Jubilee, of course, found that sleep eluded her after Bobby's departure. She spent most of the remainder of the night tossing and turning, though the reason behind her insomnia was different than it had previously been. She kept thinking about what had happened between Bobby and herself. She'd enjoyed the kissing part; there was no doubt about that. But she felt that afterwards, things were awkward. Would they always be awkward? Or did it mean that something was wrong? What was she supposed to do when she saw him again? She wondered how he'd act when he next saw her. If her rampant thoughts weren't doing enough to keep her awake, there was the mixture of excitement and butterflies that she felt in the pit of her stomach.
Although she couldn't tell the exact time, her room was already getting lighter when Jubilee finally drifted off to sleep. Her sleep was cut short, not by her alarm clock, but by Paige, who was working out to a Tae Bo video. Although Paige had kept the volume low as a courtesy to her roommate, Billy Blanks' words of encouragement were enough to rouse a barely sleeping Jubilee.
"Whaaa?" asked a very tired and disoriented Jubilee. "Hayseed, what the hell are you doing?"
"Working out," was Paige's short reply as she performed a rapid set of side kicks.
"Now? Doesn't this place have a gym or something?" Jubilee groused, trying to block out the noise by placing a pillow over her head.
"Didn't check," Paige panted. "Quit complaining…..don't you…..have to pack?"
Jubilee groaned and tried to fall back to sleep. After a few minutes, she gave up. Rolling out of bed reluctantly, Jubilee pulled out the faded jeans and baby tee she planned to wear that day. Once she'd changed into them, she tossed her nightclothes into her luggage and wandered around the room, grabbing anything else that belonged to her. There wasn't much. Jubilee was never really into unpacking. It just meant that there would be more work later. After tossing everything into her luggage, she sat down on the receptacle to push everything in and zipped it shut. She stood to find Paige looking at her.
"Aren't you going to fold anything?" Paige asked, seeming shocked.
"Nope," Jubilee replied, shrugging her shoulders.
Paige looked at her disbelievingly for several seconds before shaking her head. "Fine, whatever. I'm pooped. I'm hitting the shower."
Unexpected guilt washed over Jubilee as she recalled Bobby's warning about their bathroom.
"Uhh..Paige?" she said hesitantly, wondering what else she could say without incriminating Bobby. Or herself, for that matter. But Paige either didn't hear her or chose to ignore her. The bathroom door slammed shut. Jubilee, unsure about what course of action to take next, decided that dressing quickly and leaving was a good option. The only downside to that plan was that she would miss seeing exactly what Bobby had done. She had a feeling that it would be funny, to say the least.
Since Jubilee was both dressed and packed well before the scheduled departure time, a rarity if there ever was one, she decided to make her way downstairs for breakfast. It wasn't until she was crossing the hotel lobby that she realized that Bobby might be down there. Her stomach fluttered, until she glanced at the large grandfather clock to her right. Bobby? Up at this hour? Hah!!
Bobby returned to his room to find both Paige and Warren asleep. He returned Paige's room key to her purse and then collapsed onto his bed. After everything that had happened, he thought that he wouldn't have been able to fall asleep. Instead, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
He awoke to sunlight on his face. Groaning, he rolled over, pulling his blanket over his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Warren's bed was empty. The lack of giggles led him to conclude that Paige had finally left. He looked around his room. It was empty. From what seemed like far away, he could hear a shower running, which explained Warren's whereabouts.
Now that Bobby was more fully awake, he became aware of his intense desire to vacate his bladder. Warren's shower wasn't helping much in that regard. Bobby groaned again, remembering Warren's propensity for taking long baths. He wondered how long his roommate had been in the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, Bobby decided he couldn't wait any longer. He got up, threw on some clothes, and made his way to a public restroom he had noticed near the lobby. Warren had just turned the shower water off when he returned. Before Bobby had a chance to plop back down onto his bed, Warren emerged from the bathroom.
"Morning," Warren said, by way of greeting. He then started a conversation about the great view they had from their window. Bobby, who was starting to feel more awake, most likely due to his fifteen minute sojourn to the restroom, had to agree. The two men ended up in conversation with each other, eventually deciding to head down to breakfast.
