Marie and Garrison, after the prom

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Despite a valiant effort, Garrison misses the prom. He's in for a surprise when he goes to make it up to Marie.



Prom had been a success. Or as much of a success as a prom with half the chaperones genderswitched could be. Marie was going to have to remember to take all of Angel's film and destroy any of the negatives that had managed to capture him. Of course, Marie thought while looking at the mirror in the bathroom, he didn't look halfbad as a guy. Which made it all the more disturbing. Just as Marie was thanking her lucky stars that Garrison had been gone this week and missed out on the new look he'd been sporting, there was a knock on the door.

Kane knocked again, waiting for a response. He must have missed prom itself, although he'd honestly hurried back. Forge had started snickering at him the second he'd pulled off at the flower shop before driving up to the mansion. He fingered the clear plastic consourge box, feeling immensely dorky but also pretty sure that she'd find it sweet.

"Unless you've got some other man in there, Beullah, open the door."

Marie opened the door, a rather sheepish smile on his face. "Well...kinda. Come on in," the brown-haired man said while gesturing into the room. Glancing down at the box in Garrison's hand, a slight pink tint flushed Marie's cheeks. "Aw, you didn't hafta do anything," he drawled. "But the thought's appreciated."

Garrison blinked twice. It was another man. But he didn't believe that Marie would cheat on him, and she didn't have any potential cousins to visit. That meant...

Marie was completely surprised when Garrison hit her squarely on the nose. His shoulder block knocked her back across her bed as Kane vaulted over, still holding the box.

"Marie!" Kane bellowed, eyes flashing around the room to look for her as he grabbed her arm into a joint lock. "Marie! Where are you? Where have you got her, buddy? Don't make me feed you your own arm to get you to talk."

"Ah'm right here," Marie said, rolling his eyes. Garrison was lucky that Marie was invulnerable or he'd have a rather pissed off girlfriend...whatever Marie currently was. "Ah don't have her anywhere, Ah am her. The retreat had a bit of a side effect. No worries though, it's temporary."

Garrison paused. His armlock didn't seem to be doing much, and Kane could bend steel with his strength. That meant the guy possessed superstrength in the range of... well, Marie. He slowly released the grip and backed up.

"Oh, someone tell me this is just a bad joke..."

"It's all a bad joke?" Marie said, smiling weakly as Garrison released her. "Any moment now, someone will jump out of the closet yelling 'Candid Camera.'" Marie was about to explain exactly what had happened when he suddenly felt nauseous. Doubling over, Marie moaned, short brown hair with a white streak suddenly long again, body shrinking to a more petite size with curves suddenly reappearing. "Ah think Ah'm gonna be sick," she groaned.

"Forge slipped E into my Tim Horton's on the way back. That's all this is; that weird little freak's superdrugs." Kane muttered, not believing his eyes as the man seemed to ooze and writhe as the skin reshaped itself. He grabbed the waste basket and jumped over the bed, getting it under Marie's chin just before she vomited.

The contents of her stomach emptied, Marie felt a wash of relief, though she still didn't quite feel steady. "Be right back," she said, disappearing into the bathroom to brush her teeth and splash water on her face. Reemerging, she walked over to the couch and sat down, pulling her knees up to her chest. The white t-shirt she was wearing was incredibly loose now that she'd returned to her own body and she pulled it over her knees. The tux pants she'd worn now draped over her feet and they were barely managing to stay on. Her gloves, however, had slipped off somewhere along the way. "So how was your week?" Marie asked, her head buried in her knees.

Kane gingerly carried the wastebasket over to the bathroom, emptying it into the toilet and quickly sluicing it out in the shower. He left it to dry on the bathtub, picking up a face cloth and running it under the cold water before finally coming out to sit beside her. He gently ran it over her forehead and down her cheek.

"Boring. I was stuck in a car with Forge for ten hours each way. That should be a Danger Room scenario." He joked softly. "Marie, what happened here?"

"Bad joke, remember?" she said, shifting to lean her head against him. "Ran up against a rather unusual power. Genderswapping. Be glad you weren't on team A for the retreat. 'Ro isn't allowed to plan team outings anymore." She rather conveniently forgot to mention that the idea of a team building exercise had been hers.

"This place continues to amaze and horrify me at the same time. So everyone ended up as a... wait, Logan was on this retreat." Kane shuddered. "I don't want to hear any more."

"Trust me, Ah know. Ah have clothes that need to be burned now." Marie shifted slightly, trying find a comfortable position. She'd just gotten used to how her male body liked to sit and now she had to switch back. "Of course, Ah'd be more than happy for us to pretend like that never happened and never talk about it again." Just like getting saved by MONSTER.

"Well, no offense, but coming home to have a Jerry Springer moment that my girlfriend is a guy? Not exactly high on my list of memories to revisit." Kane switched the cloth to the back of her neck, soothing her as he rubbed her back. "How was prom?"

Marie's eyes closed as Garrison's hand continued to run up and down her back. "Pretty uneventful, minus the thing we're not talking about. Ah'm hoping next year things are calmer and my date doesn't have as crowded a head as Ah do." Slowly, she began to relax and unwind. "How was Canada? And Forge?"

"It was good to be home for a little bit. Forge was mostly Forge, until the Minister sharked him out of his metal leg, and Hudson finished the job with techno-babble." Kane chuckled. It had been fun to see Forge trying to play the arrogent card around people as skilled as him, and even better to see how fast that card disappeared in place of honest intellectual excitement. "I think he'll be getting a job offer on a weekly basis from the Department."

"Like he needed another ego boost," Marie said with a smile. "Glad y'all had fun though." Covering her mouth as she yawned, Marie's smiled turned sheepish. "An' Ah think it's about time Ah turn in for the night. May as well get a couple hours of sleep."

"After a prom full of half guys, half girls and female Logan, yeah I'd say you had a pretty full day." Kane shook his head before kissing the top of her head. "I know I'm awfully glad that you're no longer a guy."