eliyes: (bed & breakfast)
Eliyes ([personal profile] eliyes) wrote2010-07-06 10:09 pm

X-Men fanfic: "Fealty"

Title: Fealty
Characters: Iceman, Northstar, Nightcrawler
Summary: Followers make their leaders, sometimes more literally than others.


"Okay, I'm going to make this as unambiguous as possible," Bobby said, not quite stepping between Kurt and Jean-Paul. They broke off their staring match to look at him when he laid a hand on each of their arms.

He took a deep breath, and dove in.

"Northstar." Jean-Paul straightened at Bobby's unexpectedly formal-sounding use of his codename. "From what your Alpha Flight teammates told me, you sometimes operated as deputy leader of that team, and you usually did a good job. But during the Skrull invasion, you took my orders. There were a bunch of reasons for that set-up at the time, and while I think I could remember not to boss you around, I'm not sure. This is too important to mess up with confusion over who's in charge."

Bobby turned to meet Kurt's glowing, sulfuric-yellow gaze.

"You, Nightcrawler, have years of experience leading Excalibur. Given the personalities involved, it must have been like herding cats." Kurt gave a small, wry smile of acknowledgement, and Bobby plowed on. "I mean Kitty, Rachel, and Brian? With that team line-up, you know when to give your people their heads, and when -- and how -- to bring them in line. I trust you not to steer us wrong in this. I'll follow you."

"Thank you," Kurt said, wrapping his unique hand around Bobby's wrist and giving a squeeze of gratitude.

They both looked at Jean-Paul, who sighed theatrically. "You don't leave me much choice." His tone was grudging, but his eyes smiled as he shook Kurt's hand. "I will follow you in this, as well."