Bobby: Bobby made a face at the building, glanced at the general state of the neighborhood, then shook his head as he cut the engine.
Bobby: This was the right address, definitely. The guy's shiny classic car was parked out front of a building that was a classic as well, but not nearly as well preserved as the vehicle. They lived in this?
Jamie: Jamie pushed Breathless aside gently with one arm, then pulled a screw from his mouth to put in the hinge of the cabinet door. Jean would be so surprised when she got home! Maybe. The upstairs kitchen wouldn't be finished, but it would at least be more workable. The puppy bounced onto his leg again while he was crouched and ready to use the power drill. "Don't make me put you in your crate."
Bobby: Bobby hopped up the steps and opened the door labeled 'X-Factor Investigations.' A bell rang and he looked around. It was better on the inside than the outside, but not by much. "Hello?"
Jamie: Jamie started at the sound of the bell, cracking his head on the underside of the cabinet. "OUCH!" The dupe kissed his boo boo and he frowned over his shoulder. "Yeah, that's just weird." Prime absorbed the dupe once he'd stood and brushed his pants off. "Be right there!" He tossed his tools aside, pulled on his trench coat, scooped up the pup, and trotted down the stairs. Bobby? Cool! "Heh. Ice puns." Moving on! "Hey, dude! Need a P.I.?"
Bobby: He heard a clatter upstairs and winced. "Sorry!" he called, but soon enough thought he heard him talking to himself about ice puns. Hooboy. "Hey!" he said when he spotted the guy and... a puppy? Ooo. "Not at the moment. Who's the fluffbutt?" Said white fluffy dog was wagging its tail and wriggling.
Jamie: "This is Breathless Mahoney. We just call her Breathless, though." Said puppy was struggling and whimpering and barking in her attempts to get to the new person. "She's such a great guard dog... She'll lick you to death!" Jamie set her down and let her bound over to Bobby, watching as she tried to sniff his shoes and jump up his legs at the same time. "No P.I. huh? So, um... Not that it's not awesome to see you, but, you don't exactly drop by like... ever."
Bobby: "Well hi, Breathless!" Bobby crouched to let the dog get to his face and she made her best effort to lick him to death. He ruffled her fur and babbled to her a bit. Dogs were fucking awesome, after all. "Yeah, well, it's not every day we get jumped by a prick from a portal, either."
Jamie: "Oh. Yeah, that's true." Jamie winced a bit, wishing he could forget that whole fiasco. Now he felt like he needed another skin-stripping shower. Euargh. Whyyyyy? "Jean told me that you guys really were toddlers. Do you remember it at all?"
Bobby: Despite the puppy aggressively and happily nomming his hand, he caught that wince. "Yeah, that sucked ass. Well... more like wiped ass, as in somebody else had to do it for us." Bobby laughed at himself. "Just... bits and pieces."
Jamie: Jamie barked a laugh at that. He'd not thought of that side of things. "I guess speaking of wiping ass... Do you wanna beer or anything? Or are you not planning on staying long?"
Bobby: "Beer is always good," he said, although the ass wiping thing made him laugh. "We'll keep our asses to ourselves."
Jamie: "Beer it is!" He headed for the office kitchen and shook his ass on the way. Breathless yipped and bounded after him. "No. No beer for you. You're underage! What do you think I am? A 'cool dad'?"
Bobby: Bobby was still laughing, shaking his head as he followed Jamie and his dog. Guy went from thinking he was hitting on him to wriggling his ass at him. "Dogs do like beer, not that I'm speaking from experience or anything."
Jamie: "She may like it, but she's not allowed to have it. That can apply to lots of things and people. Or animals. Figaro wants my death. I disappoint him daily." Jamie pulled out two beers and passed one to Bobby, gesturing at the high boy table and chairs with the butt of his own bottle.
Bobby: He nodded his thanks and took the beer, heading for a chair. "Figaro?"
Jamie: "Jean's cat. He's... Somewhere. Plotting my demise. I got between him and his favorite red head." Jamie popped open the beer after he sat down and took a swig. "And then Dupero's around somewhere. I can dupe cats, apparently." Just not people... He barely managed to suppress his shudder.
Bobby: "Ahhh. Cats. Yeah, cats are evil incarnate." Bobby opened his own bottle, took a drink, then frosted it. Perfect. "Dupe cats? No shit?" That was... a thing. "Better watch out or you'll end up with two dogs... two Jeans..." Breathless had found a toy and settled to the kitchen floor to maul it.
Jamie: Jamie choked on his beer and nearly gagged with how hard he was coughing. "No," he squeaked out. "Nope." Two Jeans is not what would happen. Covered in her entrails and viscera with bits of blood and skin stuck to him is what would happen.
Bobby: "Fucking hell! Dude! You okay?" He started to get up in case Jamie either blew chunks at him, or needed actual help.
Jamie: Jamie slid from his stool and stumbled over to get a glass of water, Breathless' eyes tracking him across the room. He waved the dog and the friend off. When he said he wanted to make Jean explode, he never meant literally. Only metaphysically. Sexually. He guzzled the water and adjusted his shoulders in the coat. "Fine," he croaked. "'m fine." More water. Beer hurt when it went up the nasal canal.
Bobby: Bobby decided to drop down and pet the dog, since the dude wasn't accepting assistance. He watched the guy. Fine. Suuure. Jamie was twitchy, and pounding that water while he twitched. "Sorry, dude..." Bobby was rolling his own comment from just before the spew through his mind. "You sure you're okay?"
Jamie: "Nothing a good nasal spray won't fix." Defuse and distract with humor. Best tactic. Wait. He'd read something about Bobby before. Jamie turned and eyed him critically. "You and Rogue... You guys killed people, right?"
Bobby: It was Bobby's turn to choke on his beer, although luckily he'd just been starting a sip after he chuckled. He knew that tactic well after all.
Jamie: "Is that a yes?" Jamie arched an eyebrow. That was a yes. Totally a yes. "Water?"
Bobby: "No," he coughed, but recovered quickly enough. Breathless decided to help him with a good face licking and he fended the puppy off until he could stand up and head back to the table.
Bobby: Once his ass was firmly parked, he finished that drink, going for a chug. Finished, he cleared his throat and eyed Jamie. "We killed Marauders."
Jamie: "Potayto, potahto," Jamie mumbled. He sucked his lower lip fully into his mouth while he stared at Bobby. Best way to put this? No best way. Just out with it. "On purpose?" ...Not exactly 'out with it,' but it was a start.
