Disclaimer: XME, no. Darcy Harper, yes.
Melt Me
Chapter Nine: Maelstorm
***
Grounds of the Xavier Institute, Bayville, NY.
Water went up his nose and down his throat as Multiple bounced helplessly in the washing machine motion of the river. His head broke the surface and he gulped air desperately, knowing he was about to go down again.
Nearby, two of his remaining copies thrashed and flailed as they tried swimming against the strong current to reach him. The rushing water roared in his ears, but he could still hear the sound of Torrent's frantic cries as she tried to catch up.
He glimpsed Rogue, Wolverine, and Iceman standing at the river's edge as he was swept by, and he opened his mouth to call for help only to get another mouthful of the chilly water as he was pulled under again.
On the riverbank, Wolverine took three running steps forward, intending to jump into the river after Multiple without regard for the danger. He pulled up short however when Iceman put his arm out, stopping the older man before he could dive into the fast moving water.
"I'm on it," Iceman said, already bridging out over the river to get ahead of Multiple before he reached the rocks near the top of the waterfall. Suddenly, a reddish brown streak burst from the trees behind Rogue and Wolfsbane leapt into the river to paddle furiously after Multiple and Iceman.
"What's happened?" Jubilee said breathlessly as she ran up to Rogue and Wolverine, watching wide-eyed as Torrent flashed by, running across the surface of the water like some kind of apparition.
Wolverine growled with annoyance and snapped his comlink on violently. "Elf! We need you here now!" he barked, already running down the riverbank to keep up with the pursuit.
Torrent watched helplessly as Jamie kept slipping farther and farther away from her. What good were her powers when she couldn't even get her teammate across a river? Frustration and impatience built in her; furious tears burning her eyes that she couldn't even do this one thing right.
She saw Wolfsbane, fearlessly paddling into danger to save Multiple without regard for her own safety. And Iceman, bridging out over the river as he tried to move into position to slow Jamie down by freezing a dam farther down river, but the force of the whitewater was too much, and it knocked the ice wall away like dominos.
Furious with herself, Torrent skidded to a halt and held her hands out, the sun sparkling off her liquid form as she narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth, letting herself become one with her element completely in that way that frightened her, the power rising up within her until it seemed to almost overwhelm her, and she felt as tossed and helpless as Multiple in the current.
"Stop," she whispered, her lips barely moving.
Downstream the current slowed and turned sluggish. Multiple, exhausted from his struggle to swim against the current and half drowned from his repeated trips under, bobbed to the surface. Wolfbane grabbed the collar of his uniform in her jaws and paddled toward a large flat-topped rock in the center of the river to rest, the hard swim after her lengthy run through the woods hunting Rogue tiring her, even in her wolf form.
Weakly, Multiple clung to the rock with one arm, his other hand curled in Wolfsbane's scruff so she wouldn't drift away as she paddled to keep her head above water.
Torrent strained to hold so much water still, watching as Iceman and Nightcrawler finally reached Multiple and Wolfsbane in the center of the river. Everything they did seeming to take forever - like they were moving in slow motion. Nightcrawler vaulted gracefully off the end of Bobby's ice bridge into the momentarily calm water of the river and swam over to grab Jamie and Rahne, then bamfed them to safety.
From the top of his bridge, Iceman could see how his girlfriend was struggling to keep the wide river as still as she could, her teeth bared as she held her hands out before her. She was starting to slip, as the river inched her forward slowly, pulling her inexorably toward the top of the waterfall. If she held the river still much longer, she'd have no juice to save herself and maintain the surface tension long enough for her to get off the river before she went over the falls.
"Grab my hand!" he yelled to her, leaning down from his bridge to reach her as she slid toward him.
"I can't…let…it go…" she gritted out, the river surging faster for a moment before she was able to slow it down again.
Iceman didn't waste time to argue, he just flattened himself on his bridge and hung over the edge to grab his girlfriend by the arm as she slid beneath him, the roar of the nearby falls sounding louder in Iceman's ears the closer Torrent got to the edge.
The moment his ice covered hand closed around Torrent's fluid wrist, time almost seemed to stop and his worst fear came to life. Ice crystals radiated out from his hand and up Torrent's forearm like lace, almost like he was icing her up. Her eyes widened with pain and fear and she opened her mouth and screamed like a fire bell, the cold from his ice coating quick-freezing her transformed skin in the blink of an eye.
Horrified, he yanked his hand back with a ripping sound as he let her go before the cold he projected to keep himself iced up could damage her permanently. The river heaved forward like a racehorse out of the gate as Torrent cradled her wounded arm to her chest, no longer able to control the river's flow.
"Kurt!" Iceman shouted helplessly, watching as Torrent was swept away from him, her exhausted form slumping to the surface of the river as she moved farther away. He looked desperately over his shoulder for Nightcrawler, but it seemed that the teleporting mutant was still dealing with transporting Multiple to the Infirmary, since the blue furred mutant was nowhere in sight.
On her knees, Darcy closed her eyes as she clutched her injured wrist in her free hand, so she wouldn't see the rapidly approaching cliff edge. The pain in her arm so sharp and acute she could barely breathe, let alone think to save herself. She was liquid – mostly – the fall to the shallow waves below wouldn't kill her…probably. Just hurt like hell.
