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Jean was in the process of picking between two books from the common area to read as a way to end her night when the sound of a door abruptly opening was followed by a sound signaling an even more abrupt closing.
Right as she lifted her head to get a better look at the commotion, Jubilee stomped her way into the common area, paying no attention to anything except the floor in front of her feet as she got to the stairs. Jean attempted to catch the words underneath her angry muttering as she walked past, but ultimately failed to pick up anything other than stupid. That word appeared to be Jubilee’s favorite at the moment with everything she was describing with it: stupid arcade, stupid date, stupid herself.
Before Jean could say anything to reassure her or at least ask what was wrong, the young girl was already up the stairs, most likely on the way to her room. Jean stared at the now-empty stairs when she heard much softer footsteps approach her from behind. She didn’t turn around, continuing to look at where Jubilee once was as Beast quietly tiptoed his way into the room to stand next to Jean at the bookshelf. He must have been coming in to select his own nighttime book right when Jubilee came inside and waited for her to leave to make his grand appearance.
“Oh dear,” he said, “I’m guessing Miss Jubilee’s little romance decided to turn sour?”
Jean sighed in sympathy, “I think that might just be the case.”
She felt so bad for Jubilee. From what Rogue had stated from their outing earlier in the month, Jubilee really hit it off with another kid they bumped into at the mall and had genuine hopes their relationship would work out. Their first date went so well that Jubilee managed to keep Logan up all night talking about it. Some of the X-Men had reservations about Jubilee’s situationship, but at the end of the day, it was nice to see her meet someone closer to her age; plus, it gave her a reason to hang out outside the mansion more as well. It was generally considered a positive situation by everyone involved.
Alas, it seemed that the saying all good things must come to an end decided to occur early in this story for Jubilee. Jean just hoped the subsequent breakup wasn’t because the kid found out she was a mutant and turned tail and ran. The aftermath was going to suck regardless, but if it was just some jerkwad teenager that was secretly seeing two or three girls at once, that would probably be easier to rebound from.
A rejection based purely on their mutant status always stung worse than anything else.
It looked like Jean wasn’t going to end her night reading after all.
Bidding Hank a goodnight, Jean was quiet as she made her way up the stairs and toward Jubilee’s room. She wasn’t going to make the girl talk about anything she didn’t want to, but Jubilee was usually pretty receptive to accepting comfort right after something awful happened. Even if they didn’t talk, the soothing presence of a friend ready to offer support was always a nice option to have.
Except when Jean made it to Jubilee’s door, she found the girl’s room oddly silent. To confirm her suspicions, her telepathy found no one on the other side, meaning Jubilee must have gone somewhere else. Now Jean just had to figure out where somewhere else is. Jubilee wasn’t the brooding type, so that ruled the roof out, and she didn’t tend to beat up her problems unless someone else offered the option first, so unless she ran into Logan while up here, she probably wouldn’t be in The Danger Room either.
Time kept passing, and Jean was running out of options as to where the girl could be. Jean even went to the roof and the Danger Room as last resorts, but found no luck at either. Could Jubilee have made her way outside? Maybe by coincidence, Jean managed to walk through the parts of the X-Mansion that Jubilee was away from, thus missing the girl heading back downstairs and outside to get some air. There wasn’t any other explanation that didn’t involve her squirreling herself away in some broom closet somewhere.
Jean was brought out of her thoughts when the sound of a door opening occurred to her right, making her turn to look at Rogue, who was just leaving her room. Rogue was adjusting her nightgown, probably trying to make sure as much of her skin was covered as possible, before looking up and slightly jumping at the sight of Jean right outside her door. She placed a hand on her chest, taking a small deep breath.
“Hey there, Jean,” Rogue finally said. “Ah certainly wasn’t expecting t’see you ‘round here at this time of night. Don’t you usually head t’the commons right ‘bout now?”
Jean nodded, “I was actually just there a little bit ago. Jubilee came through very visibly upset about something, so now I’m trying to find her to ask if she needs anything. I think it had something to do with the date she was on; it looked like it ended poorly.”
Rogue gasped, “Oh no, Ah was the one to encourage her t’give that kid a shot when we bumped into him.” Rogue shook her head, “Consider me a fool. He better not have hurt her too badly, otherwise he’s really gonna regret making me think he was something worthwhile.”
Jean smirked, “I’m sure you’ll lead the charge when everyone else hears what happened as well. Regardless, right now the most important thing is finding Jubilee and making sure she’s alright. Would you mind helping me in the search? You might even be able to offer better comfort than I since you know more about the kid than any of us.”
“Of course, shugh,” Rogue complied, shutting her door behind herself as she followed Jean. “Where have we already ruled out?”
As the two women made their way down the hall, Jean opened her mouth to start informing Rogue of all the places she had already searched when a sudden muffled burst of laughter came from the door they were now right next to. Their eyebrows raised in shock; there was no mistaking that the one who made the noise was Jubilee, they were certain of that. What they were less certain of was the fact that it came from Gambit’s room of all things.
They glanced at one another, confirming without words that they were both thinking the same thing. Moving in stereo, Jean knocked on the door with one hand while her other went to the door handle as Rogue spoke. “Sugahs? Can Jean and Ah come in for a sec?”
“Sure! Come on in!” Jubilee allowed almost immediately. Jean felt like she was getting whiplash. It was as if the last thirty minutes were a figment of her imagination, and Jubilee hadn’t shed a single tear the entire night. It was even more head-spinning when Jean opened the door and looked at Jubilee herself.
