I was going to post this on Friday, but Fanfiction.net wasn't uploading. Oh well, it's a slightly late Valentine's story and hey, I got a few more reviews out of the delay. Let's see if I can load this chapter without accidently posting it twice (grumbles about computers)
Thank you Lady MR, Weary-Traveler, SARO , Panther Nesmith, Happymaximus, Xing and Rosebud15 for reviewing the last chapter. Here is chap.2. Hope you like it. It ended up being a lot longer than the first
Disclaimer: I own nothing, used without permission. etc... I suppose I own Brad and Gina, but don't tell Kurt that.
~***~ italics, which indict thought, Kurt's thoughts in this story. Sometimes another person will be talking and Kurt's thoughts will interrupt. That's just what he's thinking while they're talking.
~Let's see blue, or green, maybe red, or blue...~The big date was still a few hours away, but Kurt was currently deciding which tie to wear. When he heard the doorbell, he paused in his wardrobe selection to sneak out of his room and peek downstairs. Jean had answered it. So far so good....It was a delivery guy...and she gasped and put her hand to her chest when she saw the card. ~Success! ~ The Fuzzy Dude had decided the easiest way to deal with the Scott's holiday problem was just to order Jean flowers himself and put Scott's name on the card. That way he avoided talking to Scott about his love life, Jean was still happy, disaster was averted, and most importantly, Amanda was happy. He even had a box of candy for Rogue, that she probably wouldn't even like because she had been going on and on about how lame Feb. 14 was, but he was a good brother, dang it! Now if only he could figure out which color tie...Eventually he decided take all of them and go ask Kitty.
Kitty turned out to be in the kitchen, looking for a snack. Jean had managed to pry Scott out of the library for a break as well and it looked like she was going to cook for him. She must have liked the flowers, which were perched in the middle of the table. Kurt tried not to grin, ~I'm good! ~ Rogue walked in half a second later and seemed to be rather irritated that anyone else was in the kitchen, but then again, she always looked vaguely irritated about something. Kitty, resident mutant fashion expert, was just sitting down when Kurt walked up. "Kitty, which one of these..."
Before he could finish his sentence Kitty gasped, scooped something off the table and started smiling evilly. "Oh Rogue...."she called out in a sing-song voice,"I think this is for you-u..."
Rogue went from her usual irritated look to murderous as she jumped up and snatched the playing card? out of Kitty's hand. It was a card, with writing on it. Kurt could only make out 7:00 before Rogue had grabbed it. There was also a flower sitting there, one of the fancy, funny-looking kind, an orchid or iris or something.
"The ace of hearts, how original! This morning it was the queen of hearts and a magnolia on my pillow and now this! Not only is he arrogant, he's cliche!" Rogue kept ranting under her breath about wannabe-french losers, while Kitty looked surprised to hear about the card on Rogue's pillow. Whether is was surprise that she hadn't heard Gambit sneak in their room or that Rogue didn't tell her about it, was yet to be determined. Meanwhile, the ace of hearts had started to glow pink. Kurt saw it first because he was still trying to read the message.
"Look out! The card..." A warning wasn't strictly needed because his sister noticed the luminescent card herself, which she naturally tossed. But instead of exploding, like most of Gambit's cards did, it merely disintegrated into a shower of iridescent pink sparkles, which gently rained down onto the table. The red heart from the center of the card was the only bit of cardboard to remain intact. It fluttered most gracefully down with the pink sparkles and nearly landed perfectly on top of the orchid or iris or whatever it was.
"Wow." Scott was the first to speak, everyone else was still staring at the last of the vanishing sparkles. Speaking probably was a mistake though, as Rogue quickly turned her murderous glare on him. Attempting to recover he said, "Um..I mean...strictly from a technical standpoint, it was cool....uh...it had to take a lot of control to...he's still a wannabe-french loser-"
"Shouldn't you be in the library ?" Her tone implied many bad things would happened if he wasn't there soon. This time it was Jean's turn to glare, not quite a murderous glare, more like a-don't say-that-I-just-got-him-to-come-out glare.
