Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.
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She had a new bed, a new room, and even a new view from her window. And from that bed she looked to her window and saw him there, just as she always had ever since that day she felt something stir beneath her breast and within her belly. He was dressed in jeans and slick with sweat, his shirt laying on the floor as he tried to cool himself from the humid heat. They were in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills in fact, and this was her new home away from home.
He was smoking like he did when he had some thinking to do, a habit he'd gotten into once the new Headmistress had taken over the school. Like a toothpick he'd chew on the cheap ones that were never lit no matter how much he wanted to, using them instead to point with as he bellowed and barked in class. He was the Headmaster of the School of Hard Knocks, a loner that had learned teamwork when it counted, and he taught them everything he had learned from too many hard lessons.
His cigar smelt sweet, alluring and just harsh enough to lend itself a hint of danger. They were Contraband because they were Cuban, but they were a gift given for helping them move and that made it all the better to him because it let him break the rules.
She sat on her bed now imagining herself in some far off local, perhaps there should have been mosquito netting like lace draped from the posts of her new bed, but the sheen of sweat over her skin was enough to believe herself in the tropics. He sat there with his back to her as he sat lost in thought, the smoke of his cigar drifting into the night catching the light.
Taking her first careful step across the bare wood floor another followed and soon another until she was beside him. The moon was out lending it's light and the sky looked different, but she could believe the Pacific was just on the horizon she couldn't see for all the houses that littered the neighbourhood. The only scent of salt she smelt was from the pool, and right now that was a temptation she considered.
"Did I wake ya?" Logan asked.
"Would it matter if you did?" Rogue asked in reply, letting herself have this moment as she rested her chin upon her shoulder and borrowed his view.
His hand found hers and guided it to his lap, her other rising up his back to rest beside her chin and feel the tight muscles he had worked so hard earlier. There were still boxes to be unpacked, but that could wait until the morning. For now this night was theirs, everything he promised back across the country and many months ago. She hadn't limited herself, and he'd come to keep her from being homesick.
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Rather a bit less than a month prior...
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"Oh my god can we just go get something to eat." Kitty groaned, taking her turn at the wheel and listening to the directions from her phone's gps.
"Last one I promise." Jubilee swore.
"Why, we couldn't afford any o' the first ten we looked at why's this one gonna make any difference?" Rogue growled, guzzling her water in the back seat.
"Hey, maybe if we were down in Mississippi you'd get to be the local, but here in So Cal I'm it. Trust me, I got a good feeling about this one." Jubilee beamed as Kitty came to the drive of a house that had the most shoddy looking for rent sign on it.
"Okay, someone's playin' a joke on us, that's a fucking mansion and the for rent sign is made outta construction paper. And it's pink." Kitty started off right as she pulled up, instantly looking less than impressed and reaching to throw the car into reverse.
"Kitty's right, we should just do residence, it ain't like we ain't used ta livin' in dorms." Rogue tried, lolling her head out the window just to get some air.
"Oh heck, someone's coming out. If we get the cops called on us you can do all the talking Lee." Kitty growled, slamming the shifter to park.
In heels, a power suit with a business skirt, and carrying an attache case a lady came out clicking down the drive. Jubilee was the first out of the car and offered her hand for a shake to which the lady had to inspect before taking it very reservedly. Still not sure if they were getting set up for another fall, Rogue waited in the car and wondered just why the AC did nothing. This wasn't the heat she was used to down south, this was a brush fire waiting to happen.
"Miss Lee?" The lady asked.
"With Miss Pryde and Miss...?" Jubilee asked, turning to look to the girl she knew as Rogue.
"D'Ancanto." Rogue supplied, a name she hadn't spoken in so many years it felt strange in her mouth.
"A pleasure, I am Miss Keegan, the representative. If you would just come this way? There are refreshments and appetizers in the house." Miss Keegan said, leading the way back to the house.
And that was enough to get Kitty out, sounding like a feral stray for how her stomach was growling. Left the only one in a car with piss poor AC, the thrum of the central from the house was enough to lure her out.
"Won't get fooled again..." Rogue sang, preparing herself for the same song and dance until they were told the price.
The blast of cold air was enough to have her long for a towel as she felt her sweat turn cold and cling to her skin. It was a foyer like she had become used to back at the School, once itself a mansion meant for a family rich and affluent. Stairs ran up to a second story and even from the street she recalled a third. It looked outdated, the decor trapped in the past and it made her think of Hollywood's idea of glamour from movies now classics of her own generation.
