Costumes

The mansion was, for lack of a better word, chaotic.

Everyone seemed super excited about Halloween, what to wear, who to take to the party, and preparing for the party, any excuse was good to be excited.

Everyone but one person. 

Jean-Paul did not get the hype about the day, much less a month before it, and he was starting to get tired of his students being more worried about what to dress for the occasion than the lessons. At that point, the number of detentions he had been giving reached a new record.

Some teachers were also enthusiastic, buying decorations and reuniting themselves to prepare things, which did not help his case of making the students stop caring so much about it. Jean-Paul had refused any attempt to help with the preparations and be a chaperone at the party. 

Usually, his Halloween parties were not very out there. He would go to some bar and surround himself with hot men almost nude, pretending to be demons or hot firefighters. He did not make plans. He just showed up. And if he did make plans, they would not include being in a party taking care of a bunch of hormone-driven teenagers.

That didn't stop anyone from trying their best to convince him to stay at the mansion and participate. Dani had done it, Xiân had done it, even Emma tried to convince him to be a chaperone at the party, using the “but you are a squad leader, therefore you should be there”. Curse the day he accepted Xavier's proposal and cursed the day Scott made him a full-time teacher. He should have quit on the spot and gone back to Canada. Alpha Flight had their issues, but the most they wanted from him was going to drinks on special occasions, or Heather forcing them all to have dinner together on holidays. And as bad as those were, they never involved taking care of 50 something kids.

He was in his classroom marking essays. He had tried to make a habit of doing it in his room, but after having 4 students knocking on his room to talk with him about essays at the most absurd hours, he decided to keep everything related to work in the classroom and his personal space separated. 

That classroom was basically the Business and Math department of the building that he shared with Iceman, but since Bobby was also a full X-Men member, Jean-Paul was there alone most of the time.

“JP!!! I finally found you!”  It was Bobby, ice sliding through the corridor and stopping inside the classroom. “ I want to propose something.”Jean-Paul raised an eyebrow. He was always suspicious of Robert's plans. Even in the middle of his depressive episodes, he had found time for his pranks and the speedster was not willing to participate in any of them. He had been lucky enough not to be a victim of any yet and unlucky enough that people were always knocking on the door looking for Bobby or asking Jean-Paul to keep him in check.

“What are you planning now, Robert?” Before Bobby could say something, Jean-Paul kept going,” You know what…Forget about that. Whatever it is, most likely the answer is a no.”

“No pranks involved, I swear.” Suddenly Bobby was crouching in front of his desk, staring at him with his big blue eyes.

They were a deep blue, warm, unlike his own, which were more greyish blue, icier. 

“You have 1 minute of my attention before I go back to marking these essays.”

“Have you seen Star Trek?” Bobby asked and Jean Paul moved his head negatively, but Bobby ignored his answer and kept talking,”I was thinking… if we … you and I could…dress up as Kirk and Spock?” Jean-Paul at this point was glaring at him. “I mean you already have the dark hair and pointy ears to go as Spock… and I am blond-ish and handsome?”

Jean Paul took a deep breath. He wanted to refuse and go back to marking essays. He did, but Bobby started pouting and making those puppy eyes which were very difficult to resist. But still he had to refuse. Giving in would make his last attempts to forget Bobby useless. And he had been doing such a great job now that his crush had been going on missions more often and they didn't see each other daily.

“Non… also you are not even blonde.” commented the speedster. It was true, Bobby wasn't blonde, he had light brown hair. 

“At least you think I am handsome,” said Bobby with a huge smile on his face, 

“That was not the point of the conversation.”

“Pleeeeeease, you don't have to worry about anything. I will get us the uniforms, I swear. And we will look so freaking cool with them. Please, Please, Please” Jean Paul sighed, clearly Bobby was not going to let this go. “Also, Dani asked me to ask you if you could help us prepare the mansion for the party.”

Dani had asked him herself a couple of times for that and he always refused. She had even tried to get Annie and Lorna to convince him, without positive results, but she knew he would not refuse if Bobby was the one to ask, especially if it was something that would allow them to spend time together. It was how Emma tricked him into accepting leading a Squadron.

Curse the day she had suspicions about his crush. Was he that obvious? He liked to think he was not. Maybe he was. Xi'an had teased him before. But then she is a lesbian and she gets the whole, I am yearning like a fool for a straight person.

“I will think about that. On both accounts. But the answer is most likely a no.”

“Great! I am sure we will win that contest now. It is in the bag!”

“I didn't….” before Jean-Paul could finish the sentence, Bobby had already left the classroom 

“By the way, don't forget tomorrow we have a reunion about the decorations, 5 pm after classes in Dani's office.” Bobby came back to say, only his face showing through the door.

Bobby left again without saying anything more and Jean Paul was left confused. Sure Robert was not thinking about going to the party in matching outfits. Maybe he should ask Emma for holidays or threaten to quit. It used to work with Alpha Flight.