Chapter 11. The fire within

Disclaimer: I don't own it, wish I did but don't

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Amara was confused. It was three in the morning, and she had just been woken suddenly from her sleep by a telepathic message. Report to my office Amara, I know it is late but this is a matter that you will want to be apart of. It was not like Xavier to hold meetings at this time of night, and she was starting to worry this could not be good. She hardly ever got sent to his office, and now she was being sent at three in the morning.

She dragged herself out of bed, happily making as much noise as she wanted to because Logan, was off somewhere doing something for the professor, which meant she did not have to take his sensitive hearing into consideration. She was trudging her way down the hall, when the door in front of her swung open, and in her sedated state, she ran right into it. Amara fell to the floor not because she had been hit that hard, but because the hit had had knocked her uncoordinated sleepy self off balance.

"You ok, sugar?", said a concerned southern voice, that Amara had gotten very use to over the last three weeks.

"Yeah", Amara pulled herself back up, swaying slightly as she found her center again. "What are you doing up?", she asked regarding the goth. She looked different at night with out her makeup on, although she still wore black, as her PJ's were the colour.

"The Professor called me, you?"

"Umm, the professor called me"

"Well then we should get down there before we wake every one up by talking in the hall way", she ordered leading the way to the office.

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John sat in the chair, nervously playing with his lighter. Remy was next to him looking cool and composed. And Pitro (that is colossus's name right?)was to sitting on his right, looking bored as his eyes traveled over the room they were in. Xavier sat in front of him. Behind his desk he sat with his hands clasped, as he regarded the young men in front of him.

Sneaking in had been a breezy, if you could call, him waiting at the front door to let you in sneaking. He had sent Wolverine away for the night like he had promised, so that there were no violent confrontations. He had greeted them, and offered them something to eat and drink, which all of them gracefully declined, and they were now waiting to begin discussions.

Pyro did not know what exactly they were waiting for, but the professor told them that they would not be waiting long.

The door to the office suddenly opened and in stepped Rogue, but one could hardly recognize her, as her face was void of make up, the difference was amazing, she was actually quite beautiful, it was a shame that she hid it.

Gambit stood as soon as she entered, and the couple stared at each other for a while. A huge smile broke out on Rogue's face at the sight of her boyfriend, and she bounced into his arms.

"Your doing it, your actually doing it", she breathed excitedly.

"Chere, I would do anythin' for you, you know dat by now", he smiled down at her.

John and Pitro, shared a glance with each other. They had both noticed that Remy used first person, and that meant he was serious. But that was not the only shock, as they watched the couple in front of them. In one smooth movement Gambit swooped down on Rogue's face, giving her a lingering kiss. Pyro and Colossus semed to be the only ones in the room that were shocked, as Xavier only smiled as the two shared a kiss.

John would have said something, but another person had appeared at the door. A sleepy Amara stood at the door rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was wearing bright orange pajamas, which consisted of bright orange boxers, and the same colour singlet. She looked incredibly cute to John at this moment. She stopped rubbing her eyes and looked around the room. Her eyes landed on John, her face was blank for awhile, as if not believing her eyes she rubbed them again. John got out of his chair and stood in front of her, as he waited for her to stop rubbing her eyes, he couldn't help smiling at her actions. She looked back up and her eyes locked with his.

"Your not dreaming luv.", he smiled at her. He bent and kissed her forehead.

Amara closed her eyes as he did this, and still had them closed when he pulled back, "Ummm, are you sure?", she said opening her eyes, and giving him one of her dazzling smiles.

"Positive", he answered, smiling back.

"Well the, now that where all here, shall we begin?", Xavier asked the room.

They all nodded in reply, and took there seats. Rogue and Gambit, sat beside each other, and since there was no other chairs, Amara opted to sit on the arm of John's, which delighted him greatly.

"Gambit and Rogue came to see me earlier about the proposal of trying to get the three of you free of Magneto's employment, Gambit has told me his reasons for singing the contract and his reasons for wanting to Join the X-men" Rogue and Gambit shared a look at the last part, and the couple took each others hands. Amara watched this and her eyes widened not just because she realized they were together, but because Rogues hands were bare. "And Mr Labough has earned my respect in the fact of how much he has helped Rogue".

"If you are going to look on this matter seriously, John and Pitro, I have to know your reasons for both"

the Russian took a deep breath and explained the situation he had with his mother back at home, and the nature of her illness, and that Magneto was providing all of the money for her medical treatment. He also told him that his sister who was staying with his mother in hospital, was also being supported by the magnetic mutant. Pitro told Xavier that he really did not support Magneto's views, and that he was not coping with the thought of all the people he had hurt well working for him.

