An Arrow Through the Heart

Posted on Mon Feb 26th, 2024 @ 5:13pm by Bobby Drake & Kennedy Kelly
Edited on on Tue Feb 27th, 2024 @ 5:01pm

5,013 words; about a 25 minute read

Mission: Episode 4: The Savage ConneXion
Location: Breakstone Lake
Timeline: August 29, 1990 - Evening

It was already dark outside by the time Kennedy finally felt the first pangs of anger, a bitter and choking feeling that made her whole body shake if she allowed it to. She couldn’t just sit and fester in it, she couldn’t try to distract herself from it with television or conversation. Kennedy needed to do something to help her placate that raw rage inside of her.

With a box full of things, she made her way down to the lake. Setting up a circle of stones on the shoreline, Kennedy started a small fire with the matches she had taken from the kitchen. Once the fire’s flames had become healthy and crackling, she opened the box she brought with her and one-by-one began to ceremoniously burn every item inside.

New girl was setting fires. That seemed appropriate. Bobby watched from his ice throne at the center of the lake. More and more, he’d been taking his own company because… well, if he were honest, he didn’t know why. Whenever he was with people, he wanted to be alone, yet whenever he was alone, he craved human contact. Mutant contact. Whatever.

Sitting in a goofy frozen throne in the middle of the lake had seemed as good of an idea as anything else. Bobby didn’t have a monopoly on the lake. People came out here all the time. It was a crapshoot as to whether he would see someone else. But it had to be Kennedy. They had gotten off on a very wrong foot only to connect in the most unexpected way. Whenever Bobby looked at her, he never knew what to think. That was as true now as ever.

The water thawed in the direction of the shoreline, its displacement propelling him forward until he reached dry ground.

“Hey,” he offered flatly. Maybe he was intruding. Maybe she wanted an audience for whatever ritual this was. Bobby was about to find out.

She looked up from the fire as Bobby approached, there was a ferocity in her gaze that made her blue eyes sharp and cold. But the anger in her stare wasn’t for him, in fact he recognized that type of rage, it was one that came from internal distress.

“They wouldn’t even talk to me.” Her eyes returned to the fire as her face and tone remained deadpan. “I called the house, the office, the car phones, the summer house, the attorney, even his campaign manager. No one picked up the phone.”

Kennedy pulled a photo from out of the box and threw it into the fire, where it melted and curled before being turned to ash. The face of a man on it before it disappeared.

“After three hours of calling, my little sister’s au pair finally answered. I hardly know her, but she took pity on me. She told me I wouldn’t be invited to the funeral, that my mother will be informing the press that my father’s death caused my mental breakdown. I’ve already been sent away for being unstable so becoming unhinged is a logical next step. As far as the public eye is concerned, I’m crazy and institutionalized, so my voice will forever lose credibility.”

Kennedy pulled out a pale pink sweater and threw it into the flames, it smoked heavily as it burned.

“I’m mad at myself for allowing myself a moment of hope. To think that his death would make things better, that I might be able to actually go home. I’m an idiot for thinking that.”

That was a lot to unpack. Bobby had turned back into flesh and blood, standing there barefoot in his khaki shorts and white tee, and let out a deep commiserating sigh. “I know saying sorry doesn’t help,” he said at length, “so I won’t bother..”

Bobby was more familiar with the name of Senator Robert Kelly than with his face, but he’d caught a fresh glimpse before the flames rendered his face to ash. He took a few steps back, turned to the side, and put his hands together with intense concentration.

Water seeped up from the lake like reverse drainage and pooled at his feet. An ice sculpture rose up from the ground. It wasn’t particularly detailed. The only distinctive features were the boxy eyeglasses and parted hair, otherwise it could’ve been anyone with a tie in a double windsor knot and padded shoulders in a business blazer.

“Go on,” Bobby said, stepping back even further. “Tell him how you really feel. Dig down deep and put this rat bastard in his place. Don’t hold back.”

Kennedy looked up at the ice sculpture and a small smirk appeared on her face. She pulled out a book from the box, it began to glow with golden light before she threw it at the effigy of ice. It exploded upon impact, destroying Kelly’s face in the process and a look of satisfaction came over her. Her hands balled into fist as she stared at the marred sculpture and Bobby saw her shaking as she looked up at it.

What happened next was a fury of rage. Bobby watched as Kennedy snarled and screamed, item after item in the box turned into weapons of destruction that were then thrown at the sculpture. She cursed and shouted at the now shapeless pillar of ice, and when every item had been destroyed she charged at the remaining ice, it lit up and glowed as she shoved into it before it exploded, becoming a short lived snow storm that floated through the breeze.

