AN: I am so so so so so so sorry that it took me forever to update, first i went overseas then i had to work around birthdays, parties, uni deferment, lots of work agh! this is just a quick link chapter, lots of moodiness, promise next chapter has lots of rogan and lots of actions coming up. a mutant makes a surprise return!!
Today is gonna be the day
That they're gonna throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you gotta do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do
About you now
Backbeat the word is on the street
That the fire in your heart is out
I'm sure you've heard it all before
But you never really had a doubt
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do
about you now
And all the roads we have to walk are winding
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding
There are many things that I would
Like to say to you
But I don't know how
Because maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall
Today was gonna be the day
But they'll never throw it back to you
By now you should've somehow
Realized what you're not to do
I don't believe that anybody
Feels the way I do
About you now
And all the roads that lead you there were winding
And all the lights that light the way are blinding
There are many things that I would like to say to you
But I don't know how
I said maybe
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall
I said maybe (I said maybe)
You're gonna be the one that saves me
And after all
You're my wonderwall
I said maybe (I said maybe)
You're gonna be the one that saves me (that saves me) 3X -Oasis Wonder wall
"Don't touch me"
Three simple words murmured in such a monotone voice that they could barely be construed as a plea, a statement or an order. In fact, upon hearing them the receiver of those words could easily question whether the speaker was awake or dreaming.
But Logan knew that the dream was long gone, lost somewhere beyond his capability of comprehension, only noticeable in the comparison of that perfect golden afternoon and the bitter moments he measured his life in now. Rogue was serious when she made that order, any attempt to belay would result in another screaming, tearful argument.
And he doubted he had the strength left for it.
But, being who he was he tried anyway.
"I'm not going to push you darlin'" he reassured softly, his hand hovering above her shoulder, "I just wanna hold you"
She craned her neck to look at him, her eyes hollow, with dark purple bags underneath them, a touch of splintery coldness within them, something he had never seen before, in all the time he had known her.
"I don't wanna be touched," she growled, glaring spitefully at him, before turning away and settling her eyes once again on that lovely piece of wall, she was only days away from stripping the paper with that glare of hers. Logan removed his hand from her personal space, resisting the urge to ask the most obvious of questions.
Then why are you in my bed?
The question was never asked though; because he didn't care why she was there, as long as Rogue was there he still had hope. The night following her emergence from her room she had stumbled into his in a long white nightgown that reminded him of the first night she had been in there. He had been lying in the darkness and had reached yearningly for her; she had ignored him climbing onto the bed and dragging herself up to the pillows where she had turned her back on him and, in a little curled ball, fallen asleep. It had become routine, at night, Rogue would come into his room, ready for bed and he would reach for her. Always she would shy away from him, opting instead to sleep above the covers, with her back to him. In the morning, she would produce her clothes from thin air, using his shower after him and disappear for the day, literally disappear. With the help of Kitty and her contacts with the right students, Logan was able to get blueprints of all known secret passages inside the mansion, but he still couldn't figure out where Rogue was going. Whenever he tried asking her she would either ignore him or give him a death stare, occasionally he would provoke an argument. Though argument was an understatement, voices high as they could go, screaming blue murder, and every insult and curse word they could invent, once they had almost come to physical blows with only Logan's long fought for restraint stopping him. Then he had seen a look in her eyes, a glint that was there for barely a second, which had almost moved his hand again. Ignoring it he had turned angrily away from her and let his emotions drive him down to the garage to his motorbike, he had seriously contemplated leaving the mansion but Hank and Scott, foreseeing this, had cut the wires of the bike, ensuring it wouldn't start. When he had stormed into the med centre and confronted Hank, the doctor's reply had chilled him to the bone.
Because Rogue needs you right now Logan, and with you gone, I wouldn't trust that girl alone in the room with a decent length of rope.
Therefore, Logan stayed, though it was killing him to see his girl like this, unable to do anything that didn't provoke her to argument, no longer able to even touch her though he longed to more than anything else in existence.
