Apologies for the length of time it took me to get this one out. Got a few more things on my plate, but I haven't forgotten about this story. If you've got suggestions, requests, etc, email me, nightfirexenotek.net, and I'll do my best to get back to you, maybe make some stuff happen. If you've managed to hang on this long, thank you. Means a lot.
I don't claim any of these characters (besides Raien and Chimera) as my own, they are the property of Marvel comics. If they were mine... We'd have a feature length movie with nothing but Hank/Bobby smut!
16.
Raien walked slowly down the hallways, which today was a very difficult task. For some reason that weak feeling, where your toes tingle and it feels like you're walking through jello, had yet to go away. His hand tremored every once in a while too, which he was at a loss to figure out. He was sure that Hank would want to talk to him today and do a full medical workup. They'd not even notified him, which was probably something they should have done, given the fact that he'd woken from a coma. He thought for a while though, and he figured that Bobby and Hank were probably happily asleep in each others arms, and to bother them that late at night wouldn't have been the best thing to do. So they'd left a short note on the bed saying they'd be back in the morning.
His belly growled at him. He'd been on an IV for the last few days, but it was far from the same as actually eating. Yes, it would sustain the physical needs of his body, but there was nothing like having a belly full of-
Raien stopped dead in his tracks as he entered the kitchen. His eyes flew wide open and he saw something he'd hoped to never see again in a thousand years. M. Or Emma. She saw him too.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" Raien exclaimed already aiming himself at her. He was going to rip her lungs out if he could. He had a flashback to the time just before he'd been captured. How this woman had pretended to be a lost mutant. He'd taken her in, he'd shown her every ounce of kindness someone wandering alone in the sewers for months could possibly have. And she'd betrayed him. He'd tried to protect her. He'd fought for her, but in the end, a syringe to the back of the neck was all he'd gotten in return. His lips curled back. And then he noticed Chimera. This had to be a nightmare! Something was terribly wrong with the whole situation. The man he loved, the one he wanted to spend each waking moment with was HAVING BREAKFAST with the person who'd betrayed him.
Weak or not, Raien threw himself at her, fingers extended like claws. Chimera bounded across the table and caught him in mid-air. He was trying to say something. He had a look of pure confusion on his face. Raien had never spoken of this to him. He had no way of knowing. And she'd probably told him some sob story to get him to listen to her. Even though he was more than outmatched by his lover's powerful arms, he still reached toward Emma, shouting every curse he know and some he didn't.
She was obviously shaken. She was falling all over herself to apologize to him. Something that she was not accustomed to. Raien wasn't listening, Chimera was still confused, and pancakes, syrup and broken plates littered the floor.
"Raien, I... I'm so sorry. Chimera, let him go." Emma said, looking at the floor. She was still shocked at how much of a turn her life had made in the past few weeks.
"Yeah. Let me go. Trust me, she deserves-" Raien said before being interrupted by a voice more strong and powerful than Raien thought Chimera was capable of.
"Both of you shut up. I think I've managed to figure out what is going on here. Raien, you told me that before you were captured, you'd been wandering in the sewers. I think I heard about what happened, and how we ended up in that truck together. Please. Calm down. Emma has changed. They had her daughter, Raien..." Chimera said, a mix between strong and soft tones.
Raien snorted. Yeah. Daughter. Right. "Chimera, she's a liar. She found me in the sewer and after I'd taken her in, she gave me to FoH. She's probably the same person responsible for you getting caught!"
Chimera felt suddenly that he didn't want to be the one standing in the middle of this. On one hand he had this woman, who'd obviously suffered a great deal of pain, and who had just bared her soul to him. On the other, quite literally, he had his lover. The only man he loved, and the one and only man that would ever love him in return. Raien had stopped struggling, finally, and Chimera put his feet on the floor again.
"Raien, as horrible as the things that happened in my life that day, had it not been for this woman, I would not have met you..." Chimera tried to explain. He was really reaching here. He knew that there was little he could do to quell Raien's hatred of this woman.
"All I can do is apologize, Raien. There's no way to make right the damage I did to you, but-"
Raien pulled away from Chimera, but also away from the object of his hatred. He staggered for a moment trying to get his feet under him. Why was he so damned slow.
"You can start by leaving! And never coming back. Go back to your Friends. You aren't wanted here!" He spat toward her. She wilted. Raien still wanted to kill her.
Chimera stood like a statue. He'd never seen this side of Raien before. He'd never wanted to hold and comfort him more than he did this moment, but the look on Raien's face precluded anything like that. It was a look of stark betrayal. He took a step toward him anyway, trying, hoping for just the chance to... he didn't know what he could do.
"Fuck this place." Raien said as he turned and left. All of Chimera's fears hit him right in the stomach. All of the dark thoughts of the past few days had all just come true, punctuated by the sound of the front door slamming shut. There was nothing in what Raien had just said, or the way he'd just acted that left any room to interpret that Chimera could follow. After all, Raien had gone to the one place he couldn't follow. Outside.
