‘Good morning, Logan. Do come in.’ Charles Xavier’s voice echoed through the wood of the door. Logan paused, hand raised, ready to knock. Damn telepaths.
The study he entered was awash with morning sun, the light bouncing of the dark wood furniture, making it gleam. The floorboards were worn, the walls lined with books, and dark red rug covered the centre of the floor. The whole place smelt of books, floor polish and coffee. It hadn’t changed much.
The Professor was seated behind his desk, and Logan noted, not without some amusement, that the sunlight caused his bald head to gleam in addition to the furniture. The Professor gestured to the pot of coffee on his desk.
‘Would you like some coffee?’
He shrugged.
‘If you haven’t got anythin’ stronger.’
The Professor looked slightly amused.
‘It is eleven o’clock in the morning.’
‘Not a time of day I usually make a point of witnessing. Couldn’t this little meeting have waited?’
The Professor smiled, and amusement coloured his tone as he replied.
‘Yes Logan, but unlike you, some of us have other work to do.’
Logan grunted, and accepted the proffered mug. The coffee was steaming hot, black and bitter. He inhaled and the industrial strength scent stung his eyes and nose, and made his head swim. If it tasted anything like it smelt, he wasn’t going to sleep for a week. Might explain Cyclops’ permanently agitated behaviour. He leant back, crossed his legs at the ankles and eyed the Professor over the tips of his steepled fingers.
‘So then, Chuck, why d’you want to see me?’
‘You’ve been away a long time, Logan. I was wondering how your journey was. Why you returned. And whether you were planning on staying.’
‘Can’t you jus’ read my mind?’
The Professor smiled tolerantly.
‘I could.’
‘But you won’t.’
‘We’ve had this conversation before, Logan. The mind is not a book to be…’
‘Readily opened and perused at will. Sometimes the mind has to discover things for itself. You said.’
Sometimes this man was so self-righteous it hurt. But he was looking at him expectantly, as if he thought Logan was going to describe his last two and a half years in detail, and intimately disclose all of his reasoning, and future plans. It had never been in his nature to share personal stuff, although admittedly, if he had known the answers to the Professor’s questions, he might have been more willing to share.
‘What do you want to know?’
‘Did any of the leads I gave you lead to anything?’
‘Most of ‘em were dead ends. Found a couple of scraps of information; some stuff about my time in the army – the phrase Weapon X was bandied about a fair amount, mean anything to you?’
The Professor frowned faintly, but shook his head.
‘I can’t recall anything of that name having come to my attention, no.’
‘Apparently I spent some time in Japan. The man that told me thought I was looking for something, didn’t have a clue what though. Basically, I found fuck all of any use.’
Yeah, two and half fucking years, and he was still the clawed guy with no past. And if what he remembered of his life was anything to go by, he was destined to remain like that.
The Professor sighed.
‘I’m sorry you didn’t find anything. I know how much this means to you.’
If anyone else had said that, with the exception of Marie, Logan would have gutted them. He hated pity, it was pointless and it was patronising. The trouble with the Professor was any sucker could tell he was one of these rare human beings who actually cared. A lot of people would offer their sympathies to the clawed guy who was failing to find his past, but if his experience of life was anything to go, very, very, few of them would actually mean it. Unfortunately for him, the Professor was one of these people, so gutting was off the list. He settled for a grunt instead.
After a few seconds silence, Chuck seemed to realise that that part of the conversation was over, and he moved on.
‘So, is this a fleeting visit? Are you just passing through or are you planning on staying for awhile? You are welcome to remain at the mansion for as long as you wish.’
Logan shrugged.
‘I don’t know. Hadn’t really thought it through this far. Thought I’d come back, check on the kid, regroup, that sort of thing.’
A knowing glint entered Xavier’s eyes. Logan did not think he liked it.
‘Ah yes, Rogue. Have you spoken with her since that little…ahem…incident by the pool yesterday?’
Logan grunted in affirmation. He really really did not like the look of that glint.
‘She’s missed you, you know. We worried about her at first.’
He raised an enquiring eyebrow.
‘It was…awkward…after Liberty Island. She had absorbed so much of you, so quickly. It took her time to sort through her head. She still retains a few of your more…unique…characteristics. She has quite the impressive growl, and your sneering look down to perfection.’
Logan grimaced. A thought struck him. He glared.