She sensed the edge coming and her body tensed, just as an arm like a steel band grabbed her around the waist, almost knocking the air out of her.
"I've got ya, kid," a gruff voice said in her ear. She opened her eyes to see she was nearly over the edge of the fall, looking straight down at the ten-story drop to the waves below. Terrified, she clutched the arm that held her – Wolverine's – as she swallowed hard. The call being a little too close for her comfort.
They reeled Torrent in, Husk in her granite form being the anchor as she held onto Berzerker, and he held Wolverine's belt as they'd made a chain to fish Torrent out of the current.
Iceman couldn't bring himself to get too close, and he hung back as Wolverine carried a semi-conscious Torrent past toward the mansion. All he could see as she returned to normal being the raw and bleeding wound on her wrist from where he'd ripped her frozen skin and part of her uniform clean off. She looked around dazedly, murmuring that she didn't feel so well, and the remaining students followed Wolverine as they headed quickly through the woods.
"It's not yer fault, ya didn't know that would happen if ya touched her," Rogue told him quietly, laying one of her gloved hands on his iced shoulder. But Iceman wasn't ready to be comforted and he shrugged her hand off silently as he walked away slowly, following the others back to the mansion.
***
Later that day.
Darcy hated being sick, and she hated going to the doctor. So being ordered by Hank McCoy to stay in the infirmary bed "or else" wasn't really a big enough threat to keep her down for long.
Once she heard Hank leave the infirmary - after checking on Jamie in the next room - Darcy was up and dressed in a flash, despite Hank telling her he wanted her to rest downstairs until at least dinnertime. She couldn't even stand it until lunchtime. She hesitated in the hallway outside the infirmary, afraid to pass the room with Jamie in it. She wasn't ready to face him yet, knowing it was her fault that he'd nearly drowned.
Before she'd left for school, Amara had told Darcy earlier that Jamie was asking for her, and that he wanted her to visit him later when she was allowed up. Her stomach had churned with dread then, just as it was now, and she backed silently away from the infirmary. She was going to have to face Jamie sooner or later, and she would have to pass by his sickbed if she wanted to go upstairs to her room, and she knew once up there she would have even more people to avoid: the Professor, Scott, Hank, Logan, Kurt …just to name a few. Before that she needed a little more time to sort things out herself first.
She glanced up at the infirmary clock as she passed back by, heading deeper into the underground compound under the mansion to find a place to be alone for a while. The clock read almost one in the afternoon, and Darcy couldn't help being a little hurt that Bobby hadn't yet come to see her.
She touched the heavy bandages that covered her left forearm and wrist, protecting the raw painful wound. Not even the mild painkiller that Hank had given her earlier eased the chafing pain every time she moved.
The sound of the elevator doors opening farther down the hall made her duck around the corner. She was hoping that it might be Bobby, coming to see her at last, but she heard the sound of Scott's voice and bootheels on the metal floor, which meant only one thing…Logan.
Darcy trotted swiftly down the corridor, cradling her injured arm to her chest to try and stop the throbbing her jostling caused it. She took a right – toward the hangar of the X-jet – and hoped she wasn't cornering herself, but sure enough, she heard the sound of their voices echoing down the hall after her as they headed toward the hangar too.
Two open doors faced each other at the dead end of the corridor, one the massive cavernous hangar that housed the state of the art SR-77 Blackbird, the sleek black jet that had brought her here. The other door was to the much smaller hangar where the XM Velocity helicopter and the flight simulators were kept.
Darcy dodged left, into the smaller hangar where the Velocity sat, like a dark and menacing dragonfly. She forgot that the helicopter took off and landed vertically through the large bay doors that opened on the tennis courts above, making the door she'd just come through her only means of exit.
Desperate, she climbed into the open door of the simulator, just as Logan and Scott passed by, heading into the hangar where the jet was. Darcy sagged with relief into one of the soft cushy seats. The simulator was dark and cool, only a few lights on the control board keeping it from being pitch black. A small noise alerted her to the fact that she wasn't alone, and she gasped shortly to see a figure sitting in one of the darkened seats toward the front.
She couldn't see them well, just a shadowy form, but somehow she knew who it was already. "Bobby?" she whispered questioningly.
"How's your arm?" he asked quietly, not even turning around to look at her as he sat with his knees pulled to his chest in the large seat. Slowly, Darcy felt her way up the short aisle of the simulator towards him. The scale of the sim's interior being almost as large as the actual X-jet - with fewer passenger seats of course - yet it still felt like a long way as she crept forward in the darkness, unsure of her boyfriend's mood.
"It's fine. It hardly hurts at all," she told him readily. Trying to keep her tone light. Bobby snorted softly.
"Liar," he scoffed miserably. His voice so low she almost didn't hear him.
"What are you doing in here?" Darcy asked instead, the hushed atmosphere of the darkened space, coupled with Bobby's closed body language making her unsure and somewhat timid.
"Hiding," he said bluntly. She hoped that it wasn't from her.
