A/N: Words can't express how sorry I am, especially since I had this chapter ready since like September. I can't promise I'll update soon, but know that I'm graduating High School and finishing my exams in May so after that everything should change and I'll finally finish this story. I hope so. Thank you for sticking with me and this verse for so long and I love you all!
Arla Logan: Thank you sweetie for sticking with me for so long and I'm so happy you love it! And yeah, Laura and Jamie shippers should really stick around cause well, this chapter is pure shipping gold ;)
Chapter 6: Valentine's Day
February smacked Kurt in the face with paper hearts and white teddy bears. Along with it came their first anniversary and he felt as if he was about to have a heart attack.
Kitty made fun of him mercilessly, wrapping up a gift for Lance – a bunch of guitar picks and a maxi bottle of aspirin and somehow her gift was supposed to be good – instead of giving him advice, like he asked her to.
"You're the worst best friend I have ever seen" Kurt pouted, throwing scotch tape at her. Kitty effortlessly phased through it. "I hate you."
"It's not my fault you have no idea what to do" She chuckled, setting the gift aside. "Like, have you even thought about whether she wants something big or not?"
"She's a girl, girls love grand gestures" Kurt rolled his eyes, but in the back of his mind knew that Violette wouldn't like him to make a huge deal out of it. "Okay, maybe Violette doesn't."
"Exactly" Kitty smiled, walking over to him and patting his head. "You think my gift for Lance is dumb, but actually it's exactly what he needs. Tell me, what would you give a nineteen year old guitarist with chronic headaches trying very hard to convince everyone that he's a tough bad boy?"
She collected the gift and walked out of his room, leaving behind a mess of wrapping paper, ribbons and tape.
"You're the worst!" Kurt yelled over his shoulder, standing up to clean it up.
"You've already said that!" Kitty yelled back.
He smiled, shaking his head.
Bobby put down his controller, whooping when a 'You Are The Party Star' appeared over Princess Daisy's head.
"I hate Mario Party 4" Sam tossed his controller aside, frowning.
"You're just pissed that even the AI beat you at a GameCube game" Bobby chuckled. "Told you Daisy's better than Mario."
"It doesn't even count" Sam huffed, walking over to the console and putting in Super Smash Bros Melee. "Dibs on Luigi."
"Fuck you" Bobby sighed, deciding to settle on Donkey Kong. "So, Sammy boy, you up for a guys' night on the fourteenth?"
"Uhm, not really, dude" Sam scratched the back of his neck and smiled nervously. "Rahne and I are going out to this new Mexican place near the school."
"Oh" Bobby nodded, sighing. "Good for you, I guess."
"Oh, don't be like that, Bobby" Sam nudged him with his elbow. "You can just go out with one of the girls from our year."
"I don't know" He shrugged, focusing on the screen. "I mean, I've never really noticed a girl my type before."
"Except for Jubes."
"I guess" Bobby readied himself, twisting his head every each way during the countdown. "Maybe Roberto will be up for some bro time."
"Nah, he's going out with Juliana Sandoval, you know her right?"
"The blonde with the white Gucci bag?"
"…I guess? I dunno, I don't really look at girls' bags, you know?"
"Remy, I need your help."
"I'm already teaching you French, I'm not a charity" Remy wiped his face with a towel, sighing. He stood up and started to put back the weights and Jamie joined in after a second. "What is it?"
"How do you ask out a girl like Rogue?"
Remy almost dropped the ten pound weight on his foot.
"You want to ask out Rogue?" He felt his stomach drop, because although Jamie was way younger than her and Remy was pretty great, thank you very much, there was still a miniscule chance that Rogue would prefer a good guy over him.
"What?!" Jamie himself almost dropped five pounds on his toes. "Of course not! I just mean, the Rogue type. Tough. Could easily kill you. And by the way, ew. Isn't Rogue, like, dating you or something?"
