He'd returned after six months away, six months she'd spent training, doing missions, finding runaways and fighting ignorance at every side. Rogue was tired, physically and emotionally, added to the fact that Bobby had split-up with her soon after Logan had gone. Jeans
death had brought things into focus for everyone, especially for Rogue. She'd watched from the garden as he'd left, he didn't even look her way as he climbed on his bike and drove away. So she'd closed the feelings she had for him down, crushed them under her heel like a brittle flower. He hadn't even bothered to tell her he was
going so she'd done what he'd always done, lived for the day, the here and now. She'd learned a lot from having Logan in her head and putting it into practice had been easier than she'd imagined.
So that's why she was sat in the kitchen nursing a beer, her uniform all scuffed up from her last mission alone. It had been a routine move for a mutant family, unfortunately the neighbours weren't being neighbourly. After a couple of rounds with her and a broken nose
later she'd managed to get the family out of there without hurting anyone permanently, even though she'd wanted to. Wincing as she drank, the cool beer settling through her veins, chilling her temper down with it. She'd been trying to resist the draw of the bottles for
a long time, yet when Logan had gone she'd just started as if it had been the most natural thing in the world for her to do. No one worried about her drinking, not even the Professor, they just left her to it now and removed the bottles from her hands when she couldn't hold them anymore. Even Scott didn't bother moaning at her he just looked sadly at her and got out of the room when she had one in her hand. Underneath she knew he thought it reminded her of Logan and so they'd left her with her comfort. Not knowing it was the one thing she could use to stop his damn dreams interfering with her sleep. What sleep she got.
There was one empty bottle in front of her when he just walked in as if he'd just been out for a run on the bike, his eyes taking her in. The scuffed uniform the bottle in her hand already being emptied and the empty in front of her. The bitter liquid burning into her cut lip making her wince as she finished the bottle. Putting it down on the counter she heard him walk over, his boots echoing around the kitchen. When she opened her eyes she looked into his stare, "What no welcome home?" She snorted at his comment and pushed herself away from the table, leaving her empty bottles behind her. Brushing past she snagged another from the fridge and walked away from him, not even bothering to answer. She knew he was taking in everything about her, everything new and she smiled inside as she understood he'd soon realise how much she'd changed now she didn't need him to look after her. She was Rogue, she didn't need anyone but herself. He'd chosen
to leave Marie behind and so had she, Marie didn't even exist anymore.
Kids were playing on the field across from her spot in the sun, on the south side of the field. Her tree, she'd picked it because it had an open canopy and let light fall on her, warming her through when she had to keep layers on. It was her little piece of heaven, the thing that kept Rogue sane. Occasionally kids would try to take her spot, the fights that had broken out had soon sorted out whose place it was and now they all kept away from it.
The shadow fell across her body cutting off the sun, stopping the warmth from entering her body and soothing her. Balling her fists Rogue just sat up and looked straight into Logan, his hand carrying a helmet, throwing it in her lap his face unreadable from where she was. "What the fuck?" He didn't answer her as she stood up, beer in one hand helmet in the other. "What do you want? Can't you see I want some peace out here? Why don't you go back to wherever you've been for the past few months, or should I say whoever?" She slammed the helmet back into his stomach and watched him take a step back with the force of her blow. "No one wants you here," her eyes blazing and her voice as cold as winter. "Not even me." She saw the reaction cross his eyes for a second and the hurt it caused him, good let him understand that she hadn't stood still waiting for him to come back.
He hadn't cared so she'd learned from the past master and now it looked like he didn't like it pushed back at him.
"Marie," his tone was even and she heard the concern in it and felt her resolve soften for a moment before Rogue stepped on it and crushed it back down.
"You don't have the right to call me that anymore. My name is ROGUE, I've earned it! Marie died six months ago, same day she worked out that no one else was going to give a damn about her but her. So just Fuck Off, I'm tired and I want to be left alone, should've thought
even someone of your intelligence would've worked that out by now."
