disclaimer: All recognizable characters are owned by Marvel, except Jenny who is MINE! (though I have been known to share if you ask nicely.) I expect to make no money off this fic. Dammit.
Human and the Demon
by Dizi
Chapter 3
The next morning Jenny hesitated in front of the kitchen. In the past, she had rarely slept this late and knew everyone would be in there. Remy had already started teasing her the night before and she wasn't sure if she was ready to face everyone else. The others - especially the women - were sure to want to examine her feelings and they were so new she wasn't sure she understood them herself.
Starting to open the door, she put a hand on it then lost her nerve and stepped back instead.
"I do not believe ze door vill bite, liebling." Kurt said from behind her in a teasing tone.
Her heart rate immediately increased at the endearment and the sound of his voice. She turned to see him smiling down at her. "I don't want to take the chance they'll say something." she admitted. Then her face brightened with a smile and her voice became enthusiastic. "But now you're here. You go first."
"Ach, nein." Kurt held up his hands and started backing away. "You vere here first."
Advancing on him, Jenny argued, "They're your friends. How bad could it be?"
"Zey are your friends too." He was quick to point out.
Moving quickly, she got behind him and started gently pushing him towards the door. "Oh, but you're a big strong X-Man, you're supposed to protect me."
Playing along, Kurt allowed himself to be urged forward but at the doorway he braced himself, protesting, "I am not zat brave."
"Of course, you are." Jenny chided with a soft giggle. "I know you can do it. Come on, I'll even count for you. Are you ready?...one ... two ... three!"
Watching her through the corner of his eye, Kurt saw her tense to again push him. When she said "three" he teleported away, and Jenny fell forward stumbling into the kitchen through a cloud of smoke.
"Cheat!" Jenny cried as she regained her balance and looked up to find all the X-Men staring at her, including Charles who had arrived late the night before from a conference. She blinked at them and blushed, "Uh, hi!"
"Good morning, Jenny." Charles greeted her, being one of the few able to hide his smile.
"Happy Birthday, Charles!" After kissing his cheek and squeezing his hand, Jenny asked in an utterly innocent tone, "Do you like your present?"
"I am quite enthused." He no longer bothered trying to hold back the smile. "You'll have to tell me all about it later."
Jenny's smile changed to a playful glare, as Kurt came in the backdoor whistling and his eyes turned to the ceiling. "Coward." she whispered to him as he passed by.
"I varned you I am not brave, liebchen." Kurt pulled out a chair for her with a flourish. "Sit, I vill fix you a plate to make up for it."
"Oh, but I can do it..." she protested, already starting to go towards the plates of food on the cabinet.
Gesturing to the chair again, Kurt said, "Nein, you vork hard and I haf already eaten. I vill fix it for you."
"I... well, okay." Again blushing, Jenny sat in the offered chair somewhat at a loss. She was the one who usually waited on people not the other way around.
Looking at the other faces around the table, Jenny resigned herself to the teasing and the probing questions that she knew would soon come. But somehow, it didn't seem quite so daunting anymore.
"So," Remy started the ball rolling, "you have a good time last night, chere?"
Smiling up at Kurt as he set a plate in front of her, she replied softly, "Yes, I did."
Though it was the middle of autumn, the sun was shining and it was warm outside. The water was really too cold for swimming but sunbathing was something else. The female residents decided to take advantage of the weather while they could with Ororo swearing she had not adjusted the temperature for Charles's birthday.
Sitting with a towel across her lap to hold Rogue's foot and wearing latex gloves, Jenny finished painting the other woman's toenails a bright fire-engine red to match the bathing suit she was wearing. "Alright, all done. Don't walk on them, fly if you have to."
Sitting on her own lounger, she slipped on the huge pair of lime green sunglasses that matched the design on her own yellow and green swirled nails and her swimsuit bottoms. It had originally come with a thong, but she just couldn't make herself wear it in public and the yellow top matched well enough. Jenny again thought how she would always be grateful to Rogue for finding the suit that hid her scars.
"Remy said yah went dancin' last night, Jenny." Rogue began the inquiry.
"Yeah." Jenny had a dreamy smile on her face at the memory.
"You went out already?" Jubilee exclaimed, admiring her own toenails which Ororo had just finished painting. "Way to go Kurt!"
Frowning, Ororo asked, "When did you leave?"
"We didn't." Jenny sighed. "We danced in the kitchen."
"In the kitchen?" Kitty demanded. "I thought better of Kurt than that."
Jenny sighed again. "It was so romantic."
"The kitchen was romantic?" Jean asked in a doubtful voice. "I have to agree with Kitty."
"It just was. He put on one of my favorite songs, and there I was in my cleaning clothes and bare feet. He said he knew I like to dance and asked me to dance with him. We danced to the same song over and over." she sighed again. "It was wonderful."
