This story is still in progress.

This is the sequel to Mice's "God ... er, Dog" story, archived at (un)frozen.

Author's Note: This is for Mel. She encouraged me shamelessly. There's even special attention to the fact that Bobby looks good in brown eyes (protect me from Kerrie "Bum-Bum-Bum-Bum-Bumble Bee Tuna" Smith when she gets back for deserting our cause, okay?). SMUT. I wrote SMUT. CANON SMUT.

That means, yes, there are sexual situations in here. Hetero-Bobby runs rampant. If it makes you feel ooky or creepy or make you feel offended, don't read. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

Will get to replying to feedback soon...honest!

**Standard Mice Disclaimer**
Mice is in no way associated with the Marvel Comics Group. She is merely trying to write a story and this is all she has to show for it. A noble effort. Though she would one day like to be paid for writing, please don't send her any money (send mail to urmonkeyifudo@yeahright.com on instructions to send her money). Bobby Drake and Warren Worthington do not belong to her, but to the Marvel Comics Group. Annie Peckenpaugh is of her own mind. Any archiving of this story that is unaware of her attention will be ily received (Read: Tiki Curse). If you e-mail her, explain your intentions to archive the story and address of your archive, she will be MORE than gracious and will probably do something nice for you, like bake you brownies, not to mention permission to archive the story. In truth, she just wants to know where she can drool over the sight with her name. If you want to e-mail her comments (read: FEEDBACK), do it at mice5k@hotmail.com. Good or bad, you'll still probably get some brownies out of the deal, but it's not really that great of a reward because she can't cook...except for spaghetti. She makes goooooood spaghetti.

This is part of a larger series called, "Everyone Says I Love You". The series can be found at
(un)frozen - http://alykat.hispeed.com/unfrozen/
Wolverine and Jubilee fan fiction site (I keep forgetting, bad me! BAD!) http://www.wolverineandjubilee.com

Aly, you're next.

**Now onto the SMUT**

When in Rome
Part 6

"Robert Drake, why do you have a pair of thong panties on your head?"

"I derive power from them, Warren. When I wear the panties, I am a god."

"Just on your head, right?"

"Yes, Warren."

Warren sighed in relief as he shook his head. "Who's are they, Opal's?"

It was Bobby's turn to shake his purple thonged head. "You'll never guess."

"Sure I will ... I know they're not Cloud's because they would be boxers..."

"Ahem."

"Okay ... uhm ... uhm ... damn it, Popsicle, you really haven't had much play, have you?"

"I can't believe you just said 'play,' Warren Worthington."

"You stole them, didn't you? Panty raid?"

"Nope. I was given these as a souvenir."

Warren's eyes gleamed. "Of?"

Bobby blushed. "You know..."

"The waitress from Coffee A-Go-Go?"

"Getting closer..."

An evil smile overtook Warren. "Lorna..."

Bobby nodded.

"Lorna was your first?"

Bobby nodded again.

"How was it?"

Bobby blushed again. "She said she had breath mints that had lasted longer."

"Ouch."

"But she let me keep these..." Bobby pulled the panties off of his head and played with the material. "They're like a security blanket."

"Lorna Dane or no Lorna Dane, I'm still vaguely disturbed by this, Bobby. Do you do this often?"

"Only in moments of crisis. When my love life isn't going the way I want it."

"Pretty much a twenty-four hour thing, then?"

"Don't make me pelt you with Opal's panties. If you thought the pants were big--"

Warren turned green. "More Annie angst?"

"Always with Annie angst." Bobby crashed himself on his bed. "I got the panties out to help stimulate my mind as to what I could do to show her that I'm different from Hank." Bobby turned to Warren and glared. "Not a word. People have strange things that comfort them, isn't that right, Mr. Shoe Sniffer?"

Warren blushed at once at the memory of Bobby catching him indulging in a particular fetish.

"If you could get those shoes on your head, you know you would."

"Bobby, you can't spend all your time in here with Lorna Dane's panties on your head doing nothing. Read, watch television, do something creative, but for the love of god, Frostbite, do something!" Warren got up to leave. Before he exited to the hall, he turned and asked, "You did wash those things, right?"

Bobby growled and threw a Koosh ball at the door as his friend left. He grabbed Lorna's thong and scrunched it into a ball. "Okay, panties. I'm going to throw you and you will land in a spot in my room. Whatever you land on will dictate what I will do to fill out the rest of my day. Ready?"