Kennedy stood still now that the statue was gone. Her heavy breathing was the only thing left from the angry outburst. She continued to stare at the space where the sculpture stood but she eventually spoke.
“Thanks Bobby, I needed that.”

“You’re welcome,” Bobby said with a knowing frown. It had been a long time since he’d faced these feelings but time did nothing to dull the memory of them. “I didn’t get a good look at your mother but I could make a dog sculpture. The frigid bitch likeness might be close enough for smashing.”

His wicked smirk was the only clue that his deadpan suggestion was only a dark joke. Even in horror and tragedy, Bobby still looked for humor. Perhaps especially then. It was the only coping mechanism he’d found to transcend the trauma that would have otherwise destroyed him or turned him into the sort of mutant the X-Men would fight against rather than alongside.

She chuckled a little from the comment, it was nice to not be engulfed in pity from a flock of people. Kennedy was starting to understand why Bobby acted the way he did, how someone could get so sick and tired of being surrounded by sadness that they did everything in their power to avoid it. “If you could create the whole senate that would be great.”

“I got no shortage of ice.” It wasn’t funny enough for a full on chuckle. Just a huff or two through the nostrils. This was Kennedy’s moment. Bobby had intruded on it with the only gift he had to give. He readied himself to get lost if that’s what she wanted. There wasn’t any fight in him tonight.

“It’s really over.” She continued to stare at the lake, her aversion to eye contact was understandable. “Our relationship was slowly dying and it was merciful to put it out of its misery with a bullet. I don’t know if I should be relieved or not. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No,” Bobby said, “it doesn’t. You deserved a father who loved you. Grieve for that guy because he died a long time ago. The senator… he was just another ass bag that shared your name.” Another dark smirk touched his lips. “You’d be a bad person for hoping the assassin came back for your mother.”

She didn’t dare laugh at that comment but she did smile. “At least she brought me here, I was almost sent to Montana. I would have just continued to hide what I was someplace else, that is until I blew up a hay bale or a horse. So I guess she gets a pass for that.”

Kennedy looked down at the small fire she had created, the broken ice had extinguished it, leaving just a sooty smudge on the shore.

“Feeling like you belong is one thing, I just worry that I’ll never feel loved again. To be cherished and adored and I don’t mean all that inner strength and self respect stuff, but to have people who miss you and think about you, who look for you and really want you around.” Kennedy laughed at herself. “I sound stupid and melancholy.”

“I’m the wrong guy to ask about love,” Bobby said, matching her sullen demeanor. “I don’t even remember what it feels like. It’s just… wherever you find it, I guess.” He mulled over his own words and felt like he was being untrue to his friends. “If there’s one thing I can say about this place, though, they won’t kick you out for being a bummer. I don’t know if I was missed much when I was gone but… there are people I like being around… and maybe like me being around. That’s gotta count for something.”

Kennedy wanted to respond to his comment, to tell him how sad and depressing it sounded but she knew better, from one damaged person to another, the last thing they wanted was pity.

“We should start a club for all us sad sacks. We could all wear a pin or something so they can see us coming.” She attempted to commiserate with him rather than look down at him.

“I’m sure you were missed Bobby, just as I’m sure you would be missed if you left right now.”

Bobby snorted at the thought of wearing a sad sack pin. “Aw jeez.” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “Yeah, people missed me, I guess. The Prof swore and down they did. Maybe I'm just broken. That makes as much sense as anything.”

Talk about a bummer. The last thing Kennedy needed was his depressing rant. “Anyway, congratulations on the first day of the rest of your life. You won a fresh start even if you need a new name.” He gave her a shit-eating and took on the affectation of an obnoxious sports announcer interviewing a new champ. “Whaddya gonna do now?!!”

She smiled at him and his deflection, it wasn’t so bad, at least right now. Kennedy’s eyes returned to the dock but her smile remained. That wild impulsive streak inside of her reared its ugly head. “I’m going to jump in the lake.”

Upon making that declaration she walked past Bobby and began taking off her clothes. She kicked off her sandals and shimmed out of her shorts as she started to walk across the wooden planks. Kennedy took off her t-shirt at the end of the dock, stripped down to her underwear, she glanced back at Bobby before diving into the dark water.

Bobby blinked. Once, twice, then half a dozen times. The shake and twist of her hips held him transfixed while she lost her shorts. Her lithe, athletic legs flexed clear to her tight ass that Bobby couldn't help but ogle. And then her shirt came up and over her head. Even just the sight her bra’s back strap made Bobby flare up with…

Oh, shit! She caught him staring! Now he was about to get a glare in return and maybe a lecture about —

That glance wasn't a glare. Bobby felt his stomach leap into his throat. That wasn't anger in her face. It was… Bobby shook his head. Girls were impossible to understand. Maybe that was an invitation, maybe it wasn't, but Bobby owed it to himself to find out.