Bobby: "Potatoes that had tried to kill us, that did kill some of us..." Bobby narrowed his eyes and studied Jamie while Jamie stared at him. "Yes and no..." He looked down at the bottle and turned it in his hands. "I... was pissed, and I lost control."
Jamie: Well that was confusing. "So you lost control and killed them on accident?" Kind of the same... Only, Jamie didn't know he could do it the way he had.
Bobby: "The first one... was mostly an accident. We'd talked about how they deserved it, but I wasn't sure..." Bobby licked his lips and met Jamie's eyes. "I know you killed Arcade. I get it. It's... hard, but it was self defense, and you saved all those people. And Jean."
Jamie: Oh. He knew? Probably some sort of debriefing or something... Did he know how? Jamie shuddered. "I didn't do it on purpose. I, um," he looked down at the glass in his hands, "I duped."
Bobby: Bobby of course knew what he meant by duping, since he'd seen the guy do it plenty over the years, but he wasn't sure how that would kill somebody. Whatever it was, it wasn't good. "It's... not a feeling you want to get used to - killing." Bobby frowned and took a drink. "But sometimes it has to be done."
Jamie: "I didn't mean to do it. I was trying to knock the guy out." Why didn't he get that? "Something hit me and forced me to dupe while I was holding him. I wasn't trying to kill him."
Bobby: "How would that kill him?" He really hated to ask, just by the look on Jamie's face, but it just wasn't computing.
Jamie: Jamie groaned and sank to the floor, still not looking away from the glass. "He..." Was he really about to say this out loud? He steadied his stomach and closed his eyes to try and block out the images. "Exploded."
Bobby: "Oh." Bobby let that roll around in his head for a minute and paint some disgusting mental pictures. "Oh shit, dude..." No wonder he looked shell shocked. "I'm..." What did you even say to that? Half his friends were killers, and he'd seen the shit powers could do. "Fuck, sorry, dude."
Jamie: "It wouldn't have been so bad if..." What? It would still have been bad! ...Maybe not as bad, though... Yeah okay. "I mean, it still would've been bad, but not as bad if I hadn't duped inside of him." Why is this coming out? Jamie couldn't stop himself from talking about it. SHUTUP.
Jamie: "Thought about killing the me that did that so that I wouldn't have to absorb it. But, then when Jean wasn't breathing," STOP, "I went with my instinct to just absorb myself. So now I know what it was like to not only explode him from the outside but to be the one who exploded him from the inside and be covered in gore and gross and I'm pretty sure I throw up about once a week when I wake up from a nightmare about it. Don'ttellJeanorshe'llfreak."
Bobby: Bobby watched the guy waffle around as he usually did, seeming like he was having about six conversations at once. "That's... real rough." His face screwed up more and more as he kept babbling. "I'm not gonna tell her, but... isn't she a telepath?"
Jamie: "...Yeah." Jamie grimaced. "But I've forced all of that behind a wall that she's respecting because it's rough." She was still doing that, right? She hadn't said otherwise. Besides, she has her own trauma to deal with, so why would she want to deal with that, too. No joke. "And she almost always sleeps through my nightmares...I think. Or she at least pretends to. Unless I drag her in on accident which has happened before. Cannibals."
Bobby: Sure she did. Especially if he was barfing in this echo palace. Bobby hummed and just nodded. "Yeah... you've been through the wringer." He licked his lips, and considered how to put this with mister prickly here. "I've... been there, too. So if you feel like you want to talk about it, just give me a call, 'kay?"
Jamie: "You've exploded someone? Like... With your vapor or some shit?" Don't be a dumbass. "Oh, you probably just meant you've been through a lot. Sorry." Jamie rolled his shoulders and pushed to stand. "I appreciate that, man. I, um, I'll keep that in mind."
Bobby: Bobby winced. "...I actually have, yeah..." He cleared his throat and took a long swig of beer. Fucking Riptide... "But yeah, a lot of us have been through... a lot." Yeah, well put. Bobby pulled his phone from his pocket and fired off a text to Anna.
Jamie: "See, this is why I didn't sign up for the X-Men bullshit. I'm done going through 'a lot'. I've got my own thing going now. And, yet, somehow, I still find myself at the shit end of the stick." Whoa, dude. Jamie took a breath and ran his hand down his face. "Sorry. It's just," no better word for it, "a lot..."
Bobby: He just watched him rant. "Yeah, it is." He set his bottle down and crossed his arms. "How's Jean doing with all of this?"
Jamie: "Um. Nooot great. But she still wants to be on the team and I'm not going to take that away from her. Did, uh... Did you get debriefed on what all the asshole did?" He wasn't sure he should even be talking about it, but Bobby was a dad. He would get it. Jamie needed someone to get it.
Bobby: "Just the basics," he said, shrugging one shoulder. "That he kept you captive, fucked around with all of you, and that you lost some more dupes." He cleared his throat. "Sorry about that, man." Bobby hadn't heard one way or the other if Jean was staying on the team, so that was news to him.
Jamie: Yeah, that was pretty basic, alright. He walked over to his chair and sat back down, slumping over his beer with his elbows on the table. "Thanks." Jamie's nose twitched and his shoulders tried to adjust in his coat again. "Jean was pregnant."
Bobby: Oh shit. "Was..." Bobby made a face and shook his head, picking that beer back up for another long drink. "Fucking A. I'm so sorry." He licked his lips and stared at the top of Jamie's head. "What... um, what happened?"
Jamie: "Fucking A happened. Arcade forced a miscarriage. He wanted to keep her as his toy but didn't want her 'used' or some shit." Jamie waved a hand in a circle, "He just... Made it happen. Like you can make ice happen."
Bobby: "Fuuuuuck... that's... a new level of fucking crazy." He could only shake his head. No wonder Jamie'd killed him. Good fucking riddance. He frowned... "I know it was an accident, but I'd have killed him for that."
Jamie: "Yeaaaaah... I mean... The thought crossed my mind. And he was killing Jean when it happened... But I definitely wouldn't have done it that way." EVER. "I didn't even know that was possible..." Jamie cleared his throat and took a swig of his beer. "We didn't know if she was for sure or not. We just guessed it while we were trapped there... She had some tests run when we got home and... Yeah."