The panties nodded. As best as panties could.

"Angel's away!" Bobby exclaimed as the panties flew threw the air. He watched as they fell on an old sketchbook. He grabbed it and opened it up. In it were his various drawings and sketches. Some were of animals and inanimate objects. But there were other pictures. He flipped past various sketches of drawings he had done of different women in various stages of undress. Bobby never had a live model, though he had asked each of his girlfriends/dates as they cooed at the thought that he had artistic talent. Opal came the closest to agreeing, but they had broken up soon after that agreement.

The pictures were tasteful and well done, at least in Bobby's mind. He didn't draw them out of repressed stirrings in the middle of the night, but because he loved the female form. There was something about the simple, curvy lines that made them up that he found incredible pleasure in drawing.

He closed the book up at once and with a large grin on his face, went to his closet and pulled out his black v-neck sweater and dark gray slacks. Tonight, he was going to be in full artist mode and full artist mode required artist food.

Annie Peckenpaugh's eyes went wide as she looked around the many different aisles in the supermarket with all the different foodstuffs. It was late at night and she was craving something, but didn't know what.

Well, I know what, she thought bitterly, But he's out again with ol'Clay-Drool... Annie had taken a quick dislike to Emily Clay-Poole. She knew that the surgeon would soon be working on her knee so she could go back to athletics, but she knew that the good doctor had a horrible crush on her good doctor. And right now, they were out having dinner.

Annie grabbed a box of Rice Krispy treats angrily. "Stupid Cyber."

"At least get the peanut butter ones ... peanut butter and chocolate ... far superior to the plain."

Annie lifted her eyes to what she thought was Bobby Drake, except Bobby Drake never wore black anything. Bobby Drake didn't wear cute and sexy glasses. Bobby Drake didn't have brown eyes. Bobby Drake didn't own Converse sneakers that had written on the soles, "Hungry Like Da Wolf."

Okay, that last part was exclusively Bobby Drake.

"Annie?"

"Will you look at you, Bobby Drake..." Annie smiled. Bobby was a good looking guy, in a playful, frat boy sort of way, dressing always in small, maintainable fashions whose main point of functionability was to lounge around and dick around in. Except for the powder blue tuxedo that never failed to make her laugh.

But this was a different Bobby Drake, one who didn't seem to be "on."

"Yeah, I'm wearing slacks ... clean ones, too. It's not my usual style--"

"It should be, Bobby," Annie looked on appreciatively. "You look intelligent."

"The glasses help."

"I didn't know that you needed glasses..."

Bobby sighed. "It has to do with my freezing abilities ... it's wearing on my eyes, since the tissue is really sensitive. I usually wear my contacts."

"So you have brown eyes?" Bobby shrugged. "Yeah. Just another brown eyed boy."

"You look good, Bobby. I mean that."

Bobby took the moment to grin and bask in the moment.

"Big night, planned?"

Bobby broke out of his reverie. "What?"

"Your basket ... interesting."

Bobby quickly groaned as he remembered what exactly was in his basket. The strawberries, cherries, and grapes he could explain, but the paintable white chocolate and the magazines were going to be a tough sell.

"Date tonight?"

"With myself."

The hole Bobby was digging himself got deeper.

"I've never known anyone who was so ... uhm ... expressive? No, that's not the word ... uhm..."

"It's not what you think, Annie..."

"Hey, Bobby, if you want to whack off with strawberries, that's perfectly all right...! I mean, I lived with guys, I know how it is!" Annie was blushing scarlet.

"I'm drawing tonight."

"Is that a euphemism?"

Bobby swallowed hard. "I felt restless tonight and decided I'd draw tonight. I can't afford a live model, so I bought the magazine, which you will find is very tasteful."

"The fruit and the chocolate?"

"Finger food. It's light, sweet, and compatible with the sketches."

Annie nodded. "I guess it's not a fried chicken sort of thing."

They both laughed nervously until Bobby looked at her basket. "Let's see ... corn chips, salsa, little bagel pizzas, cookies and cream ice cream ... the chips could provide some discomfort, but if you're into that sort of thing..."

Annie promptly hit him in the gut.

"Truce, truce! You wouldn't hit a man carrying innocent fruit, would you?"

"Show me this man you speak of and you shall see."

