Title: Rumors

Author: FyrDrakken (FyrDrakken@juno.com)

Website: none

Rating: G

Pairing/main characters: Gambit/Wolverine/Rouge

Series/Sequel: Sequel to A Reasonable Compromise, and although the first scene pretty much sets up the situation you're going to be going "WTF?!" unless you've read the first story. (That's Logan/Marie/Remy, and yes that's the actual relationship classification, not just mention of the main characters involved...) I said I wasn't planning on a sequel, I said I was working on my main series, but Scott's shocked moment of realization and Jubilee's oh-so-public Q&A session *needed* to be written, and they required a bit of setup, so...

Summary: Comedy. All smut takes place offscreen and is merely referred to or implied. Wolverine/Rogue/Gambit, though Rogue doesn't actually appear onscreen in this particular story...

Disclaimer: The settings and characters belong to people and corporations making a lot more money than I do. The only "profit" I'm getting out of this is getting the demons out of my head without resorting to my family's traditional alcohol abuse, serial marriages and/or self-mutilation...

Archive/distribution: WR fanfic archive and X-Men Movie Fanfic archive, anyone else ask - answer will no doubt be yes, but I do like knowing where my stuff goes! :-)

Feedback: Tummy rubs and constructive criticism alike solicited and eagerly welcomed. I can even promise reasonably prompt replies if sent to FyrDrakken@juno.com rather than the WR list, me being "no mail" and nearly two months behind on the archive...

Thanks: Due to all those whose comments on "A Reasonable Compromise" not only kept me going on the story but also encouraged me to believe that a sequel would find an eager audience. Thanks also to jenn, for not only betaing but for seeing Scott in the hallway so clearly that I realized I needed to get that scene out of my head (and a few others as well)...

Note:
[ ] = thoughts
* * = emphasis

_____________________________________________________

 

Rumors

By FyrDrakken

"I can't see you and me and her without each other..."
- "You and Your Friend," by Snakke River Conspiracy

