Chapter 1
Shoved in the corner of their bedroom wasn’t exactly the most glamorous spot in the world, but they were making due, weren’t they?
Smaller spaces made Laura feel safe and Sooraya more comfortable. And blanket forts next to Sooraya’s cot had become a tradition in the few months they had roomed together, even throughout-
Well, throughout everything.
Julian has given them a list of classic movies to marathon, Kitty had burned them CD’s, Laura stole a portable player from Scott’s office, and they stripped the cots of their sheets, constructing an impressive fort in about ten minutes and tumbling next to each other to watch.
The first on Julian’s list was Sharkboy and Lavagirl, which- while ridiculous- was enjoyable, at the very least.
They continued, making soft comments ever so often in the dark, and then Laura is just looking at Sooraya, taking her in.
Their shoulders were touching and bits of Sooraya’s hair were brushing against Laura’s arm and the room smelled of sweat and Sooraya’s soap and flowers, roses or tulips or some other form.
She said as much out loud and Sooraya laughs, just a little, before whispering something about roses and names, which turned into Laura turning off the movie to listen to Sooraya talk about plays, which turned to literature, which turned to Laura reciting parts of the Art of War in return for Sooraya doing an incredible Macbeth impression, which turned into Laura with her head on Sooraya’s lap in the dark, which turned into-
This. Turned into Laura’s lips against Sooraya’s, slow and unsteady but good, turned into Laura’s stomach turning to knots and Laura’s hand buried in Sooraya’s hair as they kissed, turned into Sooraya shyly smiling and telling her she enjoyed it.
“I would like to kiss you again,” Laura stated, and Sooraya smiled fondly before they began again.
And, later, if Julian almost lost it as Sooraya recounted the night before to the Hellions, so be it.
(“You made out during Sharkboy and Lavagirl, Qadir? Sharkboy and Lavagirl?”)
II.
They hit the road a week after their kiss in Logan’s beat up old truck, Nori driving and Julian sitting shotgun, the rest banished to the back seats. Camping for a weekend, far away from the mansion.
They set up and Julian, Victor, Santo, and Cessily ran into the river, splashing at each other and shrieking. Nori rolled her eyes, cussed them out when Julian accidentally splashed her, and sat down to read a book; Josh went to go get extra marshmallows from a store a few minutes down the road; and Sooraya grabbed Laura’s hand and asked if she would like to go walk.
They go.
There’s a small path and they walk along it, Laura mostly listening to the birds around them and enjoying the weight of Sooraya’s hand in her palm. They stayed in comfortable silence until they reached the end of the wood, coming out on a little road leading down a small town street.
They walk along the side until they reach and Ice Cream Parlor, bored teenage girl looking up as Sooraya dragged Laura over to the counter.
Sooraya chose vanilla and Laura chose strawberry, and Laura paid with the last of the money she had saved from the Facility, the two of them walking back through the woods.
Sooraya swung their hands in between them and Laura, quietly, nervously, told her every bird she could see. Sooraya listened, and Laura gave a small smile, and it was good. Nori cackled at them when they got back, but it was worth it in every way, Laura thought.
Julian pushed Laura into the river face first, and Nori and Sooraya shrieked at them, and Laura, deep underwater, allowed herself to laugh.
III.
Sooraya’s mother was found when the New X-men are some approximation of seventeen. Sooraya visited most every time she could, and always over the weekends- and it would make sense, yes, that her mother would want to meet her closest friends?
Mirah Qadir was a small woman, barely Cessily’s height, with a kind face and her daughter’s eyes. She fell in step with them immediately the day she came to visit- learned everyone’s names in a matter of moments, told Sooraya softly for no one but Laura to hear that her friends were very polite, held her daughter’s hand as Sooraya showed her around the school.
When they return, most of the team had gone off to play baseball, leaving only Cessily and Laura to greet the Qadirs when they walked back across the yard.
Sooraya grasped Laura’s hand, pulling her into a hug after asking softly if it was alright to do so.
“I told her,” Sooraya whispered into Laura’s hair. “I told her and she said she is happy for us. And that you are very nice and a very pretty young woman, but she is now Keeping an Eye On You.”
“Good,” Laura responded, face going beet red as she processed the second half of the sentence. “Oh.”
Sooraya’s eyes shone with laughter as Laura continued to blush, burying her face in her hands.
IV.
Laura is bleeding on the ground in the Facility, in Cess’ Facility, and Julian is being checked on by Josh, and Sooraya is stumbling over to her, and she is cupping Laura’s face in her hands and she is saying Laura, Laura, come back to me, come back, I love you, I love you, come back-
And Laura is sitting up and she is gaping, she is grabbing Sooraya into a hug, she is repeating I love you too I love you too I love you too, in this building of the company she was built in, she is loving, she is loving, she is loving. She is loving Sooraya. She does not think she will ever stop loving Sooraya.
