Everyone had finished showering and were already sleeping off their aches and pains they received in the fight. Well, almost everyone. There was still one person aboard the jet. Rogue was still in her seat, eyes closed, her blood boiling and her heart breaking.
The mission to protect the family was a success but the Brotherhood showed up, intent to show the FOH what happens when you messed with mutants. Rogue ignored them at first. Her priority was the safety of the family. Then her world was flipped on its head. She saw him. The bastard responsible for Bobby’s death. Sabretooth.
She wasn’t expecting to see him and it shook her. She didn’t remember much after that. Her body ran on auto-pilot. Once they landed back at the mansion, she didn’t want anyone to know she was upset so she hung back in the jet, pretending to look for a dropped earring. She finally got up, thinking enough time passed where she would have the locker room to herself. She wasn’t in the mood to continue to pretend everything was fine in her life.
Wolverine knocked out the last uniformed man and the hologram disappeared into thin air, signaling the end of the scenario. He grunted as he cracked his neck. He came to the Danger Room after the mission tonight. It wasn’t as satisfying as he hoped for. He was assigned, along with Rogue to be the personal guards to the family. The belief being that if anyone got through the first line, they would not get through the two unbreakable members of the team. Even though he agreed with the tactic, he saw virtually no action. This is why he made a beeline for the Danger Room. He needed the satisfaction that came with cracking skulls.
He was fully expecting to have the showers to himself but it seems he wasn’t so lucky. As soon as he stepped into the room he heard one of the showers running. He had every intention of telling whoever it was to get lost, show the claws if he had to, until he saw her. He was facing her profile and she was sitting on the floor, naked, under the spray of the shower. Her knees were drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around her legs. Her hair was clinging to her back and face in a mess of chestnut and platinum.
He smelled the tears, rather than saw them. He didn’t think he had ever seen anything so sad and yet so beautiful before in his life. What baffled him was, for some reason, he wanted to go to her. Stop the waves of sadness and confusion and hopelessness that were coming off of her, choking him. He quickly dismissed the thought. He wouldn’t want to embarrass her. This was obviously a private moment. Then he mentally slapped himself for wanting to be considerate. He didn’t do considerate. Besides, what would he say? ‘Hey I smelled your sadness. Anything I can do?’ He quietly left and went to use the shower in his room.
“Georgianna.” Kurt called out to her as she left the kitchen.
“Hi Kurt.” She waited until he caught up with her before she continued walking.
“How are you doing? After my first mission I was a little overwhelmed.”
“That’s a great word to describe it. Overwhelmed. I knew that being over here would be different than Paris. Mutants are just people there and I knew we are not accepted here, but I was not prepared for the amount of hate they have for us.” She shivered as she remembered the look of rage the humans had on their face.
“Not all of them are like that.”
“I know but enough of them are to make me nervous.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you come then? Why leave such an accepting paradise to come here?”
She didn’t miss a beat when she answered, “Because I can help. I have a gift, my mutation, and I can use it to help others like me. Make it better for the next generation of mutants. That’s why.” They had arrived at the door to her room.
“Wow. Beautiful, smart, courageous and caring. Georgianna, you are quite the women.” Feral was thankful for her fur just then because it covered the massive blush that overcame her entire body.
“Thanks.” He bowed and parted company with her. She ran into her room and threw herself on her bed, a giddy smile spreading across her face.
It was two seventeen in the morning and Wolverine had not gotten a stitch of sleep. Once he had taken his shower and gotten into bed he couldn’t get the image of Rogue’s naked, wet body out of his head. And what a body it was. Athletic, without being overly muscular. Not an ounce of fat on her. A flat stomach and full breast that, even though he only saw the side of, could get him through a lifetime of nighttime alone sessions.
But it wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do to have a one night stand with a member of the team. They were after relationships. He preferred women who were after the same thing he was; a good time and a late night. This is why he wouldn’t even consider the x-women, and he wouldn’t start now. At least that’s what he told himself.
