Disclaimer: Dispite my best efforts, Todd and the other Marvel characters still elude my copyright.
Sorry folks, my computer's been down...grumble grumble I hate technology grumble So , here's chappy 6...I hope I still have some reviewers left who haven't given up on me... : (
Chapter 6: Dream of Agony, Dream of Ectasy
Through the woods ran the little frog mutant, bulging eyes swimming with tears. He wiped at his face angrily with the back of a grubby hand, frustration balling it into a fist. With a tremendous leap the boy was airborne, landing with the splinter of twigs upon a high branch of an old oak tree. He crouched there, breathing hard, trying to add things up in his small mutant mind. Last night, a vision had approached him. A premonition so crisp and clear, he could have sworn she was real. And today...today this vision had become tangible, had morphed into physical shape in reality! Twenty minutes ago, Todd had caught sight of his one true love, a lady he'd dreamed before he'd even seen.
And now, it was gone. All for nothing.
Heartbroken and shoulders sagging, Todd's hands dropped to the sides of the thick branch. He let out his feet, falling square on his bum, and dangled both legs in front of him, staring at his worn sneakers with both disgust and disillusionment. Only in his life would something so miserable occur. As the frusteration and hate dissapated from his brain, though, Todd was left with a new feeling.
Confusion.
Who was this girl, where had she come from? Surely Magneto couldn't have actually "created" her...he must have picked her up off the street somewhere. Was she some type of permanent hooker? A whore housemaid? It seemed logical enough. Perhaps, if he could save enough money, he would be able to persuade her for a night. Disgruntled by the thought, Todd rested his head against the tree trunk and squeezed his eyes shut. That was just wrong; he wanted to be her love, not her fuckable bank. He sighed. It made sense that his soulmate would be a woman of the streets. He was, after all, a child of the street himself. Raised with nothing, picking scraps from garbage cans, stealing more often than working...his grey eyes winced at the memory of dark alleyways, gutters, and jail cells.
And then Todd's brow furrowed.
If Nadine was a hooker, paid and bought, then what was the deal with her cell? That cruel metal room Magneto had hastily built for her nighttimes. Come to think of it, the man had said something about subservient humans. But what did this have to do with her and Pietro?
Shrugging it off as a strange game that Magneto played with any sub-mutant, Todd bounced down from the tree and began to walk through the woods. Deep in speculation about the day's chain of events, he meandered through trees and hedges and eventually into locational oblivion. Upon realizing he was lost, Todd did what made the most sense: he kept walking. He found a stream, nearby which were growing a plump batch of blueberries. He smiled wide, plucking several greedily and stuffing them without discresion into his mouth.
That evening, a tired and emotionally trainwrecked frog mutant clamored up the steps of the brotherhood, a dozen or so blueberries clutched lightly in the long fingers of his left hand. He popped them easily into his mouth, one by one, and used the other hand to open the door. Every muscle in his body froze taut when he did.
The first thing Todd encountered was the mutual expression portrayed by both Lance and Fred. It was a mix of jealousy and annoyance, with perhaps a bit of fear blended in. Todd was no master of reading emotions, though; all he could tell was that something was terribly wrong. And he reazlized what precisely was amiss two point five milliseconds later, when the sounds from upstairs hit his ears.
Moans and shrieks of muffled but still extreme decibels hit him like a lead-weighted boxer's glove, instincively causing his own hands to curl. His jaw dropped and eyes narrowed in a squint of pain, the expression of both the vomitrocious disgust and the intense pain that stabbed into him.
The blueberries, now crushed beyond recognition as a fruit, were dropped to the floor in a globular mess; and without thinking, Todd bounced twice and landed on the railing of the upper story. Without even a word of hello to his fellow brotherhood members, he disappeared into his room, shoving his head beneath a pillow and pressing it close against his big ears, hoping to drown out the noise and his feelings simontaneously.
Downstairs, Lance laughed at his friend's display. "Never been laid, never gonna be laid. Guess he's jealous," he sighed, grinning at the Blob. Freddy, in return, stared at the floor. An uncomfortable silence filled the space between them both.
There was tall grass, high as his neck. And ahead of him, lucious brown curls bobbing like something from a shampoo comercial, trotted the form of a woman, facing away from him. He smiled and ran after her, noticing now how nude she was. With a shriek of mirth she ran, hands above her head. He bounced into the air, falling down atop her in the thick and tall grass, noticing for the first time his own nudity, feeling it pressed against her... he smiled down at her. But her face was no longer happy. The lower lip trembled and the deep brown eyes shimmered as tears rolled from them. Quiet, hopeless sobs escaped her, and grew steadily more heartfelt even as he held her close and petted her hair, trying to comfort this dream woman. "Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry...
...don't cry..." Todd's eyes opened, ears alert. Yes, there it was. The unmistakable sound of female sobs. The boy tried to shake off his dream, listening hard. They grew more quiet now, less angsty, and yet Todd felt compelled to investigate. Either Wanda or the new girl was sad, and in either situation Todd wouldn't mind being the shoulder to cry on. So, barefoot and wearing nothing but boxers with a hole in the elastic, the frog mutant tiptoed down to investigate.
He reached the hallway and listened, until he was absolutely sure the Scarlet Witch hadn't been crying. Still, he made sure to preserve absolute silence as he passed Wanda's room, knowing what a light sleeper she was. Todd made his careful way downstairs, noting that the sobs had stopped a moment ago. He reached the metal cell, and looked around it for any sort of a peephole. There, on the door, was a thick glass slide, embedded in the steel. Through this he could look, standing on tiptoe, and glanced into the cage.
What he saw hit him even harder than his original viewing of Nadine had. She was curled up, knees to chin, dressed in some of Pietro's sweatpants and a tee-shirt. Lying on the floor, her voloptuous figure became volumous, causing her to appear fat. The bottoms of her feet showed, dirty and callused, leading up to legs that now appeared less toned and more pudgey. His eyes swept up her frame to her face, which lay asleep. The blank eyes were closed, but still remained puffy and red. Fresh tears were still visible shinning on her cheeks, which were slack as her mouth hung open. The shiny and vibrant hair was clumped and greasy, and hung around her head like a halo of brown straw.
Todd had never felt to attracted to anyone.
His eyes stared with a tender awe at the character before him, in all her unkept and unattractive glory. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, he wondered how she had gone from the earlier drop-dead woman to this homely girl, but it didn't concern him. All he could feel was her breath, as he watched her chest rise and fall; all he could see was her face. One oversized hand touched the glass, curving around the shape of her body; caressing it, as though by imagining he was doing. He stood there, watching her, until the sun peeked through the living room window.
The next few days Todd spent in a restless daze. Pietro treated Nadine more and more cruelly by the moment, at first revering her every movement but quickly devolving to barking orders and fondling her publically. She never complained; only stared at him with those stupid blank eyes and giggled. It was these times that Todd felt she was nothing but a hollow whore, that this woman should be no more meaningful to him than any other bimbo on the street. But at night, every night, he would sneak down to watch her as she slept. And it would be then, in those moments of tender desire, that he would know Nadine was something more than what Magneto and Pietro saw; he knew she was special, and that she was meant for him.
But how and why he knew this, Todd could not yet fathom.
Has anyone figured it out yet..? I'm sorry if it's too obvious. : ( Please, review! I really appreciate all your comments!
Oh, and btw...I'm perfectly aware of how smutty and dirty this whole tale is. : ) Be glad it's just that right now; that's the romance. It's rated for romance and angst...wait till we get to the angst!