"But if I leave him he will stop funding my mother and she will die. I have no money. I can not go back to Russia and get my sister, and I do not know how to support her, she still attends school", Pitro eyes were watering as he told the telepath his plight.

"I would be more than happy to pay for your mother treatment, Pitro, and I have only one question, your sister, is she a mutant?"

"Ya", Pitro answered accent thick, with the exertion of his tail. "She sent me a letter a few months back saying that her powers had surfaced"

"Then once this has all been sorted, I will arrange for her to come and stay at the institute, if that is alright with you of course", Xavier offered

"Ya, that would be wonderful, you are too kind", Pitro was struggling keeping the tears back now, and he had to stop speaking to recover.

"What are your intentions John?", Xavier said now turning his attention to Pyro.

John took a deep breath, it was going to be much harder telling his story with Amara sitting beside him, but he had too. He told Xavier that he didn't even sign the contract. He told him what his parents did to him, this time in greater detail, he told him how much Magneto had paid for him, and how easy it was for his parents to hand him over. He sat through all of it not looking at Amara, he couldn't meet her eyes, he wanted so much to hide this part of his life from her, but she had to know.

"And he has all my papers. My birth certificate, my drivers license, medical records, he even has the contract I signed with my publisher", John stated to the room.

"Listen carefully John, did Magneto ever sign anything saying he was your guardian?"

"Ah, no, it wasn't like an adoption when the exchange happened. I think he wanted to have that part of the agreement unofficial, and my parents didn't really care, all that was signed was the contract saying that Magneto had paid in full for my service, for about 15 years, but that wasn't really official was it?, the only real reason I cant leave him is because I have no money and no where else to go", John finished.

Xavier nodded. "Very well John, you have told me why your with him, but why do you want to join my team?"

John turned so his eyes met with the girl sitting next to him, it was the first time he had looked at her since his story had been told. He could see that she had been crying while he talked, and the stains were still present on her face. Her eyes were shining with the tears that had not yet been released. The sight broke his heart. He reached out to her pulling her off the arm of his chair and onto his lap. She put her head on his shoulder, so that no one in the room could see her face anymore. He stroked her hair, and he could feel tears soaking into the back of his shirt.

"I think the answer to that is obvious", he said locking eyes with the telepath.

The room was silent for a while, Remy and Pitro had never seen John this way before. He was not acting like the normal hyped up kid that had eat too much sugar, or like the joke cracking Australian, who still watched the Saturday morning cartoons. He was acting mature and caring, as he soothed Amara's messed up bed hair. It was plain to everyone in the room that he cared deeply for the girl.

"It is late", Xavier announced, "Rogue and Amara have school in the morning, and the students will start to get up in an hour or to, perhaps it is best to continue this meeting another night" John looked up at the clock on the wall, he was right it was five in the morning.

Gambit got up from his seat "Ok den" he said "Just pass on any news you want through de girls"

"And I must ask you all to try and keep this discreet until we have seceded in our goal", Xavier stated to the room.

Remy saluted to the professor, before he swooped down on Rogue once more giving her a kiss. "See ya soon chere", he said smoothly. "Ok Mon ami's , lets pack it up. John since you don't have a bike, Do you want to hitch a ride with me, or Pitro?", Remy asked turning to Pyro.

"Actually I'll walk thanks", John said as he held Amara in his arms, who was till hiding her face from everyone.

"Suit yourself homme. Ok, Pitro lets ride" the Cajun and the Russian left the room together and headed for the door, with Rogue close behind them.

John remained seated with Amara. Xavier was questing look, as to why this was so.

"I know this is going to sound stupid, but can I tuck the Sheila in?, we need to do some talking", he asked.

"I see no reason why not, just try not to wake anyone up, and make sure you leave in half an hour", he said, not bothering to hide his smile at the strange request.

John nodded, and stood holding Amara bridal style. He left the office, and started up the hall way, "Where is your room luv?", he asked in a whisper.

"Second corridor down, third door on the right", she mumbled from his shoulder.

John found the room, pushing the door open with his foot. He then carried her to her messed up bed and lade her down. She locked her eyes with his "Why didn't you tell me?".

John sighed, flopping down so he sat on the edge of her bed. "I don't like telling people that my parents sold me, and I didn't want to tell you that ether."

"John, I care about you. Do you think I wouldn't want to know something like this", she said heatedly, from her position on the bed.

