Stepping Stones

TITLE: Stepping Stones

AUTHOR: Jos Mous

DISCLAIMER: Not owning anything, not making a profit.

UNIVERSE: X-Men Evolution

PAIRING: Kitty/Rogue

RATING: R

NOTE: I’ve been thinking about Kitty’s powers lately which wasn’t a very good idea. If all kinds of matter pass right through her, how come she can still breathe when she’s phased out? Maybe it should be “all matter, except oxygen” which doesn’t make much sense either. And for another thing, how can she even walk? If the ground beneath her is no more than fog to her, how come she hasn’t fallen straight down the very centre of the earth yet? It makes no sense! No sense, I say!! Sense-making it does not!!!

Right, with all that ranting out of the way, on to the next slightly smutty instalment of this not-quite-fic-series.

Rogue would have a Physics test tomorrow, so Kitty had decided to help her study and since it was quite an important test they would be studying intensely with as few interruptions as possible.

Rogue and Kitty had decided that this was what they would say should someone walk into the bathroom and find Rogue in bath and Kitty leaning against the sink with a book in her hands.

“OK, so, if a ball was dropped out of a plane travelling along at fifty miles an hour from a height of sixty feet, how much would the ball have moved horizontally when it hits the ground?” Kitty asked.

Rogue, who was busy washing her right arm, simply said, “I think I’d need my calculator for that one. Ask me something else.”

“Uhm… OK…” said Kitty, leafing hurriedly through the book. “Right, OK, so, if a man…” The sound of gently splashing water made her look up. The sentence she had been forming died as Rogue sat up in the tub to wash her breasts for about the third or fourth time in seven minutes. This time, however, she apparently felt she didn’t need the sponge.

“What was that you were saying?” Rogue asked innocently while she rubbed her nipples.

Kitty tried to swallow, but found she didn’t have any saliva. “Uhm…”

Rogue chuckled and leaned back into the water again, resting her head against the edge of the tub. Her breasts had mostly receded beneath the water-line again, but there was still a very tantalising hint of curvature visible. Kitty suspected Rogue had done this on purpose. Not that she really minded. Kitty closed the Physics book and put it in the sink.

The corners of Rogue’s lips twitched upwards. “Shouldn’t you be quizzing me or something?” she asked.

“You’re being very distracting.”

Rogue needlessly lifted a leg and ran her soapy hands all over her thigh. “Really?”

Kitty swallowed again and nodded. She felt she was blushing furiously.

Rogue laughed. “Guess the show’s over then,” she said. And rose from the tub like a very pale Venus de Milo, but without the strategically placed hair.

Kitty looked down. If her blush had been furious before, it was utterly outraged now. She heard from the gently sloshing of the water that Rogue had stepped out of the bath and sneaked a peek. Rogue had decided to needlessly lean over to get a towel. Kitty’s head snapped around to look at the door. She could hear Rogue laugh again.

“You’re cute when you blush, you know that?”

“Yeah, well, you’re sexy when you’re naked,” Kitty retorted. Then her eyes went large. She hadn’t really just said that, had she? She had, hadn’t she?

“Then why aren’t you looking at me?” Rogue inquired.

“Because I’m, like, really trying not to be a voyeuristic perv.”

When Rogue spoke up again it was in a whisper, and Kitty could feel her breath going past her ear. “Wasn’t that the point?”

Kitty coughed and looked up. “Well… I… uh…”

“I’m standing at a B+ average. I don’t need to be that zealous, do I?”

“Well, y’know…”

A hand gently came down on Kitty’s shoulder. Kitty tried real hard to mentally disconnect the hand from the naked body it was attached to. She wasn’t succeeding.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?” There was a tiny hint of concern in Rogue’s voice, though it was still drowned out by the lust Kitty tried not to hear.

“Err… in a way.”

“Hmm… what way?”

Kitty stared hard at the door in front of her. Her scalp told her Rogue was nuzzling the lower reaches of her hair. She tried to think drying paint.

“Uhm… in a very particular way?” Kitty hazarded.

“Sort of… aroused way?”

Blushes exploded all over Kitty’s face. Rogue laughed and let go of Kitty’s shoulder.

“Well if I’m making you so uncomfortable you just hop on over to our room right now. I’ll catch up with you when I’ve dried myself off and everything. Unless you don’t want to help me with my Physics any more.”

“No, no, I’ll help,” Kitty said, still not turning around. “I promised I would.”

