Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
The new day broke with the sun low on the rolling hills, light streaming in through the sheer fabric of the blinds. Rolling in bed Marie grudgingly opened her eyes to find a ceiling she didn't recognize hanging overhead and blankets that weren't her own wrapped about her. The day prior came back to her slowly, first of them all just whose arms she found wrapped about her. Already awake and looking rested, Logan looked down to her admiringly, pulling her atop him to stare up into her eyes. Somewhere in the house the clatter of cookware crashing against another carried mingled with some music.
"Mamma Alexandra?" Marie asked, Logan giving a slight nod.
"What time is it?" Marie asked next, a glance about finding no clock to be seen.
Looking out the window, Logan seemed to consider for a moment before turning back to her to kiss her atop her head and once on her cheek. Laying nearly nude against another, only the fabric of her nightgown against his chest, she could feel the easy beat of his heart against her breast nearly in time to her own.
"Quarter to." Logan whispered.
"To what?" Marie asked, looking out the window herself to wager a guess.
"Six. Nikolai is already out tending to some chickens, Illyana's in the shower and the future Mister and Missus Rasputin are havin' roughly the same bit o' chit chat as us." Logan whispered.
"You got all that from lookin' at the sun?" Marie teased, nesting up against him with a content sigh.
"Nah, clock radio on the dresser behind ya. Rest I got just from listenin'." Logan chuckled, tapping a finger to his ear.
"Cheater." Marie said with a chuckle her own.
"Sleep alright?" Logan asked in the quiet.
"Yes, you?" Marie asked, cracking an eye to look to him.
"Like a baby." Logan replied, stroking her back as he held her.
"If I had any dreams, mine or yours, I can't remember them." Marie whispered.
"Anythin' else?" Logan asked, a hand roaming up to her tender shoulder and gripping it firmly.
Hissing in pain, his answer came with her own relief though she had wondered herself, simply afraid of the answer and what it would mean. His hand was gentler now, massaging her and working away the pain. She could only take it one day at a time, that had been the last bit of advice from Moira in the pile of texts she had sent over. Fumbling for her phone, she found it with just a few from Layla and Kitty, one from Theresa too. Hissing for a different reason, it looked as if news travelled fast. Opening the first, she found herself laughing at questions not the least of which she expected.
"We got a leak." Marie said, showing the phone to Logan and savouring the rumble of laughter that reverberated through his chest.
"Ya mean I wasn't supposed to spill that can o' beans till we got back?" Logan asked in feigned innocence with a cocked eyebrow.
"It was you!?" Marie hissed.
"Figured I'd give 'em all somethin' to gossip about, what with all the calls to Moira we've been makin' over the last few days. Unless ya want 'em to think a different sort o' announcement was due." Logan chuckled, rolling her over in bed to pin her down for a passionate kiss.
"They didn't think we...?" Marie asked after catching her breath.
"Secretive calls from the both o' us to a lady doctor, keepin' it on the hush hush 'cept for Ro. Theresa's a good girl, but Kitten can be a might imaginative and we know she ain't above snoopin' into someone else's business if she think's she's 'helping'." Logan explained, Marie blushing at the thought of such gossip.
"Logan...what would we do if we do someday?" Marie asked softly after a moments thought.
Logan looked on her and saw the worry in her eyes, dispelling it with another kiss before rolling them to their sides to stare down another. Running a hand through her hair and twirling a lock, he turned serious.
"You and me and a baby for three?" Logan asked, Marie nodding nervously.
"Well, I think that's a talk we still might just have to have fer a little bit down the road Darlin', just where we might find ourselves in the future. But I can promise you this, I'd be here for both o' ya and be whatever ya want me to be, father and a lover, or daddy and a husband." Logan said quietly, growling throatily as he took in her scent before nibbling at her ear.
"Daddy Logan..." Marie said quietly testing out the sound.
"Yer not, are you?" Logan asked, looking to her again suddenly.
"No, I just...well gawd now I don't know!" Marie growled, glaring at him.
"Don't know?" Logan asked with a cocked brow and a smile.
"Well condoms ain't no perfect guarantee, and with you bein' Mister Virile himself." Marie hissed in challenge.
"Think Moira can get ya a prescription for a bit o' protection?" Logan asked, chuckling.
