Author: tinhutlady
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"Your beloved has a few flaws. They grind their teeth, mix stripes and polka dots, and only wash their hair when the moon is full. Do you find this: a; annoying, b; endearing, or c; intriguing?"
Logan tried hard not to let his mouth stay open in astonishment after reading that question aloud. The eleven-year-old at his feet had an extremely sincere expression on her face and it would not do to take her less seriously than she took herself.
He looked down on her from his vantage point in the library chair. "Um, Megan, I don’t see what that question has to do with your Social Studies project."
She grinned. "Of course it has nothing to do with my Social Studies project. See, all the others simply answered my questions, trying hard not to hurt my feelings. I knew you would see right through it." Her voice dropped to a conspiratory level. "I’m trying to find out more about the difference between love, like, and incarceration."
"Infatuation," Logan corrected as he flipped back over the other questions he had already answered. "These other questions…" he began.
"Now those are the real thing. My project is to find out what different types of people live here and what their jobs are and if the different personalities match up with the different jobs."
The innocent yellow eyes gazed beseechingly up at him from the floor, where she was grading the rest of the personality tests. How did he ever get suckered into this in the first place? Logan sighed and put pencil to paper again. Dutifully, he filled in the remaining answers, although most of the questions made no sense to him and he began marking things just to get through it.
"There, squirt. All done." He handed the papers to her and his eyes shifted to the mound of tests the student already had in front of her. "Can I see what Rogue answered on her extra questions?"
She giggled as she inserted his into the mess. "No, silly. Not until I’m done. That’s for my own personal use. See, I’m going to take the answers and put the person with the one they like and see if there’s a pattern so I can find out what kind of boy I’ll look for when I’m older."
Logan smiled. "Wait a few years before you decide to go chasing boys, okay? Give them a chance to grow up a little. By the way, where did you get those strange questions? I mean the ones at the end?"
Megan looked up and winked. "Those came from a really great test featured in a magazine I found in Jubilee’s room."
"What magazine, kitten?" Logan asked as his heart gave a strange lurch.
"Cosmopolitan."
It was too late, Logan thought. His answers had already disappeared into the mayhem with the others.
---
They never would have been caught if it hadn’t been for Logan’s excellent hearing. He had moved to one of the chairs by the window. One, to give Megan more space to spread out her work and two, so he could peruse his latest literary interest in peace. As he sat flipping the pages, he caught the excited squeal of Jubilee. Normally this grated on his hearing but, as there was a pane of glass between him and the excitable young woman, he merely winced out of habit. He began to focus on her voice moments later when he began to catch the drift of her conversation with Rogue out in the garden.
"Ah cannot believe you would stoop so low as to leave that magazine out for a child to pick up." Rogue sounded a little indignant.
"Megan’s not an average child and you know it. She was the one who got the bright idea to tack that Cosmo quiz onto the end of her social studies questionnaire. Brilliant move, in my opinion. Who’s to say it’s wrong to make the most of such an opportunity? All I wanted to know was how Remy would answer those questions so I could see if we were compatible. He refused to take it for me, but I noticed that everyone, including him, filled out those tests of hers without any problems. Now I get to see if my little Cajun buddy is truthful when he says he likes long walks on the beach and dinner by candlelight.
"Besides, chica, now you can get to know Logan a little better. I can talk little Megan into giving us the results of the quiz and we can see just what sort of men we’re dating."
Rogue just laughed and didn’t say anything.
"You don’t think this will work, do you? I’ll have you know Kitty’s in on it and so is Ms. Munroe. Mark my words, chica, now we will have enough information to…"
Their voices were fading away. Out of the corner of his eye, Logan watched them walk off. A low growl reverberated in his throat and Megan looked up.
"Something wrong, Logan?"
"Not really, kitten. But there’s something you should know."
He explained what he had heard Jubilee say and watched as Megan’s expression changed from confusion to understanding.
"So that’s why she let me into her room that day." She looked up at Logan. "What should I do?"
Logan buried his nose in the book again. "I’m not going to tell you what to do, Megan. I’ll leave that entirely in your capable hands." He pulled the book down slightly and gave her a wink.
An evil little glint appeared in her eyes as she winked back.
---
"My dearest," Hank was looking at Ororo with a confused expression. "If that’s what you want me to do I will, but, if you seek my opinion, I would feel very inadequate acting out my emotions in such a manner. I thought you understood that I was not exactly the demonstrative type in public settings such as this." A slight blush showed through the fur that accented the handsome features of his unusual profile. "My preference of attentions would be…" He leaned closer to Ororo and whispered in her ear.
Judging by the beautiful coloration of Ororo’s cheeks, whatever Hank was suggesting was fine by her. He ended his impassioned plea with a husky breath that tickled her lobe and sent shivers and goose bumps running along her arms and legs. Her heart racing, she turned and kissed him, then rose and offered an outstretched hand to him.
"Of course. My love, that was beautifully argued and I should have known better. I believe we should put your suggestions to good purpose."