He didn't say a word. He stood there for a moment more and found his coffee. Though it scalded his throat, he downed it in one gulp. He picked up the scraps of plate left from the floor and placed them in the garbage. He washed his cup and replaced it in the cabinet as if nothing had just happened. His eyes burned furiously. His hands shook. He gave Emma a final look, and told her not to worry. That Raien would come around. As he stepped out of the kitchen, his words fell and shattered on the floor in as many pieces as Emma's plate had. There was nothing Raien said that indicated he would be coming back.
"Morning Chimera." Bobby said cheerfully, on his way to his morning cereal. He stopped and turned. "Chimera? What's wrong? What happened?"
His only reply was the clacking of hooves running away from him down the hallway.
Jean sat with Jubilee feeling terrible. There wasn't a damn thing she was doing that was making any difference to the girl's vacant expression. Frankly, she was shocked. Jean thought that if this had happened to her, she would cry, and make Scott hold her until- Then it hit her. Jubilee didn't have Scott. She had no one to come home to who could tell her that everything was going to be okay. There was nothing Jean could do in that regard. She'd thought about using her powers to draw Jubilee out, but that would be painful to both of them.
She decided it was time to leave Jubilee to lay on the bed staring at the wall and go have some lunch. As the door opened, she saw Wolverine walk by. She'd known he was near. He must have been pacing right in front of the door.
"You can talk to her if you want, Logan. I can't seem to get through to her. Maybe you can." Jean said, frustration rampant in her voice. Wolverine just nodded and entered. He sat down on the bed softly, totally out of character.
"How you doing, kid?" He asked, softly. Jean always knew there was this side to Wolverine, but she'd rarely seen it. At first he got the same response from her as Jean had gotten for the past few days. Then suddenly, Jubilee scrambled into his lap, her arms around his neck. And cried. As the door hissed shut, Jean's mood improved dramatically. She felt the emotions bottled up within Jubilee break free. It made absolutely no sense to her. She would have thought that the best person to help her through this would have been a woman. Both she and the professor had thought that a male would only aggravate the situation.
On the other hand, Wolverine himself had been raped. Perhaps worse than what had happened to Jubilee, if that was possible. As much as his adamantium skeleton and claws helped him on a daily basis, the torture that had given them to him and going through life without knowing your past would have been extremely traumatic. And it all made sense. Jubilee had needed someone she could relate to.
And Jean still needed lunch. She passed Emma on the way there, and scowled. Emma hadn't even looked up, she stared at the floor and walked slowly back to whichever room she occupied. She had the look of a person who had just been kicked in the stomach, or had the rug pulled out from under her.
Jean was still trying to figure out if it was some elaborate charade or if something truly terrible had happened to her and she had turned her life around. Either way, she would be no friend of Jean's. Bitterness wasn't usually her thing, but lately it had seemed to creep its way in.
She entered the kitchen and made herself a sandwich. Only after she'd finished it and prepared to sit at the counter did she realize how quiet it was in the room. Beast, Bobby, Rogue, and Gambit sat with their respective partners, facing the others. She set the plate down heavily.
"Alright. What happened." Jean asked taking a bite of her sandwich.
"You undoubtedly know that Emma Frost is in the mansion." Hank said, breaking their silence.
"Yes. As much as I'd like to toss her out, the Professor said she could stay. Its only temporary." Jean answered. Gambit rolled his eyes.
"An' how many of us were gonna be 'temporary'?" Gambit mused.
"She did something. I don't know what, but I heard a door slam, then Chimera ran away from me. Jean, What is going on? You'd know if she was using telepathy to hurt any of us, right?" Bobby asked, worry stamped on his forehead.
"Unless she has some way of hiding it from me, I think I would. And if I couldn't, the Professor surely would. No one's seen Raien then? Those two are usually joined at the hip." Jean said, taking another bite.
"I would venture a guess. Ms. Frost being here triggered some chain of events, leading me to believe that there is some past history between either Chimera or Raien and she. I was unaware that Raien was even conscious, but he is apparently gone from the mansion. Where he could go with his glowing eyes though... Well, it would reduce the possible places he could have gone." Hank said in his usual logical Mr. Spock voice.
"Gambit tink de boy need time alone. Even Gambit gotta get out once in a while. He come back when he ready."
Somehow Gambit seemed more logical than Hank for once. Jean nodded and left without food, in search of Chimera. She could feel that he was in his quarters on the other side of the mansion, but the pain emanating from him was tangible even this far away. She thought about what she could say as she walked. She didn't even really know what happened. She didn't even really know Chimera. She'd not taken the time to get to know him as she should have. There'd been so much going on that she and the rest of the team had simply acknowledged their presence and not gone any farther than that. She knew though, that she liked him. He was strong enough not to take anything from her loving husband, who was a little homophobic, and she could respect that.
She arrived at the door and knocked, and felt that he had heard her, but was simply choosing not to acknowledge it. She pushed the door release and it slid open. Chimera lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, bearing a look very close to the one Jubilee had carried all morning.
'Chimera,' Jean said into his mind. 'What happened?'