Bobby tore off his plain tee and kicked off his khaki shorts while hitting the dock at a half sprint. By the time he reached the end, he was running fast enough to go flying off the dock with his hands and feet flailing in the air. He hit the water in a wild belly flop in just his briefs.

Bobby surfaced after his chaotic leap into the lake and only saw the rippling waves he had created from his impact. Wading in waters a short distance away from the dock, there was no sign of Kennedy. He scanned the lake, the woods around him returning to their quiet and serene state with just the sound of lapping water and chirping crickets. The unexpected silence made the lake feel eerie.

Just when Bobby felt like he may have been the victim of some sort of cruel joke, a pair of hands wrapped around his ankle and yanked him down to the waters below.

Somewhere between panic and reflex, Bobby shifted into his ice form. It didn't make him invincible by any means, but he would be more resistant to injury. By the time he was pulled under, though, Bobby figured out the little game Kennedy was playing and felt a thrill surge through him. She was flirting with him. Whether or not she had any further intentions didn't matter at that moment. The game alone set him aflutter. Bobby sunk low and turned back to normal, just waiting with a grin on his face.

Kennedy let go of Bobby’s ankle when he turned to ice, even though it was expected, the cold was enough to numb her fingers. As he continued to sink, she returned to the surface after lurking in the water for a moment. They quickly passed one another as she rose and he descended, allowing her to catch his goofy grin as she went up for air.

She gasped for air when she reached the surface, hiding under the dock and waiting for him had taken longer than expected so her lungs burned by the time she finally took a breath. Kennedy remained at the surface for only a few seconds, when she finally caught her breath she noticed that Bobby hadn’t returned. Knowing that she would be a sitting duck if she sat still, she started to swim out towards the middle of the lake.

Water was his medium. Bobby didn't even need to freeze it. All it took was a little heat cycling for thermal transference to create currents in otherwise still water that propelled him after Kennedy with minimal effort. Not that he thought of it in those terms. He just willed the water to help him along and it did.

“You can run but you can't hide,” Bobby called after Kennedy with a hint of teasing. His front stroke was half-hearted but he still gained. “You're in my house now!”

Kennedy turned over onto her back in the water, the movement timed with the stroke of her arm, making it agile and graceful. She could see Bobby now and she stopped her hurried attempt to get further out into the lake. Merely treading water as he effortlessly swam towards her, Kennedy’s head and shoulders were the only thing visible above the water line. “What happens if I stop running? Or hiding?”

The thing about moving by top current was that it was hard to stop. It was all Bobby could do not to crash into Kennedy. As it was, even doing the best he could to slow down, he wound up treading water almost nose to nose with her.

“I… eh…” Bobby looked away from her bright blue eyes only to be captivated by her pert nose and mouth, particularly the curve of her lips which turned even more prominent from ticking up into a smirk. “Honestly, I never got that far. Not much of a planner, I guess.”

Behind the pithy quip was a tacit admission. This was uncharted territory for Bobby. And that wasn’t something he had ever admitted to anyone before. Not Scott and Jean. Not Ethan. Not even Lorna.

“Something tells me you weren’t really running or hiding though.” The smirk that almost always hung on Bobby’s face was gone. A rare moment of clarity had set upon him, an honest glimpse of the vulnerable boy showing through the facade he usually presented the world. It wasn’t a conscious choice to risk such vulnerability. Bobby felt a visceral pull to do so and he yielded to it without a second thought.

“No, not really.” Kennedy admitted as she kept her eyes fixed on him. Bobby saw a hunter’s precise and calculating gaze looking back at him and he realized that he had willingly galloped right into her crosshairs. She had lured him out here and dared him to act on all his blustering swagger.

But she wasn’t cruel about his sudden and unexpected moment of vulnerability. When Kennedy had first arrived at Xavier’s she had asked him to drop his facade, she didn’t like or need that from him. She finally felt like he had obliged, that this was the first time she was seeing the real Bobby. “I’m glad that you don’t have a plan, I like you better this way.”

That comment brought out a confused smile. He turned his face askance. “How do you mean?” Bobby's eyes narrowed slightly and his head shook slightly. “Helpless? Scared? Confused? Half naked?”

“I mean without the shtick and without some pumped up, false idea of what a guy should be.” Kennedy gave him a genuine smile, one that reached her eyes and softened her pert features.

