The box sat in his pack,

It had for nearly a thousand miles, surely a few feet wouldn't make the difference would it? But stood here in the darkness, watching the sparkling lights on the beautiful fir tree made him wonder. If he put it in with the rest would it get missed, it was so small. Should he wait, give it to her in person?

He quickly shook that thought away from his mind, he was going away for a reason. He had to get things cleared first and that meant going far from the shores of America. Where a cherry filled cemetery awaited him and the violence he knew would come from him being there.

No he needed her to know he was coming back, to what he wasn't sure but he had to take the chance. After everything that had happened he needed to know if his dreams and hopes were real or they were just the delusions of his over stretched mind. He wiped his hand down his skin and rested his gaze on the huge glittering tree in front of him, he was about to turn around and leave when the idea struck him. Smiling he dropped his pack and dug out the small box, approaching the huge fir with hope blossoming in his chest.

“Rogue, there's something else on the tree!” Katherine was always seated under the huge Christmas tree, the kids loved to see her sat there every evening. She told them stories, made cookies and gingerbread, shared a little piece of love that they'd all missed out on. Even Scott had been seen sitting with her under the fragrant boughs a couple of nights ago, it was as if her kitchen had moved into the Rec Room for the Christmas Holiday. People didn't approach if you were talking to Katherine, but if she had a book in her lap then it was okay.

Katherine's eyes were locked onto a small brown box tied to the branches of the fir, it had only come to light because some of the needles had begun to fall. Christmas Day had been and gone and to find something else on the tree made Marie's heart leap into her mouth. As she approached Katherine shooed the children away naturally, they left knowing that whatever was going to be talked about wasn't for them to hear.
Both of them looked at the small brown box, it's wooden lid shining in the lights from the tree, Katherine spoke first. “I told you he hadn't forgotten you,” the smile she gave Marie spoke volumes and she went back to her charges, gathering them around the open fire instead to hear another fairy tale.

Slowly Marie reached up to the box, it was tied on with a black ribbon which was glued to the back of the box. Reaching in Marie undid the ribbon, bringing the small box to her chest. She wanted to open it but what if....all her doubts were singing in her head and kept her still, her ears were still working though and she caught the start of the story Katherine was reading. “We all wonder about the paths we take and some take us to danger, others to knowledge and some to love. We never know which one we're on until we make the first step.”

The words rang through her and her hands pulled the small catch open, inside the plain box was a cloth, a scarf and as she pulled at it something moved within the fabric. Gently Marie pulled the silk free, a chinese silk scarf decorated with cherry blossom, the clink of metal on wood had her eye back to the interior of the box. A ring, plain, not silver or gold but iron, cold forged and hammered by hand, inside it an inscription hand carved into the solid metal. 'Forged as one we are, when worn I know you're with me.' Silently Marie reached into the small box and slid the ring onto her finger, the snap of the box making Katherine look up from her story. Seeing where the ring was sitting, Katherine hoped Logan wouldn't be long in coming home, weddings take time to organise.

The journey hadn't been good, the plane had been delayed by his documentation, even though Xavier had told him that he'd be okay with the things he'd nearly walked away when the search had begun. Finally after several phone calls the truth about his 'implants' had been announced to the security guards and they'd let him through. Although the cover story of a ranch hand who'd been crushed by a bull when he'd been putting the thing back in it's crate had been enough of a half truth to be believable. Especially what he was dressed in, along with his hat which was now pushed over his eyes as he settled into the seat that was on the aisle side. He hated the window seat, always had, not many people liked the aisle seat but to him it was a haven of sorts. And as he slept the journey away his mind took him back to the promise he'd made all those years ago, before Marie had even been born and he'd been grabbed by the military.

'The breezes always played with the blossom on the trees,making them wave and shudder in their fragile abodes, the war was over for him. Well for his part of it anyway, he wanted to go home, to get back to the cool north where he could just sit in a stream for a while and get himself 'clean'. He was on base in Sagami, a bit of enforced 'r and r' after the mess he'd left behind him in Haiphong, he was never there, and the three months it took him to get to Japan hadn't happened either.

But here he was, sitting in a garden made of stone that had been old when the human population was still wondering what to do with the sparking rocks and all that snow. He almost smiled as he heard the footsteps approaching, she tried to be quiet but her breathing always let her down. As calm as her outside might have been, her scent and breath always betrayed her and as a gaijin he wasn't expected to have noticed her discomfort. Yet several times now he'd moved calmly and gently out of her way so she could settle herself near to him without revealing herself. He knew he took up her space, but he'd needed it more than she had and Yuriko had been his companion now for over three months. Soon her breathing settled out and he let his mind wander again, hoping that whatever she was seeing wasn't as bad as the nightmare he was trying to relieve himself of. At least he didn't fire his claws anymore in here, the last person who'd seen them was still in the stockade.'

“Sir, sir we're about to land, you need to put your seat back up and buckle your seatbelt.” The thin beauty wafted away, smiling and giving comfort where she could. Logan watched her small form weaving through the throng of humanity, he could see her strained smile and tight eyes. It had been a bad flight for her, well his own life was about to get a little bit harder from now on. He'd avoided coming to Japan for this reason, for the debt he owed and the consequences it would mean to those around him. But if he wanted to have a future, he had to deal with the past. The people he'd been sat next to were trying to leave, begrudgingly Logan moved out of the way for them, one headed straight for the toilet. Logan snorted to himself, all the man had to do was ask him to move and he'd have shifted for him. His mind reminded him of what he'd said to the attendant as he'd boarded, “No interruptions, no food, no earphones. I just want to sleep, anyone who disturbs that better have good insurance.” Then he remembered who'd been behind him at that point, and as the man re-appeared from the toilet looking refreshed and calm, Logan couldn't help but wave in his direction. The man blanched and hurried away, and for his part Logan made sure he was the last off the plane. Peace comes at a price and sometimes that's being patient.
The weather was perfect, a storm was heading in from the pacific blowing everything toward the land, he could catch the smells of life all around him. Nearly a million people crammed into less space than New York, smiling to himself Logan went to meet his history and hopefully get some perspective on his future.

“Marie! Watch what you're doin' honey!” Katherine didn't often shout but her voice was one that when she did shout everyone turned to look at who had incurred the wrath of the house mother. Marie looked at the flame and where her hands had been, another few centimetres and she'd have been burned, pulling her hands away from the pots on the stove she backed away to the table. Katherine was making chutney from the fallen fruit of the grounds, they'd been stored until now and the amount of guests and parties that were being planned they needed something to cut through the fat they'd be eating.
“Where's your head girl? You could've been burned, badly. If your heads not in stirring, then do some cutting.” Katherine moved her to the large wooden table and put a small sharp knife in her fingers. Marie for her part could still feel the iron band on her ring finger, it was strange to have it there. She'd never been a ring person, especially with her mutation she felt it was stupid to wear something no one would ever see. But she'd been sitting just spinning the damn thing for hours, staring out of the windows to the snow covered playground outside. She knew she should be dong something, anything but just waiting but she couldn't, she needed answers and the one person she needed to ask wasn't around to talk to. Katherine broke her reverie, “Come on, spill it. Just spit it out or we'll be here all day and nothing but burned onions and apples to show for it.”

Marie finally aired the thoughts that had been plaguing her since she'd found the ring on the tree with her name on it. “Why now? I mean why has he decided that this is the perfect moment to act on his feelings...whatever they might be.” Katherine had her back to her but she saw the older woman nodding and she turned her face to her own.
“Well, there's one answer in your room. Do you still have the box the ring came in?” Marie nodded quickly, the small wooden box was a piece of art itself. “Good, go get it.” Marie looked a little uncertain but she went anyway.
When she returned the chutney was being spiced, the softer fruits were being added to the jars to be cooked by the still piping hot apple and onion. Katherine saw her return to the little kitchen and smiled as she saw the tiny box in her grip. “Have a good look at it Marie, I mean a really good 'look'.”

Curious Marie did as she was bade, the surface was worn, there were several places where the varnish had been dulled by wear, turning it over she could see the tiny scuffs and scratches that her eye had missed before. There was even a repair to the hinge that was so small she'd missed it entirely, lifting the lid of the small box she could see where the velvet interior had been worn by the ring moving around loose inside it. There was a ring shaped dip on one side as if it had been carried for a long time in one position, her fingers stroked the place where it had been. Katherine's voice wove over the scented air to her ears, “Do you remember when I first got here? When the old farrier came?” Marie nodded and slowly closed the box holding it tight in her hand. “That was what, nearly six years ago now?” Marie seated herself as Katherine began to screw on the lids of the chutney jars.
“Ever wondered where Logan went that week?” She looked pointedly at her left hand where the ring sat on her finger, “A blacksmith won't sell his secrets, but if a man offers to work for him, do some hard labour, he'll make him treasures beyond worth.”
Marie scanned back in her memory, that year had been so difficult for her, too many voices in her head, too many people to be aware of. She'd only found peace with Logan, it had been him who'd pushed her toward Katherine one night, knowing she needed someone who'd be there for her all the time. Sometimes he had to go where the fight took him, places she couldn't go safely. But he had gone for a while, no more than a week but he had left and when he'd come back they'd started their usual beer and pizza night. Their own little 'catch-up' session. Marie looked at the box and then at Katherine's smiling face and eyes, “Did you really think he was coming home to see me Marie? He didn't leave me a ring behind, all he left me was a knife.” She held up the small forged blade in her hand, the edge wickedly sharp and simple, “Friends you want to keep you give a knife to, someone you love, you give your ring. You've had your answer all along Marie.”

He knew the way to Ichinomiya, the way home. The short stop he'd taken to pull up his hair into a tight style had made his face more acceptable. People didn't avoid his eye-line now, he was able to meet their eyes without shame, even a few bowed as he passed by them quietly. The young were hurrying by and the elderly were being brushed aside, Logan helped a couple to remember their elders by tripping them on purpose. He did help them up again, apologising in perfect Japanese and giving his respects as he did so, but the message had been given and understood. They allowed their elders to pass first before themselves and finally Logan, his place at the back where all gaijin were. But here he could blend in, it was like putting on an old coat again, the habits returned to him easily and you'd have thought he was a seasoned traveller through the vast city of Tokyo. That was because at one point he had been, smiling as he walked through the thronging masses Logan could let himself remember.
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“Yuriko, do we have to go now?” The small woman who sat across from him in the office just looked through him, a half smile on her face. Her eyes twinkled in delight to see him squirming, he didn't do religion but the temple had to bless the small shrine they had in the garden once very three years. To gather a sacred branch and bring it back to their own Shinboku an offering of life to instil peace in their own space. Yuriko was a believer, and as such she wouldn't be comfortable with her prayers unless it was done. Logan for his part was the only spare body they had around, the temples could get crowded and a little volatile when the celebrations were under way. So he'd gone with her, be a protector for her, there were some who didn't like the presence of Americans on their soil and as such didn't like the people who worked for them either.

The colours and life of the temple were an eye-opener for Logan, everyone and everything had a purpose, people were happy, joyous even. No raised voices, just a murmur of life and prayers, as they approached Yuriko told him what to do. Removing shoes to enter the sacred ground, washing his hands and mouth before following the paths to the main temple. The huge tree that stood behind the temple, adorned with ropes and twisted fibres, not held to the ground but decorated, honoured. Yuriko had to pinch him to get his attention, the tree had captured his mind, the peace of it, the large gentle strength it had and the force it was pulsing out into the compound. It was like opening your eyes after being in the darkness, things were seen clearly for the first time. He let Yuriko move him around the temple and he prayed like everyone else there, he planted his wishes for healing, burned incense to the Kami. Left a donation and joined the waiting line for the blessed pieces of the sacred tree, the priests nodded, bowed to them both and handed over the small twig that had come from the Shinboku. Logan had been given the job of holding the piece and Yuriko was all smiles. They'd been close over the last few months, a few nights out together, nothing serious but they'd found a space within each other that was appreciated by the other. Whatever it was they'd become friends and as such Yuriko didn't deserve the fate the gods handed to her.
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“Watch where you're going you idiot,” the man was dressed in an expensive suit, his face screwed up with anger and hatred. The briefcase he carried was worth more than Logan's entire outfit, smiling he moved aside for the company man, dropping his hand to the leather of the briefcase and sliding a claw out just enough to slice through the surface of the shiny black leather. It held for a few steps, then it disgorged it's contents onto the ground, the man who had been all anger and hate suddenly swore. People tried to help him but he just pushed them away, leaving him sat in a puddle of his own making, tears streaming down his face and his cries echoing through the station. Logan found his train, showed his ticket and took his seat, aisle as usual, he closed his eyes and let the past flow away behind him like a pennant in the wind, taking him back to a time when he'd been happy or at least at peace. But things had changed and he'd been called away at the wrong time, leaving when the one person who'd mattered to him had needed him the most, Yuriko. Time to put the past to bed at last, to finish the debt and step clean into the new life he had waiting for him, into the arms of the now woman Marie. That is if she'd have him.

Marie looked out at the world, spring was beginning to show itself, the snow was finally melting and the new shoots of plants were begrudgingly poking into the cold air. Katherine was around and about, sorting out the new seed beds for the vegetables she grew, she always said preparation was half of the battle. And seeing the job ahead of her and the risks she had to take to make it work, well no one would have minded if she'd taken a back seat surely. But she knew that if she did there'd be no happy ending waiting for her.
Plucking the magazines from the window sill Marie went to see Katherine, her advice was always sensible and she could rely on her to be discreet. Kitty had when she'd sprung her Vegas wedding on everyone, after the fact that is. Her and Pete had finally gotten the courage and money together to just go and do it, no bells and whistles just something for themselves. The huge wedding of Jean and Scott wasn't for everyone but then not everyone got invited to the Whitehouse to discuss Mutant Policy matters. Jean was away for months at a time working with Dr McCoy leaving Scott chasing after the stolen moments between the school and the 'extra-curricular' activities they all got upto. No if she was going to do this she needed someone who had the same insight into Logan as she did, but from a different angle. Say what you like about her but it had been Katherine who'd seen Jubilee's depression before anyone else had even noticed her smiles had been faked. The thought of her friend made Marie detour to the nursery, Jube's charges always made her smile, their little hands and faces all looking at Jubes as 'mum'. She needed a good liar if anyone asked where they'd gone and Jubes was a master, thank god she hadn't been interested in politics. Plans formed she went to find her helpers.

