Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
"What's this?" Logan asked, staring at the tray sitting on his lap.
"Oatmeal." Marie flatly stated, holding up a spoon.
"Yer kidding me." Logan complained.
"Nope." Marie replied, moving the spoon in.
"Hell. No." Logan growled.
"Eat. It." Marie sternly said.
"There's no bacon if you don't eat it." Marie whispered as she leaned against his ear.
Sighing, he ate the spoonful and chewed mechanically on it until swallowing, waiting for another just if only to polish off the bowl. Between bites and sips of water, he caught Moira stealing looks at him over her paperwork with a look of infinite pleasure writ across her features. Nibbling on some more grapefruit and wondering just why they hadn't put a lemon down instead, he heard the scraping that meant the worst of it was over with the last spoonful held up. Wolfing it down and figuring the grapefruit was the chaser, he laid back in bed waiting for his reward.
Walking off to the door to throw it open, Marie stood there as both Illyana and Abby rushed in with what at a glance looked to be the perfect BLTs cut into triangles of mouth watering goodness. He could smell the pepper from here, the butter and the fresh toasted bread, the thing that he couldn't smell was the promise of Bacon. The two girls flanked him on either side, two sandwiches between them to share with him. Grinning up to his love he figured he'd been outmanoeuvred and raised the British equivalence of flipping her right off.
"Veggie bacon?" Logan asked, watching her smile smugly as she showed herself out.
"Veggie what?" Illyana asked.
"I see I wasn't the only one conned Yana, and by yer look I'm guessin' ya just caught on yourself short stuff." Logan asked, the two girls lifting up their sandwiches to inspect the facsimile of bacon.
"It's...not gross..." Illyana said trying a bite of her half.
Abby's answer was throwing more salt on the tomatoes before having her bite, Logan left to a full sandwich of 'He won't be fooled it's Bacon' to wolf down. Finding the willpower he had used to eat the oatmeal, he had his first bite and after chewing a few times had to admit it still tasted better than field rations. Pushing off that thought for another day, he let the ghost lie as he lived in the moment.
"So, can I trust you two to finish what she started?" Logan asked.
Looking to another chewing their veggie sandwiches, Illyana and Abby grinned in a way that had him know their collective honour was in good hands.
-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-
"If Yana and Abby ask, you didn't see me!" Marie said as she rushed from the kitchen into the garage.
"Yeah right, teleporter and a telepath. Your ass is grass, and you ain't takin' me with you." Jubilee said, grading the very last of the exams at Logan's desk.
"Dammit! I didn't think of that!" Marie cursed, eyeing the cars sitting unused.
"Yeah, I figured that when Pete brought me in a BLT made of that crap he said ya bought for Logan. Course now that we figured we'd let whatever will be, be...he's got me sticking to Moira's diet she wrote me up ages ago to the extreme." Jubilee remarked, trying to decipher the handwriting of a student.
"Wait, what? Let what be?" Marie asked, her peril forgotten as her friends words distracted her.
"Uh..." Jubilee said looking up, wondering how she'd get her foot outta her mouth and the cat back in the bag.
"Spill, or I'll just go ask Pete." Marie grinned, walking up to flop in the chair across from the desk.
"Who can't lie to save his life, and his pleading the Fifth won't work right?" Jubilee growled, kicking her feet up to read the third from last exams.
"Nope, so just save the time and spill." Marie smiled.
"Shouldn't you be like, be nursing and fawning over Gruff and Grizzly?" Jubilee asked raising an eyebrow over the exam.
"He's his right ornery self and Moira said I have to sleep in either my own bed or his tonight, that's the news I've been waiting to hear these last few days. Besides, if what I think you're gonna to tell me is what it is well, I'm happy for you both." Marie said softer, kicking her own feet up on the desk.
"I'd like to admit Exhibit A into evidence." Kitty's voice carried from the kitchen.
Both nearly jumped out of their skin as their other friend walked in with a tray of coffee and no door opening to announce her. Glaring up at Kitty, the stand off between the two was put on hold until the heavenly brew was poured. Sitting on the workbench herself, Kitty threw down a package of pills straight onto the desk that told the story.
"I am going to kick your ass." Jubilee ground out glaring up at her friend.
