It took hours before the wind in her hair no longer felt right, before the endless empty motorways and back roads slowly started to sicken her, before the motorcycle seat became cold, hard and uninviting. Laura pulled over to the edge of the road and slowed to a stop, her eyes drooping to the handle bars. A muss of black hair settled around her shoulders, warming her skin again. She ran her fingers through it; a habit that wasn't hers but Julian's, the one who used to do it for her. A mass of questions flooded her mind. Where was she going really? She was searching for what she wanted to do next, sure, but where was she going to find it? The X-Men were split, but all her... her friends were in the same place. Her family too. Now Natasha Romanoff was pulling her in another direction, another new place, another horde of unknown faces.
Taking a deep breath, she looked up and scoured the horizon. There was a small town nearby. Maybe she should take a bed tonight, rethink her plans. She started up the motorcycle again.
It had been a long time since she'd been in a place for longer than it took to by the next few days food. She did that first though, searching out the gas station and it's store, she bought her fuel and food. On her way out though, she saw something. On the front page of a paper. The headline read like something awful had happened, the result of so much mutant hatred. All it was, however, was a news story about a school being built from the ruins of Xaviers. There were photos, enough to for her to pick out faces. Wolverine. Gambit. ...Julian. A pang hit her chest at the memory of how she'd left her best friend. She swallowed, suddenly caught up in the want, the need to make it right, no matter what they felt for each other. Another thing hit her about the photos. No Nori. She felt a little better about the school when she realised Nori might not be there.
It was all she needed to see. She left the shop, her walk slowed. The feelings she was sure were of friendship, family and something of longing at the memory of the kiss, urged her back onto her bike. Her lips tingling gently, she turned tail and rode fast, having two states to cross before reaching the Jean Grey School.