Seraph Drabbles

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Murphy's Law

Murphy was an optimist. She fully believed this when she was hit by a water balloon only ten minutes before her first ever job interview. She'd restrained herself from killing the small child and decided it was too late to rush back up the thirty floors to her apartment and change. She'd just have to suck it up and hope for a freak rainstorm on her way.

Jubilee hadn't asked much from life. Just a place to live, some food in her belly and if the situation allowed it, perhaps someone to love as well. She'd been surprised by David, he'd been such a normal guy. There were no hidden agendas, no false face to hide a less then stellar personality. He was just what he was and she loved him so much that she'd wake up from nightmares at 2am in the morning, wondering why he wasn't dead.

She knew it was stupid but her subconscious seemed determine to torture her with every single thing that could take him from her.

Life was not fair, and Murphy had been an optimist. But as long as she could wake up beside David, feel him draw her against him and touch her hair in that way he had. Well, she could live with the dreams.

Now, if only it would rain...

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On The Job

Note from Seraph: I get brief scenes sometimes. They don't really fit anywhere, and while they could possibly turn into plots, sometimes I just like getting them out onto paper, or lj as the case may be.

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Next time she was going to ask for more money. She couldn't believe she'd been convinced to come down here, especially on a public holiday. She was meant to be getting a manicure and a massage from a guy named Sven...okay, so possibly not Sven but he probably would've been blonde, although there was something to be said for redheads as well.

She seriously needed to get away from the mansion more, or date. A date would be good, any date would be good. A guy who didn't make her crawl through sewers at 1am in the morning would also be nice.

"Okay, Frank. How injured are you this time?" Laurie asked, looking around at the abandoned subway tunnel.

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By Request

Author's note: So, I get to work and it's somewhat quiet this morning and I'm feeling rather creative. So, I ask of you all drabble requests. Suggest some characters to me and I'll try to create something interesting. (You can stick to XP if you like, or suggest comic canon type characters.)

Have at it. :)

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Angelo and Kurt

"Did you ever wonder whether God was really listening?"

Kurt looked up with a frown, "Ja, many times. There are always things that we do not understand, tragedies that seem unfair."

Angelo sat down on the pew next to Kurt and looked up at the cross that hung over the altar, it had been some time since he'd been to church. After...after what had happened to Amanda with Selene he'd been angry, and unwilling to forgive a creator who could allow something like that to happen.

Kurt sat in silence for a moment longer, allowing the younger man time with his thoughts, time to speak about whatever it was that was bothering him. He was not a priest, but he would do his best to listen.

"I'm not sure I believe in God anymore," Angelo finally replied.

Laurie and Logan

Whap-tung::

The sound of an arrow hitting its target echoed through the woods and Laurie grinning triumphantly. Right in the middle this time, perfect.

"You're good," Logan said, raising an eyebrow as the student jumped, "But yer spatial awareness is crap. Best work on that, might get ya killed one of these days."

Laurie tried to calm down the frantic beating of heart as she listened to the man, one of her fellow X-Men even. She'd never really talked to Logan before, never having had a reason and somewhat weary of his gruff appearance. She wasn't sure what it was that was different between him and someone like Cain, but he was scary where the bigger man wasn't.

"Do you normally go around scaring students, or am I just special?" she asked acerbically.

"Girl, most students don't want to be an X-man," Logan replied simply, sizing her up and dismissing her just as quickly. Completely wet behind the ears, and a dreamer if her complete lack of awareness was to be taken into account. What the hell was Slim thinking? Might as well just zip her up in a body bag now. Still, it was his turn on the training rotation, time to make the best of it.

Monet

It must have been midnight when Monet finally snapped out of it, her body relaxing back against the couch that some kind soul had arranged her on. Said same person seemed to have placed a blanket over her, and a pillow under her head as well, not that any show of kindness would have registered to her in the state she'd been in.

It was...frightening, even though she'd never admit it. The sheer amount of things that could be done to her, and even though invunerable there was things that could be done that would leave a scar just as painful as any physical injury.