Unable to hold back his nervousness anymore, he chuckled at the accuracy of the description. Anything could happen in charged moments like this. For an Iceman, he had never felt on such thin ice before.

“You might be one of those girls mom warned me about.” Bobby bit his trembling lip and tried not to chuckle again, no matter how his nerves demanded it.

“You make it sound like I’m dangerous.” Kennedy’s smile turned coy with her response and that archer’s intense focus returned to her eyes. She remained cool and collected while Bobby was a nervous wreck, a streak of confidence in Kennedy that he had never seen before.

“Are you?” Bobby asked, still unable to hold her gaze for more than a second or two at a time. His breathing sped up rapidly in pace with his beating heart. “Your bite might be worse than your bark.”

“My very existence threatened my father’s entire political career.” Kennedy said with a shrug. It felt different to talk about her father now, the tightness and heaviness that usually pulled on her heart did appear. “So maybe I am dangerous?”

He seemed so uncertain about her, Kennedy was this foreign and bewitching creature that captivated him and also terrified him. She could say the same about him, Bobby’s emotions ran the full gamut and he could go from one extreme to another at the drop of a hat. He was so sad and broken on the inside and he was desperate to hide that from the world. She didn’t know if she was careful enough to handle someone so fragile.

“I guess you’re going to have to figure out if I’m worth the risk or not.” A challenge for Bobby, to figure out what he wanted for himself.

“I push people away.” Bobby's voice creaked. “On purpose sometimes…sometimes not. They always leave in the end.” When he looked at her, there was still vulnerability in his eyes, but the uncertainty was replaced by pain. “Are you asking me to believe you're different? What if I cost you more than a political career? You'd leave. Just like all the others…”

As he trailed off, his eyes started glistening. The tears began to freeze over which caused a slow spread across his forehead and cheeks, an unusually slow transformation that he didn't seem fully aware of that was driven by emotion rather than will.

“Honestly, I don’t know if I’m different or not. I’m still trying to figure myself out, my life has drastically changed.” Kennedy frowned as she saw his tears and the uncontrolled blush of ice across his face, she realized how hard this was for him.

“I can’t promise the surety you’re looking for, I don’t think anyone can. Just like you can’t promise me that things won’t be challenging. I think we’re just going to have to trust each other.” Kennedy didn’t want to corner him, to make him feel like that was his only option. Bobby had far more potential and opportunities than he realized. “And if that doesn’t sound appealing to you, I get that too.”

Bobby’s face morphed between ice and flesh in a shifting patchwork. His teeth ground together in a painful rictus. A grunt stretched into a groan which in turn became a yell. Eyes closed and face raised to the starry heavens, Bobby cried out, willing himself to make a move. Nothing daring. Nothing profound. Just anything to show that he was alive and not the husk of a person he always felt himself to be.

But, in the heat of the moment where his treading turned frantic, Bobby’s fingers brushed up against Kennedy’s. It was a glancing touch, barely felt through the water. Yet the brief connection, so short it almost didn’t register, signaled one sure thing to Bobby.

He was alive.

Bobby stopped treading his feet. They were unnecessary. So was iceform. It was a neat trick and made a better uniform than those awful blue things the Prof used to make him wear. Bobby took the cold of the water into himself, raising the temperature of the entire lake in reverse thermal transference. While his core temperature was well below what any other living thing could sustain, his hands were hot, forming heat sinks in the complex transfer system he had set up in their immediate environment.

Steamy wisps rose up in the air where hot and cold mixed all around them, creating a pocket of solid mist that surrounded a berg which had formed beneath them. Though cool to the touch, it didn’t rob warmth. Kennedy could feel it rise up against her feet, closer to the surface where buoyancy held it at bay with their body weight. It bobbed inside the makeshift, transparent sort of igloo that had formed at the command of Bobby’s emotional release.

“I’ve never done that before.” When Bobby looked at her now, his eyes still held the intensity from before, but the pain was gone along with the fear. Both had been replaced by a hope so desperate it seemed almost confident. If that was what he could summon from a single touch…

The floating berg shifted beneath them as Bobby seized Kennedy and pressed his lips against hers with a whimpering passion. His kiss, like the water around them, was both hot and cold to the touch, a flashing heat cycle that only intensified as he did.

A small squeak of surprise escaped her lips as he leaned forward and kissed her. At first, Kennedy was ready to dismiss it as just another act of deflection to avoid what he was really feeling. Another impulsive outburst just like so many things that Bobby did. But as their lips remained pressed against one another, she felt something hopeful and optimistic inside of him. Like Bobby wasn’t running or hiding from his feelings, he was embracing them.

