Dirty Laundry

Posted on Sat Jul 13th, 2024 @ 5:41pm by Kennedy Kelly & Shinobi Shaw & Bobby Drake

3,229 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 5: Days of Fortune Past
Location: X-Mansion - Laundry Room
Timeline: October 9, 1990 - Morning

“Stop trying to look at what’s in my laundry basket!” Kennedy said with a laugh as she playfully pushed Jace away from her folding station on top of one of the dryers.

When they had decided to do their laundry together Kennedy had admittedly selected some of the frillier and more feminine things she owned for washing. Some of them weren’t even dirty, but Jace didn’t have to know that.

“This is my station…” she grinned and gestured at the dryer she stood next to “And that is your station.” Kennedy then waved her hand at the dryer next to her.

"Oh c'mon," said Jace in a playful whine. "Lemme see." He grinned at Kennedy as she pushed him back to his folding station at the next dryer. He folded a couple of his t-shirts and some pants before turning to trying to catch a glimpse of some frilly things. He'd enjoyed hanging out with Kennedy more now that they were back. And when she suggested that they do their laundry together, he jumped at the chance.

"All in due time." Kennedy smirked before twisting up one her black dance leotards and using it like a whip to snap at him. She giggled a little at her own mischievous behavior before she went back to folding. "Maybe the next time we go out on a date..." Her smirked turned wicked at the suggestion of what might happen between them. "You'll just have to see."

Jace had just finished folding a pair of pants and was about to make a comment when Kennedy snapped him with her dance leotard. "Hey!" he called out in mock protest as the pants slipped from his grasp and landed on top of the dryer. His eyes sparkled impishly as he leaned over and playfully swatted her on the rear.

"Ohh, I can't wait till our next date then," he teased, a grin spreading across his face. "The anticipation...kind of like Christmas. But better. Maybe I'll even bring some mistletoe."

“If you can find mistletoe in October, I’d say you earned it.” Kennedy said with an incentivizing little giggle. Despite her previously outlined rule that they each stay in front of their own folding station, Kennedy made her way over to Jace’s laundry and began to openly inspect what was still unfolded.

“What is this?” Her smile turned wicked as she knelt down and began to inspect something at the bottom of the pile. “Are those Ninja Turtles?”

Jace chuckled, finding Kennedy's playful spirit contagious as she crossed the imaginary boundary they had set up between their folding stations. He watched as she leaned over to inspect something hidden in the pile. "Ummm..." Jace blinked, caught off guard.

He looked over at them himself and shook his head. "Those...those aren't mine," he said. "Someone must have left them in the dryer and they got mixed in with mine. Or they're playing a prank on me. I wouldn't put it past them. But definitely not mine."

Kennedy stood up straight as a look of smug disbelief crossed her face. “Yeah sure… you were set up.” She stifled her laugh as she folded her arms across her chest, the motion adding to her mock conviction. “And I suppose you’re going to tell me that Michelangelo isn’t your favorite.”

Jace started laughing. "No, he's not. Donatello, the smart one with the staff." He stuck his tongue out at Kennedy and grinned. "Still not mine."

“Guilty by admission.” Kennedy said with feigned shock. “Now for the last piece of evidence…” she yanked the underoos from out of his laundry pile and then stepped in close to him. Kennedy held up the pair of tiny Ninja Turtle clad underwear against his hips in an attempt to see if they fit him or not.

There was a pregnant pause as Kennedy began to imagine Jace wearing nothing but the way too small under things. He could tell by the way she bit her lower lip that her thoughts were less than pure.

“I dunno.” Kennedy said as her typical smirk returned “It’s kind of hot.”

Jace was about to say something when Kennedy snatched them up and held them at his hips. He noticed how she bit her lower lip as she measured to see if they'd fit. This could get very interesting very quickly.

He raised an eyebrow at her comment and grinned. "The fact that they're way too small? Just wait till you see me in boxer briefs then." He looked her up and down as he imagined her frilly things. "Are they red or black? Or some other color entirely?"

"You'll just have to find out." Kennedy discarded the small pair of boys underwear before wrapping her arms around Jace's neck. Since their return from the Savage Land the two had been inseparable, to the point where it had become obvious to everyone around the mansion that there was something more than friendship going on. When they were alone, moments of heavy petting always ensued. All of her coy smirks and playful banter was in pursuit of times like this, so she leaned in and kissed Jace.

Jace wrapped his arms around Kennedy and put his left hand on her back and his right on her waist as he pulled her in closer. He met her kiss with a fervor that erased all the anticipation built up between these moments. After a several seconds, he released her lips and leaned his head back while looking into her striking blue eyes.

"Here's what we'll do," said Jace. "We'll go on that date tonight. We can drive into Salem Center later and grab something to eat. Then we find some ice cream...maybe walk around for a bit. Of course, all that's after we finish laundry and I change into something more suited for a date...." Jace trailed off and looked into Kennedy's striking blue eyes. "Since I'm adding a lot to my to-do list tonight, I think I'll add you, too. And find out what color." He winked and leaned in to resume kissing her.