It was a touchy situation all round, and no mistake. On the one hand, the thought of another man in bed with his Marie still drove Logan up the wall, and the realization that a couple of days of mindblowing sex hadn't quite been enough to win her over completely was frustrating. On the other hand, he had exactly zero experience in handling a long-term relationship, and he was clearly and obviously not her only option, so severe mishandling of Marie was not only extremely likely, but extremely likely to land him out on his ass.
So he walked carefully around Marie, and did *not* pitch a fit about her continuing to divide her time between him and Remy, and when the stress of the whole oddball situation got to be too much for him, then he tackled Gumbo and took it out on *him*. Which was actually kind of fun, and Remy sure as hell didn't seem to mind, so the situation had a few compensations. Which was one reason he wasn't pushing Marie to make a choice between them and quit stringing them both along any time soon.
And the other reason quite simply was that he couldn't escape the nagging worry that, when it came right down to it, if Marie had to choose just *one* of them, it might not be him. After all, she'd been pretty happy with Remy up until Logan showed up - or rather, up until she'd found out she wasn't the only one getting into Gumbo's pants. And although she'd apparently forgiven Logan for having been the one dragging Remy into bed when she wasn't around, he couldn't forget that he had been personally responsible for making Marie unhappy and damaging her relationship with her first lover. Could be that if she were pushed to the point of making a decision, she'd decide that Logan had been a lot of fun but that with him out of the picture she and Remy could go back to the way they were. After all, she and Gambit had clearly patched things back up...
So he was pretty sure that Marie would be making a choice between the two of them - if only because she'd eventually probably want things like marriage and children, and they were kind of couples-only activities. Until then, he wasn't pushing his luck.
Until one day he stopped and really *thought* about it, and realized he'd been looking at things the entirely wrong way.
So he collared Remy after dinner. "We need to clear something up."
"What?" The kid looked mildly apprehensive. Logan's statement could have had a number of ominous meanings.
"Not here. Let's get out of here, go somewhere and get a drink."
They wound up in New York, grabbing one of the nicer cars out of the garage and arguing over the radio station the entire way. In the city came another argument, over which bar to go to. Somehow they managed to wind up in one with a floor show involving a series of female performers with an ever-decreasing number of garments - the first place they could agree on liking.
Having gotten their beers from the bartender, Remy and Logan turned their backs to the bar, leaning against it and keeping an eye on the show just on general principles. (There was no telling where the next Brotherhood attack could come from, after all. Any one of those girls could be an evil mutant in disguise.)
"Now *that* I missed. Don't think I've been in one of these since - damn, was it Scooter's bachelor party?"
Logan chuckled. "Can't imagine him agreeing to have one." Jean and Scott's wedding had taken place well before his return to the X-Mansion.
"Oh, he didn't. We had to force him into the van and drag him into the bar. Got him good and liquored up, though."
"Wish I'd have seen that."
"Wish you'dve seen the show the stripper put on more."
"Good one?"
"Decent, but a lot funnier because he was drunk enough to have lost the Fearless Leader stick-up-the-ass. We should've taken pictures."
"You should've. Never know when you'll need to blackmail somebody."
"Mmm. Speaking of which, did you have any particular reasons for bringing me to a strip joint? Aside from seeing if I do anything that would get me thrown out of bed by Rogue if you told her about it? Which I'm sure you *would*..."
Logan smiled but didn't reply. Damn straight he'd let Marie know if Gumbo stepped out of line. Anything to put himself one-up on the competition... Taking a drink, he gave Remy an apparent non sequitur. "Let's say that it was still just the two of you, you and Marie, and you found out that - oh, say, Jeannie - had a thing for you..."
"Jean? Don't tell me you're still fantasizing - "
"Okay, *Storm*, then - you like Ro better, don't you? So Storm had a thing for you and the first you found out about it was that she was fooling around with Rogue because it was the closest she thought she could get to you. And say that after you found out, you managed to wind up with Rogue *and* Storm, both of them at once, and kept on with both of them knowing you're seein' the other and neither one of them pitching a fit telling you to make a choice or else..."
"Mmmm... I *like* it!"
"...And part of the reason they're so cool about you seeing them both is that they're doing kinky lesbian shit on their own time - and no, they don't mind if you watch, annd yes, they like it when you want to come play too..."