“Are you sure?” The words were still in the frost laden air and Marie had to hold the calm gaze of Katherine and Jubes own smiling one.
“As sure as I can be, I mean he can't complain if it's already set up and ready can he? I mean the ring says it all, 'Forged as one we are'. If that's not marriage I don't know what is.” Jubes was smiling widely and Katherine just leant on her spade.
“Yeah but you know what he's like around weddings Roguey, he hates the damn things, all the fuss, all the fake smiles and really bad smells. Hell when Red and Boy Scout got married he was up in the attics cleaning out their new pad. Giving him a chance to walk into a set up isn't something the Wolvster is going to do chica, you know that more than I do.”
The truth hit her in the stomach, he'd know something was off the moment he got home, someone would let the secret slip somehow, they always did. Frustrated Marie just threw the glossy magazines into the air and growled, Jubes just nodded “See you're channelling him now, if you think this is frustrating just think about ordering flowers and no one knowing about it.” Ororo watched every delivery of plants, her own garden upstairs was something to behold and she always checked every single delivery of flowers that came to the doors of the school. She couldn't sneak in her order for wedding flowers to make a bouquet, Ororo would find it.

It was then that Katherine's common sense kicked in and she spoke to the two frustrated women. “There is another way you know, it'll take some work on our part but it'll pay dividends in the long run. You up to hearing it?” Both of them looked at her and it was Jubes who got it first, her smile widening as she turned to Marie.
“Oh My God! It'll be perfect, he'd love it, you will too!” Marie looked at the smiling face of her friend and the slow movements of Katherine, her banging the shovel clean and hefting it over her shoulder. Katherine set off toward the tree line and then Marie saw what she had in mind for them both, if they couldn't get away to tie the know then they'd get married here. But what about the service? As they walked into the still snowy under-brush Marie began to pick into the small store of Logan's memories she still had, looking for anything religious, any service he'd been to willingly. She followed behind the two of them, wracking her mind for any reference but she came up blank, they might have found a place to get hitched but if there was no preacher, there was no marriage. Putting her doubts aside for a while Marie let fate guide her, it had led her to Logan and so far that had been the best piece of her life, she only hoped the rest would be.

Winter was fading, the cherries had buds just beginning to brave the cold, the temple was shining and he'd made sure to walk this way first. He wasn't going to enter yet, there were things he had to do first, people he had to see, honour was something that required permission to act and what he was going to do could cause problems for all. Logan took the time to orientate himself toward the Shinboku and bowed low to it's still green boughs, his lips whispering his intentions to the Kami who lived there. He would restore their honour as well as his own, he had been Yuriko's intended after all, he could still remember the day he found her gift in his locker.
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“Logan move your ass! You're being assessed in three minutes solider, get your gear and get moving!” The sergeant was a kiss ass but he was fair, Logan was going to somewhere off the mainland to have his skills assessed, to see if he still had what it took to be a weapon. He'd been calmer, more focussed, even the hicks who passed through here didn't annoy him as much anymore. He'd been clearing his locker when his hand had come across the gift in the bottom of it, wrapped in origami paper. He'd stopped and opened the small package, a piece of seaweed, a piece of dried fish, a abalone shell holding it all together. The paper had the small neat writing of Yuriko on it's reverse, he read the characters and a warmth had suffused his heart. She'd made him an offer of life, she wanted to share more than the garden with him, she wanted him as a husband. He was found still holding the little bundle by the sergeant, knelt in his locker. “LOGAN!! MOVE IT, OR YOU'LL LOSE IT!!” He'd dropped the bundle back into the locker, smiling all the way to the helicopter, little did he know it'd be the last time he'd be on base.
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Logan pulled out the crumpled paper that held the address of Yuriko's family, he'd never seen them at home, that delight had come afterward, at her funeral. Forty-nine days after the bomb had killed her, after the cowards that had shown their contempt for the people who worked with the gaijin. He'd been outside the ceremony, unnoticed he'd thought, the family were in mourning and he was in no fit state to be seen by anyone who had mattered to him. The house was dressed in solemn white, and it had been an elderly woman who had noticed him stood under a lamppost getting wet in the rain. She'd taken an umbrella and shuffled over toward him, her feet in traditional geta, she didn't speak to him, all she did do was shake her head at him and mumble something about Yuriko not being able to rest properly. That she left business undone and no one in the family could settle it, she would not enter Anoyo unless it was settled. She'd passed a small twig to him then, a piece of the coffin so he wouldn't forget his part in her life, she'd told someone of her intentions. But which were her mother and father he didn't know, they were all dressed in mourning, some in western black and some in traditional white. Logan stayed to watch the procession to the grave site, the weight on his chest crushing the will out of him. He'd hoped to have something normal, something that belonged to him, someone who had accepted him as he was. His fingers had almost crushed the small piece of wood into his hand, there was nothing he could do here, whatever he had had was gone.

Now he was back here again and this time the house was filled with life, he could hear the laughter of the children inside and the voices of happy people after a hard days work. Swallowing his nerves he opened the gate and walked toward the front door. After a few moments someone answered his knock, a small child with a huge grin on her face. Behind her a male face made itself known and he bowed low to the both of them, nervously Logan rose and spoke. “I am Logan, I knew Yuriko and seek to talk to your elders about her.”
The man ushered the child away with a few movements of his hand and stood there looking through the large gaijin stood outside his house, the man's eyes were lowered in respect and his arms were at his sides. He looked like the picture Yuriko had had in her room, the one that sat on the family altar now, but he looked the same as he did now.
Logan could feel the situation slipping away from him and he reached into a small pocket and pulled out the small twig from her coffin, holding it out to him while speaking, “I have come to ask permission to act for her honour, to allow her spirit to rest in Anoyo. To restore what was taken from her,” he made sure to meet the gaze of the man in front of him. “And from your family also.” They both heard the shuffle of feet behind them and the man at the door turned, allowing the sight of the old woman to meet their respective gazes. She just nodded and ushered them both inside, the little girl who was helping her grandmother to move ran and pulled Logan's hand into the house. The decision had been made, whatever came next he deserved.

Marie put the small fork down and rested her back against the stump she'd been working at, the place was looking good after two weeks of work. Mind you it had been difficult at first, digging in the soil planting the bulbs, scattering the wild flower seed in drifts, making a place to bloom and blossom. The real shape of it was in her head, what it would look like and what it smell like, the idea was one of Katherines better ones. To make a bower in the woodland, she'd come with Logan here to get married but that was another problem, the preacher. She'd asked several and gotten the same answer, she needed to come with Logan to the registrar and fill in forms, names, dates of birth, health status etc. She couldn't ask him to do that and not have him work out what she was doing, so here she was trying to find a way out of the situation. Thinking that action may jar loose a way forward that she hadn't seen yet.
“Marie honey, you up here?” Katherine's voice carried through the trees to her ears.
“Yeah, I'm planting the last of the bulbs,” looking over her shoulder she watched Katherine weave her way toward her, her hands carrying a flask and a blanket. Smiling Marie wiped her hands and stood up.

They were settled down on the blanket drinking hot soup when Marie aired her worries, “I can't get a preacher. Not without jumping through all the hoops and that means filling in the forms. Half of the stuff I don't know and as for his birth date....” Marie sighed and thumped her mug to the warming earth beneath her body. Katherine was quiet and looked at the trees who were now beginning to show a little green life in their branches.
“Well you could always do the old fashioned wedding....” Marie looked at Katherine who finally met her gaze with a warm smile. “There weren't many preachers on the road, not many who allowed what the families got upto anyway. What's marriage anyway? A promise, a ring and love shared between two folk in front of witnesses who'll remind them of the promises they've made. It's not about the God you stand in front of, or the church your in, it's about the souls of the folk standing together, making their two as 'one'. You've already got that promise on you, he'll know when he sees it on your ring finger, to him you're already married. The other stuff is just the icing on the cake.”

Marie let the words enter her mind, let them filter through to the piece of Logan she still held in her mind and she could feel the truth of it ringing through her blood. The moment she'd put that ring on she'd been at the altar with him, when he saw it on her hand it'd just cement what he already knew in his heart. But the risk he'd taken, leaving it behind him, hoping that when he came back she'd be wearing it in the right way, understanding what it meant to him for her to wear it. That he'd proposed and was undergoing the marriage even as she was stood there with him, all he was waiting for was her words to seal the deal. She looked at Katherines smile and her soft eyes, seeing the wisdom that was shining out at her through common sense.
“You know the horses are going to need shoeing soon, we could always ask the man who made the ring to be the preacher. Blacksmiths were the original priests you know, before the White Christ came to earth, you can ask him what Logan did for him to make the ring for you.” With that Katherine shook her mug free of the remains of the soup and held her hand out for Marie's empty mug. Screwing the lid back on the flask and shaking out the blanket when Marie had gotten up. “Come on we've got dinner to make and faces to placate, can't let people wonder what you're upto before the day can we?” Smiling Marie followed her friend back to the warmth of the house, spring was coming and soon all their hard work would bloom, just as her love had in her chest.

Logan was knelt in front of the open hearth, the elderly woman across from him deftly making tea and the silence of the small wing was a balm to his heart. He accepted the offered cup and watched the elder drink first before taking his own deep sip of the bitter green tea. When she had placed her cup down, Logan waited for her to speak, when she did her voice was just as he remembered. “So you've come back at last, what took you so long? What was so important that this guri has been left unpaid for so many years?” Logan didn't rise to the bait held out to him, he kept his voice calm and his mind clear.
“My debt is one that has only been made clear to me recently, I make no excuse for the pain I have left your family in or Yuriko's spirit. I am here now and I seek your permission to find those responsible for her death and regain the honour stolen from her and from you.” The air in the house seemed to freeze for a moment before she spoke again.
“Honour! You speak of honour, you left without a word, without responding to her gifts, without a word to her or to her family. You shamed her gaijin! You brought her shame in the eyes of her ancestors!”

He took every word, the acid of their venom striking deeply, he knew the position she'd been in, and his disappearance had made her look as if he had shunned her advances. That she hadn't been worthy of him, that he thought her below him, when the opposite had been true. Finally he raised his head and met the gaze of the elder in front of him, her eyes blazed with anger and he let his own glimmer in the background of his stare.
“I gave no dishonour, I was taken away without my knowledge, kept away, and when I returned I learned of her death. I had accepted her gifts, kept them safe, until I would see her again when I would have been presented to you with her by my side. Yet this was denied me and my own honour was shamed by the men who killed Yuriko. I would have loved her as I love my life, she would have been my breath in the winter morning and the scent of cherry blossom in spring. The peach in summer and the pomegranate in autumn, she was my hope and when it was taken from me I became Oni.” Logan raised an arm and fired the blades in his fist, “I became death, for life had left me, light had gone from my sight and now I seek to repay those who took that light from us both.” He snapped the blades away and the old woman narrowed her eyes at him, leaning toward him one arm resting on her knee.
“You did this for her? Became Oni, a demon of strength beyond strength, why? What did you do before you washed here upon our door? How many years have passed under the bridge, since that day in the rain? Where were you when her ghost came to her sister before her wedding night, pleading to her to help her rest? Where were you then? Oni, with the claws of iron?”
Logan accepted the rebuke and rested his head on his chest for a moment before raising it again.
“I was lost in anger, in hatred, in rage, I had no balance and now I do, for fate has once again given me the chance to find hope in love. But I cannot give myself this hope until I pay my debt, my guri to you and to Yuriko by finding the men responsible and taking their lives for hers.”

The old woman rocked backward on her knees and tutted to herself, Logan watched the emotions running over her face she wanted her daughter to rest in peace but her hatred of him was still therein her soul. Because of him she had lost the flower of her heart and Logan knew it, “I give my service to your family for as long as I live. I have not changed in the years since you last saw me old one, your grandchildren will have grandchildren before you see a white hair upon my head. I give my service as an Oni to your family line, if you grant me your blessing to seek the honour lost to us all. If I am successful I will bring their names to you to give to Yuriko, so she can pass into peace.” The old woman sat back and poked the fire with the poker, the ashes settled again and no sound was heard for nearly an hour between them. Finally she raised her head to Logan and nodded sharply at him, he bowed low to the ground in front of her, “In your service I do this.” He stood and made to leave when her voice whispered to him through the quiet.
“Go lightly gaijin Oni, they are powerful men with long arms.” Logan turned to face her and let his claws fire in the dim light, his eyes glittering with the heat of the small fire.
“I have a greater reach than they and I have patience old mother. When I return your name shall be clean again.”

No one saw him leave, but the purpose was branded on his heart, Yuriko would be free of pain and he would be cleaned of his debt to her ghost and her family. Now his work began and he went to it with a glad heart.

“He's here!” Marie almost threw off the small child she had sitting on her knee, her ears strained to hear the engine she knew and loved but she didn't hear the rumble of the pipes. What she did hear was the cough and strain of an old engine, diesel if she wasn't mistaken, moving the small child to go and play with the blocks Marie got up and looked out of the windows.
Spring had changed the grounds, new life was everywhere, flowers had erupted from the beds and the trees were sporting a green that if you stared at it long enough would hurt your eyes. Looking over to where Jubes was pointing she saw the farriers old truck. The horses needed their winter shoes taking off and the new growth of hoof taking away before they could be ridden again. Jubes smiled and nodded to the ring hand, “Come on, we'll take the kids out to see what he does, he always likes to see the new ones.”

So wrapped up for the still cool weather Marie and Jubilee took a group of children out to see the farrier who was setting up at the stables. His forge was being manhandled down by Pete and Bobby, Marie hadn't seen the man before and didn't know what to expect so when he turned around she almost swallowed her tongue.
Dark hair, blue eyes like sapphire chips, tanned skin, a beard and a laugh that seemed to run through the world. Jubilee just threw herself at him and he caught her mid jump and spun her round like a child, their laughter making the children dance around them both. Dropping Jubilee he turned to the small crowd of children and picked several up, holding one under his arm whilst carrying another. He just turned and walked with them into the stable block, the rest following like chicks after the hen, Jubilee just grabbed Marie's covered arm and dragged her with her into the soft warm fug of the horses home.
“Now watch this,” Marie watched as the farrier took the heated shoe and pressed it against the foot of the horse, smoke curled in the cool air and yet the horse stood quite still and calm. “See, it's like your hair or fingernails, he can't feel it but I need to do it to see if I've got the fit right. Just like you he needs to have shoes that fit well or he'll go lame and that means no riding.” Several of the kids 'oohed' and 'ahhed' as he pulled and pinched the shoe on the horse. But after seeing him do two horses the kids were beginning to get bored, Jubilee stepped in and took charge of the situation.
“Who wants to go on a ride?” Suddenly there were too many hands in the air and Jubilee ushered the rest of the kids toward the hacking blocks and the carriages, Bobby helped out by giving some of the older kids the tack they'd need to harness the horses. Leaving Marie alone with the farrier and the horses.

