Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
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Waking to the sound of horrid slurping, Rogue rolled over in her bed and rather than be irritated found herself smiling at the source of the noise. Resting nearby with an expectant expression, Jubilee had her feet kicked up in the air as she laid on her belly, a glass of milk in her hands that she was set to get the last dregs of with the loud pink straw. Greeted with the grin she had grown to love of the girl, only the sight of two missing teeth darkening the mood for her.
"Rogue?" Jubilee asked, her eyes brimming with tears.
"Yeah Bud?" Rogue croaked past the lump suddenly in her throat, remembering the declaration on the beach at sunset.
"Pull yer blanket over your head please." Jubilee sputtered, her lip trembling though the smile standing strong.
A question was on her lips as to why, but all it took to quiet it was the glance past where she found Remy standing at the french doors with a cigarette burning lazily in his lips. A wink had her banish the world under the blanket, hardly a second passed when she knew the reason now. Tackled and taken up into a hug, after a breathless second she turned the tables and wrapped her friend up in the blanket and hugged her tightly back. Laying there together just listening to the waves, glad eyes peeked out from the blanket followed by a happy grin made all the more impish by those missing teeth now.
Watching from the corner of her eye, her beau crossed the floor to topple down on the bed, laying in a carefree pose with his arms behind his head. He didn't say anything, he didn't need to, just as last night the world felt right once again with just the three of them there. Acting purely on impulse, all it took were the first few tickles to find out how ticklish her blanket wrapped friend was. Laughter filled the room right down to a few quiet chuckles from Remy, laughter so loud and needed she might have missed the knock at her door had it not been for those stolen senses of hers.
"Entrez." Remy called out.
"I hope we're not disturbing." Jean apologised as she entered.
Behind her Ororo followed with Scott coming in last, the door closed once more. Never letting go of her breathless friend, Rogue watched them find their places, Ororo at the french doors while Jean and Scott took the chesterfield.
"Mood kill much." Jubilee grumbled from under the blankets.
Hugging her tight and seeing how Jean frowned, she wondered at the significance but held her tongue. There was indecision in the air, worry and concern, a breath all it took to let the scents tell their secrets the placid facades and frozen faces tried to keep.
"How are you feeling?" Jean asked.
"Whole mess of confused." Rogue answered shortly.
"That's to be expected, the Professor did what he could, but..." Jean started, closing her eyes and smiling as Scott wrapped her hand up in his.
"But?" Rogue asked.
Shame was a fresh scent surprisingly close, feeling Jubilee curl in on herself in the blankets, concern coming from so many directions. Not realising she had been growling until a fresh breeze from the ocean cleared the air, she looked up in silent thanks to the woman who stood amidst the fluttering drapes with a serene and understanding smile.
"What did this Professor of yours do ta me?!" Rogue pressed, sighing in aggravation as Jean and Scott shared a look.
"Rogue, do you understand...how your powers work?" Jean tried anew.
Biting her lip and mulling over the question, all she knew before she got on that first bus was that if she touched someone she hurt them. Her first kiss put in a coma, the few that dared touch her after that screaming in pain as if shocked or burnt. Everything since the beach told her just the full scope of this curse of hers.
"I got them in my head." Rogue said in a low quiet voice.
There was a sad smile set upon those avian features of Jean, a nod so subtle she might have imagined it. Yet this was the woman who had helped quell the growling in her mind, the flashes of images of Him that haunted her.
"Erik should fade with time, never completely, but..." Jean whispered, swallowing hard as she tried to find the words for the bitter truth.
"I'm stuck with him, Victor." Rogue completed.
"We've managed to wall off the worst of him, powerful memories always stand out, but he has lived a surprisingly long life. We wanted you awake before we tried to suppress him any further, it's very delicate work." Jean finished.
"That ain't dangerous is it, you're not gonna lobotomies her or something?" Jubilee asked from under her blanket.
"No, it's just...delving that deep into her psyche, we would be bound to come across much of her own memories along the way. We wouldn't want to do so without her being awake." Jean replied daring to sooth over the concern.
Sensing the truth from the play of scents and the body language that couldn't lie, the subtle hints that might go unnoticed, she managed a smile and looked down to her friend who was glaring daggers even still at Jean. Wondering just the reason for this, something about the look Remy threw her as she looked his way hinted at a story.
"You're gonna make me go to the dentist now ain't ya?" Jubilee asked from her safe place under the covers.
"That was the agreement, once she was awake." Jean chuckled, looking relieved as the mood of the room shifted.