“All of that sounds perfect.” Kennedy murmured against his lips before she met his kiss. Their eager hands roamed across one another as they met each other kiss for kiss until they both became tousled and disheveled. The dryer behind them sounded off that it had finished but Kennedy ignored the sound thanks to how lost she was in Jace.

"What the fuck is going on in here?!"

While it wasn't exactly any of Bobby's business, that didn't stop him from exclaiming his outburst like he'd stumbled on a murder. He didn't have any claim to Kennedy. They'd shared a few moments, enough that he had confused feelings about what might come next. But he had never been close enough with anyone to keep them around. Things had gotten pretty heavy at one point and she backed away. He'd acknowledged that. And then...

"You... and... you!"

Bobby was at a loss for words. As far as dudes went, Jace was all right. They had fought together a couple of times now. The battle-buddy bond was starting to form like it had with Scott and Hank. Maybe even a twinge of what he'd felt for Warren. But now...

"No, I get it..." Bobby backed away slowly, his disbelief channeled through an imperfect balance of unjustified anger and resentment. "You... just... yeah." That final word projected disgust. His anger was beginning to turn volatile.

“Chill the fuck out, Bobby” Kennedy seemed just as outraged as he was over the intrusion and her choice in words wasn’t lost on anyone. “What gives you the right to get so mad, huh?”

She let go of Jace and took a step towards the slowly recoiling Bobby. Kennedy was sick of his moody behavior and the hot and cold attitude he had about everyone and everything. “No one around here knows what you’re going to do or say anymore. It’s like you’re trying to burn this whole place down with all of us inside. Why? What claim do you have to get so mad over this, over us?”

"I have no fucking idea myself!" Bobby had been about to leave, but Kenedy had hit him right between the eyes. What right did he have? Well, she asked. "You only had your tongue in my mouth not so long ago. Maybe you're just making the rounds! Should I get Connor down here next? Form a line!"

Whatever hurtful thing that came to mind shot out of his mouth. Bobby wasn't even hearing himself. He was too busy trying to reconcile what his eyes had told him to hear and process what he was saying. Hearing and talking were hard to do at the same time under the best circumstances, much less when the rug got pulled out from under him. "Scott knocked up Aurora," he added, "so maybe he'd like a crack at you too!"

Jace had fought alongside Bobby a couple times and it was cool. But he had no idea that Bobby and Kennedy had a connection. And if he did, he couldn't remember it. Still, there was no excuse for how far he'd just gone. Not even if his feelings were hurt. He stepped up to Bobby, just ahead of Kennedy. "Dammit Bobby! Shut the hell up and calm down! You're starting to sound like Maestro. Form a line...fuck, dude. Relax."

Maestro? Bobby was sounding like Maestro? The guy who set him on fire and laughed about it? That was a low blow. "Kiss my ass, Jace! Or do I need to get in line behind Kennedy for that one?"

“Are you kidding me!?” Kennedy was fuming at his comment. “I kissed you the night my dad died, hours after I saw his brains blown out on national television. You were so sweet and nice… and then you ditched me! The entire time we were in the Savage Land you ignored me because all you could think about was Lorna. All you cared about was the past! The one time we spoke it ended with us going our separate ways. Hell, you left me up in a tree!”

Kennedy folded her arms across her chest and Bobby immediately saw that attitude and ire that had appeared every other time the two of them fought. “Do not talk to me about Aurora when she has been following you around like a lost puppy. I heard a rumor that you kissed her! If anyone is looking to become sloppy seconds, it’s you!”

That ball came out of left field. Had they not been fighting with Bobby... Jace would ask about that later if Kennedy felt like talking. But for now, Jace's face twisted in anger and his eyes narrowed.

So in the vein of Bobby's response to him, "Fuck you, Bobby! Or is someone already taking care of that?"

"Suck my dick, Jace." His retort lacked emphasis and conviction. Nobody was taking care of Bobby. Not intimately or in any other way. He was left to himself, like usual. He didn't have anything for Jace but general ire. For Kennedy, though... "You know, Aurora checked on me, made sure I was eating, and never gave me any shit. You could learn a thing or two from her. Like how not to be a selfish bitch every waking second!"

“My father just died!” Kennedy screamed the words at him as the pain of that loss mixed with the anger she felt. She sounded wounded by his response, that she should have been checking on him. “I pushed myself to the brink of exhaustion every day because it was the only thing that kept the voices in my head silent at night. I didn’t talk to anyone about it because of the terrible monster that he is, because it puts Professor Xavier at risk.”

Kennedy looked as if she might cry but she was trying her hardest not to. “But you knew… you knew what happened and how bad I was hurting. You of all people should know what it feels like to miss your dad.”

Things became personal now, in moments of vulnerability they had shared things with one another and now those secrets were becoming weapons. “But I needed to check on you?! I needed to be nice to you!? God dammit, Bobby, this is exactly why I said what I said in the Savage Land, why we needed to step away from one another!”

"You got it all figured out, don't you?" Bobby shook his head at her. "Ivory Tower princess slumming it with the riffraff."

