Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.
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Shopping bags at their feet and food cart Indian on their laps, it was a lot like her first time though today she had dared try something a little bolder than the mild. Just as before the sun was still high in the sky, a day full of boundless possibilities.
"I should get her to play tour guide for us." Jean said after a mouthful of flavourful rice.
"Huh?" Rogue asked, drawn from her thoughts as she enjoyed her own meal.
"Jubilee, I should ask her to show us around before we have to head back." Jean answered, wiping her mouth with a napkin.
"You ever try skateboarding?" Rogue asked with a fond smile.
"No, but I've had to clean enough cuts and mend some bones after my students have." Jean admitted.
Getting to know through a game of quid pro quo with questions, she imagined Jean dressed up in skater gear and snickered at the absurd sight made even more delightful thinking of her friend coaxing her on and outpacing her down the paths at the beach. Shaking her head and getting back to her lunch, the breeze carried more than the aroma of the food cart causing her to look on up the street.
"Here comes trouble." Jean whispered in a conspiratorial tone, breaking off a piece of her naan to pile with rice and a bit of beef.
Scott was easy enough to pick out of the crowd, his characteristic glasses catching the rays from the sun and glittering in the afternoon. Yet as the crowd parted, her friend looked even more grumpy than when they had parted ways, their days promising very different trips.
"Hey Bud." Rogue greeted, offering up a bite of her Indian.
"I can't feel my face." Jubilee mumbled, pursing her lips and scrambling up the wall to find a seat beside her after waving off the offered morsel.
"Huh?" Rogue asked with a pointed look to Scott.
"The Good News, they were among her last of three kiddie teeth living on borrowed time, the bad news...six cavities. She opted for local...she didn't want to go under." Scott explained, leaning up beside his onetime charge and giving her a friendly pat on the knee.
Unable to resist the urge given the confidence of her new gloves, Rogue reached to poke her friends nose once and her cheek twice earning baleful eyes glaring up at her. A snort, a sputter, and a giggle came before hearty laughter. It was laughter that was so welcome and needed after everything she had been through, infectious as she soon wasn't alone with even Jubilee chuckling a little and poking herself.
"Hey Boy Scout, can ya get me a bit of surf and turf from the cart, spicy." Jubilee asked after her stubborn laughter had faded.
"Boy Scout?" Rogue asked, looking between them for answers.
"He carries floss in his pocket, who does that?." Jubilee huffed, raising an eyebrow in silent question to the man who was looking down at her from behind aviator sunglasses.
"I thought you said you didn't want ice cream because your teeth hurt, I can't see Indian doing you any favours." Scott shot back.
"Duh, never heard of a doggy bag? Indian keeps, ice cream melts. Seriously Red, I don't know what ya see in this guy." Jubilee explained, leaning past to look to her elder who was hiding a smile behind a napkin.
"He has his redeeming qualities." Jean giggled.
Seeing the hands held apart and Jubilee looking at Jean with curious eyes, Rogue nearly choked on her lunch while Jean burst out laughing catching the unspoken meaning while the poor man in question made a strategic retreat to get a couple orders of Indian. Giving the girl a playful swat just the same, it was good to see her up to the kind of trouble she had grown accustomed and endeared to.
"Here." Scott said in offer as he came back with two orders of Indian along with a couple of drinks.
"Straight moo cow? You couldn't have gotten me choco?" Jubilee complained as she took the offered carton of milk.
"Says Miss Six Cavities, like ya need anymore sugar." Rogue pointed out, earning a stuck tongue tossed her way.
Watching the crowds and enjoying snippets of conversation, as much as it pained her Rogue felt that the spell woven with all the time alone together shopping had been broken by her friend coming back with Scott. Time and again she looked off to Jean with a question on her lips, but instead bit it back and smiled wanly instead. Feeling a hand on hers, she looked to see Jean's slender one giving her a gentle squeeze that said enough.
There's always later.
The words were the memory of a whisper and she looked to Jean surprised at first before just giving a nod after remembering just who she was with. Probably 'Leaking' as she had called it, there was much in that back and forth of questions she still wanted to ask but much of it she wanted to keep from Jubilee, too many questions she didn't want her to hear and fret over. It was nice to have someone to have some girl time with, someone she could go to for answers or just to hear out all her own worries and fears.
"Whoa, whose bag is this?" Jubilee asked.
