Carne Vale

CARNE CHA CHAPTER NINE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, I think Joris and Dodo are having some issues with the whole Tim thing...they seem to be hiding under MY bed at the moment...the only reason I noticed was because the tank Dodo is in sprang a leak...at least I hope it was the tank. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are sparkle bunnies. Really. Readers/Reviewers: I'm all kinds of doped up on sinus meds, so if I go off on a riff about colors, textures, or any other sensory perception, roll with it. ;)

"She still hasn't said anything," Kitty murmured, tapping her forehead to indicate Jean's intended means of communication from within the study. She flipped the pages of her magazine without looking at them, peering instead at the door across the foyer from her.
Scott shook his head and sighed. "It's awful quiet in there. Jubilee hasn't broken anything for a good ten minutes."
"A watched pot never boils, you know," Storm said from the armchair where she was pretending to work on her embroidery, but was really listening for any sign of argument just as intently as the teenagers in the room.
"Ja," Kurt sighed, "but maybe a watched door eventually opens..."
As if on cue, the door to the study swung open and the assembled mutants leaned forward expectantly, but only Logan emerged, his jaw set grimly and his hair messy as if he had raked his hands through it many times. He paused mid-stride and stared at the crowded rec room in disbelief. "Who moved the chairs? And the couch?"
"Er..." Kitty shoved her magazine off on Kurt and stood, putting on her best innocent-me look, which did not fool Logan for one second. "We were just worried for our friends and wanted to be able to...to comfort them should they need it!"
"So rearranging the furniture to face the foyer and study, then watching like vultures over a highway is how you plan to do that. Got it." He crossed into the room and did not stop until he reached Storm's chair, eliciting a few smiles and giggles from the teenagers which were quickly tamped out at his scowl. "I know how fast and hard rumors fly around here so I'm nipping it in the bud right now."
"Do you really think this is the best way to do it, Logan?" Storm murmured, not looking up from her needlework, knowing through some inner sense where he was going with his speech.
"It ain't the best way but I'm not waiting around for those two-three, rather-to get their shit together and spill their guts." Logan cracked his knuckles, a somewhat disturbing habit that merely indicated he was turning ideas over, not, as some thought, getting ready to seriously wound someone.
Tabby sighed and drummed her heel idly on the coffee table. "You gonna be long, man? I've got to go to bed. This life sucker in my gut is making me sleepy."
Logan shot her a glare and sighed. "Fine. I'm only saying this once so listen up. And, just to let any of you little howler monkeys who may find this amusing or subject for teasing later, I've got all sorts of free time between four and seven am that I'm just itching to use in the Danger Room with someone."
Amara made a small "eep" noise and scooted closer to Lance, a firm reign on her self-control for once. "I think that means to go ahead," Lance said dryly, not really complaining because Amara was pressing against him in a very pleasing manner.
Logan snorted and rolled his eyes. "Remy is a bit older than you guys1..."
Kitty listened half-heartedly as Logan told the story of Remy's past. She was leaning against Kurt on the sofa, Jean's mental voice giving her a blow-by-blow of what was going on in the study. She was not telling the same story as Logan, so Kitty found herself with a sensation akin to trying to listen to the radio and television at the same time-both may be interesting, but sooner or later, the brain was going to chose one over the other. She barely registered Kurt's arm sliding around her shoulders, an almost brotherly affection to the casual observer, but Kitty could feel the slight tautness in his muscles, the racing heartbeat against her ribs, that indicated a more than cursory interest in her. A faint thrumming against her body betrayed his purring, so low it could not be heard by normal ears but Logan's sudden, sharp appraisal made them both jump. "Sorry," she murmured. Logan nodded, but did not take his eyes off them the rest of his spiel. Kitty found herself drifting more and more towards Jean's voice. Even Kurt seemed to melt away, Logan's low voice becoming nothing more than background noise as Kitty became engrossed in the soap opera that was her friends' lives at that point. As Logan reached a vital point in his story, Kitty suddenly sat straight up and blurted, "He killed her brother?"
