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Jubilee, the Advisor
by Pirate Turner
"I'm tellin' ya," Jubilee whispered softly, "none o' us are in trouble. We're not what's got her upset."
"Be careful," the Mexican sitting beside her warned in a hushed whisper. "She might hear us."
"Her mind's a thousand miles away from here, Angie. All she's studyin' is Irish. I'll prove it to ya."
"Jubes, don't --" he started to say only to already be too late.
"So what's Irish doin' out there?" Jubilee asked nonchalantly as she continued to gaze in silent concern at the gorgeous blonde standing by the window.
"He must be thinking about something; he simply appears to be walking . . . " Emma's voice broke off suddenly as she realized what the teenager had caused her to do, and she instantly whirled away from the window. "Not that I was looking at him," she added, her voice as cold as ice.
Two pairs of blue eyes met, and the teenager witnessed the heartache in the woman's eyes. "Look, Frostie, it's not my place to tell ya this, but then again, we all know I've never been able to keep my big mouth shut."
"Jubilation . . ."
"Don't 'Jubilation' me," Jubilee told her. "I've known Cassidy longer than anybody else here, an' I can tell that he wants ya just as much as ya want him. Ya've changed, Frostie, and it's not just the Christmas spirit letting us all know that ya have. I mean, come on, why do ya think he broke it off with Moira?"
Emma blinked. "He left MacTaggert?" she asked softly.
"Yup. Couple o' months ago. He did it 'cause his heart wasn't in the relationship. He didn't wanna hurt her, but he fell in love with some one else." Emma and Angelo both stared at Jubilee as she continued to speak; they had never known her to be so wise. "We don't get to choose who we fall in love with. Nobody does. Ya can't ever be sure what the other person feels until ya state yer case, but I'm tellin' ya, Frostie: The way Irish looks at ya, the way his eyes an' face light up when ya come in the room, the way he misses ya when ya have to go off to Boston for one o' yer business meetings -- they all point to just how bad he does have the hots for ya."
"There's not a single one o' us here who hasn't had a rough time; even Monet has major family issues. Ya gotta live, but livin' usually hurts like He --" She paused, realizing what she had almost said to the Headmistress and rethinking her choice of words before continuing, "Life's not easy. Ya gotta learn to roll with the punches it throws ya, but if there's anythin' I've learned since meetin' up with the X-Men, it's that along with that rollin' and survivin', yer've also gotta take some risks if yer ever gonna learn what really makes life worth livin'. I can't think of a single thing worth takin' a risk for more than love."
"We can go out on the battlefield an' fightin' baddies all day long, an' that's easy compared ta really lettin' some one in. I know that, but if true love is anythin' like what Scott an' Jean have or what the fairy tales an' romance books claim it is, don't ya think it's a risk worth takin'?" Jubilee finally asked.
Emma blinked, clearly surprised by the wisdom of her young student. "I never knew your thoughts ran so deep on such a subject, Jubilation." The Headmistress' stated observation mirrored the thoughts of her silent student.
Jubilee shrugged. "Ya don't hang with the likes o' the Big Blue," she replied, referring to the X-Men's philosophical Beast, "'specially not 'round lovebirds like Scott an' Jean an' Warren an' Betts without learnin' some things."
Emma nodded her understanding once before speaking in her infamous icy tone, "Be that as it may, Jubilation, I expect you to mind your own business from here on out and leave mine alone." Hurt flickered in Jubilee's eyes before she looked away, and Emma's heart felt a small twinge of pain. The child had only been trying to help her. "However," Emma added after a momentary pause, her voice considerably gentler when she spoke again, "I will consider your words."
Jubilee looked up, a smile playing over her features. Seeing the girl's smile combined with Angelo's shy grin caused the corners of Emma's mouth to twitch slightly as she turned away and continued on. Just as she was leaving the room, Skin called to her, "You know, Senora Frost, none of us would think any less of you if you actually did let yourself smile."
Not only did Emma smile when she heard her student's gentle words, but Jubilee also looked up at Angelo in surprise. "What?" he asked innocently as he turned his attention back to the girl at his side only to find her grinning up at him.
"I knew you had to have a romantic bone in there somewhere, Angelo Espinosa," Jubilee stated.
"I only said what I said to help Frost relax some. I get tired of having to keep looking over my shoulder, wondering if I did something to gripe the bitca."
"Sure that's all it was, Ange," Jubilee responded sarcastically, still smiling.
