The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER CHAPTER SIX (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies... NOW let's see if this package gets through! InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me all sparkley for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: (ahem) Happy {belated} Birthday to you, Happy {belated} Birthday to you, Happy {belated} Birthday Dear Reimaaaaaaaaaars! Happy {belated} Birthday to yoooooooou!

Rogue wished that she could strangle Amara and Lance, she really did. Overt shows of desperate affection and love, such as it was, made her skin crawl. Lance's caterwauling had made her seethe with jealousy that she did not want to admit, even to herself. d isd isn't even fighting this...he just let me break up with him, no objections! Maybe he didn't want to be with me after all...Maybe I was the butt of some karmic cosmic joke and the one person I fall in love with doesn't love me...Damn it, I sound like one of Kitty's romance novels. _ She could hear the murmurs and giggles up and down the hall in the aftermath of Lance's rather bad serenade, the teenager in question skulking somewhere belowstairs to avoid ridicule or Amara's wrath-Rogue was not sure which was worse, now that she thought about it. With a resigned sigh, she shoved her feet into her battered boots and shrugged on a sweatshirt over her thin top. _I am so sick of all this...this juvenile giggling and snickering. Can't anyone around here grow the fuck up? _ Rogue marched resolutely past Jamie, Rahne and Bobby huddled in the hall, talking about who knows what, and Jubilee knocking on Kitty's door with her toothbrush hanging from the corner of her mouth. Rogue sneered at Kurt, who merely raised an eyebrow at her passing, before she continued down the stairs. "Nice song, Alvers. What'd you have planned for an encore? Skinning a live cat?"
Lance, pacing before the downstairs study, looked up at her snide comment. "Stuff it, Sunshine."
"Where's Todd?"
"No idea..." Lance paused in his pacing and narrowed his eyes at her. "Why? Gonna break his heart again?"
"Your concern is touching. Fuck off." Rogue brandished a bare hand at him and Lance stepped aside with a snarl. She stormed out of the mansion without looking back, ignoring Lance's shouted invective in reference to her ancestry, headed for the one place she was sure she would be left alone. _It's too cold for Todd to be out and everyone in the mansion is gonna fall asleep once Lance sucks it up and faces the teasing upstairs...I've got all sorts of time on my hands... _ The late winter snow crunched wetly underfoot, turning to slush in the slowing warming temperatures of early February, sounding of loneliness in Rogue's ears. _Not even a nice glittery snow to be all Goth and depressed in. Guess I'll need a new schtick for summer. _ The gates to the grounds parted to her touch, the key code beeping loudly in the chill air. Rogue sighed and waited, the black wrought iron swinging slowly open on si hin hinges. The road lay dark before her and she trudged down it silently, oblivious to the smaller shadow following her, darting in and out of trees, keeping to the deep ditch running parallel to the road. Her boots made dull thudding noises that echoed off the tall pines, enforcing her feeling of loneliness. Stopping in the middle of the road, she threw her head back and yelled at the moon, the stars, the clouds and one startled bat, "This fucking sucks!"

Todd wholeheartedly agreed with Rogue from the weeds in the ditch. He sighed somewhat brokenly and hunkered down as Rogue turned slowly in a circle, seeming to scan for other presences. She shrugged in the moonlight and continued her march, Todd hanging back an extra few moments to put more space between them. A mile down the road, she veered into the woods, leaving him to leap up onto the road on stiff legs, bundled in layers of thermal underwear and sweatpants against the cold air. He stumbled as he landed, hampered by the clothing and losing sight of Rogue in the shadows. _Damn it all...why can't toads have night vision? _ He sighed again and stood stock-still. His hearing, while not as sensitive as Logan's or even Kurt's, was still more acute than most people's ability. He could hear footsteps crunching slowly througe-cre-crusted dead leaves ahead of him somewhere and finally was able to approximate her location, though now she was a fair distance away. Hurrying on the ersatz trail, worn into the forest floor by who knew how many intrepid solitude-seekers, Todd drew up short at the sound of a familiar voice.
"I've come here almost every night since the last time I saw you here..."
"Pietro, go _away. _ " Rogue sounded weary to Todd and not a little annoyed. "I want to be alone."
"Rogue, don't walk away!" There was a rush of wind and Pietro spoke again, "I've missed you...haven't you missed me?"