A pin could be heard hitting the ground as Storm dropped her needlework. "Pardon?"
"Er..." Kitty looked around wildly. "I think I left my television on!" She bolted from the room ahead of Logan's snarl.
He had not reached the part of the tale dealing with Remy's crime that forced him from New Orleans, and Logan now knew Jean was relaying information from within the meeting, at least to Kitty. He did not appreciate it, if only for the fact that detail was one he was going to omit, glossing over it with some half-truth. Remy's act of murder, while done in self defense and passion, still was a serious crime. He could already hear the faint whispers and murmurs of suspicion flying and he snapped, "That's it! We're done! Everyone, go to your rooms. If I hear so much as one damned word, it's six am runs and Danger Room sessions three times a day for every last one of you!"
Storm glared as she rose, a herd of students slipping from the room in various stages of fright. "Logan, was that necessary? I know you're stressed and worried, but that's no reason to snap like that!"
"I'm not worried, just pissed as Hell!" He flung his solid frame down into a Chippendale chair that creaked with the threat of breaking beneath his weight. "I'm trying to head off the rumors I know are coming and Jean has to go around me and tell Kitty the down and dirty!"
"How do you know...sorry. Stupid question." Folding her needlework neatly and setting it aside, she forced calm into her voice and said, hands on her hips and face carefully neutral, "Logan, Jean and Kitty are Jubilee's best friends. They are going to talk. I wouldn't be surprised if Rogue heard about this as it happened, too. We have far too many things to be concerned with aside from girls gossiping and talking. That woman is coming to stay here for four days starting tomorrow, Charles is going to D.C. again, and Duncan Matthews' father is again raising a fuss about Kitty..."
Logan sighed and let his head rest against the fragile back of the chair. "I'll deal with Matthews tomorrow. He's all bark and no bite anyway... Why is Chuckles heading out?"
"Something is coming up in a subcommittee hearing about...genetic anomalies and prenatal testing, if you catch my meaning."
"Bastards," he groused. He knew it was public-friendly terminology for mutant detection and registration. "We've gotta get Tabby moved this week, too."
"Right," Storm sighed. "Logan, do you ever think that we're becoming entirely too domestic?"
"I know what you mean, Ro," he sighed, pulling her down into his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist. "I feel old down to my metal bones."
"You are old down to your metal bones," she laughed, shrieking briefly as he lunged for her neck, accepting her teasing but telling her without words that she would pay for it later. The study door opening called a halt to their activities, however, and both adults leapt to their feet and appeared decorous in a matter of seconds.
The Professor wheeled out, followed by Belladonna. He paused in the foyer before Logan and Storm and nodded grimly. "It's finished. Belladonna will be staying with us a few more days...Remy and Jubilee are, ah, talking."
Logan's mouth quirked in acceptance. "The others already went up...want me to wait out the Dynamic Duo, keep an eye on the china to prevent any more accidents?"
Professor Xavier smirked. "I think Jubilee is all thrown out. Belladonna, we'll talk in the morning, before I leave for the Capital. For now, good night."
Belladonna inclined her head in acknowledgement and murmured a goodnight to the Professor. "An' bonne nuit to you, M'sieur Logan an' Memmeoiselle Storm. I sure we gonna be havin' a fine time dis week, oui?"
Storm glared as the woman moved towards the elevators, taking her down to the guest room set aside for her near the one so recently made up for the mystery guest. "Something about her rubs me the wrong way..."
Logan could not resist a line like that. "Want me to rub you the right way then?"
Storm sighed in mock resignation. "If you must..."
"Oh, I must..."

Rogue, Amara, Kitty and Jean sat in a loosely formed circle on Kitty's floor, the subject of Jubilee and Remy looming large but remaining unspoken. Rogue was pressing the issue of the guest coming the next night. "I mean it, y'all!" she said huffily. "It _has _ to be Mystique!"
