Been a while. But I'm back. Here's the next chapter, for your enjoyment
I don't own the X-Men, just Mattie
Homecoming
Bobby parked his car in the garage and took a second to realize where he was. Home. He'd never have admitted it out loud. But the Xavier Institute was home. He slung his bag over his shoulder and made his way round to the front of the house. He was tired. Rather than stay and fight it out with his parents he'd decided to come home. He wanted to find Mattie, give her a kiss and then go straight to bed.
He dumped his bag by the door. The Institute was unusually quiet. Of course that was because it was a Saturday. Bobby had no idea what a normal Saturday morning was like here. He never got up until after 12. He almost took a moment to savor it. But he was too knackered. He made his way upstairs and gently pushed opened Mattie's door. Paige was still asleep, but Mattie was missing. Bobby smiled slightly as he closed the door over. Where was she? Up early for some breakfast? He'd surprise her. He headed back down stairs and found Rahne and Jamie already up.
"Hey guys."
"Bobby!" Jamie leapt about in excitement. "You're back."
"How is your father?" Rahne asked.
Bobby grinned as he tousled Jamie's hair, much to the younger boy's annoyance. "Fine. He's home from the hospital now."
Rouge and Kitty walked in and greeted Bobby warmly. "It's like good to have you home." Kitty told him.
"Yeah. Mattie's been moping, without you." Rouge added.
"Say. Have any of you seen Mattie?" Bobby asked. "She's not it her room."
"She's in Kurt's room." Rahne told him.
Bobby frowned. "Kurt's room?"
Rahne smiled and tapped her nose. "This never lies."
Bobby shrugged. "I guess I'd better go and find her then. Catch you guys later."
"What is Mattie doing in Kurt's room?" Kitty wondered.
She and Rouge exchanged glances.
Rahne watched them. "Should I not have said anything?" She asked nervously.
Rouge glanced up. "Ah don't know. We'll soon see."
X
Bobby raised his hand to knock on Kurt's door and found himself hesitating. What was Mattie doing with Kurt this early in the morning? He mentally shook himself. Stop being a jerk. He didn't have to assume the worst. Still… He knocked, and instead of waiting, walked straight in.
The sight that met his eyes was enough to leave him frozen, speechless to the spot. Mattie lay enclosed in Kurt's arms, sound asleep. The strap of Mattie's vest top had slid down her arm leaving her bare shoulder tucked in against the fur of Kurt's chest. It all looked very cozy. His girlfriend. In bed with one of his mates. He couldn't believe what was before his eyes. How could they do this to him?
Kurt stirred; Bobby's knock had obviously been enough to wake him. Sleepily he blinked open his golden eyes. They widened as he spotted Bobby.
"Bobby?" He glanced about him and took in the position that he and Mattie were in. "Bobby…"
"Save it Wagner." Bobby cut him off.
"But, Bobby…"
"I said save it!" Bobby roared.
Mattie stretched in Kurt's arms as the raised voices woke her. She opened her eyes and smiled with obvious joy as she saw Bobby.
"Bobby. Your back." She exclaimed in delight
"Clearly earlier than you were expecting." He returned coldly.
"What?" Mattie's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Bobby…" Kurt tried again.
"You little whore!" Bobby spat at Mattie, ignoring Kurt completely. "And to think that I was actually looking forward to seeing you."
"Bobby I…" Mattie held out her arms to him. She glanced about her and could see that it looked bad. She needed to make him listen to her so that she could explain everything.
"Don't talk to me!" Bobby shouted. "Bitch!" With that he iced up and slid on his ice slide out the windows on to the balcony and off into the grounds.
"Bobby!" Mattie leapt out of bed and raced to the balcony. She could see Bobby's ice slide stretching into the distance. She put one foot on the balcony, then glanced down at her feet. "Shit!" She raced out the door in a blur.
Kurt fell back against the pillows of his bed. That had not gone well. He didn't blame Bobby for getting the facts mixed up. He just hoped that he had a chance to explain it to Amanda before someone else did.
In a blur Mattie was back. She perched on the edge of his bed while she pulled on her sneakers and laced them firmly. "Sorry about this, Kurt."
Kurt shrugged. "I am sorry too. I wish I had known what to say. He didn't want to listen to me."
"I'll make him listen to me." Mattie told him as she stood up. "If I have to beat him senseless first."
With that she raced across the room and leapt on the edge of the balcony. Then she launched herself into the open air.
"Mattie!" Kurt teleported himself out of bed and on to the balcony. He was in time to see her land. She rolled with the impact, rose to her feet and took off after Bobby, following the glinting trail of ice.