Bobby: "Ain't it fun when we surprise ourselves? Most of the shit my powers do were a big fucking surprise." Like dying and coming back. Sorta. He gave his head a sharp shake to clear those thoughts. "Yeah, I never would have guessed, so she must have been really early on..."
Bobby: He sighed. "It's... pretty fuckin' inadequate, but... sorry, again. I, uh, know what it's like to lose a kid..."
Jamie: Jamie frowned. That hadn't been in his file. Or had it? Had he forgotten already? Or had he just not kept up with it enough? "Damn. I'm sorry, man. I didn't know." He took another drink and nodded. "They think she was probably only about six weeks, max."
Bobby: Bobby cleared his throat. "Not... as traumatic as what Jean went through, but Paige... we had problems conceiving." Okay, maybe it had been pretty traumatic. Definitely for Paige it had been, since she blamed herself...
Jamie: Yeah, definitely just not kept up with it enough. That made him feel a little better about his mental capacity, at least. "Well, you've got a cute clone out of yourself in the end, so..." So...what? It was a good thing? It all worked out in the end? Jamie mentally facepalmed. "Sorry."
Bobby: His eyebrows were climbing during Jamie's ramble, but he let it slide. Dude'd been through enough. "It's fine, I get what you meant." Bobby took a drink. "I'm sure you and Jean will end up with some clones too, someday."
Jamie: "With our luck, I'll get her pregnant with a dupe or something," he grumbled. "Would be my kid, but still." Jamie tossed back the last of his beer and went to the fridge for another one. "Want another?"
Rogue: House hunting. What happened?
Bobby: "Fuck yeah. I think this conversation calls for all the beer." Bobby huffed and shook his head as he drained the last of his bottle. His phone beeped and he frowned at the message from Anna. House hunting. With Tony Stark. Right.
Bobby: "...with a dupe? Is that... possible?" He'd never thought about the dude's spunk, and now that he was he made a face. Nothing important, he sent back and tossed his phone down.
Jamie: Jamie pulled two more out and kicked the fridge shut behind him. "I mean, I don't see why not?" He passed Bobby his beer with a shrug. "It's still me, after all."
Bobby: "But if it's a dupe... she'd have a baby... but it'd be... you?" Yeah. He needed that beer.
Jamie: "I-" Had never thought about that. "Um." Jamie opened his new beer and took a long swallow as he tried to process that. "No? Maybe? Fuckity fuck fuck. She can never have sex with another dupe ever again. Talk about trauma..."
Bobby: Bobby's face screwed up before he could stop it. Quickly, he looked down and covered with opening his beer and downing half the bottle. Wow. That... was more information than he'd ever wanted and explained a lot about how a girl like Jean had ended up with a guy like Jamie.
Bobby: When he had gulped that salvation down, he replied. "...she, uh... does that a lot, does she?"
Jamie: "Only once. In a death maze..." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Before Arcade killed our baby..."
Bobby: Oh. Nevermind. "That's..." Weird. But he couldn't say that, now could he? "Have you ever talked to big and blue about your powers?" Bobby took another fortifying drink. "He helped me with mine... as much as he could, anyway."
Jamie: "No? I mean, I know everything there is to know... I think."
Jamie: Jamie rolled the beer between his palms and stared at the label as it started to peel at the edges. "My dad figured out enough to make my shirts and jackets and stuff since I was a baby. And we tested my powers a lot on the farm."
Bobby: "Except... you didn't know about the, uh, thing you did to Arcade, right?" He cleared his throat and took another drink. "And I know you're from Kansas and all, but I doubt you were testing making babies down on the farm with your folks, dude."
Jamie: "Well I never duped with my hand in someone's mouth before, so no, I didn't." Jamie's back stiffened and he took a fast pull from his bottle. "My parents died before I even thought about having kids, dude. So no."
Bobby: "...fuck. I actually even knew that. Sorry." Good job, Drake. Duped with his hand in Arcade's mouth... ew. Also, ew. That... filled in even more of the mental picture that he never wanted. "Okay, yeah... I fuckin' sucked at making the point that sometimes our powers surprise us... and scare the shit out of us." At that, he took a drink.
Jamie: Jamie took another drink himself and cleared his throat. "Surprise doesn't really cover it... But yeah." He shrugged one shoulder. "So, how have you adjusted to being an adult again?”
Bobby: "You ask some people, I've never made it to maturity in the first place." He shook his head and laughed, looking down at his phone when it beeped again.
Rogue: Bugs… What?
Jamie: "That's part of the fun of being a dude, though. We can be immature and people just say that it's because we're guys." Jamie's eyes flicked to Bobby's phone at the noise, then looked down to check on the too-quiet puppy. Aww, sleepy baby.
Bobby: Bobby flipped the phone over to look. Anna. He read her message and sighed. Of course she knew something was wrong. "Yuuup, I've mastered that one."
Jamie: "You know what goes great with beer?" He hopped up and Breathless twitched. "Weed. It's a helluva way to forget being covered in someone's guts and not being mature enough."
Bobby: "Ha! You're not wrong." He eyed the sleeping puppy. "Also, you've definitely been around Jean for too long," he laughed.
Jamie: "Nah..." He hesitated mid-step. "Maybe." Jamie grinned at the thought of Jean. "But nah. Be right back. Gonna go grab some from her stash."
Bobby: Bobby had to smile at the kid's lovesick expression. "I'll hold down... the chair."
Jamie: Jamie took the stairs two at a time to their bedroom, eyeballing the cat in the hall. Need to color code them. He bounded into the room and reached for the stash, side-eying the cat curled up on his pillow. Color coded. Tomorrow. He made his way back downstairs and sent Jean some love vibes and semi-sincere apologies for getting stuff from her hiding place. "Ta daaaaa."
Bobby: He read the short message again, gave the dog a glance, took a drink. Sigh. Bobby picked up his phone. Xerox asked me about X-Force. He hit send and finished the beer, looking around the obviously recently restored kitchen.
Jamie: Jamie slid into the kitchen ala Risky Business, except, you know, fully clothed. "Got it! Smoke or edible?"
Bobby: "Life is short and edibles take too long," he laughed.
Jamie: "Good because I only grabbed the leafy stuff. I'd have to go back up for the gummies." Jamie tossed the stuff on the table and sat back down. "Guests first. Jean's okay with us doing this but she's a little 'OMG' about me smoking without her. Again."
Bobby: "Oh yeah, you've got the whole chained at the brain thing going on." He nodded and reached for the bag to search for something interesting.
