AN: Pardon the author's note at the beginning, but due to requests – a quick roll call of the younger students mentioned at the Institute:
Bobby Drake (Iceman), Amara Aquilla (Magma), Sam Guthrie (Cannonball), Ray Crisp (Berzerker), Jamie Madrox (Multiple), Roberto da Costa (Sunspot), Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane), Jubilation Lee (Jubilee), Tabitha Smith (Boom-Boom), Dorian Leech (Leech), and one I borrowed from the comics to "Evolutionize" – Paige Guthrie (Husk), Sam's little sister and skin shedding metamorph. Those curious about what the characters mutant abilities are, check out the Beyond Evolution site, I'm not going to take up the space with it here.
Disclaimer: XME, no. Darcy Harper, yes.
Melt Me
Chapter Six: Training Days
***
Xavier Institute, Tuesday morning.
"They're kidding, right?" Darcy gulped, holding up the skintight spandex uniform she'd found in her closet along with the other 'X' emblazoned clothing – jackets, t-shirts, and the like – she'd been issued.
Across the room, Amara grinned as she pulled on her soft yellow boots, amused with Darcy's reaction. "Afraid not," she told her new roommate and tapped her wrist. "And you'd best get it on too, you don't want to be late for your very first briefing. Logan has a very long memory."
"Logan?" Darcy questioned, as she hurriedly wriggled into the tight uniform.
"He wasn't around yesterday when you got introduced. He's one of our instructors and part of the core X-men team. Trust me, you will not enjoy his training sessions," Amara told her, resting her gloved hands on her hips as she waited for Darcy to get zipped into her uniform. Darcy tugged her boots and gloves on, privately amazed that they fit.
"I'm not sure I want to know," she mumbled. Following Amara out of their room and down to the elevators. Amara laughed.
"You don't," she assured her. "Good Morning, Jamie," Amara said sweetly when they got to the elevator, Multiple holding the doors for them.
"Wait!" Bobby called, running down the hall toward them. Jamie acted like he was lunging for the elevator controls, trying to fake Bobby out and Amara laughed. Darcy just felt her stomach flip flop at seeing Bobby's muscular form in his uniform. Maybe spandex wasn't so bad…Bobby certainly did nice things for it.
Bobby squeezed through the closing doors and glared at Jamie briefly, before turning to greet Darcy. He gave a low whistle of appreciation at Darcy's appearance, making her blush. "Looking good," he teased quietly.
"I have never worn anything this tight in my life," Darcy whispered to him. Fidgeting with the heavyish belt that girdled her hips. Bobby gave her a grin that bordered on a leer as he leaned toward her, making her giggle.
"Behave," Amara said without turning around. "It's not like you've never seen a girl in spandex before." Bobby debated a smart assed response, but knew Amara would just make him sorry for it. Instead, he casually leaned against the elevator wall as he smiled at Darcy, all the while surreptitiously icing up his hand and chilling the metal wall.
"Sorry we didn't get the chance to go out last night," Bobby told Darcy, distracting her. "Want to try again tonight?"
"Sure, if I can. They've got me doing an awful lot of stuff before school starts. I'm on two sessions per day with an individual instructor, plus a group one every day until school starts," Darcy recited, ticking off each item on her fingers.
"Ouch! Two weeks of that?" Amara sympathized. Bobby nodded knowingly.
"Trying to get you up to speed most likely."
Darcy shuddered, a chill working it's way up her spine, and she felt like she should nearly be able to see her breath. The air conditioning was working overtime in the elevator, and her uniform was not as warm as it looked. She rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself, before folding her arms over her chest, embarrassed that the chill had made her nipples tighten and become very visible through her uniform.
Bobby met Jamie's eyes over Amara's head and he winked at the fifteen-year-old before the boy's eyes went back to staring at Amara's chest and her equally prominent nipples.
"Want me to warm you up, Amara?" Jamie asked innocently enough, but when Amara turned her suspicious brown eyes on him, he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from her bosom. Amara glanced down to see what he was so fascinated with and then scowled.
"You little pervert!" she yelled, and without thinking shoved Jamie hard. Which of course made him multiply when he connected with the wall until the elevator was like a sardine can. Darcy found herself shoved into a full body press with Bobby, as five Jamie's squirmed and pushed against her, trying to escape Amara's wrath, as the Nova Roman Princess was crammed into the opposite corner by the duplicates.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Jamie the original yelled, as the more Amara kicked and shoved, the more multiples Jamie created. Bobby grinned, his eyes locked with Darcy's as his water mutant tried to keep from laughing. At least she had a sense of humor about these things; he liked her more every minute.