Darcy reached his row and sat down in the seat next to Bobby, but his posture didn't change, he remained withdrawn into himself as he rested his chin on his knees. He wouldn't make eye contact with her and Darcy's brow creased with worry. Without thinking she reached out to him, intending to smooth the hair back that had fallen over his brow. "Bobby…" she murmured softly.
He saw her hand out of the corner of his eye and he recoiled from her violently. "Don't touch me!" he snapped.
Darcy's wide eyes immediately began to fill with tears as she flinched away from the harshness in his voice. Visions of how her family had acted similarly toward her filling her mind. She fought the urge to flee, to go and hide from his rejection, and she stayed put only because of how much she cared for him. "Bobby…" she began again, her voice choked as she tried to force down the hurt.
"I don't want to hurt you again," Bobby said miserably, hiding his face from her as he looked away. Darcy let out a shaking breath that it was only concern for her that was making him act that way, not that he was angry with, or repulsed by her.
Ignoring everything in his demeanor that said to go away and leave him alone, Darcy slid out of her seat and stood. Slowly, like he would bolt if she made any sudden moves she inched closer until they were nearly touching.
"You won't hurt me…you couldn't…" she whispered to him, sidling closer until the front of her body barely grazed his shins and forearms as he kept his arms wrapped around his legs.
Ever since she'd met him, he had been the one to reassure her, to make her feel welcomed and accepted. He'd made a terrifying life altering decision – coming to the Institute – bearable and not so intimidating. The least she could do for him was to give him the same support and friendship that he had given her.
She bent over and put her arms around him, hugging him awkwardly. He flinched when he felt her touching him, his shoulders tense and hunched, but when no disaster befell them he started to relax, the tension in his body melting away.
Slowly, he unwound from the tight ball he was curled in, lowering his legs so she stood between them and he wrapped his arms around her tightly, pressing his face against her middle. She held his head to her with one arm, her fingers curling in his thick soft hair.
"I'm sorry," Bobby whispered against her. "I'm so sorry I hurt you."
Darcy tipped his face up to look at her with her palm under his chin and smiled in the dim light, hoping he could see her. She rested the palm of her injured arm on his shoulder lightly, hoping he wouldn't guess how sore it was.
"You don't have anything to be sorry about, Bobby. We had no idea that would happen if we touched when we're…different…now we know. So we can avoid it ever happening again." Darcy told him. Bobby's eyes were helplessly drawn to the thick white bandages that covered his girlfriend's arm from palm to mid-forearm, and he felt a wave of self-loathing wash over him that he was the one who had done it to her.
"But…" he started. Wanting her to understand his fears, that he hadn't even been trying to project cold at all when the accident happened, that something about Darcy's liquid state had reacted immediately and violently to the ambient temperature he maintained when he was iced up. He wanted her to understand how very dangerous it was for them to be around each other when they were transformed – at least until Darcy learned to control her transformation – but he couldn't find the words right then as he looked up into her pale glowing eyes.
"Look," she told him softly. Taking his hand with her uninjured one and placing it on her midriff, on the stripe of skin between the loose drawstring sweatpants she wore and her tiny t-shirt. She was so warm, so soft; as he touched skin he'd never felt before on her body. "See?" she murmured, "nothing happened…"
"I wouldn't go that far," he said under his breath. He rested his hands on her waist, his thumbs slowly stroking the center of her belly on either side of her navel. Her breath caught, the mood between them shifting to one of intimacy so quickly she was unsure how it happened so fast.
"N-nothing bad, I meant," she clarified. Bobby stroked her skin gently, tracing the curve of her waist up under the edge of her t-shirt to the bottom of her ribcage, and then slowly and softly back down, over her sweats to her hips. There was nothing overtly improper about the caress; the intimacy came from the way Bobby gazed at her, his dark eyes seeming to look right through the dark blue 'x' emblazoned tee and sweats she wore to her bare skin. And it made her knees almost buckle in excitement.
Darcy started in surprise when Bobby slowly leaned closer to her and placed a soft kiss on the small strip of skin between her exposed navel and the edge of her sweatpants. Her heart was beating triple time as exhilaration coursed through her body. Alone, in the dark simulator with Bobby, no one knowing where they were – no one save any telepath who might be looking that was – she felt she ought to be afraid that things might go to far between them. Farther than she was ready to go that is, but nothing save the end of the world could make her move away from the perfection of Bobby's hands on her skin.
According to her father, she was hellbound anyway…she might as well enjoy the ride there.
She swayed toward him slightly, as his hands slid around to her lower back, pulling her closer to him until she had to rest her hands on his shoulders to keep her balance. She couldn't really see what he was doing in the darkness of the simulator, just the shadowy outline of his head, but she really didn't need to. She could feel his soft lips as he nuzzled at her midriff, dropping gentle kisses along his way.
Bobby pulled her down gently to sit crosswise in his lap. Her long legs dangling over the arm of the seat, and she slung her undamaged arm around his neck as she tipped her face up to receive his kiss eagerly, her whole being tingling with anticipation of feeling his soft lips on hers. There was something that happened whenever Bobby kissed her and put his arms around her, he was like a drug – addictive - and she couldn't seem to get enough.
Their lips parted on a sigh as the kiss ended, and in what had become her habit, Darcy licked her lower lip unconsciously to enjoy every last bit of Bobby's taste.