"Don't just go snoopin' ya snoop!" Rogue growled, noticing her friend rummaging through the shopping bags.
"This a swimsuit or lingerie?" Jubilee questioned, pulling out a garment from the one bag.
"Put that back!" Rogue shrieked, blushing out of sheer embarrassment.
Showing just how nimble she could be, Jubilee ducked out of reach with the bag and looked at the creamy green swimsuit bikini with a yellow floral pattern accented by bead bedecked silver chains. Next came a sheer sarong, sandals and a sunglasses that were quickly modelled by the little thief.
"Remy and Roguey, necking on the beach..." Jubilee sang ala a horrible cover of a children's taunt.
"I'll whoop ya if ya don't put that stuff back!" Rogue growled, leaping to her feet and chasing after her friend.
Watching the teens and looking to another, Jean pushed a bag across to Scott who had a peek in and blushed about as red as his shades.
"How could I pass up a chance to visit Frederick's of Hollywood." Jean giggled, gathering up the rest of her bags and leaving Scott to play porter.
"That isn't...is it?" Scott asked with a nod off to where Rogue had finally caught up to Jubilee.
"Goodness no, I made that trip myself while she was at the café, though we did go shopping for swimwear together. Perhaps I should have Ororo fetch Lorna and all us girls could go get something for the beach." Jean chastised, her mind wandering off into some musing thoughts towards that private stretch of sand running along the welcome waves.
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Off the main drag and down an alley was a mechanic shop of questionable morals that worked mostly in cash, and paid that way for cars that once behind the shop doors never came out other than in boxes. Pulling up and eyeing the camera, Remy pulled out his pack of smokes and tapped out one, lighting up with a lighter and waiting. It didn't take long for the bay door to open, pulling in and listening to muffling sound of work being done. The air was thick with oil and the sweat of the mechanic's brows, the whine of air wrenches and hammer of impact guns, and the acrid smoke of welding torches.
"Didn't expect to see you again LeBeau."
Looking to a bear of a man in greasy coveralls, Remy smirked and gave a nod, cutting his engine and climbing off. A handshake lead to a gruff hug, hearty pats on the back and deep laughter that shook their chests.
"That be an interesting story, Phil mon frere." Remy replied, running a hand through his hair and looking around the shop once again.
"I figured that much, Vince turning up...you know..." Phil said, shaking his head unable to finish.
Hissing a breath and drawing long on his cigarette, that had been some of the news Remy had heard about though a few phone calls to the right people. Motioned off to an office built upon the parts room, with the door closed the noise of the shop was gone. From a shelf littered with parts for his personal projects Phil grabbed two glasses and set them down on his desk. Next came a bottle of whiskey, the cork eased free and the glasses filled. Nothing was said as they drank to the dead.
"Been a while since I've seen that bike, you running?" Phil asked as he filled the glasses once more.
Swirling around his whiskey and staring into the amber glow, Remy wetted his lips that were dry at the question. Anytime trouble like this before had come knocking at his door he would have been putting as many miles between him and it peeling out on the very same bike that brought him here today. Swigging his drink and savouring the burn in his belly, he gratefully accepted the refill and looked to his friend from across the desk.
"Non, I be sticking around, the town...it grow on me." Remy replied.
"I have go worry about someone knocking at my door?" Phil asked with all the warmth gone from his voice.
"No more than usual, no more than I be what with being a loyal customer and all." Remy said, slipping his shades down to stare at Phil with his red on black eyes.
"Way I heard it you don't got a door for anyone to knock on anymore." Phil shot back, looking down to find his glass empty and filling it once again.
Closing his eyes against the visions he had come up with, his mind working all too well to paint that picture, Remy clenched his teeth as he imagined Victor knocking on his door that night only to find Jubilee there instead of him. It hadn't been hard, too many nights in Westchester with her waking out of nightmares of that meeting. That had been when he had laid down the law, that they had to go home. Never did he imagine how earnest the man really wanted to help them, not until that jet of theirs spirited them off to Malibu and a house that looked freshly furnished. A place for you all to mend.
"I be staying with some friends." Remy answered, finishing off his drink.
"The kid alright?" Phil asked in a quieter tone.
"Oui, she be getting there." Remy replied, waving off the offer of another belt of whisky.
"Send her by if she needs any quick cash, I always got parts to run." Phil added, corking the bottle and leaving it between them.
