Xavier's
Title: Xavier's
Fandom: X-Men
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Charles/Erik, Remy/Rogue, Logan, Jubilee, Ensemble
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Logan's adjusting. Slowly.
Word Count: 2310
Written For: What-If AU 55: The Staff AU and All Bingo Body Parts Bingo Fest: Teeth
Warnings: AU
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
He didn't like where this was going. He'd been alone too long out in the woods, or at least, that's what people said, amongst other, less nice things. If you asked him, though, he would have said he hadn't been out there long enough. People were the ones who could not be trusted, not animals. Animals were straight forward; they either wanted to eat you, avoid you, or be petted by you. Bipedals, however, were the strange ones, the more ferocious ones not because they were any stronger than a bear, wilder than an ape, or meaner than an angry rattlesnake but because they would kill, and did so every day somewhere across the globe, for less honorable reasons.
And this place reeked of far too many humans, or other creatures that nonetheless walked around on two legs and conducted themselves with a human type of society. It didn't really matter which they were -- homo sapien, homo inferior, Vampire, lycanthrope. What mattered was that they were people, and they all wanted something. They all wanted something to further their own goals. Charlie preached a good debate, but Logan knew that even he had his own desires, his own plans for which he would use anything, or anyone, he could justify -- and it really was a wonder how far people could stretch their morals to justify their desires.
He grunted. Be that as it may, he was hungry. He'd never eaten like he did at this grandoise place, and he'd never been one to turn away free food. Besides, as much as they aggravated him, the more he came around these people, the more he would come to know them, to understand their motifs, and to be able to act accordingly. He'd never give them what they wanted unless it benefited him, but showing up to dinner definitely benefited him.
He could just take a couple of plates and go, but that wouldn't give him the opportunity to watch them and learn. He needed to get to know these people not because he liked any of them, not because he wanted their offered friendships, but rather so that he could protect himself from their plights and ploys. They wouldn't bend him. They thought they could take the wild out of the man, but instead they'd welcomed the wild into their fancy abode.
"Logan," Charles greeted him with a smile whose warmth the man once called Wolverine did not feel, "I'm glad you joined us."
"Kinda hard to pass by free grub, Charlie, when you've been hungry." His angry eyes surveyed the table as he wondered where to sit.
"You got dat right, mon ami." He shifted his gaze to the lean, tall Cajun who looked back at him through unblinking, blood red eyes. He was part of the leading secodary magical family that made up the people who lived at this fancy place, beings that Charles had brought together for their own protection, or so he and his lover claimed. From what Logan had been able to tell, LeBeau had married into the family, headed by Xavier's top Sorceress who was also one of his top advisors, seconded only by Magnus.
There was something off beyond that with the Cajun himself, however. There was something about that actual man that just rubbed his fur the wrong way. He caught sight of his teeth as he smiled. The sharp points of his fangs gleamed in the candlelight. Logan knew he was a Vamp, but he'd met plenty of "friendly" Vampires, Vampires who chose to only take their blood from blood banks, animals that were slaughtered for meat, or wiling donors. Hell, the only one in the whole damn group who actually made him feel truly welcomed was a Vampire herself.
Logan nodded to the kid as he took the seat beside her baby. Strange, he thought for the first time but taking another sniff of the air just to be certain he was right, how a Vampire woman could have a human baby. He'd seen Lee with the kid, though, and she truly was a good mother.
He glanced to the left at the ghost who walked. That girl wasn't much older than Lee, but she had the unnerving habit of walking right through the walls in the corridors. She'd nearly bumped into him the other night when he'd been coming in late, and she'd actually had the gall to giggle about it, apologize, and wave at him as she passed through him too! She sat beside a Demon with both forked tongue and forked tail. Kurt Wagner wasn't the only one with blue fur, though, Logan thought as he glanced down at the other end of the table, where the group's head doctor sat. He was both chief Scientist and head doctor to humans, animals, and, Logan guessed, everything in between. A man that looked like a freaking, walking snowman sat beside him.
"Why don't we cut the crap here, Xavier?" Logan asked, spearing a piece of steak with his butcher knife. He lifted the steak to his lips and tore off a piece with his own fangs. He had fangs and claws, too, but he was no Werewolf or Vampire. That like couldn't stand to tussel with him: He'd always come out the winner, and he would from this place too.