"You look so sexy when you do that," Bobby whispered to her, his breath on her cheek, and he could feel the heat of her blush radiating off her in waves. She ducked her head shyly, and Bobby trailed his cool fingers down her arm in a feather light caress, making her shiver against him. His fingers came to a jarring halt however, when he touched the heavy white bandages that covered her wound.
"Your poor arm." Bobby said softly, running the pads of his fingers over the gauze in the faintest caress.
"It looks worse than it is, Mr. McCoy said if I hadn't been wearing my uniform that the damage could have been severe. This," she indicated, holding up her arm slightly, "won't even scar."
"That reminds me," Bobby said teasingly, squeezing the arm he had around her waist gently. "What are you doing up and out of the infirmary? Hank said you and Jamie would be in there all day, that you needed to recuperate."
Darcy shrugged slightly, not wanting to admit that she was avoiding Jamie, or that she was a horrid patient. "I don't like being cooped up," she said lamely. "Besides, I'm fine…it just hurts a little."
"Didn't they give you anything?"
"Just some high octane Tylenol. Mr. McCoy told me to keep an icepack on my arm too," Darcy said, catching her lower lip briefly with her teeth. Both that she was being so blatantly forward with Bobby, and that he'd catch her thinly veiled hint.
"Then why aren't you?" Bobby murmured in her ear, his voice a teasing seductive purr that told her he more than caught her drift. Darcy licked her lips nervously, seduction and sexual innuendo being uncharted territory for her. But she didn't want Bobby to think she was a prude, either.
"I-I…didn't want any old icepack," she stammered shyly, "I wanted…you." Her whole body flushed with mortification that she'd said something like that out loud. She waited for Bobby to laugh at her, or even take the comment as an invitation to jump her bones, which she wasn't sure she was ready for at all yet. But instead, Bobby just smiled at her and gently laid his iced hand on her bandaged wrist.
The effect was more or less the same as the coldpack that Hank had wrapped her arm in earlier, with the exception being that while Bobby's hand cooled and numbed her throbbing arm, being so close to him, his dark eyes gazing into hers from only inches away, caused her body to heat up in other places. And he seemed to know it too, as his expression grew intense; like it had that day on the bleachers when he'd told her what her kisses did to him. Her stomach flip-flopped that she might be having that same effect on him again.
"How's that?" he asked in a low voice, his fingers leaving her bandaged wrist to drift lightly up her bare arm, making her skin goose flesh and her nipples tighten.
"Feels really nice," Darcy moaned softly, totally awash in sensation.
The honest and forthright way that she responded to his touches was like nothing Bobby had experienced before. The girls he'd dated – Jubilee in particular – had always remained somewhat reserved and coy with him, like they were holding something back, trying to keep an aura of mystery about them to string him along and keep him interested. He found Darcy's frank enjoyment of his company and attentions far more intoxicating and intriguing than Jubilee's tactic of playing hot and cold.
The colored lights of the simulator's controls highlighted Darcy's elegant, finely boned features beautifully. Her eyes were closed and her lips parted as she rested against his arm trustingly, her long silky hair covering his forearm as he held her to him and bent his head to hers. Tracing his tongue lightly over her lower lip in the most gentle of caresses. Cupping her face with his other hand he tipped her head back slowly, until she was completely open and vulnerable to him as he took his time kissing her. The world just falling away until they were the only two in it.
"Darcy…" he sighed, his breath like frost across hers as he stroked her high cheekbone lightly.
"More," she whispered without opening her eyes.
Unable to resist her alluring demand, Bobby carefully stroked down the slender column of her neck and over her collarbones, giving her every chance to stop him if this wasn't her intention, but she said nothing, just gave a contented purring hum as she arched her back subtly. Bobby held his breath as he filled his hand with the soft swell of her small breast, her nipple poking his palm through the fabric of her t-shirt, and she gave a short little gasp.
"Too much?" he asked, concerned. She swallowed nervously, and then shook her head slowly. Bobby didn't have to see her in the light to know that she was blushing, it was practically a given.
"N-no…I like it," she breathed. "Don't stop…"
That was all the permission and encouragement he needed to let his hands roam and explore her slight figure to his heart's content. She was sleek and lean under his hands, yet irresistibly soft in all the right places as he squeezed her gently. He felt like he could touch her forever and never get tired of it.
Darcy did a fair amount of exploring on her own, mostly with her mouth as she kissed and nuzzled at Bobby's ear and neck, her head tucked into the juncture of his shoulder as he held her. She slid the palm of her bandaged arm down the plane of his chest over his dark t-shirt, mapping out the sculpted - yet not bulging – muscles she found there. Bobby had the build of an athlete hiding under the loose shirts and khakis he usually wore; even his X-man uniform hid most of his impressive definition.
Her fingers lingered over his stomach as she traced the grooves of his abs lightly, and she smiled up at him. "Very nice," she teased. The corners of Bobby's eyes crinkled as he grinned devilishly at her.
"You show me yours, and I'll show you mine…" he purred at her softly. She blinked at him owlishly for a moment, suddenly hesitant about the speed at which things were progressing. She'd already allowed Bobby more liberties with her person than she'd allowed anyone before. He had touched her in places no other boy ever had.