"Take your time, Multiple," Bobby told him good naturedly, sliding his arm around Darcy's waist and pulling her even closer if that was possible. Luckily, they arrived at the lower level and the door opened, Jamie's spilling out like a flood into the foyer, followed by one fired up Princess.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Jamie still yelled, as he and his multiples fled down the corridor away from Magma as she gave chase, berating him loudly for copping a feel. "It was an accident!" Jamie wailed, skidding around the corner and out of sight.
"It's never dull around here," Bobby chuckled and let Darcy go so they could exit the chilly elevator. She looked up at him coyly and crooked a finger, so he leaned down with a grin tugging at his lips. Darcy tipped her face up and kissed him softly on the cheek, near the corner of his mouth.
"What was that for?"
"That was for loaning me your quilt that reminded me of home," Darcy told him. Then her expression narrowed and she jabbed him in the ribs, none too gently either.
"Ow! And that?" Bobby asked, rubbing the offending spot.
"That was for freezing the elevator," she explained, heading down the corridor Jamie and Amara had taken. Bobby grinned and followed; oh yeah…he definitely liked her.
Logan had picked up the scent of a new student long before she made an appearance in the Danger Room for the morning briefing about the training schedule for the week.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he tried to gauge her from across the room. She was a tiny little thing, no bigger than Amara, and his nostrils widened imperceptibly, he could smell her fear across the room.
Logan was a man that didn't like surprises, never had. And a new student out of the blue counted as one. He'd just spent the last week and a half out in the mountains with a handful of the younger students trying to teach them some common sense and survival skills. Unfortunately, those were two traits sorrowfully lacking in this year's crop. The only one who showed any promise was Sam Guthrie's little sister Paige, a metamorph known as Husk.
He wandered over to where Scott Summers and Jean Grey were quietly talking, their heads bent toward each other. Probably discussing one of their lesson plans, since neither of them were suited up this morning. They were most likely going to be holding one of their little physics lessons, rather than teaching the kids how to fight. It was a good thing he wasn't in charge, that's all he had to say.
"Who's the new kid, Cyke?" Logan grunted in lieu of greeting as he joined Scott and Jean.
Jean gave him an indulgent smile. "Good morning to you, too, Logan."
Wolverine ignored Jean's chiding tone and folded his arms across his chest.
"Darcy Harper. She came in with us yesterday, and the Professor talked her into enrolling. Her codename is Torrent." Scott told him without looking up from his lecture notes.
"What can she do?" Logan asked, watching the new girl carefully as she stood between Iceman and Cannonball, waiting for things to get underway. Logan couldn't say he approved of her choice of associates so far. Bobby Drake and Sam Guthrie were - in Logan's opinion – more prone to showboating than serious training.
"Water manipulation," Scott replied. Logan arched an eyebrow.
"Water manipulation?" he repeated dubiously. Scott looked up from his notes at the tone in Logan's voice.
"She can move large masses of water around and manipulate the surface tension. That's about all she's able to do at this time, although the potential her abilities afford are mind boggling if you think about them," Scott told him.
"That's all she can do?" Logan repeated sarcastically. "Isn't that enough? Those are some dangerous powers, there, Cyke. You have any idea what kind of damage that little girl could do?"
"We're well aware, Logan," Jean interrupted smoothly. A bit peeved at being excluded from the discussion. Logan snorted in response.
"Yeah, well…what are we plannin' on doin' about it?"
Across the room, Darcy could feel the eyes of the dangerous looking dark haired man crawling over her. Judging her. Knowing instinctively they must belong to the mysterious and much dreaded instructor, Logan. Darcy felt her stomach clench, mostly because Mr. Logan reminded her of the Reverend, her father. It wasn't so much their looks – both were rugged and powerful looking men – it was the way they carried themselves. It was something in their eyes that burned their way into her skull when they looked at her, like they could divine every single thought in her head. How many times had the Reverend told her he knew everything she was going to say before she said it? Stripping her independence and individuality away. She shuddered and cut her eyes away from Logan's side of the room. Looking at him dredged up things she had no desire to remember.
"This room is always cold, but it'll get better once we start our exercises," Cannonball said quietly in his soft drawl. Darcy smiled at the tall blonde boy next to her, touched that he seemed to notice her discomfort. On her other side, Bobby was lodged in a fairly intense discussion with Roberto about snowboarding.
"I'm fine, thanks," Darcy told him. "Got a chill, goose must have walked over my grave," she laughed. But she still wrapped her arms around herself protectively. Feeling very, very small.
With a puff of pungent smoke and a quick flash to announce his arrival, Nightcrawler appeared a few feet in front of Darcy as he teleported into the Danger Room.
"Am I late?" Kurt asked worriedly. A small screech of surprise made Kurt turn around and he saw that Darcy was backing away from him slowly. "It's okay, it's just me," Kurt said, holding up his three fingered hands in a non-threatening manner. "See? Look…" he turned on his inducer and smiled at her gently.
