Getting Acquainted in front of the Fireplace
He’d recommended it. Why? Most probably animal instinct. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that *Marie* looked like an angel coming out of the darker kitchen and into the illuminated living room carrying to blessed hot cups of soup. Not what he’d regularly eat, but he had to admit, he was hungry. And so, without a second thought he’d invited her to sit next to him on the blanket, backs against the couch in front of the fire. He’d given her a separate blanket to cover herself with – he could tell the touch was still quite the bit of an issue for her.
Marie was just as surprised by the invitation. She and *Logan* had gone from two strangers who were practically ready to rip each other apart, to two people who could sit in front of a fire and share stories. Which was exactly what they’d silently agreed to do. Just to sit in front of the fire and talk about where they’d been and where they were headed.
“Who first?” Marie asked as she snuggled back into the couch. She blew some of the steam away from the cup. By the look on Logan’s face she knew it would be her. She sighed.
“Where to begin?” she laughed softly. “I realized I was a mutant eight years ago. I’d been fifteen.” She took a deep breath. Logan felt like slapping himself though. Here he’d been thinking that she was a kid. No, she was a twenty three year old woman. He looked at her hand again, at the beautiful engagement ring that he’d never be able to afford. Yes, she was definitely not a kid.
“It had been my first kiss. The guy ended up in a coma for weeks.” She snorted. “Needless to say I wasn’t very much into the idea of touching or kissing since then. At first I thought I could handle it, you know?” she focused on the cup, being unable to lift her head. She felt as if she could bare her soul to the man next to her and he wouldn’t judge her. It surprised her into continuing.
“But apart from the neighbours and my parents suddenly wanting nothing to do with me, the worst was having him up here,” she put her finger to her temple, “constantly reminding me what I’d done. He’s faded by now,” *replaced by many other voices* she though, “but back then it was horrible. So I ran away. Started travelling to Alaska, but I got attacked by some cat-thing eight months into the trip. Sabretooth, I think they called him. Got saved just in time by this professor and his team of mutants. They took me to their mutant school, and I’ve been there ever since.” She finished quietly. She noticed him nodding.
“So, you’re an X-chick? Heard about you folks going and rescuing mutants, and fighting for our rights and all that. Never thought I’d meet one o’ ya.” He said, lighting one of the cigars she’d saved from his camper. Good thing too, as it had started snowing and he was sure it wouldn’t let up soon.
Marie giggled. “Never been referred to in quite that way, but yeah. That’s me.” Logan was pleased to hear the giggle. It meant she was at least relaxing. She was totally different when she was relaxed. Gone was The Rogue, the hard combatant. Much like his Wolverine. Right now only Marie and Logan were talking. “How about you Logan? What about your past?”
Logan’s face darkened a little. He looked away. He couldn’t remember his past. He remembered WW2, but after that, nothing until twenty two years ago. “You don’t want to know about my past, Marie.” He turned away but when she laughed softly, he turned back to her, trademark eyebrows raised. “What’s so funny?”
“Why don’t you want to tell me Logan? Because of the experiments? The claws? Or maybe because you think I wouldn’t approve of sitting next to a man who’s probably well over a hundred years old, a government weapon, who doesn’t know anything about himself except for the past…” she scrunched up her face as if sorting through her memories for a date. Her eyes opened triumphantly, “twenty two years? I got news for ya, sugah, I got it all up here. Just thought you might like to talk about it.”
To say that Logan was shocked would be an understatement. He stared at Marie, before he growled. “How the hell do you know that? Who are you?” the beast in him was immediately on guard. Could she have been sent for him? As if knowing what he was thinking, Marie just shook her head and giggled again.
“When ya touched me. I didn’t just borrow some of your gifts. I got some of your personality, and memories. And seein’ as you held on as long as you did, that personality is pretty strong, and the memories quite detailed.” Her face fell. “It must have been horrible, what they did.” Before allowing him to answer Marie stood up and took the two empty cups, Logan watching her go.
When Marie turned around in the kitchen, he was standing in the doorway. “I’m sorry.”
She looked up at him with a frown.
“I’m sorry I touched you. You don’t need all my shit. Nobody deserves those memories. Especially not you.”
But Marie simply smiled. “Thanks for the apology, but thanks for touching me too. You saved my life. Besides, I need some new nightmares, mine are getting boring.” She said with a wink and rinsed out the cups. “But we are not going to argue anymore. If we’re going to be living together for more than a month, I think we ought to be civil at least.” She said as she finished and turned back to him.