"I…I'm not sure, I mean…I don't know how far…" Darcy stammered helplessly. Squirming uneasily in Bobby's lap. Bobby caught her hand gently, as she pulled it away from his stomach, and held it to his chest as he gazed deeply into her pale eyes.
"Shhhh," he soothed her. "Only as far as you're willing to go, I promise. I'm not in a hurry, Darcy. I care about you too much for that," Bobby told her. Darcy had no idea if he was feeding her a line (as a little voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Jubilee suggested) or whether he was sincere. But either way, those were the exact words she needed to hear.
"Maybe…just…a-above the waist then?" she suggested shyly. Her cheeks burning with mortification as she forced herself to ignore the part of her brain that was screaming at her that her father would absolutely kill her dead if he knew. He'd already had his chance at it and failed, and she argued with herself that she followed no one's rules but her own now.
"Whatever you want," Bobby replied, his voice husky and seductive as he leaned his head in to kiss her long and deep. Darcy meeting him with an enthusiasm that simply took his breath away.
Bobby tugged his t-shirt off over his head impatiently when the kiss ended, his skin hungry for the touch of her warm fingers. Darcy wiggled in his lap, shifting into a better position to thoroughly explore all that exposed skin with first her eyes, and then her fingers. His skin was cool, not unpleasantly so, but enough that she noticed, it made her feel hotter than the sun in comparison.
Bobby's hands on her waist both cooled and inflamed her as he slid them slowly up her sides, taking her dark blue Xavier Institute t-shirt with them. She held her breath, trying not to look as nervous as she felt. She wasn't wearing a bra, since Hank had given her the sweats to change into in the infirmary to replace her uniform while it was repaired. Her heart thudded in her chest as Bobby removed her shirt with agonizing slowness, on one hand she wanted to prolong the inevitable, when he'd see her body and see first hand just how small her breasts were. But on the other hand, the sensations he was awakening in her, the anticipation and the desire, made her want to scream at him to just hurry up and end this torture.
His cool palms brushing over the hot skin of her breasts made her have to stifle a moan from the intense tingles that shot up her spine. Bobby grinned at her, his teeth flashing in the dim light as he pulled her t-shirt off over her head and dropped it in the next seat on top of his.
He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her narrow back as he hugged her tightly, their bare chests pressed together. Darcy wound her arms around his neck in response, closing her eyes as she drank in the new – and yet somehow totally right – experience of having her naked flesh pressed against another persons. The added bonus being who that person was, of course.
"Mmmm," Bobby murmured in her ear, rubbing her back with his palms gently. "You are so warm…I could just wear you like a sweater," he said. Darcy giggled softly.
"I'm not big enough to be a whole sweater," she teased, leaning back to look at him. Bobby moved his face closer so their lips nearly touched as his hands roamed her slender torso.
"Then I'll keep you inside my sweater, right next to my heart…" he told her dramatically, but Darcy could see the mischief in his eyes, and she tried not to giggle again.
"That is so…bad…" she groaned, rolling her eyes. Bobby tried not to grin at the perfect opening she left him.
"But I'm soooo—"
"Don't even say it!" Darcy laughed, leaning her forehead against his. Bobby raised his chin, letting his face rub against hers, his lips nuzzling her cheek, her nose, until they came to rest on her eyelid.
"Maybe I should just keep you in my pocket, then?" he purred softly. Darcy repeated the motion, rubbing her cheek against his until her lips were at the corner of his mouth.
"Maybe you should just be kissing me…" she whispered, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly. Bobby's lips spread into a grin, and he turned his face to meet her straight on.
"I can do that," he told her, and then kissed her long and deep.
It amazed him that simply kissing his girlfriend, just holding her in his arms, could be so fulfilling. In the past, the goal had always been the score, going all the way. With Darcy, he was finding himself in no real hurry to get there. While the destination was going to be incredible - he just knew - getting there was more than half the fun.
He urged her with gentle tugs and nudges to straddle his lap as he kissed her, the position putting her slightly higher than him, giving him better access to slide his lips over and kiss and nip at her sensitive neck. With her topless, he could feel her nearly instant response to him, her stiff little nipples brushing his upper chest lightly.
He took his sweet time as he worked his way lower from her neck to the hollow of her throat. Letting his breath condense to frost as he exhaled, brushing his lips against her collarbones and making her shiver. She didn't seem to notice – or mind if she did – that his hands had moved down to cup her backside, she was too caught up in the direction his lips were moving. Her fingers twisting in his hair restlessly as his mouth skimmed over her skin, his breaths alternating cold and warm as he moved inexorably lower.
Darcy hissed in air when she felt Bobby rub his cheek gently against her breast, and she exhaled raggedly when he turned his face inward to kiss her nipple. Playfully, Bobby parted his lips, letting the peak of her small breast slide between them.
"Oh!" Darcy gasped, as he closed his lips around the sensitive bud to suckle and tug gently. And she arched her back into the teasing flicks of his cold tongue as he swirled it around her pert nipple.
"You like?" he whispered up at her, as he was moving from one breast to the other, it wouldn't do to play favorites after all. Her arms were wrapped around his head at that point, her upper body bowed backwards to give him better access to her.