She didn't know what to say to him, where to start really but as she thought she pulled the gloves from her hands to warm them by the heat of the forge. The ring now making it's mark on her skin and settling into it's own position on her hand. It didn't take him long to notice it on her pale skinned finger. “So, you're the one are you?” The farrier just smiled at her and made her blush from her head to her feet, his eyes taking all of her body in in one sweep, the smile on his lips part lust and part joke.
Finally Marie found her voice, “Yeah I'm her, I wanted to know how you made it.” Her fingers went to the ring and turned the hand hammered surface over and over, the farrier stood back up the still warm shoe in his tongs. He looked at her, but she felt he was looking 'through' her and his smile had vanished, like the spring sun on a blustery day, you felt it's loss immediately.
“Why do you want to know?” Marie found it hard to meet his eye, her words stumbled in her throat and she found herself struggling to be coherent. He flustered her somehow, his presence reminding her of Logan, the way he stood, the way he moved,even the smell of him reminded her of Logan. Her mind grasped at the inscription that was on the inside of the ring, “Did you inscribe it? Or did Logan?”

The farriers face softened then, as the sun peeks out from behind a cloud, he took the now cold shoe and heated it again, his arms pumping the bellows to make the coals spark his voice shifting in the roar of the forge. “Aye lass I did that, for a year of his memories I made that ring for him. A year of precious memories from the youth of his life, of the love he once had.” His eyes pinned Marie to the spot and took the questions from her mouth, “Innocent love, a child's love for his own but powerful none the less.” The shoe was now sparking orange, he turned himself to her full view and held the shoe aloft to her eyes using his bare hands. “See girl, when you are made of iron, iron cannot hurt you. But when you are given it unwillingly it burns through to the bones of you, tears a man in two. He wears his iron already and he gave you a part of it girl, what he did for me is between us but what is in that ring is between you two, I did not write upon the metal you wear upon your finger. It 's what was inside the metal he worked for you, those are the words of his soul Marie, the words of his soul.”

The shoe was nearly black when he threw it back into the coals, but his hand was unburned, Marie in shock didn't recognise that until he grasped the shoe again, this time with tongs and went toward the patient waiting horse. “Are you like us, a mutant? To be able to do what you've just done you must be? Holding metal like that, it'd burn you to the bone in seconds.” The farrier just smiled at her and winked, his voice beginning to sing as Marie walked out of the stable block, her ears catching the first few words.
'No man am I, nor god to one, a smith of old, a Wayland's son,' hurrying away as she went to talk to Jubilee. Pulling on her gloves as she went to join the children, it wasn't until she saw the old truck pulling away that she remembered something. He'd called her Marie, but she hadn't told him her name and when she'd told Katherine later in the dark hours of the early morning in her kitchen all she'd done was smile and touch her hair. Saying “He knows everyone's true name Marie,even Logan's, the one he's forgotten himself.” Katherine refilled both mugs and added a tot of brandy to each mug, “Just be happy you got what you wanted, he took a year from his past, not from his future.” Taking a hit from her mug Katherine swallowed and slapped Marie on the back, “Old gods can be bastards sometimes.” With that she left Marie to ponder the truth she'd found in her kitchen as she pottered around finishing off a bit of baking. Marie was still pondering when she went to bed and she knew the only one who could answer her questions was still half a world away.

Seven weeks it had taken him, twelve visits to dives, fourteen fights, two midnight visits, one near death all to find the men who'd taken the life of Yuriko. It seemed that everyone involved had turned a new leaf in 1981, gotten married, got out of prison, as the old JRA had been disbanded. They'd been a lost cause from the start but they'd had help from the east, a few hands in Palestine had taught them the rudiments of bomb making. The base had been one of their first targets, Yuriko had been their first fatality, but Logan was going to make sure she wasn't the only one.

Traffic was murder, the usual run to home was blocked by some idiot truck that had shed it's load, it didn't help that he was stuck between a bike gang and a refuse truck. He honked his horn again, the stare he got from the girls on the back of the bikes made him flush in frustration. He didn't want to look at them closely in case he found his own daughter among them, he'd heard a bike too often at the back of the house to be comfortable. Sighing he tried to relax and wait, his hand went to the passenger seat, his phone should be there he could let Sumiko know he was going to be late home. His fingers felt for it but it wasn't where he left it, neither was his briefcase, turning to see if it was in the back seat got him nothing but pain as a shadow unfurled from the foot well of his car. A blade was sticking out of his chest, blood was just beginning to run down his skin as the voice of an Oni rumbled through the interior of the car. “For your debts, for the lives you took, for the death of Yuriko.” On the utterance of the name the blade was shoved deep into his heart, quick, deep and almost painless. He watched as the man got out of his car, saying loudly that he'd walk from here and thanking him for his help. He tried to raise a hand but he just couldn't do it, when the traffic finally cleared ahead of his car, it only took three minutes to see the white faced man at the wheel was dead. But to how he had died was something that would never be worked out or why a rice salesman would incur such a death. The only people who would know, wouldn't be around long enough to tell of it.

Logan scratched off the name in the list in his head, only six more, he'd leave the hardest till last. Turning his head eastward Logan set off to meet the next death, say what you wanted about the Japanese but they had perfect tax records. Know where they work and you know where they live, the next pair wouldn't go easy, they were the one's who constructed the bomb.

“Kazumi, where's the dishes?” She put her hands back into the small sink and almost screamed, every day the same damn question, turning around to answer Adei she missed the shadow that passed her window in the darkness outside.
“Where they usually are you bloody idiot, where you put them yesterday!” She turned back to the dishes she was washing, how the hell they'd ended up here in a rabbit hutch of an apartment while her sister had managed to get a house in the suburbs she'd never know. Grunting to herself as her mind added 'Well I didn't pay for tit implants like she did, nothing like a goofy smile and huge tits to grab a mans attention.' Shaking herself out of her funk Kazumi finished the dishes and stacked them to dry, behind her her husband was cutting up the cake he'd bought for them both. Their son had just been accepted to a private college, fifteen and being pulled out of home and on his way. Hopefully he'd be able to keep them in some comfort when they were older, her own parents hadn't had much to give her after their death. A spike of memory ran through her at that piece of history, ideals of the young never sit well with the old, and her father's death had been one of the black moments in her life. As if to compound the mistake Adei chose that moment to offer her the sweet dessert he'd bought.
“Come on honey, he'll be fine. A full scholarship, who can ask for better? All we need to do is make sure we turn up to his school each year and he'll be well away.” Adei sat back down, stuffing his face with the cream filled sweet sponge, waving his fork at her to join him. Smiling she sat with him, okay she'd made some bad choices early on in her life, gone down the wrong road but that was over now. She had her own family, a husband, a home (of sorts) and she had a job, assistant chemist in a pharmacy. She ate a fork full of the cake, it was sweet, rich and tasty, he'd really picked a good one this time. Eating another large fork-full she looked for the box it had come in.
“Where's the box for this cake, I want to know which baker it is. They'd do for his first homecoming in December...” Adei was finishing his own plate when he finally answered her.
“Its in the trash, had an accident on the way home with our one, bumped into an old woman knocked her flying and the cake went over. She got up saw the mess, apologised and gave me the one she'd bought, think it's from the Green Lotus Bakery.” Kazumi blinked at him, the Green Lotus was very expensive, she'd thought about it herself but the prices were extortionate.
“Lucky day for us then Adei,” Kazumi took another slice and devoured it quickly, taking her dirty plate to the sink to clean it, not noticing her feet were a little sluggish. Dropping the plate into the sink she felt her legs collapse under her weight, dropping back half in and half out of the small kitchen. Her husband Adei, now blue in the face, cream still on his lips as the front door squeaked open and someone dressed in dark clothing entered. She watched as he slid a blade through Adei's eye socket and through the top of his head, his wild dark hair shifting in the still air of the flat. Watching him turn toward her, no mercy showing in his eyes, this demon of vengeance, this Oni who had finally found them out. She tried to speak but her lungs were no longer working, she was aware of every single thing he did to her but not once did she scream. Only when he had hung her from the rafter did she finally sound out, the last breath of her body as her skin shifted in the airless room of the flat, her husbands body below her. The patter of her blood covering him like the petals of the cherries in spring, only then did the Oni speak to her. In old Japanese, structured and cold as iron, “For the lives you took, for the misery you caused, the marks on you show your crimes, name them all. For the one you killed and crowed to the world about your victory, for Yuriko this has been done, for her honour and her family.” The final blow across her midriff and the sensation of emptying everything she was across the still form of her dead husband below her. Hell had no surprises for her, living with Adei had seen to that.

“Rogue could you come to the office please?” The tannoy system wasn't always used by teachers, but Jeans voice sounded a little strained to Marie's ears and she quickly made her excuses to her class and went to see what the news was.

She'd instigated a couple of news searches herself, looking for Logan in Asia, she'd come up against a barrage of stories, all nonsense and all definitely not Logan but to be called to the office? Shaking her head she went to see what the trouble was.
Jean was sat behind the large mahogany desk, the Professor wasn't at home and Jean was looking a little flustered. “Ah Rogue, if you'd please sit down I'll get the message that came for you.”

Marie's nerves shot skyward, they weren't that many people who knew where she lived, only members of the team and the kids here. Friend making was low down on her priorities list, making sure she didn't hurt anyone was at the top of it. When Jean returned she held a small package in her hand, it had been opened obviously and Jean was apologizing as she handed it over to her. “I'm sorry we had to open it but the metal detector went off when it passed through the scanner, we have to be careful with things these days. It's all there, nothing is missing I can assure you, although why someone would send you these things I have no idea.”

Her fingers caressed the brown paper before peeling it back to reveal the contents, the small tin box was decorated with a cherry blossoming, the enamel of it was worn and pitted but still beautiful. Opening the lid Marie revealed what was inside, there was a cuttlefish bone, carved with a design of tribal patterns, wild and unfettered. A thin grey cord, woven through with silver chain, so delicate and soft but strong at the same time and at the bottom a layer of dried seaweed under which a delicate ebony and silk fan sat. Taking it out Marie. Let the fan fall open to reveal the inner picture of it's delicate face, a crane seated upon a pine tree, it's mate flying toward it with the sun rising behind it's wings.

Deep inside her Marie knew what the message was, as she folded the fan carefully back and tucked it under the seaweed, the smile on her face quirky and unfathomable. She saw Jean's head tucked back into the work she had to do, as if her presence wasn't even noticeable to her. “Thanks Jean, I'll get back to my class if that's okay?”
“Hmm, yeah sure Rogue,” Jean waved a hand dismissively as Marie rose out of her chair. Before she got to the door Jean spoke once more. “Don't forget you're on house duty this week! Pete and Bobby are on mission rotation with the new students so you'll be here alone. Should be quiet though, we've sorted the local 'problem' out.” Marie didn't really hear her her mind was on something else entirely, taking her package she went to finish her lesson. After that she'd be having a talk with Jubilee.

Logan knew his getaway from this place, the back of the house wasn't secure, the front was, all the systems the owner had on it you'd think they'd have thought about the back wall. But no, this was no shogunate house, only a copy of one and a shoddy one at that. He'd been hidden in the brush over looking the house for a couple of nights now, just blending in with his environment.
Warfare isn't always about striking from the front, sometimes the attack can take days or weeks, a slow movement of action that isn't seen or heard but eventually when the drawbridge drops open, the occupants are already dead.
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He'd made sure to give the staff of the house something of a treat, seeing as it was a holiday, the food that was laid out on his own groaning table wasn't anything like he'd grown up with. The back streets of Honshu hadn't been kind to him or his brothers, but he'd thrived in the mess of gangs and double dealing. He'd been the point man to several groups, an floating independent he liked to call himself, that had been after the disaster of the JRA. Just why he'd even gotten involved with them he'd never really admitted to himself, but it had been his brothers cause to be honest. A dreamer, hopeless in reality but when he spoke he made you want to believe the world could change with a few words and a bomb or two in the right places.

He blew smoke out into the large room, people were having fun, enjoying the quaint atmosphere of his house, he'd built it 'old style'. When people knew how to build without glass and steel, oh he loved the money he made by selling the square footage he'd murdered and prised from dying relatives fingers. But he knew the value of 'tradition', a man can be lots of things but he wasn't a man until he'd built his own house, laid a foundation stone that his own clan would be proud of.
He watched his brother spin the grandchildren around the tatami covered floor, they'd been blessed that morning, the temple had been quiet but he'd made sure the monks had been well paid for their prayers. The future was all that mattered, the future would rewrite the past, just as the samurai did for their masters. Always watchful he nodded to the security, they could go on standby now, leaving only the family members in the house. He wanted to enjoy his holiday without thinking about his enemies, tomorrow would bring them soon enough.
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The caterers moved slowly and carefully, their jobs being done, their loads lessened by the appetites of the house they'd served, Logan watched them without judgement. But the arm of the driver made him wonder, a fish scale pattern ran along his wrist and obviously went under his white coat. Shifting himself Logan decided to have a closer look at the man with the tattoos.
“Get the bloody trays organised you idiot! I'm not having to pay for another set just because you can't be bothered to stack them properly!” Logan waited while the man left the driver again, the youngish man just sneered at the back of his manager and began to move toward the rear of the van when Logan stepped out of cover and grabbed him.