Jamie: "Yeah. The link thing." He grinned and picked up his bottle for another roll between his palms. "Do you and Paige have anything like that? I mean, I know your powers are different, but, you know what I mean..."
Bobby: "Naaah." Bobby selected a joint that looked interesting and fished the lighter from the bag. "Rachel taught me to shield, but I'm no telepath. Paige hates her powers." He lit up and took a slow drag. "And Lorna was a magnet," he said on the exhale, trying not to cough.
Jamie: "So, it's not a thing that non-telepathic type couples have? Like a hive-mind sort of?" Jamie poked around the bag, mentally asking Jean which one he should try and which ones he should avoid.
Bobby: Bobby swallowed. Hive mind. "I've never had that with Lorna or Paige... I mean, sort of. We're around each other a lot, so we think alike, but..." He sat back in the chair and closed his eyes. There was only one woman he'd ever had that with, and she was off buying a house with the president, wasn't she?
Jamie: Jamie nodded in understanding. "I had that with a few flings. Nothing like with Jeannie, though. Totally a different thing. Even before our link." He plucked one out that Jean told him to try and lit it, taking a slow drag.
Bobby: "Yeah... I've never gone out with a telepath. They're all kind of nuts..." Bobby glanced up at Jamie with a crooked smile. "No offense to yours."
Jamie: He shook his head while he held his breath, letting it out slowly after a few seconds. "Nah. She's crazy, too. But, so am I, so it works. Everybody's got a little bit of nuts going around. It's just a matter of finding someone whose crazy matches your crazy. Right?"
Bobby: "Very true..." Bobby thought he'd had that before, but then she wanted to divorce him... and then she died. And now... "It's trickier than you'd think, apparently." At that, he decided he might need another hit.
Jamie: "Finding it? Sure. I mean, we had it, but it took us being apart for about four years for us to realize it. Well... we both realized sooner, but didn't know the other had." He frowned and ran that through his head again, then nodded. Yep. He took another hit and watch Breathless dreaming on the floor. "Don't you have that with Paige? You wouldn't get married without it, right?"
Bobby: "Yeah, finding it..." Bobby just nodded at his babbling. He only knew the basics of their relationship through the school gossip grapevine. He'd sort of had his own problems at the time. Bobby looked at his phone again, trying not to think about Anna. "I thought we did... I mean, I love her..."
Jamie: "Well, there you go then." He waved his hand in a circle, watching the smoke flow lazily. "I mean, I don't know what 'thought you did' means, but you love her, so there you go."
Bobby: "Pretty sure she hates me though," he said, taking another long draw.
Jamie: "Thaaaaat's not good." He narrowed his eyes critically at Bobby and just stared for a loooong time. "Why'd you marry somebody who hates you?"
Bobby: He'd said that out loud? Bobby gave the joint in his hand a long stare. Then jumped when Jamie moved. "...well she didn't hate me when she married me."
Jamie: Jamie's eyes widened at Bobby's words. "That can happen after you get married? Shiiiit. That's scary. Jean said she'd marry me, but we should talk about that first, maybe. Because I'm not doing this wrong."
Bobby: He blinked. "Just 'cause my wife seems pissed I came home after I got toddlerfied doesn't mean Jean is gonna turn on you, man."
Jamie: "Waitwaitwaitwaitwait." Jamie tried and failed to not snicker about that. "Was she mad that you didn't bring your binky home? Or was it because you cried at nap time?"
Bobby: "Whaaat?" He was debating if he needed to frost himself a bit to sober up, but... no. "She never even saw me when I was..." Bobby hovered his hand above the floor at about toddler height. "That."
Jamie: Well that was even more confusing. He stared for a long time, again. Then took another hit because his brain needed help processing. "She was mad because a jackass made you need diapers and she didn't get to help change them?"
Bobby: "...whaaaat?" He'd already said it, but this called for it again. "I... don't... think so?" God, did Paige have a diaper fetish he didn't know about? Bobby stared at the joint again and shook his head like a dog. "No! She thought I was having fun or something while she had to take care of the kids."
Bobby: "Also she was pissed I didn't call her and pissed I went to go help you and Jean and the others. I've been a SHIELD agent for how fucking long and she thinks I'm not gonna go help?" This called for more weed, so he lit it up and took another drag, blowing it out slowly.
Jamie: Jamie stared again, but at least this time it was in disbelief instead of confusion. "Whaaaaat? That's... Was she PMSing?" He waited for the mental smack from Jean. "Or... Or was she like..." What? He giggled, "High?"
Bobby: Bobby snorfled. "Duuude. You did not just play the PMS card. I really don't know. She said it was because she was freaked out, but... I don't know." His phone beeped again and he stared at it for a long moment. "She works all the time. I take care of the kids..."
Jamie: "Is she tugging your leash to come home? That why your phone keeps making noise?" Jamie giggled again. "Wanna swap kids for a day? See if she notices they're furry?"
Bobby: "She might not. Rogue gave Ripley a lightsaber and it took her a week to notice." He took a drink of his beer and looked down at the sleeping puppy. "And Rip even made it float."
Jamie: "So, um." Awkward. Jamie took another hit and rolled his shoulders. "A lightsaber? That's pretty cool. And she made it float? She like Jean with the alien tomatoes?" How did you miss a floating lightsaber?
Bobby: "The fuck are alien tomatoes?" Bobby looked up at Jamie and cocked his head. "She has Lorna's powers. Also, she is strong in the force, like her father before her." He giggled at himself.
Jamie: "Telekinesis. Jean made a tomato float when we met and said that was her power." He giggled. "I never knew about telekinesis before that so I called it an alien tomato." Jamie snickered, "What if she chooses the dark side? I heard they had cookies."
Bobby: "Oh, I'm sure she's got a little of the dark side in there too..." He shook his head and took another sip from the bottle. "Never saw Carrie in Kansas, dude?" Bobby was laughing at the idea though. "Rachel used her teke to do skateboard tricks and you will never convince me otherwise."
Jamie: "Well, yeah, but that was a movie." Jamie frowned. "Wasn't it?" What if it wasn't?! "Was it real?!"
Bobby: Bobby had to really stop and think about that one. "...I mean, maaaybe?" His voice went up at the end. "Um, considering that it was based on a book, maybe he wrote the book about a mutant..." Mind. Blown. "...whoa."
