MFG - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

Chapter 33: Paparazzi, Scandal

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With the help of Jean, enrolling Anna into the school didn't take long at all. After doing that, Enrique left the girls together and went to look for someone.

He walked through the hallways for a bit, and luckily they were empty now since Anna had vanished earlier and everyone thought they left. He stopped in front of a classroom when he noticed someone from the corner of his eyes, he waved his hand inside.

"Peter Parker, hey!"

Enrique called and everyone turned to look at him. The middle-aged man who was taking the class turned towards him too, wearing a scowl, but the moment he recognized Enrique, his eyebrows rose to his forehead and his jaw dropped.

"Peter, come here quickly, I have some things to tell you."

Everyone turned their head toward Peter in a comical motion, and Peter quickly got up from his seat to rush at him awkwardly.

"Teacher," Enrique gave the teacher a thumbs up. "Continue the good work, I'll return him in a minute."

Then, he grabbed Peter by the shoulder and blitzed from the spot, appearing on the staircase of the rooftop. Being on the rooftop would give their positions away, but this was a good spot.

"Hey, kid, you doing all right? Sorry, I didn't come to see you right after the incident." Enrique asked genuinely.

He didn't like teenagers for more than one reason, but Peter grew on him. He was a nice kid and he was capable. Of course, he would still throw the boy in front of a train if it would save his own life, but that's beyond the point.

Peter grinned. "Dude, you won't believe how fast I made my way to Manhattan when I realized an alien invasion was happening! I mean I was a little nervous too, and some of those enemies were above my pay grade, but damn was it awesome!"

For the next few minutes, Enrique and Peter talked for a bit, catching up on their recent doings. Enrique was happy to hear the kid was doing well.

"Oh and, me and MJ—that Michelle girl, if you remember—we are dating. It happened out of the blue but it's going great!" Peter explained excitedly, telling him how great his first date had gone.

Yep, Enrique was happy that Peter was doing for himself. He didn't come here to ask him anything other than his whereabouts, and now that he knew about it and since classes were going on, he let go of Peter a minute after that.

….

Trying to find his way back to where the girls should be, Enrique was walking past a washroom just as a girl walked out. 

It was a purely coincidental encounter, and Enrique would have repaired for a selfie if he didn't recognize the girl right away.

"Ah…"

The girl looked panicked. He had seen her naked, it wasn't hard to recognize that body. Plus, her silver hair stood out even in a crowd.

Felicia Hardy looked at him and then avoided looking at him. She looked over his shoulder and paused, composing herself quickly and smiling.

"Ah, m-my bad. I'll be going."

She said and rushed past him. Enrique almost pulled her by the wrist and then pinned her against the wall, but this was a high school, he would be in jail in no time.

He let her go watching her butt jiggle as she fled the scene.

Oh well. Some other time. Since Anna was going to attend here, they'll get a lot of opportunities later.

****

Later, Jean stood beside a window of a second-story room in the school. She was looking outside where Anna, Greer, Kitty Pryde, and another girl who was wearing a burqa.

"Who's that?"

Enrique asked as he just walked inside the room. This was Jean Gray's personal restroom, which the school was kind enough to prepare. They surely hadn't been bribed with money for this.

Jean turned to face him, finding that he was carrying a can of alcohol in each hand. He reached out once as she replied to his question.

"Sooraya Qadir. Born in Afghanistan, sold into slavery. Just a few months ago, she was saved by Logan- ah, Wolverine. She was initially fearful of us, but now she is being a good girl and studying at Xavier's. We thought it'd be a good idea to bring her here where she can interact with the general people, that's why she is here." She said, waving her hand. "No alcohol, please. I don't drink."

"You guys only attend classes here on, what, Monday and Saturday, right? Hmm, it's good for her then. It'd be too much for her if you guys attended every day, since for someone with her background adapting to the Western lifestyle is a bit hard." He said, not withdrawing the bottle from reaching out. "What are her powers?"

Jean smiled. "Confidentiality, mister. We can't reveal our students' powers to just anybody."

"I am 'anybody' to you? I'm hurt." He smiled back. "Accept the beer since you are being so professional, otherwise I'll think we aren't friends."

"Huh? Wow, since when have we been friends? You beat up my team, did you forget?" Even as she scoffed at him, still smiling, she accepted the beer.

"Well, we can be friends starting from now on after sharing a drink," Enrique said and moved closer to the window. Jean stepped to the side just a little, to not touch skin with him, and he didn't seem to mind. He looked outside at the girls. "Should Anna attend class starting today?"

"You think she has any plans to?" Jean opened her can and said. "Let her be. To begin with, we are here less to study and more to communicate. Let her and that tigress friend of yours get to know the others better."

