It had been a year and a half since Logan had gone, promising he would return. Rogue had gained control over her skin. Things had quietened down. Magneto was still safely trapped in his plastic prison. So when Rogue had asked for a holiday Xavier he had granted her one. Of course, things never go exactly to plan and when you happen to be a mutant who can kill with a single touch things tend to go worse than usual. While she was away Magneto escaped and came looking for her. Fortunately she had met Logan along the way and together they managed to fight him off and he had fled. They hadn't managed to kill him or capture him, but they were too exhausted to care.

They stopped at his cabin, which was closer than her motel room. He half-heartedly suggested that she should go to her motel room when he saw her eyeing the single bed apprehensively. The glare he received in return told him all he needed to know. He pulled out a couple of beers and silently handed one to her. It'd been a long day. They sat together on the battered couch, neither of them speaking for a long time. Even after all this time they still knew each other better than anyone. They were relishing each others company once more and they didn't need to talk. Eventually Logan stirred and with a contented smile turned to his Marie, “Marie -” he spotted her wince even as she tried to cover it up.

“Everyone calls me Rogue these days,” she said by way of explanation, but he thought there was something more. Something deeper and he sat in silence, waiting for her talk. She didn't fail him. She never did.

“You know I told you I ran away?” Logan nodded curtly, a small frown appearing on his face. Rogue closed her eyes, remembering the lie, the only lie she had ever told him, but it had hurt so much much at the time and it was so easy to pretend. She lied to him before she found out that talking to him made everything better.

“Uh huh,” Logan replied warily. He could tell that whatever it was, it hurt her a lot. The urge to slice open whoever had hurt her was strong, and he had a nasty suspicion he knew who it was.

“Well ... I didn't exactly run away. I was sort of … pushed. When I gained control over my skin I decided to go back, to see if they might accept me if I couldn't accidentally kill them. They didn't. That's when I became Rogue.” Before he knew it his claws had burst from his fists.

“I'll kill them.”

Rogue smiled at him sadly. “Don't. I got over it a long time ago,” but he knew she hadn't, after all, who could ever get over that, being rejected by their parents in such a brutal way. Logan looked down at her pleading face and his claws retracted with a soft hiss. He pulled her to him and she nestled into his chest.

“Alright then Rogue -” but she stopped him with a look.

“It's alright,” she said, “you can call me Marie if you want to.”

It took him a second to register what exactly she was offering. This was the name given to her by the people who were supposed to love her. The name she had dropped when she had forged a new life for herself. The name that had meant love and home but now meant rejection and pain. The name she was now giving him to recreate. The name that was now his secret name for her, that he would never use in public. He pulled her tighter and kissed her hair. “Marie,” he whispered. It was all they needed.

The awkwardness was almost inevitable the next morning. They hadn't seen each other in so long but in one night they had gone further than they had ever gone before. Neither was sure how the other would react to the blatant show of feelings that had happened the night before. Neither of them were big on opening up their hearts. Logan was forced to confront the fact that his kid was not a kid any longer and those feelings he had held back because her kidness, if that even was a word, were coming back to him with sledgehammers and he didn't have any excuses anymore. Except, what if last night meant that she thought of him as some sort of father. That would make this whole thing several degrees of wrong. He groaned and buried his head into his pillow. Still, he wasn't coward and he would face her.

Rogue, who had slept on the couch, was similarly engaged with the process of trying to bury her sorrows into her pillow, or rather, her rolled up coat that was serving as a pillow. The last thing she had wanted when she saw Logan again was to appear the kid she had been when he had left. Why had she so much fuss over the stupid name? What did it matter what people called her? If there was anything she could do to convince him that she was still a kid it was this. She groaned, she wasn't a coward though and she'd have to face him sometime. Rogue rolled over and walked to the small kitchen. Logan was already there.

“Didn't know you could cook,”

“You learn something new everyday,” he paused, and decided to test it, “kid,” the effect was immediate, she winced, a look of pain fleeting across her face before settling her features into carefully constructed indifference which was the most telling of all. He could have danced with joy. She didn't want him to think of her as a kid. There was a chance.

“I'm … not a kid anymore Logan,” she said, her voice quiet and, dare he say it, hurt. He her looked up and down.

“'Course y'not,” he replied simply and turned his attention back to cooking.

“Did – did you find out … anything?” Logan knew exactly what Rogue was talking about and didn't ask how she knew his true reason for leaving. Probably wormed it out of one of the older X-Geeks. She was good at that.

“Yeah. But I can still only remember flashes.” He couldn't face her pity and so they sat sat in silence for a while, “What interests me though,” he said suddenly, “is how you gained control,”

Rogue grinned, “The professor worked that whatever was stopping me was psychological rather than physical and so he, well I don't know what he did in my head, but it worked and now I have control.”

“You let Wheels play around in your head?” Logan asked, incredulous. For as long as he had known her, Marie had been defensive and insular. Not willing to let anyone in. A lot like him.

“I would have done anything to be able to touch again. To not be terrified I might kill someone accidentally. You understand that don't you Wolverine?”

He looked at her, remembering that night he almost killed her because she wanted to help him escape from his nightmare, “Yeah, I understand. Now eat up. Don't want you to starve do we?” Rogue, however, slipped her bare hand into his and smiled.

“Never done that before.”

He stared down at her hand, “No. You haven't. It's good,” and before he could stop himself he kissed her hand lightly. Rogue raised her other hand to touch his cheek. He felt like bursting out of the intimacy and innocence of it, as it was he just pulled into a hug. A hug that went on far longer than it really should have, “I'm so happy for you,” he murmured into her neck. He pulled back and grinned at her in a way that was decidedly less than innocent, “it's good to touch.”

They talked a lot after that. Touched a lot too, Rogue was fascinated by it. She had gone without for so long, separated from everyone else. Then she learnt to control it and she knew there was only one person she wanted to tell, one person she wanted to share her success with. One person she wanted to touch.

They skirted around each other's boundaries until Rogue said, “Y'know, I've never kissed anyone since it all started, and that wasn't the pleasantest of experiences,” Logan knew what she was saying, but also understood for the first time that Marie was just as unsure as he was. He understood that she was inviting him forward but also carving a path out in case she was wrong. So he kissed her.

He panicked when she groaned and pulled back, “Psychic mutant phone call,” she explained, “he knows about what happened. Scott's waiting in the plane to take us back to they can figure out what to do.”

Logan groaned too, “Wheels sure does have a great sense of timing. Don't worry Marie, we'll continue this later.” she grinned back at him and he decided to kiss her again, just to make sure she understood.

Scott ended up waiting a long time.