It was really more then could be bourne and if she'd had any ability to defy whatever this was, she would have be shaking her fist at the universe right now. Not that she didn't shake her fist at the universe on a regular basis anyhow, it was afterall a universe that needed a good telling off or it got uppity.

Monet figured that shaking of fist done, mental though it was, she really needed to seek out her younger brother, he was the only one that ever had decent alcohol, afterall.

Jean and Laurie

"Quickly, there's not much time," Jean said, voice steady even through the evident worry clear in her eyes.

They'd brought him in only a moment ago and already she could see the tinge of blue around his lips from the freezing cold water. What had possessed the boy to go skating on the lake before they'd okayed it? No matter now, what was needed was to get his body temperture even again, they could find out the whys later.

Laurie stumbled slightly but managed to keep from knocking over anything important as she brought the blanket to Jean, a new design that Forge had just developed, a new take on an electric blanket that used internal circuits to heat the surface rather then a cord and plug.

Jean surrounded Kyle's body with the blanket and started hooking him up to several monitors, as she motioned for her to come closer. It was better right now that the girl have something to do rather then worrying about her friend incessantly out in the hallway.

"He's going to be okay, Laurie. But I need you to be brave and help me, can you do that?"

Laurie nodded, gaze flicking down to Kyle's form and back up to Jean. "I can."

"Good, now, I need you to help him, use your power to keep his body from shutting down. You know what to do."

Kyle and 'Bad Girl' Laurie

Kyle blinked, giving Laurie a surprised look as she stepped back, "Um, what was that for?"

Laurie smiled, a shadow flashing in her gaze before disappearing as if it had never been. She had been feeling increasingly free of all the things that had stopped her from doing things like this before, it was quite...liberating really.

Kyle for his part, was starting to get just a little worried. It wasn't that he minded being felt up by an attractive girl, far from it in fact. However, the look in Laurie's eyes was just a little too much like that of someone about to commit unspeakable acts and he for one was so not into unspeakable things, acts or otherwise. Especially not ones that had a fare likelihood of leaving him in a lot of pain.

"Um, Laurie. I'm sure you're like, um...I'm just gonna go now. Bye!"

Laurie and Nathan

'Arghmph'

When Scott had asked him to help out with a new training run, he'd wondered what he was getting into. Now he knew, he'd been getting into a whole lot of pain. He made a mental note to gain revenge in some way, he wasn't sure what yet, but there would be revenge.

Laurie poked at the prone body with her foot, wondering if that sort of noise from someone was a good sign or a bad one.

"Mr Dayspring?" she asked, "Are you alive?"

"Uuughmph," he groaned, trying to roll away from the boot that was pressing against the newly acquired bruises.

"Only Mr Summers asked me to make sure you weren't, and well, I think he was afraid Mrs Grey-Summers would kill him if he'd made you hit your head again. You didn't hit your head, did you? Only you're making weird noises."

"I'm fine Laurie, just...just help me up," he said, moving into a sitting position and giving the younger girl a brief smile to show he was fine, or as fine as someone with so many bruises could be.

Kevin and Laurie

He stared at Laurie's arm in horror as she stood there craddling it with her remaining good hand. She was shaking her head at him, tears sliding silently down her face as she moved, stopping him from running.

"It wasn't your fault, Kevin. Please don't run," she said softly, trying to put every trace of forgiveness she could into the words.

Kevin shook his head, backing away from her as she reached for him, his eyes firmly locked on the arm. It had happened again, just the same as the other girl. Why had she touched him, why?

"You don't understand," he said bitterly, none of them did. This just proved it, and all they'd get by him staying was hurt. "Just let me go, just get out of my way."

Forge and Monet

Forge was idly doodling on a piece of graph paper when he sensed the presence of another human being at the door to his lab. Usually Paige just breezed in rather then standing around waiting for someone to notice her grand entrance so the person could only be, he looked up, yep, it was Monet.

She smiled at him, the smile of every used car salesmen ever invented, the ones that actually managed to sell the lemons though, not the other kind. She breezed in, touching various irresplacable things with little regard and then stood before him, hands on hips.

