Logan slowly exhaled, letting smoke from the cigar encircle his form like a sensuous lover as he continued to lean against the doorjamb, monitoring the activity within the room before him but not entering to take part.

Games weren't fun for him, and though he had been invited to join them in the rec room, he really hadn't been. He was a teacher. They were students. They were being polite, but he was enough of an ass to mulishly not to want to play, and wise enough to know he shouldn't. They were grateful to accept his rebuff though they pretended otherwise.

Well all except Rogue. She would have been grateful if he had grabbed her gloved hand instead and led her out into the garden for a bit of peace and quiet. Her eyes said that more than once during the past few minutes. But she needed this close-knit chaos, whether she knew it or not, for it wasn't healthy to crawl into a shell and hide from others just because there was a chance she could hurt them. She needed to be a kid. She needed some kind of fun.

And it was dangerous as hell, as far as he was concerned, for the closer she got to them, the further she grew from him. He could sense it.

Logan pulled another hard drag on the cigar - knowing he had to chuck it soon or Scott and Jean would get on him for polluting the air - and let it go only after he felt his lungs burn from want of oxygen.

He really was playing a game, he knew. It was a waiting game. She was 18, and he was, well, whatever he was, but she was looking around now. He knew she was looking. The more she hung around them, the more she felt her life could be normal, and normal included having a relationship. Every day he faced was one with a question, and every evening the question remained unanswered. Who was she looking for? Sure her heart raced when she was around him, but he put that down to infatuation and ignored it. Infatuations didn't last. Look what happened with him and every other woman he'd ever met. But none had been like Rogue. The more he was around her, the more he appreciated her, and the more he appreciated her, the more he let her slip through his fingers.

For her sake.

One day she would make a choice. He was betting it would be Drake. Until it was, he would stay, reveling in the unknown and strangely satisfying feelings having a new-found family gave him, and searching his growing soul for the reason why he cared so much about a slip of a girl barely a woman.