The cold winter wind had made its way down the mountains past the desperate forest and the apathetic city to make its way here to stop at this place of refuge. Now it had set about the business of blowing down the fortress of brink and cement of ice and fire. At seeing this fierce determination the rest of the school had fled inside to seek the shelter of the mansion but one stayed behind.
One young woman stayed strong against the threat, having nothing to loose. Choosing instead to use this screaming air to her advantage. It ripped and tore at her hair. Tightening her long locks around her neck a not so subtle warning of its intent. The wind gave her no false kindness, showed her none of the pity she hated so. The wind attacked her from all sides, its power making her deaf, dumb, and blind to anything and everything.
In this deafening power the wind showed her, she was able to let everything go. She screamed, sobbed and cursed his name, confessing to the shapeless audience all of her sins of her silly little life. She told the storm all she couldn't manage to tell him. She screamed to nobody that she was a fool for loving him so furiously. A fool for believing in him and a fool for holding on so closely to his ghost, and for breaking her one promise to herself to forget it all. She cursed her blind childish stupidity for letting this happen once again. She damned her body for the blight it set upon her life and her mind. She screamed that she loved him with everything she had and she cursed him for it.
She cursed him for this false courage that showed only in battles of brawn and failed her when she need it the most. She cursed his faltering strength had he had that could not hold her burdens. She cursed his weakness and his sole for running away from her when he was the one thing she needed.
"How long?" she called out into the never-ending noise of it all. "How long do I have to keep this all? How long will I be in this limbo? When will my life begin?" she called pressing her hands to her heart to keep it together.
She screamed until her lungs burned from the strain. She called out in a blind fury that left nothing unscathed. She screamed one last time with everything she had, pouring everything out letting the storm pull her down to the earth. All the tears falling from her eyes were soon hidden from even herself as the rain poured down. She left it all there in the puddle of her tears and turn her back on it to leave.
But she couldn't and the last tear that formed silently took everything back. The look in her eyes made the powerful storm falter and stopped. Instead of starting up again the wind softly brought her hope in a wan sound on a gentle breeze. The hope was the abrasive, heart warming sound of a motorcycle. So Rogue stepped out in the middle of the road, dug in her heals, and waited. Waited to see which direction her life would take her in.
Logan rode in the storm against his better judgment, because Logan had never been a patient man. He needed to know how this part of his life would end or begin.
The wind sounding in his ears carried a cry that prickled his skin. The wind screamed in sorrow and pain, so much so the very sound of it tore at his heart. So when he saw her there, standing there in the middle of this path, he believed her to be the phantom that followed him everywhere taunting him with Rogue's likeness. But the emptiness in her eyes stopped him from ignoring the vision, it forced him to stop and reach out to this sight.
When his hand touched smooth cooling skin his breath caught in his throat and he froze not knowing how to proceed. Not knowing what she was willing to take from him. Before when Logan returned from these `trips' Rogue had always run to greet him first. With open arms and a welcoming smile, but now she stood there with her eyes revealing nothing to him, waiting for his move.
She was waiting for his move and he was frozen. But he was here; he had come back to her when she needed him to be here so badly. He was here, what else could she ask of him. He had come back to her. So she gave up on waiting and she threw her arms around his neck, sighing into his neck as he hesitatingly wrapped his arms around her hips.
Logan didn't know what was happening he felt like a twelve year old boy and his first dance bumbling around no sure where to put his hands. Because he didn't know where to rest his hand on her, this closeness to her was so new but so simple. Could it be this easy, could he have been running away from something this simple? As he thought this, though, Rogue began to pull away from his arms, but he would only let her go so far.
`I can live with that,' Rogue thought. `I could live with this arrangement. But I won't be the person to say that. I need to hear him say that he will stay here with me.'
So Rogue looked into his eyes and waited.
Her eyes gave him no clue of what to do next but her body betrayed her. She did not fight his hands and her gloved fingers moved in small circles on this side of his neck. Their movement made him dizzy and so he frantically sought anything to focus on and zeroed in on her lips.
"So…" Logan said letting one of his hands travel up her side testing the water.
"So…" She answered the corner of her mouth rising slightly at the intimate gesture.
"So…I am back," he said again brushing his fingers along the line of her chin, her neck, her back.
"I can see that." Her eyes glittered at his touch and Logan wondered if he would ever learn to breath again.
"I am home for good, kid." He let his fingers glide across her lips clearing a way for his lips. Their kiss, first soft, deepened reveal to the other all that they could not manage to say. When Rogue recovered her senses after the initial wonderful shock of the kiss pulled back quickly.
"Logan, no we can't, my skin it…" She stopped when she saw the smile spread across his lips and his surprised laugh sounded throughout the air. "Wait…how is this possible?"
Her eyes frantically searched his eyes searched his face finding nothing wrong.
"It's seems that my skin has grown immune to your little trick, kid." Smiling so hard that his cheeks hurt he went in for another kiss, laughing against her lips at the joy shinning unmistakable in her eyes. His laughter was soon quieted by the power and love behind her kiss.
"But not to your charms, it seems. Not to your charms," he murmured in their short breaks between kisses. And as he ran his hand through her hair he suddenly added, "You're wet."
She laughed quietly at that as she led him back into their home.
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Story Notes:
On demand from…Anything but ordinary3. This is the third and last part to the series of X-men Standalones I have been writing. This pieces companions being first Abandoned and then Red, Red wine… Nope I don't own any of this but the turn of events…