"Way ahead o' ya lover." Marie said, finding her phone in the sheets to start dialling.
"Might handy havin' yer doc on speed dial." Logan teased, earning a swat.
"Marie?" Moira answered.
"Moira, Hi. I have a favour to ask..." Marie started.
"What's this business o' Pete and Jubilee gettin' married I keep hearin' around the school!" Moira asked as she cut her off, Marie glaring daggers at Logan then.
"I'll fill you in after, don't worry. Back to my favour, are...you able to write a prescription for birth control?" Marie asked warily.
"What? Of course Lass, I'll just have to have a quick look at yuir latest results. I'm surprised it took ye this long to ask, how is he in the sheets." Moira asked with a definite purr.
"He can hear you!" Marie gasped, laughter Moira's reply.
"So what if he can, that dunnae answer my question. Ack, dunnae worry ye can tell me about it when ye get back. Now what can ye tell me about this marriage I keep hearin' about, I heard from Tabitha that they were already married down in Las Vegas but I told her that cannae be true as Kurt told me Pete swore sometime back that he'd have the honour of wedding them when the time came." Moira carried on.
Turning on him anew with daggers and sabres in her eyes, Logan grinned broadly and rolled out of bed with his hands raised in his defence.
"She is going to kill you!" Marie mouthed at him as she listened to Moira waiting to get a word in edgewise.
"Better have tried." Logan chuckled, heading to the dresser to find his day's clothes.
Watching him wrap a towel about his bare bottom as she admired the view, he walked off through the door leaving her to deal with the wild rumours running about the school in the middle of trying to ask for birth control and see if anything else had come up about her mutation. Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Marie finally found a moment to start clearing the mire that waited on the other end of the line.
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"Pappa what are you doing to me?" Jubilee asked looking on the old Ford truck sitting in the lane.
"What, it is a good truck. American made, we go to town in it always." Nikolai said, slapping his hand on the hood.
"You started it with ether, Pappa." Jubilee said, her hands on her hips as she stared down her future Father-in-Law.
"But it started, yes?" Nikolai said cheerfully.
"Ugh, Pete, what's Russian for Frick my life." Jubilee growled as she turned to her beau.
"Bozhe moy, Jubilation." Pete dutifully answered.
"Pappa just tell me there's a scrap yard and a good parts store in town, I am not having you drive this. Yo Roguey, wanna go find a jerry can and a couple jugs o' water, uh...some rad fluid, oil...and...I'll get the rest of the stuff to make sure we make it there and back." Jubilee called, Marie rushing off to the barn come garage at the end of the lane.
"Daughter, what are you doing to my truck?" Nikolai asked.
"Turning it back into a truck Pappa, don't you argue with me." Jubilee sternly said raising her head in challenge.
Nikolai stood with a pipe clutched in his teeth and his arms crossed as he looked down his daughter to be, Jubilee glaring back with her hands on her hips and standing on her toes trying to gain some height. Nikolai became the first to laugh clapping a hand on her shoulder and pulling her into a hug, looking to his son with a wink as Pete let go of a sigh of relief..
"Mamma taught me a long time ago not to argue with her, I see you are like her and Piotr already knows this. Okay, you can fix my truck but you tell me what I owe you when you are done yes?" Nikolai relented.
"You already gave it to me." Jubilee said with a kiss to his cheek.
"None of that daughter, do not make me tell Mama now." Nikolai said, kissing her a top her head.
"Mamma told me you Rasputin men were crafty, fine. I'll bring back receipts but don't you even dare try slipping in a penny more, family doesn't charge for labour." Jubilee firmly stated.
"Jubes, git yer butt in here...I got some jugs filled up with water and some rad fluid, but yer Pappa Nikolai there has more kinds o' oil ya could shake a stick at and what in tha heck is a Jerry Can!" Marie yelled from the barn.
"Gas can Marie, we used ta take 'em off the Jerry's after the fightin' was done. Here ya go." Logan said as he scanned the barn, plucking one off a workbench.
"We?" Marie asked looking to Logan curiously.
Held in her gaze he looked to mull over her question, wondering at his own words staring at the red plastic fuel jug in his hands. Shaking off the moments confusion, he gave a meaningful nod and started to help her find the rest of the things as Jubilee joined the task. Loading up the truck, Jubilee climbed in and buckled up as Marie lingered at her door with Logan.
