“Here,” Ororo looked up at the voice to find yet another box in front of her eyes, this time with X23, no, Laura, she corrected herself, with Laura holding it.
“What…?” She started, her eyes flitting from Laura to the box and back to Laura again.
“Help you remember,” the teenage girl spoke almost shyly. Ororo was still not quite used to how the father-daughter duo’s behavior had changed towards her in the span of a few days. Where, once both of them oozed barely contained, ready to blow rage, now there was a sort of calmness, one their behavior attributed to her. Of all the residents of the Howlett mansion, it was Logan and Laura who seemed to be most attached to her, even more so than her own daughter Kendall herself. Logan’s other daughters, Kirika and Amiko left for Japan soon after their showdown with Magneto and his Brotherhood. Amiko had school and Kirika work. However, it seemed that those too also knew about her time and her supposed relation with Logan. She said supposed, because confirming it would raise a completely new array of questions.
“Th-Thank you,” Ororo accepted the box, watching Laura settle down on the carpet next to her. She did not miss the almost subconscious way the teenager protectively leaned in towards the contently coloring Kendall. Logan had told her that Kendall seemed to have a knack for drawing, coloring and other artsy stuff.
“Don’ know where she gets it from,” he commented with a self deprecating smile. “Musta been her version of yer potting n’ planting.”
‘Or like my father’s photography,’ the thought came up in Ororo’s mind. Her father, David Monroe had been a professional photographer and amateur artist of sorts.
----
“Ororo,” Logan refrained from using her petname, or at least tried to as much as possible. It was because, using that name made him want to reach forward and envelope her in her embrace, to kiss her…..to do more, much more.
“Yes,” answered Ororo, her eyes and ears keeping a check for any signal of Kendall. Whether it was just her curiosity to know more about the child that from Dr. McCoy’s tests was without a doubt proven to be the biological progeny of her and Logan or was it just the mother inside her, she did not know. Whatever it was, she did not want to spend even one second away from the little girl, her two deepest wishes being hearing her daughter call her mommy and to ask/allow her to put to her bed at night. So far, it had been Logan who had been doing it, and when on one occasion he did offer to Kendall to allow Ms. Muno as the child called her to help her get settled for the night, she refused. She said she wanted her daddy.
Her own daughter’s reply, although completely innocent and devoid of any hate for her, pained Ororo’s heart. Although Logan was spending quite a lot of time trying to tell her every single detail about their time together, Ororo still could not push down the blame that her own conscience seemed to be sending her way. If only she had tried harder, if only she hadn’t been so eager to pick up the pieces, putting on her usual Ice Queen front, maybe she would have found her daughter and her husb….her daughter’s father earlier.
“You want me to tell her?”
Both of them knew what that question was about. It was telling Kendall about her mother, about her mommy….about the truth of this same color-same hair Ms. Muno.
Although, Logan had left the decision up to her, Ororo knew his personal feelings behind it. He hoped that once she would relate and bond with Kendall as mother-daughter, maybe she would allow him in too, looking at him something more than just the man who donated the sperm for her creation of this beautiful life. Maybe she would look at him as a possible husband.
“Logan, I….” Ororo hesitated. What if Kendall did not like her? She liked her, but as a sort of aunt figure. What if she did not like her as her mother? What if she hated her for leaving, for abandoning them? What if she lost the little love that she had gained from the child? All those questions and more swirled around in Ororo’s head confusing her even further. “Yes,” she finally answered, admitting defeat to needing this man to help her bonding with her own daughter.
In response, Logan merely nodded, before standing up and walking towards the rec. room cum game room, where all the youngsters seemed to have gathered. Kitty, Jubilee, Kendall, even Laura and Kurt. Sam was busy with Lila, (Not that ‘busy’, okay) while Ali was most probably sleeping or loitering somewhere within the safe limit of the mansion grounds. The others were busy with their work, with Jean joining Henry in the medical bay.
“Hey squirt,” Ororo heard Logan call out, his still gruff voice levels gentler than his usual tone.
“Come I wanta tell ya somethin’.”