Darcy felt like a fool. Especially with the way everyone was looking at her as if she'd gone crazy. Even Bobby was giving her a puzzled look at her reaction. They might be used to seeing a blue fuzzy demon appear out of thin air, but she wasn't. Her cheeks burning, she edged away when the bulk of judgmental eyes were off her.
She splashed cold water on her face when she found the washroom, hoping it would soothe her. She hated being embarrassed; it made her feel more isolated from people than she did normally.
"Are you okay?"
Darcy raised her head to see a slender raven-haired girl reflected in the mirror behind her. Her dark almond shaped eyes seemed to glitter as they met hers in the mirror, full of animosity. Darcy turned to face the girl and the look was gone as she smiled widely at Darcy.
"I'm Jubilee, we met yesterday, remember?" Jubilee smiled, coming forward and offering Darcy her hand.
"Hi," Darcy replied shyly, tucking her hair behind her ear and shaking the other girls hand. They were about the same height so they were eye to eye.
"Wow, you have the prettiest eyes," Jubilee told her, leaning this way and that as she looked at Darcy's irises closely. "They are the exact same color as my Siberian Husky's at home."
Darcy blinked, the compliment sandwiched in an insult throwing her off guard. "Uh…thank you," she replied, although it sounded like more of a question.
"I just came to make sure you were okay. You looked like you'd seen a ghost when Kurt 'ported in," Jubilee said, looking in the mirror next to Darcy and fixing a smudge in her dark plum lipstick. Her dark eyes slanted over to Darcy again. "No one warned you about what he was gonna look like, did they?" she asked, her tone accusatory.
"No, not that I remember," Darcy said quietly, examining a seam in her yellow glove, rather than meet the other girl's dark calculating gaze. Jubilee put her hand on Darcy's arm.
"It's okay to freak out the first time. We just all thought you'd been warned. Don't worry about it. Nobody here holds grudges," Jubilee said, finishing with a silent, much, in her mind. She tugged Darcy's arm, urging the new girl to come with her back to the Danger Room to join the morning exercises.
"Mind if I ask you something personal?" Jubilee asked when they left the restroom. Darcy shook her head, not wanting to offend the other girl, and hoping she wouldn't have to outright lie. "Are you and Bobby dating?" she asked.
"I don't know. We haven't really been on a date…not yet any way. Why?" Darcy asked confused. Jubilee stopped her with a hand on her arm outside the Danger Room and bit her lip.
"I don't want to tell tales - especially since you don't know me that well, and I may be biased in the matter – but I used to date Bobby. And I wouldn't want you to get hurt like I did," Jubilee told her earnestly.
Darcy's spine stiffened imperceptively. First Boom-Boom and her hanging off of Bobby constantly, and now Darcy was finding herself - nearly first thing - in a confrontation with his ex. What other little surprises were waiting for her?
"I appreciate the concern, Jubilee. But I think I can handle my own relationships, thank you," Darcy said frostily.
"I didn't mean to offend. It's just that I could tell even yesterday that you really, really like him. I'm just wanting to help keep you from making the same mistakes that I did so he won't dump you like he did me…or Amara…" Jubilee trailed off.
"Amara?" Darcy blurted, a touch too loudly. "You're saying he and Amara went out too?" Jubilee nodded her head.
"I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you, but Bobby has dated most of the girls here. He has quite a reputation for being a player. But I'm sure it'll be different with you!" Jubilee said quickly. "He seems really taken with you, so that's a good sign."
Darcy put a hand to her brow, her head throbbing as she was overwhelmed. She felt like the rug had been pulled out from under her feet and she was falling away from reality.
"Darcy," Jubilee said gently, putting her hand on Darcy's shoulder. "Bobby is a really great guy - he is - he just dates a lot of girls. He's a flirt and it gets him into trouble. There's no reason why you can't be the one for him – you just have to get him to stick around long enough to realize it."
In spite of herself, Darcy could not stop the words from leaving her mouth. "How do I do that?"
"Easy. Just don't give in to his pressure to have sex. Every girl he's dated, he gets them in bed and then he dumps them shortly after. It's rude and it's crude to say so, but it's true. He did it to me."
Darcy looked away from Jubilee's eyes, looking somewhere over her left shoulder. She didn't want to know that this beautiful exotic looking girl in front of her had been intimate with Bobby. It was unfair to expect that Bobby had never been with anyone, or had never dated anyone else before she came along. But it was fair to assume to not be thrown into the midst of a Bobby Drake ex-girlfriend convention. She felt her irritation rise, he should have warned her, and he should have told her about Amara…especially since she was expected to share a room with one of his ex's.
Jubilee watched with hidden glee and satisfaction at the play of emotions that crossed Darcy's lovely face. Turning her ice blue eyes stormy.
