21 Things I Want In a Lover

Chapter 15

By Princess Alexandria

Ororo woke up with the dawn, even though she had only been sleeping three hours. It was her connection to nature that did that to her. Rolling over she looked at Kate's sleeping face, and the sheets pooled just low enough to show her breasts.

Glancing out at the sunny morning, Ororo smiled. It had been a while since she'd lost control of her powers like that during sex, but Kate in her innocence had managed to make Ororo rain over the city.

It was tempting to wake Kate up, but Ororo moved closer to her, spooning her as Kate rolled onto her side in her sleep. Ororo sighed as she held the woman close, thinking how rare it was for her to be able to hold someone like this. When she dated men, she didn't do this.

With some nearly meditative breaths, Ororo slowly managed to fall asleep again.

………………………

The warmth under her arm started to pull at her attention, and Kate opened he eyes. Her breathing stopped suddenly as the dark skin of her lover came into focus. It hadn't been a dream. Kate's eyes widened for a moment, and then slowly she smiled. She wasn't a virgin anymore, and the night had been full of firsts for her. Wonderful firsts.

The pull of her bladder ruined the moment, and Kate grimaced as she realized she'd have to roll out of bed. With Ororo in it, leaving it didn't really appeal to her. Kate's eyes caressed the woman, and her eyes traveled back to that white hair. Kate sighed and quietly as possible slipped from bed.

She even slowly closed the bathroom door, hoping that Ororo would sleep past it. Kate wasn't sure why she was working so hard to not wake Ororo, but it seemed like the right thing to do. She cringed at the noise flushing filled the quiet room with, and grimaced as she turned on the sink to wash her hands. She washed her fast, and as she did it she could smell Ororo on her.

Images of how Ororo's scent came to be over so much of Kate's body had her smiling softly. A strange sense of satisfaction came back to her as Kate remembered the downpour of rain the night before, knowing in a way she'd caused that. Kate had made it rain, through Ororo.

Kate stared at her reflection, knowing it was foolish, but she couldn't see a difference in her features. She could see her hair was more of a mess than she'd ever seen it before. That had Kate pulling out her hair brush to try and tame it before Ororo saw her. That led to brushing her teeth, and then Kate glanced at the shower, but there was a beautiful woman in her bed. Kate slipped back out of the bathroom instead.



She stood staring at the bed, and the woman in it. There was a woman in her bed. For a moment Kate felt like a teenager, excited by the fact like one might be, but she pushed that away. Still, the smile remained. Going to New York, forcing herself to have the courage to ask Ororo out, those had been the best decisions she'd made in a long time.

As she got closer to the bed the way white hair spread over the pillow drew her eyes and Kate stood there, next to the bed watching Ororo breath softly, and the hair. The questions from the night before had her wondering why white hair on a young beautiful woman made her feel like it did. She liked how it wasn't normal, and Ororo's hair was beautiful, but it was the color that fascinated Kate.

She sighed as she considered why she'd also been so eager to see the musical Wicked, and it was the sexy green skin in the poster, along with the wicked smile. Kate watched Ororo breath, and was a little uncomfortable with her answer to the question Ororo had asked the night before, when she realized Kate was so attracted to her hair.

She managed to slip into bed without causing too much motion, and she moved to lay on her side. Kate stared down at Ororo, watching her sleep, amazed at how beautiful she was even after the night they'd had. Ororo's hair was a bit wild, but not as untamed as Kate's had been.

Slowly, carefully, Kate reached out to caress the white hair on the pillow. This was her natural color, as the hair lower had also been pure white. It was so amazing next to dark skin, really amazing. Kate slowly caressed the hair back out of Ororo's face, with her fingers trying to tame it a bit for the sleeping woman. Wanting to touch it without having an audience, and wasn't that odd?

………………………

Ororo woke up, this time not opening her eyes. It took effort to not smile as she felt fingers slowly weaving through her hair. Ororo stayed still, and noticed how slowly Kate played with her hair, as if trying not to wake her, but clearly wanting to touch. The woman never had answered if it was a hair fetish or if she was just fascinated by the obvious mutant trait.

Ororo moved her head to the side and kissed the wrist of the hand pulling away. She opened her eyes and smirked at the blushing brunette in the bed with her. "So what type of fetish is that anyway?" Ororo teased.

Kate leaned over her to kiss Ororo, rather than answer. Ororo let the question fade away as she pulled Kate more tightly to her for a more passionate kiss.

They didn't get out of bed until over an hour later. Ororo wouldn't have done that, if it weren't for the grumbling sounds that Kate's stomach gave off, or Ororo's need for the bathroom. Still, as Ororo stood up to head into that bathroom, she couldn't resist kissing Kate again. "I'm going to shower." Ororo told Kate, taking the first shower, so that Kate could lounge in bed a little longer. The shower here was sadly not big enough for two, or Ororo would teach Kate how to make love standing up.



