They were here again, some random mountain top that he really didn't care about. All that mattered was the he was here, and she was with him. He held her in his arms like the treasure she was to him, and for one glorious moment, she was his. Before she could come fully around, he brought her lips to his, ignoring the elf and everything else around him. Just like that, the world exploded inside of him. The second he kissed her, he knew he could never go back, never return to the life he had previously lived. Fire ignited inside his chest, burning all the way through his limbs in a matter of seconds before her eyes fluttered open. And just like that, it ended. The inducer failed him, revealing his true form, the one she hated so vehemently, forcing her to shove him to the floor in disgust while spitting his name out like poison. Dejected, he listened to Nightcrawler talk to her on his behalf- who would have thought!- and then she looked at him. For once, no hatred or loathing scorched him on the spot, just a softness and understanding….maybe gratitude? She thanked him, and his heart leapt up into his throat. She actually THANKED him! Suddenly, something was wrong. He was….flying? This wasn't part of the memory.
A rude awakening crashed into my back as the firm structure of the lockers collided with me. I've decided high school lockers were made by jocks, because no one else would be stupid enough to line hallways with such large, painfully sharp and solid objects that people could be forced into on a daily basis. Such as now.
"Day dreaming again, are we Tolansky?" jibbed a rude voice, snapping my attention to the sneering face in front of mine. I let out a sigh, readying myself for what was to come.
"Hey now, kinda been missin' ya Duncan." I stammered, letting my eyes flick here and there, looking for an exit or a person that could help. Of course, there was none, that's why he chose now to pester me.
"Shut up!" he yelled. Apparently today was a bad day for him, not being in the mood for my playful banter and skipping right to the pounding. The first blow landed on my right cheek bone, but was strong enough to make my head ricochet off the unforgiving locker I was being held up against. It was then that I decided today was not my day either, and pulled my legs up to my chest; just high enough to brace my feet against his stomach and push. Maybe I added a little something extra, maybe I didn't. Either way, he went flying, and I got outta there. I rounded the corner a little too quickly, plowing straight into Boom Boom who had been leaning against the wall.
"Hey, easy there Slick!" she called with a laugh, helping to pick me up off the floor. I shot a glance over my shoulder, but Duncan was headed the other way already, after seeing Tabitha with me. "It's hardly noon and look at you, already getting' into trouble with Duncan." She teased, and I just smiled.
"Hey, you coulda helped, instead of just standing by to watch the show." I challenged her, to which she only shrugged.
"Had things gotten outta hand I might have shown him where his next class was, but from here it looked like you were handling yourself pretty well." A gentle thumb brushed by bruising cheekbone, and I winced. "That'll be a nice one." she condoned with a grin.
"Yeah, that's all you care about. How it looks on my face." I scoffed, rolling my eyes.
"Slick, that's hurtful." Tabby told me, putting a hand over her heart like I had stabbed it and pouting in that special way of hers. "As much as I hate to admit it, I kinda am startin' to like you." Instantly both of my eyes were on her, my face revealing an alarming look. She laughed outright at that, and threaded her arm through mine, walking me down the hall. "Not LIKE like, you know. Not like that. Just that I'm getting kinda fond of you, is all." I breathed a sigh of relief. What Tabby and I had was complicated, at best, but none of it was ever serious. What was it she had called it, when she had proposed the idea to me? Symbiotic? Whatever. All I understood was 'fuck buddy' and that's exactly what we were. We used each other, me for a rebound whenever Wanda had me so down and lonely I couldn't breathe, and her for only God knows what. Maybe a play toy and possibly a rebound off of the blue elf, not that anyone knew the second part of course. I don't think even I was supposed to. But now my thoughts were pulled back to the present as she was pulling me into an empty class room.
"Tabby-" I started, but she cut me off.
"I'm not stupid." She retorted, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting again. "You think so little of me sometimes!" I just shrugged and smiled, wondering why we were here, if not to use each other. "Look, don't go picking fights you can't win." She said, looking again at the bruise that was spreading across my face.
"Hey man, he started it and you know it." I said, and she sighed, letting her shoulders relax a little.
"I know I know. I just don't want you gettin' too banged up by anyone but me." she winked at me then, and I laughed. God I loved how playful she was. It kept my thoughts out of dangerous places, and my head above the surface I so often felt drowned by. Then, just to mess with my head even more, she grabbed both sides of my face and pulled me roughly to her, kissing me deeply before shoving me off and turning around, offering only her signature two-fingered salute as a farewell without even turning around. By the time I got my bearings, she was gone and I was smiling. She was one crazy chick, that's for sure.
I exited the classroom, and noticed it was passing period. Tabby was just about to round the corner at the end of the hall when she turned, blew a kiss and winked at me before disappearing. Of course everyone saw, that's why she did it, and instantly the whispers began. By now, everyone in this whole godforsaken high school knew about her relationship, or lack thereof, with me. She didn't have to care about whether I would taint her reputation; people still loved her and drooled after her by the hour. But it was public acts like that which were for me. I think maybe she figured she was helping me with my own rep by affiliating me with her. I almost laughed at that. As if I could ever have, or want, my own rep! I turned to meander somewhere else for a while and stopped dead.
