Gift Exchange (RP for bestdamnxman)

[shadeof_grey]

OOC: Dated way way back, to Christmas Eve; after the party that sort-of-never really-happened, she finds Logan's gift. I realize that Jean's gifts are going to be late even for New Year's gifts, but pretend with me!Jean had put her Christmas shopping off until. . .well, later than the last minute. She had done New Year's gifts the previous year,

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[bestdamnxman]

Logan looked up at the knock. He'd been reading quietly to himself. He had a reputation for being something less than an intellectual but he actually enjoyed a good book now and then. The mansion was finally quiet and while he was hardly religious...he was still waiting up a bit. Midnight. Christmas. Meant something. Enough to be awake.

"Come on in," he called to Jean, not a telepath himself, he's unaware she'd opened her gift.

[shadeof_grey]

Jean peered, cautiously, around the edge of the door. She wasn't sure why she was being so solicitous of his privacy; he wasn't the kind to respect others' but, then, this was still his room, not theirs, and that distinction seemed important.

She walked toward him, with the chain wrapped around her hand, and the tags pressed into her palm. "You made these for me?" she asked. "They're perfect. They're beautiful. I feel like an asshole."

[bestdamnxman]

"Impatient little thing aren't you?" Logan smirked a little, to cover his honest vulnerability. He'd put a great deal of thought into the gift.

It scared him a bit, really.

Logan sat up straight, looking up into her eyes. He shrugged. "Don't." He didn't know what else to say.

[shadeof_grey]

"Impatient." Jean stopped, a step away from the bed. She put a hand on one hip and cocked her chin at him. "You wouldn't even have knocked on the door. Why you'd already be on the bed, you'd --"

Suddenly, she grinned, moved forward, and dangled the dogtag, letting the metal brush against the bare skin of his bare shoulder. Jean touched her other hand to his chest and leaned forward, giving him a good look at her lowcut top. "Later -- I'll make you sorry for saying that about me. I'll show you I can be -- patient."

She flipped the tags over her hand, then looked down at them, and realized what he probably meant -- that she was impatient for not waiting until Christmas morning for the gift.

"Oh," she said, feeling the color rise to her cheeks. "Never mind?"

[shadeof_grey]

A while later -- a good while later -- well past midnight, by this point, Jean lay cuddled against Logan's warm body.

"So, Mr. Logan. I have a question for you. Two questions. Not counting what you really want for Christmas, which I promise to get to before twelfth night. I have two questions and I'm not sure which one to ask first. Any advice?"

[bestdamnxman]

He considered a moment.

"Ask the one that scares you the most."

[shadeof_grey]

"I guess --" She rubbed the back of her hand up along his arm. Tilting back her head to look in his eyes, she said. "You've been alive a long time. I've always assumed, you know, but I don't actually know -- You've probably had a lot of girlfriends."'

That wasn't the question she was afraid to ask. By the time it came out, it wasn't even exactly a question.

She waited, anyway, to see how he would react.

[bestdamnxman]

Logan smiled down at her. Well, yeah, his eyes said So?

"Not really a question there, Jean."

He shifted his weight, leaned back and looked up at the ceiling.

"You looking for a list? Is that another story request? Watcha at, darlin'?"

[bestdamnxman]

She loves me?

A wide smile broke out over Logan's face. "Mars."

[shadeof_grey]

"Okay. Martian." She kissed his forehead, then pulled back. "On this planet? People watch what we do. Or -- " She sighed. "What I do, okay? It's different for girls. I need for people to respect me, and the more they're whispering about who I'm sleeping with, the harder it is for that to --"

She stared at him.

"What the hell are you smiling about?"

[bestdamnxman]

"Nothin'."

He continued to grin.

"Look, Jeannie, what do you want?"

[shadeof_grey]

"What do I --?" she stopped. She would get to the bottom of that smile later.

She pushed her hair behind her ears and looked at the ceiling. "I want to go to bed with you. And I want to wake up with you. And I want to know what to say to people when they ask what's going on with us. And -- if you have to go away for three weeks or three months, I want to know where you are and that you're coming back. And I want --"

She flicked his arm with her finger, once for every word. "I - want - to - know - what - that -grin - is - about."