Hey all, FINALLY the next chapter. I am so so so so so so so so so so so sorry for the wait. I have had the WORST writer's block imaginable. But school's out now, so I should have more time to write and hopefully the evil writer's block with go away. But here it is, a chapter at last. Huge thanks to my reviewers: endiahna, ChargerWarrior, and Harlequin Jade. Read, Review, Enjoy.
The day passed slowly for Hank, but at last dinner had come and gone, and the children were settling in to bed. He was just on his way to his favorite armchair with a book in hand, when he saw Logan heading toward the front door.
Hank paused, then set the door on a nearby table and followed Logan, catching up to him just inside the door.
"Hey, Logan," Hank said, his tone nonchalant, as though he had simply happened by, "Are you going out tonight?"
But apparently Hank had not been able to keep the eagerness from his voice as Logan grinned slightly to himself. "No," he replied, "Sorry. Storm has me scheduled to lead a pre-dawn training session, so I can't tonight."
"Oh," Hank said, trying to keep the disappointment from his voice, "Just wondering."
He was about to go back to his book, but Logan's amused voice stopped him, "I saw you and Coco getting friendly last night."
Hank briefly wondered what was so funny about that, but didn't ask. "She's a very nice girl," he said, a bit uncomfortably.
Logan raised eyebrow, "Yes, a very nice girl," he repeated, his tone mildly puzzled, then suddenly he burst out laughing.
"What do you find so funny?" Hank demanded crossly.
"You-you-" Logan choked, holding onto the wall for support as he laughed, "You think she's…" but Logan was laughing too hard to finish his sentence.
"I don't know what you find so funny about me being attracted to her, she's a lovely girl," Hank said crossly, making an assumption as to why Logan was laughing, "The idea of me dating isn't so ridiculous, I was quite the Casanova in my day."
Logan just continued laughing helplessly.
"Honestly, what is so funny?" Hank demanded. He was just about to let it drop, when Logan regained enough control of himself to speak.
"Why don't…" he choked, still chuckling, "You go call her, and ask her what's so funny," he suggested.
"Maybe I will," Hank humph-ed, turning on his heel and walking away, Logan's chuckles echoing after him. Hank of course actually had no intention of calling Coco to ask her about the inner workings of Logan's mind, he didn't really care that much. However, once alone in the quiet halls, he began to think that maybe it would be nice to call Coco anyway, just to talk to her.
So, digging out the slip of paper she had given him he sat down with his phone and dialed. It took precisely three rings until the phone was answered.
"Hello?" said a deep, throaty voice.
"Uh, hello, this is Hank, is Coco there?" he asked uncertainly, thrown off by the male voice answering the phone.
"Oh, hey Hank," the man said, "You caught me at a good time. My roommate and I are redoing our apartment, and she just headed out to buy more paint, so I've got nothing to do for a bit."
Hank said nothing. This was Coco; Coco was the one who had answered the phone. Coco was the one with a masculine voice.
Just how drunk had he been last night? Hardly drunk at all, he remembered, he hadn't even finished the one beer.
"Hello?" Coco was saying, a frown in her, his voice, "Hank? Are you still there?"
Still Hank said nothing, numbly setting the phone back on his cradle. Now he understood what Logan had thought so funny.
8
Logan was still chuckling when he reached the tree, which Warren was leaning against, near the edge of the grounds, and out of sight of the mansion.
"Hey there, kid," Logan said, easily bracing a hand on the tree trunk beside Warren's head, "Nice night, isn't it?"
Warren nodded absently, his eyes on Logan's chest unfocused and distant.
"That's a serious face," Logan observed, as he bent his head to gently kiss Warren's neck, "Thinking about something important?"
It took Warren several moments to respond. "Not really," he answered, his voice carefully nonchalant. "I thought you'd be going out tonight."
"The rain-Storm has me on early morning duty tomorrow," Logan said, his lips slowly traveling up Warren's neck to his jaw line.
"Oh," was Warren's only reply. Logan mumbled something incoherently as his lips danced up to Warren's, but Warren turned his head away.
Logan pulled back, frowning, "Something wrong, kid?" he asked.
Warren shook his head quickly, not meeting Logan's eyes, "Nothing," he said; "Guess I'm just not in the mood tonight."
"Well, do you want me to-"
"No," Warren cut him off, his voice much sharper than he'd intended, "I'm just going to go to bed," he was careful to soften his tone.
"OK," Logan said, looking a bit put out, and still frowning, "Will you meet me here tomorrow, after classes?"
Warren nodded absently, disentangling himself from Logan's arms and flying away without glancing back at the still frowning older mutant on the ground below him.
8
As Warren approached the open window to his dorm, he heard the sounds of yelling from the other side. He paused; perching on the windowsill, not want to intrude on the argument Bobby and John seemed to be having.
"We're friends!" Bobby yelled, his tone clearly stating that he was getting tired of having to say that.
"Oh, yeah, you're best pals, I know that!" John snapped back.
"So what's the problem?" Bobby demanded.
"I. Hate. Him." John said, accentuating every word.
"Well maybe you wouldn't if you just gave him a chance!"
"That would require him giving me a chance," John retorted.
"Maybe if you would stay in a room with him for more than two minutes-"
"Maybe I don't want to!"
"Maybe you should just shut up and get over yourself!" Bobby snapped, finally loosing all sense of control, "Maybe, if you just stopped yelling and hating the world, and found out why he doesn't like you, the two of you could become friends!"
"Maybe I-"
"No!" Bobby cut him off, his voice deadly, "I don't want to hear it. Just get out of here. I don't want to see you again until you've at least tried to make friends with him."
John stood frozen for a moment, as though surprised by the force in Bobby's voice. He then opened his mouth to retort something, closed, opened it again, then turned on his heel and left, slamming the door behind him.
Bobby sighed, sinking down onto his bed and putting his face in his hands.
"Wow," Warren said, coming into the room, "That was some fight. What'd you do this time?" Bobby had told Warren all about the little triangle of problems he was having with Peter and John.
"I shared my Bio notes with Peter," Bobby sighed, flopping back onto his bed.
"Do you think John'll actually talk to him?" Warren asked, sitting down on his own bed and pulling off his shoes.
"I hope so," Bobby replied, "But hey, what are you doing back? I thought you went to meet Logan."
"I did," Warren shrugged, not meeting Bobby's eyes.
"Well, what happened?" Bobby asked, sitting up with a frown.
"Wasn't in the mood," Warren shrugged, his tone a bit too off hand.
"You really like him, don't you?" it wasn't really a question.
"It doesn't matter," Warren's reply was accompanied by a sullen shrug before flopping back on his own bed and staring blankly at the ceiling.
"'Course it is," Bobby said, "How do you know he doesn't feel the same way?"
Warren simply raised an eyebrow at him. "He goes out clubbing most every night, he's got all kinds of 'friends' like me. He's not a commitment kind of guy."
"You could always ask him," Bobby suggested, shrugging innocently, "He did leave a club to come be with you last night."
"He was drunk," was Warren's carefully nonchalant reply, "Its happened before."
Bobby had no answer to that, so he simply said, "Oh," and lay down again. After several minutes of silence in which they both lay in their beds, somewhat beginning to doze, Bobby ventured one last comment, "You still could ask," he said, but Warren made no answer as they drifted off to sleep.