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Logan was not having the peaceful Sunday he anticipated having. It had started out perfectly fine–he’d checked the chore roster, seen he was assigned grocery shopping for the week and had supper duty the next day, and had left the house rather early to head to the fresh fish market. It wasn’t until he returned and got his purchases in the fridge that the day took a turn.
He was checking the pantry and freezers for what food they had and what they needed, when Jubilee wandered in looking for a snack. She saw him writing a shopping list and immediately started a campaign to try and get him to take her along, which he had done plenty of times over the summer but was less keen to do when there were so many students in the house. The last thing he needed was a different kid pestering him to go out every day. He only relented when she mentioned how little time they’d gotten together since school had started up. He was fully aware she was playing him, but he also couldn’t help being a sucker for it. Jubilee was a good deal more social than his other kids, and she spent plenty of time with her classmates when school was in session. He actually did get less time with her, now.
When they got out of the van (one of the school’s vehicles; it was simply easier to transport so much stuff in), he warned her straight away to be on her best behavior.
“We’ve got a lot to do while we’re out today,” he said, frowning at the list as he glanced over it. “And I still got things to do at home, too. So no dawdling.”
Jubilee lowered her sunglasses and gave him a thumbs up.
“You got it, Chief.”
She was in good spirits, thrilled that Logan hadn’t put up very much argument about her going along. Grocery shopping wasn’t exactly at the top of her wish list for activities to do away from the mansion, but it was a nice change of scenery at least. And while she knew that he knew she was being a little manipulative, it wasn’t that much of a stretch for her to bring up their lack of one-on-one time. The drive alone had been nice, as they talked about how she was doing in school, how she had pretty much fully integrated into X-Force once she learned to trust Dani as Team Leader, and compared notes on what they’d been reading.
The one good thing about going to the grocery store is that it gave Jubilee a chance to have input (welcome or not) on what items went into the cart. She used the broad definition of “cereal” to ensure that her favorite sugary brands made it in, using the rather sound argument that they still had the same amounts of vitamins and minerals and were more likely to actually be consumed by the students than corn flakes. But she also had a habit of throwing in a few extra items here and there when he was busy actually looking at the list.
Logan had noticed the first few things she threw in, but let it slide without comment, figuring it wouldn’t hurt anything for Jubilee to pick out a few treats. However, as they pushed a rapidly filling cart along and he started getting into the nitty gritty of ingredients for specific meals, replacing spices and having to fiddle with filling bulk bags to do so, and replacement items for those members of the household with allergies, he stopped noticing most of what she was throwing in the cart. It wasn’t until he was picking up a thirty pound sack of flour with the intent of putting it up in the basket that he realized there was actually quite a bit more in there than there should have been. He ended up putting the flour under the basket on the rack above the wheels, and turned to Jubilee with a frown.
“How much junk have you put in there, kid?” he asked.
“Hey, there’s a vegetable tray in there somewhere,” she pointed out. Of course, it was buried under pop tarts, several bags of chips, and about four frozen pizzas, but it was in there. “Maybe I should go get us a new cart? Two probably would have been better anyway.”
“Jubilee, we’re barely halfway through the list. The cart shouldn’t be full by now,” Logan said, starting to look through and pull out anything he didn’t recognize. By the time one arm was full and the other was still finding new, unnecessary items, he glared at her. “Yeah, go get another cart. Bring it here so you can put all this stuff back where it belongs.”
Jubilee laughed this off, hoping to salvage some of her snacks from Logan’s archeological dig. “And it belongs in the check-out lane, right?” she asked, giving him a pair of finger guns and her best winning smile.
“Jubilation,” he grunted, resting a hand on his hip. “You’re gonna take all this stuff back around to where you got it and put it away neatly. This isn’t your special junk food shopping trip; we’re getting groceries for the whole house for a week. So, go grab a cart and get back here.”
Jubilee sulked, throwing a pity party for herself. “Oh, alright. Can I at least keep the pretzels?” she asked, going up to him and holding out her hands so that he can pass on the pile of snacks that she’d be running back. It would be faster and require less running than going back to front to get a cart. “Or the Hawaiian pizza?”