Jubilee was being led of by the sales rep, and Kitty was enjoying some refreshments of cubed cheeses and sausage meats. Helping herself to a bottle of water, even the name sounded expensive but it tasted like it was worth whatever it was selling. Walking alone through the house, it sounded too empty and strangely that had her feel sad.
"...six bedrooms including the master, each bed has it's own bath with the master having a whirlpool." Miss Keegan's voice echoed, every feature a nail in the coffin.
"...what the hell...?" Kitty's voice was a whisper made loud by so much empty space.
Looking to her, Rogue mouthed a silent 'I don't know...', half ready herself to run back the car and wait out the eventual and surely bad news from there. Now they were in what they thought to be a dinning room, the kitchen within sight along with what must be a breakfast nook of sorts. In the backyard there was a patio and pool that made the one at Xavier's look bland, the water glistening and looking so inviting.
"We'll take it." Jubilee announced.
Nearly jumping out of her skin, the answer to how both their friend and sales rep had snuck up on them was told by their bare feet, their shoes forgotten somewhere on the tour. Kitty looked about to try and talk reason into her friend, but Rogue saw a smile she recognized as mischief and something else she couldn't place.
"Okay, I'll play ball, how much a month?" Kitty asked, stalking up to snatch the lease.
"It's all right in there, I have to say this is completely unheard of for this neighbourhood but as the first showing you would be utterly mad not to take it." The sales rep said, but for all the makeup she wore and how practised her pitch might be her eyes grew damp and a tear marred her mascara.
"Alright, where are the camera's because we're being Punk'd." Kitty spat, twisting and turning and looking everywhere.
But Rogue kept looking at her friend and the sales rep and each had tears in their eyes, now. Whatever professionalism she had was forgotten as the rep took Jubilee into a hug. Given the lease and listening to Kitty as she called for the host to come out, she saw the reason for it all. Down there at the very bottom where the monthly rent would be, there was a zero in the company of a decimal and two more of its kind.
"Whose house is this?" Rogue asked as she looked up to her friend.
"It's mine, it's my house...it's my home." Jubilee cried, her lips twisted in grief and her eyes weeping.
"Welcome home sweetie." Miss Keegan said, drawing her in for another hug that knew years between the last.
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Present
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They sat together on the steps of the pool, refreshed in more ways than one and their clothes clinging to them. It started off as a walk to get some air and ended with him pushing her in. He'd played the hero to find her good graces, and treading water in the luminous aqua blue that lapped around them she had kissed him. She couldn't breath as she parted from what was a child's kiss, her eyes wide with fear for acting on an impulse, but he had made it all right as he returned it in a way she had never known.
It was slow and long and sent shivers throughout her, and opening her eyes only then to realize she had closed them to just live in that moment she saw him staring back at her. He'd always looked at her in a way no one ever had, but now something new was there. This wasn't her friend nor her saviour, this wasn't the man who had breathed life into her, every breath and beat of her heart something she owed him. This was a man looking at her on the day she truly felt a woman.
Sitting on those steps she knew she wouldn't be homesick now when he left, she would be lovesick. But just like their friendship had turned into something more, she knew so too had their promise to another. He'd always come when she needed him, and maybe the day would come he'd stay because she could never bear to be apart ever again.
"I take back what I said about your friends." Logan said in the quiet between them as they listened to the lapping waves that ran the length and breadth of the pool.
"Told ya I pick good ones." Rogue replied, laughing lightly remembering a birthday present come two months too early.
Looking up to one window in particular, she imagined that friend fast asleep in her own room again. The bed might be different, the furniture new, but it was her home and that was all that mattered. Smiling and resting her head against Logan as he held her close, a sudden flash had her turn to in surprise.
"Sorry, Lee would kill me if I didn't get a picture of this." Kitty whispered, ghosting right back through the wall she must have snuck out of.
Looking to Logan to see him look to her, he just smirked and she smiled and that was all that had to be shared to know there would be no game of keep away this night. And smiling in a way she hoped came off as enigmatic as she felt it should, she had her own secret from this man who held her as his, she still had some pictures he thought destroyed to see her through her lovesick nights that would come. But maybe, she mused, just maybe the longing would really make the moments they spent together like this mean all the more...only the days ahead would tell.
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