"Don't worry, I'll add it ta that journal." Logan whispered.
"Good. Maybe go do some rummagin' and see if something else doesn't go knocking anything else loose." Marie said in a breathy voice for him alone.
"You two be safe now, ya hear?" Logan said as he leaned on into the cab to show his concern.
"Don't worry Logan, we won't write checks our as...mouths can't cash." Jubilee replied, leaning out her own window to give her beau a kiss.
"Don't ya gotta go play Lumberjack now?" Marie asked of Logan then.
"Ya don't know the half o' it Marie, might familiar bit o' work yesterday." Logan chuckled with a smirk.
"Really?" Marie asked, looking to him as he winked.
"Gut tells me so Darlin'." Logan said in leaving, waving them off as he walked off to the flatbed trailer hitched to the nearby tractor.
A herk and jerk start and ten minutes down the road later Jubilee turned on her friend with a question on her lips and the radio playing quietly in the background. Marie did her best to avoid the curious looks thrown her way but relented with an aggravated sigh.
"So he seriously was a lumberjack?" Jubilee asked.
"Go bark up your own trees Jubes." Marie growled, staring out to the farmland passing by.
"Remind me to get us a nice bottle o' something for us to enjoy when we get back, that way we watch our respective pieces of smexxy getting all slick and sweaty choppin' wood." Jubilee purred.
"Is that all that's on yer mind girl?" Marie asked with a glance to her friend.
"Puhleaze, pot kettle. Now why do I think Moira went sending me a text that she wrote me up some prescription for some pills I don't recall askin' about huh?" Jubilee asked as she spared a glance from the road.
"She didn't?!" Marie shrieked.
"Uh huh, said somethin' about if I'm gettin' married I might as well unless we're tryin' for a baby." Jubilee teased.
"I'm going to kill him." Marie growled angrily.
"You and me both, you can read the rest of the texts I got from half the school. Totally thought it was Yana until she came in askin' why Abby was askin' her why she hadn't been invited for it." Jubilee related.
"I'm so sorry Jubes." Marie said plaintively.
"Eh, don't worry. Yana said something about a promise between you and her, should get the whole mess sorted out once we head on home. Course that just means we gotta figure out all the details of the wedding now. Vegas is lookin' mighty tempting." Jubilee carried on, finishing with a chuckle.
"Liar." Marie shot back.
"Big fat one." Jubilee answered sullenly.
"So when ya thinkin' o' havin' it?" Marie asked, finding her holy shit handle as Jubilee gunned it to pass a tractor.
"Don't laugh when I tell ya." Jubilee said, sparing another glance and holding her hand out to swear on.
"I promise, now tell me." Marie laughed, her curiosity piqued.
Mumbling, Jubilee kept her eyes on the road and swerved for a bit of road kill that had Marie struggling to hear. Cranking off the radio and rolling up her window, Marie turned on her to inquire once more.
"What?" Marie asked, only to have Jubilee mumble once more.
"Jubes, I still couldn't hear ya." Marie asked again.
"The Fourth of July! Gawd, between Pete and Mamma they wouldn't take no for an answer and then they brought in Yana who was all sweet on it too." Jubilee yelled, puffing her lips and glaring at the road.
"I'm sorry..." Marie said, pursing her lips and knowing she was about to break promise.
"You...argh, damn big fat liar!" Jubilee sputtered, angrily looking to Marie for a moment.
Breaking out into laughter without an ounce of malice in it, Marie couldn't contain herself thinking how perfect it would be.
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"Jeez Louise Roguey, yer actin' like your sixteen and worried about the 'rents." Jubilee said, browsing the infamous rack in the pharmacy.
"Do you have to be so loud!?" Marie hissed, glancing down the isles.
"What? We got time ta kill till they're filled. Now that's what I'm talkin' about, heated massage oil." Jubilee replied, snagging two bottles and throwing one in each of their baskets.
"I never knew there were so many sizes, isn't a magnum some kinda bullet?" Marie asked in a hushed tone, wondering at all the kinds.
"Bottle o' champagne too, so I got no clue which they mean with all the phallic innuendo in both." Jubilee answered in her best Christopher Walken.
"I'll just get these then." Marie said grabbing a box and throwing it in her basket.