"Well you're just not supposed to go throwing them out." Kitty said, nodding down to the discarded birth control pills.
"Then you and Pete...?" Marie asked, her hands flying to her mouth.
"Argh I really am going to kick your ass!" Jubilee spat to Kitty again.
"You're going to let be, what will be..." Marie said softer, beaming at the soon to be blushing bride.
"Yes." Jubilee relented, flipping a page.
"What the hell were you doin' in our bath anyway Kit?" Jubilee said turning on Kitty.
"Showering, I mean jeez? Stalls were full, so like sub-basement or down the hall to your loft, duh?" Kitty said taking on her friends mannerisms.
"Snoop." Jubilee growled.
"Unrepentant." Kitty teased.
"What changed your mind." Marie asked, gentle and soft.
Jubilee looked to her and show how earnest she was, then to Kitty who just grinned at her in that pushy way she was well used to by now, deciding she might as well fess up. Pounding back her coffee and suffering the inquiring looks of the two, she finished grading the exam and wished she could just throw a B on the remaining two but figured she'd get in some serious crap if the grade was wrong.
"Everything, everything just changed my mind. So much god damn time to think when I was..." Jubilee said with a frustrated breath.
"You think you have your whole lives ahead of you and then..." Marie whispered, Jubilee nodding in agreement.
"Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero..." Kitty smiled at the pair.
"Seize the day quam what?" Jubilee asked bluntly.
"I was brooding a bit last night, too much wine and time to myself. Wikied it up, supposed to be the Full Monty. Seize the day, putting as little trust as possible in the next." Kitty explained, staring into her mug.
"It's nice." Marie added, toying with the Latin.
"Oh don't go telling me that, Mamma will kill me if I jump Pete before the wedding..." Jubilee mumbled, spinning in Logan's chair.
"You don't have to take it that literal Lee." Kitty laughed, kicking her feet from her perch on the bench.
"Why so glum?" Marie asked, spinning to face Kitty.
"I, I just had everything planned out. One more year of college and go intern with Henry, go take up the torch for the Professor. Studying hard, doing all the right kind of stuff that'll help. Ever since Bobby I just kinda pushed off the whole date scene too, not that there was much with Bobby..." Kitty explained, twisting to lay down on the workbench and stare up at the ceiling.
"But?" Jubilee pressed, crumpling up some scrap of paper to throw at her.
"An alternative came up I couldn't even imagined, a different way of doing it. Then it just had me rethinking of everything, right down to how everyone seems to be finding someone. It had me thinking of Mardi Gras and the most irritating man I've ever met in my life!" Kitty growled in clear frustration.
"But?" Marie echoed the question that hung.
"But he's just so damn hot, and sexy, and...I invited him as my date to the wedding. I was more surprised that he remembered me, and just hearing that damn sexy accent of his again." Kitty relented, shaking her head in dismay.
"Kit Kat has a date, wicked. So, what's the name of your Plus One." Jubilee grinned, enjoying the discomfort of the usually composed Katherine Pryde.
"Remy, Remy LeBeau. I don't even know why I kept his stupid number in my phone, but it's too late now." Kitty sighed.
"Sounds sexy." Marie smiled.
"He makes the Logan I first remember meeting look like a boy scout." Kitty laughed, rolling onto her side to smile at the pair.
"This I gotta see." Marie laughed.
"Goody two shoes has herself a bad boy, kick ass." Jubilee giggled.
"Carpe Diem." Kitty chuckled.
"Yeah, you be sure to seize his ass...ets." Marie laughed with her friends breaking out with her at the awful pun.
Easing back in her chair, Marie watched Jubilee get back to her last bit of grading while Kitty looked to be remembering a Mardi Gras past if the smile she had then was any indication. Listening to the everyday sound of the school, thinking of the man she loved coming back to her stronger every day, she felt she could finally fill a role she'd been putting off even if she had all the right reasons to.
"I'll see you guys around, if Yana and Abby coming looking for me, just send them to my office." Marie said, slipping out of her seat to find the one she was meant to fill.
"Will do." Jubilee said, smiling up from her paper.
"Hey, I'll walk ya there." Kitty added, rolling off the workbench to take her arm in arm.