"Yuh huh," Darcy nodded fuzzily; lost in the new sensations he was awakening in her body. Bobby grinned against her as he squeezed her deliciously squeezable ass and nuzzled the small valley between her breasts. He was in absolute heaven at the moment and he intended to enjoy every possible second, besides filing the memory away for later when he'd have to inevitably find solo relief for his throbbing groin.
"Mmm…good," he purred, "cause I could do this all day."
She gave a quiet, shaky little laugh at that, before him taking her other nipple into his mouth made her moan softly. "W-wouldn't you get…bored?" she gasped out, every gentle tug of Bobby's mouth sending a fiery bolt of sensation down her spine to the bottom of her belly.
"Doubt it. I have a really long attention span," Bobby murmured. Darcy moved restlessly in his lap as he showed her the extent of that attention span by giving her other breast the same lavish treatment. She held his head in her hands and tipped his face up as she brought her mouth down on his, kissing him wildly. His hands gripped her ass hard as lust overtook logic for a moment within him, and he pulled her down to rub their pelvises together sensuously.
"Oh my god!" Darcy whimpered almost soundlessly against Bobby's mouth as her whole body shuddered with pleasure. Bobby's breath against her cheek was – she was internally delighted to note – hot and ragged as he groaned softly.
"Better not do that again…" he whispered, as if to himself, his breath still not super steady. Darcy looked at him questioningly, her hands on his shoulders.
"Why?" she whispered, not understanding.
"Remember the other day? The bleachers?" he told her in a low voice, lifting his chin to nip at her jawline. Darcy nodded hesitantly, her skin goosefleshing. "Yeah, well…I'm even harder now…" Bobby whispered in her ear, and the effect was the same as if someone had dipped her in lighter fluid and thrown a match on her. Her nerve endings fairly sizzled as adrenalin rushed full tilt through her body, and she forgot all about trivial things like what had happened that morning, or that she might not be ready to take things farther with Bobby yet. There was only him.
"Are you really?" she asked breathily, her mouth nearly against his as they panted, their hips still subtly moving together as she straddled him. Bobby held her so tightly against him she wasn't quite sure anymore where her skin ended and his began. Her breath became his as they gazed into each other's eyes, and when she licked her lips, her tongue brushed his and she kept it there. Slowly tracing the shape of his lips with the tip of her tongue.
"Darcy…I…" Bobby groaned, and they were so close the vibration of it tickled her lips too.
"What the hell is going on in here? Who left the simulator door open?" a voice – unmistakably Logan's – growled from the back of the sim as he flipped on the lights.
"Shit!" Bobby hissed frantically and pushed Darcy down into the seat as he vacated it, blocking Logan from seeing her with his body as he tossed her t-shirt at her over his shoulder. Logan folded his arms over his chest as he stood in the aisle a row or two behind them, and Bobby was pretty sure his expression meant he wasn't pleased to see him.
Darcy was trying to hunch down in the seat and keep herself out of sight and covered, while she tried to figure out which way her t-shirt went on. No mean feat considering she was holding it over her chest inside out and upside down.
Bobby turned his shirt right side out and frowned at Logan, who hadn't moved. "A little privacy? If you don't mind?" Bobby snapped sarcastically. Logan raised an eyebrow.
"What do you need privacy for, Frostbite?" Logan asked. Bobby tugged his t-shirt on over his head and grinned.
"Has it really been that long for ya?" Bobby clucked sympathetically. Logan growled in the back of his throat warningly, but as usual Iceman just ignored it. The kid definitely had him pegged that he'd never raise a hand to a student or teammate. Didn't mean that Bobby Drake hadn't just earned himself another big fat checkmark next to his name on Logan's mental list of Danger Room victims.
A rustle caught Logan's attention and he leaned forward to see over the seatback of the row Drake was standing in, just as Darcy managed to get her shirt on and be yanking it down.
"Well, isn't this cozy? Just what the heck do you two think you were doing in here?" Logan barked, then shook his head when he saw Bobby trying to stifle his grin. "Never mind, I'm pretty sure I can guess."
Darcy rose to her feet and stood half behind Bobby as Logan stabbed his finger in their direction and started in lecturing Bobby about how a multi-million dollar piece of equipment was not Bobby's personal bachelor pad, and that it was for the practicing of flying, not anatomy.
"And you…" Logan growled, his index finger swinging from Bobby to where Darcy was half hidden behind her boyfriend. "I thought Hank told you to stay put in the infirmary? If you're well enough to be up and fooling around with the Popsicle, then you should be fine enough to explain to me why we ended up with two students in the infirmary in the first place!" Logan barked out. Darcy looked stunned, like someone had slapped her.
Bobby reached behind him for Darcy's hand; he didn't need to look at her to know that she was totally intimidated by Logan's attitude. What new student wasn't? He'd just been here long enough to know that most of Logan's yelling and growling was all bluff and show, that he actually cared quite a bit about the students he taught. Logan just had a rough way about him. Darcy grabbed Bobby's hand with both of hers tightly, her fingernails biting into his palm.
"Hey, Logan…go easy on her. What happened this morning was an accident. Jamie already told us that he fell…" Bobby said.