Charles steepled his fingers together before him and touched the tips lightly with his lips. "Do tell, Logan, and just what crap are we referring to here?"
"All o' this," Logan barked out, waving a hand around, but his belly was even hungrier than he was angry. He couldn't resist ripping another steak apart in his teeth in mere seconds.
The tall, white-haired man beside Charles frowned his disapproval. "You really are a foolish beast," he remarked coldly. "Not only do you eat like a wild beast, but you're just as stupid as to bite the hand that feeds you."
"No one bites my hands, Erik, but you."
Charles' soft whisper made the taller man blush. "You know I do not approve of letting anyone speak to you in such a manner, my love," he protested, but his blue eyes did not raise a second time from his full plate.
"I could still his tongue for you," a woman in white spoke with a tone that somehow seemed even icier, "if you like."
Logan stabbed his table with his knife. "That's exactly what I'm -- " His eyes shot wider than their dinner plates as he suddenly found he could not speak. He grabbed at his throat, then glowered at the woman in white. He didn't know what kind of Sorcery she had used, but it became worse as he moved to attack her and defend himself. He suddenly could not move at all!
"Release him, Emma," Charles spoke. Logan felt a strange, unnamed weight lift from him, and he fell forward toward the table.
Jubilee was on her feet in an instant, but no because he was headed to land on Shogo. She caught him and held him up straight. "Easy there, big fellow. It doesn't pay to annoy Frostie. I had to learn that lesson the hard way."
"As you can see, Wolverine, we are all very capable of defending ourselves, should the need arise."
"Charles, must we really have this conversation at the dinner table?"
"Why do you all eat together?" Logan spat. He'd make another move on the blonde, but he knew she'd stop him and somehow freeze his entire body before he could ever touch her. "It's not like Vampires even eat!"
"Watch it, bub," Jubilee hissed at him, using his own words against him. "I just saved your ass."
"Not really, kid, but I guess I 'preciate the hand." He pulled himself up and away from her and, after only a moment's further hesitation, retook his seat. The ivory-haired woman who had spoken had been the first voice he'd heard to rise with both elegance and gentility in this place. Their eyes locked for a moment, and he could swear he could feel the wind picking up in the room.
She was beautiful, but he somehow sensed that she was perhaps the deadliest of all those gathered at this... round table. That was another strange change from the norms to which he was accustomed. Why was the damn thing round anyway? Was Charles pretending to collect his own twisted Knights of the Round Table, and if so, for what purpose? The old, bald Wizard claimed that he gathered different beings here to give them a safe haven, but Logan had learned long ago that nothing was ever as good as it seemed.
Charles looked at him with a tiny smile twisting his lips with wry humor. "You are correct, Logan. I am no King Arthur, nor would I ever deign to be. His shoes were far too legendary for me to hope to fill." His blue eyes twinkled.
Logan tensed. Were they making fun of him? he thought suddenly, biting down on his bottom lip to keep from attempting a foolish attack. Any attack against this group would be foolish, at least right now; until he could figure out what powers these people had and how to surprise them, best them, and keep them from using their powers, he didn't stand a chance of even freaking touching them, especially thanks to the likes of the blonde and Xavier both.
"What I do hope to offer to everyone who has been born different is exactly what I have told you. I want to make a safe haven for people like us all. I want to be able to give those who are different a safe place to sleep, to gather, to live, to hone their abilities if they see fit... to become and raise a family here." His piercing gaze went from the Darkholmes to the baby sitting next to Logan. He barely managed to resist the urge to jump between Lee, the kid, and Xavier, but surely he wouldn't hurt one of his so easily right here out in the open.
"But why?" he growled. "What do you get out of it?"
"Joy, peace, love," Charles answered amiably, raising his and Erik's joined hands, "and if I'm lucky, truly lucky, the family I have always wanted, we have always wanted to hold."
A gust of wind blew open the doors at the end of the corridor. "All who gather here are considered equals, and each and every one, including yourself, is free to go at any time. But I pulled you from the deepest, coldest forests in Canada, Wolverine. Do you really want to go back to that existence, to the struggle for food, clothing, and anything else you may need?"
Shogo gurgled. The baby looked up at Wolverine with admiration and gleeful, shining, and tiny hands unlike any he had witnessed in so very long. Fox and he had tried to raise a baby... They had tried and failed miserably. He lifted his gaze from the baby to his mother, who was looking at him almost as pleadingly. He grunted and shifted his gaze back to his plate.
