The Last Supper [Paige, Bobby]

[Iceman]

Bobby looked across the table at Paige when he didn't think she was looking. She looked beautiful, as always. But...she hadn't said anything for a few minutes. It had happened a few times that night. Most of the time, they'd been fine. They'd laughed and talked like they were friends who had known each other forever. But it was the times when they'd tried to act like a couple - hold hands, or enjoy the sunset from Central Park - that things had grown awkward.

Bobby swallowed his mouthful of water and set down his glass. "So, um...Want to get desert?" he asked, assuming she was done since she'd put down her fork minutes before and stared at it since.

"You know? I'm not actually into dessert tonight I don't think." She looked apologetic, but smiled. "PLEASE though, get it if you want it. I'm just feeling strangely full." She leaned forward on her elbows, rubbing her hands along her arms.

"So you... haven't heard from Trask's people at all? You're really off the hook then." She swallowed hard, watching him with an odd sort of eagerness. And yet here she sat, wanting to cry, and throw her arms around him, and apologize for things she couldn't really define.

She loved Bobby. A lot. But it came off far closer to how she felt for her brother Sam than... anything else.

"Yeah. Hopefully," Bobby said, glad for a topic to focus on. "I mean, it might turn out they need me down the line. I just hope..." Bobby paused; he hadn't voiced this concern to anyone yet. "I just hope she doesn't get to them." Bobby looked up from the tablecloth to Paige, knowing that she would know what he meant. If Emma Frost decided to turn the blame back onto Bobby by fiddling with the minds of Trask and his men in black, Bobby could easily find himself back under arrest, or worse.

A pause. "I'm full," he decided, eyeing his plate.

Another pause, but this one didn't seem awkward to Bobby because he was caught up in his thoughts. He'd been shushing them throughout the evening, but they were getting more and more persistent. He'd just remembered the day they'd gone ice skating after eating a fancy dinner like this one. When their relationship had been new, and at every turn they'd been finding more and more about each other that they liked. And then he'd had the thought: 'It's not going to be like that today.'

And it stopped him in his tracks. Why not? What was different? He knew things had changed, but he didn't know when or why. He looked up at Paige, just watching her for a few moments, before he spoke up. "Is this going to last forever? This...weirdness?" There was no accusation to his tone, because it was no one's fault. They'd both felt the effects of the odd change, and he had seen it in her eyes a few times in the last couple of days that it made her uncomfortable as well. "Or do you think it's just...cause I was gone and...I came back...?" He trailed off unsuredly, already kicking himself for bringing it up and secondly, for doing it so...inadequately. But he didn't know what to say.

Paige looked guilty, but kept her eyes on his- until that twisting feeling in her chest returned and she looked down with a sigh.

“I don’t know Bobby honey…” she said softly. “I’m confused about everything. Things don’t feel the same, do they.”

She looked back up at him, hoping that it was clear in her tone and on her face that it bothered her. A lot. She had wanted this to work, so badly. But it just seemed to be.

Bobby nodded; he couldn’t deny that her statement was true. “Does it seem like…when we’re just messing around and having fun, we’re fine, but when things should be, you know…mushy…it’s like we’re on a blind date?”

Bobby leaned forward, resting his arms on the table. “Are you mad at me? Cause I’m not mad at you at all.” She didn’t look mad. She looked incredibly sad. He had a feeling that she was in the same boat he was.

Paige leaned forward too, and before she could help it, her eyes were tearing up. It distracted her from what she was about to say and she picked up her napkin, dabbing at her eyes.

“Oh dammit.” She laughed softly, but got choked up.

“Yeah. Yeah it’s exactly like that. I don’t know what to do… I love spending time with you…” She put her hands on the table and looked at him. “I adore you, Bobby.” She looked at him for a long drawn out moment, then shook her head, looking down.

“I just wish I could make it like it was.”

[Iceman]

“No—sweetheart—don’t cry,” Bobby said consolingly, reaching across the table and touching her arm. “It’s not your fault. I was gone for two weeks, and we didn’t know each other that well. You know how in relationships, it’s always all fun for a while? That’s what we had before I left. And then I was gone, and…things got so complicated.”

“When we talked the other day, we said we’d just…you know, take things slow. Well, we’re taking it slow, alright,” he pointed out, managing a small smile in hopes that his words would coerce her to feel a little bit better as well. “But you’ve got to do what you want. Don’t beat yourself up because you don’t feel the same as you did. I’m not the same as I was before. I mean, in a lot of ways I am, but some things have changed even just from those two weeks.” He didn’t want to break up, and he had more things to say, but first and foremost, he’d wanted to comfort her.