Shaking his head, Kurt headed back into his room. Two figures ghosted through his door. He found himself confronted with Kitty and Rogue. Rogue was glaring at him and even Kitty looked stern.
"Alright, Kurt." Kitty began. "Spill."
"We want to know what's going on." Rouge backed her up.
Kurt sighed. You couldn't breathe in this place without someone noticing. But at least they seemed prepared to listen to him. He had a feeling that Mattie was going to find it harder to get Bobby to listen to her.
X
Mattie raced after Bobby, cursing herself for the time it had taken to put her shoes on. But she had learnt the hard way not to attempt super speed, outside in bare feet. Bruce Willis' feet in Die Hard had nothing on her feet after that. She'd limped for days. But putting her sneakers on had delayed her. Of course the alternative was that she wouldn't have been able to follow him at all. But rational thoughts like that had no place in her head right now. She needed to catch up to Bobby and to explain. He was obviously hurt. And certainly he believed that he had good reason to be. She'd been so glad to see him. Alive and well, not hurt like in her dream, that she hadn't even thought about where she was or what it would look like to him. Of course he'd reacted badly. She was in bed with someone else. How was he to know that it was all perfectly innocent? Not that she wouldn't enjoy knocking some sense into him. He should have let her explain rather than just run off.
Abruptly the ice trail vanished. No sign of Bobby. He didn't want to be found. Tough. Studying the terrain like Wolverine had taught them, Mattie spotted the grass that had most recently been trampled. He'd gone that way. She'd paid attention in the tracking lessons; she followed his trail, slowly but surely
The sound of cursing told her where Bobby was. He was pacing back and forth muttering to himself. Mattie watched him for a while then stepped out where he could see her.
Bobby glared at her, and it was all she could do not to take a step back from the hatred in his eyes.
"What do you want?" He asked coldly, stopping his pacing to continue glaring at her.
"To talk to you." Mattie didn't move from where she stood.
"I don't think there is anything left to talk about." Bobby continued talking as though they were discussing the weather.
Mattie glared at him, her temper rising. "You've had your say, now it's my turn."
"I don't want to hear what you have to say." Bobby told her, turning away and stalking off. "Whatever lies you concocted."
"Well you're going to listen." In a blur Mattie was in front of him. "Nothing happened."
"You expect me to believe that!" He snapped.
Mattie savored her victory; she'd shaken him out of his cold meaningless words. Outwardly she glared harder at him. "Yes I expect you to believe that, because it's true."
"So you and Kurt just happened to be in bed with each other, while I was away. And I'm meant to believe that it is all completely innocent? Try again."
"Yes I was in bed with Kurt, yes it looks bad. I went to Kurt's room last night…."
"Save it." Bobby told her, icing up. "I don't want to hear it."
Mattie didn't give him the chance to get away again. Whirling she landed a kick in his midsection that landed him on his back. In shook he stopped icing himself up.
"This looks familiar." She muttered, a smile tweaking at her lips.
Bobby didn't find it funny. He leapt to his feet with a roar. "What the hell do you think your doing!"
"Knocking some sense into you."
"You little bitch!" Bobby threw himself at her and Chase and Iceman went into battle.
They danced around each other, parrying blows and forcing the other to step back. Bobby's anger lent strength to his blows and he saw Mattie stagger slightly at the ferocity with which he attacked her. Part of him wanted to smash her face in, it would serve her right. But he still couldn't get past the fact that he loved her, and he couldn't believe that he was fighting her. This was Mattie, his girlfriend. What the hell was he doing?
Mattie had no idea what Bobby was doing. Only that he wasn't pulling his punches. She had to watch her back the whole time. Maybe encouraging Bobby to physically fight with her hadn't been the greatest idea.
"Why did you do it then?" Bobby yelled as he threw a punch at her. "Was I not good enough for you? Wagner had more to offer?"
Mattie skipped out of his reach and spun to block his next blow.
"Don't be an idiot!" She snapped, trying to sneak a blow under his defense. "I only went to see Kurt because I was worried about you."
"Yeah. Right!" Bobby replied. "At least try to come up with convincing lies."
Mattie redoubled her attacks. "Have I ever lied to you?" She asked him furiously. "Have I ever lied to you?"
Bobby shrugged and was rewarded with a glancing blow from Mattie. He shook it off and struck back at her. "How would I know?"
Mattie stepped back from the fight. She dropped her hands down to her sides. "I went to see Kurt because I had a nightmare." She told him quietly.
Despite himself, Bobby listened to her.
"I've been worried about you since you went. And last night I dreamt that you were being hurt." She pursed her lips together trying to control her voice which hinted at tears. She took a deep breath and carried on. "I woke up terrified." Her eyes snapped up to meet his. "Terrified, Bobby. I was so sure that it was true."
