Something was off but she just couldn’t place her finger on it.
And then realization hit her. She was tired. Fatigue was taking her over and she realized that Ororo had made her take a vacation. Gads, she thought. If it hadn’t been for her white haired friend, she probable wouldn’t have taken a vacation again ever. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had a decent date let alone a decent vacation.
That was why she’d jumped at the chance to see Scott Summers Xavier. He was the potential that never was. She yawned slightly, glad to be full of food because she hadn’t eaten a decent meal in a few days. The dinner had defiantly been tense, and the mysterious man that had pretty much kidnapped Ororo hadn’t came but Scott had been there, with Emma as well as Charles, Alison and Bobby. She honestly adored Ororo’s family, they always made her feel as if she belonged. However, Ro had been silent through the whole meal with the exception of asking if someone could pass her something for the potatoes.
The other woman had barely spoken a word to her until they’d gotten back to her room that was across the hall. Their discussion had been long and draining with Ororo nearly breaking down in tears. Jean still got the impression that Ororo was still bottling up a lot of her emotions. She stayed so in control of her emotions and Jean admired her best friend for that.
She dressed herself in some pajamas and slipped into bed, her thoughts turning to Scott. Gads, that man was so hot. He was intelligent, well educated, polite and had perfect manners. How he’d ended up with Emma Frost was still something she couldn’t understand and yet, he seemed totally at home with the icy blonde woman.
She had to admit. They made a nice looking couple.
Thoughts of Scott and Emma danced their way into her dreams as she drifted to sleep.
A glass of water was on Ororo’s mind as she slipped into the kitchen for a quick sip. Her throat was parched from all the crying she’d done today.
She noticed that the smell of cigars was wafting in from the open side door and she knew immediately that “he” was there. She elected on not saying anything to him and minded her business.
Water.
That was what she’d come for.
Reaching into the cabinet she grabbed a glass and then went to the refrigerator and poured some. It frosted the glass over with its coldness and she stared at it for a long while, unaware that “he” had watched her from the moment she had came into the room wearing a tiny tee shirt and girl boxers. He made a decision to keep the image with him, along with a few others that he’d gathered over the last few days.
He pulled on the cigar a few more times before coming in out of the cold. At first he wasn’t going to say anything, but she turned and caught him starring.
“Need something?” She asked as she turned the glass up to her lips.
He almost grinned in a feral way at the immediate response that ran through his head. Hell, yes. “Ya got nothing I want darlin.”
He moved to leave the kitchen but after his snide ass comment she just couldn’t help herself. “Right. Is that why I get you hard?”
He turned on his heel and faced her. “Well what am I suppose ter do when yer throwin yerself at me for money one night and the next yer’re trying to prove a point?”
She finished off the water and a little of it trickled down her chin. She wiped it away angry at him, her father and the world. “Can we forget this conversation? I have a plan, how about we forget each other. I’ll go back to pretending you don’t exist and you can go back to being the mystery guy who works for Charles Xavier.”
He prodded her, wanting more of a reaction. He was tired of playing this game, whatever it was, with her. “Scared to call him daddy so ya result to usin his first and last name?”
She moved to go past him but he blocked her path. “Move, Wolverine…please just get out of my way.”
He smiled knowing by the tilt of her chin that she was feeling trapped. He knew that feeling well. Hated that feeling. “That’s what you do, Ororo Xavier. You use the names as a way to separate what you feeling from a person. Your angry wit yer daddy, and ya don’t like me. Which is fine, I don’t much care fer ya either. But yer daddy, he’s in here, right?” Logan tapped the side of his head.
“Yeah, okay. So I’m a fucking head case.” She leaned in close, fighting her fear of him. “But I think you’re one to. You have to be with the life you lead.”
“Ya don’t know what yer talkin bout, woman.” He growled.
“I’ma need you to stop growling.” Because I kind of like it and it kind of unnerves me.
He watched her and decided this was the moment. He bent down and watched as those pretty blue eyes darkened with something he could only call desire and kissed her full on the mouth. He pulled away when he realized she wasn’t fighting him or kicking him or doing anything really other than standing there in her pajamas. Pajamas he suddenly wanted to pull from her body. He grew hard at the thought.
“How about we take this up to my room?”
She almost agreed and then gave him a scathing look instead. “Don’t ever touch me again.” Her words came out in a whisper and both of them knew she was only lying to herself. The moment he’d kissed her she’d gotten horny and wanted to do him right there in the kitchen.
He took his hand and started at her face. He roughly rubbed her lips, daring her to bite him and then slid it further south over her body, gaining friction and leaving a hot trail down her entire being. He reached one breast and smiled down on her. He flicked his hand back and forth over her sensitive nipple and smiled again as she moaned arching into his touch.
A light bulb popped on in her head and she suddenly remembered why in the hell she’d come down to the kitchen in the first place.
“Stop.”
“Why? Scared?”
She smirked at him. “Of you? No.”
He leaned down again and whispered against her lips. “You should be.”
“Well I’m not you jerk. Stay away from me and stop trying to screw the boss’s daughter. This could lead to you getting fired.”
He pulled her up against him and at the same time sandwiched her between his body and the wall. He pressed into her making sure she felt his desire for her. “Yer daddy likes me, Ro. Likes me a lot. Hell, he’d probable pay me to take ya off his hands so ya could be my full time job.”
She was breathing hard now. She hated the feeling of being trapped. After years of trying to figure it out, she just concluded that she hated boxed in areas and this certainly felt like a boxed in area.
