Remy Lebeau (lediableblanc) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-09-23 01:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, lorna dane (polaris), remy lebeau (gambit) |
Who: Lorna Summers & Remy LeBeau
What: Catching up after the crazy
When: 9/22
Where: Sandwich shop in Anaheim
Rating: PG for language
Status: Complete
Remy hadn’t seen some of his friends lately, and Lorna Summers was at the top of the list. So he’d texted her and asked to meet at a sandwich shop downtown Anaheim, hoping they could catch up a bit. He’d heard that she’d had some of the bad crazy hit her lately, and even though she didn’t need him to, it was hard not to want to look out for her a bit.
Lorna was happy to be doing normal things like meeting friends for sandwiches. She was in a great mood when she got to the shop, all things considered. She was doing her best not to think about what had happened. Today she was going to focus on having fun with Remy and eating a delicious sandwich. Beside, she was wearing a sweater for the first time this season, and that made her happy. So she was smiling widely when she walked into the shop.
Remy smiled when he saw Lorna come in - hard to miss the hair. He waved as she walked over. “Hey there. How you? You look real nice.” Not flirting, just fact. She even looked happier than usual. Maybe something happened in her life, but he wasn’t going to push.
Lorna smiled. “Thank you. I’ve been busy. We’re getting ready to harvest the pumpkins I planted at the ranch. I’m so proud of my little garden.” She beamed at Remy, tucking her crochet project away. “So, what do you recommend? I’m in your capable hands, Mister LeBeau.”
Remy thought for a minute. “I confess I don’ remember if you a vegetarian or something like that, but if you ain’t, I’d say get the ham. It’s nice and spiced. If you is a vegetarian, maybe do the Greek? Avocado and falafel, which I think is chickpeas.” He’d gotten the Cajun chicken, because when it was real chicken, it was usually pretty good. “And for the record, gardeners impress me. I ain’t ever grown nothing, but I killed a lotta plants.” He grinned shamefacedly.
Lorna giggled. “I eat meat all the time.” She couldn’t help herself. “Ham sounds good.” She peered at the menu to see what her options for extras were. “How have you been?”
“Not too bad, merci.” Remy set his menu down. “Me an’ Candy probably gonna be lookin’ for a bigger apartment; we just got a dog.”
“I saw your post! I’m happy for you guys. Champion and Max keep Alex and me on our toes all the time.” She grinned at him, then stepped up to order.
Once she was back sitting down, Remy asked her, “What kind of dogs you got? Ruby, what we decided to call this one, she a pitty mix. We think she mixed with somethin’ smaller, un beagle or cocker spaniel, somethin’ like that, cause she ain’t as big as no regular pit bull.”
“Awww. Max is a big old thing. I swear he’s at least half horse.” She said with a laugh. “Champion is a little terrier mix. He’s pretty high energy. I take him with me to the ranch so he can run around like a lunatic all day. How does she act? Has she settled in yet?”
“She doin’ pretty good, oui.” Remy chuckled. “We had to get her away from sleepin’ between us, but sometimes she sleep at the foot of our bed. That’s kinda nice.” He wondered what might happen if Candy ever got knocked up, but that was something to deal with far in the future. “So far she’s near ‘bout thirty pounds, but she gonna get bigger.”
“Awwww. That’s sweet. Max never tried to sleep with Alex, and he’s been good since I moved in. Champion has claimed Alex’s nephew Darius as his sleeping buddy. I appreciate it, actually. Poor kid’s pretty messed up.” She sighed. He’d be getting his cast off in a couple weeks, but she didn’t know what he was going to do long term.
“Nephew?” Remy echoed. “Is he Scott’s?” He didn’t remember any other kids Scott would have had except Nate and the girl who wasn’t there.
“Oh yeah, huh? No, he’s like a second cousin or something like that? Alex’s uncle’s grandkid. Nephew is less weird for people who don’t know his brother, and that’s kind of funny that I never thought of that.” Lorna laughed a little. “He’s staying with us for a while, until he’s graduated from high school.”
“Ah, gotcha. Yeah, just, if we goin’ by the dreams I know Scott only got the two.” Remy smiled. “Sucks that the kid all messed up. I bet you two helpin’ though.” Lorna was one of the steadiest people he knew.
