Author Note: So this one took a bit longer than expected, but I have managed to finish it! This entire chapter (the entire story, really) is dedicated to my darling internet sister as a very late birthday present! I love you darling! This chapter is also completely about Willow and Toad, with a bit of steam at the end. So, be is where the rating changes. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, nor do I own Willow Monet and Waverly Monet. You can ask my internet sister if you want to use them. I am only getting satisfaction and personal pleasure out of writing this.
crack...
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Crack!...
... ... ...
CRACK! Slam!
The desk shakes from the force of the tool hitting its surface. "If you pop your gum one more time, you insufferable woman," Toad spins around his chair, fixing a glare on the girl who had, over the course of a week, taken over his work room. "I will glue your mouth shut."
Willow smiles innocently, twirling a lock of hair around her finger, "Sure you can't think of a more... entertaining punishment?" She bites her lip and looks up at him from under her lashes.
Smothering the blush her words threaten to cause, Toad shakes his head and turns back to his work desk, searching for the recently discarded tool. He finds it and works in blessed silence for long, precious minutes.
And then- CRACK.
"Okay," He turns back around, forcing himself to remain calm and not attack the annoying pest invading his peace. "What do you want? Why do you come in here everyday? The door is locked for a reason."
"First time I came in here, you said you would entertain me; I'm still waiting." Willow shrugs, a smirk ruining her innocent facade.
Toad shakes his head, correcting, "Never said that, darlin."
Willow pouts prettily, her wide eyes pleading with him to change his mind. Pretty Please?
Toad smirks and crosses his arms, not budging one inch, and he raises an eyebrow challengingly. Narrowing her eyes, Willow switches tracks. Slowly, she rises and slinks towards him, confident and tempting; she stops in front of him and lays her hands on his shoulder, her thumbs tracing small circles against his collarbone. She bends over until her lips are only a scant inch away from his, the air between their lips hot. Giving a half smile, she breathes, "Please?"
Words stuck in his throat, Toad manages to shake his head 'no'. Giggling softly at his continued, useless resistance, Willow easily slides onto his lap, his hands falling naturally to her hips to hold her there. He swallows, his eyes flickering between her own and the place where his hands fit so perfectly. A finger dips under her shirt tail and his breath catches as he feels the petal soft and oh so warm skin. "Pretty please, Toad?" She whispers, her lips just barely brushing against his in a tempting offer.
Head in a warm haze, Toad sighs and murmurs, "Okay," and then he leans forwards, ready to claim his prize.
"Yay!" Willow jerks away and bounds up the stairs to the loft. Pausing, she looks back at Toad, still sitting in his chair, his hands reaching out and his mind trying to catch up with the present. "Come on, Toad! I wanna go outside! We can do a picnic!" She spins and runs out the door, a mischievous grin hidden from view.
Toad blinks and lowers his hands. He rubs a hand down his face and groans, "That girl will kill me."
Food is easy to grab: couple of sandwiches, chips, cans of soda: the blanket comes from the many piled on her bed, but the perfect spot for their picnic is harder. Willow stands on the wrap around porch for a long while, her arms slowly starting to ache from her heavy bundle, when finally Toad appears from the house.
"Here, take this and follow me." She shoves the blanket and basket of food into his arms, ignores the shocked and indignation on his face, and sets out with a purposeful stride.
Ten minutes and four complete circuits around the house later, Toad has had enough. "Okay, what are you doing?" He demands and stops, refusing to take another step.
"Trying to find the perfect spot!" Willow replies, eyes scanning over a patch of grass a few feet ahead, but the grass is too high and there is too much sun right there.
Toad sighs before snapping, "Follow me." They walk away from the house and into the hundred and fifty acres of forest on the west side of the property. Less than a hundred yards in, they come to a clearing. The main point of the clearing is a lake: large, crystal clear and absolutely gorgeous, it is bordered on three sides by wild flowers and the last side with a collection of large, flat boulders.
Willow grins excitedly and jogs to the largest rock, the one that hangs a foot over the lake and is speckled with warm afternoon sunshine. She scrambles to the top, her flipflops less than ideal for scaling rock sides but she manages to get up there with only one mishap. Willow looks over her shoulder, down to Toad.
He quirks an eyebrow at her, but he just shakes his head and follows her up in one graceful jump. Willow makes a conscious effort to keep her jaw from dropping: "How the hell did you do that?!"
