Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.
Pulling up to a school in a rental with out of state plates, two men stepped out of the car to admire a place they had not seen in years. They remembered it as a home when they needed one and a place they came to learn about themselves and become friends if not family. The man that had brought them together had always been a dreamer, but back then his dream had been much simpler and come to pass with his name in brass on the weathered stone of the gate, the Charles Francis Xavier School for Gifted Children.
"Looks bigger."
"Yep, had some additions tacked on there and there see. Huh, wonder what they did with that huge dish."
"Don't remind me about that dish."
"Well, it worked didn't it?"
"He pushed me! Straight off! He could have killed me!"
"Pussy."
Laughing at the memories roused by their banter, they stood in silence for a while just taking it all in. They'd been there at the very beginning and now they were back, truth be told they could never say no to her...she knew where all the bodies were buried.
"Oh hey, know what? My kid goes here, Terri. Sweet girl, used to live with her Ma. Be nice to see her again."
"Huh, hope she takes after her mom for her sake."
"You always gotta be an asshole don't you Alex? Lets head on in already."
The trip up the drive had them seeing some kids out on the lawn playing or just off reading under the shade of some old trees that looked bigger than they remembered. Curious looks were thrown there way by some but for the most they were ignored. Parking out front and grabbing their duffles, they walked up together and had an awkward moment deciding who would knock after their fists were raised and ready only to settle it with throwing lots. Paper over rock, Alex knocked only to hear a noise he was sure to have misheard.
"Is that...smoke?" Sean asked noticing the wafting haze drifting under the threshold.
"Man, that stinks." Alex coughed.
With the door opening they looked up into the visage of a man who bore a striking likeness to another they knew once, though enough differences to be seen leaving them confused. Dressed casually in a T and jeans with bare feet, the man looked eagerly to the pair with a smile with all too many teeth in it.
"Hello Friends, Herr Logan had an appointment to keep. You are not movers are you, he told me to send away any more movers." The man greeted.
"Uh..." Sean said with his jaw slack.
"No, we're..." Alex tried, having to look to Sean for a bit of help.
"Forgive me, where are my manners. Wagner, Kurt Wagner. A pleasure yes?" Kurt greeted with a tri-fingered hand offered.
Looking from his own hand to that of Kurt's, Alex hesitated for a moment before shaking and having another thorough glance from head to toe of the blue man who bore a striking resemblance to another he knew from years before.
"Yes, I'm..." Alex started.
"Daddy!"
Deafened as he clutched his ears and felt his stomach long to revolt at the torment, Alex blinked past the stars he saw to see a teenaged girl rushing headlong to tackle his friend in a hug. Spinning her around in his grasp, Sean looked every bit the proud father happily reunited with his daughter.
"Well, she sure takes after you in some ways man." Alex confessed smirking.
"You must be Mister Cassidy! Theresa has told me all about you. A pleasure, and you, you're Alex yes? Here, let me take your bags for you." Kurt said merrily, the bags handed over to vanish along with the man himself in a bamf.
Staring after him, Sean and Alex shared another look with Theresa held dearly as the smoke cleared. Noticing a friend waving down the hall, Terri took off after a kiss to her father's cheek and a promise to be back soon. Left alone at the door the two finally found their voices after the unexpected welcome back to the school.
"You don't think..." Alex started.
"No, god no. No way." Sean objected.
"But I mean, him...and he's blue, and...those eyes." Alex pointed out.
"There is no way Alex, he has to be..." Sean said trying to do some math in his head.
"But those eyes!" Alex pressed.
"There's just no way she...and him..." Sean tried, the math in his head leaving a window he didn't want to peer into.
"Well, I mean, you had a kid didn't you? Anything's possible." Alex remarked with a shrug.
"You can really be an asshole Alex." Sean snorted, heading on in.
Smirking, Alex headed on after his friend in need of a hot meal and a shower after spending all too much time in a car over the past few days.
-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-
"You'll call me once you land?" Bobby asked.
"Moment I make sure ma bags ain't off ta Taiwan I'll call ya." Marie promised.
"I loaded up your tablet with some movies and a few shows I thought you'd like." Kitty added.
"Thanks Kit, that'll help for sure." Rogue smiled and gave her friend a hug.
"Just remember to tell her she still owes me fifty bucks." Kitty reminded.
