At breakfast, Ororo immediately notices Nori's ring and word of their engagement spreads across the dining hall with dazzling speed. Nori blushes and smiles sweetly at the attention. Remy looks pleased but a little nervous. He's aware that many at Xavier's are still suspicious of him, and he isn't sure everyone at the school is pleased about the idea of Noriko LeBeau. But Nori's so cheerful, Remy doesn't see how anyone could rain on her parade.

He finds out after breakfast, when Nori goes up to her office and Remy goes down to the gym. Logan follows him down there and asks, "What're you playin' at, bub?"

Remy lifts his eyebrows. "Just came to get in a workout."

Logan shakes his head. "You serious about Nori? 'Bout marrying her?"

Remy throws a punch at a big blue Everlast bag. "You saw the ring, mon ami."

Logan snorts. "I imagine that was real hard to come by."

"You here to call me a t'ief, Logan? Fine. I am a t'ief. But I did not steal that ring, and I love her."

"You just don't seem like the marryin' kind, Cajun, and I don't wanna see her get hurt."

Remy throws a few more punches before answering, "She's been hurt before, Logan, and I've been right by her side. And… maybe I didn't used to be the marryin' kind. Maybe I still ain't. But I ain't a kid anymore, y'know? I don't need a different girl every night. I love her, and that is enough for her. Shouldn't it be enough for you? Have I given anyone here a reason to doubt me?"

Logan regards him for a moment before nodding. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Remy blinks. "That's it?"

Logan shrugs. "What, you want me to hit you?"

"Can't say as I do. But I do not believe I provided you with any new information, just now."

"You smell honest. I just wanted to be sure."

"What, that I wasn't marrying her for her money?" Remy says with a smirk.

"I care about her, y'know."

"You think I don't? You think you're the first person who's told me to 'take care of her'? How patronizing is that? As if I weren't trying. Mon dieu!" He throws a few vicious hooks at the punching bag.

"Hmm. You sure you don't wanna throw some of those at me, bub?"

"You have any idea how pissed Nori'd be if we fought over her?" Remy shakes his head. "If we fight, we'll do it in the Danger Room. For training. Not now."

Logan nods and takes a few deep breaths. Maybe the Cajun wasn't such a kid, after all. "You're right, LeBeau," he says, and stalks out of the gym. Remy mutters something in French that Logan's pretty sure isn't complimentary. Logan doesn't mind. He's satisfied with Remy's responses. He goes upstairs and finds Rogue and Bobby—back from a quick and, Logan presumes, terse, visit home for Christmas— watching TV in the living room and decides to join them. They're a couple he's not quite so satisfied about, and he enjoys the opportunity to check in with Marie and needle Bobby, just a little.

Neither Nori nor Remy come down to lunch, and Logan wonders what they're up to. After lunch he decides to seek out Nori. He can hear her and smell her in her office and he knocks on her door and waits for a response. When he doesn't get one after a few seconds, he just opens the door.

She's sitting at her desk with headphones in, tapping her guitar rhythmically. There's a plate with a few pieces of sandwich on it sitting incongruously on her bookshelf. She looks up suddenly and says, "Mother—! Ah, sorry, Logan. Come in." She pulls off her headphones.

"This a bad time?"

"Ah, not a big deal. I was recording that, but I can do it again."

"You were recording yourself hitting your guitar?"

"Yeah. I mean, I don't have a drum. You know. I'm working on this kind of lo-fi project."

He regards her a little skeptically and she clarifies, "I mean, I'm going to layer that in with some guitar and violin and vocals. I just can only record one thing at a time, you know?"

"That why you didn't come down to lunch?"

"Yes, mom. Remy already brought me some food. I just lost track of time." She looks at him thoughtfully. "I figured I'd see you around here before too long. I'm fine, you know. Better than I've been in a long time."

He hesitates and wonders if Remy'd told her about their conversation in the gym. He also wonders if he should even bother trying to keep secrets from his telepathic friend. So he says, "Just checking, darlin'. I already talked with Remy this morning."

"Let me guess. You told him to 'take care of me.'"

Logan holds his hands out in surrender. "Sorry, darlin'. Just want to make sure you're okay."

"So does Remy," she says mildly. "Look, I appreciate it, Logan. And I'm not going to try to tell you that I can take care of myself." She sighs. "Obviously I can't. I would have died years ago without help from friends and lovers. But don't forget, I'm a telepath now. And I trust Remy. And I did before. I mean, whatever, as Rae is so fond of reminding me, I have made some awful life decisions. But I feel good about this one, I really do. And if I'm wrong, I'll pick myself up and try again."

Logan nods. "Fair enough."

She smiles at him warmly. "Good. So, how was your New Year's Eve?"

"Ah, you know. Watched the ball drop with the kids. Had some champagne. Nothin' fancy. What'd you and Gambit get up to?"

"Uh, well, we went out to this jazz club and it was pretty good and all, but then at midnight they set off fireworks and I had a real bad panic attack. But like whatever, it ended up okay."

Logan considers and decides not to ask follow-up questions. Instead, he says, "So, what're you recording?"