John did not like her tone. "I would have told you eventually, I just didn't want to drop a bombshell on you like that 'hay Amara my parents sold me to a psycho, want to make out'", he said sarcastically.

"John", Amara said warningly, "This is serious. Not a Joke"

"Your telling me this is serious, I knew it was serious that's why I didn't tell you, and when you cried during the meeting, it confirmed to me just why I hadn't told you about this before".

"Do you want to know why I was Crying John?", she said heatedly, sitting up. John remained silent. "I was crying-", her voice broke and tears started to form in her eyes. "I was crying, because I could feel the pain coming off you, not in the normal sense ether, I could actually fell it John. I could feel it in my heart. And it hurt me, the fact that you didn't want to tell me about something that had such a great impact on you." Amara paused to take a shuddering breath. "And it was torture John, as I sat there watching the man I love, tell me about how people so close to him, people who were suppose to love him, had betrayed him. And while he was doing this, I could feel his pain become apart of mine", she drew in another shaky breath, as the tears burst forward. "I'm not joking John, when I say I felt it. It was so strong. It connected with my powers or something. Don't you feel it John?. When we kiss, or touch, do you feel the way our powers connect?". She paused bowing her head, hiding her face from him.

John felt his own tears run down his cheeks. She was right. How could he have been so blind. "Yes I feel it. I feel it when we touch, I feel it when we kiss. As our powers connect, I feel it. like a power I never knew I could have, I feel you." he had to stop, as he let more tears go. Amara was looking up at him now with her own tear stained face. "I feel the woman I love, become apart of me"

Amara smiled, as a new wave of tears came forth. "You said you loved me", she sobbed.

"You said you loved me first", John smiled letting the tears fall freely now.

He bent forward, kissing her tears away. He slowly started to lay her back down on to the bed. When she was, he positioned himself over her, stroking her hair back. He was surprised when Amara brought her hand up, covering his mouth so he couldn't kiss her tears anymore. Amara started to do what he had done to her, she kissed the tears away from his face tenderly, as she intertwined her fingers in his hair. When she had finished she kissed her way to his mouth, which happily accepted her proposal. They kissed slowly at first, but the kiss soon grew stronger. Amara moaned as John deepened the kiss. John broke the kiss to take a hurried breath, changing his head position. He brought his mouth quickly back down to hers, kissing her furiously. Amara arched her body up wards towards his. John groaned at this action, and his body reacting to Amara's ground back down against hers, which rewarded him with a deep moan. He broke the kiss with her only to start trailing kisses down her neck. He continued until he came to the line of her singlet top.

"Take it off", Amara moaned her request, lifting her arms above her head.

"Luv," John breathed, "I would but it's almost six o'clock, and if I do that then it will just lead to another situation, in which I wouldn't be able to control myself"

Amara brought her head up so she could whisper in his ear, "I want that situation John, I want to make love with you", she purred to him. With that being said, she arched her body once more, grinding her hips hard against his.

A deep grunt escaped from John, but he quickly grabbed her hips pushing them back down to the bed, so she could not grind against him. "Luv, you just said words that every man wants to hear,... but I want our first time to last longer than 15 minutes, ...I want it to last longer than an hour. ...I want our first time to last the whole night. I want to be able to wake up and find you next to me. I want our first time to be so good that we do it again", Amara was smiling by now, "and again", John continued, "And again, and again, and again", he repeated, burying his head into the crock of her neck. Amara giggled at his actions.

"Ok, ok, I get the picture", she said between giggles.

"And now my Royal beauty", John said removing his head and sitting up, "it is almost morning and you need more sleep, and I have to get out of hear before all your friends get up".

John got up off the bed and cold air hit him like a blast, he had not realized how much heat Amara had been giving off. He reached for Amara's sheets and corrected then from their messy state, before he laid them across her.

"Sweet dreams luv", he said, making his way to the door.

"Wait!,", Amara shouted slightly. John turned looking at her questioningly.

"Don't I get a goodbye kiss?", she said giving him puppy dog eyes.

John smiled and walked back to her. He bent down to the bed, complying with her wish. The kiss was sweet and tender. John went to pull away, but Amara grabbed his head deepening the kiss. After a while, she broke the kiss, releasing John's head.

"Now get your ass out of my room", she ordered.

John chuckled shaking his head, "As you wish my princess".

He gave a mock bow, before leaving her room, which rewarded him with a small giggle. With the troubles of the evening put behind him, he made his way back to Magneto's base, happier than he had been before.

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AN: I would have to say that is the most sweet and fluffy chapter I have produced so far. Any way stay tuned for more exciting story.