Aggressive Negotiations [10/14]

[shadowcat]

Title: Aggressive Negotiations
Author: enochiansigils and not_from_stars
Fandom: X-Men
Pairing/Characters: Dani Moonstar/Mikhail Sorokin
Rating/Category: R
Warnings: One scene of consensual sex between a minor who is older than her years and a an adult.
Summary: Danielle Moonstar was raised by Magneto and his Brotherhood and became a member of the MLF at a young age. She met and fell in love with Mikhail Sorokin. But the course of true love never does run smooth and when Dani dies as the result of a mission gone wrong, Mikhail is left to pick up the pieces of his life. Five years pass and Mikhail learns that things are not as they have always seemed.
Words: 31,122
Notes: Written for au_bigbang 2011. Thank you very much to queenmidalah for the wonderful art and fanvideo she made for us! We've loved writing this story and have very much enjoyed taking part in the challenge this year.








Since there was no way the entire team could accompany Charles and Dani to the Shi’ar home world, Charles had to make some decisions on who was going and who was being left in charge of the school.

In the end, Tamsin and Kitty refused to be left behind. That meant that Rachel, Logan and Ororo were going as well. Scott and Jean were being left in charge of the school during his absence. He had faith in their abilities to do what needed to be done when he wasn’t there. Scott didn’t like not going with him, but he had to admit that it was highly unlikely that anyone would be able to get past Logan, Ororo and the Shi’ar empire to harm his mentor.

When he was done going over last minute instructions, he directed Ororo to take the Blackbird up into space. During the journey, Kitty and Tamsin didn’t leave Dani’s side and he hoped that the other girl would pull through – for all of their sakes.

As soon as they met up with Corsair’s ship, they were escorted to their destination. Dani was whisked away as soon as the Shi’ar medics were briefed on the situation, and Tamsin and Kitty followed in their wake. As the others of his students went in different directions to visit with friends, Charles finally sighed and let himself make his way to the room that had been designated as his anytime that he visited.

It wasn’t long before he felt the comforting presence of Lilandra seeking entrance to his room. Once she was inside, she immediately wrapped her arms around him.

“She’s just a child,” Lilandra said sorrowfully, telling Charles that she already had seen Dani.

“She’s only a little older than some of my girls,” he agreed.

“She’s not one of yours,” she said in honest confusion. She knew all of Charles’ students and always paid careful attention to any changes in his family or his school. “Where did she come from?”

“Not yet she’s not, but if she survives and Kitty and Tamsin have their way, she will be.”

“The damage to her body is extensive, Charles. What happened to her?”

He sighed. “Her team betrayed her. She was trying to save a human doctor from being hurt and they didn’t appreciate it. Kitty and Tamsin found her.”

“It was lucky for her that they did. Perhaps luckier still that you brought her to us.”

Charles nodded, his arms around her. “I thought that if anyone could give her a chance at survival, your people could.” He paused. “Lilandra, she’s Erik’s daughter.”

“That brings a whole new set of complications, I gather. Does he know?”

“I contacted him as soon as she was found and brought to my school. He gave his permission to bring her here.”

Lilandra nodded, running her hand along his back in a soothing manner. “We will do all we can for her, my love, I promise you.”

“I know,” Charles whispered. “I know.”




The only thing that pulled Mikhail out of his misery was the thought that someone had to tell Locus and Tempo what'd happened. This thought got him out of Dani's room, but he was saved from having to find the other two by the fact that they'd apparently come looking for him.

"What happened, Concussion?" Locus demanded, looking impatient.

Oh, God. How did he say it? How did he actually say the words and give her death even more of a sense of finality?

"Well?" Tempo prodded.

"It... didn't go as planned," Mikhail began, feeling it a safe enough opening. "I couldn't get to her right away because there were so many blasts going off. By the time I got to her... I met up with the rest of the team coming down the hall. They told me that she was gone."

"Did you see her body?" Locus asked, her voice gone quiet. "Did you find out for a fact that she was gone?"

"There wasn't time to get to her," Mikhail said quietly. "I wanted to. I tried to. But the others wouldn't let me."

Locus wanted to snap at him, rage at him, strike out at him, but the abject misery on his face kept her from it. She and Tempo were hurting at the loss of their good friend, but he was hurting at the loss of his lover, the woman who'd completed him. Without her, a part of him was broken. So she held back on everything she wanted to say. She could do that much for him.

Tempo had no problems striking out verbally, though.

"How do you know she was dead?" she snapped. "Moonstar could've been just unconscious or even just comatose. She could've still been alive, Concussion. There could've been the possibility of saving her, of helping her, and now we'll never know because you didn't have the courage to brave a falling down building to get to her."

"Tempo, enough," Locus hissed. "There's a time and a place. This is neither. Can't you see he's hurting just as badly as we are?"

Still seething, Tempo looked at Mikhail. Saw the pain in his eyes and written on his face. And she knew that she'd just given him something else to blame himself for in addition to all the rest -- because she knew her team leader more than well enough to know that he'd already been blaming himself.