Fed up with his runaway imagination, he decided to go get a beer or two. Slipping on a pair of track pants and nothing else he walked down to the kitchen. He smelled vanilla and magnolia before he even opened the door. Rogue. He went in anyway, for the beer… at least that’s what he told himself. She was sitting on a stool in a big deep green t-shirt and black short shorts. His body vibrated with a low growl, causing her to jump and turn around.
Her eyes opened wide in surprise at first and then quickly narrowed in annoyance when she realized who it was. Turning back to the table, she wrapped her hand around a bottle and took a drink. Noticing it was a bottle of Molson’s, his private stash, he stomped past her to the refrigerator, pulled it open and noticed three missing bottles out of one of his six packs.
“That’s my beer.” He pointed out.
“I didn’t see your name on it.” She brought the bottle to her lips and took a slow deliberate sip.
“Everyone knows that the Molson’s are mine.” It was an unspoken rule in the house. If the Wolverine bought it, liked it, or even looked at it with interest then nobody even considered it.
Rogue wasn’t in the mood for this. After crying her eyes out, having a long conversation with Bobby and then crying some more, she really didn’t have the energy for an attitude. She had no more fight in her tonight. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“I’m sorry. I only drank three, but I’m having a bad night and I was hoping you could at least let me have one more. You have two whole cases in there.” Her voice was emotionally exhausted. He was considering it when she threw in a “Please. I won’t do it again.” He could tell she wasn’t the type of girl to say please often.
He pulled out the half empty case, making sure that he indeed have two additional cases in there, and placed the beer on the island as he sank into a stool opposite her.
“Here” he said as he handed her one. She took the bottle slowly and carefully, wondering what happened to the burly, mean and distant Wolverine she has seen in the mansion. “You want to talk about why you’re having a bad night?”
“No. It’s nothing.” She lied, picking at the label on the bottle.
“Bullshit, you were cry-” She snapped her head up so quick he was afraid she’d get whiplash, and by the look she gave him he knew he shouldn’t have mentioned the crying but it just slipped out.
“You were there? What were you doing, watching me cry?” She said like he was a pervert with a crying fetish.
“No. I was coming out of the Danger Room and wanted to shower. I didn’t think anyone was around. I saw you on the floor crying, decided you needed your privacy and walked out. If you want to talk about it, I’m not a problem solver but I’ll listen.”
“I don’t need pity.”
“It’s not pity.” Shit, he didn’t even know what it was but this woman just made him do things that was out of character for him, like offer to listen to her problems. “If you want to talk, I’m right here and if it’s boring, well I got twelve more bottles of beer in there, that’ll get me through it.” She smiled at him.
“It’s more depressing than boring.” She warned.
“The beer can help with that too.” And he smirked at her. It was the closest thing to a smile she has seen on his face. It made him look handsome in an edgy sort of way.
“OK. But you asked for it.” He nodded as she paused to drink from her beer. “I was crying because I saw Magneto and Sabretooth today.”
“You got a problem with buckethead and the overgrown cat?” He asked, twisting the cap off his second beer.
“You could say that.” She paused, furrowing her brow and tilting her head to the side. “What did they tell you about me?”
“They said something about you losing your friend and a little while after that you were forced to absorb someone completely.” She rolled her eyes at that “Said you had a rough life” Like it could have been that tough, he thought.
“Wow. That’s what they said? A friend? He wasn’t just my friend, he was my boyfriend. We were together for four and a half years before he died. He was my best friend in the world. As for having a rough life, I guess that’s true. But who gives a shit anymore? It’s the past.”
“Tell me about it.” He needed to know why she thought her life was so bad. Sure she lost her boyfriend but her life doesn’t look that bad from where he’s standing. Spent some time in Paris, lives in a mansion, everyone loves her. She was just another girl suffering from princess-itis.
