So, I got this prompt on Tumblr, 'agony', and was like, okay, cool, I write one little drabble and call it good... Except that's not what happened. I wound up thinking of painful moments for several X-Men. This one is Storm's, based on a page of Avengers vs. X-Men, where T'Challa informs Storm that their marriage was annulled. The dialogue is almost entirely borrowed from those panels.

Anyway, these are just miserable little dribs of these guys, none of them will be long. I hadn't intended to share these here or on AO3, but..eh...whatever. I have no idea how many of them I'll do, it's a much lower priority to 'She's...', but I'll be chipping away at it in the background, bit by bit. I'll add characters and pairings as they apply when I post a new chapter.


Agony is the shattering of her already battered heart as Ororo stares wide-eyed at the man who has just informed her she was no longer his wife.

"Annulled by the high priest of the Panther clan? But…you are the high priest…" She lets it trail off, the implication setting in sharper, deeper than his claws could have ever done.

T'Challa, close friend from her youth and the absolute love of her life, looks up from his crouch, his rich, deep eyes lit gold with the sunset behind her. Still so cold… "Please do not come here again."

It's a bitter wind that whips past them, a response mirroring her own feelings at his low-spoken words, and she watches his eyes go to the sky, then narrow to wary slits back at her.

Clamping down on herself and snapping a tight rein on her power, Ororo turns from her ex-husband. Ex-lover. Ex- dear friend, too? As he is apparently now her enemy, what with the X-Men now being considered such to their—his!—country.

Of course, looking away from him is even more painful than looking at him for the near complete devastation around them, the grossest testament yet to the war that had split them apart, and tears threaten as she takes it all in. She supposes she can't blame him for the move to annul, as either a political or personal move; Namor, her fellow X-Man, had just laid utter waste to Wakanda.

So much of her heart caves in on itself for these people, and then it twists over again for T'Challa, for if this is killing her

"Ororo." She hears him pull up to his feet, approaching, no doubt about to say something else she's in no state to hear.

She crosses her arms and steps away, her body language as clear as her next words. "Let us…let us not talk now of personal matters. There will be time for that later. I came here today to put an end to this ordeal. Please, just tell the Avengers…"

Her voice wavers, and she cuts herself off. She squeezes her eyes tight, feels her mouth pinch down. She cannot do this just now.