Fractals

Fractals Chapter Forty Nine (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… All that kicking the USPS worked! Whoooo! InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are loverly and squishy for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile: More smut next chapter. ;) Morgan: *gloke * Readers/Reviewers: *poke* I know you’re alive out there… the ducks said so…


Rahne had not slept more than an hour during the night and now, staring at her alarm clock ticking slowly towards dawn, she decided that it was too late to try. Or, she corrected herself, too early. Her body felt as if it were filled with humming energy but she was not excited. It was more of a dread, she thought, slipping out of bed and heading for her dresser, crammed at the foot of her bed while she had to share a room with Kitty. Quietly as she could manage, she extracted her underwear and a bra from the squeaky top drawer then padded silently to the now-shared closet. Glancing once more at the softly snoring girl, Rahne eased the door open and stepped inside before shutting it behind her and pulling the string for the overhead light. She squinted and rubbed at her suddenly watery eyes with the back of one hand as she tried to focus on her clothes. Sometimes having supersensitive senses sucked, she thought, reaching for the most demure item in her truncated wardrobe, wishing she could slip back to her old room and get the rest of her things, but she knew Logan would most likely snap at her for messing around in the still-being-painted room. Sighing, she shut off the light and eased back out into the dark room. Kitty was muttering in her sleep, something about physics that made Rahne’s head ache to even consider. She was almost all the way to the door when her roommate said quite clearly, “Feed the cat!”
Rahne paused and turned to face Kitty only to find she was sitting up, her eyes closed and clearly still asleep. “We don’t have a cat,” she whispered back.
Kitty flopped back onto the bed. “Okay.”
Rahne felt a giggle bubbling up and hurriedly let herself out into the hall before stuffing her clean sock into her mouth and letting the silly mood overtake her. She was trying to keep quiet as her eyes watered, all of her stress boiling out in a fit of irrational giggles, triggered by Kitty’s sleep talking. She did not notice Todd stop a few feet away and stare at her blearily until he said something. “You high?”
Rahne gasped, still giggling, and shook her head. “Just a giggle fit.” She sniffed hard, trying to regain some composure. “What are you doing up?”
“Lance was muttering in his sleep, somethin’ about shower shoes…”1 He shrugged and peered at her. “It’s two a.m., yo. What’re you doing?”
“Ah… I’m going to go shower then get some breakfast and wait for the sun to come up.” She shrugged and glanced at the clothes in her hand and sighed. “I couldn’t sleep.”
Todd nodded. “Today’s the big day, huh? Scared?” He leaned against the wall and folded his arms, seemingly genuinely interested in what she was saying.
Rahne hesitated, then answered truthfully. “To bits, yes.” She shot a look at the bedroom door then motioned for him to follow her. They walked to the end of the long hall, to the bay window overlooking the back gardens, and sat on the window seat. “I try not to be, I try to think of this as just people being prejudiced, try to make myself believe I’m better than that, that it doesn’t matter what bigots think of me so long as I know what I believe deep inside…” She trailed off, her head starting to ache.
“But it does matter,” he said quietly, scooting closer. “Because it’s you, huh? I mean…” He glanced up at her quickly, feeling as if he might be crossing some unmarked barrier into places he was not welcome.
“A bit,” she admitted, wilting. _Damn it, why not? _ she thought irritably. _He’s your friend… he helped you out with those jackasses last year so… damn it! _ She gave in to her urge and leaned against him, a half embrace for comfort.
Todd sat very still for a moment, his brain trying to decide between the urge to flirt and the urge to comfort. Finally, when he patted her back and sighed, Rahne relaxed. “What if they do it?” he asked quietly. “What’re you gonna do then?”
“Cry,” she said. “A lot.” She sniffed once, hard, and pressed on. “You’re Catholic, right? Kind of?”
He nodded. “Used to be an altar boy,” he said with a tiny hint of pride. “I was the best one at snagging the sacramental wine!”
Rahne snorted. “Girls weren’t allowed to serve at my home parish.”2 She leaned back and gave him a slightly rueful smile. “I wanted to be a priest once.”
He snorted. “You and Fuzzbutt should talk,” he replied. “If he wasn’t getting’ some from Kit, I think his ass would be up at the seminary, like, now.”
Rahne laughed aloud at that, clapping a hand over her mouth and looking around guiltily. “Todd!” she giggled softly after a moment, his self satisfied, amused expression doing nothing to help her urge to laugh, “That’s not nice!”
“Sure it is!” he replied, standing. “If you can’t laugh, you cry and if you cry, you get dehydrated. I’m doing you a favor.” He held out a hand to help her up in an strangely gentlemanly gesture. At her incredulous expression, he sighed. “I ain’t gonna judo throw you or somehin’. I’m trying out this whole being polite thing.”
“Ah,” she accepted the hand up and asked, “And how’s it working out for you?”
“It itches,” he sighed. Narrowing his eyes, he frowned. “Stand still.”
Rahne froze. Panic rose in her stomach as Todd leaned closer. _Oh God, _ she thought frantically, _don’t kiss me! I’ll freak out if you kiss me! _ She closed her eyes so she did not have to look at him in the dim hallway and she bit her lip as she felt his breath against her. “Todd?” she finally asked softly.
“Shhhh!” He edged her to one side and crawled up onto the window seat to peer down at the lawn. “Where the Hell are they going?”
Rahne’s eyes snapped open and she scrambled to join him. “Who?” She realized that was a silly question as she followed Todd’s gaze. “Is that the Blackbird?”
“Mmmmhmmm…” He frowned even more deeply. “Now that’s interesting.”3
Rahne suddenly abandoned her idea of a shower. “Where do you think they’re going?”
“No idea,” he replied. “Wanna find out?”
She felt herself nod before she could stop it. “Hell yes.”
Todd grinned and took her elbow, heading towards the stairs. “If anyone asks,” he whispered, “We’re bonding!”
Rahne snorted, not even noticing the long, black snake slipping between her feet.
1 No, that isn’t it… ;)
2 Some parishes, that’s true even post-Vatican II. Women are traditionally not allowed to touch the altar area in Catholic churches but post Vatican II, we’re allowed to be altar servers, readers and sacristans but a lot of more strict parishes still won’t allow it.
3 *sigh* PotC is on in the background. Blame Johnny Depp for that one.