“Yeah, though he’s got a couple cloned kids too, I think.” Scott’s family was weird. “I hope we’re helping. He had a broken arm. Well it’s still broken, but it was fresh at the time. Alex thinks his dad broke it, but the kid won’t tell us what actually happened.” Her expression became thoughtful and sad.
Remy’s face clouded over. “Daddies who beat on their enfants ought to be lined up an’ shot.” Between Candy’s dad and - if he was honest - the spectre of his own unknown father - he wasn’t kidding.
“I agree. My dad was awesome, and it hurts so much to see anyone hurt by their parents, even in smaller ways.” Lorna’s nose scrunched up. She thought about the unknown man who’d knocked her mother up and wondered if she’d ever find resolution, and what would happen if she did. “Now that he’s not drugged up all the time it’s pretty obvious. I wish there was more I could do, but he’s old enough now that he kinda has to work it out on his own.”
Remy nodded grimly. “All you can do is what we been doin’. Keep an eye out and if the putain de merde comes ‘round, you shoot him.” He laughed, so Lorna would think he was kidding, but when it came to Bill Quackenbush, he wasn’t kidding.
Lorna snorted, but she was pretty sure that was Alex’s plan. She couldn’t say she disagreed, either. “Yeah. It’ll be okay. He’s not going back to San Francisco for anything.” She took a couple bites of her sandwich. “Oh man, this really is good.”
“Good. And yeah, the chicken here was brilliant.” Remy smiled. “How you doin’, Miz Lorna? You have any of the latest crazy? Or that Alex?” She looked like she was doing well enough now, but still. It was only polite to ask.
“Oh.” Lorna laughed awkwardly. “Yes to both. My pot plants tried to kill us and had to be incinerated, and I split into two halves. One was very indulgent and wild, the other very repressed and uptight. Uh, it didn’t go so well for either.” She took a drink of her soda. “How about you and Candy? Hopefully nothing too stressful.”
Remy’s eyebrows shot up. “Merde. No, we ain’t had nothing like that. Just helpin’ our friends who did. You guys is okay though, yeah?” Splitting into two halves would have worried him.
“Now we are.” Lorna said with a smile. She wasn’t sure she actually wanted to talk about what happened with Kitty. She decided to leave it up to Remy to ask.
“Good. Bien.” Remy smiled a little. “You was nice to me, so I try to return the favour.”
“Aww, thank you. But would you be mean to me if I wasn’t so nice to you?” She asked, glad the subject had changed. She truthfully wasn’t sure how she felt about dying, so not discussing it was fine with her.
“Aw, how could I be mean to you.” Remy laughed. “I don’t think you got a mean bone in your body, Lorna. I just try to follow that golden rule.”
Lorna laughed. “I don’t know, I think I might have one.” She smiled at Remy. “But I don’t want to be mean to anyone, so I’m not too worried about that. Honestly I’m more worried that I’m too soft and too much of a pushover.”
Remy shook his head, waiting to speak until he swallowed a mouthful of chicken. “I think it’s better to be too nice than not nice enough. You can always toughen up, but it ain’t as easy to open up to other people when you got a habit of closin’ off.”
“I dunno.” Lorna sighed. “Scott asked me to help with a mission recently and I freaked out pretty bad. I’m afraid I’d let people get hurt if they had to rely on me for protection.”
“But that’s what I’m sayin’.” Remy shook his head, finishing off his sandwich. “If you ain’t up for it, there ain’t no shame in that. It ain’t no shame to tell Scott to fuck himself if you got to.” It’d be funny as hell if she actually did, but the point remained.
Lorna didn’t want to argue about it. She still worried that something would happen and her friends would get hurt, but there was no sense torturing herself. “I keep Alex around for that. He gets more joy out of it than me, anyway.”
“Tellin’ Scott to fuck himself?” Remy laughed. “I bet he would. But I just mean, you got to do what’s best for you, oui?”
“He did. In those exact words.” Lorna said with a giggle. “Scott threw a fit about it, but I was glad he did it.” She felt a little better. Remy was right, she wouldn’t be any good to anyone if she tried to fight. “It made things a little awkward, but they settled eventually.”
“Good.” Remy nodded. “I mean, obviously fightin’ ain’t no good, but neither is pushing yourself too far outta your comfort zone. Hein?” He looked at her as if to ask if she understood. “A little is good, but too far and you ain’t gonna be no good to anyone. Not you you, I mean like, anybody.”