-----
“Laura, this…?” Ororo’s brow wrinkled in confusion at the carefully folded, plastic wrapped black t-shirt that occupied almost half of the box.
“You got me this,” the teenager nodded at the t-shirt, her fingers reaching into the other side of the box to draw out her own set of pictures. While some of them were common with those in Logan’s records, others, Ororo had seen earlier.
“Here,” taking out one particular photograph, she held it towards Ororo, explaining its significance to her. “It was the marriage day…..one year later.”
‘The one year anniversary,’ realized Ororo, hesitantly accepting the snap, almost as if it were scalding her, Ororo turned it straight to see three smiling faces and one seemingly giggling one staring at her. It was her, Logan, Laura and a barely few months old Kendall. It was clear that they were in some sort of restaurant and either one of the other patrons or one of the waiters had taken the shot. All of them seemed younger, all with the exception of Logan, who looked exactly the same, except for, maybe to just her eyes, his deep hazel eyes looked a little livelier.
The top that Laura wore in that picture was the same as the one lying before her and from its pristine condition, Ororo could tell that it had been worn sparingly…..almost as if just once.
----
“This also,” Laura drew her attention to the rest of the box’s contents. Cosmetics, light jewellery, a couple of silk scarves….all things that Ororo had never seen on Laura. ‘Almost as if she gave them up, after…...’ she did not complete that thought, not needing to.
“Laura, I-I don’t know what to say,” even Kendall seemed to have grown quite at the interaction between her older sister and Ms. Muno, her large hazel eyes, her exactly like her father’s eyes, staring up in open curiosity, if not in complete understanding. For her, it worked both ways. The abilities she got from her father would tell her when someone’s scent changed, and having had them from the start, it was as normal for her as listening or seeing. Moreover, with her mother being there, she was subconsciously tapping in into the weather fluctuations whenever it occurred due to Ororo’s emotions.
“Its…” Laura shook her head in acceptance. She knew about her father’s story about how he did not have his memories for the major part of his life, only getting them by accident, as she knew how her mother, Ororo as had been when they first met. “Can I…?” She started only to stop, her clenching and withdrawing fists signaling her hesitation.
“Yes,” Ororo spoke, softly urging her as she urged students in her class.
“Can I hug you?”
----
“Come ‘ere,” Logan led Kendall towards where an increasingly nervous Ororo sat, the sudden weather shift outside mirroring her emotional state. Maybe she should postpone it? They needed more time to bond. What if…?
Any other possible questions were lost as Logan brought Kendall to her, his hand protectively placed at the back of her head. This time, unlike other times, he did not sit across from her, but next to her, placing Kendall between the both of them, facing them.
Giving one last to his amnesiac wife, the mother of his child, Logan took the plunge.
“Kendall,” that alone told Kendall that whatever it was, was important…very ‘serious’. “You know about your mama, right?”
“Umm-hmm,” a single nod confirmed the answer, the child’s eyes never leaving her father’s.
“An’ I told you that she went far away.”
“Umm-hmm.”
“Well,” Logan sighed. Leaning forward, her turned Kendall sideways. With her back to his thighs, she was face to face with Ororo, which she turned to look up at her father, who also had leaned into her field of vision. “This is your mama.”
“My mama?” The child’s eyes widened at the news, millions of questions dancing in them. “Ms. Muno?”
“Yeah,” Logan looked up at Ororo, silently signaling to step in and take the lead.
“Kendall,” Ororo spoke through a choked throat and tear filled; apprehensive yet hopeful eyes, her ears straining to hear one word.
“Mama.”
-----
At that moment,
“YAAAGGH!”
“Oh, shit,” Kitty Pryde cursed at the sight before her. Lying on the bed, well, one of them on the end, the other on the floor, his legs over his head, were Rogue and Remy. What was even more odd, embarrassingly odd for everyone in the room was the way Rogue’s top was being pulled to a side, with Remy’s hand tangled within it…..just near her right breast.
“Whaht are ya doing heah?” Rogue cried out, her particular position taking a lot away from the scary factor of the admonishment.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that. I didn’t see anything. I didn’t meant to do this either. I didn’t mean to break it,” Kitty blabbered off, very thankful for the phasing power for yet another time.
