xp_logs | Cathouse: Jubilee & Laura

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Jubilee finds Laura in a moment of weakness.

Jubilee entered the shared bathroom the girls all used, a towel thrown over her shoulder, and almost immediately got the feeling she wasn't alone. Training had prepared her to always be aware of the spaces around her, and while she didn't have the mutant abilities with spatial awareness someone like Remy had, she certainly had the trained instincts for as 'good as humanly possible'

She closed the door softly behind her and made her way to the bank of showers along one wall, one of which seemed to be occupied by the curtain drawn across.

"Um, hi?" she asked quietly, not wanting to startle whoever it was.

There was a whimper, and the sound of the water dying slowly. Still, nobody walked out of the door or replied. After a minute of tense silence, Laura's voice rose, a bit broken and oddly weak?

"J-Jubilee?" She was in such state she had forgotten the girl's fake name.

Jubilee pulled open the curtain, only to see Laura leaning against the back of the shower, bruises and cuts healing already due to her healing factor. She didn't think, merely pulled the towel from her shoulder and wrapped it around the younger girl, pulling her into a hug. "I'm here, kid."

Laura didn't know Jubilee that well, but she was certain the other woman wasn't of the hugging type, so the gesture meant a lot to her. Hiding her face on Jubilee's neck, she sobbed a little, feeling her wounds closing all the while. "I'm sorry", managed to say once the shaking got under control.

"Shh," Jubilee replied, holding Laura carefully as she backed them out of the shower. It reminded her for a moment of another girl she'd found in a shower, so many years before. She hadn't been friends with Amanda at the time, had even been close to what might have been called an enemy but she hadn't been able to leave her there either. "Never be sorry for being human, kid."

She took the hug without making other sound than her muffled sobs, eyes closed as she allowed herself a tiny moment of weakness. "It's-it's okay", said in a whisper. "Just give me a m-minute to collect myself." Taking a deep breath, Laura willed herself to stop crying and regain her composure, although she still looked a bit shaken. "It didn't see it coming, good thing I was alone..." Laura went silent then, wondering if she was going to break into tears again. When it didn't happen, she sighed, trying to steal a few more seconds of contact with Jubilee.

Jubilee knew what human contact, the real kind, not the kind that was paid for, or forced could do for a person. Sometimes it was the only thing between yourself and the madness inside.

"You never do see it coming," Jubilee replied finally, after she'd let the silence stretch for a few moments, letting Laura just rest in the safety of her hug. It would have made an interesting tableau to anyone walking in, but Jubes had already thought of an excuse in her head should it be needed. Some things were important. "Sometimes you can be going along just fine, and then *blam*, your work colleague is picking you up out of a shower and cleaning you off. Jake got the short straw with me, although Marie-Ange, Doug and Amanda used to have to haul my drunken ass home regularly. You're doing pretty damn well, so don't sweat it, yeah?"

Laura sniffed a little, but Jubilee's words reassured her to straighten up a little more. "Okay." She smiled a little, telling herself in silence that she at least had been lucky enough to count with someone to have her back. "Thanks, really. I'll make my best effort not to screw things up." She sighed again, feeling more confident this time, and allowed the hug to slip away. "This would be a good moment to get dry, I guess."

"Well, you could probably walk about naked, but I figure that's giving Barry and the others ideas you're not gonna want them to have," Jubilee replied with a grin, letting the girl go and stealing her towel from a hook near the shower. "Wanna wait till I'm done and we can go get some dinner? Do you good to get the hell out of here for a bit, I'm thinkin'."

Laura cocked her head, a small smile on her lips. "That sounds like a terrible idea." And she would rather avoid any kind of confusion regarding that. "I'm just going to get dressed and wait for you. I'm starving and sick of this place for today."