“That doesn’t soundlike getting a cart to me,” Logan said, narrowing his eyes at her. “There’s a lot more in the basket. If I can’t hold all of it, you sure as hell can’t.” He dropped what he had separated into the child seat in the front and leaned his elbows on the handle of the cart. “If you behave yourself the rest of the afternoon, you can pick something out at the end. But that won’t happen until you put it all back.”
Jubilee sputtered, but decided that was probably fair enough. She gave him an affectionate and harmless punch in the shoulder before making her way back toward the front of the store to get a new cart. Sprinting along the way, and just narrowly avoiding a few collisions, she was able to find Logan again a few minutes later. He didn’t need super-hearing to know she was coming, the squealing wheels and clattering metal on the bottom of the cart gave away her position long before she nearly ran into him.
“All right, let’s load this sucker up!”
Logan gave her a long look before finally picking up some of the groceries that would be going back with her. “I think you ought to take it down a notch, Jubilation. You’re wearing the patience a little thin today,” he warned. “You don’t need to barrel through the place like a chicken with its head cut off. You could hurt someone.” He sorted through the cart, putting almost as much into Jubilee’s as ended up being left over in the one for the mansion. It looked like she must have been matching him item for item. “Jesus, kid.”
“Okay, so I overdid it,” she confessed, agitation heavy in her voice. Pressing one foot on the bottom of the cart, she leaned forward and reached for the two bottles of chocolate syrup that she’d thrown in, her other foot sticking out in the air as she did so. “You don’t have to keep beating the dead horse.”
Logan watched in what felt like slow-motion as the cart started to over-balance, and his hand darted out and grabbed the first thing it came into contact with: the back of her sweater. Thankfully, it was one of those loud-print cardigans she liked so much, and the buttons were nowhere near high enough to choke her. He grasped her shoulder with his other hand for better purchase, and set her on her feet on the floor. The cart hadn’t actually managed to tip over, but the two wheels that had been in the air came down with a loud clang, jostling the groceries inside.
“You okay?” He asked, frowning, as he set her back to rights.
Jubilee shrugged, holding her hands up with a syrup bottle in each of them. She was a bit unnerved, but not hurt. Still... It was rather embarrassing, realizing that she’d almost flown ass over teakettle.
“Yeah, I think so. Thanks for the catch.”
“Uh huh.” Logan used his grip on her shoulder to turn her slightly to the side, and gave her two sharp swats across the seat of her bright purple jeans. “This is not a jungle gym, Jubilation. I’m gonna need you to calm down, keep your feet on the ground, and do as you’re told. Stop playing around. Am I understood?” He asked, turning her back to face him so that he could look her in the eye.
The swats stung, but Jubilee felt much, much worse about the fact that he’d just smacked her in the middle of the grocery store. She looked around, and while the other shoppers were minding their own business, she felt sure they must have at least heard her getting them. The very thought had her face turning red as she tried to put it out of her mind.
“Understood,” she placated meekly. “I’m sorry. I won’t horse around. Okay?”
“Good. Now go and get this stuff back on the shelves. Just call out for me when you’re done, I’ll hear you wherever.”
Rather than waiting around, Logan checked the next item on his list and headed in the right direction to go find it. He thought ten or fifteen minutes apart would probably do his temper some good, and hopefully give Jubilee time to calm down a little, herself.
Prioritizing the frozen items first, Jubilee went about her task right away. She took things slower, not wanting to cause any sort of scene after the embarrassing incident a minute prior. But by the time she was putting away the four or five chip bags she’d stuffed into the cart, the act of getting rid of all of her snacks started to get sort of depressing. And tedious, as it turned out it was much harder to look for where she’d grabbed the items from than just grabbing whatever struck her fancy.
