WHO: Emma Frost and Logan WHEN: Sunday, 29th. Mid-morning WHERE: The X Mansion WHAT: Decide to cheer up the student body.
Emma closed the door to her office with a satisfying click, turning down the hallway and heading towards one of the lounges. She could feel the mood growing heavier over the school and it's students, and something had to be done. If not some time in the Danger Room to clear the heads of a few students, perhaps she could take some classes in the gardens. Enough of the old teachers and faculty had returned that she could, without a doubt, rope a few in to help her lift the mood. The worry and the sleepless nights had begun to wreak havoc on her complexion.
There were too many damn people around and all too damn glum - it was like wandering around in the middle of the goddamn walking dead, Logan thought, the way the kids were all so quiet like they just never, never were. The sound of giggling around corners was usually enough to drive him to distraction; right then, making his way through the school to at least try to get some time in the Danger Room (he figured he'd be alone there if nowhere else), he could've heard a pin drop. Probably could've even if a herd of wildebeest had been charging down the corridor, but that wasn't the point. The place was too damn quiet.
That being the case, he heard footsteps before he saw anyone in the hallway. Smelled someone, too, and once he turned the corner he was already unsurprised by the appearance of the person out of whose way he purposely didn't sidestep.
The mental signature brushed her first, the familiar, swampy mess of the interior of Logan's head. Emma rolled her eyes, her teetering heels coming to a stop several feet away from the man. She crossed her arms over her bare stomach and, eyebrow raised, smiled as he turned the corner.
"Hello, Logan," She lifted her chin slightly, as though a wet dog had slunk into the room. "I wasn't aware you were back already. There are so few empty beer bottles lining the halls..."
"Mmph," he agreed, in what might've passed for a greeting. Or an acknowledgment, at least. At the very least, because it wasn't even trying to be a word. "Got in last night," he said in the end, after giving her a slow once-over, from head to too-high heels. He shrugged. "Just haven't got to litterin' up the place yet. There's time."
"I'm sure you'll give it your very best effort," she replied, pushing her ash hair back over her shoulders. Any disdain in her voice wasn't intended as personal, she knew Logan would assume as such. Emma treated most everyone the same way. She arched an eyebrow, waiting for him to to move to let her past, and cleared her throat. "Have you seen the Professor, yet? Naturally, he'll know you're here, but I would imagine he'd like to talk to you in person."
He gave the barest hint of a smile at that - he guessed in an odd way the delightful Ms. Frost was right and it probably wouldn't be long until the place was out of beer, or in beer since the place was still full of kids who didn't get refrigerators full of over-strong Canadian beer all by themselves. Not his idea of a fun time.
He shrugged, still not shifting out of her way. She could damn well ask him to move if that's what she wanted, he wasn't above being petty if she was gonna be so damn superior, just like she ever was. "Not yet. He'll let me know when he wants to see me, not like I'm hard ta find."
"Even a normal man could follow his nose, my dear Logan." She smirked, eyes rolling just enough to be noticed. She unfolded her arms, replacing her hands on her hips and cocking them to the side with her usual, determined expression. She may as well make the most of a brief chance for conversation...life would no doubt get busier over the coming weeks.
"Since you've decided to play the prodigal son, do you think you would be open to helping out with the children?" she asked, eyes narrow with expectation. "You've no doubt noticed the sullen mood...a little distraction might make things a little more cheery around here...I don't need to reach into your mind to see how uncomfortable a quiet school makes you."
The look on Logan's face in immediate reaction to that question probably didn't say anything good. Not that helping out with the kids was the worst thing he'd ever done, it didn't rank up there with healing broken bones or his latest Sabretooth slugfest, and hell, he knew she was right - the place being so damn quiet was close to the weirdest thing he'd seen in a while. He narrowed his eyes slightly, suspiciously. "I'm gonna regret this..." he muttered, then shook his head. "What exactly did you want me to do?"
