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Title: Unwoven 6/6
Fandom: X: First Class
Rating: PG
Pairing: Azazel/Riptide
Summary: Azazel sleeps with Raven, and everything falls apart.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own words.
Part 1, Part 2
Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Epilogue
Eight months later
Juan vanished in a puff of blue smoke, reappearing a second later on a second pole, from which he jumped to a trapeze set a foot higher than Janos’s head. He watched the little, aspiring circus performer hop and twirl about on a makeshift semi-jungle gym set up on the field outside Barcelona where the circus was setting up their headquarters for the next months. The long grass under his feet shone yellow-green in the clear morning sun, which made Janos squint a bit, but he didn’t miss a second of Juan’s performance. Workers and performers strolled by, stopping for a moment to watch Juan before moving on, an amused smile on their faces. The boy truly was adorable, even if his act felt like a crayon doodle where what you thought was a dog turns out to be a cow. Juan ended it by hanging by his tail at the center, not the most engaging climax, but he was only four. He would get the hang of it. It wasn’t a parent’s job to criticize, but rather to heap praises as if your child’s every endeavor were the most amazing thing ever.
“What do you think?” Juan asked, swinging about on his tail.
“Fantastic,” Janos said. “You’re going to be a great performer one day.”
“As good as papa?” Juan asked.
“Better. You can beat him any day.”
Squealing with joy, Juan jumped into Janos’s arms, making him struggle to stay upright as he stumbled back. Why did kids always launch themselves at you like that?
“Where’s papa?” Juan asked. “I wanna show him.”
“He should be here soon. He had some stuff to take care of. Work stuff. Very dull. You wouldn’t like it.”
“Like the stuff you do, papi?”
Janos smiled at the appellation. It still awed him to hear it.
“Yes, like the stuff I do.”
A funny feeling niggled at the back of his neck. Someone was watching them. He looked around, sight landing on a woman some distance away who started walking away as soon as he saw her.
“Juan,” Janos said, putting him down. “Why don’t you go play with Nana for a bit?” he asked, referring to the huge dog the other circus kids were cavorting with nearby.
“Okay.”
He watched Juan join up with the kids, then ran off after the woman. He knew who that was. What the hell was she doing here? She tried to eschew him by weaving through the mass of tents standing on the east side of the camp, but Janos wasn’t having it.
“Raven!” he called out when they reached a narrow tent-made corridor.
She stopped. A loose strip of canvas flapped against her right leg for the longest time, but she didn’t seem to notice, her shoulders hunched, head down. She straightened her back when she finally turned around as if summoning her courage. Sus cojones, more like. She had plenty of them to be showing up like this dressed up like a middle aged woman who could have come from anywhere in the Iberian Peninsula, the better to fit in with the crowd, as if Janos didn’t have any brains to see different.
“I’m not here to see him,” she said.
“Then why the hell are you here?”
“Erik sent me on a job nearby and I saw that the circus was out here and I just… I don’t know. I guess I finally got curious. Everyone’s always on tip toes around me about this kid.”
Most parents bragged about their child to co-workers every chance they got, recounting cute yet endlessly repetitious anecdotes, shoving stacks upon stacks of pictures upon their victims until their fake smiles begged, ‘please, no more!’ and then kept going anyway. Now, Azazel and Janos did do plenty of that when Raven was out of town, even though Janos felt like he was in a Twilight Zone episode, for he would have never, ever imagined himself doing that just eight months ago, yet now he had the oddest compulsion to show off what had become his kid. But never when Raven was around. Never when she could overhear. Every time the three were forced to be in the same room for some mission meeting, Janos wrapped himself around Azazel to show her Azazel was his, never hers, never again, yet he still felt the sting of betrayal prickling under his skin even as Azazel slid his tail around his waist, kissing him behind the ear to reassure him, but Janos never let her see his reserve. Instead, he kissed Azazel senseless until Erik rolled his eyes and ordered them to stop that so they could please get on with the meeting.
But there one was irrevocable proof that that night did happen. That child who he could see playing with the dog down by the big top, the one who smiled at him with Raven’s yellow eyes, who called him ‘papi’ with Raven’s blue lips.
“It’s not like you ask about him,” Janos said, tearing his gaze away from Juan.
“Would you really rather I did?”