'Gone.' Chimera responded. It wasn't a word though. Telepathy never was. It was a jumble of feelings and images. A door slamming. Eyes that she knew belonged to Raien, but no longer glowed. That he looked normal. That he didn't need Chimera anymore, and left him. All the pain and self hatred Chimera had inside him bound tightly around that one impression. Gone. Jean was surprised at how much that single word could mean. It was somewhere between 'Raien is gone', and 'I am gone.' She felt tears welling up in her eyes. The love that Chimera had for Raien was so beautiful, perhaps even more powerful than the love Scott had for her if that was possible. She could only begin to fathom the pain he was in, and didn't dare touch it directly. She put her arm around the huge man, the surprisingly soft golden fur and warmth seemed to contrast the feel of his mind. Cold and barren, like the sun refused to rise for him.
Raien walked down the streets of Westchester. It really was a beautiful day, even with what happened. Raien hadn't been able to do this in years. No one looked up at him. No one pointed fingers and yelled at him or ran in terror. It was liberating. Though, he didn't linger on the thought for long. He'd left because he'd been betrayed. By the one person he thought would always be on his side. He felt like he was being the jerk though, and it made him angry. He wasn't wrong for wanting revenge. That woman was probably there to sell out the X-Men. To gain their trust the way she had his, and deliver them into the hands of her buddies, the Friends of Humanity.
Raien's belly rumbled, and in a few minutes he saw a Chinese restaurant. A restaurant. His mouth watered at the thought alone. He could do this now. He could pass as a normal person. He felt his pockets and found that he'd remembered to put his wallet in, for once. He had nearly two hundred dollars inside it. One of the perks of living with a millionaire. He made sure that if the situation happened, his team was not without the means to at least survive for one day outside the mansion. Raien was grateful to the man. Xavier seemed nice enough, giving him a place to stay, treating his wounds twice now. But he didn't know if he wanted to go back. If that woman was still there, he wanted nothing to do with the place. He put the place from his mind. Though he knew it wasn't the place that he was trying to avoid thinking about.
It became easier as soon as he entered the restaurant. He breathed deeply the smells of exotic foods, and as the waiter seated him, he knew exactly what he wanted. He didn't even wait for the menu to be passed out. The waiter nodded and walked swiftly away, leaving Raien alone again. He tapped his fingers on the dark wooden table, eagerly awaiting his food. But alone again, his mind wandered to thoughts of golden fur and pristine blue eyes. The warmth of Chimera's embrace, the feel of that fur against his naked skin. Raien shook his heads as if he could shake the thoughts from his mind. He needed something else to occupy his thoughts, but couldn't find anything. He was feeling more and more that he'd done the wrong thing in not letting Chimera explain what had happened. He was just beginning to think that he regretted leaving the mansion when the food arrived. Sizzling beef, hot and sour soup, and all the rice he could eat. His belly rumbled again as he thanked the waiter and ripped apart the wooden chop sticks. The food tasted great. Like nothing he'd had in years, and thoughts of his love took a step back, though Raien knew they would return.
Hank was doubled over a table, his large fingers deftly navigating the keyboard of a laptop attached to a large black object faintly resembling a medieval bracer, minus the control panel on top. He'd been at this for hours, though the time hardly seemed to register. Complex formulae spilled forth from his mind into the machine so that he could get just the right effect. This sort of device had to be perfect, or it would fail in its purpose. The last piece of the puzzle was soon placed, and after running the bracer through several rigorous tests, Hank was satisfied. He walked down the hallway, in search of Chimera's room, which was very close to the laboratory. He knocked on the door. He heard a groan, but after a few moments passed, it became obvious that the occupant did not wish visitors.
Too bad. Hank thought. He'd worked for too long on this to be simply denied now. He pushed the door release. Locked. Unsurprised, Hank entered the medical emergency code into the small panel. The door slid open crisply. Chimera sat in front of the television, staring blankly at it. More like through it, as if the wall was more interesting. The unmistakable look of heartbreak was plastered to his face, framed by un- brushed hair. Hank sighed. He'd been in much the same situation the few times Bobby had chosen to 'take a break' from the X-Men. He'd felt abandoned, though he hadn't really known what the feeling was, or the true feelings he'd had for Bobby.
"Are you alright, Chimera?" Hank asked. Stupid question. Of course he wasn't alright. He got no response. "You would go after him if you could?"
This time Chimera looked up. He slowly nodded. "But I can't. This is the only place where people wont treat me like some kind of monster. If it was as simple as just going and finding him, I'm sure I could..." Chimera said, his voice trailing off as his gaze hit the floor.
"Maybe you can. Let me see your left arm, please." Hank said, a half smile on his face. Confused, Chimera simply held the arm out toward him. Hank clasped the bracer on his forearm. It was snug, but still fit. Hank pressed several buttons, and the air shimmered around Chimera for a moment before a new image appeared. Chimera looked down at his hands. Hands. With fingernails, not claws. He blinked. He looked at his arm, finding skin, not fur. He stood up quickly and looked in the mirror. He looked normal. Astonished, he looked back at Hank, who had a very pleased look on his face. He couldn't say anything. He was torn between wanting to cry in happiness or jump for joy. Instead, he silently embraced Hank. It took a moment for Hank to respond, but he did, putting one arm around Chimera's large form. The feeling of immense gratitude came from Chimera for a moment before he stepped out of the embrace, nodded to Hank, grabbed a long trench coat, and left.