Wanda.
She was not two feet in front of me, arms crossed over her chest, eyes glaring daggers through me. My chest was constricted to the size of a bullet, which caught fire and almost blazed down to the bottom of the deep hole that my stomach had fallen in, somewhere beneath the floor. My throat closed and my heart stopped dead. It didn't sputter or flutter, it stopped. The sight of her, so close and actually looking at me, made me freeze head to toe. She was glaring unyielding loathing at me, but I couldn't do or say anything. We stood like this for what seemed like forever, letting the others move around us, as if they sensed the tension there.
"You sicken me." she finally spat, and the bullet that had become my lungs seemed to pierce my still heart just then, throwing it into overtime. She turned to leave me, and something possessed me. I reached out to her and called her name.
"Wanda, wait!" she whirled to face me then, lip curled into a snarl and her hands started glowing blue, readying for a hex. She glowered at me as if the one moment her name dare enter my mouth was enough to condemn me to hell for eternity. "Lemme-"
"Explain?" she demanded, and I felt her power wrap around me, throwing me violently into the same empty classroom I had just exited. "Don't you dare try to 'explain' anything to me!" The door slammed behind her, but she ignored it, standing over me with her hands still glowing that ominous blue aura. "Claim to love me, then sleep around with the school slut? Yeah, real persuasive." I hated to hear Tabby talked about like that, she was my one of the only people who liked me, but I didn't dare tell Wanda as much. Her sarcasm was almost tangible, slicing wounds deeper than bone with each word. She turned to go, and again I guess I must have had an extra dose of stupid that morning, because I leapt in front of her, putting my back to the door to keep her there with me.
"Wanda, please," I begged, putting my palms out toward her in a slow manner, trying to calm her down so I could tell her what had been bursting from inside of me for so long. But she would never give me the chance. Suddenly her usually blue-hexing hue turned to a deep scarlet red, and she snarled something fierce at me. I missed what she said, on account of the flesh-ripping power that threw me across the room and allowed her to exit without a second thought. Her power had ripped three deep gouges on my right side- like claw marks- across my shoulder and chest, lower ribs and upper thigh. The pain was blinding, enough that I couldn't even move to get myself outta there. I might have stayed there until the next class came in, if not for Rogue.
Through the throbbing hurt that filled my mind, I recognized her when she entered, though couldn't do much more than groan to let her know this. I heard her hiss when she saw the state I was in, and come to kneel beside me.
"Dang! She messed you up sumthin' fierce this time, didn't she?" Rogue whispered in that southern drawl of hers as she assessed the damage. "Hang in there Toad, I'll get help." Great. X-men to the rescue. Even if I felt like death or worse, I could still hear the scolding I would get from the Brotherhood, or worse Mystique, if they found out. She was talking quickly into some type of communication device, but I wasn't paying attention any more. Not until she touched me. I know I cried out in pain, but I don't remember that. I just remember the white-hot blaze that ripped across my right shoulder, then blackness.
By the time I came-to, it was only a dull ache and I was surprised to see I wasn't in their mansion, but in my own room. Looking around, I only saw Rogue, and it looked like she was leaving.
"What….?" I asked, moving slowly to sit up. She stopped at the door and turned, for a moment it looked like she was gonna bolt, but then she sighed and came back.
"You pissed Wanda of, 'member that?" she asked, and I nodded. "Well ah got some help from the new x-girl, Lilac. She heals. Then Tabby helped us bring you back here." New x-girl? Damn, I was outta the loop. I hadn't been paying attention to anything but Wanda, and sometimes Tabby when I needed something to help the numbness that came with Wanda's constant hatred and rejection. I took inventory of my wounds, but they had just about disappeared. I was a little sore in my shoulder, and tender across my ribs, but that was it. The skin didn't even show one scratch.
"Hey, uh give her my thanks."
"Ah will."
"And Rogue?" I called, as she headed to the door again. She paused and looked back, making me look away and fix my stare on an empty pizza box in the corner. "Thanks."
"You're welcome." I could hear the soft smile in her voice, so I looked back at her. "Can ah ask ya sumthin'?" I nodded, and she turned to face me, but still stayed in the doorway. "Why d'ya keep after Wanda when you have Tabby?" Despite everything, I laughed, which startled her.
"Rogue, do you know Tabby? No one has her, least of all me. If anything, it's her who has me. She calls the shots, and I jus' go along with it all. I still don't know why she came to me for that, but that's all it is, ya know?" I paused here, letting the humor fade from my face and looked away again. I couldn't say the real reason, as if it weren't obvious anyways.
"You really do love her, don'tcha?" I let out a long breath, and closed my eyes. Apparently my silence was answer enough. Rogue sighed as well. "Jus' watch out fer yourself," she advised. We both knew what she wasn't saying. Wanda is more dangerous than a loaded gun, and twice as likely to go off at any given moment.
"Thanks again Rogue." she nodded, and left me to dwell on the object of my pain and desire.