Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 437 LEAVING

Anne was a bundle of nerves the whole drive. For once I ignored her haki. Too much going on with her, I decided to not try to cheat by knowing what she was thinking. I had to do it the old fashioned way. Make a fool of myself and say the wrong thing. 

I threw that out the window and continued sensing her Haki, but left the skill running in the background. It wasn’t long until we were at the apartments for those that lived off campus. 

A large 5-story red brick apartment building near the outskirts of the city. One was set aside for teachers and the other mutants that wanted to stick near the school. I parked in my assigned spot and escorted Anne inside. Taking the elevator, I prayed no one noticed me, but my prayers were rarely answered. 

“Weston, just the man I wanted to see,” Hisako said as I got off the elevator with Anne. I didn’t forget she betrayed us in the future, but gave her the benefit of the doubt. “…and Anne? I didn’t hear you were back.” Hisako practically burned with the itch to text someone. 

“Got back a bit ago,” Anne said shyly as she moved her white streaks of hair behind her ears. “Been a while, Hisako.”

“It has. I heard you got past your whole draining people thing,” Hisako said. 

“She wasn’t a vampire,” I mumbled. 

“I did,” Anne said. 

“Good for you. Well I better go,” Hisako said, turning around. 

I reached out, grabbing her hand to pull her back as I stole her cell phone. “I thought you needed something.”

“Uh no, I can handle it myself,” Hisako said, her fingers twitching. “Have fun.” Pulling her arm away she ran off to her apartment. 

“Shall we?” I asked as I stuffed Hisako’s phone away. Anne blushed but followed me down the hall. 

I had a corner apartment with a balcony since the apartment building was mostly empty. Living room and kitchen were all one big room. The furnishings were nice and new. One side of the apartment had the door to the master bedroom and master bathroom. The other side had a bedroom and smaller bathroom. 

A couch, coffee table, and TV set up. There was nothing too fancy about it. Since there were sleeping quarters in the bunker under the school I usually slept there or Demoness’ place. But Xavier did assign the truck and apartment to me when I joined. One of the few perks of living at the school and giving up your free time. 

“I don’t have any food,” I admitted. “But I could order-“ I stopped talking as Anne launched at me. I should have seen it coming, but forgot how desperate she was sometimes. 

Her legs straddling my hips she began kissing me hungrily and to my shame I kissed her back. I pushed that old chivalrous part of me away. I’d made things clear before. I wasn’t some high schooler juggling 2 girlfriends. I was a grown man…juggling 2 or 3 girlfriends that mostly knew about the other. 

Anne was far too pent up. I couldn’t do much more than follow her lead. Ripping at my shirt to pull it off I did the same to hers. Barely undoing the buttons she let out a long relieved sigh when we were skin to skin again. 

Her body shivering as she writhed on my front, her Haki stabilized to pure joy. “My god I needed this,” she mumbled, her head resting on my shoulder as I walked backwards to the couch.  

“Missed you too,” I said, patting her back. When we were seated she drew back. Her eyes moist and sparkling, she smiled wide as she looked down at me. Her lips parting she drew in for a long kiss. 

My lips met her and we proceeded to become reacquainted with one another. Shirts off, her bra was still on. Her hands explored my new muscles as our tongues twirled around the other. Over and over we kissed on the lips as she whimpered and moaned. 

When our lips were numb we moved to other parts of one another. Kissing necks, trying to give the other hickeys, biting, nibbling, and eventually blowing raspberries on the other. 

Both of us laughing as we wrapped up. I marveled at her beauty. Her nose ring drew attention to her small nose. Wide cheeks with very faded freckles on them. Eyes that stared at me through white hair. C-cup breasts that I may have gotten stuck in over and over during our make out session. All of it was as I remembered and for the life of me I couldn’t remember why I wanted more than her. 

“I missed you so much,” she said. 

I frowned. “Didn’t call,” I reminded. 

“I know,” she said with a sigh. “I was trying to do like you said. Go back. See if I could restart my life.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Because of these,” she said, blowing the white hair out of her eyes. The rest of her hair was a dark brown, but I hardly noticed the discoloration.  

“What about them?” I asked, confused. 

“You never asked, did you?” She said with a sigh as she reluctantly rolled off of me. But instead of getting up she latched onto my arm. Her head on my shoulder as we stared at the wall opposite us. 