"Hey, like, which tie do you think Kurt should wear?" Kitty's desperate attempt to change the subject reminded Kurt why he had 'ported down here in the first place and the angry goth reluctantly turned her head to see that her brother indeed had several ties draped over his arm.
"Why are you wearing a tie anyway?" ~That was helpful.~
"What do you mean those are the wrong flowers?" All attention left the ties, again, and turned to Jean this time who was looking at her boyfriend perplexed and then sheepish "Sorry, I didn't mean read your thoughts. You were kind of projecting a bit." ~Ah, the dangers of living with a not-quite-expert telepath.~
Scott sounded almost apologetic as he answered Jean's question. "It's no big deal, really. The florist probably just had a mix up. These ones are nice, too. A little pink, but nice" ~Wait a minute, Scott actually ordered flowers himself? And why is Kitty giggling?!?~
"Sorry, Scott. This is, like totally, my fault." ~She's still laughing, why is she laughing? This cannot be good ~ "I was, like, sure you were going to forget Valentine's and Jean is one of my best friends in the whole world. I didn't, like, want her to feel bad."
"You sent those?" was fearless leader's incredulous, but calm reply.
"You did what?!?"was Kurt's.~That came out a lot more panicky than I wanted~
Kitty was now feeling a bit defensive,"I was only trying to help! You didn't hear what Brad told Gina!"
Kurt was pretty sure he had never meet Brad or Gina, but he was sure he hated them. Feeling defeated he slumped against the kitchen counter.~I tried, that still makes me a good friend right?~
"But hey, what's wrong it with some extra flowers? Jean, you can share with all the poor unfortunate girls whose boyfriends' are juvenile delinquents" she was talking about Lance, but didn't want certain people to take it the wrong way so quickly added, "Oops, sorry Rogue,"
"He's not my boyfriend!" The doorbell saved Kitty from the worst of Rogue's wrath.
"Oooo....I bet that's Scott's flowers!" and she jumped up to get the door.
"Not necessarily," still slumped on the counter, Kurt now had his hand over his face. Everyone turned around, even Rogue, temporarily forgetting she needed to kill Kitty.
"Kurt, you too?" Scott sounded kind of hurt .~Nooo!~
"It wasn't....Amanda told me...Stupid Brad and Gina...argghh!" frustration robbing him of the ability to attempt to explain himself, he teleported out of the room all together. The rest of the assembled group was too stunned to react immediately. Kitty and Jean started to laugh and then Kurt was suddenly back in the kitchen.
He shoved a box of cherry cordials at Rogue, "Here," he said, still sounding frustrated, irritated and tired of all things flowery, pink or heart shaped.
"What are these for?" Rogue asked eyeing the box suspiciously.
"Because I'm a good brother!" and with that he disappeared in an indignant cloud of purple smoke.
Jean seemed to think it was all pretty funny. "I think it was very sweet of you, Kitty. Kurt, I think that was a very nice thing to do. Thank you." she called out to the rest of the house in general, not knowing where he had bamfed off to.
"You're welcome," came a dejected reply from nearby. Kurt, it turned out, had 'ported without concentrating and ended up in the hallway.~Not a very effective storming off~ More giggling and soon Kitty and Jean were both in the hallway, too. Then Jean started with the hugging. She was just one of those huggy people and once she started there was no stopping her.
More institute residents had started to drift into the hallway, teachers and students. Between shouting, giggling and doorbells, people were getting curious and it was a main intersection of the house anyway. "Ooo, we never saw who was at the door! Come on Jean!" Kitty was having way too much fun with this. "Oh, it was just Gambit,"
"Nice to see you too, petite," he was standing near the door, talking to the professor with a large book in his hand. ~ Scott's never going to get out of the library again. ~ "Jeannie, where's your boyfriend, oh there, Hey Summers, I was right, that carving was a yellow Tara," there was much waving of the book for emphasis.
