Morgan & Jubilee | Wednesday evening

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Morgan decides to apologize for her track record with Jubilee and brings the girl the one thing Morgan is sure she'll like: food. Set before Remy's x_snowvalley post.

After working together for the second time in Africa, Morgan's opinion on the fiery sprite had changed. Remembering bouts of bitchy that she'd directed the butterfly's way both times they'd run into one other or worked together in the past, it was the opinion of the mercenary that apologies were due. She'd noted the girl's appetite after expending herself in the sub-basement when they'd attempted their daring escape, but Morgan refused to feed anyone greasy chicken like that. Instead she'd stolen some venison dishes Jean-Paul had made, partially to help ease him of the fact of its presence, and had either cooked or acquired various pasta dishes and desserts. It was a bit more food than was called for, but she was of the opinion that if you fed a person you did it thoroughly.

The food didn't keep that warm with the distance she had to travel, but it was all packed to stay as warm as possible in little heat keeping sleeves and the like. By time she knocked on the younger woman's apartment door it was after working hours. The fact she managed to knock with the various containers and bags of containers she was holding was rather impressive.

Jubilee was out on the fire escape, a cigarette clenched between slightly shaking fingers. She tried to sleep when she could but the nightmares that had been waking her up of late had been extreme. Something else to talk to Sofia about in their next session, she wanted these issues solved before they became an issue professionally.

"Who is it?" she called out, not moving yet.

"It's Morgan," was the reply called back through the door. "I brought you an excessive amount of food." Well, sometimes you needed to give people a reason to open the door and if that didn't do it then Morgan wasn't sure what would.

"The magic words." Jubilee called out, tapping the ash from her cigarette. "Come in, doors not locked. There's some plates in the kitchen somewhere."

She had to shift a few things around so she had enough range of motion in one hand and wrist so that she could get the doorknob turned and then push the door itself open with a hip, but Morgan managed. There was an amused thought of how her greatest challenge lately was getting the stupid door opened rather than how to stay alive. The door was kicked shut behind her and it closed just a little harder than she'd meant for it to, causing it to slam a bit. "Sorry. What do you mean 'somewhere'?" Shaking her head, she looked around and headed for the kitchen when she spotted it. "You make a habit of eating off the table itself or are you the cardboard sort?"

Jubilee had dropped her cigarette when the door slammed, and only just stopped herself from throwing a burst of plasma because she knew someone was coming in. "Cardboard, mostly." she said, climbing in from the fire escape. "Lorna's only failure, as far as I know. I just can't cook, at all. It makes for an interesting monthly food bill."

Morgan had all the containers out on the counter and was scouring the cupboards for plates when Jubilee entered. "Maybe you should get yourself adopted by someone who can cook. I'm not exactly stellar at it, but at least I can manage. For all other things," she grinned, "there is Jean-Paul and the many ways in which to convince him to feed me."

"Well, I tend to steal food from Doug's refrigerator, does that count? I'd do it to Amanda's as well but she might be having sexy times with Angelo, and they don't always stick to the bedroom, if you get what I mean. Least with Doug I know I'm not going to walk in on him and Marie-Ange up against the kitchen cabinets or something." Jubilee noted, pulling the food containers toward her to take a look at what Morgan had brought.

"Meh, it's step one." Finally locating a couple plates, Morgan pulled them out of the cupboard and then went scrounging for forks and some spoons to serve stuff with. "Eventually you need to upgrade to a person who will cook for you, specifically with the intent of feeding you, and the ultimate upgrade is personal chef and or infatuated person who will do anything you wish who also possesses vast cooking skills." She grinned as resisted the urge to point out Jubilee was not allowed to attempt to steal Jean-Paul as he was hers, fair and square, and she'd be compelled to bite anyone who attempted to undermine her claim.

"I refuse to feed people fried, greasy food," something Jubilee would know from Morgan saying much the same on the journals not long ago, "but I wasn't sure what else you'd salivate for, so there's variety. A lot of it. It's my apology for being a bitch to you in the past and recognition that you're solid people."

Jubilee's eyebrows raised in surprise for a second, and then she grinned. "Apology accepted, although saying as much would've been enough. I don't tend to hold grudges much, or at all. Besides, talk to Mandy sometime about just how much of a non-solid person I was in the past. No room to judge, yeah?"

