Earth 534834
20th November 1992
11:13 GMT -5
I look at Jubilee mournfully. As mournfully as I can while covered in the blasted, chocolaty remains of the morning's work.
"I… I guess I used too much baking powder."
I blink, then raise my right hand to my eyes to wipe some of the… Ex-cake, off my face while my assistant gasps in shock… Then
snorts in amusement.
"Oh, whaw. Are you okay?"
Because 'baking powder' obviously explains why the plate shattered and the icing went everywhere like I added gelignite rather than gelatine. Fortunately, the work surface took the worst of it and my environmental shield is still up, but exploding shards of pottery are no laughing matter.
"I'm caked in cake, Jubilee."
"What in tarnation-?"
Rogue flies into the kitchen at speed, double takes and lands unsteadily, staring wide-eyed at me.
I spread my arms apologetically. "I'm afraid that lunch may be somewhat
delayed."
She smiles as she approaches, pulling off her right glove and using her exposed hand to scoop cake off my right cheek. She then…
Inserts the middle three fingers into her mouth, making a loud…
Sucking noi-.
"Ew! Gross!"
Jubilee pulls a face, then turns and double-times out of the kitchen as Rogue pulls out her fingers, her tongue following them-.
"Summat goin' on in here?"
Logan steps around the retreating Jubilee, sniffs, and looks both of us over as Rogue and I awkwardly step apart. Then he turns around, waving his right hand dismissively.
"Try not ta wreck the place. And maybe put a
sock on the door next time."
He closes the door with a
thump, thoroughly killing the mood.
Rogue and I… Avoid one another's eyes for a moment as I
use the ring to clean up the blast zone. Rogue's… Been very… Tactile with me ever since I started training here, for… Obvious reasons. And she's a very attractive woman, and… That's a
novel experience for me. But we don't actually know each other
all that well, and… A certain existing member of the team has been making it clear that he's not at all happy with the way things have been developing. This is the furthest he's taken things, but if he's getting
this petulant then I… Need to have a word with the man.
And I need to do it now, not after Rogue's finished licking her fingers clean.
As pleasant as that is to watch.
"As, ah… Appealing as that sounds, I need to go and have a word with Mister Le.. Beau."
Rogue sighs. "And why, ah'm sure ah can't imagine." She raises her eyebrows. "Am ah gunna need a hose for you boys?"
Ignoring the idea of a masculine wet t-shirt contest that suddenly appears in my mind, I shake my head.
"My word of honour that I will keep things-"
A wave of orange removes the cake from me before turning into a construct rubbish bag and depositing it in the bin. "-civilised."
"Guess a fellah's gotta do what a fellah's gotta do."
I nod.
And neither of us mov-.
Oh come on! I turn away, heading out through the kitchen's
other door, out through one of the Manor's many side exits, around to the front-.
Mr LeBeau and I walk into each other.
The ring keeps me in place while he instinctively springs back, right hand going for his collapsible staff. It takes him a second to process who I am, and when he does his expression doesn't get any friendlier.
I smile. "Mister LeBeau. Just the man I wanted to speak to."
"Can't imagine I got much I wanna say to
you."
"I'm sorry, but it's somewhat hard to parse the meaning of an exploding cake." He smirks. "And I'm sure that if I let it go you'd continue pranking me in a similarly juvenile fashion, so I thought that I'd give you the opportunity to air your grievance to my face like a civilised adult. Though I suppose you don't really
need to since it's obvious what it
is."
"Since you wanna do this civilized-like, it ain't too polite to chase after another man's girl."
"Leaving aside the uncomfortable implication that you could own another human being, and ignoring the fact that I've seen you hit on four other women since I've been here -one in the middle of a fire fight- I rather think that's her decision. And it's a very easy one, because I've got an advantage that you
don't. I can touch her, and you can't."
His face hardens.
"Which just emphasises to me that you're not serious about her, and this reaction is the result of pure.. thwarted.. pride."
"Wouldn't mind seeing how you touch her without dat ring."
"Mister LeBeau, you live in a world of hover wheelchairs, man-portable plasma weapons and giant robots. And yet, not once have you attempted to acquire a device that would let you touch her. You simply threw 'charm' at her in the hope that she'd eventually… What, succumb and drain you to death?"
He frowns.
"How m'ah supposed to make something like dat, exactly?"
"From one of any number of high-tech research companies? Skin-tight force fields have any number of applications. You wouldn't even need to tell them what you planned on using it for. But since that hasn't occurred to you to do that… Fine. How about you and me go and visit Anthony Stark and see what he can come up with?"
He blinks, his surliness momentarily shocked into abeyance.
"You plannin' on helping me? Why?"
"Because it's one thing to win a race because you were the better man on the day, and quite another to win it because the other man didn't bother turning
up on the day. If I
don't help you, I get to spend the rest of my life wondering if Rogue's with me because I'm the best bet out of the handful of people she
could be with. And I'd probably be fine with that, actually, but I'm trying to be the bigger man here."
He hesitates.
"Do you want to turn into Logan? Because this is how you turn into Logan."
The surliness returns, but not quite to the same intensity. Good, he at least
recognises that there's a problem.
"Professor think Rogue can learn to control her power."
"Yes. Hopefully. Maybe. Eventually. Frankly, I think Professor Xavier is being too optimistic, but even
he doesn't have any idea how long that could take. And you
know she's motivated to learn. How long were you expecting her to put her life on hold for?"
He nods grudgingly.
"You know Stark?"
"Never met the man. But I've got what I
think is a piece of alien technology I think he'll trade for his help. Make a
decision, Mister LeBeau."
He nods, returning his collapsed staff to its sheath.
"You wanna give Rogue to me, be foolish not to accept."
"That's
really not what I'm doing." I
rise into the air. "The headquarters of Stark Enterprises is in New York. Can you make your own way, or do you need a lift?"
