We gotta hide those.
Who: Jubilee and Laura What: They go camping to escape it all. Laura finds her adamantium claws and uniform... When: after the flower shop with Navi Where: home and away! Rating: PG-13 status: Complete
Laura loved the orchard. It was a peaceful, beautiful place to work and live. She was happy to be done with moving, too. It felt like their lives were still packed up in boxes in the farmhouse, but at least all the boxes were in the same place.
She was currently leaning over a larger one, pulling out camping gear. She had the weekend off, and Mac had suggested she take it, since they would begin harvesting the next week. She was looking forward to that a lot.
Jubilee bounced up behind Laura, and presented her with some flowers. “Hey. This is gonna be fun, make sure to pack a lotta candy I’m gonna need the fuel!”
“We’re going to buy some stuff on the way out. I can’t find the little skillet we use.” Laura noted from inside the guts of the box. “We always need to buy something.” It was just how life went. “I keep trying to smell for things but our stuff smells like so much different stuff, now.”
“It’s okay. Maybe we should set up a storage place for shiz like that,” Jubilee squeezed Laura’s butt and bounced back. “We gonna rough it yo!”
Laura laughed and straightened, making a silly face at Jubilee. “We should definitely keep it all together, at least. If I was a camping skillet where would I-” Laura looked around and went to a box marked ‘bathroom’. The skillet was on top. “Here it is! We just need some veggies to go with dinner and lunch, then. I’ve got eggs, hot dogs, and steaks all packed up.” She pointed at the cooler. “Ready to become one with nature, Hotness?”
“What’s it ..you know what, the Hotness doesn’t wanna know! I left something I got for Mac when I was getting you the flowers. I hope he likes it.” Jubilee grinned at her, and then pumped her fist. “One with nature one with nature!”
Laura shrugged. It was probably in there for some perfectly logical reason. “That’s sweet of you. I’m really glad we got this job, it’s been a nice change from sitting around all the time.”
“It’s been kinda fun,” Jubilee replied. “Hard work but I don’t mind. Hey we should do a sexy times video in the forest! We could pack the HD cam!”
“Oh yeah. I’ve got it packed up.” Laura said with a grin. “We’ll have to do it during the daytime, and tie Ginger up off frame.”
Jubilee grinned. “LIke you red my mind chica...” She gave her a deep kiss, then nibbled on her lip and make a rrrring sound in her throat. “It’s been a little while since we did something different I think our viewers are getting boooored.”
“You’re right.” Laura said with a nod. “I’m gonna bring my regular camera, too. We can do pictures for the site, like before and after stuff. Show you all relaxed and gooshy.” Laura smirked widely.
“You mean show us all relaxed and gooshy and adorable together? ‘Cause we are adorable and gooshy and loving together.” Jubilee wrapped her arms around Laura.
“Can’t take pictures and be in them at the same time.” Laura pointed out, hugging Jubilee close for a minute. “Beside, that’s private between us.”
“Yeah...” She nuzzled Laura’s neck with her nose, then kissed it lightly. “Sometimes we need private between us time....”
Laura shivered and nodded. “Yeah. We’ll do the video when we first get there, then it’ll just be the two of us and Ginger for two whole days.” She stroked Jubilee’s back. She loved everything about Jubilee: how she smelled, the sound of her voice, the warmth and strength in her body. “I love you, Jubilee.”
“I love you too.....!” Jubilee could get distracted forever, but she forced herself to pull away so they could get to packing the car. She kept stealing glances at Laura, and considered herself really, really lucky.
Laura let Jubilee go, watching her for a moment, a silly smile on her face. She shook herself out a little, to get her mind back on packing. There was something sharp poking out of her sleeping bag. It was sharp enough to cut through the fabric and into her hand. Laura winced and dropped it, nudging the bag with her toe. “How did a knife wind up in my sleeping bag?” She used the toe of her shoe to work the point out, and it became clear to her what was really in her bag. Not knives, but claws. Hers, specifically. Four thinner ones for her hands and two thick ones for her feet. She made a face and unrolled the bag to check for any other surprises.
Jubilee blinked. “Oh... oh no.” That wasn’t good. She looked around. “We gotta hide those.” Who knows what the bastards who had hurt them would do with adamantium.
Laura nodded silently. She picked one of the claws up, turning it over carefully in her hands. “I only saw them like this once.” In the dreams. That wasn’t a good dream.
