Halcyon
3
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Halcyon Chapter Three
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…
think. Blah.
Greywolf are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting.
here. Damn.
Thank you so much!
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“Do what
now?”
“I think it’s
kind of sweet,” Amara repeated, one brow arching delicately over a dark, almond
shaped eye. “No matter what a woman
says, she likes the idea of her male partner being strong enough to protect her,
take care of her...title="">
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your significant other isn’t a turn on.”
She paused and gave Lance a significant glance.
he understood and would not try to push the issue. Amara glanced aside at Mark,
halfway across the library with his cart of books, his black eye still purple
and blue and verging on angry. “Case in
point.”
Lance
frowned, shoving a particularly thick tome into it’s spot on the shelves.
conscripted virtually everyone in the mansion into a shift or, in Lance’s case,
three shifts, of work. “I don’t think
that counts… he didn’t get beat up. He
wasn’t himself.”
had made their way through the student body of the Institute, ranging from near
the truth (Mark and Mystique had a confrontation in the library) to the near
fantastic (Mark had attacked Mystique with some super secret mutant powers and
almost killed her; Logan had to save her as well as Jubilee, Jean, Kitty and
Rogue when Mark went berserk) and everything in between.
truth had come from Jubilee. She swore
she could never look at either instructor the same way again but promised there
had not been any nudity involved.
Somehow, Lance doubted that. “Anyway,
I thought you were all about women being stronger than men and taking care of
themselves.”
“I didn’t
say we were stronger than men,” she shrugged, flipping open the cover to _Love
In The Time Of Choleraname="_ftnref2" title="">
and wincing. “We are stronger,
emotionally and physically and spiritually, than men give us credit for.
back onto the shelf and turned away from Lance, wandering to the other side of
the library and leaving him alone with a waist-high stack of books.
“Dude,” Scott’s
voice came from the other side of the shelves where he was doing his share of
the work, “she’s a flat leaver,”
“I’m
cutting you off the Kevin Smith movies,” Lance sighed.
to take care of them?” He shoved a copy
of the Physician’s Desk Reference into the shelves next to Pepys’ _Diary of a
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“When you
say it that way,” Scott said with a hint of amusement, “it sounds like you mean
you’re going to take her out to the Meadowlandshref="#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title="">
and no one will ever see her again.” He
pushed aside two or three books so he could peer through the shelves at
Lance. “Don’t worry about it.
happy with you as you are. Lord knows
that if she wanted you to change, she’d tell you so!”
“I didn’t
say I was going to change for her,” Lance grumbled, pushing a worn copy of Pare’s
_Apologie and Treatise _ back onto the shelf.href="#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title="">
added, mostly to himself. Amara was
across the library, talking to Kitty in hushed tones broken by the occasional
giggle and glance his way. “Damn it, I
bet they’re talking about me!”
“Don’t kid
yourself,” Scott opined. “They’re
probably just laughing about Todd the Pirate and Rogue the Wench.”
features. “I wonder if he had an eye
patch…”
Lance
snorted. “That’d make it worse, I think…”
she didn’t really kick his ass. Mark’s
got beat down by two women in two weeks…”
“I was not,”
Mark’s clear voice carried the length of the shelves without effort, “beat
down, as you put it.” He did not look at
the two youths but they had the distinct feeling that now would be a good time
to take their fifteen minute break. Scott
motioned for Lance to join him and they both met at the end of the shelving
unit, heading out into the hall but unspoken agreement.
“You know,
a few years ago, I’d have probably tried to choke you about now,” Lance mused
idly, leaning against the wood paneled wall across from Scott.
“Will
wonders never cease,” Scott replied, furrowing above his ruby colored
lenses. “So you want to prove your
manhood to Amara by throttling me? I’ll
give you ten seconds but then I’ll have to kill you.”
amusement. “Look, I know what you’re
thinking. We’ve all thought it at least
once, that you want to prove to your woman that you’re some big strong he-man…”
“Wow, um, I
don’t know what to say… There’s so many things I can mock in that sentence.”
fringe out of his eyes. “I don’t NEED to
prove anything to Amara!”
“Yeah,
cause she’s got you by the short and curlies,” Scott snorted.
“What look?”
Lance shifted his gaze away from Scott to some point on the floor.
“The look
that says you’re about to do something stupid.”
He raised a brow. “You’re going
to try to prove your manhood, aren’t you?”
He heaved a
sigh, rolling his eyes heavenward. “Yeah,
yeah I am.”
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Some people associate the area with
organized crime dumping sites *ahem *
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