Hank smiled to himself as he walked back to his own room. The feeling of accomplishment had put him into a strange mood. Playful, but... Horny. He hoped Bobby was still in his room. He'd said he was going to sleep for a few more hours and then get up and shower. He knew he was probably much too late to catch Bobby in the act, though the thought was very arousing. As he passed through the door, he heard Bobby's voice inside the bathroom.
"Hank? Hank! Help! I'm... Stuck." Bobby yelled, embarrassment in his voice.
Hank slowly entered the bathroom, his brow furrowed in confusion, then suddenly snapping straight in shock. Bobby stood in the shower, frozen in a cone of ice coming from the shower head. His eyes were worried, but not pained. Hank smiled, walking toward him.
"Now how exactly did this come about?" Hank asked, and eyebrow raised.
"Damn hot water died. I don't know how it froze, but it did. God I'm sooo cold. Can you get me out?" Bobby said, eyes pleading. Hank had something else in mind.
"So... My task here is simple. I must apply heat to make the ice melt so I can free my captive Bobby from his frozen prison..." Hank feigned thoughtfulness. Badly. "I wonder which piece I should start with?" He moved toward his target and Bobby's eyes narrowed. Hank moved into the shower and quickly turned off the water. He stopped in front of Bobby, who could only move his head, as his arms were trapped within the ice. His legs locked too, but Hank smiled to find the space between them delightfully... Exposed. He knelt down slowly and looked up at Bobby, who was obviously not in the mood, but also in no position to put up a fight. He licked Bobby's balls in one heavy stroke which halted before Hank thought it should have. He tried to pull away, but found his tongue wasn't in agreement.
"No. No... Don't say it!" Bobby exclaimed. Hank groaned, and after a moment passed, they both laughed. Here they were, Bobby stuck in the shower, and now, Hank stuck to him. In the worst possible place. Hank tried a few moments more to free himself, but gave up soon. He looked up at Bobby and groaned again.
"Well... Here we are. Now who the hell are we going to get to help us!?" Bobby said, exasperated. Hank chuckled. He was perfectly happy to stay right where he was until Bobby figured this out. Now if he could just work feeling back into his tongue.
Night had fallen. Again. For the second night in a row, Raien sat alone on a stone bench in a dreary public park. For the whole day he'd tried to keep his mind on something else, but he'd honestly run out of topics. Now he just wallowed in regret at leaving the mansion. He thought he might have overreacted to Emma. Maybe he should have stayed because of her, so that she couldn't turn on them without someone watching. He shivered as a cold gust whipped past him, cold enough he could feel it in his bones. Raien's face in his hands, he sighed heavily. He realized now that he'd left a really good thing. That he'd probably burned a bridge between himself and the Xavier Institute that he may never be able to rebuild. He didn't want to think about what Chimera thought of him. He had after all, abandoned him.
Raien looked up suddenly at the sound of hooves hitting gravel. He nearly had jumped from the bench when he realized it was someone on horseback. He sat back down. He thought about what he'd done and his guilt grew. He'd probably hurt Chimera worse than he'd even thought. If Chimera had left him, it would have hurt, yeah. He wouldn't ever be the same person again, but he would get through, and now, looking normal, he could find someone else. Chimera couldn't even walk down the street. The weight of his guilt set itself on his shoulders.
A familiar smell found its way to his nostrils, and bleary-eyed, Raien looked up. He thought he'd smelled Chimera. But it wasn't him. A normal looking man stood in front of him, looking hard at him. Raien looked back down that the gravel trail in front of him. He didn't care what this man wanted to stare at. The man stood there for a moment, then sat down next to him.
"You alright?" he asked, a shockingly normal voice, with a very slight New York accent.
"Yeah." Raien lied through his teeth. It was obvious the other guy hadn't bought it, but he wasn't about to come up with some reason why he would be in the park at three in the morning. For that matter, Raien wondered what this man was doing here.
"You look like you've got something on your mind." The man observed. Raien couldn't explain why, but he answered.
"I did something terrible." Raien said, looking at the gravel as a thick tear rolled down his face. "I left the only person I've ever cared for."
A moment passed before the man responded. "For good? Or if you could, would you go back?"
Raien looked at him, his unremarkable face, his unremarkable clothes, his all too remarkable smell. He didn't know. He wanted to go back, he wanted to just pretend none of it had happened, and just go strolling back in through the front door, but he didn't know if Chimera would forgive him. He wondered if the situation were reversed, would he forgive himself? Raien's mouth curled downwards and his eyes burned furiously, and before he could stop it, a sob escaped him. He felt a hot tear roll down his cheek.