Fuck no.
“No.”
“Look, Janos, I don’t really know what I’m doing here. I just think of him as Azazel’s kid. And now he’s your kid, too. All I did was give birth to him, that’s it.”
“You sure?” Janos’s voice felt achingly tight. “You got curious today. What if you get curious later?”
“I won’t. He’s not my kid, Janos, not since Azazel first picked him up in the delivery room. He’s yours.”
She looked over his shoulder.
“Azazel’s here,” she said.
Janos turned around. Indeed, Azazel had popped up near the jungle gym and was walking over to Juan. He didn’t need to turn back to know that Raven had taken advantage of Janos’s distraction to slip away, but he did anyway, regarding the spot she’d stood on with a twist in his stomach.
“Did he tell you about his act?” Janos asked Azazel once he caught up with him. Azazel’s ‘hello’ kiss lingered on his lips, short yet always welcome.
“He insists he must show it to me,” Azazel said. “But after playing with the dog.”
“Can’t compete with a dog.”
They watched Juan and his friends roll around on the grass with Nana, a 250 pound Saint Bernard that dwarfed them all in size. Nana pushed Juan down on the ground and licked all over his face while he giggled, gripping at Nana’s fur.
“Alright,” Azazel said, rescuing Juan from the over-affectionate dog. “That’s enough rough housing.”
“Papa, can I get a dog?” Juan asked once Azazel had pulled him out of Nana’s clutches.
“You have a dog right here.”
“But I want my dog.”
Janos told himself that it wasn’t insecurity over Raven’s presence that made him say it.
“Of course you can have your own dog.”
“What?” Azazel frowned at him
“I can?” Juan jumped in excitement.
“Why not?” Janos said.
“Yay!” Juan shouted, hopping about. “I’m going to get a dog!”
He ran over to tell his friends, proclaiming it to all and sundry despite Azazel’s protests.
“Juan,” he said. “We haven’t decided that yet!” He turned to Janos, looking quite vexed at Janos’s impracticality. “How are we going to keep a dog?”
“Juan can bring it here when we’re not home.”
“He’s four. He can’t take care of a dog by himself.”
“There’s plenty of other people around. And it can play with Nana. Besides, his birthday’s in a month. We should get him something special.”
“Something non-living would be easier.”
“Look, he’s already excited about the dog. You tell no, he’s going to cry.” Janos placed his hands on Azazel’s hips, sidling up to him. “You don’t want to see our son cry, do you?”
Azazel wasn’t having it.
“You’re a devious man, Janos Gutiérrez,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
“You begged for me to take you back, so it’s your own fault.”
Azazel shook his head.
“I guess it is. Fine, get him a dog. But you’re cleaning up its shit when the inevitable happens.”
Janos grinned, already imagining ways to coerce Azazel to do it for him. The man owed him.
“Of course.”
~~~~~~
Note: As someone pointed out, I changed Janos's surname to Gutierre,z and I forgot to mention why. First, I'm sticking to movie!verse (mostly because because I know next to nothing about the comics) and as, technically, they didn't mention Janos's name and this is an AU, I felt I could change it. Second, as I made Janos Puerto Rican, there is no way I would find it plausible to call him Quested, especially as he's played by Alex González, not only is he Spanish, he looks it (and hence Puerto Rican as well). I don't know. Stranger things have happened, but even if an ancestor named Quested had landed in Puerto Rico, it may have made their lives easier to change it to something local, especially since this is the 60s and I've noticed the older generation (mainly my grandmother's) has a very insular mindset. I'm just trying to work with what I know.
Fandom: X: First Class
Rating: PG
Pairing: Azazel/Riptide
Summary: Azazel sleeps with Raven, and everything falls apart.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own words.
Part 1, Part 2
Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Epilogue
Eight months later
Juan vanished in a puff of blue smoke, reappearing a second later on a second pole, from which he jumped to a trapeze set a foot higher than Janos’s head. He watched the little, aspiring circus performer hop and twirl about on a makeshift semi-jungle gym set up on the field outside Barcelona where the circus was setting up their headquarters for the next months. The long grass under his feet shone yellow-green in the clear morning sun, which made Janos squint a bit, but he didn’t miss a second of Juan’s performance. Workers and performers strolled by, stopping for a moment to watch Juan before moving on, an amused smile on their faces. The boy truly was adorable, even if his act felt like a crayon doodle where what you thought was a dog turns out to be a cow. Juan ended it by hanging by his tail at the center, not the most engaging climax, but he was only four. He would get the hang of it. It wasn’t a parent’s job to criticize, but rather to heap praises as if your child’s every endeavor were the most amazing thing ever.
