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Shadenfreude: Chapter Five


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Meanwhile in Ororo’s Classroom
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Logan sat down at the teacher’s desk with his senses on alert ready to catch any wanna be cheaters. He told them as much to discourage them. He remembered hearing a smart comment by a girl whom he had always thought to be color blind about how it would be easier cheating with a psychic. Ororo had assigned an in class essay about the differences between Nero and Vespatitian, and how each one effected Rome. She also had side notes about how each emperor still has an effect on contemporary society. WHAT! Logan decided the essay was as far as her lesson plans would get today.


He tried not to show his elation when the bell chimed, but took note when the students did. Before they all tried to simultaneously tried to fit through the door, he called Kitty back. She ignored him talking to the color-blind girl...Julie, no that’s not it, ..Junie,....Jubilee. That’s it. That girl talked so fast and so much, she could sucker a yeti, an Eskimo, and a penguin into buying ice. He took another note of that. People who genuinely had that much to say, knew gossip or at least where to find it. To round out his team of hunter-gathers, he knew he would have to track down Marie. With her infallible logic, she would be able to sort through the crap and the truth that the other two would dig up. He stroked his chin. Kitty could hack into any computer, Jubilee would talk to or at anyone long enough to get them to spill some kind of information, and Marie would be damage control and common sense. Now all he had to do was to get the ball rolling. No secret was going to be safe from him now!


“Girls, I need a favor.”
“Sure Mr. Logan.”
He pointed to the girl who just spoke. He squinted one eye at her and asked, “Jubilee, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So, how would the two of ya like to help me?”
This time it was Kitty who spoke up. “Just what do you have in mind. I have the feeling that it’s either illegal or morally questionable if your making nice.”
Logan gave her his most indignant snort.
Both girls gave him The Raised Eyebrow of Disbelief. They looked at each other, then they both simultaneously asked, “Who is she?”
“What!” The realization slowly dawning on him. They assumed that the favor had to do with a woman. Damn, they were good. Oh well, no use in hiding it now. But he promised himself no one would know of all of his true intentions. “This one is about Ro.”
“Oh my God,” Jubilee exclaimed “What’s wrong with her?” She couldn’t help the fear that came through in her voice.
“I knew that letter would be bad news,” Kitty stomped her foot and murmured, “I should have steamed it open when I had the chance, damn.”
“Katherine Laurie-Ann Pryde, that is a federal crime,” Logan told her in his most patronizing voice.
“Oh, yeah! Like you weren’t thinking about it, too.”
Before Logan could lie and deny it, Jubilee actually stepped in between the two and held her hands out. “Woah, woah, woah! Hold up you two. What letter? And why don’t I know about this? Somebody better talk before I start handing out the pruple nerples, now!”
Logan got of the desk he was leaning on, and walked towards the door. He sniffed to make sure that no one was around. He came back to the girls with a very serious expression on his face.
“Alright ya two, what I’m about to talk about doesn’t leave this room, except for Marie. I will fill her in later.”
Kitty simply snorted.
“This is much more important than that. Look Jubilee, Ororo got a letter today from Magneto, only it was addressed as Eric Lensherr. Now last time I checked Mags hated that name. I don’t feel right about this, and she won’t share the letter.”
“Well of course not,” Jubilee filled in, “it’s her letter, and it’s private. See the thing is Mag...um Eric and Professor Xavier would keep in contact about things. As long as it didn’t come in between X-men and Brotherhood stuff. They would talk about the first class- -“
“First class,” Logan questioned.
“Yeah, uh it was Hank, Scott, Jean, and Ororo. They were the first students here,” Kitty filled in.
Logan tilted his head to take all this information in. “So, Eric and Charles, trained all four of them back in the day.”
Both girls nodded.
“With just the four of them it must have been pretty close nit.” Logan was just begining to understand the relationship between the original four.
Jubilee’s head snapped up. “Oh yeah, don’t forget about Dr. Mactaggart. She was here to then. They were all like family. Miss Monroe isn’t hiding the letter; it’s just really personal. In fact now that I think about it, the letter may be about Pietro or Wanda.”
“Who?” This was getting more and more complicated.
Kitty took over while Jubilee found the time to breathe. “Pietro and Wanda are Magneto’s kids.” She ignored the look of Logan’s shock. “They used to train here, too. They have the craziest powers. Pietro is faster than sound, seriously. He makes Callisto look like she was crawling backwards. Pietro moves so freakin fast you can’t even see him, kinda like a teleport, but it’s his legs are moving that fast. Then there’s his twin, Wanda. Her stuff is....complicated.” Both girls rolled their eyes and shook their heads.
He wondered what was so tough about her. He silently urged them to continue.
Jubilee took over again. “Ok you see it’s like this. Technically her mutation is called hex powers. She can manipulate and control probability.” She saw the dumbfounded expression on Logan’s face and tried again. “Hmm...let’s say you and Wanda are about to fight on a dock, and seeing as how you have nothin’ but your claws,” she saw his brow furrow and inhaled to get to the point faster, “you would have to get up close. To do that you would have to cross the dock, so you do. Half way across, BAM, it breaks and you fall in the merky-ass depths. That dock should be a sturdy piece of engineering, right? What are the chances of that happening to you? That’s what Wanda can do.”
Kitty started to giggle and nudged Jubilee.
“What’s so funny?” Logan asked. He was still reeling from the onslaught of information.
“Well rumor was between Hank and Scott that back in the day, Wanda was the reason that Pietro and Miss. Monroe started going out.” Kitty stopped laughing when she saw the look in Logan’s eyes.
That news did not bode well with the feral man.
“Ah, Mr. Logan, we gotta run. Mr Cassidy isn’t gonna let us slide if we’re late for music again.” Jubilee started for the door.
Kitty was lagging behind her when she remembered something. “Hey Logan, you never told us what you wanted for a favor.”
“First of all I needed information. So, thanks for that. Is there a way I could find out more?”
“Sure Logan. I’ll meet you in the library after classes,” Kitty offered.