The weight of her words seemed to crush him from the inside and she walked away growling, flinging her empty bottle into the bushes and hearing it smash against the ground. A hint of a smile running around her eyes as she heard it smash, kids moved to let her pass as she snarled at them. Barely civil to them as they parted for her a couple of kids looked at him and they knew he'd been on the blunt end of Rogue. They weren't upset for Rogue they were concerned for him.
Thinking about what he'd just seen Logan wondered if he'd left it too late, she really didn't care anymore. She was still in there, of that he was certain but how far had she gone to lock herself away? Looking up at her room window he knew one way of finding out.
Jubilee and Kitty were used to Rogue's moods, they just let her blow off steam and get it out of her system. Peeling off the tight leather uniform Rogue checked her skin for bruises and found a couple of doosies on her right hand side. Letting her cotton t-shirt fall back
she struggled with the tight leather trousers. The uniform crumpled on her bed she went to the bathroom and started slamming around.
Jubilee looked up out of her magazine and caught her attention, "You going to get to the point or just wreck the bathroom again?" Kitty was writing her mid-term paper, just snorted at Jube's remark. Walking further into the bathroom Rogue gave a long low growl, one
she knew was an almost perfect copy of Logan's. Jube's just got off her bed and walked over to the bathroom door where she saw Rogue strip to get in the shower. The water already running so she didn't hear their room door open and Logan come in. Kitty just smiled and went back to her paper, Jube's winked at him as he settled himself on
Rogues bed. Fingers running over the uniform she'd just peeled off, scenting her anger and her desperation. "Come on Rogue spill, what's got up your butt and died? Mission go bad? Bobby being a jerk? You know you'll feel better when it's off your chest." She gave a sly wink to Logan who was too engrossed in Marie's night gloves to
notice. The silence from the bathroom was broken by a sigh.
"He's back."
"Who's back?" Jubilee giving Logan a big grin and wink.
"Logan," his name was bitten out as if it hurt to say it, the emotion was evident in her voice as she spoke.
"Wow, you've seen him then? How's he look, still the same dirty old biker look eh? What happened, he steal your beer, ignore you completely or did he lay one on you like you always wished he would?"
At that last statement Logan's eyes pierced Jube's through and she flushed with colour. Turning back to the shower she noticed Rogue hadn't moved or said anything for a while. "Rogue? You okay?" She was just stood under the showerhead, letting the warm rain pummel her.
"He doesn't know `me' Jubes, he never will, he only remembers Marie."
The emotion was evident in her tone, tears not far away from her eyes.
"So tell him." Logan heard Rogues choked cry from his seat on her bed.
"Yeah as if he'd listen or even be interested, no Jubes I'm not going down that road again. If there's one thing I've learned from having that idiot in my head it's that I'll always be Marie. Scared, fragile, weak, seventeen year old Marie with no idea of what life is really like for a mutant on the road." Her voice dropped in volume
and in emotion, "As if I didn't find that out in the eight months it took to get to Laughlin." Raising her voice again and replacing the emotion with cold venom she spoke again. "No Jubes, subjects closed. I'll avoid him as much as possible and keep him at arms length the rest of the time. Surely even he'll get the hint eventually and maybe he'll have the sense to go back to wherever he's been." His hearing allowing him to hear her add "And whoever he's been with too."
"You sure you want to do that? I mean I remember what he used to look like honey and that was some fine mutant man meat." Even Kitty had the sense to duck her head in her book with that comment.
"What?!!" Rogues voice almost screamed. Jubes pushed herself off the doorframe and went over to Kitty.
"Come on Kit-Kat lets see if we can have a sneak at the Wolvester before he notices us." Craning her head back toward the bathroom, "Seeing as my Playgirls gone missing `again', lets see if he's changed much. You never know he might have done some more fighting, nothing like fighting to build that muscle."
