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It was a quiet day in Laura’s apartment. Gabby was in her room playing with Johnathan. Since Logan had returned from the dead, he had been making regular visits to their place just to catch up. He will stop by with a few beers for Laura and a few snacks for Gabby. Then he’d stick around reading a book or catching whatever they were watching on the couch until it was time for Gabby to go to bed. He was awkward about it, but Laura had appreciated his company.
“I want to do Thanksgiving this year.”
Logan lifted his head from reading the newspaper. He looked at Laura with a cocked brow, confused at her sudden statement.
“Well, we just missed it,” Logan responded dismissively. For Logan, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the 13th of October.
“What?” Laura paused for half a second to think. “No, I don’t mean Canadian Thanksgiving. I mean our Thanksgiving. It’s not like we’re all Canadian like you.”
Logan grunts. “Aren’t you?”
“I grew up in New York. Gabby grew up here State-side too. Akihiro is Japanese. None of us are Canadian. That’s not a genetic thing.”
Logan was visibly upset by the realization. If their father was Canadian, wouldn’t that mean that they were Canadian-American or Canadian-Japanese by birthright? Why wouldn’t they want to be Canadian? It’s not like he could point to any birth certificates for any of them. Immediately he was thinking about how to get the kids to feel as connected to the Canadian wilderness as he did. Laura ignored Logan’s internal struggle to get back to her point.
“I want to do Thanksgiving the way that I’ve seen families here do it.”
“Well, I think the team is doing…”
“No, not with the X-Men. Just our family.”
Logan’s gaze softened, slowly following Laura’s reasoning. All four of them never quite know what a family is. Laura and Gabby were born in labs. Akihiro wasn’t given a family in Romulus grand design. And Logan lost his family in his adolescence, left with a fractured memory of his childhood centuries ago. None of them really had a family tradition. But Laura was trying to make one despite their pasts.
“… alright, kid. Just tell me what you’re thinking and we’ll do it.”
Laura nodded.
—-
Logan makes a few calls. First, he reaches out to Nick Fury.
“Logan. Cashing in on a favor?”
“Yup. I need you to let me know the locations and status of a few people. Creed. Deathstrike. Omega Red…”
“Hold on. What kind of plan are you cooking in your head? Are you going on some kind of revenge tour?” Logan can already hear the gears turning Nick’s head.
“I’m not going to try to seek them out, Fury. The opposite - I want to make sure they don’t bother me or my family.” There was a long pause. Logan almost wondered if Fury had cut the line then and there.
“… for the Holidays?”
“… yeah?”
Fury laughs for a good minute. Logan squirms, gripping the phone tightly. “Well… are ya going to help me or not, Fury?”
“Sure. For an old friend. Happy Thanksgiving.”
They hang up. Logan held his head in his hands and groans. S.H.I.E.L.D. better not be hacking into his phone camera to look at his dumb face.
—-
“<Hello?>”
“<Hey Yukio. How’re you and Amiko?>”
“<Same ol’, same ol’. It’s nice to hear from you. To what do I owe the pleasure?>”
“<Well… I wanted to invite you both to this American thing. Thanksgiving.>”
“<Oh, it’d be nice to see Ororo. It’s been too long.>”
“<Actually, ‘Ro’s not going to be there. It’ll be just immediate family.>”
“<Oh?>”
“<Yeah, the kids are putting it together. And it just didn’t feel right to not have ‘miko there too.>”
“<And what does that make me?>”
“<Well, family of course… like the auntie.>”
“<Auntie!? How dare you, Logan! I should hardly entertain your invitation solely because of your insult! I’d feel like I’m more of a chauffeur for Amiko.>”
“<Yukio…>”
“<I’m just kidding. I’ll run it by Amiko and see if she’ll be free.>”
Logan scoffs. “<Thanks, Yukio. I owe ya one.>”
“<Yes, add it to my pile of favors that you owe me,>” Yukio laughs. Logan chuckles on the other line.
—-
Having learned about Laura’s plans, Akihiro visited her apartment to help her out with testing recipes. Akihiro entered to the smells of what could seem like a holiday dinner. This seemed promising. Apparently Laura had gotten some recipes from her old classmates at the Xavier Institute.
Akihiro reflected on the last time that he had a home-cooked meal. It was a while back. He used his powers to court a partner. His lover at the time had made him a warm meal as a sign of affection. He later killed that partner out of boredom. Akihiro grimaced thinking about it.
“How does this look?”
Akihiro peers in and his brows furrow. Laura was making mashed potatoes, but the potatoes weren’t very well mashed. They were still in large chunks. “Uh… it’s kind of lumpy. You’re going to mash it some more?”
Laura grunted. “Okay, I’ll mash it some more,” she responds sounding annoyed.