He stayed.
"Okay kids," Kitty clapped her hands, facing the young students, "We're gonna play Jumpstart now, get in a circle and Sean you start"
They ambled into the centre of the spare room to obey her instructions and Kitty took the chance to retreat to the few desks in the room and grab her drink bottle. Taking a quick swig she checked her watch, she almost sighed in relief, she had timed the class just right, the kids wouldn't have enough time to become bored before the bell sounded. She took the brief break to wonder what she was missing in her English class, they had just started Great Gatsby and she didn't want to fall behind. However, Mr. Summers had promised her that he would give her extra tutorials, if needed, if they could find the time for it.
Because the mansion was quite seriously and quite quickly descending into chaos.
Too many children were being dumped at the mansions gates, overwhelming numbers everyday. Some too young for mutations to have developed, some not even mutants. All expecting Xavier's to take them in, expenses paid. It had got to the point where even the prestigious academy run by Emma Frost in Massachusetts, an academy which prided itself on accepting humans and mutants was turning them away. This caused no small amount of difficulty as those who had nursed dreams of grandeur, of becoming heroic X-Men, were being thrown back down to reality when they were told they had no mutation or the school couldn't take them at this current time. More than once this had caused trouble with the paparazzi who hung about the land borders eagerly recording and snapping photos as Cyclops, Beast, and at one point Wolverine, had to race to the gates to prevent rioters from breaking onto the grounds.
Those that were allowed into the school, those that were mutants still expected expenses paid and, frankly, the school budget didn't extend that far. Already the X-Men and teachers had given up their pay and were supporting themselves from their own savings. Hank was even going so far as to try and finance the school with the funding he received as a politician for 'personal expenses', but Ororo had been forced to refuse the money reminding him of the jail sentence he could receive for such fraud. People like Kitty, with loving parents/guardians, were fine, they had always paid school fees and a quick call could get her a few extra dollars. People like Jubilee and Rogue, orphans or disowned kids who had already arrived at the school with barely a nickel to their name, had more trouble. Jubilee had done her best; cutting her budget into so many fractions Kitty was honestly wondering how the girl was financing any sort of lifestyle and refusing Kitty's offers to borrow money. And Logan had simply added Rogue's expenses to his own and covered them both, most likely returning to his Neanderthal cage-fighting, gambling hand-to-mouth style way of life. An option many of the other males of the mansion were considering, as students such as Kitty had to cover classes as Storm argued, pleaded and manipulated every five, six or seven digit figured being they could get to answer their calls. Right now, she was agreeing to have another dinner with Mr. Buchanan, some overpowering oil tycoon who had tried to crush Scott's fingers with a handshake when he had insisted on chaperoning Ororo to drinks at the man's palatial residence.
However as the bell rang and Kitty gathered up her folders and bag, waiting patiently for the stampede of students to break down the door, before she braved the hallway, she wasn't thinking about the schools current problems. Instead, she was focusing on what she perceived to be the relationship between her ex Piotr and her teacher Storm, and her opinion on the matter. He was twenty-one and she was thirty-six, just having three years less difference than Rogue and Wolverine, but that was different, everyone had always wondered if there was something between the Canadian and River Rat, this was a complete surprise. Though she couldn't even be sure if she was imagining things or not, only her old romance with the Russian and her surrogate daughter relationship with the African Goddess had raised her to the suspicion. For two people who had never had anything more than a distant acquaintance to suddenly be emerging from a bedroom and spending hours talking in the kitchen…
She was trying to think this through logically, ignoring the affection she felt for the both of them, but she couldn't possibly ignore the sense of wrongness, the unpalatable taste it left in her mouth. With Wolverine and Rogue, it was a chivalrous hero rescuing the damsel in distress. With Storm and Colossus, it was an older woman panting after a younger man, a teacher enjoying an affair with a student. She shivered with disgust and looking to her timetable realized with a sense of horror that her next period was T.A. History with Storm and Piotr.