Bobby smiled sadly. Back to the old "Bobby = still in puberty" jokes.

"Can I see them?"

He shivered a bit as she asked. "What?"

"Can I see your drawings? I'll understand if you say no."

Bobby managed a small grin. "If I let you see them, you are sworn to never tell any of the others of this hobby of mine."

"Bobby, who am I going to tell? The German hottie who I stammer around or the woman who doesn't know I exist because I come up and under her large breasts?"

"Which one is that?"

Annie threw up her hands in frustration. "All of them!" Annie huffed and let out a sigh. "So was that a yes?"

"It depends."

"I told you I wouldn't tell."

"Yes, but there is one thing that is missing from both of our baskets that would compliment the night."

Annie's eyes lit up and dashed away. "I know exactly what you mean!"

Bobby choked a bit as she saw what she came back with.

"I'm not good at selecting wines, but I think this one should be all right..."

Bobby was thinking more along the lines of a six pack of Yoo-Hoo. But this could work.

Annie sat and bounced herself on Bobby's bed as he poured the wine into two glasses that they swiped from Hank's lab. Hank was a wine aficionado and taught Annie best he could his knowledge of wine and surprisingly, with a few meager sessions, she could pick out wine better than he could. She felt confident about the choice she made tonight; a nice sparkling white wine that would bring out the fruit and would even go with the Rice Krispy Treats. As Hank had learned, Annie always knew the right wine to go with Rice Krispy Treats.

She smiled as he handed her a glass and unsheathed his a large, thick envelope. He held it nervously in his hands and fumbled with the cover. "I've kept this since I was about, uhm, fifteen ... It's a portfolio of my best stuff ... and not so best, that line tends to be fuzzy. "

Annie nodded. "Let's see."

"Right," Bobby said, voice nearly cracking with the sudden dryness in this throat. "Right," he said a tad deeper. He lifted the various drawings out and spread them on the bed. In them were portraits of Lorna Dane, the woman that Bobby had thought for the longest was his personal emerald goddess. He had sketched her less than an hour after she took his virginity. The sex may have only lasted a short bit of time, but he remembered every inch of her body and it showed on the paper.

The next drawings were ones of Cloud, her famed puffs of condensation removed, leaving what Bobby considered to be the real Cloud.

There was a large series of a proud, blonde woman with yellow eyes and a fiery aura in a series innocent poses. There were more of these than anyone else. At these, Annie looked up to Bobby.

"She's someone who flirts with my dreams, sometimes," Bobby answered shyly.

The next pictures were of Opal. In each picture, she seemed to be discontent and grew moreso with every picture. These pictures were not as innocent as their predecessors and often showed Opal in the most degrading light.

Bobby blushed as he moved those away. "Those were done at a very rough time in our relationship. I was pretty angry."

Annie nodded and continued. In it, she found some small sketches of faces she didn't know, and some she did. The one of Rogue in full flight caught her eye particularly and as she caught Bobby's eye, he promptly looked down to the floor. There was one of Jean pouting and hiding in her hair. Storm walking through a forest. Bobby spoke up for that one.

"That's as close to a model as I ever had. I saw her walking one night in the woods out back and took the time to sketch it."

Annie finished off her glass of wine as she put the pictures down. "Have you ever drawn me, Bobby?"

Bobby took his time by finishing off his glass of wine. "More?"

Annie smiled shyly. "Have you?"

Bobby nodded slowly as he poured.

"Can I see them?"

"Absolutely not." He handed her glass back. "I would, Annie, but they don't do you justice."

"How do you figure?"

Bobby smiled as they turned to face each other. "Well, the others, I've seen nude. Or in spandex, which is nearly nude. I've seen in you in few dresses and your regular clothes, so I have to guess a lot.

Annie smiled. He was cute when he fumbled for words. She reached over and touched his hand. "Can I see them anyway?"

"Sure."

He was back. I'll Do Anything to Make the Girl Happy Bobby. He sighed dreamily in the back of his mind. In fact, all of the Bobby's were sighing dreamily. Even Bad Bobby. Bobby wasn't sure to make of this, but forgot about all the Bobby's as he handed Annie his sketch book. He flipped around to the back where all the recent sketches were. He waited for any sound to come from her, but only heard the flapping of the pages.

Finally, after a long silence, she spoke. "Damn, there's a lot of me."