Feeling both annoyed and disappointed, she decided to do something about it. She reached into her pockets and counted up her loose change. Logan might not have allowed her to load the cart up with goodies and get away with it, but he couldn’t stop her from spending her own money on a Freezee. Parking the cart on the end of an aisle so she would know where to find it, she let it go and headed toward the food court at the front of the store.
Meanwhile, Logan had shopped around for about ten minutes by himself, when he turned the corner down the end of an aisle and almost ran into a lone shopping cart. He had been prepared to roll his eyes and move on, until he noted the contents of said cart: sugar loaded fruit snacks, sodas galore, and plenty of other nutrient-bare foods. He growled and grabbed the end of that cart as he walked past, pulling it along behind him as he pushed the one for the mansion. He followed his nose to the greasy food counter near the entrance of the store, and spotted Jubilee there. The only problem about following her much further was the row of cash registers before him. He couldn’t exactly push the carts through without paying, nor did he want to leave them unattended in the area with the most employees he’d seen so far that day.
He resorted, of course, to yelling.
“Jubilation Lee, get your butt over here!” he ordered, drawing a few looks.
She was so startled by the out of nowhere bellow that she ended up dropping some blue raspberry slush onto her sweater. It brought an abrupt end to the flirting she’d been doing with the cute cashier on a sour, embarrassing note. It seemed she’d spent a little more time dawdling than she’d planned to when she made her run for a drink. She made a roundabout walk through the registers, not wanting to make a beeline for Logan and confirm that she was the one he was hollering after.
“Hey, turn down the volume would ya? They can hear you in Queens.”
Logan scowled and took her hand, placing it on the handle of her cart.
“I told you to put this stuff away, not leave it for someone else to trip over,” he scolded. “Or as a mess some poor schmuck would have to clean up when they have better things to do. I swear, if you don’t start minding me, I’m going to make you walk right next to me with your hand on the side of the cart.”
Jubilee rolled her eyes. “Well, that’d make sure the groceries got put away. I was heading right back! There’s no way you’re done with that shopping list yet, you don’t even have milk!”
“I almost ran into the cart you left laying around,” Logan said, narrowing his eyes at her. “And you pop off again, kid. Try it. See how much I appreciate it.”
Then he stepped back, took a deep breath, and scrubbed a hand over his weary face.
“Okay, not helpful of me,” he growled under his breath. “I’m gonna give you one more chance to put that junk away, Jubilee, and to behave yourself while you do it. Otherwise you’re stuck to my side for the rest of the day.”
Jubilee wanted to call his bluff, but settled for glaring at him while she sucked up the flavored ice. It at least did a good job of keeping her mouth shut. “Cool. Thanks for nothing,” she grumbled, pushing the cart back in the general direction of where it had been last. Now that it wasn’t in the aisle she’d left it, she was going to have to find it all over again.
Logan’s palm itched to swat her for the comment, but he restrained himself. He was already too annoyed with her. Instead, he walked in the opposite direction, pulled the slightly crumpled grocery list from his breast pocket, and tried to concentrate on finishing this errand so that he could collect Jubilee and get them both the hell home.
This time, Jubilee put away the grocery items without any more dawdling or distractions. It didn’t take all that long to do so, and she was even able to pawn off her cart to a woman who had overestimated the amount of things one handbasket could hold.
However, while the task was done without incident, she decided not to call out for Logan. She didn’t feel like being around him, especially since she half-expected him to make her put her hand on the cart. Instead, she headed up towards the checklanes, where he would be sure to see her and pick her up on the way out. And as a bonus, she could also browse the trading cards and comics that were on sale.
Logan figured it would take Jubilee ten minutes or less to put away the things remaining in her cart, so he gave her fifteen. When she still hadn’t called him by then, he sighed and sniffed, trying to ascertain where she was. He grabbed a few things on his way toward her location, and by the time he found her, he was irritated, but not ready to blow his lid.
“Did you finish?” He asked her as he stopped the cart beside her.
“No, I crashed it into the paper plates,” she grumbled, not looking up from what she was reading. “Of course I finished it. Thanks for believing in me.”
