On the other side of town

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

Some things never change.

Ramon lights up another cigarette. Half a dozen butts litter the street by his feet.

He knew the minute he saw Issac's body. The additional data Mr. Lensherr sent along only confirmed it. This shouldn't be possible. Isaac's killer has been dead for over twenty years.

Ramon stares at the juggling rooster on the Cock and Balls bar sign. He doesn't have to do this. He could send in Mortimer or Dominic instead. They've never met the man.

He doubts they'd survive.

The broken glass outside the window, layers of peeling paint on the badly repaired doorsill, and strong stench of whiskey and cigar smoke are like a set piece from the worst part of his past. They should've stayed in Europe. America is too cold, too hard.

He takes one last drag on the cigarette and lets it fall to the ground. Time to go to work.

Comments

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"No. It doesn't." A streak of anger taints her afterglow. She's worked too hard for her position to allow another shifter to hone in on her territory. "If she touches you again, I'll kill her."

She kisses an ear, enjoying the feel of his stubble against her cheek. Business interests she can forgive. Mimicing her to Logan is personal.

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Logan shifts his weight, setting her down and pulling back from her slightly; though his hands linger on her rear still. "No time like th' present." He hates loose ends.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"Not yet. I want to know why."

One hand cautiously bridges the space between them, the fingertips brushing against his chest hair.

"I need this, Logan. It's not about Lensherr's money. It's about respectability." She can't quite meet his eyes. "Whatever your vendetta against him, please, simmer in your anger until after the wedding. How you act on it once this is over is your own business, but until then, it's mine."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

A shadow falls behind dark eyes. "I've been simmerin' fer twenty-three years. Xavier is th' man I want ta kill." He cups her face in his hand, his thumb brushing her cheek. "And once it's over? What then?"

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

She wants to step into his arms, wrap herself around him, drink him in through every pore. Instead, she closes her eyes.

"I..."

Her throat is tight. She forces the words out anyway.

"Logan, I married Irene. She's the only mother Kurt's ever known."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

It's impossible for him to completely hide his distaste. He'd tolerated the blind woman, but nothing about her had ever smelled right. And he'd long learned to trust his instincts.

Clothes are reassembled in a rough, angry motion as he turns away from her.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"I thought you were dead."

The illusion of a skirt and blouse migrate across her body until they reach a state of apparent respectability again. She doesn't shed the sweat, though. She's missed the smell and taste of him too much.

"I couldn't do it alone." Words tumble out. It's more than she means to say, but she could never stand his silences.

"Kurt was too much to handle. At first, I was so weak from the delivery and the running. So much running. And then...Jesus, Logan. He's been able to climb walls since he learned how to crawl. I'd wake up at two in the morning and the baby'd be on the fucking ceiling. His eyeteeth are fangs. And there he was, swinging on the lamp while gnawing on the cord. It's a miracle he doesn't have brain damage."

She reaches out, but lets her hand fall away before she actually touches him.

"Having a precog around was useful."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Marion -- God, Marion. He's still turned away from her, but his thoughts turn back to his daughter. "She can't touch anyone. Marion ... she drains th' life from people. Absorbs memories, all kinds o' things. Found out when she turned fourteen." He still remembers the terrified look she'd given him, panicked and frightened beyond belief. Remembers how he'd promised her she'd never be that scared again.

He can't help a bitter laugh. "Funny how she didn't see this comin', did she?"

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

Her eyes widen at Marion's powers. "Where the hell did that come from?" Kurt's not much of a surprise. Strength and an unusual form, plus a little bonus teleportation. Kid sounds like a vampire, but she's not going to say that aloud.

The bitter laugh is met by her own. "Maybe she did. Irene tried to talk me out of coming to America. When I asked her to pin down why, she'd only say it'd end up just as bad if we stayed. But she seemed personally hurt by it."

Raven leans back against the wall, grimacing. "Crap. No wonder she..." She shakes her head. "You haven't lived until your wife has been pissy at you for two weeks straight without telling you why. Then you have a god damned affair, because you can't stand coming home to her. The next morning, you realize she knew what you were going to do before you even met the woman lying next to you."

"I don't want to go back to the hotel."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Damned right he bets it was personal. "Hell if I know where she got it from."

Silence once more, before the rough gravel shifts. He glances back over his shoulder. "Then don't."

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

She tentatively rests a hand on his back.

"What will your Marion say if you come home with a woman?"

It's not like she has to call Irene. Raven may not know where she's spending the night, but she's damn sure Irene already does.

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

"You're her mother." As if that answers everything. Truth be told, he hasn't brought any woman other than Raven back to the house since Marion was born.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"I'm a stranger."

She looks down at her feet. They told her the baby girl was dead. She fought her way into the hospital's nursery. Amid all the crying bundles, there was a tiny little girl, blue and lifeless.

Whose baby was that?

She wraps her arms around him from behind, blue hands sliding under the cloth of his shirt, holding on. "Xavier." The word is filled with hatred. "I should know Marion. You should know Kurt. We..." she can't verbalize that part. "Xavier took that away from us."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Hands ball into fists at his sides. "So we take somethin' from him." Killing him outright would be too easy.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"He doesn't have a family. And Logan, if he did, I wouldn't kill his children for revenge against him."

She rests her cheek against his shoulder.

"It's been so long. I've worked so hard to stay away from him, from anything he touches. I don't know what he wants anymore."

She doesn't know what she wants, either. She doesn't want to go back to the hotel, to face Irene's knowing expression or her own anger that Irene didn't warn her. She doesn't want to let Logan walk away, let him go back to the life he's made for himself since he believed her dead. She holds on instead, as though if she doesn't let go, she can keep living here in this moment.

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

He stands unmoving, a rock in the chaotic maelstrom that engulfs them both. "No. We can do better'n that. We can take away his dream."

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"How?" Her voice is hoarse. She wants this. If she can't have the last twenty three years back, she can at least make Xavier pay for them.

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

"I was gettin' close ta his plan back when I worked fer him. Before ... " Before he believed she'd been poisoned. "Before all this. He's buildin' a machine. Somethin' that'll give him a hell o' a lot o' power. Lensherr's assets'll just make it that much easier fer him ta do it. He wants control. Someone's got ta be buildin' it fer him, but it's taken me until now ta find out who. They got him under their thumb, and he's well protected." He's been trying to interrupt shipments of equipment, stalling and harrassing their vendors for years.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

She walks around him. Her hands slide up to his face. "I've spent the last seventeen years killing people for money. I thought I was done. Now I see I've only been training for this."

Her lips meet his again, desperate and longing.

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

His hand comes up to tangle in her red hair as he pulls her close once more, to drink her in, savoring every second.

A promise both made alone twenty-three years ago, to be at last fulfilled with their reunion.