Jamie: "...whoa." Jamie turned his head to stare into space across the kitchen. "What if... Dude. What if people have written books about us and we didn't know it?"
Bobby: "Shiiiit. The writers should be fired then." Bobby shook his head and fired up the joint for another drag.
Jamie: "...Wait. Are they writing our lives?!" Jamie's eyes nearly bugged. "They're doing these things to us on purpose?!" He hopped out of his chair so fast he lost his balance and nearly fell. "I'll show them who's boss!"
Bobby: "Whoa! Steady there, hoss!" He laughed, coughing at the same time, and started to reach for Jamie before he righted himself. "How ya gonna do that, exactly? I was joking!" Mostly. It was kinda weird, but it was probably just the weed. Oh well.
Jamie: That was an excellent question! First, he would take his camera and get dirt on them! Then he would print the photos! Then... Huh. Then, what? "I'm gonna... I'm gonna....." Jamie frowned hard and turned the frown on Bobby. "Dammit."
Bobby: "Sorry, man," he snickered, then laughed harder at that frown. "I feel ya, though. I'd like to kick his ass, too."
Jamie: "Him? How do we know it's a him? Maybe it's a her? Or a them!" Jamie gasped. "What if there's a lot of people doing it?! DUDE. DUUUUDE. They suck!"
Rogue: Are you okay? Why was he asking about it? Do you need my help?
Bobby: "Also they have a lot of spare fuckin' time on their hands..." He reached for his beer and his hand brushed his phone. Oh, right. Bobby checked his message and laughed again. "Rogue thinks I need to be saved from you, man."
Jamie: Jamie blinked at him, then looked down at himself, then back up at Bobby. "Am I dangerous?"
Jamie: Waaaaaaaait. "Waaaaaait... She's who's been making your phone beep? Is that normal?"
Bobby: He killed Arcade. Dude's not okay. Bobby hit send and gave Jamie a once over. "You look super dangerous to me." Although the current crazy eyes were kind of offputting. "Um, yeah... she's been my best friend forever..."
Jamie: "A chick best friend? Jean would flip." Would she, though? "Maybe." Jamie decided he should give up on trying to find the people writing their lives and sat back down. "I don't think I'm dangerous. I'm a teddy bear."
Bobby: "Jean doesn't trust you?" He was distracted by the phone and very nearly made a comment about Arcade learning otherwise. Bad Drake! "I dunno, maybe you got a scary version lurking around in there."
Jamie: "Of course she trusts me! ...She's just..." What wording was best here? Jamie checked their link to make sure Jean wasn't paying close attention. "Insecure?" Sure, that worked.
Jamie: Jamie pulled at the collar of his shirt and looked inside. "Scary is as scary does and I don't."
Bobby: "We all got a dark side..." He sure as shit did. Bobby shook himself and looked up. "Insecure? You guys have that... thing." Bobby waved at his head. "So shouldn't she know better? The rest of us just gotta muddle through."
Jamie: "Guilt complex?" Was that a better word? Phrase? This calls for another hit. For sure. "It also doesn't help that she totally met my man whore self... Though, that bit's kinda broken now." He coughed when he sucked in too much. "Muddle through? Muddle through what?" His wife hates him. "Oh right. Being hated."
Bobby: His man whore broke his what now? Bobby wasn't high enough or drunk enough to think about that. "Maybe not hate, but I just don't think she gives a shit if I'm around anymore. Like... she wanted a family, but now that she has one she doesn't want it."
Bobby: Bobby decided this called for another toke. "Guilt complex? Why?"
Jamie: Jamie hopped up and grabbed more beers from the fridge. "Or maybe she got what she wanted and now you're a non-entity anymore?" Harsh, much? Oh. "I mean..." Not able to fix that one. "...Sorry." He passed Bobby a beer as an apology.
Jamie: "Because, dude. She fucked Quire." Duh.
Bobby: Bobby gave the dude a look. "Ouch, man." He sighed and took the beer, opening it up and taking a long swallow, that he nearly choked on. "The cannibal guy?!" He was still coughing. "Again... ouch." Bobby remembered some of those dismembered, eaten dupes... hard to forget, after all. "You sure you want to marry her? Fuck, dude." He found himself giving Jamie side eye.
Jamie: "Sorry," he repeated, taking his own long drink. "Yeaaah. She didn't realize I thought we were exclusive, so it's really not a thing. Also, we didn't know he was a cannibal yet." Jamie shrugged. "Non-issue to me now, but when I found out, I said I needed time to process. She took that as I was done. And she's been pretty messed up about it since."
Jamie: He grinned, picturing Jean in front of him in a wedding dress. "Yeah. Yeah, I wanna marry her."
Bobby: "Ahhh. Yeah, that'd do it." He took another drink. "I mean, my girlfriend killed me and I still married her, so hey." Bobby recognized that besotted look on the dude's face and smiled a little. "Then I hope it all works out, dude. You guys seem... good together." Equally batshit insane. Yep.
Jamie: "Paige killed you?!" Jamie turned wild eyes to Bobby. "Are you a ghost right now?!" Did he have any ghostbusters memorabilia upstairs? Probably not. Damn. "Don't slime me, 'kay. It's finally clean in this part of the building."
Bobby: Oh good, the crazy eyes were back. "No," he laughed. "I didn't always know that I'm basically immortal, or whatever. It was Lorna. Before your time. Essex... he had us, fucked with us... broke my powers, messed up her mind. She blew me apart." Bobby shrugged and glanced at his phone. "I got better."
Bobby: He raised a brow and smirked. "No worries about slime, dude. You're not my type."
Jamie: "I knew Lorna. She liked me." He gave Bobby a fond smile. "She was nice to me. Good teacher." Jamie took a swallow of his beer at the exact wrong time, which turned into a coughing fit. "EW. Dude. I thought you were over me already!"
Bobby: Bobby cackled. "Don't choke to death, dude. Your girlfriend would find a way to kill me, immortal or not." He sighed, lost in thoughts of Lorna. "I miss her."
Jamie: Jamie nodded in agreement. Jean would totally kill him. He cleared his throat a few times and seemed to be okay, so took another drink. Slowly and carefully. "I'm sorry, man. She was pretty awesome." Now that was a thought. "If you could talk to her and ask her what you should do about Paige hating you, what would she say?"
Bobby: "I think she'd laugh at me for marrying her in the first place, or smack me, 'cause that was pretty much A- Rogue's reaction..." That one was close, and Bobby stared at the weed again. Bad weed. No biscuit.
