Star sat in Xavier’s office enchanted with the man in front of her. She never dreamed that the same man who spoke out that every mutant should be treated equal would also actually have a private school where mutants like her could go, she never dreamed that he’d have actually feed, educate and protect these mutants from the outside world until they were adults. He’d welcomed her with open arms and now she was a resident here, or to be at least. She needed to talk about the professor about getting a room of her own… dorming? Not her thing.
They spoke for nearly an hour, and they spoke about everything. Teachers here, what classes she could take, being tested because she didn’t*have a memory and therefore didn’t know* what level she was at. She was hoping to avoid any sticky questions being asked about her memories or her past, but Xavier was a very skilled speaker. One minute they were talking about her favorite school subjects and before Star had blinked Xavier, for all his kindly old man mannerisms had taken on a sharp inquisitive tone that suggested he didn’t need to be psychic to know her thoughts, and was probing deeply into her past with open curiosity.
“Star, I know you’ve suffered a great deal being out on the open road, I do realize what it must have been like a for a girl your age to be traveling alone stopping from place to place, unsure of where her next meal would be…”
It sounded to her like a generalized statement, just something the Professor was saying to be nice, to sympathize with her and make her feel understood.
“However, I wonder what you know about mutations, about mine for example.”
She shrugged slightly confused with the way his statement ended.
“I know you’re a powerful telepath and I know you can read minds?...”
It came out as a question because she really didn’t know a lot about telepaths or how people’s minds worked.
“Yes, I can read your mind, I can move objects with the power of my mind and I can see into people’s pasts, I am capable of reading their minds and seeing images that they even do not know they possess.”
Star gulped, if he could do that then she really hoped he hadn’t tried to, because truth was she remembered a lot more than she let on.
“Star, I wanted to speak with about one more thing before we adjourn our little meeting.”
Her voice was shaky but she was determined to keep a calm exposure.
“Go ahead.”
“Logan.”
This threw her for a loop.
~*~*~**~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
He hadn’t realized how deep in thought he’d been until the muffled knock spooked him into awareness. He smelt her even before she spoke, she always smelled like flowers, like flowers and vanilla. With Logan’s sharp sense of smell he could smell things differently, like bacon didn’t smell like bacon when he concentrated on the scent, it smelled like oil, heat and fried meat. Marie smelled like flowers, like a whole meadow with fresh grass, and dewy pollinated spring buds, he’d only smelled that smell when he traveled in warm areas and he smelled fresh flowers and she always smelled like vanilla, or what he perceived of as vanilla, to him up close vanilla smelled like a soft caress with a sharp spice that made his mouth water.
“Sugah, you in there?”
He opened the door and she was there, smile in place and scent so strong it made him sway he as sought to suck it out of the air. She shouldn’t be allowed to smell that good, but he’d never tell her that. He stepped aside and let her walk in and when the door was closed and he was facing her she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.
“Ah heard you found anotha run away in Canada,” she laughed lightly “I guess us poor road side girls are just drawn to you huh?”
She looked good, jeans hugged her legs, long legs mind you and she wore a short sleeve shirt with high up opera gloves. Her hair was half up and half down the way some girls wore it, and hug gracefully down to her hips, swaying in sync with them when she walked.
“I didn’t exactly find her, she found me. Little runt tried stealing my truck.”
At that Marie threw her head back and laughed and Logan bathed in the noise. God he was turning into a pansy. He laughed too and he didn’t even know what she was laughing about, her smile just had that effect on him.
“I can’t picture the mighty Logan getting his truck stolen by a kid.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call her a kid, Marie. More like a damned con artist. I should have left her up there.”
“Pahlease, you? Leave a kid stranded by the side of the road? You’re just a big fuzzy teddy bear Logan you’d neva do that no matta what you say.”
“I almost left you!”
“Ah but almost doesn’t count.”
She wagged a finger in her face and he realized that no one ever really talked to him like this…
Jokingly. Easily... playfully
He grumbled, but half heartedly. He was badass dammit, mutant teenagers were not supposed to be his undoing! For all his efforts though Marie just gave him a shy little laugh that sent a direct tug at his heart and he wondered when he’d become so god damned effected by her.
He cleared his throat and thoughts simultaneously.
“Professor told me you’re working on controllin’ you’re mutation?”
“Yeah, he’s been helpin me a lot, I’m learnin how to do things I never could before.”
Definitely the wrong sentence, at her words a flood gate opened in Logan’s mind of all the things they could do together that she had never done before. Things he hoped she hadn’t done before and he could think of a few things he’d want to show her.