Applying pressure just under his ear and the man was out for the count, blood flow would return in a few moments but for now he wanted to have a good look at the younger mans arms. Rolling the sleeves up he saw the twin carp playing on his skin, the other arm was much more interesting, hidden under the wave of a rolling sea Logan could just make out the remains of a barbed wire wristlet. Done in blue and smudged, not a patch on the work he had on his skin now, but it meant that the people in the house had bigger connections than he originally believed. Dragging the young man upright again and throwing him into the drivers seat, taking the keys and locking him inside. He'd done his time according to the patterns he was wearing and he wanted to make good his life, hopefully after tonight he'd be able to.
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The children had gone to bed, some overtired as usual but mainly happy, business had been discussed while the dinner had been served. Family matters were decided upon and the clan's arm was seen to be widening it's grip both on mainland china and in Singapore. The women left as they usually did to play mah-jong and plan the next round of marriages and affairs, that left him and his brother with the heads of the smaller clans. He listened to his brothers plans, nodded in the right places as he should, knowing that because it came from his brothers lips they'd accept it better than from his own. The small wooden clock on the wall had struck two before the business was concluded, they left with the small gifts he'd given them at the temple, as honour dictated. Even though some of the gifts would be back in the storeroom before the night was out, a little damaged but refundable. Now as the world slept he could finally relax with his brother, the dreamer, the one who'd gotten them into this world in the first place. And as such he owed him a debt he could never repay but he didn't enjoy the mayhem that came with such a life. At times like these he'd order the sake warm and they'd go out into the garden to talk, as they once had before the world had thrown them into it's many armed splendour.
Lifting the phone next to him he ordered his brothers favourite Koshu, warmed and gently spiced with ginger. The weather was still a little cold for them both and he doubted his brother had been eating well enough again. Taking his brothers arm he led him outdoors into the garden, along the winding path to the seat under the cherry he'd planted here himself. When they were finally outside under the stars he heard his brothers voice whisper to him, “Are we being watched anymore Masaru?” He shook his head and tried to keep his eyes clear from tears this time, every time he tried and each time he failed. Hotaru began to release the hold he held on his body, his mind the only thing that kept him upright in the daylight hours. Carefully shuffling to the seat Hotaru, let his brother aid him, finally rested and seated he let the strain show on his face. “We have to tell them soon Masaru, I can't keep this up for much longer. The shaking is getting to hard to keep still, when I had little Chou in my arms I could feel the tremors, so could she. I made a joke of it as always but she knows and she will work it out soon enough and as soon as her mother knows...”
Masaru nodded and patted his brothers hand, his eldest daughter, the one who'd grown up knowing the slums like her father had. Hoshiko wasn't stupid and if she thought her father was ill...well he just knew she'd move the world to make him better, even if she couldn't.

He was about to speak to his brother when he noticed the servant coming with the warmed wine. “Hotaru, the wine is here,” as he turned to look at his brother he was back to the strong wire framed man he'd always been. The servant placed the wine on the small table by the side of the bench, placing each cup with care before the warmed bottle. The way he moved each cup so the design was facing each man to drink it made him wish he'd brought his gun with him out here, because this man wasn't a servant of his. Calmly he took the cup in his hands and turned it to the servant, who poured the warm honey coloured wine into it's porcelain shell. He did the same for his brother, bowing low before he raised himself to their eye line. “How many did you kill to get here?”

Logan knew they'd spotted him the moment he moved the cups properly, habit had asserted itself and he'd been caught by his own etiquette. There was no point in hiding anymore, he fired his claws slowly in the cool air under the cherry tree, finally answering him when they were locked out and ready for work. “None. Your family are still alive, I have no wish to harm the innocent.”
Masaru straightened, then this was no attack from a rival clan, even Hotaru flinched at the words from the strangers mouth. Logan didn't see them replying or trying to convince him of their innocence, they had done things worse than the death of one innocent. But it was that death that had brought him to them now.
It was Hotaru who spoke first, his body relaxing into it's shudders, the wine being spilled over his fingers as his voice whispered the name into the cold air. “Yuriko.”
“Who? What are you talking about? Hotaru? Who is Yuriko?” Hotaru looked at his brother, aching to act, to shield him from the vengeance personified in this demon from their past. Masaru made to get up but Hotaru grabbed his arm with steel claws of his own.
“NO!” Masaru looked at his brother and saw the pain in his eyes, something he'd forgotten so many years ago. “The bomb, remember? The one I said we should plant, the idea that came to me all those years ago? How to start the fear and how to keep it alive?” Masaru nodded, his voice finally able to join his brothers without anger.
“But that was years ago, no one was really hurt, we didn't do any damage at all, the whole thing was just to gather news headlines, to be noticed, to gain more recruits for that mad bitch and her boyfriend....” Then as if the years had melted away Masaru remembered the name, it rolled out of his mouth and laid on the gravel between them all. The truth finally realised, “Yuriko. I remember her, she had such lovely eyes.”

Hotaru used his brothers arm to help him stand up, he drank the wine left in his cup and dropped it to the gravel. It broke into several pieces and he took a step toward Logan, “I give myself to you, I take the burden of the guilt, for it was my words that inflamed their hearts, that drove them down that road of death. I accept my guilt for it and ask you spare my brother.” Logan didn't speak to him, the look he gave Hotaru was as sheer as ice and just as welcoming. Hotaru nodded in his understanding, pulling on his brother's sleeve as he fell back to the seat. Masaru was still lost in memory as Logan approached the pair, looming over them with his bulk. Masaru finally realising that his time had run out, that the past had finally called the debt he owed to it. He raised a hand to Logan who paused for a second, “Please, let them know why, I don't want more deaths to follow ours.”

Then it was silent, all apart for a slow trickle that had nothing to do with the water feature, the ground below the cherry was beginning to grow red. Their combined blood flows would feed the tree and this year when it bloomed it would be remembered for many many years to come. The kanji carved into the bark, still fresh and the red sap marking it forever, 'Past regrets follow the unprepared man into death.' The family had their ashes brought back to the tree, scattered beneath the flowering branches where their grandchildren played as the blossoms fell into outstretched fingers.

Logan left quietly, the pair had used the death of his intended as a springboard, in reality they had little to do with the bomb, Hotaru had had the idea but he hadn't made it and he hadn't planted it. No that was the final pair he was going to see, and for them death was no easy option.

“Are you sure they came like this?” Marie nodded as the steam filled the small kitchen, Jubilee was elbows deep in the sink, her eyes on several kids all at once. Katherine was helping her supervise the baking class she held every month. The small tin box was clutched by Marie, the contents had been sifted through more than once and shown to both women. Katherine was trying to distract the kids by sending them outside to gather spring flowers for their table setting.
“Look if I remember what my old Aunt told me, you've got two months tops before he'll be back wanting an answer one way or another.” Marie bit her lip and began playing with her iron ring again. Katherine walked back in with a handful of children, dressed brightly like the flowers they were clutching in their hands.
“What's wrong now?” Marie met the smiling gaze of Katherine and spoke her heart's fears.
“What if he wants to marry me like the Japanese do? I don't know anything about it and I'm not sure I'd want to go through with something arranged like this.” Marie looked at Jubes, “No disrespect meant to your traditions Jubes but I'm not a wilting flower waiting to be plucked.”
Jubilee just drained the sink, wiped her hands and plucked the cuttlefish bone out of the box Marie was holding, “Chica, my Aunt got a bone the size of my pinkie finger and she had seven kids. Just how demure and small do you think he thinks you are? And my aunts was plain, this has been 'carved' baby girl and it don't look like any knife marks I know of.” She handed it back to Marie who was now seeing the large white bone in a different light altogether. It was Katherine who slapped her on the back and brought her back to life.
“Better get some practice in now with the kids, looks like you won't have time when he gets home.” Suddenly lighter in her soul Marie put the box down next to the sink and didn't see Katherine's smile widen. She had her own plans for their wedding and if he was back in the next couple of months all the better, seeing a small brown bee bang into the closed window Katherine opened it and let the small insect inside. Watching as it crawled over the delicate tin flowers of Marie's box and fly upto Katherine's eye-line, her whisper lost to the chattering kids but not to the delicate ears of the insect. As it flew away Katherine shut the window again, sure of the actions she'd just put into motion. Oh yeah, this was a wedding no one would ever forget, especially the bride and groom.

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Two weeks of sleeping rough, three days of pain to get the marks on his skin, marks that were now fading and looked old. A couple of tigers heads on his chest, one in blue, the other in red, one hand done with a bent needle, the other with a gun in a parlour. He didn't look like the man everyone back home knew, his hair was long, unfettered, he hadn't washed for an age. Dirt crusted on his body and he didn't mind the stink of it but the other men he'd been with were another matter. He'd been following the young man he'd locked into his truck, the young man with the carp tattoo's. Finding the catering company and the fishery, many men they employed had tattoos, some were just decoration but some were not. One man, a hulking piece of walking beef was covered from his neck down in Cyrillic script, his back was something else. A Madonna and child in front of a huge onion domed church, Logan knew the tales the tattoos were telling him. The man was a thief from birth, his family were old style criminals and for every dome he had on his skin, he'd spent a year in prison somewhere. The patterns on the domes were the language of the prison's location, the one with red stars had been Moscow, the pretty blue swirled dome was somewhere in the cold north, above the arctic circle somewhere. But he was here as a foreman and he'd been instrumental in getting himself a job.

It hadn't taken much, just a bit of a punch up near the dumpsters of the fishery and the big man had been over to see him take down a couple of dirty fighters. He used the old school fighting, the one that had morphed into a military style, the one where you kill first, not disable. Logan had watched a programme with Drake about it once, Systema it had been called, Drake had wanted Logan to teach them in class but Boy Scout had said 'no'. He'd toyed with the idea for a while but some of the kids didn't have the fine control yet to not kill someone by accident, but he'd thought about teaching Marie.

So when the big man saw him put down two men to get to the dumpster and the fresh carcasses they'd just thrown in there he'd been dragged into the large warehouse and really 'tested'. The man had barked at him in Russian and Logan had stiffened at the words, showing him he knew the language. But he hadn't moved, hadn't reacted to him as he'd threatened his life, instead he'd just cowered a little but made sure his stance was defensible. In broken Russian Logan spoke to the larger man, made out he'd been demobbed by the army, lost himself along the train tracks, eventually got himself to Vladivostok. Bummed around and he'd had to leave in a hurry, he'd upset the wrong boss and found himself on a Japanese smuggler bound for the North Island.
Been moving ever since, never staying too long anywhere, he twitched and shifted throughout the entire conversation. Logan barked his answers, made himself look dangerous and shifty, twitching as if he had 'other' problems which weren't leaving him alone. The large man had asked Logan to straighten up for him and he had, showing the fading tattoo's on his chest. He'd gotten up at that point and ripped Logan's shirt aside, revealing the badly blurred blue tiger, under it's badly formed paws were four skulls. The large man just looked at Logan and Logan knew the man in front of him would want proof of his claim on his skin. The tiger was a symbol of anti-authority, the skulls were the deaths at his hands because of his hatred of being told what to do.
It hadn't taken long, a fight between him and a working man of the factory, he'd broken bones, snapped ligaments and made a mess of the man in front of him. Logan did it without joy, it was a means to an end, and the man he'd been put against had fought before so there was no shame in his victory. When he'd refused to crow about his victory over the man the large foreman had been impressed, a dyed in the wool killer didn't brag, he just kept quiet. A potential death in his gaze not the out and out violence that others seemed to think intimidated the sheep around them, wolves who howl are shot. Wolves who creep and keep silent stay alive and make more wolves.

So here he was, in the same draughty warehouse, but the interior had changed, the boxes were surrounding a squared off ring, this was a fight house. A private club where the elite got to enjoy their bloodsports, using men who had been chewed up by the system and thrown back into 'normal' life and ended up on the wrong end of the law. Logan was stood with several other 'helpers', he wasn't talent, he had better uses than that. Just in case the winners went 'a little far' as the large foreman had told him, he'd washed the grime off himself but he'd left his hair long. He didn't dress in the fancy clothes they'd given him, he'd just picked a workers plain jeans and dark indigo shirt, his feet were clad in waraji sandals. They gripped the floor nicely and left his feet easily available to him, he didn't have heavy boots to lift, just his own weighty leg.

The fights went on all week, he earned money and he gave most of it away, handed it out to those who needed it more than he did. The monks of the temple found several gifts of money in Yuriko's name that week, all offered for her soul to rest easily. Logan for himself was going to make sure he came to the attention of the big-wigs. As the nights went on the stakes rose, the fighters got better and finally it was the elite of the elite, both in the fights and the people who'd come to view the battles.

Logan had done his homework, he knew the faces he was looking for, the both of them smiling out of their adverts. Looking like the perfect family, just that the smiles never reached their eyes and the children at their feet had terror shining in theirs. No this was no perfect family, and no matter how much you paid the artist to alter the images, the truth could be seen if you were looking for it. The Kita clan were not what they seemed and their business in the world of transport and freight wasn't entirely legal. Yuudai Kita and his wife, Rin were all smiles the night they came, and Logan made sure he was on the opposite side of them as the fights began.

It was Yuudai that was into the fighting, Rin had the slimline phone stuck to her head, both had aged well but Logan could still see the young faces that had been photographed all those years ago. Now they were the best of the best here, along with several other Yakuza and shipping families, you needed to know the underbelly of the people you were working with and enjoy what they enjoyed. Logan watched the pair, especially Rin, she had no interest in the fighting only the last few moments of each one, when the crowd was asked to give it's verdict on the losing fighter. She always voted to kill the loser, sometimes she got what she wanted, other times she didn't, her face only showed emotion when she didn't get her own way. Logan did his job, moved around the fighters, kept them away from the paying and betting public, he didn't raise his eyes to anyone he didn't need to. His solid form was enough for some and the tiger tattoo's were enough for those who knew how to read the language. He was not a man to cross but he kept those who were there for a sick kind of entertainment alive and made sure he got a good hit of the Kita's scent. When the fights were over, he was asked to help with the clean up, he nodded to the large foreman and did as he was bidden. What he also did was drop a line to the police and told them where to find the small camera he'd installed in the roof of the warehouse, the clean up was still under way when they raided it. It wouldn't stop the death machine from rolling along but it wouldn't come this way again for a few years. But as for Logan, he'd already moved on, he had their scent in his lungs and nothing would stop him from finding them.

The blossom was falling by the time he found them, they were living in a restored house on the shores of Lake Shojiko, they had security, cameras and guards but the guards left after midnight. It wasn't the right image for the restored village, or so the pamphlets had read, security returned at 5am to do a sweep of the houses and the lakeside. The camera's would be checked and then the life of the day would begin. Logan took in the sight of the places, he'd come as an investor, rich, stupid and vapid, the sales mistress had latched onto him in an instant. His rich easy timbre and smile had her eating out his hand that day, dropping large sums of money to those who really didn't need it. A rich American Gaijin with no idea about how insulting he was being, but with the climate the way it was, money was money. He got a good look at the Kita's mansion and his eyes never left it as they pulled out of the model village and back to the sales patter a good three miles away. But as he looked back toward Mount Fuji all he could think of was auburn hair and the white of her streak, like the snow on top of the mountain. It'd be over soon and he could go home to Marie, free to act on his hearts desire, he only hoped she'd understood his message.