“Good. Well, off you go then.”

“Right,” said Kitty. She wasn’t moving. Mostly because Rogue’s Physics book was still lying in the sink behind her. After working up a bit of resolve, Kitty turned around and was only mildly disappointed to find that Rogue had turned her back to her as she dried herself off with a towel. Kitty found herself staring at Rogue’s naked back, which wasn’t something she was able to do very often, from her delicate shoulder-blades all the way down to her shapely behind and her slender legs. Kitty noticed something liquid slowly trickling down Rogue’s left leg and realised it wasn’t water.

“Enjoying the show after all?” Rogue asked casually, bending over to start drying her legs.

Kitty jumped, grabbed the Physics book and dashed out of the bathroom.

Kitty was sitting cross-legged on her bed, trying to catch her breath and feeling rather stupid. She was dating Rogue, after all, and she’d fantasised about her since way before that. At night she masturbated thinking about the girl who was lying pretty damn nearby and who she hoped in those particular moments was doing the same thing.

And now Rogue had offered her the opportunity to ogle her naked body for as long as she wanted and she’d freaked out. What was that all about!?

Kitty blamed her parents for bringing her up so well.

Rogue entered the room, wearing nothing but a large towel that still managed to cover up all the essential bits quite nicely and reassuringly. Kitty looked at her and, for a moment, she wondered why Rogue didn’t head for the clothes that were neatly laid out on her bed, but walked over to the windows instead and closed the curtains.

Kitty realised the why when Rogue turned to face her and let the towel drop to the ground.

“I gotta know a couple of things, kittens,” Rogue said. She sounded strangely serious.

“Uhm… like what?” Kitty asked, trying hard to keep her eyes focused on Rogue’s face.

“You really think I’m sexy?”

“Didn’t I, sort of, mention something like that already?”

Rogue started moving forward, towards Kitty. And, the girl realised, the bed she was now half lying, half sitting on.

“Answer me all the same.”

“Well… yeah,” Kitty said, looking away, then finding her gaze drawn back.

“Do you want me?” Rogue asked. She had reached the bed and put one knee on the edge of it.

“Uhm… mo-most of the time,” Kitty stuttered.

Kitty leaned back, pressing her back against her bed as much as she could without going into it as Rogue’s body -Rogue’s very naked body- loomed over her.

“Do you want me now?” Rogue asked, putting a hand high up on Kitty’s denim-clad thigh.

Kitty looked Rogue straight in the lust-filled eyes and nodded a little hesitantly, but definitely.

Rogue gave a little smile. “Mind putting your hands over your head then and grabbing your pillow?”

Kitty looked confused. “Wh- what? Why?”

“Cuz gloves only look good on you when you’re wearing your uniform. And I’m not about to let you change into it right now,” Rogue answered, moving her hand up and pressing lightly into Kitty’s crotch.

Gasping slightly, Kitty quickly phased so that her arms could go through Rogue, flung her arms upwards and down to grab her pillow, and then solidified again.

Rogue smiled. “I was hoping you’d do that.”

It was about fifteen minutes later when Jean, who had been sitting quietly in the rec. room reading a book, suddenly jerked as if somebody had sneaked up behind her and shouted “Boo!” into her ear. Which wasn’t all that far away from the truth.

“Jean, you OK?” Scott asked, who had been watching TV when Jean suddenly shrieked.

“Err… yeah… I’m… I’m fine. Really,” Jean said.

“You don’t sound fine,” Scott said.

“Well… I just… uhm… read a pretty scary passage and I was so immersed in the book it actually… err… frightened me,” Jean offered as excuse.

Scott tilted his head so he could read the title on the book. “The Fifth Elephant,” he said. “That doesn’t sound very sca-”

“You haven’t read it, so you can’t know,” Jean interrupted him, standing up.

“OK. Sorry,” Scott said.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go take a jump in the pool.”

Scott looked confused. “But… it’s raining outside.”

“Doesn’t matter,” said Jean. “The pool is bound to get me wet eventually.”

Jean reviewed that sentence in her head and groaned internally.

“Uhm… OK,” said Scott. “Just… er… don’t catch pneumonia.”

“I’ll be fine, Scott,” Jean said primly. “I just want to cool down for a bit.”

“I’m sure that’s not going to be very hard,” Scott said.

Jean didn’t answer, but just walked rigidly out of the recreation room. And then broke into a full-fledged run.