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

[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.