Group Fic

Chapter 3 by David (Virtued Legacy)

Ororo wasn't dumb. She saw Remy's move for a kiss coming from a mile away, which is precisely why she began moving away from him. That's not to say that she didn't want to kiss him. Her very heart's desire was to feel his lips like she had before. But his words echoed in her mind's ear, "Rogue has my heart." As the kiss went on she rehashed her own words and thoughts, remembering how much she felt Rogue was a distraction to Remy. Tons of emotions began swarming through her mind and heart as she remember her first time meeting Remy; she remembered how well he protected her in her regressed body, how she found trust among a fellow thief, how she was the one who always had his side even when Rogue didn't. "She wanted to keep an eye on you," – the words echoed in Ororo mind. She could mentally see Rogue's face, a smiling face finally ready for marriage. She wanted to grab that image by its corners and rip it to shreds!

Too much! The emotions were too much. They were flooding her very being with the one thing no human had ever learned how to control: honest rage. The sky turned gray and a loud clap of thunder caused such a rush that the alarm of the stretch limo waiting in front of the mansion began to sound. Remy quickly backed away from Ororo, leaving only the feeling of his lips on hers and she, with equal speed, re-gathered her emotions and the sky cleared, leaving no signs of what had promised to be a storm of great proportions.

Without warning except for a swift movement of the air, a cloud of smoke appeared and from it walked Kurt. His yellow eyes scanned the room as he approached Ororo, "Is everything alright?"

"I'm fine Kurt," she lied. "The combination of this corset being so tight and the length of the gown just made walking a little hard in this cramped space. I tripped."

"Thank God you weren't hurt," he replied, helping her from her seated position. "Have you seen Remy?"

"I can't say I have," she replied and with another unexpected bamf of air, Kurt was gone.

"You couldn't come up with a better lie than that, Stormy?" Remy asked, standing in the bathroom door adjacent to the room. "The regal goddess and Egyptian thief tripped because of a gown?"

"Remy, you need to leave."

"I don't think I want to chere," he grinned. "And I don't think you want me to either."

"Get out!" she commanded, rushing towards the bathroom door which he swiftly closed. His red-on-black eyes immediately saw a familiar-looking slender item on the closed toilet seat's lid. He began walking towards it but was thrown off balance when the door was blown open by a rush of wind and he was tossed on his butt.

They looked into each other's eyes then his gaze darted to the pregnancy test. "Your corset is tight?" He scrambled towards the toilet on all fours but a blinding bolt of lightning stopped him in his tracks when it disintegrated the test and left a smoky hole in the toilet seat lid.

"Stormy, are you pregnant?"

"Do not call me by that silly name," she said, not really refusing to answer his question because she never got the chance to look at the test. That's why she used the bouquet as her excuse to leave. But interruption after interruption…

"Who?" he asked, standing to his feet and walking towards her.

She backed up, holding up the gown on the sides with her hands. "Who what?"

"Who did you sleep with?" he yelled, demanding an answer. He wrapped his hands around her biceps.

"Why does it matter?" she asked softly, her blue eyes looking down to the floor with strands of white hair escaping her up-do and falling over her face.

"What we share… doesn't it mean anything to you?" he yelled, tightening his grip on her arms.

She let go of her dress and shoved him in the chest, causing him to let her go as she yelled back at him, "Doesn't it mean anything to you?"

"Of course it does!"

"Then why don't you act like it?" she asked furiously.

"You're not making any sense, Storm!"

"Do you want me to be your number two? Your concubine?"

"Of course not! That's why I came here! I don't want you to be second…"

"Evidently I already am."

"Who was it?" he asked, completely frustrated.

"You should already know!"

"God! Whatever happened to your self-respect? What happened to you being honest with me?"

At this point Ororo became completely infuriated. "It's a great crime to lie to yourself than to lie to a friend who doesn't want to know the truth!" She slapped him in his clean-shaven face. "How dare you condescend to me! I'm not the one getting married to someone I don't know why I'm marrying!"

"That's not an excuse, Storm!"

"See, that's all I am to you! I'm just Storm! I used to be Ororo… do you even remember who she is?"

"Ororo you're taking things –," he tried to say but she cut him off.

"Get out!" she yelled, her blue eyes disappearing under a misty white cloak as she dared him to disobey.

"I don't understand how you could settle for someone you don't love," he said.

"This coming from you?" she replied in her softest whisper. He cut his eyes at her and brushed past her, leaving a heartbroken Ororo so emotionally drained that she sunk to her knees and banged her hands on the tile floor of the bathroom. Her heart was beating fast; her body was void of energy, her eyes wanting to cry, and her throat suffocating with a lump of pain that just wouldn't go away.

Jubilee's all-too-familiar high-pitched screen echoed around the mansion yard as her brown eyes fixated on the fire. Smoke billowed into the air as a frenzy of classily dressed mutants ran around, still in disbelief that this huge fire had been ignited over one of the most beautiful wedding arrangements they had ever seen.

The newly finished gazebo was up in flames, its structure ready to collapse at any given moment. The flower arrangements were non-existent, the Bible and the book of vows mere ashes on the altar. "This would be a great time for someone to put out the fire!" Hank McCoy growled, trying his best to smother parts of the fire moving towards the mansion with one of the tablecloths.

Ice-cold rain began to fall from a forming collection of heavy clouds. Shortly afterwards Anna and Jean came busting out of the glass French doors that Anna was supposed to make her bridal entry from. "Oh mah God!" she screamed, looking at the catastrophe that was supposed to be the happiest setting of her life. "Jean… what… what happened?"

"I don't know," the redhead said absent-mindedly, remembering her many failed weddings with Scott. "Why can we never have a non-eventful, happy celebration?" she whispered to herself in confusion and denial.

When the rain stopped the last flames had been extinguished, the once luscious and healthy lawn was muddy and unwelcoming, and the wedding guests were all huddled near the mansion wet and smelling of smoke.

Anna walked towards the collapsed gazebo, her make-up falling down her face with her tears and her green eyes surrounded by red blood vessels. A grimace was the sole description of her face as she looked up to an open window on the second floor of the mansion. She stared straight into the shadow-covered eyes of Ororo. She gritted her teeth and balled up her fists, her face flushed with red. However, Ororo's eyes were on something entirely different.