Bobby stopped, his eyes never moving their constant gaze from her face, his expression somber. “I love you. But that love doesn’t just mean the dating, holding hands, kissing kind of love. I love you…when we’re joking around. When we’re talking, and you get so excited about something…” Bobby trailed off, a small smile dancing on his lips at the pictures of times she’d done that. But inside his mind, he finished the thought. ’…and your accent comes out and you sound so cute.’

He still did love her in ‘the dating, holding hands, kissing’ kind of way. That wasn’t gone. It had just changed. Mutated slightly. And they of all people knew that mutation was not a bad thing. But still, he felt a pang to his heart at the unfair mix of emotions he was feeling right then, that was pulling him to different decisions and different things to say.

“Would it help if we…maybe took it even easier for a while? So you can think things out? Because, honestly…it wouldn’t change things much other than take out the awkwardness,” he pointed out helpfully.

Paige considered it, her heart pulled in a dozen directions. “I’m not sure if we can get much ‘easier’ than we already are,” she laughed sadly, reaching to take his hand and squeeze it.

“Bobby, I…” she took a drink of water. How was she going to tell him this?

By just doing so, she decided, and took a deep breath. “Here it is Bobby. I… am still…” she laughed again, nervously. “Very attracted to you. And… I love you, I care about you. I just don’t think…” She held his hand tighter and winced. “I don’t think we… work. As a couple.”

She held her breath.

It had pretty much been what Bobby had been thinking, only in kinder terms. He’d much rather think of it as ‘taking a break’ or ‘taking a while to figure things out’ than the way she’d put it. She was right, but…it just seemed so final.

Bobby’s eyes dropped to somewhere past her right arm. It was clearly hard to swallow, even though he agreed with the statement. But he was surprised to find that, while it was a somber and regretful feeling inside of him, he wasn’t as sad as he’d have thought he would be if he’d tried to imagine the situation a week or two weeks ago. His sorrow certainly wasn’t as strong as the joy he’d had because of Paige at times, but maybe that was one good thing about the slow drift away from romance that they’d experienced. It was a soft landing, a gentle letdown.

“You’re right,” he said finally, with a slight nod. He didn’t want to believe that it was true, but it was. “Maybe…if things had happened differently…Another time, another situation. But …” Bobby trailed off, satisfied to nod again. “As long as things will be cool between us,” he said, his eyes turning to hers and giving her a private kind of look, as though the restaurant around them had frozen in time for a moment. A look that said how earnestly he wanted them to retain their friendship.

[Iceman]

Paige looked at him, tears standing in her eyes. This was obviously hard for her. “Oh Bobby. I was so afraid…” she took her and from his and wiped her eyes again. “I was afraid you’d hate me forever.” She sniffled, then coughed lightly, trying to calm herself down.

“I just… gah.” Paige sighed. “I wanted… this. I really did. But I think we make better friends. I don’t want to lose you in my life Bobby, just because we started out lovers and it didn’t work out. That would be pretty stupid of us, don’t you think?” Her tone was imploring. She was still afraid he’d be angry with her… for something.

It pained Bobby to see Paige so distraught. It served to make him put his own feelings on hold in order to comfort her, as had always been and would always be his nature. “I’d never hate you over this,” he said, his brow furrowing for a moment, surprised that she would think that.

The waitress brought the check, and Bobby handed her his credit card. When she was gone from the table, he looked back to Paige.

His eyes flitted back and forth between hers, watching for a sign to see if her emotions would begin to turn for the better. “C’mon, give me more credit than that,” he said, a teasing tone creeping into his voice, a smirk gathering his will and moving the edges of his mouth just noticeably.

“I think that we’d be idiots to let this bother us forever,” he agreed with her, sounding more diplomatic than he felt. “We live together. It’d be miserable,” he pointed out.

“Just…chin up, right?” he said, his hand reaching across and tapping under her chin just lightly. “This is a good thing, not the end of the world, remember?” A pause, and then he made his first real attempt to bring her spirits up again. He glanced around, ducking his head down and leaning toward her even more over the table. “Or people will start to think I’m, like…abusing you or something,” he whispered, mock embarrassment on his face.

Paige laughed, wiping her face, then chuckling again. “I’m so glad you understand. I’m- sorry, I’m crying. It’s been one hell of a month for both of us, hasn’t it?”