"Anything else we need?" Jubilee inquired, wandering with Marie off to the magazine rack.
"Logan asked me to try and pick him up a box o' cigars." Marie offered, gravitating over to the pulp romance section.
"You got your own sexy lumberjack and you're still reading those?" Jubilee teased, flipping through some issue of Car and Driver.
"What? They're fun to read, I should loan ya one sometime what with you havin' a honeymoon comin' up soon enough." Marie huffed.
"Pfft. Pass. I also gotta hit up the local farmers market, Mamma gave me a list o' stuff she wants and who to ask for it." Jubilee added, putting the magazine back to the rack.
"They're really nice aren't they?" Marie asked, thinking of the elder Rasputin's.
"Never had a doubt." Jubilee said, snagging a newspaper for a browse.
"Here, my gift to you." Marie said, throwing some book in Jubilee's basket.
"He was an illegal street racer with a troublesome past and no future, until he met her. Blah blah blah, chick cop, blah blah stolen cars. Wow, musta taken 'em a weekend to rewrite that Vin Disel movie." Jubilee said reading the introduction.
"Give it a try, ya might like it." Marie teased.
"Ugh, if it gets you off my back fine." Jubilee grumbled as she relented.
Noticing their pharmacy pagers rattling away in their baskets, they found their way to the back counter to pay for their purchases with a few curious looks from the lady pharmacist. Oddly embarrassed for different reasons, Marie her own inhibitions and Jubilee for the sultry book in with her purchases, they paid quickly and found their way out to the main drag of town and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Can you imagine what was goin' through that woman's head? What I wouldn't have given to have had Abby with us." Marie giggled.
"Speaking of Abby, did you go phonin' Layla like ya said? Go digging up gossip on our Manly Duck?" Jubilee asked as they wandered down looking to the shop windows as they passed.
"They had their first date the other night, at that one Sushi restaurant you're so fond of." Marie teased.
"Ugh, don't mention that. Just thinkin' of it makes my mouth burn." Jubilee grumbled.
"He was every bit the Manly Duck, a perfect gentleman Layla said. Somehow he swung some tickets to a play, compliments o' his employer the Younger Worthington." Marie added, sighing wistfully.
"Sounds like you're a little jealous..." Jubilee teased with an elbow.
"Lets just say I might o' cultured myself a bit while I was away, saw my share o' plays down at the local community theatre. Used to go hauntin' the gallery and what not." Marie related, looking about the small town to all the quaint shops.
"Yet ya still ready trashy novels like these." Jubilee chuckled, holding up the high octane romance in hand.
"Didn't say I was a snob now did I sugah." Marie laughed, giving her friend a playful shove.
"Logan might surprise ya, ya know. Been more than once he had to fill in for some o' the more brainy classes, he even likes a bit o' classical music...'specially if they're playin' some Metallica." Jubilee said kindly.
"Really?" Marie asked, her mood brightening.
"You didn't hear it from me, but I swear I caught him a little misty eyed listening to Nothing Else Matters played by those four dudes with their cellos." Jubilee added with a nod.
"Jubes, thank you. Really. No offense girl but I almost can't wait ta get back so I can go plannin' us a proper date, no back road bars allowed." Marie said with a laugh and her eyes thoughtful.
"Don't mention goin' back till we're ready to, every time I think o' the school I just picture you and the girls draggin' me off for some weddin' plannin' and talking about seven different kinds of forks and seat arragenements." Jubilee whined.
"Big wedding to plan?" Marie asked kindly.
"Mamma tells me there's a whole slew o' Rasputin's to sneak on over with Yana's help, got the school and everyone, and all the townies that don't give a crap that we got some extra weird genes goin' on." Jubilee sighed.
"Elizabeth May among them?" Marie asked fondly remembering the lady from the bar.
"Girl, you're gonna be fightin' for a bridesmaid spot with that woman." Jubilee laughed.
"Oh please don't dress us like idjits." Marie begged.
"Hush, I don't need to hear about anymore nonsense that falls under plannin'. C'mon, lets go hit the wreckers and see what we can't find for Pappa's truck, I don't know about you but I sure as heck don't wanna miss out on Pete splittin' wood." Jubilee laughed, fishing the keys out of her pocket and dashing off to the ol' beat up Ford.