“Like touchable skin?”
His voice sounded husky even to him and damn him to hell but Marie noticed, he knew she had because she dragged her eyes off of his face and looked down at the carpet like it was the best thing in the world.
“Mostly it’s all about concentration, mind ova machine ya know?”
He grunted.
“You’re hardly a machine darlin.”
She grinned her eyes catching his and he returned her smile, surprised by how easy and natural it felt to share a smile with her.
“Yeah well after Carol you’d be a little surprised, mister.”
~*~*~**~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Star spoke next her calm composure flew out the window and she mentally cursed when her voice shook.
“Lo-Logan?”
Star was nothing if not good at being a bullshit artist and at reading people’s expressions. She’d always thought she was very intuitive and she’d even entertained the idea for a short while that she’d had telepathic abilities because her hunches were often right. Of course she only entertained that idea until her parents ditched her in the middle of nowhere and cut her off without a dime, she hadn’t really seen that one coming.
One thing she could see, clear as day, was the look Xavier wore on his face. It was so out of place on the old man’s face, what with him being the epitome of a worldly British gentlemen that it took a few minutes for Star to actually recognize the face, and the meaning behind it.
It was the face someone made when they were…dubious or doubtful. The face of a person who was regarding the person in front of them with somewhat of a “I’ve found you out attitude.” Star gulped, she supposed being a good bullshit artist didn’t count for much when you were going up against someone who could read minds.
Xavier was also the epitome of composure and just as quickly as she had absorbed his skeptic appearance, it was gone. The lines of his face became smooth again, all traces of skepticism vanishing just as quickly as they had appeared. His expression was replaced with his normal, kind visage and an almost humorous twinkle entered his eyes, as if he were smirking without using his mouth muscles at all. Star began to get the distinctive impression that Xavier was letting down his guard intentionally, that he was allowing her to read his facial expressions like an open book just to prepare her, to make her ready for the next part of their conversation.
In hindsight of this event Star would realize that had been exactly what he was doing.
“Yes,” he spoke at last and Star took a breath for what felt like the first time in twenty years, “I want to talk to you about Logan. First of all before we venture into this part of our discussion, I’d like to ask you if there is anything in particular that you want to tell me?”
The twinkle in his eyes died down to a slight glint and his lips turned up into a kind, questioning smile.
God fucking dammit!
She thought bitterly to herself.
He knows!
She was too afraid to speak her assumption out loud and Xavier, ever the gentleman, stepped in and helped her out.
“Of course I know.”
She sighed, defeated and shamed. She’d lied, not only to him but to Logan, he was going to make her leave for sure.
Stupid, stupid Stupid! Never Lie to a telepath….
That twinkle fired up a couple of notches at that and he even let out a little laugh.
“Why don’t you tell me the whole story hmm? Take your time my dear we have all the time in the world.
With that he reached for a cup of tea and sat back relaxed in his wheel chair, sipping the warm beverage.
~*~*~**~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Carol Danvers was a powerful mutant, and unique in the fact that she had more than one mutation. She was indestructible for one and she could fly for another. Storm could control the weather and she could fly but for the weather goddess it was different, she was riding the winds.
Danvers was a normal looking woman, when Logan had first seen her he’d immediately noticed curly blonde hair and green eyes that seemed to glow. She was muscular and had been in the military, her mutant code name was Ms. Marvel and Logan remembered faintly approving of the name because she was hot and she had kick ass powers.
He was a guy, he wouldn’t apologize for thinking that a woman running around in some half assed costume was hot. If someone had a problem with him oogling his fellow team mates as they bounced around in leather, well….tough.
Plus he really did love her powers, the idea of being indestructible always appealed to him. Sure you could throw just about anything at him and he’d survive, but he’d always felt the pain of the attack. Not to mention his healing factor wasn't instantaneous, it took a minute or two for him to heal fully, more so if the injuries were severe enough.
Once in combat he’d seen Ms. Marvel get hit square in the chest by a nuke launched from a Bazooka. The woman hadn’t even batted and eye and the only evidence of it hitting her was a scorch mark on her uniform.
Yeah Ms. Marvel was one hell of a women and it was too bad about her death…
“How’s she doin up there? Giving you any grief?”
Logan spoke the words softly too Marie because he knew she didn’t like talking about it.
Her sigh spoke volumes though and she just shook her head sadly.
“Nah, she’s real quiet, she only really talks when I fly or smash into something. Otherwise she’s still pretty pissed….about what happened…”
She trailed off looking down again.
