It all started with my first kiss. It was sweet and innocent and nearly killed the boy who had been my best friend my entire life. I had been telling him about the trip I was planning on taking, someday, when he leaned in a touched his mouth to mine. We weren't touching anywhere else, but his lifeforce and memories started draining into me. I screamed and threw myself off the bed. Anything to stop hurting Cody, anything to get him out of my head.
Anyhow, Someday came a lot sooner than I'd expected. I eventually wound up in this pit called Laughlin up in Canada. That's where I met him. He was standing half naked in a steel cage drinking beer and waiting for the next plum fool to come along and get his butt whooped.
The next plum fool was smart enough to figure out that the man they were calling Wolverine wasn't normal. He was like me, a mutant. That's why I hid in his trailer, even after I saw those foot-long claws come from between his knuckles. Everything inside of me was screaming that we were the same.
He was rough and growled and nearly left me behind. But he didn't, and I don't think it was because I saved his life. With his mutant ability to heal himself I didn't really. I just saved him some pain.
Even after the crash, where he had gone flying through the windshield, when he was still healing he was more worried about me. It took me a moment to get the words out to tell him I was trapped. I was too busy staring at the way his skin just closed right up and he didn't even look like he noticed it.
I knew in my gut that the big fella who attacked him while he was coming to get me out was another mutant. He had to have been a pretty tough one to take down Logan.
That's when two more mutants showed up. They walked out of a sudden blizzard and the man cut loose with a blast of red light from his eyes. The big mutant was thrown away from me and Logan. Then the woman came over and got me loose. They took us to this place in upstate New York where there were a whole bunch of kids like me.
Three nights after Logan got out of the infirmary I woke up, hearing somebody in pain. I don't know how I knew it was Logan moaning but that's what drew me out of the girls' dormitory and over to the room Logan was in. I know now that it was foolish of me to try and wake him up from his nightmare, at least when I was standing that close to him. But it didn't occur to me that he might hurt me, even on accident.
And that's what it was, so even as his claws slid back out of my chest I wasn't mad at him. He was holding his arms out for me, his eyes wide with terror and shame for what he'd done on accedent. He was shouting for help, not for him as I reached for him but for me. I tried to smile at him as my bare hand came up and I touched him for the first time. I could feel him in my head then, but what I was feeling most was the itch and pain of those three holes through my heart healing up. My hand moved back slightly from his cheek and he fell back on the bed unconscious. Not dead, thank god, not dead. It looked like I had that much control -- I had pulled away before I killed him.
Then everyone was crowded around the door and staring at me. And at Logan sprawled out across his bed like a puppet with its strings cut. I ran, the apologies spilling from my lips belonged to both of us. Logan for hurting me, me for being so selfish as to drain his power to save my own life.
After that I ran away again. A boy I thought was Bobby from my history class had told me that Professor Xavier was angry at me. So I ran. But Logan followed me and he wrapped his arms around me without being afraid of my power. His hand was a gentle weight on my covered head and I could hear his heart beating under my ear. That's when Magneto came and ruined everything.
I was dying on top of the Statue of Liberty. I knew that, with Magneto in my head forcing me to take his place in that danged machine of his I was craving the release of death. The last thing I remember seeing was Wolverine flying up over my head. The first thing I saw after that was Logan's chest. His lips were pressed warmly against my forehead in a gentle kiss. As I started to move against him weakly he pulled away slightly without letting go of me. I stared up at him blankly.
Then he kissed me. Knowing what I was and what I could do he still kissed me. His mouth on mine, his tongue sweeping through my mouth leaving the taste of tobacco, beer and him behind. He gave me everything he had and everything he was in that kiss. He gave me my life for the second time in as many days.
The X-Men didn't get there until he had fallen away from me, each of us too weak to hold on to the other.
And no matter what Jean and the rest think, what I feel for Logan isn't just a crush. Because when it all comes down to the bare bones...
He kissed me.
The End
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