I’m Sure I Used To Hold Your Hand; [log -Jane Worth, Louisa Worth-Canns]
He hadn’t exactly planned to buy her anything, but then he’d passed the shop and found it impossible to resist. She’d get a kick out of it and if the two of them got the time then a small, harmless sibling rivalry would be fun.
Two hours ago, they’d agreed to meet up for lunch in the mess, in true Lou style, she was late.
It wasn’t that she’d meant to be. She’d been on time up until she’d met Pyro on her way there.
It had been interesting, and she felt bad for hurting his already damaged shoulder. So when she finally made it to the mess hall, twenty three minutes late, she wasn’t surprised to find that Jane had got her lunch and a seat for them.
“Hey, hi, sorry. I know I’m late.” She wouldn’t offer excuses; she figured out a while ago that Jane hated them. He’d just accept that she was late and they’d have lunch.
Jane just smiled softly, forever amused at her antics. “Yeah, but I’m used to it.” She was his baby sister, and it would always be cute to him just how she was never on time for anything.
“I got you a chicken sandwich,” tentatively, he’d picked that. “You do still like chicken, right?” Too long away from them, too long not having them around for him to see the changes, to know just what was going on with them. Louisa was good about writing letters; she loved writing to him, even if he couldn’t write her back.
He kept every single one of her letters.
It was Lou’s turn to laugh. “Yeah, chicken’s good.” During the time she’d spent living with Jane she’d gone through a few phases. One of them was the trick of suddenly not liking certain foods.
Jane, of course, had been patient as ever with her. More so than she probably deserved.
“How was your trip to the city?”
He’d never really minded how awkward she’d gotten; Jane was a lot like their grandpa, level headed and laid back. At least about the trivial things, like what his baby sister refused to eat for dinner.
“It was good, yeah.” Jane nodded, “Had a look around the town, shopped a bit, grabbed a bite with Des.” It was nothing special but it felt like the equivalent of a month’s shore leave after a year of deployment. “It was a good day.”
Taking a drink, he pointed to that bag sitting beside her food. “I bought you something too.”
Louisa’s face broke into a grin. She was a typical woman, on who just loved getting little presents. “Aw, Jane.”
Everything else was neglected as she opened up the bag, Lou felt Jane watching her and it only made her grin harder and laugh louder when she saw it. “You total dork.” It was said with a smile, and he’d hear the amusement in her voice. Pulling out the pack of cherry whips, which had always been her favourite candy, Lou placed the rubix cube on the table.
“Is this so I let up on you about how dorky it is that you still haven’t finished yours?”
“Hey, I have very little down time, usually. I can hardly be blamed.” Of course, the fact that Alec occasionally screwed it up did count too.
“Besides, you know you love it.” Jane was sure that it wouldn’t even take a week for Lou to grow addicted to the game.
Even if she did call it dorky, she loved that Jane had bothered to get her anything. “Well, maybe a little.” Because it was just classic Jane.
“So, come on,” Lou put her gifts back in the bag, still smiling and picking up her sandwich. “You and Des,” she had an expectant look on her face, “hit me with it.” Lou had figured that the pair were something, possibly not an item -Jane was strict on regulations, but there was definitely something.
“What about us?” Not that Jane didn’t fully understand what Lou was talking about. He just wasn’t entirely sure himself. He liked Des, he liked her a lot. But there were those regulations, and fraternisation within the forces was always a big no-no. Not exactly discharge material, but not exactly career saving stuff.
“We’re friends, we hang out, she can stop me from impaling someone when I sneeze.” Of course, those were bonuses to why he really liked spending time with her. She was funny; made him stop worrying about things, got him to stop thinking too much and thought his games weren’t completely stupid. There weren’t any truly awkward silences between them and Des understood him better than most. Cliché maybe, but it was true.
“Whatever you say,” Lou just rolled her eyes, taking a bite of her sandwich. She’d seen Jane with a few of his girlfriends over the years; she’d seen Fraser and Alec with a lot of theirs. Jane was never like this with ‘friends’ that he had. He didn’t do the dorky, cute sort of thing. He was the tough guy sort of guy.
“If it helps, from a girl point of view, she totally digs you.” Louisa offered, completely sure that he did care, and that he did like her and that whatever the hell the issue was, it wouldn’t hold out. “I like her.” Lou offered it with a shrug. If Lou liked Des, Mom would like Des, and if Mom liked Des then that was her.
“Well, that’s nice and all, but we’re just friends.” Friends who, on occasion happened to appear, outwardly, at least, as if they were so much more than that. No doubt.
To Jane, it didn’t feel like they had boundaries, and Des didn’t seem to rightly care fore them much anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal. Did it matter to him that Lou liked her? Yes, it did. But only because they were friends. Right. Just that.
He was pretty shit at keeping things from his sister. “Besides, regulations. They’re meant to be followed.”
Louisa rolled her eyes. Jane and his stupid regulations. Some of them, sure. But come on, out here, in the backass of nowhere. “You know there are a few of the others out there fucking, right? Rictor and that loon, Martini. They’re practically like rabbits!” And Lou had witnessed that once and nearly run screaming. But instead just turned around and walked away quietly. “And Creed’s doing the blond chick. And fuck knows who else is boning who.”
Louisa wasn’t interested in the hormonal couplings of a bunch of guys and girls in the camp. She didn’t care one wit about them. Jane, she did care about. “Stryker’s not going to shoot you for dating her. If you wanted to. You know. It’s not really like he can do much to you anyway.”
Not because Jane was a mutant, but really, he’d been stuck out here because there was no where else to put him. The only other way they’d get him out was honourable discharge. Because anything less could be contented as racism or some shit against mutants. “What the hell do you have to lose?”
Jane just stared at her. Maybe she had a point, or two. But right then it wasn’t what he needed to think on. He did like Des, a lot, but there were regulations to follow and even out here, on this non-existent team, in the middle of Russia, he had to follow them.
“Shut up, and eat your sandwich.” Jane muttered. He didn’t talk about any of this crap with any of his family. His mother was too ‘follow your heart’ on these subjects, Lou was too pushy, and he didn’t do ‘feelings’ with his brothers.
So he’d wait it out and see. It wouldn’t be fair on Desdemona to string her along, and hopefully Lou would keep her mouth shut. Jane just needed to think.
“You are such an idiot.” Lou threw back, shaking her head and eating. “But fine, whatever. I’ll just reserve my right to say I told you so right now. Okay.” And Lou would mention the subject later, of course. Things didn’t lie with Louisa, not at all.
But she’d shut it for now.