V.
One year and sixteen days after they get married, Laura and Sooraya discuss children.
They both want to try.
It begins.
VI.
Seven months and thirty days after they discuss it, Sooraya’s pregnancy test is shown to be positive.
They embrace each other. Sooraya cries a little, and Laura holds her, rocking her back and forth.
Pregnant.
They are both to be mothers.
Laura is happy. Laura is happy because they had managed it, happy because Sooraya is smiling and crying happy tears, happy because she loves her wife so dearly.
Laura is terrified. Laura is terrified their child will be born and then stolen from them, hurt and grown by the same people that hurt her.
Laura is terrified she will hold her child and not be able to love them, that her programming will finally resurface and she will not be able to be a good mother.
She tells Julian this and he sighs, kicking a stone as they walk along the road near the apartment complex the two of them (along with Brian and Sooraya) are living in.
He’s a month farther into his term than Sooraya is in hers, his stomach beginning to show, but he seems as energetic as ever.
“Laura, you know I’ve known you for a long time, and I need you to know- being loved by you is one of the coolest things in the world, and you give your love away so simply and so freely that I don’t have a doubt in my mind you’re going to love your kid more than anything. And if your codes kick into gear, I’ll punch them out of you, okay?”
She gives him a shaky smile, and he puts an arm around her, whistling some soft tune.
VII.
The baby comes nine months later, exactly on schedule. Laura holds Sooraya’s hand and the nurse (the safe nurse that Julian checked for any trace of Weapon X, the nurse who gave them both a grin and shook their hands) gives them both instructions and then, hours or seconds later, there is a baby swaddled in cloth in Sooraya’s arms, crying.
Sooraya is staring at the baby like she can’t quite believe how wonderful this all is, can’t believe that she’s real and this is real.
“Amena,” she tells the doctor when she asks for a name. “Amena Kinney-Qadir.”
And then she is passing the baby- their daughter! Laura and Sooraya’s daughter!- to Laura.
Amena smells of barely-dry blood. Amena stops crying the second Laura picks her up, and then-
Oh. Oh, Julian was right.
Oh, Laura loves her. Laura loves her so much her heart could burst with it, and apparently it shows because Sooraya, exhausted as she is, gives Laura a proud-happy smile before promptly falling asleep.
Oh, oh, oh, she thinks, as she looks at her daughter, oh, oh, this is how it feels. This is what it is to be a mother.
VIII.
The waiting room is packed with all seven of their teammates, Megan, Debbie, and Mirah. When Laura stumbles in, Amena handed carefully to the nurse with explicit instructions to Please Be Careful, Megan is the one to catch her. Both Megans, in fact, grabbing her by the arms as her knees give out.
“A girl,” she gasps out, “Healthy. Her name is Amena.”
Chaos ensues.
Julian passes his son (Kevin Cruz, age one month and six days, currently fast asleep) over to Brian to tackle Laura into a hug, taking the baby back so Brian can do the same. Nori is smiling and Cess is laughing and her baby is healthy and everything, for once, for once, is okay.
IX.
Raising a mutant child in an apartment building rented by various family members and sharing an apartment with your writer wife while you yourself study to become a teacher is no piece of cake, but Laura manages.
Not every day is easy, but they work on it, and they’re happy. Laura reads Amena stories and Sooraya wakes up every morning to pray and to dance around the kitchen and eventually Laura graduates with a degree in education and Cessily and Roxy tie the knot and life is good, for the former child weapon, life is safe.
There are still Bad Times. Laura still has nightmares; Sooraya’s terrors, while less frequent than before they had gotten ahold of Mirah, still occurred. They never use their powers in front of Amena unless it’s for trivial things, and never once does Laura use her claws in front of her daughter.
They both go to therapy. Laura brings Sooraya flowers and they kiss on the couch while Laura grades papers and Sooraya finishes a poem or two, and Laura loves Sooraya and Sooraya loves Laura and they get their happy ending, after having to bleed and scream and kill for it.
X.
It’s a Monday, and the kids are home from school (Laura has told Julian she would watch Kevin while he had work, so her nephew was currently next to her daughter on the couch as they both played a particularly hardcore round of Smash Brothers) when the living room starts to glow.
And then a dozen teenagers were standing up on unsteady legs, the nearest one throwing themself on Laura and nearly stabbing her guts out.
She throws the child off and finds herself looking at herself. Age 14, scrawnier, angrier, but certainly her.
Shit.