Singing in the Rain
A/N Hi, welcome to chapter five! I'm sorry it took so long to write, so thanks for sticking with me, thanks for reading and feel free to leave a review :-)
Disclaimer: I own nothing, it all belongs to Marvel and Gene Kelly
Charles shivers, and pulls Moira closer to him. They're standing in the doorway of a closed cafe, waiting for the bus and trying to keep out of the rain. She smiles, and tucks her head into his shoulder.
"Brr… why was this is a good idea?" Charles asks, and both laugh.
"We did enjoy the movie." Moira says, thinking back to the moment when she chucked her popcorn all over Charles after she jumped at somebody smashing through the window in Jason Bourne's apartment. She grimaces guiltily, some poor soul is probably still cleaning up the popcorn.
Charles nods, his breath condensing in the cold air as he blows all the air out of his cheeks.
"Yes, it was very good." He agrees, leaning out into the rain to look for the bus. Seeing no headlights, he pulls his head back under the thin ledge protecting their heads from the rain. "But why did we go to the 11.00 p.m. showing?" He raises his eyebrows at her.
She laughs, and rolls her eyes back at him.
"Because you had to meet your friend Erik for dinner, instead of coming with me."
"Oh, yeah. Just like last Friday, when you missed meeting my lovely sister, Raven, to go and quit your job!" Charles protests, and Moira laughs again.
He's right though, she did miss meeting Raven. But quitting her job felt so good, once she'd decided to do it she just couldn't wait any longer. Anyway, she met Raven on Saturday as she was visiting for the weekend, and she was lovely, just like Charles had always claimed.
She remembers the astonishment in the voice of Stryker when she told him she was resigning.
"MACTAGGERT!" He'd spluttered down the phone. "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS?"
"Yes, sir, I'm perfectly serious." She'd replied calmly. "I just don't think this job is for me anymore."
"But you're one of our best agents!" Was the best excuse he'd come up with to try and persuade her to stay.
"Well, isn't that a shame." Moira had replied. "If you'd told me all this before, perhaps I would have stayed."
Then she hung up.
Charles had been surprised when she told him she'd quit her job, and when he asked her why she'd shocked herself by telling him the truth. She'd told him her job was dull, tiresome, and required her to leave Oxford, which she never wanted to do.
Then Charles had grinned, and helped her get a job as a journalist with the Oxford Times, and had even helped her search for a nice apartment.
Moira glances at Charles, who is looking out for the bus again, and smiles to herself.
Charles ducks his head back under and shakes off the rain like a dog, with much protesting from Moira.
He shivers, then looks at her quizzically. She frowns.
"What?" She asks, and he laughs.
"I just realised, although I made you watch Star Wars, you never told me what your favourite film was." He grins, and she bites her lip, thinking.
"Singing in the Rain." She says finally, and Charles pulls a face. "What?"
"A musical?" Charles protests. Moira rolls her eyes.
"Boys can like musicals too, you know."
"I know. Just this one doesn't. I mean, they just sing."
"Well, that is the point of a musical." Moira replies dryly, and Charles laughs again.
"But it's so dull." Charles continues, and Moira puts a hand up grumpily to silence him.
"If I watch your favourite films, you can watch mine."
"But you liked Star Wars."
"True, but I hated Die Another Day." She points out, and Charles groans.
"I don't see why you hate James Bond so much!"
Moira sighs. She's explained this before.
"Because I hate the fact that all the Bond girls do is look pretty! I mean, Halle Berry's character was pretty good, but all the female characters do is get wooed by Bond, dumped by Bond, and maybe die a dramatic death if they're lucky!" She says grumpily, and Charles laughs.
"But they're of their time."
"Then why are they still making them now, in 2002, when feminism and empowerment is on the rise?" Moira asks. Charles shakes his head, chuckling.
"Okay, I get your point there, but what about the entertainment aspect? It's so exciting! All the spy stuff. Wouldn't you want to be a spy like him?"
Moira scoffs.
"Those films are so inaccurate. Being a spy is nothing like that, I assure you. It's all paperwork and binoculars, they just glam it up for the films." She bites her tongue before she can say more and curses herself. You idiot, Moira!
