Says the girl who's in love with an X-Man!


Just a little one-shot set directly following the scene in the episode "Aces and Eights" where Lorna yells at Wanda for being in love with an X-Man.


KURT

"Says the girl who's in love with an X-Man!"

He hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but he was patrolling the palace for trouble, crawling along the outer walls, when Lorna's outburst caught his ears. She'd been talking about the cells where Wanda took Gambit.

He didn't like to think about the cells. They brought back memories of waking up in isolation, his whole body aching and sore, curled up against the chill of the cavern. Days spent walking in circles, losing his mind to the hazy muffled sounds of the other prisoners in the cells calling to each other, crying, begging for release. He couldn't take the constant noise and he couldn't take being trapped and unable to help them. Powerlessness like that took him back to before Xavier-

But at least Wanda was there.

Wanda with her voracious appetite for knowledge, reading to him from books of politics and history and philosophy. Her ardor for culture, art and music and films. The bright clarion sound of her excitement when she talked about the future of Genosha almost made him forget the dark side of that dream-even in the cells, it almost made him forget that he was trapped.

He waited, clinging to the shadows beyond the bright well of the window, pulse pounding just a little faster. Wanda didn't say anything more, but she hadn't denied it, either.


WANDA

Lorna stormed from the room, leaving Wanda alone and fuming.

Couldn't Lorna see that she was only protecting her?

Didn't she know that scoundrel of a man couldn't be trusted?

When would she realize that Wanda had to be the bad guy, she had to make the hard choices, and it was getting harder every day?

The long crimson drapes stirred in a draft from the open window, the scents of salt and the sounds of distant waves crashing on the rocks washing in. She crossed the room to close the windows but paused with her hands on the latch, some sixth sense making her feel that she wasn't alone.

"Kurt?" she asked softly, peering out into the darkness. "Is that you?"

Had he heard Lorna's rant?

She waited, but no one answered.