Wanda, Jake, and Jean-Paul

[x-cynosure.livejournal.com]

Wanda goes on an early-morning visit to Jake's apartment and discovers the owner of the mystery boxers.



With a groan, Wanda rolled out of bed - insomnia was not a normal problem for her but she had far too much on her mind to nod off. It was still dark out but she didn't bother with a light because she wasn't going to be staying in the bedroom for long. Well, her bedroom anyway.

She grabbed her silk robe from it's normal hanging spot and headed towards the window. It led out to the fire escape where another window also faced. Jake hadn't been in his own apartment for very long but they already had developed a habit of simply going through the windows in order to get to each other. Wanda also knew where he kept the really good hot chocolate and had a number of plans that involved them drinking it and hopefully, finally, falling asleep.

Her plans, however, were suddenly shifted the moment she slipped the window open and stuck the upper part of her torso through. That was certainly two figures in the bed, not one.

One of the two sat bolt upright as the window scraped softly open, tense and ready...then settled back into something that had at least nodding acquaintance with a relaxed posture as the curtains shifted enough to allow moonlight to fall across Wanda's face. They did not know each other well, but she was familiar enough that he was fairly sure she did not mean to kill either of them in their sleep.

"Jake," he mumbled, drawing a hand across his eyes and not bothering to reach for a sheet to cover up, "is this the normal way you receive visitors?"

"Mmphh?" Jake blinked up at him, then followed his gaze to the windows. He blinked for a second as he made eye-contact with Wanda. "Only the important ones," he replied to Jean-Paul as he rolled into a sitting position on the side of the bed facing the windows. "Hey," he grinned sleepily at her, looking a bit like a kid who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, only he didn't really care because they were really good cookies.

Chuckling, Wanda pushed the window all the way up so she could at least slip in partly, sitting on the windowsill instead of leaning in. "Hey yourself," she responded, eyes flickering back and forth between the two men. "My apologies, I couldn't sleep and decided to come over and bother Jake." Her grin grew as she tilted her head. "I might need to start sending over warnings unlike before."

"I approve of this plan," Jean-Paul mumbled. Getting Jake to sleep through the night had the beneficial side-effect of wearing Jean-Paul out to the point that he got to sleep through the night, but it did mean that once he was asleep, he really wanted to stay down. Wanda, however, seemed quite at ease where she was. Jean-Paul sighed and got to his feet, looking for a robe. "What does bothering Jake usually entail?"

Wanda's eyes might have brightened just a bit as Jean-Paul rummaged around. "Oh, the usual. I break into his apartment after he's broken into mine. Somehow after he's managed to stuff all my shoes into the various kitchen drawers, he'll come home to find that none of his door hinges will open." She wiggled her fingers at Jake from where she was, knowing that as amusing as her description in there was fondness in her tone as well. "I suppose it might be similar to you and Nathan, just on a more frequent level and the fact remains that I am much prettier than Nathan is."

"Much prettier," Jake agreed, taking amused note of Wanda's expression as she watched Jean-Paul. He dug a pair of pajama pants out of a pile of clothes next to the bed, pulling them on with a surprising one-handed adeptness. "It usually involves hot chocolate, too." He stood and offered his hand to Wanda. "You might as well come in now that you've woken us up," he teased her gently, smiling. If anyone was allowed to barge in on him in the middle of the night, it was Wanda.

Well, Wanda and Jubilee.

Jean-Paul's last hope of getting back to sleep anytime soon zipped off into the night just as Jake let Wanda in and shut the window behind her. He supposed that he could have excused himself and stayed in bed while they visited, but he knew that he wouldn't fall back asleep with other people up and moving around. He spared the back of Jake's head a quick "hate you" glare, before stretching and heading toward the kitchen. The microwave clock reassured him that it was not so much earlier than his usual wake-up time...just an hour or so. God, he hated them both.

"Age, experience, and rugged good looks have a lot to recommend them," he pointed out by way of defending Nathan. The fridge was annoyingly bereft of anything resembling breakfast fixings. "Jacob, I am taking you grocery shopping later. There is no excuse for a grown man to have a kitchen in this condition."

Wanda peered over his shoulder briefly and snorted before heading to where she knew he kept the good stash of hot chocolate. "He went a few days ago," she said, shaking her head. "The reason it's currently empty is because he already ate everything. And probably fed Jubilee as well while he was at it. My poor kitchen looked like it had been part of a war by the time he moved in here."

She found the hot chocolate with well practiced ease - he'd hidden it in almost the same location in her kitchen. "Tell me you at least have milk," she sighed at her friend. "I'd be forced to go back to my place if you do not." Wanda didn't really feel bad about waking anyone up - she hadn't slept much at all and the idea that Jake and Jean-Paul were together amused her greatly. Also, it was a very pretty mental image.

