Chapter 32: Ground Rules

Chapter 32: Ground Rules

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

It worked, but there are still some things to be discussed...

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There’s a brief pause from both of them and then Thaddeus lets his smile grow when he feels absolutely nothing at all. On Rogue’s end, she stares down at their clasped hands in wonder, also likely not feeling anything on her end either.

“It... it worked? It worked!”

The goth young woman lets out what might have seemed like an uncharacteristic happy little squeal if Thaddeus hadn’t just taken a walk through her mind and seen what she was like before life experiences successfully beat her down and closed her off. Lunging forward, the naked mutant wraps her arms around Thaddeus’ equally naked body, pulling him into a hug and kissing him soundly on the lips before nuzzling into his neck and whispering her thanks over and over again.

“Thank you. Thankyouthankyouthankyou...”Updated chapters at ownnovel.com

Hugging her in turn, Thaddeus rubs soothing circles into Rogue’s back, having a rather intimate understanding of just how meaningful this moment is to her now. Sure, he might have lived the tragic awakening of her mutation backwards, but that didn’t change the fact that he’d felt the emotions Rogue felt during all of that and knew just how horrible it had been for her.

Rogue, or rather Anna Marie, wasn’t a bad girl. She wasn’t a demon, or a sinful whore, or any of the numerous awful descriptors that her boyfriend’s family and even her own family had pinned to her. She was just a young woman who’d been dealt a bad hand, and Thaddeus was happy he had been able to find a way to help her out of her hole.

Of course, in their moment of happiness, they’ve forgotten the elephant in the room. Mystique clears her throat, the shapeshifter calling out to her adoptive daughter.

“... Rogue?”

Pulling free of his arms, Rogue turns to her adoptive mother, who has transformed back into her base, blue-skinned form... and lunges at her as well. Mystique manages to hide the way she stiffens in fear momentarily and Thaddeus is pretty sure he’s the only one that sees it. He doesn’t blame her either, if he was in her shoes, he probably would have preferred to start with just a simple hand touch, just to be safe.

But Rogue isn’t having that. She hugs Mystique hard and while Mystique does hesitate for a single moment, she quickly hugs the younger woman back. Thaddeus smiles as they embrace. And not just because they’re naked and that makes the hug rather sexy from his point of view. Really, it’s just great that Mystique and Rogue can finally touch.

For all that he has his concerns regarding Mystique’s motives, she and her partner DID take Rogue in when no one else could. And rather than just trying to turn Rogue into a weapon to be used for their cause, Mystique had gone out of her way to bring Rogue here, in the hopes that he could help them ‘cure’ Rogue’s condition.

At the end of the day, the shapeshifter wasn’t a bad person, Thaddeus decides. And when she looks at him over Rogue’s shoulder and mouths ‘thank you’ to him, he gives her a simple smile and a nod before rising to get his clothes and head out.

Of course, upon doing so, he draws the attention of the two women quite rapidly, with Rogue pulling back the moment she detects movement out of the corner of her eye. Looking at him with a puffy nose and watery eyes, the tearfully happy mutant blinks.

“Wha- where are you going, Thaddeus?”

Tilting his head to the side as he finishes zipping up and buttoning his pants, Thaddeus shrugs.

“Just thought I’d stop intruding on your guys’ moment. We’re only halfway through the day after all... and you both... well, you’ll probably be leaving now, won’t you?”

Rogue’s face scrunches up in confusion and consternation at that, but Mystique has a knowing look in her eyes even as her adoptive daughter shakes her head.

“L-Leaving?”

Smiling softly at the coed goth, Thaddeus shrugs again, only to start feeling a little dumb for all his shrugging.

“You guys got what you came for, Rogue.”

Understanding finally dawns on Rogue as well, as she realizes he’s right. After all, Thaddeus had overheard them his very first day in this dorm. This was why they were here, to see if he could help Rogue with her mutation. Perhaps neither of them expected it to get fixed so fast, of course. Perhaps neither of them thought he would be able to help them so easily during the first ‘session’. In truth, Thaddeus recognized that his ability to help was based around a whole lot of luck and some quick thinking on his part.

