She sighed and flopped on the couch, her feet landing over Logan’s lap and her head over the armrest.
“Are you sure you couldn’t spend one more night on this couch?” She asked. Logan picked up her leg.
“Tired?” He started massaging the sole of the feet and her toes. Her eyes practically rolled backwards in to her skull. She saw stars that she hadn’t previously known even existed. She let out a low moan when Logan’s fingers started softening the instep.
“Tired? Try exhausted… I was standing behind that counter the whole day, and I think the blood flow from my feet back to my upper body stopped somewhere around noon…”
“Oh… What’s this I heard about earlier today? You’re having some bad luck with women?” She asked, he eyes still closed. Logan harrumphed.
“Not so bad, seeing that you’re draped over my lap.” His fingers kept trailing higher, opening the tight knots from her calves and smoothing down irritated muscles.
“Come on! You really got turned down today?” She asked, opening her eyes.
“Repeatedly. But it’s not a big issue. I have been meaning to move on anyway.” There was no hurt in his eyes. He had taken it all in stride. She wasn’t so sure if she’d be able to shrug that kind of rejection that easily.
“Move on? As in move out of town or…”
“No. Not planning to move out. Not any time soon.”
“Then how?”
“Stick around the same chick too long and she starts noticing things. Small scrapes from her nails gone in one night. No wrinkles on me when she starts getting them. And the inevitable ‘why won’t you spend a night with me’ –crap. It’s better to end it before they connect the dots. Let me tell you, I haven’t yet met a woman who’d be happy about the fact that she’s been screwing a mutie.”
“But… Wouldn’t it be easier to start dating with somebody who actually knows you?”
“With who? Jean? I think Scott might have something to say over that matter. Ororo? Far too scary and hairy for her tastes. And besides, I don’t screw with friends.”
There were tears in her eyes. She tried to hold them back, but one persistent drop spilled over.
“What’s the matter?” Logan asked, suddenly worried.
“Nothing… It’s just… God. You make it sound so… You’re so alone…”
“It’s not that bad. And I’m not alone. I got you, right, Tweedy?” She pulled her feet off from his lap and crawled sitting on it, straddling him.
“You got me, Pepe…” It was impossible to talk anymore. Instead she cuddled against him, hugging him for the dear life of her, trying her earnest to keep back the sobs that were choking her.
She woke up later, still hugging Logan who had dosed off at some point, and looked none too comfortable, his head bent backwards over the backrest of the couch.
“Logan?”
“Yeah?” He cracked his eyes open. She started to crawl off from his lap. Logan grasped her hips.
“Don’t go.” He slid lower on the couch, turning a bit so that he was lying on it instead of sitting. She tried to squirm off from him.
“Marie, don’t go.”
“But you’re tired. I should let you sleep.”
“Sleep with me.”
“Huh?”
“Just sleep. Please?”
“I think we’d be more comfortable in my bed.”
“How… Do you want me to wear something?” Logan asked, standing beside her bed. She shook her head.
“I got some new bodysuits made for me just few weeks ago. I’ll go and put on one of them, you can… You can wear what you like. Or if… If you prefer naked, it’s not an issue.” She tried not to stutter, because it really wasn’t an issue. Logan however took her stuttering completely wrong way.
“Hey, if you’re afraid that I’ll skewer you or something…”
“No! No. It’s fine. Really. Just… Ah. Just get in to bed. I’ll be with you in a sec, okay?”
She grabbed a bodysuit from the top drawer of her dresser and dashed in to the bathroom, closing the door. She shrugged off the bathrobe she had had on earlier, as well as her undergarments. She usually slept nude, and wearing her knickers and bra in to bed felt just plain icky. And it wasn’t like Logan would care if she wore a burlap sack. They were friends. She tried to tell that to the woman in the mirror. The woman who stood there, weighing her options and possibilities, and the outcome of opening the bathroom door when the light of the bathroom was still on and would reveal the outline of her body to the man in her bed.
She shook her head and flicked off the light before pushing open the door and fumbling towards the bed in complete darkness. She could hear Logan shifting under the covers.
“Are you asleep?” She asked.
“Not yet. Look, you don’t have to do this. I can sleep on the couch if…”
“Hush. Besides, it looked like you got awfully cold last night. Maybe it’s warmer to sleep in real bed.”
“Okay…” He sounded relieved, and when she climbed to the bed, careful not to touch him since people usually tended to avoid touching her even when she were fully clothed he surprised her.
“What are you doing?” She asked. Logan was plastered against her back, one strong arm draped over her waist, the other tucked under neck and his face buried to the back of her neck, protected only by her hairs.
“Getting warm.”
“Uh… Pepe?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you stop poking me with your thermometer?”
“I can try. But I have to warn you. It’s an automated model. Equipped with heat seeking charge.”
“As long as it doesn’t go off accidentally I might be able to ignore it.”
“Marie?”
“Yeah?”
“Stop squirming. You’re practically humping me. Leave it alone and you have nothing to worry about.”
“Okay.”
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