He spares her a quick glance as he sets out the blanket and food, asking glibly, "Why do you think they call me Toad?"
"Cause you're just so cuddly?" Toad jumps as Willow wraps her arms around his waist, she rubs her cheek against his back.
"Maybe. But probably the fifteen foot long tongue." He says, too awkward to successfully pull of sarcasm.
"Ohh, the uses for that..." She hums, squeezing him closer for a second and pushing him away. "I'm hungry."
Toad stumbles but catches himself quickly; he turns to glare at the insufferable girl, but instead he freezes and then crumbles into laughter. Willow is sitting on the blanket, the basket on her lap, and her head completely submerged inside the basket. She emerges from it with a questioning look that melts into an amused smile.
Willow waits, and when he has slowed to chuckles, she pats the blanket next to her. "Turkey or ham?"
It is when the food is almost gone and the drinks dwindling that Willow finally asks the question she's been wondering for a while, "So why did Magneto pick us up from that jail?"
Toad leans back against the rock face and watches as the sun filters down through the leaves and shrugs. "Don't really know: Boss doesn't share a lot of his plans. But it would be something big if he actually cared enough to break into the prison himself."
"Well, I hope he gets on with it soon; it took me and Waverly forever to get in that prison." Willow runs her hand through her hair and adds absently, "We robbed the National Bank twice to get in."
Toad rolls onto his side and looks at Willow with a curious stare, "Why would you try to get sent to prison?"
"I'm not really sure; it's fun, I guess, except when they put those stupid power-suppressors on us. We never go out of our way to hurt people, just rob a bank or explode an embassy or something; so there's no guilt or anything over it. And then we get free food and board for as long as we care to stay." Willow shrugs, she had never really given much thought to why they did it, they just did.
"You are not right in the head, girl."
She smiles. "I know, but it's not my fault I'm all fuzzed up in the head."
"Bet it's your crazy sister's fault..." Toad mumbles, wiping his hand down his face. Something solid knocks the breath out of him and his head slams into the rock, white stars exploding in his vision. When finally the pain dulls to a steady ache and the stars clear, Toad realizes his attacker is Willow. She sits on his hips, effectively pinning him to the rock, his hands trapped by his head. She is yelling at him, a steady stream of curses and threats that blur together. "Don't you ever fucking say a damn thing about Waverly! I will fucking poison you and you will beg for death! Waverly took care of me, she's all I have! So don't you say a fucking thing about her!"
When she takes a second to gulp for air, Toad seizes his chance. Using his unnatural flexibility he flips the pin on her; the speed of it knocks the breath from her this time and while she coughs and sputters, Toad growls down at her, "Don't threaten me, girl; I have methods of torture even Magneto refuses to use, so don't you dare think you have an advantage on me." Completely thrown by this aggressive, even slightly intimidating side, Willow falls silent, staring up at him in shock. Seeing she has nothing to say, Toad continues, calmer, "I didn't mean any offense, okay? I've just never seen anyone willingly pick so many fights with Fuzz-ball." His grip on her wrists eases a little.
Willow flips them again, but now a small grin appears. "She likes him."
"Likes Victor?!" The shocked look on his face makes Willow giggle. "I just thought she got off from the pain."
"Well," Willow tilts her head and grins wider, "she does, but she likes him, too. Probably as much as Waverly can like anyone."
Toad raises an eyebrow, catching that weird added phrase, "Whatcha mean by that, doll?"
Instead of answering, Willow ducks her head closer and nuzzles under his chin, letting go of the pin in favor of relaxing on top of him. "You know, I thought you would be slimey." She says offhandedly, one finger tracing a line up and down his bare arm.
Forcing the lump in his throat down, Toad manages a normal tone, "Nah, just after I get out of the water." He squirms as her traveling finger dips under his shirt sleeve and draws a circle against the sensitive skin there. Her breath tickles the extremely delicate skin on his neck.
"Oh, must make shower sex kinda slippery." And she nuzzles closer.
Toad chokes on what should have been a sarcastic come back, and instead a strangled "Wha?" escapes.
Willow looks up at him fro under her lashes, and innocent mask on, "Are you okay, Toad? You look...pained." She just barely manages to stop the smile as Toad's face flushes red. Miraculously, Toad's brain decides to work this time, and in the hopes of maybe embarrassing her off of him and regaining some personal space, he replies, "Well, you are kind of heavy..."