“What do you think?” Juan asked, swinging about on his tail.
“Fantastic,” Janos said. “You’re going to be a great performer one day.”
“As good as papa?” Juan asked.
“Better. You can beat him any day.”
Squealing with joy, Juan jumped into Janos’s arms, making him struggle to stay upright as he stumbled back. Why did kids always launch themselves at you like that?
“Where’s papa?” Juan asked. “I wanna show him.”
“He should be here soon. He had some stuff to take care of. Work stuff. Very dull. You wouldn’t like it.”
“Like the stuff you do, papi?”
Janos smiled at the appellation. It still awed him to hear it.
“Yes, like the stuff I do.”
A funny feeling niggled at the back of his neck. Someone was watching them. He looked around, sight landing on a woman some distance away who started walking away as soon as he saw her.
“Juan,” Janos said, putting him down. “Why don’t you go play with Nana for a bit?” he asked, referring to the huge dog the other circus kids were cavorting with nearby.
“Okay.”
He watched Juan join up with the kids, then ran off after the woman. He knew who that was. What the hell was she doing here? She tried to eschew him by weaving through the mass of tents standing on the east side of the camp, but Janos wasn’t having it.
“Raven!” he called out when they reached a narrow tent-made corridor.
She stopped. A loose strip of canvas flapped against her right leg for the longest time, but she didn’t seem to notice, her shoulders hunched, head down. She straightened her back when she finally turned around as if summoning her courage. Sus cojones, more like. She had plenty of them to be showing up like this dressed up like a middle aged woman who could have come from anywhere in the Iberian Peninsula, the better to fit in with the crowd, as if Janos didn’t have any brains to see different.
“I’m not here to see him,” she said.
“Then why the hell are you here?”
“Erik sent me on a job nearby and I saw that the circus was out here and I just… I don’t know. I guess I finally got curious. Everyone’s always on tip toes around me about this kid.”
Most parents bragged about their child to co-workers every chance they got, recounting cute yet endlessly repetitious anecdotes, shoving stacks upon stacks of pictures upon their victims until their fake smiles begged, ‘please, no more!’ and then kept going anyway. Now, Azazel and Janos did do plenty of that when Raven was out of town, even though Janos felt like he was in a Twilight Zone episode, for he would have never, ever imagined himself doing that just eight months ago, yet now he had the oddest compulsion to show off what had become his kid. But never when Raven was around. Never when she could overhear. Every time the three were forced to be in the same room for some mission meeting, Janos wrapped himself around Azazel to show her Azazel was his, never hers, never again, yet he still felt the sting of betrayal prickling under his skin even as Azazel slid his tail around his waist, kissing him behind the ear to reassure him, but Janos never let her see his reserve. Instead, he kissed Azazel senseless until Erik rolled his eyes and ordered them to stop that so they could please get on with the meeting.
But there one was irrevocable proof that that night did happen. That child who he could see playing with the dog down by the big top, the one who smiled at him with Raven’s yellow eyes, who called him ‘papi’ with Raven’s blue lips.
“It’s not like you ask about him,” Janos said, tearing his gaze away from Juan.
“Would you really rather I did?”
Fuck no.
“No.”
“Look, Janos, I don’t really know what I’m doing here. I just think of him as Azazel’s kid. And now he’s your kid, too. All I did was give birth to him, that’s it.”
“You sure?” Janos’s voice felt achingly tight. “You got curious today. What if you get curious later?”
“I won’t. He’s not my kid, Janos, not since Azazel first picked him up in the delivery room. He’s yours.”
She looked over his shoulder.
“Azazel’s here,” she said.
Janos turned around. Indeed, Azazel had popped up near the jungle gym and was walking over to Juan. He didn’t need to turn back to know that Raven had taken advantage of Janos’s distraction to slip away, but he did anyway, regarding the spot she’d stood on with a twist in his stomach.
