Mirror, Mirror

Mirror Mirror Chapter Fourteen
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> Disclaimers Apply
>
> A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE
> ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…The box should be there
> in a week! Yay! J Internutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena, and Greywolf
> are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. J ProPhile: Done and
> sent (in a minute). Morgan:* echo * Hello? Readers/Reviewers: Thanks
> TONS for reading/reviewing as you can! I’m going to be adding more to
> long-on-hold stories soon so…wheee for that, lol. And to those who
> celebrate the holidays, Happy Ramadan and have a meaningful Yom Kippur.
>
> Remy rubbed the bridge of his nose, a sure sign of incipient
> agitation. Jubilee did not seem to notice, however, and kept on
> talking. “So I was thinking, if you need help, we’re out for fall
> break in a week and a half. I have seven or eight days before I need
> to be back here and well… not like I have much family to go to, you
> know?” she shrugged, her chatter winding down to a near breathless
> shrug and smile. She sat down on the edge of her bed, bouncing
> slightly and giving him an expectant look.
>
> “I’m fine, how are you?” Remy muttered, looking around for a place to
> sit before deciding on the hassock at the end of her bed. “Jubilation,
> you been chatterin’ a mile a minute since I come in here. You ain’t
> even ask me why I’m sneakin’ in instead of jus’ coming in the front
> door.” He raised a brow at her, watching her facial expression shift
> from pleased to blank to verging on upset. “You tryin’ to avoid the
> hard parts, eh?” he smiled, leaning forward with his hands clasped,
> dangling between his knees. “Je comprend.”[1] <#_ftn1>
>
> “What hard part?” Jubilee sighed, falling back onto her bed and
> glaring at the ceiling. “You come in, I’m happy to see you, we talk.
> Or I talk and you stare at me.” She felt an uncomfortable roiling in
> her stomach, like hot acid bubbling up. She knew this was not going to
> go well. The marks on her neck were faded but she was sure his keen
> eyes could see them. Surely, she thought, he wouldn’t know it had been
> three times with Kurt. Once in the garden, the quick and wordless
> encounter in the library and then just earlier that day. Oh gods, she
> panicked silently, can he smell it on me? She sat up and gave the
> brooding Cajun a nonchalant shrug. “Is there something I should find
> difficult?”
>
> He tapped his foot impatiently, marshalling his thoughts. Deciding on
> a different tact, he spread his hands in a ‘whatever’ gesture. “I
> ain’t had a good lead on Belle in a while,” he admitted. “Can’t go
> back home,” he added, almost in a mutter. A flicker of pain moved
> across his eyes and he turned his face away from her while he gathered
> his emotions back into order. “I been lookin’ round where she were
> last seen, upstate here an’ in Maine. Lots of Cajuns in Maine, ya
> know.”[2] <#_ftn2>
>
> Jubilee tilted her head to one side and frowned. “Are the guilds
> involved?” She slid from the bed and took a few tentative steps
> towards him, stopping out of arm’s reach. It would be easy, she
> thought, to go to him and fall literally into his arms, to let her
> feelings for him take over and go for a tumble in her bed, sweaty and
> needful. It would be something that her encounters with Kurt were not;
> it would be fulfilling more than a physical need. She folded her hands
> behind her back and looked at a spot just past his shoulder, unable to
> meet his eyes without the familiar weak-kneed feeling coming over her.
> “Maybe this is all just a ruse to draw you out, you know? Maybe Belle
> is fine and…” she trailed off, aware of the sudden change in his mood.
> “Or not.”
>
> “Belle would do lots of things mais she wouldn’t do this. If she were
> goin’ to kill me… if any of her ilk were goin’ to kill me, they’d do
> it an’ have done. It won’t be no big an’ elaborate plot. It just be a
> killin’.” He mimed a gun pointed at his head as he spoke, pulling an
> imaginary trigger and fixing Jubilee with a hard glare. “Assassins
> don’t play games, chere.”
>
> Jubilee nodded slowly, retreating to her spot on the bed. “Why’d you
> come, Remy? That’s what you wanted me to ask in the first place.” She
> was suddenly very tired, body and soul. She wanted whatever was
> waiting at the end of the tunnel to hurry up and run her over. She was
> tired of waiting.
>
> “Cause of you, p’tite,” he sighed, sliding from his seat and onto his
> knees, bringing himself closer to her by his actions. “I missed you. I
> know you ain’t happy avec moi mais…” He rubbed half-gloved fingers
> over his eyes and sighed. “I hate believin’ you to be mad at me,
> Jubilation. ‘specially when I don’t know why. I give you more space,
> more time, mais jus’ don’t act like I’m doin’ somethin’ wrong by
> lovin’ you.”
>
> Jubilee felt scared and excited at the same time. Remy was kneeling
> there, opening his heart to her again, and her own leapt in her chest.
> She had missed him, wanted him, but she could look around her at her
> friends and see that she was too young to cement herself to one
> person. All she had to do was think of Kurt and Kitty to know for sure
> that she was too young for a life long commitment just then. “Remy, I
> love you. I love you more than anyone I know…”
>
> “I been doin’ a lot o’ thinkin’,” he cut her off, laying his hands on
> her knees. “I know I weren’t treatin’ you the best way. I wanted a
> lover an’ a companion mais I turn ‘round an’ treat you like you ain’t
> either.” He squeezed her legs slightly and sighed again. “I jus’ want
> you to know I ain’t givin’ up on us mais I want you to take time an’
> see what you want first.”
>
> Jubilee could only stare for a long moment as silence stretched
> between them. Finally, she leaned forward and whispered against his
> cheek, “Remy, I need to tell you something…”
>
> A/N Next chapter, Where’s Incubus anyway?
>
>
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> [1] <#_ftnref1> I understand
>
> [2] <#_ftnref2> Really! There are! During the departure from Canada
> back in the day, a glob of Acadians ended up in Maine and the rest
> came down to Louisiana.