5) Seeking Solstice

She found it hard escaping. All those minds, the personalities, the voices. They were always there- screaming yelling- SHOUTING at her. Filling her brain with a constant buzz of activity. But she learnt to shut them out. One by one she pushed, shoved and forced them into their chambers. Didn’t let a single soul slip through her fingers. Mashed every last bit of them behind a door and sealed it tight. And then there was silence. Just her. Just...Marie. And finally- she could breathe again.

She could wander out to the middle of nowhere and daydream, dip her toes into the river and let her mind wander. Listen to nothing but the sounds of nature, the whooshing of the wind running through the weeping willow she sat under, tilt her face to the sun, thread her fingers through the long summers grass, smell the flowers.

It was unbearable. The constant noise, the bombardment of smells, the hoards of students and refugees swamping the halls. The mansion was chaos at the best of times. He wouldn’t have changed it for the world. Screams of life reminded him of the good the X-men were doing. The achievements they were making. Children were the beginning and the end of their mission for equality. But no matter how many days passed, the animal in him was not used to the sheer volume of it. Flooding him 24/7. Lack of alone time tensed him up

It made him want to run- run and run till he was alone. All alone. So he rode instead. The roar of the engine dulled into nothing but background, a constant reminder he was putting more and more space between him and the havoc. That he was coming closer and closer to his own space and the chance to swig back a beer.

One Sunday afternoon they met. Her toes were swirling in the water, he had followed his feet to the small river, Molsons in hand. Your average Joe might have thought they would have been annoyed at each other for bumping into another human, never mind one they lived with and saw on a regular basis.

Logan and Marie however, just smiled.