"Why are you helping me?" Darcy asked suddenly, her gaze narrowing. She wasn't born yesterday, and she wasn't gullible enough to take what one of Bobby's ex-girlfriend's said as gospel. For all Darcy knew, Jubilee could still be hung up on Bobby. Jubilee looked concerned and took Darcy's hand, squeezing it.
"I know what you're thinking – that I want Bobby back, but I'll be honest with you…I'm totally over him. We're just friends. I'm helping you because the first rule of the X-girls is that we stick together, no matter what. You're one of us now." Jubilee said and jerked her head at the door. "C'mon, we better get back in there before we get extra training assigned," Jubilee told her with a smile.
"Thanks," Darcy said sincerely, and preceded Jubilee into the Danger Room. Jubilee's concerned friend expression melted away once Darcy's back was to her and she smiled smugly, her eyes glittering again.
"My pleasure…"
Later that afternoon, by the time Darcy's first individual training session was scheduled, the seeds Jubilee had planted were starting to take root. For one thing she was irritated as hell with Bobby.
She folded her arms and stared at the still aqua surface of the pool while she waited for her instructor, going over and over every word that Jubilee had told her. Bobby should have warned her that the Institute was going to be full of his ex-girlfriends; he shouldn't have left it to be a shocking surprise. She felt at a disadvantage now, and she didn't like it.
"Sorry I'm late. Are you ready to get started?"
Darcy spun around when she heard the familiar voice behind her and she scowled. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.
Bobby blinked at her, surprised at the hostility in her tone and he glanced behind him to make sure she wasn't talking to someone else, but they were the only two around. "I'm your instructor," he explained. Now it was Darcy's turn to look surprised.
"You?" she questioned, fisting her hands on her slender hips. Bobby clenched his teeth a little at her skeptical tone. Being taken seriously was a very big deal to him, but he shook off the offense mentally. She'd never seen him in action, so he could afford to cut her some slack. Besides, it was hard to be overly annoyed with her when she looked that cute in her uniform.
"Me," he replied lightly. "So let's get started shall we? The goal of this part of your training is for you to learn to control the outcome of your powers, to do that—"
"Why you?" she interrupted.
"Excuse me?" he questioned frostily, raising an eyebrow. Darcy ignored the warning in his voice as she squared off in front of him. Those pale eyes of hers boring into him.
"You heard me. Why did they send you, Bobby?" she asked.
"That's Iceman. When I'm in this uniform and you're in that one we're Iceman and Torrent, understand? We don't pass out these codenames because they sound cool. They have a function, so use them," Bobby snapped, his temper strained.
"Cyclops asked me to be your instructor because our powers are complimentary and he thought you could learn something from me." To make his point he iced up and folded his arms over his chest. "Think you can handle that?"
The Iceman was feeling pretty pleased with himself when Torrent lowered her eyes from his challenging ones and nodded. Bobby was feeling like a giant ass when he saw Darcy's bright red face. He hadn't meant to be so hard on her, but dammit, he was sick and tired of everyone treating him like a joke.
"Okay then," he said turning to regard the pool in front of him. "Practical application of your powers. Show me what you've learned," he said, gesturing toward the pool.
Thirty minutes later, after Torrent had walked over the surface of the pool several times, made a sphere out of half the pool's contents on her fifth try, and made a small yet perfect set of waves, Iceman had figured out two things. One, she had no clue how to use her powers in any kind of practical way that could benefit a team situation. And two, she seemed to be really pissed off at him about something. Unfortunately, the second thing would have to wait.
Torrent stood in the center of the pool, small concentric ripples spreading out around her as she awaited his instructions, her eyes hard as she all but glared at him.
"All right then," he started. "Here's what I want you to do. I want you to maintain the surface tension of this entire pool just like that…no matter what."
"This whole thing?" she questioned. Iceman rested his hands on his hips and grinned at her.
"Come on," he chided, "it's not that big." Her eyes narrowed at him, turning into blue slits that looked like slivers of ice. "Ready?" he asked her.
"What are you going to do?" she asked suspiciously.
Ignoring her question, Iceman bridged out over the pool, stopping over Torrent. "Remember, hold that surface tension," he told her, and before she could react he brought his hands together and formed a chunk of ice the size of a suitcase and dropped it on her like a bomb.
Torrent hopped back out of the way of the falling ice, but in doing so she lost her concentration, making her – and the ice - fall into the pool with a splash.
"I said, hold the surface tension," he said when she came up. If looks could kill, he'd have been struck down on the spot. "Try again," he told her.
Ten minutes later, he was sitting cross-legged on his ice bridge, patiently waiting for Torrent to pull herself up onto the surface again, after her eighth time under. Varying sized chunks of ice floated merrily below, making the pool resemble the arctic sea.
"This sucks! I can't do this! The pool is too big!" Torrent yelled angrily as she stood shivering in her drenched uniform at the side of the pool. Iceman rested his elbows on his knees as he looked down at her.
