Title: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark
Donavan Crane, following the dark-blue Explorer, turned his van left onto an extremely secluded road, which seemed to have only 3 houses spaced out over two miles. He sneered. These people were so afraid of their mutant that they had cut themselves off from everything. Didn’t they know that the mutant could never be allowed to run the lives of man? That was like moving across the country to appease the cat’s desire to hang out in pine trees.
Well, if it was everything they said, he would gladly make it no longer their problem. Some might think that $15,000 was a lot for a mutant and, in most cases, they would be right. But not this one. Being in control of an instant, inescapable killer was a dream come true. He was almost salivating thinking of all the damage someone like him could do with that. No more having to deal with imprisoning a bunch of different mutations, making sure that this one couldn’t cut through these straps or beat down the wall. Just, take hand, apply to skin, watch it die. Such a neat and simple disposal for the ones he didn’t need to keep.
He parked behind the SUV and opened the back of his van, unlocking the cage back there for easy access later. He grabbed the catchpole and went around to the front, meeting the couple on the porch.
“Where’s the money?” John-David asked, crossing his arms over his chest and blocking the door. Mary stood next to him, holding the small cat carrier with a crying orange tabby inside. Neither one looked concerned that they were about sell their only child to a man they didn’t know. Parents these days, he thought, smirking.
“You’ll get it when I get my demonstration.” He nodded at the carrier. “Are you thinking of backing out?” Identical head shakes. “Then stop wasting my time. I only have one life to live. It’s ticking by.”
Donavan watched them meet eyes and turn to the door. John-David seemed to be walking on air as he unlocked it and walked into the hallway, a spring in his step that wasn’t there when they had first been introduced. Must be the lifted weight from getting rid of a dirty little secret.
He looked around the home as he was led through the living room and up the stairs. No pictures of the mutant anywhere. The house appeared to belong to a childless couple. Good, he thought, hearing music as he ascended. If they had already cut themselves off that much from it, this would be much easier.
“What is that racket?” He griped.
“Marie has a tendency to act out when she knows we aren’t here.” Mary answered, looking at him over her shoulder. “She turns her music up really loud and stomps…” Mary stopped talking when she slammed into John-David’s back. “What are you doing?” she snapped, trying to look around him.
Donavan watched John-David raise a shaky hand and point down the hallway. “Look,” he whispered. Mary gasped and Donavan had had enough of being in the dark. He shoved past the two and saw a broken door collapsed on the floor of the hallway with a staircase leading up. He walked over the door and clomped up the stairs, looking around the attic when he reached the landing. One look in the bathroom and he sneered out a “Fuck” as he turned around and went back to the parents.
“She’s escaped. And she left you a note.” He spat, hightailing back to the van with John-David on his heels.
The man made the mistake of grabbing his arm as he threw the catchpole into the backseat. “What about our money?”
Donavon looked down at the hand on his arm and back into the other man’s face. John-David must have gotten good at reading expressions over the years because he flung his hand away, like he had touched a hot stove. “Mr. D’Ancanto, possession is nine tenths of the law. You lost it, so you lost the chance at the money for handing it over. Now, I have to spend that money locating the prize. If you’ll excuse me.”
He slammed the back door of the van closed and jumped into the front seat, leaving John-David and Mary eating dust as he peeled out of their driveway. He pulled out his phone and got his assistant on the line “Clint, we have a runner. Send the picture of the leech to every bounty hunter we have out there. $15,000 reward. I want that mutant.”
Marie bolted upright in a bed not her own, trying to get her brain to play catch-up with the situation. Radio on, check. Huge bed she had never seen before, check. Floating head of a girl coming through the door, check. Wait, what the hell?
“Now it is the time of night, that the graves, all gaping wide, every one lets forth his sprite, in the church-way paths to glide.” She muttered, trying to make everything fit into place.
The ‘spirit’s’ smiling face drooped in concern and the door opened, admitting her, head and all. “Rogue,” she started, not knowing what to say next.