"Or something" A huge weight fell off Remy's shoulders, something he'd take over crushed toes any day. "You have to woo her, little cupidon. Romance the shit out of her" He blinked, staring at the boy. "Merde, am I even allowed to swear in front of you?"
"I'm fourteen, I've heard worse" Jamie shrugged, putting down the last of the weights. "So, you mean flowers and opening doors, that kind of stuff?"
"Oui" Remy took the towel off the bench, leaving the gym. "Just maybe start of small, alright? Don't scare her off, mon ami."
"Sure thing, mec."
"Don't 'mec' me, you petit-maître."
"Sorry."
Violette sighed, stretching her whole body after their new team's training session. They worked surprisingly well together and she wasn't even the clumsiest one, only thanks to the fact that Alex and Piotr collided with each other mid air and both collapsed on the ground, Piotr with a smoking arm and Alex practically in tears.
She called dibs on the bathroom and ran into the shower, groaning when the hot water hit her sore muscles.
She loved Valentine's Day when she was a child. The crowds of people in New Orleans gave her an opportunity to secure the next few months during one evening of pick pocketing. Besides, it was just a fun holiday. Full of warmth and celebrating love. She never had anyone she could celebrate it with in the original sense, but the older girls used to bring boxes of chocolates and give out one to each kid on the streets. Her mother back when Violette still lived with her used to give her and Jamie small valentines and tiny sweets, kissing their heads and smiling brightly.
But then Mystique happened and she started to live with a bunch of guys and the only one willing to celebrate Valentine's Day was Pietro, but for him the only proper celebration was a lot of sex and none of them were into that.
But now, here she was. Living in the X-Men mansion, with a boyfriend of close to a year, with their first Valentine's Day upon them.
A ridiculously attractive boyfriend with whom she already agreed that they were both willing to have sex sometime in the foreseeable future.
Violette would be lying if she said that she never thought about it. Of course she did, she was seventeen and in a relationship. She had some burning questions about… Stuff. His stuff, mainly.
Anyway, she thought that it would be fitting. Valentine's Day, close to their first anniversary, both of them consenting semi-adults. She felt like the fact that they both almost died three months prior only gave them more reasons to do things they wanted to whenever they got the chance.
And so, Violette walked out of the bathroom with a plan forming in her head.
Laura had no idea why Jamie was even more annoying than usual.
First thing in the morning he gave her a bowl of marshmallow hearts from Lucky Charms and a glass of pink grapefruit juice. Food was food though, so she ate it despite feeling a bit nauseous after clearing the bowl of milk-soaked sugar. The bitter juice helped her keep it down.
On their way to school he insisted on carrying her backpack, although they only walked from the front door to the garage. After they buckled in and Ray started the car, Jamie gave up his turn of choosing the music, asking her what she'd want to listen too. And since she had generally close to no idea what music even was, she chose something that made Bobby and Amara cheer and Roberto cringe. As soon as the CD started to play, Bobby and Amara started to reenact an elaborate chorography.
"All you people look at me like I'm a little girl!" Bobby started to sing throwing his arms up in the air. Amara joined in and Roberto just sunk into the seat.
"I didn't know you like Britney Spears" Jamie gave her a smile.
"I don't know who she is" Laura shrugged. "I just liked the color of the cover."
It was a nice blue. Jamie reached for the box and turned it over in his hands, reading through the track list. Laura couldn't help but notice that the cover matched his eyes perfectly.
"It is nice" He agreed, putting it down with the rest.
"What do you like?" Because unless it was Britney Spears, this whole thing made no sense. Why would he give up his turn? He always battled with everyone when it came to music choices.
He pointed towards an album with a man's face and bold white Radiohead written over a red band.
"Radiohead's The Bends is incredible" Jamie gave her a small smile. "It's a bit older than most of the stuff here. It played the first time Miss Munroe drove me to school, cause Ray left it in the day before."