"Huh. True logic." Enrique took a sip from his beer and yelled. "Hey, girls! If you wanna skip classes, go to some café or something. Show that hijabi young lady there around the town, maybe."

The girls turned their heads at him, a bit surprised seeing him there, before Anna grinned.

"If you say so! Kitty kitty, take us out of here." Anna said.

Enrique watched, while Jean hesitated to make a decision if to stop them or let them go, as the girls grabbed Kitty Pryde and were led outside through the school walls. They were enjoying the fun teenage life. Wait, Greer was 26… ah, oh well, he'd count her as their guardian.

"Aren't you spoiling her too much?" Jean asked when the girls vanished in the horizon of the metropolis, and took a large sip from the beer.

Enrique also took a sip and turned to face her, shrugging. "You need to treat your girl like a princess."

Jean chewed her lips for a bit. "She is a minor, you know? Well, I guess she is close enough to 18 that I can say love doesn't care about age."

"Mhm, I suppose." Enrique put a hand around her waist gently, she blinked but he talked before she could say anything. "Just like what your million-year-old Phoenix friend did that day. If anything, you'd be the one on the FBI's radar."

"Hey," Jean looked slightly flustered, putting a hand on his chest, but she didn't exactly push him away. "That was the phoenix, I am Jean. Let us not mix up the two of us, okay? I don't… have any of her weird feelings for you."

Was that true? Would having a being like the phoenix inside her not influence her thoughts and desires even a little?

"Really?"

Enrique gently grabbed her by the chin with his left hand. 

"You don't?"

He poured beer on her parted lips with his right hand. She sighed and closed her eyes, allowing beer to fall into her mouth, which sometimes trailed down by the side of her lips, falling on her white shirt and showing the black bra under. She gulped in the liquid, while her body was being pulled towards him by his white belt.

Jean Grey was frustrated with what she was going through recently, always enduring the emotional outbreak of her uselessness and boyfriend, and so forced to hold back. If Cyclops didn't have a breakout after accidentally killing that mutant kid, Jean wouldn't have had to stay back there to support him. She could have flown to New York and helped destroy the aliens. Helped the mutants earn a better reputation from the world. None of that happened.

She needed a bit of relief, and Enrique just happened to be fun to spend time with. He was also the one who saved the day, he and Anna were helping people's opinion of the mutant grow better. That made him attractive, like a kind of hero from the legends. 

It wasn't her fault that he was approaching her with touchy intent, and the little dizziness of the beer didn't help the situation, so she gave in just a little. It was fine, this was not the bedroom, and this wouldn't end in anything too bad. 

The beer can fell from her hand, and she barely managed to send it away to rest on the table with her telekinesis. His left hand caressed her nape, and his right hand finished pouring the beer entirely. He threw the can outside the window, and put both hands behind her waist.

"You might regret this later, are you sure?" She said, in one last hope that he will back off, but he just smiled.

"We will see about that." Enrique's hands squeezed her backside and his face leaned over to kiss her like a hungry tiger.

Jean hesitated, but she reached out her hands and grabbed his face to kiss him more fiercely. 

The two superheroes kissed standing right beside the window, unaware of the one paparazzi who had noticed Anna come out of this place, and rushed here in hope for a piece of news. His camera clicked, catching the moment in his frames that’d go viral tomorrow morning.

X-x-X

Neither Enrique nor Jean had any idea that their little kiss had been captured by a hidden paparazzi. 

Not that Enrique would have stopped even if he noticed the paparazzi, he had nothing to lose if those pictures went viral — quite the opposite, in fact.

Enrique enjoyed the feeling of her soft pink lips, the wetness of her tongue and the hesitant will behind her movements. His teeth bit on her tongue, sucking it out as she shivered at the moment, her back pressed against the wall now as he lifted her up a few inches off the ground and kissed her.

"T-this is enough," she quickly said and gently pushed him back. 

The two of them paused, standing just inches away from one another, as he enjoyed her face turning the color of her hair. 

She gulped, looking into his eyes and then away. "I- I... I didn't mean to do this. I'm sorry." Then she burst through the door and away.

"Heh," Enrique smirked and wiped his lips with his thumb as he watched her run off, her perky butt jiggling as she did. "She's delicious. I want more."

It was so odd of a feeling when he kissed her. There was an odd synergy between his dark energy and her light one, kisses felt electrifying. If he was feeling all that, he was sure Jean must have been feeling more, that's why she fled. She wasn't stupid even if she just made a dumb mistake, she knew things might have grown into more than just a kiss if she didn't push him away.  

