Moving Day

[Stern]

Michael Stern sealed up the last cardboard box, labeled it "Fine China, FRAGILE!" And stood up to look around. Boxes and furniture stood in small piles about the place he shared with his wife, Anita.

He smiled. He never once got tired of being able to say, "This is my wife, Anita."

Now they would soon be traveling to a place where he would be saying it a lot.

"Los Angeles."

He found Anita off somewhere in the corner of the place they shared, pulled her to him and gave her a big hug and a slow, passionate kiss.

"I'm so excited about this opportunity!" he said. "The LAPD has asked for me personally to help them set up and execute their own Mutant Crime Division. I'll actually get to define the terms of how the judicial system treats cases of mutants who commit crimes and have crimes committed against them."

He gave her another squeeze. "And you're amazing to come all the way out there with me."

Sure, he could have simply made the commute: East Coast to West Coast is nothing when you can travel at the speed of light. It was just...how did Anita put it?

[Anita Stern]

Anita laughed, giggled even, in his arms.

"It's weird, really weird. Disorienting and sometimes nauseating. I really appreciate that you're willing to do this the, ah, 'normal' way." She tipped her head in to nuzzle into his neck. "And thank you, but I'm really just me, honest. It's just me to want to be where you are."

Anita pulled her head away and looked around, still being up against him. She sighed. "I'm really going to miss this place."

[Stern]

Stern tucked a strand of hair behind Anita's ear.

"I know it," he said. "But knowing you, you'll be taking along every single memory in that steel trap of a brain you have."

He let her out of the hug and took her by the hand. "Everything is packed. The moving people will be by to get it all put up to follow us in a few days. Now it's one very long drive to LA so we can finish closing on our little house. Just wait til you see it. I think you're going to like it."

Stern smiled that raw, honest, wild, excited smile he got at the prospect of an adventure. It had com along way from the raw, wild, fierce, bloodlusted smile he wore back during his exile.

"You're beautiful."

An hour later, all the Sterns' things were in a large moving van awaiting the day they too would make the trip across the country. The couple buckled into Anita's Mini and cranked the ignition.

"Here we come, LA."

[Anita Stern]

"Sun and sand and... well, I'm not sure what I'll think about the lack of snow. The lack of winter. But it will be nice."

She smiled. Anita had never lived west. The last time she spent more than just a couple hours at a beach was the high school grad trip to Australia. Enjoyable enough, but being dumped in the middle of it made the whole thing awkward. Not that it had any bearing on the now. She had a man she loved, a life she wouldn't trade for anything else and everything had been falling into place. She had never felt so certain of who she was than she did now, pulling away from the lovely, old building she had spent the past many years in. Michael was right. Every last memory, sight, smell, taste, touch and sound would be forever encased in her mind and it would all be as fresh and savourable as the day it happened. As always, a double-edged sword.

"This is exciting. I mean, for me it's just a new city. I'll be doing things I've been doing for years, but you... it's just exciting. You're implementing change for good." She glanced out the corner of her eye at him in the passenger seat before setting her eyes back on the road. "This is good, right? How can we be sure this whole registration act we're walking into won't end up being used against us?"

It was a valid worry. The only people who knew of her being a mutant at all were those at Cullens, Michael and her mother. She wondered what her biological father, the father she had never known, the man her mother had finally spoken so highly of in the days of the truth coming out... wondered what he would think of this all. Of course, in those days, before her time, mutant rights weren't an issue. Everyone more or less still hid the nature of what they were.

[Stern]

Stern shrugged and scratched his chin. "Well, I've already put in my papers for the registration. I kind of had to do it since I'm employed by the city. So far registration is voluntary, but as I understand it they'll be making it compulsory."

Stern looked over at Anita. He understood his worry. When he reached LA he would be keeping a close eye on the MRA. In fact, he was glad he had to register the day it passed. He could test the waters before she did. He could see how it would affect her. But he would never force her to put her name on the list. The MCU was his job. She was his life.

"I won't allow it," he said at last. "If they use the act to strip mutants of their rights, I'll see it stopped. It's my job."

Stern sat in the quiet car, looking at Anita. "I remember that necklace," he said at last. "You wore it to the Policeman's Ball. I don't know how I managed to hide from you that I had planned to give you a different bit of jewelry that night."

[Anita Stern]

Relief settled into her. She would be safe with Michael as long as he was around and a safe person. She doubted the latter would ever change. Anita had never been so at ease with anyone else.

"It still escapes me how you managed that." She said, a wry smile creeping on to her lips as they cruised down the road, away from the building she had lived in for the past several years, where they had started their life together. Anita spared a glance at her husband.

"Of course, I don't spend any time dwelling on it. I was suitably impressed enough to leave it be. I like that for once, ever since my gift showed up, someone was able to sneak something good past me." She laughed. "I, more than anybody, love surprises."

[Stern]

Stern smiled and gave a slight chuckle. "I used Occlumency!"

It hadn't quite been like that, but it was close. Stern had never dared to try closing his mind to Anita. He figured she'd pick up on it and get suspicious. So instead he spent his time when they were touching blaring any other thoughts to the forefront of his mind to distract her. It must have worked.

"I remember the whole thing."

He brushed his finger against his wife's forearm and brought the memory to the surface.

They were walking into the Empire State Building, traveling up the long elevator to the designated floor. The elevator gave its small ding! and the couple stepped out into a large area where a band was playing music off on one side across from a buffet table. In between was the dance floor, with a few tables and chairs here and there along the last two sides of the room. The far wall was all large glass windows, offering a fantastic view of New York City.

"Shall we dance first, or mingle?"