Logan left the class in a daze. He suddenly realized how very little he know about the people in his own home. He had his own head up his ass for so long, that he hadn’t even noticed that the people around him had lives.
Sure he knew that Ororo looked good (and smelled good too). He now knew that she was a mystery beyond that. What kind of person was she outside of the school and uniform? He knew that this “thing” with Pietro was not casual. Ro was not a casual person when it came to people close to her. Once he went over all the information from the girls, he was now positive that Ororo knew where Magneto was. He didn’t know what else was wrong, but he knew that something wasn’t right.


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Headmaster’s Office
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Logan closed the large dark mahogany doors behind him. He took his time turning around. This office was very intimidating, even to him. The room hadn’t really changed much under the new ownership. The floors were still green, moss colored, he thought. Xavier must have liked the outdoors. Once again, Logan felt like kicking his own ass for not talking to the man when he had the chance. Out of all three of the Institute’s dead teachers he felt he the most remorse with the man who welcomed him first.


*There is no need to feel grief like this.*


Logan abruptly let go of the door handles he forgot that he still held. He rubbed his temples. Sometimes hearing Xavier’s voice would be comforting. Now, it was just a little weird and slightly ironic. Here he was snooping around in Xavier’s office which is now Ororo’s, and he just thought he heard Xavier’s voice snooping around in his head. He ignored it, as usual.



He inhaled as he walked to the broad desk. He could smell a faraway spice scent, Ororo. It was heavy and very strong right in front of the desk. She paced, a lot. His nose could also “see” the other smells that had floating tendrils. There was a clean crisp smell emanating from the cushioned Queen Anne chair that was against the wall. Definitely Scott. The identical chair next to it held a flowery scent. Juniper, Jean. He couldn’t stop looking at how the chairs were placed, next to each other, with the right and left arms touching, mingling, just like the scents. He shook himself. He really needed to concentrate.