Yet as she looked to the refined redhead, Rogue saw that she didn't need to voice her concerns, a look that whispered We'll talk later passed between them. Leaving it at that, everything left unsaid could wait, the questions she still had and whatever price all this help would cost them in the end.
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"I'm gonna kill Remy."
So far in the drive, many threats and promises had been spewed, threats of bodily harm and limbs bending in ways they shouldn't and foreign objects shoved in places that Doctors might puzzle over the x-rays of. Throughout it all he had managed to keep a sombre expression, just meandering through traffic on the errand his lady love had tasked him with. Giving a glance to the rear view, that alone had been a fight, Jubilee stubbornly trying to claim the shotgun seat despite his requests and then orders for her to get into the back all for her own safety.
"When was the last time you were to the dentist?" Scott hazarded the question even if he felt he knew the answer.
Angry eyes glared at him from the rearview, but as she looked away he saw body language he knew how to read all too well, slumped shoulders and a brow pressed to the cool glass. He'd seen them enough in his own reflection over the years, long before his sight was stolen from him until a man came calling at the orphanage.
"I'm guessing you don't floss as often as you should." Scott remarked with a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips.
"Oh like you do..." Jubilee spat.
"When so much is said through a smile..." Scott replied, chuckling as he reached into his pocket to pull out a small travel sized spool of floss.
"You have got to be kidding me, freaking boy scout." Jubilee growled, crossing her arms angrily now and glaring out the window.
Pulling into the parking lot, it was crowded with luxury and sports cars, the Professor having made the recommendation himself in a phone call had in the quiet hours of the evening. Unlocking the doors and helping his current charge out, Scott lead her off to the front steps when a pair of women came out laughing and chatting. Yet as they came to the very end, their gazes lingered on Scott and Jubilee.
"What're you looking at?" Jubilee hissed, her eyes glowering at them and her arms crossed.
"Jubilation." Scott barked firmly but without venom.
"Whoa, back up, it's Jubilee to you..." Jubilee growled, turning her ire about.
"Oh, you have my condolences, I just got through this with my own little hellion." One said to Scott.
"Dork's not my dad." Jubilee muttered, glaring at the one lady.
"You sound just like my Sasha, right up until my current husband bought her that Boxster for her birthday. Then it was all 'Oh I love you Daddy!'." The lady prattled on.
"If it doesn't work out, call me." The second lady huskily whispered as she leaned in with a business card.
Shell shocked to say the least, Scott watched them wander off down the street to join the crowds of Los Angeles. Flicking it into the trash as he headed up the steps, with a look down the stairs he urged his companion to pick up the pace.
"I'm totally telling Red that you were flirting with them." Jubilee grumbled as she was pushed in.
"You're forgetting she reads minds." Scott chuckled.
"Uh huh, and I'm sure she'll see that eyeful of the bimbo tits you had shoved in your face by miss 'Call me'." Jubilee smugly shot back.
Suddenly wishing he was the one destined for the chair, Scott looked down to the girl at his side with a newfound respect. Coughing into his fist and leading the way to the receptionist, he once again felt a fresh wave of concern for her as she timidly walked after the dentist for her appointment.
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"Do ya usually take people who yer lookin' ta get into their head shopping?"
Holding up a shirt against her chest for a look at the full length mirror, a ghost of a memory played in the reflection, one of Remy from that happy time before everything had gone to hell. Picturing him smiling now as he had then, she added it to the growing pile that were destined for the change room. Like a skipped stone across still waters, the memories were coming back now of that magical day, thinking of Jubilee stomping out of those very same change rooms in outfit after outfit. Feeling a hand on her shoulder and flinching out of fear, the reflection that met her in that mirror showed a smiling woman behind her.
"I find it's best to get to know each other a bit better, learn to trust one another before we get into something so delicate. Having memories we both share make for good anchors." Jean said softly, withdrawing her hand after seeing the flinch.
"It's not...dangerous is it?" Rogue asked, hesitation in her voice.
"No, just...it can be confusing." Jean replied, looking for just the right words.
"So, shopping?" Rogue chuckled.
"In this case yes, the Professor...Charles...suggested this method, rather finding something we could enjoy. Shopping was Remy's idea." Jean answered as she inspected a pair of jeans and added it to her own shopping.