"Since when have you listened to Pietro?" Amara asked sleepily. It was going on ten o'clock and she was more than ready to go to bed and, though she would never admit it to anyone, snuggle with Lance.
"She has a point, Rogue," Kitty said, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. "But you know, lots of things aren't quite as they seem lately. Maybe Pietro was hinting at something and Rogue hit it on the head. What if this woman is Mystique?"
"Logan will catch her out," Jean said with confidence. "He can sniff her out-literally-no matter what she looks like."
"But what if he doesn't?" Rogue asked plaintively.
"He will," Jean stated firmly.
"But what if..."
"Rogue," the red head snapped, "the only way Logan could not tell if Mystique was present is if she either became hellagood2 at disguising herself or if Logan's senses suddenly stopped working."
Kitty frowned. "Unless..."
"Unless what?" Amara sighed. "Unless the world suddenly spun the other way, up became down, the sun shone at night and Aquaman popped out of the faucet?"
"Uh, no," Kitty said, quirking a brow in bemusement. "Unless Mystique somehow got rid of Logan, somehow made him leave the mansion for a while."
"Oooooh," Rogue said, "I didn't even think of that!"
"Man, you *are * off your game tonight, aren't you?" Jean teased, finding the whole situation somewhere between unbelievable and amusing.
Amara rose to her feet and popped her back, saying, "Because Todd's mad at her. Pietro saw her goodies and now Todd's retroactively jealous."
"Amara!" Rogue cried, leaping to stand.
"Whoa," Jean said to Kitty, sotto voce, "we have *got * to start selling tickets to our get togethers..." Snapping her fingers to get the arguing girls' attention, Jean said loudly, "One problem at a time! Don't make me get out the chart again! I thought we'd decided we were too old to take turns!"
Kitty giggled. "If you do that, put me down for a time a week from tomorrow. I have a feeling I'm gonna have a doozy to talk about!" Despite their close friendship, Kitty was glad when her three friends left the room. She was still churning inside about what Jean had told her-Remy had killed Belladonna's brother immediately after the wedding in some fit of old Southern chivalry and had been forced to leave New Orleans. Jean had remained cool during the ensuing klatsch with the girls, not letting on that she knew anything extraordinary, and Kitty had followed suite. Now, the younger girl worried her lip as she tried to put herself in Jubilee's place, imagining what she must be feeling. Kurt's arrival did not surprise her, even as she was distracted. She merely scooted over in the bed and made room for him beside her.
"Penny for your thoughts, Schatz," he murmured against her neck. "This will be the last night for over a month I'll be in here like this..."
Kitty frowned. "Don't remind me." She turned in his arms and tucked her head beneath his chin, sighing softly at the comfort of it all. "Remy killed a man," she said sadly.
"I figured as much by your outburst..." Kurt, honestly, was not very surprised. He knew Remy had a past that lie in darkness and sometimes, the older mutant said things in his sleep that were not meant for living ears. He had come upon the Cajun sleeping in the rec room one evening months ago, mumbling apologies in the night, his eyes tightly closed in night terrors. Remy's eyes had flown open when Kurt had stood still too long and, by some silent, tacit agreement, neither had spoken of that evening since.
"What's Jubilee going to do? What's _he _ going to do?"
'That, Liebes, is for them to decide." Kurt was mildly disappointed. He could feel Kitty start to doze against him, her breathing sliding into a slow, even pattern, her body relaxing. _May as well start practicing self control now... _
"Love me?"
"Always," he sighed.
1 I'm too lazy to write out his history from the comicverse. If you don't know it, look it up. The bits I mention later I'm altering to fit the Foreververse and just so you know, Belladonna is already a mutant here.
2 Thanks to both Cartman on Southpark and Gwen Stefani for that one.