“Mhmmmm warm food,” Jaime moaned as he picked up one of the wings off of his plate.
Wanda rolled her eyes beside him.
Logan stared past her, as his eyes roved around the familiar bar. Slowly he reached up and took the cigar out of his mouth; he’d lit it as soon as they’d made their way across the street to the bar, something to occupy him with. He ignored Pietro beside him and he hardly glanced at Rogue on the other side of him, but he was very aware of her. She was quite and was watching the room in a familiar way.
“Rogue, you’ve hardly touched your food,” Jaime spoke around a mouth full of food.
Twitching slightly, Rogue glanced at him and then down at her sandwich but then quickly resumed her scanning of the room.
“You would think she’d have an appetite after…Ow!” Jaime trailed off as Wanda elbowed him in the ribs. “What?”
“Shut up,” she hissed back.
Rogue appeared unaware of them, but Logan sensed a newfound energy to her, as she fidgeted under the table.
He followed her gaze as she watched as some man in a black jacket made his way towards the bathrooms.
Rogue stood up.
“Hey, where you going?” Wanda asked in surprise.
Rogue’s eyes darted briefly towards her as she muttered, “The bathroom.” She took off before either of them could respond.
“Is it just me or has she gotten weirder since we left the motel?”
“No, it’s not just you,” Pietro muttered back as he sipped on his beer, his eyes following Rogue.
“Maybe I should go with her, shouldn’t leave her alone,” Wanda spoke up.
“I will,” Logan responded suddenly as he stood up and made his way towards the back of the bar before anyone could argue with him.
Moving his way through the tables Logan stalked towards the bathroom corridor. Stopping outside the girls’ door, he sniffed and tilted his head. His eyes narrowing as he focused his gaze on the exit door at the end. Frowning, he put his cigar out on his palm which had healed by the time he’d placed the stub in his jacket pocket.
Stealthy, he moved towards the door and opened it slowly and slipped out into the dark back parking lot. Leaning back into the shadows, he took a deep breath as he focused his senses, his ears picking up the voices around the corner on his right. Quietly, he made his way towards the edge of the building.
“You have to have something similar at least?” Logan made out Rogue’s hurried whisper.
“I’m not sure I have what you’re looking for exactly,” a man responded back.
“Look,” Rogue stressed. “I need something.”
“Alright, alright,” the man sighed. “This is no where near as strong as the stuff you were looking for, but it is sort of a knock off of what you wanted. Don’t know if it will do the trick…”
“It’s fine,” Rogue snapped anxiously. “Hurry up.”
“Here,” the guy muttered as Logan heard shuffling. “Pay up.”
“You want anything else?” the guy asked.
“No she doesn’t,” Logan growled low as he stepped around the corner and into the light.
The guy gasped at him in shock as both he and Rogue remained staring at Logan in surprise. Logan glared at her as he spotted a small black pouch in her hand.
Noticing his stare, she slowly moved her hand behind her back but she was too late, he moved forward and reached for her wrist.
She hissed even as she struggled against his grip as he ripped the pouch from her hand.
“You,” Logan directed towards the man in the black jacket. “Aren’t going anywhere yet.” His free hand reached up and grabbed the guy’s collar as he pushed him against the wall.
“Whoa,” the guy stumbled. “You a cop?”
“No,” Logan hissed through his teeth, as he kept his eyes on Rogue.
“Oh,” the guy muttered as his eyes darted between Logan and Rogue. “Hey, look man, it’s not my problem your girl’s a user.”
Rogue’s blank eyes suddenly seeped with expression as she snapped her head towards the dealer. “I’m not his girl,” she spat.
“There you are,” Logan whispered as a dark feral smirk slithered across his face.
Rogue frowned at him and pulled her arm out of his grasp but he still held onto the pouch.
Glancing down, he opened it and spotted two vials of a light green liquid and a syringe.
“What’s it do?” he asked.
When he didn’t get a response his tone became more threatening. “What’s it suppose to do?” he directed towards the dealer.
“Look, I don’t want to get mixed up in…”
“What’s it do?” Logan yelled.
The dealer swallowed. “It’s…”
“Shut up!” Rogue suddenly snapped fiercely.
The dealer swallowed dryly twice as he found himself confronted by both of their narrowing glares.