Bobby shrugged. "Well, if you wouldn't go around fully clothed, there wouldn't be a need for a lot of sketches."

"It's all wrong, Bobby. For one, I'm not an outie. What made you think I was an outie?"

"I thought all imbred hicks were outies."

All Bobbys groaned in unison.

Annie sat her wine down and pounced on him. Bobby's wine spilled onto his shirt and soaked her pants as Annie pinned him down to his bed. "Say that again, ice for brains!"

Bobby could have easily pinned her. Bobby most certainly did not have to stay pinned down. But all the Bobby's agreed that not pinning her down was a wise decision. "What? That your sister's your mother?"

Annie giggled as she tucked her hand under Bobby's sweater. "What was that?"

Bobby began twitching as she began to tickle his sides. Now it was time to pin her.

"What was that you were saying, Annie? Oh, yes. That you weren't an outie ... well, let's just see about that..." Bobby took her wrists and with one hand, pinned them behind her head. His legs locked around hers so she couldn't escape or kick as he took his free hand and lifted her cotton t-shirt a little, exposing her belly button, which was an innie. "I guess you were right, Annie."

Annie smiled from her position. "Will you let me go then?"

"Let's see, do I relinquish control over the young nymph that is squirming around in my bed with her belly button exposed? Am I really that dumb?"

"I'll let you draw me."

Bobby's grin faded. "Annie?"

"If you let me go, I'll pose for you."

He took a moment to stare at her face, determining if this was or was not a sick joke. He gently let go of her wrists and unlocked his legs. She got up slowly, taking her time to stand up. There was a deafening thud in his ears as he found himself saying, "Annie, you don't have to..."

Annie smiled. "But I do. There were a million more minor mistakes in your sketches that need correcting." She lifted her green and white base ball shirt and tossed it on the floor. "How much do you need?"

Bobby went over to his easel and began to adjust it accordingly. "How much do you feel is comfortable?"

She slid off her bra and laid back on the bed. "We'll see if you can get the top half of me done satisfactorily and then we'll see about the rest."

Her hand went for the bag of grapes that Bobby had cleaned with his ice abilities. The coldness of them startled her and she dropped it on her chest. "Bobby!" She flicked the grape off and it beaned him on his head.

"Ow! That hurts, you know!"

"Well, couldn't you defrost them more?"

"I'm the Iceman! If you want warm grapes, go find the Lukewarm Man or something..."

Annie rolled her eyes and batted away the grapes to the floor and into a pile of laundry. "I'm blaming my erect nipples on you and only you, Bobby."

Bobby grinned.

"You know what I mean."

"I do. Please understand that I'm choosing to ignore that."

Bobby took his pencil to the easel and proceeded to sketch.

"So does that mean that your nipples are always erect?"

"Annie, right now, it's all about your nipple."

Annie let this go for about ten seconds. "Seriously, Bobby. Are they?"

Bobby stared at her for a moment. "Why are you so curious, Miss Peckenpaugh?"

"Because," she replied as she took a strawberry and dipped it into her wine, "it's interesting."

"Well, if you must know, yes, and I'm a bit sensitive about it, so if you--"

"How about shrinkage?"

The pencil Bobby was using flew out of his hand and he landed forehead first on his easel. "Beg your pardon?"

"Gosh, Bobby, you really seem to be hard of hearing tonight..." she giggled as she began to slurp on her strawberry.

He listened to her warm the strawberry up with her lips (he cleaned the strawberries off as well) and after a few painful slurps, he decided the balance in power must be shifted. He was not going to sit here all night listening to her suggestive talk, half naked, and nothing to show for it except for another cold shower. "Annie, I've decided that you need to take the rest of your clothes off."

Her body sat upright. "What?"

"Who's hard of hearing now, Angina?"

"You're bluffing, Linus. As soon as I start unzipping my jeans, you're going to blush and demand I put them back on."

"Then call my bluff." Bobby went back to the sketch, coolly erasing a few lines.

Annie stared at his calm indifference as she began to unzip her jeans. He would balk at any moment, now. She pushed the denim over her hips and down her thighs. At any second he would stop her and cover her up. She stepped out of the puddle of material on the floor and faced him, confident of his insecurity. "Well?"

"Panties, too," he said without even looking.