Ororo dressed in the clothes she'd bought the day before, jeans and a white shirt that she remembered Kate liked on her. Kate seemed to like her in white. Ororo smiled a little wickedly into the mirror as she left the top few buttons undone, revealing some cleavage.

Kate's eyes told her she looked good as Ororo slipped back out into the main room. "Your turn." Was all she said, but she did pull Kate into a kiss as the woman moved to go into the bathroom for her shower. As the door closed behind Kate a moment later Ororo smiled at the memory that Kate had walked past her naked, and hadn't been nervous.

Ororo moved through the room, finding the shoes she'd worn the night before, and folding her dress as well. She set then in her shopping bags from yesterday and put on the shoes she'd arrived at Kate's the day before in, which went better with jeans. She found her purse, which had fallen to the floor at some point, and put the few items that had fallen out back into it.

Her phone had spent the night next to the leg of the dresser and as Ororo picked it up she sighed at the messages on it. There were two from Jean, and one from Betsy, both of them were probably eager to hear how the night went if they were bothering her so early for a report. Well, Ororo glanced at the clock on her phone, it wasn't all that early now, but the first call had been at seven. Now it was almost lunch time.

The sound of the shower started and Ororo thought it best to make the call now. She just had to figure out which call to return, because she knew that in this case she'd only need to talk to one of them. The other would force a report out of the one that was called.

"Well, this is certainly late." Jean's voice was teasing, not even saying hello.

"It might be later still." Ororo smiled and moved toward the window. She preferred being able to see the sky.

"How late?" Jean continued to tease and Ororo sighed in mock exasperation.

"I'm not sure, I'm going to aim for tomorrow." Ororo's naughty tone eased into a serious one as she continued to speak. "She's leaving tomorrow and I don't want to leave her alone on her last day." Ororo smiled as she tried to make light of that comment. "Besides, she might decide to wander into the middle of another battle if I'm not around to keep her entertained."

"I didn't realize she was leaving so soon." Jean's voice was softer, the teasing gone as well. "How are you feeling about that?" Jean's focus on that told Ororo that Sage had already let it slip that Kate had been in the middle of a battle, because Jean didn't ask about that. That would have been easier to answer.

"Kate is a lot of fun, and I like her." Ororo partly answered before pausing to consider the rest of her response. "If she'd actually lived here, I could see myself dating her more long term, but that's not the case."



"Well, that is a shame." Jean paused, "But you do know Betsy and I were going to be in town tonight for shopping. Perhaps we could meet up for dinner?"

Ororo doubted that Betsy knew she had plans with Jean at this moment, but she didn't think Jean would do anything too embarrassing if they met Kate. "I'll check with Kate, but I think it'll probably be okay."

"Great, and maybe we can get your dancing queen out on a dance floor. I have to see her dance with something other than flying cars." Jean's voice was amused sounding.

"You saw that did you?" Ororo sighed, considering that Kate didn't know she'd been on tv doing that. Perhaps she should tell Kate before Betsy or Jean asked about it. "I never thought Sage was a gossip, like the rest of you."

"I found her watching the footage." Jean explained how she'd gotten around Sage to find out.

Kate came back out of the bathroom shortly after Ororo hung up, having made tentative plans she'd run past Kate during lunch. Kate's face held a shy smile again, one that Ororo couldn't resist moving closer to kiss away.

…………………..

21 Things I Want In a Lover

Chapter 16

By Princess Alexandria

"My friends are horrible gossips. Don't feel like you have to answer every question they ask." Ororo told her with a grin as the taxi made its way to the restaurant. Kate felt a bit nervous to be meeting Ororo's friends, sure she'd do something stupid. She also ached to ask about these friends mutations, to know what she was getting into, but was that something you could ask? Would asking make her sound bigoted, like she only wanted to be around certain types of mutants? Kate was just worried she'd say something offensive and not know. She didn't want to embarrass herself and definitely didn't want to embarrass Ororo.

Kate was over worrying, she knew that. She tended to do that all the time. This time she made a real effort to relax as they stepped out of the taxi.

Ororo held the door opened for her and Kate smiled at her as she walked inside. Her eyes traveled around the restaurant as Ororo came in, and she found her eyes widening as she saw a woman with lavender hair. She turned to whisper to Ororo, but her date for the day was looking in that direction and smiling, so clearly those were the women they were meeting.

