On Dealing with Wild Animals

or

Hunting Angelos with Jubilee

A joint piece by: Amphitrite & Kat

 

The stars stretched themselves across the deep navy tapestry above Xavier's school for gifted youngsters and beneath their light two of the aforementioned youngsters were getting an opportunity to discuss a something that had been brewing between them for weeks...a little something called chemistry.

"Um, so like, what're we gonna do?" Jubilee's voice was colored by it's usual Valley-girl accent, but the tones in her voice indicated the foreign shades of timidness and hesitance that until previously her companion had thought completely alien terms to her.

* 'What're we gonna do?' she asks! Like I know any better then her! I'm not even sure I feel any thing for her, I mean come on! Jubilee an' me?! Whatta joke! She's a loud-mouth, bratty, immature, cute, perky, sweet, mallrat! Whoa hold the boat!! Did I just use the words 'cute, perky, and sweet' in reference to Jubilation Lee?! This can't be good...* After a momentary mental scramble for a reaction, he decided to play innocent. "Que? Do about what, Jubes?" Innocent was not his forte. Picking a point about an inch to the left of her head, he stared at the empty air, desperate to avoid her eyes. Focusing intently on the chosen spot of nothing, Angelo watched a speck of dust float down. Awkward moments ticked by, lapsing into seemingly eternal minutes. As far as he could tell without looking at her, she hadn’t reacted. Maybe, just maybe, he was only being paranoid. Then a small pyrotechnic explosion went off in front of his face.

"How am I supposed to TALK ta ya if you don' even look at me, Ange?" He shook his head, trying to get his vision to clear again. Succeeding partially, he ignored the multicolored spots dancing around his eyes as best he could.

"I was payin' attention!"

An exasperated sigh escaped her and her shoulders slumped, in defeat or exhaustion or hopelessness, he couldn't tell. She looked deeper into the woods, deeper then the little private clearing they'd chosen just inside the tree line. The clearing was about half way between the boys dorm and the girls dorm a good place for a secret mid-night meeting. Angelo looked to the stars for the guidance Jubilee was searching the trees for. He briefly wondered if she was expecting Wolverine to whisper words of advice from the foliage and with that thought came even more disturbing one..if Wolverine was watching this would angelo be able to tell? Probably not. And what would Senor Logan think of this little tete e' tete between him and Logan's own lil' darlin', Jubilee? *Probably think about ways to castrate me with out warping her...*

"HELLOO!! Geez! And you said you were listening!"

He swung his eyes back in her general direction this time opting to stare at the center of her forehead rather then make the dreaded eye contact. "Sorry," he apologized lamely, "I...I just don't know chica...I don't know where we go from here...I mean I got no problem with just bein good friends, but..."

"You were the one who pointed out that there was more!," she interrupted rudely but was too angry to care,"You were the one who said we should talk so here I am! So talk!"

He was willing to concede she had a point but he had no idea what had possessed him this afternoon when he'd finally asked her to meet and talk with him about the feelings that had been making things so...tense between them lately. *Waitta' minute, yeah I DO know what possessed me; Stupid, whacked-out, crazy-as-all-get-out, *&^%$! teenage hormones! They just mess you all the *$^% up! They mess every thing up!. Maybe I can get out of this...* Before following what are apparently built in genetic information for all teenage guys on the face of the planet, and quite possibly beyond, he managed one more rational thought to himself. He really, really didn’t want to hurt Jubes or freak her out. But this was a horribly compromising, uncomfortable-as-hell situation. Then his hindbrain kicked in, screaming madly to run now and not look back. seeing as that was his only usable and appropriate thought at the moment, he stood slowly, looking approximately at her eyes. THE tiny bit of control that he had left snapped. He calmly turned, and bolted. He made it about 25 feet, then tripped on a tree root, and slammed his face into a tree. "Owwwwwwwwwwww......"

Jubilee dropped her head into her hands and considered the following deeply, before standing and walking with more composure over to Angelo then anyone would have thought she could muster, *Do I really want a relationship with THIS guy?*

She supposed she did since her heart gave a disturbing flutter upon seeing the helpless dazed look on his adorable face. *Whoa Lee rope in the hormonal gush! This is still Angelo, the guy that just up and bolted from a quiet chat in the woods like a small, skittish animal from rustling bush.* The analogy gave her an idea, *Alright so all I have to do is remember what Wolvie taught me about approaching small, wild animals. Step 1) "Don't just rush in, take things slowly"* She stood next to Angelo's prone form giving him plenty of time to recover his wits and even sit up a little. *Step 2) "Always offer your hand out for inspection, if the critter accepts it then you're pretty much in good graces with it for the moment."* Jubilee carefully offered her hand out to Angelo, palm up, and waited with baited breath for him to take it...after a moment of careful examination Angelo reached out and took her hand tentatively. *Step3) "Now remember darlin' this is the important moment you still have to move slowly, makin no sudden movements or else ya risk the critter boltin on you again, with your free hand reach out keepin the hand in sight o' it and rest it gently on the bunnies upper haunch."* Jubilee reached her hand out making sure to keep it in plain sight of the bun...er...Angelo's peripheral vision and rested it gently on his shoulder. Slowly, very slowly she pulled him to his feet and finally their eyes met. Angelo realized words were overrated and he hesitantly bent his head toward hers, somewhere in the back of her head Jubilee heard a familiar gruff voice say,*"The animal might still be a little skittish, but if your careful with it, it'll always be willin to let you get near it."* She couldn't help smiling against Angelo's lips as he brought them down over hers. Within a few heart beats (or what would have been a couple of beats had her heart not stopped :) she forgot all about that certain voice and it's wise advise for dealing with dumb animals and gave herself over to the moment of her first true kiss.

Da' End

 

Until she'd gathered enough of her wits about her to remember the way he'd so callously run off and smacked the ever lovin' crap outta him and preceded to walk away without explanation as was female tradition. He should know what he did wrong, after all. Angelo lay sprawled on the cold forest floor for the second time that night and briefly searched the stars for answers as to why Jubilee would beat on him like that. He found them strangely unresponsive, all they did was wink at him inspiring his last conscious thought of the evening, *Hmph, must be all women up there.*


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