"Logan, I'm eighteen years old, and I am perfectly capable of running my own life!" She hated it when he did this. When he got angry at other people, he was liable to get loud and violent; but with her he just got quiet. He would sit there and chew on his cigar and stare her down until she was forced to realize he was right. And the worst of it was that he usually was right, which was annoying as all hell.

The way her voice got all high and squeaky when she got riled up like this didn't help her nerves much, either.

He just shook his head at her. "Never said you weren't, kid." He took a drag off the cigar, and she got distracted by his lips for a moment, the way they wrapped around and pursed and then relaxed and opened in a sure, practiced motion was mesmerizing.

She blinked. "Then stop telling me who to date!" Unless, of course, you want to suggest yo-- She stopped herself from blinking again just in time. No need to have him think he gave her a nervous twitch.

"If you had listened to what I said, kid, you would have noticed I didn't do that."

"Sure you did! You said-" He stood up.

"I said, Marie, that it's important to think about what you do before you do it when it's gonna impact other people. I said, Marie, that LeBeau isn't the most stable person on the planet. That was it. And I said those things because I don't want you getting hurt. Do what you want with your life, I sure as hell ain't your father, but I'd be a worthless friend if I wasn't honest with you about what I think about your choices." He stabbed the cigar out on the ashtray next to him, and she was left agog at one of the longest speeches he'd ever made. In which he called her Marie. Twice.

"So you don't think you know what's best for me?"

He tilted his head at her for a moment and frowned. "So that's it. Don't lump me in with Scooter and Chuck and the rest of them, kid. I'm not gonna try to control you, I'm not gonna guilt trip you into doing 'what's best'."

"But they mean well, and I'm young and it makes sense that--"

"I think you're about big enough to make your own decisions, and I think that the only way you'll learn to make good ones is to make bad ones along the way. Suck it up and be a big girl, Marie."

"Wow." He waited, watched her work it out. "But you still call me 'kid'."

He shrugged. "You don't want them knowing your name, that's your decision. But I won't call you by your code-name unless we're on a mission together."

She asked why, and he sighed before looking her straight in the eye. "Names are important, Marie. I have one that was given to me with these claws, and I use it with a certain amount of irony. But I like to think 'Logan' came from someone who cared about me, and I prefer it. You chose your name out of fear and anger. I won't help that along."

She almost sputtered with frustration. "I did not! I chose it to show I was special, to show what I was--"

"And to tell the world to go screw itself in a dark corner, am I right?" And damn it, his level stare told her he was right, and she hated it.

***

He watched her storm out of the room with a certain amount of disappointment. It was so easy to forget how young she was when you looked into those deep eyes that had seen so much pain.

At least he knew now that Remy was telling the truth. Or at least as much as he knew. Marie was in love with him, or thought she was, that much was obvious. And he'd be lying if he claimed the possibilities didn't interest him. Because they interested him so much he'd had trouble sleeping calmly the night before.

But it was also very obvious that she wasn't ready for any kind of a relationship yet, she had to sort out her life and what she wanted first. And between her desperation to be independent from the world she'd left behind in Mississippi; and her slightly childish dependence on the X-men for their stability, she wouldn't be able to decide what she wanted in terms of constantly dealing with another person for quite a while.

Which gave him time, barring complications. He could work with that.