“Get off that damn phone woman!” Yuudai shouted across the room to her, it was his third tumbler of whiskey so far, Rin knew he liked to drink, hell she'd been the one to show him the mind numbing effects it could have. The control it took over your whole self and made you into someone or something else, Rin finished her phone call and snapped the small slim phone shut. The platinum surface barely shining in the dim glow of the ambient lighting, Yuudai had bought it her last month after smashing her gold one. She'd been doing business while he'd been 'doing' her, he hadn't taken it well, at least he never hit her anymore, the scar on his belly had been enough of a reminder about that one. She could even remember when she'd done it, it had been after she'd come out of prison for the whole mess that had been their last bombing. Just why he'd thought bombing the post office had been a good idea she'd never have understood and to use his uncles name and address as the return postal was another idiotic idea. But he'd been filled with ideas once, filled to the brim with fire and blood, about building a new world where the old ways would crumble and fall apart. Where the true nature of the Japanese would rise out of the mire the West had put it in, but market forces were the true masters now of Japan. Not the people, not the old who were running to keep up, it was the inventors, the young with dreams of smaller, better, faster, cheaper. Rin had realised that and had latched on to several young dreamers, it took only two for her to get the money and riches she needed.

While Yuudai (aka Daichi Yamata) had lounged in jail after a mistimed robbery, she'd been working her ass off to get them something comfortable to come back to. She'd invested, still held shares with several up and coming research centres and she kept her head, while others had fallen Rin had bought and bought low. Now Rin and Yuudai owned several train companies outright, their services were premier and their commuter runs were the fastest and most profitable in the districts. But it took her mind away from Yuudai, business needs looking after and there were things she didn't trust anyone with and those were the contacts with the underworld. She didn't want to end up like the others of their small army had, they'd drifted into thugdom while she'd seen the higher ground of legitimate business. Yet she mixed with bigger crooks and thugs than her old friends ever could have, they were both millionaires many times over. Yet she knew how quickly it all could be lost and she wasn't going to go backwards into that life ever again. So if it meant having to programme a new phone every once in a while then she'd do it, at least she could see who her enemies were across the boardroom table.

“Come sit with me, you never sit with me anymore.” Yuudai was at the pleasant drunk stage, Rin smiled and shifted her weight along the tatami floor towards him. The house was traditional in style but the technology it housed certainly wasn't, everything was hidden away by screens and walls, giving the sensation of living in a different century without having to.
“You're drunk Yuudai, you should eat something before you drink that stuff.” Yuudai raised his glass to Rin, the leer on his flaccid lips spilling over onto his red face. He'd been handsome once, but life had taken it's toll on him, his dreams had come to nothing and no man likes that as his epitaph. He was a kept man and he knew it, without Rin he was nothing but a drunk and a violent one at that. But he was still here and he had a place in her heart somewhere, that is if her heart still beat, he'd seen her looking at the fights they went to. All she got excited about now was death and he was just anaesthetising himself to the inevitable slide he was on, soon the only thing she'd smile about for him would be his last moments. Thing was Yuudai didn't know how right he was.

Outside in the darkness of the lake Logan drifted, the small mat he'd made was enough to break up his form in the cool night. He watched as the security left for the evening, switching on the remote camera's by laser guided guns, pity they responded to garage door openers as well. Pulling open a waterproof pocket Logan aimed for the shoreline camera and switched it off, he could smell the small motor stop in the cool air of the lakeside. Drifting ever closer to his targets Logan pulled the thoughts of his past together, that this act would be the last he would make before going home again. As his feet hit the bottom of the beach he moved like the mist that was slowly forming on the water, as he passed the camera tower he switched it back on, the footage would come in handy later for the police.

“Dance for me Rin, you used to dance for me, when we were younger...” Yuudai was slurring his words now as he pulled Rin closer to his side, she wanted to go to bed but he was in a good mood and despite herself Rin was actually smiling again. She slapped him playfully as she stood up on the tatami, her bare feet warmed by the underfloor heating. Smirking at his half fallen form and the half erection already tenting his robe Rin wafted off to put on the stereo, say what you liked about the man he had something worth sticking around for.

Logan saw Rin move out of the main room, his face was covered as was the rest of him, deep grey silk, not black, black stands out in the shadows, grey blends against the shadow filling it further. Logan followed Rin, he knew Yuudai wasn't a threat, drunk the way he was, Rin was the one to watch and he'd get to her first.

Flicking the stereo to life Rin pondered which songs to cue up on the system, she'd loved to dance when she'd been young. Being a kagura dancer had been one of her wishes as a girl, to dance the magic into being, to bring blessings to the people she lived among. Thing was it wasn't meant to be and her life had been changed, she did bring change to the people around her though, just not in the way she'd ever envisioned. Shaking herself Rin flicked through the thousand or more tracks, picking what she wanted to dance to, not hearing the screen behind her open on waxed runners. Logan entered behind her small form listening to the music that had once been a full part of her life. The only thing he felt she was sure of was the cool air that had come with him as he'd entered, as she turned to look at where the cold was coming from Logan was already too close to deny.

Rin let herself feel for the first time in an age, as the music swam through her senses, it was then she noticed the cool wind behind her, lost in her remembrances she half turned, straight onto a blade. The pain blossomed in her flesh, the blade shining in the dim light of the room, the colour of the blade strange to her eyes, as Rin looked up she saw the eyes of the demon who'd invaded their home. The music she'd picked thumping out into the air as her body began to feel the damage wrought upon it, the blade was pulled free from her side and dropped to the matting, her kidney had been nicked and she could feel the odd sensation of hot and cold running from her side at the same time. Before she could even scream the demon had her by the throat, cutting off her words and dragging her back to Yuudai, to where he was now singing in a drunken leering tone. He soon stopped singing when Rin was thrown toward him, her side already red from the wound she'd been given. Yuudai went for the phone that was on the floor, but a knife went through that before his hand reached it. Rin was silent, her eyes closed, focussing on the pain that was burning through her side, something was wrong apart from her wound, her body was beginning to burn from the inside out. She reached out for Yuudai but he wasn't near her anymore, opening her eyes she watched the demon in grey force his mouth open and made him drink something from a dark flask, old fashioned and well worn. The colourless liquid falling from Yuudai's skin in droplets as the Oni forced him to drink more and more. Rin made to open her mouth but it wouldn't open, her hand reaching outstretched was beginning to shudder, the muscle twitching in her forearm. Panic began to set in as her own hand began to pinch her already injured side, Rin watched the Oni walk around her home. Her eyes losing him for a moment before he came back into focus, he dropped his form next to her pain racked body, the spasms already beginning to run through her flesh, making her shudder and quake. He didn't speak to her, his gaze implacable, like the old gods she once worshipped as a child with a child's faith. He pulled out a flower from his grey cloud tunic and laid it on her breast, a lily, small and vibrant in colour. It filled her eyes as her head dropped forward before her back spasmed, the roller-coaster of her death was going to be one of pain and loss. Slow and painful, she tried once more to open her mouth but only succeeded in biting her tongue as her jaw slammed shut as a spasm rode through her body. The Oni got up and left her then, leaving her in her world of pain. Lost in terror and fear as the potent poisons ran through her body, each one fighting to kill her, while her body fought to live asher life blood flowed away into the floor beneath her.

Logan looked at Rin, crouched in front of her as he pulled out the lily that had been Yuriko's name sake, he dropped it onto her chest and watched as the first tremors went through her body. He'd made sure to angle his thrust into her body, he'd nicked her kidney, enough to make it bleed slowly, but the blade he'd used was poisoned with strychnine and amantia. She'd die in agony, slowly bleeding out while her body shook and spasmed. Every time her blood clotted she'd spasm and rip the wound open again and again, until she died of blood loss or weakness from her poisoning.

Logan turned away from Rin and went back to Yuudai, the drink he'd forced down him was enough to kill a normal man. The small fungi had been easy to find on the mountain slopes, hidden under the pine needles, poking through in pure white flesh. He'd spent an afternoon collecting the small caps, gloved of course,just because he healed didn't mean he was stupid. He'd packed the small white umbels into the gourd, filled it with rice wine later and left it to steep for a day. What was inside was enough to kill an army let alone one man. He turned to see Yuudai already suffering from the effects of the small caps, vomit covered his chest, his legs were shuddering as the nerves died. He would feel the tiny slivers of each fibre slicing his muscle open as they died, a death of a thousand no, a million cuts, each one a nerve end of his own flaying him from the inside out. Yuudai would feel every death he'd given out, he'd feel the terror if it before his heart gave out, he'd feel what those he'd tortured and hurt felt. Yet it wasn't enough, none of it was, nothing could ever bring Yuriko back to life, but what it would do was bring honour back to her family name. He left them watching the other one die, locked in their deaths as they had been in their madness. He took the hard-drives of the computers and the laptops with him when he left, by the time he'd gotten ready to enter the night again, Rin was bent back like a bow, her back obviously broken but her shudders still telling him she was still alive, barely. Logan let the image of their deaths warm him as he set out across the ground toward the beach, remembering to switch off the camera before he got there. As soon as he was out far enough he set the camera back on again and he let the sacred waters of the lake clean the filth of their lives from his skin.

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Incense rose in the morning air, the hand-claps of prayers being said were everywhere and the old woman prayed as she always did. The Gaijin Oni hadn't been back to her home but everyday she came to the temple to remind him of his promise, she knew he believed like she did. That Yuriko's spirit wouldn't rest until her death was avenged, she moved slowly around the temple today and didn't hear the commotion until her grandson came to her waving a paper. Only when he'd calmed down and stopped babbling did she manage to see what he was carrying on about. She read the words printed for all the world to read, tears falling over her face as she clutched the paper to her heart. Turning back toward the temple to pray for the Gaijin Oni who'd set her child free.

It was Katherine who saw him first, she was tending to the kitchen garden she'd planted when she'd seen the mansions long lost son come walking through the grounds. The bike he'd taken was somewhere else, the soles of his boots were worn down, he'd walked a long way and looked better for it. Straightening up from her position Katherine let Logan walk over toward her in silence, he looked through her, something being spoken without words as he pulled several small sweet green beans from the poles they were climbing up. He ate in silence as his eyes took in the changes that had occurred while he was absent, the noise of children was all around and that made his eyes narrow a little. He chewed the green beans slowly as if savouring the taste of the soil they were grown in, only when he'd finished did Katherine risk touching him and even then only lightly. “I'll tell her your home,” Logan just nodded and went back into the forest, whatever he'd done had weighed on his soul. He needed time to heal, time to be himself again and as he walked away the buzz of the pollinating bees filled her ears, whispering to herself and their tiny ears. “Yes, go tell him, it won't be long now.” Katherine's eye turned to the upper floors, Marie would know soon enough but Logan needed her to keep quiet about his return. Warriors need to heal before they can come home to their loved ones, they need the space to come to terms with the death they have wrought. And as Katherine went to her work she could think of no one else who needed it more than Logan.

“What do you mean he's back?!” Marie was furious with Katherine, her eyes were flashing dangerously and her hands were itching to lose their coverings. She wanted to know why she'd been left waiting when he'd been here for nearly two weeks! Jubes was with her, as well as Kitty who was tucking into a ice-cream bucket. Katherine was being 'reasonable' and that meant there were things you didn't know or understand going on and that they were 'private'.
“Look, I've told you now haven't I? He needed the space Marie, he needed to remember what he was here 'for'. A man like him needs some time to get himself sorted out, you know that more than anyone else here, unless you've forgotten what New Years was like?” The admonishment was about a piece of party behaviour that had been total Logan, Marie had been on the booze all day and she'd slipped into 'Logan'. Even taking a cigar out onto the terrace to smell as it burned, she'd knocked out Bobby and given St John a black eye that had taken over a week to heal.
Marie blushed and was about to speak when Jubes interrupted her, “Look Chica, he's home. That's all you need to think about, the plans are made, the dress is ready, all we need is the date.”
“How about May Day?” This came from Kitty who was propping the now nearly empty bucket on her swelling stomach, being engaged hadn't stopped her and Pete getting on with planning a family. Jube's eyes went to the calendar, May Day was only four days away, Marie looked as if someone had just poured cold water down her skin.
“We wouldn't get a preacher that soon, or even a celebrant!” Marie was off in a world of weddings and old fashioned ways of getting hitched. As the conversation rose in pitch and Jubes went to calm Marie, Katherine winked at Kitty who was now getting up with the empty bucket to put in the trash. “Don't worry about a celebrant, I can get one who'll be here by the thirtieth. Old fashioned but it'll do for a woodland wedding.”

The words stopped all conversation, “In fact he's already been sent for, the rings have been made and he's bringing them with him. The only thing that does need doing is the small guest list and the tidying of the glade, even the foods been done.” Katherine looked at the stunned faces of the women around her and laughed, filling the air with it's rich comforting sound. When she'd finished laughing Katherine continued, “Did you honestly think it'd be all down to you? Logan is a resourceful man Marie, he wants to make this as perfect as you do. He's out in the forest because he wants his first night with you to be special and lets face it, if he was sleeping here in the mansion do you think any lock would keep him out?”
It was Jubes who answered the question with a huge leer on her face, “Fuck no!”
“Exactly! He wants this to be special, to have some worth for you both. A few days more won't hurt you Marie and if you'd known he was out there, you'd have gone looking for him and you'd have spoiled it for you both. You know you would've.”

Marie's skin was already red as she gave the thoughts free reign, oh boy would she have looked and she would've found him too. Camped out in his bed until he'd come back to it and made him take her, but that wouldn't have been honourable. It would have been cheap, sordid and trashy, led by lust not love, this way he was waiting for the right night, when they were joined properly. At least one part of her families heritage was being considered, Baptist weddings are strict, no sex before marriage. Plenty after but not before, she'd always wondered if that was why so many of her cousins had been pregnant so soon after getting married, well she'd find out soon enough.

