SUMMARY: Tensions finally break
RATING: R, for non-graphic-almost-sex, language (as always)...That's all I can think of. Read at your own risk.
DISCLAIMER: What? You thought Marvel owned these characters? No, no, I do.
AUTHOR: Sorry for the wait! But...It'll be worth it. I've got this whole thing planned in my head now...If I can just get up and type it! I'll try my hardest to stick to my weekly postings-- school doesn't make that easy, ya know. Anything else...Oh, keep reading, of course. This is gonna get good.
THANK YOUS: I wanna thank all y'alls again who reviewed. I'm doing my best, so love it or hate it, at least review it.
Mystique took a long drag off her cigarette and surveyed the bar again. To hell with 'smoking will kill you.' She could die tomorrow. The place was a dive, she knew. The tables were scarred with graffiti, the lighting was low, and the whole placed smelled like piss and beer. She checked her watch. Where the hell was he?
A shadowed figure slipped into the booth beside her.
"About time," She said, her voice husky. "I hope you're not asking me to get him, I don't know if I can do it."
"No, of course not," A low voice. A man's.
"This one will be easy, Raven, don't concern yourself. I just need you to get the bait."
A manila folder was handed over. Mystique opened it, licked her fingers and flipped through.
"Jubilation Lee, Codename: Jubilee. Ability, Plasma sparks from hands."
She smirked.
"It'll be more than easy. Where's the money?"
The man handed her a wad of bills. To any other in the bar it looked ordinary. Only Mystique, with a glint of greed in her eyes, saw the stack of hundreds. She got up, tipped the bartender and walked out, looking like she knew it all.
What she didn't know, however, was that a certain man had been sitting behind her. Red eyes glowed into the dark as Gambit's face twisted up a little, despite himself.
"Easy. Dat's what you think. Wait 'till you got de X-Men on you tail, chere, den you can call it easy."
He finished his shot and left.
* * *
Wolverine was in hell. Turmoil. At least in his head. And his room and the surrounding grounds showed it. Most of the items were smashed, the walls had random claw marks on them, and he'd reduced himself to playboys under the bed.
It's like I'm losin' myself, he thought bitterly in one of his less berserk moments. Like I lost Jubilee already. He truly regretted the scene in the danger room. He sufficed it to say it had gotten a little out of his control. And yeah, it was easy to blame it on age, or pheromones, or whatever-the-hell Hank came up with today, but it didn't make him feel any better. At night, he'd taken to escaping the mansion and wandering the surrounding land. It seemed to calm him. At least it was outdoors, away from the artificial gaudiness of people. And ...life.
He cracked one eye open and looked at the clock. 2:38. He let out a long sigh, and rubbed his smooth chin, a gesture he'd picked up since losing the sideburns. He'd been trying to meditate, but it hadn't helped much. Okay, at all. He closed his eyes again and concentrated on the steady pulse of his heart, his breathing.
The slightest scrape outside on the rooftop alerted him. His eyes snapped open and he listened intently.
There it was again. Too large and clumsy to be any kind of bird. Even a raccoon, and those wouldn't be on the roof anyway.
Silent as a panther, he eased off the bed and padded silently to the window, prepared to surprise whatever was waiting outside. He turned and threw the window open, just as a very familiar face appeared. Jubilee screamed, and the face disappeared.
He leaped through the window, and, feet gripping the roof tiles, looked down. A pale Jubilee was clinging to the tiles.
"Dammit, Wolvie! You scared me half to death! Near literally." She glanced quickly at the fifty-foot sheer drop from the roof. If he was happy to see her, he tried his hardest not to show it.
"What the hell do ya think yer doin'?" He asked angrily, taking her by the forearms and pulling her roughly up.
She made sure her balance was secure and took a breath.
"Look, Logan, I...uh,"
He waited, heavily muscled arms crossed over his chest. Jubilee pushed down her pride, shut her eyes, and said it.
"I wanna apologize. For the danger room. I'm sorry, I wasn't fighting fair."
Her eyes opened. There, she had done it. Now it was his move. He stood there, silent, seeming to blend in with the night air. Jubilee held out a hand.
"Truce."