Instead of the response he was hoping for, Willow grins at him and asks, "Does this help?" She shifts her hips, and Toad bites his tongue to hold back any noise. "Oops, guess it didn't, huh?" She laughs, and when he glares at her and goes to snap something, she rolls her hips again.
"Ah-!" Cutting the moan off, Toad takes a deep, concentrated breath and he very calmly growls, "You'd better stop playing with me, girl."
Laughing harder, Willow finally rolls off of him and stretches out on the blanket beside him. Toad sits up and jumps down to the ground; worried she may have actually went too far, Willow sits up and asks, panicked, "Where are you going?"
He raises a hand without turning, "Calm down. I'm going for a swim."
Placated, Willow settles on her stomach to watch him, disgust and curiosity battling in her. Toad stops at the edge of the crystal clear lake and in one easy movement, his shirt is off and he dives gracefully into the water, barely making a ripple on the surface. Curiosity wins out over her disgust at swimming and she watches closely, entranced with his easy movements. Toad cuts through the water effortlessly, reaching the other far side of the lake in seconds. Without coming up for air, he flips and cuts back to the rocks. More impressed than she'll ever admit, Willow mentally cheers him on as he repeats this multiple times.
.
Finally, almost an hour later, he stops and just floats close to the edge of the lake, right below the rock Willow is stretched out on. She looks down at him, noting the shine his skin has taken on now and the peaceful smile on his face. At the same time, she happily gazes at the site hidden until now: Toad is not ripped, there was no six pack on this frog, but he wasn't wimpy either. Lithe, swimmer muscles roped around his arms and his stomach was tight and flat. Carrying heavy machinery daily had added the finishing touches of slight bulk.
"So," Willow starts, giving over to her interest of the man below her, "what's your story, Toad? What brought Mortimer to this place?"
Toad glances up, his expression cautious but not sealed off. "What do you wanna know?"
Willow sat up and scooted over til her legs hung off the rock side, "Umm, what's your last name?"
"Toynbee."
"Where did you grow up?"
"An orphanage in England til I was seven and then I left and traveled. Boss came for me at nineteen, been with him since then."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-nine."
"Why were you in an orphanage?"
Now Toad freezes, sinking an inch or two before he catches himself and treads water. "I wasn't one of the lucky ones, girl; I was born like this."
"So you don't know your parents?"
Glaring up at the annoying twit, Toad growls, "No, I don't; and that's fine with me."
Nodding, Willow opens her mouth to continue her line of invasive questions but Toad cuts her off. "What about you, girl?"
"What about me? I'm an open book." She smiles.
"What's your last name?"
"Monet. And I grew up in the southern part of France and a little bit everywhere in the nation." She winks down at him.
"How old are you?" The serious tone Toad tries to hide by doing a quick dive makes Willow smirk and when he reemerges, she purrs,
"Seventeen, but I've been told I'm... mature for my age." She leans over to emphasize exactly what was mature. Except the sexiness she was trying to achieve is ruined as Toad erupts into laughter.
"You are a lot of things, doll, but not mature. Ditzy, hazardous, sneaky; not mature."
Willow crosses her arms with a humph. "Yeah well, you're the pervert that was getting all hot and bothered by this immature girl."
"You don't have to be mature to be a slut." But his grin eases any offense Willow could have felt. And then Toad turned serious again, "Did you know your parents?"
Willow shrugs, her teasing, lighthearted expression quickly melting to a twist of her lips."Yes."
"They raise you?"
"Waverly raised me, but they were around for most of my childhood."
Toad treads over to the edge of the lake and walks out, flopping onto his back on the soft grass. He looks up to Willow, "Doesn't sound like you have a lot of love for them." Willow crosses her arms again and glares at a tree across the clearing, refusing to say anymore. This wasn't entertaining! She wanted to watch him squirm, not the other way around. "Come on, doll face: one horrid past for another."
"My dad was an abuser, okay?" She snaps, glaring harder at the tree and ignoring the slightly green tinted breath coming from her nose, "He confused his family with a punching bag sometimes and when we were nine Mom couldn't handle it anymore and took the coward's way out. A year later, Waverly killed our dear father when he tried to rape me. We've been traveling since then; just Waverly and me."