Pulling Kitty from her bed they both totally ignored the look they were getting from Logan, half amused and half annoyed at the thought of being eye candy to a couple of teenagers. Kitty stopped before they both left.
"You coming down to dinner later or are you going to eat up here?"
Rogue shut off the shower and he could hear the rustle of the towel going over her skin.
"I'm not up to going down guys, I'll get something later." She paused in her drying and he heard her hitch her breath holding back tears. "Thanks guys. I'm just going to crawl into my gym stuff and go beat the crap out of something for a while. Maybe then I'll feel like
writing the damn mission report Scott will want tomorrow. Have fun at dinner but he hasn't changed one bit Jubes, still an annoying asshole with too much attitude and too little sense." Jubilee met Logan's gaze then and she mouthed `She's really missed you.' Her eyes telling
him of the nights she'd been on the receiving end of her temper and tantrums, a quick wink and the two of them disappeared.
Rogue was walking out of the bathroom when she caught sight of him on her bed, laid on it as if he owned it. Covering her things with his body, almost buried in her uniform. She knew he'd been scenting her, imprinting her again on his senses it was something she knew in her
blood. He'd done it the last time he'd seen her and she knew he was comparing it with what he'd found. He was holding her night gloves in his hands, holding them up to his face and breathing her scent into himself. She almost blushed but Rogue took over her mouth, "The basket's over there if you want to acquaint yourself any better." She
snatched the gloves out of his hand and put them on the dressing table. Taking up her brush she began to pull it through her hair, almost vicious with it. His eyes never left her, wrapped up in her long robe she had changed, she had more muscle than he remembered. The person in front of him was Rogue but underneath he knew Marie was
there and he was determined to get at her. Seeing his gaze on her she snapped at him, "How long have you been in here?" He met her gaze with one of his own, hard and heated his eyes burned into hers and he saw her flinch a little.
"I just missed you going into the shower." His voice was dead calm but his eyes were a different matter entirely, they blazed through her and Rogue had a hard time meeting them. So he'd heard everything, the whole conversation between Jubes and her, she'd wondered why she'd commented about the missing Playgirl now she knew why. They'd
joked once that he'd been abducted by a group of horny mutant loving women and had been made to pose for a Playgirl centrefold. It had made her laugh once, now it just hurt. She pulled her hair up off her neck and into a high ponytail, her hands trying not to shake as she tied it back. "You going to leave soon or are you moving in? I'm sure the Professor would love to hear about you being in here, maybe he might just throw your ass out if he
knew." Her voice was cold and her eyes flinty, he smiled before he answered.
"He knows I'm up here, he was the one who found me. Told me to come home," his gaze hitting her hard. "To come back for your sake. He told me you tried to kill someone. A cop." He watched the truth hit her and she shrugged her shoulders at the comment. She walked to her wardrobe pulled out her gym kit and went back into the bathroom.
Moving off the bed he walked over to the doorframe, leaning against it as he talked. "He said you tried to kill him, you took your glove off and put your hand round his throat. The thing was it made the papers, even I heard it where I was. Didn't think you were so stupid,
even if I haven't got a lot of brains to work things out I don't do dumb stuff like that." His words were loaded with sarcasm and he saw her fly out of the bathroom dressed in her one piece body suit, his breath only taking a couple of seconds to get back under control but
damn she was beautiful. Her eyes were full of hate and venom, turning on him she spat out the words like daggers.
"Yeah well if the bastard who you saw beat up your mother. Raping her in front of you, came back in a squad car with his buddies to investigate the crime, wouldn't you want someone to do something about it?" The silence from him hit her like a wall, she could see his jaw tighten up and she smiled "Thought so Logan, so don't you
dare tell me what I can't do and feel! You'd have done the same!"