Calling the mission unsuccessful was an understatement when you added the fact that Rogue had killed Ms. Marvel. Logan didn’t like to think of it that way, she hadn’t killed anyone, she’d done her job as a member of the team, he knew that. Hell, Danvers had even volunteered for it and the other X-men knew* that, but it didn’t mean they weren’t all well aware of the dangers of Rogue’s skin. On the mission they got a keen reminder and as a result of murdering her that way Rogue permanently absorbed her powers which was all sorts of fucked up and twice as shitty, in Logan’s opinion.
The original plan was for Rogue to only take a little from Ms. Marvel, just a quick touch just enough for Rogue to be able to use some of Danvers powers to guard her back while they escaped. It wasn’t really all that surprising that it didn’t go to plan Logan knew from firsthand experience that in the heat of battle things rarely adhered to the plan.
The original plan was for Rogue to only take a little from Ms. Marvel, just a quick touch just enough for Rogue to be able to use some of Danvers powers to guard her back while they escaped. It wasn’t really all that surprising that it didn’t go to plan Logan knew from firsthand experience that in the heat of battle things rarely adhered to the plan.
Although there were changes occurring in the mutant world every day, some things never changed. One situation which Logan was sick to death of, a situation which was repeatedly brought to the X-men’s attention was experimentation on mutants. The only difference was that on this mission they’d been sent to rescue children and the whole team had been outraged at the knowledge that they were headed off to a facility in the Midwest that had imprisoned kids. It was something they all felt passionate about and Ms. Marvel was no exception.
The facility had a standard setup for an experimentation area. On the surface everything was normal, a regular military compound with soldiers staying on the base. Several layers below the surface though small children ranging from ages eight to seventeen were being kept in barracks and laboratory facilities. At the time of the rescue mission it was unclear as to what the facility wanted with the children, but the X-men were ready to find out.
Mutant children had been disappearing for over a month and after the second or third abduction the professor had poured hours of his time into trying to locate them. He’d spent whole days down in celebro trying to force his power to work to his benefit, but each time he came back with little to no progress. It was beyond unusual and the professor decided that perhaps these abductees were somehow blocking pout Celebro, the only question was how the hell would they know how to do that?
It was only this morning that the professor had sent out a mental alert for the team to suit up and fly out. A boy from Montana had been abducted the night before and the professor had a clear lock on the boy’s position.
The mission did prove successful in the fact that they successfully rescued all of the missing children as well as some whose abduction hadn’t even been reported. All of the children were fitted with collars, and some wore bracelets which had the ability to negate their mutation. Of course when you turned off a mutants mutation, in theory, it shouldn’t have any effect on their brainwaves. However the devices were causing enough interference to jam Celebro’s ability to pick up a frequency on the mutants.
After they had infiltrated the base they realized that getting out was going to be a great deal more difficult. You just can’t fight the way you need to in a life threatening situation when your holding a child in your arms. Although they managed to get all the children free, and up to the first floor to make their exit and run towards the jet, they were under heavy fire the whole time.
In the time that it took to free the children and get the captives up to the top floor of the base, the soldiers on the base had united. A few of the team members were injured and some of the children were weakened and couldn’t walk, there was no way to protect the children and fight the advancing troops at the same time.
They were on foot trying to get the children back into the jet, the troops were mobilizing and blocking their path. Storm and Danvers flew over head, trying an air attack but Storm wasn’t indestructible and could do little against the onslaught of bullets that flew into the sky after them. Ms. Marvel was the only one who was making headway against the soldiers and she swooped down long enough to tell her idea to Rogue.
Touch her. If the team had a second Ms. Marvel they might be able to get to the jet, which would be more than defense enough against the ground troops. She only needed to take a little bit for it too work and Rogue knew it was true.
Rogue removed her glove and steadied herself as she prepared to suck in a part of Ms. Marvel. Rogue knew that she would receive the older woman’s memories and thoughts as well as her powers and she was ready for it, if for no other reason than to help the children. As soon as Rogue’s pale fingers wrapped around Ms. Marvel’s bare cheek, the ground troops threw the bomb.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Star sat back regarding the man in front of her with sad, honest eyes. How was she supposed to explain this to him?
I wonder what kind of tea he’s drinking, is that why is looks so calm? I could use a gallon of that
“Would you like a cup?”
She got the eerie feeling that he was reading her mind and it made her suddenly and surprisingly angry. She never thought she’d have that kind of feeling directed at a man whose work she admired so much.
“I once read about you that you had strong ethics, do those go completely out the door as soon as someone walks in here?”