"I have a business proporsition for you, Mr Forge," she said, smile wide.

"No," he replied, giving her a look and going back to doodling. Nothing good could ever come from business with women like Monet.

"But you haven't even heard what I wanted," she protested, going for an artful pout.

"Not on your life, never in a million years, only when hell freezes over," Forge said, repeating each reference slowly as if talking to someone hard of healing.

"Fine, we could have been brilliant you know. Our names in lights, our faces on the front cover of 'The seriously filthy rich'...well, mine could, you're much to ugly. But no, don't worry about it, I'll just have to find another business partner."

Forge watched her stalk out with something akin to bewilderment. Hurricane Monet was never an easy thing to deal with, especially not when in the middle of trying to build a better mousetrap.

Flight Training

Scott tried to unclench his fingers from the arm rests but only managed to loosen his grip slightly, as he watched Marius take a rather liberal interruptation of 'take us up' to mean 'try a barrel roll'. He wondered why he hadn't let Forge train the others to fly but then he remembered that Forge wasn't so good with the flight training.

They'd learnt that after they'd let Laurie go up with him and had come back with a rather green looking and shaken Forge. After that he'd absolutely refused to have anything to do with flight training ever again. He hadn't mentioned much, only the words 'Barn house' and 'The chickens really do stick to the windscreen'. So it fell to Scott, or rather the short straw had fallen to him...okay, the game of paper, sissor, rock. He still thought that Ororo had found some way to cheat, he suspected his lovely wife of colluding with her.

'I so need a drink, I wonder if I could convince Jim to explain to Jean why I've taken up living at Harry's.' Scott pondered and winced at the scream from Laurie as Marius pulled them up over several trees at the last minute.

Julio and Jennie

Julio did not consider what he was doing stalking, instead he thought of it as merely admiring the view, and attempting to get to know his fellow mansion residents better. The fact that said resident happened to have a very pretty college friend had absolutely nothing to do with his sudden interest in following her about.

"Don't look now, but I think we have a stalker," Emily muttered to Jennie, trying to look out of the corner of her eye.

"Don't mind him, we haven't quite trained him well enough yet," Jennie murmured, looking up from her workbook at her friend. "It's all your fault anyhow."

Emily placed a hand against her chest in mock outage, "Moi? Why do you wound me so?"

"You so know what I mean, all that with the ice cubes before," Jennie said, making a note and several corrections as she spoke.

"Well, it's fun to watch your housemates eyes bug out of their head," Emily responded, making a little wave at where Julio hid.

'Curses! Spotted,' Julio thought and retreated from his hiding spot. He'd have to find somewhere else to watch from...not that he was watching them, no, he was merely...studying the terrain.

Jay

The page was blank, almost accusingly so and he wondered when it was that the songs had just stopped coming. Maybe after that last show, the one in the bar where the stage was completely enclosed in chicken wire? That one had been truly...special, and not in the nice way.

He'd made a quick exit from town there, only staying around long enough to collect his fee and to duck a rather well thrown bottle.

'Time to put down the pen, leave it for awhile' he thought, wrapping his wings around himself in a comfort seeking gesture. They were an unsurprisingly warm coat and he'd often kept himself warm by just such a gesture.

Time to get up and get on the road, maybe the next town would be better and he'd find something to write about there.

Dani and Forge

"Hakota, are you ready?" Dani called softly from where she stood beside the flap to the sweat lodge. The man who gave sweat was standing beside her, waiting patiently for his guests to enter and the ceremony to begin.

She knew that Forge didn't really believe in any of this, but she was grateful he had come anyway, grateful for a friend who cared enough to leave aside his own opinions in order to do something important to her. Forge was about to go up against Magneto and the Brotherhood, she wanted him to have all the protection she could give, and this was the first thing she'd thought of.

Forge nodded, taking one last look at the surrounds of the lodge and then turning to follow Dani inside.

Amanda and Zach Garrison

Amanda had been following Zach for awhile now, and he'd been surprisingly easy to follow at that. She had just begun to wonder if he knew she was there when he disappeared into an office building and she had to speed her steps to keep him in sight.

