| “Hey, runt.” “What?” “Does this make me look fat?” Creed asked the smaller mutant honestly as they walked down an empty hallway with Maverick. “No.” Logan replied after giving him a thorough once over. “Why?” “I dunno, the uniform feels snug.” “Heh, you said ‘snug’.” Maverick grinned, guns out and aimed for anything that made a move. Logan and Victor were more relaxed, letting their senses warn them of trouble. “Gee, thanks Beavis.” Creed stopped walking. It was a faint breathing he heard, somewhere above them. After a moment, the other two noticed he had paused and turned to look at him. Victor withdrew his own gun now and shot it into the air duct.“Congratulations, you shot a vent.” North frowned at him. “Oh damn, I can’t believe I missed him.” Logan sighed, obviously displeased with himself. Maverick continued to frown, not understanding. If it hadn’t been for Victor’s lack of sleep, he doubted strongly that he’d have caught the weak noise in the first place. Now there was a small red pool of gore by the large mutant’s foot from the hole the bullet had made. Creed backtracked a few paces and found an opening to the duct, he unscrewed it with a claw and thrust his head in to see what damage he haddone. “Aw, shit.” He sighed, ducking out of it and looking at his friends. “My bullet shattered his skull, there’s gray matter everywhere.” Victor reached in and grabbed a handful of slick hair, dragging the body out of its hiding place. Boy, it wasn’t pretty. Both North and Logan cringed. Creed noted that they had become a lot more squeamish since they had up and got themselves a couple of does to marry. Back at the barracks, the three had formed the Loud Insomniacs Club. A club solely based on sleeplessness due to alcohol, drugs, caffeine, or bad relationships that resulted in neighbors banging on the walls at two in the morning because the T.V. was too loud or they were too rowdy. But now that two of the three members were married, Creed no longer had to share the cramped living quarters…but didn’t *have* anyone to share it with either. “Well, at least he’s dead. Means we can go home now.” Logan shrugged, avoiding looking at the corpse. “Hey, why don’t we go out to the bar? Pitchers are only seven dollars tonight.” Victor smiled at them, hoping to win them over. “My treat.” Hecoaxed. “Naw, it’s been a long night. Some other time.” Logan wandered out of the emptied building to his car, the clean up team dashed in to take care of the mess.“Yeah, sure. Hey, if anybody needs me, I’m gonna go drown myself in whisky.” Creed huffed and headed towards his piece of crap car that was parked a block away. *** Instead of going to the bar, Victor went home to the too-small apartment on the government base. He shrugged out of the suit and took a long hot shower. That was the only good thing about being here alone now, he could use all of the hot water on himself and not conserve it for two more people. The short shower helped loosen the knots in his back and shoulders but didn’t relieve anything permanently, physically or mentally. He toweled off slowly, the lack of sleep hindering his motor skills greatly, then decided to fall into bed au natural, praying that sleep would visit him this night. He couldn’t pinpoint the actual time he dropped off, but it was well after four in the morning. On the other hand, he remembered his dream of trying to convince a group of fat women to go somewhere, the threat of his automatic handgun that he was waving around wouldn’t stir them either, so it was like herding cats. He pushed himself through the throng of people, looking for someone in particular, though not quite sure who, all of them looking the same to him. When he did find them, he took aim to blow their brains out but no matter how well he aimed, he kept hitting someone else in the crowd, bursting their faces open. He also knew it was seven twenty-four when he woke up to the phone ringing.“’Lo?” He slurred into the receiver. “Hey Vic, you wanna meet David an’ me at the ‘Egg’ for breakfast? Our treat.” Logan sounded awake. Damn him and his wife and his two youngchildren. “What time?” Victor rubbed his eyes of sleep. “Now would be nice…I didn’t wake you, did I?” Stupid brats were arguing in the background, crying over cartoons…he didn’t even have a T.V. anymore, considering he broke it last week. “Actually you did, but breakfast is usually worth bein’ awake for anyhow.” *** Maverick and Logan sat on one side of the table while he sat on the other. Creed kind of felt like they would stop eating and say ‘Vic, you got a problem, you need help. I know these people who can help you.’ Though he hadn’t a clue why they’d say that or what problem he had. “Is it good?” North asked, finally looking up from his plate. “Yeah.” Victor continued to push the food around on his plate, a good portion of it eaten but most of it untouched. “Okay, there’s a reason why we brought you here.” Logan cleared his throat and wiped his mouth. “You haven’t been actin’ like you lately. What’s up? Feeling left out?” “You know, my wife’s sister is single, she would love to meet you…” Maverick began. “I don’t want yer hand outs, especially yer bitch’s sister!” Creed growled at him. His manhood was in jeopardy if the thought was that he couldn’t get his own women. “Vic, that was uncalled for.” Logan pointed at him like a father scolding a child.