"Raien," said the man, making Raien look up in confusion. A hand wiped the wetness from his cheek. He felt silken fur on those fingers. And the smell made sense. He looked into blue eyes which he knew so well and another tear dropped from his face. "Please... Please come home."
I don't claim any of these characters (besides Raien and Chimera) as my own, they are the property of Marvel comics. If they were mine... We'd have a feature length movie with nothing but Hank/Bobby smut!
16.
Raien walked slowly down the hallways, which today was a very difficult task. For some reason that weak feeling, where your toes tingle and it feels like you're walking through jello, had yet to go away. His hand tremored every once in a while too, which he was at a loss to figure out. He was sure that Hank would want to talk to him today and do a full medical workup. They'd not even notified him, which was probably something they should have done, given the fact that he'd woken from a coma. He thought for a while though, and he figured that Bobby and Hank were probably happily asleep in each others arms, and to bother them that late at night wouldn't have been the best thing to do. So they'd left a short note on the bed saying they'd be back in the morning.
His belly growled at him. He'd been on an IV for the last few days, but it was far from the same as actually eating. Yes, it would sustain the physical needs of his body, but there was nothing like having a belly full of-
Raien stopped dead in his tracks as he entered the kitchen. His eyes flew wide open and he saw something he'd hoped to never see again in a thousand years. M. Or Emma. She saw him too.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!" Raien exclaimed already aiming himself at her. He was going to rip her lungs out if he could. He had a flashback to the time just before he'd been captured. How this woman had pretended to be a lost mutant. He'd taken her in, he'd shown her every ounce of kindness someone wandering alone in the sewers for months could possibly have. And she'd betrayed him. He'd tried to protect her. He'd fought for her, but in the end, a syringe to the back of the neck was all he'd gotten in return. His lips curled back. And then he noticed Chimera. This had to be a nightmare! Something was terribly wrong with the whole situation. The man he loved, the one he wanted to spend each waking moment with was HAVING BREAKFAST with the person who'd betrayed him.
Weak or not, Raien threw himself at her, fingers extended like claws. Chimera bounded across the table and caught him in mid-air. He was trying to say something. He had a look of pure confusion on his face. Raien had never spoken of this to him. He had no way of knowing. And she'd probably told him some sob story to get him to listen to her. Even though he was more than outmatched by his lover's powerful arms, he still reached toward Emma, shouting every curse he know and some he didn't.
She was obviously shaken. She was falling all over herself to apologize to him. Something that she was not accustomed to. Raien wasn't listening, Chimera was still confused, and pancakes, syrup and broken plates littered the floor.
"Raien, I... I'm so sorry. Chimera, let him go." Emma said, looking at the floor. She was still shocked at how much of a turn her life had made in the past few weeks.
"Yeah. Let me go. Trust me, she deserves-" Raien said before being interrupted by a voice more strong and powerful than Raien thought Chimera was capable of.
"Both of you shut up. I think I've managed to figure out what is going on here. Raien, you told me that before you were captured, you'd been wandering in the sewers. I think I heard about what happened, and how we ended up in that truck together. Please. Calm down. Emma has changed. They had her daughter, Raien..." Chimera said, a mix between strong and soft tones.
Raien snorted. Yeah. Daughter. Right. "Chimera, she's a liar. She found me in the sewer and after I'd taken her in, she gave me to FoH. She's probably the same person responsible for you getting caught!"
Chimera felt suddenly that he didn't want to be the one standing in the middle of this. On one hand he had this woman, who'd obviously suffered a great deal of pain, and who had just bared her soul to him. On the other, quite literally, he had his lover. The only man he loved, and the one and only man that would ever love him in return. Raien had stopped struggling, finally, and Chimera put his feet on the floor again.
"Raien, as horrible as the things that happened in my life that day, had it not been for this woman, I would not have met you..." Chimera tried to explain. He was really reaching here. He knew that there was little he could do to quell Raien's hatred of this woman.
"All I can do is apologize, Raien. There's no way to make right the damage I did to you, but-"
Raien pulled away from Chimera, but also away from the object of his hatred. He staggered for a moment trying to get his feet under him. Why was he so damned slow.
"You can start by leaving! And never coming back. Go back to your Friends. You aren't wanted here!" He spat toward her. She wilted. Raien still wanted to kill her.
Chimera stood like a statue. He'd never seen this side of Raien before. He'd never wanted to hold and comfort him more than he did this moment, but the look on Raien's face precluded anything like that. It was a look of stark betrayal. He took a step toward him anyway, trying, hoping for just the chance to... he didn't know what he could do.
"Fuck this place." Raien said as he turned and left. All of Chimera's fears hit him right in the stomach. All of the dark thoughts of the past few days had all just come true, punctuated by the sound of the front door slamming shut. There was nothing in what Raien had just said, or the way he'd just acted that left any room to interpret that Chimera could follow. After all, Raien had gone to the one place he couldn't follow. Outside.