"Yes, you can, and no, it isn't," he replied to her second and third statements. Pointedly ignoring the first. "Now try it again."
"You're getting off on this, aren't you?" she accused, her teeth chattering. "Watching me freeze my butt off while you chuck ice at me."
"Not really," Iceman sighed. "Torrent, this isn't anything personal. This is training, and I'm trying to help you," he explained patiently.
"What's the point?" she wailed miserably.
"The point is that you should learn to be able to maintain the surface tension of the water, without concentrating, like you do at sea. It should be natural, like second nature. I don't concentrate to ice up, I will it and it happens. It doesn't take my focus away from what's happening around me, like obstacles or opponents," he clarified. "That's what I want from you. I want to be able to drop an iceberg on this pool and have it bounce like tossing a quarter on a trampoline."
"You want too much," she mumbled. "I'm not ready for this."
"You sound like Magma when she first started. She was always telling Jean she wasn't ready," he chuckled. She folded her arms and looked up at him suspiciously.
"Magma?"
"Amara," he supplied. "Now are you ready to go again," he called down. Her mouth took on a decidedly mutinous expression and she stalked out to the center of the pool. Iceman could see the surface of the water tightening, like a waterbed, and he stepped back from the end of his bridge, an idea occurring to him.
"Fine," she hissed, "go ahead. But I still don't see the point of this--" she complained.
Iceman didn't even let her finish the sentence. Intending to catch her off guard, he waited until he saw the surface tension change and then he brought his foot down on the ice bridge hard. Breaking off a four-foot chunk of the bridge to plummet down onto the pool.
"—It's not like I'm ever gonna need all this boot camp training junk anyway," Torrent grumbled. Completely missing the hunk of ice that fell to the surface two feet in front of her, the ice block bending the surface of the water, but not breaking it.
"Whoa!" she breathed, her complaining giving over to excitement in a heartbeat. "Did you see that? I did it!" she crowed, before the next two hunks of ice he knocked off sent her plunging into the pool again. He sighed.
"Dammit!" she cried in frustration when she surfaced again. Iceman slid back down his bridge to the edge of the pool and went over to her, offering her his hand to pull her out of the water. She looked at his iced up hand dubiously, and then took it. Letting go as soon as possible.
He shed his ice coating effortlessly. "Don't concentrate on it, just do it. You did fine when you were mad, because you weren't thinking about what you were doing."
"Easy for you to say," she griped, rubbing her arms and trying to keep her teeth from chattering.
"And easy to do. You just need practice. And that's what this 'boot camp training junk' is all about…learning to work as a team," he parroted. God, maybe Tabby was right…he was starting to sound like Scott.
"W-who ever s-said I w-wanted to b-be on the t-team?" Torrent struggled to say, her body so cold she was shaking violently, trying to get warm. Finally cluing in that his student was freezing, Bobby pronounced the lesson over, and put his arms around her, trying to warm her with his meager body heat, but she remained as stiff in his embrace as a pillar.
"Why are you so mad?" he asked her. "What did I do?"
"You have to ask?" she griped, still shivering.
"Well…yeah. Is it the elevator thing?"
She pushed him away, even though his body heat had been more than welcome. "You should have told me about you and all the girls here you've dated," she accused.
"Why?" he asked. "I'm not dating any of them anymore. It's past history," he said matter of factly. Darcy gaped.
"How can you say that?"
"Well, what do you expect me to say? I'm a mutant. And every girl at Bayville High knows it too. Even if they like me, you think any of them are gonna go out with a mutant and risk getting hassled? Not likely." Bobby told her. "And besides, if I had told you…would you have come?"
"I don't know," she answered honestly. She was starting to warm up a bit as she stood in the sun drying, but it still took some effort to keep her teeth from chattering. Bobby eased closer again, opening his arms a bit in invitation and she stepped into them. Justifying her weakness as just an attempt to get warm.
"Besides, we haven't spent that much time just getting to know each other, the subject didn't come up," Bobby said.
She wasn't quite ready to forgive. "You should have told me about Amara at least, I feel totally stupid since she's my roommate," she scolded.
"When would I have told you? I didn't know you were going to room with Amara until Scott told me in the hall. But by then you were already on your way to your interview," Bobby explained, and then pulled her closer. "Let's go get you out of this wet uniform, what do you say?" he said in a low voice.
It occurred to her later, after she'd shoved Bobby into the slushy and churning pool and stalked back into the Institute, that she might have overreacted a tiny bit. He'd probably intended the comment innocently – in regards to her soaked uniform and chattering teeth.
Not because he was trying to jump her bones.
Midnight…
The moon shone brightly in the window, a week past full as it sailed across the night sky. Darcy had watched it rise out the window from her bed, listening to the sound of Amara's deep breathing as she dreamed, until the sound had lulled Darcy to sleep as well.
