This is set during the XSE-era (Uncanny X-Men 444-onwards to the aftermath of Second Coming). Tries to follow comics continuity, but since comics continuity never makes total sense, hopefully you'll allow me a few divergences (such as Rachel's presence in the Epilogue) and the decisions I've made regarding the passage of time between events. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men. If I did I'd probably be making them kiss each other on national tv rather than concocting fanfiction about them
Chapter 1: Omelettes and Old Friends
When Kurt Wagner entered the kitchen, Logan was sipping a mug of black coffee and leafing through yesterday's newspaper—being 5 am, it was still too early for a new one.
"Coffee?"
"Do you need to ask, my friend?"
Kurt's fangs flashed in an expansive yawn, his lean, tight muscles shifting fluidly under his fine indigo fur as he stretched his body all the way down to the tip of his forked tail and rubbed his blinking, glowing golden eyes with his two-fingered hands. While Kurt's appearance was unique enough to have caused more than one angry mob to want him dead, none of the fangs, the fur, the tail, the two-toed hands and feet, the glowing eyes or the pointed ears had ever bothered Logan. Long years ago, when he'd first been introduced to the demonic-looking acrobat from Germany who would later become his best friend, Logan had quickly realized that Kurt's body suited him because of the way he handled it, everything offset by its opposite. His fangs were most often seen within a warm, expansive grin, just as his eyes generally sparkled more than burned. Though the weight of his tail often caused him to stoop or crouch, he was also breathtakingly graceful; when he wasn't fighting or performing impossible acrobatic feats, he walked upright in a kind of dancerly, sauntering gait, rolling on the balls of his unique feet, body flowing smoothly before the serpentine curves of his seldom-still tail. Especially now, dressed in such an innocuous ensemble of striped pyjama pants and a white t-shirt, Kurt just seemed… like Kurt. Despite the outrageous combination of physical characteristics that might have made him a monster, to Logan, and to everyone else who loved him, Kurt just seemed like Kurt.
At that moment, though, Kurt's golden eyes were cloudy with morning haze, his tail practically dragging on the floor behind him. Still, he was graceful enough to seem weightless as he hopped up on the bar stool next to Logan.
"You ready for this?" Logan asked as he poured the coffee.
"Lord in heaven, yes."
"Not the coffee, elf, the mission."
"I will be," Kurt yawned, shaking a two-fingered hand through the unkempt morning tangle of his wavy, blue-black hair. "I just… haven't been sleeping well."
"Anything the matter?"
"No, no. Nothing important. But how are you?" Kurt regarded Logan earnestly over the lip of his coffee mug, the haze seeming to melt from his eyes as concern took over from tiredness. It was to be Kurt and Logan's first mission together since Logan had been returned to the X-Men following a very bloody stint as a brainwashed assassin of the Hand.
"I'm okay, elf. Thanks for asking."
"Do you… want to talk about it?"
"Not right now."
Seeing that Kurt looked almost hurt by his bluntness, Logan added, "But I'll let you know when I do."
Kurt smiled weakly. "I will be here."
"Gentlemen."
Ororo Munroe customarily attracted all eyes as she entered a room. Though she wore an old cloth bathrobe and had tucked her dazzling silver-white hair away beneath a black headscarf, today was no exception. Ororo had a way about her, a beauty, but also a majesty, that transcended clothes or surroundings; even disregarding her awesome power, Logan knew it was no wonder she'd once been mistaken for a goddess.
"'Ro," Logan greeted her. "Coffee?"
"No, thank you. But I would like some breakfast. Who's cooking?"
Kurt and Ororo both looked at Logan.
"What the—What did the two of you do for breakfast the whole time I was gone?"
"Logan, please," Kurt admonished. "I would never betray your omelettes by eating anyone else's."
"Not me," smiled Ororo. "I simply had Hank take up the task. But he is away at the moment. You're not. And I'm hungry."
Propelled by Logan's famous omelettes, breakfast proceeded along companionable lines that made all three of them embrace a feeling of travelling back into what always seemed like the more carefree past—when the enemy could be easily identified by a colourful costume and saving the world sometimes seemed like a tangible goal.
"You'd better suit up," Ororo said at last. "The jet will be waiting for you in the hanger at 6."
"You got it, boss," said Logan, handing off his plate to Kurt who took it over to the dishwasher. "Any last minute instructions?"
She shook her head. "Everything we know was in the briefing. Just… Be careful."
"Always am, darlin'."
Ororo was standing very close to Logan when he stood up. She reached up and squeezed his shoulder with her hand. "I know. All the same."
Her hand slid down his arm to his hand as she leaned in to kiss him, close mouthed, at the corner of his lips.
"I am very glad you're back," she said.
Logan could feel Kurt's golden eyes locked on his back, just as he could smell him giving off the faint but familiar scent of heightened emotions: tension, adrenaline. It was a song and dance that had been going on for months, since well before Logan was enslaved by the Hand. During that time, Logan and Ororo had gone on several dates, technically as friends although many of the nights had ended in kissing that was frequently on the brink of turning into something more. For his part, Logan held back for a number of sakes, including his long friendship with Ororo. But he also held back for the sake of his other friend, his best friend, whose scent and body language in quiet moments with and near Ororo barely required enhanced senses to interpret. Especially, though, Logan held back because he knew Ororo's scent also changed when she got close to Kurt.
Logan stepped back from Ororo as he felt Kurt approach them.
"Hanger?" Kurt asked. "15 minutes?"
Logan nodded. "See you there."