He didn't say a word. He stood there for a moment more and found his coffee. Though it scalded his throat, he downed it in one gulp. He picked up the scraps of plate left from the floor and placed them in the garbage. He washed his cup and replaced it in the cabinet as if nothing had just happened. His eyes burned furiously. His hands shook. He gave Emma a final look, and told her not to worry. That Raien would come around. As he stepped out of the kitchen, his words fell and shattered on the floor in as many pieces as Emma's plate had. There was nothing Raien said that indicated he would be coming back.
"Morning Chimera." Bobby said cheerfully, on his way to his morning cereal. He stopped and turned. "Chimera? What's wrong? What happened?"
His only reply was the clacking of hooves running away from him down the hallway.
Jean sat with Jubilee feeling terrible. There wasn't a damn thing she was doing that was making any difference to the girl's vacant expression. Frankly, she was shocked. Jean thought that if this had happened to her, she would cry, and make Scott hold her until- Then it hit her. Jubilee didn't have Scott. She had no one to come home to who could tell her that everything was going to be okay. There was nothing Jean could do in that regard. She'd thought about using her powers to draw Jubilee out, but that would be painful to both of them.
She decided it was time to leave Jubilee to lay on the bed staring at the wall and go have some lunch. As the door opened, she saw Wolverine walk by. She'd known he was near. He must have been pacing right in front of the door.
"You can talk to her if you want, Logan. I can't seem to get through to her. Maybe you can." Jean said, frustration rampant in her voice. Wolverine just nodded and entered. He sat down on the bed softly, totally out of character.
"How you doing, kid?" He asked, softly. Jean always knew there was this side to Wolverine, but she'd rarely seen it. At first he got the same response from her as Jean had gotten for the past few days. Then suddenly, Jubilee scrambled into his lap, her arms around his neck. And cried. As the door hissed shut, Jean's mood improved dramatically. She felt the emotions bottled up within Jubilee break free. It made absolutely no sense to her. She would have thought that the best person to help her through this would have been a woman. Both she and the professor had thought that a male would only aggravate the situation.
On the other hand, Wolverine himself had been raped. Perhaps worse than what had happened to Jubilee, if that was possible. As much as his adamantium skeleton and claws helped him on a daily basis, the torture that had given them to him and going through life without knowing your past would have been extremely traumatic. And it all made sense. Jubilee had needed someone she could relate to.
And Jean still needed lunch. She passed Emma on the way there, and scowled. Emma hadn't even looked up, she stared at the floor and walked slowly back to whichever room she occupied. She had the look of a person who had just been kicked in the stomach, or had the rug pulled out from under her.
Jean was still trying to figure out if it was some elaborate charade or if something truly terrible had happened to her and she had turned her life around. Either way, she would be no friend of Jean's. Bitterness wasn't usually her thing, but lately it had seemed to creep its way in.
She entered the kitchen and made herself a sandwich. Only after she'd finished it and prepared to sit at the counter did she realize how quiet it was in the room. Beast, Bobby, Rogue, and Gambit sat with their respective partners, facing the others. She set the plate down heavily.
"Alright. What happened." Jean asked taking a bite of her sandwich.
"You undoubtedly know that Emma Frost is in the mansion." Hank said, breaking their silence.
"Yes. As much as I'd like to toss her out, the Professor said she could stay. Its only temporary." Jean answered. Gambit rolled his eyes.
"An' how many of us were gonna be 'temporary'?" Gambit mused.
"She did something. I don't know what, but I heard a door slam, then Chimera ran away from me. Jean, What is going on? You'd know if she was using telepathy to hurt any of us, right?" Bobby asked, worry stamped on his forehead.
"Unless she has some way of hiding it from me, I think I would. And if I couldn't, the Professor surely would. No one's seen Raien then? Those two are usually joined at the hip." Jean said, taking another bite.
"I would venture a guess. Ms. Frost being here triggered some chain of events, leading me to believe that there is some past history between either Chimera or Raien and she. I was unaware that Raien was even conscious, but he is apparently gone from the mansion. Where he could go with his glowing eyes though... Well, it would reduce the possible places he could have gone." Hank said in his usual logical Mr. Spock voice.
"Gambit tink de boy need time alone. Even Gambit gotta get out once in a while. He come back when he ready."
Somehow Gambit seemed more logical than Hank for once. Jean nodded and left without food, in search of Chimera. She could feel that he was in his quarters on the other side of the mansion, but the pain emanating from him was tangible even this far away. She thought about what she could say as she walked. She didn't even really know what happened. She didn't even really know Chimera. She'd not taken the time to get to know him as she should have. There'd been so much going on that she and the rest of the team had simply acknowledged their presence and not gone any farther than that. She knew though, that she liked him. He was strong enough not to take anything from her loving husband, who was a little homophobic, and she could respect that.
She arrived at the door and knocked, and felt that he had heard her, but was simply choosing not to acknowledge it. She pushed the door release and it slid open. Chimera lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, bearing a look very close to the one Jubilee had carried all morning.
'Chimera,' Jean said into his mind. 'What happened?'