Now her eyes popped open, scanning the room as she tried to figure out what had woken her up. A shadow loomed over her, blocking the moonlight from the window and she gasped in surprise and fright. The shadow moved toward her and grasped her by the shoulders, leaning down to loom over her and she instinctively started to struggle.
"Shhh…it's me," Bobby whispered in her ear.
"Bobby?" she questioned, whispering because he was so they wouldn't wake Amara up. "What's going on?"
"Get dressed and meet me in the rotunda," he whispered, his breath stirring the hair by her ear. Before she could ask what for, he was gone. Slipping back out the door silently. Darcy bit her lip in indecision. She should really stay in her room; anything Bobby might want to say to her should be able to keep until morning. She doubted the Professor would approve of the two of them wandering the mansion after lights out.
She pulled the covers back, hovering on the edge of going. If nothing else it would give her a chance to apologize for pushing him into the pool and overreacting. But the honest truth was…she just wanted to see him.
"What are you waiting for? Go!" Amara whispered from the darkness of her bed with a giggle. Darcy grinned and hopped up out of bed, dressing in a flash.
"Have fun…" she heard Amara tease as she slipped out of the room.
The moonlight was even brighter at the front of the mansion, slanting in through the many windows that fronted the grand entrance. Bobby slipped out of the shadows of the gallery at the top of the stairs and motioned for her to be quiet and follow him.
A light in the kitchen had Bobby backpedaling into her as he turned and motioned her back up the stairs hurriedly. He pulled her down with him to hide behind the railing in the shadows and they peeked out between the balustrades to see Logan saunter into view with a cup of coffee. He paused before the front doors of the mansion and lifted his head, like he was sniffing the air. Bobby's hand tightened on her wrist, urging her to remain still, especially when Logan's head swung to track along the upper gallery.
After a long moment, Logan gave a quiet grunt of dismissal and they heard his bootheels against the hardwood floor as he left the foyer. Bobby didn't move until they heard the sound of the elevator doors to the lower levels close, and then all he did was exhale. He made them remain there, hunched in the shadows for a full three minutes, making sure Logan had really gone downstairs before sneaking back down the stairway.
The fall air outside was crisp, the night alive with the sound of insects and Darcy could hear the sounds of water – from the fountain in the front as well as the bay nearby – as they stepped from the mansion. Darcy hustled to keep up with Bobby's longer legs as he trotted to the garage, attempting to keep to the darkness, yet not trip the mansion's defenses. He was an old hand at sneaking out after curfew, and good at it too. His success rate higher than any other resident, mostly because he'd memorized Logan's routine.
Digging his keys out of his pocket, Bobby unlocked the door to the garage and they disappeared inside. It was spooky in the dark, but he didn't turn on any lights, knowing they were visible from the outside. He counted the spaces from memory as they crept down the center aisle to his car. Motioning for her to wait, he opened the driver's side door, letting the dome light guide her through the darkness.
His car wasn't what she would have expected him to drive; it was big and old, with bench seats and an engine that purred like a big cat, vibrating the whole car. She fumbled with her seatbelt as Bobby pushed the door opener.
He fully expected to see Logan standing in the middle of the driveway when the big doors silently rolled up, but so far so good and the way out was clear. Still, Bobby didn't breathe easy, or speak until they were out the front gates and on the road toward town.
"We made it," Bobby sighed in relief, and glanced over at his passenger. She sat quietly in the passenger seat and tucked her hair behind her ear in a gesture Bobby was learning to mean she was nervous.
"What are we doing?" she asked.
"I'm giving you your driving tour of Bayville, remember? We did have a date tonight," he teased. In the darkness of the car, Darcy's cheeks burned with chagrin. She'd thought he'd have forgotten or wanted to cancel after she'd thrown him in the pool and then avoided him for the rest of the day.
Bobby drove her past Bayville High, the Galleria, the movie theatre, and other important landmarks as he looped through downtown. It amazed Darcy that with how wooded and secluded the area around the Institute was; there was such a major metropolitan center nearby. Where she was from in Iowa there was nothing, surrounded by a whole lot more of nothing.
Bayville was nice; it didn't have the stark exotic beauty of Honolulu, or the charm of Hana back in the Islands. But it seemed like a nice place to live.
They drove up into the hills overlooking Bayville to Lookout Point and Bobby parked the car and cut the engine. The silence was almost palpable after the quiet roar of the car's powerful engine. The darkness of the surrounding woods seeped in around them in contrast to the glow of the city lights below them.
Darcy heard the click of Bobby unhooking his seatbelt as he shifted on the bench seat to lean more against the driver's side door to face her, and she quietly unhooked her own belt as well. She wasn't totally naïve, she'd been parking before, but never with anyone that made her heart beat in her throat and her palms feel clammy. It was the hidden pool all over again.