“Oh, go home and fuck yer wife, runt.” He threw the napkin that was in his lap into his plate, stood up, and left. He felt nauseous. His conscience told him it was for being wretched to his friends, but common sense told him it was the eggs that came with his meal, he hated eggs…eggs, eggs represented femininity, women were females, women had eggs, women took his two best friends away from him…damn eggs. How was he gonna apologize for what he said? Would he apologize at all? He’d have to, he saw those two almost everyday, trusted them with his life…it’d be in his best interests to apologize. But not now, he was still angry. Victor stomped past the pet store and decided to torture the mice in the back, so he shouldered his way through a family looking at the kittens and found the fish tank that held the snake food. He reached a clawed hand inside and watched them scatter. They smelled cat but couldn’t see anything, it drove them insane and Creed only laughed…until one skewered itself on his finger. The white mouse, stained red, dangled from his claw obscenely as Victor approached the store’s owner and handed him two dollars. “Again?” The man raised and eyebrow. This had happened to Vic before. “Yeah…gawd, what an ugly mutt.” He flicked the fuzzy corpse in the garbage, collected his change, and was now staring at the dog that had approachedhim. “Poor old guy, no one wanted him and I didn’t have the heart to put him down…he’s a pure bred too, one hundred percent English bulldog.” They stared at the dog a few more minutes in silence. “Hundred and ten dollars for him.” The guy offered. “I thought you said pure bred.” Creed raised a suspicious eyebrow. “He’s really old.” He shrugged. “He’s real ugly…” The dog whined at him. “Does he drool?” “Y-yeah.” He admitted reluctantly.Creed sighed heavily. “So do I.” *** “Don’t think fer a second that I like you.” Victor told the dog that sat beside him on the park bench. He had named the dog Winston, after the dog on Blossom—one of the Loud Insomniacs favoured shows at one in the morning. “Sir, you’ll have to put that dog on a leash.” A round female officer of the law approached him. She was smiling politely enough and had a flirtatious gleam in her eye.“Or what?” “I don’t want to give you a ticket, sir.” She continued to smile at him. Victor snapped the lead onto Winston’s collar so she would leave, and she did with a swagger of her hips. Winston turned to face him and seemed to roll his eye. “You said it, buddy.” Victor laughed. Then he caught Logan’s scent behind him. “Puppy!” Logan’s kids squealed and ran to his new dog. Winston obliged and wagged his tail at the attention. Creed muttered under his breath, he hated kids, especially Logan’s…and Maverick’s…okay, kids in general. Kids, women had kids, kids came from eggs…damn eggs. “Fancy meeting you here.” Wolverine swatted at his kids to make them go away and play on the swings and he took up residence beside the dog, watching, not looking at Victor. “You still mad?” “Yeah.” “That was some mean shit you pulled this morning.” “Yeah.” “Take it back?” “No, just change some words.” Victor smirked to himself. Logan grinned a bit too. There, that was his apology. Take it or leave it. Logan took it. “Nice dog.” “Winston.” The exchange was simple yet it meant a lot to Creed. “*Are* you feeling left out?” Logan inquired. Okay maybe he was, not like his friend could make things better, might as well keep it to himself. Then he turned to look at Logan to tell him no but Logan already new the truth. “Maverick’s sister-in-law is still available.” The short mutant laughed openly at him.“Sit on it.” Victor gave him the finger. “Oh, is that why you don’t have a girlfriend? Maybe North has a brother-in-law who’s single.” They were both laughing hard together. “Yer a dick, runt.” The sniggering died away. “Listen, do you wanna go out to dinner tonight er something?” “Are you asking me out? Does yer woman know this?” Logan ignored the unfriendly remark made about his wife and continued. “No, like David and his family, me and mine…you and your dog.” Logan snickered. “We could have a barbecue at North’s place, family thing.” “Naw, don’t like the kids.” Creed refused. “Y’know, your feeling left out is largely your own fault. North and I are always inviting you out to do something with us…” “And yer families. Kinda like rubbing it in my face that I’m all alone and you guys have the world…” “Well maybe if you had a different attitude towards women you would go on more dates…” “But it’s always my fault cuz I’m th’ odd man out, and you know what else? There are plenty of frails out there that like my attitude towards them…” “Hardly. Unless you go for the dominator thing, most women don’t like being kept under a man’s thumb…” “So now I dominate ‘em? How would you know? When’s the last time you were my girlfriend?…”“I’ve seen you with…women, if that’s what you can call them…” “What? They not good enough for you? That’s why *I* was seein’ ‘em, not you. You got a lot o’ nerve judgin’ me, look at yer own girl…” “What? What about my wife?” “Daddy?” They were at a stand still now, their faces inches apart. A moment passed between them and they drew back, angry but more embarrassed thenanything. “Did the kids just have to break up a fight between us?” Logan askedcalmly. “Yeah.”“I take it all back.” “Me too.” Victor replied quietly. “Woof.” Winston picked up his head from Victor’s thigh where he had laid it while the exchange went on.“So you wanna come to the barbecue?” “We’re having a barbecue?” One of the kids smiled brightly and they both began to squeal giddily. “Y’know, I don’t know if you remember it but if Mave and I kick the bucket, these kids are yours. ‘Member? You’re the godfather? It’s best to hang out with them a bit. They still call you ‘that really big, grumpy guy’.” Logan smiled at him. “But I am that really big, grumpy guy.” Victor countered as a joke but didn’t smile back. “Vic, help yourself out, you’re playing Mr. Self Destruct. Come to thebarbecue.” Creed looked at him a second, the refusal on his lips but Logan’s eyes begged him to give it up and be happy, be part of his family, be his friend, not be lonely. “I ain’t bringin’ no fruit jello dessert, runt.” Victor growled. “Don’t worry, Maverick’s sister-in-law is doing that.” Logan grinned. END |