"So what're yah'll gonna do next?" Rogue demanded.
"I don't know. We haven't talked about it yet." Jenny admitted. "Last night was impulse, I think."
"Oh, impulse." Jean said. "That explains it. Of course it was romantic."
"Why don't you ask him to go somewhere then?" Rogue suggested.
"Um, I don't think..." Jenny trailed off, unsure of how to explain.
Betsy raised an inquiring brow at both women.
"Rogue," Ororo said in a warning tone, "I believe we can let Jenny and Kurt handle it on their own."
"I think it's great." Jubilee exclaimed. "I'm so happy for you, Jenny!"
"Yeah, I bet you make a cute couple." Kitty said, thinking how lonely Kurt had been for so long. Looking at Jenny laying on the lounger, she frowned, "You know, I have a top you can use. You're not going to get a lot of sun with that one."
A little self-conscious, Jenny tried to be nonchalant. "That's okay, I'm fine." Drawing down her glasses, she frowned and looked to Ororo. Jenny had thought the newcomers would have been told.
Nodding, Ororo inclined her head to indicate she would speak to Kitty later. They hadn't thought to explain to her about it as they had felt it was not their story to tell, but she didn't want Jenny to feel uncomfortable and she now had her permission.
Jenny replaced her glasses hiding her uncertain eyes and - without conscious thought - started rubbing that spot on her shoulder. She'd assumed Kurt and the others knew already, but Ororo was going to talk to them, so she'd wait to see if it made a difference to him. Suddenly, she didn't feel quite as good about the night before as she had earlier. Quickly, she pushed those feelings aside. Either way, it had been a wonderful experience and if it didn't happen again... well, she'd always remember it.
Some distance away, the male residents had gathered for their own bonding experience; watching the scantily clad women. Female laughter and giggling drew appreciative male eyes from all over. Most of the women's faces were hidden by the loungers, but that didn't matter. The men weren't looking at their faces anyway.
"Pretty sight, non?" Remy took a pull from his beer.
"Ja, I had forgotten ze delights of ze mansion." Kurt agreed.
Logan gave them a sidelong glance. "Chuck should have a birthday more often."
"T'ink dey stay like dat if Remy have birt'day tomorrow, homme?"
"I could haf one too if zat vorks." Kurt offered.
"Pretty sure they'd catch on eventually." Warren put in. "They're pretty smart that way."
Scott said dryly, as he strolled over with Hank, "Not to mention they remember when your birthdays are."
"Ah, a beauteous vision of feminine bounty." Hank admired the view, passing a beer to Scott.
"Don't look too hard at the hot pink thong, that's Jean and she's definitely taken." Scott grinned.
Looking hard anyway, Logan grunted, "We'll keep it in mind."
"The black is Betsy, she doesn't mind if you look." Warren offered helpfully.
Several pairs of eyes darted to the black-string bikini, and Hank replied. "We appreciate the knowledge."
"Still think Jubes don't need ta dress like that yet." Logan muttered darkly.
"Young Jubilation's attire is quite modest in my humble opinion." Hank offered. "Quite appropriate for her age group."
Logan grunted and again muttered under his breath, too low for anyone else to hear.
Dragging his eyes from the one he knew to be Rogue, Remy asked, "Who de one in de green and yellow?"
"That would be my non-Twinkie appreciative friend Jenny." Hank's words made several of their eyes widen.
"That's Jenny?" Bobby's voice was incredulous.
"Affirmative." There was pain in Hank's voice as he explained, "If you take a close visualization of other, normally non-erogenous zones, you will be able to see the slight scarring remaining from the unfortunate incident of seventeen months ago."
"I just never realized Jenny was so..." Bobby's voice trailed off.
"Ja," Kurt breathed, unable to look away. He'd been eyeing the green and yellow swimsuit already, but now...
"I've never seen her in just a suit." Warren observed. "She usually wears a t-shirt over it."
Bishop's brow creased, "She borrowed one of mine. Maybe she decided not to use it."
"Best look while ya can." Logan informed them. "Jenny seems ta have remembered the shirt."
The group watched as, laughing and holding Bishop's shirt, Jenny stood up, making her hair fall down her back past her waist in a curtain of gentle waves ruffled by a slight breeze. The sight again drew appreciative male looks.
"Remy t'ink chere been hiding t'ings." Remy sighed. "Too bad she gon' cover up, non?"
"Ach, ve cannot have zat. She has not been in ze pool." Kurt grinned. "Keep vatching, gentlemen." And he teleported to Jenny's side.
Startled, Jenny turned to him and smiled shyly, pushing her hair behind her ear, "Hi."