She stopped crying, and bit her lip, looking at him. “You’re going to be alright… right? I mean… I don’t want you to shut yourself off from me. We’re friends because it WORKS, right?”

Bobby nodded to reassure her. He hadn’t known her to worry like this before. “Everything is going to be fine,” he said as the waitress passed and returned his credit card. He slipped it into his wallet and then leaned to the side, sliding his wallet back into his pocket. “It’s worked the past few days, hasn’t it?” he pointed out, settling in his seat again, but ready to go.

“So…You know, I think we should go back to the school,” he started in a thoughtful tone. “And we can find Warren and grab some other people who want to play – maybe that Paul-John guy – and play some Ultimate Frisbee or something. Maybe go to the disco roller skating place, Jubes loves it…” He looked to Paige to gauge her reaction to the idea. He felt that the easiest way to shift into the 'just friends' thing was to hang out in a big group of friends.

[Iceman]

Paige nodded, smiling softly. He certainly was taking it better than she assumed he would. But something rang wrong. She had the impression she’d hurt him, and he wasn’t going to let her know.

Well. She couldn’t change that. Hopefully in the coming days, things would work themselves out for the best. Guess that left a long comforting hug out of the question.

Standing, she smiled a little more. “Sure. Let’s give that a shot.” She almost reached out to touch his arm or take his hand, but thought better of it. Why was that affection coming out now that they had agreed not to date?

Bobby stood and walked with her to the door. He held it open for her, which he probably would have done for any of his female friends, and they continued to the restaurant’s parking lot. Westchester was nowhere near the size of New York City, and parking spots were much easier to come by.

“Oh, yeah. Hey, Warren’s going to the premiere of ‘This Heart Still Beats’. We met Alison Blaire in New York. And there’s no way I’m going without a date, so do you want to go with me?” He hoped that things were really going to be okay, and that she wouldn’t feel weird about going together when they weren’t dating.

Paige smiled more genuinely, walking out to the parking lot with him. It was strange, but it was good. “You still would want me to come with you?” She sounded touched. “Oh hon of course, I’d love to go.”

She got into the car, and checked her makeup in the vanity mirror, waiting for him to get in. When he sat down and buckled his seatbelt, she relaxed against her seat.

“So this Alison girl… things are kind of looking up for Warren, aren’t they? He hasn’t really talked about it much, but you know how casual he can be about that kind of thing.”

Bobby was glad when Paige accepted his offer. He got into the car, put the keys in the ignition and started it up. “Yeah, in fact, he’s seeing her today, I think,” he said as he put the car in reverse. “I don’t know if he wants to get serious, though he’d be an idiot not to. I mean, a celebrity? That’s big, even for him.”

“He’s going to be in her next video, he told me. And I guess he’s flying into the premiere—Alison’s really going all out to make mutants look good. I heard the movie is really good at showing the hatred and stuff.” Bobby pulled the car out of the parking space and put it into drive, starting down the row. “Do you need to get a dress?” he asked, unsure of how the whole female side of the fancy-evening thing went except that it was obviously much more stressful than the guys’.

“Warren mentioned hoping he’d get some publicity out of going to the premiere- I think he should become a model. I mean he doesn’t have to worry about the money, and he’s amazing looking with those big wings, you know?” She looked aside at him. “Say, have you been contacted for any more interviews? Not sure if you had anything waiting for you when you got back. Going to the premiere will be really big for you I’m sure. Your face is well known. Are you okay with that?”

Paige answered before he had a chance to. “Oh, I… yeah, I’ll find one.” She smiled.

Bobby mulled over the thoughts of more interviews. “I haven’t really thought about it since I got back,” he said honestly. “I figured I’d be kind of a black sheep after the trial, but I guess they really kept it quiet. I guess…If I get any offers, then yeah. It’s fun.”

He looked across at Paige. “Why not you? Oh, wait…If we put billboards of you up, then men will stop liking human women because they pale in comparison to mutant women, and then the human race will stop growing altogether, and it’ll be seen as a terrorist ploy to make it so mutants can dominate the earth…” Bobby trailed off, managing to seem completely serious until the silence that followed directly after, in which he looked out his window and chuckled.

“But really. What if we did a thing, the three of us? Maybe some others, too – Kitty or someone. We don’t look scary; it’d be really good for mutants in general. If people stopped picturing people like Juggernaut or Magneto when they pictured mutants, then things would start getting better.”