"Oooh - you tell *good* bedtime stories!"
Remy had turned to watch Logan, having momentarily lost interest in the girl currently onstage. Turning to face Remy, Logan spotted the bartender out of the corner of his eye, mechanically washing the same glass over and over. [Guess Gumbo's not the only one enjoying the story.] "Now, with all this in mind - *is there any power on earth that would make you do anything to screw that up*? Up until one of them came to you and said, 'Pick one of us or I'm leaving,' is there *any reason at all* you wouldn't try to keep this going for as long as you possibly could?"
Remy froze with his beer midway to his mouth, as the analogy clicked. After a moment, he took his interrupted drink and lowered the bottle again. "So you're saying we're going to be sharing Rogue pretty much indefinitely."
The bartender dropped the glass.
Remy glanced over his shoulder at the crash. Logan ignored it. "Unless one of us goes to her saying, 'Make a choice or I'm walking.' And *I'm* not gonna do that, 'cause I had to sit around and watch her with you long enough already. Half is one *hell* of a lot better than none."
Remy nodded thoughtfully, perhaps remembering how Rogue had come *that* close to breaking up with him completely after a couple of days as Logan's lover. "I can live with that." Then he smirked playfully. "'Sides, half of Rogue ain't all I'm getting."
Logan almost choked in midswallow as he realized what Gambit meant - in effect, the two of them had half of each other as well.
Behind them, the bartender dropped another glass.
Remy glanced behind the bar again.
Logan sighed. [I need to not come here ever again. Or at least not until they replace the bartender with one who won't remember me...]
* * *
The first time Scott heard it suggested that Logan might have some *physical* reason for choosing to share Rogue with his rival rather than merely gutting him, he couldn't believe it.
Logan was the most aggressively heterosexual man he'd ever met. Scott could well believe that he'd jump anything female with a pulse that was remotely willing - and he wouldn't put it past him to make exceptions on either the life signs or the willingness, were the lady attractive enough or had he gone long enough without.
There was no way in Hell that the Wolverine was gay, or even bi. Just no way.
The first time he overheard the rumor, he couldn't stay in his seat. Rising abruptly from his chair in the corner of the rec room (where he had been lurking unnoticed behind a newspaper), he silently approached the couch. Tapping Jubilee on the shoulder, he interrupted her in mid-story.
"I don't think you need to be spreading rumors like that," he announced, crossing his arms and setting his jaw into Unhappy Fearless Leader Stance #5 (Firm But Quiet Disapproval).
"*What* rumor?" Jubes asked, unrepentant and Missing the Point.
"You don't need to be discussing Logan's private life in public. Especially not when you're clearly jumping to conclusions."
"Wha-at? They went out - together - Wednesday night. They came back - together - and Gumbo at least was pretty obviously liquored up. They went into Remy's room - together - and didn't come back out. Where am I jumping to conclusions when I say they had a date?"
A muscle jumped along Scott's jaw - Fearless Leader Under Stress. "Just because *you* didn't see Logan leave doesn't mean he didn't - "
"Yeah - the next morning!"
He ignored the interruption - she *couldn't* have actually seen *that*! - and continued, " - and you don't need to go spreading rumors like that."
"How do you know they're rumors?" Jubilee challenged. Kurt, perched next to her on the back of the couch, twisted the end of his tail nervously in his hands but remained silent, clearly unhappy at this discussion regarding his close friend.
"I know they're rumors because they're too ridiculous to be true," Scott countered.
"Have you asked him?" Jubes demanded. "Or Remy?"
"No. And I'm not going to." Sick of the whole conversation, Scott turned and left the rec room. He didn't know why Logan was content to apparently share a woman with another man - possibly merely knowing that he had seduced another man's lover was enough to satisfy him, or perhaps he didn't feel attached enough to Rogue to care that she wasn't his alone. The nagging suspicions that he was wrong, that Logan was in fact *extremely* possessive of Rogue, he crammed down into a little box and sat on the lid.
Oh, sure, Gambit was ever-so-slightly fruity. Cyclops remembered having had the vague suspicion that Remy was giving him a once-over when they first met - but he had never done anything to add to that impression, and had proven to be a serious ladies' man besides. And as for Logan - well, *that* was just impossible to imagine.
Besides. He shared a locker room with these guys. Changed clothes in front of them, even *showered* in front of them for God's sake, and he just couldn't imagine doing that in front of men who...