Rogue flung her door open and left him stood at the bathroom door, he stayed there for a moment replaying the information through his head. Everything he'd heard from her, about her own way of surviving on the road (he'd never asked her about it, he'd just assumed she'd been
lucky). Never thought about her own experiences with his memories (he'd never even asked her if she had his nightmares). Hearing his own reaction from her lips, he would've gone back for the man later while she'd done it in front of everyone. She'd reacted like him, instinctually, to protect those that needed her. He'd seen the attitude of the police change when it came to mutants, it was as if they were a sub class of human. Not worth believing in, not worth the effort of writing up reports for. His own time away had taught him that this was becoming the norm out there and Marie had been in the
front of it for six months.
Pushing off the wall he passed her bed soaked with his scent it mingled with Maries making him purr with the thought of her against him. His hands touching the uniform and looking at the gloves on the dressing table, the ones which had been covered with her own distinctive scent. Her sex, those gloves had been used for more than
protection in the night and he pushed the thought of her hands in them away. Looking at the door deciding he'd better find her before someone else got in her way and ended up an empty husk and she had another person in her head to worry about. He was sure it was his own personality in her head that was driving her insane.
It took him an hour to find her, she wasn't in the main gym or in the secondary one. He'd followed her scent across the field and out to the pool house, there was a small gym there too if his memory was correct. Her scent covered the door handles and he knew he'd found her, slowly creeping into the gym. Her scent was everywhere, it
covered everything he wondered how much time she'd spent in here. Eye's adjusted to the low light in here he saw her pummelling a punch bag, her body was shining with sweat and he could feel himself harden as he watched her move. Her body was absolutely perfect as it flowed from one blow to another, he even saw a move he used in there. She'd obviously kept more of him than he'd realised, seeing her land a vicious kick to the bag he winced as he caught her voice. "Who the fuck does he think he is the split tongued self satisfied bastard!"
Ending the sentence with a blow that made the chains rattle. Her anger abated for a while he waited until she was sat under the bag and then decided to make his presence known.
"They don't hit back you know." She didn't even raise herself off the ground to answer him.
"Yeah well when you break someone's arm and bust an appendix in training you tend to get the idea to train alone." Her face found his, "they tend to be afraid of you after that." Her eyes were flat and cold.
"Who's arm did you break?" She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remain calm.
"Scott's." He could almost see the look on his face as she'd done it.
"How? What move were you doing?" she pushed herself off the floor and made to get away from the question, he grabbed her arm and stopped her dead. His face showing some kind of pride in her abilities that she'd gained from him.
"He stepped in between me and Bobby when we were breaking up. I crushed his wrist, nothing major just compound fractures, it was enough though to make him scared of coming near me again." Her face was full of pain and tears were forming in the corners of her eyes, she searched his face for the pride he'd shown earlier. "Proud of me eh? Proud that a nineteen year old can crush a wrist like its paper, can know how to kill someone with a blow to their body and make sure you don't leave a mark? Yeah something to be proud of isn't it Logan, makes your heart just swell with pride. Yeah I'm good at what I do Logan, not as good as you but I'm getting there. So if you're done watching I've got more stuff to do and your not invited." She made to twist out of his grip but he just held her.
"When did that happen?"
"When did what happen?"
"When did the ice kid break up with you? What happened?" His face was as calm as it could be but she could see he was angry, really angry.
"It was just after you left. He couldn't see the point of going out with someone he couldn't touch, not in the ways he wanted to. So he left me, just like you did." She tore her arm out of his grip and walked away toward the doors. He got there first and locked them.
"I didn't have a choice Marie, I had to go." The roundhouse punch almost sent him slamming into the doors, it made his ears ring for a second. Then she was all over him, punching, clawing, biting, kicking and she was making it hurt. He slid down the door without making any
attempt to defend himself, feeling the blows land and rolling with each one. She was screaming obscenities at him as she fought, letting her anger flow through her frame, feeling her knuckles bruise on his body but she didn't stop. When she started to slow down he grabbed
her hands and pulled her into him. Using the locked doors he got up and dragged her back into the centre and the matted area. Her face was covered in tears and her eyes were bright red but he'd never seen her looking so alive, so full of life as she was now. She still struggled to get free of his grip but he had her arms pinned to her
sides and his legs were crushing her knees together making anything but standing difficult.