"No" she murmured to herself, shaking her head, she was tired and had homework to do, darting to the wall of the hallway, she phased through and hurried along the wall space, trying to remember the layout of the school walls.
Stepping out of the walls, she ran up the stairs and into the library, startling a study group and causing Hank to rise to his feet in consternation. From there she was able to cut through several bedrooms, knowing the occupants would be in class and reach her bedroom. Though as one of the late Professor Xavier's Ethics students she had decided- as a rule- to never use her powers to intrude where she wasn't invited, in day-to-day matters, she ignored that now as she raced to the sanctuary of her room. Eager to lock the troubles of the world outside for a little while and enjoy some peace and quiet.
Though she knew that the chaos was inch-by-inch intruding upon her sanctuary as well, if not physically then in her mind, an unavoidable darkness seeping through the walls as easily as she did.
As if to escape it she broke into a run and reaching her room, decided against phasing in favor of being able to yank open the door and slam it behind her. Imagining that she was locking out the evil, sighing in relief she opened her eyes, not even realizing she had shut them and jumped when she saw that she wasn't alone.
"Enjoy the exercise chica?"
Sitting on her bright pink doona Jubilee held a small brush over her toe, studiously painting the nails a ridiculously fluro yellow.
Kitty blushed, "What are you doing in here?"
"Girlfriend support"
"What?"
Jubilee made a face and looked up, "Seriously chica, you've skipped every one of Ms Munroe's classes for the last week! Sit down and fess up already"
Sighing Kitty trudged across the room, dropping her books on the floor and throwing herself onto her bed buried her face in her pillows. "Uh…I hate this!"
"Skipping class…?"
"No, all the stuff that's making me skip class, I don't skip class…usually, but…" she sat up, facing her girlfriend and hoping to find a level of understanding she hadn't yet needed.
"Jubilee do you get the feeling that you're, we're…"
"All spinning outta control?" Jubilee replaced the lid of the nail polish and sat it down looking her directly in the eye, complete honesty in her gaze, "That when you look around and see the emotional trauma everyone is facing, you wonder how their going to survive. You look at events and feel as though they are leading you to some horrific climax that will be monstrous in its finality that…as much as you're trying to hold onto something secure everything around you is a world in itself of toppling plates, shifting sands and broken promises?"
She held the tension for a moment, as if testing its weight before giving a Rogue-like smirk, in her attempt to dispel it, "Yeah I get that feeling"
Kitty wasn't quite sure how she got across the room, but before she knew it she was cradling her girlfriend's face in her hands and pressing her lips to hers as gently as possible. Jubilee molded against her, stopping only when she tasted Kitty's tears on her lips, "Chica" she murmured pulling away, "Chica, hush…"
"I love you" Kitty wept, "I don't care what anyone thinks, what happens or what you feel…I love you"
Jubilee giggled, pleased by the reassurance of this fact, "More than Sam?"
At once Kitty's face soured, "I hate you"
"He likes you," she teased, kneeling on the bed, "Ooh, Sam likes you, he wants to kiss you, he wants to go down on you and lick your…hey!"
Kitty knew that she was wrong to use her powers but she figured phasing Jubilee through the bed was justified. She allowed the girl a few moments panic, as she couldn't figure out why her world had gone dark before she reached down and yanked up the loose sheets.
"Done?" Kitty asked, Jubilee simply huffed and crossed her arms, lying down on the dusty floorboards, feigning anger. Chuckling Kitty slid in beside her, stretching her arm across her body and resting it on Jubilee's waist, "Sorry honey" she pecked her cheek,
Jubilee giggled, "He does like ya, you know"
Kitty shuddered dramatically, "He's a perverted freak, more acne than Amy Winehouse and more mistakes than Britney Spears"
"Oh" Jubilee was in the mood for teasing, "So you think of him like you would girls huh?"