Rogue shook her head and rubbed her eyes, holding up her hand when the other girl took a deep breath to continue. “Wait, it’s fine, Kitty. Just took a minute to get everything in order. What time is it?”
Kitty grinned and walked farther into the room, leaning against the desk in the corner. “It’s noon. And don’t worry about not knowing what’s going on when you wake up. Jubes is like the walking dead until she gets her coffee in the morning. All she does is moan and blink stupidly. It’s pretty funny to watch, actually.” She chuckled, inviting Rogue in on the joke.
Rogue smiled and stretched her arms over her head, twisting her back this way and that. She couldn’t remember having slept this well in years. At home, she had always kept an ear open for the sounds of visitors or the key scraping in the lock of her door, hoping that either case could lead to escape. Here, she had just let everything go, though the utter exhaustion had probably helped.
“Hungry?” Kitty asked, standing up and offering a hand to help her up. She looked down at her hands and almost jumped out of her skin. Where were her gloves? She frantically started throwing pillows and blankets everywhere, finally digging them out from under the top sheet on the other side of the bed. She smiled an apology to Kitty as she pulled them on and got to her feet under her own steam.
“Starving. Here, let me just make the bed and-“ Kitty cut her off.
“Don’t even think about that now. With it unmade, it now matches our room.” She led Rogue into the living area. “Take a look through there,” she indicated another doorway.
Rogue looked in and saw another room, about one and a half times the size of hers. There was a yellow bedspread flung half off of one of the beds and a blue one was bundled by the headboard of another. There were a few magazines around the yellow bed and a candy bar on the nightstand.
She turned in the doorway to look at Kitty. “Wait, this is your bedroom? Why am I here? I thought I was getting moved into a single in the dorm? And how did I even get into this room when we were in Logans?”
“We thought that arrangement might work out better. With me and Jubes living here, we can get to know you better. And, this way, we have our own bathroom so we don’t have to share with those other water-hogging students. And Logan brought you in here. We didn’t want to wake you because it had been a long day.” Kitty leaned towards her, earnest expression trying to convey her sincerity.
“He carried me!?” She half shrieked, having a momentary panic attack. All that potential for skin contact and he knew what it was like to touch her! How could he just pick her up like it was no problem?
Breath, Marie. In and out. She would just have to talk to him about his reckless, destructive tendencies when she saw him next. Now, about the other two.
“I don’t want to make your lives difficult, Kitty. You brought me here. I didn’t want the two of you to move because of me. I’ll be just fine in the single and you can go back to your old room.”
Jubilee charged in the door at this point. “And give up that awesome single bathroom! No, no, no. You’re stuck with us, Roguey. We need you to get that.” She pointed at the bathroom door. “And I don’t want to hear anything else about it. Now change outta those dirty clothes and let’s get to lunch before the boys eat it all.”
With that royal decree, she swept into her bedroom, leaving Rogue and Kitty smiling at each other in the living space.
“I guess that’s that.” Kitty said, plopping on the couch to wait.
“I guess so.” Rogue agreed and went to her room to dig out something clean.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I'm not dead! Here's a small, transitional chapter to get me back into this. Thanks to DarkDragonfly and anyone else who hasn't given up on me.
Also, just for anyone who is wondering, it's super hard to write this because of how long it's been. I have to keep checking back in the story to see if I've already written something or if it's just in my head as a "to write" part. And my apologies for any mistakes I've maken in older and new chapters. When I was rereading everything, I found a bunch and I need to fix them at some point.
Also, just for anyone who is wondering, it's super hard to write this because of how long it's been. I have to keep checking back in the story to see if I've already written something or if it's just in my head as a "to write" part. And my apologies for any mistakes I've maken in older and new chapters. When I was rereading everything, I found a bunch and I need to fix them at some point.
Chapter End Notes:
Please, please, please review! Don't hate me! Kiss Kiss
Quote:
Now it is the time of night, that the graves...~Midsummer Night's Dream
Quote:
Now it is the time of night, that the graves...~Midsummer Night's Dream