, though Kurt only realized why when she disappeared Wednesday night. _I can't believe I forgot it's Passover...And Holy Week! _ He sighed and sank down into a crouch on the pier jutting out over the lake, staring at the waning moon reflected in the dark water. That Duncan was a mutant was not exactly surprising, but the fact he seemed to be not exactly a powerful one, but a feared one, was a bit off-putting. It struck him then that he had not seen Remy since Tuesday morning, just before Jubilee had grumbled something about him staking out the Boardinghouse. Kurt knew with a great certainty that the Cajun was not at the Brotherhood's dilapidated headquarters, for he had been there himself earlier, waiting for Pietro with Wanda. The only living thing they saw was a rat that had seen better days and Fred as he lumbered straight through the front door and up the stairs. "He can't really be this oblivious," Kurt had said, surprised.
Wanda had nodded. "Yeah, but still waters run deep, man...maybe he's figured out how to get cars to run off heavy water or something and he's figuring out how to present it to a panel of scientists..."
Kurt raised his eyebrow at Wanda and tried not to laugh. She had been more relaxed around not just him, but the rest of the X Men the past few times they had been together. He liked to attribute it towinowing maturity, but he had a feeling that Tabby had something to do with it. Wanda still did not like them, but she tolerated them.
That was all yesterday, though. He sighed aloud and stood, his knees giving an uncommon creak of protest, making him frown. _It's been too long since I've been on the rig in the basement...I'm aging prematurely. _ He did not believe that but wanted something to distract himself as he tried not to think of all the places Remy could be. He looked around dispassionately, hoping that his friend would appear out of nowhere, as had become a bad habit for several people at the Institute, but no such luck. Closing his eyes, just in case Remy was with Jubilee, Kurt ported into the thief's bedroom. "Remy, can I look?"
"Only if de sight o'me naked don' bother you..."
Remy sounded vaguely amused and very much e. e. Kurt could smell soap and knew he had just gotten out of the shower. With his eyes still shut tight, Kurt said in a slight rush, "Where were you last night and today? Don't say the boardinghouse because I was there..."
There was the sound of drawers opening and closing before Remy answered. "I weren't dere."
"Where were you?"
"Not where you been tinki was was. You can look now."
Kurt opened his eyes cautiously, not sure if Remy was trying to play a trick just to make him uncomfortable enough to leave. His friend lounged against the window seat, absently rolling a cigarette back and forth between two fingers as he considered Kurt with his red eyes. "I was wit Jubilee de whole time. She had ta get a new uniform so we gone into town."
Kurt narrowed his eyes. "How do you know where I think you were?"
"He ain't stupid, Nightcrawler," a new but somehow familiar voice drawled.
Kurt nearly fell over from surprise he he turned to find Belladonna staring back at him. She had been behind him, who knew how long, her assassin training making her almost impossible to detect, even to Kurt's senses. Clad entirely in black, quite different from her almost antebellum attire when he had first seen her, Belladonna sat comfortably in the chair before Remy's desk, a little used piece of furniture in the Cajun's bedroom. "Was?" he finally settled on saying.
Belladonna shot Remy a distinctly harassed look. "First of all," she said in her light drawl, the strong Cajun accent Remy exhibited present in her voice but not nearly as pronounced, "get yo' dirty mind outta the gutter. I ain't stayin' an' he ain't gonna get a thing from me other than help, d'accord?" Kurt nodded under the intensity of the dual glares. "Second, you ain't seen me. Not at all. I gonna know if you tell someone I were here an' I ain't gonna be happy. Now," she said almost pleasantly, walking towards Kurt with one hand held palm-up, as if giving him a gift, "you jus' gonna feel bad fo' dat poor boy dat done got shot an' you may even give him a get well card, eh? But right now, you gonna go find dat girlfriend o'yours an' do whatever it is you two do together, right?"
Kurt frowned. He was not used to being talked to like this and he was very sure that he did not like it. It felt like, he realized, he was in a cross between _A Streetcar Named Desire _ and _Goodfellas. _ Remy was nodding behind Belladonna, his eyes wide in a comical expression, indicating that Kurt should agree with the woman. "Fine," he finally said, glaring just a little more than was possibly healthy, "I'm leaving, but I am not going to forget you were here. If anyone asks, I'm telling the truth."
"You do that, chere," Belladonna purred, "an' ain't no one gonna believe you. I'm gonna be long gone 'fore you even find a body to tell."

