Behind the Veil

Tony Stark woke up to Thor nudging him with his foot. He slapped the foot away and groaned from the massive headache he had woken up with. Thor responded with a throaty chuckle as he remained standing over his comrade’s body. He held out his hand for Tony to take and pulled the man up from the ground. It annoyed Tony greatly that Thor was so well adjusted after such a heavy night of drinking and debauchery. He couldn’t recall what happened only that he somehow still remained in his clothes with no naked ladies surrounding him. The whole thing did not seem to have ended well for him and he had the headache to match.

“Come we must feast and energize one‘s self,” Thor states with a big grin.

“You are awfully sprightly for someone who locked themselves in the bathroom listening to Adele for several hours,” Tony comments looking at the large man.

“Yes, I was as Lola had said, a mess.”

“Wait did you just say Lola?” he responds looking rather thrown off.

“I did, she took me back here after I made a fool of myself at Emilia‘s home. I believe Lola told me to get my shit together if I wanted to be with Emilia, I‘m assuming the phrase meant that I must act more cordial and well dressed. Am I correct to believe this?” Thor replies staring at Tony for confirmation.

“Yeah probably.”

That was the end of the conversation for Tony was now lost in thought. Had he said something stupid? Did she see all the women he had over? There were so many questions yet he knew if he asked them it was show that he cared, something he wasn’t really prepared to do.

Thor had taken it upon himself to prepare to woo his lady love Emilia by wearing his finest armor and cape. He held a copy of her favorite novel and showed up at her home once again. Emi had been working on a couple depositions at home with the window open on the lovely day when she heard the distinct deep voice. This time Thor showed up with flowers and climbed up the firescape to her open window. Opening the book he began to recite the letter Captain Wentworth had written to Anne. Emi had seen him, the red cape caught her attention from her peripherals. She turned her gaze to him, wondering just what he was doing there.

“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own.”

“Thor,” Emi croaked as tears welled up in her eyes. He climbed into the apartment and stood in front of her, raising his hand to cup the side of her face.

“Never have I thought I would find such love that could compare to such literature and I haven‘t, it does not compare, it is far greater,” Thor states passionately. “I am sorry for ever hurting you my love, I promise never to do so as long as I shall live.”

Emi could not deny the feelings she held for Thor, feelings that gave into this incredibly romantic gesture. She was not patient enough to wait for his kiss and she pulled him to her lips without another thought. It brought elation to Thor’s life to have such a response. Tears of joy streamed down Emi’s face, feeling more complete now that he was right there with her.

The reunion of the lovely pair reached the ears of Lola and she couldn’t help but happy for her dear friend. Back at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Lola grew to love the place and even began to participate in teaching the young students. She and Logan would help the older ones to better defend themselves, it was a great pairing because Lola soothed the fact Logan was very intimidating to the students. As she very much wanted, was getting back into the swing of things. Logan grew close with Lola but they remained platonic just supporting one another during their hard times. He was recovering from the death of a woman he loved and she was recovering from various things. She understood him greatly, like she had some insight to who he really was and didn’t judge the rage that dwelled within Logan. Both were wild yet restrained and others began to notice their level of friendship.

Emi approved of Lola’s friendship with Logan because when they would visit, Emi could see he was one of few people in Lola’s life that she was truly at ease with. When Thor invited Emi to be a date for Tony’s party she wasn’t quite prepared to see how stupid Tony had gotten since the breakup with Lola. Granted she knew how he was before but what was happening was beyond ridiculous. It wasn’t the type of party she frequented and a part of her just wanted to beat the living hell out of Tony for being such an idiot. As Emi recalled the idiot went on the record to state he wanted to pass the law to require mutants to be registered as such with the government. There weren’t a lot of laws in progress that would get Lola worked up to stand against and that law was one of the few Emi saw her friend got genuinely upset about. Emi completely understood the fact Lola was upset when Tony so stupidly announced he supported the terrible thing. She just didn’t understand how Tony could support something like that and continue to support it after Lola had gotten so upset. Surely Lola was much more important than supporting a law that wanted to out all mutants. It made absolutely no sense except that he was more stubborn than Lola. The party went on and it got to the point where Tony had begun to talk to herself and Thor.

“Where‘s Mutton Chops and Lola? I thought I had invited them.”

“He always asks me about Lola and her lover,” Thor states looking down at Emi with a smile.

“He‘s not her lover, they are just friends,” Emi responds shaking her head. “Although, he is a good looking man who actually treats Lola well so who knows what will happen in the future if a certain dumbass doesn‘t try to get her back?”