Well.
It was just disgusting, was what it was. And plain sick. And Jubilee was being overimaginative, as was by no means unusual for her. At least Kurt had the sense to look uneasy at what she had been trying to convince him of.
Because it wasn't true. It *couldn't* be.
Scott didn't think much of Logan - but at least he wouldn't stoop to... to... to doing *that*.
* * *
Logan was not shy. As Jean had discovered, he didn't have a problem with people knowing about his relationship with Remy - barring the Rogue situation, which was now happily ironed out. With the single biggest fear previously overhanging their heads now removed, the pressure of secrecy had been released. The sneaking about was now over.
Logan was not shy - but he didn't really feel that he needed to go testing the X-Crew for homophobia with himself (oh, yeah, and Gumbo too) as a test subject. Besides, he had a certain image he liked to maintain, and having a boyfriend kind of clashed with that. Remy was of a similar mindset - being from the South, *and* being a mutant besides, he had seen various forms of bigotry already (up close and personal, in some instances) and didn't feel like attracting any more. Gambit didn't exactly have a terror of "coming out of the closet," so much as he was cautious about who he wanted to share this knowledge with, at least at first.
So they didn't exactly go standing on a table in the cafeteria making a public announcement to the other X-Men, let alone the students as well. Things were kept low-key. Public Displays of Affection with Rogue only occurred with the other guy absent (they still being a bit touchy about "sharing"), and between the two men not at all. As far as anyone could tell by watching them together, Logan and Remy were only vaguely friendly with one another - or at least not on the immediate verge of killing one another.
As for what happened late at night - well, the neighbors to their respective rooms had gotten a fair idea of the true state of affairs, and occasionally people passing the right door at the right time might see any of the three entering or leaving either of the other two's rooms. Rumors spread - but in this instance Logan's reputation (and to a lesser extent Remy's as well) created a certain degree of disbelief. However the two men might have settled matters between themselves - however Rogue was managing to juggle thee two of them - it was very hard for most to credit the idea of Wolverine and Gambit having any kind of an affair.
So denial persisted, and although the rumors spread rapidly belief followed but slowly. This suited the trio just fine - giving everyone time to get used to the idea without yet confirming or denying anything.
Not that they were being asked directly - yet. Not many were suicidal enough to risk asking the Wolverine potentially-touchy questions about his sex life, and asking Gambit about his arrangements with his girlfriend's new lover didn't really seem like a good idea either. A few obliquely asked Rogue how on earth she was managing to keep both men simultaneously without bloodshed, to which she merely smiled and truthfully pointed out that the boys had ironed things out between themselves.
Logan's first evidence of the wisdom of this policy came obliquely. Kurt was by no means suicidal, nor was he willing to trust in his friendship with Logan to protect him should he go raising delicate matters concerning his friend's private life. However, the day after Cyke interrupted Jubes' gossip session with him, Nightcrawler was positively edgy around Logan.
It wasn't until the late-afternoon baseball game that Logan really noticed his friend's discomfort. After spending an inning and a half listening to Kurt shifting position uneasily and watching him fiddling with his tail out of the corner of his eye, Logan finally asked, "What's on your mind, Misfit?"
Kurt dropped his tail with startlement. Logan waited almost patiently for him to come up with an answer of some sort. "I... er..." Tail twitch. "Ah..." In a rush, "I was speaking with Jubilee yesterday."
Jubilee the gossip hound. "And?" Logan had an idea of what was coming next.
"She, er... She had an interesting... story."
"About?"
"About... er... You and, ah, Remy..."
"And what did she say about us?" Deliberately low-key, no signs of anger or even irritation. Kurt was a friend and this deserved careful handling. Be a real shame if he couldn't deal with the knowledge...
"Well, she... She said you and Remy had gone somewhere Wednesday night, and come back having perhaps drunk a good deal..."
"Yeah, we'd had a few." Logan wondered if he should add that they had visited a strip joint together - the news would probably soothe Kurt, but it would also be misleading. Might as well get things out in the open...
"And that you saw him to his room."
"Yeah."
Unhappy shift in weight from one foot to the other and back again. "And that she hadn't seen you leave."
"Now *that* isn't true."
"It's not?" Visibly perking up, tail rising hopefully.