The guy mumbled something and Rogue opened her mouth again but Logan beat her to it.
“I think I deserve a right to know seeing as how my money was used to pay for it,” Logan remarked coolly, his eyes flashing at Rogue as she closed her mouth.
“Death must have made you sloppy darlin’, because I knew the moment you slipped the money out of my jacket in the booth.”
Rogue glared at him but finally glanced towards the ground as her silence confirmed her guilt.
“Tell me,” Logan demanded.
“Okay,” the dealer stumbled. “Look, it’s just a drug for mutants.”
Logan raised an eyebrow at him as the dealer glanced nervously at Rogue but she didn’t acknowledge him.
“It sort of works as a downer. It depends really on the mutant’s power. It will help suppress and give the mutant more control of their power. Look man, this drug it’s no big deal really.”
“My money says otherwise,” Logan responded darkly.
“Okay, so it does give the user a high and…”
“A withdrawal,” Logan interjected.
“Yeah,” the guy nodded. “That can happen.”
Logan sighed as he weighed the pouch in his hand.
Looking up sharply he weighed his eyes on the shaking dealer. “Beat it.”
He didn’t have to be told twice as he took off.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Logan questioned Rogue as she moved forward.
“Away from you,” she snapped, her eyes flashing.
Logan chuckled darkly and shook his head at her.
“What?” she demanded.
“I knew you weren’t going to be able to keep it up long.”
“What are you talking about?”
He leaned in as the laughter stopped and his eyes gleamed in the brief moonlight. “I sensed the change in you while you were in the bathroom.”
She frowned and leant against the wall away from him.
“You had a sudden different energy about you. Guess the shock factor wore off and you remembered everything but you were still playing it up, the lost girl routine on the way to the bar, so I figured I’d play along and see why.”
She remained silent as she glared at him, her sudden angry body language towards him confirmed it even more that she’d come back to herself.
“A drug addict, eh,” he remarked as he lifted the pouch up in his hand. “You come back from the dead and immediately you’re looking for your next fix, meanwhile your friends in there are walking around on eggshells because they care about you and you just use it to your advantage.”
She turned to go and he felt something in him snap at her silence and he pushed her back against the wall.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” he spat in her face.
Slowly tilting her head up towards him she licked her lips and whispered, “Well are you going to give it back to me or not?”
He snarled and pushed away from her.
“I don’t even know who you are anymore.”
“You told me that three years ago, don’t you think it’s getting redundant.”
He shook his head at her coldness and took a deep breath as he stepped farther away from her.
“So this is all you care about,” he indicated the drugs.
“Right now.”
He could see the sudden hunger in her eyes for what he held in his hand, her body seemed to twitch in anticipation; she couldn’t appear to hold still for a second. Taking a deep breath, he watched as he could suddenly spot her breath in the night air, which was odd given how warm of a night it was.
“Tell me why this,” he shook the pouch in his hand. “Has suddenly made you into even more of a selfish bitch?”
It was a small reaction but he caught the way she started in surprise at his use of language towards her.
“You can control your skin, so why would you want this particular drug? Can’t be just about the high, he could have sold you anything for that.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” she spoke defiantly.
A dark smirk crossed his face. “Well I suppose it ain’t news that you never give me any answers.”
Ignoring her stare, he pocketed the pouch in the inside of his jacket. “Since my money paid for it, suppose it’s mine now.”
Raising her chin at him she pushed off the wall. “Fine,” she responded coolly.
Making her way around the corner and back inside he frowned at the way she stumbled slightly against the wall even as she disappeared from his sight.
“ARGHHH!” he yelled suddenly as he slammed his fist into the brick wall.
Spinning around he paced for a moment as his nostrils flared in and out his hand running through his dark locks harshly. With a sense of determination creeping on his face he stalked after her, his claws shooting out of his left hand as he trailed them along the wall.
“Rogue,” he growled after her as she moved through a group of people waiting in line for the bathrooms.
She ignored him. Frustrated he kept his eyes on her moving form, his gaze drawn to her hips and briefly down towards her ass. He growled at himself, hating the fact that while he thought she was a bitch, he couldn’t deny his attraction to her. The Wolverine in him was in agreement but he’d been fighting to keep him buried since she’d come back to life, knowing exactly what the beast in him wanted to do and knowing it wasn’t that simple.