[Iceman]

Paige laughed. “Yeah, yeah.” She pushed his knee playfully.

“Me? You know I hadn’t really thought of it. I’m not even an official X-Man yet.” She looked out the window, considering it for a while. Would she want to be famous? “Mostly, I want to help people. I think if I could help people by being out in the public eye as a mutant and as an X-Man… yeah, I’d do it. But being an X-Man is really my priority.”

At least it had been. The last month of her life had gotten her so sidetracked she’d nearly forgotten why she came to the school. It was one of the biggest reasons she felt she had to break things off with Bobby. She had to get her head on straight- and fast.

“Well, of course. It’ll only ever be second to anything we can do defense-wise. But, you know, unless the Brotherhood decides to strike again, which I can’t see them doing unless they’re going to go for a governmental building—we’re going to have to get word out another way. And I guess if it means having hordes of female fans screaming my name…I can endure it. For the PR.” Bobby gave a long-suffering sigh before remembering her comment on not being an official X-Man yet, and thereby remembering some other news he’d forgotten to tell her.

“Oh yeah! And yesterday, I talked to Storm, and she told me she wants me to be in charge of you training X-Men!” Bobby said, clearly excited of the position. “Which I believe means that you answer to me now,” he continued teasingly, glancing over at her with a grin.

Paige looked aside at him with a grin, and knew that things were going to be just fine. “Yeah, well don’t let it go to your head, boss-man!” She laughed.

“That’s very cool Bobby, I’m proud of you. She must really trust you. I guess I’m just anxious to see action… but then I know it’s better if I never do. I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better suited for the Army.”

“You would have kicked butt in the army, but they wouldn’t have let you use your powers,” Bobby said. “I don’t know why they don’t just make a mutant Special Forces group. Like, the X-Gene Berets or something. Or better yet, just make the X-Men an officially recognized group. Did you know they still don’t say one way or the other whether or not we exist?

Bobby suddenly remembered the banquet. How had he forgotten to remember so many things?! He could have asked Paige while they were still dating. But…then breaking up would have made it necessary to ask again to clarify. Maybe it was just better to do it once. “So, um…Yeah, and the banquet should be good publicity, too,” he said, at the very least coming off a little odd in the way he brought it up.

Paige looked sidelong at him. “You know… it’s two weeks away.” She said it more softly, and looked out the window again. “You could always see if someone else wanted to go with you. You know… Kitty maybe?” Paige knew they were close, and had always wondered why the two had never dated. It wasn’t a question she’d ever gotten the chance to ask Bobby. But now, there was no reason not to.

[Iceman]

Bobby nearly interrupted Paige by saying ‘Wait…wait, so you want to go? Together?’

But he didn’t. He remembered his manners, and he let her finish. Also not making a fool of himself. Then she mentioned Kitty, and he was momentarily sidetracked. Kitty had been down lately, because of her parents and possibly something else weighing on her mind. Most guys would have responded with ‘screw Kitty, let’s go’, but Bobby cared for the friends he wasn’t attracted to in that sense as much as he did the ones he was. Well, the one he was. “Yeah…” he said, thinking it over as he watched the road ahead of them. “She’d probably think it was out of pity, though…”

Then he realized what Paige might have meant. He looked over to her as they came to a stop at a red light. “I mean…we’d only go as friends, Kitty and I. We’re just friends. I seriously doubt we’ll ever be anything more than friends.”

Bobby turned up the air conditioning a notch, though the temperature inside the car was already comfortable by normal standards. He forgot, as he sometimes did, that his sense of what was cold and hot was skewed. “Yeah, we thought about it once. Like a year ago.” He paused as the light turned green and he started off across the intersection. There were no strings attached now, he may as well tell her. “Back when I was dating Rogue. I think…It was a lot of things. It was hard, you know, being with someone you couldn’t touch. And I know that sounds so shallow, but…It really is hard. When you can’t even hold their hand.”

“But I wasn’t right. I mean, Kitty and I kissed. Once. It was the day of the Professor’s funeral, and…to tell you the truth, I don’t even think we wanted it to be romantic. While we were skating, it was like…we could just forget about all the bad stuff and just skate.” Skating had always been something of a therapeutic thing for Bobby; it was calm and relaxing, and he was so natural at it that he could let his mind wander and his feet would carry him around the rink for hours without problem.