If he hadn’t just spent the weekend fucking his benefactor Emma Frost all over an incredibly expensive hotel room, Thaddeus wouldn’t have had the psychic abilities necessary to help solve Rogue’s problem. Instead, they would have just kept fucking and she would have gotten stronger, but with no actual ability to control it. Things could have gotten bad.

So yeah, lucky. But at the same time, Thaddeus was under no disillusions here... they were here for that one thing, and now that they’d gotten it...

Rogue looks at him askance and more than a little fluttered, no doubt appalled by the thought that she needs to be ‘taken care of’ or babied. But Thaddeus just shakes his head.

“Rogue, what I did for you... it’s completely untested.”

His blunt honesty brings the goth coed up short just a little bit.

“I was able to help you right now, but will it last? Is it permanent? Can that false memory degrade because it never really happened? Will the ability to turn your mutation on and off degrade with it?”

The more he talks, the more ill Rogue looks. Mystique, at least, looks unsurprised though she does glower at him a bit. The shapeshifter had clearly already thought of these things but hadn’t wanted to rain on Rogue’s parade... like Thaddeus was doing right now. Even still, he respected Rogue too much to sugarcoat things.

Stepping forward, he takes the naked young woman’s hands in his own.

“I promise you, Rogue... whatever happens next, I’ll have your back.”

He means that too. Beyond just making sure she got to keep her on-off switch, Thaddeus also intends to have her back in every other way he possibly can as well... including against Mystique and the Brotherhood of Mutants if that proves necessary. Something that Mystique herself doesn’t miss, judging by the slight narrowing of her eyes.

Except, rather than looking angry at him for the assertion that her adoptive daughter might need his protection... the shapeshifter nods ever so slightly, too slight for Rogue to see but definitely not too slight for Thaddeus to pick up on.

Rogue, meanwhile, looks like she doesn’t even know what to say. So Thaddeus leaves it at that and lets go of her hand, giving them both a smile.

“Ladies. I’m sure you still have plenty to talk about. Rogue, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Ah... alright...”

With that, and with his clothing in place, Thaddeus leaves their dorm room behind, stepping out into the hall. As he does so, he’s admittedly a little distracted and not paying as much attention to his surroundings as his enhanced senses would allow him to. But he does get one single tingle from his ‘sexy sense’ before he finds himself pushed up against the wall by a certain blonde, who narrows her eyes as she looks at him playfully.

“Have a good weekend, boytoy?”

Thaddeus looks down into Gwen Stacy’s eyes and can’t help but be a little amused, even as he tilts his head to the side. He answers honestly in the end, even if it’s maybe not what she wants to hear.

“It was a great weekend, Gwen.”

That brings a scowl to the pretty young woman’s face, but Thaddeus is quick to follow up his words.

“I AM sorry I had to bail on you and Kitty, however. That part sucked and I owe you both an apology. Also, if you’d be willing to let me, I’d like an opportunity to make it up to you, either together or individually.”

That brings Gwen up short. Before she can really get mad at him, Thaddeus cuts her anger off at the knees by apologizing and meaning every word of it. For a moment, Gwen pauses and considers him, her eyes still narrowed.

“Oh? You’d be willing to do ANYTHING to make it up to me, is that what you’re saying?”

Thaddeus lets out a small laugh, eyebrows raised as he gives her a grin.

“Within reason... yes.”

Gwen huffs when he doesn’t give her total cart blanche to demand anything too ridiculous... but from the contemplative way she’s eyeing him, she’s definitely interested all the same. Now it’s just a matter of her deciding what she wants.

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The Patreon Vote:

[X] Gwen wants to finish that threesome with him and Kitty - 73%

[ ] Gwen invites him to the gym, both to workout and 'workout' - 18%

[ ] Gwen asks him to come with her as backup on her next patrol - 8%

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Also shameless plug time: Just started a new Free Write and it would mean the world to me if you guys checked it out!

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