A blast of icy wind ripped through Emma's body, and she clung her fur cape more tightly around her body. Although the lights of the school were beginning to fade behind her, the full moon's glorious glow sparkled on the freshly fallen snow, providing Emma plenty of light to see by.
"Em, ye should knae be out here." The sudden sound of the Irish accent that thrilled her ears sent Emma whirling around only to see Sean approaching her. Just one look at his handsome face told her that he was freezing. "What are ye diing out here, lass?"
She began to tell him a lie but then stopped herself. What if Jubilation was right? There was only one way to find out for certain, and the girl had spoken with true wisdom far beyond her years when she had said that she could think of nothing more worthy of taking a risk for than love. Emma had never been a coward. She had always faced all her fears except one, and that one was currently headed toward her. "I came looking for you," she admitted as she held her head up proudly.
"Ye did?" Sean asked. "What fer? 'Tis everythin' okay?"
"Yes . . . and no," Emma slowly admitted. "Jubilation said some things earlier that really made me think, Sean."
"What's so wrong wit' that? It's about time the lass started lettin' us see her brain. I knew it was in there somewhere."
Emma smiled, and her blue eyes sparkled as brilliantly as the stars sprinkled across the dark sky far above their heads. As he reached her, she asked him, "Sean, has there ever been something you've wanted to say and yet did not know how to go about doing so?"
The Irish man inclined his head into a nod. "Oft. Why did ye ask?"
"No particular reason," she lied. "Come on. You've been out here far too long. Let's get you inside where it's warm." She turned and began to head home. He gave her departing back a curious look before quietly following her.
Angelo suddenly turned off the television. He glanced questioningly at Jubilee, but she did not even appear to notice. He frowned with concern as he gazed at his dear friend. When they had first been getting to know each other, Jubilee had seemed rather annoying, and although she could still be an annoyance, she had still somehow charmed her way into his tough heart. She was cute, funny, and brave, but best of all, she could make him smile even when everything else in his whole world seemed to be crashing down over his head. "Jubes?" he asked softly. "Jubecita?"
"Hmm?" she asked, shaking her head as she refocused on him. She never would have thought that a guy with six extra feet of skin could be anything even remotely resembling cute, but although Angelo could not fairly be compared to the likes of Tom Cruise, there was still something about the Mexican that was just . . . hot. She couldn't really explain it, and she had no ideal when she had first come to recognize it. Yet that still did not change the fact that despite his gray skin and occasional wrinkles, there was something that seemed to roll off of him, something that simply stole her breath away and had been guilty of doing such for quite some time now.
"You okay?" Angelo asked in concern. "You've been so weird since Emma left."
"Weird?" she asked, confusion creasing her brow. "In what way?"
"Quiet," he admitted with a charming chuckle.
"Oh. I've just . . ." she shrugged, ". . . been thinkin'."
"Peso for your thoughts?"
"Well, you know all that stuff I told Frostie earlier right?" When he nodded, she added, "Ever wonder why you can advise others an' do pretty good at it but still not dare ta take yer own advice?"
"Oh," he said, his face falling. "Thinking about Everett, huh?"
She shook her head. "Nah."
"Who then?" he asked. "Not Jono?" She again shook her head. "One of the X-Men?"
Jubilee again shook her head as she continued to look at him. Even she had to admit that it was kind of weird. She'd been drawn to Everett during the ordeal with the Phalanx and had continued to lust after him for a long time afterwards until he had began seeing Monet. It had taken her months to get over that, but eventually, as she had drawn closer to Angelo as he too sought a new friend after Jono had began spending nearly every one of his waking moments with Paige, Jubilee had completely recovered. She had even been able to become happy for their friends. However, she still had never thought that she might one day be attracted to Angelo.
As Jubilee continued to gaze at the confused Mexican, she found herself drowning in his dark eyes. What was it about chocolate-colored eyes that made them so easy to get completely lost in? "Jubilee?" His voice called to her from what seemed to be light-years away as she leaned closer to him.
What was she doing? Angelo had no ideal what was going on in her head until Jubilee began to lean closer to him, and then his heart began to pound fiercely in his chest. He tried to open his mouth to say something, but all thoughts left him as her lips pressed softly against his. That gentle kiss was all it took to set his world spinning, but as it spun, he clung to her, wrapping his arms softly around her body as he returned the kiss.