Akihiro looked at the other sides that Laura attempted to make. Cranberry sauce where the raw cranberries are still peeking through. Stuffing that smells a little burnt and too crispy on the edges. Gravy with detritus floating at the top. It all looked utterly unappetizing.
“Are these… finished?”
“Yes,” Laura replied, not looking up from her task at hand. She’s busy crushing the potatoes.
“… did you ever learn how to cook?”
Laura snorted. “Of course, I did. I learned it from books. Here, try it now.” She put a spoonful in Akihiro’s mouth. The potatoes were still hard and they crunched in Akihiro’s mouth. He reaches for a napkin to spit out his bite. Laura’s glare looked like she was going to murder him for spitting out the food.
“That was definitely undercooked. Actually, I think most of these dishes are undercooked. Maybe, besides the stuffing”
Laura’s murderous stare shifts to the food, like a Sentinel trying to locate a quarry to decimate. Perhaps she thought that glaring at it would help cook it faster, Akihiro thought to himself.
“Can we do this together this time?”
“Okay.”
Gabby walked into the kitchen scene. Hearing Akihiro, she exclaimed, “I want to help too!” Bless, Gabby. Her presence lifted the tension in Laura and perhaps even in Akihiro as well.
As the three of them cooked together, it became clearer why Laura’s food wasn’t tasting any good. She wasn’t giving any of the steps enough time. When she was warming up oil, she didn’t wait for it to get to the best temperature. When she was boiling potatoes, she would pull them out too soon. Everything was about speed and “efficiency”. When Akihiro questioned it, Laura just said that it was good enough to not have any harmful bacteria. She was cooking for survival and not for taste.
“I can’t believe you cooked for Gabby like this.”
“It wasn’t all bad. Eating Laura’s food helps you appreciate real food,” Gabby explained with a self-satisfied nod.
Laura scoffs and Akihiro smirks. “Alright, big bro is going to take over now,” Akihiro declared. Akihiro prided himself on being a bit of a gourmand. He had expensive taste, not just in food, but in wine, in his clothes, in his furniture, etc. And for better and for worse, Akihiro was brought up with people who savored their time. He was taught an Epicurean philosophy. He was much more patient than his sisters and it reflected in his cooking. He not only waited for the appropriate time, but he considered what would bring out the absolute best taste that he could make with the tools he had available.
Laura was patient too. She was openly curious about Akihiro’s methods and about how to make good food. After all, this was her whole plan. She was satisfied with the taste of the dishes with Akihiro’s help. “This… is good.”
“Not good. This is delicious.” This time, it was Akihiro’s turn to glare at Laura.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had mashed potatoes this good,” Gabby interrupted. The two of them stop what they’re doing to watch Gabby shovel mashed potatoes into her mouth at a disturbing speed. It makes them both smile. Laura stops her, claiming that this would give her a stomach ache.
They spent the rest of the afternoon cooking the other side dishes.
—-
Akihiro left Laura’s apartment and headed down the steps. He gets a call from his father and he automatically grimaces. “What do you want?”
“Son. Did you hear ‘bout Thanksgiving at Laura’s?”
“I was just coming out from her apartment. Saved us from some terrible dishes.”
Logan paused. Akihiro wondered what he thought Logan was thinking. Was he jealous? Was he heartened?
“Do you mind helping me out as well? I was thinkin’ about hunting for the protein.”
Akihiro clenched his teeth. He wasn’t sure why his father was so into hunting. It wasn’t something that Akihiro really found himself doing for fun. But this was time that he could spend with his father. A rare opportunity.
“Fine. Where do you want to go?”
—-
Logan had arranged for a teleporter to transport Akihiro the following day to a campsite that Logan had already set up. Akihiro wondered what kind of strings Logan had pulled to get this arranged.
“Son.”
“You couldn’t just pick up a turkey at the market?”
“Well, this is supposed to be a family event, right? Might as well go huntin’. I think that’s something that dads are supposed to do with their sons.”
Akihiro scoffed. “Maybe when kids are in their teens. I’m 70 years old…”
Logan sighed. “... sorry. If yer not up for it, you don’t have to.” Logan was never quite certain what to do with Akihiro. He was often in his head about things and would get overwhelmed trying to think through how to best approach his son that often he ended up doing nothing at all.
“No, I want to.” Logan let out a breath that he didn’t realize he was holding. Though he tensed again as he looked up to see Akihiro smiling sinisterly.. “I just wanted to see that pathetic face that you make when you feel bad about being a shitty dad.”
Logan grumbled in response and Akihiro laughed at his father’s response. Akihiro can’t help but get under Logan’s skin. Perhaps something that is still remaining conditioning from Romulus. Though it’s a part of their relationship that’s softened to mostly harmless banter and the occasional spar. Logan would take as many hits to his ego if it meant that he could continue to have a relationship with his son. He probably deserved most of those words anyhow.
