The bar we sat in was too loud, and my drink had the fait taste of methanol. I mixed it with the stirrer and took another gulp. The taste didn’t change causing me to pull a face of disgust down at the drink.
“I take it you not enjoying you drink Bub?” I looked up at Logan and smirked at him. I pushed my drink towards him, which he quickly took in his grasp and pushed it down his throat. I waited about two seconds, and dead on he pulled the exact same face I did.
“Jesus, what the hell was that supposed to be?” I looked at the glass with still help the oil slick shine.
“It was meant to be vodka and coke.” He shook his head and took a large gulp of his whiskey. I rested my elbow on the table and held up my head as I looked around the bar. Men and women were equally drunk and equally as violent, I saw one guy laughing drunkenly with a huge bruise circling his eye. I shook my head, people were morons at times.
“So do you want to talk about what happened Bub?” I looked quickly back to Logan and raised an eye brow, as a waiter grabbed my glass off my table.
“Can I get you anything else?” I looked up at the young man, he was obviously muscular and had an attractive build, but still not my type, I’m sure I saw a glint of bondage in his mind. I shook myself and smiled up at him.
“Can I have a rum and coke, with three shots of tequila, can I get lemon and salt with that?” I gave him a wink causing a suggestive smile to grow on his lips, there was no harm in flirting, especially when nothing will come of it, at least on my part. The man walked away quickly, leaving me in the stunned silence of Logan.
“Is that the kind of guy you go for?” I looked at Logan and chuckled, and waved my hand. Really? Does he really think I go for guys like that?
“God no, I’m just flirting.” I nodded and took another gulp of his high proof beverage. The man was back in a shot. He lined up the shots in front of me along with slices of lemon and shaker of salt. He placed my run and coke next to my hand on my left.
“The shots are on the house, enjoy.” I nodded and licked the back of my hand. Logan raised an eyebrow and looked at me with curiosity.
“What are you doing?” I chuckled and began to sprinkle the salt on the damp skin so that it stuck.
“I’m making myself a tequila slammer. You lick the back of your hand and sprinkle it with salt, you pinch a slice of lemon between your thumb and forefinger, and you then lick the salt off your hand, down the shot and bite the lemon. It’s as simple as that.” Logan nodded, and smirked at me.
“Can I join you Liberty?” I chuckled and nodded quickly. Logan gave his hand a long lick and quickly sprinkled salt over it. We both pinched a piece of lemon each and then looked at each other.
“You ready Bub?” I mocked causing Logan chuckle. We both held a tequila shot in one hand and raised our salt covered hands.
“Bottoms up.” I dragged my tongue over the pure salt and quickly rolled my shot into my mouth feeling the momentary burn of the tequila as it traveled down my throat. I then bit hard into the piece of lemon.
I sighed loudly as the acidic lemon neutralized the salty taste. I licked my lips clearing them of salt, tequila and lemon juice. I looked over to Logan who had a face of pure gold, his lips were in the shape of an “O” and his eyes were wide.
“Did you like it Logan?” I stifled a laugh as his face finally relaxed into a mocking scowl.
“I’m gonna stick to beer and whiskey.” I shrugged and grabbed the last shot. I grabbed a piece of lemon and left the salt, my mouth felt the ocean right now, and I didn’t need any more salt. I swallowed my shot and slammed the piece of lemon between my teeth.
I sighed again and took a quick sip of my rum and coke. I looked at Logan and remembered he asked if I wanted to talk about what happened.
“I saw into Magneto’s mind.” I said as I looked at the oily surface of my drink. Logan’s head suddenly perked up, as he heard my quiet voice.
“I didn’t mean to, at first the idea was to show him how I became…this.” I sighed and took another sip of my drink, as I gestured to myself. Logan nodded, and swirled the dregs of his drink in the bottom of his glass.
“How were you showing him how you became…you?” I gave a sad smile, and sighed and I looked out of the window we had sat next to and saw multiple cars speeding past trying to return home to their loved ones. I sighed again, and looked at Logan.
“My powers are very specific, I can see into people’s minds, you know this. So it’s much harder to let people see into my mind without giving something of myself to them. So I kissed him.” Logan looked like a cross between shock and anger.
“Go on.” He growled out. I gulped silently, and continued.
“But something happened I don’t know if it was my mental barriers failing me or just because Magneto’s so powerful mentally, that his memories seeped into my vision. I saw everything, even thing he hasn’t told Charles about, but when I pulled away from his mind after seeing what he had done I more or less called his a murder, so he threw me back and told me I should leave. So I did.” I shrugged and drank the last of my rum and coke.
“I take it the kiss wasn’t romantic?” I scowled at Logan and stood up from the table, slamming my empty glass down causing a crack to run through it slicing my finger which lay over it. I pulled my hand away from the glass and watched it slowly fall into two halves.
“Is that all you took from that?” Logan got up and grabbed the tops of my arms in his warm hands, making my heart suddenly pick up pace. I felt my blood drip off my finger onto the sticky wooden floor of the bar.
“No it wasn’t Liberty, but how comes Magneto got to see you past I don’t’? I looked all over the world for you, and what do I get for it?” I expected his hands to tighten but then didn’t if anything they became even more gentle as his thumbs rubbed the pale skin of my arms. I looked away from him to see the bar still carrying on in there usually activities of getting completely wasted.
“You didn’t get anything because you didn’t ask.” I grabbed his face between my cold hands and slammed my lisp against his. I could see he wanted to know where I had been for six years, so I showed him, I had been more places that my rainy England.
But it was the first place I felt safe. I saw myself sitting down besides Buttermere Lake painfully trying to levitate a stone in the palm of my hand. I quickly threw the memory and showed Logan the second year of my life away for the avengers.
I lived in India for some time, I saw one of the happiest moments of my life, as I experience the Festival of colours, Holi. I was covered in bright reds pink blues and green.
I quickly pulled myself from that memory to Japan, I never felt safe in Japan, and there was a good reason, mutant exploitation, people were trained in capturing mutants so that they could be experimented on. Logan saw me running, my breathing was heavy and I was covered in blood, I ran with several other mutants as we hoped for escape. I pulled out my scepter and plunged it through the guard in our way; I used his as a weight as I flipped over him. I quickly pulled my scepter, pulling the man along with it slamming him into the ground dead. We had to run there was no other option. The memory faded to show that only four of us had made it out alive. I felt tears burn down my cheeks as I could still remember then all just stood there defenseless against those men. Those monsters. I showed him that for the next two years we travelled together, as we quickly became Japan secrete most wanted. There was a lot of running, until we reached Alaska.
We stayed a year in Canada, they were accepting of us, of our kind, they didn’t chase us or make us fight for our lives, they were inviting and didn’t’ care what we were just as long as we were good people. I worked there for a small while as an assistant to a man who owned a construction company, it made me good money I really didn’t need but it meant the people who escaped with me could live comfortably.
Soon enough it had been a year and a half, I decided that I needed to stop playing happy families, and return to New York. I left them everything I had earned. I bought them the house we had been renting, and I left them enough money to do something with their lives. I remember turning my back on them that night with nothing but a note and a deed to the house. My heart ached as much as it did when I left the Avengers.
Finally Logan saw the day I reintroduced myself to Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. I could feel Logan growing hatred toward Tony Stark as he witnessed his behavior towards me, which was completely justified. Then he saw me meeting him what felt coincidentally that day, then me meeting gambit and kicking his creole ass. Then the memories skipped to show Magneto throwing me and myself quickly walking away from him, and then to now, the kiss I was sharing with him.