“Now get yourselves outside and get tidying that grove, we need enough space for at least ten folk on chairs or standing. Plus flowers for the bouquet and buttonholes.” As Jubes pulled Marie away into the light of the garden, Kitty went to follow them but was held back by Katherine's hand on her arm. “No, not you. I need you to go to see Ororo. Ask her to give you the Moon Orchid she's been growing for me, she'll know which one I mean.” As Kitty waddled away Katherine watched the pair of young women wander into the woods, she knew that Marie would try to look for Logan. That's why she'd already sent him to fetch the Farrier, should take them a day or so to get back here. Smiling she rolled her sleeves up, that gave her just enough time to get the cake decorated and the mead decanted, all the while humming under her breath.

“Bout time you got here,” the voice was the same as he remembered it, one part laughter the other part scorn. When Logan found the face that was making the noise he held out his arm to the Farrier, a smile on his own lips as the man took his forearm and held it tight. They grinned at each other for a moment while squeezing the other man's arm, a friendly test of strength, one that had the Farrier laughing even louder as he let go of Logan's arm. “Still got your metal then!”
“Wouldn't be without it,” the Farrier quirked an eyebrow at those words and began packing his forge away.
“There was a time not too long ago you'd have wanted that burden taken away from you, I remember the conversation well enough. What's changed?” Logan looked deep into the old/young eyes in front of him.
“I have,” The Farrier nodded and pulled the last piece of his kit back into the old truck he travelled in. Moving to the driving side of his truck he smiled at Logan and nodded to him to get in with him.
“Aye lad, I believe you have, finally understood which bits of you are real then?” Logan shut the door and seated himself next to the Farrier, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of them and not at the smiling face of the man next to him.
“Yup.” It was all Logan said about it to him, it gathered another heartfelt laugh and they set off for the mansion and home.

Logan liked the Farrier, it had been Katherine's idea that he go and help out last year, he'd been in a pissy mood and was being a grouch because he could be. Not even Marie had been able to bring him out of the self-serving attitude he was in, Katherine had been short with him and told him to 'go be an ass with the asses.' It wasn't often he managed to upset Katherine but he had that day, everything was wrong, no one was right except him and there was no happy ending for an animal like him, not even with Marie. So she'd kicked his stubborn ass out of her kitchen and toward the Farrier, now travelling slowly in the truck it had been one of the best things she'd ever done for him. Logan remembered the first time he'd walked around the stable block to see the lame smith tending to the huge hunter and he just couldn't keep his mouth shut.

“You'd better be careful there, he's an ornery bastard that one,” the smoke from his cigar lit up the air in the stable, making the hunter shiver as the fire scent reached his nostrils. The Farrier just whispered a word and the hunter calmed again, his vast bulk steady and strong against the small man who was fitting his shoes. What he'd said next had made Logan's anger raise to heights when mayhem usually occurred.
“There's no animal that can't be helped by a gentle word or two, even an animal like you.” He'd been all for dropping his cigar and ploughing into the small idiot in front of him when he'd noticed the change in the hunter. His ears were flat back against his head, his neck was low and his mouth was tight but it was the eyes that held Logan still, they were dead flat, empty. He knew if he looked away that horse would stamp the life out of him if he made just one move out of place, suddenly the size of the hunter was apparent. He was eighteen hands high and nearly a quarter ton of muscle all concentrating on making Logan's day even worse. The Farrier dropped his now newly shod hoof and the hunter moved forward, slowly, his stare going directly through the anger and to the man underneath it.
Logan didn't move, he didn't even breathe deep as the hunter came forward, his ears now moved toward Logan's breathing, his large mouth relaxed and a warm snort flooded over Logan's face as the hunter took in his real scent. The large head bobbed around Logan's body taking in the thing that had been so stupid as to challenge him in his home. When he was assured he was of no threat, he nickered and walked away from him, there were no ropes holding him still to be shod. The hunter knew his place in the heirachy and Logan had just been added to it, below his own standing of course. The laughter of the Farrier had broken the ice between them that day, the sight of Logan all shown down by a horse who could have made him mincemeat in three seconds flat. But it hadn't all Logan had needed was a reminder of his place in the heirachy, he was human and as a human he was below the herd master. Only the Farrier was equal to him, and that was only when he needed his hooves repairing.

That day he'd helped out in the barns, fixed metal work, he'd even popped his claws and asked him if he could do anything about them. The Farrier had shaken his head and told him that the only way he'd be able to deal with them was come to terms with the weight himself, the same way the horses do. They may not like them but they need them, and the Farrier had made it clear that as much as Logan hated the blades in his arms, he did need them. Even if it was to prove that they may have tried to make him an animal but it hadn't succeeded, he didn't kill indiscriminately. They'd talked about swords, about Japan and that was when Logan had remembered the debt he'd owed. But before his thoughts had been crowded with the plans of what he was going to do he'd asked the Farrier for one thing. For a ring to be made for him, from a shoe nail, a ring of iron, a promise to someone who meant the world to him. The Farrier had understood and he'd asked a price for the work and Logan had given it willingly, what was another injury to him? He healed from everything, but when the iron knife had gone through his flesh he'd nearly screamed with the pain. A small pot was produced and the blood that flowed from the closing wound was collected and stoppered. All he'd said was that it'd do for the other rings he made,silver and steel, the blood would quench the rings after forging. He'd never asked who or what the rings the Farrier made were for, but now he knew, they were sitting in his breast pocket, their designs unique, just like the two people they would join together.

“Breathe girl, just breathe...no one wants to see you go face first into the ground on your wedding day.” She'd been using these words as a mantra to get her through the last few hours, her dress was ready, the food was packed in hampers, the people who knew what was going on had been sworn to secrecy. Everything was ready, except her. Nerves had taken hold of her heart, she hadn't seen Logan now for nearly five months, she'd read notes left for her and handed to her by Katherine over the last few days. But seeing the man she was about to marry...not a hide or hair, that day they'd gone to check on the bower, she had looked for him. Jubes had to drag her out of the forest when the dark began to come down, she spent at least half a day looking out of the windows hoping to catch a glimpse of him but to no avail.

So here she was about to get married in secret on the grounds of the mansion under the disguise of a picnic, it would have been funny if it hadn't have been so easy to convince everyone of. Jean was back in Washington, Scott was busy with the Blackbird, Hank was doing research, Ororo was the only member of the Alpha team who'd been invited. Everyone else had something to do, or papers to research or cars to tweak, life was busy enough without her dropping the bombshell of a wedding on them all. She'd thought she'd never get away with it, that someone would blab, usually secrets that were meant to be secrets made it out and were news within an hour. But she'd not thought about the power of the 'little kitchen', the place everyone went to when they were feeling a little 'out of sorts' or down. Katherine's kitchen was a haven, even from the rest of the mansion, and the loss of the privileges of the little kitchen were a serious threat. So when people were told of the wedding, they were also told the consequences of revealing said wedding to everyone else and it had worked.

Marie looked at the simple dress that was laid out on her single bed, tonight when they got back, all her things would be moved out of here and into a new room in the west wing. The married quarters for all the staff and teachers. Her fingers traced the beautiful silk dress, it's patterns a mixture of east and west, a cascade of Cherry blossom ran down one shoulder and arm, ranging in pinks, from the near blood red to the palest of petals. The dove grey it rested on darkened as the dress flowed down to her feet, the sleeves were skinny but enough to frame her form. Cinched at the waist and flared at the hips, the spinning pale petals forming a spiral that wound around her body, each flower hand stitched to the silk. Underneath it she wore only a flesh coloured body stocking, anything else would spoil the look of the dress and she'd tried everything she'd owned. No this dress was to be worn next to the skin and Logan had given it to Katherine to give to her and as she finally picked it up to wear for the last time as a single woman Marie wondered just what Logan would be wearing to their wedding.

“Come on Jubes, leave Pete alone, he can carry the hamper on his own if he wants to,” Katherine's voice was light and filled with laughter as they wound their way across the grounds. Several people had waved as they'd passed them by, the hamper in Pete's hands being recognised as Katherine's. The act of picnicking wasn't unusual, Katherine did it often in the summer, using the time away to help those who were afraid of ears listening at doorways. So seeing another one wasn't unusual, but this time not all the picnickers would be back at the same time. Marie held her head high, she wanted this, hell she'd had enough time to tell him otherwise, so why was she doubting herself now? Her hand went to her head, trying to make the tresses she'd put it in better, Jubes grabbed her gloved hand and squeezed it tightly, smiling from her entire being at her. “Hey, he'll love it, don't worry, you're allowed to be nervous.” Marie let herself laugh away the tension with her best friend, she was right, she knew Logan loved her, wanted her, cherished her. He'd have married her in a paper sack if he had to, all that mattered was that she loved him as much as he did her. So lifting up her dress under her large duffel she let her boots lead her to the glade where she knew her future was waiting for her, probably as nervous as she was.

The Farrier had the anvil in place, they'd carried it up there the night before, rested it on an old oak stump. He was currently smoking an old pipe resting on the large flat surface, while Logan was listening to the voices that were getting closer and closer. His own clothes were simple, a pair of black jeans, a silk shirt, dark indigo blue that faded to white, the cranes that flew across his back linked with golden thread. The few cherry petals that covered the front of his shirt a copy of the ones that covered Marie's dress, his nerves were there but the feeling of 'rightness' held him still. She was coming to him, she'd accepted everything he'd given to her, understanding what he'd been asking her to do and she still came. He could see them now and he swallowed nervously and turned his back to the people who were walking toward him, he wanted the first person he saw to be Marie. He nodded to the Farrier who knocked out his pipe and stood up, behind the anvil and just out of sight was the Hunter, brushed until his coat had shone like the midnight sun on obsidian. The large horse nodding at the group that had now filled the space behind him, smiling Logan closed his eyes and turned to the now quiet group.
She could see him, well the back of him anyway, he was just stood there, as if it was just another day, but the set up of the glade was different. There were torches in the corners, a small table had been set up and behind the anvil she could just see a large horse nodding, when Marie turned her attention back to Logan she watched him turn around. He looked calmer, more settled than she'd ever seen him, as if he'd been washed of several years, he held out his gloved hands eyes closed. Marie smiled as she took hold of his strong fingers and saw the smile on his face deepen as he opened his eyes, the warmth of his eyes almost made her cry. The tears formed but held still as the voice of the Farrier wound out across the glade, “My eyes see only you, my heart beats only for you, my hands only reach for you, my voice only speaks for your ears. These are the gifts I give you, for I have nothing but myself to give to you, do you accept me? As a man, as a beast, as an animal who knows no better than his own heart tells him? Do you accept me? Will you have me in your bed, in your home, in your life until you yourself tell me to leave and never to return? Do you accept me and all that I can be with you by my side?”

Marie could see his words, he'd written them for the Farrier to speak, his vows to her, his promises to her, from the night he'd fought for her life all those years ago to this place and this moment. He'd waited for her, made her comfortable in her own skin first, made sure he was the one she wanted by letting her think it over in the months he was away. And it came down to this, would she accept him as he was, Logan and Wolverine?

“Yes.”

It was as if she'd put bonfires in his eyes, his hands tightened on hers but he didn't hurt her, the smile lines deepened around his eyes and a tear crept out of his left eye to run down into his cheek. Marie had given her vows to Jubilee to be read by Katherine, the things she wanted Logan to know before he took her on, before he let her into his heart completely. Logan quickly looked over her shoulder to take in the faces of those behind Marie before coming back to her eyes. Whatever he'd seen there hadn't taken the smile from his face in fact it seemed to polish it further. Katherine's voice rose through the glade, “Will you understand my moods, will you hold me when the thunder threatens to take my voice, will you love me even when age rears its head in my hair? Will you give me patience when I don't understand you, will you meet me halfway when I need your guidance? I have no other but you in my heart and will not put others above our needs for each other, even though I will love others differently, I will always put you first. Could you accept my skin, that I can kill with a touch and that I fear I will kill you one day or harm you by accident and for you to forgive me if it ever happens? Will you keep me in your bed until I can no longer love you? Will you put me first above all others, from your past or those we shall meet in the future? Can you accept me as I am, skin and all, faults and all, love and all?”

Time seemed to stop as Katherine's last words echoed through the glade, it seemed to be hours before Logan spoke, his hands tightened again on hers and he pulled her close to his body, his lips whispering his answer to her first. “Yes, as long as I have blood in my body and breath in my lungs.” Logan then lifted his head and spoke to everyone else, “Yes. I accept you.”

The Farrier took their hands to the anvil, hefting his hammer he struck the anvil three times, once on the left, once on the right and once above their hands. They both felt the reverberation of the blows go through the iron and into their bodies, his voice raising as the final blow fell, “What I have made may no god tear apart, what I have crafted let no soul ruin, what I have made may all see with truth's eye.” He then took the rings from Logan and put them on the hands of each of them, “With these rings are their promises made, you have witnessed this sacred promise and union, you have to keep their promise as they shall themselves.”

Pete handed the bottle of mead around the group, making sure everyone drank and when they had he took a good draught himself after which he raised it to the trees and his rich voice rang clear across the woodland. “To the fathers who watch from afar and the mothers close at hand, watch over their love, make it grow, bless it well as we have been blessed.” He raised the mead to Kitty who blushed beautifully, before pouring the rest of the mead onto the floor of the grove around the now married couple.

The Farrier put his hands on their shoulders and led them out of the grove, Marie leaving her flowers with Jubes and the food being opened now in the laughing smiling group. Logan took hold of Marie and lifted her onto the back of the huge black hunter, there was no saddle to speak of so she held on best she could. Logan clasped the hand of the Farrier who smiled at them both and nodded as Logan climbed up behind Marie. “You've got an hour before they'll come looking for you.” He winked at them both and slapped the hunter on the rump, he whickered and set off at a trot into the warm forest.

They rode in silence for at least a half mile, Marie resting against the chest of her now husband, she felt the ring on her finger, silver and something else, it had a sheen to it, something she couldn't put her finger on but it felt primal, old. Logan had his hand around her waist and held her on the vast shoulders of the horse, the way the beast managed to move through the tight woods even amazed her. He slid through gaps that seemed too small for him but he did it with ease, every time they went uphill she felt her hips jar against Logan's own. Her own hands tried to grip the mane of the horse but with each backward jolt all she wanted was behind her. She was wearing silk over nylon and as such she was sliding back and forth, it wasn't long before Logan's hand slid lower so he was cupping her as they rode. Frustrated Marie ground herself back into Logan, she wanted him, she'd wanted him to touch her for years and now she had him.

