Last Night

Jul 26, 2004 23:24

Steph rolled over in her sleep, her long orange hair falling around her shoulders and covering her eyes, though it was so dark there was no point in opening them anyway. The blankets seemed to hold no warmth and the air outside was freezing, snow drifted around outside.

It wasn't just the cold that was keeping her awake either, Logan had been away for three months somewhere near Tokyo, following a lead on his past, and even with his constant e-mails and phone calls it seemed like Steph was forgetting the way he talked and moved confidently around the house on the alert for anything that may be a threat to his home or family, or made sure she was alright with everything, and staying out of his beer at the same time, or the way he'd laugh and tell her to quit acting like a kid all the time.

Steph missed her father more than anything.

"This is nuts," Steph grumbled at the ceiling, looking over at the photo of her family, which sat on her night stand. It was sunny in the picture, now glowing eerily because of the little lightbulbs on the frame, but the occupants were more humorous to look at. Only Hank was attempting to look at the camera, but was falling to one side with Steph falling backwards on him, head thrown back in laughter because Rogue was in the middle of pushing her, while Logan was turned to stop Rogue with one hand, the other holding a flailing Ruhko, who was also laughing. Everyone was smiling in the snapshot of a picnic in late summer, it was one of Steph's favorites.

Sighing even as she shuddered again the live Steph sat up, pulled on a bathrobe, and silently made her way past Theresa's bed and out the door. True, it was almost midnight, the nineteen year-old thought to herself, but surely he'd still be up, and she was too lonely right now to stay alone.

Steph suddenly felt nervous as she approached Hank's door, but made up for it by breaking into a run and flying through the door, landing on Hank's bed in a flash of orange hair and yellow robe. Hank had been sitting against his headboard on top of his blankets, in leggings and a night shirt, reading in the light of the one lamp by his bed, his glasses perched on the end of his blue nose.

"Bugger!" Steph cried as she bounced off the bed and hit the headboard, which momentarily stunned her.

"Ah!" Hank said, surprised he jumped slightly and dropped his book, looking over at Steph as she fell over backwards on her back.

"Wow," she said to the ceiling. "That hurt." Hank smiled as he sat back up.

"Are you alright, sweet Stephanie?" he asked. Steph blinked.

"More or less," she replied, making Hank chuckle.

"Good," he said. "Then you can kindly tell me what you are doing, flying through my door and attacking my wall in the middle of the night?" Steph sat up, leaning back on the headboard with her knees drawn up.

"I couldn't sleep, n' dad's been quiet for more than a few days, and Rogue n' Theresa'd kill me if I woke 'em up," she said. "But you're always up." Hank put the book on his nightstand and crossed his arms, still smiling.

"Then stay and talk," he said. "I always enjoy your company."

"Ya didn't have a choice," Steph smiled. "I woulda stayed if ya tried t' throw me out."

"Which I didn't and won't," Hank chuckled. "I know the attempt would be fruitless."

"Yup," Steph grunted as she crawled up and leaned on him. "So, my fuzzy blue teddy bear, whatcha readin'?"

"Fuzzy blue teddy bear," Hank repeated, laughing. "And I thought I had heard all of the jests."

"Creative name-creator," Steph said, pointing at herself. "And it's better than Sully, 'cause ya couldn't scare a kid if ya tried, your too lovable n' sweet n' cute."

"Thank you, I think," Hank laughed. Then he looked over at the book. "I was reading a collection of essays recently published about the genetic coding of mutants, what causes our mutations."

"With you it wasn't a gene, it was a Twinkie," Steph pointed out. Hank smiled.

"Fair enough, but my original mutation was caused by the X gene. It is quite fascinating reading the theories and proof about the gene and how it come about," he replied.

"N' they still don't know if there's a way to reverse it?" Steph asked. Hank shook his head.

"No, but if there were, would you want to revert to being a normal human once again? I believe it would be hard for you to quit flying," he said. Steph looked shocked.

"Not for me," she said. "I meant for th' tons a kids n' adults that don't wanna be mutants, or can't control 'em, they'd want the 'cure' badly." Hank nodded and put an arm around Steph, pausing for a moment.

"You miss him," he said gently. Steph nodded, slightly annoyed Hank had brought up why she was here again.

"How could ya tell?" she asked, snuggling against him. Hank smiled.

"You started speaking quickly and it's a proven fact that you have no interest in genealogy whatsoever," he said.

"Alright, ya caught me," Steph grumbled. "Ya coulda pretended though."

"Do you want to talk about it, my brave warrior?" Hank asked.

"No," said Steph, shaking her head. "I wanna say that dad's being an ass stayin' away so long and not even calling, and then I want to forget it and get some sleep."

"Fine," Hank said, laughing softly. Steph took a deep breath.

"Dad's being an ass staying away so long and not even calling. G'night teddy bear."

"Good night, sweet Stephanie," Hank laughed as Steph closed her eyes and finally drifted off.
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