She smiled when she greeted him. Each and every time. First her smiles were just a simple ‘hello,’ welcoming the lost friend into their home. It never changed until one day he discovered that her ‘hello’ was indeed a ‘stay.’
He walked briskly past her to greet Ororo and the rest.
She spoke with him over the phone sometimes, just to know if he was alright. Those were short conversations, something between ‘I’m here’ and ‘I’m fine.’ He truly enjoyed them, gave him something to think besides the loneliness of the road. Until one day he surprised an ‘I miss you’ between her words.
He hung up and went to the next bar.
She touched him sometimes. Quick little movements, almost unnoticeable. He was comfortable with them, felt good letting her get a bit of the normal life she deserved. Her gloves were always smooth against his skin, like a ‘thank you’ he was proud to deserve. Until one day they whispered ‘I want you’ and he took two full seconds to deny them.
He left the room and slammed the door behind him.
She followed him this time, just a shadow he couldn’t part with. She murmured against his ear and he found her everywhere, but when he called she always answered on the other side of the country. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t. He had always run after his past, with her saying ‘If that’s what you want’ in support. Now he heard something like ‘Is that what you want?’ and he couldn’t answer her.
He pushed his foot into the accelerator, trying to outrun the sound of those words.
She smiled when she greeted him, looked at him as if it were the first time. ‘Stay,’ she said when he explained he was only passing by. ‘I miss you,’ she pleaded when he said he’ll take longer – indefinitely longer – this time. ‘I want you,’ she tried to make him understand, as if he hadn’t read that verse in every line of her body. ‘Is that what you want?’ she finally asked, hope clinging stubbornly to the defeated look in her eyes.
He nodded, not trusting any word that may come from his lips, and she confessed ‘I love you.' Those words nearly crushed him.
He needed air.
He told her so and left her standing before him, something like a plea in her eyes. He forced himself to forget/ignore/disregard it, made his steps rush across the room, the house, the woods and the world.
There was hope (love).
That was love (hope).
And he ran.
He ran.
The End
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Story Notes:
For Sharon.