'Gone.' Chimera responded. It wasn't a word though. Telepathy never was. It was a jumble of feelings and images. A door slamming. Eyes that she knew belonged to Raien, but no longer glowed. That he looked normal. That he didn't need Chimera anymore, and left him. All the pain and self hatred Chimera had inside him bound tightly around that one impression. Gone. Jean was surprised at how much that single word could mean. It was somewhere between 'Raien is gone', and 'I am gone.' She felt tears welling up in her eyes. The love that Chimera had for Raien was so beautiful, perhaps even more powerful than the love Scott had for her if that was possible. She could only begin to fathom the pain he was in, and didn't dare touch it directly. She put her arm around the huge man, the surprisingly soft golden fur and warmth seemed to contrast the feel of his mind. Cold and barren, like the sun refused to rise for him.
Raien walked down the streets of Westchester. It really was a beautiful day, even with what happened. Raien hadn't been able to do this in years. No one looked up at him. No one pointed fingers and yelled at him or ran in terror. It was liberating. Though, he didn't linger on the thought for long. He'd left because he'd been betrayed. By the one person he thought would always be on his side. He felt like he was being the jerk though, and it made him angry. He wasn't wrong for wanting revenge. That woman was probably there to sell out the X-Men. To gain their trust the way she had his, and deliver them into the hands of her buddies, the Friends of Humanity.
Raien's belly rumbled, and in a few minutes he saw a Chinese restaurant. A restaurant. His mouth watered at the thought alone. He could do this now. He could pass as a normal person. He felt his pockets and found that he'd remembered to put his wallet in, for once. He had nearly two hundred dollars inside it. One of the perks of living with a millionaire. He made sure that if the situation happened, his team was not without the means to at least survive for one day outside the mansion. Raien was grateful to the man. Xavier seemed nice enough, giving him a place to stay, treating his wounds twice now. But he didn't know if he wanted to go back. If that woman was still there, he wanted nothing to do with the place. He put the place from his mind. Though he knew it wasn't the place that he was trying to avoid thinking about.
It became easier as soon as he entered the restaurant. He breathed deeply the smells of exotic foods, and as the waiter seated him, he knew exactly what he wanted. He didn't even wait for the menu to be passed out. The waiter nodded and walked swiftly away, leaving Raien alone again. He tapped his fingers on the dark wooden table, eagerly awaiting his food. But alone again, his mind wandered to thoughts of golden fur and pristine blue eyes. The warmth of Chimera's embrace, the feel of that fur against his naked skin. Raien shook his heads as if he could shake the thoughts from his mind. He needed something else to occupy his thoughts, but couldn't find anything. He was feeling more and more that he'd done the wrong thing in not letting Chimera explain what had happened. He was just beginning to think that he regretted leaving the mansion when the food arrived. Sizzling beef, hot and sour soup, and all the rice he could eat. His belly rumbled again as he thanked the waiter and ripped apart the wooden chop sticks. The food tasted great. Like nothing he'd had in years, and thoughts of his love took a step back, though Raien knew they would return.
Hank was doubled over a table, his large fingers deftly navigating the keyboard of a laptop attached to a large black object faintly resembling a medieval bracer, minus the control panel on top. He'd been at this for hours, though the time hardly seemed to register. Complex formulae spilled forth from his mind into the machine so that he could get just the right effect. This sort of device had to be perfect, or it would fail in its purpose. The last piece of the puzzle was soon placed, and after running the bracer through several rigorous tests, Hank was satisfied. He walked down the hallway, in search of Chimera's room, which was very close to the laboratory. He knocked on the door. He heard a groan, but after a few moments passed, it became obvious that the occupant did not wish visitors.
Too bad. Hank thought. He'd worked for too long on this to be simply denied now. He pushed the door release. Locked. Unsurprised, Hank entered the medical emergency code into the small panel. The door slid open crisply. Chimera sat in front of the television, staring blankly at it. More like through it, as if the wall was more interesting. The unmistakable look of heartbreak was plastered to his face, framed by un- brushed hair. Hank sighed. He'd been in much the same situation the few times Bobby had chosen to 'take a break' from the X-Men. He'd felt abandoned, though he hadn't really known what the feeling was, or the true feelings he'd had for Bobby.
"Are you alright, Chimera?" Hank asked. Stupid question. Of course he wasn't alright. He got no response. "You would go after him if you could?"
This time Chimera looked up. He slowly nodded. "But I can't. This is the only place where people wont treat me like some kind of monster. If it was as simple as just going and finding him, I'm sure I could..." Chimera said, his voice trailing off as his gaze hit the floor.
"Maybe you can. Let me see your left arm, please." Hank said, a half smile on his face. Confused, Chimera simply held the arm out toward him. Hank clasped the bracer on his forearm. It was snug, but still fit. Hank pressed several buttons, and the air shimmered around Chimera for a moment before a new image appeared. Chimera looked down at his hands. Hands. With fingernails, not claws. He blinked. He looked at his arm, finding skin, not fur. He stood up quickly and looked in the mirror. He looked normal. Astonished, he looked back at Hank, who had a very pleased look on his face. He couldn't say anything. He was torn between wanting to cry in happiness or jump for joy. Instead, he silently embraced Hank. It took a moment for Hank to respond, but he did, putting one arm around Chimera's large form. The feeling of immense gratitude came from Chimera for a moment before he stepped out of the embrace, nodded to Hank, grabbed a long trench coat, and left.