"You need to back off and stop coddling her. She had no business being on that river with another teammate if she couldn't handle it. There is no excuse for endangering another student…" Logan argued back.
"That's not fair!" Bobby shot back, and behind him Darcy's eyes started to go liquid and strange as she gripped Bobby's hand tighter.
On a cliff above the inlet to the bay was a gazebo, where Rogue had once sent the stone representation of Mystique on a one-way trip to the rocks below. Its beautiful view of the bay and tranquil setting made it a perfect place to reflect and meditate. Or in the case of Professor Charles Xavier, attempt to carve out some personal time with a good book, without the constant interruptions of Institute life. It was rare when he could sneak in an hour or two to just enjoy the beautiful grounds of his Institute on his own.
Last fall, he had decided to embark on re-reading all of Shakespeare's works, in alphabetical order. It was slow going with so little personal time, but Xavier was in no rush to finish. He was only too happy to lose himself for a spell in merry Messina, and the sniping of Benedick and Beatrice. Privately, he thought the two rather reminded him of how Ray and Tabitha interacted.
Thus happily engrossed, he didn't notice the changes in the bay until a shadow fell across his book. He looked up and his mouth fell open a bit.
"Good Lord…"
Darcy was lost.
From the moment Logan had started reprimanding them, all Darcy could see and hear was her father. When she had first seen Logan she had been struck by the similarity in presence between the Reverend and Wolverine. Their voices, their powerful builds, their stubborn and single-minded views that they were always right.
Being around Logan was like being around her father, only without the fire and brimstone. Which is why she studiously avoided the man whenever possible.
Growing up, her father had never hit her when she disobeyed, that wasn't his way despite his stern and unyielding manner. Her father's way had been to lecture her on the errors of her ways. Hours long sermons on how her misbehaving was the devil's work. Hours the two of them would sit in the hard uncomfortable pews and pray, until Darcy was ready to do anything, or say anything to be free. It was how her father had cultivated Darcy's obedience, for it was far easier to do what her father wanted…than to defy him.
Now, thirteen hundred miles away from that hot prairie church and her father's domineering will, she felt the same way she had as a young child and later teen - having her individuality stripped away from her – as Logan kept on about she and Bobby's inappropriate behavior. And she'd had it.
No one was ever going to tell her what to do again. Not her father, not anyone.
Logan continued on, unaware of the grave mistake he was making as he chewed Bobby and Darcy out. While the offense – making out in the simulator – wasn't nearly as bad as he was making it out to be, it was Iceman's stubborn attitude like Logan was overreacting that was sorely trying the older man's temper.
He knew that teenagers would be teenagers, and that they were just ticking time bombs of hormones waiting to go off. He had only intended to break up a little inappropriate (given the place) behavior and call it over with. But the more frustrated Logan got, the more grievances with them he was airing. He kept them mostly confined to Iceman, Bobby having the longer track record with Logan. But Darcy was not exempt, especially when Logan began criticizing her for what had happened earlier that day.
Like she had in the hallway of school when she'd gotten so upset by Kevin Donaldson's attack on Bobby, Darcy lost herself to her emotions. She sought water to calm herself instinctually, and the nearby bay was a presence she could sense almost as though it were alive, but she was too far gone to use it to soothe her. Too lost in the pain and rage of her family's betrayal to know what she was doing. All she could see was her father, and she'd do anything to wipe him from her mind forever – only then would she be truly free.
At the gazebo, Professor Xavier stared up in concern at the wall of water that rose two and a half stories above the edge of the cliff. The tidal wave had enough power to flood the Institute easily.
Professor! What's happening? Jean's voice cried in his mind as she and Storm flew across the treetops toward him, having seen the wave from the Institute. Xavier didn't waste time answering, and confident that Jean and Storm could handle the phenomenon; he concentrated on the source of it…Torrent.
And he reached out to her with his mind…
It had been a beautiful night, the high school gymnasium decorated so beautifully that it was hardly recognizable as such. The prevalent smell of sweat and equipment was gone too, overpowered by the scent of perfume, cologne, and the many corsages present.
She'd looked beautiful, grown up for her age in a pale ice blue gown that matched her unusual eyes. She was the prettiest girl at the Dry Bluff High Senior Prom, and the youngest as well. Only a sophomore dancing in the arms of the handsome captain of the football team.
She'd liked him very much. The only boy she had defied her father's two date rule for. They had gone out for pizza once, and then confined the time they spent together to group activities so they were never alone as far as her father was concerned. This night – the Prom – was the second official date. All her strict father would allow.
They'd danced to every song. Laughed and hung out with their friends until the very end of the dance. He'd taken her in his arms then, in the front seat of his pickup truck at the end of the lane that led to her house, and kissed her. Told her how special he thought she was, how someday when she was done with high school and he was done with college he wanted to marry her. Whether her father approved or not.
Jackson Meyer. Her first – and until Bobby Drake came along – only boyfriend.
Her happiness had ended abruptly with the appearance of her father, who had been watching for them from the house. He ripped his daughter from the young man's arms by her carefully coiffed hair and dragged her bodily up the uneven lane by her arm. Not stopping even when she tripped and stumbled in the dark in her high-heeled shoes. She'd heard Jackson calling out her name from behind her, but her father ignored it, marching her straight past their house and into the church where he locked her in his office. Tersely telling her he'd be back to have words with her later, but that she had best pray for her sins.