Annie pouted as she kicked off her panties. "Bobby?" Bobby Drake was quite aware that there was a nude Anna Gina Peckenpaugh right next to him. He was quite aware that he was a few inches away from her naked body and if he did not get her away from him in the next few seconds, he would never get what he wanted. "Go back to the bed, Annie."

Annie turned and walked back. For the first time since she became fully nude, Bobby looked and hid his smile. Her body had a natural roundness in it's curves and muscles with a softness that was not often seen at Xavier's.

"Continue eating your strawberry."

Annie raised her eyebrows. In the past two minutes, Bobby had gone from a weenie and a pushover to someone confident, secure, and in control. She continued to lick and warm the strawberry up between her lips.

Bobby began to sketch her and began to fully admire her body. He watched as her stomach swelled up and down with her nervous breathing, the way she fidgeted with her legs, not being as comfortable as she would have liked him to believe about being so exposed. He watched all of this in wonder. His hand flew all around the paper, catching her in different moments until the large sheet was full of Annie. He laid his pencil down and began to rub his hand as he went to get another sheet.

"Finished?"

"With the first few sketches, yes."

"Can I see them yet?"

Bobby shook his head. "Not until I have it perfect."

Annie smiled as she motioned to the space beside her. "Come here. Take a break. There's more wine."

Bobby made his way over to her and sat rigidly next to her. "Not much more wine."

"Enough for you to have another glass."

Bobby smiled as she clumsily poured the wine, little splashes hitting her body, and began to giggle.

"What's wrong?"

"The bubbles ... they tickle...!"

Bobby let a grin escape as he took the wine glass away from her hand and transferred it to the nightstand. He touched the surface of the wine briefly and then flicked it at Annie's exposed stomach.

"Bobby, you're going to make a mess...!"

He bent down over her stomach and licked away what he had sprayed on it. She twisted and giggled underneath his tongue happily. She was still giggling as Bobby left briefly to go back to his easel. He quickly captured that smile and went back to her, leaning across her body. "Annie, how daring do you feel right now?"

Annie took him by a handful of sweater and brought him to her lips. "I feel like I could do anything," she whispered before she licked his lips with her tongue.

Bobby smiled as he reached over for another strawberry. "Did you know that strawberries are my favorite fruit?" She shook her head no. He brought the strawberry to her lips and traced them. The strawberry was still ice cold and wasn't getting warmer with Bobby's touch. "I don't care for them frozen, though." He traced the strawberry down her neck and down to her breasts. "I was thinking that I could warm them up around here..." He circled the strawberry around her left nipple, which had already been pointed by the cool air, but when he touched it, her eyes closed and she let out a little sigh. "What do you think, Annie?" He walked the strawberry over to the other nipple and proceeded to have the two dance around each other on her breast.

When she began to shiver, he brought his free hand to her left breast with a touch that was surprisingly warm. His lips went for her ear lobe and kissed them lightly. "Can you keep doing that for me, Annie?" She smiled and nodded, eyes closed.

He went back to his easel as she mapped out a destination for the small berry. Bobby divided his concentration from his drawing to the lucky fruit that was inching itself around to her belly button. She sighed happily as the fruit went back north towards her neck. She did that for the next five minutes and Bobby caught every moment of it with his pencil. He looked at his drawings with slight satisfaction. "Annie, would you like to try something else?"

Annie grinned and nodded. There was something about Bobby's voice tonight that made everything seem like a good idea.

He went back over to his bed and took the strawberry. "Sit up on your knees."

She obeyed him, fruit still in her hand which he removed from her. He put the tip of it in his mouth and licked it. Bobby then placed the berry back on her stomach, right underneath her belly button and began to circle it.

He took it away briefly to dip it into the wine and brought it back to her middle. The wine dripped down and found a new home on her thighs and the course hairs of her cunt. He dipped the berry into the glass again and went down further. "Open your legs a bit more," he commanded as he twirled the strawberry down her inner thigh. As she complied, he brought it back up to where it touched her lower lips. She let out a small gasp at the shock of the coldness and the bubbles.

He brought her face up to look at his. "If you want to stop, Annie, tell me now and I won't go any further. I'll never mention any of this ever again and we can pretend it never happened. But if you choose to stay..." He gently leaned in and gave her lips another playful lick before nudging them open. His lips gently massaged hers into a kiss. When it was over he leaned back and handed her the strawberry back. "The choice is yours."

