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He followed the smell of eggs, bacon, sausage and coffee out of his bedroom, down the long hall and down the staircase. The main floor was loud, filled with students laughing and chatting and Logan cringed. He should have stayed in his room and waited it out, but Ororo had said she was making breakfast, and she made the best eggs. Kitty ran through him, before spinning around and apologized and he reasoned that he’d make her pay later in the danger room. Being phased through will always be an uncomfortable experience. Of course, he liked Kitty well enough, she was an excellent student, so he probably wouldn’t work her too hard during practice, but for the meantime, it was a nice thought.

He stepped into the kitchen to find Ororo still over the stove, and he was just now able to pick up the send of pancakes. Rogue, Kitty, Jubilation, Bobby and Piotr were already at the table, and from the noise he figured that the other children had taken their plates to the other dinning room. The other dinning room was large, but the younger kids preferred it over this one. They weren’t under the watchful eye of a professor. With another quick glance he decided that Chuck was probably in his office.

The room didn’t quiet down as he entered, most like due to the fact that the older children were used to him. They trained with him after all. The kids, because that’s what he still considered Rogue and her friends to be, greeted him, and he growled at the nickname Jubilee had come up for him. Wolvie. He was going to have her run an extra mile later. Regardless though, he grunted a morning in reply and moved towards the counter, where he reached for a mug and poured himself a mug of coffee.

Ororo turned her head to catch his eye and flashed him a smile in greeting. The weather witch continued making pancakes as Logan grabbed his mug of hot coffee and took a seat at the table with the kids. They spoke around him, and Logan was perfectly fine with that as he reached for the morning paper and started reading it. A couple moments later, Ororo sat down beside him, sneaking a plate in front of him filled with eggs, bacon and a couple of pancakes. He lowered the paper and peered curiously at Storm.

“I thought you might be hungry,” she explained with a mega-watt smile.

“Ororo’s the biggest motherhen ya’ll ever met, Wolvie,” Jubilee quipped from across the table before she shoveled a spoonful of scrambled eggs into her mouth.

Kitty nodded her head in agreement before she offered Ororo one of her bigger smiles. “She’s been taking care of me since I came here. She’d like a second mother.”

Ororo flashed the same wide smile she had offered Logan towards her students. Ororo was never a fan of compliments. Most of these children didn’t have a mother, Bobby’s mother had turned her back on him not to recently. The weather witch herself didn’t grow up with a mother, do she did her best to be there for her students.

Ororo went to change the subject, and asked her students what they were planning on doing for the rest of the day, and they all shared a passing look between them. The all shrugged and in perfect unison, said ‘nothing’. Automatically curious, because her students save for Rogue and Jubilee, weren’t the best of liars. So she hummed, and after finishing a bite of her pancake, she focused on Kitty.

"Kitten, what are you doing today?"

"Nothing Ororo. We’re just hanging out. Doing girl stuff," the tiny brunette answered quickly.

"And it’s tiahme we sta’t that now," Rogue added. “Gotta lot a’ movies to watch."

Ororo noticed that her southern accent thickened when she was lying, but didn’t have a chance to say anything. Kitty grabbed Rogues shoulder and Jubilee’s arm before she phased through the chairs and down the floor, dragging both girls with her. Bobby and Piotr looked shared an uncomfortable look.

"What the hell is going on?" Logan demanded beside her. It was one thing to see Kitty and Jubilee act strange, but it was something completely different when Rogue joined in.
Ororo ignores Logan, instead she glanced at the pile of dishes before looking back at Bobby and Piotr. “Who’s turn was it to do the dishes?"

"It’s prank week, Ororo, could you cover us?" Bobby asked. Which meant that it wasn’t their turn, and they didn’t want to do it for someone else.

"Go and protect yourself."

She hadn’t even finished speaking before they were both up and leaving the kitchen.

"The hell is prank week?" Logan asked her, looking surprisingly curiously. Ororo wouldn’t be ashamed to admit that she was delight to find out she can make him react with something other than anger. Mister Cranky Pants wasn’t so Cranky. Oh goddess, Jubilations nicknames were really catching on.

"Years ago, the students here used to disrupt the school with their pranks, so it was decided to give them a week during school break where the senior class are allowed to pull these pranks on each other. For waiting all year, prank week is punishment free. It’s Jubilations favorite week right next to the week after Christmas where everything is on sale."

"Ya unleashed hell, Ororo." Logan said as he stood up and moved his plate to the sink before moving to leave the kitchen.

"Oh no, Logan! You’re helping me!" She called after him.

He paused in the door way and gave her a curious look. The children got off the hook just like that, and she was attempting to snag him in their place? Was she nuts? He could understand washing his own dishes, but he had things to do. Danger Room sessions to plan, sulking to do, kids to scare, a motorcycle to work on. “No.”

“Why?”

“I don’t do domestic chores.”

She tossed him the dish towel and moved to stand in front of the sink. “Do not look at this as a domestic chore. Look at this as you helping,” she stated as she started the water and will the tap warmed up, Ororo moved around the kitchen to collect the plates to move them towards the sink. The younger kids, they had their own chore lists, and their own dish room to clean them in, so Ororo wasn’t worried about those. She just needed to do the staff’s dishes.

Begrudgingly, Logan moved back into the kitchen and took his place next to Ororo, and as she washed the dishes, he dried them and piled then on the counter to put them away later. Working besides Ororo was easy, and he didn’t feel pressured to fill the silence with meaningless words. The worked like that for a couple minutes before his head jerked up and he turned his attention towards the entrance as Scott stepped in.

“Ororo, would you be able to take care of the food order for me?” He asked, looking malnourished and exhausted.

“Of course. Should I put aside a plate of dinner for you?” Ororo asked, turning her body to face her oldest friend. Concern wrinkled the corners of her eyes, and Logan noted the way her voice changed, lowered with affection rather than concern when she spoke to Scott.

“No. I don’t know when I’ll be back, thank you though.”

And with that, Scott was gone and Ororo started washing the dishes again. Logan reached to turn the tap off and turned dark eyes on her. She met his stare with a cool gaze, eyebrow raised in curiosity.

“Why do ya let me get away with doin’ nothing?” He asked, and he found himself generally curious. He had already been able to witness Ororo’s mother henning those around her, but Scott? He needed to movie on.

“Because he mourns. After loving someone for so long, it takes a while to get over that, Logan. Jean and Scott, you did not see them as I saw them. With the mental link, they were one person. Scott, in a sense, is also dead.”

Logan grunted, because he could understand loving someone, but he wasn’t sure if that was worth it. He wasn’t even sure if he had experienced that kind of love. “Ever been in love like that?” The words tumbled out of his mouth without him even noticing, and he caught the surprised look at moved across Ororo’s open features. He was sure he looked just as surprised.

“Once, I thought I was. I do not think many experience that kind of love,” Ororo answered him after a moment. She seemed to have needed a couple seconds to decide on her answer, but she wasn’t lying. For her, it was always a matter of wording.

“Y’all find that kinda love. Yer too sexy not ta.” Again, the words just seemed to fall out of his mouth. But Ororo didn’t look angry, instead, she flashed him a smile, and turned on the faucet to start the dishes again.

“Have you ever been in love?”

“Once, but she died a long, long time ago.”

And again, they lapsed into a calm silence as Ororo washed the dishes and Logan dried them. After answering, Logan traveled back into a time he could barely remember. But the small of jasmine and lilies were strong in his memory, and so were gentle hands and quiet whispers. Ororo having sensed that Logan was back in his past let him to his thoughts as they worked together. When the dishes were done, after the both put them away, they went their separate ways without saying a thing.





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