Jean and Garrison: Hope and Circumstance (Backdated)

[xp_phoenix]

As New Year's Eve approaches, Jean and Kane spend a cozy night joking, flirting, and circling around a belated Christmas gift Jean can’t quite bring herself to deliver.

Jean sat at her kitchen table, staring at a small gift that was perfectly and precisely wrapped in emerald green wrapping paper and tied with a gold bow. She took a sip of her tea, then put the present down. It was late afternoon, but tea didn’t care what time you drank it. She glanced over her shoulder at the rolling hills of the mansion outside her attic apartment window, covered in a blanket of snow. 

“I forgot how many steps it was to get up here. Why did you want this apartment?” Kane said, coming up with their dinner order in multiple bags. Dating Kane meant multiple bags of things a lot.

“The view,” Jean said with a smile. “Besides, we’re X-Men, being athletic is part of the gig,” she added, swatting at his butt as he passed by. 

“Smells delicious, which one’s mine?” 

“Hey, I’m not just a piece of meat, lady!” Kane said, putting down the bags. “OK, I’m good with that. OK, so treat me like a piece of meat. I’ll pay you.” Kane said, cycling through his brand of jokes as he fished out her paper bag of pad thai. 

“If we were in that kind of relationship, that’d make me Julia Roberts. Or wait no…you’re the piece of meat. So I guess I'm Richard Gere,” Jean said, shrugging thoughtfully. The wrapped package moved over to the nearby sideboard. 

“We should get you a blond platinum wig,” she added with a grin. 

“For you, I’d wear thigh high pleather boots.” Kane confirmed, unpacking his own meal; noodles, curry, a bag full of spring rolls. “So what are we watching tonight?”

“Hmm,” Jean said, eying him decisively, then nodded in appreciation at the mental image. “You have the glutes for it.” She grabbed a fork out of the bag.

“It’s close to New Year's Eve so I was thinking of something for the occasion…Ghostbusters 2,” Jean said. 

“Ooh, how I discovered Jackie Wilson. I support this.” Kane said, shifting his meals to the coffee table and settling next to Jean. “I made fun of the stairs but I like your room here. It’s spacious.”

“I like it too,” Jean said, pulling out a simple order of Pad Thai with simple peanut sauce, medium heat. “It’s a good arrangement. I don’t think many people would appreciate having a telepath as a roommate…” She paused. “Well…not anymore but…”

She twirled around the Pad Thai on her fork. “Though I guess Haller fares okay.”  

“That dude has roommates in a bachelor apartment by himself.” Kane said, already digging into the spring rolls. “Besides, he attracts concerned young women to check on him like a lost dog with a Sarah McLachlan track playing behind him.”

Jean burst out laughing, holding up her fork in agreement. “You’re not wrong,” she mused. She peered over at him with a grin. “I prefer our arrangement of having hot men to live with me.”

“Men? Wait, there are more?” He narrowed his eyes as he looked around the apartment. “I didn’t think the closets were that big.” 

“So many,” Jean said with a casual shrug. “If you believe the rumors. Though I think that dried up a while ago.” She took a bite of her Pad Thai.

“Oh man, I forgot how good this place was. We definitely should eat there more often.” 

“There were rumours?” Kane said, pausing to chew another mouthful. “Oh yeah, they’ve rolled out a new menu. I have no idea what a Massaman curry is, but they gave me a double order. But stop changing the subject. I want to hear about all the rumours about my hot girlfriend.”

Jean squinted curiously. “You didn’t hear them?” she said, leaning in close. “I could have sworn the rumor mill at the mansion was constantly churning but here I am, humbled.”

She paused, then tilted her head, furrowing her eyebrows, as if debating with herself. 

“No wait…it was about Haller having a harem and I was a member of the harem.” She leaned back, rolling her eyes.

“Whatever, it was weird,” she pointed at him decisively with her fork.

“If I ever get another hot man to live here with us it’d probably be a pet,” she said. She chewed thoughtfully. “It’s been years since I’ve had one.” 

“Well, there’s Gord. He’s a little territorial.” Kane said with a grin, settling in beside her. “And let’s be honest. Haller is more likely to have a Magic team than a harem. And the fact I know what that thing is makes me feel awful.”

“That’s more Amanda’s thing,” Jean mused, taking a sip of her drink. She then added pensively. “Haller collects troubled souls.”

She glanced over her shoulder at Gord, who was currently taking a nap. “He’s definitely more attached to you. I’m just the side piece.” 

“Or I’m the side piece, drawn into your strange Haller harem, begging for scraps.” He took a bite and dramatically cast his forearm over his eyes. “Oh the heartbreak! The loss! That all those sculpted muscles and sexual stamina and good looks are undermined by the gorgeousness of being vaguely twitchy! Oh woe! Oh me!” He called out, overly dramatically.

Jean tilted her head, resting her chin in her hand as she watched him with blatant amusement. 

“I was talking about being a side piece for the wolf, but rest assured, you’re the only piece for me. Sculpted muscles and all,” she said with a wide smirk, leaning in for a kiss.

After a moment or two, she looked toward the wrapped present on the table. “Would you mind playing belated Santa for me and dropping something off?” she said. 

“What is it? I would normally agree but open ended requests might send me to Kamar-Taj, Latveria, Symkaria… Cleveland.”

Jean smirked. “It’s not too far, just down the hall, outside Hope’s room,” she said, then shrugged. “I don’t want her to know it’s from me.”

“Ah… want to support her but still a little iffy about the… relationship, let’s say.” Kane said.

Resting her hand on her chin, Jean sighed. “Clocked it in one,” she said. She nodded.

“Alternate universe not-quite-grandmother is…a mouthful of a title,” she added, curling her nose up at the thought.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it, but I don’t want her to feel like she’s alone,” she said, then shrugged. “Does that make sense?”

“A ridiculous amount of empathy towards someone that you realistically have no obligation to and yet, feel you should? Yeah, I’ve met Jean Grey once or twice.” Kane said, his smile reaching his eyes as he looked at her. “Sounds just like her.”