“What do you find unethical?”
“Reading my mind for one!”
He laughed lightly, it was like sturdy bells clinking in sync.
“I’m not reading your mind, merely offering you a beverage.”
“Oh.”
Her shoulders slumped as she lost her head of steam and dropped her gaze into her lap.
She almost didn’t notice the way the tea pot that she hadn’t spotted before sitting in the corner, began to float over to a tea cup and pour itself. Immediately the tea cup flew to her from across the room and she looked up over at Xavier with a very amused look at on her face. She figured this would be one of the last smiles she got out in the next half hour.
“Cream?”
“Yes, please.”
The milk floated up from its position on the tray and began to pour itself into the tea cup, and when Xavier asked her if she wanted one lump of two she smiled in pure delight as two sugar cubes dropped daintily into her tea cup.
“Thank you.”
She took the tea from the desk and began to tell Xavier her tale.
~*~*~**~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Didn’t take a genius from there to figure out what happened. The ground troops threw a bomb at them, a god damned bomb, and they were carrying the kids! Logan figured they didn’t care about hurting the kids, they just cared about killing mutants.
God damned bastards.
Everyone got hit by the bomb although it wasn’t particularly powerful. Meant to stun more than to harm and the X-men and the kids all took a minute to gain their bearings and it was a minute they didn’t have. The enemy advanced and no one really noticed that Ms. Marvel wasn’t flying in the sky anymore or that Rogue wasn’t around because they were busy dodging fire and helping the kids.
Ms. Marvel didn’t pull away during the blast, instead she shielded Rogue’s body with her own and when they landed Rogue couldn’t move the woman and her bare hand was pinned awkwardly beneath her. The more of Ms. Marvel she pulled in the more strength she had, but Ms. Marvel didn’t possess any healing abilities and she slipped into a coma before dying a few days after the mission. Once everyone was behind Storm she swooped down and turned a storm into a tornado, literally blowing the soldiers away.
Rogue didn’t speak for two days and when she did start talking her eyes were green and her accent was gone and it took the professor a whole forty-eight hours before he was able to reach the real Rogue. Logan shuddered at the memory.
He saw Rogue looking down at the ground and cupped her chin in his hand tilting her face up.
“Hey, we gotta have this talk again?”
Logan was the one who was by her bed side morning and night, he just didn’t leave her. The professor explained that it was her thoughts that she couldn’t control, not Carol’s thoughts, but Rogue’s own thoughts. Her feelings of immense guilt at having killed a member of the team as well as her feelings of inadequateness. Rogue didn’t see herself as an overly valuable member of the team, a fighter and do-gooder of course, but she didn’t have super strength and she couldn’t fly and she’d in essence killed someone who in her mind could do so much more.
Logan was there helping her to claw out of her depression, making sure she was never alone with her own thoughts.
She flashed him a watery smile.
“No I’m good.”
“You sure?”
She nodded and his hand which hadn’t left her face began to calmly caress her chin with his thumb.
Logan heard rogue gasping at the sensation and in the back of his mind where the thoughts he had couldn’t really break through to the surface he realized no one had probably touched her like this, on the face, caressing like. At least he hoped no one had…
Rogue brought her hand and wrapped her fingers around Logan’s wrist, not really stopping his movements but just holding it there.
She looked into his eyes and could see the specks of gold that floated in his hazel eyes and he noted with relief that her eyes were brown and not green. She licked dry lips as she realized that as close as they were as friends this was the first time they’d been this close, face to face, since Liberty island.
“Logan…”
That one word, spoken from the only person Logan considered his friend and spoken with a world of thick innocence that Logan realized he couldn’t hope to penetrate. He had to back away, he had to breath, he had to get away from her before he did exactly what he wasn’t supposed to do….
He dropped his hand from her face and shrugged it gently away from her prying fingers, this was Marie he was talking about. This wasn’t just some girl that he could push up against the wall for a little one on one time.
“I’m gonna go get washed up kid, do you wanna watch the game later?”
Rogue didn’t even know what game was playing, she didn’t even care. Watching a game meant watching TV on a couch, meant possible snuggle time with Logan. She sighed dejectedly, and took a minute to clear her mind of his hazy state before nodding eagerly and pasting a smile on her lips.
“Sounds great.”
He grinned a little before walking away giving Rogue a great view of the powers of denim when worn by the right ass. Logan’s rear end was that ass.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Author's Chapter Notes:
To my dear TR: UPDATE!! but here's something to enjoy since you've been asking nicely lol