Bobby

Moment I saw her in class, I was gone. Cooked. Head over heels. I had never seen a girl quite like her…all that dark hair and those big brown eyes and that shy smile, she was just so pure looking. So innocent. Not like the other girls at the mansion, all the girls that knew they were beautiful and flaunted it…this one had no idea that she was damn near perfect, but I did and I was lost even before I leaned over and asked her for her name.

Last thing I expected her to say was Rogue. Not quite. She didn’t look like a Rogue, she looked like a dream come true…I could hardly believe my luck when she said I could show her around the mansion. I mean, I had heard she had this untouchable skin and all, but I didn’t really care about that. It actually made senses, you know, like God had made this perfect thing and naturally, he didn’t want anyone who was not perfect to touch it and ruin it.

I know I would silly, but I don’t care. That’s the way I felt. I fell in love with her the day I saw her and I told myself I would do whatever it took to win her heart, but then it happened…I saw the look on her beautiful face when she came racing from his room after he stabbed her and she touched him to borrow his healing gift.

I can’t really describe the look she had on her face. It was shock, mixed with sorrow, and maybe fear, but I was sure it wasn’t Logan she was afraid of…she seemed more like she was afraid of something she had found inside herself and it made me wonder, for the first time, what kind of feelings she had for the man everyone called The Wolverine.

I had heard about him, quite a bit, since he and Rogue arrived at the mansion and I knew the basics, that he didn’t remember anything beyond the last fifteen years and he healed from anything and he had metal claws. And he had picked Rouge in Canada, after they first saw one another in some run down bar…she actually told me the story later, how he gave her a ride and how he gave her something to eat and teased her about her name and I swear, she looked like she was taking about an encounter with Jesus himself.

And let’s face it, Jesus and Wolverine have nothing in common.

Anyway, you all know the rest. Mystique came, pretended to be me. Rouge ran away, from the mansion, and good old Logan went running after her, to bring her back to the fold and give her a shoulder to cry on.

Bastard.

Of course, Mags came, all hell broke lose, Rogue was lost, but found again and once more it was Logan to save the day, almost dying so Rouge could live and as much as I wanted to hate him for being the hero once more, I couldn’t. Rouge was alive thanks to him…he saved her from death, brought her back home…and then I got to breathe this sigh of relief when he decided to go chase after his past while leaving Rogue behind, under the impression that he was hot for Dr. Grey.

I knew better, of course.

I have eyes.

I saw how he looked at her, as they stood at the door and he placed those tags in her hand and told her he would be back for them.

Yeah right. Tags be damned. I knew what he would be coming back for.

Rouge.

It was almost funny, watching Scott panic, worrying for months that Logan would come back and make a play for Jean. I wanted to tell him, ‘Scott, Jean is safe from Wolverine, because when that S.O.B does brings his hairy ass back here, it’s Marie he will be coming for…I am the one whose gonna lose his girl’…but of course I never said that because I really didn’t care to admit the truth out loud.

And then it happened.

There I was, sitting in the Rec Room, about to go in for a kiss, toxic skin be damned, and Rogue jumped and ran because she knew he was back.

Shit.

And before you say anything, I know freezing his hand was dumb. I mean, he heals and he just looked at me and then had the guts to ask how we…you know…what an ass. I hated him. I envied him. I silently thanked him when he made eyes at Jean and I later called him on it, in the kitchen, just to try and make myself believe that it was Jean he really wanted.

And then the ass saved my life.

Hard to hate someone who saves you from a gun toting solider.

Hard to hate someone who looks all pissed off on your behalf when your parents make it clear they are having a hard time dealing with the mutant issue.

Of course, that only made Rogue think he was more wonderful, and don’t think I missed out on the looks that passed between them in the car. John was right when he called it awkward, it was obvious that something special existed between those two and I began to realize then that I could never compete.

However, I still made my effort, I showed I was brave and I kissed her and I held her hand on the plane when I was sure we were dying, even thought I knew it was Logan she was thinking about in those moments and it was Logan she was most eager to try and save when she insisted on flying The Blackbird to pick up the stranded X-Men.

She actually did a decent job, getting to them, I was impressed, but I didn’t have time to tell her that or anything else before everything fell apart and we had to go home without Jean.

Logan was at Scott’s side a lot, after we returned and Rogue didn’t approach him, I knew she thought he was grieving for Jean and he was, but not in the way Rouge thought he was. He grieved Jean as a fallen friend, a good person that had died to save the rest of us…her grieved for Jean the way I did, the way Rouge did, but I knew Rogue’s heart was breaking because she believed Logan had lost the one he really loved and I couldn’t take it.

I hated to see Rogue hurting, I hated it when I could hear her crying in her room and I loved her so much…I wanted to comfort her, but I knew I wasn’t the one she needed or wanted at her side and I never would be. I knew she belonged to Logan, the fool man was just a little slow on the uptake, so I decided I would go to him myself…I figured if Jean could give her life to save ours, I could break my own heart to give the one I loved some happiness, so I went to Logan, ignored his glare and his rather gruff bark and I told him like it was.

“Look, I love her. I want that known. I love her and I am sure part of me always will but I know she does not love me and she never will because she loves you and she has from the start. You are the one she wants, the one she needs, the one she calls out for when she has a bad dream…you are the one she wanted to race back to save when the soldiers were all over the place and you are the one she would give her life for, but more than that, you are the one she wants to spend her life with. She loves you, I am pretty certain you love her, so stop wasting time and just tell her what you feel so she can stop crying and thinking that it was all about Jean for you when you and I know the truth. I was never Jean. It was all about Rogue from the start, she is the one and only person who has ever touched your heart and soul and maybe that is more than you ever expected her or anyone else to do, but if you walk away from her, you are a fool. She is perfect, she is good and kind and warm and
beautiful and she loves you, and that makes you one damn lucky man, so get your act together and go to her and tell her that you love her, but know one thing; if you ever hurt her or fail her, which I don’t think you will, but if by some chance you do, I swear to God, that I will find a way to kill you, Logan, because I love her too. But I will never be you or close to what you are, and you are all she wants and needs and you had better live up to all her expectations.”

With that, without waiting for a reaction from him, I turned and walked away, certain I had made my point.

Certain I had just set into motion events that would result in my heart breaking.

And I was right.

Rouge came to me the next morning, looking nervous, but before she could say a word I told her it was all okay, because I knew.

“Bobby, Logan told me all you said…”

“Just be happy, Rogue.”

She could see I meant it and I actually smiled as she walked away, right into Logan’s waiting arms…his eyes caught mine and he nodded and I did the same, there was an understanding between us that Rouge was his, but I would always keep an eye on her, which was something I think the Wolverine was grateful for.

That was three years ago.

A year after they confessed their feelings, Rouge and Logan got married.

The following year, they had a baby, a little boy that Logan insisted that call Drake, in the honor of the person who helped him realize it was time to stop fighting his feelings. (Said he would have called the kid Bobby, but that was too soft sounding for a son of The Wolverine)

As for me, I got over my feelings for Rogue. Don’t get me wrong. I sill love her, but it’s more of a brother/sister kind of love now.

Besides, my heart belongs to someone else.

John and I have been together for about a year and it’s good. Right. We fit together like Logan and Rogue, like Scott and Jean did…we are proof that it all works out in the end, if you just get the hell out of the way and let fate work its magic.

THE END