Slowly, Wolverine reached out his own, still larger and callused despite his youth.
"Truce."
She smiled. He narrowed his eyes.
"That still don't explain what yer doin' on top o' my roof. Ever hear of a door, darlin'?"
Her smile turned into the devil's grin.
"I'm taking us on a little adventure."
His eyebrows shot up.
"Really? Where we goin'?"
The grin turned enigmatic.
"You'll see."
For the first time he realized she was fully dressed, in jeans and a T-shirt. He midlength hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Wherever they were going, it was beyond his bedroom window.
She turned away and took off, picking her way nimbly over the roof tiles. He growled and followed her by scent, since it was nearly too dark to see. It seemed to surreal to both of them, caught in the silence of the night, near blind, running across the rooftops. Jubilee couldn't hear Logan behind her, but she knew he was there. She groped, and, finding the corner of the roof she was looking for, slid down the drainpipe, Wolverine on her heels.
"Took me years to learn that one," she breathed, jumping off to plant her feet solidly on the ground. She barely heard Wolverine drop down to a crouch beside her. He stood and looked in the direction she had turned her head.
The first thing he saw was the light. Then he realized he was looking at a large, Olympic-sized swimming pool. It was lit from the inside, creating the illusion of glowing, and he noted it was heated, as steam rose off the top.
"Ya ever been swimming, Wolvie?" Jubilee asked. Despite the light from the pool, it was too dark outside to read her expression. Still contemplating it, he answered.
"Not really...Kinda hard when yer half-metal an all."
"Exactly," She said. "Well, consider this your first lesson."
The hard shove seemed to come from nowhere, and Logan stumbled back two feet and let out a yell before falling with a loud splash, fully clothed, into the pool.
He came up sputtering, and Jubilee broke down in laughter despite herself. She kept laughing until something wet smacked her in the face. She pulled it off, and realized they were Wolverine's shirt and Jeans. He smiled demurely. His turn to surprise her.
"If I recall...Can't be swimmin' with clothes now, can we?" He asked, raising himself to waist level. Jubilee began to breathe again when she realized he had boxers on.
"Wanna join me?"
"Fine," She said, prepared for this, and gathered herself for a graceful dive.
"Wait!" Logan called from the poolside. She stalled.
"The way I see it," He said, grinning almost evilly, "It's only fair, darlin'." He gestured to his own state of undress.
It was the mocking voice again.
Jubilee's eyes narrowed to slits and her mouth formed a hard line. She had just apologized to him, and now he had challenged her again.
He thought she wouldn't do it. She'd show him. Very deliberately, she stripped off her shirt and jeans, so that all that was left was her bra and panties. She smirked as he frowned, averting his eyes. Yeah, not so full of yourself now, are you?
"Ya still want me?" she asked.
"Water's fine," he said, disappearing under the surface. Jubilee executed a perfect swan dive in. The water enveloped her, but it was wonderfully warm, and she let the dive take her all the way to the bottom. She was short on air and on her way back up when something grabbed her leg. She screamed underwater, accidentally swallowing some. She panicked, kicking away from whatever had her and broke the surface, gasping and spitting out chlorine.
Wolverine came up laughing.
"That wasn't funny!" She yelled at him, choking and trying to breathe, shivering in the slight breeze. The sour taste of pool water was still in her mouth. In an instant he saw that he'd really scared her.
"Sorry, Jube." He said, bowing his head a little.
"Yeah, you should be," she yelled back at him, adrenaline concentrating her anger. "I told you I was sorry, I took you out here, then you strip me naked an' practically drown me! You...you..."
Her waterlogged brain floundered for an insult that would mean anything to him.
"You're gutless!"
The fact that this had nothing to do with the events that just occurred meant nothing to Jubilee. Just getting a rise out of him.
His eyes darkened, eyebrows coming down. The test of wills had begun.
"Oh, am I?"
"Yeah, yeah you are," She threw the remark at him, not willing to give an inch.
He pulled up one hand. She swallowed, and her eyes widened in shock as she realized it was the boxers. She knew she was digging herself in a helluva lot deeper than she knew how to climb out of, but she'd given in before.