Feeling a blush painting her cheeks and her heart fluttering, Rogue wandered about looking around for something for that promised date yet to come. The temptation to call Jubilee for some advice came, but thinking about just where her poor friend was, she tamped it down. Younger she may be, that girl was worldly in a way she envied, feeling the proverbial country mouse in the big city.
"So, how did you meet Remy?" Jean asked after a time, both in the change rooms now with only a wall between them.
The bluntness of the question startled her, hopping about on one foot to get out of the jeans that were destined for the keep pile. Falling hard on her butt, memories of that first night came back in a blur, so much fear and pain roused. But out of it more ripples ran from each skip of that stone, another shopping trip far less glamourous than this, a day spent laughing and falling on her ass just like she had, and a sunset she'd never forget.
"We buds." Rogue whispered, smiling as she peeled her foot out of the jeans.
"Want to see if we can't find that cart once we're done here?" Jean asked after the quiet had come.
"Guess you're gonna be doin' a lot o' that huh?" Rogue laughed despite the feeling of being stripped naked, somehow it wasn't so bad in the present company.
"Trust is a two way street, feel free to ask me your own questions." Jeans laugh came light and lush from beyond that thin wall.
"Favourite ice cream." Rogue asked, feeling still too timid to go asking anything more personal.
"Mint Chocolate Chip, with just a splash of Baileys if I really want to indulge." Jean admitted, the game afoot.
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"I be surprised you didn't go shopping with the ladies." Remy remarked on his way down the rows of storage units.
"I think we both know that Jean wanted a bit of time to get to know Rogue better, and by the way I heard it Lorna and Robert were taking advantage of the trip for some sight seeing." Ororo replied, dressed casually in rough and ragged jeans, a T-shirt that had been tied up to expose her skin to the sunny rays, and a designers take on cowboy boots.
"John?" Remy asked with a sidelong glance.
"He gave me the impression he welcomed the time alone, but I imagine he just needed the time for a bit of self reflection." Ororo supplied.
Digging out a ring of keys and finding one in particular, he undid the lock and rolled up the steel door. Ororo looked off put by the stack of boxes that reached nearly to ceiling along with a good number of mattresses and bags of garbage or clothing if she wasn't mistaken. Grinning at her and starting to work his way through the mess, he came to it at last hidden under another large box that he had her help him with. His pride and joy in life, his Harley, looked lonely after his time living as Rembrandt Laurance.
"Curious place for a bike." Ororo smiled just the same seeing the lingering touches full of paternal pride.
"If you see the place I be calling home until recently, you understand why I keep something like this here." Remy chuckled, a few discreet phone calls telling him all about the mess.
"I hope it was not that other storage locker we found you at." Ororo answered deadpan, but as Remy looked up ready to defend himself he found she was not without a sense of humour as his eyes met hers.
"I lose my security deposit for sure after that, time to find a new place for my Petit and my Rogue." Remy found he could laugh at it all now, a bit bitterly but everything precious to him was safe and sound at last.
"I do know of a school that is very welcoming to strays as it were." Ororo added as she helped him wheel the bike out into daylight.
"You expect a couple o' Southeners and a So Cal girl to go to New York?" Remy asked with an incredulous laugh.
"Actually, the school I had in mind was much closer." Ororo teased, her eyes holding his as she watched him.
Throwing her a look as he opened the gas cap for a sniff, he fished a key from his pocket that had a chain in the likeness of an ace of hearts crafted in brass. Turning the key and giving it a kick, he coaxed his bike to life with a belch of smoke that vanished with a sudden breeze. Reeving the engine and listening to the roar, he looked up from his place with a thoughtful expression cast in his red on black eyes.
"Maybe you give me a brochure, I look it over and think on it." Remy shot back with another reeve of the engine.
"I might be able to scrap something together, arrange a formal tour." Ororo mused, playing the game anew trying to entice the boy as she had years before.
"Bon, now...as much as it wounds me to leave a lady behind, there be someone else who I be offering a lift. No hard feelings, non?" Remy asked.
Shaking her head and smiling, Ororo watched him peel out in a magnificent burn out and vanish down the rows of lockers. Giving a glance to the one at her side, she shook her head at the thought of rolling down that steel door to lock it up. She knew better than to think he'd be coming back here again. Walking alone down the alleyway, her thoughts trailed to just what she would tell her own friends if her hand was forced, it all depending on the answer of three if not four wouldbe students.
"Just a patient teacher and a handful of troublesome kids, was that really how you saw us Charles?" Ororo asked aloud, thinking back to that conversation she had a world away with a country now standing between her and her mentor.
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