Log: Cain and Jubilee, in town, Saturday afternoon

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While Jubilee's busy giving her CO an aneurism by going off on her own, Cain gets all the fun of playing Captain Buzzkill and bringing her home. WARNING: Bad Coffeehouse Folk Band inside.




Jubilee looked down at her empty cup, time for a refill. Leaning over, she
gave David a quick peck on the lips and then slid out of the booth. This had
been good, just what she needed after all the stuff at the mansion.
Sometimes she wondered if she even wanted to go back, it would be so easy to
just ask David if he wanted to get a place somewhere, study at a university.
She'd been looking at the place in New York again, the one that trained you
for the Police force. David had mentioned wanting to move closer to the
city. It was then she noticed Cain in the corner, not that it would've been
hard to miss him considering how different he always looked to the people
around him.

'What the hell's he doing here?' she wondered, changing directions and
wandering nonchalantly over to the booth.

"Why are you here?" she asked, sliding down into the seat in front of him.

"Either it's because I really had a jones to drive out to the middle
of Patchouli Central for some piss-weak coffee and bad folk music,"
Cain replied with a growl, looking through his sunglasses at the
decidedly college-age clientele of the coffee house, "or because
Fearless Leader pointed out that Stupid Trainee decided to ignore
Fearless Leader's orders and take off when we're on something
resembling Sphincter-Clenching Alert. Which, I might add, is an apt
name for that shitty band that's playing." He jerked a thumb at the
three-piece musical ensemble in the corner, that seemed to be more of
an exercise in bongos-and-ukelele discordance than any actual musical
style.

Reaching out one large hand, Cain enveloped Jubilee's coffee cup and
both hands, squeezing nonthreateningly. "Now, you got two minutes to
go tell loverboy there you just had something come up and you gotta
get back home."

"I am not Forge, I can look after myself, you great Ox. See this? Public
place, perfectly fine with at least two exits should things get chancy.
David and I arranged this ages ago, I couldn't just tell him 'something came
up' without telling him what that was and anything I could have said, I'd
have told him about a week ago." Jubilee hissed quietly, leaning in so the
people around them couldn't hear. "Besides, Fearless Leader's orders were
for students as far as I was aware. I haven't been a student for at least a
year and it's not like Lorna is going to find anything I can do particularly
useful so I seriously doubt I'm going to be kidnapped. Totally not worth the
effort, ya know?"

"He lives at 1202 West 32nd, which ain't the best neighborhood, but
ain't exactly a slum," Cain said. "His car needs air in the back left
tire, and his plates expire in a month. Took you fifteen minutes from
showing up at his apartment to getting in his car, which I suppose
qualifies as a 'quickie' these days. And if I can follow you guys
close enough to learn all that - and I ain't exactly Mister Subtlety -
you want to put bets on how many times someone could have grabbed you?
Useful or not, right now we're in a state of fucking disarray, and one
little bit of chaos could send the entire place into a tailspin."

He released her hands, calmly folding his sunglasses into the pocket
of his windbreaker. "Much as you might think Summers is blowing
sunshine up everyone's ass on a daily basis, he's been doing this
longer than you have, and you'd do damn well to listen when he says
something. You might think you're Princess Bad-Ass because you've been
a trainee for a few months and can do your little razzle dazzle
lightshow. You think that's enough to keep someone from blowing his
head off his shoulders to get to you?" Cain jerked his head in David's
direction. "Where the fuck is your brain, girl?"

Jubilee paled, her eyes darting over to David and then back to Cain again.
"I didn't..."

She leant back, taking a deep breath before she spoke again, her colour
coming back.

"I don't think I'm Princess Bad-Ass. I just didn't want to have to lie to
him. Wait here, I'll be right back."

She slid out of the booth and made her way back to David, leaning over to
talk to him.

Cain watched the two of them talk, giving a small wave when David's
head turned in his direction. He seemed like a good kid. The kind that
in a normal world would be a great, decent boyfriend for someone like
Jubilee. Get her out of the sheltered life of the school, show her a
thing or two about what normal folks are like.

Trouble being, that kind of thing could just as easily fool her into
thinking she's normal folks.

"I'll call you tomorrow, okay?" Jubilee said, backing away as David got out
of the booth.

"Sure." he replied, leaning down and kissing her.

She turned and walked back toward Cain, her head turning at the last minute
to watch him walk away. "So, first lie. Maybe I should get a card or
somethin'. 'Congratulations, your girlfriend is part of a secret
organisation. Can you guess which one?' Come on, before we get attacked by
the Hellfire club or heck, villain du jour."

Sliding his sunglasses back on, Cain motioned Jubilee towards the
door. As she walked through, he keyed the communicator pinned to his
collar and spoke quietly. "Juggernaut to Lee. No incident. On the way
home."

Heading for the pickup, there was a brief moment where he
almost felt like an asshole. But it passed.