“But, anyway, it was kind of the last straw for Rogue, and she went to New York to get The Cure. She said it wasn’t because of that, but…I don’t know. I feel like it must have been, you know?” Bobby had kept his eyes on the road during the entire story, which had come spilling out of him before he’d realized how much he was saying. It felt good, though, to tell what had happened.

Paige only wondered why he hadn’t wanted to talk about it before when the subject had come up. She guessed it was all part of the release of no longer dating- he didn’t have to worry about what she thought. It almost hurt her feelings, but she shrugged it off.

“Sounds like it would have been complicated on both sides. Rogue wasn’t able to touch anyone either,” she pointed out.

She looked out the window, frowning gently. So he’d kissed Kitty while he was still with Rogue. It almost sealed the deal for her, and she shook her head a little to herself.

“Well I appreciate you going out with me tonight anyway…” she said, smiling a little. “It –was- nice, in spite of… you know, everything.”

“Oh, yeah. It was,” Bobby said whole-heartedly when Paige said it was tough for Rogue as well. “It was really hard on her…” But he trailed off, and Paige continued.

“It was fun,” Bobby agreed. “I’ve never actually had a break-up be…not so bad. But…I’ve only had like four girlfriends.” He paused, then glanced sideways at her. “And—okay, if you don’t count the fourth grade, then I’ve only had three,” he admitted sheepishly. “But that one, man—you know what she did? She smashed her lunch tray into my face! Mashed potatoes, jello, everything. It was awful.” Bobby chuckled at the memory, and at the dramatic way which he’d retold it just then.

“So, uh. Thanks for not grounding my face into your salad,” he said, flashing Paige a grin and miraculously managing not to feel a bit awkward at mentioning the break-up they’d just had. As long as they kept it light and joking like that.

But wait. Hadn't they been talking about the masquerade? Crap. They'd moved away from it. There wasn't really a way to drift back. Bobby decided to just be up-front about.

"But, uh, yeah...The masquerade. If you're not going with anyone...we'd have fun going as friends."

[Iceman]

Paige smiled. "I'd like that. I figure Warren's taking Alison... so... you've met her, right? I can't remember what you told me, it was a while ago. Didn't you meet her through the interview you did for People?"

“Yeah, that’s when. She’s pretty cool,” he answered casually. He didn’t mention that he’d only talked to her for about five minutes at the absolute tops. “She asked him pretty quickly, so it seems kind of…for publicity. But, from what War says, they get along pretty well.” He shrugged. “They’d make cute babies,” he said, then laughed.

“You know, I kind of want to go all out for the masquerade. How much does it cost to rent…uh, is Armani tuxes? What’s a fancy tux?” Not that she necessarily knew any more about tuxes than he did, but she was a girl and so by default he assumed that she knew more about fancy occasion stuff.

She smiled. "They've been seeing each other, yeah."

"Oooh Armani, really? You'd look nice in a suit." She nodded. "Well when my brother got married we looked into it, some of the nicer ones are a couple hundred dollars. Depends on what kind of money you have, really."

Couple hundred. Huh. He could swing that – he’d made sure to have plenty of money saved up during the time that it seemed as though he’d never be able to depend on his folks for cash again. And then when they’d come back around, they’d tried to make up for the lost Christmases, birthdays, and graduation, but writing a gigantic check that Bobby had even refused for a good ten minutes before taking. He’d have argued more, but thinking of all the things he’d be able to buy with it had weakened his resolve.

“Would a blue suit look good? I like blue,” he said thoughtfully, stating the blatantly obvious.

“Wait—Sam’s married?!” he asked, turning his eyes from the road to Paige for a few moments and glancing back to the road to make sure not to run into a ditch or anything. “I didn’t know that.”

Paige grimaced. "He's getting a divorce, actually. And between you and me, good riddance. Brenda was a... well. She wasn't right for Sam, that's for sure. That's why he's here, poor baby..." She obviously loved her brother deeply.

"Blue? Hmm. A nice dark blue would look really beautiful with your eyes and your hair color actually, yeah." She smiled. "That's pretty different than the standard black. I like your style."

“Women,” Bobby said in a fakely dismissive tone, shaking his head, when Paige told him about Brenda. He then cracked a grin as they turned a corner. “I don’t know about style,” he said self-deprecatingly, “I just really like blue.”

“I’ll give you three guesses why,” he said with a joking air.

“Oh, and hey—isn’t your little brother here, too? I ran into him…He’s kind of wild, isn’t he? He was lying on the ground laughing – he laughed for a good ten minutes…”


[fade to black. how dramatic of me. heh]