Logan has been gone a year. Jean still does not get it, yet. She’s been harping on Rogue (Marie) that the man is old news. Scott looks on with a lot of disapproval. Storm only sees so much, wrapped up as she is in Hank McCoy. Charles is uneasy. He cannot read her mind, and so he does not know.

Logan did not simply hand her the tag and walk away.
Nor did he fuck her in the time she had enough control of her mutation to make it possible.
He branded her after a night of lovemaking. He did something not many people (perhaps only her and the Russells) knew he could: he sang to her.

She belongs to him. She does not protest when the others say something. They are trying to fight a force of nature- like a raging river, an unbending oak- he will not let them take her from him. Neither will she let them force him from her grip. Not when he’s already claimed her.

No. For now, she endures, she practices, she trains.

The time to show them will come, like a cresting wave, but that time is not now.

SOCIUS

Jean does not understand, She will not say it- she is too proud- but Rogue’s faith disturbs her, It has not escaped her notice of how many men are seeing the younger mutants faith in Logan- Wolverine- and wondering how to turn it to themselves.

Scott too, wonders. Wonders how the Wolverine had made it happen.

Then he finds out. He is patrolling the school after curfew and peeks in on Rogue when he hears muttering behind her door. The girl is speaking into a slim black flip phone, toying with the tag around her neck, and he understands.

Logan is communicating with Rogue. He doesn’t expect her to simply remain his without care to her emotional needs. The other man is listening as Rogue talks, about her day, her troubles with training. Cyclops doesn’t make a sound as he closes the door, watching and waiting.

His patience is rewarded. Every month or so, a package arrives for Rogue, usually small enough to be swiped and tucked into her pocket. This time (the time he sees it) it is a little bigger. For discreetly handling the package’s arrival, Rogue allows him to see the contents. A few pieces of paper- a phone card, a couple of photos lay on top of a second box inside. Rogue sifts through the rest of it, grinning when she unearths a bigger bundle of photos, writing scrawled on the back of most, explaining the story behind them.

The reason for the secrecy, they figure out, is that before Wolverine posted the original package, his nephew tracked it down, added a few things and shoved it into a bigger box, writing on the post it attached to the phone card

“Something practical to go with Uncle’s mush, Auntie. –
Jackson”

With a chuckle, the girl explained the circumstances to Scott. Finally, he understood. Logan and she had chosen each other, she would live as long as he did, and he was giving her the time to grow up. To become the woman she was meant to be.

“So I’m not the Rogue shaped shadow of the Wolverine.”

Are the exact words she uses, and that easily, she has a One Eyed ally in the mansion. When Bobby bugs her, it is Scott who snaps

“Enough, Bobby. Rogue has practice. You’re not ready, so don’t bother asking.”

He pulls away from Jean, too. He’s begun to see her from Rogue’s point of view after hearing why Logan flirted with her

“She’s hot, yeah, but she’s another body, Scott. Good enough to warm his bed and smell decent doing it, but that was only because I’m so young. Remember Liberty.”

“Remember Liberty,” Boy does he. He puts himself in
Logan’s shoes, and tries to imagine doing the same for Jean. Considers who and what they are- younger man, elder telepath- and feels revulsion curl through him. When Rogue uses him as telepathic target practice, sifting through his memories, she assures him the only tinkering Jean’s ever done was to his temper.

But it fractures something in him, wondering if Jean would do that, take advantage of the vulnerable boy he’d been. He wonders too, if she saw even then the man he would become. It scars him in an indefinable way, enough to ask Rogue to talk to Logan about
opportunities outside the school.

With a bright smile, she patches him into her next call from Logan, putting them on speaker to hammer out an agreement. Until Rogue graduates, no matter how things go with Jean, Scott is her shadow, and then Logan will come for them. They will travel as a trio until they know where they’re going.

Looking forward to travelling with the Wolverine and a teenage girl are not things Scott usually looks forward too, but he does. Because though Rogue can use telepathy, she’s far politer about it than Jean, and Logan doesn’t mince words. So, he slowly, carefully, unloads his responsibilities, distances himself from Jean and Charles and Ororo and Hank, and builds his own telepathic skills.

The first one to notice is, of course, not Bobby. Rogue throws him off on occasion, but generally keeps him close enough he doesn’t complain. No, it’s Kitty Pryde who asks boldly if Rogue can get her the hell out of here so she can go to Piotr.

Rogue is surprised by that. Piotr had returned to Russia with his family, but had apparently left an indelible mark on Kitty, continuing their courtship through letters, much like Logan. Graduation is still a ways away, and Kitty is a year younger, but Scott smiles grimly and vows he will make it possible. So they become three, closeted in the Danger Room or pouring over advanced topics, Scott pushing them dangerously fast, academically speaking. But his reasoning

“Get as much education as you can while it’s free.”

Is sound. With a whole year to go, they buckle down, first working on GEDs before choosing their fields, studying broadly as possible. Though they have an idea, they need flexibility in their job choices. Scott himself pushes himself through a second degree, breaking up with Jean in the process when she complains of the time he spends with the girls.

It is not Scott who lashes out after that. It is Rogue’s growl and Kitty’s sniped

“He needs support, not tearing down, L’Arc!” That remains with Jean. Growled swear words were nothing new, but comparing her to Joan of Arc? Why had Kitty implied she was mad?