"Maybe we can play it on the way back" She proposed quietly, looking out of the window.
She could hear Jamie's heartbeat pick up, but it also made no sense at all.
"I'd like that."
The whole day Jamie kept on bugging her even more than usual. At lunch he wanted to carry her tray and she could hear most of their classmates snicker when they saw it. They surely thought she was incapable of doing things herself now. Her instinct kicked in and she practically ripped the tray out of Jamie's hands, growling. His smile fell a bit. She grumbled and handed the tray back to him.
On their way back she passed Ray the Radiohead CD and closed her eyes, listening. By the time they were back at the mansion, she had four songs memorized, the lyrics of one of them bouncing around her head.
She looks like the real thing. She tastes like the real thing. My fake plastic love.
She almost asked Ray to replay the song. Almost. But they were already at the gates so she didn't bother to.
Tabitha sat on the ledge of her room's balcony, swinging her legs back and forth. There was a small heap of snow covering her thighs, but she ignored the chill crawling its way under her skin, watching the mansion's front door.
Soon enough, Alex opened the door and let Lorna walk out first. Tabby smiled and took a hold of the bucket next to her, dumping its contents onto the couple. Alex screamed as the snow got under his scarf, unused to the chill after years spent in Hawaii. Lorna was mostly okay, but she still glared at Tabitha and the metal railing of the balcony creaked ominously. Just to be safe, Tabby got back to her room, setting the bucket down next to Amara's bed.
They were going out, Tabitha, Jubilee, Ray and the two oblivious idiots that were her best friend and her best friend's almost boyfriend.
Tabby checked herself out in the mirror and smiled at her own reflection, before walking over to her door and opening it wide, smacking someone with it.
"Sorry" She walked over to Piotr, prepared to see a bloody nose or something in similar fashion, but she was pleasantly surprised to see him in his steel form. "Nice."
"Thank you?" He changed back, her compliment clearly confusing him.
Tabby could swear that an actual light bulb appeared over her head.
"Hey, Pete" She tried to run her fingers through his hair, but he was too tall for her to do it without climbing on her toes. She settled on putting her hand on his shoulder. "Wanna hang out with us?"
"You?"
"Just some mutants" She patted his chest, noting just how firm it was even without the steel coverage. "We're going bowling and stuff. Come on" Tabby gave him no opportunity to say no and grabbed his hand, running down the stairs.
Somehow, no one was really that surprised to see her dragging an over 260 lbs Russian behind her. They pilled into the X-Van and Tabby had to stop herself from laughing at how ridiculous Piotr looked crammed into the passenger seat. As soon as Ray parked in front of the bowling alley Pyro and Amara disappeared, leaving the four them behind.
"And they're clearly not dating" Jubilee rolled her eyes and walked into the building, with a snickering Ray behind her.
"Come on, tin-man" Tabby grabbed his elbow and started to pull him inside. "We have to kick their asses."
The minute Kurt stepped through the front doors of the Institute Violette grabbed him and started to pull him towards the backyard.
"Well, hi to you too, Liebchen" He chuckled, dropping his bag near the stairs.
"Shut up and just follow me, okay?" She turned to him with a serious look on her face. "I really don't want anyone to get the stupid idea to follow us."
"You could just tell me where we're going" For some reason he had this dumb smile on his face that infuriated Violette to no end whenever it was directed at her. His 'Gotcha' smile reserved mostly for people he was messing with. "And I could just port us there."
"Nice try" She huffed, smiling back. "But your room is right next to Scott's and Laura is doing her homework."
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"That's pretty sad, cause I thought we've thought of the same thing today."
Kurt's eyes widened and his mouth formed into a circle. Violette had to bite the inside of her cheek to not laugh.
"Oh."
"Oh indeed."
Kurt obediently followed her into the backyard, around the pool and into the edge of the woods surrounding the grounds before saying another word.