"What? That's impossible! That's a Theravada temple, how could-"
"Hey, Professor, was there a delivery for Jean?" Kitty, ever cheerful in the face of the Apocalypse and utterly uninterested in Southeast Asian relics.
The professor raised his eyebrows and started to grin, "Why yes, Kitty. There was. They're in the drawing room," and he inclined his head toward the room on the left side of the main hallway. ~ "They're?" So both flowers came. At least it's all over now. What exactly am I going to tell Amanda about this?~
The drawing room wasn't very big, especially for having a pretentious sounding name like "drawing room," but it was beautiful decorated like the rest of the mansion. It was also completely full of flowers. Pink, red, white, roses, carnations and assorted other types that only Storm would know. Kitty could hardly contain herself, Jean was trying very hard not to laugh and not doing well and Scott crossed his arms and assumed his not-happy-leader face.
"Alright, who else thought I was going to forget Valentine's?" There was much looking away and shuffling of feet among the mutants standing in and around the drawing room. The Professor was doing as a bad a job as Jean at not laughing. "Professor?" a smile and shrug of his shoulders was the Professor's only response.
A voice piped, it sounded like Amara, "Scott, we had to do something. Lizzie told Brad, who told Gina-"
Kurt covered his ears, "Argghh, I don't want to hear anymore!"
Not paying attention to Kurt at all, Kitty continued gushing, "They're all so beautiful! We can put flowers in almost every room in the mansion." ~Why is Kitty so excited about this? Why are people laughing? This is not funny!~ "Hey, Rogue this one with the stuffed bear reminds me of the bear in your closet that Irene gave you, 'cept this one's pink."
"Um..sure I guess it does," Rogue, who, for once today was not glaring. Instead she was looking at her gloves like the seams had become quite fascinating.
Kitty went even more wide eyed, "Ohmygosh, you too! Jean did you hear that?"
On the other side of the room Jean had stopped not-laughing and stared at Rogue. She looked very touched., It looked like she might even cry. "Rogue, you did this for me?" ~OK, this is actually kind of funny. Rogue caught in the act of being nice. To Jean of all people!~
"It's his fault!" Instantly defensive, Rogue jerked her head toward Gambit, who wasn't even trying not to laugh. "I knew he was gonna do something big and stupid today and ...I...just didn't want ya to feel... left out or nothing...so I thought..."
"That is the nicest thing anyone..." ~Oh no, again with the hugging. My sister is definitely not the huggy type~ "I always thought you hated me and I couldn't figure out why-" ~Gushing and hugging. Rogue must be dying.~
"Hey, come on now. It ain't a big deal," Rogue had recovered enough to be glaring again. This time at Gambit, who she deemed responsible for Jean's hugging onslaught. She managed to wiggle out and put up her hands slowly backing away. "It's just flowers no need to get excited," in a lower whisper aimed in the opposite direction, "I am so going to get you for this, Swamp rat!"
"Okay, that'll be at 7:00, right? I'll be there," he was smirking. ~Talk about man who likes to live dangerously. Wonder if he'll live long enough to double with me and Amanda? ~"Hey, Jeannie there should be a potted orchid in dere for Stormy. I figured I own her one for swiping for her flowers." ~He knows what an orchid is?~`
"I'll find it!" Kitty was just all energy today. A quick search through the greenery and she popped up again. "Hey, this card looks like Mr. Logan's handwriting?" Again, shock and amazement from just about everyone.
"What? I couldn't have one of Magneto's goons showing up the home team, could I?"
"How did you even know it was Valentine's? You hate these sort of things!"
"Are you kidding, elf? Enhanced senses, remember? I've been gaging on the smell of poseys and chocolate truffles since January." he sounded quite disgusted, "Man, I can't wait till President's Day," and he turned and stalked off, stepping over a green tie on his way out.