Jamie: "...Then why did you do it?" Jamie cocked his head and stared at Bobby. "You're more confusing than I am and I'm the most confusing person most people know."
Bobby: "Dude, the school blew up, my wife was dead, her girlfriend was dead." He shifted to look up at Jamie, since Rachel was Jean's cousin. "We just... we'd always been friends, but we were there for each other and it just... happened." On cue, his phone beeped and he flipped it over. Anna.
Jamie: "That's the absolute worst time to make any major life decisions. That's psych 101." Jamie blinked at him. "I mean, I would say, at least it all worked out in the end, but since you're worried she doesn't like you anymore, then what now?"
Rogue: Yeah, I knew that part… Are *you* okay?
Bobby: Bobby started to tap in that he was fine, then stopped. "I would say you've been talking to Rogue..."
Jamie: "Nuh uh. She scares me." Jamie took a drag from his chosen joint and shook his head. "Besides, who knows what would happen if she got my power. I'd be surrounded by a woman who scares me! Noooo thank you."
Bobby: "Ha! That's... the best and worst thing ever. Just... imagine..." He snorted. "Well, you wouldn't be able to see it since you'd be unconscious, but... wow." Bobby got lost in the possibilities of multiple Annas for a moment.
Jamie: Jamie frowned at him for a minute. "What is that?" He waved his joint in front of Bobby's face. "That... What is that?"
Bobby: "That is a whole pack of dupe Rogueys, of course! But then she'd probably try to make out with Jean... although she's into girls, too, isn't she?"
Jamie: "You liked that thought!" Jamie's face was half disgusted and half intrigued. "You want her to try my powers! You monster!"
Bobby: Bobby shook himself and looked back at Jamie. "Huh? Oh..." He laughed. "Not really, it just..." Yeah, he had nothing.
Jamie: Jamie gasped, "You do! My detectiving powers haven't failed me! Well, I don't. She is not allowed to touch me." Hold on. Back up. What else had he said? Jean likes girls? Yeah, and? ........ "Oh, that's hot."
Bobby: "That's... still not a word, dude..." He very nearly bounced when Jamie caught on. "Right?"
Jamie: "But... No! That's..." HOT. "NO! Mine. She's... If I can't play with them, then no bueno." Jamie gave Bobby side-eye, "Have you gotten to play with her when she's like that?"
Bobby: He nearly choked on his beer. "Jean?! No!"
Jamie: "What?! NO!" Oh, now that was a mental image he never needed. He wanted to punch Bobby just for making him imagine him being with his girl. "Rogue! Asshole."
Bobby: "Oh!" Bobby licked his lips, debating for a split second. Fuck it. "Her powers don't work the same on me..."
Jamie: ".....She doesn't like girls after she touches you?" That was weird. Unless... "You've been lying to everyone this whole time! I knew it!"
Bobby: "...she doesn't like girls at all." He shook his head sharply again. "No! Dude, I'm not gay! I've kissed her!" Oh.
Jamie: Jamie audibly gasped. "No wonder she didn't want you to marry Paige! She was your first rebound!"
Bobby: Bobby was internally facepalming. "...yeah, something like that." He either needed more or less weed now.
Jamie: "Something like that? That means it's not like that at all. Spill!" Oh. Was this what Jean meant when talking about psyches and stuff?
Bobby: "Me and Rogue have always been... close." He sighed, deciding he was already in too deep. "Imma have to kill you if you tell anybody any of this..."
Jamie: "Cross my heart, hope to not ever die again because it's awful no matter how it happens." Jamie nodded solemnly and took a slow drink from his beer, eyes never leaving Bobby's face.
Bobby: "I'm with ya there..." Bobby responded to Anna's text while Jamie watched. everything is okay... we're bonding lol Although he'd never noticed how creepy the guy's eyes were before. Probably because Jamie'd never stared him down before.
Jamie: "...You've died a lot, too?" Ohh, more texting. "Are you sexting with her?!"
Bobby: "I have, yeah." He glanced up again and flipped over his phone. "Not quite like you, but... yeah." Bobby's mouth dropped open slightly. "No! I'm married!" Why did the little voice in the back of his head calling him a hypocrite sound like Anna?
Jamie: "Buuuut... She hates you?" Jamie did the mental gymnastics, fingers working it through in the air in front of his face. "Is that why she hates you? Did you tell her about kissing your 'best friend'?"
Bobby: "No! She doesn't know! Hence the death threat, dude!" This was a terrible idea. "She's... been my best friend since before Lorna and I were married. Paige doesn't like her, no, but I think it's just because she's... well, Rogue."
Jamie: "I don't know her well enough to know what that means. She just scares me." He decided he needed to be more high to talk about this. "Did you kiss her because Paige hates you, then? Because she makes you feel good when Paige doesn't? Maybe it's just a reflex thing and doesn't mean anything more than you needed someone to pay attention to you?"
Bobby: Bobby narrowed his eyes to watch him babble. That actually made sense. Xerox might be more astute than he thought. But, no. He cleared his throat and dropped his eyes, studying his hands on the table. "I love her." Now that he'd said it aloud, he blew out a long breath.
Jamie: Uh oh. "Uh huh. Well." Now what? Jeaaaaaaan. NO. Nope. Sworn to secrecy. Right. Nothing! Love you! ...Love. Huh. "You sure?"
Bobby: "Yeah, I'm sure." A muscle in his jaw ticked and he forced himself to unclench his teeth.
Jamie: "You couldn't have figured that out before you got married?" Jamie pinched the bridge of his nose. More weed. Food. Doritos! He got up and went to the snack cabinet, throwing a party sized bag of them at Bobby.
Bobby: He jumped at the sudden movement and caught the bag out of reflex. "I've felt it for a long time, but I never, ever thought it was mutual."
Jamie: "So, what you're telling me, is that, you, Bobby sex-pot Drake, didn't think she had the hots for you? You're dumb."
Bobby: Bobby's nose wrinkled as he opened the bag of chips. "Well now I'm wondering about your sexuality, dude."
Jamie: "You should never wonder about my sexuality. I'm Jean-sexual.
Jamie: ((enter fail))
Bobby: ((he got too excited))
Jamie: And that's all there is to it." He snagged a bag for himself and gave Breathless an ear ruffle on his way by. "You gonna tell Paige that you're in love with somebody else?"