“I didn’t want to pry,” I said. 

“It happened after I got to the school,” she said. Her Haki was sad again. “Xavier wanted to see if anything could be done for my problem. He took me to Genosha. There was a mutant there. His name was Connect or something like that.”

Anne let out a low shuddering breath. “He could connect to people.”

“Real original,” I mumbled. She nodded against my shoulder. 

“He used it to help sick people. Could feel their bodies and what was wrong. He was pretty famous at isolating where cancer was hiding or diagnosing exactly what was wrong with someone. We risked it and he held hands with me.” She paused, thinking back as she licked her lips. 

“Nothing happened at first then boom, I could feel something. I could feel me dying,” she said. “Then I realized it wasn’t me that was dying but Connect. I had somehow taken his mutant power and was using it on him instead of the other way around. I was killing him. Taking his life away. They had to rip our hands apart.”

My hand began to stroke her hair. She sniffled, recalling it all. “After that I used his power on myself. But all I could feel was nothing. Nothing wrong with me. I was who I should have been.”

“Good to know that you found out you were perfect,” I said. She looked up at me. Mirroring my smile as she snuggled up further. 

“Well I didn’t feel it,” she said. “There were no more solutions. No more witch doctors. Xavier checked everywhere. Said that someone would awaken a power eventually to help me. But I knew he was lying. I finally gave up hope. Crying in my bed at night I realized it would always be that way. Me, and me alone. The next day these were there,” she said, blowing her gray hair again. 

“Well they look great on you. I’m considering doing it myself,” I admitted. She scoffed and shook her head. Quiet for a time. Eventually I asked, “what does your hair have to do with you staying here?”

“They’re a reminder that I’m not the old me,” she whispered. “I’m something else.”

“Someone better,” I said, letting out my own sigh. “You were the bright part of my life when I arrived.”

“Were?” She asked, a little hurt. 

“Are,” I amended. She smiled wide. “I was pretty sad when I got here. Depressed and angry. You helped bring me out of it.”

“Two of a kind,” she said. 

“Yes, we are,” I said. “The perfect PG rated couple. No touching. Hands above the table. I doubt we even high fived.”

“Look at us now,” she said, looking down to my chest. I did the same to her. We were quiet for a long time. Lost in our own thoughts as we stared at the other. It wasn’t long until her tumultuous emotions came back though. 

“So why did you cheat on me?” She whispered. 

My gut clenched as I turned away. I couldn’t make the same mistake Ross did. I couldn’t say we were on a break. “What did you hear?” I asked instead.

“So it’s true?” She asked, sitting up as she let my arm go. 

“I don’t know. What did you hear?” I looked in her eyes but only saw hurt in them. I had to look away. Chewing my lip I decided on no world escape. No denial or back pedaling. The honest truth was all she deserved. 

“The day Wolverine grabbed me. After you and I got done at the hotel and mall and stuff.  We went to a place called the Hellfire Club,” I said. “It’s this…” and began explaining what transpired. Point by point as I could recall it. 

Her sad mood got better. Laughing here or there as I walked her through what I went through after we separated last. Asking questions about this or that mutant I met. I talked about everything. Holding nothing back until eventually I started talking about my encounters with the Hand ninja clan. 

“So you taught them Nen?” She asked, hurt. 

“They’re ninjas. They trained their whole lives. Meditating and controlling their energy was a requirement. I weighed the pros and cons. I’m pretty sure it was the best way to get in their good graces and stop the fighting.” She eyed me, her eyes squinting. “What?”

“You promised to teach me. I’ve been practicing my meditation. And training my body,” she said. 

“I can still teach you,” I admitted. “But after the story.”

“Okay,” she said, biting her lip and apparently forgetting where this was going. 

“So I awakened Nen in them. They got a hold of it pretty quickly and the Hand left…”

“And then?”

“And then Demoness and I had sex,” I forced myself to say. We were sitting cross legged, facing one another on the couch. Our shirts were still off. Anne was quiet for a long time. 

“W-“ she asked but was cut off as someone pounded on the apartment door. 

“Weston, I know you have my phone! Give it back! I’ve been looking for an hour!” Hisako yelled. I cursed, regretting stealing it. Getting up I rushed to the door. Opening it a crack I threw it at her. Slamming the door before she could say anything more she hesitated but then ran off with it. 