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"Truck's ridin' low." Logan said from his seat out on the porch, swigging back his tall glass of lemonade.
"Piotr, she really is a mechanic?" Nikolai asked, spying a rare axle strapped down to the bed of the truck.
"Yes Pappa, I told you this." Pete replied.
"Well there is mechanic, and then there is 'mechanic'. The girl in town at the gas station who changes the oil calls herself one but I wouldn't trust her with more than that." Nikolai said in explanation.
"Nikolai, I'd trust Jubes there with my Harley, she's a Grade A grease monkey." Logan attested, seeing the respect rise in Nikolai with his brows moving in kind.
"Piotr, maybe you can ask her to look at Pappa's tractor when she's done with my truck, yes? The clutch has been being bad." Nikolai asked, pouring them all a fresh round of lemonade.
"Yes Pappa." Pitor chuckled, smiling at the respect he saw in his father's eyes.
Clambering out of the truck with bags in hand, Marie rushed off to the kitchen with a bushel basket full of the bounty found at the local farmers market while Jubilee whizzed past with a pair of plastic bags clutched to her chest. Leaning in their chairs to look after the young women, Logan imagined just the reason for the secrecy over some of the purchases.
"Well, still half a load o' wood ta get to splittin'." Logan said, climbing out of his chair to stretch before finding his axe.
"I must thank you again Logan, even as a young man I couldn't split wood like you and my Piotr." Nikolai offered, joining them at the heaping pile that was finding it's way to a back stretch of his house.
"Think nothing of it, something to be said for doin' some good honest work." Logan said with a shake of hands.
Grinning across to his friend, Pete standing there just as him shirtless and in jeans though sporting a red bandanna, they waited for Nikolai to ready the latest logs to be split with a row of five waiting for each. The game had started on a lark, but now they were still neck and neck with nothing more than a case of beer wagered between them. Nikolai counted down and the friendly rivalry started anew with the ripping of splintered wood. Clicking his tongue and chuckling, Pete won out on the latest round, both setting up the split logs for one more go to tear them down to quarters.
"You can have your romance novels, this is all I need." Jubilee called out, wandering from the kitchen to plop down on a lawn chair.
"No complaints here." Marie said, joining her with a fresh pitcher of lemonade.
With both men looking to their lady loves, they met another with a renewed fire burning between them as they split the latest lot knowing now their honour was on the line. Sweat falling from their hair and finding their eyes, Logan wiped his brow with his arm and split another row in time with Pete, both their breath coming hard and fast as they looked in challenge to another.
"Axes down, time for some juice." Marie yelled after the latest quartering.
Pounding back his glass to find another waiting, Logan looked down to Marie and gave a wink and he finished the second just as thirsty as the first. Admiring her as she sashayed off to her seat, he waited for Pete to do the same though having to admit Jubilee had far less sashay to her step than a skip and hop.
"Seems we're right about even ain't we Petey?" Logan asked, taking up his axe to inspect the edge.
"You have something in mind my friend?" Pete asked, taking his own axe up to run a thumb along the ruined edge.
With a snickt, Logan called a claw free to slice a fresh edge to his axe and called Pete over. From the corner of his eye he saw Nikolai look started, but had to laugh as the wily old man noticed the ease he had putting an edge back on the axes. Sure enough he was off to the barn looking for more tools needing some TLC.
"I dunno, maybe settle this matter with our admiring audience over there splittin' a row." Logan offered, looking to Marie as Pete had his gaze fall to his own amore.
"Hey, hey, hey! I make my livin' by my hands, these are my bread and butter. They're not just for swingin' around axes." Jubilee shouted, glaring at Logan in particular.
"Sounds like yer chicken Lee, if yer talkin' like that. Pete here's a genuine artist and he's up for it." Logan argued, a wink thrown to his friend.
"Don't tell me yer buyin' this Roguey?" Jubilee asked.
Though Marie was already on her feet and taking up Logan's axe for a few experimental swings. Stubbornly Jubilee rose and took up Petes, about to take a thumb to the edge until he gently took her hand in his.
"That sharp huh?" Jubilee asked, Pete giving a nod.
"Chicken Lee?" Marie teased.
"Puhleaze, boys make room." Jubilee growled.