Todd shuffled forward, crouching to see through the underbrush without being seen himself. Rogue hissed, "Fuck yPietPietro. I don't want you near me. Not after what you did to Tabby..." She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and bit out, "I'm in love with someone, someone better than you ever wanted to be."
Pietro tensed, Todd could see the sudden stiffness of his back in the silvery moonlight. "Who is it? Wait, don't tell me...that weird Italian guy, right? No! No...It can't be Alvers cuz he's all goo goo over Amara..."
Rogue waved her hand at him dismissively. "None our bur business." She did not like the idea of Pietro knowing she was with Todd at any point in time. She knew he had a temper as quick as his namesake and doubted Todd could stand up to him in a fight. _Not like Pietro would fight fair anyway... _
"Hell, yes it is...Rogue, whether you realize it or not, I'm your once chance and a normal relationship. Who else would want you anyway? You can't fucking touch anyone aside from me..."
Todd lurched slightly, Pietro's words sending a stab of jealousy into his heart. Rogue backed away from Pietro, knowing that if she ran he could catch her. "Look, Pete, I'm gonna be honest with ya here...you're kinda freaking me out. This whole jealousy trip, lurking in the woods and waiting for me to show up for how long? Four months? That's just weird, man..."
"I love you, Rogue..." The words hung in the air between them. Rogue's eyes going wide in the dark and Pietro advancing slightly. "And I know you still have some sort of feelings for me...You wouldn't have avoided me so long if you didn't."
"What the Hell kind of leap of logic is that?" Rogue snorted. "Pietro, whatever it was we had was...there. It was a thing. It didn't work and it's never going to."
"Who is he, Rogue? Tell me..." Pietro's tone had taken a whining note and was grating to Todd's and Rogue's ears alike. "I deserve to know who it is, at least...I'll leave you alone if you tell me..."
Todd took a deep breath and stood, making himself visible to the pair in the clearing. "Me. She's with me."
Rogue made a coughing noise of surprise as Pietro barked a laugh. "You?" he cried, laughing. "What the Hell kind of a stupid thing to say is that? No way Rogue would be with you!"
Rogue turned curious eyes to Todd. "Am I? With you, that is?"
"We can talk," he said somewhat sulkily. "Later..."
Pietro snorted. "Oh, my God...this is the dumbest thing I've heard in forever...Rogue, come on. Let's go talk somewhere and leave the peeping Tom here to whack off or whatever it was he was doing out here...:" His hand closed over Rogue's sweatshirt clad wrist and pulled her towards him, making the girl dig her heels into the loamy soil to avoid forward progress.
"No. Let go, Pietro. Todd's not kidding and neither am I. I...damn it, I love him." Rogue realized that she had never said that to anyone outside the X Men before and it felt strangely good to reveal that fact, even if it was to Pietro. "I love Todd and you can just go mope at the Boardinghouse or whatever..."
"Is this your way of getting back at me for Tabby? Babe, it was a mistake and I told her that..." Pietro pulled harder and Rogue fell forward, nearly colliding with him.
"Let her go, jerk off!" Todd snapped, leaping forward to land a rather hard kick to Pietro's chest.
"You little son of a bitch!" Pietro panted, lurching forward to grab at Todd. Rogue stared, mouth agape at the grappling teenagers.
"Your point?" Todd grinned. He had wanted to kick Pietro's ass for so long that he was not about to let the opportunity pass him by. His breath left his chest in a rush as Pietro landed a punch to the ribs, knocking Todd to the ground.
" it! it!" Rogue said dully, not quite sure it was a bad thing they were fighting. She stepped backwards and hopped onto the bench set in the clearing by some civic-minded person put there to bring patronage to the small park within the woods.
The fight became a tangle of limbs, flying slime, the occasional tongue-slap and Pietro's blur of fists and feet as they rolled away from Rogue, growling and grunting. Rogue briefly worried for Todd, even going so far as to step off the bench and take a few steps towards the fighting duo before she saw just how Todd was going to break free of Pietro. In the struggle, one of Todd's legs had been drawn up to his chest, his knee almost at his chin. As Pietro drew back to aim a punch at his now-former friend's face, Todd let loose a kick that sent the other mutant flying to land in a heap several feet away. Pietro lay panting, half conscious, on the forest floor as Todd struggled to his feet, bleeding thickly from a cut on his lip and his left eye swelling quite artistically. Rogue could not fight the smile that stole across her face. "How barbaric of you...fighting for a woman..."
Todd snorted, then looked alternately embarrassed and worried as his nose began bleeding. "Well...you know," he shrugged. "Men are animals."
