We Can Explain...

We Can Explain... Chapter Nine (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch, and Uberbeta...*nervous * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are chocolatey goodness for archiving/hosting. * G* ProPhile isn't dead. He says so. Morgan: *glomp * Just because. Readers/Reviewers: Armadillos do not like rain. They are building a raft out of Killer Kitty (tm) toys... No one is amused. ;)

"Where the fuck are we?" Todd groaned.
"I'm guessing somewhere between Bayville and FUCKING NOWHERE!" Rogue shouted to the empty building.
"Chill, sweetcakes...don't wanna wake the rats," he sighed. His yellow eyes darted towards the shadows and he suppressed a shudder. "Rats are evil, yo."
Rogue trudged further into the abandoned building, a place that seemed to have been built at the turn of the century and the victim of many transformations before becoming an office building then a health hazard. "It smells like ass in here," she grumbled.1
Todd snorted. "And you know this how?"
"It's an expression," she stated curtly. "Hey now..."
Todd glanced over at her, half afraid to take his eyes off the suspected rat. "You find somethin'?"
"Maybe...it's shiny."
He edged closer. Rogue was squatting near a lump of fallen masonry, peering in the dim light at something he could not quite make out. "Shiny like metal or shiny like oil?"
"Come closer," she sighed, exasperated. "Weird..."
He dithered for a moment longer, finally shooting the possible rat a harried look and jogging over to see what Rogue was looking at. "It's a button." He was disappointed. "I thought it was something weird..."
She frowned. "It is weird...when I first looked, it was bigger than this."
"You're hallucinatin', Marie," he sighed in mock-sympathy. "Been out in this heat too long."
She rolled her eyes and said in her thickest drawl, "Honey, I'm from the deep South. Heat ain't nothin' to me..." She extended one finger and touched the button gently. It's silver surface glimmered. "It feels...warm."
"It's your gloves," he suggested, squatting next to her. "Maybe it's just part of the building... Hey, why are we doing this? We need to head back to the car..."
"Todd Tolensky, the voice of reason?" she mused, pulling off one green satin glove. "We need to rest before hiking back and this is as good a place as any," she added, tucking the glove into her waistband. "Do you hear something?"
"Like what?" Todd rose and frowned, looking around the space again. "C'mon. It's gonna get dark soon and I don't like this place."
"Big bad New Yorker scared of the sticks?" she murmured, her finger poised just above the silver surface. "Just a sec."
"Marie, I don't think..." But it was too late. He looked down just in time to see her press her fingertip lightly to the surface of the button. "...you should fuck with that."
"Ow." Rogue jerked her hand back with a gasp and fell backwards. "That burns!" She sucked on her finger with a pout that mirrored how she must have looked at age three. "Damn it!"
"Lemme see," Todd murmured, kneeling to look at her finger. He wrapped the tail of his shirt over his hand to cradle hers. "It's red. Does it still burn?"
"Kind of stings..." She hissed as he pushed against it gently with his cloth-covered finger. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry, babe," he muttered, leaning away to look for the silver button. "Where'd it go?"
"It should still be there," she insisted, snatching her hand back and returning the digit to her mouth.
"Um...you sure you didn't, like, flick it or nothin'?" Carefully, he swept his foot through the dust, looking for a glimmer of shine.
"I just jerked back," she insisted. "Where'd it go?"
"You must've sent iyin\yin', Marie. I don't see it nowhere."
Rogue uttered a noise distinctly like a whimper as she stood. "That was some fucked up."
"Maybe it'd been sitting in the sun all day," he suggested helpfully. "Metal takes while to cool off, right?"
"It felt...soft," she murmured, looking at her red fingertip. "Like gelatin."
"Ew. Hey, you don't think it was mercury, do you?" he asked, suddenly worried.
"Nah..." Rogue could not help the frown that crossed her features though. "I don't think it was."
Todd nodded dubiously. "Well...we didn't find 'em this way so..."
"I guess we head back," she finished, finally amenable to the notion.
Todd led the way out of the old building, blinking as they came out into the glaring sun. "This town is dead, yo."
"It used to be one of those mill towns," Rogue shrugged, grinning faintly at his surprised look. "What? You didn't listen to Jean's lecture on the way up?"
"I was too busy ogglin' you, yo," he answered, wiggling his eyebrows theatrically.
"Ha." She slid her glove back on with a sigh. "Damn, it's a long walk...I don't guess there's a payphone around, huh?"
"Not likely." Todd shuffled down the cracked sidewalk a few feet further. "You know something weird?"
"I know lots of somethings weird." She rubbed her finger absently against her lips, frowning. "Anything specific?"
"You asked if I heard something..."
"Uh, yeah...a few minutes ago."
"I did."
"And this matters now because...?"
"Because. I could've sworn I heard Kurt and Kitty talking."

"How did you manage that?" Forge cut in gruffly.
Rogue sighed. "Todd?"
"Hey, your story, yo."
Emma chose that tense moment to break the conversation. "Logan, Remy, Lance and Amara have returned."
Jubilee was on her feet like a shot and halfway out the door before the Professor could announce a lunch break. Kurt motioned for Kitty to stay behind, curling his toes around the rung of his chair as he waited. "Katzchen," he said urgently as the Professor cleared the room, giving them an interested backwards glance.
"You look tired," she murmured, scooting closer and laying a loving hand along his jaw. "You need to get something to eat. Scott said he's making a Gutbomb run..."
"Shhh, Liebes...tell me the truth." He took her hands in his and gazed inly ily into her eyes. "Did you keep it?"
"Kurt, I..." Kitty felt her face flood with color and she could not meet his gaze. "You made me promise not to."
"Bitte, Katzchen. I won't be mad...did you keep it?"
She looked at their joined hands and sighed, stroking her thumbs over his and wishing she did not feel so guilty as she forced herself to meet his golden stare. "Yes," she finally admitted. "I kept them both."
"Ah, gut," he sighed, pulling her into an embrace. "Danke!"
She stiffened, startled. "I love you, sweetie, but you're confusing the hell out of me..." She returned his embrace with a sweet kiss below his ear and a nuzzle to his neck. "I thought you'd be mad..."
"I thought I would be, too, but while Rogue was talking I got to thinking..." He stood, pulling her up with him. "Where are they?"
"I hid them in my room. Why?"
"Get them."


1 My brothers and former students were forever saying "This smells like ass!" or "This tastes like ass!" which begs the question...how do they know?