Falling into the once occupied seats, Logan and Pete helped themselves to another glass of lemonade while watching the event before them. Swinging the axes and getting used to the weight, both theatrically spit into their hands and rubbed them together before taking the axes up.
"Alright, three, two, one!" Logan called out.
Jubilee split hers quickest but yelled angrily as she struggled to free her axe from the wooden block below. Marie swung timidly and struggled to free her axe for another swing, breathing hard as she lifted log and axe alike to slam it down thrice to finally split it. Falling to her arse, Jubilee picked up her axe to see Marie already splitting her second log out of the five. Fired up, both were swinging like pros by the end though Nikolai had to swallow a bitter pill as he approached both girls now breathing hard and glaring at their feet.
"Marie finished just before you Daughter." Nikolai said as he passed his judgement.
"Oh come on, best two outta three." Jubilee growled, looking to the boys and then back to Marie.
"Bring it Lee." Marie growled.
Clearing the split logs and throwing them off for later, Logan and Pete took their time finding logs looking the closest to another to make sure the competition was fair between their ladies. Finding their way to a safe distance, this time Pete called out the count and watched the wood splinter and split with both working hard. Discussing it between another they all came to the conclusion and let the elder Rasputin bear the verdict.
"A tie." Nikolai called.
"What!?" Marie and Jubilee yelled in unison.
"Next round ladies." Logan chuckled, clearing the split logs again and setting up the fresh lot.
Honour be damned as they looked on them this time, they saw their pride nearly sparking between them both as they stood poised to heave the axes up. With Pappa Nikolai calling the count this time, in this moment they all caught a glimpse of just what a true valkyrie might look as both split their logs in time to another. Pete looked to Logan, both reluctant to admit the outcome given that the two women were wielding adamantium sharpened axes across from them.
"Ya know, maybe Pete and me should finish this ourselves." Logan offered.
"Jubilation, you said you were going to fix Pappa's truck yes?" Pete asked softly.
"Who won!?" Jubilee and Marie yelled in time to another.
"A tie." Nikolai confessed.
"Three outta five?" Jubilee offered, looking to her friendly rival.
"Heck yeah." Marie growled, both waiting for the latest lot to be set up.
Joining in to quarter the halves, lovers ended up clearing off the last load of logs in a fight with no winners. With the last log split, their axes caught in the blocks to stand mockingly at them, Jubilee fell to the dirty lane and panted for breath as Marie bent over with her hands on her knees looking to her rival.
"So?" Marie asked.
"Tie." Logan admitted.
"That...that first one didn't count, it was a practice..." Jubilee argued, raising a weary hand.
"Practice run...yeah Jubes...oh gawd..." Marie breathed, falling to the lane to lay limply staring up at the sky.
"Remind me not to piss you two off." Logan chuckled, settling down to ease Marie up so her head was resting in his lap.
"Oh that's too late Mister Canuck! Yer just lucky 'm too damned tired to get oot and aboot on yer butt, damn tattle tale." Jubilee swore, easily picked up by Pete to be cradled in his arms.
"Ya mean I wasn't supposed ta tell 'em aboot yer announcement eh?" Logan laughed with a stereotypical Canadian accent.
"Pete, tell me ya can hit the broad side of a barn with him." Jubilee whined.
"Oh hell naw Jubes, I'm comfy. Wait till I've got the gumption for a shower Pete." Marie argued, settling in for a nap.
Sharing a bit of silent laughter between them, Pete and Logan helped both their loves up and walked them off into the house for a long hot bat, settling who would go first with the fairest of all ways, a coin tossed by Nikolai for them to call.
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Curled up in the den with a fire burning and their dinners weighing heavy on them, Marie and Jubilee joined Illyana in a game of heated monopoly, while Logan and Nikolai watched the television together with Pete and Alexandra off together speaking in hushed Russian looking through family albums.
"Trade ya North Carolina for Baltic?" Jubilee asked of Marie.
"Deal." Marie said, the two passing off their properties.
"No fair Ju Bee!" Illyana whined.
"Pfft, now we got ya surrounded Yana, Madame Big Blue with Hotels already." Jubilee argued, eyeing the deadly stop along the board.
