The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
The bath was amazing. Hot water, lavender soap, shampoo, and God help her conditioner too. She didn’t know how long she laid there submerged in the water with her cast leg sticking up awkwardly but it was a long time. Long enough that even when the water went cold she pulled the plug and jerked the fresh hot water of the shower on and just let it fall down on her. If she closed her eyes she could even pretend it was rain. Her fingers were completely pruned and even that was nice. It wasn’t that she was doing nothing but wasting water and goofing off. It took a while to just get all the dirt and grime off her, then she spent some time silently crying and finally letting the truth that it was all really over settle around her.
The Doc said they were going to try and washed Wolverine down a little bit too while she was in the bath. Storm, the one with the white hair she found out, came into her room some time during her bath and knocked on the bathroom door to tell her that he was all set up in his bed just across the hall. And that there was food waiting for her on her bed.
There weren’t many things that could have dragged her out of the sheer luxury of a bath but the mention of food sure as hell was one of them. That and her thigh was beginning to ache from the weight of the cast. Mainly it was the food.
She used crutches to get around. It took a second to get use to but she’d broken her ankle once when she was twelve so she already had the general swinging motion down. The only thing she was worried about was the unlocked bedroom door and the chance that an X-Man might pop in. She couldn’t hold a towel around her body and use the crutches at the same time. It was physically impossible.
She lucked out, though; no one popped their head in through the unopened door or anything like that. The sweats they left on the bed for her were no cashmere but they were extremely comfortable. She rubbed the long sleeve against her arm a couple of times. It was so nice to be completely covered for a change, her teenage self would have been mortified by that thought but there it was. She hoped they didn’t do anything to her lab suit yet—she wanted to burn it herself.
The food on her plate was an actual meal. The dream just kept going and going it seemed. It even had a brownie on it. It was a huge brownie that threatened to send her into tears again after she just swore at herself and told her mirror image to snap out of it. They stayed at bay behind her eyes but she still ate the brownie first. Just incase she woke up. She felt a little sick after her meal and she guessed she probably shouldn’t have eaten the whole thing. She was probably supposed to ease her stomach back into eating normal, lovely fatty portions slowly. But a little stomach ache was worth it as far as she was concerned.
When she was sure throwing it all up wasn’t a good possibility she began making her way to Wolverine’s room. Her original intent was to sneak over, not sure how she was supposed to act around these X-Men guys yet. The cast made that completely impossible, however. She dropped one of her crutches twice just trying to open her own door.
Somehow she made it. She was exhausted and could feel her face burning along with her leg but she made it across. At this point she was fairly certain she was indestructible anyway. Nothing else explained how she survived this long. No one bothered her as she wobbled her way into his room.
It was smaller than her room, which as she moved her lagging body towards him she was grateful for. He was lying on the bed, on top of the sheets, but in a standard gray X-Men issue sweat suit as well. When she thought about his skin should couldn’t help but think he must be burning hot in it.
The bedside lamp was on, its light diffracting through the bubbling liquid in the tube running down beside him. It was still off putting seeing him like that but his skin looked like it was starting to get a glow to it. His breaths sounded deep and easy, like he was sleep more than he was unconscious from metal poisoning.
The sight of him seemingly comfortable and surrounded by fine carved wood furnishing tugged at her tear-free reserves again.
Up until that point she’d been balling that she had gotten out, that she was finally free. But now it dawned on her that she’d gotten him out too. And he tried so hard to convince her that it was impossible. But here they both were. In a mansion full of mutants no less. She was going to tell him I told you so the minute he woke up.
That thought made her smile and she wobbled over to the side of the bed he wasn’t taking up. She leaned her crutches against the headboard and crawled in, careful of her leg. She made sure not to get too close to him, content to just sit there on the amazingly soft mattress and watch him sleep.
But then he always did have a habit of working against her.
She smiled as confused blue eyes searched the room. Then they finally settled on her. “Hey, sugah.”
He seemed to relax but it was short lived before he closed his eyes and groaned, rolling his head back and forth against his pillow. She quickly moved closer to him and laid a hand on his chest.
“Don’t,” she said softly, keeping a cautious eye on the needle tapped inside the back of his hand. “Ya healin’ factor took one hellova beatin’, ya still need ta rest it up.”
His eyes opened again but only looked at her briefly before moving past her. They clouded with confusion again and she could feel the muscles of his chest cording tighter under her hand.
“We made it,” she assured him, not wanting him to flip out on her. How she was going to explain the X-Men to him she didn’t know. Right now she really didn’t want to. She was tired; she could tell that he was still wiped as well. He just needed to know he was safe. Everything else could wait until later. “We’re out. We’re in a mutant safe house, sorta.”