‘She told me that you’re letting them train as Junior X-Men. With a view to joining the team after graduation! You can’t seriously be considering letting them out on missions – they’re kids! It’s not a game out there, it ain’t safe for the likes of them!’
‘Have you expressed that particular view to Rogue?’
Logan’s mutinous look told the Professor all he needed to know.
‘Rogue is a remarkably talented young woman. Her grasp of hand-to-hand combat and martial arts is excellent, or so Scott tells me.’
‘You let Scooter teach her martial arts and combat??’
The Professor smiled broadly.
‘You were not around.’
‘What?’
‘If you have no immediate plans to move on Logan, then I would like to offer you a teaching position here, training the Junior Team in martial arts, and hand-to-hand combat, and teaching some basic Physical Education to the younger students.’
Logan glared darkly, slightly shocked.
‘I ain’t no teacher, Chuck. I don’t fucking do domestic.’
‘And I wouldn’t dream of asking you to. I am merely asking for a few hours of your time each day, in exchange for a reasonable rate of pay, free keeping and board. Your time off, your free periods and your evenings are yours to do as you choose. We will not interfere. And of course, if something comes up, we will understand and arrange for you to leave at once.’
Logan shook his head as if trying to clear water from his ears.
‘I’m sorry, Professor, I don’t think you understand. I don’t ‘do’ children. I’m not a fucking teacher!’
‘I know you aren’t Logan. But you could be.’
He shook his head. The entire image was fucking ridiculous.
‘No fucking way, Chuck, sorry.’
The Professor smiled sadly, but nodded his acceptance.
‘Yes, I feared that would be your answer.’
He reached out and shook Logan’s hand.
‘You are of course welcome to stay as long as you like regardless. I meant it when I said you’ll always be welcome here. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to discuss Rogue’s first mission with Scott. It will just be a pick-up but I’m thinking of sending Scott along to mentor her and cover her back.’
Logan stood up, and slammed his hand down on the desk, knocking over his, unfortunately un-drunk, and now cold cup of industrial-strength coffee.
‘You’re asking that pansy-assed idiot to cover Rogue’s back on her first mission?!’
The Professor nodded calmly.
‘There is no-one else around to do it, and Scott is the best fighter we have.’
‘I’m better.’
‘Yes, but we want Rogue to have a consistent partner on missions, so she can get used to having one person covering her back. You aren’t going to be around for that.’
‘Fuck it Chuck, there ain’t no-one going to cover that girl’s ass on missions but me, you got that Bub?’
The Professor smiled broadly.
‘Are you saying you’ll take the job?’
Logan finally understood the expression ‘Cat that got the cream’. The bastard. He couldn’t teach, he was the Wovlerine for crying out loud. But if he didn’t Rogue would end up with Scott covering her on missions. He couldn’t be trusted not to fuck that up, and if he did and Rogue got hurt…Logan was going to have to skewer Scott and then skewer himself. He had promised to protect her. Fuck it.
It had been a trap and he’d walked straight into it. He glowered at the Professor and ground out,
‘Fine. I’ll take the damn job.’
The Professor beamed, handing over a thick brown envelope.
‘Excellent. The envelope contains everything you need to know. Anything else, ask Jean, Ororo, or myself.’
Logan couldn’t help but notice he hadn’t added Scott to the list of potential minders.
‘One condition Chuck. If we’re going to do this, we’ll be doing it my way. I don’t want no interference from you, or from One-Eye. I run my lessons how I like and I teach them what I like. If you don’t like it you can fuck the whole thing.’
The Professor nodded.
‘Of course, Logan. I have the utmost faith in your professional capacities. You start teaching at the beginning of next year; the first term begins in just under three weeks. That will be plenty of time to prepare. I will talk you later about Rogue and the mission. Now…if you’ll excuse me, I really do need to speak with Scott.’
No prizes for guessing what the main topic of that conversation was going to be he thought. He lips tightened.
‘Fine.’
Slamming the wood door behind him, he strode furiously through the corridors, heading back to his room. He looked at the envelope in his hands.
Holy fuck.
He had just become PROFESSOR Logan.
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Chapter End Notes:
This is essentially something of a filler chapter, hence then shortness in length - next chapter should be up later this evening. Thanks to Anami, Tasa, TRSummers, and Wytchling for the reviews, and Xanthiae for the encouragement. A review would make my day :)