"Bobby…" she murmured, trying to work up the nerve to apologize for her atrocious behavior earlier when Bobby spoke at the same time.
"Do you mind if we park here and talk for a little while?" Bobby interrupted. Darcy shook her head.
"No, I don't mind," she said quietly. Bobby grinned at her, his teeth flashing in the dark and he released the seat lever, tilting the bench seat back until it was nearly flat. Darcy gave a surprised shriek of giggles as the seatback she'd been leaning against suddenly left her prone. "Warn me next time," she laughed.
Bobby folded his arms behind his head and gazed out the windshield at the few stars that were visible over the horizon. "What would be the fun in that?" he joked. "Want some music?"
"Sure."
He flipped on the radio of the car and turned the volume way down, cringing when he heard the melody of the latest boy band sensation playing. Somebody had been messing with his radio settings again, probably Jubilee, she was always trying to make him listen to love songs when they were hanging out. He stabbed the next radio preset button, satisfied when he heard some respectable – if dated – rock playing.
"You don't like sappy ballads?" Darcy asked him, a teasing lilt to her voice.
"No. I don't like any music where the singer sounds like he's having his works squeezed in a vise," Bobby said dryly. Darcy put her hands over her mouth as she snorted with laughter. Bobby grinned, he much preferred her laughing and smiling to the furious and prickly drowned rat she'd been that afternoon. He turned his head to look at her, and found her watching him, her pale eyes shining in the moonlight.
"I'm sorry," she murmured softly.
"For what?"
"Pushing you in the pool. Being such a brat about you being my instructor. Questioning you about your old girlfriends, it's really none of my business," she said chagrined. Bobby rolled on his side to face her, propping his head up on his hand as he looked at her.
"It's okay. I can see why you were mad, but I really wasn't trying to keep anything from you. I would have told you if the subject had come up."
"I know," she replied.
"Is there anything else you want to know?" he asked. He could see the unspoken questions in the expression of her face. She was rather transparent that way. He moved a little closer, hoping that she would meet him in the middle of the seat, and she obliged, rolling on her side to face him.
"Were you…serious about Amara?"
Bobby wondered why she seemed fixated on his brief relationship with Amara, but then he reasoned that it was probably because she was rooming with her. But it seemed strange to him that she only ever mentioned Amara, and not Cory, or Jubilee. Even though none of his relationships thus far he could qualify as serious. It never occurred to him to wonder how she knew he'd dated Amara in the first place.
"No. Amara and I only went out a few times. We were friends, and attracted to each other, but when we tried to take it further it just didn't work. Despite how neat it sounds, fire and ice do not mix," Bobby told her with a chuckle.
"No?" Darcy questioned, catching her lower lip with her teeth. "What about ice and water?" she asked shyly, glad of the dark that would hide her blush.
Bobby's fingertips brushed her cheek softly as he reached for her, sliding into her hair as he held her head in his palm. "Can't have ice without water," he murmured, and kissed her smile away.
Darcy wiggled closer until she could press the length of her body against his as they kissed, throwing her arm around his neck while her head rested against his arm enclosing her in the cocoon of his embrace, and she didn't want to be anywhere else.
She sighed contentedly when Bobby slowly drew back from her lips, and she opened her eyes to look into his dark ones only inches away. "So," he said to her with a teasing glint in his eye. "Are there any ex-boyfriends of yours I should know about?"
Darcy blinked, turn about was fair play, but she hadn't expected Bobby to ever ask her about her past. "Nobody special," she said vaguely. Her father had never allowed her to date any boy more than two times, and most boys, while taken with her looks and personality weren't about to stand up to the Reverend. Darcy sobered as she thought of her father…he definitely wouldn't like Bobby, she knew that already.
Bobby tipped her face back up to his with a finger under her chin. "I only ever dated three," Bobby told her. "And none of them ever made me feel like…this. I really like you, Darcy."
Darcy's breath caught. She couldn't even answer except to lean her face closer and plant a kiss on his lips. And then another, and another, until they all blended into one seamless meeting of lips and tongue as they tasted and explored each other. She marveled in the different textures of Bobby, his soft hair that she buried her fingers in, the faintest prickle of beard stubble on his chin, the slickness of his mouth.
Bobby gently eased her to her back so he could lean over her as they kissed, moving on to explore her jaw line with his lips as he made his way to her ear. She shivered against him as he traced her shell shaped ear with his cool lips, her skin so warm it seemed to brand him. He couldn't get enough of her heat as he kept her body close to his.
He scraped his lips lightly over her neck and she squirmed in his arms, jamming her shoulder up to her ear to protect her sensitive neck. "Noooo…" she giggled, "that tickled too much." Bobby grinned, stroking the exposed skin on the other side of her neck with his chilled fingers.