She refused to lose this one. Keeping her eyes trained carefully on his face, she daintily took the boxers from him and tossed them aside.
"Tell you what," She said, her voice easy.
"I lose the top," She gestured to the bra, "If you're the one who takes it off."
The remark was worth half the look on his face.
But he, too, refused to back down. Not from some girl half his own weight. Not for a girl who'd just dunked him in a swimming pool at two o'clock in the morning. If he was nervous, he was too stubborn to show it. She lifted up her arms, leaving herself completely vulnerable. With an almost professional coolness, Wolverine reached around and unhooked it in one smooth move. He threw it in the growing pile of clothes.
Then came the mistake. He let his eyes drop. The words came out before he knew what he was saying.
"God, Jubes, you're beautiful..." he murmured.
This sent a glorious thrill up her spine, but she was still charged from her near-death experiences and the words actually made her feel cocky, more than anything else.
"You like what you see?"
His eyes snapped up to hers at her tone, and there was fire in them.
"Don't act like you ain't aroused right now, Jubes, I know better." His voice came out as a low rumble, close to her ear. She was taken aback by his arrogance, even now.
"Excuse me? I think it's pretty obvious that you want me. Badly. Ya think I don't notice you starin' at my ass all the time? I'm not blind, Wolvie."
His mouth nearly fell open at this, which she noticed with satisfaction. She hadn't been imagining it after all. He bared his teeth.
"Who're ya kiddin', Jubes? I can smell you a mile away, I couldn't figure it out at first...Then I realized..."
"Yeah?" Jubilee interrupted, not especially wanting him to finish that particular sentence. He growled.
"Don't growl at me, you arrogant bastard, you--"
"Don't tell me what to do, girl, you're only--"
"Dammit, just shut up and--"
Before the words left her tongue, he kissed her. His hot mouth was over hers, and she was clinging to him like he was life itself. She parted her lips to the kiss, and he held her tighter, dizzying in the sensation of skin against skin, only water between them.
And then there were no words, only touch. They kissed desperately at first, almost as if trying to make up for lost time. His hands came up to run over her breasts, and she moaned into his mouth. Wolverine was trying desperately to regain control, and losing badly. Being in this body was making it hard …It seemed to have a mind of its own.
It. Wanted. Jubilee.
Now.
He was using his last restraints not to just slice off the remaining clothes, and…
She was lost in sensation, and he was going on instinct now. His hands found her hips, and her mouth found his again, in a searing kiss. She felt her back hit the pool wall, his knee split her legs, and then suddenly she felt him there, between her legs, and god, nothing had ever felt more delicious. It was happening too fast for her to do anything but feel. She hooked her ankles behind him, still exploring the kiss, not even coming up to breathe. Then, he started moving.
White lights exploded behind her eyes. This was more than good. She let out an involuntary moan, starting to move with him. He had his teeth gritted, shaking with pleasure and with the immense strain of holding on to control. His eyes met hers. Intense, and half-lidded, they found Jubilee's china-blue. He was trying to keep it slow, but the effort was agony. She moved with him again, and her nails dug into his back. He was holding her hips hard enough to bruise, though he was being careful not to. He couldn't help it. He thrust up against her faster, and harder, and she had lost the ability to speak at all. She could never, ever get enough. This was heaven, and it was going to last forever…
...And then it was enough. She cried his name, body suddenly arching. She closed her eyes to blinding ecstasy. Vaguely, in the back of her mind, she felt his own body shudder against her, and her named called in a ragged voice.
When awareness fully returned, she was resting, her head on his chest. There was the echo of the water, and waves of light danced across the pool from the disturbance. He was absentmindedly playing with her hair. She let herself just breathe for a minute, somewhere in between confusion, satisfaction, disbelief.
Logan's body sang with relief as he let the warm form of Jubilee rest against him. He was enjoying something he hadn't felt in a long time. Contentment. He felt her stir minutely and looked down. She tilted her head up, to look at him. The pool water was playing patterns across his skin. He radiated heat, and she loved the way she fit so perfectly in his arms.
"Logan," Her words were soft. His eyes, looking down at her, were tranquil and half-focused.
"Logan, I--" And then her throat stuck.