So Kennedy returned his kiss, her lips were soft and tasted sweet with some nondescript flavor that could only be described as ‘red’. She leaned into him and allowed herself to partake in his joy. A moment to remember that they both had a future before them despite the hardships they had endured.

Bobby did his best not to gasp from the overload. While this wasn’t his first kiss ever, it was the first time he didn’t feel an overwhelming urge to flee, to run and hide. If anything, he felt gravitationally bound. He wrapped his arms around Kennedy, partly in affection and partly to encourage her to stay. Her flesh felt chilled to his radiating palms but warm to his chest and abdomen. The combination was so inviting that he never wanted to let go.

She inhaled sharply from his hands across her bare skin, yet another surprise from Bobby. Kennedy had half expected him to leave, to pull back and push away like he had done every other time they had interacted. He had even admitted as much to her. What had made him change? Or was this just another fleeting moment of vulnerability before he walled himself off again?

Kennedy had asked him to trust her but she would have to do the same. She would have to trust that this was genuine. So she tempted him with more, her lips parted and she cautiously brushed her tongue against his lip.

Against all odds, with Bobby hoping against hope, Kennedy didn’t pull back. The feel of her tongue passing against his lip made Bobby surge with renewed vigor. Whatever this was, Kennedy wasn’t going anywhere. Bobby didn’t know what to make of that, but his tongue did. He spread his lips apart and met the tip of her tongue with his, probing cautiously, gauging how far she wanted to go.

The sway of the berg they floated on coaxed them back and forth as they half stood, half floated in place. Bobby’s hands slid down from the middle of her back to her hips, forcing their centers together for greater stability and less wobble while he let her hang from his neck. Even though she stood a little taller on flat ground, their height difference was erased by present circumstances.

The hot and cold cycle that continued to flow through Bobby which sustained the unnaturally warm floating iceberg and misty shroud around them made the press of their bodies together more sensual than normal. Gooseflesh rose and fell with tantalizing confusion of what to register. And then something else surged through Bobby which his thin briefs did precious little to restrain.

Kennedy pulled back and broke their kiss as Bobby’s excitement became evident. That level of intimacy was something that she hadn’t experienced before and it made her nervous.

“We should stop.” She placed a hand over her mouth as if hiding her lips from him would immediately cool whatever heat was building between them. Kennedy realized that her words might be taken the wrong way. “I mean we should slow down. I’m not really ready to go any farther.”

Closing his eyes, Bobby tried to catch his wind. A spell had been weaving for a long minute. Now that it was broken, common sense reared its ugly head. They were in the middle of the lake. People could be watching from the tree line. They were surrounded by…ice.

“Right…” Bobby said. At his word, the misty shroud that had been swirling like a snowglobe faded into invisible vapor in the warm night air. “I, uh…” What was there to say after a moment like that? “Thank you.”

For what, Bobby couldn’t be sure. It was just a kiss, wasn’t it? But something had changed, whether between them or in himself he couldn’t be sure. It made him feel hot and cold all over, like a microwaved burrito.

“I’ve… never felt that before,” he added, suddenly feeling precarious on the floating iceberg that was so out of place in Breakstone Lake. He let it revert back to its constituent particles which left them treading water once more. “I’ll, uh, let you get out first. I won’t look.”

“Oh, sure. Thanks.” Kennedy replied, she suddenly felt awkward and clumsy in her own body. She wanted to ask him what he had meant by feeling that but it didn’t seem right to press and ask him to explain his feelings. If anything, it told her this was different for him too, proof of his willingness to trust her.

Kennedy leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. A sweet and innocent gesture but it helped confirm that she wasn’t trying to run from him, that while she was scared of moving too fast she wasn’t backing away from him.

She moved away from him and began to swim, falling into long easy strokes that took her to the dock. Kennedy climbed its ladder and got to her feet before she quickly put on her shirt. Still soaking wet, the shirt stuck to her skin and only provided superficial modesty. She slipped on her sandals but didn’t bother putting on her shorts, they would be impossible to get on anyways. Kennedy glanced back at Bobby in the lake one more time before she began walking back towards the mansion.

As much as he’d intended to keep his word, Bobby’s impatience meant that he’d caught a glimpse of Kennedy walking away. It didn’t seem to matter, though, as she’d not put her shorts on. The rhythmic sway of her hips held him in thrall until she disappeared from view. Only then did he snap out of it and chastise himself for breaking his word. Rather than get dressed, Bobby just leaned back with his arms spread wide and fell back into the water. New girl just got a whole lot more complicated.

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