Pietro groaned from the ground and Rogue spared him a glance. "He's gonna kick your ass at school on Monday."
"You gonna kiss it and make it better?" Todd limped towards her, stepping over the prone mutant.
"Todd," sai said thoughtfully, "did you just tell me to kiss your ass?"
"Er... I mean..."
Rogue saved him the stuttering. "Does this mean we're back together?"
"Um...I guess." He sighed against her, accepting her embrace with the careful affection borne of dealing with her mutation daily.
"You guess?" Rogue drew back. "It's a yes or a no..."
"Well, I still have issues..."
"We all do..."
"I cheated on you!"
"You were violated! It wasn't your fault!" Rogue shook sli slightly and growled in frustration. "You wouldn't have followed me out here if you didn't want to try and work things out!"
"As you said earlier," Todd snapped, "what the Hell kind of a leap of logic is that?"
"Did you follow me?" she countered, "Or did you just happen to come out to this clearing because you like the view?"
"I followed you, he admitted after a moment, letting her lead him away from the stirring Pietro and towards the road. "I saw you walking through the gates and wanted to see where you were going..."
"Mmmm...so you were concerned?"
Todd was instantly sick of her leading questions and decided to get it over with. "Fine! Want me to say it? I love you, Marie!" His use of her real name made her pause. Todd tilted his chin to look up at her. "Rogue, I hate myself for doing what I did, and I hate myself because I didn't know it wasn't you...I should know the difference between you and a...an imposter..."
Rogue took hold of the front of his jacket and said close to his ear, "Todd, if I hear one more word out of you about that, I will kick your ass myself, got it? As far as I'm concerned, it never happened. Savvy?"
Todd nodded slowly. "So...we good?"
"We good..." Rogue turned and started walking again, leaving Todd to follow her. "You know," she called back to him, "on Monday, when Pietro kicks your ass, everyone's gonna know we're together."
"Great...I'll add that to the of of things I'm looking forward to..."

"She back yet?" Kitty yawned sleepily.
"Nah...she probably won't be until well after midnight, if I know Rogue at all." Jubilee stretched in a very cat-like manner and snuggled against Remy on the rec room couch. "Bed, sweetie?"
"D'accord, chere...mais Logan be lissenin' so I be tinkin' it bes' if we don' tonight, eh?"
Jubilee pouted. "Can I change your mind?"
"Oh for the love of..." Kitty threw a small decorative pillow at the entwined couple. "Go do it and get it over with before the rest of us die from sugar shock!" Jubilee giggled and ducked as Remy launched a small assault of throw pillows in Kitty's direction. The other girl responded by phasing to let the objects pass through her and letting Kurt return the projectiles. "Thanks, Fuzzy."
"Speaking of getting laid," Jubilee said as she ducked another barrage of soft squares, "you two are in a very good mood..."
"Kiss where I can't, my elbow it ain't1," Kitty said in a sing-song tone.
"Kit," Remy said with a slight 'oof' as Kurt's well-aimed pillow hit him in the chest, "you two be as transparen' as glass...you be lit up like Noel et Kurt be grinnin' like de Cheshire Cat..."
"So we're easy to read, huh?" Kurt called, ducking behind the couch to avoid Jubilee's sparkling paffs, designed to distract rather than harm.
"You two like open books, homme..."
The ringing of the downstairs phone brought the game to a halt, giggles fading quickly. Kurt ported to grab it before the ringing woke up the rest of the house and Kitty sighed, settling comfortably back against the arm of the couch as Remy and Jubilee renewed their snuggle. Kurt returned in short order with a hang dog expression on his face. "That was Amanda..."
"Oh?" Kitty said with edged interest. "What did she want at eleven o'clock at night?"
"She had a fight with her dad and I was the only person she could think of to call...she's down at the Burger Barn and wants me to meet her so she can just talk..."
"Let me get my shoes on..." Kitty struggled out of the soft confines of the couch, ignoring the wince on Kurt's face and Jubilee's expression of pity.
"No, Schatz..." Kurt laid a placating hand on her arm. "Just me...okay?"
Kitty felt like a thousand butterflies were dancing the fandango in her stomach, but she plastered a smile on her face. "Of course it is! Tell her I said hi..."
Remy waited until Kurt vanished from the room before speaking. "An' dat expression be nausea..."

1 My grandmother says this. I have no idea where she got it from herself...