"No, she ran into me leaving his room the next morning." Kurt jumped. Logan took an elaborately casual drink from his beer, grateful that Kurt had refused the offer of one, or else he'd have probably just spilled it all over the couch. "Is that what was bothering you, or was there something else?"
"Ah... Mmm... Cyclops told Jubilee to stop telling stories about - well, you, and your... ah... private life."
"He did?" This was news to Logan.
"Yes. He said she was spreading rumors and that they were too ridiculous to be true."
"You're kidding!" At Kurt's solemn headshake, Logan went on half to himself, "I'd have thought Jeannie would've told him a *long* time ago."
"Jean? She... she *knew*?"
"Months ago. Before *Rogue* did, even." Logan privately resolved to track down Jean and ask her why Scott felt compelled to suppress the "rumors" of his and Remy's relationship. *After* the baseball game, however.
"*Months* ag- " Kurt broke off. He began tapping his tail thoughtfully against the couch cushions. Logan was relieved to notice that Nightcrawler seemed much less edgy now - had it merely been the idea of someone spreading false rumors about a friend that had bothered him, or had he perhaps been mainly fearing Logan's reaction to the news?
After another half inning, Kurt finally commented in a neutral tone, "I thought you told me you didn't like Remy."
Logan almost flinched. This was edging into emotional territory he didn't like to examine on his own, let alone discuss with others. Kurt was occasionally delicate about some things - doubtless he wouldn't appreciate a response like, 'You fuck somebody for long enough, after a while you may start kind of liking them.' And Logan didn't really want to start talking about the way hate and love could flip-flop - largely because he didn't want to use the word "love" anywhere near a discussion of his feelings for Remy. (He didn't even want to *think* it.)
After a thoughtful pause, he settled for, "Feelings change."
Another tap of the tail against the cushions. Another. "Months, you said?"
"Yes."
"Was this *after* you told me you didn't like him?" Tap. Tap.
Rueful grin. "Before. But I really *didn't* like him. Then."
Tap. Tap. "Really?" Polite disbelief. Tap. Tap.
Sip of the beer. "Amazing how sometimes liking has nothing to do with sex." Which was nothing but the truth.
Tap. Tap. Tap. No comment.
* * *
Logan had found his briefs on the floor by Remy's bed and put them back on when he heard the footsteps approaching from down the hallway. Judging by the sound, it was Scooter.
No particular reason it was necessarily *this* door that he was headed for. Still, Logan picked up his jeans and pulled them on with a certain cautious haste, just in case.
His wariness turned out to have been justified, when Cyke knocked at the door.
Logan hesitated. On the one hand, he wasn't particularly ashamed to be caught in Remy's bedroom.
On the other hand, he had asked Jeannie why she'd never filled her husband in on the particular bedroom games that he and Remy and Marie had been playing with each other of late. Aside from her own gossipy tendencies and the fact that Scott was her husband, there was the undeniable fact that as team leader one could say he had a certain right to know about it when teammembers were banging each other. And so she had told Logan why not.
Granted, she had her occasional clueless moments - but her husband was the one person whose head she *should* know the inside of. So if she said that Cyke would have a real problem dealing with learning that a pair of his male colleagues were sharing a bed on a regular basis - well, Logan figured that meant he'd have a *real* problem with the news.
Tormenting Scooter was one of Logan's favorite hobbies. But there was a difference between inspiring ire, frustration, or inferiority complexes, and inspiring disgust. Logan wasn't quite ready to deal with *that* one from the team leader yet. So he happily left Cyke marinating in his own denial.
But Scott would no doubt have learned the truth sooner or later. And judging by the knock at the door, it was going to be sooner.
[Oh, dammit. Well. Might as well play this for all it's worth.] Logan opened the door and, raising a hand to the lintel overhead, leaned his side against the doorjamb. [Time to shove it in Scooter's face...] "Well?"
Cyclops stepped back in startlement, clearly not expecting to find Logan answering Remy's door. For the moment, he seemed unable to respond.
"You wanted something, Cyke?" Logan gave him a tooth-bared expression that might almost have been a leer.
It was hard to tell without seeing the eyes, but Scooter seemed to be staring in shock. "I - I wanted to talk to Remy..."
"He's still in the shower." Which was true - Logan could still hear the water running. He let Scott take in his own damp hair and bare chest and add up the pieces. When he came up with the correct sum, he took another step back away from the door. Logan very carefully did *not* sigh at his reaction. Instead he allowed his genuine amusement at Cyclops' discomfiture to show. "You got a problem with something?"