Rolling her eyes Kitty rolled onto her side, resting her head on her girlfriend's shoulder, "There's only one girl I think off in that way honey"
"Rogue?"
"Jubes!"
"Sorry," she stretched luxuriously, "Love you too chica"
Lying under the bed, in each other's arms, they were too preoccupied with their contentment to notice their bedroom door silently close.
Piotr strode through the dormitory halls, frowning as he saw Sam Brut scurry away from Kitty and Jubilee's room. He had his head down but when Piotr stepped in his path, he looked up with the unmistakable face of a guilty boy; crouching down further he ducked around the tall Russian and all but ran from the man. Lips curling in disgust Piotr made a mental note to warn Kitty that Sam was prying; it didn't even occur to him that Sam could have been invited into their room. Nobody would want Sam Brut within ten feet of him or her, let alone in their room. Sam Brut was a teenage nightmare, not the drinking, partying kind, but the acne-ridden loner that panted over girls, which he could never get i.e. all of them. At 5ft 4, he was overly thin, with black hair that was slick with grease, that didn't get better when you reached his face, which couldn't have been handsome under any circumstance, was ridden with acne, pimples, blackheads, whiteheads-all the alphabet. His personality wasn't much better, there was something about him that generally set people on edge, repulsed them, the way he would sneak around and try to peek in rooms, watch situations. Even Storm avoided any unnecessary contact and Wolverine had threatened to cut his eyes out when he'd caught the boy looking funny at Rogue.
He wasn't a guy Piotr wanted hanging round his ex-girlfriend.
Not that I want Kitty for myself, Piotr mused with a smile, not that I want anything more than what I have right now.
For though the mansion was facing troubles, though the world outside was becoming a darker and more dangerous place, Piotr was amazingly happy with his life.
And the reason was only one room away.
Taking care to ensure his enviable ecstasy didn't show on his face, he pushed open the door of the office, looking around with feigned curiosity. No students.
"Logan's taking my class for me," a tired voice explained, drawing his gaze to the large desk that Xavier had imported from England, along with his educated accent. Indeed his entire office/classroom was rumored to have been removed from the study of one of his Oxford Professors. Unlike the teachers who had wept over his brilliance, this particular one had mocked him for his premature baldness and sworn that the upstart American would never achieve greatness. Unfortunately this teacher had lacked skill on the stock market and upon his death, the family had been in financial ruin when Xavier had brought the ancestral three thousand acres that resided in Kent. And supposedly leveled it and built an overdone, tasteless casino, shopping mall and American Holiday Inn with a hidden brothel somewhere. Petty revenge.
But sweet nonetheless.
Nobody was quite sure about this legend, but Kitty Pryde who had been to England for a sabbatical claimed to have stayed in the hotel.
Piotr still had his doubts.
He wasn't thinking of those however as he closed and locked the office door, padding behind Ororo Munroe's large leather chair and caressing her silken hair. She sighed and relaxed slightly, leaning against him, rolling her shoulder blades, getting the hint he moved his hands to her shoulders and began to massage them, pressing on her knots.
"Your back is like concrete" he chastised and she nodded, "I have no idea how Xavier managed this but its damn near killing me"
"Anything I can do?"
"Yeah" she grunted, "Lower near my spine"
He complied and she stretched, becoming pensive, suddenly resenting her role. Hating the stress, hating all the burdens that had been heaped on her shoulders simply because Scott, Xavier's real protégée, the one that had been groomed for the position almost from his first step over the threshold had decided to pull out at the last minute. Moreover, did she have any help? No, god forbid the other X-Men should step in! Scott was still 'grieving' the selfish bastard, Logan was tied up with trailing behind Rogue like a lost puppy, Rogue was busy having an emotional breakdown, Hank was negotiating something somewhere, Kitty and Jubilee weren't of legal age to be doing anything but explore their sexual orientation and Nightcrawler had taken a million-dollar-contract with Circe di Solei promising the benefits would go to charity. The only way she got anything out of the lazy bastards was by bullying them into the chores.