“Sounds like she‘s fine without ,me,” Tony replies in a casual manner. His careless behavior and comments made Emi lose it. Soon she found herself grabbing Tony by the ear and dragging him to an empty room. Thor could not help but laugh at the sight of seeing his beloved dragging the man of iron away by his ear.

“She is not fine! The only reason she left was because some psychopath used his powers to scramble her brain and make her feel like the worst person in the world! That night you two had that fight, Daniel died and the mix of the two just brought her down enough for that bastard to attack her mind! Lola is a fucking rad lady who deserves someone who is going to take care of her and not treat her like she doesn‘t matter!

“I can‘t believe I ever encouraged her to give you chance,” she finishes with an angry look. Tony stared back at the wild haired brunette, trying to process all the information he had just learned.

“Is she okay now?” he found himself asking in a quiet tone.

“She‘s trying to be. Something you should try to be doing.”

Without another word Emi left the room and headed back over to Thor. He kissed her on the forehead and wrapped his arm around her waist. Tony was left to his thoughts while the couple left his party. The night did not turn out the way he thought, his façade kept up but no longer did he buy it. Instead of prolonging the party he made sure it ended early. Tony needed time to sober up more and think things over but he couldn’t think of a way to win Lola back. Hell he didn’t even know where she was staying at. Where could he even start to begin for righting his wrongs?

Professor Charles Xavier smiled as Lola taught the younger students about botany. They seemed to love her teaching tactics that involved talking long walks and explaining some of the plants native to the area. She helped out with the cooking and managed to be in tune with most of the students living at the school. With Lola around Logan stayed around longer and with Lola around the Professor had another to trust to be on his team. It was a process to get her at peace with some of the things that had happened in her life.

Logan and Lola were competing against one another by racing around the grounds. She ran closely behind Logan attempting to catch up with him. He got too confident and began to taunt Lola which in turn caused her to tackle him down. It was not in her nature to let one taunt her without giving them good reason not to and Logan soon realized that when she knocked him onto the grass.

“Okay you win,” Logan surrenders.

“You would think the notorious Wolverine wouldn‘t give up so easily,” she teases.

“Wouldn‘t want to hurt ya.”

“Oh please, there is no pain you can inflict that I haven‘t felt before. Our enemies do not hold back,” Lola counters with a taunting smirk.

“I could easily over power you,” he states pinning her down onto the ground. Logan gave her a very serious look. “Is this what you want?”

“It‘s a start.”

Without another word Lola flipped the positions and pinned his body down. Roots came up from the earth and bound his wrists and legs. Her gaze was very stoic and Logan looked up at her. Lola straddled his waist as her hands touched the insides of his forearms. There was a fascination with his skeletal structure and Logan remained frozen in his spot staring at her every feature something he hadn’t done before now. He noticed the flecks of gold in her dark green eyes and her European nose had a sprinkle of freckles on it. Logan hadn’t noticed how she looked like those old paintings of the saddened Madonna always looking down with such burden on her mind. Lola’s eyes flicked back to Logan’s face sensing that he was staring at her.

“Don‘t fool yourself into thinking I was ever defenseless to those that have caused me great pain, if I wanted to avoid that pain I would have easily gotten away. It is my personal belief that we choose to feel the pain we feel, we yearn for the pain because it is the only thing that reminds us that we are alive.”

“Then why are you smiling?” Logan questions looking at her confused. A soft chuckle escaped her lips and the roots retreated back into the earth.

“Because even in pain, you can find solace in knowing that you are still here, living, breathing,” she smiles patting his chest. “Food for thought.”

Lola maneuvered herself off of Logan and got back onto her feet. Logan did not saying anything for a while. Choosing to get back onto his feet, Logan stood in front of her. She merely smiled back at him as if nothing had happened. Challenging him to another race back to the mansion and Logan could not help but smile as she began to run without another word.

Being that it was a school for youngsters, Lola and Logan were left to get their alcohol elsewhere. It had been a while since their last visit to the city they had planned to go see Emi and Thor for drinks in the city. Somehow they managed to arrive earlier than the star-crossed lovers and began to drink their beers while watching various couples dancing together to the beat of the jazz band. Logan managed to finish his bottle of beer and attempted to order another from the bartender.

“Not until you take this beautiful woman next to you out on the dance floor for a song,” the old man states in a stern manner.

“What if she doesn‘t want to dance?” Logan counters.

“All pretty ladies like to dance, ain‘t that right sweetheart?”

“Generally they do but-”

“See, now the two of you go out there and the next round is on me, how about it?” the man says looking at them with a smile. Lola let out a chuckle and turned to Logan.

