Memories

You Idiot!

Disclaimer: What do you think? If you want to use Tora, or any of my other characters, PM me.

"You idiot!"

"Says who Cyclops?"

"Says me Dragon! THAT WAS JUST PURE RISK TAKING!"

"I saved the Senator, didn't I?"

"That's not the point! You deliberately disobeyed a direct order and risked not only your life, but that of X-23, who shouldn't even be in the field!"

"I didn't ask her to tag along."

"SHE STILL DID!"

"That is my fault."

"X, stay out of this!"

"But Wolverine…"

"Tora doesn't like people interfering in her battles."

"Cyclops, I weighed up all the possible consequences. May I remind you, I was trained by the best to be the best. I've fought with the Shadow, who said I was one of the best hand-to-hand fighters she'd ever met, and this is from a friend of Hua Mulan's."

"That isn't the point! The point is, you leapt off a eighteenth story, just to land on the head of one of the attempted kidnappers."

"And? Unbreakable skeleton remember? And may I remind you, falling into a black hole? I sort of survived that. Leaping off a building? Piece of cake."

Cyclops snarled and then sighed.

"I used to think that Wolverine was the difficult one…"

"Hey, it was my neck I was risking. So back off."

"This isn't over Dragon. And Beast's promised me your medical report this time."

Beast blushed as Dragon glared at him, the silver eye covers somehow conveying her anger.

"Sorry, sorry. But I can't keep putting this off."

"We are going to have a long talk about patient privacy Beast."

"You and patient privacy should never have been introduced."

"I'm hurt…"

"You use it to get away with going on missions, when I've told you that you need rest."

"I heal."

"Not fast enough."

She leant over and punched him on the arm.

"I've survived broken necks before. So leave me alone."

"You went out whilst your heart hadn't fully regrown!"

"So?"

"So…? To- Dragon, what are we going to do with you?"

"I don't know. Knowing you, lock me in the Medi-Lab for a week and steal my access key. And ban me from leaving the bed."

"Er…Excuse me?"

They turned to see a rather nervous looking junior reporter.

"I was wondering if you would be able to give an interview."

The X-Men frowned and looked at one another. Cyclops was the only one who spoke.

"Who?"

"Er…Well, I'd be happy to talk to anyone, but my boss specified…er…Ms…er…Dragon."

"I don't do interviews."

"Ben Urich interviewed you a year or so ago."

"Personal favour to a friend. Don't write that down."

"But…but…"

"Look, I have a phobia of open notebooks. Especially in the hands of journalists. My good friend Iceman over there may be prepared to talk."

"Er…thank you?"

"No problem. Oi, Iceboy! Reporter!"

Cyclops sighed and dragged Dragon aside.

"That was cruel."

"What? Sending the reporter to Bobby or sending Bobby to the reporter?"

"Both."

"Come on Cyke, he's maybe the most normal of the lot of us. Let's think. Hank- blue, furry genius, you- fearless leader, slightly too uptight, Logan- mad, berserker feral, Kurt- blue, fuzzy demonic priest, 'Ro- goddess, weather-witch, Emma- fights in her underwear, Bobby- accountant, bit of a prankster, good with media relations. Who else was I going to send her to? Especially when Bobby was majorly attracted to her."

"What?"

"Nose, remember? He kept glancing at her and I could smell mild attraction. Really, it's all in the body language. And she thinks Iceman's hot."

"How…?"

"The badge? Please tell me you noticed it? It was one of those Iceman fanclubs. You know, the one with the logo 'Too cool to die'?"

"There are Iceman fanclubs!"

"Don't worry, there are other fanclubs. I was searching for them when Jamie had colic. It was when he was asleep and I was bored. Sadly, the best Cyclops fanclub had about…three hundred members."

"Three hundred…?"

"Compared to eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty four for Bobby's best."

"Er… why were you looking up X-Men fanclubs?"

"I decided to search myself. It was…interesting. I have a Wikipedia page. I tweaked it a bit."

"Tweaked it?"

"They had everything wrong."

"Huh?"

"They had all sorts of rumours about me and Hank. And yes, I am going out with him in Earth-8667. But not this world."

"Wait! You… what happened?"

"Me and Logan broke up before it got really serious Just after I was scarred. It was to do with how dangerous he was. Guilt over Mariko and so on. I was exposed to gamma radiation and it completely changed my body. I ended up as a sort of reddish-gold version of Hank's body just now. He'd just changed with his secondary mutation and it was sort of set that we were going to help each other. And then things got slightly odd with him having just been dumped by Trish. That woman was never right for him anyway. Oops, digressing. Anyway, I comforted him when he was having one of his 'I'm useless' episodes."

Cyclops nodded. He knew all about those.

"And he sort of helped me when the press started labelling me a beast, as he'd already gone through that. And taking me to mutant conferences and so on. Opera. That sort of stuff. Reading plays. Then he started dragging me along to those smart-boy meetings with Pym, Reed, Tony and all that lot. And then it just sort of…happened. You know, the whole being kidnapped and rescued and Hank sort of accidentally on purpose kissing me on the way back."

"Hank?"

"I wasn't expecting it either. Look, it's worse when you happened to be in the same room as our Hank at the same time. He didn't get why I was giggling. I wasn't able to look him in the eye for a week. Don't tell Logan. You know how jealous he'd be, even if it was in a different reality."

Cyclops couldn't help it. The slight twist of the left side of her mouth made it obvious she was trying not to smile. The right side stayed dead still. It always had been. It was never more obvious than when she wore the mask. Only one of the four scars peeked out, the one nearest the centre of her face that had torn into her mouth. It had taken over a month for her to stop slurring her words as her lips wouldn't obey her commands. In the end, through sheer dogged perseverance and a lot of help from a speech therapist/ex-superhero, her voice had returned to normal. A few sharp-eyed photographers had noticed the scar but because the metal kept the cloth from being singed too badly, no one knew the true extent of the damage. Oddly, the few photos of Tora with a normal, unscarred face seemed to be someone else. He shook his head. Daydreaming in the field. He was getting as bad as Tora.

"How did we get to this point?"

"We were talking about fanclubs."

"Were we?"

"Yes. In particular, your lack of them. Apparently you're too humourless and Boy Scout."

"What!"

"Don't worry Slim. We all love you as you are."

"Please stop the sarcasm."

They had walked pretty much all the way to the Blackbird by now.

"I find sarcasm is my way of coping."

"With what?"

"All this."

She made a wipe, sweeping gesture, encompassing the rubble, the reporters, the X-Men and the police.

"All of the world."

"All the world…"

"All of reality…"

"Or was it just all of herself?"