Marie couldn’t sleep. She’d been staring at the digital clock next to her bed for the last three hours, watching as each minute seemed to go by interminably slow.
It had been a week since she’d left Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Youngsters. In that week she had chastised herself countless times for her behaviour towards Logan, picked up the phone to call the mansion, only to hang up after two rings; and written a dozen letters, the ashes of which now lay in the bottom of the wastebasket.
Knowing that she hadn’t patched things up with Logan was only partly to blame for her insomnia. The other part was that tomorrow was her first day at NYU. She’d be starting her life as a college student and to say she was excited was an understatement. She wondered, as she watched the clock change to show another minute passing, whether all the other students were feeling this excited, or if it was just her.
Before she realised what she was doing, her hand had pushed back the covers, and her feet were leading her into the main room to the telephone on the kitchen counter.
Marie sighed. She desperately wanted to call Logan, talk about tomorrow. Although he had never been a heavy sleeper, she figured calling at 3am was hardly the right step to be taking to try and fix things. If she were still with Bobby Drake, then maybe she’d be itching to call him. But she wasn’t, and she suspected that Logan still would have been her first choice to call. She sighed again, her fingers running through her long hair as she walked back to bed. The next few hours would not go by quick enough.
Marie had a stupid grin on her face as she walked out of her second lecture. She had just been in a class full of students, and not had to worry about killing them once.
“Hey, kid.”
The familiar voice pulled her up short. Logan stood, arms folded across his chest as he leant against the wall opposite her. He looked for all the world like his being there was an everyday occurrence. That was until she looked at his face. The arrangement of his brow, and the way his eyes darted around told her that he would have been happier to be fighting off some gigantic monster than be here.
She walked up to him, clutching her big pile of books awkwardly. “Don’t call me kid. What are you doing here?”
The corner of Logan’s mouth curled, and his face relaxed as he focused on her. “Nice to see you too.”
Marie smiled. “Sorry, but you were the last person I expected to see.”
Logan shrugged, his face suddenly tensing. “You don’t want me here?”
Marie shook her head, her eyes going wide as she tried to reassure him. “No, no it’s not that. I like that you’re here. I just wasn’t expecting it is all.”
Logan relaxed again. “Figured you might need a little support.”
Marie looked at him. “You trying to protect me from the big bad learning?”
Logan frowned. “Don’t make fun of me, kid.”
Marie scrunched her nose at the nickname, but let it slide. At least he was talking to her. She suddenly couldn’t think of anything to say, so just stood there looking at him.
Logan cleared his throat. “So you got another class now?”
Marie shook her head. “Nope, I’m done for the day.”
Logan raised an eyebrow. “It’s only just gone twelve.”
Marie grinned. “I know, isn’t college great? I managed to arrange my timetable so I could be finished early everyday.”
Logan nodded. “You hungry?”
Marie shifted her hand to catch a book that was trying to make a break for freedom.
Logan grunted. “Let me help you with those.”
Marie froze at the feel of Logan’s fingers brushing over hers as he took the books from her. She remembered to breathe a moment later, but she could feel a blush begin to creep up her neck towards her face.
She tried to ignore the quickened beat of her heart, avoiding Logan’s gaze as she spoke. “Food sounds good.”
Logan started walking towards the exit. “So is there anywhere good on campus?”
Marie shrugged, trying not to smile at the sight of Logan carrying her books. “It’s only my first day. It was enough for me to remember where my classes were.”
Logan looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “What about near your place?”
Marie bit her lip as she considered the options. “Yeah, I can think of a couple places.”
Marie relaxed into the booth, glad that the brief car ride to the burger bar had been far less tense than the last time she’d been in a car with Logan. She saw his eyes drift from the laminated card to her bare hands and arms, and she took her hands off the table, placing them in her lap.
Logan cleared his throat when he realised he’d been caught. “You look nice.”
Marie smiled shyly as she looked down at the blouse. “It took me, like, half an hour to get ready this morning. I just couldn’t work out what to wear. Nerves, I guess.”
Logan nodded, his eyes dropping back to the menu.
Marie tried to concentrate on hers, but couldn’t. “I’m sorry.”
Logan looked at her. “What for?”
Marie chewed her lip, wiggling in her seat under Logan’s intense stare. “For being such a brat last week. I just… I’m sorry.”
Logan shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”
Marie frowned. “How can you say that? I was being such a bitch.”
Logan looked away, watching as a waiter worked his way to their table. The waiter abruptly turned back around when Logan frowned at him. “You don’t need to apologise. What you said was pretty much true. You could have maybe picked a better time to tell me, and maybe even a better way, but it’s too late for that now.”
Marie looked at him. “I was being so selfish. I mean, you’d only just said goodbye to Jean and there I was telling you to fuck off and stuff.”
Logan dropped the menu on the table. “I said it’s fine. You’d obviously been holding back that stuff a while.”
Marie took a deep breath before reaching a hand across the table, placing it on Logan’s. They sat there frozen, both of them looking at her hand on his. It felt like hours before Logan turned his hand over to clasp hers.
He gave her a sad smile. “I’m sorry too.”
Marie’s brows knitted in confusion. “What for?”
Logan rubbed the back her hand with his thumb. “The past few years. Last week. Everything.”
Marie gave him a cheeky smile. “I’ll only let you apologise for one thing, so pick something.”
Logan returned her smile half-heartedly, his brow going even lower as he gave it some serious thought. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you took the cure.”
Marie felt her jaw go slack, and it took a conscious effort for her to close it. “Logan…”
When he looked at her, Marie felt her chest tighten. He looked miserable, and guilty, and tormented. He looked worse than at Jean Grey’s funeral, and that was saying something because Marie was sure that he would have cried if he hadn’t thought he’d needed to present the image of a stoic Wolverine.
“I need you to forgive me, Marie. I need us to be friends again.”
She tried not to make a noise as the grip on her hand tightened. “Of course we’re friends.”
He looked at her. “Do you forgive me?”
Marie’s eyes dropped to the table. If she kept looking at him, she was sure that she would wind up crying, in fact her eyes were already going blurry. “Of course.”
Logan’s grip loosened, but his thumb kept rubbing the back of her hand. “Look at me when you say that.”
Marie took in shaky breath, determined to fight the lump in her throat. “I forgive you, Logan.”
Logan let out a hiss of breath, releasing her hand as he ran both of his through his hair. He moved his shoulders like he’d just been relieved of some great burden. Marie sniffed, wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand as she tried to remove any evidence of her crying. She knew it was futile, Logan wouldn’t miss anything with those super-senses of his, but she had to try.
When she looked up, his face had gone back to that slightly gruff calmness that she thought suited him so well. She gave him a shaky smile when he raised his eyebrow.
“Do we even bother with the food now or skip straight to the hug?”
Marie’s smile strengthened. She slid out of her seat and collapsed into Logan’s arms, her cheek against his. She heard him growl and assumed he was directing it at someone staring at them.
She shifted so she was more comfortably arranged, her knees on either side of his leg, her arms around his neck. “I missed you so much.”
Logan hugged her tighter. “Me too, darlin’.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks to Jenn for the beta work.