She never knew what her father said to Jackson Meyer that night, but the next day he got himself a new girlfriend…and never gave her the time of day again.
Professor Xavier closed his eyes as he witnessed Torrent's memories. Like most telepaths capable of entering another's conscious mind, he could see and experience the memory from all angles. He could sense Torrent's emotions – humiliation, anger, fear – but they were not his own, and therefore he was able to maintain objectivity even within the whirling chaos of the girl's mind.
He watched closely as in her eyes, Logan and her father became one in the same. One image overlaying the other between Jackson and Bobby, the past and the present, her father's face twisted in righteous anger, and Logan stabbing his finger in her direction as he yelled.
And through it all, shining endless water. Like Noah's flood.
Xavier snapped his eyes open immediately. * Logan…whatever you are doing, stop! Just walk away.* He ordered mentally.
"Professor! Hurry!" Jean called from above as she held the wave motionless, poised to break over the headland and flood the woods. Storm assisted the best she could, summoning the wind to blow against the wave and keep it from crashing down.
In the simulator, Bobby blinked in confusion as mid-rant; Logan turned on his heel and walked away. Leaving them completely alone as he left the hangar, shutting the doors behind him.
"That was weird…" Bobby muttered. Then playfully he took Darcy's hands that were still gripping his tightly and rested them against his butt. "Wanna check for me and see if I still have any ass left after that?" He joked.
When she didn't respond, he glanced over his shoulder at her and gasped in shock. She'd transformed again, but this time without the benefit of being in contact with the water. Her eyes were far away like she was looking deep within. She reminded him of a special effect he'd seen in a movie once about aliens at the bottom of the sea. He reached his hand out tentatively to touch her, the tips of his fingers brushing the liquid strangeness of her cheek tenderly, but she didn't react.
* Iceman…* The Professor's voice cut into his mind, * you have to calm her down and get her to stop. *
Bobby didn't ask to stop what, the fact that the Professor had addressed him by his codename told him that it was important whatever it was, and he became all business. Being first and foremost in his mind, an X-man.
"Torrent! You have to snap out of it," he said, shaking her by the shoulders, but she remained unresponsive.
"Iceman! Get out of there, I'm gonna send Rogue in!" Logan's voice came over the simulator's comlink. Bobby scowled; Darcy was his girlfriend and his student and therefore his responsibility. She'd been through enough already that day; he wasn't about to let Rogue drain her and he lunged forward toward the simulator's controls.
"Stay out of this! I'll handle it!" he barked over the comlink and then switched it off, shutting the simulator doors while he was at it and plunging them into pitch darkness. Only a few red indicators on the control panel gave him a point of reference as he felt his way back to Darcy.
She was right where he'd left her and he was careful with her as he put his hands on her shoulders. "Darcy…please," he whispered in the dark, "come back to me." He put his arms around her shoulders, holding her carefully as he whispered her name over and over. Slowly, he felt her return to normal until she was solid and warm in his arms.
"Bobby?" she whimpered, confused as her arms went around him. "It happened again didn't it…what did I do?" she cried, clinging to him. "Why does this keep happening to me?"
"Shhhh…it's okay now. Everything is going to be fine…I promise," he soothed her. Stroking her hair as she cried against his shoulder quietly.
"No it isn't," she whispered miserably, too quiet for Bobby to hear.
Professor Xavier steepled his fingers under his chin and gazed out at the now calm water of the Bay. The ground around the gazebo was wet and muddy from how close the wave had come to breaking over it before the water had receded.
He was still marginally connected to Torrent and the goings on below the Institute, he knew that it was Iceman alone that had been able to reach her through her power surge, like Scott had once done for Jean.
She was troubled girl, her emotional scars ran much deeper than he'd first sensed when she had first come to the Institute, and for the first time he wondered if it was wise to let her continue to develop such a strong bond with Bobby Drake. But from what he'd glimpsed in her mind, she needed an anchor, and apparently that anchor was Bobby.
"Professor?" Ororo murmured, standing at his side as he watched the Bay. Storm was ever sensitive to his moods, and while not a telepath, she was intuitive enough to probably guess what he was thinking.
"I think I have a special project for you, Ororo…" he responded thoughtfully.
***
Next Chapter: Girl's day out!
AN: Sorry this chapter has taken longer than normal. The Thanksgiving holiday threw me off my schedule and I have been trying to get back into my writing rhythm ever since.
The play the Professor was reading is of course, Much Ado About Nothing, one of my favorites. ^_^ The movie reference is of course, The Abyss. I kind of see Darcy's powers a being a little like the alien probe that came up into the ship and mimicked Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's features.
Anyway, thanks to: Rurouni Tyriel, Namek Kaia, Ashley, ShadowyKat, warconq1, Moose5, broochky, Comet-hime, and Mirai Marron for the reviews. I hope you are enjoying the story and will continue to give me your feedback. Tabby will be making more of an appearance in the next chapter, so never fear that I have dropped the Berzerker/Boom-Boom subplot.
Until next time, keep the feedback coming! ^_^