"Concussion... Mikhail... I'm sorry."

They were the only words Tempo said, but they told Mikhail all he needed to know -- that she really was sorry. Most of the team didn't call him by his first name unless it was important. Dani was the only one who'd ever used his first name on a consistent basis.

And now he'd never hear her say it again.

Biting the inside of his cheek, he gave a short sharp nod. "Apology accepted." His words were brusque, but if they hadn't been he would have cried, and he would not cry in front of two members of his team. He had to stay strong. They would expect it of him. Or rather, they would expect him to stay strong in public and break down in private. There was precious little he could do right now, he could do that much.

"We should... I don't know..." Tempo trailed off, raking her fingers through her hair. "We should do something. Like a memorial service."

"Not now," Mikhail said quietly. "I can't talk about that right now."

"No, of course not," Locus said quickly. "But it's a good idea. We'll worry about that, you worry about grieving." Not that she particularly wanted to plan a memorial service for her best friend, but she'd had to do something to shut Tempo up before the other woman put her foot in her mouth yet again. Once had been more than enough.

"Thank you," Mikhail said quietly, managing something of a smile. It was a shadow of his usual brilliant grin, though; at the moment, he suspected he might never smile that way again.

"You don't need to thank us," Locus said quietly. "We're a team, Concussion, but more than that... we're family. And family takes care of its own. This is us taking care of you."

There weren't words for how he appreciated that, for how Locus and Tempo had taken control of the situation in a way that took none of his position away from him and had left him firmly in command.

Even though all he wanted to do was run.



Three months passed and still, there was no change in Dani. The Shi'ar worked to heal the damage to her body, but no matter what they did, she didn't wake up. To some people, it would be said that she needed to stay unconscious so that her body could adjust to everything it had gone through. After all, the damage had been extensive and even with their technology, it had been a fight for the Shi'ar medics to repair all of the damage.

But the X-Men that were there didn't believe that. Kitty and Tamsin didn't believe that. They knew what she had said when they found her and they knew what Tamsin had felt from her before she lapsed into the coma.

Day after day, the two of them sat at the comatose woman's side and talked to her. Sometimes they told her stories of their lives and once Kitty was overheard to be begging Dani to wake up.

It was hearing this that led Logan to be sitting at Dani's side at a time when the two girls had been chased away to get some sleep. He was silent for a long time before he reached out and took her hand.

"Listen, girl," Logan said quietly. "I'm not going to beg you to get better and to stay alive. I'm not going to ask you to open your eyes and come back to us. That's what my girls have been doing and it doesn't seem to have worked very well. So, we're doing this my way. You will wake up and and you are going to live. I don't know what it is that you're hiding from, but I do know that you are stronger than whatever that is. I know who your daddy is and I know how hard you've fought when the X-Men have faced the Brotherhood or the MLF. I know that you have a new family waiting for you to wake up. You're going to do that because you are not going to die on them. That is not an option and you are not allowed to die." He squeezed her hand gently. "You listen to me and you wake up, because you don't want to see what happens when you disobey me." His voice dropped as he leaned close to Dani's ear. "You wake up and you let yourself get better and I promise you, you won't be facing whatever hurt you like this on your own. I know what it's like to hurt so much you want to die, Dani, I do. But I didn't die, and neither will you. And when you're healed, I promise you, you won't be alone. I'll stand with you... and so will they."

Logan leaned back into his chair. He didn't like the idea of just watching Danielle Moonstar die. Yes, she had always been on a different side than the X-Men, but then again, he hadn't always been with the team, either. He probably understood what Dani would go through when she woke up more than any of them. Her team had turned on her and tried to kill her. Her supposed enemies had retrieved her and fought to keep her alive. Yeah, it was going to be one hell of a mind screw for her. However, she wasn't much older than his girls and they had attached themselves to her the moment they found her. That meant that whether Dani liked it or not, she was one of his family now.

And his family was never allowed to die on him -- especially when it was a betrayal that injured them.

"Trust me, girl," he spoke to her again. "You really don't want to take the chance of dying on me. I know people that could probably bring you back and then I would have to kick your ass all over the place for not listening to me from the start. That would take away from my drinking time and not even Kit and Tam get away with that." Well, they did, but the point was to make Dani decide to live. Letting her know that he was a soft touch with them was not part of that plan. "Of course, then I'd make you pick up my tab at the nearest bar and I can drink a lot."

Logan sighed, and reached to squeeze her hand gently again. "You can't let those bastards beat you, girl. I know how strong you are. It's not in your natural makeup to let someone like whoever hurt you destroy you like this. You're too strong -- and too much of your daddy's girl not to fight back."

One of the monitors beeped and then it let out a different beep. His ears heard the girl on the bed take a breath and then another. He looked down in time to see her eyes flutter before they finally opened.

"Wrong." The voice was barely a breath, but Logan heard her quite clearly.

"What am I wrong about?"

"I can drink you under the table."






Chapter Nine || Chapter Ten