Blowing a raspberry and then having a giggle at her essential elder sister's bit of misfortune landing in Jail for the second time, Illyana gladly took the rent due as Marie landed on Park Place. Landing on a railroad herself, Illyana gave her recent winnings from passing go to Marie before passing off the dice to her sibling to be.
"I'll just pay it. C'mon doubles." Jubilee remarked, taking her luck with the dice and landing safely on her own property.
"This is good wine Logan, thank you." Alexandra said, savouring a sip of the bottle that had been uncorked for the occasion.
"You are more than welcome, let me than ya again for the hospitality." Logan said, raising a glass up himself.
Flipping through the pages of the album, Alexandra pointed to members of their family and chatted, Piotr making a growing list of those he'd need to call once all the arrangements had been made. With the years rolling back, on from the fall of the Union and back through it's horrid height, the hardships and suffering was seen etched in his families faces to be tempered with their will and the memorable moments.
"There I am as a girl like Illyana." Alexandra said pointing to a picture of herself.
"Lemme see!" Illyana cheered, surging to her feet for a peek.
"I don't think you will get as tall as Mamma, but you should still be taller than Jubilation." Alexandra whispered to her daughter a bit too loudly.
"Whatever, just means I can ask her to reach for stuff for me like I get Pete to." Jubilee called from the game board.
"Who's that Mamma?" Illyana asked pointing to a picture of a man dressed uniform.
"That is your great Uncle Fedyenka, I know I have another picture of him." Alexandra said, flipping pages of the album.
"What did he do?" Illyana asked, Alexandra looking to Nikolai with the good humour draining from them.
"He was a man that couldn't say what he did my little Snowflake, but tried to do what he could just the same." Nikolai said, finding a smile for his daughter despite thinking of those hard times.
"You mean all the KGB stuff they talk about in class and in movies?" Illyana asked innocently, Alexandra having to sniffle and smiling honestly as she took her daughter into her arms.
"It makes me glad you two only know of it in that way, never regretting all we left behind so we could give you this life." Alexandra said, kissing her daughter and holding her tight.
"I'm sorry Mamma." Illyana said, hugging her mother tight.
"You have nothing to be sorry for my daughter." Alexandra said, taking a shaky breath to laugh then.
"Mamma, is...this the picture of great Uncle Fedyenka?" Pete asked carefully, having gone flipping ahead still.
"Yes, there he is as a young man, and...Bozhe moy..." Alexandra whispered, reaching to touch the photo though her eyes fell from it to Logan.
"Logan my friend..." Pete started.
"He looks like you!" Illyana gasped, snatching the album to skip across to him.
Sitting transfixed staring at the photo, though with men about him dressed just as rough as him that he couldn't name, undoubtedly he looked on a photo of him dressed in the period of the time clutching an early machine gun and smoking a pipe. Swallowing the last of his wine, he was joined by Marie and Jubilee alike who let out gasps staring at the picture of him looking not a day older than he was now.
"Oh my god..." Marie whispered as she touched the photo.
Finding it hard to swallow the lump in his throat, Logan looked across to Alexandra and found her shaking her head against the question he hadn't needed to voice. Joining him, she eased the photo free and handed it to him, flipping through the album and through the years yet not finding another.
"Your story is very long isn't it Mister Logan?" Alexandra asked in the quiet of the moment.
"S'problem is I can't remember it." Logan whispered, holding the photo carefully and looking to all the men captured in it.
"Uncle Fedyenka isn't, isn't with us. Even now Mamma still won't talk about him, but I can try and ask her again. You, you really are special yes?" Alexandra asked, Logan unable to find an answer to the question.
"I couldn't tell ya..." Logan replied, looking to Marie with a sad smile and finding relief as she entwined her own hand through his.
"I think we could all use some more wine now, Snowflake, go help Piotr with the rest of the family albums. Daughter, come help Pappa with the glasses yes?" Nikolai said kindly, easing out of the sofa.
Left alone in the living room after Alexandra had joined her children to hunt for more albums, Logan sat at the sofa holding the photo in his hands with a chill running up his spine he hadn't felt since that horrid night Stryker had come out of the shadows to do so much harm. Wrapping an arm about Marie as he drew her near, he kissed her atop the head and gave her side a pat.
"Oh my god Logan, I, I can't believe it..." Marie whispered.
"Bozhe moy alright." Logan added fluently.
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