"You going to listen to me?" She stilled for a moment as if she was thinking about it, then he felt pain rip
through him she'd bitten his chest until her teeth met. Reacting entirely on instinct he bit her back, forgetting about her skin about her anger The Wolverine just reacting as it always did to a challenge.
As his skin met hers he felt the pull with the back of his mind and threw up the past six months, every last dead end lead, the frustration of trying to find the remnants of the Brotherhood. The picture of Mystique on his claws, her life flowing out of her, Sabretooth's body floating out in the sea ice of Canada. Missing Magneto by a few hours and wrecking a hotel, trying to work off the
frustration he'd felt at chasing him for nearly five months and missing him by an hour. All of this he showed her as her skin drained him, the rest of his time out there followed it. Loneliness so complete it almost killed him, the one light keeping him going, her.
Knowing that Sabretooth had been only a mile from the school when he'd scented him on the grounds, knowing why he was there, to get revenge. To kill Marie and anyone else he could.
A picture of him in tears in a phone booth the number for home forgotten and no way of getting it again. A fantasy of her under him, smiling warmth at him as he held her, touching her skin, kissing her lips, aching with need for her and waking alone. Feeling the guilt of leaving her behind and hoping she was safe, playing with the tags on
his neck when he'd woken as if they were his only anchor to the world. His feelings of anger when he'd gotten the summons from Charles and he'd shown him what had happened to her, that they'd let her slip away from them. So wrapped up in their own worlds of grief and pain they'd missed her, the untouchable girl, the one they feared
to be near. He'd seen the paper headline `Mutant puts decorated cop in coma' and Charles had given him the rest of the story. He'd wrecked a bar that night and had turned to home, to come and get her.
To get her away from those whom he thought she'd be safe with, he'd been wrong and he'd almost lost her. He loved her and he couldn't lose her, it'd kill him if she'd changed so much that she no longer cared for him. He'd have nothing left, not even a memory of her smile as she looked at him.
Rogue felt the images flow into her, but they were slower, as if they were taking their time to show her everything. Each image burning itself into her, the anger of being so stupid as to let his guard down allowing Sabretooth to get this close to his mate. No time to
talk just to find and kill or die trying, Marie couldn't know it'd hurt her too much and she'd want to come, he wouldn't risk losing her again. Finding him in the woods looking down at the school, scenting his arousal at the thought of killing, driving the bike straight at him. Wrecking the thing against his body, slicing down at him as he bounded away through the forest heading north. Taking after him and not realising how long it'd be until he got back. Just needing to see him dead and the rest of them that had hurt her, to kill those who'd tried to kill her, not once but twice.
A lonely road in Tallahassee and a man fixing a tyre by the road, knowing who it was before they turned to look at him. Feeling the pain of his claws firing and the slice of flesh under him as Mystique fell in the rain, her head almost severed from her neck. Lifting her body easily and throwing it in the ditch by the side of the road hearing the hiss of alligators near by and feeling better about what he'd just done. At least they'd get to eat something a little different and no one would miss her. Searching her car and finding the tickets to Fairbanks, driving through the rain to get to Magneto
before he realised what had happened to his companion.
A dead end in Fairbanks and a phone booth, crying in frustration as he struggled to remember the number for home. So much else was crammed in there, his mind an absolute mess even forgetting to eat some days until he caught himself in reflection and wondered what she'd have thought if she'd seen him like that.