"Guten tag." He gently took the shirt from her suddenly limp fingers and dropped it behind her on the chair. "Vould you like to haf some fun?"
Jenny eyed him warily. No matter how much she liked him she didn't trust the look in his eyes. "What kind of fun?"
"Zat is gut enough." Winking at the watching male residents, Kurt wrapped an arm and his tail around her waist and grinned at her before they teleported away.
They reappeared twenty feet above the pool. The resulting splash caused the gathered women to jump up and shriek in indignation as a wave of cold water landed on them.
The men were grinning and enjoying the show, but turned at an appreciative whistle. They found Charles had joined them while they were otherwise occupied.
"I'm not blind." he said dryly at their astonished looks, then chuckled at the sight of the scantily-clad women still jumping around. "And I must remember to thank Kurt for such a wonderful spectacle on my birthday."
The presents unwrapped and the cake a fond memory, Jenny waited with Kurt by the door for Hank to take her back home.
"Vhen are you to haf another day off?" Kurt inquired softly.
"Um," Jenny thought frantically, "Tuesday if I can get a new waitress hired."
"Zat vill give me plenty of time to zink of something fun for us to do." he grinned at her.
Jenny groaned. "Fun like last night or fun like this afternoon?"
"I am sorry." Kurt apologized again as he had ever since the incident. "I did not realize ze water vas so cold." Raising her hand to his lips and placing a kiss upon her knuckles, he asked, "Forgive me, liebling?"
"S-sure." Her mind had gone blank and she was staring at her hand.
"Zen I vill see you Tuesday, ja?" He asked hopefully.
"Oh," Jenny's face scrunched up and she groaned. "I can't. I'm sorry, I forgot I promised to be somewhere."
"Ah." Kurt tried to keep the disappointment from his voice.
Disappointed herself, Jenny considered quickly then asked hopefully, "But you can come with me? At eleven? They can always use more help."
"Zat is fine." He said without even asking what she intended to do. "I vill pick you up."
Watching Hank and Jenny go down the drive a few minutes later, Kurt finally wondered what it was they were going to do. Deciding it didn't matter, he thought either way they would be able to spend time getting to know each other better.
to be continued.
German Key:
liebling - darling
guten tag - good afternoon
note:
GothikStrawberry- LOL! I'll never think of amy movies the same way again. Glad you liked it.
B Oots- Well, he might have reason to be nervous. By this timeline she should be 15 and getting up in age. Teenage curiosity and all, you know.
Irbis- Sorry you missed it but I gotcha this time. Wasn't it sweet? There'll be more dancing later. Jenny loves music so much she has to like dancing too.
Erutan Xiku- I laughed the whole time I wrote it! We learn things everyday. I have had some questions before about terms like gofer/gopher so if you have more feel free to ask. The shorts will be both Jenny/Kurt and all the X-men. Though even the Jenny/Kurt ones I have so far have the rest too.
Jinxeh- I keep thinking I'm going to check out your art. One day I will, I swear. I don't know about realistic but it's fun, huh?
nanaroxu- Thank you, thank you, thank you. Being as I know how much you read I really appreciate it.
TricaLee- Let's just say no monkish thoughts here. But the whole monk thing came later in the series than I've gone, so I think its cool. Besides I think even Marvel is forgetting about it. For now anyway.
S- Here ya go! Thinking of something else along the lines of F&N, btw, but its still in early idea stages. Never know.
CaptainTish- That was a little tricky, huh? But I even had Logan fooled, kinda proud of that. Thought for sure he'd catch on but figured he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between types of tears just that she really was crying.
Next chapter: where could they possibly be going? I'm not telling! Not quite as fun but definitely a push in the relationship and references to known Jenny history (well, known to us anyway).
If you didn't notice I have lots of references to both "Human in a Mutant World" and "Jenny and the X-men". Unfortunately, I forget what is from where and pretty much just remember the story as a whole. It's all one in my mind. Most things can be figured out if they haven't been read, but I just can't see explaining everything again. If it is a major problem let me know and (sigh) I will notate references as best I can - or you could just read them (and, of course, review them).
Also I want to reinterate for future chapters that I did warn in my bio this story is not going to be all fun. No journey is problem free and - being as we know how their relationship ends up - I think of this story as the journey to get there. See "Second Chances" by Elizabeth Robbins if you want a heads up, or don't if you want to be surprised. I like surprise personally and it only gives you the end results not the details.
I also have to apologize in that I am still on chapter 16 as I played a lot this week. Sorry, but I recently got back into Sims2 (I have X-Men Sims, how cool is that?)and actually watched some TV. I'm so ashamed. But I'm almost done with it, I swear, and if things go well should have 16 and 17 done by next week (they're in my notebook and I just keep touching them up a bit, or pondering additions).
Thanks for reading and the support,
Dizi