This wasn’t the first time that such a thing had happened to her. At one time, she phased into the Professor’s office and somehow managed to lose all her books, clothes and her earrings on the other side. Thankfully, for her, Xavier wasn’t the pervy kind and averted his eyes as soon as he saw her. She had right about died then. If that wasn’t enough, the next time it hadn’t been her who was naked but the people she had walked in on. Jean and Scott were right in middle of their, uh, close-personal-intimate time, when the ever-phasing Ms. Shadowcat, previously Sprite had waltzed in on them, humming the latest tune from some ‘now here now gone’ boy band. Seeing two of her teachers and teammates, naked and doing the nasty, as Jubilee would term it, with one of them sitting on top of the other, humping away to kingdom come, wasn’t something that Kitty wanted to do….ever again.
---
Ready to phase through again, she gasped, her heart jumping a beat as a realization dawned on her.
“Oh god, no.” Both Remy and Rogue looked at the horrified Kitty.
“Whaht happened?” Rogue pushed away Remy’s advancing hand. Her usual pale skin had gone deep pink, almost red at the unexpected and unwanted incursion. ‘Wait,’ she grunted her breath, turning her attention to Kitty. “What did ya do?”
“Oh, no,” Kitty looked as if someone had killed her puppy….or in her case, her kitty. (No pun, any kind, x or non x-rated) “I just, I was just showing her a trick….I forgot…..” She mumbled as she held up her inhibitor, its circuitry shorted put.
“What happened to the inhibitor? An’ why did you have it on in heah?” Rogue demanded, both she and Remy more than slightly wary of the visiting X-Men. For Remy it was the time he spent as their guest, while for Rogue it was both what they did to Remy and her own hesitation at trusting strangers.
“Huh? Aren’t you supposed to wear it all the time here?” Kitty asked in confusion.
“Not whehn ya are in tha house dumbo.”
“Rogue Cherie,” Remy put in his two cents, getting a kick out of needling Kitty, and hoping that she would leave soon, allowing him to get to, uh, more pressing matters at hand. “Let it go. Don’ frighten da petite. Remy sure dat Logan will do enough of dat when he comes t’ kno’ about it.”
“Oh god, please,” Remy’s words had the desired effect, as Kitty’s nervousness grew to almost full-blown panic. “I didn’t mean it. I really didn’t. I wasn’t trying to contact the Professor or anything. Its just start, I was showing Kendall a trick and I phased and walked through the wall, and my powers, they short-circuited and I didn’t want to walk in, not that I saw anything. I didn’t see his hand on your….”
“Shut up,” Rogue silenced her. Walking to Kitty, she took the broken inhibitor and pointed to the door. “Get out, both of ya and this tahme use tha door.”
“Cherie….” Remy just about lost his cool façade, along with certain non-mentionable things.
“Get out Remy. No ya stay here. Kitty ya leave,” Rogue alternated, both angry and embarrassed at being chanced upon like this. Although, she and Remy hadn’t gone all the way, and weren’t planning to anytime soon, especially if Remy wanted to stay alive and not die a painful and prolonged death at Logan’s hands, they still preferred their privacy to pursue other, not so life-threatening avocations. “No both leave,” she finally settled on. “Oh mah god. This is so embarrassing.”
----
“Please, he won’t hurt me, right?” Kitty stood frozen, her feet phased into the wooden floor. “I don’t want to die. Please don’t let him kill me.”
“Kill?” Rogue questioned, while Remy coolly smirked, hoping to get a reprieve. If Kitty would just leave, he was sure he could get Rogue to see things his way. “Who?”
“Wolverine,” Kitty just about shuddered at the name. “He won’t kill me, right. I didn’t mean.”
“Now look at what ya h’ve done,” Rogue glared at her boy friend. “Ya scared her half ta death. No one is going to kill anyone. Just leave it heah and ah’ll get ya a new one. An’ ya don’ have ta wear it in and near tha house. Only when ya go more than one kilometer away, then do ya need ta weah it. Ok.”
“Ok,” Kitty nodded numbly.
