When he'd gotten home the kids were as noisy as always; Scott was still a pain in the ass, Chuck still expected everyone to 'Get along' and the beer he'd managed to hide didn't last nearly as long as he'd hoped it would.

The only bonus was her; Marie.
She'd find him every morning just to see if he was okay; as him about where he'd been and he'd just grunt something at her and watch as she smiled at him. It had been just over a week when the idea had come to him, the sun was refelecting on her white streak in her hair. Reminding him that she was going to age, going to grow old, get feeble and die.
When his eyes had touched hers at that moment he'd seen all of her; the kid that still hid behind the woman she was becoming; the yearning for touch he could feel in her nerves, it was then he'd decided he was going to give it to her.

His touch, all of it.

************************************

A few things had changed in the school, Marie now had her own room that the rest of the brats she'd shared with had gone to college. The locks were a joke and he'd been watching her semi-naked form wrapped in the sheets for nearly an hour before he'd made a move toward her. He kept his mind clear, stable, empty of everything, he
didn't want her picking up on anything new. He'd even gotten some adrenaline from the med bay, the cardiac
needle long and wicked in the gloom of the room. It paid to be prepared.

Hunting was no different than this; he had his quarry laid out in front of him the flash of why he was doing this came up disturbing the calm he had inside his head. He'd been caught again, not for long but they'd had him, enough for him to help out with their next experiment. One that would kill everyone if it happened, she didn't
deserve to die because he couldn't keep his dick in his pants. That's how they'd caught him, hooker paid to bring him outside, it hadn't helped her though. She'd been killed just before his eyes had shut as his vision had faded out to black, the look of shock as the blade erupted from her chest was something that'd stay with him for a long time.

Calming his mind again his hand snaked out as he knelt next to her bed, listening to her breath as it passed through her pale lips. The white in her hair glowing to his eyes, shifting the sheets as he wormed his way into the warmth beneath. Her body still as he ghosted over the skin with his hand, taking the cardiac needle he plunged
the thing into his chest. Finger ready on the plunger he traced her white skin with his fingers, the draw immediate, pain flooding his body as she took from him. When the grey began in his vision the plunger was forced down, flooding him with adrenaline. He could feel her taking him in, keeping calm was hard but he did it, there was a reason why he was doing this to her. He'd made a promise and he'd keep it.

********************************

The month wore on and there wasn't a change in her character or moods, she was still Marie but her body was changing. Her reflexes were faster, she picked him up now from nearly half a mile away now, she could hear better, see better. He'd listened in on her conversation to Jean, about the powers she'd absorbed and how they could affect her. She hadn't had a clue about what he'd been doing
to her; that he'd been breaking into her room every night when she finally fell into deep sleep. Touching her, filling her with his own mutation, saving her from the coming death he could feel building.

The effects of the adrenaline were good at keeping her power from killing him but a part of him wanted her aware of what he was doing. Wolverine wanted her to know the real reason he was doing this, he'd claimed her the moment he'd saved her on that torch so many years ago. And tonight she'd find out one way or another.

He was edgy; something niggling him at the back of his mind as if he'd left something important half finished. Shaking his head to clear it he'd quietly entered the now familiar room, he'd taken to leaving a jacket here or a shirt when he came to see Marie. Just in case she woke up and smelled him in here, she'd put it down to the
clothing, not that he'd been passed out at the end of her bed for an hour. That was something else that had been changing too, his tolerance of her touch, he could hold her for nearly ten minutes now. When her skin finally reacted it was slow but the pain was the same, he knew that eventually it'd stop pulling all together and
that frightened him more than dying. Thats why he'd be testing her healing tonight, before he touched her using the cardiac needle.

Getting ready he didn't notice her form resting in the bed a little differently, her arms under the covers for once. The sound of her breath a little deeper than usual, the way her body shifted turning toward him. Her face lost in dreams, her voice sounding out murmurs half recognisable words that caught his attention finally when
Scott's name was sounded out.
His features darkened as he read the scent that filled his nose; desire, arousal, sex. He watched in a silent rage as her skin began to colour and flush, seeing her move over the empty bed as if searching for the dream lover she had in her mind.

Anger so complete filled every corner of him, smashing the careful calm construct he'd been nuturing for so long. He'd been going through hell every night so she could live and she was dreaming about Scooter! Throwing aside the careful plan, the concern for her well being he tore off his own clothing. He'd been dying for her every night and he wanted payment in return.

**********************************************

She hadn't noticed his odd behaviour at first, he'd seemed like the old Logan she knew and loved. But over the last few weeks he seemed to be everywhere she was, she'd put it down to her mutation kicking up again. She'd been sensing more, picking up on conversations and
people that she really shouldn't know about. That is unless you were a super healer with senses like a radar station. Jean had called in a friend of hers called Hank McCoy, he'd been nice about the tests he run her through, explaining exactly what he was doing to her.