She stopped short at the bar as she spotted the others in the booth talking, not yet noticing her. She slid up to the bar and sat on one of the stools.
“A shot of whisky,” she muttered at the bartender.
Her hand shook a little as she ran it through her long chestnut locks of hair.
“Rogue,” he grated as he slid onto the stool beside her.
“What do you want now?” she muttered. Reaching forward she grabbed her shot and downed it in a flash as she proceeded to nod at the bartender for a refill.
“You just came back from the dead and you’re walking around like it’s nothing, don’t you think we deserve to know why that is?” his voice strained as he tried to remain rational.
“Maybe I don’t know why.”
Leaning in, her eyes fluttered towards him as her unexpectedly anxious gaze met his.
“See I think you know why,” he whispered. “Because you’re a lot less freaked out by it then one would expect.”
Glancing down she traced her index finger around the rim of the shot glass.
“It’s not like I planned on being gunned down in the middle of the street,” she whispered.
He frowned. “But you knew someone was after you?”
She nodded slowly.
“Who?” he pressed. “Why is any of this happening, Rogue…”
“Wolverine,” a voice called on his right suddenly.
Startled and annoyed by the interruption he turned too glare at the sudden presence.
“What?” he barked in agitation.
“I missed you.”
His eyes widened in surprise at the blonde woman who was suddenly leaning suggestively against him and the bar. He recognized her vaguely but he couldn’t remember her name.
“I’m busy,” he snapped as he went to turn back to Rogue.
“But Wolverine,” the blonde purred as her hand abruptly landed on his thigh. “We had so much fun the last time you were here and even though…well…” she paused and pouted at him. “Even though you weren’t exactly civil when you said goodbye, I wasn’t afraid.” She nodded towards his knuckles.
One eyebrow rose up as he realized she’d been one of the blondes he’d been with when he’d gotten the call about Rogue.
“Look…”
“Heather,” she filled in for him.
He nodded. “Look, I don’t …”
“Come on,” she interrupted him. “I know you’re the best at what you do.”
A snort on the other side of him caused him to tense as he heard Rogue stifle her laughter in her shot glass as she swallowed the whisky.
Feeling unnaturally embarrassed Logan leant away from Heather. “I’m not interested.”
“You won’t even have a drink with me,” she teased. “If I recall you were very thirsty last time…and that’s not all you were thirsty for.”
Suddenly, Rogue was unable to contain her laughter.
Heather frowned a little and tilted her head around Logan as she tried to get a good look at Rogue.
Logan leant further against the bar trying to block her view. “Seriously,” he snarled. “Leave me alone. I’m not interested.” Turning around he put his back to her as she finally got the hint to leave.
His shoulders were tense as he stared straight ahead waiting for Rogue to say whatever she was going to say.
“Classy,” she remarked.
“Fuck you,” he snarled at her. “You gave up caring what or who I do a long time ago.”
The laughter vanished from her face as she toyed with the empty shot glass, when she looked back up at him; she had a well practice cold smirk back in place. “I meant it was classy how you dismissed her like that,” she shot back at him. “Probably wasn’t fair.”
“What can I say,” he paused and copied her smirk. “I took a page out of your book.”
Her smirk faltered a little but still remained on her face, but her eyes, her eyes flickered quickly with a flash of emotion that let him know he’d finally hit her in the right place. He nodded at the bartender for a shot, his brief satisfaction leaving him quickly, for he could take no joy out of it, because everything was just too fucked up. The truth was despite everything, the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, because the first thing he wanted to do was to somehow fix everything, to some how go back to a world where Rogue and he weren’t at odds with each other, but he didn’t know how to do it because he still wanted answers and he hated to admit it but he still felt betrayed.
“I suppose I deserve that,” she whispered softly.
Tentatively she moved her shot glass forward across the bar.
“I’m going to the bathroom.”
Turning around he narrowed his gaze at her.
“Really,” she muttered.
He nodded and watched her move down the corridor.
He was about to ask for another shot when a familiar shape moved sharply into his vision. Heather had been eyeing Rogue and was following her into the bathroom.
“Of course,” he muttered as he frowned and pushed his way through the crowd as he followed.
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