Carne Vale

CARNE VALE CHAPTER SEVEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather,en oen of Mad Plotbunnies, the little Kurt-muse in my head is dancing around happily because I'm letting him speak German again and you're being superwonderful and translating. :) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink make me shimmer with happy for archiving. Readers/Reviewers: (on knees) Thank you thank you thank you! The Killer Kitties (tm) also thank you, mainly because your reviews keep me off their backs for a bit...though their silence of late is a bit disturbing... The platypi are still working on opening the decoy. I hope the kitties remembered air holes...


Todd, Lance, Rogue and Amara were freezing. There was no other word for it. The Jeep sat in it's lonely parking space, the headlights baleful and pale due to the dead battery currently responsible for the four mutant-cicles. Amara looked around to make sure no one could see them and let her hands burst into flame. "I love you, Amara!" Todd gasped and huddled close to the Nova Roman, trying to soak the warmth through his skin. Rogue snorted and he turned back towards her briefly. "Sorry, babe-a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
"Sweetheart, I'll love you forever if you never say that again," Rogue cringed, joining Lance in peering under the hood. "Sure it's dead?"
"Time of death, approximately seven-oh-two pm...This fucking sucks," Lance sighed. "Fingers." Rogue obediently moved her fingers away as he slammed the hood. "And not one of your yak-fest queens has a mobile phone... I don't believe that."
"Fuck you, Lance," Amara said through chattering teeth. "We _live _ with everyone we talk to...why would we need a cell phone?"
"For things like this," Rogue ground out. "Okay. Y'all wait here. I'm gonna walk back to the mall and use the payphone."
Todd forced himself away from Amara's radiating warmth and said, "I'm not letting you walk alone! What if some creep rolls up and..."
"Todd, think about that. Who are you talking to?" Rogue sighed, making Lance chortle in amusement.
"I don't care," Todd said stubbornly. "I'm walking with you!"
"I have to powder my nose," Amara said, hiding her embarrassment with an imperious tone. "I'm coming with you."
"I'll be damned if I'm gonna freeze my nads off out here. We'll all go," Lance announced. Rogue rolled her eyes and lead the charge, throwing on last, annoyed glance at the dead Jeep. Lance had parked in the furthest possible spot with a mind towards making time with Amara, Rogue had no doubt, so the walk back towards the mall was a long one. A late storm was threatening to dump not snow but freezing rain on them before the night grew too old. The movie had let out almost an hour before so there were few cars left in the theatre-side parking lot, but people were still coming and going from the mall. "Think we can hitch a ride to the sidewalk?" Lance asked through chattering teeth.
"Doubtful, yo," Todd said. His legs felt like lead as the cold seeped through his clothes, his amphibian nature making his brain cry for hibernation. "I gotta sit down..."
"We're almost there, Todd," Rogue said softly, slipping her arm around his waist and wondering if she would _will _ some of her warmth into him. "Think positive."
"An urge for positive thinking from your friendly neighborhood Goth," Amara muttered, her skin taking a faint orange sheen as she triggered her mutation to the point just before she would flare. "Don't me me that look, Lance...no one could see that."
"No, girls always look like they're carrots. You were _orange _, Princess...cut it out." Lance ignored the rude gesture from his girlfriend and sighed in audible relief as they reached the sidewalk and the nearby bank of phones, blessedly empty. "Who's got change?"
Todd worked stiff fingers into his pockets and came up with several silver coins. "Here-just don't come askin' for change for the pop machine at school, yo?"
Rogue and Amara wedged themselves between the phones as Lance dialed the Institute. Todd settled for jumping up and down, though not to his full potential, and holding his hands under his arms. A moth fluttered by, attracted by the electric lights of the marquee overhead and Todd let his guard down, snatching rom rom the air out of force of long habit. "You know you are so not getting a goodnight kiss now, right?" Rogue said, making a gagging noise for good measure.
"Nature of the beast, babycakes," he grinned, not caring at the moment. He was fairly sure he could weasel at least a quick kiss from her after he brushed his teeth and flossed. Twice. Lance was talking with his back turned, apparently trying to convince someone to come out and give them a jump, when Todd noticed a familiar figure near the doors to the theatre. "Hey, is that..."
A whoosh of air and the figure was there. "Todd, you fucking son of a bitch!" Pietro growled, shoving Todd to the brick wall by virtue of his forearm against the smaller teenager's throat.
Rogue and Amara moved before Lance turned around. Rogue had her arms around Pietro's chest, trying to pull him back, as Amara pulled Todd to one side. Rogue finally succeeded as Lance slammed the phone down and lunged forward, inadvertently knocking his former and current teammate to the ground to land in a splash of freezing mud, debris and wat Tod Todd was doubled over, gasping for breath and rubbing his neck, so Amara spoke for him. "What the Hell are you doing?" she hissed, pulling Rogue to her feet.
Lance pressed his knee into Pietro's chest. "You wanna tell me what the fuck you think you're doing showing your powers in public?"
Pietro writhed beneath him, earning a sharp kick to the ribs from Rogue. The blond youth snarled, "You're pissed that I showed my powers? What happened to the Lance Alvers who didn't give a good God-damn if we were found out? 'Mutant superiority,' you said..." Pietro stopped struggling and looked to one side, his eyes taking on a faintly hazy quality. "Mystique was right-you're nothing. All of you. You deserve to be destroyed!"
Todd had recovered his voice before he squatted next to Pietro. "Get over it, yo. Rogue chose me, not you. She wanted someone who loves her for her. Man, you couldn't even handle the fact of her mutation. You had to go fuck Tabby rather than learn how to be with Rogue...that way," he trailed off, his eloquence turning into an embarrassed mumble.
Pietro's face lit with a smile. "You think you're the only one who's experience Rogue's flesh and lived, Toad? Ask her about meeting in the park. Ask her what we did, how it made her feel." He tapped his temple with his free hand. "The exchange can go both ways. I got a bit of her in here, too...I know."
Rogue choked on a sound and turned her face away from Todd's suddenly piercing eyes. "Lance, if you want to kill him," she said on a shaking breath, "I don't see a thing."
Amara, her brows raised in interest towards Rogue, leaned over Pietro. "When did you see Mystique?"
"Never."
"Don't be obtuse. When did you see Mystique?" At her nudge, Lance pressed harder against Pietro with his knee.
"This evening. She's at the Boardinghouse. We're rebuilding the team and she thought the old Brotherhood would be the best base to build from. But I told her how soft Lance and Todd had become."
"I got your soft," Lance grumbled, pressing hard enough that a crack was heard in the cold night air. Pietro yelped sharply and his breath became ragged. "Tell Mystique to drop dead. No way in Hell are we going back to that Hell-hole. She can go fuck herself with a fork for all we care." He rose and shoved at Pietro with one booted foot. "Go. Run off and tell her!"
"Can't," Pietro grinned, despite the obvious pain he was in as he struggled to his feet, "she's gone to talk to Tabby."
"Tabby? She's at the..." Amara clamped her lips shut.
"Yeeees?" Pietro hissed, holding one hand over his ribs.
Rogue stomped forward and backhanded him, his ability to flee quickly impaired by his injury and the sudden egress of people from the theatre. "If we ever see you near us again, a broken rib is gonna be heaven, Pietro," she snarled. A familiar station wagon was cruising along the curb towards them and she spun to dash to the passenger side door, Kurt's worried frown visible through the windshield.
Todd, his gold-green eyes still shimmering with hate, could not resist a parting shot as Lance and Amara walked off without a backwards glance towards Pietro. The blond teenager looked as if he wanted to run beneath the thin veneer of pained superiority, but the fact he was facing mere Todd stopped him in the end. Todd knew this and smibenibenignly. "Bye, Petey. Tell Mystique I send my regards." With nary a warning, a glob of brownish slime landed square in the middle of Pietro's face and dripped down his chin and chest as it hardened into a crust. Todd laughed to himself as he slid in the car next to Lance. "What?" he said to Kurt's scowling reflection. "No one saw."
"Ja, but it was still gross. Where are you parked?"
"Last spot, last row, near the culvert. Where's Kitty?" Lance asked, leaning against the front seat.
"We're not joined at the hip, you know...we can go places independent of each other!"
"Joined at the hip...so that's what they're calling it here," Amara murmured thoughtfully.
"Klappe. Kitty's actually helping Jean and Scott make up one of the spare rooms in the first basement for that guest that's coming tomorrow."
Rogue gasped sharply. "Oh, my God!" She whipped around to face. "Guest..."
"Rogue, you knew about this...you were t las last night when the Professor told us." Kurt swung into the space in front of the Jeep, parking the car hood-to-hood with the dead vehicle, and turned to face Rogue. "What's wrong?"
Amara seemed to be following Rogue's train of thought. "You don't think Mystique..."
"She couldn't..." Rogue shook her head. "Logan could sniff her out in a second. And the Professor would catch on like that," she added, snapping her fingers.
"What are you talking about?" Lance almost shouted, growing frustrated with the nearly telepathic communication between the girls.
"Get that damned Jeep started. We need to get back _now _," Rogue snapped.

