She had gotten settled in fairly painless. The room professor Xavier had given for her was small, but it held all the necessities, a bed, table and a chair, spacious closets for her clothes and other belongings, and it had even an adjoining bathroom. She knew that most of the children that were living in dormitories shared bathrooms, and even some teachers had to do that, but due to her rather unusual mutation the professor had taken certain precautions to prevent accidents. She didn’t mind. Actually she was quite satisfied with the arrangements. Only thing she was missing was Logan. The man who had made this all happen. She would have liked to thank him, but he was nowhere to be seen. She had searched through the whole campus, it was getting dark, and there was no sign of him anywhere. She had already resigned to go to her room and thank him later. Surely she would see him at breakfast.
She was walking towards the main building when she saw something gleaming in a small gazebo further down the garden. Small red dot glowing in the darkness, burning brighter, then fading in to nothingness. And it was moving. Wind brought a whiff of a cigar to her, and she was drawn towards that dot. For some reason she had always liked the scent of cigars. She didn’t smoke, but she found the fragrant scent always soothing.
Following the scent she found Scott and Logan sitting in the gazebo, glaring each other wearily. Upon her arrival Scott stood up.
“See you tomorrow, Logan.”
“Not if I can help it…” Logan grunted. Scott harrumphed and brushed past her.
“Good night, miss D’Ancanto.”
“Good night, mister Summers…” She stepped in to the gazebo. Logan was studying the glowing tip of his cigar.
“I have looked for you from everywhere!” She started sitting next to him.
“Well, now you found me. Congrats. What do you want?” Logan snorted. She didn’t let his gloomy mood creep upon her.
“I just wanted to thank you. For bringing me here.”
“You’re welcome. Anything else on your mind?”
“Uh… No. Just… What the hell crawled up in your ass? You seemed to be a nice guy, and now you’re acting like a complete jerk?” She asked.
“Nice guy? You know jack shit about me, lady. Not my fault if I don’t match your criteria.”
“But…”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake… I’m not a nice guy, Marie. Pretty much everyone around here can vouch for that. Go to sleep before you get an infection.”
“Infection? What’s wrong with you?”
“Beats me. Scott’s pretty much the only person still speaking to me, and God knows it should be him avoiding me like the plague, not these other morons…”
“And you’re pushing me off because…?” She asked puzzled.
“Because I’m a grumpy old bastard. Seriously, I’m not in the mood for this ‘getting to know you’ –shit right now. I’ll talk with you later unless my feet start itching back to road again. Go to sleep.”
She returned to her room, slightly worried. She had gotten to thank Logan, but she wasn’t ready to let him go. Not yet. And there was nothing she could do to keep him here if he decided to leave. She sat by the window and let her gaze land on to the gazebo. Logan was still sitting there in the darkness. Just sitting. She couldn’t see the cigar anymore. As she watched Logan curled on the bench on his side. Apparently he was going to sleep outside. She frowned confused. Hadn’t they given him a room? That bench couldn’t be all that comfortable place to sleep on, seeing as Logan had to fold himself nearly half to fit on it. She glanced towards her closet. There would be an extra blanket and some pillows. She could take them to Logan. She could.
She hadn’t forgotten what had happened to the last person that had walked up to sleeping Logan. She approached him carefully, keeping the pillows and the blanket in front of her as a shield. Grass and gravel was rustling softly under the soles of her sneakers as she crept towards the gazebo. She could hear Logan’s steady breathing. No nightmare then. Weren’t people usually quite restless when they were having a bad dream? She stopped just outside of the gazebo. Logan lay on the bench on his side, his eyes cracked partially open.
“What the fuck are you sneaking around? Didn’t I tell you to go to sleep?” He growled.
“Yes, daddy. I just thought that you looked awfully uncomfortable on that bench. Brought you these,” She chirped, throwing the pillows and the blanked for him. They thumped on the floor, and Logan made no move to retrieve them. Merely turned his back at her.
“Didn’t ask you to.”
“Well, excuse me for trying to act like a civilized person!” She huffed, stepping in to gazebo and crouching to collect the scattered pillows.
“Civilized? You’re wasting your time, lady. I’m just a fucking animal…”
“Yeah? Well, they trained you pretty well then. Haven’t seen another animal that drives a car and teaches art,” she muttered, more to herself than for him. Logan was suddenly up on his feet, towering over her, his heated gaze drilling in to her eyes. He grasped her arm, sending pillows flying to every direction and pulled her up from the floor.
“They trained me well enough. Want to see the result of that training?” He murmured, his face just inches from hers. And for the first time it came to her mind that maybe, just maybe it had been a bad idea to try to rouse him from the groove he had gotten in to.
“Wait! Wait, Logan! Where are we going to?” She had to run to keep up with his long strides. He was dragging her after him in the dark garden towards the forest lining the school’s grounds. Suddenly Logan stopped and she lost her balance, falling on her hands and knees to the soft grass. When she raised her gaze from the ground her eyes met the cool marble surface of a gravestone.
It shone eerily white in the darkness. Delicately carved to remind a vague shape of an angel with wings and hands spread to a blessing gesture. A name was carved to it. Jean Grey-Summers.
“She tried to act civilized. Saw a man where the beast stood. And look where it got her in. I’m not a nice man, Marie. Scott knows that, maybe better than anybody else around here. He knows what to do, when to back off and shit. I suggest that you follow his example. You might live a little longer.”
“I thought you didn’t want to talk with me.”
“Maybe I don’t. Maybe I do. Right now I don’t want to talk with anybody. Fuck off, Marie.”
“Pleasant dreams for you, too…” She muttered, quite frazzled, but more angry. Logan laughed bitterly for her retreating back. She glanced quickly over her shoulder. He wasn’t following her back to the gazebo. He was settling on the ground on his back, next to the grave. She wondered briefly what Scott would think about him sleeping there. He probably wouldn’t like that very much. Then she heard it, a quiet whisper in the wind.
“I’m sorry, Jeannie…” She turned to look. Logan was lying next to the grave, one hand reached out, fingers brushing the gravestone. Moonlight revealed the wetness on his face. He was crying.
Later that night when she lay awake in her bed she heard the distant rumble of motorcycle. Logan. The Vagabond had returned to road.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000