Giving a nod and thinking of that introduction, with a ghost of a smile Remy thought of all the ways the two had helped another in the back and forth of the relationship that had been built upon one chance meeting.
"So, what brings you to my humble place of business." Phil asked at last.
"Need the girl running and looking her best, got a lady I be meaning to introduce her to and I be wanting to impress." Remy answered, grinning at the curious look Phil threw his way.
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"I went for one and came back with two, it seems Lorna and the boys were entertaining a guest who had dropped by."
Jean looked up to Ororo who had just walked in off the street to the sidewalk café where she was sitting with Rogue and Jubilee. Lorna was easy to pick out of the crowd, fitting right in and drawing looks to her vivid green hair with a streak of white, hair of such luster that no dye could match. Looking at first just like another of the crowd at first, a tangled knot of emotions was enough to let her know that this was no stranger.
"C, CynJenn?" Jubilee sputtered.
Fear, shame, embarrassment, worry, were a new knot of emotions standing out of all the background noise she had learned to deal with at last with the help of her mentor. Relief came two fold with a smile, the lady she now knew to be Cynthia rushing to the table to pull Jubilee into a hug. Having only spoken on the phone, the onetime babysitter turned big sister had Jubilee in her arms and was whispering soothing words at their reunion.
"I know you said you'd stop by after...well, I just couldn't wait any longer." Cynthia said with a chuckle and misty eyes.
Waiting with a smile hidden by her coffee, Jean turned her attention to the recent arrivals and found it nice that Lorna and Rogue were already chatting away quietly with a few stolen looks to the spectacle beside them.
"When Miss Munroe said we were going shopping for bikinis it took some convincing for Bobby and John to stay behind." Lorna relayed, blushing and smiling just the same.
"How did ya manage that if ya don't mind my askin'?" Rogue turned the question to Ororo who looked a touch mischievous.
"Car keys and enough cash to see them to a full tank and a meal somewhere on the road. I just told them my two rules, no fighting and no accidents of any sort. Otherwise I would wash them out to sea." Ororo confessed.
Together at last with one welcome addition, Jean found herself fondly looking at the friendships new and old with the affection shared between them. Jubilee sitting on Cynthia's lap secure in the arms that had held her back when she had been a child, Lorna and Rogue bonding over shared fate and hardships, and her own old friend looking at her in just that way as if she were the one who could read minds.
"Well then ladies, shall we?" Jean asked.
Paying the bill and taking to the streets, with all the heads turning their way Jean let herself enjoy it and shielded herself from all those unguarded and unwanted thoughts. The peace she enjoyed now was something she hadn't known years before when she had been just as young as the teens ahead, back when she had been even younger than Jubilee. Her self control and the temper of her shields then hadn't been as true as today, forced to be privy to a cacophony of often carnal thoughts that had left her distraught and disturbed.
Dressing baggy clothing and working hard to hide who she was in more ways than one, the nature of those unwanted whispered thoughts changed to something she could tolerate until the day a kindly man came knocking at her door with a clean cut boy who looked her deeply in the eye and found beauty staring back at him despite all her efforts.
"So, just where did Scott get off to?" Ororo asked, drawing her back from her musing.
"How did you...?" Jean started to ask until she was met with startling blue eyes with a wink.
"I can always tell when you are thinking about him, you smile just so...and your eyes go distant." Ororo answered with a chuckle and a play at matching the expression.
"Grocery shopping. But back to the subject of missing men, just where did Remy get off to?" Jean answered one question to pose another.
"He had some errands to run it seemed." Ororo replied, glancing off to Rogue who was looking over her shoulder at them at the mere mention of that name.
Wondering just what those errands could be, only time would tell even as curious as she was. Coming to the very same store both she and Rogue had shopped at earlier, the sales lady remembered them and seemed more than happy to leave them to browse.
"I think this one would look great on you Jubilee." CynJenn called out from the children's section.
"Oh ha ha." Jubilee grumbled from where she was browsing with Rogue.
"Actually it just might fit you." Rogue noted with a chuckle, looking off to the silly swimsuit.
"I think it looks delightful." Ororo added.
Trying to tamp down her smile at the game afoot, Jean wandered off to where Lorna seemed to be spending all too much time looking at the prices rather than the suits themselves. Gently placing a hand on her shoulder and her chin on the other, she wrapped her up in a hug.