"Sean?" He looked up from the gift he was slipping under the Christmas tree as Emma's voice called his name. His heart stopped as he looked at her. Her gorgeous frame filled the doorway where she stood, leaning slightly against one side of the entrance way. Her long legs seemed to stretch out forever from the long slits of her skirt, and her silk blouse hung in such a way as to reveal one tempting shoulder. His fingers ached to run through her lovely, blonde hair, and his eyes were drowned in her breath-taking beauty the very second they met her baby blues.
Her beauty seemed to radiate so intensely in the room around him that all Sean could do was stare at her until the present slipped from his hand. The sound of the gift hitting the floor snapped him back to reality, and Sean blushed slightly as he looked at the gift. "Aye, Em?" he asked as he turned back around to the tree and bent to pick up the present, relieved that it was not fragile.
Her bosom grew taut as her eyes trailed to his rear, and she pressed her lips tightly together to keep from emitting the pleasurable sound that rose in the back of her throat at such a view. He turned back around, and their eyes again met. "What is it, Em?" he asked again in that sexy Irish accent that made her knees go weak.
"Sean," she breathed his name, "we need to talk."
"I figured as much," he admitted. "What did I di this time?"
She blinked, surprised, before saying, "Nothing."
"Then what 'tis it? What's had ye so worked up lately, Em?" he asked, deep concern etching his handsome features.
"I'm sick of pretending, Sean."
"O' pretendin' what?" he asked.
"If Jubilation is right, you should already know what."
"What does Jubilee have tae di with any o' this?"
"Sean," Emma tried only to fall silent. There was so much in her heart for this one man. He and their students were the sole reasons why she had managed to remain on the path of Good. He made her feel things that no other man had ever been able to. She had always been the type of woman who could get a man whenever she had wanted, but she had never dared believe in love . . . not until she had began to spend more time with him. She remembered the occasions where she had reminded him that she had a long list of things she could do to impress him, but she had never managed to do one single thing on that list.
She wasn't supposed to be able to feel like this. She was the cause of so many deaths. She should not be allowed any chance at happiness, and yet with him she had come the closest she possibly could to redemption. He was what gave her courage in battle. He was what reassured her that somehow everything would work out all right. He had been her one strand of sanity when their students had disappeared during the terrible Operation: Zero Tolerance. He had made her believe in things she had never dared to before. He had brought love into her life and had given her hope when the rest of the world seemed to be pitch black.
She loved him. She had for a very long time now, and yet still she was more afraid of him and the feelings he invoked in her than any other thing she had ever encountered. As much as she could not bare the thought of losing her students, she could not bare the thought of losing him even more. If she made herself known now, there would be no turning back. If he did not feel the same for her, she would lose him and quite possibly even her students for she did not know how long she could continue to work with a man she loved but who did not love her. Yet, despite all her fears, she finally realized that she could no longer keep all these thoughts inside.
"Em?" She blinked as his sexy voice broke through her thoughts, and she was shocked to realize that he was standing right in front of her. She looked up into his eyes and instantly wished she hadn't for she was immediately sent swimming in his emerald depths. "I di nae knae what's goin' on in that mind o' yers, Em, but di ye realize that yer standin' under mistletoe?" he asked her.
"So?" she asked him softly. "What are you going to do about it, Cassidy?"
Sean smiled brilliantly, and her breath was even more stolen away. He stepped closer to her, closing the distance between them, and began to lean down towards her. Sean's heart thundered so wildly within his chest that he was surprised she did not seem to hear it. {What are ye diing, Sean, boyo? Ye knae she's jest goin' tae slap the fire out o' ye!} Even as the logical part of his mind tried to reason with him, his heart reminded him of how sick he, too, was of pretending and how much he loved this wondrous woman before him.
Sean's lips touched softly down upon Emma's in a reverent kiss. At first, Emma was thoroughly shocked, but then she gave into the waves of sweet pleasure that flooded her body, heart, and soul. When she did not pull away from him and instead began to return his kiss, his left hand reached up to softly caress her right cheek. As the kiss began to deepen, blue eyes searched emerald eyes, and then Emma slowly and reluctantly forced her mouth to leave his as she whispered, her breath slightly tickling his lips, "I love you, Sean."
"An' I love ye, Emma." His lips then conquered hers again though he was still gentle. His arms moved to wrap gently around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Her hands ran over his muscular chest before sliding over his shoulders and finally cupping his head. Her fingertips ran up into the ends of his hair as their kiss deepened. Her tongue slipped smoothly into his mouth, and their tongues began a heated duel as they continued to drink increasingly deeper of each other.
The End