The hotel breakfast was delicious. It almost made Jubilee wish that she was more of a morning person so that she could experience more like it. Almost. She filled her plate with seconds and went back to join Kurt and Logan, who'd managed to commandeer a seat before she'd arrived. Logan had given her a funny look when she'd first joined them, and then quickly regained his composure. He was, she supposed, probably surprised to see her awake so early. They spent most of the meal in small talk, until Logan suddenly excused himself, stood up, and walked away. Kurt and Jubilee exchanged confused expressions, and then looked around in an effort to spot the cause of Logan's unexpected departure.
Jubilee felt something clench in the pit of her stomach. She spotted Logan heading towards the entrance to the room, through which Bobby and Warren had just walked in. She realized, now, the real reason for the look Logan had given her. It wasn't that she was up early; it was that she'd smelled like Bobby. Or, more like she'd been making out with Bobby. She probably really smelled like Bobby, since she hadn't had a chance to shower. It crossed her mind that Logan probably knew whenever any member of the team had, um, intimate contact with someone else. And, when the time came, he'd know when she'd begin having, um, relations, with others. Eeeeeewwww!!! The thought almost made her want to swear off sex forever. Except that she'd heard that it was really nice.
Logan had stopped when he'd reached the two men, and then walked out of the room. Bobby followed. Jubilee quickly rose from her seat, intending to follow. Kurt grabbed her wrist, stopping her.
"Best to keep our noses to ourselves," the blue mutant said gently. "This doesn't concern us."
"It concerns me," Jubilee said. Kurt's eyebrows rose and he slowly released her wrist. Jubilee could only imagine what conclusions he had drawn from that statement. Blushing, she hurried from the room, intent on finding the two men.
Bobby had no idea what was waiting for him downstairs. He hadn't put much thought into any negative consequences of what had happened between him and Jubilee last night. Accordingly, he was surprised at being approached by Logan when he and Warren arrived for breakfast. Logan stopped in front of the two men and gave Bobby a hard look.
"This way," the gruff Canadian said. He didn't wait for Bobby to acknowledge him. He merely walked out the door, as if sure that Bobby would follow.
"What did you do?" asked Warren, sounding very much like a third grader.
"Dunno," Bobby said truthfully. To his own ears, he sounded like a little kid who knew he was in trouble, but was trying to play it cool anyway. He shrugged at Warren, and, with some apprehension, walked out of the room after Logan.
The older man was waiting for Bobby in the hallway that led to the hotel gift shop. Since the gift shop would not open for another hour, the hallway was deserted. Logan started talking before Bobby could even begin to ask if everything was alright.
"What're you doin' with my Jubilee?" he growled.
Bobby felt his breath leave his body, as if someone had punched him. How had he known? Had Jubilee told Logan about last night? Did she want him to keep Bobby away from her?
"I smelled you on her," Logan added, as if he could read Bobby's mind.
Oh. And eew. Bobby took a second to collect his thoughts before responding. "We were just hanging out." He tried not to wince at how stupid that sounded. Judging by Logan's growl, Bobby wasn't the only one who thought the response was idiotic.
"Look," Bobby tried again, "I'll let you know what's going on between us as soon as I figure it out. I'm not trying to hurt her." He'd felt compelled to add the last part in order to explain himself to Logan. Then, unexplainably, he was angry. The anger was partially due to the fact that he had to explain himself to Logan. Mostly, though, he was angry that Logan thought he'd want to hurt Jubilee.
"Hell," Bobby snarled with a ferocity he didn't know he had, "Whatever happens, I'd never hurt her. I like her. She's great. I have no idea if she'd even be interested in a schmuck like me, but here's hoping."
Logan's expression was unreadable. The two men stood there, examining each other for several seconds. The silence was broken by a very loud throat clearing.
Jubilee had found the two X-men. "What exactly are you doing?" she asked in a tone that sounded like a cross between amusement and anger. For a second, Bobby didn't know which one of them she was talking to. A glance at Logan, however, revealed that the hairy man looked uncomfortable.
"Talking," Logan responded gruffly.
"I'll bet," said Jubilee. "Looks like a really interesting conversation."
"It's not," Bobby felt compelled to say. Ever the jokester. Both Logan and Jubilee looked at him strangely. He shrugged.
"Are you done talking?" Jubilee asked. It was clear that she was directing the question at Logan.
"For now," Logan said, after a lengthy pause. "I'll be watching you, Ice Boy." Unable to think of a clever reply that would not result in him getting skewered, Bobby kept quiet. Logan gave him a long look, than turned to leave.
That left Bobby and Jubilee alone in the hallway.