Logan worked his jaw in irritation for a moment, and didn’t answer her right away. When he knew his voice would be calm, he gently took her chin in hand and made her look at him.
“I am done with the attitude, Jubilation,” he said simply. “Adjust it yourself, or I’ll do it for you.”
“Whatever!” she huffed, sneering defiantly at him. She crossed her arms and waited for him to lay down the law. With her attitude as genuinely thick as it was, she thought getting a spanking when she got home was worth embarrassing him like he’d been embarrassing her. “My attitude was just fine. I did exactly what you said. All the groceries are back where they belong.”
“No, your attitude was spoiled and entitled for the first half of the afternoon, and now it’s just naughty and obstinate,” Logan said sternly. “I told you before we ever left the mansion that this was a chore, not a fun trip, and you wouldn’t have much leeway to run around. I expected you to help, Jubilee. Not misbehave every ten minutes.”
“Hey, I tried to help, bub! You didn’t like my help. Life’s tough. Can we go home? I’m sick of being here,” she hissed, sliding her book into its spot on the magazine rack.
Logan was starting to get the picture that Jubilee was simply not going to calm down or cooperate. That should have been obvious earlier, he supposed, with her hyper enough to run full speed with a shopping cart and nearly knock herself silly.
Problem was, he still had about a third of the shopping to do; a few items in this store and one stop at an Asian grocery on the way home. He was not about to put up with Jubilee giving him lip and disobeying him for the rest of his errands.
“Nope,” he said finally. “We ain’t done here. But we can take a break to adjust your attitude like I said I would,” Logan decided, taking Jubilee’s hand as he spoke.
“What?” Jubilee asked, suddenly on edge. She hoped that he was grabbing her to stick her nose against a wall, but she had a sinking feeling that wasn’t what he meant.
He pulled her closer and bent her at the waist, then tucked her under his arm to keep her in position. “Well, darlin’, when you disobey and give me lip, I’m not gonna be entirely too happy with you,” he grunted. “And you seemed pretty unimpressed with bein’ stuck to my side. Obviously, you need a spanking to reset. And I’m too busy to be dragging you home to do it.” He cracked his hand against her bottom again, this time following it with more and more swats all over, making a horrible racket in the aisle.
“Ow! No! No, no, no, Logan! Ow!” she squealed as quietly as she could. This time, she could see passersby turning their heads in her direction. The acoustics of the store made the smacking sound all that much louder, and no matter how much she tried not to make noise, Logan was doing enough work for both of them. “Stop, people can see!”
“Yep. And they’ve sure been able to see while you ran your mouth at me, rolled your eyes, and disobeyed me again and again,” Logan lectured. “You aren’t immune to consequences just because we’re not at home, young lady. You should be twice as well behaved while you’re out and about than you have to be at home, and instead, you’ve made a nuisance of yourself all day long. You should be ashamed of your behavior.” He had to speak fairly loudly to compensate for the noise his hand was making as it connected with her jeans, and at this point, he was fairly sure that half of the store was getting front row tickets to Jubilee’s punishment.
Whatever Logan thought she should be feeling, Jubilee was far too preoccupied with the audience attending the show. Adults seemed to either be annoyed by the distraction, or willing to nod in approval as they passed. Smaller children covered their mouths, looking on with pity and horror. Worst of all was a group of kids about Jubilee’s age who thought it was certainly worth snickering about.
She’d never been so embarrassed in her life.
“Ow, ow! Okay, please, Logan, stop! I’m begging you! Not here, not in public! It’s humiliating! Cruel and unusual!”
“Kid, have I ever ended a spanking before I thought you’d well and truly learned your lesson?” Logan asked, continuing to swat away. “If you want this to be over quickly, you better straighten up and take what I’m sayin’ to heart.”
“Logannnn!” she whined, stretching the last syllable into several. She kicked and stomped her feet against the floor, but it didn’t do any good. Huffing and whimpering, she closed her eyes shut. “Please! Please stop, I’ll quit being a brat, okay? Just give me another chance!”