Lorna nodded. “I get what you’re saying. I just hate letting people down. But thank you, I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to be like the woman in my dreams, but I’d rather lick a light socket.” She stuck her tongue out to illustrate.
Remy laughed. “I heard stories. Not everybody here is like how they is in their dreams. You ever dream about a lady named Deathstrike?”
“No, or at least not yet. I haven’t finished them, yet.” She was curious to hear about his example.
“Lady Deathstrike, in the dreams, is a bad bitch.” Remy shook his head. “Kinda went insane after her daddy tried to kill her. She killed him and then joined up with people like the Reavers and other general supervillain types. Bad news.” He closed his eyes. “She tried to crucify Logan in the desert in Australia. But you know what she do here?” He opened them, looking over at Lorna. “Her name is Yuriko, and she owns an Asian-themed burlesque show. She apparently got a fiance, and is just une femme, just a quiet little woman. Logan says she dreams about Deathstrike and then swears she ain’t never gonna go like that. She ain’t done it so far.”
“Sounds like an interesting lady.” Lorna noted. “I’ve seen her post about her burlesque show. It sounds like she has people encouraging her not to be a homicidal maniac, but I have people expecting me to be a hero. I wasn’t even that great in the dreams, I don’t know why they expect me to be good at it here, or even willing to do it.”
That was a fair point, but still. Remy shook his head. “Well, you want help, telling people you don’t wanna be no hero? You call ol’ Remy, ok?” He smiled. “Je te promets, if Scott or someone gets on you, I do my best to call him off.” Lorna’s comfort came first. Not like there weren’t enough heros around to fill in.
Lorna smiled. “Thank you. That means a lot to me. We should talk about something more cheerful.” She didn’t want to mope the whole time. “You know what you’re doing for Halloween yet?”
“No ma’am. We were thinkin’ maybe have a little party. Combination Halloween and a reception for our friends, since we didn’t have nothing after me an’ Candy got hitched.” Remy smiled.
“That’ll be fun. Small parties are nice.” She noted, between bites of her sandwich.
“I’d invite you and Alex, but I’s thinkin’ you have other plans.” Remy smiled. “And no offense intended, Scott and Emma ain’t comin’.” They weren’t friends. Well, Scott sort of was, but Emma Frost was a trifle intimidating, for a party.
Lorna giggled. “She’s less scary if you just smile and nod, but Scott’s a party pooper. I figure we’ll probably hand out candy and then snuggle and watch movies in our costumes.”
“That’s still a good time.” Remy smiled, sitting back. “I should try to get some relax time with Candy; got a lot comin’ up soon. Did I tell you ‘bout my audition?”
“No, and now you totally need to.” Lorna said with a laugh. “What was it for?”
“For un film with an actress called Natasha Romanova.” Remy grinned, shamefaced. “Met the lady in a bar and she offered me a little part.”
“Oh! I just finished a shawl for her! It was a wedding present from Thor.” Lorna said with a laugh. “She seems pretty nice. Did your audition go well?”
“It’s in a coupl’a days. Kind of excited, but wasn’t too sure I oughta go through with it.” Remy laughed. “Could you see this face on a movie poster?”
“Oh yes. And all over tabloids and stuff like that.” Lorna pointed out with a laugh.
“Putain, I don’t want no photogs on my lawn!” Remy laughed. “Can’t vouch that m’wife won’t set ‘em on fire.”
“Guess you better stick with small parts then.” She teased. “Or build a big fence.”
“And I mean, tell Candy not to set nobody on fire.” Remy said conspiratorially, chuckling. “But nah, Logan said nothing ventured, nothing gained, and I agree.”
“That’s true.” Lorna said with a nod. “Good luck. I’d love to see you on the big screen.”
“Miz Lorna, you one of the first I would tell if it goes through.” Remy tipped an invisible hat. “But I should probably be on my way.” He had to get home and talk to Candy about some of this stuff. “You got anything planned for later?”
“Nope. Just work, then dinner and stargazing with Alex.” She got to her feet and hugged Remy. “Tell Candy I said hi!”
“I will. Glad you an’ yours made it through the crazy, and you take care of that kid.” Remy hugged her back, smiling a little. “He in good hands with you two, c’est vrai.”