Have you ever noticed how in the movies and on the most popular television shows, all the best stories tend to revolve around a complex love triangle? I guess it makes for real high drama, or something, cause people love to see three hearts tangled together and while watching, the observer knows that in the end, when the credits roll, only two can be happy, while one is left out in the cold. It inevitable and usually, all along it’s beyond obvious exactly who will fall into one another’s arms…it obvious which souls were born to be one and everyone is generally so thrilled to see the rightful couple *finally* come together they forget that a third heart is silently breaking in the background, lost and alone and left to shoulder the pain.
Before Rogue came to the mansion, I never thought a lot about love, much less love triangles. I dated casually, I hung out with Jubes and Kitty, but there was never any real spark there, we had been around one another for so long it felt like I filled the brother role for them and they were my sisters. I couldn’t see feeling anything romantic for them but Rogue…one look at those big brown eyes and that shy, innocent smile and I knew I was gone for good.
She was so beautiful, so shy, so curious…she was so many things, so many various contradictions that I just wanted to be around her all the time; I wanted to drink her in, be close to her, listen to her talk about nothing. I was simply addicted to her, to what all she made me feel and I knew right off that I was gonna love her with all my heart and soul and for a brief but wonderful time, I managed to make myself believe that she was fated to fall in love with me too.
Then Logan returned.
Before he left to search for his past, I knew there had been a connection between the two, I knew Logan had saved her life not once, but twice and I knew that to
Rogue, he was a hero.
But standing in the foyer, looking at her looking at him, it occurred to me that Logan was more than just a hero or a brother or a friend to Rogue.
He was the man she loved.
It was *so* clear in her eyes, so obvious, in the way she said his name, in the way that she kept looking at him even as I pulled her away so he could talk to Dr. Grey.
She proved to me just *how much* she loved him when she insisted that we go back and help him escape the mansion.
I wanted to tell her hell no.
Forget it.
But God help me, the way she looked at me, the way she said my name…I couldn’t have said no to her if my life had depended on it and in the car, when she handed the tags back to Logan, their eyes locked in a way that seemed to communicate a silent message.
I felt left out.
I felt alone.
I felt grateful when I was on the plane with her, when she held my hand, when we were so sure we were gonna die.
I felt like hell when I watched her watching Logan hold a grieving Scott, cause I knew then and there the day would come when I would be the one left just as heart broken as Scott, because I knew in my heart and soul that when all was said and done, Logan would be the one Rogue would completely give herself to.
The knowledge, it made my chest hurt, each time I looked at her, it made me ache inside each time I saw her turn to Logan after a nightmare or go to him when she needed to talk.
Logan was her best friend…her fated love…her everything.
I was her boyfriend in title only.
We had our own little love triangle, right there, playing out for all to see and everyone in the mansion knew what I did; everyone knew that Logan and Rogue were destined, he loved her and she loved him and that meant I would be the one with the breaking heart when Logan finally decided Rogue was old enough for him to make his feelings known and as soon as he did, she would go to him.
She would have no choice.
He already had her heart.
We had our own little triangle that had no suspense.
We just had time on our hands.
A year, to be exact.
For a year, I played boyfriend, I smiled and held her held and laughed with her, and when she turned twenty and *finally* mastered control of her skin, everyone looked at me with a kind of pity in their eyes cause they knew what would happen.
They knew Rogue would go to Logan.
They knew Rogue would want Logan to be the one she touched.
They were right.
Two days after she found control, she told me, with tears in her eyes, that she was in love with Logan.
I smiled and told her I knew that and I wished her well.
What else could I do?
In a triangle, only two hearts can win in the end.
Only two souls are meant to be.
All along, I knew Rogue would be Logan’s and Logan would be Rogue’s and oddly enough, despite the pain I felt, I found myself happy for him and her both the day they married shortly after Rogue turned twenty one.
I learned that day that Rogue’s real name was Marie.
Logan had known that all along.
Logan and Marie.
The fated hearts, the destined lovers.
And me?
I’m the guy left out in the cold.
I’m the guy that wishes he could be bitter.
But I can’t.
Fate had a plan for Logan and Marie, one that began the day they met in Laughlin City and I didn’t factor into it and that is something I have learned to accept, just as I have learned to accept that my heart will always hold Marie close while Logan holds her, lovers her, and cherishes her forever, leaving me the odd man out with a breaking heart while the credits roll.
The End
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Story Notes:
I’ve wrote from his POV before, because I find there to be something kind of sad and compelling about the role he plays in the Logan and Marie dynamic. I am totally a Logan/Marie fan, but at times, you have to wonder what it feels like to be in love with someone who is obviously in love with someone else and having been there myself, I know it can really suck.