“Hey pretty lady wanna dance?” Lola inquires humorously as she held her hand out to Logan. He shook his head at her disapprovingly before taking her by the hand. After all he did want another beer and a free one at that. Logan wasn’t one for dancing but he did so regardless and the pair moved along to the beat. Lola was doing fine until she lost her footing on some spilt alcohol but Logan pulled her closer to avoid the chance of her falling backwards. She looked up realizing the close proximity in which Logan was in. It was in that moment she tried to imagine what it would be like to kiss him. A mere curiosity that caused her to be quiet for a few moments.

“Something wrong?”

“Question for you.”

“Shoot,” Logan replies.

“How exactly have we not tried to turn this into something else?” Lola questions rather bravely.

“I don‘t know, er, did you want to try to turn this into something else?” he counters now giving the idea just as much thought as she did.

“It‘s fairly logical, we work well together, don‘t have problems-” she begins to say only to be cut off by Logan kissing her. Lola kissed him back and they a took a moment to test the waters of a possible romantic relationship with one another. However neither felt the physical chemistry they would have liked to have. Pulling away they both shook their heads at one another and laughed.

“Beer?”

“Sounds fantastic.”

Emi had witnessed the kiss and so did Tony who seemed put off by the idea of Lola kissing someone else. Thor nudged his friend forward to continue walking. Of course Emi didn’t seem entirely convinced by the kiss, it seemed to her that it lacked any fire or passion. When they reached the pair who took sips of their free beers, Lola gave a bright humor filled smile. Emi hugged her friend and while Lola hugged her back she noticed Tony standing next to Thor. Her eyes went wide momentarily thrown off by the fact he was even there let alone without any scantily clad ladies on his arm.

“It‘s nice to see you Logan, how are you doing this fine evening?” Emi inquires.

“Fine what about you?”

“Good, good,” she smiles then turned her gaze to Lola. “Nothing I should know?”

“Nope,” Lola answers taking a drink of her beer. “Wait actually there was something.”

“Yes…continue.”

“Continue with what?”

“I hate you, you know I love chismes,” Emi grumbles crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“I know darling I know, one of your many faults.”

“Emilia hath no faults,” Thor states puffing his chest out.

“It‘s disturbing to hear him say that with so much conviction,” Lola comments eye balling Thor in a concerned manner.

“I‘m fabulous I don‘t know what you‘re talking about.”

“Shall we dance m‘lady?”
Emi giggled as she took Thor’s hand. He lead her to the dance floor and Lola let out displeased groan. Logan laughed knowing the displays of affection were incredible overwhelming. Tony wasn’t sure how to start conversation and he decided to jump into it by making a joke.

“Better than him drinking all my alcohol and locking himself in the bathroom listening to Adele.”

“Oh you missed it when he showed up that night, he was belting out those songs,” Lola counters with small smile.

“I bet it was a sight to see.”

“This one was laughing like a crazy woman,” Logan adds shaking his head. The cellphone communicator for the X-Men rang and Logan took the call somewhere quiet.

“So you two been together long?” Tony questions in a casual manner as Lola‘s eyes followed Logan outside.

“What? No, we‘re not together, he was humoring my logic and it was a poor assumption.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Meaning it would be logical if he and I started a relationship being that we worked well together and enjoyed each other‘s company,” she says rather quickly. “I shouldn‘t be in any relationships anyways, I‘m horrible at having those things without them being destructive.”

“Is that what you thought our relationship was?” he counters. She turned to look at him upon hearing the hurt tone in his voice.

“I‘m fairly certain we weren‘t well off after we broke up,” Lola states looking him in the eyes. “You turned to drinking and I turned to being controlled by a monster.”

“Is there any chance to start things over?”

“I-I don‘t want to risk things, it‘s not the time,” she says taking a deep breath. He rested his hand on top of hers but she pulled back to walk towards Logan who looked like he was receiving some upsetting news. Suddenly she knew it could be one of two things, Viktor Creed or Franz Keller. She rushed towards him with a demanding look in her eyes.

“The Professor wants us to get back to the mansion, Creed went berserk and attacked some of the students,” Logan finally replies to her questioning eyes.

“No, if we go back he is going to get away and attack someone else.”

“Are you in it for the long haul?”

“I‘m not letting you do it on your own,” Lola responds fiercely. She wouldn’t allow him to get away, he was dangerous and gave mutants a bad name. There was no way in hell that she would let that bastard give her people a bad name and hurt the innocent without a fight.