The road, it might take its own course
Shogo Lee was used to weird. He was a Lee. And when you were a Lee, you looked at weird, made a sarcastic comment about it, and then went in full force.
This weird was wandering around the school that was his home but wasn't, finding things to do that were important but also kept him out of the way. Shogo knew where most everything was, after all, he'd grown up at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning and even though the name was different, the layout was still the same. He found the kitchen with no problem, which he had to because at this school, there weren't snacks squirreled away in ridiculous places. Hey, when the 3D Dorito craving hit, you had to answer it. Shogo always fell victim to the siren song of the snack. But it was more than just his missing snacks, it was the burn pattern in the rug from a science experiment he'd done when he was 10 that was no longer there, it was the different couches in the rec room that he hosted video game marathons, it was his room he'd gone to out of sheer autopilot that...wasn't his room anymore.
This weird was walking around seeing people who he knew, people who were the wrong ages, people who didn't know him. He walked by Uncle Pete three times and it was weird not to do their daily banter of Shogo 'speaking Russian' (hello bird sugar my kicking says they ceramic speed witch) and Uncle Pete responding with what was probably an actual sentence. His friends either weren't alive (oh and by the way maybe he wasn't either?????) or not around. Plus, maybe if he did the wrong thing they wouldn't exist in this world! Pressure! Keyboard smash!!!
This weird was knowing that his dead mom was in the medlabs, alive.
There were no cards for that. Nothing that said, "Congrats, it's an Alternate Universe Boy!", Shogo knew, he had looked. Or was it more like condolence? "Sorry for Your Gain." Ugh. Maybe someone had made something on Etsy or something?? Greeting cards for all those weird situations, business idea, he was totally on it.
For years, it had been the two of them. They were a team, a team of two. Sure, Shogo had been surrounded by a plethora of family, but his mom had always put the two of them first. She'd always been Jubilee, X-Men member, hero who had saved the world time and time again, but she had also offered time and time again to put that all aside so Shogo could live a 'normal' life. He didn't. He wanted to be a hero, just like her. He wanted to make her proud.
It had been two long, rough years. Two years to think about all the things he should have said, or did. They had a great relationship, a loving one filled with laughter and support. Shogo and Jubilee had been friends, which was awesome. But even being as close as they were, there were still things he didn't know about her, or things he'd never said. Because he thought he had more time. You'd think he'd know better.
At the first sight of permission to come visit his AU mom, Shogo was moving. He was usually moving, always beebopping to some tune in his head, fidgeting with something, like all of that excess electricity that lived in him needed to be used up somehow. He promised Lyss Cartwright (not from his world) that he would be fast and would definitely not do anything to disrupt the healing process and yes, absolutely she could kick him out if at any point in time she deemed his visit as detrimental to the patient.
And then he was in front of her. A younger Jubilee, but one he recognized from pictures. She had been even younger than this when he had been adopted, after all, and there had always been photos. Shogo always suspected a part of that was Jubilee making up for her own childhood, but that was another thing he'd never asked. Before he knew what he was doing, he was extending a bag of chocolate covered pretzels out in offering. "These are for you. Do you like these? Sorry, I should have asked, if you hate them or are...I don't know, allergic, it's cool, I'll eat them. One time, I broke my collarbone and these were my snack to stay in bed or whatever but I ate all of them in like, five minutes, puked everywhere, it was so gross, oh my God." Shogo cut off his rambling by running a hand over his face. "Redo, I suck."
"Hi," Shogo started again, surprised by the sudden dust in the air and someone rudely cutting onions left and right that would cause his eyes to well up. "I'm Shogo."