"It has been a damn long time since I ate like this," he admitted, piercing another steak and ripping into it with his fangs. "I guess I could stick it out a while, least keep my belly full a couple o' nights..."
Charles nodded, pleased, and the doors shut. Conversations began to drift around the table as if nothing had happened or perhaps to cover up the fact that someone had actually dared to stand up to the man who they all seemed to revere like a King, or at least a great Wizard. Logan grabbed a roll, and then another. On his fifth piece of steak, he finally grunted out, "Who made the grub anyway?"
"Well, mon ami, dat's de funny t'ing. You say we Vampires don't need to eat, an' you're right -- we don't." His red eyes twinkled merrily at him. "But it don' mean we don' enjoy it."
"You made this?" Logan asked, nodding toward the feast.
"Some o' it. Rogue made some. Jean made some. Bobby made most of the deserts."
"You see, Logan, the one thing I do ask in return for allowing others to live here is that everyone serve a role," Charles explained from the end of the table. "We all work here. We all come together here."
Logan raised a bushy brow at the Wizard. "What do ya expect me to do?" he asked.
"There are some old trees in need of being reduced to kindling, and a fence that needs repair. Ororo can show you the trees tomorrow. I trust you can handle an axe?"
"'Course," he grunted and ripped into yet another piece of meat.
"Ororo, are you prepared? Have you chosen your seeds?"
The ivory-haired woman from before answered her leader with a voice just as elegant, gentle, and peaceful as it had been the only other time Logan had heard her speak. "I have, Charles."
"Seeds?" Logan asked, brow raising again.
"Yes." He tingled inside this time when her eyes met with his. "You see, Logan," she explained with a smile, "we at Xavier's never simply destroy any living thing."
"Thought th' trees were already dead -- " He did have a problem with chopping a perfectly fine and healthy tree.
"They are, but in the stead of the dead, we always spring new life."
"That so?" His gaze moved questioningly to Lee, who seemed to have pushed her way a little closer to him.
"The dead dead." She grinned up at him and popped a strip of fried potato -- a strange culinary delight -- into her mouth. He supposed they were right: Vampires could eat, and maybe, just maybe, the dead could learn to live again.
The End
Fandom: X-Men
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Charles/Erik, Remy/Rogue, Logan, Jubilee, Ensemble
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: Logan's adjusting. Slowly.
Word Count: 2310
Written For: What-If AU 55: The Staff AU and All Bingo Body Parts Bingo Fest: Teeth
Warnings: AU
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
He didn't like where this was going. He'd been alone too long out in the woods, or at least, that's what people said, amongst other, less nice things. If you asked him, though, he would have said he hadn't been out there long enough. People were the ones who could not be trusted, not animals. Animals were straight forward; they either wanted to eat you, avoid you, or be petted by you. Bipedals, however, were the strange ones, the more ferocious ones not because they were any stronger than a bear, wilder than an ape, or meaner than an angry rattlesnake but because they would kill, and did so every day somewhere across the globe, for less honorable reasons.
And this place reeked of far too many humans, or other creatures that nonetheless walked around on two legs and conducted themselves with a human type of society. It didn't really matter which they were -- homo sapien, homo inferior, Vampire, lycanthrope. What mattered was that they were people, and they all wanted something. They all wanted something to further their own goals. Charlie preached a good debate, but Logan knew that even he had his own desires, his own plans for which he would use anything, or anyone, he could justify -- and it really was a wonder how far people could stretch their morals to justify their desires.
He grunted. Be that as it may, he was hungry. He'd never eaten like he did at this grandoise place, and he'd never been one to turn away free food. Besides, as much as they aggravated him, the more he came around these people, the more he would come to know them, to understand their motifs, and to be able to act accordingly. He'd never give them what they wanted unless it benefited him, but showing up to dinner definitely benefited him.
He could just take a couple of plates and go, but that wouldn't give him the opportunity to watch them and learn. He needed to get to know these people not because he liked any of them, not because he wanted their offered friendships, but rather so that he could protect himself from their plights and ploys. They wouldn't bend him. They thought they could take the wild out of the man, but instead they'd welcomed the wild into their fancy abode.
"Logan," Charles greeted him with a smile whose warmth the man once called Wolverine did not feel, "I'm glad you joined us."
"Kinda hard to pass by free grub, Charlie, when you've been hungry." His angry eyes surveyed the table as he wondered where to sit.