Cyke fumbled for hope. A rational explanation, there had to be one... "You know, that really doesn't look good - you answering Remy's door like this. People start to get ideas, they start to talk..."
"What, you mean saying that I'm fucking Remy?" At Scooter's flinch, he went on, "It's true, and I don't care who knows it."
"You *can't* be serious."
Logan laughed in his face. "Didn't you ever stop to wonder how I could share Rogue with him without killing him?" While Cyke was still fumbling for a reaction, Logan heard the water in the shower stop. Turning his head, he called back over his shoulder, "Gumbo, come on out here a second!" He resisted the impulse to call him something like "Remy sweetheart" - playing it up for Scooter's benefit was one thing, but if he got too ridiculous Cyke might decide they were really just carrying out an elaborate practical joke.
Remy opened the door partway. "Don't tell me you're wanting a second round!" he laughed.
"Not just yet. Get your clothes on - we've got company."
Poking his head out curiously, he spotted Logan standing in the doorway but couldn't see past him to Scott in the hallway. "All right, all right..." Walking out into the bedroom a moment later with a towel wrapped around his waist, he came around to where he could see Cyclops in the hallway and stopped dead. (Logan had filled him in on why Jeannie didn't think Scooter needed to find out about the two of them any sooner than could be helped.) "Ah... Scott. You wanted something?" he asked flatly, no doubt expecting the worst.
"Ah - yes. I was wanting to see you..." Cyke broke off.
"And?" Gambit prompted.
"Maybe he wasn't planning on seeing *this* much of you," Logan commented helpfully, giving Remy a playful up and down once-over.
"No, I - " Scott cut himself off again.
"This wouldn't have anything to do with those 'rumors' you were trying to stop Jubilee from spreading, would it?" Logan suggested, trying to give Scooter a jumpstart. [Who knows, maybe he actually had something important to say to Gumbo...]
"Actually, it would." Cyclops drew the tattered shreds of his dignity around himself, attempting to recover the Fearless Leader aura. Unfortunately, he only managed Flustered Leader.
"And?" Gambit asked again.
"I... think you've answered my questions." Flustered Leader managed to stiffen his backbone into Disapproving Leader.
"Uh-oh! That doesn't sound good," Logan said cheerfully, giving Remy a conspiratorial glance.
Encouraged by his lover's reaction, Gambit came closer to the door. He certainly wasn't one to object to thumbing his nose at the leader, but this was a slightly embarrassing situation. The reminder that he had a partner in Cyke's disapproval was heartening. When he came within reach, Logan actually let go of the door to rest a hand on Remy's bare shoulder. It was impossible to tell behind the sunglasses, but Scott managed to give the impression nonetheless of staring at the almost-caress with alarm.
"Was there anything else you wanted?" Remy asked, emboldened by the physical reminder of solidarity.
"Not really."
"I don't see what your problem is, Scooter." Surface amiability balanced with underlying menace in Logan's tone.
"I don't *have* a problem," Scott almost snapped, before the Fearless Leader composure returned. "And as long as you don't let it *become* a problem, there won't *be* a problem."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" The surface amiability had evaporated.
"I think our Fearless Leader means, 'Don't ask, don't tell,'" Gambit volunteered.
"Damn stupid policy, if you ask me," Logan grumbled.
"No more than we've been doing. No making out in front of the TV," Remy added playfully.
"No more fucking in the men's locker room after missions," Logan one-upped him and was rewarded by actually seeing Cyke flinch.
"It was only the once," Remy complained.
"Yeah, but after that dumbassed stunt you pulled, it was either that or carve you limb from limb. Good thing Jeannie caught you in the hall and kept you from walking in, eh?" Logan added for Scott's benefit. "You'd have caught us tangled up on the bench in front of the lockers." He was delighted to see the man in the hall actually grow pale. When Cyke seemed beyond further speech, he inquired, "Anything else you wanted?" Scooter numbly shook his head, and Logan closed the door in his face.
The laughter bubbled up, the final look on Scott's face a memory worth saving to haul out on cold and lonely days. Logan might have collapsed against the door in a fit of mirth had he not turned just then to see the look on Remy's face.
The younger man was pale, with a numb look on his face to match the one last seen on Scooter's. "He almost walked in and caught us?"
The humor disappeared. "Yeah, I heard Jeannie in the hallway telling him he didn't want to come in just then. I almost stopped, but she managed to talk him out of it so I didn't."
"And if she hadn't?" Gambit leaned against the door.