He felt her eyes on him as he moved back to his position at the easel. He turned and looked at her with a blank expression. The corners of Annie's mouth slowly curled upwards as she dipped the strawberry once more in the wine and brought it back down between her thighs. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, Linus."

Bobby turned his attention back to the paper and kept a steady eye on it and Annie, who was slowly playing with the strawberry, the wine, and with herself. Annie's arm went to her hair and her back arched. She traced the strawberry back up to her collar bone and looked at him. Her eyes were round and clear with a look of adoration and wanting that he had never been given before. Bobby gave himself a moment as he sighed happily. She wants me, he acknowledged. Not Hank, me.

"Keep that pose, Annie. Whatever you do, don't move..."

His pencil danced across the page and an image emerged quickly from it. Completely satisfied, he went back over to the bed and took her by the hand. "It's rough, but I think you get the idea."

Annie's eyes were glued to the soft lines on the paper. The woman depicted on there was someone that she didn't know. The woman was sexy and confident, both things she wasn't. But then again, Bobby wasn't usually this calm and confident. "I guess this is just a night of showing different sides to good friends."

Bobby grabbed her hand and pressed a quick kiss in it. "It's a night of a lot new sides. I, for one, did not expect your back side to be as lovely as it is."

She dropped his hand and turned her back to him. "You mean this?"

He put a hand on either side of her shoulders and kissed the back of her neck. "That would be the back in question." Her hands went to his sides and gathered up the sweater material that covered his upper body and lifted it up and over his head. She sighed happily as she felt his cool skin on hers. His hands slid down her arms before holding her tightly. He kissed the left side of her neck and moved down to the corner where neck meets shoulder. "Annie, get back on the bed."

She complied, laying on her back with her legs opened slightly. He took another strawberry and a sip of wine before moving his hand to her opening. He separated her folds with is fingers and gathered her wetness on the brave fruit. He then brought the berry to his mouth and took a bite. "I told you, I love strawberries," Bobby said with a smile as he replaced the previous spot of the strawberry with his tongue.

His tongue was much warmer than the fruit had been and she welcomed it. His tongue pressed into and around each and every one of her spots, some loitering for a few minutes, others just passing through. Her hips rotated to greet every twist and turn of his tongue. Her breath quickened as his tongue began to sneak into her opening and she felt her pelvis involuntarily thrust up. He put a hand on her stomach to calm her down as he continued. He took the glass of wine and smiled as she motioned for her to thrust her hips up more. Gently and sparingly, he let the sparkling white wine trickle down her sex, causing her to giggle and moan at the same time, after which, he wasted no time in collecting the wine and her into his mouth. This time, he made no effort to calm her hips down as the twisted and turned with every motion of his tongue.

Bobby brought his face to hers and kissed her, this time, she kissed him back. He brushed her hair back away from her face, contemplating a million things that he could say to her at that moment. You're beautiful. You're amazing. You're the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. Each a hollow sentiment and not quite up to the task at describing this moment. Except for one he had been saving for quite some time, waiting for the right woman to tell. And as he looked down and met her green eyes, he knew.

"Ivy Greeneth."

"What?"

Bobby smiled as he continued to look down at her face. "It's an anagram."

"I'm too fuzzy to play word games!" she protested, smiling.

"Don't worry about what it means. Just know that before anything else happens, you are my Ivy Greeneth."

Annie smiled and brought her arms up around him. "I don't know what it means, but I love to hearing you call me it." She raised her head to kiss him and her hands brazenly stroked his back until she found a belt loop for each hand. She grabbed them to pull his waist closer to hers. She raised herself so she was kneeling, her mouth trailing down his neck and around to his ears. Her hands occupied themselves to the buttons, brads, and zippers that helped kept Bobby clothed. They never stood a chance as she began to slide the material easily off of Bobby's waist.

Bobby helped to kick off the increasingly unnecessary clothing and Annie pulled back to take a look at a fully unclothed Bobby Drake. A fully unclothed, well toned, and smooth lined Bobby Drake. "Nope. No shrinkage," she giggled

"Thanks, Annie. Haven't heard that joke in a while," Bobby said playfully while rolling his eyes.

"Get asked a lot?"

"You'd be amazed. The Human Torch doesn't get that question ... I guess with the fire portion inserted into his power, people assume the opposite ... For fun, way back when, I used to shout out, 'Hard on!' instead of the traditional 'Flame on!' ... I couldn't tell if his face was red from the comment or from the heat."