Logan slowed the horse to a halt and she could hear and feel his breathing, turning her head to look up at him she could see him trying not to just throw her down to the floor. It then struck her, for all the time she'd been waiting, so had he. “Logan please I want you to...” He put his gloved finger against her lips and went for his pocket, he pulled something out and sprayed his skin away from her own. Replacing the thing he pulled her face close to his, when she knew what he was going to do she almost recoiled from him, but remembered her vows and let him touch her.
His lips touched hers, for the first time since Cody a man was kissing her, Logan was kissing her, her husband was kissing her! It took her brain about half a second to respond to the stimulus, before her hands were on his head, the nylon covering rasping against his skin. But her mouth was on fire, Logan shifted back and let her turn herself so she now faced him, his hands gripped her just as tightly. One on her head and one on her hips pulling her into his body, making her lift her covered legs over his own so she was almost seated on his lap. He was alive with need, his entire self was shuddering, as if he had St Vitus Dance, Logan's body was almost too hot for her to touch and there was a darkness sitting just behind the hazel of his eyes. Something dark, something eager, something not all together human and it was this that stopped her hands and finally recognised that Logan was trying to tell her something. She sat on his lap, legs across his own strong thighs, her sex just a few inches away from his own and Marie realised that this was as close as they'd ever been. This wasn't just her dream, it had been Logan's as well and he was barely hanging onto his sanity. Her hands dropped to his shirt, the beautiful silk shirt that reflected her own dress and she let her heartbeat slow a little as Logan stopped his body shaking from pure will. His voice was a whisper but she heard him all the same, “I want you, I've wanted you ever since I found you on the torch, trussed up like a lamb to the slaughter. You cared enough to come and help me, you called out when I was about to be stabbed, you'd seen me take worse damage in the cage.” Marie blushed at his words and Logan's smile deepened, “Oh yeah I saw you there, your face looking over mine as if you didn't understand how I could do that to myself, that I must have some worth to someone. Thing was I didn't, until you gave me some, with those two words. You cared enough to warn me even when I would've healed the damage almost instantly.”
Marie leaned forward and rested her hair against his naked skin, her lips just a tiny distance away from his own, “Yeah that's true, but ya'd still felt the pain wouldn't ya?” Logan closed his eyes and nodded, pulling her next to him, letting her wrap herself around his form for the first time since his homecoming.
“Yeah, it'd hurt like a bitch for a few hours but it'd fade,” he pulled her back so he could look in Marie's full eyes. “The memory of you though, in that duffle, tears just about to fall, not out of fear of me, but for me. The way you were holding onto your kit bag, everything about you would've come back to me in dreams, of you speaking, of me just leaving you behind to their mercies. It did once or twice but I liked the other version better.” Marie cocked her head to one side as she listened to the whispers coming from the heart of her husband.
“I won the fights, came back for beer and instead of ignoring you, I paid for a beer and a meal for you, you came with me when I left and we kept travelling. No X-Men, no Magneto, no war, just us and the open road, a never ending open road, where when we ran out of gas, there was nothing else but us and it was enough, for both of us.”

Marie was speechless, the dream he was describing felt so real, so perfect, it felt like it had been cherished, nurtured, grown into another life. A good dream to battle the darkness that took over his nights, he'd made her a refuge from everything, a dream that had just become reality and suddenly Marie was glad they'd had the engagement the way they had. It had given him time to see the reality from the dream, he'd had time to separate them and he knew what he had in his hands was real but if they wanted it to last they had to tackle it carefully.

Yes she wanted him, yes she needed him in the worst way possible but both of them were dangerous, her more than Logan. Marie kissed the lips in front of her, chastely this time and ran her now bare hand down his skin softly, feeling the micro layer he'd put on it, a barrier to keep him safe from her touch. He could still feel her but not completely, “I love you Logan, I want to show you how much I love you, I want to touch you, taste you, lose myself in you, all of you.” He couldn't help but growl at her words as they ran over his cooling skin. Marie dipped her head to kiss the side of his neck quickly, just where the ear meets the neck and Logan's grip doubled on her body. His hips jerking involuntarily upwards into her own, her own breath now deep and heavy, her breasts straining at the silk as she moved against his chest. “Take me home, let me take you.” Marie gripped him resting her head on his shoulder, her legs over his own, her hands knotted in the silk of his shirt. She could feel the rumble of his breath with each movement of the horse beneath them, they were having sex without touching, each pass of the horses gait her hips raised and lowered on his own. They both needed the practice, this closeness, this moment of touching without touching, she needed to trust him when she was naked and if she was nervous when he touched her she could hurt him. This way she could get used to his bulk, his scent of arousal, his form against her, she'd had no touch but her own until now and as much as her sex ached for him she'd have to wait. As they finally came out of the forest to daylight she blinked and snuggled herself into his warmth, the world could go hang itself. They didn't care who saw them, all that mattered was themselves and each other, they'd waited enough.

Over in the glade, they had fun, played games, laughed, got a little drunk on mead and finally wandered back in ones and twos. But Katherine and the Farrier were the last to leave, when all had been tidied away and cleaned Katherine bowed low to the Farrier who in turn nodded shallowly to the mother of the house. She turned to leave when the Farrier's voice made her turn back “Do they know how special they are?” Katherine smiled at the people who'd left earlier and at the words of the man in front of her.
“I don't know Old Father, what do you think?” The Farrier grinned and plucked something from his coat and threw it to Katherine's hand.
“Use it when you need me, I'll be able to hear the prayer,” the coin in Katherine's hand was old, silver and battered. A lame smith on one side, a horse on the other with a small bee in the top left, when Katherine looked up from it the Farrier and his anvil were nowhere to be seen. Smiling in her soul Katherine went to join the rest of the party, if she knew the people she lived with, everyone would know a wedding had occurred today. Listening to the new shouts and laughter rising on the late spring air she hoped Marie and Logan were already in their room by now. Otherwise they might have some casualties to see to, picking up her long skirts Katherine ran back to her home, still feeling the ring of the anvil strike throughout her soul. Gods may come and go, but craftsmen live forever.

They managed to get into the new wing easily enough, there were a few students coming back from the landing they were heading for, none of them said a word to the couple. But Anne, a kitchen helper of Katherine's winked at them both as she passed them, Marie couldn't help but smile back. Logan could smell their new room, their things had been moved in piled in corners and left for them to sort out. Logan pulled Marie inside and his hand was on the doorknob closing it when a large object was jammed in the doorway. Logan growled darkly and the ringing voice of Katherine rolled through the room. “Oh come on now Logan, you'll thank me later, open the bloody door man!” Logan did as he was asked and Pete came in with a large hamper, he weaved a little putting it down and waved at the two of them with a bottle he plucked from the large wicker basket.
“Payment!” Pete then wobbled off down the corridor to his own room and Kitty, leaving Katherine alone with the couple.
“I need a quick word with your lady if you don't mind Logan, just a few moments,” Katherine grabbed Marie and stepped into the bathroom with her, confused Marie allowed the action.
“What's...?”
“Ssshh girl, now listen. You have to trust Logan, I mean really trust him with you, if you can trust him, then nothing he can do will harm him. But you need to trust him, do you understand me?” Marie was hearing the singing of her hormones and the scent of food that her stomach suddenly remembered hadn't been given it for a while. Katherine gripped her tight and shook her a little. “MARIE!” That brought her attention back to Katherine, “Listen to me girl! You've been made 'as one', do you understand me? You're not separate anymore, he made you 'one', out there in the forest, he made you 'one body' and you can't hurt yourself!”

It was slow but the realisation fell across her face like the winter dawn, “You mean...” Marie looked at her hands and then out of the room to the man she could hear even now stripping his clothing. She watched as his shirt was flung across the room to land under the window, Katherine smiled and walked away from her. Marie heard the growl as Logan watched her leaving, she heard the lock snap shut after her. She was alone with Logan, in their room, with their bed, looking down at her bare hands, Marie smiled. Quickly shrugging off her dress, she took off the nylon body stocking and replaced her dress again, the feel of the cool silk making her skin goose for a moment. Walking out of the bathroom she didn't expect to see Logan naked but he was, as naked as the day he'd be born and she blushed. It'd take some getting used to for her, Logan naked and naked with her, but she didn't stop her eyes from looking him over. All the way from his feet to his hair on top of his head, she took him in, seeing him as a whole, he even turned his back to her so she could see him from the back. His broad shoulders shifting as she looked him over, taking notice of him, sensing all of him before he touched her.

Marie walked toward him and he didn't move away from her bare hands, he stood still, eyes locked on hers, a slight smile on his face. “Katherine told me to trust you, to trust you with me and I do I really do Logan.” Her hands lifted toward his chest, “But she told me something else too, that we're 'one' now, from this point on we're one person. And if that's true I can't hurt myself can I?” She stopped just millimetres from his skin, her hands fluttering over his chest, she wanted to touch him but there was still a doubt in her mind. Logan took that doubt from her, he moved forward into her touch.

The warmth that spread up her fingers was nothing like she'd imagined it would be, the beating of his heart was so powerful she could feel it through her finger ends. Slowly Marie moved her hands over the skin of her husband, the beat of his heart ringing through her skin, just like the blows through the anvil had.

The image came unbidden in her mind, the two rings they wore, the two metals, the silver and something else, being hammered together as one. The blows on the anvil reverberating through her skin and body, the words of the Farrier; 'What I have made may no god tear apart, what I have crafted let no soul ruin, what I have made may all see with truth's eye,' rang through her mind. He'd made them one soul, one body, out of two damaged halves he'd crafted one beautiful whole.
“Logan....he made us...” Logan didn't speak he just nodded to her and let her touch him, her fingers roved over his skin, gripping the large muscles of his back as his own hands began to remove her own dress.
“I need to see you,” she moved back a little to see his face, there was a need showing in his eyes, a deep thing, he wanted to see her naked, for the first time. Here and now, with him, in their own room, moving back slowly she let him undress her. Letting herself go, knowing she couldn't hurt him, not now, not ever, he would always be part of her. As long as their love lasted they'd be together, woven in soul and flesh, until she said 'enough' and he turned his heart away from her.

He took his time, lifting the silk with his fingers, letting Marie feel his advance, so no touch came as a shock to her body. Stroking her thighs with the embroidered silk, running his strong fingers around the small of her back, letting her feel him. Logan didn't spare her neck or her face, resting himself against her, letting her body feel his, the weight of him, the heat of him through the silk as he lifted it gently over her skin. Revealing her in stages, nuzzling her throat with the weight of his skull, making her raise her face skyward, planting small light butterfly kisses on her throat.

Giving her just enough touch in the right places, her own hands weren't still but they flowed over the muscled form of her lover. Touching his skin, feeling the hairs that rasped against her finger ends, the roughness of them the change in feel of them from the nape of his neck to the ones that sat on his shoulders. The many different textures of his body she would learn in time but now he was concentrating on getting her out of the dress he'd sent her. As the silk passed over her head again, she closed her eyes for a second, when she opened them Logan was looking at her. All of him revealed in his gaze, tears were sitting just under his hazel, unshed but there, his whispered words snapping her reverie. “You're beautiful, whoever gave you to me....” one tear fell and Marie knew what Logan was struggling to say, that he didn't deserve her, didn't deserve the love he held in his arms. She bent her head to the tear and kissed it away for him her own breath whispering across his skin as she smoothed the face that had been with her even when she'd thought she'd had no one. “I love you Logan and nothing will ever change that, we deserve this.”

It was like throwing a switch, Logan just pulled her up into his embrace, her skin plastered to his own and the sensation was enough for them both, to actually 'feel' the other naked against them. The heat of Logan and the softness of Marie, the opposites joined and it was Marie who made the first move on Logan's parted lips. “Trust me, I trust you, always have.” Lowering plump lips to his, the first kiss she gave would be the one he'd remember the rest of his life, the way she shifted into him. The gentle pressure of her mouth, the innocence within it, a child's way in all honesty but it soon changed as her need grew. Tasting, touching, exploring and throughout it all Logan stayed passive, allowing her to show him her needs, her wants, her passion. Her body soon trying to climb into his own and without breaking her hold on him, he lifted her so she was riding his hips. Bare breasts tickled by his chest, shifting so she could feel the rub of him on her skin, nipples hardening into peaks just by the contact of his skin on hers. Feeling her breathing rise, her skin heat with just one kiss, if this was just one kiss,one part of her, what else was she capable of giving him?

Inside her mind she was free-wheeling, lost to the song of her blood, every dream, every lustful thought she'd ever had, blossoming for a second then lost to another darker, dirtier one. Her body was readying itself for him, unknowingly she was already grinding on his hips, her feet locked behind his back. God how she'd dreamed of this day, of doing this, of touching Logan, and having him want her just as much. She broke her kiss to see the shadow back behind his eyes, dropping her gaze down between them she could see his erection, stark and deep red. He wanted her as badly as she wanted him but she was the one driving, she was showing him how she wanted him.

Smiling Marie dropped her ass down and caught the head of him, shuffling herself in Logan's grip so his erection was between their bodies. His groan of need made her smile as Marie rubbed herself along his shaft, trapping it between their now scalding skin. It was too much for Logan, he walked to the bed and dropped her to it, suddenly cool without his skin on hers but she didn't have to wait long. Logan dove onto her, pinning her to the bed, it was his turn to tempt, to drive insane with need, holding her arms above her head one handed he used his other hand to stroke the inside of her thighs. Marie let him in, falling open to his touch and throwing her head backward into the covers, letting him have her, all of her. But he didn't touch her sex, he blew softly on her skin, used her leg to open her sex to him and she heard him take a hit of her scent and the deep growl that came with it. The pressure on her skin deepened as Logan began to crawl up her body, he wanted her, needed her and it was time to take what had been offered to him all those years ago. When his face was above her own, he let go of her hands, freeing her to hold him to her, the weight of his body was frightening. It crushed her beneath its power, Marie could feel the slide of his back as Logan shifted over her, he could kill her if he wanted to, the stored power in his body made her shudder with excitement, her thighs were open and Logan was resting between them for now. His pressure on her body making her hips shift toward his own, but he moved up and away from her, resting on his elbows. His deep rumble of “Not yet,” making her squeal with frustration, her eyes finding his twinkling mischief filled gaze burning with need. Kissing her with passion and moving her as he did it, shifting her so he was no longer resting in her thighs, but over them, trapping her between his powerful body and the bed.