"Come on," he cajoled, "let me in there…" She twisted and writhed, trying to keep his lips and fingers from tickling her over sensitized skin.
"I can't!" she gasped between giggles. "I'm really ticklish."
"Are you ticklish all over?" Bobby asked, wagging his eyebrows at her. Darcy tried catching her breath, the nerve endings of her neck working overtime. She looked up at him as he leaned over her, his face silver and shadow from the moonlight, his eyes locked on hers. She was glad he hadn't glanced down, or he'd discover that between the kissing and him tickling her neck her nipples had tightened like tiny stones.
"I-I don't know," she answered honestly.
Bobby looked serious as he leaned down and kissed her softly. "I hope I get to find out someday," he said against her lips. Her eyes were luminous and huge when he pulled back to look at her, and he took advantage to dip his head and kiss her throat, up to underneath her chin, before he attempted to kiss her neck again. This time instead of trying to buck him off of her with her flailing, she clutched at his shoulder and the back of his head, trying to bring him closer.
There were so very many things he wanted to do with her, like pull her soft black top off and know if those tight little nubs he could see poking through the fabric tasted as sweetly as her mouth and neck did. He wanted to know the weight of her small breasts in his palms. He wanted to run his hands over her sleek slender curves and touch her everywhere.
Which was an excellent indicator to him that he needed to stop. Now. Before he got to a place where doing so would be painful. He ran his hand down her side to her waist, heroically avoiding the temptation to cop a feel as he reluctantly pulled his mouth away from her fragrant skin. He loved the smell of her, Ivory soap and coconut shampoo, she smelled tasty.
"We better get back, we have more training in the morning," he apologized. She nodded in agreement. "Tomorrow, after dinner, would you like to walk around the grounds of the Institute? I could show you the gazebo," he offered. She tipped her head to the side as she gazed up at him, smiling slightly.
"On one condition," she purred. He raised an eyebrow for her to continue. "It's my turn to nibble at your neck next time."
Bobby gave a long-suffering sigh, even as he was grinning stupidly on the inside. "Well, all right I guess so…" he relented, sounding incredibly put upon. "But you'll owe me," he teased her, earning himself a playful whack on the arm.
She rode back strapped into the middle of the front seat so Bobby could drive with one arm around her narrow shoulders as he tucked her against his side. One of the advantages to the old junker car he'd inherited from his grandfather. No center console meant he could zoom along the road with his girl right beside him.
"So we have this all worked out now?" he asked her quietly.
"Meaning?" she questioned, her hand resting innocently on his khaki clad thigh as she sat beside him, but he was totally aware of the warmth of her hand.
"That I'm your boyfriend," he said bluntly. Hearing him say it out loud made the corners of her mouth twitch up in a smile.
"I guess so," she sighed, turning his joke around on him.
They thought they were so sneaky. But a person didn't get to be his age without picking up a few tricks.
Logan waited in the foyer of the mansion, knowing Drake would pass back this way on the way back up to his room, and when he caught him, the Icicle was his.
To the boy's credit he was getting harder and harder to catch when he snuck out after curfew. Proving to Logan that the kid could improve in other areas if he'd just apply himself to his training a little more and stop being such a showoff.
Well, he'd get the chance now as Logan envisioned a whole new Danger Room setting designed to teach the Iceman some humility. He should probably drag his partner in crime, Cannonball, and Iceman's new little girlfriend, Torrent in on it too, just on principle. More the merrier.
"Well now, look at the volunteers I just found for an extra session this week," Logan drawled when Bobby and Darcy snuck down the hall and into the foyer. The new girl looked like a deer in the headlights as she gaped at him. It almost made Logan feel sorry for the kid, but if she was going to keep questionable company, then she'd better learn to deal with the consequences.
"It was totally my fault, and my idea, Logan. Don't blame Darcy," Bobby said, holding his hands up to Logan. "Do what you want to me, but she just started here, cut her some slack…please?" Bobby wheedled. Logan bared his teeth; he was getting soft in his old age.
Logan jerked his head at the staircase and Darcy fled up it quickly and without a backwards glance, seeming desperate to escape his company. He noticed Bobby's eyes were riveted to her every move, a lazy kind of satisfaction in his gaze.
"I hope sneaking out was worth it, Icicle…cause I own you for the rest of the week," Logan promised.
"Oh yeah," Bobby told him quietly, his grin huge. "She's totally worth it."
***
Next Chapter: A new instructor for Darcy, and the first day of school!
AN: Just a quick thank you to the reviewers: Rurouni Tyriel, togepi4eva, Charmed1s, Camille, Brandon B, Namek Kaia, Ashley, Mercurial1, Raining Star.
Also, did another fanart of Darcy, this time with Bobby. You can see it at: www. kinomiville.net / bobby-darcy.gif (w/o spaces) or see link on my bio page.
Until next time, keep that feedback coming!