"It's a present for Rachael, actually. In the winter we always give each other gifts that are second-hand or homemade. So I'm recording some of our old favorite songs for her. Stuff we listened to in college."

"Ah. What kind of stuff did you listen to in college?" In truth, Logan doesn't really care, but he knows it's important to Nori.

She looks at him dubiously and says, "Well, how about if I just play one for you? But you have to keep quiet when I'm recording this shit."

"You know, it ain't like you had a sign up on your door or anything."

"That's true. Let me make one." She does—"Shh! I'm Recording!" and tapes it up.

"Liz Phair," she says. "We loved Liz Phair. Maybe you can guess why." Then she takes her guitar off its stand and adjusts some settings on her computer. He notices, with a twinge of guilt, the framed picture of Nori and Yuriko on her desk. Yuriko's several inches taller than Nori, but the family resemblance is clear. Yuriko looks happy, carefree—nothing like the vicious killer he'd faced in Canada.

Apparently unaware of Logan's train of thought, Nori starts to play and teasingly sings,

I bet you fall in bed too easily

With the beautiful girls who are shyly brave

And you sell yourself as a man to save

Logan grins when she reaches the lines,

I kept standing six feet one

Instead of five feet two

And I loved my life

And I hated you

She finishes and turns to Logan. "So, yeah, we were really into like angry girl singer-songwriters."

"Are you even 5'2"?"

"Well, no, but it's not my song." She taps the desk. "I really wanted to be like a punk rock riot grrrl but the fact is I just don't have the voice for it. My voice is way more, you know, Joni Mitchell than Courtney Love, or whatever. But you have to work with what you have, you know?"

Logan blinks, and Nori sighs. "Aw, Christ, sorry. There is like literally nothing I like talking about more than my intense relationship with mid-90s riot grrrl music, but I sense you do not share my passion."

"Not so much, no."

"No, but I bet you would love Bikini Kill. Hang on," she says, and clicks away at her laptop, producing harsh-sounding drums and guitar, paired with a girl whose voice Logan would describe as something between a snarl and a wail. He doesn't actually like it that much, especially since it's playing at a volume too high for his sensitive hearing.

He grimaces. "It's just noise. Be glad you don't sing like that."

"Just noise?" She clicks her tongue disapprovingly.

"But I guess I don't have your trained ear."

She shrugs. "Like what you like. It wasn't 20 years of Bach that made me love Bikini Kill—or maybe it was, in a backlashy kind of way. But trust me, you have a punk rock spirit, if not a punk rock ear." Logan isn't sure but he thinks that's a compliment.

She picks up her guitar and starts recording again. Her soft voice is a relief after whatever punk screaming she'd played for him a moment ago. But he frowns as he listens to her sing,

I played the powerless

In too many dark scenes

And I was blessed with a birth and a death

And I guess I just want some say in between

Don't you understand

In the day to day

And the face to face

I have to act

Just as strong as I can

Just to preserve a place

Where I can be who I am

So if you still know how

Talk to me now

She finishes and winks at him. "I know that you probably don't know any of her other songs. That one, it's not one of Ani DiFranco's more popular ones I don't think, but to me… the first time I heard it, it was like, I knew that I would listen to whatever she had to say to me. I knew that we would understand each other." Logan shifts, unsure what to say, and Nori grins. "It's fine. Consider your primary lesson on 90s feminist music to be concluded. We'll talk about the Indigo Girls next week. Thanks for checking in on me, Logan."

He nods. "Take care, darlin'," he says as he lets himself out of her office. He leaves her sign up and heads down to the gym. He hadn't gotten a real workout this morning. Nori records music all afternoon, and when Remy turns up to insist that she come down to dinner, she doesn't protest. Her fingers are sore, and anyway she missed her fiancé. She stands up for a kiss and follows him downstairs. At dinner they sit with the kids and Nori consents to letting Rogue and Jubilee exclaim over her ring.

"How come you didn't get her a diamond, Mr. LeBeau?" Jubilee asks.

"Because diamonds mining destroys the environment and the lives of those who mine them," Nori says.

"Did you ever see that movie Blood Diamond?" Bobby asks.

"It was really sad," Rogue adds.

"Yeah, but… I mean, engagement rings are supposed to be diamonds," Jubilee says.

"Don't let the media control you, Jubilee," Nori says. "If you get married, do what you want, not what the DeBeers Corporation wants you to do."

Jubilee shrugs, and she and Rogue chat excitedly about dresses and flowers for a while until they notice that Nori isn't chiming in.

"What's wrong, Miss Oyama?" Rogue asks, finally.

"Oh! Nothing. I'm just not really into wedding planning."

"Come on, Miss Oyama, there are some totally fierce wedding dresses out there," Jubilee says.

"Just seems like a waste to spend so much money on a dress I'm only going to wear one time, you know? People spend so, so much money on weddings. Like, as long as I'm there, and Remy's there, that's all that matters."

"Aww, that's so romantic," Jubilee says.

"We still get a cake though, right?" Remy asks.

"Well, obviously," Nori replies, and everyone seems more or less satisfied with that.

NOTE: Songs quoted as "6'1"" by Liz Phair and "Talk to me Now" by Ani DiFranco.