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JUST LUCKY, I GUESS 5/?
Though he'd protested, she returned home that night after dinner.
He'd driven her to her car, still parked near the bar where they'd met
again. After promising to call him, she drove home. She was exhausted, and
her head still hurt. She shook her head- somehow fighting all day and all
night wasn't as tiring as pretending to be 'normal' for a day.
About fifteen miles from the mansion, she tilted the rear-view
mirror toward her face and opened the glove compartment. She took out a
tiny vial of liquid, pouring some on her fingers. A few seconds after she
gingerly applied it to the skin around her left eye, the 'skin' puckered
and bubbled slightly. Keeping one eye on the road as she drove, she began
delicately picking at the area, skillfully pulling off a single
opaque sheet of pale latex.
She glanced at her reflection again and nodded in satisfation.
There was now a perfect oval of black skin surrounding her left eye. She
readjusted the mirror and turned down Graymalkin Lane. She looked down at
the latex in her hand and smiled. She'd been using it for several years
now and barely even noticed it anymore, much like the contact lenses she
sometimes wore to disguise her brilliant violet eyes. Guaranteed not to
come off for at least seventy-two hours without the accompanying removal
solution, even under the harshest conditions, the 'makeup' matched her
albino complexion perfectly and was absolutely undetectable. 'It'd better
be,' she snorted 'I pay enough for it'. It was a worthwhile expense,
she knew. She had undeniably distinct features, and in a business where
identification meant exposure she couldn't always afford to go au
natural. She tossed the latex into a bag to be disposed of later, and
pulled down the driveway to the mansion.
She walked up to her room quickly, hoping to avoid contact. She
had too much to think about to manage casual conversation just then, or
worse yet, run into Nathan. She managed to get to her room undetected, and
closed the door with a sigh of relief. Crossing the room quickly, she lay
on her bed and threw an arm over her eyes. She kicked her shoes off and
lay there quietly a while, then crawled under the covers and fell into an
exhausted slumber.
************************
Nathan sat alone by the shore of the lake. His entire day had
been absolutely horrible, just a joke. Besides the morning debacle with
his team, not to mention his *lovely* lunch, he'd had a fight with his
father and had very nearly moved the team out of the mansion. Only
the knowledge that X-Force needed the training facilities and protection
the mansion afforded had kept him from gathering up the team and leaving
immediately. Cyclops had later apologized, but the apology had seemed
rather oily. A quick mindscan proved him right, but Jean caught him. She
then lectured him on privacy and ethics, all familiar arguments. He had
in the past considered both luxuries that he couldn't afford, but
now had to concede their worth. He didn't mind breaking them in
battle, but was slightly ashamed he'd slipped so easily into old habits,
especially with his father.
Then Jean had surprised him. In a much gentler tone she had told
him "Your personal life is your business, but you really need to work on
your shielding. It's rude to broadcast such personal emotions and
sensations at the intensity you did last night". 'Yeah, right,' he
thought. 'Like we all don't know whenever she and Scott get creative'.
The worst part was, he hadn't even done anything. *She* had, and he'd been
trying his damndest not to think about it all day. He avoided both teams
at dinner, opting instead to go for a run, hoping to tire himself out so
he didn't have to think. He'd wound up on the far side of the lake and sat
down, exhausted in mind if not in body. He looked over the lake,
considering his options.
'Dom,' he thought regretfully 'have we drifted that far apart?
She was the only bright spot in my life for years, and now that I'm
finally finding myself it seems like I'm losing her'. He telekinetically
picked up a nearby twig and snapped it, closing his eyes against the
residual pain still plaguing him. He shook his head.
'I don't know how this happened.' An image of Ororo laughing
alongside him flashed through his mind. 'Ororo? But Dom and I have been
too close for too long, shared too much, to let anything like someone else
come between us'. His eyes widened and he remembered the hurt and
rejection he'd felt after he'd realized just what had happened last night.
He closed his eyes. "Damn," he whispered.
'Still...Dom and I have been so much more than lovers. Eighteen
years of friendship and a psi-link should prove that. For so long, she was
the only one I trusted...'. Images of the times spent with Vanessa
masquerading as Domino flew through his mind, but he shook his head
quickly. He didn't even want to *consider* that old betrayal. All that
time had done was intensify his feelings for her, but she hadn't seemingly
shared them.'Had she? I don't know...as close as we are it's so hard to
tell with her'. After he'd rescued her from Tolliver- 'No, Tyler,' he
corrected himself bitterly, she'd disappeared, thinking him dead. She'd
fulfilled her promise to him, though, had reunited the Wild Pack to try to
find X-Force. Later, they'd rejoined. "You called, I came," she'd said to
him, and that had said it all.
He thought about the last few weeks- they'd hardly talked at all
since she returned from her trip to Brazil. He'd been so busy, and
everytime he had a few moments it seemed Ororo or the team had claimed his
time. He'd trusted her to take care of herself, and obviously, he thought
wryly, she had.
His technorganicly enhanced hearing detected the sound of a
familiar engine. He looked across the grounds and saw her car come up the
driveway and go around to park in the back. He inhaled sharply in relief.
'At least she came back,' he thought, 'this time'.
To be con't....
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