"You got dat right, mon ami." He shifted his gaze to the lean, tall Cajun who looked back at him through unblinking, blood red eyes. He was part of the leading secodary magical family that made up the people who lived at this fancy place, beings that Charles had brought together for their own protection, or so he and his lover claimed. From what Logan had been able to tell, LeBeau had married into the family, headed by Xavier's top Sorceress who was also one of his top advisors, seconded only by Magnus.
There was something off beyond that with the Cajun himself, however. There was something about that actual man that just rubbed his fur the wrong way. He caught sight of his teeth as he smiled. The sharp points of his fangs gleamed in the candlelight. Logan knew he was a Vamp, but he'd met plenty of "friendly" Vampires, Vampires who chose to only take their blood from blood banks, animals that were slaughtered for meat, or wiling donors. Hell, the only one in the whole damn group who actually made him feel truly welcomed was a Vampire herself.
Logan nodded to the kid as he took the seat beside her baby. Strange, he thought for the first time but taking another sniff of the air just to be certain he was right, how a Vampire woman could have a human baby. He'd seen Lee with the kid, though, and she truly was a good mother.
He glanced to the left at the ghost who walked. That girl wasn't much older than Lee, but she had the unnerving habit of walking right through the walls in the corridors. She'd nearly bumped into him the other night when he'd been coming in late, and she'd actually had the gall to giggle about it, apologize, and wave at him as she passed through him too! She sat beside a Demon with both forked tongue and forked tail. Kurt Wagner wasn't the only one with blue fur, though, Logan thought as he glanced down at the other end of the table, where the group's head doctor sat. He was both chief Scientist and head doctor to humans, animals, and, Logan guessed, everything in between. A man that looked like a freaking, walking snowman sat beside him.
"Why don't we cut the crap here, Xavier?" Logan asked, spearing a piece of steak with his butcher knife. He lifted the steak to his lips and tore off a piece with his own fangs. He had fangs and claws, too, but he was no Werewolf or Vampire. That like couldn't stand to tussel with him: He'd always come out the winner, and he would from this place too.
Charles steepled his fingers together before him and touched the tips lightly with his lips. "Do tell, Logan, and just what crap are we referring to here?"
"All o' this," Logan barked out, waving a hand around, but his belly was even hungrier than he was angry. He couldn't resist ripping another steak apart in his teeth in mere seconds.
The tall, white-haired man beside Charles frowned his disapproval. "You really are a foolish beast," he remarked coldly. "Not only do you eat like a wild beast, but you're just as stupid as to bite the hand that feeds you."
"No one bites my hands, Erik, but you."
Charles' soft whisper made the taller man blush. "You know I do not approve of letting anyone speak to you in such a manner, my love," he protested, but his blue eyes did not raise a second time from his full plate.
"I could still his tongue for you," a woman in white spoke with a tone that somehow seemed even icier, "if you like."
Logan stabbed his table with his knife. "That's exactly what I'm -- " His eyes shot wider than their dinner plates as he suddenly found he could not speak. He grabbed at his throat, then glowered at the woman in white. He didn't know what kind of Sorcery she had used, but it became worse as he moved to attack her and defend himself. He suddenly could not move at all!
"Release him, Emma," Charles spoke. Logan felt a strange, unnamed weight lift from him, and he fell forward toward the table.
Jubilee was on her feet in an instant, but no because he was headed to land on Shogo. She caught him and held him up straight. "Easy there, big fellow. It doesn't pay to annoy Frostie. I had to learn that lesson the hard way."
"As you can see, Wolverine, we are all very capable of defending ourselves, should the need arise."
"Charles, must we really have this conversation at the dinner table?"
"Why do you all eat together?" Logan spat. He'd make another move on the blonde, but he knew she'd stop him and somehow freeze his entire body before he could ever touch her. "It's not like Vampires even eat!"
"Watch it, bub," Jubilee hissed at him, using his own words against him. "I just saved your ass."
"Not really, kid, but I guess I 'preciate the hand." He pulled himself up and away from her and, after only a moment's further hesitation, retook his seat. The ivory-haired woman who had spoken had been the first voice he'd heard to rise with both elegance and gentility in this place. Their eyes locked for a moment, and he could swear he could feel the wind picking up in the room.