Jubilee wrung her hands anxiously, making herself think of those old-fashioned heroines in the silent movies Kurt loved. _Lilian Gish...was that her name? Sweet Polly tied to the train tracks, except I'm not Polly and Remy's not a train, no pun to his sex drive intended... _ It was almost eight o'clock and the time seemed to drag at a snail's pace as she made herself a nervous wreck, waiting for Remy, Belladonna and Jean to arrive for their appointed meeting. "Stop it, Jubes," she muttered to herself. "Take a deep breath and handle your emotions. Let him talk, let her talk, show that you're an adult. Or something similar." She threw herself down on the sofa and sighed jaggedly. Am I going to take him back? _ God, I want to...but I want him to feel so much pain right now. I want him to suffer like I did. Like I do. That's petty and mean and awful of me, but damn it, I want it. _ She pictured Remy's face, crestfallen and creased with emotion, and her heart felt like breaking anew. The image of Belladonna's face, raked with scratch-marks and paf-scorched, made Jubilee feel a little better. The door to the study swung open suddenly, banging against the wall with a resounding thunk. "Remy?" she said as she leapt to her feet, her face falling as she saw who stood there. "Oh."
Evan managed a smirk. "Sorry...want mecomecome in again?"
"No, I'm just...waiting. Um, no offense, but could you please just sort of vanish for a bit? I'm about to have a pow-wow in here and we kinda need some privacy..."
Evan nodded. "No prob. I just want you to know something..." He crossed to her quickly and put his hands on her shoulders, staring her right in the eyes. "Remy doesn't deserve you. You should have someone better, someone who won't hurt you, someone who won't lie to you..."
Jubilee felt her ach ach drop to her feet. _Oh, God-this is Jamie all over again, but Evan knows better! No, Evan! _ "Ev, listen, I know what you're going to say and I..."
"Say?" he asked softly, gathering his courage. "I'm not going to say anything." He leaned forward and kissed her, softly and heavily, like he was not sure what he was doing.
Jubilee leapt away, crying out in surprise. "Evan! No!"
"Seem like Remy not de only one keepin' secrets, eh?" Belladonna asked from the doorway, Remy and Jean flanking her.
Remy stalked forward. "Evan, unnerstan dat I still like ya, but I gotta do dis..." Evan hit the ground a moment later.