As Ororo walked with Kate toward the table, Kate noticed the fire red hair of the other woman. What was it with mutant women and hair, she wondered as they moved closer and the redhead 

looked over at them. Chances were good both women hadn't dyed their hair, and Kate found herself looking at the lavender hair again, wondering if it really was natural. Ororo's hair was natural. The red head, while vividly red, was still within human norm for color, but lavender was far beyond it. Even white hair happened with humans, just rarely ever someone so young.

Ororo's hair was still magnificent, Kate smiled as the lavender haired woman turned to them as the redhead said something. Lavender hair was Asian.

"Hello Ororo." The redhead smiled and Kate fought to remember her name, because Ororo had told her both the names of their dinner companions. Redhead must be Jean.

"Hello Jean," Ororo nodded at the redhead, which let Kate know she'd remembered that right. "Betsy." The other woman was identified. "This is Kate." Ororo introduced her.

"Hello." Kate smiled shyly at the women, noticing how she was being stared at, most likely critiqued. She hoped she wasn't found as inadequate as she'd felt, and still feels, seeing how attractive these two were as well. Ororo was surrounded by beauty on a regular basis and still went out with Kate. Kate didn't know what to think about that, but it was starting to sink it that maybe she wasn't completely unarmed in the competition.

"Well, what have you guys been up to today?" Betsy spoke, and her accent was clearly English, her tone clearly wicked. Kate blushed in response, thinking of what they'd spend the lion's share of the day doing.

"At least she remembered to feed you." Jean teased and Kate's eyes widened as she sat down, feeling rather embarrassed. Jean had sounded a bit too knowledgeable about what they'd done that day. The wink Kate got just as she thought that had her eyes widening.

"If you ladies, and I use that term loosely, could refrain from interrogating my date until we've at least orders I'd appreciate it." Ororo spoke firmly, but there was a hint of a smile, and that actually helped Kate relax. This was apparently normal for them?

Kate was still staring at Jean, her eyes a little wide. That winking meant something, and knowing she was a mutant was now an all consuming thought. Kate smiled at Betsy as the woman handed her a menu. The waiter was there quickly as well, asking for drink orders.

Ororo glanced at Kate over the menu and Kate just nodded, giving the woman the choice. Kate didn't know her wines well enough to pick one, but Ororo hadn't steered her wrong yet. Kate almost wanted to ask for a bottle instead of the glass Ororo was ordering her, feeling the need for even fake courage, but then she might say something stupid, like asking Betsy if she had lavender hair elsewhere like Ororo had white hair.

"We've already ordered appetizers, so they should be here soon," Jean spoke up as the waiter walked away, but Kate noticed the redhead was grinning like Kate had done something amusing, "but we were waiting for you two before ordering dinner."



They ordered when the wine came, and then Kate found herself the center of Betsy's attention. "I saw you dodge that car, that was skillful."

Kate really didn't know how to respond. She hadn't been thrilled it was on TV, when Ororo told her that. "Thank you." She muttered.

"What martial arts did you train in?" Betsy continued and Kate noticed that Ororo looked interested.

"I didn't really, I just did enough to be able to dance better. I learned tai chi, and still do that daily, well normally." Kate sighed. "Not this week."

"Dance?" Jean turned one word into a question.

Kate smiled at a memory. "In college the dance students were in a play, doing mock battles. I learned to duck and roll dramatically. I dodged the car like I had bent out of the way of a staff in the show. We'd practiced it so much I didn't even think that there had to be better ways to avoid getting hit."

"That's amazing." Ororo smiled at her. "What were you playing?"

"An amazon." Kate gave a half grin at the role. "It was ridiculous really, it was a play adaption of Xena warrior princess. It didn't get great reviews, but they did like our dancing. I think the dancers were the only ones not to be barbequed by the critics."

"So you're not a warrior, you just play one on the stage." Betsy had a teasing small smile and shook her head. "I knew dance was important to many styles of martial arts, but I'd never seen someone use dance as one."

"I was rather impressed that you ran out to drag Spiderman to safety." Jean spoke and Kate's face was turning more red with every comment about that night.

"He'd saved me; it seemed like the thing to do." Kate muttered, before taking a large sip of her wine. She'd almost died, and he'd saved her. She had to go out there, it wasn't impressive, and it would have been shameful if she hadn't.

"Yes, and how often do we see that?" Jean sounded like she was almost scoffing Kate's comment. "People don't do that often, most people just run. You took a more heroic stance."

Kate looked over at Ororo, who seemed to catch on that Kate didn't consider herself heroic, and didn't want to be called that.

…………………………..