“You see when I was fifteen I had a crush on this boy, Cody. One day we finally kissed, my first kiss, and that’s when my mutation decides to show up. I put him in a coma for a month. My father didn’t want the shame of a mutie daughter so he told me he was going into town for a couple of hours and when he came back he didn’t want to find any freaks in his house. So I packed up my shit and left. My mom didn’t even try to stick up for me. She didn’t even look at me.
“I was on the road for a couple months, managed to go from Mississippi to Canada hitching rides with truckers mostly and I was grateful for my skin because I knew it could protect me if I really needed it to. Even still, I had to let myself do certain things. Handjobs with my gloves on, a few blowjobs with condoms. It’s not like I wanted to do it, it’s just that I knew if I didn’t they’d get suspicious and if anyone found out I was a mutant I knew they’d try to kill me. Don’t tell the others, they don’t know how dark my past really was, but I had to survive on my own and I did the best I could.”
Wolverine was pissed that there were scum in this world who would use a kid like that. He had the urge to find them, have them beg for mercy and bury his claws deep into their stomachs. Why she was spilling her innermost secrets to the man in front of her that’d been nothing but a pain in her ass, was beyond her. All she knew was that once she started talking about her past she felt a little better and before she knew it she was confessing things she never told to anyone else.
“I was trying to make it to Alaska. Figured in a place like that people wouldn’t question about the long-sleeves and gloves I had to wear. When I was in Canada, I asked around and I found someone who could set me up with fake papers; ID, Social Security card, Birth Certificate, everything stating I was eighteen years old. But the bastard turned out to be a mutant who’s ability was sensing others abilities.
“Once he found out what I was and what I could do, he sold the information to Magneto. He wasted no time, showing up with his brotherhood to kidnapped me. Not that there was anyone who would miss me. He had me absorb him to the point that I could borrow his gift, he wanted me to be the battery for this machine that turned humans into mutants. It would have left me dead but the X-Men came.”
“Good thing he never got the chance to use it.”
“Oh, he used it. Believe me. The X-Men destroyed it before it started to work. It hurt like a bitch and almost killed me, not that I would have minded much seeing how shitty my life was at the time. That’s how I got these, something about severe shock.” She fingered the white streaks in her hair. “It was my turn to be in a coma then. When I woke up, I was here and I tried to fit in but no one wanted to be friends with the girl with poisonous skin. Except Bobby” She smiled as she remembered him and Wolverine felt an unfamiliar urge to have her smile at him like that.
“He made an effort to be my friend and to get people to see me for who I was and not the skin. It was because of him I have any friends at all. Then we started dating and it was great. I lost my virginity to him.” He smirked at her and raised an eyebrow at her “What? We were very creative.” She laughed and he grinned, the beers taking their effect. Then a thought occurred to her “You know I never told anybody that. I think they all assume I’m still a virgin.” She shook her head before she continued. “Anyway on with the pathetic excuse that is my life. Bobby and I were going strong, joined the team when we graduated and went on missions.” Her smiled faded and she took a deep breath before she continued.
“On our last mission together I watched as Sabertooth used his nails to stab him in his chest. He was in pain, drowning in his own blood and there was nothing anyone could do for him. I didn’t want for him to be in pain any longer so I told him I would put him out of his misery and I absorbed him. There wasn’t much to take only a small part of his conscience was left.”
“Shit.” He whispered, completely intrigued by her life. She blinked back tears that were starting to form.
“Wait. It gets better. I became depressed for a while, I’m talking locked in my room not wanting to eat or socialize at all. Scott finally told me that he missed Bobby too but I had to move on. I yelled something about him having Jean and I had no one, and how could he get over Bobby so quickly. I went out to try to cool down and saw Sabretooth sneaking around the school and I dropped him, held on until he passed out. But silly me so blind with rage I didn’t notice Mystique come up behind me. So now I was Magneto’s prisoner for the second time.