She pulled out the venison and started serving it up for the both of them. "Not too the wise though, I totally refuse to eat alone, so you're going to probably feel stuffed by the end of this."

Morgan shrugged. "The past is the past. Besides, I've this thing about owning up to when I'm wrong. It was sort of beaten into me, more or less literally. I end up with the nagging voice of my dead mentor in the back of my head until I do it now. It's like he's bloody haunting me or summat." She shook her head and thought Aleister would think it hilarious to haunt her for real, actually.

"I think I can deal with being forced to eat food. Besides, if I don't eat vast amounts of venison Jean-Paul might kill me for stocking so much of it in the freezer and fridge." Morgan went poking about in containers until she found some angel hair pasta that had only olive oil, tomatoes and basil on it. She followed Jubilee, serving some onto each plate after the other woman had placed venison there.

"You just need to get him drunk. That way you get the fun of being mean in the morning, and he's too legless to actually do anything but lay there while you taunt him with your non-venison eatingness." Jubilee noted, tucking into the food with gusto. She'd eaten earlier but with the need to put on several pounds after all the uses she'd been putting her power to, there could never be too much food. She'd had to go back to wearing an undershirt rather than a bra lately, and that was never that great for her self-image.

Morgan snorted at the little mental image she got of dancing around taunting Jean-Paul. She even almost choked on her current mouthful in the process. "Other things tend to ensue when I get him drunk. And in the morning following." She didn't clarify and her tone made it sound much less risque than it could have. Besides, Morgan didn't think explaining her friendship with the former athlete would make any sense anyway. She'd learnt that the hard way with Adrienne already.

"Sounds like an interesting friendship." Jubilee noted between mouthfuls.

Grinning, Morgan swallowed before noting, "That would be the most simple way of describing it, yeah." After another bite of venison she glanced toward the door, then nodded in its direction. "Don't you ever get sick of living where you work and with everyone you work with? It's smaller than the mansion. I'd think it'd get annoying."

"Did you get annoyed with being in such close proximity with your mercenary friends?" Jubilee asked, answering question with question. She needed something to drink with this, and if she remembered there might be some white wine left in the refrigerator.

She stood, and walked over to the fridge, fishing out the bottle and placing it on the table before she went in quest of some glasses.

Morgan shrugged. "There's only four of us, five originally. And they're family. Besides, you live in a brothel and then see if four guys looking out for your ass ever annoys you." She realized maybe that would annoy someone else so she added that it never annoyed her. "But we also moved around. We didn't stick in one place longer than the job entailed. Sorta different, you know?"

"Not as much as you might think." Jubilee noted, finishing off her pasta. "We're family, of a sorts. A beautifully, barely functional at times, fucked up family, but family. You don't mind it so much when you know that as much as you might irritate the fuck out of each other at times, they'll always have your back. I'd kill for any of them, any time they asked, especially if they asked."

She wasn't sure when things had changed, when she'd stopped seeing this as a place to hide, and started seeing it as a family, her chosen family. It felt right though.

After thinking about it a bit, Morgan nodded. "All families are fucked up and barely functional sometimes. The point's that you're family and blood is thicker than water. Metaphor blood is good enough for me. Sometimes your actual blood isn't worth the loyalty." There wasn't any bitterness in her voice, but the words conveyed it well enough without being demonstrative. "Sounds like you lot are a lot like me and the guys, actually. Makes more sense now."

"So I've heard from others, I didn't exactly have a lot of experience with my actual blood, except my Grandfather and Grandmother and they're in China. Didn't meet them till I was well past the age of them being able to influence me either way." Jubilee noted, cutting up her venison with the careful air of someone enjoying something they didn't normally get to eat.

"Some blood's better than others," Morgan told her as she stole more pasta for her plate. "My dad was fucking brilliant. A great man. The woman who birthed me," she shrugged. "She could use some work. The family you pick, though. Seems more important. What with having a choice and all." Twisting more angel hair around her fork, Morgan watched Jubilee with her meat. For someone who Morgan had seen nearly literally shovel food into her mouth the care seemed very out of place. "I could bring you more, you know. We've loads of venison back at Xavier's. I got Jean-Paul to cook a bunch of it in new and interesting and really good ways. You're welcome to come filch more."