Emma smiled, an expression far more unsettling than her usual sullen scowl, and neatly stepped past Logan. She gestured for him to follow, her thin white cape pooling around her arms and down to her thighs as her heels clacked on the floor. A completely impractical outfit for a teacher, of course, but no one had yet attempted to tell her that.
"Simple distractions, Logan. Help to train some of the newest X-men, perhaps? We have a teleporter that could use some hand-to-hand experience. To see you running around the gardens with your claws out would certainly lift the mood. I know I would like to see it." coming from anyone else, it would have been an innocent statement, but Emma made a point of never revealing her true intentions, honest or otherwise.
He followed. Not like he wanted to, it had an air of a dog being put to heel that made him frown as he turned, but he did it anyhow. She probably had that effect on a lot of guys, he reasoned, and the ones who didn't hate it probably had their tongues hanging halfway to their knees at that outfit of hers.
"Y'know, I'm pretty damn sure I'm not s'posed to be terrorizing the students," he said, though just the mention of it had his interest piqued. And he hadn't had a good fight, punches pulled or otherwise, in a heck of a time.
"Please, Logan," she almost scoffed, glancing to the side and fixing him with ice-blue eyes. "I'm not asking you to paint the garden red with the blood of whatever poor individual you decide to train. consider it...a publicity stunt. Make it flashy enough, and the students will be talking about how tough Mr Logan is, as opposed to worrying themselves sick."
She paused, pursing her lips and sending out a tendril to prick at the edge of his mind. "Although...if it's a fight you want, I certainly have some tension that I could do to lose. This school is occasionally more of a prison than an institution. Between the two of us, we could certainly put on a show..."
He cocked his head, giving her a look that could've been construed as interested somewhere beneath the fifty layers of attitude. Might've been more pleasant if he could've gotten her out of his damn head - he had not missed being around that whole psychic schtick. "Might be I could accommodate you," he said, rubbing not quite idly at the back of one hand. It'd probably be that the Professor would frown on the idea but he liked it. Maybe he was going to enjoy being back at the mansion more than he'd thought.
Emma grinned, a full and honest smile that was a very rare sight indeed. Of course, it was coupled by a wicked glint in her eyes that suggest she was just as itching for a good fight as Logan. She didn't miss the hint of interest on his face, it was easy to pluck out form the back of his mind, and she returned it by letting a little of her own excitement slip forth.
"Excellent. I have some free time tomorrow afternoon...we'll call it a demonstration in ground-based combat. I can assume you haven't sprouted wings in your time away from us.."
He smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "If I had, I've got a feelin' you'd know already," he said. Maybe a few things'd happened in the time he'd been away but nothing earth-shattering like some new secondary mutation. Though a winged Wolverine would've been kinda interesting, he thought. Even if he liked things how they were - he'd never liked flying all that much, he liked being close to the ground. "I'll keep my schedule free," he told her with a slightly sarcastic smile. His schedule had probably just been beer and TV anyway.
"I'm glad to hear it. And you'd be surprised at just how much I know...I daresay even you would blush, Logan." She returned the smile, narrowing her eyes and turning away. Heading towards her original destination, she paused several feet away and glanced back over her shoulder.
"I'm looking forward to it. I know you won't go soft on me...It's been too long since I had a real challenge." Despite herself, Emma winked as she turned away, opening the door as she approached it and closing it very firmly indeed.
For a moment he stepped aside, leaning there against the wall to watch her go - more an exercise in letting her know she wasn't going to get to him like she seemed to do pretty much everyone else than in eying her in earnest. Though he was still every inch the red-blooded male, and it was a view he could appreciate. He didn't try to tell her he'd seen things that'd make a whore blush, and he doubted she could do any worse. She probably knew that already, knowing her. Then he turned, with a brief chuckle, and headed back the way he'd been trying to go in the first place - this time more in search of a beer than a fight.