"Then he would have gotten the same shock he did just now, only a lot earlier. Red told him to ignore the noise, that I was just getting after you for charging in without waiting for backup like that, and that Cyke needed to let me finish taking it out of your hide without trying to step in. He was mad enough at you to leave you to me, so it worked."
Remy sagged, slid down the door to a seated position as though his legs had given out, letting his towel fall where it would. "Christ. That would have been all we needed."
Refusing to analyze his own motives, Logan sank to a half-kneeling crouch. Resting a hand on the younger man's bared knee, he said, "Not a problem. Things like that happen all the time. You just tell them to get out and close the fucking door." Remy laughed once, a short sharp bark of disbelief. "It's true. Just remember, people that walk in on you with someone else are usually at least as embarrassed about it as you might be. So don't worry about it."
Gambit exhaled in a long, shaky sigh. "No, we have something new to worry about. Just how badly do you think he'll deal with the whole idea of - *us*, once he gets used to it?"
"He won't." Logan swiveled into a seated position at Remy's side and, after a moment's hesitation, put his arm around the kid's shoulders. Gambit laughed disbelievingly again. "He won't, because if he tries to give us a hard time, we'll kick his ass."
"'We'? Both of us together?" Remy seemed slightly comforted by the idea, leaning into the older man's shoulder.
"Both of us," Logan confirmed, "and Marie. Plus we can always sic his wife on him," he added wickedly. "Because you know she won't stand around and let Scooter give us a hard time just because he's got issues."
Remy laughed again, this time for real. Then he shivered slightly.
Noticing the goosebumps, Logan rose, pulling the kid to his feet. "Time to quit sitting bareassed on a cold floor and get some clothes on."
"Or possibly off," Remy suggested naughtily, hooking fingers into the waistband of Logan's jeans.
* * *
"Yes, that's exactly the most appalling thing you could have said."
- Giles, _Buffy the Vampire Slayer,_ "Hush," by Joss Whedon
* * *
Like Remy and Logan in her own way, Jubilation Lee was not one to be overawed by authority figures. So Scott's anti-rumor directive only stymied her for the amount of time it took to think of a way around him.
So he didn't think anything could possibly be going on between Logan and Remy, did he? And he refused to ask either man to confirm or deny the speculations once and for all?
Well, *she* wasn't afraid to ask Wolvie about his sex life.
She was sitting on the couch in the rec room watching _That 70s Show_ with Kitty and Kurt and Peter, when she spotted Logan out of the corner of her eye. Craning her neck to follow him, she watched him take a seat off to one side of the room - probably waiting for Rogue (or maybe even Remy) to show up. Satisfied that he would remain for a few minutes, she returned her attention to Hyde's brownie-selling venture.
At the next commercial break, she started to get up to go talk to him - and then paused, grinned, and merely turned in her seat.
Logan was sitting by himself - and to *really* deal with the flying rumors properly, she needed *witnesses*.
"Hey, Wolvie!"
Looking up from the _Sports Illustrated_ he was absently flipping through, he responded, "What?"
"Are you and Remy really fucking each other?" It was nice and loud. Her friends on the couch, the kids clustered around the foosball table, and Hank (hanging upside down from the light fixture with a copy of _Scientific American_) heard it.
Dead silence.
Logan gave Jubilee a disbelieving look before returning his attention to the magazine with a forcedly casual air. "Well, *I'm* fucking *him*," he responded, not quite as loudly as her question but clearly audible in the shocked quiet that had gripped the rec room. It was hard to tell from across the room, but his ears might have been slightly pink.
"And you're also fucking Rogue?"
"Yes." Different tone, less almost-embarrassed and more a firm statement of fact, or a staking of a claim.
"And she's still fucking Gumbo?"
"Unfortunately, yes." This tone a bit peeved, though possibly more at the unpleasant admission than at the question itself.
"Simultaneously?"
"...Sometimes." Logan turned a page. He looked less annoyed. Possibly the humor of the situation was beginning to appeal to him.
"Lucky Rogue. You needing a fourth?"
A laugh at that one, a soft whuffing chuckle. "Better clear that with Rogue first."
"Damn."
Curiosity satisfied and conversation over, she turned back to the TV. To one side, Kitty and Peter were exchanged shocked looks. To her other side, Kurt was beginning to tap his tail against the couchback thoughtfully. "That wasn't very nice," he said quietly.
"What wasn't nice?"
"Asking those questions in public." Tap. Tap.
"Well, it took care of the rumors, didn't it?"
"Yes, but it would have been more polite to discuss it in private." Tap. Tap.
"I needed an audience."
A sigh. Tap. Tap. T-
She caught his tail in mid-thump. "Cut that out, it's annoying."

 

END

 

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