Black Velvet

Chapter 22

Disclaimer: See chapter one...

A\N: Okay, homies, here's the next chapter. Once again, I apologize for any gramatical or spelling mistakes. My writing program is terrible. Thanks for your patience.

Upstairs, a few minutes later...

"Kurt, what are your plans for the afternoon?" Kitty asked as she phased herself and Rogue through Kurt's bedroom wall.

"We need you for a mission, Kurt." Rogue said at the same time.

"Can't you knock?" Kurt said, throwing his arm up to cover his bare chest. It took Rogue and Kitty only a second to realise that Amanda was on Kurt's bed, also sporting a bare chest, and turned around quickly with matching embarrassed looks. "Vhere's the privacy around here?" Kurt asked incredulously as he and Amanda rushed to locate and put their shirts on.

"Oh my word, Kurt, what privacy? You two aren't even supposed to be alone together!" Kitty said offensively.

"I keep all of your secrets!" Kurt said as he pulled his shirt over his head. "Both of you!" he said, glaring at the back of Rogue's head.

"Fine, but if you two get caught, we knew nothing about it." Kitty said, peeking behind her to see if it was safe to turn around.

"You can turn around." Kurt said, a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Hey, human girl." Rogue said, crossing her arms and looking Amanda up and down.

"Hey, Rogue, what's up?" Amanda said with a small wave and a mad blush.

"Vhat do you two vant?" Kurt asked, getting straight to the point.

"Where's our mother?" Rogue asked.

"How should I know? I haven't seen her in months, you know zhat." Kurt said, now a bit confused.

"Okay, let's go straight to the source, Kitty." Rogue said, giving Kitty a pointed look.

"The Brotherhood house." Kitty said, mirroring Rogue's pointed look."Kurt, you're coming with us. Because I said so. Bring Amanda if you must." Kitty said as she and Rogue turned to walk out the door as Kurt started spewing all the reasons he couldn't or didn't want to go, while Amanda expressed how excited she was to be going, as she had never been.

About 20 minutes later, outside the Brotherhood house...

"Lance, open up the door!" Rogue yelled, pounding on the front door to the Boarding House.

"What's the password!?" They heard Pietro yell from the other side of the door.

"What password?" Rogue asked, trying to push her way through into the house, but Pietro was on the other side pushing the door closed to keep her out. Kitty rolled her eyes and phased through both Rogue and the door, and knocked Pietro out of the way of the way so Rogue could come tumbling over the threshold.

"Lance! We're here!" Kitty yelled and trotted off towards the kitchen area.

"Who's 'we'? Kitty, who did you bring into my house?" Rogue heard Lance yell back from somewhere upstairs as she straightened up and moved into the house to let Kurt and Amanda in.

"Lance, stop letting your little girlfriend run this house! She doesn't even live here!" Pietro yelled as he zipped off.

"Lance, tell your little boyfriend that when he starts paying the bills around here he can have a say in who comes and goes!" Kitty yelled as she came back into the houses small foyer just as Lance came walking down the stairs, carrying what appeared to be a basket of Wanda's dirty clothes. "Lance, why are you washing Wanda's dirty clothes? Ugh, are you sleeping with her!? Lance, you're cheating on me!?" Kitty shrieked accusingly, jumping to conclusions, and they all heard the sound of the back door slam closed.

"Kit, calm down, not everyone wants yo' man. There's probably a perfectly innocent explanation as to why Lancy the Pansy, a long time taken man, would be handling another woman's underthings." Rogue said in a honey sweet voice as she carefully picked up a lacy red thong up off the top of the basket Lance was holding. "Isn't there?" she asked, raising an inquiring eyebrow at Lance, who glared at her in return.

"There better be." Kitty said, crossing her arms and fixing Lance with a heated glare of her own.

"Look, she paid me forty bucks to wash her clothes while she's out with John, so she would have some clean langerie to wear for him tonight." Lance said quickly, but got no reaction from either girls. "Don't believe me? Call her yourself and ask her. My phone is in there on the coffee table." he said, nodding his head towards the living room. Wordlessly, Kitty slowly turned and walked to the living to check Lance's excuse was valid.

