It’s the first “Anniversary/Birthday” of Laura crashing into the lives of the X-Men, they don’t want to overwhelm her but show they care so when throw a small party with Logan giving the say so. She’s just stunned, trying to wrap her head & heart around the idea of these people caring about her... Kitty & Jean surprise her with a brand new Teddy Bear 🧸 while Rogue got her some CDs and clothes that might be up her alley. Laura smiles - maybe this sort of thing isn’t too bad after all

“I thought we were going somewhere else.” Logan’s clone does not like surprises (which to her are a lot like lies by omission). She hates lies, patronizing, sugar-coating, misinformation, and a long list of other things she doesn’t have time to think about. But she expects people to keep their word as a bare minimum, and she’s not sure what to think when the short man doesn’t seem to be. “Outsid-”

“Christ, X. We ARE. I forgot somethin’… Can you come with an old man while he gets it?” She hates when he refers to himself as old, looking like a tanned version of him in a different variation of all black today. A tank top and dark pants. She’s got a long time left of decelerated aging but as she listened closely to sounds inside the mansion, she has no idea about his and what he’s put it through. 

The emotion shows easily on her face, but he smiles at her, leading her into a strangely dim room. “We’ll be on the road before ya know it,” He lies, taking a purposefully long time to switch the light on (even if she’s aware there’s an unholy amount of people hidden out of her sight). ‘What the-’

If she didn’t already think of lot of the silly people Logan insisted on living with, her mind would’ve screamed ambush. When the light flickers on, some sort of paper-mache object explodes, raining sprinkles and large particles of color everywhere. She tenses out of reflex but the hairy man next to her places a large hand on her back and she realizes this was meant to happen. 

She grits her teeth and snarls when an infernal buzzing sounds from several directions. She smells saccharinely sweet food mixed with savory (enough to feed way too many people)  and balloons are everywhere. Apparently, they see fit to surprise a 110 lb adamantium killing machine by overloading ALL of her senses. She doesn’t know what to do with all that trust. 

“It’s okay, Laura!” Jubilee and Kitty appear first with strange hats and streamers. “See, it’s a party! For you!” She gestures at the decorations for the party in a yellow tube top. “Sorry it’s a surprise. I just felt like if we explained…” She wouldn’t come.

“Ah told y’all confetti was too much…” Hanging a bit more of a distance away was Scott, Jean, Rogue, Kurt, Bobby, and Remy. 

“Joyeux anniversaire, petite.” The multi-lingual child soldier catches the phrase from the thief, even if she doesn’t understand why he said it. ‘My birthday…. I don’t know when I was born.’

“Everyone else is celebrating, but outside! You can join them whenever you want or to just hang back. It’s up to you.” Jean explains, trying to curb her excitement for the experiment’s sake. 

“We know you don’t know your birthday, but this is the anniversary of when you came here. With us. It just seemed… Right. We couldn’t let it pass by.” She eyes the oversized bear Scott’s holding. “F-From Kitty, and Jean.” It’s nearly bigger than her and the first stuffed animal Laura’s ever had. He sets it down awkwardly near her as she studied his red polo. “Happy anniversary, Laura.” 

“What do I do with this…” She’s never received a gift from anyone besides Logan, and that hardly counted. She sniffed it cautiously. 

“Whatever you want, silly. It’s your… Day. And it’s your bear too!” Kitty explains in excitement. “You can… Decorate your room with it!” She imagines the giant stuffed animal and the minimal decor. 

“Scott and I have a card, too.” Jean says. They and Logan stuffed it full of money so the girl might get the concept of shopping (even Rogue could be convinced from time to time). Jubilee moved by the tanned girl’s side as the goth approached her with a smirk. 

“Got some music you might be into.” An eyebrow quirks, but if anyone might be close, it’d be her. “Loud. Fast. Angry.” Thin lips twitch up in a ghost of a smile. “And some of this. Jus’ cause you like to wear black doesn’t mean ya can’t shop…” Laura eyes a fishnet shirt with particular interest as Logan frowned. Last he knew, Rogue hated clothes shopping. 

The lean girl rubs fingers over a long, dark coat and chunky boots. “Thank me later.” 

“Who said anything about clothes... She’s GOT clothes…” If she started dressing like her and Wanda he’d ride off and not come back until it’s fixed itself (god forbid SHE pick up on the others’ habit of doing things just to annoy him). 

“Hey, a girl can never have too many!” Jubilee waits until she has most of the girl’s attention before handing her a box. “Okay, please don’t make fun…” Laura wouldn’t even if she knew how to. She shreds the wrapping to reveal two gloves, with slots made already for her claws. “Ororo taught me to sew… I thought you might need some more pairs.” The girl tore her uniforms up worse than Wolverine. 

Laura studies her growing pile of gifts and looks around, wondering what she had to offer in exchange (never something for nothing). “I… Don’t have anything.” 

“Yes, you do!” Kitty points to her pile of stuff with a giggle. “You don’t give us things, this is all for YOU.” Jubilee nodded enthusiastically as she tries to understand why there would be a time at any point in the day where people gave her stuff. The blank look shows she doesn’t understand, but she doesn’t mind either. 

“Every year? Because… I came here?” Anniversaries and customs were still so strange for her as she looked around through brown hair. She’d never been in the same place so long. 

“Yes, it can be like your birthday. If you want it to be.” Scott explains reassuringly. As important as they were to most people their age, he can tell she hadn’t spent much time wondering about it. “You’ve seen others. We… Eat cake and share things.” She had only watched celebration gatherings from the sidelines before. 

“Well, kid.” Logan moves close and gives her an understanding look, one that will be proud of her either way. “What do you think? I want you to feel normal but I won’t take a choice away from ya. If you’d rather forgo stuff like this, we will.” She’s surrounded by faces that weren’t judging her. The stout man gets a chill when she smiles at Jubilee. “It’s no pressure.” 

“What are they doing outside?” She doesn’t have to eat, but her source material had suggested it for a sense of normalcy like everyone else. Maybe she would try eating that cake stuff until her stomach hurt.