Smiling, Marie looked between her two best friends and had to take a breath feeling suddenly overwhelmed. She wished he could be here but that he'd be standing out there as her plane took off was enough. She still couldn't believe she was going through with it, but she hadn't promised anything yet beyond a summer vacation to try and make up her mind one way or the other. Next stop Beverly Hills by way of LAX, a far cry from Meridian and even Westchester.
"You'll give him a hug for me won't you?" Marie asked to receive an overlapping no and yes from Bobby and Kitty respectively.
"She can hug him, but I'll get one last one from you now and a little Sugah." Bobby teased with a kiss.
"All o' this is just one big maybe mister, you remember that now y'hear? She just sounded...lonely on the phone. That's all." Marie swore.
"Just trying it on for size, I know." Bobby nodded.
"Next time you see me I'll be a full fledged X-man, woman...whatever." Kitty promised.
Thinking of everything they were going through and all the danger they accepted as everything it meant to try and make a future that would be everything they all wanted, Marie enjoyed her new freedom and pulled them both into a hug with both pressing their cheeks against hers to feel the tears mingling. It wasn't goodbye, it was just see you later. There was just one person missing from this who couldn't be there.
"Go on girl, time to get groped by the TSA with your only worry being 'em getting fresh or frisky." Kitty teased.
"Oh thanks for remindin' me Kit, you and yer damn vids got me too creeped out ta just go through their damn X-ray." Marie groaned, one last peck to Bobby's cheek as she grabbed her carry on.
Waiting there until she was gone into the milling masses making their flights, Bobby and Kitty wandered off back through the airport heading back through the taxis and airport limos until they found a Jeep parked with a view of the planes. He was sitting there on the hood with coffee and donuts enough for them all.
"Get down here mister, got a delivery for you." Kitty said as she walked up to stand in front of him.
Looking down to her petite self and raising an questioning eyebrow, he obliged her and slid off down the hood to let her wrap him up in a hug he returned with a hand rest upon her head. While he couldn't be there to see her off for obvious reasons, he'd at least wait until her plane was nothing more than a distant speck in the sky.
"Thanks kid." Logan said softly, pulling her close for one last hug.
Climbing back on the hood and staring off at the planes taxing up to the runway for takeoff, he shared one of those moments that were all too few and far between with kids he had to realize were growing up right before his eyes. It was a humbling thought, thinking about all the rest back at the school that he had sworn to help one way or another be it putting on leather and doing what he did best, or just making a right 'idjit' of himself trying to teach them about Shakespear.
Even though he knew just which plane had been hers they stayed until sunset just watching the contrails drift through the sky that fell from azure to rosy red. Listening to music on the radio and just talking about whatever came to mind, Logan had to smile bitterly thinking of all the time spent looking for his past never thinking of his future and just where he was finding himself. With a glance to Kitty napping in the back of the Jeep and a look to Bobby laid out staring up at the sky as those first stars burned bright heralding the new night, wherever he was going he was in good company.
-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-
"I don't know how many miles it is to Westchester. We've a full tank of gas, my credit card has credit cards, it's dark, and we're wearing very, very expensive designer sunglasses..." Emma said taking a seat behind the wheel of the convertible 350z with a megawatt smile.
"Hit it." Ororo replied as was her line.
A night spent sharing a suite and getting to know another all the better over a bottle of wine and whatever movies came up had Ororo confessing her fear of flying if only for the tight quarters. The lilting laugh had Emma sounding nearly insulting at first until she smiled almost patronizingly back as if talking to a child.
'All you had to do was say so dear.'
A day spent shopping only to realize 'No' was a word Emma wasn't accustomed to had Ororo wondering again if the school was really ready for her, but a phone call by the eccentric woman had the very car they now enjoyed brought just in time to be heading back home. With the wind in her hair and savouring the relief of knowing she'd soon be back aside her beau and all the children she was so endeared to now, she let herself relax that her ordeal in Washington was over with. For now at the very least, the backroom battles and congressional hearings all fighting a very different war than she was accustomed to.
"Oh just leave all that to myself and young Warren, as I always say, one needs to learn to delegate." Emma called over the rushing of the wind and the roar of the engine.
"That is a horrid habit you have." Ororo cried though she found herself laughing.
"Habits you can quit dear, this is just who I am. As I said to the last man who swore to take my hand, love me or leave me baby. You just have no idea how hard it is to find a man who isn't so terribly insecure with himself that he cannot just open him up to the woman he professes to love." Emma said with a giggle.
Finding a smile and thinking of just the man Emma was speaking of, Ororo settled in for the ride, to Westchester and beyond, wondering just what Logan would really think of the woman on their first meeting.