-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-
The knock at the door was uncommon, no need for invitation on about paying a visit to the Med Bay even with the current company she kept these days. Sipping her coffee and finding it had gone cold, Moira downed the last of it and took her mug up with her to peek through the window. Surprised to find just who was there, she beckoned them in with a tilt of her head heading over for a fresh cup. Natalie stepped in with all her usual reserve and manners, her eyes trailing off to Logan who lay dozing.
"Anything I can help ye with Miss Rushman, coffee?" Moira asked, holding up the pot in offer.
"Yes, and no, but thank you." Natalie said, standing off in the middle of the room.
"What can I do for ye then if ye nae want a cup o' coffee." Moira asked, rummaging in the tiny fridge for some cream to find it was on its very last drop.
Natalie looked to Moira, a break in her facade showing through as she glanced back to Logan. Throwing in a spoonful of sugar, she stirred her mug walking up to the younger woman. Standing there with her, looking from one to another, she headed back off to the door catching the reflection in the window of the stiff limbed lady left behind.
"Do me a favour, I'm due for a coffee break. Keep an eye on that cantankerous Canadian, if he goes wakin' up on ye and needs anything just give me a call. That's a good lass." Moria said walking off through the doors.
Natalie stood there waiting for the steps to vanish down the hall, for the thrum that told of the elevator called down. She could hear the doors open as she stood there with her eyes closed, waiting for the ambiance of the lower levels to return. She'd be alone with him, truly alone as she had been waiting for ever since laying eyes on him that awful day they'd saved his life. She could let the act drop, slipping out of her high heels and relishing the feel of the cool steel floor beneath her feet. Padding to his bed, she took a seat and stared down at him.
"You can stop pretending you're asleep." Natasha said in her native Russian.
Logan cracked an eye and looked at her, a smirk creasing his lips with a light chuckle. The pallor of his skin had come back along with the luster of his hair, he needed a trim and his muttonchops had run rampant. Without a doubt it was the same man from years before, the timeless face looking up to her though looking a mask, different eyes staring at her with far more peace in them than she could ever remember. But in them was a sadness, eyes that knew her as she couldn't imagine anyone knew her. A little girl cast on a path that would end in blood, red she still tried to wash from her hands.
"Do you recognize me Little Uncle?" Natasha asked, holding her composure this time as she held his hand.
"Glimpses, a little girl, a ballerina. Thinking I had saved her, but I figure I musta screwed that up." Logan whispered quietly in Russian.
Hating the weakness that clawed at her heart thinking she'd tempered it against such pain long ago, the little of it left after all the same she'd suffered and cased, she blinked away the tears and set her lips in a grim line as she looked down to him. She could see she'd caused some pain again but this time she could pay back that debt readily, gripping his hand tight.
"It just took longer than you thought, you all gave me what I needed when I could be offered that chance to live free. It let me believe him when he said he'd help me, it let me believe..." Natasha whispered, hating the lone tear that fell down her cheek but too stubborn to dare recognize it with so much a swipe of her finger.
His hand eased free of hers, reaching up to brush off the errant tear and gently stroke her cheek. Looking on her all the more with every passing second was her Little Uncle, only among so many giant Russians she remembered from her childhood could this man laying here be called such.
"Tasha?" Logan asked, just a nod from her his answer.
"Natasha, Natasha Romanov. A pleasure, to meet you again." Natasha whispered.
"Sounds like I owe someone a drink then, for cleanin' up after my mess." Logan said softly, breaking back to English.
"Maybe someday, for now just enjoy this for both of us. You got a second chance, don't waste it." Natasha said, slipping back into the persona of Natalie.
"No plans on doin' that Darlin', fact is I owe a lotta folks for it, this life. Lookin' forward ta clearin' those debts and gettin' outta the red." Logan whispered.
Her lips twisted at those words, words she had used herself and had to fight for her calm as she sat there. She had the whole while of a coffee break to sit there with him, just the pair of them alone to enjoy another's company as she had never thought she would be able to ever again. Taking his hand in hers again, she listened to the stories telling the life he'd found within the walls that had saved him thinking maybe someday she'd be able to tell him her story.
-=+=–=+=–=+=–=+=-
Author's Note : Just another little shortie, hope you all enjoy.
