XCave.NET

“He’s changed,” the girl, no, the young woman sighed to her companion.

Both of them were sitting in the balcony of their tenth story apartment. Well, one of them was sitting; the other one was perched, precariously on the edge of the railing, her sharp eyes following the stocky figure on the street below.

“Everyone’s changed….” The other girl grunted, her own mind haunted by the deeds of her past. “Everything’s changed.”

“I know that,” the purple and yellow clad Jubilee Lee stood up from her easy chair and walked towards the tacit Laura, X23. “I lost my powers remember. I know from experience how much everything’s changed. You don’t have to tell me.”

“Hn,” Laura knew that Jubilee was not being sarcastic or angry, she was just venting herself. It was a habit of hers, one that Logan knew about and that Laura had learned quickly enough. At first, she would get angry at the near constant chatter….however, almost six months of living together had changed that.

Although, still not a big fan of the Chinese girl’s motor mouth, she had made peace with it. If nothing else, both girls had at least one thing in common, Wolverine. The man was like a father to both, and seeing him like this, seemingly lost in himself, worried them.

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“Its not his memories,” Jubilee turned around and leaned her back at the concrete side railing. “Its something else.”
“How do you know?” Laura’s voice held no accusation. She knew about Jubilee’s past with Logan and realized that the chatterbox façade of Jubilee hid a complex personality underneath it. She was very perceptive at reading people, especially the ones near and dear to her. Whether it was something Logan taught her, or something she developed on her own, she did not know….however she did respect it and even value. Had it been before M-Day, she would have attributed it to some hidden mutant ability….but not now.

“Duh,” Jubilee looked at her as if she had asked the most obvious question. “You seen him write in that journal of his.”
“Yes,” Laura nodded. That was one of the few things Logan was doing anymore. He had taken temporary leave from the X-Men, and an indefinite one from teaching at the X-Men Academy. The only missions he went on were the ones Mr. Summers, Cyclops contacted him for…well; the contacting was done by his telepathic girlfriend, Ms. Frost, but that wasn’t important. He had completely cut himself off from mansion. The rest of his time he would spend in either going to places he remembered from his newly gotten memories, or just sitting around, drinking beer, smoking cigars and writing in that journal of his.

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“He’s writing his memories in it,” Jubilee didn’t have to read to know what was in that book, not that she would do such a thing to Logan anyway. She knew because she had seen the lost, far off look that her Wolvie used to get, sitting with a pen in one hand, cigar or beer in the other, his notebook open and lying before him.
“Oh,” Laura sighed and nodded. She had long since stopped putting on her don’t come near me mask in front of Jubilee. Having taken down the master of that particular look, the newbie Laura didn’t even pose a threat to her wiggling skills.

“Yeah,” Jubilee nodded. “I think he does it because he is doesn’t want to lose them again.”
“What do you mean?” X tilted her head to look at her, her brow creased with inquisitive confusion.

“You know, how some people think that this whole thing will blow of soon,” Jubilee’s point was towards the speculation that whatever had caused millions of mutants worldwide to lose their powers was temporary and that its affect would wear off soon. Some had even reported cases of such occurrences, although there had been no solid proof…but people still had people…even Jubilee herself. She used to be the living firecracker, the unbelievably larger-than-life Jubilee, her fireworks display used to put the fourth of July to shame….and then one day, *POOF* finito. End of story.

“Yeah,” Laura’s nod brought her out of her self-wallowing.

“Yeah, well, I think Wolvie’s afraid that if that happens…”
“He’ll lose his memories again,” Laura cut in, catching onto what she was trying to say.

“Yup,” the shorthaired short-statured Jubilee nodded. “He doesn’t want to lose them….not again. So he’s writing it down, at least as much as he can incase they wear off.”

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“There is something else too,” Laura returned to her earlier point. “I can smell it on him.”
“Yeah well,” Jubilee smirked. “Can’t help you with that. Even when I had my powers, I didn’t do the smell thing. It always used to gross me out. I used to think, imagine you keep smelling everything….ewww. You know how dirty some people are. Yuck.”

“You learn to neglect it,” Laura’s lips twitched in the barest of smiles, a feat for her. “Like to learn to filter out sounds.”

“You know,” something struck in Jubilee’s mind. “He HAS been different. He never goes to the mansion. At first I thought, it was just to get his bearings that he was staying here. But now….”
“Now?”

“Now, I am not so sure.”
 

Note: Ok, not RoLo in this chapter, but I wanted to write about the possible interaction between Jubilee and Laura X (X23).

Back to the mansion in the next one….send me yer Reviews!!