Memories

Gender Roles

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Curt stuck his head in the door.

"Santo won't let me have top bunk but if he's top, I know he'll fall on me in the night."

Tora jerked her head at the door and Logan rolled his eyes.

"Why me?"

"Because I'm not going into the boys dormitories. Heaven knows what I'd find there, even when we've barely finished unpacking. Oh, and did you want the katanas on show or in the box? If we put them on show, they should be easier to get in an emergency, but it would also be easier for others to steal them."

"Put Muzai on show. Tsumi should be kept away."

"You have to have them together. They're matched blades. You can't have one without the other."

"Etana managed it."

She laughed.

"Yes, well, there was only one Etana."

"What do you mean?"

"Work it out Logan."

"Er…There are two of us. And two swords."

"Good work."

She leant forward, smiling at him.

"So. On show or in the box?"

"Er…Maman? Dad? I am right here. Can you stop the shameless flirting?"

"What? We're not flirting. Tora, tell him we're not flirting!"

"I don't lie Logan. Now off you pop, go sort out Santo. And no attacking Julian, just because he's dating Laura."

"What?"

"Didn't you know? No, you may not threaten him verbally, physically or mentally. Laura's mature enough to make her own choices. I dread to think what will happen to Eva's first boyfriend."

"She ain't having one."

Tora laughed as she started placing the clothes into the wardrobe.

"She'll hate you for it. No scat. Go sort out Curt's sleeping arrangements."

Smiling, Tora smoothed out a shirt before deftly placing it in the open drawer, humming softly as she did so.

"That was rather disturbing for the poor boy."

"Death, just be quiet."

"Bored."

She was slumped in the chair, eyes close.

"Did you just say you were bored? Tora, you're never bored."

"Well, I normally haven't read all the books we have here that aren't the intellectual equivalent of toilet paper for content, which automatically removes any of the books that Dazzler is so fond of. I've read all the medical textbooks, the chemistry papers. Everything! And it's all in my head when I think about it and I don't want to read it again and the Danger Room is being used and we're not allowed out and Ororo's in Wakanda being married and Curt's on training and Eva's asleep and won't wake up for another hour and Jamie's playing at the Richards' on the other side of the country and I've not got anything to mark and I've put everything away and I'm so bored because there's nothing to do."

Logan glanced up and smiled. Tora's legs were draped over one side of the armchair and one arm was dangling languidly from the other. Her head was tilted back, eyes closed.

"There is never anything decent on the TV, and nothing interesting is happening elsewhere. They're all as bored as I am. Well except 65, but I think that comes under the Discworld heading 'making your own amusements'. If I don't find anything interesting to do, I swear I'll start shooting the walls."

"Well tell me about them then."

"What?"

"About the other yous. I want to hear about them all."

"Most are boring."

"Can't be. Because they're you and you're never boring."

She laughed and suddenly changed position so she was sitting properly in the chair, leaning forwards.

"Weelll. Earth-9821. I'm a member of Magneto's Brotherhood under duress. I don't agree with the terrorist acts, but don't think humans and mutants can cohabit. You're an X-Man who is insanely sceptical about Charles' dream. It's rather like Romeo and Juliet… We keep sneaking out to meet each other in the night and because we're the two ferals we always get sent off to fight each other. Everyone thinks we're killing each other half a mile away when we're actually making out. It's rather amusing."

Logan laughed appreciatively.

"And no one's worked it out?"

"Well, I think Charles has been giving you lots of odd looks from what you said and Mystique is definitely suspicious, but there isn't anything concrete to go on."

"What else?"

"Er… we've just decided to turn our Pack Bond into a Mate Bond in Witchkin World…"

"That's the one where Etana's… what's her name again?"

"Lady Darkwing."

"Yeah. That one. Mate Bond?"

"Like getting married only a lot more serious. Ferals, or Wildlings as they're called there, mate for life. They'll never take another mate in their whole life. Of course, no one has noticed because I sleep over the stables because I work with the horses and your room is miles away from everywhere except the stables. As in, I climb into the hayloft where I sleep, jump out the window, run across the kitchen roof and scramble up half a floor into your window. Works a dream. Of course, you sometimes surprise me by being in the hayloft and listening in on my conversations."

"Any other interesting worlds?"