Annie laughed as she pushed him back, to where he was lying on the bed. "That's what I like about you, Bobby. You always make me laugh. You make me feel comfortable. It's been a long time." She took her right hand and gently took his cock into her hand. "How long has it been for you?"

"Since I've felt comfortable with someone else?"

"Since you've had sex."

Bobby closed his eyes as she began to slowly rub his erection. "A bit. A long bit. Don't make me say anymore."

Annie nodded. "I've only been with Lindsay ... I don't know how good I'll--"

Bobby took her free hand and brought it to his chest and held it. "There is no possible way that you are going to let me down. " He kissed her hand and motioned for her to come closer to him. "You're my fantasy, Annie."

Annie closed her eyes and kissed his lips. She didn't even notice that he managed to pin her again and didn't care that for the rest of the evening, they spoke no more.

He woke up and looked down at his side, smiling, realizing that she was still there in his room with him. He kissed her head and went back to sleep.

She woke up seeing a familiar woman staring down at her with familiar disapproving eyes. She felt Bobby's arms still around her from the night before and swore. "Not now, Mom..."

"Yes, now, Angina. Get up, we need to talk."

Annie carefully disentangled herself from Bobby, leaving a pillow in her place. Salem Brodie waited patiently as her daughter grabbed Bobby's "I'd Rather Kiss a Wookie" t-shirt to cover herself with and crept back to her room, her mother following her. "What is it now?"

"I hope you don't expect that young man to be any better than that Porn fellow you were engaged to."

"Don't say that, Mom. Bobby's different. He does care about me. And I think it's time I move on."

"Hank would never do this. Hank's a doctor. You should be with Hank."

"But Hank likes that doctor woman. He's probably still at her place," Annie bit her lip uncomfortably. "Besides. I care about Bobby. Last night ... it was just amazing."

"You were drunk, Angina. Get enough alcohol in your system and anything is 'just amazing'. That's how Frankie and I got stuck with you, oh, excuse me, how I got stuck with you."

"'Stuck with me'? May I remind you that you died when I was only two? And for a year before that, you were sent away to a sanitarium? Stuck with me for a full year, give the lady a prize."

"I changed your diapers, I put my nipples through hell for you, and I listened to you bleat, you damn well better give me a prize!"

Annie shook her head. "Look, no offense to you, oh wondrous life giver, but I want to go crawl back into bed with Bobby."

Salem Brodie shook her head. "I don't think you are, young lady."

"And what makes you think I'm going to listen to a stupid figment of my imagination?"

"Why are you so sure that I'm a figment of your imagination? Don't you think I loved you enough to return for you, to care for you in any way I could?"

"Well, no. You know I've never bought that. I believe that you would return to bug the hell out of my father and Aunt Peyton, though."

"Okay, you caught me. I really could care less about you, it's just a bonus."

"Are you sure you're not really Joan Crawford, pretending to be my mother, who maybe really does love me and doesn't set out to make my life resemble hell that much more?"

"Just hear me out, Angina. You didn't listen to me about Lindsey Pornstar, listen to me about Robert Flake -- you think you're the first girl he's drawn nude?"

"He told me I was his first model."

Salem laughed. "And you fell for it!"

"I think I'm smart enough--"

"'We were only practicing for a school play, honestly, Annie!' Does that sound familiar?"

Annie tried hard to swallow. "I believe Bobby. He had no reason to lie to me."

"How about to get you into bed with him? And do you think he's going to care one way or the other if he wakes up to an empty patch beside him? He's already got what he wanted. What have you got, Annie?

"How many other girls do you think he's said that to? You're his fantasy, indeed. Look at you, freckle face! You don't even rank against the women here! He grew up with a true red head bouncing around, what makes you think he'd settle for you're muddy auburn head? Especially when his own father is an adulterer?"

"I don't believe you."

"Call his grandmother, she'll tell you. She'll tell you everything."

Annie sat on her bed and covered her ears. "Just go away, okay? I like it better when you're not here."

"I'll be back, my little Angina. And no matter what you say, I made no mistake when I named you. I hate you, dearly."

With that, Salem disappeared from Annie's room, leaving her to contemplate whether or not to return to Bobby's bed.

To be continued in Chapter Seven.