Premiere: Limo Ride [Paige, Bobby]

[Iceman]

"You look great," Bobby said for the umpteenth time, looking beside himself to Paige. They sat in the back of a luxurious stretch limo, which was about the most lavish ride Bobby had ever been inside, even better than Scott's sports cars.

Bobby felt that the expense was slightly wasted on him, though, as he found it hard to relax as they sat waiting to pull around in front of the Loews Lincoln Square Theater, where the premiere was being held. It was a long, slow-moving line of limos - somehow much less exciting than Bobby would have imagine if he'd ever given the process much thought. Every inch that they creeped forward, only to come to a stop again, made Bobby a bit more nervous. He examined Paige's face, wondering if she was doing any better than he was.

Paige took a deep breath, which shivered just a little, but her smile was easy and confident. Looking over at Bobby, she nodded, reaching over to nudge a bit of hair by his forehead. “Thanks… so do you. Really great.”

She still wasn’t sure why they were here, why Alison would have invited complete strangers to a movie premiere. Maybe she hadn’t known how to ask Warren out, and ended up asking Bobby along too. From what Warren had told her Alison was a bit naïve. Paige had to wonder how many mutants she’d hung out with.

Paige hadn’t been starstruck when she met Alison- in fact the girl seemed really… normal. And very nice. She couldn’t shake why she was a little irritated at the whole situation, but hey… it was an experience. And it would likely get the X-Men a lot of positive press.

More than anything, she was looking forward to it helping out Bobby and Warren. Bobby as the trainer of the X-Men, Warren in a potential modeling career. She cared so much about both of them, they’d become her only friends at the mansion. Which made this extra weird… being here as Bobby’s date, but not dating Bobby.

Paige smirked a bit. “You know once this goes to the press we’ll be considered a couple in the media."

[Iceman]

Bobby couldn’t – and didn’t much try to – keep his smile hidden. Being seen as Paige’s boyfriend wasn’t exactly a worst-case scenario, in his mind. “The horror…” he said in a jokingly dry tone, then chuckled under his breath. He looked at her and smirked, before peering out the window across her again. “They’d be pretty stupid if they waste time asking us about our dating habits,” he said. “But at least that’d be easy to answer.”

Bobby scratched his neck, then looked down at his chest, pulling back one side of his black suit jacket and adjusting his communicator, which he’d decided to put on the inside of his jacket rather than near his neck as it usually was. That way he could still get to it if he had to, but it wasn’t in plain sight and wouldn’t raise any questions. Though he doubted he would need to contact the other X-Men – he didn’t think that The Brotherhood would find much need to attack a movie premiere, especially since it was helping mutants – but there was always the chance that they would need to reach the X-Men that were at the premiere.

“I’m really glad you came,” Bobby said honestly. “I think I’d just stand behind Warren and look nervous the whole time otherwise.” The limo crept forward a few feet, moving up in the line, before stopping again.

“Do you want to go around to the reporters together? Or talk to them separately?”

Paige fixed a curl falling from the back of her neck- her blonde hair had been pulled up off her neck in a twist, a few soft ringlets lazily dripping down here and there. Her dress was absolutely gorgeous- Warren had seen to that- a light, teal jewel tone in satin, low neckline drawing across her shoulders, the satin gently folded in tiny ripples down her curves to just past her knees. It made her feel like Jayne Mansfield. A slightly more decorous Jayne Mansfield, yes, but the dress was quite retro looking- particularly with the cute gold heels and the thin gold chain with the little cross around her neck. She’d had it cleaned, it had been Mama’s gift to her on her 16th birthday… it didn’t really measure up to the kinds of things Alison and her set were wearing, but somehow that made Paige wear it with even more pride.

She resisted the urge to grasp Bobby’s hand- to her it would be the clinging excitement of having fun with a friend, but she didn’t want to send mixed signals. Instead she brushed a bit of lint from his shoulder, and looked back out the window.

“I think we should go together. Kind of feels like being ambassadors for the cause, you know?” She smiled. “That and I don’t think I want you away from me for a second!” Paige laughed. “I have no idea what I’m doing.”

[Iceman]

“I think we should, too,” Bobby agreed, smiling at her in a way that communicated that he’d been hoping she’d say that. “Hope you’re not expecting me to do all the talking. I don’t know what I’m doing either.” Sure, he’d done the one interview with Teen People, but that was in a setting where he could think about his answers. If he took too long on the red carpet, it would look awkward and possibly even suspicious, and the whole world would be able to see it just by turning on their TVs or surfing the web.

“I don’t know how reporters can talk so fast,” he said, shaking his head. He was thinking back to the only time he’d ever been confronted by news reporters—when he’d gone to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, where Worthington Labs had set up their Cure station, to find Rogue. “Did you see on the news when The Brotherhood attacked that Cure station in Mutie Town?” he asked, using the nickname it had been given due to the growing number of mutants who lived there, many the kind of shady folks that made people avoid that area of town even moreso now.