She and Gambit were sitting on his bed, both in baggy hoodies—Jubilee’s a bright pale yellow and Gambit’s a dark purple—and each clutching separate Super Nintendo Entertainment System controllers (Jean would be remiss to forget the name after she watched Jubilee chew Logan out for doing so a month earlier). Tire screeching noises from the TV they were looking at, plus their aggressive pressing of the buttons made Jean think they were playing that racing game Jubilee got for her recent birthday, but Jean knew that whatever they were playing wasn’t the most important detail of the scene before her. What reigned as the highest priority happened to be the tall Cajun man sitting next to her, who was so nonchalant in a way that it fed into Jean’s growing belief that she hallucinated Jubilee being upset.
“Yes, yes, come on in, mes amies,” Gambit repeated. “Unfortunately, we only ‘ave two controllers, so if you ladies would like t'get in on tis’ action, you’re gonna have to wait a little.”
Jean cleared her throat, giving Rogue ample opportunity to be the first one to say what they were thinking, “Ah’m gonna have to take a rain check on that one, Remy. Jean and Ah jus’ wanted to check in on Jubilee here after the night she seemed t’have. Ah’m sorry he wasn’t what you were hoping him to be.”
Jubilee was a little too focused on whatever was happening in her game, so it took her a second to respond, “Oh! Right, that guy. Yeah, he turned out to be a walking pile of rotten eggs. It’s whatever, though, I’ll always deserve more than some half-baked pipsqueak anyway.”
So the date was bad, and Jubilee was originally distressed about it. Jean wasn’t going to be upset that she was feeling better, but… “Well, I’m glad to hear that your spirits aren't too down in the dumps. You seemed really distraught when you came into the mansion.”
Jubilee aggressively nodded her head, her focus still not leaving the TV, “I was really twisted up inside about it, no doubt. But thankfully, Gambit was here to put my head on straight!”
So it was Gambit that got Jubilee to feel better. Jean knew it was the most likely scenario with all the evidence put forth, but something about it being true still perplexed her. Of course, she didn’t think Gambit was physically unable of offering any sort of comfort, but from her impression of him, he wasn’t the shoulder-to-cry-on type. His persona gave more of an I-can-take-care-of-it-for-any-price vibe, so to see this was-
“Well, Ah’m glad it’s all turnin’ out for the betta.” thankfully." Rogue had more tact when it came to approaching Remy’s thought processes. Or he just didn’t care how she worded herself around him like the others. Both options were equally possible, “Do you mind helping us out a little, though? How did we get from Point A ta’ B here?”
“I found petite over here crying up quite the storm in de’ hallway,” Gambit explained readily. He too was engrossed in the game, much like Jubilee was. “Asked ‘er what was up and she told Gambit everything. Understandable why she was so torn up ‘bout it, but there was nothin’ a little bit of good ol’ Gambit-charm and advice on the side couldn’ fix.”
Jean raised an eyebrow, “Advice, huh? What exactly would that ‘advice’ be?”
Jubilee finally turned to look at the older woman.
“‘Boys ain’t shit!’” A smile split her face from ear to ear.
Gambit finally showcased some less than suave emotion when his face tightened in panic slightly. He probably wasn’t expecting Jubilee to exclaim his wonderful piece of advice so exuberantly in front of anyone else. Rogue turned her head to not-so-subtly giggle into her hand, meaning Jean had to step up to be the adult.
With a sigh that morphed into a relaxed grin, Jean turned so her next few steps would be toward the door. “Gambit, be sure to watch that mouth of yours around the younger students. Xavier and Scott will throw a fit if a bunch of kids run around here yelling bad words.”
Gambit pouted, “Hey, why is it that Gambit’s getting all t’flack? I’m not the only one in dis room that needs spying on! Last week I caught Miss Firecracker over here telling a kid-”
Jubilee quickly shut him up by smacking him in the upper arm. Hard. Gambit’s pout quickly turned into more of a grimace as one of his hands let go of his controller to rub at the spot Jubilee hit. Meanwhile, the amount of effort it took for Jubilee to do that must not have been more than what it takes to blink, seeing as her expression transformed into utter excitement. “Take that, bozo! I’m in the lead now!”
Gambit grumbled, quickly grabbing his controller with both hands again and placing every bit of his focus on the game they were in, “Little tricheuse, I’ll show you what happens when you try t’play dirty like dat.”
Once Jean had her hand on the door handle, she turned her upper body around to talk to Rogue, only to keep her mouth shut at the sight of Rogue slowly sitting down on the floor with her back against the leg of the bed. She had appeared to become enraptured by the other two’s game, and if Jean wasn’t careful, she might also become so as well. It did sound like it was close, but Jean could always ask in the morning who came out victorious.
It would certainly brighten up the mood at breakfast listening to them argue who “deserved” the win and how it would have been totally different if the circumstances weren’t tailor-made to make them lose.
Jean eventually made her way to her and Scott’s room, feeling tuckered out but still rather satisfied with how her night ended. When she got inside, she made quick work of changing into some night clothes and crawling into bed next to her husband, who was already dozing off. He must not have been too deep into sleep just yet, because he did not hesitate to bring Jean in close to kiss her temple.
“Hey there, sweetheart,” Scott said somewhat mumbled. “I caught wind of what was going down tonight from Hank. Is Jubilee doing alright? It didn’t sound great.”
Jean hummed, wrapping her arms around her husband, “She’ll be okay in time. She’s bounced back pretty quickly, so I imagine tomorrow she’s going to ask your permission to throw darts in the mansion again so she can get her aggression out the good old-fashioned way.”
Scott groaned, “As long as Logan doesn’t join in with her, then I might allow it. How’d she get in such high spirits so quickly, though? Hank implied she was rather upset.”
Jean smiled as she found herself drifting off, “Let’s just say she found herself in surprising but capable hands.”