Breaking the kiss that left her seeing spots in her vision Logan began to move over her now closed thighs, rubbing his erection over and across her sex,the hard shaft of it burning her most sensitive area. Feeling the slide of his skin against her slickness, the transfer of her slick body to his, easing the slide of him, each pass rubbing against her clit which was now standing proud of her covering labia. Logan made sure to grind down on each deep pass, watching her eyes widen each time he pushed down into her body. Her breath becoming laboured, the starts of her orgasm showing on her skin, pinking her nipples and deepening her voice which now began to call his name in fits and starts. “Llllloooogan.....please....” she wanted it to stop, she wanted it to carry on, his own body wasn't far off but he tried to keep the momentum going. Gripping her hip to keep her still, to stop her moving out of the pleasure zone he'd created in her, he felt her begin to tense, saw the pupils of her eyes widen, her mouth open wide to scream. Quickly Logan dove in to take the scream into his lungs, the kiss filled with her scream as her nails scored his flesh over and over, her body trying to grip him. He released her legs from their prison and nestled himself back in their cradle as Marie writhed under him, his hand stilling her hips for a moment, gaining his vantage point before lifting her hips backward. Keeping her lips covered as he finally entered her, the slide of him easy and trouble free, her arms suddenly gripping him tighter as his hips met hers fully for the first time. Releasing her mouth so he could breathe, seeing her eyes still wide as he dared to shift deeper, her voice now freed but only came as a whisper. “Oh god....Logan, I I.....” growling softly Logan worried her neck, his hand touching her breast for the first time, the other keeping her hip down so he could move without hurting her.

Marie was lost, so many sensations, so much to take in, pleasure washed over her body like a tidal wave, picking up all her own efforts and dashing them into the hollow fragments they had been. Logan was a force of nature, his scent had changed, from the normal cigar, musky, old clothes smell he usually had to a deeper one, more musky, heady almost. It reverberated through her body, flicking switches she didn't know existed, making her hungry for him, so when he'd trapped her legs beneath his she'd wondered what he was doing, that was until the first pass over her. Then it had been something else entirely, she'd watched his face, the look in his eyes that had deepened with each plunge into her body. The slickness between them that had helped him to slide over her was her own wetness, her own body supplying the grease for this ride. Her hands gripped his shoulders, pulling him down into her with each slide, her voice came in broken shards, harder when the feelings built to massive thunder-heads. Opening her mouth to release the pressure that had built inside her finally, to have Logan dive for her lips, covering them with his own, his tongue writhing through her mouth, tasting and chasing her essence as the flood went through her. Lost in the whirling sensations she didn't feel the movement until Logan dropped between her thighs, suddenly realising what he was doing.
The sensation was even better than she'd thought it could be, the stretch of her flesh easy as he passed into her deep channel, the barrier broken easily Logan pushed deeper, still holding her lips with his own. Finally daring to breathe he released her, the words fell from her and covered his skin, still holding her hip Logan's smiling flashing eyes matched the grin on his lips as he began to kiss and bite her neck. Growling into her skin as he began to shift inside her, her own grip digging into his skin, making him bleed for a moment as she dug herself deep into him as he was her.

Words had no meaning for what was happening, her body was filled with sensation, Logan's wet mouth on her throat , his rough skinned palm on her breast, rolling and pinching her nipple. Inside her sex Logan shifted and moved, sliding out as far as he dare only to plunge back with a harder thrust each time. It woke her, each plunge she met and dug her fingers deeper into his back, grunting with each one she used her legs to keep him deep this time, she didn't allow him out again and Logan shifted his face to hers. The leer on it was frightening for a moment, until she saw the heat in her own heart, she could match him, she would match him and she dropped her hips down further. The leer faltered and a harsher, darker look rose in Logans eyes, the shadow moved forward to cover the hazel she loved. Moving her throat back to show it to him, to give the darkness everything it wanted and more, being rewarded by a deep throbbing growl and a bite to her shoulder. Logan's hips diving into her own with an almost desperate ferocity now, her body beginning to rise again, excited by the new hunger being played upon it. Gripping him hard as he began to rise, forcing her onto her shoulders as he pushed harder and harder into her body. Nearly kneeling now his hand flat to the bed, the other under her shoulder supporting her, eyes so narrow she could only see the dark of them. Her breasts bouncing in front of her, beads of his sweat dropping from his skin onto her and running down their swollen pink, watching as he bared his teeth. Forced together and perfect in fit, snarling through them as he fought to come inside her, knowing why he was gritting his teeth, he wanted to bite her again, to mark her. Just as Marie could feel the tingle in her limbs beginning to deepen she saw the pupils of his eyes widen, the sound of metal shredding bedding and springs. Logan was coming inside her! His eyes widened and a roar came from his chest, it deafened her for a moment as the shudders ran through him, each push into her making the tingle gather in strength. Growling softly Logan let her back down onto her back, hearing the slide of his blades go back into his arms and the feel of him on her skin again, hot sweat covered and sated. But she wasn't, the tingle was fading and she didn't want it to, not yet, shifting herself against his hips and finding the pleasure she needed, watching Logan suddenly catch onto her need and ground himself into her again. Smiling at him as she shifted under him, to suddenly alone and wondering what was happening, she almost got up until she saw where he was. Knelt over the end of the bed, pulling her to the edge of it where he could get to her without resting his weight on her form. Marie was expecting another ride but what she got instead was his mouth on her, the soft pushing flesh of his tongue against her clit. A hand on her hip keeping her down, as Logan licked and caressed her flesh, his voice husky as he spoke to her, the words being logged somewhere but not really relevant to where she was. “Fuck, you taste as good as you smell....I've wanted to taste you for so long.....ever since the damn train.” Marie let her hands run through his hair, pushing him down into her, wanting him to taste her, take her over the edge again. He kissed her, flicked her clit, suckled it, blew on it, plunged his tongue deep inside her, tasting their combined flavours. She was so close, all she needed was something inside her and Logan gave it to her, sliding three fingers inside her as he suckled on her clit once more. Holding onto his hair as she screamed out her pleasure, grinding her hips into his mouth as he played with her still, moving his fingers deep, mimicking himself earlier and feeling her fluttering walls against his digits. Finally releasing her when she'd stopped moving, watching her heaving chest, pulling out his fingers and moving up her tired body. Seeing her eyes sparkle for him as he rested over her, watching her eyes widen as he cleaned each finger slowly, purring as he did so. “We taste good,” Marie took the last one and put it into her own mouth, the taste was unusual, earthy and creamy at the same time. Not unpleasant at all, just rich, “You're right, we do.”

Logan looked at them both, Marie was red, a little sore in places and he was if he admitted it was tired, he pulled them both up the bed and under the covers. Marie was about to complain when Logan just put a finger on her lips, “We need the rest, you're sore and you need to get used to all this.” He looked at them both and touched her face gently, a smile lodged on his face, “We both do. Lets get some rest, we'll eat when we wake and we'll sort the rest out later.” Marie did a quick take around the room, taking in the hamper, and the boxes that needed sorting out.
“Okay, you win. Husband of mine.”

Marie snuggled down with Logan holding her skin to skin, his bulk protecting her from the doorway, Logan smiled above her head, looking over at the floor underneath the window that was slowly darkening to evening. There lay his shirt, overlaid by Marie's dress, the blossoms running from one piece of clothing to the other, the cloth made whole by being thrown together. Closing his eyes to the sight Logan pulled his wife close to his skin, a miracle enough to be married, the rest he'd say thanks for in the long run.

EPILOGUE

The news had broken early, teachers weren't the best at keeping secrets, but Ororo had kept her council, as has the rest of the people there, but the party had been noticed and the eyes of someone had seen the whole thing. Powers and secrets don't mix, so soon everyone knew, the news even reached the Professor who sent a huge bouquet to Rogue and a box of Cuban's to Logan. Scott waited for nearly a day to speak to either of them but they never appeared outside their room, people did see them but they avoided the iron stare of the so called 'leader'. It had been Katherine who'd delivered his dinner to him waiting outside the door that had made him look an idiot. She'd just handed the plate over whilst saying, “They do have a balcony on this side you know.” She'd left him with the sandwich half at his mouth and her laughter ringing in his ears, sense sometimes doesn't get very far when you allow your emotions to get the better of you.

When they did appear to everyone, it was something of a kodak moment, Rogue was dressed in a thin top, her arms covered but she wore no gloves to speak of. Logan was stood there like the bedrock of the world, just waiting for the shouting to start, when it didn't he seemed to deflate a little. The fight he'd been waiting for hadn't happened and the people who were congratulating them were truly happy for the pair, Rogue looked happier than she'd ever been and she dragged him around the various groups congratulating them. But soon it was over, the realisation that there was someone Rogue could touch was enough for them all, even Bobby had something nice to say and tried to mend bridges. It didn't get very far but in time the thaw would come from both sides.

They ended up in the small kitchen again, Jean and Marie sat across from each other on the small table in the heart of the kitchen. Katherine doing something around them both, leaving them enough air to speak in and as yet they'd not even started talking. Marie had tried several times but she'd felt the weight of their relationship drag her words down, she was still a student compared to Jean and she found it hard to speak the words that were clustering in her heart. Again it was Katherine who broke the ice between them by placing warm brandy laced tea between them both and seating herself between the two.
“Come on ladies, if you don't start talking soon I'll have to charge you rent.” Katherine took a huge swig of her tea and looked at the pair, she kicked them both under the table. “Well?” Jean looked daggers at Katherine who just grinned back at her.
“Ah....” Marie tried but Jean butted in,as she usually did.
“You can't seriously think that what you did constitutes a legal marriage do you? An anvil? A Farrier! You need licenses, medical checks, you can't just 'get married' Rogue.” Katherine watched the assault on Marie and willed her to speak back, but the way she'd done it had left her speechless. She'd devalued her commitment and love to Logan in one snidy comment, Katherine wouldn't allow this one in her kitchen.
“Jean, hows the rash?” The words just knocked 'Mrs Perfect' for a loop and she had to redress her balance as she faced Katherine's smile. “Just that I'm making some more creams later and I need to know if you need any more.” A slight blush started at the edges of Jeans complexion and began to spread over her face.
“Yes, I do thank you the steroid creams don't seem to be helping, your flower one seems to calm it down; if not get rid of it.” Her medical power undermined by a kitchen herbalist who understood her body better than the doctor did.
Katherine smiled and rested her hand on Jeans, “I keep telling you both you need to take some time off, you're getting infections because your bodies can't keep up repairing the damage you put them through. You need a break honey, you both do.”

The serious tone of Katherine's voice had Marie looking at Jean differently, seeing not a teacher but a woman in pain, suddenly seeing the lines at the corners of her eyes. The first few whisps of lighter colour in her hair, the line of grey that was beginning to march through her red mane. Seeing the hands that had been gloved up treating her covering themselves with darker spots of colour, faint for now but they would darken in a few years. Jean was getting old and as she turned to look at her a short but fragile smile on her lips Marie had the courage to speak to her as she should do. Clearing her throat Marie began.
“I know you don't approve Jean, for whatever reasons you have I'm sorry, but we're married as far as we're concerned. We're committed to the other person as long as we live and that's all marriage is really. A commitment to someone you love, someone who understands you inside and out, and won't let you sell yourself short.” Jean shifted forward about to speak when a well timed kick kept her silent and rubbing her shin, Katherine for her part was silent apart from a tight smile aimed at Jean.
“Logan needs me as much as I need him Jean, if not more so.” She looked to Katherine and saw the support she needed in her smiling face, “Logan's been waiting just as long as I have. He knew that one day I'd be ready for him, for him to ask me if I wanted this life with him and it isn't some childish hero worship either.” Jean sat back and picked up her mug sipping it's contents slowly as she listened to the woman in front of her. “Logan left me with a choice, one I could have said no to at any point, since Christmas, he gave me time to think. So if you think this is rushed and stupid you don't know us Jean, when has Logan ever rushed anything? Anything as important as this? Sure he'll risk it all for someone out in a mission, but something like this? Come on I've heard you call him about his regular habits, you can set your clock by him sometimes he's that predictable when he's home. He 'needs' that routine Jean, it kept him whole, gave him purpose. What we have is something else he needs, someone who loves him for all he is, not just what he can do.” Jean seemed to take it all in, pushing herself back against the kitchen chair, finally moving forward when she had the idea properly formed in her mind.
“What about your skin? How have you managed it Rogue, can you touch others or is it just Logan? I mean everyone was so pleased for you both we didn't question the how or why, just that you could. Will it wear off, is it a suppressor your wearing or has it been Logan that's changed toward you? I mean if I touched you now would you hurt me or not?”

The question was a fair one and to be honest it was one that she'd expected someone to ask at some point but Jean had beat them to it and she looked to Katherine for an answer to give. Katherine just smiled and reached out to Marie's arm and touched her, squeezing her arm as she answered for her. “However it's happening, however it's being done it isn't by technology Jean,” Katherine faced the doctor who was now watching where Katherine put her hand, Marie for her part was looking directly at Jean. “They've been made as one, that's what marriage is isn't it? When two souls become one perfect whole? They've taken the long route I'll grant you that but they're together and they can touch and that's enough for anyone just now don't you think?”
What Marie didn't notice but Jean and Katherine did was that Katherine's hand was resting on Marie's bare one. Katherine patted Marie's hand and winked at Jean as she stood back up with her now empty mug. “Lets not ask where the miracles come from eh? Let's just hope another'll be close on it's heels soon enough.”

Jean watched as Katherine walked to her sink and began to wash the mug up, she'd been touching Rogue's hand for at least a minute without ill effect. Thing was Rogue hadn't been aware of the touch, she'd seen Katherine touch her sleeve and so she thought she was still touching her sleeve. Draining her mug Jean smiled as she pushed the chair backward, her answer had been given to her without stress or strain. Getting up she opened her arms to the once untouchable girl, Marie for her part walked into the embrace willingly, Jean held her tightly and whispered in her ear, something just between the two of them. “I didn't touch him Rogue, wanted to, but he was always the honourable one.” Marie pulled back to see the truth shining in Jeans face along with a blush that filled her face with colour. “You might need to get some soundproofing done though, those growls can be a little loud.” This time it was Marie's turn to blush and for Katherine to fill the kitchen with laughter, rich, happy and filled with life. Outside the bees hummed at the flowers, quietly collecting pollen and news, flying away with the blessings of summer, their song understood by those who had the ears to understand their language. Of small moments, opportunities and blessings that others pass by, the scent of fire on the breeze, the clang of iron being hammered into shape and the forging of a future that had steel at it's heart.