"I think maybe once we're home you and I should go have a day out, just the two of us." Jean asked in a hushed voice.
"Like you and Rogue?" Lorna asked, biting her lip and looking at the swimsuits as an escape of how nervous she found herself suddenly.
"Exactly like that, you've both been through more than any girl your age should." Jean replied, looking off to where Rogue had joined Cynthia in picking out an assortment of childish swimsuits to torment their young friend with.
"I'd like that." Lorna softly answered, letting herself be walked around the shop in the welcome embrace.
"Now this...this just might look wonderful on you." Jean said, plucking a suit off the rack.
"It's pink..." Lorna groused.
"Yes, and with your hair I just think they might compliment one another in just that special way." Jean chuckled, adding it to what she would make sure was a good pile for consideration.
By the time she had Lorna into the fitting room to find one she liked out of them all, an impromptu fashion show was taking place a few doors down with a less than pleased model. Stomping out with arms crossed and a pout that wasn't helped by her missing teeth, Jean couldn't stifle her laugh at how much younger Jubilee looked.
"I am gonna kick your collective butts, you all are worse than Remy." Jubilee grumbled, spinning gracelessly as Cynthia motioned for her to.
Despite the threats there was an undercurrent of enjoyment that Jean found lifting, joining the rest and waiting for Lorna to join the show. Instead of the jokes and jibes that Jubilee suffered, compliments and a few cat calls greeted her.
"Wow, puberty fairy sure didn't pass you up huh?" Jubilee mumbled after a sideways glance to Lorna.
"Next!" Cynthia ordered, taking over the show.
In short order the two were walking out together, Lorna playing up the role of a model with a few mishaps that were laughed off, while Jubilee raced through her torment until finally some more suiting swimsuits were added to her pile.
"I like this one." Jubilee noted, stepping out and standing firm.
"You look like a boy." Cynthia spat, stepping up to her stubborn friend and tugging and toying with the swim suit that was more trunks and a tank top.
"So what? Not like I ever get any boys lookin' my way." Jubilee huffed.
"There's John." Rogue added, Lorna looking her way just then.
Joining Ororo in keeping quiet over the obvious crush their hot tempered student was nursing for Jubilee, Jean didn't need to read minds to see the curiosity roused in Cynthia as she looked at them all.
"Who's John?" Cynthia asked only to have Jubilee furrow her brows and purse her lips.
"Just some guy." Jubilee growled, stalking off to the dressing room for a moments privacy that was denied as Cynthia joined her.
Not alone in laughing as they listened to the fight going on in the dressing room, Jean was surprised at the sheer audacity Cynthia had, bursting out of the dressing room with Jubilee's clothes in hand and all the other swimsuits it seemed other than one the girl had been complaining over.
"Anyway Lorna, I still think that pink number is you, why don't you get it and pick out a few you like." Jean said with a cough hearing the unladylike words spilling out of the occupied dressing room nearest them.
Rewarded with a smile that brightened her day and a wash of emotions so strong they battered her shields bidding entrance, Jean let her shields slip just enough to revel in the moment. Catching Cynthia dropping off the rest of the swimsuits and bundling up the pilfered pile of clothes, she gave the young lady a wink for luck knowing she might need it feeling the roiling frustration rolling out from the dressing room.
"Hey, store lady! They're buying this one too, I'm not shopliftin' or nothing!" Jubilee barked out as she stormed from the dressing room in a bikini to chase after her friend and her purloined clothes.
Teasing taunts and laughter were heard with the chiming of the bell at the doors, Cynthia racing out with Jubilee hot on her trail. Shaking their heads in disbelief, Jean joined Ororo in finding a swimsuit, Rogue helping Lorna picking through the possible pile to find the few definite ones to join the pink bikini that complimented her hair. Around the time they were all at the cash with their purchases the bell rang again and the doors parted, Jubilee making a bee line for the dressing room with her street wear.
"Enjoy your purchases." The clerk said, doing her best to appear professional after all the antics.
"Thank you, I believe we shall." Jean said pleasantly.
Waiting at the doors with the rest for Jubilee to come along, in a huff and with stomping feet she did, the odd one out of their number who strolled on down the street with bags over their shoulders wholly enjoying the day. The sun was hanging low in the sky, the promise of a sunset awaiting them at the beach along with the men who loved them.
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