Disclaimer: Hank should belong to Terri so I could ask her for permission to use him. Alas, some company called Marvel won't listen to reason.
Archive: Dolphin Haven
Feedback: Sure, sure.
Author's notes: Right. Terri's story "Smutmuffin applies for a date" is to blame for this. It unleashed a very nasty bunny that just wouldn't give up.

Something was wrong. Jubilee had never been one to look so downright depressed before. Well, unless you count that one time when she fell for that April Fool's day joke that her favourite clothes-store had a sale. She had been having temper tantrums for weeks on ends after that, until Bobby, Rogue and Scott as the guilty ones had "repented" and bought her the best outfit that could be found and everything was well again. Except that the outfit was yellow (well, duh!) and that everyone was getting ready to convince Jubilee to start working for the Brotherhood instead. It's only so much yellow a band of mutants can take after all.

But she's still roaming the corridors of Xavier's, causing mischief wherever she can and helping people out no matter if they want to or not and with no second thoughts to the consequences. Marie and Kitty had on several occasions been forced to bail her out. Not with the famous "You get out of jail" card in Monopoly, even though Jubes could use a "Get out of detention" card, either. No, more of repairing people's damaged self-esteem, broken relationships, broken friendships etc. If it could be broken, leave it to Jubes to do it.

This time, however, it seemed like she's the one that needs to be repaired. And who better suited than the other two of the terrible threesome (mind out of gutter now)? That's exactly what Kitty thought too. Unfortunately she had real difficulty in finding Marie. "Off with Wolvie somewhere I bet. Oh, well," she thought. "A woman's gotta do what a woman's gotta do." and went off to help Jubes on her own.

That was easier said then done though. Jubes can be very persistent when she wants to be, not to mention making herself invisible. It took her some hours to locate her, mostly because most people hadn't seen Jubes in a while and Hank, the only one that seemed to have seen her recently, just mumbled something incoherently.

When Jubes was eventually found she looked rather relieved though, which was not what Kitty had expected. She had expected screaming, kicking, holding her safety-blanket under her arm and throwing very expensive china at the wall. And that at the very least. Kitty's not one to complain over small favours though so she cut right to the chase...

"Jubes, what's wrong?"
"I think I've just lost one of my best friends. Forever."
"Who? Everyone's here."
"Yeah. But I pissed Hank off something fierce."
"Hank? How do you piss off our resident teddy-bear?"

Jubes couldn't help but smile at that before weakly saying, "You know me. If someone can piss someone off it's me."
"Want to tell me about it?"
"Yeah, I do. You know how me and Hank always hang together when I'm not with you or Marie? Yeah, of course you do. Anyway, that's made me think that he's really lonely. Why else would he willingly spend time with an obnoxious motormouth like me?"

Jubes saw that Kitty was going to protest over that and promptly stopped it by talking louder. Jubes is impossible to silence by talking more than her.

"Anyway, I don't want Hankster to feel lonely, blue or sad or any other of those bad words. He'd say it in better words but I wanted to help him."

Kitty had a feeling she knew where this was going.

"That's why I talked him into letting me set him up on a couple of blind dates."
"You didn't! Oh the horror!" Kitty couldn't help herself. She knew she should be more considerate to Jubes here but she knew what kind of matches poor Hank most likely had gone out on dates with.

Despite herself, Jubes smiled too knowing all too well everyone else's opinion of her abilities as a matchmaker.

"I did. He went on three dates before he had had it with them and me. That's two weeks ago and we still haven't talked. You want the details, right?"
"Yeah."
"Alright. It feels good getting it out of my system, you know? Well, his first date was with Trisha. You know her, she's in our mutant biology class."
"Sure. I know who she is. All goth-dressed, pink hair, razorblades as earrings and a don't-fuck-with-me attitude. Not exactly a match made in heaven."
"Now you tell me. She got rather pissed at me to tell the truth and slapped me. Date number two's Mariah. I don't think you know her. I thought I did but boy, was I wrong. Turns out she has some weird fetish about big furry guys. She wanted to shave some of Hank's fur off to keep as a trophy! I hope for her sake she doesn't go for Sabretooth next time".

Kitty was relieved. Talking about it seemed to get Jubes in a much better mood, she almost laughed at times.

"The third date I set up was with a woman called Joan. Same thing there. I didn't really know her."

Kitty wasn't surprised. Jubes is terrible at seeing people's true colours.

"She turned out to be a complete slut. Hank had her thrown out only five minutes after their dinner was over since she basically tried to have sex with him right there on the spot. That's just not my Hankster! The cabdriver must have had a laugh though since he didn't bother throwing her clothes out after her."

The stories of Hank's disastrous dates were funny to the two girls, not because of the stories themselves but because Jubes was telling them and was feeling better about it by the second.

"Why do you think Hank got mad at you though? I mean, you tried. Gotta mean something, especially to him."
"Now that you mention it, I have no idea. He must have thought I was setting him up with bad dates intentionally."
"Don't be stupid. Hank's not like that. Go talk to him and find out."

Later down in the medlab

"Hank?"

Hank turned out and saw Jubes looking at him curiously.

"Hi Jubilee. Always nice to see you."
"Is it? Why haven't you talked to me in weeks then?"

Hank looked decidedly uncomfortable at that. Thoughtful. More thoughtful than usual really, which is not a mean feat.

He stuttered a bit before speaking.

"You know, Jubes. All those dates you set me up with...they really got me thinking. A relationship may not be for me, my looks are against me and I'm practically married to my work anyhow. I just can't see what kind of woman would put up with that. Most wouldn't. Only one I know of that would willingly do that and that I also happen to love to spend time with."
"Who could that be?"
"Don't be stupid, Jubilee. You of course. I've never thought of it before but those dates made me do it somehow. That I want a normal woman, and someone that likes me for me. You're all that."
"Sounds like you've given this a lot of thought," Jubes said and with more than a little blush on her cheeks.
"I have, which is why I've seemed distant or maybe even rude lately. Enough with that though and I'll just ask if you'd do me the great honour of going out on a date with me?"

Jubes just flung herself around Hank's neck, kissing him screaming "Of course Hank! I'd love that!"

Some people gave them a few odd looks when they went on their first date (of many), a certain Wolverine amongst others, since they seemed to be so different from one another.

But since when have feelings given a damn about that? Hank loved to tease Logan about that and had done so ever since the relationship between Logan and Marie became official. Especially so in the beginning when Logan was feeling so insecure about the whole relationship thing.

Hank now paid the price for that and got teased back. That's something Logan's very good at when he puts his mind to it, but Hank didn't mind.

He felt very happy with Jubilee and that's all that mattered when all is said and done.