Piotr was the one exception, he took all the art classes, supervised the children, hired new cleaners, cooks and gardeners when the others walked off the job for delayed pay. With everyone overlooking their fluent Russian and lack of identification and- more importantly- he expected nothing of Storm. He didn't chastise her for the fact that the Danger Room hadn't seen any action since before Alcatraz, understanding that Bobby Drake's ghost still lingered in the vast space. He didn't reprove her when she overslept, stumbling into the office with yesterdays clothes. He didn't make accusations when she feigned interest with Mr. Buchanan. he didn't do any of those things because he had grown up in Russia with a starving family, he still remembered the look on his little Illyana's face, his baby sister for which he had gone to the very gates of Hell to provide her with food and warm clothes. He had even agreed to help smuggle arms to and from the States for the money, risking it all until Scott Summers and Jean Grey had, on the Professor's orders interceded one of the runs and frantically negotiated with him while AK-47's aimed at them from all sides. Promising him double what the Family was paying they had bought him to the school, where he had found the art room and indulged in his creativity to the awe of the rest of the student body.
Ororo smiled suddenly as if sensing his thoughts,
"I remember when Scott and Jean first brought you in, you were only fifteen but already so scared of the world" she reached behind her and patted his cheek, "And then you found the art room and haven't left it since"
"Hmmm" he pressed his face against her palm, "Speaking about the art room…"
"If you've run out of room for your work, just stick it in storage I'm sorry but I've got no other space"
"It's not that…" he inhaled sharply and grimaced, "It's about the students and some things they're saying…"
"About us?" she finished, her temporary serenity gone, she laughed bitterly
"People think I'm leading you astray on the path of carnal desire"
"We've barely even kissed!" he protested weakly, still rubbing her shoulders distractedly.
"I know my dear" she patted his hand in comfort,
"People think what's between us is disgusting"
"Then let them think that" she decided suddenly, "I care what they think, its legal and that's all that matters"
He stopped there, frowning down at the crown of her head, "All that matters?"
Realizing too late her mistake Ororo winced and slowly, ever so slowly, pulled herself to her feet, swaying with exhaustion. Wordlessly Piotr slipped his arms about her shoulders to support her and she pressed the left side of her face to his chest, fixing her ear over his ribcage where she could hear his heartbeat. "Everything around me is falling to pieces, everything is becoming so difficult. Everything but you Piotr, my one constant, my strength, my Colossus. You're the one thing that keeps me standing, even though you're so young, so gentle, when you hold me you somehow shield me from all the evils in this world. I don't know if what's between us is love, lust or lunacy, perhaps it's a bit of all three. I only know that it's the best thing I have right now and that I cant let it be weakened by the concern of some oblivious teenagers"
Sighing she tilted her head and grazed her nose against his jaw line, "and that's all that matters" she smiled wistfully, "Happy?"
"Da" Piotr murmured, his accent heavier with emotion, "More than you know"
And this time it was him to failed to notice that the office door, the door which he had closed and locked, was silently shutting back into place.
In the corridor, the sound of snorting momentarily distracted him. Under heavy eyelids he turned and saw the Stepford Cuckoos, stuck in their usual model poses, eyeing him like a piece of shit. As one, they turned up their noses and strutted away from him, eager to leave the space he temporarily occupied. And he knew that as they did this they were communicating on the telepathic link that the student body shared. A thin line that Xavier had established which existed just inside the mainstream mind without being invasive, resembling internet messaging with the Cuckoos acting as newswomen. He himself could hear the message.
Attention students, Sam Brut is in Xavier's hallway, just outside Miss Munroe's office, please steer clear for your own personal interest
Answering gratitude and harsh lines filtered quickly into the link, with the students either assuming Sam wasn't listening or simply not caring whether he knew what they thought of him. Usually this infuriated him, and he would indulge in long sessions of revenge planning. Today, however, he was too excited to care.
It was all happening at last.
It was payback time.