Bobby: "And she's the girliest girl to ever girl," he said with a laugh. "So not like Rae." Bobby shoved a chip in his mouth. "I think I married the other girliest girl," he mumbled, then nearly choked. Again. "How the fuck do I tell her that?!"
Jamie: "I dunno, dude! I've never been in this situation before. I've only ever loved Jean." He frowned in contemplation as he popped his bag, opening it at the bottom so it dumped on the table. Jamie took two of the doritos and put them in a corner, then another by itself and moved it a bit away from the other two. "Which one is you?"
Bobby: Bobby's eyes bugged a little at the food arrangement. "Um. I... don't know? Don't we need some mashed potatoes and aliens for this?" He looked up at him with a cocked head. "Just Jean, huh?" That explained a lot.
Jamie: "Just do it, would you? I have a theory!" A high theory, but a theory! "Pick which tasty triangle is you."
Bobby: "Never been called that either..." He vaguely pointed at one of the chips next to another chip. "And believe me, you didn't know me when I was a student. I was hardly a chick magnet."
Jamie: "Better than being called a sour square, I guess?" He shoved one of the random chips from the pile in his mouth. "Who's beside you?"
Bobby: "...shouldn't it be my wife?" He frowned at Jamie and fought the urge to just eat all the chips.
Jamie: "I dunno, dude. It could be Bruce Wayne for all I care. But who is it?"
Bobby: "Bruce Wayne would make this a lot easier..." Bobby muttered to himself for a while and stared a hole in that chip. "I get the point. It's Rogue, because she's always been the one beside me." He looked up, almost startled at himself that he'd said it.
Jamie: Oooh. High theories worked! Nice! Wait'll Jean hears abo... Dammit. "Who's the other chip then?"
Rogue: Good! Y’all have fun! We’re in Nantucket.
![wink ;)](./images/smilies/wink.gif)
Bobby: Bobby opened his mouth to respond when his phone beeped. "Fuck." He flipped it back over and winced. Anna. This day... was not going as expected. Feeling Jamie's eyes on him while he read the message his nose scrunched. "Nantucket?!"
Jamie: "Hah!" Jamie was so glad he wasn't eating or drinking or smoking anything right then. "There once was a girl in Nantucket. The president she did like to suck it. As she wiped off her chin, she said with a grin, next time maybe I'll just plain fuck it."
Bobby: Bobby's head whipped up to give Jamie a glare. "Dude." He was mildly impressed by the fast limerick skills, but... no.
Jamie: Eeeeeeee.... Jamie recoiled a bit. "Who's the other chip," he reminded Bobby, voice up an octave in nervous apprehension of being punched.
Bobby: The muscle in his jaw ticked again and his gaze shifted to the chips. The urge now was to freeze them, but he squashed that one even harder. Nope! He was already scaring the kid. "Logic would follow that it's Paige, yeah? It's not so simple. We've got a son, and... maybe I just need to be patient. She's doing a residency, and she's stressed..."
Jamie: "Logic doesn't work with this. So, it could be Paige. Could be Lorna. Could be Mr. Stark. Hell, it could be ...shit. I never met the guy, but her ex. No, not ex. The dude who exploded? He was before my time. Anyway, the point is, it could be anybody. Or nobody. It's all how you feeeeel." He reached across the table to poke Bobby gently in the heart area.
Bobby: "Sam," he ground out. "His name was Sam." The poke made him look down at his chest, then back up at Madrox with a raised brow. Chill, Drake.
Jamie: "Sam, then. Hell, it could have been Arcade or the cannibals," no, dummy, that would be our chip, "whatever. You get the idea."
Bobby: Bobby feeeeelt like punching Jamie to see how many dupes popped out. He forced himself to unclench his fist and stared at it. "Yeah, whatever."
Jamie: Jamie frowned at Bobby, then looked down at the mess of chips on the table. Delicious mess. One for us... Dorito in the mouth! Score! One for angry popsicle... Tossed at his face. Woo!
Bobby: A Dorito bounced off his nose. Bobby closed his eyes and after a moment he could only laugh. "For fuck's sake, dude." He sat up and caught the chip as it slid down his shirt and to his lap. After a shrug, he ate it.
Jamie: "Score!" Jamie giggled and slouched down in his chair. "Also, you never answered the question. No logic. Just feels."
Bobby: "I thought I did answer you?" He reached for another chip. "Anyway, we're both high as fucking Stark tower so it doesn't matter."
Jamie: "Nah, man. You answered with 'logic'. Pffft. Logic shmogic." Jamie picked up a chip and balanced it between his index fingers, staring at the orange spotty center of the triangle. "It would be cool to fly over that thing."
Bobby: "I'm sure Jean would go for it." Flying made him think of Lorna, which then made him think of Anna. "Flying is wicked awesome. We were both robbed in the powers department there."
Jamie: Jamie's head lolled back to hit the back of the chair then he let it flop to the side so he could give Bobby a questioning eyebrow. "Fly often?"
Bobby: "Lorna could fly." He cleared his throat, wondering if Jamie was gonna melt out of the chair onto the floor like the last time they'd been high together. His knee started to bounce as he tried not to think of the other flier in his life.
Jamie: "Well, yeah. But so does Rogue... Soooo..." Jamie gave him a crooked grin and popped the chip in his mouth. "Fly often?"
Bobby: Bobby snorted. "I think you need more weed." He sat up and reached for the joint himself. "I know I need more..."
Jamie: Jamie barked a laugh. "Is that a yes? Dude, c'mon. You can't just blow the lid off of that nugget of knowledge and then fail to cook it on the stove."
Bobby: Since he was trying to inhale during that word salad, it took even longer to process and he lost it, coughing and laughing at the same time. "What the fuck?" He hacked again, took a drink, frosted the bottle and took another. "Yes," he croaked. "She likes to fly, and we're together a lot, so yes."
Jamie: That earned Bobby a shit-eating grin from Jamie. "Gotta hold on really tight when you fly, I bet. Bad luck for you, huh?"
Bobby: "The worst." He shook his head at the grin, but he was still laughing a little. "Dude, like I said, I've had years to repress and deny everything. She was hot, and way out of my league, so what was the point? I had no idea she felt anything for me."
Jamie: "Dude, she's way out of everyone's league. As in, touching her is baaaaaad juju." His eyes drifted to the ceiling, imagining Jean hovering over him. "Jean was, and still is, way out of my league. Didn't stop me from asking her out." Jamie rolled his eyes back to Bobby. "So, I guess she was okay with you kissing her if you're this messed up about it."