Jean found out later.

SOCIUS

As secrets are wont to do, this one blew up in all their faces. Well… Not really.

See, it was graduation, the names had been called, except for Kitty and Rogue, who smirked at Scott before he took the podium to announce

“Ladies and Gentlemen-”
In the crowd, Mr. and Mrs. Pryde and Mr. and Mrs. D’Ancanto were frowning. Kitty’s parents had supported her from the first, and after Liberty, Rogue’s parents had reached out, trying for reconciliation. They were frowning though, almost as one being. Seems they’d noticed the husky pair of men eying their daughters.

And the augustly handsome Mr. Summers was gazing at those same daughters with the corners of his mouth kicked up a little, eyes dancing (having regained control of his eyes not long ago).

Clasping his hands, Scott said grandly

“May I present Anna Marie D’Ancanto, the future Anna Marie Howlett, graduate of Harvard Law Magna cum Laude, alumnae of Xavier’s Institute? And her fellow alumnae, Katherine Pryde, the future Katya Rasputina, also Magna cum Laude, Yale school of business?” With a grand bow, he walked them down the aisle while they giggled, to Piotr and Logan, who received them gravely.

Turning, Scott finished

“As to their future plans, Katherine plans to travel to her fiancé’s family home for their wedding, while Anna Marie intends to travel North America with her fiancé.”
Kitty snickered, then asked sweetly

“Oh, Scott, you’ll come to the wedding, won’t you?” Rogue rolled her eyes when Jean made a noise.
Well, actually, that was when the whole thing went down the tubes. You see, Jean was acting under the apprehension that Scott would come crawling back. Or that Logan would return to hop in her bed.

However…. Before she could do more than choke, Rogue locked eyes with her, feeding her a disjointed string of memories.

The heated slide of flesh, the sensation of cock and cunt locking together, loosening with release, kissing, caressing, the intimacy of two minds melded as one in the moment of climax.

Jean, having been deprived of sex for a long while, swooned in her chair. Mores the pity. She didn’t get to see Scott leave with the Professors’ blessing. Or hear the Pryde’s argument with Kitty. Apparently they liked Piotr, but wanted the wedding to take place in their home. The D’Ancanto’s scramble to leave was also missed when Logan swung a malevolent gaze toward them, Piotr tensing as he stared at the parents of his beloved Katya’s best friend (coincidentally, upon hearing the whole story, the Pryde’s insisted that Rogue and Logan stop in whenever they were in the area and that Piotr and Kitty have grandchildren, please).

Piotr didn’t really care at that moment that his future in laws not only approved of him and his actions, but also wanted him to procreate with their daughter. Rogue was staring at her parents’ backs as Logan held her close. Kitty and Scott crowded close, offering what comfort they could.

But they were gone soon enough. Piotr and the Prydes on the way to the Pryde family home, Scott, Marie and Logan hitting the open road. They’d planned to ride bikes, spending the summer tenting, and that was what they did, even if they headed to Russia for a week to participate in Piotr and Katya’s wedding. They ended up leaving Scott in Russia, Marie and Logan holing up at his cabin in Canada. There would be time for adventures- later. For now, they would enjoy each other and the winter.

SOCIUS

One Year Later
Scott Summers was relaxed, for what felt like the first time in his life. He was riding a motorcycle up to Logan’s cabin for a stay in the wake of spring thaw, and life was good. Piotr and Kitty had invited him for the next winter in Russia, saying they wanted their son to know his uncle. Marie had said much the same, though she’d laughingly stated that he had a cabin nearby so Logan didn’t deal with him all the time and irritate their daughter by being a grump.

Truth be told, Scott was flattered that he had summer and winter families. He’d settle down eventually, but Piotr and Logan were doing well enough as Dads.

Besides, he was still getting over some of his Jean baggage. Still, he figured, dropping in on Xaviers’ would be fun. He looked better than ever, with his hair cut close, aviators and loose jeans paired with motorcycle boots and a muscle shirt, and he knew it. He’d have most of the single women and girls at the school at his feet, and it felt okay. He wasn’t Logan, who’d basked in his own sex appeal without thinking about it. But he also wasn’t Piotr, oblivious to how good he looked.

Slinking easily through the door, Scott ignored Jean as she came forward, probably to greet him. He did pause and press a smacking kiss to Raven’s cheek, slipping an arm around her waist when she said warmly

“Charles is waiting for you.” Grinning, Scott squeezed her closer and murmured

“Lead on, my Lady Xavier.” She laughed, leaning her head on his shoulder. Didn’t fool him, though. The moment she was through Charles’ door her smile lit up impossibly more and she hurried to his side, snuggling into his chest as she seated herself in his lap.

Charles fussed over Raven for a few moments, Scott noticing how he revelled in it because Piotr had asked if that was normal. For Scott, with Jean, it hadn’t been, because it wasn’t ‘proper’, but for Logan, there was nothing better than seeing to Marie’s happiness.

That was what Scott wanted. The easy certainty that his fussing would be (usually) welcomed.

When his mentor was ready, Scott recounted his tales, assuring Charles that Katya and Marie were not only where they wanted to be they were adored for it.