“Sorry,” I said walking back. 

“Was it just the once?” Anne asked, having collected herself. There were tears in her eyes again. 

“No,” I said. 

She bit her lip. “How many…times?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” I said. 

Her anger flared but she held it back. “What about that Hellfire Club girl?”

“Hellfire…Emma?” I asked, confused. “What about her?”

“That’s who I heard you were seeing. Some white wearing stripper.”

“No,” I admitted. I hadn’t talked with her much, even in the future, as the new Black Rook she was busy and I was pursuing others. I didn’t much mind since I had Matilda and now probably Elektra. I doubted a date with Emma was happening anytime soon. “No, I didn't sleep with her.”

Anne let out a long shuddering breath. Doing her best not to cry.

“Was that girl I saw you with Demoness?” She asked. 

“Who?”

“The redhead. Just now at the school,” she said

“No, that’s Delilah,” I said. “She has amnesia. And well we have…” it was either all or nothing. I could see now why older Rogue was so pissed at me. She wanted me to lie to her. But standing in front of young Anne, I couldn’t. “We kissed.”

Anne held back tears. Her lips trembling, she was about ready to explode. “Why did you do it with Demoness?” She asked. 

“Because…” I tried to think back. I couldn’t put the blame on the break up. That would only lead to a fight, but the way things were going I doubted a fight was inevitable. “I’m an ass.”

“No! That’s the easy thing to say. Walk me fucking through it. What was going through your mind at that moment?!” She yelled, getting off the couch. 

“That I was horny!” I said truthfully. “That she was hot. That I’d already fought side by side with her. Trusted her. Because I wanted her. For months I couldn’t touch anyone. It built up and I let it happen. No drama, just simple sex.”

“Did you tell her about me?” Anne asked, still crying. 

I felt bad and angry about the whole ordeal. Not understanding why this was so much harder lately. When I cared about these girls it just clouded what I wanted. Blurred the lines on the life I’d built in other worlds. I had been to so many places that allowed me to mostly skip the whole ‘why don’t you love just me’ crap. I finally remembered why I married Hancock in the first place. She helped me to push past all this drama. At that moment I couldn’t help but miss Toru, but she was somewhere I couldn’t get to. Anne was not her, and despite similarities between the two worlds, I had to accept that. 

“I didn’t tell Demoness about you specifically, but made it clear that I wasn’t going to just be with her. So we aren’t really exclusive,” I admitted. I didn’t think saying she was probably up for multiple women joining was the right thing to say at that moment.  

“Exclusive? What the fuck, Weston? Why can’t you say dating? Is it so hard? Non-exclusive? That’s-that’s just saying you want to sleep around.”

“And what if I do?” I asked. Her haki was disgusted by me. I could see it all over her, and it was starting to piss me off. I didn’t come to these worlds to get locked into relationships that didn’t go anywhere. I had to be clear at the beginning, and if they were against it, fine, I would move on. 

“Is that so wrong? For months I didn’t think I’d ever touch anyone ever again. Once I could, I was lucky enough to have you. Then I was moving on. Letting you choose what you wanted.”

“You pushed me away!” 

“I sent you home! A fucking place I don’t have,” I reminded. “You know where home is for me? Right here. A 2 bedroom apartment I’ve slept in maybe 5 times since I got the place. I’m sorry that I wasn’t waiting on you hand and foot. Life goes on. You could have moved on. Fuck, I thought you did.”

“But you didn’t know that,” she said. “Your own words, you were in New York for less than 2 weeks. You had sex with her before you and I talked on the phone. Why didn’t you say anything about this then? Maybe I could have moved on!”

I didn’t have an answer for that. I almost said because we broke up, but held my tongue. I started talking but stopped a few times. 

“Because I didn’t want you to move on,” I admitted. “Because you’re mine, Rogue. No one else’s. Because I would kill for you. And I’m afraid of what I’d do to someone if they tried to steal you from me.”

Her eyes widened as tears fell freely. But I ruined it. “And it hurts me to know that it was probably all fake. Some fantasy I had built up in my head. Puppy love.” My mind had snapped back to what I felt before seeing the future. Unsure if I was stuck in saying the same thing old me did or what, I left it all out there. 