"Don't you want to be somewhere… With a roof, heating and stuff?" He cleared his throat, before brushing his hair back with his free hand.
"Like what? The mansion with Jean who's slowly starting to read people's minds without permission? Some fancy-shmancy hotel? Kurt, we're broke."
"True" He nodded and she knew perfectly well that beneath the holo-watch he was blushing.
They reached the place she chose for that occasion, a small clearing with a blanket tossed over the grass and a small bag next to it. Violette dropped Kurt's hand and straightened up the blanket, before facing him and smiling nervously.
"So…"
Kurt leaned in and kissed her, his hands slowly grabbing at her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, giving him the go to lower them onto the ground. Kurt complied, slowly laying her down on the blanket but keeping his weight on his forearms as if not to crush her. Violette wrapped her leg around his hips and forcefully pushed down, giggling when Kurt let out a small moan as soon as their hips collided.
It was going great. Up until she remembered that it was the middle of February and snow started to fall around them.
"I fucking hate the world" She complained as they walked into the mansion.
"We'll try again later, liebchen" Kurt wrapped his arm around her waist.
Alex cleared his throat and offered his arm to Lorna, staring deep into her eyes. She giggled, taking it and let him lead her into the mall.
"So" Lorna suddenly turned around and stepped in front of him, her hand grasping his while she walked backwards. "What are we doing here?"
"We're getting some chinese, cause I know you love it" He pointed towards the food court, smiling. "And then we're going to the arcade so you can beat my ass in Dance Dance Revolution."
"Alex Summers" She abruptly stopped and he almost fell over trying not to crash into her. "You've just described the perfect date in a sentence. Keep that up and I don't even know what I'm going to do with you."
"Keep, I hope" He winked, before turning her around and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
Once they've come back, Jubilee and Ray with angry frowns on their faces while Tabitha sat on Piotr's shoulders victorious, Amara tugged John aside, giggling. She waited until their friends walked through the front doors before turning to him and smiling widely.
"I've had so much fun" She grabbed his hands, squeezing them. "Thank you for tonight."
"It was all Jubes' idea" He smiled back. "But I'm glad ye had fun."
'This is it' Thought Amara. 'If I just lean in, we'll kiss.'
She licked her lips and her hands slowly traveled up to his shoulders. She was about to stand on her tip toes and lean in when he took a hold of her forearms and delicately pried her hands away from his body.
"Amara" He looked deep into her eyes, sighing. "We can't."
She tried to swallow down her hurt pride and nodded, feeling her eyes sting with unshed tears.
"I really care about you, sheila" He brushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. "Maybe in a few years, aye?"
She nodded, hiding her face in his neck and wrapping her arms around his waist.
It was almost time for her to sleep when she heard the knock on her door. Laura sniffed the air, before telling Jamie to come in.
Yes, he was annoying. But they were also kind of friends. And maybe he was looking for his sister.
"So, I don't know if you noticed, but it's Valentine's Day" He shrugged, scratching the back of his neck. "And it's kind of a big deal, but not really. It's, like, a holiday when u give stuff to people you like to show them that you like them and… Yeah, I should have probably told you in the morning, but never mind. Anyway, I have something for you."
He gave her a pink piece of paper cut into the shape of a heart, with a smaller, red heart drawn in the middle. Laura turned it around and took off the small candy taped to the back before reading the message written beneath it.
'You're awesome. Jamie.'
"I don't have anything to give to you" It's not like she knew she was supposed to.
"It's okay" He smiled. "Can we hug though? Because I feel like this moment needs a hug."
Laura nodded, taking a tentative step towards him. Jamie wrapped his arms around her and pressed his cheek against her temple. Laura let her body relax a bit, returning the hug.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Laura."
His body was warm against hers, and the only person she has ever had that much physical contact with excluding fighting was Logan. It felt very different though, but she decided to ignore it for now.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Jamie" She repeated, tucking the information away along with the date.
'Next year, I'll have something for him.'