“You’re broken, Bobby, and all you care about is your own messy self. And maybe I am too… but don’t come in here acting like I’m so high and mighty when your own head is so far up your own ass.” Kennedy’s words cut like the weapons they were, the hard truth that he too had failed her.

"You're wrong about one thing..." Bobby's eyes were cold and frigid even before he took iceform. His face became an animated sheen of frozen water as he spoke in harsh syllables. "I don't miss anybody. Not my dad, not Lorna, not you." He threw two fingers and said, "Deuces!"

And then Bobby was gone.

Jace looked at Kennedy. "I'll be right back. Promise." And with that, he dashed out the door after Bobby.

It was only a moment before he caught up to him outside the laundry room. He grabbed his arm near the elevator. "I don't know what the hell happened, but I know everybody's pissed. Still, that's no reason for what you said to Kennedy. You need to calm the fuck down, dude."

When Jace grabbed his arm, Bobby didn't reply. He pivoted on his heel, let Jace's force on his arm spin him around, and then jaw-jacked the other guy with his frozen fist.

Jace immediately released his grasp on Bobby and fell backwards against the wall. He couldn't say anything at the moment from the intense pain, swelling, and possible hairline fractures to his jaw. There was immediate bruising and numbness that bordered on light frostbite. Not to mention the blood that was running out of his mouth from the cuts.

"Don't touch me..." Bobby seethed at first, then his voice cracked in a peal of anger. "Don't you ever fucking touch me!"

Jace was furious. He got his balance back in seconds and ran towards Bobby with the intent to mess up the pretty boy. Jace dropped the density of his fist right before he threw a punch at Bobby's face.

It became a clash of densities. Bobby's iceform could soak a lot of blunt force, but Jace was a human wrecking ball. In the end, applied force won. Bobby's head snapped back from the straight punch. His hands flew out on reflex, throwing a gust of biting cold in front of him. Jace's clothes froze solid, encasing him in a stone cold prison shaped and contoured to his body.

"Told you not to touch me," Bobby sneered. When he realized Jace's predicament, he let out a cruel smirk fueled by his grief and offense. "I guess Kennedy's gonna find out what you're packing today after all." Bobby chuckled at Jace as his dense body fought against his clothes that had flash frozen solid. "I'm sure she won't judge your manly shrinkage either."

Jace could have phased out, but he'd have been buck-naked in the middle of the hallway. So instead, he remained at his lower density and smirked. "Joke's on you, Iceboy. She was going to get see tonight, well after things that are cold have heated up. So why don't you grab your little ice cubes and get on that elevator. It's going to be the only thing to get you up for a long time."

“ENOUGH!” Kennedy shouted from the doorway of the laundry room. With Jace bruised, bleeding, and frozen in place while Bobby sniggered at him, it didn’t paint Bobby in a very good light. While their actions were deplorable it was their conversation about her that continued to sting. “I’m not seeing or doing anything or anyone tonight.”

She finally started to cry from the fight moments before and the way she had been spoken about. Kennedy could have sharp claws and gnashing teeth when provoked but she also had a soft and vulnerable side. Tears filled her bright blue eyes and she looked positively pitiful.

“You both need a night to calm down.” She stepped into the laundry room and brought out a change of clean clothes for Jace. Kennedy set them down beside him before continuing down the hallway past Bobby.

Jace listened to and watched Kennedy as she came out of the door. He felt horrible for allowing himself to get caught up in Bobby's war of words. This was most certainly a learning experience for him. If he was going to assume his birth name, then he must learn how not to get caught up in other people's anger, frustrations, and bitterness.

When Kennedy started crying, Jace felt even worse. He hoped that they would eventually make up. But he also knew that he needed to give himself some time. And Kennedy, too. "Thank you for the change of clothes." He paused. "I'm sorry, Kennedy," he said quietly. "I'll make it up to you. I promise."

But Bobby...if there was ever a next time, there would be no verbal repartee.

“Stop hurting people, Bobby, you’re turning into a monster.” Kennedy's words weren’t delivered with rage or upset, only wounded sadness.

"I don't take advice from people who don't take it themselves!" Bobby spat. But her words pricked him like a needle and injected her sadness into him like paralyzing venom. It mingled with his own grief and pain in a cocktail of triggering madness. He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to yell at everyone. In the end, he settled on leaving... not through the elevator, but through the quick-transit tube.

No way in hell was he sharing an elevator with Kennedy. But when it deposited him on the second floor, Bobby looked at his old room. He was as disconnected from almost everything in there was he was from the people around him. Monster. That's what Kennedy called him. He'd acted like one in the Savage Land. Truth be told, he'd felt it creeping out of him ever since he came back from Muir Island.

Hurting people. That's what he was good for. Nothing else, just causing pain. There was only one person who ever truly made him feel understood. Lorna had been kind and supportive, but he was a mystery to her. Jean, on the other hand, often knew what he was feeling before he did. Scott was a dick but he was a straight shooter. And they wanted him around.

Making his decision, Bobby ditched the school without so much as a word of goodbye to anybody. He sailed through the air on his ice sled, headed south to the big city lights and, he hoped, a friend's welcome.

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