“He had me absorb a mutant. An experiment, I think. I never did find out why. She was laying on a bed sleeping, she had to been drugged. Then they forced my hands on her. It took a while but they used me to kill her. They knew about her flying ability because they shackled my feet to the ground before they used me but I don’t think they knew about her super strength because as soon as I knew what her powers were I broke free and flew away.
“Carol was strong in my head and was pissed I killed her. She didn’t care that I didn’t mean to do it. Sometimes she would take over completely. I felt like I was losing my mind so I went away to get help. And now I’m back. Great story, huh?”
“No wonder you got upset. It must have been hard to see them today. I don’t know how you didn’t just go over to them and kill them. Get revenge.” She looked at him for a second because out of all the times she’s explained these events he was the first one to voice her opinion on it, even encouraging it. “What?”
“You’re the first one to say that. Everyone usually tells me I’ll get over it or revenge won’t change things. But I don’t give shit. They fucked up my life. One took away someone important and the other used me as a weapon. You know how that makes me feel?” She was just talking, she never meant for him to answer.
“Actually I do.” He couldn’t believe he was about to tell her this but he felt that she understood pain. He jumped to the wrong conclusion about her. She wasn’t a spoiled princess; she was a tough as nails street smart women who survived a lot of heartache. She was tougher than all these geeks put together. “I was used by the government. I don’t know how or even why exactly only that the fuckers saw my healing factor as permission to do whatever they wanted to me. They fucked with me so bad I lost all my memory. I can only remember as far back as twenty six years ago. They drugged me, cut me open and pored adamantium over my bones and gave me claws. They wanted me to be their indestructible mutant killer.” She brought her hand to her mouth and gasped, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock, sadness and anger.
He popped out the claws and looked at them. At times he was disgusted by them, a constant reminder of the torture he was through. Other times he respected them because they helped him out of tight spots. At the moment he wasn’t sure how he felt about them. He snapped them back in and Rogue watched mesmerized as the skin between his knuckles stitched itself together.
“When they come out, does it hurt?” He was floored and didn’t know what to do. No one has ever asked him this. No one ever cared.
“Every time.” She seemed upset or sad by his answer.
“That’s sucks. They should rot for what they did to you.” She sounded disgusted.
“They did. They made the weapon and died by it too.” She didn’t look scared or revolted to be sharing a beer with someone who just admitted to killing people.
“How’d you feel afterwards? Did you feel better?”
“Honestly, not right away, but eventually I did. I know those people can’t hurt me or anyone else again. That doesn’t mean the government can’t start all over again but maybe they’ll think twice knowing the consequences. But it still doesn’t erase what they did to me.” She nodded thoughtfully.
“Shit. So you don’t remember anything at all? They wiped your memory completely clean?”
“I remember one thing.” He said cautiously.
“What?”
“My name.”
“Wait, Wolverine’s not your name?”
“No.” His hand went to the chain around his neck, fingers skimming over the name in the dog tag.
“But, everyone calls you Wolverine. Even the Professor-”
“He doesn’t know that I know it.” She was left speechless for a moment. She was trying to process if she heard him correctly. The amount of liquor she consumed combined with her lack of sleep might have been playing tricks on her hearing. But no, she heard him correct.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what is it?” He hesitated for one second before he answered
“Logan.”
“I like it. It suits you. It’s funny, I guess we’re more alike than we thought.”
“Why?”
“Because no one knows my name either.” He gave her a surprised look. “I didn’t trust anyone when I ran away, so I used different names. When I was getting the new ID’s I put down Rogue. No one asked, which was good because I didn’t want to tell.”
“Not even Bobby?” He could have slapped himself for asking the question because she got real sad all of a sudden.
“No. Not even Bobby. I always wanted to tell him, but I just keep putting it off. I guess I thought I had time.” She sighed, then gave herself a little shake and planted a smile on her face as she extended a hand out to Logan. He took it faster than the last time she offered and they shook hands. “Hi Logan. Nice to finally meet you. I’m Marie.”
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