"Trained or not, he's a brother to me, and if anything bad happens to him - I'llkillyou"
Bobby almost shouted mad, Warren was too precious to him for him to lose him, but he had not intended for the words to come out this harsh. God, he was an asshole.
"What, did you say to me?" Jean-Paul was mad, furious. He had been soft on Bobby because of his crush, but there were limits and Bobby was testing him.
The trip was more on the silent side than usual. Cain occasionally said something, which made things worse. He went to another division in the plane before his temper got the best of him.
Considering how much Jean-Paul wanted to punch Bobby and knock him out, the mission went better than he expected.
They made a good team, it was obvious and even Bobby commented about it.
"And now you're nice" spat Jean Paul in the middle of the battle.
Cain heard and decided he had a comment to give.
"Troubles in winter wonderland, elf?"
"Shut up Cain."
Jean-Paul was starting to get tired of Bobby's mixed signals. There were moments when Bobby flirted and gave him hope, and moments when he lashed out and was almost cruel to him.
He should get over this crush. He was too old for this andhis students might already notice a pattern of him being more strict after any mission that involved Iceman. Not even after his mission with the juggernaut, was he that mad, and the man was 1 sentence away from calling him every homophobic slur under the book.
But he had not expected better from Cain. But from Bobby, from all he had heard about the man before joining the X-men from Logan and Hercules and their previous encounters, he had not expected him to be like that.
Yes, there were moments when he was light-hearted, made jokes, and was easygoing, and all those moments were what made every single moment he was being cruel, was like dealing with Aurora/Jeanne Marie all over again.
Bobby needed to apologize, as mad as he was about possibly losing Warren, it did not excuse what he said to Jean-Paul.
The man had a tongue of silver but he had never been cruel to Bobby, not even when Bobby left him hanging to be with that Genoshan survivor, and that night JP ended up in the medical bay with him because he had saved Bobby from a jealous husband.
After arriving at the mansion with Angel and Husk, they went straight to the medical bay. Annie was there ready to receive them.
Jean-Paul was ready to leave, go to his room, and prepare for classes tomorrow when he felt a hand on his arm.
"Can we talk?" it was Bobby, because of course it was. Who else?
"Which one of you wants to talk, the one who threatened me, or the one who said we make a good team?" Jean-Paul asked, his voice cold and acidic. Bobby's eyes softened and Jean Paul felt a stab in his heart. "Because if it is the former, non, we can't talk."
"I am sorry, I should not have done that."
"Then we can talk. " Jean-Paul's voice had an icy tone on it "Does it have to be now?"
"Today is pretty late and I know you have flight classes early in the morning. How about dinner, tomorrow? My treat."
Jean-Paul was surprised. He had expected a talk tomorrow, but not something as a dinner invitation.
"If you insist" he would accept the invitation and see where it would go. "And bring in your class notes, I need to know what you taught them when I was in Canada with Cain last week.."
Keeping a part of that meeting professional was the way Jean-Paul had to keep a distance. He was lucky that he and Bobby shared a subject. They were in the business department of the school, Bobby taught Intro to Business, and Jean-Paul the standard classes. They had other classes too, together with X-men functions. It prompted a lot of meetings between them and at least it could occasionally be a theme of conversation they were both passionate about in some way. A far more interesting small talk than talking about the weather.
"Meet me, tomorrow, after classes. "Bobby only hoped taking him to a fancy place would show how hard he was trying to make amends.
After Jean Paul saved him from Genoshan's jealous husband, he owned him a dinner.
"Don't be late, and do not think I will forgive you for leaving me hanging again. Now goodnight."
The next day was difficult, to say the least. He was still a bit mad at Bobby and Julian decided once again to be a pain in the ass. It seems like he was in the class to test his patience. That morning's class was a disaster.
At lunch, Bobby made sure to make his presence known.
"Don't forget, after classes around 6 p.m. in the hall. And bring fancy clothes which I am sure you would anyway."
"What was that about?" Asked Annie, the school nurse, and his usual company for lunch "You didn't tell me you had a date."
"Yesterday he was an absolute jerk to me in the mission and he is trying to earn my forgiveness. And it is not a date."
"He told you to dress fancy, it is a date mister" Annie insisted, she had been trying hard to play matchmaker and Jean-Paul had quit telling her it was impossible.
"Whatever you say."
The afternoon went by slightly better, business classes tended to be less problematic than the flying ones. But he was now nervous. It seemed like Bobby was going to take him to a fancy place. Not that Jean-Paul deserved less than that, after what he had to deal with Iceman, but still. Annie and her insistence it was a date and not a normal dinner between friends was not helping.
He put on a good black suit and a white shirt. No tie or bowtie, it would look too formal, it was supposed to be a dinner between friends.
Arriving at the Hall, he was expecting to find Bobby there. Instead, he found Jubilee, who told him that Bobby was in the garage.
And she was right, he was there. He was dressed in a simple green suit and white shirt. He looked even cuter when he cleaned up, and it fitted him so much better than his usual clothes. And better, he had ditched the sunglasses and Jean-Paul was happy to be able to see his hazel eyes.
Bobby was next to his car, cleaning it a bit, it was an old car that had seen better days. It had some bumper stickers with ice puns because of course and references to series and movies that Jean-Paul did not know much about.
"Sorry, I came to clean it up a bit and lost track of time. I know it is miles below your average ride, but this is my baby." apologized Bobby
"No worries."
"If you have no complaints, let's go."
The place was small but elegant and fancy, and it did fit Jean-Paul well, even all suited up, Bobby felt underdressed to the place but the goal was to please Jean-Paul, his own opinion be damned. It was a French restaurant, one of those that had way more fancy drinks and dishes than any place Bobby would normally go, but he guessed hisdate,no, his friend would like that.