"Soo…" Jubilee trailed off, looking uncomfortable. He stared at her, aghast. She had just stood up to Logan, one of the scariest men on the planet, and had come away the winner. For that matter, so had Bobby. He didn't want to think about that too much, though. He worried his knees might start shaking if he pondered too deeply on what had just occurred between him and Logan. But Jubilee stood up to Logan regularly, and regularly won. Yet, here she was, feeling uncomfortable around him, the Human Popsicle. Girls were weird.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" Bobby suggested.
"Sure," Jubilee shrugged.
They walked for a while, unsure of where to go. Small talk lead no where, eventually fading into silence. Several times Bobby caught himself reaching for her hand, but stopped himself. He didn't want to scare her. Eventually, they reached the hotel swimming pool. Bobby sat down at the edge. Hesitantly, Jubilee followed suit.
"Water looks nice," Bobby said, making another attempt at small talk while he tried to sort out what he wanted to say.
Jubilee was quiet for a moment. Then, she blurted out, "This is stupid!"
"The water? What'd it ever do to you?" Bobby quipped. Once again, his mouth seemed to have lost any connection to his brain.
"Not the water, stupid," Jubilee retorted.
"Wait, am I stupid or is the water? Are we both stupid? 'Cause I may not be the sharpest nail in the bucket, but I've gotta be smarter than chlorinated water. Give me some credit here." Again, mouth running on its own.
Jubilee rolled her eyes, although she didn't seem angry. "You know what I mean. About last night."
Bobby became serious again. "Yeah."
"So talk," she told him.
"Wait. Why am I the one who has to talk? Why don't you start?" he teased.
"'Cause I don't really know what to say. The whole thing is kinda awkward," Jubilee admitted. Her blatant honesty caught him off guard. It took him a moment to gather his thoughts again.
"I don't see why we should talk," he said at length.
"Bobby! You little-" Jubilee couldn't believe here ears. She'd never pegged Bobby as the type to do this sort of thing.
"What I mean is that I don't see what needs to be discussed," he continued, interrupting what was sure to have been an impressive tirade. "You're being such a girl about this, Jubes. I like you, I'm hoping that you like me, so what else do we need?" As he spoke he stole a sideways glance at her in order to catch her reaction to his statement. He saw her face take on a disbelieving expression.
"I'm being a girl about this? Bobby, if you haven't noticed, I am a girl! Dude, seriously, I need to know now if you've got any strange feelings towards guys because I really doubt that this thing will work if you do."
"Not what I meant!" he almost shouted in his defense, hoping fervently that she was teasing him.
"I know what you meant," she said, trying to wipe the smile from her face. He made it so easy sometimes. "So what now?"
"Well… we could take advantage of being alone out here," he smiled.
"And how would we do that?" she asked innocently. Bobby smiled and pulled her into his lap.
"I've got some ideas," he said, his mouth inches from hers.
"Really?" she asked, surprised by how husky her voice sounded. And then she didn't have time to think about that anymore, because Bobby's mouth was on hers again and it felt as nice now as it had last night. She turned her body so that she was straddling him. He groaned and kissed her more deeply. Jubilee got lost in the kiss. She had no way of knowing how long they'd sat there kissing before they'd heard the scream. Startled, they broke apart.
"That sounds like Paige," Jubilee mused. Realizing that it probably was Paige, she looked at Bobby scathingly. "What did you do?" she asked.
"Umm… laundry detergent in the toilet," he confessed, blushing a little. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Jubilee gave him another disbelieving look before bursting out into laughter.
"She's going to kill me," Jubilee said, although the fact that she couldn't keep the laughter out of her voice made the statement seem less dire than she'd meant for it to.
"Hey now, I wouldn't let her do that," Bobby declared, "I'd confess and then she'd just kill me."
"My hero," Jubilee said, somewhat sarcastically.
"Martyr," Bobby corrected.
"You wouldn't be a martyr. You are the one responsible and therefore deserve to die," she teased.
"Well I'm glad my life is worth so little to you," he said dramatically, flinging out his arm. Jubilee giggled.
"Seriously, though," he said, "Maybe we should not be here when she comes looking for us."
"Chicken."
"Rooster. Chickens are girls. You coming?" he asked, getting up and offering her his hand. She took it and stood.
"Let's go!" They ran back into the hotel hand in hand, heading towards the nearest exit.
THE END