“Now,” Rogue arched an eyebrow, her arms crossing at her chest as she regarded the shorter teenager. It was a leave sign. Too bad, in her state, Kitty missed it.
“Now?”
“Now,” Rogue gestured towards the open door.
“Now….oh, now,” finally getting it, Kitty bolted. “Sorry, I-I….carry on…I mean, no, oh, I better leave.”
“Now, where we Cherie,” the Cajun Casanova tried to lay it in thick.
“We were no where sugah,” Rogue moved before Remy could lay a hand on her. “Ah need ta get this replaced befoh Logan fahnds out or befoh they have t’ leave.” With that, she too left the room, hearing Remy call after her.
“Rogue, Cherie, ma petite….”
-----
Outside,
“Fuck, what a dump,” Alison Blaire cursed out aloud, more for the ears of the ears of the couple sitting by the lakeside than for her.
“Come on Ali,” Lila looked up at her disgruntled friend. “Its not a dump. Its….peaceful.”
“Yeah, like I said, a dump,” Alison reiterated her point by chucking a flat-bottomed stone over the calm waters of the lake.
“Reminds me of mah home,” Sam put in his two cents, his arms loosely draped around Lila’s midsection. They had been there for a couple of hours now, spending time eating the picnic basket they had brought with him, talking and generally just enjoying each other’s company. For Lila, the calm, collected, slightly shy, yet self-assured Sam was very different from the usual men she came across in her line of work and/or dated. As for Sam, he still couldn’t believe that someone as beautiful, as famous and as bold as Lila could like a simple farm boy like him.
“I’m going for a walk,” Alison spoke over her shoulder as she walked away from the lovey-dovey couple.
She had barely gone about a hundred meters when a cabin or small warehouse structure drew her attention to it. Well, not the building itself, but the young man standing in front of it. He seemed to painting with anything and everything her could use, his hands, the brush, a cloth, everything to apply the paints just correctly.
Impressed at the man’s physique, even from this distance, Ali found her legs carrying her towards him. There was something about him….other than the obvious physical aspect that drew Ali to him.
“Lets rub metal baby.”
----
Back in the past,
“Shit kid, yer a real pain the ass, do ya know that?” Logan grunted pushing himself off the ground to see a still unconscious Ororo. He could feel the tingles of the residual healing taking place inside him. Although, he healed from anything, anything he had come cross till date, it always played havoc on his senses. Having enhanced senses meant not was his vision, smell and hearing incredibly strong, so was the effectiveness of his pain receptacles. Every time his body recovered from an injury, no matter how short the duration, the pain and the knitting of skin and muscle was always a feeling that he’d rather not have.
His second and only spare wristwatch blown to high heaven, he had to check the still standing truck’s clock for the time. The first one met a similar fate the first time Ms. Nutbuster zapped him. According to the time, he had been out for nearly one hour this time and luckily for them, no one had ventured on the relatively unknown back-road that they were on.
A few feet away from him lay Ororo, still unconscious. Being in his arms had given her a fair dose of the lightening too. However, unlike his healing factor that kicked in to get him up and going, she was still lolling off in la-la land.
“Lets get outta here,” Logan cursed under his breath, expletives shooting forth from his lips as he bent down to pick up Ororo, only to have his legs give way under him, nearly crushing the sub-hundred pound Ororo under him.
“Or lets just wait some more an’ enjoy the frickin’ scenery.”
----
“Hey,” Ororo woke once again to a gruff voice calling out to her and the feel of a large hand on her shoulder. “Hey Ororo. Hey. You okay?”
Opening her eyes just the barest bit, she instantly snapped them open at the not too attractive three-day-old beard sporting face of Logan.
“Hey,” Logan relaxed at seeing those blue orbs once again. At least she was awake now. “You’re a piece of ass you know that,” he scowled-smirked, shaking his head at the stupefied look on his passenger’s face, his mouth falling open at what happened next….Ororo spoke.
“Who the fuck are you?”
Note: The Kitty Pryde losing clothes while phasing thing is from an issue of the ‘What if?’ series, however, the Jean-Scott one is my own.
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