Jean had her own theories of course, that she was actually
manifesting Logan's abilities from her own subconcious and she'd gone off on her own tangent there. Hank just tried to find a physical reason why she was becoming more than she used to be. He'd asked her a difficult question but he'd had to ask her, had Logan touched her recently?
She'd answered in the negative, no he hadn't touched her skin to skin for a long time but he still touched her, hugged her, wrapped her up in his embrace whenever he could. Hank had smiled at her then, a knowledge what those movements meant not lost on her own mind. Hoping that someone else read meanings into the same actions
as she did, seeing the soft calm smile in Hank's gaze follow her for the rest of the day.

Yet she'd been getting stronger, faster, better and Scott was making noises about her joining the second team if she kept improving. Logan was only ever a second string player seeing as he always had his own agenda first, his own things to do in the world. It was that thought that had kept her awake for a while, that Logan was still
here after a month. Usually a couple of weeks and he was gone again chasing god knows what.
She'd tried to get him to tell her what was wrong, every morning she tried to spend a little time with him. Just to let him know she still cared about him even if he never reciprocated her entire
feelings. He'd told her a little about his journey north, about finding something he wasn't proud of but he'd clammed up on her then. His stare had met her own concerned gaze and she'd felt herself flinch from the depth of pain it showed. She'd have given anything to hold him just then but she couldn't without killing him;
she'd settled for resting her head on his shoulder as he'd finished his cigar.

Things had been strange with Logan lately but at night in her own room she could be free from everything. Her space to be naked if she wished it, she didn't dance round naked but she enjoyed the feeling of being free from gloves and socks. Settling into her sheets without worrying about hurting anyone else was a blessing she
coveted. So when she felt someone's weight press down on her bed her mind dismissed it as a dream, as an error, it was only when the mind invaded hers that she realised it wasn't a dream anymore.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Logan was screaming, he shouldn't be here, he shouldn't be doing this. He'd started this to keep her safe from the death that was coming, the death they'd made from his blood. He wasn't home anymore, Wolverine was driving and he'd had enough of suffering, of pain and denial. He wanted her and he was
going to take her, by any means necessary.

Marie woke to the sight of Logan over her, his skin naked to hers, the heat from him burning her sensitive skin. His mind raw and feral ripping through her dreams, tearing the dream of Scott apart to
stand sweating and heaving in her own skull. Claws drawn face snarling body tense like wire, knowing exactly what she was dealing with when he roared in her mind, Wolverine.

Hands were on her skin, their trails lighting her up as they passed over her bare skin. He wasn't being hurt and the shock kept her still too long, letting him read her stillness as aquiesing to his demands. He covered her quickly, pinning her beneath him with his weight, teeth bit her skin, pinching, marking her. The pain making
her struggle finally, but her movements only aided him, her legs falling open to try and push him away. Being grabbed and forced wide to allow him entrance to her, his mouth covering her scream as he took what he believed was his by rights.

Every image of her flooded her mind, her sat on his lap in the rec room and what he'd been thinking at the time. How much he'd wanted her to go down on him, to have her perfect lips wrapped around him while everyone else watched them. Fucking her in front of Scott on his car, showing him who was boss, marking her with his claws
tracing lines of red through her skin and licking the blood from her when she healed up. Using her body over and over; never stopping the assault on her mind as he plunged into her body, the sensations powering the images that poured through her.

Locking onto one thought she screamed it out to the minds she knew would be there. Just as Wolverine raised his head from her mouth she saw the door to her room fly open and the red glow approaching.
Wolverine turned and snarled, his blades singing free pushing himself clear of his property, the small terrified form he'd been covering. He never made it off the bed, Jean and Scott both attacked first, Jean holding him still while Scott fired. Only when the weight had left her bed did Marie cover herself, covered in the
sweat and blood of her ordeal she did what anyone else would've; she threw up.

It was down in med bay that Marie finally got the images under control, of her body being used, being owned, being taken violently.
Now she knew why Logan had left and had kept leaving, never staying longer than he needed to, getting information and passing through before he did damage.

Jean was trying to get her comfortable but the images she was getting made her head ache whenever she came near her.
Wolverine 'liked' Jean, he'd shown her exactly what he'd 'like' to do to her, even how he'd maim her afterward, scarring her skin so her husband would know who it was who'd done it. That she'd let him do it to her too, she'd told her to fuck off eventually without
sharing the sick thoughts Wolverine was giving her. Hank had come downstairs then, the large man giving her some peace in her head.
Wolverine wouldn't challenge him, no point in fighting someone who could twist you inside out and experiment on you while he did it is there?

He patched her up, looked her over and his face set as he saw the damage to her thighs and vulva. He'd held her then as she'd cried, lifting her off the gurney and just cradling her into him. Her skin safe with his fur, her mind still in tatters as she tried desperately to seperate the man who'd done this to her from the one
who loved her enough to die for her. Hank hadn't spoken any trite words of comfort, only held her while she broke apart. Her world smashed by the one man who'd given it to her.