--Love you. What if he didn't love her? What if he didn't return the feeling? Right then, she knew, it would break her. There was silence, except for the steady lap of the water. She was suddenly very aware of her nakedness. And she couldn't say it.
"We--uh--We'd better go before we get caught."
The moment shattered. Her words rang hollow and echoed around the pool. She pushed herself quickly off him, ignoring the look of confusion.
They put on their clothes awkwardly, and in silence. Jubilee's mind was numb. She couldn't bring herself to look at him. Somehow, she knew, she got out of there, because she was back in her room, under the covers of her familiar bed. Too dazed even to cry,
She fell instantly into the blankness of sleep.
* * *
Breakfast was eaten in a deadly silence. Only Paige chattered on as she ate, not to anyone in particular. The rest had taken one look at Wolverine's face that morning and wisely shut up. Jubilee, who was sitting at the other end of the table, picked at her eggs without actually taking a bite.
"So, I thought he was really cute," Page continued the story to which no one had been listening, and squirted ketchup on her plate, "And yesterday he asked me out! So I guess you could say my love life has improved in the last--"
There was a loud clank as Jubilee's fork fell to her plate. Before anyone could say anything she burst into tears and ran out of the room, knocking her chair askew. Wolverine jumped up on instinct. Paige had trailed off talking, and all wide eyes focused on him.
"I…uh…better, ya know…" He gave up on an excuse and went after Jubilee.
She was on her bed, with a box of tissues, sobbing hard. He walked in cautiously, and she looked up.
"Jubes…"
"Get the hell away from me!" She screamed at him, rather fiercely for the state she was in.
He took a few steps closer.
"Listen, Jubes…" His pride had been effectively swallowed. "Is this about last night?"
This just made her cry harder. But she slowed down enough to look up again and say, in between sobs, "Oh, you remember me?"
This got him thoroughly confused, and he sat down on the foot of her bed.
"What?"
"I mean, I thought I was just your fuck of the week." She said between sobs.
His eyes widened in shock.
"No! Jubes…Why do you think…I thought…I mean, I would never hurt ya, darlin'. I--uh--I thought ya liked it."
This time she sat straight up and glared at him.
"Liked it? Logan, I loved it. That was the first time I ever…uh…ever…"
Her face turned redder than it already had been from the tears.
"…I loved it," she continued, " And I love you." Sob. " I love you, Logan, and you don't love me!"
And then, to his further surprise and bewilderment, she grabbed his shirt, burying her face in it, and dissolved back into tears. He carefully wrapped his arms around her shaking shoulders.
"Jubes…" He said, trying in vain to get her attention.
"Jubilee, I do love you."
At first he thought she hadn't heard him, but then she looked up, blinking tear-blurred eyes.
"What?"
"I love you." He swallowed after saying it. The words felt funny in his mouth. But good. And true. Honest, which was as much as he could ask for.
"You…" Jubilee blinked again, trying to grasp it all.
"You didn't say it…I didn't think…"
"I figured if ya needed to hear it you woulda said it out in the pool," he explained. "Then ya just got all cold an' left."
"I was afraid..." She trailed up again, drying her eyes with the Kleenex Wolverine held out.
"Oh, Logan," She kissed him, and suddenly he realized just how much he had missed the feel of her. How soft her skin was. How good she felt--
"'Scuse me."
They both snapped their heads up. Jono was standing in the doorway, expression unreadable.
Oh shit. He and I are gonna have to have a little talk, Jubilee thought.
"I didn't mean to interrupt."
His throat was tight, and he kept his eyes glued to the pattern on Jubilee's bedspread.
"Wolverine, there's a call for you. It's Dr.McCoy."
* * *
Logan picked up the phone and listened a few seconds before his face turned white.
Jubilee looked worried.
"Log--" He cut her off with a hand.
"Yeah. I understand. Hank, are ya sure…"
Silence as the other end of the line talked.
"Okay. Well, thank you fer' tellin' me. I'll be down there tomorrow."
He hung it up. And said nothing at all.
"Hank…he, uh," He started. He looked at Jubilee, and it almost broke his heart to see her concerned eyes looking into his.
"He thinks he found a problem. With the mutation."