Ororo and Remy | Monday night

[x-storm.livejournal.com]

Over at Remy's apartment, he and Ororo spend some time together and have a semi-serious conversation. It's not easy to open up after decades of self-sufficiency, but it is rewarding.

Ororo liked the summer. Not just because of the hot, hot weather, which was a bit too humid to really evoke the African atmosphere but still was a pleasant touchstone to another time and place. She also liked the summer because the absence of regular school classes meant that her headmistress-y duties were lessened somewhat, and this freed up time for her to pursue other avenues of distraction. Avenues like her boyfriend.

Ever since returning from Wakanda Ororo had made every effort to see Remy whenever possible, and so far it was working out quite well. Their encounter at T'Challa's party which had seemed nearly disastrous at the time could now be looked upon in an almost comical light, and indeed they had spent more than one evening chuckling over it together with a bottle of wine between them. The biggest lesson learned seemed to be communication: while neither of them were particularly accustomed to relying on others for comfort or answers to life's problems, they could both benefit from opening up at least a little bit more to the other.

Which seemed to be what Ororo was intent on doing that night, though with her lack of any sort of clothing save the short robe she had deposited sometime earlier at Remy's apartment it seemed she was also aiming to drive the Cajun to distraction. The silky fabric barely covered her thighs as she lounged on the sofa, fingers playing idly over the leaves of the bouquet of orchids that sat on the coffee table. "Do you ever spend time thinking of how your life could have been different?" she was musing. "I do not mean about the choices you have made, necessarily. But the things you had no control over. Is it a waste to wonder about them?"

"Hmm?" Remy looked up from his dedicated enjoyment of her legs. The attraction to Ororo was more than just physical, but he couldn't imagine a time when just the sight of her wasn't enough to make him lose his focus and just want to watch. "Dat's something of a loaded question for me, chere. Dere's isn't a day dat I don't wish dat de LOST BOYS program didn't grab someone else, or dat I didn't end up on de streets in de first place. Dere's just so much of my life dat's been defined by de choices others made, dat I don't even know where I'd start wit dat question."

Remy took a sip from his glass and set it down, leaning forward. "What 'bout you den? What you been thinking 'bout, neh?"

The question earned him a half-smile as Ororo tipped her head back against the sofa cushions. "Only the usual things, I suppose. It will be my father's birthday in a few weeks. Sometimes... well, perhaps more often that sometimes I think about how my life would have been if he and my mother were still alive. I do not think I can even imagine the differences... though I do think I would not be at the school today." Her smile turned wistful, though she was obviously well in control of her emotions; even in reminiscing she kept a tight rein on them.

"Don't think dat? Losing you parents part of what makes you an X-Man den?" Remy asked. He never thought about his parents. He didn't have dim memories or images of them; not even their names. It was easier not to wonder, but he was always amazed by those who did have a home to come from. People that could remember what it was like to be someone's child, and how that shaped them.

"I was seeking a family when I came to the school. Perhaps I did not realize it at the time - I thought I was perfectly fine on my own, and resented anyone who implied otherwise - but now I can see I was. Charles, Scott, Jean, Hank... they became a family to fill what I had lost. I am not saying that if I had a family of my own I would not still agree with what the X-Men do, and the purpose of the school, but..." Giving an elegant shrug, Ororo reached out once again to draw her fingers over the petals of the nearest orchid flower. "I am sure my path would have been different."

"What path do you think dat might have been, chere?" Remy took another sip from his bourbon and leaned back. "Tell me 'bout de 'Ro dat didn't grow up on de streets of Cairo and den in de big mansion in Westchester."

"Oh, I think she would have been quite the spoiled princess," the silver-haired woman said with a smirk. Perhaps it was a bit of a fantasy, but even though she had been young when her parents died, Ororo knew without a doubt that they had loved her very much. "She would have gone to good schools, and the university of her choice, and perhaps she would have studied... oh, who knows? Meteorological sciences, and she would have gone on to be the weather girl on one of New York's most-watched morning news programs." Just the thought made her grin.

"Ororo Munroe, de morning weathergirl. You got de looks for television." Remy grinned back at her. "Bet you would have been dating one of dem archormen, wit' de fake looking hair and de big fake smile. Get all giggly at his sports car."

"You know how much I love I a big engine," 'Ro teased. "Of course, when you put it that way, it seems auspicious that I took the path I did and ended up where I am now. Not that I am regretting it... far from it. But there is always something to wonder about." Still smiling, she sat up, shifting on the sofa until she was nearer where Remy sat and then reaching over to snag his drink off the table.

"Ever thought 'bout what you'd do if you weren't an X-Man? One day Charles decides to pack it all in and sends round de pink slips?" Remy let his hand slip down her back, trailing over the solid muscles, lightly covered by the wisp of silk.

"Mm... I do not know. I think I still have a few more years before I am too old to be a weather girl..."

"Remy believe dat." He said. "Seriously though. You ever thought 'bout what you would do if being an X-Man was no longer possible?"

Pausing, Ororo was briefly distracting by the feeling of Remy's strong fingers kneading the muscles of her lower back. "Not seriously," she replied when she realized she hadn't answered. "That is, I do not know what else I could do. There is no other job quite like the X-Men... I think I would be lost without it now." It was a slightly sobering thought, though she didn't retract it. "It is like living without powers, now. They have been a part of my life so long... how could you begin to know what life would be like without them?"

"I don't know. But things like de X-Men, de mansion... dere's no guarantee dat dey always going to be dere, or dat as things change, you necessarily going to want to stay wit' dem." Remy continued to work at the tense muscles, both for her own benefit, and his own enjoyment of the feel of her under his fingers. "Being an X-Man is important, chere, but dat's not de limit for you."

"I think, in my particular case, not even the sky is my limit." It was a joke, yes, but also a deflection, and Ororo realized she was doing just what she had vowed not to do. She sighed, and scooted to lean against Remy. "I have not thought about what I would do, no. I think if I considered the fact that the mansion, my teammates, my friends might not always be there..." She closed her eyes. "I do not want to lose my family a second time," she said, her voice shaking very slightly then. "I am sure I could find another job, something to do, but it goes beyond that, mpenzi. And I do not even want to think about it for fear of jinxing myself - stranger things have happened, after all."

"Remy believe dat you could handle whatever gets thrown at you, chere. You more den just you family, you know. And years down de road, you need to be able to be honest wit' you'self whether or not you still Headmistress Munroe and Storm because dat's what you want, or because you scared of de alternatives."

"The only thing I am scared of is losing what is important to me. You may say I should not be afraid of anything, but I am only human." Ororo turned her head, her lips brushing Remy's jaw. "And I like what I have. I would not want to do without it, not for a moment."

"If dat's de case," Remy shifted, pulling her around so she ended up face to face, straddling him where he sat. "Guess Remy going to have to make sure you never have to do wit'out." He said, as he loosened the belt on her robe and slipped his hands inside.

It wasn't as if Ororo often forgot her humanity - yes, she had enjoyed the odd goddess-worshipping follower when she was younger, but now there were too many responsibilities, too many mundane reminders of her life to make that mistake ever again. Still, when she was with Remy it was easy to forget about all of that; ironically, this was also the time when she felt the most normal, the most human. And unlike other imagined scenarios where she became something less than what she was without her powers, or without her job with the X-Men, this one just made her happy.