You might say that Wolverine probably wouldn't do something like that, but he does have a soft side, and besides, this is a comedy. The scene with the ace of hearts was blatantly stolen from Ultimate X-Men, 13 or 14, the first one with Gambit in it. It was cute and fit perfectly. And the bit about the book and the carving between Gambit and Scott, was just me trying to put my Asian Art History class to good use. :)
Thank you Lady MR, Weary-Traveler, SARO , Panther Nesmith, Happymaximus, Xing and Rosebud15 for reviewing the last chapter. Here is chap.2. Hope you like it. It ended up being a lot longer than the first
Disclaimer: I own nothing, used without permission. etc... I suppose I own Brad and Gina, but don't tell Kurt that.
~***~ italics, which indict thought, Kurt's thoughts in this story. Sometimes another person will be talking and Kurt's thoughts will interrupt. That's just what he's thinking while they're talking.
~Let's see blue, or green, maybe red, or blue...~The big date was still a few hours away, but Kurt was currently deciding which tie to wear. When he heard the doorbell, he paused in his wardrobe selection to sneak out of his room and peek downstairs. Jean had answered it. So far so good....It was a delivery guy...and she gasped and put her hand to her chest when she saw the card. ~Success! ~ The Fuzzy Dude had decided the easiest way to deal with the Scott's holiday problem was just to order Jean flowers himself and put Scott's name on the card. That way he avoided talking to Scott about his love life, Jean was still happy, disaster was averted, and most importantly, Amanda was happy. He even had a box of candy for Rogue, that she probably wouldn't even like because she had been going on and on about how lame Feb. 14 was, but he was a good brother, dang it! Now if only he could figure out which color tie...Eventually he decided take all of them and go ask Kitty.
Kitty turned out to be in the kitchen, looking for a snack. Jean had managed to pry Scott out of the library for a break as well and it looked like she was going to cook for him. She must have liked the flowers, which were perched in the middle of the table. Kurt tried not to grin, ~I'm good! ~ Rogue walked in half a second later and seemed to be rather irritated that anyone else was in the kitchen, but then again, she always looked vaguely irritated about something. Kitty, resident mutant fashion expert, was just sitting down when Kurt walked up. "Kitty, which one of these..."
Before he could finish his sentence Kitty gasped, scooped something off the table and started smiling evilly. "Oh Rogue...."she called out in a sing-song voice,"I think this is for you-u..."
Rogue went from her usual irritated look to murderous as she jumped up and snatched the playing card? out of Kitty's hand. It was a card, with writing on it. Kurt could only make out 7:00 before Rogue had grabbed it. There was also a flower sitting there, one of the fancy, funny-looking kind, an orchid or iris or something.
"The ace of hearts, how original! This morning it was the queen of hearts and a magnolia on my pillow and now this! Not only is he arrogant, he's cliche!" Rogue kept ranting under her breath about wannabe-french losers, while Kitty looked surprised to hear about the card on Rogue's pillow. Whether is was surprise that she hadn't heard Gambit sneak in their room or that Rogue didn't tell her about it, was yet to be determined. Meanwhile, the ace of hearts had started to glow pink. Kurt saw it first because he was still trying to read the message.
"Look out! The card..." A warning wasn't strictly needed because his sister noticed the luminescent card herself, which she naturally tossed. But instead of exploding, like most of Gambit's cards did, it merely disintegrated into a shower of iridescent pink sparkles, which gently rained down onto the table. The red heart from the center of the card was the only bit of cardboard to remain intact. It fluttered most gracefully down with the pink sparkles and nearly landed perfectly on top of the orchid or iris or whatever it was.
"Wow." Scott was the first to speak, everyone else was still staring at the last of the vanishing sparkles. Speaking probably was a mistake though, as Rogue quickly turned her murderous glare on him. Attempting to recover he said, "Um..I mean...strictly from a technical standpoint, it was cool....uh...it had to take a lot of control to...he's still a wannabe-french loser-"
"Shouldn't you be in the library ?" Her tone implied many bad things would happened if he wasn't there soon. This time it was Jean's turn to glare, not quite a murderous glare, more like a-don't say-that-I-just-got-him-to-come-out glare.