“It wasn’t that,” she whispered. 

“It was,” I said, coldly. “We were the only choice for one another, Anne. Why the fuck do you think I pushed you away? Why I’m still trying to push you away? I’m trying not to hurt you or get hurt when this all blows up and we realize we don’t have anything in common.”

“That’s bullshit,” Anne said, no hate in her voice any longer. “That’s every relationship. You never know when the bubble will pop.”

“True,” I said. “But where were we headed? How long until you and I have sex? We had done everything else, why not that? I had helped to cure your problem and all I felt from you was gratitude. I didn’t want you like that. I didn’t want to take that away from you as some form of payment. Rogue, I loved you. And it pisses me off so much because it came so naturally despite my mind saying it wasn’t real.”

“It was real,” she said. “Is real.” Her eyes red and makeup smudged as she rubbed her eyes. “Loved me? Why in the past tense?” She got out with a struggle. 

“I don’t know. Maybe I still do. But not like this. Not staring at you feeling like my guts are ripped out because you’ve helped convince me that I betrayed you,” I said. I hadn’t felt this bad since I’d lied to Hancock. 

“I like sleeping with women,” I said with a shrug. “I like not having to worry about whose feelings I’m hurting because when I’m with you. You’re all that matters.” I tried to put into words how I felt. “You think I betrayed you? That’s fair. In my eyes though, I’m being who I was meant to be. Being truthful to myself and you instead of holding back. Instead of promising you something that would eventually turn out to be a lie.”

“What are you saying?” Anne asked, confused. I thought on my words. Unsure where I had been going. Unsure why I couldn’t just juggle a bunch of girlfriends like any normal harem founder. 

“I’m saying that I don’t think monogamy is for me. And I’m not up for sharing. You’re with me only. That isn’t for everyone. But that’s who I’ve become.” 

“So you get to sleep with who you want?” She asked with a scoff. 

“No. If I did, I’d be sleeping with you,” I admitted. 

Long seconds she stared at me. Long drawn out seconds that turned to minutes. Her Haki all over the place I tried not to peek but it was easy to see it wasn’t going my way. 

“Weston…I need time,” Anne said. She turned and walked toward the door. I didn’t stop her as she stepped outside. 

I did the only thing I could think of. I let her go. For so long I had been preparing for this fight. So much drama around me lately I knew this had gone about as good as I could expect. 

The harem life had come easy to me in other worlds. Though Nami had been a harder nut to crack, this was just a step up from that. I knew how Marvel went. I knew how Rogue’s love life was supposed to go. 

She would be with someone. Some drama would ensue, whether it was lying or cheating, then she would break up, move onto someone else, and eventually make her way back. 

I couldn’t let that happen. She was with me or no one. I wouldn’t keep secrets from her. She had to accept me how I was at the beginning. Eyes open to the life I wanted. Though I was limiting myself to women I cared for in these worlds, I wasn’t about to limit my fun. My libido a raging inferno in the back of my mind I pushed it back. Some day all this drama will be gone and I’ll have my women all at once. I knew I could make it happen. I just had to put in the work now. 

But a growing part of me knew I was wrong. Being with Anne could be everything I needed. She was as broken as I was. Maybe being with one girl wasn’t so bad? Other Weston was going through that with Hancock, at least I assumed he was. Maybe he figured out the trick to not have a wandering eye, but I doubted that. 

“Fucking idiot,” I mumbled so Tabi wouldn’t have to. “I-“ I stopped thinking for a moment. Hearing future Anne’s voice in my head. “Don’t let me go,” she said. 

I thought on the words, hearing them echo in my mind many times. As if it was a message I needed to decipher. “Did she mean don’t let her leave the apartment?” I asked, confused. Anne was gone. Running to the window in a panic I jumped out without opening it. 

Shattering the glass as I flew through I shot around the building. I found Anne out front glowing red. Power pouring out of her. She was glowing red then normal, red then normal. I flew at her, unsure what was happening. 

“Weston? What’s happening?” She asked, tears in her eyes. Scared as she continued to glow and the red light became more prominent. I grabbed onto her. Holding her tight. 

“It’s alright,” I said. “I got you.” And she felt relief with the words as the red light enveloped us both and we winked out of existence.