When the garçon brought the menu, Bobby was thankful it had some illustrations of the food and drinks otherwise he would make a fool of himself by asking Jean-Paul about every single thing on the menu, which had the name of the dishes in French.
Jean-Paul was even impressed Bobby knew of a place like this; maybe Warren had told him about it and recommended it. But he could not help but think Annie might be right, this dinner might be more than an apology attempt.
They were silent for a while, staring at the menu and avoiding eye contact.
"So, Rober' you wanted to talk to me…" said Jean-Paul trying to break the ice.
"Let us ask first for our food." Said Bobby, he didn't want to talk with an empty stomach and if he was making a fool of himself trying to speak French, then let it happen fast. "What is a con-fit the can-hard"
Jean-Paul let a small smile escape at his attempt at French, it was hard to keep the facade.
"Don't laugh, I am trying."
"I am not laughing OtterPop. It was cute. Confit de Canard is a slow-cooked duck with herbs and salt. if you don't want to feel adventurous you can always have a Steak Frites."
"I imagine that it is steak with french fries."
"Correct'"
"I prefer the duck, I don't feel like playing safe tonight." Jean-Paul raised an eyebrow at that.
The garçon came again and Jean-Paul made the requests. He tried to keep it simple and not ask for much, a confit de canard for Bobby, a coq au vin for him, Bobby looked at him funny, and a bow of moules frites to share.
"Now that we are waiting for our food. I think you can talk?"
"I want to start by apologizing. I am sorry, I should not have said that. It was cruel. It is just…"
"Go on…" said Jean-Paul trying to sound unimpressed
"The thought of losing Warren again, and not … and now with…"
It was one of those moments, where he had a bit of hope that the subject of his affections was not as straight as he thought, he knew exactly how that felt. Maybe they were just great friends, although Bobby's voice and sad eyes made Jean-Paul think it was something more. He could relate to the feeling when Walter died, he was a mess. He hoped he was not reading too much into it, he tended to do that, every time he was crushing on someone.
Bobby kept talking and talking about Warren which soured Jean-Paul a bit, he did not accept the invitation to listen to his crush talking about another man. But at some point, something clicked. Bobby was or had been in love with Warren. The way he talked about him crossed the line of friendship. And Bobby didn't seem to notice that.
"I just can't deal with that again. I am sorry I lashed out at you. I hope you won't hold a grudge."
Bobby was truly sorry, that much was obvious, otherwise, he would not spend about a quarter or more of his salary taking him out.
"I will try not to," said Jean-Paul, a small smile escaping his lips.
"Thanks. " Bobby was smiling, a bit of a smile that Jean-Paul had not seen in weeks "I almost forgot, I have in my bag all the schematics and notes about those lessons that you asked for! I hope you can understand my handwriting."
"Don't worry about that now. You can give it to me after dinner."
While they ate, they made small talk here and there, and it was enjoyable. They talked about the school, the students, and a bit about their personal lives. Bobby was smiling and telling jokes, looking more and more like the man Jean-Paul knew and heard tales about before joining the X-men himself.
He could only hope he had not been staring and making a fool of himself.
After the main dish, they asked for desserts, the speedster had a bit of a sweet tooth but he would never admit it. Bobby asked for a small bowl of profiteroles and Jean-Paul for a slice of Tarte Tatin with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Jean-Paul stared, looking at how messily Bobby was enjoying his dessert. He didn't know how he fell for Bobby, he was too unsophisticated, too scrawny, too young, too boy next door and so not his usual type. But the matter of heart did not follow logic, he had learned that too long ago.
At some point, without thinking, Jean-Paul's hand went straight to Bobby's face, trying to clean a bit of chocolate that was staining his pretty face. He used his thumb to clean that chocolate, just at the limit of Bobby's lips. His heart was beating so loudly that he asked himself if people around them could hear it. He was expecting Bobby to reject that touch, to call him out and storm out of the restaurant, he expected almost every reaction but the one he received. Bobby opened his mouth and seductively gave a small bite to Jean-Paul's thumb. It took 5 seconds for reality to hit both. 5 seconds that felt like an eternity. Jean-Paul's hand almost hit his wine glass with how fast he took it out. He was blushing hard, his ears were also red for sure. It was embarrassing. He felt like a boy again, feeling inadequate around his crush.
Bobby's face was also red and he had iced up and back to normal very quickly as a reaction. Both of them were quiet and went back to eat their respective desserts in silence. Bobby felt like his heart stopped and skipped several beats. His brain must be lacking oxygen. He couldn't say what possessed him to do that. Not out loud at least.
"Sorry… I…" they both said simultaneously and started to laugh. It was absurd, two adult men behaving like a couple of teenagers.
For the rest of the dinner, every time any of them tried to say a word the other also started talking.
Bobby asked the garçon for the bill, hiding the total value from Jean-Paul. It was half the monthly allowance he received from Xavier. But it was so worth it.
"I know I am still on thin ice with you, but I hope we will have time soon to hang out again. I still owe you for the cafeteria disaster"
"I thought this was the dinner you owned me," confessed Jean-Paul, giddy that this dinner was not a one-time thing. He tried to sound as neutral as possible but he was sure his voice came out warmer than he planned.
"No, this was to apologize, the next one is the payback," said Bobby with a huge smile. "Is the cafeteria alright for you, or do you prefer to go to Coffee-go-go together? Or going to the movies? There are some good ones in theatres this week. You choose." Bobby winked. "I would love to repeat this but I don't think my wallet has the same opinion."
They both laughed. Maybe there was a chance for more. Only time will tell. Or maybe, another dinner.