Logan was tense, to say the least. It was nearly dawn and Mystique had just left, strolled right past him without saying a word. Professor Xavier, for his part, had given Logan an understanding glance and merely nodded, indicating that he could leave, that everything was fine. From everything he had heard, things were *not * fine, Logan groused inwardly. _FUBAR...fucked up beyond all recognition _, he thought with some satisfaction. He wanted to drink until he could not anymore, he wanted to s the the living daylights out of anything and everything he saw, he wanted to shake the Professor by the shoulders and ask him what the Hell he was thinking, not stopping Mystique or letting him stop her, and most of all, he realized, he wanted to find Pietro and beat the stuffing out of him because it could all be traced back to his turn for the insane. Instead of doing all that, though, Logan f him himself shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other in front of the door to Storm's suite of rooms. He debated knocking and very nearly walked away before the door was slowly opened. "Yes?" she asked tiredly, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth to cover a yawn.
"How'd you know I was out here?" he asked, not moving.
"You think I was able to sleep with _her _ in the house? I've been awake since...well, I've almost been awake for twenty four hours..." She stepped back and motioned for Logan to enter the small sitting area that led to her bedroom. "Is she gone?"
" 'Bout half an hour ago... Ro, you're not gonna believe the shit I heard." He sighed and settled somewhat cautiously into a chair that looked too fragile for him to sit in comfortably.
"Do tell," she said dryly, not bothering to chastise him for cursing. "Tea?" she asked, holding out a ceramic pot warmed from a hotplate.1
"I'm holding out for beer. Mystique is splitting off from Magneto," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes. "She's starting her own...group or whatever you want to call it."
"Group is the accepted term for more than twople ple gathering for a similar purpose, I believe."
"Sarcastic when you don't get sleep, aren't you?"
"Try me when I don't have my morning tea."
Logan smiled a little at her tone and slid down in the chair, stretching his legs out before him. "Chuckles didn't do a thing to stop her. No Vulcan mind meld, nothing. Just let her ramble on and on about her vision for a new future, about ousting Kelly, about...Hell, about everything."
"Even evil villains need someone to talk to," Storm said, only a little sarcastic. "Why didn't he stop her?"
"I don't know. I know that she's planning on staying principal of Bayville and he seemed to be okay with that. He even said it might be a good idea, sort of a hidden advocate for the kids." He opened his eyes, a disturbed expression on his face. "I hate to say this, but he mightrighright. She may likelike us or them and disagree with everything we do, but she's a mutant. She's not gonna let norms get to them like Kelly would."
Storm sighed. "What of Pietro?"
"Nothing. I couldn't scent him once we got to the school. It's like he just vanished or something. Evenne cne couldn't pick him up and she went wolf on us." Logan stood and moved behind Storm's chair, putting his hands on her shoulders as if he intended to rub her neck, but instead continued speaking. "Mystique said that he ain't gonna be found until he's ready to be...I think she knows where he went but just doesn't care."
"So he's not a danger anymore?"
"No one said that, darlin'. He's just...gone." He bent and kissed the crown of her head and sighed, inhaling her vaguely floral, herbal scent and murmured against her, "I'm tired."
"Come to bed," she said softly, turning in his grasp to look up at him. "Come to bed and we'll sort everything out in the morning."
"I'm not sleepy, just tired..."
"I did not say go to sleep. I just said, 'come to bed'," she pointed out, standing and smoothing the folds of her caftan. "I don't think I could sleep either." She turned and walked into her bedroom, a veritable oasis of plants and flowers and African artworks. Without looking back at Logan, lingering in her doorway, she shed her clothes and sat on the edge of her bed, naked, and stretched her legs with a sigh. "Well?" she finally said, glancing at him as she lay down and pulled the sheet and comforter over her nudity.
"On my way," he said, almost smiling. He tossed his shirt and boots into the corner, wincing as she sighed in exasperation. _That's right...she hates that. I'll be neater next time. _ His pants made it to the same corner with minimal loss of pocket change before he climbed into bed next to her, edging close as he made sure not to divest her of the covers. Storm's eyes were closed but she smiled at him, moving closer and placing her hand against his chest in a gesture of affection. "Still tired?"
"Very," she admitted. "You?"
Logan thought about it for a moment. "Actually...yeah," he sighed. "So..."
"So, we sleep as long as we can, until the students start making too much noise, then we wake up."
"Then what?" he said, feeling a pleasant heaviness overtaking his limbs as he lost track of where he ended and Storm began, the feel of the bare skin of her back under his hands nearly hypnotic as he rubbed lazy circles with his work-roughened fingers there.
"Then..." she sighed thickly. "Then."
"Then," he agreed, the dark of sleep pulling him in before he could finish his thought.

A/N Okay, next chapter...serious smut. Lots of smut. Smut to the degree where you will need a cold shower. Well, only if I write it correctly, huh?
1 Heh. Sounds like Storm lives in a dorm room, doesn't it?