Jake trailed his fingers along the small of Jean-Paul's back in silent apology before reaching in to pull the a half-empty carton out of the fridge. "I always have milk," he sighed. "I'm drinking a gallon and a half a day now." He nudged Jean-Paul with his hip. "And you can buy all the food you want, it doesn't mean I'll know how to cook it."

He surrendered the milk to Wanda. "I'm including hot chocolate in this. I burn water."

Jean-Paul waited until the milk was safely handed off to snake an arm around Jake's waist, pulling him close, chest-to-back; just because he was up early didn't mean he had to entirely relinquish his bed-warmer.

"I know how to cook it. That should be incentive enough, hm?" He glanced up at Wanda through his bedhair. "But since it looks like we'll have to go out for breakfast later, you may as well come with."

Jake craned his neck to glance at Jean-Paul--an action that had less up to it than he'd been expecting, since without his arm they were the same height. "You're pouting," he said in an incredibly amused tone.

"I am not," Jean-Paul grumbled against Jake's neck. "I am waking up. That is entirely different."

Jake grinned at Wanda and mouthed "totally pouting" before nuzzling the other man. "I think you're just angling for extra marshmallows," he teased.

She was laughing as she heated up the milk on the stove. Jake was, well, physical with his friends so it was not much of a shock to see him like this. It was, however, amusing to see Jean-Paul act this way. They were adorable and for a moment, she rather missed having Stephen or someone like that around. But she had to admit, she enjoyed her current sexual life as it was - no attachments or strings or messes.

"If you two can tear away from each other, the hot chocolate's done," Wanda announced after a moment, smirking in their direction.

Jean-Paul finally released his hold on Jake and took his cup with a nod of thanks. He did not try to wave off the extra mini-marshmallows that Jake dropped into the cup and, as much as he was trying to hold on to his righteous grumpiness, it was difficult to do so in the face of very good chocolate.

"I am open to suggestions in the matter of breakfast." Priorities, after all.

Jake led the way to the couch and sat in the middle so that he could lounge against Jean-Paul and still put his feet up in Wanda's lap. "See why I keep him around?" he asked Wanda. "He likes food almost as much as I do." He relaxed against the other man, taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy himself without reservation. It was a rare thing, especially after the stress and pain of the last few days.

"Oh yes," Wanda laughed as she balanced her mug in one hand while Jake got comfortable, curling her free hand around his warn ankle. Too bad her hands weren't cold, she thought, because Jake squeaked very well. "I can tell that is obviously the biggest and best reason you keep Monsieur Beaubier around. His very fine taste in pastries."

"Innuendo and hot chocolate before sunrise. Someone is trying to sweeten my mood. I should be very annoyed that it is working." His free hand idly undertook the Sisyphean task of trying to get Jake's hair in order without the use of water or a comb. "And this man is a terrible liar, by the way. He doesn't keep me around just because I appreciate food -- he keeps me around because I cook for him. That seems to be my calling as of late: feeding waifs and marking papers." None of that sounded remotely like a complaint.

Jake stretched, snuggling in between the two of them more cozily. "And as I've said, on behalf of the waifs, I thank--Are you trying to fix my hair?" he interrupted himself, amusement evident in his tone. He raised an eyebrow at Wanda. "Tell him about how we used to lock our hairbrushes in the bathroom at night so that our stray hair wouldn't rise up and attack us in the middle of the night."

At that, Wanda giggled into her hot chocolate. "We were afraid for our very lives," she said, waving a hand at Jean-Paul. "He used to sit outside the door and taunt the brushes, you know. It was always quite amusing." She squeezed Jake's ankle and glanced around, gauging the lightening of the shadows and the growing growlings of her stomach.

"I am sure if there had been any real danger, he would have found his way behind you in short order." Jean-Paul laughed as Jake gave him a woebegone look. "Cute as a survival trait. I told you so." The speedster drained his mug. "There has to be someplace in New York open for breakfast at this hour. I suggest we make ourselves presentable and find it before I resort to cannibalism."

Jake stretched again, poking at Wanda lazily with one toe. "There's some sort of entendre there, I'm sure, if only I could find it," he smirked. "As for breakfast, I could always take you two to Baked, if you don't mind stoners? It comes with the Jubilee seal of approval," he said, angling to look at Jean-Paul with a grin.

"I am nearly at the point where I would eat at a cut-rate Mongolian buffet being stocked by the Donner party," Jean-Paul pointed out, easing out from under Jake. "You are going to have to work harder than that to get a negative reaction out of me. I am going to find my pants now." He considered, then turned to Wanda. "They weren't on the fire escape, were they?"

"Sadly, no. Though do not tempt him - my underwear collection still has not fully recovered."