A childish grin of glee was replaced by the growl of anticipation he uttered as he followed her to a more private setting for their expression of endearment.
Logan and Marie appeared to be watching a movie on the television but caught all of the action that had gone on behind them.
Logan leaned over, "That’s one."
Marie slapped him on the arm with her gloved hand and giggled into his shoulder the next minute as Piotr sidled into the room.
"Logan, I have a problem. Kitty wants me to read poetry to her and bat my eyelashes at her. That’s not how I have shown my affections to her before. What should I do?"
Logan cocked an eyebrow. "What do you want to do?"
"I’m a visual person. I want to shout her name; I need to show her to the world, let the sunshine highlight her hair and the moonlight frame her pretty little face. I want her to feel the warmth of my palms caressing her neck. I want to walk barefoot through a garden with her and take a flower’s soft petals and trail them down her perfectly sculpted throat and then…"
"I get the picture," said Logan dryly. "Here," he reached into a pocket and threw the keys to his motorcycle at Piotr, "let the wind whip through her hair, too. Take her to that little park about five miles South of here. There’s lots of flowers and you can watch the moonlight in the pond. Dip her toes in the water or something, just get out of here." He watched Piotr smile and start to leave. "Just don’t forget to drive on the right-hand side of the road."
He noticed Marie looking at him with an amused expression. "Care to fill me in on what you two just talked about, sugar?"
Logan sighed. "He did it again, didn’t he? Got me to speak Russian?"
She laughed and cuddled closer. "Don’t worry. I think I know what was on his mind. Ah take it that’s two down?"
"Yep. Two couples have recovered from Megan’s social studies switch. I wonder what couple number three will do?"
A door slammed somewhere far off behind them. Moments later, footsteps pounded past and then ducked into the room. So much for watching the movie, Marie thought as Remy, wild-eyed and panic-stricken, jumped between the lovers and the TV screen.
"You have got to hide me! Pas de betises!" He continued as Logan began to snicker. "This is no joke!"
"Remy?" Jubilee could be heard down the hall. "Where’s my hot little Cajun?"
Logan quickly pointed to an unobtrusive panel in the wall. Nodding his thanks, Remy dashed over and slid through the secret door before Jubilee entered the room.
"Have either of you seen Remy?"
Logan and Marie turned and beheld an extremely unusual Jubilee. She was wearing a simple, modestly-skirted cotton print dress splayed with huge, bright sunflowers. On her feet were thick, leather sandals. Her makeup and the perky little bow adorning her hair were a lovely mix of brown, orange, and pink. It was all Marie could do not to giggle. Logan, however, was not so restrained and he busted out laughing.
"Hey! Cut it out! I’m going for a new look here." Jubilee’s lower lip puffed out, etching the ‘mall rat’s version of a simple country girl’ picture even deeper into Logan’s brain.
"And that would be…?" Marie elbowed her lover in the ribs.
Jubilee’s face brightened. "All natural, of course. For my nature-loving, socially concerned, introverted but passionate Cajun boy." She winked at Rogue. "I’m gonna rock his little world." With that she turned and proceeded down to the kitchen area, still calling her boyfriend’s name teasingly.
For a second there was silence. Marie and Logan gazed deeply into each other’s eyes and then collapsed against each other in a warm series of chuckles.
"All right, I can figure that you switched Hank’s and Pete’s answers, but where on earth did you come up with that mess for Remy?" Logan heard the small heartbeat approach them from behind.
Megan leaned over the back of the couch between the two. "I switched his with yours."
"Mine?" Logan’s voice almost squeaked. "Megan, I didn’t really pay attention to…" he broke off when he realized he had given himself away as to how he had answered the questions.
"Duh. I know you just answered them because I wanted you to. When I saw what type of boyfriend you came up as I knew you hadn’t really paid attention to what you were doing." Megan grinned from ear to ear. "You know, this really has taught me something."
"What’s that, Megan?" Marie brushed one stray tendril of hair back behind the young girl’s ear. "What did you learn?"
"I’m definitely not ready for any of this. ‘Bye guys. I’m going to go see what Autumn’s up to." With that she tumbled off in a series of cartwheels.
"So now you don’t know what kind of boyfriend you have. Are you disappointed?"
Marie looked at the lopsided grin on the rough, but handsome face beside her. "Ah’ll have you know Ah know exactly what type of boyfriend Ah have. Not many men would take a Cosmo test just because a little girl asked them to. You’re one of the few people around here that treat her as the person she is growing up to be, not as the child she is." She cuddled into his shoulder again and sighed with happiness.
He chewed on the situation for a minute, not seeing what was on the TV screen in front of them. "Since I’ve been so good, do I get a reward?" A muffled giggle answered him. "Want to take a walk through the garden and talk about the first thing that comes up?"
She sat up, her face flushed with delight. "You really are a nature-boy, aren’t you? Come on, Tarzan." She stood and hauled him up, too. "Let’s go monkey around."
End
Back to the library.