****************************************

The room was all glass but he didn't care, the thin man in the chair tried to poke into his head but he winced everytime he tried. He wouldn't break him the other place hadn't and he'd gotten out of there. It was only a matter of time, he was patient, he could wait.

****************************************

When it came there was no warning; the spring breeze blew in over the walls as it usually did, warming the gardens and making the students smile as the grip of winter began to loosen it's hold. Marie had recovered as well as she could've, knowing now how she gained her new skills. They'd come in handy over the last few months, fighting with the second team, sometimes she lost control over the beast she had inside her but it was focussed on those that
deserved it. She never hurt those she loved, not even him.
She visited when she felt like it, the cell wasn't much, a tough glass box but it was the one thing his claws couldn't get through.
She'd noticed the way he'd warm up to her as if he was almost human when she was there. He'd actually smile as she walked toward the glass, his body would always react first as he picked up her scent through the thick walls. Knowing when she was receptive to him, her own beast close to the surface on those days.

When the first kids got sick she helped out as much as she could, taking blood, ferrying patients to and fro. Then the news broke, they were calling it 'Legacy' and the word struck her to the core.
She'd heard Wolverine scream the word into her mind before Charles had calmed him and locked him away deep in her subconscious. Running into his enclosure she saw him sat there, his eyes clear for the first time in nearly a year. The hazel blurred by tears, his body hanging in defeat, every muscle slack, no fight left in him, all he
said was "I'm sorry."

There was too much to do, too many deaths to cope with, people were dropping like flies. They didn't bury them; they burned them on the lawn it was the only safe way. Hank was one of the last to go, he never stopped working, looking for a clue, a cure but he never found it. Instead he gave her the knowledge of his learned years as he was
finally fading away, making her the last hope for their kind. Thing was what they'd released hadn't stopped with their kind, it had mutated, jumped species and was decimating everything and everyone.

She kept working, kept hoping but when the military came to the door she had no choice but to run.
Passing down the corridors she wanted to leave him behind, to leave him here to their tender mercies. The memory of molten metal and burning flooded her nose and she knew she couldn't do it to him, his death would achieve nothing and she'd be alone, completely alone.

He was waiting for her, his hands flexing, his stance poised and tense, the hazel that burned into her own brown clear and solid. "Logan?"
"Yeah kid, it's me, finally."
She could hear the booted feet running above her, their stink of metal and plastic filling the empty corridors where children once ran in joy.
"If I let you out will you kill me?" His eyes flashed dark for a second as Wolverine surfaced for a second but he knew she needed an answer.
"Never kid, I'd never hurt you on purpose. You know that." Marie felt the barking laughter leave her strained lips.
"Do I?"
Those two words seemed to cut him deeper than anything else, she saw the pain fill his gaze as he turned his back on her, his head cocked to one side as he listened to the boots approaching.
"You've got about five minutes before they get down here, you'd better get goin'."
Her gaze wove over his back, the way he moved telling her he'd given in, she'd broken him with two words. He knew he'd hurt her the worst way possible; taken something that wasn't his to take. Touched her while she slept, filling her with himself with his gifts, he'd given her the means to survive the disease that had been created through his blood. The only thing he'd lied to himself about was the reason why he'd been doing it. It hadn't been the promise, it had been Wolverine's claim on her, the need he'd had since he'd picked her up by the side of the road.

She opened the lock and the wall swung open, watching him swing round to see her half-smile as she walked away from him. "Better get dressed Logan we're travelling light." Hearing his footsteps padding off to get clothing, her own mind giving her own reasons for freeing him and one of those was need. She needed him, his touch, his
presence and now he was free they'd be unstoppable. She let the darkness fill her as she rounded the corner and met with the first soldier. Her instincts showing her fourteen ways of killing him before he even raised the gun he carried. Bone claws seperated head from shoulders as she danced her way through the men, death incarnate she touched some draining instantly; leaving nothing but
corpses behind her. Bullets thudded through her but it didn't matter, she could hear him running, her choked throat gurgling in laughter as Logan dove past her.

Together again, linked by touch, shared souls born by pain; his made by the men he was killing; hers made by him but she bore it well, honed it sharp as the blades in her forearms. She knew more about anatomy than he did and she used it on the next soldier who got too close to them.

In this world they'd survive, she'd find the cure and he'd spread it as far as he'd spread this death from his own blood. Until then she'd make him touch her again and again until it no longer caused either of them pain.

*****************************************
Touch - Wolfsheim

When I touch you ... feeling your skin
When I touch you ... deep within
I'll break your selience on your way to me
I will make you everything you want to be
When I touch you...

You know that you'll love it... you'll need it...
For sure...
I'm drawing your lines with my hands
I'm weaving the dream that never ends
I don't play hide and seek... with you... dear
When I touch you...

Aiming fingers searching secret pleasures
Roaming where your river seems to deep
You know I'm going on
I like the song you'll sing... for me
When I touch you...

You know that you'll...

And when tension's spilling down your skin
Love will never be what she once was
When I touch you...