“What...are you gonna do with them?” Jubilee chewed her lip, and stroked the blunt side with one finger. They felt kind of cold.
They did feel cold, and very heavy. Laura squeezed her eyes closed for a moment, and took a deep breath. “We’ll hide them, like you said. Put them in the back of a closet. Maybe forget about them.” Probably not.
“Closet isn’t safe...maybe put them in a safe somewhere... “Jubilee watched Laura’s face closely. “.. you don’t have to put them in or nothing.”
“No. I don’t need them.” Her voice lacked conviction. If she’d had them when they were captured, maybe they would have helped her escape. They were so sharp, and it was so easy to cut with them.
“Laura. You’re not X-23. You’re a hot girl and my wife and a farmer. You’re not a killer. You don’t gotta be. I was a vampire and I wasn’t a killer. You don’t have to be her.” She ran her hand up Laura’s arm.
“You were shot. Right in front of me. I’m not going to fight for no reason, or because someone else tells me to.” She collected the claws and grabbed a towel from a box, carefully rolling them into a tight bundle. “But I will do whatever it takes to protect you, barring nothing. I’ve already killed, Jubilee, and I feel nothing about it. I wish I had killed the men sooner, and that bitch who was in charge too.”
“I love you. I’m just...what if there’s no turning back? After...if you do that?” She kissed Laura’s face.
Laura hugged her tight, burying her face in Jubilee’s hair. “There is no turning back. There never was an option. If they think they can hurt us, that they can hurt you, I need to show them they can’t.” She spoke softly, and with great regret. This was never the person she’d wanted to become, but the one thing she’d always been was practical.
Jubilee held Laura’s head against her hair and bit back a terrible feeling in her gut. The worse part about being alive again was how much things hurt. After months of feeling like an empty soul, her emotions were heightened. And she might be a little clingy. But the fear and pain was the worse. “Lets forget all that for now..”
Laura nodded, squeezing Jubilee one last time before she let go. “I’ll get these put away. Can you get your sleeping bag packed up? I’ll need a new one.”
“Will do!” She started to grab things and pack them with all due haste. She wanted to get going and forget this for a few days.
Laura went to the closet in their bedroom, but she stopped short when she saw something black and weird hanging down from one of the hangers. This time she didn’t need to see the whole thing before she could identify it. The costume smelled of sweat and blood. No amount of cleaning could solve that. She wrinkled her nose in distaste and stepped back. Rather than touch the costume she threw the bundle of knives into the closet and closed the door, shaking her head. “Where do these things come from?”
“...I don’t know.” The costume was different from Jubilee’s yellow jacket (which she was packing). It was a symbol of darker things, whereas the jacket was a symbol of good things. She wrapped her arms around Laura. “...come on lets get going.”
Laura nodded and kicked the closet door closed. “Yeah, we should get going.” She shook her head, and hoped there were no more surprises waiting for her.
Two hours later Jubilee was pulling the VW off the road. It bounced and jostled, which Ginger seemed to enjoy. At least she hoped the dog enjoyed it, she didn’t need to clean dog puke out of her car!
Ginger was just excited to be going anywhere. Laura’s good mood was missing, now, but she tried to cheer herself up for Jubilee’s sake. She was still very quiet the whole trip to the campsite.
Jubilee didn’t need super senses to know Laura’s mood had soured. She bit her lip as she parked the car, and turned in the car seat. “Okay, we’re here. Lets go commune with nature and shit.” Her voice was calm but her eyes were emotional.
Laura nodded and slid out, moving the seat up so Ginger could bolt out and start barking at squirrels. Luckily the dog kept himself pretty entertained. She opened the trunk of the car and began to unload it again.
The gymnast got out to help. They’d packed pretty well so it wouldn’t be too much of a pain to bring everything down to the campsite. She started to hum a silly tune.
Laura smiled softly as Jubilee hummed, pulling her bag on over her shoulder. She whistled for Ginger, who raced ahead of them, wagging his whole back end as they hiked through the woods. She stayed quiet, but the sounds of the forest were relaxing her. She felt safe here, in a weird way. There were no people around to hurt them, just animals and plants.
Jubilee hefted her own pack, missing her super strength. But the blood was rushing in her ears and Laura was smiling again so everything was good with the world. She let the sounds and smells of nature help swallow them up. She murmured a little prayer to have a very uneventful camping trip, with rain the only danger.