She was beautiful, but he somehow sensed that she was perhaps the deadliest of all those gathered at this... round table. That was another strange change from the norms to which he was accustomed. Why was the damn thing round anyway? Was Charles pretending to collect his own twisted Knights of the Round Table, and if so, for what purpose? The old, bald Wizard claimed that he gathered different beings here to give them a safe haven, but Logan had learned long ago that nothing was ever as good as it seemed.
Charles looked at him with a tiny smile twisting his lips with wry humor. "You are correct, Logan. I am no King Arthur, nor would I ever deign to be. His shoes were far too legendary for me to hope to fill." His blue eyes twinkled.
Logan tensed. Were they making fun of him? he thought suddenly, biting down on his bottom lip to keep from attempting a foolish attack. Any attack against this group would be foolish, at least right now; until he could figure out what powers these people had and how to surprise them, best them, and keep them from using their powers, he didn't stand a chance of even freaking touching them, especially thanks to the likes of the blonde and Xavier both.
"What I do hope to offer to everyone who has been born different is exactly what I have told you. I want to make a safe haven for people like us all. I want to be able to give those who are different a safe place to sleep, to gather, to live, to hone their abilities if they see fit... to become and raise a family here." His piercing gaze went from the Darkholmes to the baby sitting next to Logan. He barely managed to resist the urge to jump between Lee, the kid, and Xavier, but surely he wouldn't hurt one of his so easily right here out in the open.
"But why?" he growled. "What do you get out of it?"
"Joy, peace, love," Charles answered amiably, raising his and Erik's joined hands, "and if I'm lucky, truly lucky, the family I have always wanted, we have always wanted to hold."
A gust of wind blew open the doors at the end of the corridor. "All who gather here are considered equals, and each and every one, including yourself, is free to go at any time. But I pulled you from the deepest, coldest forests in Canada, Wolverine. Do you really want to go back to that existence, to the struggle for food, clothing, and anything else you may need?"
Shogo gurgled. The baby looked up at Wolverine with admiration and gleeful, shining, and tiny hands unlike any he had witnessed in so very long. Fox and he had tried to raise a baby... They had tried and failed miserably. He lifted his gaze from the baby to his mother, who was looking at him almost as pleadingly. He grunted and shifted his gaze back to his plate.
"It has been a damn long time since I ate like this," he admitted, piercing another steak and ripping into it with his fangs. "I guess I could stick it out a while, least keep my belly full a couple o' nights..."
Charles nodded, pleased, and the doors shut. Conversations began to drift around the table as if nothing had happened or perhaps to cover up the fact that someone had actually dared to stand up to the man who they all seemed to revere like a King, or at least a great Wizard. Logan grabbed a roll, and then another. On his fifth piece of steak, he finally grunted out, "Who made the grub anyway?"
"Well, mon ami, dat's de funny t'ing. You say we Vampires don't need to eat, an' you're right -- we don't." His red eyes twinkled merrily at him. "But it don' mean we don' enjoy it."
"You made this?" Logan asked, nodding toward the feast.
"Some o' it. Rogue made some. Jean made some. Bobby made most of the deserts."
"You see, Logan, the one thing I do ask in return for allowing others to live here is that everyone serve a role," Charles explained from the end of the table. "We all work here. We all come together here."
Logan raised a bushy brow at the Wizard. "What do ya expect me to do?" he asked.
"There are some old trees in need of being reduced to kindling, and a fence that needs repair. Ororo can show you the trees tomorrow. I trust you can handle an axe?"
"'Course," he grunted and ripped into yet another piece of meat.
"Ororo, are you prepared? Have you chosen your seeds?"
The ivory-haired woman from before answered her leader with a voice just as elegant, gentle, and peaceful as it had been the only other time Logan had heard her speak. "I have, Charles."
"Seeds?" Logan asked, brow raising again.
"Yes." He tingled inside this time when her eyes met with his. "You see, Logan," she explained with a smile, "we at Xavier's never simply destroy any living thing."
"Thought th' trees were already dead -- " He did have a problem with chopping a perfectly fine and healthy tree.
"They are, but in the stead of the dead, we always spring new life."
"That so?" His gaze moved questioningly to Lee, who seemed to have pushed her way a little closer to him.
"The dead dead." She grinned up at him and popped a strip of fried potato -- a strange culinary delight -- into her mouth. He supposed they were right: Vampires could eat, and maybe, just maybe, the dead could learn to live again.
The End