"Who's the girl?" Lance asked, glancing behind Rogue where Kurt and Amanda were engaged in a hushed conversation between the two of them.

"Hmm?" Rogue hummed and glanced behind, having momentarily forgot the two lovebirds were there. "Oh, that's Kurt's girlfriend. She's cool, I guess, and she's down with muties." Rogue said with a nod of approval.

"Hmph..." Lance gave a noncomitical shrug.

"You've met her before."

"Oh."

"You're lucky, Lance, I almost had to break your knee." Kitty said triumphantly as she came prancing back to where Lance was still standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Whatever, Kitty," Rogue said, waving a hand at Kitty's dramatics. "Anyway, what we really came here for is to ask you about Mystique. Where is she?" she said seriously.

"How should I know?" Lance said defensively.

"Because you know everything that goes on in this house."

"Okay, fine, the last night she was here she was on the phone with the blind woman, Irene, asking her about some covert mission she went on about twenty years ago for the government and how she could get ahold of some of her old contacts. That's all I know." Lance said.

"Twenty years ago? That's suspicious. Do you think the Professor would know what's going on?" Kitty asked, looking between Rogue and Lance.

"Probably, he knows everything, and- hang on." Rogue was cut off by the ringing of her phone. "Hello, what's goin' on? Oh, hey Storm... Yeah, that's totally Kitty's fault, she pulle me away from... No, we're at the Brotherhood house, talking to Lance... It's supposed to be gumbo, tell that fool, Remy, he'll straighten it out... Okay, we're on our way. Peace out." Rogue finished her conversation and turned to Kitty. "Kit, we gotta get back to the Institute, I left a pot on the stove because you rushed me off, and now Storm is pretty ticked. Bring your boytoy, he can wash laundrey at the Institute." Rogue said, not giving Lance much choice in the matter.

Back at the Institute...

"I don't know vhy you two drug us along, it vas pointless." Kurt grumbled as the five of them trudged into the mansions foyer, sstomping and shaking off snow.

"For moral support, Kurt, but whatever, ya'll two go back to snogging and taking off each others clothes. I hope you guys get caught." Rogue snapped grumpily and headed towards the kitchen after dropping her coat on the floor.

"Hey, Kurt, do you guys want to play Scrabble? Me and Lance against you and Amanda." Kitty said as the four of them made their way upstairs.

Rogue started to go into the kitchen, but stopped in the doorway when she saw Remy standing at the stove, stirring the pot she had abandoned earlier. She hesitated a moment before she tiptoed quietly over to the stove.

"Hey," Rogue said, poking Remy in the side, making him jump. "How's this stuff doing? Did I mess it up too bad?" she said, putting her hand at the small of his back, making him tense up, as she peered into the pot to examine it's contents.

"Nah, cher, it's fairly salvagable." Remy said, eyeing Rogue suspiciously, as she normally didn't show affection unless it was to manipulate someone. According to Kitty, anyway. Apparently Rogue had noticed his skeptical look, because she suddenly had a guilty look on her pale face.

"Uh... look, Remy, I'm sorry for what happened in the med bay the other day, but if you don't stop telling people I beat you up, or whatever, I'll push you down them stairs in the other room, ya got me?" Rogue said, giving Remy a tiny, mischievous smile.

"Yes, ma'am, I got you." Remy said, flashing Rogue a smirk. "Stormy, however, would like to have a word wit' ya about the dangers of leaving pots on the stove wit' the burner on full blast." Remy said, and chuckled at Rogue's groan and added, "Have fun, cher."

"I'll be back, Cajun, and you'll see how fun it was." Rogue said warningly, but Remy heard the amusement under her tone as she stalked off to find Storm.

A/N: Okay, not much happened this chapter, but Rogue is kind of warming up to having feelings for Remy, and Kurt and Amanda are obviously disregarding the "don't be alone together" rule. ;) The next chapter will, hopefully, be more exciting.

Also, I've changed some things in a couple chapters, 18 for sure, so, if you wat to, you can go back and check those out. And I know a lot of you don't really care too much for the Jott sub story, but I'm gonna have to highlight on that.

-fnk