A logging camp in Northern Canada, a murder and the stink of Sabretooth. Fighting on the ice flow and just letting go, allowing The Wolverine to finish what had been started nearly three years before. Howling in triumph as he sliced the spine and tore the heart out of him, seeing Sabretooth's eyes fade and close. Knowing she was safe from him, safe from harm he'd never touch her again, he'd killed him for her. Watching his body floating in the ice pack, cleaning himself in the frigid water and thinking of the white streaks in her hair. The dark eyes that wouldn't have to be afraid of the noises in the dark anymore.
Pittsburgh and he was chasing Magneto, always just behind him he was being helped but by who? He'd just missed him again when the summons had come from Charles, images filled his head, Marie being withdrawn, sat alone, eating alone. Snapping at children, seeing her eyes becoming flat and cold, her stance different, talking with Charles
about the fights, the attitude changes, sending her on missions, finding her asleep with a forest of empty bottles in front of her. The guilt landing so heavily on his heart he thought he'd die from it, he hadn't told her why he'd gone. He hadn't had the time to stop and write and he couldn't phone, he couldn't remember the number.
Charles had asked him to come home but he'd been going out of the door before he'd stopped showing him what had happened. Driving all night, stopping only when his eyes were too heavy to be safe, he could survive a crash but the person he'd hit couldn't. All the time he thought about her, how much he'd fucked it up, he'd left her with them to take care of her. Now he knew the only person who
could look after her had been him, would be him and he would never leave her alone again, he'd die first.
Rogue felt her heart lurch with the information and she pushed his mouth away from her skin, everything was still a muddle inside. Weakened by the contact with her skin she managed to get out of his grip and caught hold of him before he fell to the soft mat. His eyes closed as he slept, having shown her everything, where he'd gone and
why. Sitting next to him she cried as her hands stroked his hair, seeing him from the inside and sorting through his memories of the last six months. There had been no other women, no other thoughts of Jean only of Marie, of Marie's smile, of Marie's eye's when he walked into the same room as her. Of Marie's scent on his, knowing that he'd kept a glove of hers in his jacket. He'd sneaked it out of her room the day before Sabretooth had arrived, he wanted her but she was with Bobby and he wouldn't interfere. He was too old and rough, she deserved someone like Bobby, someone her own age. Seeing things from
his view. Catching her laugh as Bobby did something dumb wishing it had been him. Knowing he loved her with everything he was, he wouldn't force the issue thinking she only saw him as her protector, not as a potential lover.
"Oh Logan," she laid down on the mat next to him wrapping her body around his. The thoughts she'd nurtured over the last six months shattering in the light of the truth. He hadn't left because Jean had died, he hadn't left because he didn't love her, he'd left because he did love her. He loved her enough to kill those who'd come to hurt her again. He'd given up his own safety to keep her safe, stopped his own heart to keep hers going. He saw her as his mate, his reason for living and she'd killed it, she'd become Rogue, the amalgam of all the personalities in her, leaving Marie at the back of them all.
Understanding now how much of a cop out she'd really done, she'd run again but this time she'd done it inside her head. Shutting out everything and everyone, she'd been committing suicide by degrees and The Professor had known. He'd let her go so far and when he couldn't reach her anymore, he'd called out to Logan.
He knew Logan would reach her, wanted her more than he wanted to breathe and she couldn't hide her own feelings for him no matter how hard she tried. Bending her head to his ear she whispered, "I'm sorry." His eyelids moved and she met his gaze, she didn't deserve him, didn't deserve the love he showed her in that glance and she knew it. Before he could grab her she up and heading to the doors.
His voice stopped her hand on the lock, "You running again?" The sentence smashed through the shell she'd constructed around her and Rogue fell into pieces around Marie. All strength left her and she collapsed in a heap in front of the doors. Grief flooded her for the first time, she'd hated Jean for driving Logan away from her but he hadn't left because of that. He left to protect her. She'd used Erik's memories to survive, treating everyone as a potential enemy, driving them all away. Hurting Jube's and Kitty with her indifference to their efforts to be friends, using Logan's hard assed attitude
when she wanted to be alone. Marie never got the chance to say what she thought had been true, that he did love her and he promised he'd look after her. He'd come home and they'd be back as friends again.