He realized that Paige might not know the nickname, since she hadn’t been around there for long, and he elaborated. “The Lower East Side? Well, I was there, and I kind of iced up the whole building putting out the fires.” And getting people out, but he didn’t mention that. He was unfailingly modest, and he had just been doing what was expected of him to do. If he’d done any less than he could, he wouldn’t have been doing his job as a part of the X-Men. “And this…stampede of reporters – and cops – came crowding around me.”

Bobby remembered then what had happened next. Magneto’s message came back to him, as it had played on the loudspeakers of a nearby radio. ‘So long as this so-called cure exists…You will not be safe’. He’d become painfully aware of how people had looked from the radio to Bobby, and many had begun to edge away from him. There seemed to be more he was going to say, but as the memories flooded back into his brain, he failed to continue. Instead he fell silent, staring across the inside of the limo with a heavy expression.

She looked back at him. “I remember,” she said softly. “My brother went to the school, and I’ve always wanted to be an X-Man, ever since he told me about them. It was big news in my home town, there aren’t a lot of mutants except those in my family.”

Her blue eyes lingering on his dark expression, she took his hand. “What we’re doing is a great thing, Bobby. We’re going to go out there, and look great,” she smiled. “And show them that mutants aren’t any different than anyone else, when it comes to our everyday lives. And nothing’s going to happen. At least not with the Brotherhood. If anything, I’m a little spooked we might end up with some crazy anti-mutant guy trying to shoot us from a balcony.” She winced a little, realizing she’d voiced the concern everyone from Alison’s producer to Paige’s great aunt was thinking of that night.

“But if that happens, we’ll deal with it.” Her smirk was full of that cocky confidence that first attracted him to her. “That’s what we do.”

[Iceman]

What Paige said very successfully shook Bobby’s mind from it’s stinging memories. He took comfort in one thing that he knew would keep them safe from lone anti-mutant snipers. Or, well, mostly safe. “Warren will check every balcony, window, and drainpipe in sight from wherever he is,” Bobby said, confident in his friend’s precautions. Of course, a gunman who could hide well enough could be kept from even Warren’s view, but it was far less likely.” It’s nice to have Big Bird around sometimes,” Bobby commented airily.

He put his arm up on the back of the seat, behind Paige’s shoulders but not really touching them. Twisting in his seat, he looked to the limo behind them, then turned front again, looking to Paige. “You’ve got more little encouragements and words of advice than anyone I’ve ever met,” he announced to her. “Save some of that for the media. You’ll make headlines with those.” He gave her a lopsided smile. As always, he was keeping things as light as possible, fending of nerves.

His arm brushed her hair, and he wondered if their breakup really had to be as final as they’d planned it to be. He beat back the thought as soon as it formed, telling himself that he was being stupid. ’You had better keep acting like you just want to be friends – and never anything more – or else you’ll start looking like a pathetic desperate ex,’ he told himself harshly.

Paige smiled at Bobby. “Hey… thanks. I guess Mama taught me right then. She always made it clear we were to be happy about what we had, and try not to concentrate on the bad stuff.” And there’d been a fair share of bad stuff, from a lack of money to too many kids in one house to Daddy’s death. She’d learned from her mother’s example how to struggle in, and do it with a smile.

Bobby looked at her a little awkwardly, and she wondered if that was because he was nervous, or because of her. She was still attracted to him- considerably so- but couldn’t shake that he’d completely blown off the breakup. And she knew even an old-times-sake romp would mean something more to Bobby- regardless of how he felt. He hadn’t seemed to feel as much as he’d claimed to- or he was really good at faking it. But hiding things from her didn’t make it easier, somehow.

Her look shifted a little to a softer, shadowed expression, and she looked away.

“This is taking forever…” she murmured.

[Iceman]

The look that Bobby gave Paige, as his thoughts mixed with what she said, which made her quirky personality only more endearing to Bobby at that moment in time…His expression must have given away that all was not right. He kept himself from smiling at her words, instead ducking his head to look at his lap – but not before his face, for a few long seconds, portrayed a serious, and possibly regretful, expression as he looked at her.

As if in response to Paige’s complaint, the driver’s voice sounded unobtrusively over a speaker. “We are the next to arrive, Sir and Madam,” he said courteously.

Bobby peered out the window; sure enough, the limo in front of them was right at the end of the red carpet, which stretched from the curb to the door of the theatre. It was impossible to see anything going on past the mass of fans, which crowded the barricade. It seemed as though they’d walk past the sea of fans on either side and reach the rest of the red carpet walk, which Bobby remembered Alison telling them was media people on one side, backdrops on the other. She’d told them to take their time answering questions; however much they wanted to talk, they could.

The message served to shake Bobby from his thoughts, and bring him back to the here-and-now. He reminded himself that he needed to focus if he hoped not to say something stupid to one of these reporters.

“You ready to stun the crowds?” Bobby asked Paige as the limo before them began to pull away. Bobby watched cameras constantly flashing from points in the crowd. The yelling fans lined the sidewalk for ages on either side; luckily, it was only those up front they’d have to deal with.

Paige’s eyes snapped around to look out Bobby’s side, and she took a deep breath, putting on a beautiful, and quite genuine smile. She nodded. “You bet.”

As Bobby reached for the door, she grabbed his hand, and squeezed. “Thanks for bringing me along,” she said, and let him go.