Ororo could see that Kate felt out of her element quickly. They were all used to talking about the battles they ended up in the middle of, so no one thought anything about bringing it up now, but Kate was new to this. Also Kate had made it clear to Ororo earlier that she didn't think it was 

heroic, because it was just necessary. In that one comment Kate reminded Ororo more of herself and the other Xmen than she'd ever expected from the woman. It made her a bit more proud of her, but she understood the desire to not dwell on something.

"As for your earlier question Jean, I took Kate out to see the statue of liberty." Ororo interrupted the current discussion and mentally she added just for Jean "Kate isn't comfortable talking about that night. She sees what she did as nothing all that special, she thinks anyone would have done it, and seems to feel like a fraud if you say she's done anything remarkable."

Jean's response was equally silent as she used her telepathy. "I like her Ororo. She seems really sweet and she's a little too humble." Out loud Jean said. "Well, it isn't a trip to New York without dropping by the statue. What did you think of it Kate?"

Kate seemed to relax, and she smiled that small little half smile of hers. "It was impressive, but I had no idea it wasn't the only one. I was shocked to find out there was another in Paris." Kate's expression became more serious. "And we don't really mean those words on it. Not anymore."

"What do you mean?" Betsy asked.

"Well, we have a fence between us and Mexico, we have a quota of which people we'll accept." Kate looked at Ororo a little hesitantly. "We have a strict no mutants policy." Her words were quieter and Ororo was sure that Kate appeared nervous about saying that. It made it very clear to Ororo that Kate felt very much like the only human at the mutants table, and wasn't sure how well the others would take her even bringing things like this up.

"Yes, well I did find that last one out when I moved to the country." Betsy spoke just as quietly. "But a few well placed 'suggestions' got around it quite well."

"The Professor made 'suggestions' for me as well." Ororo spoke up, and when Kate looked confused. "Telepathic suggestions." She added to make it clearer. "The government is antimutant, but they are also against spending money on more reliable methods of screening."

"So telepaths can get around it?" Kate asked, and there was a slight frown on her face that Ororo noticed had Betsy frowning a little as well. Ororo made a small motion with her hand toward Betsy, who was no longer a telepath, to wait for the rest of the thought. Kate only appeared to be bigoted if you didn't give her time to finish her thoughts. "Well that's not fair." Ororo watched Betsy shifting in her seat. "What about the others? So if you don't have a telepathic friend you're just out of luck?" Ororo smiled subtly at Betsy, having been vindicated.

"Those of us who have the power do what we can to help." Jean offered up, a small smile on her lips. Jean had known what was going on and she smirked just a little at Ororo. "And many mutants aren't obvious mutants. The test for mutancy is so expensive that not everyone has to take them."

"I believe my hair color alerted them." Ororo added as Kate gave her a questioning look. Ororo grinned a little wickedly, "My mutant hair." Kate blushed.

"It was my hair as well." Betsy added and Ororo was amused to see Kate still blushing.

"Yes, Betsy's hair color is now natural." Jean spoke and Betsy gave her a curious look, but Ororo caught on faster. Kate had been wondering.

"So, you're a telepath?" Kate asked after a moment and Jean nodded. Ororo felt some sympathy as Kate blushed and looked away. Ororo was willing to bet Kate had been having some rather interesting thoughts, most likely about hair from the comment Jean made.

The appetizers arrived, ending that conversation as they all took some. Ororo shifted her leg to rest against Kate's, and this time instead of clearly arousing her, it seemed to comfort her. That was good, because that was the goal this time.

"We were surprised that Ororo was dating at all, she tends to just spend her free time in her gardens." Betsy smiled at Kate and Ororo blushed faintly. "We almost expected you to be a supervillian, because they all tend to be attracted to her."

Kate glanced at her and there was something soft in her eyes. "I imagine a lot more than supervillians are attracted to Ororo." Ororo gave her date a grateful smile, and then Betsy got a glare.

After that dinner descended into too much teasing for Ororo's taste, but Kate took it all so well it made Ororo wish they could all go out like this more often. When the proposal of dancing came up, Ororo was a bit surprised that Kate declined, saying they had plans.

"I think they are bedroom plans Ororo." Jean sent mentally, answering the question Ororo didn't ask in front of them and reading Kate's mind. "The poor virgin is eager to get you alone again."

"She's not a virgin anymore Jean." Ororo smirked as she glanced at the redhead, who just turned to wish Kate a good evening.

"Yes, well after watching us 'pick on you' Kate wants to do some unspeakable things to you." Jean teased telepathically.

"Please stop reading Kate's mind." Ororo sent back, but she was intrigued by the idea of unspeakable things. They left Betsy and Jean to go dancing on their own, and started to walk in the other direction. Ororo made sure to take Kate's hand and watched how Kate smiled at her when she did it. Kate had handled dinner rather well, Ororo knew her friends were challenging to say the least.

…………………