With a fleeting smirk she leaned down and whispered, “Ah told ya so.”
She didn’t move back as blue eyes danced. “Where?” He finally ground out through his teeth. His voice made her flinch. It was even scratcher than before, how she didn’t know. There was no way the words didn’t hurt.
“New York,” she answered a little awe still in her voice. His chest rumbled but it wasn’t anything resembling a growl. It was a resignation of the fact, she guessed.
Then muscles began flexing all over his body and he clenched his eyes closed, groaning loudly. It took her a second to figure out he was trying to move, trying to lift himself. She swore, adding a little more pressure to his chest. He growled that time, even showed her a tiny bit of teeth but fell still onto the mattress.
“Sorry, big guy,” she said. And meant it. She didn’t really want to push him around just because she could, but she could see a clear urge to run in his eyes despite his obvious weakness. It was hiding behind lost confusion and pain but it was there.
“Jus’…jus’ not tonight, okay?” She asked him. She wasn’t going to get anything from him if he thought she was trying to bully him into anything. It would make him want to fight when what he need was to rest. “Tonight ya jus’ worry about gettin’ sleep and gettin’ strong again. Tomorrow we’ll figure out what we’re gonna do with this new found life of ours. Go on,” she commanded gently, noticing him start to surrender and his eyelids droop. “Go ahead an’ sleep. Ah’ll keep ya safe tonight.”
His eyes slid closed and didn’t open again. She let out a deep sigh and watched him for a few more minutes, partly to insure that he was really asleep and not just trying to trick her and partly because she enjoyed looking at him in peace. And in good lighting no less.
It wasn’t long before she felt exhaustion pulling restlessly against her as well. She settled down on the bed along side him still facing him, careful not to touch him. She wasn’t comfortable in that position, not with her cast, but she wasn’t going to risk waking him or hurting him by tossing and turning. It wasn’t like she was going to find a much more comfortable position and she was sure as tired as she was in a few minutes she wouldn’t notice it anyway.
**
The next time her eyes fluttered open the bedroom was bathed in sunlight. Her hand slowly and lazily came out from under her pillow to reach out to the empty pillow beside her. It wrapped around the dull metal chain that was lying against on top of the pillow and pulled it closer to her face. She already knew what was on it, but her thumb rubbed over the embossed name anyway.
She rolled over on to her back and lifted her forearm arm up to her face. The chain of the dog tag jingled slightly in her hand as her fingers moved to trace the spot where her own identification numbers were suppose to be.
She allowed herself to wallow in bed for a while longer before she forced herself up. She ran into Shades in the hall and he thankfully cleared the way for her to keep any one of the many kids running around from taking a crutch out from under her as he escorted her to Professor’s Xavier’s office. She’d meet the Professor briefly late yesterday, nothing more than saying hi and listen as he gave her the X-Men song and dance. Told her that there were a few younger kids from the labs attending the school now that heard she was there. They wanted to see her when she was up to it.
She wasn’t up to it, not yet. She found him out on a little balcony off his office. He was staring off in the distance looking content and serene. She hoped she could some how manage to look like that one day.
“Rogue,” he greeted with a warm fatherly smile. “Are you feeling much better this morning?”
“Yes, sir,” She nodded, leaning heavily onto her crutches. “Whatca lookin’ at?”
He shook his head but look back forward to the horizon. The horizon, she noted, with bright green grass and trees as far as she could see. And wind blowing her hair around her face. She almost cried again but was able to keep the tears back. She was getting better at controlling them.
“Nothing, my child. Just enjoying the day.”
“Yeah,” she agreed, watching the nothing in particular along with him. Suddenly a heavy feeling settled over her and she found her head turning back around to him. “He left?”
The Professor nodded. “Yes, I’m afraid so. I sensed it about four o’clock this morning.”
The tears were becoming harder and harder to control as she nodded at him. Her grip on the handles of her crutches tightened but they didn’t feel like they might break so she didn’t stop. “He’s not comin’ back, is he?”
“No, I don’t believe so,” He answered softly reaching a hand out to her. His hand was slightly wrinkled but soft as it lay on top of hers. “I can try and locate him if you want, Rogue. You could go find him.”
“No,” she answered immediately, surprising herself. “Ah belong here. Ah can feel it. When ah was in the labs, even in the base, all ah eva wanted was ta be surrounded by people that accepted me an’ help othas. He needs to figure out who he is and who he wants ta be all on his own.”