The front door opened slowly and Logan stepped out onto the porch. Light danced across the wood planks briefly highlighting his shadowed form before disappearing as he shut the door. He dropped into the seat beside her with nothing but a heavy sigh.
“Did you do this because you thought you owed me?”
“No, I did it because I wanted to. Because of you. John could never change that,” she answered. “I’d do anything for you,” she whispered. “You deserved to know.”
“She doesn’t know you died trying to protect her, does she?” he asked gruffly.
“Don’t hold it against her, Logan,” she responded sternly.
“Oh, no darlin’ I hold it against you for doing a one-man suicide mission.”
“One-woman,” she corrected.
“Cut the shit, Marie.”
She was quiet.
“Maybe not because you felt you owed me, but how about miss-placed guilt.”
“You think that I would have just left her there if I didn’t have guilt?”
“No,” he muttered.
“Yeah, I wasn’t thinking straight and yes it got me killed but I couldn’t leave her there knowing their intentions. I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable. I was given a lead and I followed it.”
He reached over and grabbed her hand in the darkness. “You’re not alone, Marie.” Pausing a moment he breathed out a quiet, “Thank-you.”
She squeezed his hand back. “Smart decisions from now on,” he directed.
“Yes, sir.”
He growled low in playful annoyance. After a moment of comfortable silence his grip tightened.
“They could have captured you, Rogue,” he spoke up, suddenly far more serious.
“I know,” she whispered.
“And then what would have happened?” he remarked sternly, she could tell his thoughts were turning dark at the possibilities. “Don’t think they would have been as cuddly or as understanding as Hank.”
“I wouldn’t even have noticed if you’d been gone, wouldn’t have been able to tell,” he muttered darkly.
“Logan, please,” she implored him. “It makes me sick to think it now. But that’s over. I know I was lucky in all this. I’m lucky that you came.”
Logan leant his head back. “You’re lucky Pietro isn’t as resentful as he pretends to be.” Leaning forward again he added. “I’m lucky too.”
“So is she okay in there?” she asked, changing the subject.
“I don’t think much fazes that girl.”
“She may be a well-trained mutant soldier whose childhood was stolen but she does feel things, Logan.”
“I know,” he whispered back, understandingly. “She wants to build her own life, but I can tell she’s still having trouble adjusting. She definitely has a stubborn streak in her though.”
Rogue snorted and bent forward as she laughed slyly at him in the darkness.
“I don’t see how that’s funny, Rogue,” he growled, pretending to be offended.
“Of course not,” she smiled back.
Rubbing both his hands over his face he sighed deeply.
“This is all incredibly un-nerving,” he muttered.
“You wanted to say ‘fucked up’, didn’t you?”
“That too.”
A faraway look skirted across his face. “She showed me the bone claws.”
Leaning over tentatively, her movements a little stiff she laid her hand over his knuckles. “Having them doesn’t make you a monster, or Laura. They are a part of who you are, what you are.”
“An animal,” he muttered darkly.
“No,” she spoke breathlessly as a kind smile danced along her face. “A mutant. Simple as that. And last time I checked you’re not the only mutant on this Earth.”
He snorted but the small lines drawn around his frown disappeared as he relaxed back in his seat.
“She says she doesn’t need me or want me for anything but she at least knows she’s going to need help sometimes. She said I should hold on to you.”
“Hold on to me?”
“I think it was her way of saying she’d stay in touch. Through you at least. Apparently, it’s genetic to want to be attached to you.”
Leaning over she pecked his sideburns affectionately.
“You’re such a romantic.”
He turned sharply to nip at her lips playfully.
“Marie.”
“Yes?”
“I think you need to stay here with Hank as much as possible.”
She tensed but didn’t pull away.
“You’re not out of trouble yet and Hank says he can really help you succeed with your powers if you allow the time for it.”
“Alright,” she whispered unsteadily, faced with the truth of the matter.
“And I will be here,” he responded. “I’ll be with you along the way and I won’t be oblivious like before.”
“Logan,” she began about argue the last point.
“We both made mistakes, Marie. Let us both heal them.”
“Okay,” she answered with a sweet smile. Leaning in, she kissed him. Shrieking suddenly with surprised glee, he had reached over and pulled her into his lap.
She smiled against his lips in pure genuine mirth.
“Please, tell me the two of you are not making out on my front porch,” a voice called down from the top window.
“You’re old enough,” Logan growled back. “Accept it.”
“Asshole,” Laura called down. She closed the window but both of them heard the quiet chuckle she’d let out.
“She sure has your vocabulary skills,” Rogue remarked.
Logan smirked at her before standing up.
“This has been one hell of a week,” he muttered shaking his head in surprise.
“You can say that again.”
Although his smile was still cracked she spotted the warm crinkle in his eye and slipping her fingers between his she hoped that spark could build between them again.
“Hell of half a lifetime,” she whispered affectionately.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000