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]

A bevy of shot glasses line up along the dirty counter. He's been here a few hours now, mentally entrenched in the events that took place in the Wundagore. It's too much to go home - more memories lie in wait there to assault him. And to put the proverbial icing on the cake, the news rags are all filled with the latest news: the two families he's spent most of his life attempting to take down are about to be one. With their resources combined, they'll be near-unstoppable. Xavier can do what he wants to do with impunity.

But all his thoughts keep coming back to Raven. The barkeep gives him a look. He holds up three fingers for more bourbon. "An' leave th' bottle this time," he adds.

There are some days he wishes he didn't have to fight his healing factor. Getting wasted would be a welcome diversion. And yet, he doesn't stop trying. Better to get it out of his system before he goes back home to Marion. She doesn't need to see him like this.

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Ramon walks up to the bar. He downs the nearest shot, slams the glass on the counter, and punches Logan in the face.

"Why aren't you dead?"

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The familiar scent he'd passed off as recollection.

The punch snaps his head to the side, and he reacts before he looks back at the culprit, grabbing for a wrist and slamming the offending hand down on the bar with considerable force. The barkeep skitters backwards.

"Guess I'm just stubborn like that. First punch is free, bub. Second is gonna cost ya."

He cracks his neck back into position, and downs another shot with his free hand. Not deigning to give this loser any more attention than necessary. Why the hell can he still smell Raven?

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The wrist breaks.

"Stop whining. That hurt me more than it hurt you."

Ramon's fist shifts into a bone knife. He stabs Logan in the throat. Blood spurts out over them both.

"That's just to shut you up while I make sure I have the right man." He sits back and waits for the neck wound to heal. If he's wrong, well, no one is going to miss the kind of loser who frequents this bar.

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Logan's temper is shorter than usual. He roars in pain and fury, then swivels like lightning, knocking the bar stool beside him over to grab the culprit by the throat.

And then ... his eyes widen. Considerably.

That's why he smells Raven.

"What th' hell -- "

Once in a lifetime was enough. Twice in one day? This is pushing it. His grip on Ramon's throat loosens. Slightly.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

Ramon hasn't left any vital organs above his shoulders. Logan can tighten all he wants.

Damn. It really is him.

"You're sloppy, Tierchen. It's like you want to be caught."

A fist doubles up into Logan's gut.

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A grunt answers. A leg sweep follows, along with a knee on the chest. A fistful of clothing is grabbed up.

"So which of 'em are ya workin' fer? That what th' scene in th' hotel earlier was about? Scopin' yer target?"

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

The clothing melts from between his fingers. It settles back into the lines of Ramon's immaculate suit.

"Hotel?" Ramon scowls up at him. "Am I going to find another body when I leave?"

The weight atop him is so familiar. There was always one easy way to get him off. Ramon's hand shoots up along the length of Logan's leg, bone sharpening to knife him in the belly.

"You're supposed to be dead!"

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

The patrons are rapidly scooting away from the escalating scene of violence, keeping their booze in hand. Chairs scrape the unkempt floor in their haste to move.

Logan never uses his claws in public. While mutants are accepted here, it's an advantage he'd rather not let his opponents in on. The knife to the stomach is met with a growled and bloody, "So are you!" before he pulls back to sit on the floor, a hand covering his torn clothing and the scarlet blossom that now spreads across it. He scowls, pausing the assault for now. This is turning out to be one hell of a day.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"How!" Ramon demands. "You can't be!" He lays a bloody hand on the other man's face. "I was still bleeding when Irene dragged me out of the hospital."

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Confusion rattles his expression, oblivious to the impromptu audience. "What th' hell? Ya just told me a couple hours ago ya walked away th' day Marion was born. Said ya had yer reasons."

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"Who the hell is Marion?"

Anger wells up in him. "You were still alive. You son of a bitch! You left me there to die. I looked, you know. Every couple of years. I looked until not even I could hide behind my denial."

Ramon kicks him in the groin.

"And here you are. Still alive after all."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Even Logan can't not react to that.

"Sonofa ... will ya quit fer two seconds?" He grabs the offending foot, stilling it as he glowers up at her. Him. Whatever the hell she's calling herself now. "I did nothin' of th' sort." Pause. The frown deepens. "Why th' hell are ya askin' me that? I just told ya in th' hotel. She's yer daughter. What, ya get whacked in th' head after ya left?"

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

Anger darkens Ramon's gold eyes into amber.

"Xavier killed our daughter, arschlock. I barely made it out with our son."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Eyes narrow. "No. They told me you were dead at th' hospital. Died in childbirth, they said, but then I found ya were poisoned. I saw th' damned tox report!" His growl has been rising in volume in strict correlation to his state of confusion. The photograph from earlier is held out in front of him. "She ain't dead, Raven. There. That's yer daughter. Our daughter." Wait. "There was no son. Just her."

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

Ramon stares at the photo hungrily. His fingers move over the girl's features, as though trying to memorize every pore. "She can't be...". He looks up. "I saw her body!"

Ramon shifts into a tall, lean young man with dark blue fur, unusual hands, and a tail. "This is our son." Ramon never caught the knack of photos. It's easier to show.

"And the name is Ramon. Raven died at that hospital."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Logan stares at him for a long, long moment.

Then he buries his face in one callused hand with a soft curse.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

Ramon shifts out of Kurt's form and back into the body he's found comfortable for the last twenty years.

This is the last man who saw him as a woman. The father of his son. And of his daughter. He's supposed to be here to kill him.

Instead, he buries a hand in Logan's wiry hair. "Did you even ask to see a body? I came back for proof of yours. It'd been decapitated. I thought...I thought that was enough. Even for you."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

"'Course I did. Think I'd accept anythin' less?" A hand stays Ramon's. "Don't -- " He has this thing about being touched without permission. This just isn't making sense.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"Logan."

Ramon's hand falls to his side. He knew the moment he saw Isaac's body. Mr. Lensherr's information confirmed it beyond a shadow of a doubt. But now that he's here, it's hard to believe his senses.

"You promised. Everyone else would fade away and die on me over time, but you promised you'd always be there. And then you died."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

"Twenty-three years." The wound in his gut is sealing itself as he speaks. "I never went anywhere. House is still where it is. Still drive th' same damn car. I figured Xavier got to ya because I got too close. Been tryin' to take down the son of a bitch ever since." For all the good it's done.

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"He sent me your head in a bag!"

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

It's absurd. None of the last few hours are making sense. Nothing is fitting where it should.

It starts as something almost akin to a cough. It progresses into a dark chuckle. He has no idea how the hell the bastard did it.

[ms-tique.livejournal.com]

"I thought I lost you both. You and...Christ. You named her Marion." Ramon gives him an incredulous look.

"I had to protect Kurt."

He has Logan's wirey black hair, and the same mouth. Deep down, Ramon's always thought Kurt's fur was an evolution of his father's intrinsic hairyness.

"He was all I had left."

[canadiansixpack.livejournal.com]

Logan gives Ramon a look. "Ya called the kid Kurt and yer givin' me grief about Marion? I just lost my wife and had a baby shoved at me with no instruction manual ta boot." He won't say that it took him four days to even come up with it.