Logan took Akihiro further into the woods. While Akihiro has had plenty of training in survival and assassination, he never quite had to hunt animals. While Romulus did often make animal metaphors, the man rarely engaged in hunting. He was too busy putting his fingers in every criminal and institutional pie, especially by the time Akihiro was under his fold. Akihiro wasn’t used to how sensitive animals were. His pheromone powers were limited here. He couldn’t just charismatically talk to a turkey to get it onto the chopping block.
Akihiro for most of his life was dead set on living outside of Logan’s shadow. It’s ironic here that he was literally shadowing his father as he was stalking their Thanksgiving meal. Yet, as Akihiro followed Logan, he realized how he didn’t really have to work so hard to be different from his father. They already were.
Akihiro was out of his element. Meanwhile, Logan was in his. For Akihiro, his prey were always people. People with money. People with influence. People with nice asses.
It was a different pace with Logan in the forest. Quiet and attentive. But there was something serene about it all.
The two find tracks and it was simple work then to track a flock of turkeys. It was a simple matter then of cornering them and killing one. The kill was quick, but just like the hunt, the preparing was also a long drawn out process.
Logan walked Akihiro through the process of de-feathering, bloodletting, and butchering the turkey. Logan used one extended claw to gut the creature and left a part of the entrails in the woods. He muttered an indigenous prayer that Akihiro hadn’t recognized. Something that Logan would later explain was praising the animal and thanking it. Something that he had apparently learned when he was living with a Blackfoot tribe in Canada and then learned again when studying under Matagi hunters in northern Japan.
They didn’t share many words throughout the whole experience, but they both seemed content with the final product.
—
Gabby emerged from her room with a strange-looking red, orange, and brown effigy made out of what appeared to be construction paper, popsicle sticks, and duct tape. Laura scrunched her nose at it. “What is that?”
“It’s the centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner.”
Gabby looked at Laura expectantly. Laura tried squinting to see if it’d help her discern what she was looking at, but it only served to confuse her more. “Uh-huh.”
Gabby laughed at Laura’s confusion. Her older sister just didn’t understand her genius. It must be hard to think so narrowmindedly as her sister that she couldn’t appreciate art. “It’s a Wolverine eating a turkey.”
“Ahh…” was all Laura was able to manage.
Gabby set it down on the table. “I also request the use of funds to buy some pumpkins. And I’ll be going out with Johnathan to get some leaves to add to the fall decor.”
“Do you want me to go with you?”
“Nah. I’ll be careful though, don’t worry!”
Laura hesitated. “Just don’t go too far.”
“Okay!”
Laura immediately heard a crash at the door. She rushed to the door to see Gabby and Johnathan had tripped over an Amazon box. Laura shook her head. “No, I change my mind. I’m coming with you.”
—
Akihiro and Logan came by early the morning of the event to help finish any food prep. Gabby was arranging the silverware and center piece. She had made some hand turkeys and tacked them to the apartment walls. She only had red construction paper left and so while they have looked cute in the traditional brown… if any onlooker would look in passing, it would look like a bunch of bloody handprints on the wall…
Logan grumbled that Canadian hockey wasn’t airing because of the American holiday. Instead, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was playing in the background. Jonathan was enthralled by the large balloon cartoon animals that he wouldn’t disturb the people in the kitchen warming up the rest of the food.
Later in the day, Yukio and Amiko made it to the door. They had brought Japanese KFC and a white strawberry cake.
“I didn’t know what you do for Thanksgiving, but this is what we usually order for Christmas,” Amiko shrugged as she put her contributions on the dining table.
“This is great,” Laura replied reassuringly.
Akihiro and Yukio discussed current events in Japanese politics. Gabby was trying to convince Logan to drink his beer. Laura was persuaded by Amiko to visit Japan to go thrifting with her for some new statement pieces. Before they were to leave, Amiko and Laura made plans to go shopping together in New York.
The family all ate together and it was a nice peaceful day.
Meanwhile, several klicks downwind, S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers helmed by Nicholas Fury were all fighting Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike, and Omega Red. It was a bloody battle. Though uncharacteristically, the strike team was holding their own quite well. Eventually, the Fantastic Four showed up and they all were able to handle the situation. But that’s a story for another time…
—-
Logan and Akihiro were washing the dishes together after the others left to walk off the food. Amiko and Yukio appreciated the chance to take a bit of a tour with Laura and Gabby. The two of them washed the dishes in silence, only broken up by the clatter of plates bumping into each other.
“You know… this was really nice,” Akihiro said after they were halfway through the plates.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. I’m looking forward to next year.”
Logan hid a smile under his lowered head. “Yeah, me too.”