"Hey, like, which tie do you think Kurt should wear?" Kitty's desperate attempt to change the subject reminded Kurt why he had 'ported down here in the first place and the angry goth reluctantly turned her head to see that her brother indeed had several ties draped over his arm.
"Why are you wearing a tie anyway?" ~That was helpful.~
"What do you mean those are the wrong flowers?" All attention left the ties, again, and turned to Jean this time who was looking at her boyfriend perplexed and then sheepish "Sorry, I didn't mean read your thoughts. You were kind of projecting a bit." ~Ah, the dangers of living with a not-quite-expert telepath.~
Scott sounded almost apologetic as he answered Jean's question. "It's no big deal, really. The florist probably just had a mix up. These ones are nice, too. A little pink, but nice" ~Wait a minute, Scott actually ordered flowers himself? And why is Kitty giggling?!?~
"Sorry, Scott. This is, like totally, my fault." ~She's still laughing, why is she laughing? This cannot be good ~ "I was, like, sure you were going to forget Valentine's and Jean is one of my best friends in the whole world. I didn't, like, want her to feel bad."
"You sent those?" was fearless leader's incredulous, but calm reply.
"You did what?!?"was Kurt's.~That came out a lot more panicky than I wanted~
Kitty was now feeling a bit defensive,"I was only trying to help! You didn't hear what Brad told Gina!"
Kurt was pretty sure he had never meet Brad or Gina, but he was sure he hated them. Feeling defeated he slumped against the kitchen counter.~I tried, that still makes me a good friend right?~
"But hey, what's wrong it with some extra flowers? Jean, you can share with all the poor unfortunate girls whose boyfriends' are juvenile delinquents" she was talking about Lance, but didn't want certain people to take it the wrong way so quickly added, "Oops, sorry Rogue,"
"He's not my boyfriend!" The doorbell saved Kitty from the worst of Rogue's wrath.
"Oooo....I bet that's Scott's flowers!" and she jumped up to get the door.
"Not necessarily," still slumped on the counter, Kurt now had his hand over his face. Everyone turned around, even Rogue, temporarily forgetting she needed to kill Kitty.
"Kurt, you too?" Scott sounded kind of hurt .~Nooo!~
"It wasn't....Amanda told me...Stupid Brad and Gina...argghh!" frustration robbing him of the ability to attempt to explain himself, he teleported out of the room all together. The rest of the assembled group was too stunned to react immediately. Kitty and Jean started to laugh and then Kurt was suddenly back in the kitchen.
He shoved a box of cherry cordials at Rogue, "Here," he said, still sounding frustrated, irritated and tired of all things flowery, pink or heart shaped.
"What are these for?" Rogue asked eyeing the box suspiciously.
"Because I'm a good brother!" and with that he disappeared in an indignant cloud of purple smoke.
Jean seemed to think it was all pretty funny. "I think it was very sweet of you, Kitty. Kurt, I think that was a very nice thing to do. Thank you." she called out to the rest of the house in general, not knowing where he had bamfed off to.
"You're welcome," came a dejected reply from nearby. Kurt, it turned out, had 'ported without concentrating and ended up in the hallway.~Not a very effective storming off~ More giggling and soon Kitty and Jean were both in the hallway, too. Then Jean started with the hugging. She was just one of those huggy people and once she started there was no stopping her.
More institute residents had started to drift into the hallway, teachers and students. Between shouting, giggling and doorbells, people were getting curious and it was a main intersection of the house anyway. "Ooo, we never saw who was at the door! Come on Jean!" Kitty was having way too much fun with this. "Oh, it was just Gambit,"
"Nice to see you too, petite," he was standing near the door, talking to the professor with a large book in his hand. ~ Scott's never going to get out of the library again. ~ "Jeannie, where's your boyfriend, oh there, Hey Summers, I was right, that carving was a yellow Tara," there was much waving of the book for emphasis.
"What? That's impossible! That's a Theravada temple, how could-"
"Hey, Professor, was there a delivery for Jean?" Kitty, ever cheerful in the face of the Apocalypse and utterly uninterested in Southeast Asian relics.