"Umm… Earth-987. Under the tutorage of Professor Charlotte Xavier, and led in the field by the brave Summer Scott, the X-Men, originally X-Girls when there were only four girls, changed when the first boy showed up, Roberta Drake, Icewoman; Henrietta McCoy, Beast; Warrene- her parents wanted a son- Worthington, Angel and John Grey, Marvel Boy. Soon joined by Petra Rasputin, Colossus; Kristina Wagner, Nightcrawler; Sian Cassidy, Banshee; Jorah Munroe, Storm and Logan, Wolverine. After the death of John Grey, Kenny Pryde, called Sprite although later took the name Shadowcat, joined. Shortly afterwards, the X-Men, who were still predominantly women, rescued Weapon X-ii, soon called Torao which means…?"

"Tiger... Wait, that's a boy's name!"

"Well, your birth name was Jane Howlett."

"Oh no…"

"Oh yes. If it's any consolation, you are considered incredibly attractive, in a sort of wild way. At least, that's how John described you. Summer and Warrene are more…conventionally beautiful and Kristina is supposedly gorgeous under the fur. But then, it turns out male mes are attracted to short, fiery, raven-haired, blue-eyed firebrands. Actually, I'm not really that surprised…"

"I'm a broad?"

"A highly attractive one nonetheless."

"Tora, can you just stop that!"

She flashed him that oh-so-innocent grin.

"Stop what?"

"I mean, female me is just…freaky."

"You said pretty much the same when I mentioned a male version of you. Your response to the words 'mutton chops' has been violent ever since. I have a sketch of you somewhere…"

The no-longer-bored Tora jumped out the seat and opened the little wood box she kept her notes on alternate realities in.

"Here…"

It showed a small, slight woman curled up on a bed, fast asleep, shortish black hair splayed around a face that was unmistakably Logan's, yet softened slightly. The covers were tugged up around her.

"Oh…"

"Yes. I'm wondering who Scott would think this was if I left it around. This one is Summer…"

A tall, brown haired woman, frown lines appearing on her forehead, delicate red glasses on her nose.

"Oh damn…"

"What?"

"If I ran into her on the street, I'd think she was hot."

"I won't tell Scott. This one's Kristina."

"She looks scarily like Kurt."

"I know. It's the fur. Petra and Kenny."

A tall, well-built woman with rippling long black hair sitting at an easel, a young, brown-haired man leaning over to see the painting.

"Any of you?"

"Do you really want to see a male me?"

"You rammed that drawing of me under my nose fast enough."

"Fine."

The face was in the mirror and Logan almost smiled. Tora's features had been changed but it was still recognisable as Tora. There were even scars but the lines were slightly further apart, in keeping with a male's hand. Logan glanced at the edge of the mirror and spluttered.

"Is that me?"

"Yes. That was about three weeks before Jamie was born."

"Oh…"

"Jamie being a girl's name. I have a picture of Eitan and Steph somewhere."

"Eitan being Etana?"

"Yes."

"Steph… Who's Steph?"

"Stephanie Rogers."

"No. Just…no."

"Sorry. Yes."

"Can we talk about something else now?"

"I'm not bored anymore. I like 987. It means I never have all these questions about guys and how they think."

"Yeah, about that…"

"You kissed me first, you proposed and you completely and utterly explained everything about biology to me. I was a social misfit at the time."

"Er…how did you know what I was going to say?"

"We have been married for five years Logan. If I wasn't able to understand your thought processes by now, I wouldn't be able to have stayed with you so long, would I?"

"Any other realities?"

"765 is always worth a laugh. I do so love to see your face when you trip up over something and pretend it didn't happen."

"Tora, are you deliberately trying to embarrass me?"

She shrugged.

"It's more fun that way."

"How do you know the numbers?"

Tora frowned.

"They're just…there. It's like an automatic response. I know them, the same way I know the shades of your smell."

"There are shades?"

"You probably have a different analogy. I use shades to suggest…happy, sad, tired, needy-"

"I don't smell needy!"

"You do so. You come in all grumpy and angry and needy and I just let you simmer full of anger until you're close to boiling then let you vent."

"Is that when you don't say a word, just…"

She tilted her head and smiled softly.

"Of course."

"I feel so jealous when two non-telepaths can get into each other's heads like that. Even with me being a telepath, I could never read Scott like that."

"I know Jean. But it was more than most people."

"I suppose…"

A.N. Jeanniebird asked why Jamie, in Genius Kids spoke fluently in a number of languages yet later wasn't able to explain anti-gravity to Beast. The reason for this was, whilst he spoke a higher level than most two-year-olds and in more languages, Jamie doesn't know the highly technical language required to explain what he wants to so he resorts to "floaty zoom-zoom cars" as they're the easiest way for him to explain them.