Bobby said nothing. Last night he'd been running for his life from the members of HOM.
"And you weren't here." Mattie managed to glare at him. "I was alone and I was scared and you weren't here. So I went to see Kurt."
"Why?" Bobby couldn't stop the anger in his voice.
"When Jean and Kurt found me." Mattie told him. "The night that I was outed as a mutant. I'd had a nightmare and Kurt had comforted me. He looked after me and told me that it was going to be alright." She looked at Bobby.
Bobby said nothing.
"Last night. When I was scared. I went to Kurt. I didn't mean to fall asleep. Neither of us did. He's got Amanda for God's sake. Do you think that he has the slightest interest in me?"
Again she looked to Bobby for a response. Again Bobby said nothing. He was starting to think that he'd jumped to conclusions.
"When I saw you this morning. I was so glad to see you." Mattie smiled at him. "I'm still glad. Thank God you're safe. I just wanted to kiss you all over." She managed a sly smile. "And then you had to get all furious and not listen." She watched him warily and judged that he could take some teasing. "And now I've had to kick your butt…"
Bobby grinned at her. Pushing her luck as always. He had to admire her spirit. He wasn't even sure that he'd forgiven her. And here she was inviting him to play a game.
He took a step towards her, she didn't flinch. God! The trust that she had in him. Only a few moments ago they were pounding on each other. And he honestly couldn't say, in that moment of fury, whether he would have tried to seriously harm her had he had the opportunity. And yet here she was, not moving.
He took another step towards her. "Nothing happened?"
She shook her head.
He took another step and reached out and took hold of her bare shoulder. He'd missed her. "Nothing?"
She shook her head again.
"And did you really kick my butt?"
A wide grin spilled across her face, then turned into an innocent smile as she nodded.
Bobby closed the gap between them and lowered his face to hers.
"Really?"
Mattie nodded again, unconsciously licking her lips.
Bobby stifled a groan; he couldn't tease her when she did things like that. He brushed his lips against hers.
"Really?"
Mattie grinned. "Yeah, and it was fun." Then she grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down to kiss her.
Bobby poured all the passion and feeling that he had into that kiss. The fervor with which Mattie clung to him told him that she really had missed him. He let his hands reacquaint themselves with her body as his tongue teased hers. He'd almost lost this. That thought made him pull Mattie closer to him. He'd come so close. And it would have been his own stupid fault. No one to blame but himself. And possibly Mattie. He pulled back from her.
"It was a stupid thing to do Mats."
She bowed her head in acknowledgment. "I know. I'm sorry."
"Next time you have a bad dream, you come to me. Alright?"
"You'd better not go away then."
He pulled her close again. "No, I'd better not." He said, kissing her again.
X
Rouge watched from the window as Bobby and Mattie walked back to the mansion.
"Looks like you're off the hook."
Kurt and Kitty leapt up to see for themselves.
Kurt threw himself back on his bed with a sigh. "Thank God!"
"I'll bet he's still, kinda made at you, Kurt." Kitty said. Seeing the way that Bobby was eyeing Kurt's window.
Rouge waved back, and Bobby scowled and looked away. She turned to her brother. "Just talk to him at some point. Not today. But soon. We all have to live together, so try and make up, okay?"
Kurt nodded. "Ja."
Kitty gave a smile and phased through the floor to go and greet Bobby again.
X
Bobby and Mattie where in the hall where Ray was greeting Bobby.
"Glad you're back man. We missed you round here."
Bobby grinned back at Ray and then cast his eye around for Paige. "Where's your lady love?"
Ray shrugged. "Around. Somewhere."
"Ray." Mattie wailed. "You've only just got up. How can you possibly have found time to have an argument already?"
Ray shrugged. "Ask her."
"Ask me what?" Paige asked joining the group and slipping her arm around Ray.
As one the group watched Ray's reaction.
"What you doing?"
Paige frown, giving you a morning hug. She stood on tip toes to give him a kiss. "Morning."
Ray exchanged looks with Bobby, something to do with the fickle nature of girls, then decided that he couldn't be bothered to continue the argument.
He kissed her back. "Morning. And look what the morning dragged in."
Paige grinned at Bobby. "I knew there had to be a reason for Mattie to be out of bed so early."
Bobby laughed and gave Mattie a squeeze. Mattie felt her skin start to heat. She hadn't thought, she hadn't realized. Poor Bobby. Everyone was going to know. You couldn't keep secrets in a place like this. And it didn't do a lot for his image.
She took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze; Bobby carried her hand to his lips and gave it a kiss. She was forgiven. Too bad she couldn't forgive herself. Think before you act, she chastised her herself.