The professor raised his eyebrows and started to grin, "Why yes, Kitty. There was. They're in the drawing room," and he inclined his head toward the room on the left side of the main hallway. ~ "They're?" So both flowers came. At least it's all over now. What exactly am I going to tell Amanda about this?~
The drawing room wasn't very big, especially for having a pretentious sounding name like "drawing room," but it was beautiful decorated like the rest of the mansion. It was also completely full of flowers. Pink, red, white, roses, carnations and assorted other types that only Storm would know. Kitty could hardly contain herself, Jean was trying very hard not to laugh and not doing well and Scott crossed his arms and assumed his not-happy-leader face.
"Alright, who else thought I was going to forget Valentine's?" There was much looking away and shuffling of feet among the mutants standing in and around the drawing room. The Professor was doing as a bad a job as Jean at not laughing. "Professor?" a smile and shrug of his shoulders was the Professor's only response.
A voice piped, it sounded like Amara, "Scott, we had to do something. Lizzie told Brad, who told Gina-"
Kurt covered his ears, "Argghh, I don't want to hear anymore!"
Not paying attention to Kurt at all, Kitty continued gushing, "They're all so beautiful! We can put flowers in almost every room in the mansion." ~Why is Kitty so excited about this? Why are people laughing? This is not funny!~ "Hey, Rogue this one with the stuffed bear reminds me of the bear in your closet that Irene gave you, 'cept this one's pink."
"Um..sure I guess it does," Rogue, who, for once today was not glaring. Instead she was looking at her gloves like the seams had become quite fascinating.
Kitty went even more wide eyed, "Ohmygosh, you too! Jean did you hear that?"
On the other side of the room Jean had stopped not-laughing and stared at Rogue. She looked very touched., It looked like she might even cry. "Rogue, you did this for me?" ~OK, this is actually kind of funny. Rogue caught in the act of being nice. To Jean of all people!~
"It's his fault!" Instantly defensive, Rogue jerked her head toward Gambit, who wasn't even trying not to laugh. "I knew he was gonna do something big and stupid today and ...I...just didn't want ya to feel... left out or nothing...so I thought..."
"That is the nicest thing anyone..." ~Oh no, again with the hugging. My sister is definitely not the huggy type~ "I always thought you hated me and I couldn't figure out why-" ~Gushing and hugging. Rogue must be dying.~
"Hey, come on now. It ain't a big deal," Rogue had recovered enough to be glaring again. This time at Gambit, who she deemed responsible for Jean's hugging onslaught. She managed to wiggle out and put up her hands slowly backing away. "It's just flowers no need to get excited," in a lower whisper aimed in the opposite direction, "I am so going to get you for this, Swamp rat!"
"Okay, that'll be at 7:00, right? I'll be there," he was smirking. ~Talk about man who likes to live dangerously. Wonder if he'll live long enough to double with me and Amanda? ~"Hey, Jeannie there should be a potted orchid in dere for Stormy. I figured I own her one for swiping for her flowers." ~He knows what an orchid is?~`
"I'll find it!" Kitty was just all energy today. A quick search through the greenery and she popped up again. "Hey, this card looks like Mr. Logan's handwriting?" Again, shock and amazement from just about everyone.
"What? I couldn't have one of Magneto's goons showing up the home team, could I?"
"How did you even know it was Valentine's? You hate these sort of things!"
"Are you kidding, elf? Enhanced senses, remember? I've been gaging on the smell of poseys and chocolate truffles since January." he sounded quite disgusted, "Man, I can't wait till President's Day," and he turned and stalked off, stepping over a green tie on his way out.
You might say that Wolverine probably wouldn't do something like that, but he does have a soft side, and besides, this is a comedy. The scene with the ace of hearts was blatantly stolen from Ultimate X-Men, 13 or 14, the first one with Gambit in it. It was cute and fit perfectly. And the bit about the book and the carving between Gambit and Scott, was just me trying to put my Asian Art History class to good use. :)