She sneaks a look at Charles, who is looking at her with an amused smile on his face. She blushes, and turns away.
"And how would dear Miss Mactaggert know so much about spies?" Charles teases. She hesitates. He should probably know, shouldn't he? Well, here goes nothing.
"Because dear Miss Mactaggert was a spy, for five years." Charles stays silent, so she continues. "For the wonderful CIA, filing reports, being whistled at, and receiving many comments about letting the 'real men' do the work."
Charles takes in a deep breath.
"When did you quit?" She sneaks another glance at him; he's watching her intently, serious for once.
"Last Friday."
"What did they say?"
She shrugs.
"Don't know, wasn't really listening."
"Why did you quit?"
"Was sick of it. Wanted to stay here."
Charles smirks suddenly then.
"And why did you want to stay here?"
That little smirk and those words let Moira know that it's okay, that she hasn't just thrown away the best relationship she's ever had. She smiles in relief, and is again relieved when he smiles back.
"Oh, no reason." She feigns indifference, and looks out down the street. Charles opens his mouth in mock horror, and pokes her arm. She gives in quickly. "Okay, I stayed because of you."
He laughs, and pulls both arms around her to kiss her forehead.
"Wow, Moira Mactaggert-Bond quitting her glamorous job as a spy for a science student at Oxford. Lucky me. And now I understand why you hate Bond films." He muses.
Moira laughs into his chest.
"Also it's really pretty here."
He nods.
"That it is."
They stand for a few seconds, swaying slightly, both smiling. Moira gasps, then pulls back. Charles looks at her in confusion.
"What?" He asks.
"I've worked out why you don't like musicals." She tells him triumphantly. He continues to frown.
"And that would be because…."
"Because you can't sing."
"And why would that have any effect on my liking of musicals?"
"You told me you liked drama at school, and that your school did alternate years of plays and musicals. That means, every other year, you missed a play, which you hated, as you couldn't sing and therefore couldn't audition for the play."
Charles stares at her for a second.
"Case solved." He chuckles. "Let me amend your name to Moira Mactaggert-Holmes."
He taps her on the nose. "But, I believe I have the voice of an angel."
"Is that a commonly held opinion?" She asks cheekily, and he pokes her shoulder in outrage.
"Watch me." He tells her. "I will serenade you with a song from your favourite film."
Moira raises her eyebrows, but gestures for him to start.
As Moira expected, Charles begins to sing in one of the worst voices she has ever heard. And she went to school with her childhood best friend Emma Frost, who couldn't carry a tune to save her life. She got kicked off the school choir at 8 because of it, poor girl.
"I'm singing in the rain…" Charles sings, and even though it's bad Moira finds herself humming along and liking the song nonetheless. "What a glorious feeeling, I'm happy again." He tries to hit a note, and fails dismally, resulting in Moira shoving him out from under the cover and into the actual rain. He doesn't miss a beat, and keeps singing to her, complete with dramatic arm gestures.
"I'm laughing at the clouds, so dark up above!" He reaches out a hand to catch hers, and pulls her out onto the pavement. He's already soaked to the skin, and soon Moira is too. She sings along with him, laughing as he spins her round.
"The sun's in my heart, and I'm ready for love! I walk down the lane, with a happy refrain, just singin' , just singin' in the raaaaiiinnn." They finish, with a final spin and arm throw.
Now they're not dancing, they're cold again and very wet, and Charles shivers, and wraps his arms around Moira again.
"I never knew I knew all the words to that song." Charles laughs.
"I did." Moira says, and just then, Charles spots some headlights and pulls away from Moira. He jumps up and down madly, waving his arms and shouting to the bus driver who can't hear him whilst Moira bends over double laughing at him.
The bus driver stops the bus, opens the doors, then raises his eyebrows at them, and looks between the rain dripping off of Charles' hair and the dry bus floor. Charles gives him his most winning smile, and Moira is surprised the driver doesn't immediately let them on, and let them take the bus for free.
"No." He says, and shuts the door and drives off.
Charles frowns, then turns to Moira with a shrug.
"I'd suppose we'd better get walking then."
She laughs, and links her arm through his.
"I suppose that's true."