Hank smiled to himself as he walked back to his own room. The feeling of accomplishment had put him into a strange mood. Playful, but... Horny. He hoped Bobby was still in his room. He'd said he was going to sleep for a few more hours and then get up and shower. He knew he was probably much too late to catch Bobby in the act, though the thought was very arousing. As he passed through the door, he heard Bobby's voice inside the bathroom.
"Hank? Hank! Help! I'm... Stuck." Bobby yelled, embarrassment in his voice.
Hank slowly entered the bathroom, his brow furrowed in confusion, then suddenly snapping straight in shock. Bobby stood in the shower, frozen in a cone of ice coming from the shower head. His eyes were worried, but not pained. Hank smiled, walking toward him.
"Now how exactly did this come about?" Hank asked, and eyebrow raised.
"Damn hot water died. I don't know how it froze, but it did. God I'm sooo cold. Can you get me out?" Bobby said, eyes pleading. Hank had something else in mind.
"So... My task here is simple. I must apply heat to make the ice melt so I can free my captive Bobby from his frozen prison..." Hank feigned thoughtfulness. Badly. "I wonder which piece I should start with?" He moved toward his target and Bobby's eyes narrowed. Hank moved into the shower and quickly turned off the water. He stopped in front of Bobby, who could only move his head, as his arms were trapped within the ice. His legs locked too, but Hank smiled to find the space between them delightfully... Exposed. He knelt down slowly and looked up at Bobby, who was obviously not in the mood, but also in no position to put up a fight. He licked Bobby's balls in one heavy stroke which halted before Hank thought it should have. He tried to pull away, but found his tongue wasn't in agreement.
"No. No... Don't say it!" Bobby exclaimed. Hank groaned, and after a moment passed, they both laughed. Here they were, Bobby stuck in the shower, and now, Hank stuck to him. In the worst possible place. Hank tried a few moments more to free himself, but gave up soon. He looked up at Bobby and groaned again.
"Well... Here we are. Now who the hell are we going to get to help us!?" Bobby said, exasperated. Hank chuckled. He was perfectly happy to stay right where he was until Bobby figured this out. Now if he could just work feeling back into his tongue.
Night had fallen. Again. For the second night in a row, Raien sat alone on a stone bench in a dreary public park. For the whole day he'd tried to keep his mind on something else, but he'd honestly run out of topics. Now he just wallowed in regret at leaving the mansion. He thought he might have overreacted to Emma. Maybe he should have stayed because of her, so that she couldn't turn on them without someone watching. He shivered as a cold gust whipped past him, cold enough he could feel it in his bones. Raien's face in his hands, he sighed heavily. He realized now that he'd left a really good thing. That he'd probably burned a bridge between himself and the Xavier Institute that he may never be able to rebuild. He didn't want to think about what Chimera thought of him. He had after all, abandoned him.
Raien looked up suddenly at the sound of hooves hitting gravel. He nearly had jumped from the bench when he realized it was someone on horseback. He sat back down. He thought about what he'd done and his guilt grew. He'd probably hurt Chimera worse than he'd even thought. If Chimera had left him, it would have hurt, yeah. He wouldn't ever be the same person again, but he would get through, and now, looking normal, he could find someone else. Chimera couldn't even walk down the street. The weight of his guilt set itself on his shoulders.
A familiar smell found its way to his nostrils, and bleary-eyed, Raien looked up. He thought he'd smelled Chimera. But it wasn't him. A normal looking man stood in front of him, looking hard at him. Raien looked back down that the gravel trail in front of him. He didn't care what this man wanted to stare at. The man stood there for a moment, then sat down next to him.
"You alright?" he asked, a shockingly normal voice, with a very slight New York accent.
"Yeah." Raien lied through his teeth. It was obvious the other guy hadn't bought it, but he wasn't about to come up with some reason why he would be in the park at three in the morning. For that matter, Raien wondered what this man was doing here.
"You look like you've got something on your mind." The man observed. Raien couldn't explain why, but he answered.
"I did something terrible." Raien said, looking at the gravel as a thick tear rolled down his face. "I left the only person I've ever cared for."
A moment passed before the man responded. "For good? Or if you could, would you go back?"
Raien looked at him, his unremarkable face, his unremarkable clothes, his all too remarkable smell. He didn't know. He wanted to go back, he wanted to just pretend none of it had happened, and just go strolling back in through the front door, but he didn't know if Chimera would forgive him. He wondered if the situation were reversed, would he forgive himself? Raien's mouth curled downwards and his eyes burned furiously, and before he could stop it, a sob escaped him. He felt a hot tear roll down his cheek.
"Raien," said the man, making Raien look up in confusion. A hand wiped the wetness from his cheek. He felt silken fur on those fingers. And the smell made sense. He looked into blue eyes which he knew so well and another tear dropped from his face. "Please... Please come home."