"That'd be good. I used to eat a lot of it back when I was at the mansion full time. Cats, Kyle and Rahne were a good hunting team. Haven't had it in a long time though." Jubilee replied, chewing on a bite of it with relish. "Game meat has a different taste then other stuff, probably doesn't have any more protein then anything else, but I like it."

"At least it's leaner. The Kitten and I are supposed to work out a hunting schedule so her feline instincts and my bow and arrow therapy don't result in one of us getting shot or mauled. I disappeared to Africa and just haven't had time since getting back." A few bites were taken to consciously notice the taste of the meat and attempt to discern in what ways it was different from other meats gotten from domesticated animals. Ultimately Morgan only shrugged and said, "Guess it's the taste of 'wild.' Maybe we taste like that to cannibals."

"Pork, supposedly. There's a reason they call humans 'long pig'. Not that I've ever had a chance to do any research, or would want to. Please God don't give Remy any ideas about sending me anywhere with cannibals." Jubilee noted, chewing on another bite of meat. "Or Wanda for that matter. She has a weird sense of humor, that one."

Morgan made a face. "Why do you know what we supposedly taste like?" She regretted asking once she had because Morgan was suddenly sure she didn't want to know the answer. She also wasn't sure who called humans the long pig. It wasn't a phrase she was familiar with, but then again unlike some people in the room Morgan didn't hang out with her close buddy the cannibal much. She liked her relationship with him distant. Very distant. "Aye, so they like torture, then?"

"Research, mostly. You'd be surprised at the things you find out when you've got to keep an eye on the whole world." Jubilee noted. Not that she was the one who analyzed what they found, but she did spend a lot more of her time reading up on things lately, if only to stop Marie-Ange from getting that look in her eyes when she said something ill informed. "And not so much torture, as that they think they're funny."

"So you actually have to do that research thing you lot claim to do, then? That sucks." Morgan thought that was an understatement. She wasn't really the desk job sort. "Sadists tend to think torture is funny," she pointed out before shoving a piece of meat into her mouth and chewing around the grin on her face.

"Well, I've always said Remy was a sadist, but not too loudly, I have a feeling he'd retaliate. Fear is very healthy in a relationship, I'm told." Jubilee noted, somewhat flippantly. She chewed for a moment more before her gaze turned suddenly serious. "Joking aside though, we do a lot of work, not all of it's research, but it's a lot of running around and trying to keep our ears to the ground. If Remy thought I needed to go talk to Cannibals, I'd go. Maybe I'd give him shit about it, cause that's my game, yeah? But I'd do what he told me, cause he'd never tell me to do somethin' without reason."

She didn't feel like she was revealing anything, Morgan wouldn't have been brought in if she wasn't to be trusted. As long as she didn't go mentioning specifics, and kept to generalities, she really wasn't revealing much at all.

The more Jubilee talked about Remy and the crew at the Brownstone the more they reminded her of Mág Ealga. "That was my spot, too. When I was younger. After I got used to the guys I'd give 'em shit about all sorts of things. I was the bratty little sister in a lot of ways. It was nice to have big brothers, and just to have family for the first time in years. But when it came down to it I shut the fuck up and did whatever any of them asked me to. 'Cause I trusted they wouldn't send me into a no win situation. You gotta know when to push and when it'll shove someone over a cliff. They were good about that with me. Sounds like you got the same deal with LeBeau, yeah?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Jubilee noted. She hadn't ever thought of it like that, and she had a feeling that Remy would probably choke on something if she ever called him anything close to a big brother, but she trusted him, and knew as much as he wouldn't let her get away with being a fuck up, he wouldn't send her into a no-win situation unless there wasn't any other choice.

She looked down, and noted she'd finished her plate of food, and that she was feeling that exhausted but happy feeling that only came after stuffing yourself to fullness. "Not to be all rude, and such, but I could use a bit of sleep. Thanks for the food? And the apology."

Without another word Morgan replaced lids on containers and stacked them all up on top of one another. The two of them hadn't put much of a dent in all the woman had brought with her. It was an impressive apology now that she looked at it all stacked up again. "Aye, butterfly." She gave the younger woman a smile and laid a hand on her shoulder for a moment. "Sleep well, yeah? Happy, food coma type dreams." With that she headed out the door with a wave over her head and was gone.