He began looking in the drawers. Ororo’s things were a mess, or maybe not. Apparently there was some sort of method to the madness. All sorts of school papers, newspapers, pictures, magazines, menus, invoices, notes, memos, bills, and every other piece of paper were scattered in all the draws.


*I’ve always warned her about her lack of organization. One day she is going to have to heed my advice. What about you? You don’t even know what you’re looking for, do you?*


He looked up, after seeing nothing he continued ravishing her desk. That’s when he heard a something akin to a parental sigh.


*Oh boy. How could I forget? You two are just alike, so very very stubborn. Instead of looking in the desk, try observing what’s on top. You always did have a problem accepting what was right in front of you within your grasp. That’s something you should try to work on.*


He literally grunted at the baritone British voice. He stuffed all the papers back in the drawers in no particular order, not that anyone would notice. Once it was all cleared, he took a good look at what was on top. Computer monitor, framed photographs, term papers. Nothing that would tell him anything. His eyes roamed back to the three frames. One was a picture of Hank, Ororo, Jean, and Scott as young teenagers taken on Jean’s front porch. *Her parents must have become pretty understandable people.*


*Actually it took a little persuasion to have them open up to Jean’s social life. It became a safe haven for the children. It helped them believe that families could open themselves up to mutant children.*


He narrowed his eyes. Thinking of Jean happy and safe in her own home made him happy. Knowing that it may have not been that had her parents had their way made him the opposite of happy, for many reasons. *Damn, can’t anything around here just be simple.*


*No, it can not. Of course you’re always welcome to return to cage fighting.*


The side of his lip curled up in a sneer. He looked at another picture, and the sneer stayed on his face. It was a picture of an older teenage Ororo in a two piece deep purple bikini that should have been illegal in at least fourteen states. She was laughing on a high cliff facing a beach with a brown petite brunette in a red bathing suit. What angered Logan was the man who had his hands wrapped around her bare waist, and he was laughing along with her. Ororo’s silk milky hair was being blown in the wind and wrapped around the mysterious young man, who strangely enough had white hair of his own. He couldn’t stop staring at him. He was so familiar. Angular cheek bones, icy baring light grey eyes. It was killing him, he knew that he knew this man from somewhere. *Where are ya now, Wheely. I could really use yer help.* Silence. *Of course yer quite now.*


Logan took the picture in his hands. He covered up the two women. Then he covered the man’s smiling mouth. The shock was momentarily paralyzing. Either Ororo dated Magneto in another life, a clone of his, or *god forbid* this man was his son. His grip nearly broke the glass in the frame. Yulp, they were definitely going to have to discuss this.


He looked at the last picture. This one had an older Ororo at the same cliff, alone. He looked closely at her surroundings. The cliff was very high, and the beach at the bottom looked like it was a bit frigid. His acute eyes could detect frost on some of the blades of grass. Could it be that this picture, as well as the other one, wasn’t taken in the US. As far as Logan’s knowledge went, he couldn’t recall any cliff beaches in the States that stayed cold. He focused on the beach below. It looked as if someone was herding animals. White puffy animals with small and yet elongated heads, was she in Scotland? Logan rolled his eyes. There was so much he just didn’t know. Why hadn’t he bothered with her before?


Thinking of the woman in question, he eyes honed in on the details around her. He looked at her enticing bare feet. They were almost covered in the lush thick grass. His eyes had closed, and once again his mind wondered to a green forest and a naked and waiting Ororo running from him. Only every few steps she’d toss her mane back and glace over her shoulder, and give him a beckoning smile, just to make sure he was still following. There was no need. She didn’t know it, but he would always be chasing after that smile.


He leaned back, and again let his sight travel up and down the vixen. Damn, he was in so much trouble when it came to her. That’s when he noticed the lower right hand corner of the picture. There was a stereotypical red and white checkered blanket with a basket. In the basket was a baguette and a bottle of Merlot visible. She was on a date, at her special spot, and Logan knew it was with the mystery man.


That girl had a lot of explaining to do.





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