Bobby: "I can touch her," he said quietly, then snorted. "She is out of your league. Still not sure how you pulled it off."
Jamie: "...Can doesn't mean should. She could break you in half." Hold on. "You can?! Without," Jamie waved his hand back and forth, trying to remember the word for the thing that did the thing. Nope. Nada. "Help?"
Bobby: "I mean, she has broken me in half... but I come back." He finally looked back at Jamie after his eyes had a good wander around the room. "Absorb?"
Jamie: "Nooo, that's what she does. The thing that does the thing!" Jamie flailed his arm and pointed at his jacket sleeve. "Her thing from the president!"
Jamie: "Wait. Why did you kiss her if she's broken you in half before? Why would you even talk to her anymore? That's just rude."
Bobby: "Technically it was more of a... shatter... I come back," he shrugged, but was still lost. "The thing... that does... the thing..." Oh! "Inhibitor?"
Jamie: "That's it! Yeah! The thing!" Inhibitor. He knew that. Dummy. "Okaaay, so she shattered you. And you still talk to her?" So many questions! "How can you touch her without the thing? She doesn't bad touch you?"
Bobby: "She gets my memories and my powers, but I don't pass out, or feel... well, anything." Other than her touch, of course. Bobby twisted his wedding ring, remembering those days when he'd been so convinced he'd come back from death wrong that he'd asked Anna to kill him again.
Jamie: Jamie noticed he still wasn't answering the question about Rogue shattering him. Now she scared him even more. "Soooo... You sure she's not just projecting how you feel when she touches you, then?"
Bobby: "I-" Bobby frowned and looked up. Xerox had a point there. "...huh. That's..." She'd absorbed him and Lorna dozens if not hundreds of times... "Well, fuck." All he could do to that was drink.
Jamie: Well, this was going well. More weed? More weed! Jamie plucked another joint from the bag and peered at it suspiciously. It didn't look like the stuff that would take out a freight train... He lit it with a shrug. "I mean, how does she ever know what she's feeling about anything are her real feelings? Talk about being unsure of your identity..." He gave a low whistle and went for a puff.
Bobby: "She does have problems with that," he finally said after finishing off that beer. "But the people she absorbs fade." Mostly. Bobby made a face. "They fade and she's her again..." Pretty much.
Jamie: "Oh. Well, I guess if she's told you that she's keen on you before touching anybody, then you have a real answer?" He looked at Bobby through half-closed eyes and held out the joint to him. "This will provide clarity, padawan."
Bobby: "I bet," he laughed, but reached across the table and took it. "I've got no clue who she's touched lately." Bobby paused to think about this as he took a puff. Gaaah. It smelled terrible. He coughed. "Other'n me, of course..."
Bobby: So. If her feelings for him were just because of his feelings for her that was a problem. Or. OR. Her feelings came from Lorna. "Uuuuugh... Dude... I didn't think this could be more complicated but you made it more complicated. Hoooow."
Jamie: "It's a talent," he said with a big, toothy grin. "Anybody harboring feelings for you? How long does it take for her ...thing... to wear off... Or whatever."
Bobby: "Not that I... know of?" Well, Paige. He hoped. "Look... it doesn't matter. I love Paige, too, and I'm married to her, so the thing with Rogue... it can't be a thing."
Jamie: "Can't," he put a single finger up in the air, adopting a smart pose, "but is!" Jamie dropped the pose and picked up the Rogue-chip, inspecting it before shoving it in his mouth sideways. "S' 'chu gon' do?"
Bobby: Bobby was watching this with narrowed eyes. Fuck if he knew. "Whadda you think I should do, smart guy?"
Jamie: Jamie washed Rogue down with a mouthful of beer and shrugged. "What do you get when you cross and elephant and a rhinoceros? Hell if I know. All I did was help you figure out your feelings. The rest is up to you. Otherwise, I'll be kicked out of my own tenement for ruining someone's life in the love department."
Bobby: That made him roll his eyes. "Okay, rephrase. If this was you what'd you do? I already knew my feelings, I just wasn't keen on letting it all hang out, dude."
Jamie: "I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place." He rolled his own eyes. "I already told you. I'm Jean-sexual." Jamie sighed and tried to think of a real answer for him. "You're married. She's hot and heavy with the leader of the free world. Seems like you're both kind of stuck where you are until someone dies or gets brave enough to break someone else's heart."
Bobby: Bobby sucked his teeth, nodding slowly at the response. "Ayep, that's what I thought." He sighed and reached for another chip when his phone beeped. He met Jamie's eyes. "Well, fuck."
Jamie: Both of Jamie's eyebrows went up at his expression, "She get brave? Pretty sure she wouldn't let the President die."
Bobby: "She wouldn't," he said, checking the message. Bobby read it once, then twice, then turned off his phone and flipped it across the table.
Jamie: Jamie flailed at the phone, trying to catch it so it wouldn't break. "What what what?! What happened?!"
Bobby: Bobby was already lighting the joint, taking a deep breath and holding it despite the itch in his lungs. Blowing it out, he hacked. "Stark bought her a fucking house."
Jamie: "Guess it's gonna be the 'until someone dies' option, then..."
Bobby: "Guess so." He had no right to be angry, but he was. It wasn't like he was going to compete with Tony fucking Stark. He shouldn't even want to try. He was married and he loved his wife.
Jamie: "Soooo," he said slowly, "guess you're not gonna congratulate her then?"
Bobby: Bobby's eyes tracked up from the table to meet Jamie's. One eyebrow twitched.
Jamie: "Well, obviously she's getting married! A ring doesn't make a big enough statement for a man like Tony effing Stark." He lit up for a puff and mumbled happily to himself, "I love weddings."
Bobby: "How do ya feel about funerals?" He ground it out and stood, the chair scraping across the floor loudly.
Jamie: "I'm not the one who has to die for you two to be together. Just F.Y.I." Why? Why provoke? Don't. Poke. THE ICY BEAR. Welp..... "Wanna help me demolish shit upstairs so I can finish fixing this beautiful, historical, run down heap of a home?
Bobby: Bobby let out a humorless laugh and started to pace in a short circuit, ignoring Xerox. He may have been staggering a bit. Then the words processed... demolish shit. Finally he looked up. "I'd love to."