He shrugged. "Until next time, birdy."

****

After that happened, Enrique got a call from Tigra saying there was trouble. 

Of course there was, how could there not be when five supers went out to have a girl's day out? How annoying.

At least it wasn't them who were in trouble, they just happened to get caught in a gang fight and given their powers they easily settled it. The call was just to let him know that everything was all right.

Enrique didn't worry since there was Anna, Greer, Kitty Pryde, and that new girl Sooraya Qadir. He still decided to drop by the scene, still in his business suit and boots.

"Is everything alright, officer?" Enrique came calling from the sky as he gently floated over the officer for two seconds, before landing.

Two officers were surrounding Sooraya Qadir and Anna, seemingly interrogating them. Anna wore an angry expression as she seemed to be haggling with the officers while the girl clad in a black burqa stood behind her.

When Enrique spoke, Anna smiled and pointed at the policemen.

"Enrique! Everything's fine, we took care of it. But these two keep asking useless questions, Sooraya feels uncomfortable." She complained.

Enrique took a look at the girl; the look in her eyes surprised him. Given how Anna seemed to be protecting her, he thought the girl might have been shy… but from her eyes, Anna was protecting the officers from her, not the other way around.

["Those eyes saw a lot. More than mere murder."] Explained the benevolent voice of Mut, reminding Enrique that this girl was recently rescued from a warring area in Afghanistan. ["Use her. She has a lot of faith, her kind of devotion is rare. Though she is devoted to Yahweh, what a pity. If you can convert her to my religion, child, it'll do us good. Her faith will be equal to six supers."]

'Wait, Yahweh is real- ugh, never mind.' He slapped his head internally, that was not very surprising. 

Enrique focused on the situation at hand instead, turning to look at the officers. They were already nervous in front of him, though also looking a little stubborn.

"Just what's the issue," he said. "We don't mind cooperating if your reasons make sense."

"Hey, I do not agree to-" The headstrong girl with a strong accent tried to talk from behind Anna, but Enrique shot her a look. Anna quickly whispered something in her ear that calmed her a little.

Before the officers could explain, a new one quickly rushed in. He appeared to be the one in charge here, as he shoved the other two away from here and laughed.

"Haha," the tall black officer gave a polite laugh and reached out for a handshake. Enrique accepted it as the man nodded. "Hey man, looks like these two caused you some trouble. It's related to their IDs, they said." He whispered, "Though I guess it's related to her clothes instead. Some cops are disgusting like that, blockheads."

Ah, so this was a good police. Enrique smiled. "It's good now that the issue has been resolved, I am hoping…?"

"Yeah, it's all good." The policeman said. "Though, I guess I'll remind you, one of the two gangs worked for Kingpin. I think you should have heard his name by now. So maybe it might cause you trouble."

"Oh, wait," Enrique looked around his surroundings, hand around Anna. "This is Hell's Kitchen. Clinton. The devil's area."

"Huh?"

"It's nothing. Thanks for the warning, man. But I'll be fine." Enrique gave the man a smile. 

Kingpin was a low-ranking member of the Hellfire Club, while Enrique was on 'good terms' with one of its Queens. So he won't dare mess with Enrique unless he’s stupid.

A few minutes later, the situation was dealt with. Anna left.

Enrique gave Anna some love pats for doing a good job; truly, he would have scolded her too if she was the same Anna from before the Attack on New York. He didn't do that now since she seemed to have a better idea of her actions.

"Enjoy the rest of the day, girls." These were the words Enrique said before leaving the girls be.

****

Enrique wanted to return to his office to work on a new project but instead chose to return home to work from there instead. Being in the office would be distracting since MJ will try to initiate their planned talk there, instead of the dinner meeting planned at night.

As if on cue, MJ texted him to let him know about the time of their meeting. She managed to sound scared even in text, really waiting for the meeting to come as fast as possible so that Enrique could give her some solid reassurance about her murderous ex-boyfriend.

When it was 8 P.M, the girls returned home. Anna reported to Enrique that Kitty and Sooraya were picked up by Jean earlier and returned safely, and now she and Greer were tired and sleepy. When the two girls went off to shower, Enrique got ready.

“Let’s see,” Standing in front of the mirror he transformed his costume, which was in the form of a pair of loose trousers and a tee, into underwear and a tank top. Then he put dark lavender pants on, and then a yellow shirt over which he wore a coat the same color as his pants. He put on a pair of expensive cufflinks and put on lavish shoes. “Good.”

Anna and Greer came out a bit later, fumbling dramatically at his attire, with Greer shooting him suspicious looks, as he let them know he might not return tonight, and finally took his leave.

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