Quiet reigns for a while; Willow spends it trying to burn the tree with her glare and she jumps when a hand gently grips her shoulder. She turns to see that Toad had joined her on the rock again, and he meets her eyes, apologetic and awkward and way out of his comfort zone. "I didn't mean to drag the pain back out. We had shitty childhoods: let's leave them in the dark where they belong. Okay?"
With a deep, cleansing breath, Willow smiles and nods.
A flicker of something passes through her eyes before Toad can read it and with no warning, Willow takes advantage of his close proximity. She leans forward and kisses him, her lips hot and soft against his own cold, chapped ones. When her tongue swipes across his bottom lip, he doesn't hesitate to open his mouth.
Willow gladly lets Toad control the kiss then, she is content wrapping her arms around his neck and playing with his hair. A few seconds later, though, Toad pulls away and gasps out, "No! Not doing this: not being just a play thing."
Confused, Willow pants, "You think I'm using you as a play thing?" She laughs then, "Toad, do you think I would tell just anyone about my parents? My father? That I would hang out in that stuffy, boring lab every day all day, watching you break more things than you build, if I didn't like you?" When he just stares at her blankly, Willow sighs and spells it out for him, "I. Like. You. Ya big slime ball. Enough to see you all covered in slime and swimming, and still want to get all close and personal with you."
Slowly, a small smile crosses Toad's lips, and when Willow sees it she leans closer and wraps an arm around his neck. She pulls him closer and whispers, her lips barely grazing his, "Now kiss me, frog boy."
And he does. Thoroughly. While their lips crash together, Toad pushes her back onto the blanket and pins her wrists above her head with one of his. He slips the other under her shirt, his slightly slick hand resting on her stomach, the moisture cool on her heated skin; Willow moans into the kiss as his thumb rubs a half circle from her belly button to the top of her jeans. When oxygen becomes necessary, Toad pulls away and trails kisses across her jaw to her ear; he nips it, sending a sliver of heat down Willow's spine and she arches up into him, returning the torment with a hazy, feral grin. "Come on, Mortimer, you can do better than this." She goads, biting her tongue as he gives her neck a sharp nip. The pain mixes perfectly with the pleasure in her veins.
His hand trails up her body until his fingertips brush the underside of her bra, and Willow gasps, a silent plea to just get on with it. But he ignores it and runs his hand back down her side, his blunt nails not causing much damage as they scrape down. Growling, Willow wrestles her hands free of his pin and she grabs his shirt bottom and rips it up over his head; he has no choice but to let her remove it or have it tear. She happily drags both hands down from his shoulders to his hips and with another forceful movement, she pulls his hips to meet her own; their moans are muffled as Toad meets her lips again in a messy, passionate kiss.
Now, he pulls her shirt off and she snaps open the clasp before he can. Toad palms her breast, groaning at the warmth and softness of her body. His thumb traces a circle around the hard nipple and Willow gasps, arching into the pleasure that suddenly multiplies as he repeats the motion on the other breast at the same time. "Oh yeah, that's it, Toad." She breathes, her hand carding through his hair and pulling his head closer to her for another kiss.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your fun, but we have a bank to break into."
Willow chokes on a scream, her arms flailing as shock runs through her veins, and her flailing pushes Toad off of her. She falls over the side of the rock and a second later, a splash announces her landing in the lake. Toad blinks at her sudden disappearance, but with a small smile and a shake of his head, he dismisses her for now and turns to the intruder. Magneto stands at the clearing edge, leaning against a tree with an amused smirk. Toad gives a two fingered salute and calls, "Be at the house in five, Boss." Magneto nods and floats off.
Toad stands and walks to the edge of the rock, looking over it to see Willow half in half out of the water, stretched out and gasping for air on the grass. He pushes away the laughter that would surely cause an explosion from the girl and he hops down beside of her. Willow flops onto her back to meet his eyes, unabashed about her naked chest; she pushes her soaking wet hair out of her face with a grimace, and then she tells Toad very seriously, "I told you he was a perverted old man."
Toad grins and drops her clothes on her face. "Come on, your job is finally here."
AN2: Hope you enjoyed this new chapter. I want to thank everyone that reviewed, favorited, or followed this story. I'm so happy to know people actually like my story.