But she'd tried to drive him off, been spiteful and nasty. Knowing the things she'd said had hurt him deeply and she'd enjoyed seeing him hurt. Like she thought she'd been hurt by him but it wasn't true.
Everything was a lie, she'd lied to everyone and hurt them all. She felt his hands on her shoulders and he lifted her without trying. Her body turned into his and he picked her up, she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried herself in his shirt, tears still falling,
voice cracked and raw. "Logan…" He just held her and soothed her as she cried against him. His arms feeling so solid around her, his breath so warm and sweet, feeling his heartbeat against her body and revelling in the warmth of him. How could she deny this? Her heart
had been screaming out for him since he'd arrived and he'd dogged her until he'd broken into her and found Marie again. Sleep was claiming her, exhausted and drained she slipped away into the deep slumber of
the terminally tired. Her last waking image was Logan kissing her head, his voice rumbling through her, "Sleep Marie, I'm here. Your safe now, I promise."
He opened the doors easily and walked out with her asleep in his arms, he knew she'd seen everything. The truth of everything, his pain, his loneliness the risk he'd taken leaving her behind and the pain of knowing he'd fucked it up big time. He couldn't change what he'd done but he could make the present better for both of them. As he'd come inside he'd been seen by Ororo and Scott, he didn't stop to talk and their faces had spoken for them. Ororo was pleased that he'd returned and had found her. Scott was worried and disturbed at seeing him holding Rogue like that. They'd wait, Marie was the important thing now and he carried her to his room. She'd be safe there with
him and if she decided to throw another tantrum he'd recover quickly, she could kill someone else. Putting her down on his bed noticing how small she seemed when asleep, wrapping her up in his sheets he went to the kitchen to get them both some food.
Ororo was sorting out her lesson plans on the table when he walked in, he didn't speak to her he just went to the fridge and raided it. Piling a tray full of meat, cheese, fruit, milk and beer. Grabbing a loaf from the bread board he added it to the pile, he was about to leave the room when Ororo handed him a bag of chips. "Her favourites," she winked at him and smiled. "Don't tell anyone I kept them for her, it doesn't do to play favourites." His features softened as he saw the relief in her eyes at his presence, he didn't forgive them yet for letting her slip away but they'd all been slipping away. It's just that Marie had been the first to fall and
he'd caught her.
"Thanks Ro'." Taking the tray out of the kitchen he wondered if he could get her to eat something, after listening to her conversation with the other two it looked like skipping meals had started to become a habit.
He put the tray down on the small beside table and sat on the bed stroking her hair, the platinum streaks framing her face. Picking up a piece of beef he stuffed it into his own mouth and chewed as he stroked her hair, his stomach taking his attention away from what he was doing. Not realising he was touching her skin until he looked
back at his hand on her cheek. There was no pull from her mutation and he left his hand there to be sure. Nothing, maybe his body had worked out a way to combat it. Downstairs in the gym the pull had been slow and light, nothing like the last two times he'd touched her. Maybe he'd managed to do the impossible, thanking the gods for
the chance to find out if he was right. He could touch her and his stomach was forgotten as he ran his fingers over her skin, knowing he could kiss the lips that had haunted his dreams. Lightly he touched them and found them to be as soft as he'd always imagined. He stopped
touching her and let her sleep, watching over her as he ate, his mind throwing up everything he'd ever dreamed of doing to her, with her.
Deciding that he could do with a cold shower, he left her to sleep as he dealt with the revelation wondering how she'd take it when he showed her.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
This was one of those bunnies that bit me on the back side when I wasn't watching and it kind of went south a bit but we get quite a view on both of them. They really didn't shut up until I'd finished it to their satisfaction, I hate it when they do that, lol.