For a few seconds Logan could almost imagine *living* with her, as she put it. Tucking her in at night, smiling as he kissed her goodnight…*STOP right there bub! DO NOT go there! Look at the hand, remember!* he yelled at himself mentally. He forced himself to smile at her.
“You don’t have anything to worry about. I’m sure he’ll come for you, and you’ll be all rid of mean old Wolverine.” He said with a wink. He didn’t feel amused at all though. She frowned at his words.
“Who will come for me? Are you sure you’re ok?” Marie was a little worried. Did she miss something? Logan looked pointedly at her hand and Marie followed his eyes to…*O god, he thinks I’m…* She held up her hands. “It’s not what you think…”
Logan laughed humourlessly. He didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt a little hurt. She was lying to him now. She didn’t smell like lies, but he knew she was. He just knew. He turned and walked back to the fireplace. She came in a few seconds later, rolling the ring between her fingers. She sat down next to him and gathered her blanket to her.
“I’ve been staying at the Mansion a long time Logan. One of the Junior X-men…well, we thought we were in love. He convinced me that my skin would never be an obstacle for us. That we’d fit well together. He was such a ladies man when he’d come to the mansion, but when I finally gave in to him, he promised never to look at another woman again. And I thought he’d kept his promise too.” She sighed, the fresh wound opening again. She could feel the tears gathering.
“At first things went well. Then he proposed. I was ecstatic! I’d never thought anyone would want me, and here Robert Drake, one of the most sought after bachelors in the mansion, was asking me to marry him! I said yes right away…and I regret that so much now.”
“Marie…” but Marie held up her hand. She had to finish now, or she never would.
“We were so happy. Until the fateful night. He decided that he wanted to go further. He wanted more than just touching through silk and sheets. He was tired of gloves and dressing up to go to bed with me, instead of undressing. When he tried to have sex with me, I told him I wasn’t ready yet, but he ignored me. Almost cost him his life. After a month long coma he apologized, and I forgave him. Looking back now, remembering his memories and feelings that I’d absorbed, I know I should have told him to go screw himself. But I couldn’t. I didn’t want to be alone. So, when I caught him in bed with my two best friends, I turned a blind eye again.”
At this point, Logan was becoming quite angry at the Drake fellow. Some guys just didn’t know when they’d hit the jackpot. But he sensed that she wasn’t finished yet. And he knew she had to finish. It was something she *needed*, just as much as she needed him to shut up and listen. So he did.
“Kitty and Jubilee apologized for weeks afterwards, and although we weren’t all that close again, I did forgive them. Bobby was a little harder to forgive, but he is pretty insistent.” She said, a small smile playing on her lips. We were going to be married next week. I was on a business trip, but I came home early; I wanted to surprise him. I was the one who was surprised again. He was in bed with one of my teachers. AN ENGAGED TEACHER! God, I never liked her, but seeing Jean writhe against him, seeing him move into her…it was too much. They were skin to skin, something I’d never have. That was yesterday morning. I’d stormed out of there, and I didn’t stop driving until we crashed.” She looked up at him. “Sorry.” He just nodded.
“Anyway, I wrecked the door, and I guess I hurt him pretty bad. But I woulda stuffed this ring down his throat if I had the chance.” She glared at it before throwing it into one of the dark corners in the room. “Well, that’s how much I care about that.” She crossed her arms and finally she allowed herself to cry.
Not quite sure how to handle the waterworks, Logan placed a hand on her back. Marie flinched, but she allowed him to rub her back. When her sobs finally eased up she looked at him, her face red and puffy. “My mother used to rub my back like that when I was upset.” And she cried some more. She’d never cried, all these many years, and she had a lot of pent up emotion to get rid of.
Finally she just turned to Logan and cried into his shirt. For what seemed like hours, Logan simply sat there, holding her and rubbing her back. Even when he heard her heart calm down and her breathing settling into an easy rhythm, he didn’t stop. He was sad for her, he was. He prayed that one day he’d be able to meet this Bobby Drake. He’d give him a proper piece of mind. And with that thought, Logan fell asleep. For once there were no nightmares.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
So I love to write, sue me! hehe. Here's the next chapter!
Mellow Rogue is all for you RouDeVil!
Mellow Rogue is all for you RouDeVil!