“Did he tell you about his act?” Janos asked Azazel once he caught up with him. Azazel’s ‘hello’ kiss lingered on his lips, short yet always welcome.
“He insists he must show it to me,” Azazel said. “But after playing with the dog.”
“Can’t compete with a dog.”
They watched Juan and his friends roll around on the grass with Nana, a 250 pound Saint Bernard that dwarfed them all in size. Nana pushed Juan down on the ground and licked all over his face while he giggled, gripping at Nana’s fur.
“Alright,” Azazel said, rescuing Juan from the over-affectionate dog. “That’s enough rough housing.”
“Papa, can I get a dog?” Juan asked once Azazel had pulled him out of Nana’s clutches.
“You have a dog right here.”
“But I want my dog.”
Janos told himself that it wasn’t insecurity over Raven’s presence that made him say it.
“Of course you can have your own dog.”
“What?” Azazel frowned at him
“I can?” Juan jumped in excitement.
“Why not?” Janos said.
“Yay!” Juan shouted, hopping about. “I’m going to get a dog!”
He ran over to tell his friends, proclaiming it to all and sundry despite Azazel’s protests.
“Juan,” he said. “We haven’t decided that yet!” He turned to Janos, looking quite vexed at Janos’s impracticality. “How are we going to keep a dog?”
“Juan can bring it here when we’re not home.”
“He’s four. He can’t take care of a dog by himself.”
“There’s plenty of other people around. And it can play with Nana. Besides, his birthday’s in a month. We should get him something special.”
“Something non-living would be easier.”
“Look, he’s already excited about the dog. You tell no, he’s going to cry.” Janos placed his hands on Azazel’s hips, sidling up to him. “You don’t want to see our son cry, do you?”
Azazel wasn’t having it.
“You’re a devious man, Janos Gutiérrez,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
“You begged for me to take you back, so it’s your own fault.”
Azazel shook his head.
“I guess it is. Fine, get him a dog. But you’re cleaning up its shit when the inevitable happens.”
Janos grinned, already imagining ways to coerce Azazel to do it for him. The man owed him.
“Of course.”
~~~~~~
Note: As someone pointed out, I changed Janos's surname to Gutierre,z and I forgot to mention why. First, I'm sticking to movie!verse (mostly because because I know next to nothing about the comics) and as, technically, they didn't mention Janos's name and this is an AU, I felt I could change it. Second, as I made Janos Puerto Rican, there is no way I would find it plausible to call him Quested, especially as he's played by Alex González, not only is he Spanish, he looks it (and hence Puerto Rican as well). I don't know. Stranger things have happened, but even if an ancestor named Quested had landed in Puerto Rico, it may have made their lives easier to change it to something local, especially since this is the 60s and I've noticed the older generation (mainly my grandmother's) has a very insular mindset. I'm just trying to work with what I know.
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From: (Anonymous)
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This made me both sob and go 'aww' at all the perfect moments, especially with ANYTHING that had to do with lil!Nightcrawler or porud-papa Azazel.
Just like...two things critic-wise, or actually more accuratelt beta-wise.
*Squealing with joy, Juan jumped into Jonas’s arms*...I won;t point out everything unless you really want, but about four time's you've mixed up the spelling in Janos' name is all...just switched the 'o' and 'a' around. Just typo stuff, you know.
Also, second, which is mostly me being weird, Janos's last name is Quested. Not that I have any problem with Gutierrez, since you've already stated this is AU, but just pointing it out.
Sorry if that seems at all rude, because I REALLY love this story! Anyway, thanks, and this is wonderful, and all that jazz.
-happy!Anon
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I think my brain is trying to change Janos's name into 'Jonah'. I can't think of why else I keep doing that, though I do switch letters around and do not notice unless I go letter by letter. It's weird.
I explained my reasons for changing Janos's surname in a note in the entry. I was going to do it earlier, but I forgot at the last minute. It just didn't feel plausible to me for a Puerto Rican to be name Quested.
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Gah.
To be honest I found it slightly awkward to suddenly have a sex chapter after four whole chapters of PG... still works, I guess.
Can I just say how much I love this again
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Re: Gah.
I needed a sex scene to relieve the UST between these two. It worked with the flow of the story, in my opinion. But I am biased. :)
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Re: Gah.