“I gave you plenty of chances, Jubilee,” Logan reminded her sternly. He put some focus on her sit spots, his palm connecting with one side and then the other in a back and forth rhythm. “I wasn’t being unfair or unreasonable. And you still pushed and pushed. So now, you’re gonna tell me exactly what you did wrong and how you’re gonna behave better when we’re done here,” he instructed.
“I don’t want to!” Jubilee yelped. “Ow! Ouch! Logan, come on! I know horsing around and running off are bad, but does the whole store need to hear me getting my butt spanked over it? Be reasonable!”
“Whole store could well hear you gettin’ your butt paddled if you don’t start cooperating,” Logan warned. “I know they got a hair section here and I’m sure there’s a decent enough hairbrush in it. So, you want to keep arguing? Or do you want to do as you’re told so we can get through this punishment and get square?”
Jubilee stopped yelping and simply pouted for a long moment. She did not want to get paddled, not one bit. Getting spanked in public was bad enough without him dragging her to another spot to wallop her.
“I’m sorry! I was naughty the whole trip! I put stuff in the cart that wasn’t on the list, I argued and sassed and dawdled when you told me to do things. I was pushing the cart too fast and fooling around instead of being safe! And I ran off without telling you where I was or asking permission.”
As Jubilee listed off her plentiful misbehavior, Logan smacked away, punctuating each offense with several swats in a row wherever his hand happened to be. “And for the rest of the time we’re out, how are you gonna behave?” He prompted.
“Oww! I’m going to mind my tongue and not do anything unless you tell me to! I’ll stay next to you and keep my attitude in check!” she promised, biting back a few tears.
“You’d better, darlin’, because if you keep pushin’ the envelope, I have no problem spanking you again in this store or wherever the hell else we are,” he said sternly. “You know how to behave yourself, so show me that you can.” He'd heard the hitch in her voice that signaled those tears she was fighting, and decided to smack her thighs until they started flowing. With all the stress of the day so far, she could use a good cry to release some of it.
Jubilee wailed as her thighs were punished, and soon, she was crying openly, soaking her cheeks with tears. “I’m sorry! I’ll behave! I’ll be good, I promise!” she whimpered, gritting her teeth between spanks. She eventually stopped trying to squirm free, and instead let herself go limp under his arm.
When she was not just shedding a few tears here and there, but truly crying, Logan stopped and stood her before him. He reached up and wiped her tears, and pulled her close to kiss her forehead. “I believe you, kiddo. And I forgive you,” he said, curling his arms around her in a bear hug.
At first, she couldn’t find it in her heart to reciprocate. She was mad that he’d spanked her in public. Knowing it was deserved didn’t make it any less embarrassing or painful. But as moments passed by, she loosened her grip on her grudge and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest so that nobody else could see her.
“I’m kind of mad at you,” she told him honestly, but without the usual rudeness. Instead, she was sad and even a little upset with herself for feeling mad.
“That’s okay,” Logan said, rubbing her back comfortingly. His other hand rested against the back of her head, allowing her the few minutes of hiding her face she seemed to want. “This one sucked for you, kiddo. I know. Still think you needed it. It seemed like you were bound and determined to push my buttons today.”
She sniffled, and hugged him a little tighter. Despite her lingering anger, she found comfort in his touch and appreciated it. Hearing him say that it was okay to be mad was a relief, and she took a deep breath before finally pulling away. “Yeah. I’ll stop doing that.”
“Appreciate it,” he said, giving her shoulder a last squeeze before he let go. “Now, you don’t have to keep your hand on the cart at all times, but I still want you to stick to my line of sight for the rest of the afternoon. We’ve lost some time in here, and I want to get back before dinner needs to get started.”
Jubilee nodded in understanding. For the next little while, she kept close to the cart, keeping her distance so that she could sort out her thoughts and calm down. But after about ten minutes of quiet shopping, she took a deep breath in and out, and moved closer to him.
“Let me know if I can help,” she said, some small cheerfulness creeping back into her voice.