She took a deep breath and looked up into his face. “That’s what I am to him, though. A full time job. He doesn’t treat me like the others because I’m different.”
He scowled at her words and realized she was being honest with him but it was lost on him. “I don’t understand.”
She smirked again and he realized she did that a lot when people annoyed her. She pushed at his chest but his solid frame didn’t budge a damn inch. “I’m the only one Xavier didn’t really want or rather the only one that was sold to him for drugs. The only thing I know about my parents is that at the age of three my mother tried and successfully sold me for drug money. She saw him on the streets, begged him to take me for money. She didn’t give a shit about what happened to me and then she skedaddled.”
He stepped back from her and his hand instantly flew to his neck to message away the tension that had built up there in the last few minutes. “Yeh, ah, sorry.”
She waved away his sympathy just glad to have herself not pinned against the wall any longer. “Don’t worry about it. Hell, I only bring it up with complete strangers. That’s how me and Jean became friends.” She smiled. “Maybe there’s hope yet, Wolverine.”
He almost returned the smile. “Maybe, but first you’d have to call me Logan first.”
She gave a fake pout. “But I like calling you Wolverine.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “What you like to do is taunt, Ororo.”
She smiled again and casually leaned against the wall. “Maybe. So tell me, Logan. Do you do this with my sister as well.”
“Huh?”
The smile stayed in place. “Do you meet her for secret rendezvous to talk in the dark? Do you kiss her?”
He grunted. “I respect yer sister and her guy to much to make a pass at her.”
She briefly wondered if Ali was still dating Anthony Stark. They’d met in Central Park one day when Ali was just sitting around sketching. It was her favorite pastime. A wave of guilt overtook her at that moment when she realized that she hadn’t spent much time with Ali. They had barely talked since she’d gotten back the day before. She remember all the times they’d stayed up late into the night talking, but she hadn’t gone so far as to make one phone call when she’d left.
“Nice to know.” She watched as she he shrugged under the wait of her gaze. “Good night…Wolverine.”
She turned and promptly began to go back up the stairs that would lead to her room.
Ororo slept peacefully after her meeting the night before with Logan and awoke the next morning feeling revived. Things felt like they were almost normal, with the exception that she had been gone for months.
She showered and then went about finding warm clothes. The day’s forecast had promised that it would be freezing. She wanted to go into the city, where Ali lived, to visit and talk with her. It was weird not having her in the house, but she guessed that was one of the many changes she would have to adapt to.
She pulled on a pair of black dress pants and a creamy blue top that matched her eyes. She pulled her hair out of her face and grimaced at the dark circles under her eyes.
She made it into one of the cars after battling Bobby for the keys, promising that she wasn’t trying to run away again.
“You guys still have Jean. I wouldn’t leave her behind.”
Bobby had sighed. “No you only leave your actual family.”
She frowned. “I’m sorry, B. You know that I wouldn’t have left if …” She trailed off not knowing what else to say so she didn’t say anything and left.
An hour later she arrived at Ali’s apartment. Ali opened the door, not expecting her sister to be there and smiled.
“Hey stranger.”
“You gonna let me in?” Ororo quirked an eyebrow at how jubilant her sister seemed. Maybe Tony Stark was doing something right, especially since Ali had had one disastrous relationship after another.
Ali moved aside and let her sister pass. Ororo hung up her coat and crashed on Ali’s couch in the large studio apartment that over looked Central Park.
“So what brings you by, Ro?” Ali asked as she moved over to sit back down where she’d been painting. Plastic was spread out under everything to catch any falling paint.
“You. I realized that I owe everyone an explanation for what I did, Ali. And I’m so sorry but I needed to get the hell out of dodge when things with me and him blew up.” Ororo rubbed her forehead trying not to conjure up the images that played out behind her eyes like a movie of some sorts.
Ali picked up the paint brush. “Remember when things were simple?”
Ororo sighed. “All the time. I just can’t remember when they got difficult.”
“Me either.” Ali let her hands carry themselves across the canvas becoming completely lost in the sensations that art brought to her life.
“You know that I love you, and that me leaving wasn’t about hurting you. Or hurting Charles or any one else.”
Ali whirled on her. Anger danced in her eyes like some wild fire that was barely contained. The younger woman barely ever lost her anger with Ororo. “Why is he suddenly Charles to you. He’s your father, Ororo. The only one you’ve ever known.”
Ororo stood.
“He was dying while you were God knows where.”
“I can’t take it back, Ali. I want to, but I can’t.”
Alison Blaire Xavier stood but not before carefully putting away her paint brushes. “You never do or say anything you didn’t mean. Remember who your talking to, Ro. Don’t insult my intelligence by giving me that shit.”
This was not going the way she had planned. “Ali…I.”
She paused. Meetings with her siblings were becoming strained. Suddenly, she wanted to go on the run again and stay gone.
“Me and Tony broke up.”
Ororo’s eye brows shot up into her forehead. “When? I mean what happened? If he cheated on you, Ali, so help me God, I’m goin to fucking kill him.”
Alison waved her hands. “No, no. Nothing like that. After you left and dad had the heart attack, he wanted to be there for me but business kept pulling him away. Every time I needed him, the government needed him more. Finally, I just told him that we should be friends.”
Ororo actually laughed at that. “The two of you will never be friends. And the two of you aren’t done either.”
Ali gave her an, ‘Oh-really?’ look. “I’ve missed this, Ro.”
“Me, too.” Ororo admitted, if only to herself, that she was wrong from running.
“You want some coffee?”
Ororo went to her and hugged her. “Yeah, Ali. I want some coffee.”