It would appear that he really did work for a legal firm, and wasn't just on their books. A mark in his favour, to be sure.

"You know, if you'd wanted a meeting with me, a call to my secretary would have been much easier," a wry voice spoke from behind her.

Amanda turned, shield slamming into place for a second before disappearing as she realised it was Zach. Now, play it innocent, or not? She didn't think he'd have seen her before, but then he appeared to have known he was being followed.

Horseman

Author's Note: ((Because it's quiet, I give you Laurie as Plague, Horseman of Apocalypse. I blame Matt for implanting the image in my brain a long time ago.))

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"You're cold," a soft voice said, low and delicate, followed by fingers tipping up a chin and running upwards to feel against a forehead. "Could you be sick, do you think?"

Angelo shivered and glared, jerking away from the touch with nary a word to his captor. It wouldn't do any good anyway, they'd learnt that quite quickly, much to Yvette's discomfort. It would appear that having hardened skin was no defence when all you needed to do was breathe.

"Angelo?"

He looked up, and was startled to see those hazel coloured eyes showing...was that guilt? But it was gone in an instant, swallowed by something stronger, more sinister.

"Gotcha," she said with a grin, and reached down to give him what had become known as the 'kiss of death'.

X-Project - Subreality style!

Author's Note: Okay, a little explanation here before I post this little snippet. I got very bored at work today and managed to get ahold of some musk sticks. (A type of Australian candy) So I blame this on sugar entirely. Anyway, I got nostalgic about an old fandom of mine and decided to give xjournal the Subreality treatment. :)

For an explanation of Subreality go here

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Subreality X-journal: The madness never ends.

Kitty Pryde looked up at the Bouncer as he guarded the door and gave him a little wink before walking past. She'd heard about this place several times before but there'd always been something going on in her story and she'd only just had a chance to visit. She waved at Jubilee, who had apparently commandeered a corner booth and was chatting animatedly to Remy. Small snatches of conversation drifted to her as she walked toward them.

"Dude, she like totally wants to turn me evil. I mean, if I'm not getting into some stupid fight with Amanda, I'm whinin' about how no one understands me and how tragic my past is. Dude, all the other me's get to like, be an X-man and fight crime. I just get to go around bein' a complete puttz."

Remy nodded, shuffling through his ever present deck of cards as he tried to keep up with her rapid-fire conversation. It was a brave person that ever tried to make sense of anything Jubilee said.

"'Tite, you think you got it bad. I went from bein' held in the warm bosom of xjournals pretty femmes to seeing Cain first thing in the mornin'. That make any man dread waking up."

Jubilee grinned widely at Kitty as she sat down, pushing a drink over to her. "Hey Kat, find the place okay?"

Kitty nodded, acknowledging Remy before taking a sip of her drink. "Bitching night?" she asked innocently.

Other xjournal characters were wandering in out of the night, having finally figured out that following directions by Jubilee required you to leave your brain at home. Jamie headed over to their table from the door as Jubilee answered Kitty's question.

"Totally. You seen what they've got planned for us this month? Amanda and I were talkin' before about goin' on strike. That'd screw 'em."

Let's just leave them to it, shall we? Oh look! An interesting conversation over in the corner.

"Non, I do not know what you are speaking of. I have never before seen you in my life." Marie-Ange said, trying to extricate herself from a rather amorous looking cat woman. "I am not your 'myredhair', I do not even know what that means, and I would like it if you would take your paws off me, Mademoiselle."

Okay...maybe we don't want to go there. Moving right along...

"DOUG!"

Doug looked up from where he'd been having a rather animated conversation with Douglock, that seemed to consist of ways not to die. It would appear that his universe was one of the few in which he wasn't dead. Which was really rather depressing when you came to think of it. Squinting in the smokiness of the bar, he realised his girlfriend was being accosted by a Furry's wet dream. Being the heroic type, he decided to go step in.

'That cannot end well...Um, how bout we check out what's going on outside, shall we? Has to be safe there...Just remember to duck that flying chair, okay?