Wolverine finished the last of his coffee and stomped out the door. Despite the dark look on his face, Rogue excused herself from the Beta table and followed him, the mission first and foremost on her mind.
“Hey Logan!” she called. As usual his feet ground to a halt. It was nice to have that kind of power over her friend. To bad she didn’t have a lust mutation instead, she thought, of just kid sister Wolverine taming wonder powers. She shrugged, time enough for that later as she caught up with him. “Morning sunshine,” she drawled and turned her smile to megawatt power. Logan relaxed a bit at her seemingly easy expressions and grunted what sounded like a “good morning” back. Innocent smile still firmly in place she glanced at his horrid t-shirt and back at his eyes. Uh-oh, his eyebrow were doing that hawkish thing, drawn down like an angry V. “Not saying anything sugah. You want your jacket? I think you left it to my room the other night after the hockey game.”
“Yeh thanks kid. I can’t go around like this the rest of the day.” He followed her to her room.
“Classes today?” she asked, keeping up what she hoped sounded like idle conversation.
“Nah, Scott’s taking my intermediate self-defense class to a dojo in town. Something about needing to teach them how to fight ‘the proper way’” he sneered, still annoyed Summer thought his teaching methodology was questionable and insisted on taking over the class once a month to teach them pansy shit like rules and no ball-kicking. “I gotta go to town and pick up a part for the jeep.” Rogue knew this already, having memorized the teaching schedule for the week while tactical planning with her team.
“Can I go with you?” already knowing his answer. He always got his ear bent by Xavier or Scott for taking her out on his bike during the day in front of the students. Some bullshit about “people talking.” Part of him didn’t mind if people speculated about his special friendship with Rogue, it gave the growl voice in the back of his head more fodder to tease him with late at night, especially the idea of how much it would piss Summers off. The other part, the teacher-mentor-big brother part definitely did not like that other people looked at Rogue that way, like she could be something more than just his friend. It was a thought that he debated endlessly with himself and worrying about other people’s thoughts on it just pissed him off more.
“Nah kid. I got some other…stuff to do. You’d be bored.”
Rogue opened the door to her room. “Alright, I got things I need to work on anyways. Here ya go.” She grabbed his jacket from behind a chair and held it open for him. Amused that she was being so solicitous, Logan turned around and shrugged into it, relishing the brief touch of her fingers against his neck as she turned down the collar and patted it into place. He turned to see her brilliant smile turned full-blast on him.
“What?”
“Nothing…you just look nice sugah.” And she patted him on the cheek like a little boy she was sending off to grade school. Scowling inwardly at that though, Logan grunted and stomped out the door.
“God, would it kill him to just WALK?” But even Logan’s noisy exit couldn’t shake her giddiness at the successful completion of this stage of the mission.
Wolverine stalked down the hall, sipping his jacket all the way up to his throat. It was a little warm for leather but fuck all if he was going to let anyone else see him in that fucking stupid shirt. Classes were about to start and the hall was clogged with rugrats who obligingly scampered out of his way, some of out habit but most b/c of the more-then-usual snarly look on his face. As he passed he heard a few giggles. More giggles. Logan turned around and looked down the hall to see what was so funny. No one there except some junior high school grader mutants and the sound stopped. He turned back and continued towards the garage. Titters again, then some outright laughs. Again he turned around, nothing unusual, just a gaggles of snot noses covering their mouths with their hands. He growled at them, pleased to see a few of them back up with wide eyes, then he continued on his way, growing every more aggravated at the sound of laughter behind him. He checked his zipper, up tight. Word must’ve gotten around about the stupid shirt at breakfast. Grr.
Logan kicked his motorcycle to life and headed to town. No helmet as usual, what was the need with an adamantium skull and healing factor. Besides, he liked to feel the wind in his face. He gunned the bike down the highway, taking the long route to town, letting himself unwind in the way only the bike let him. He gave a couple of low hand signs to passing bikes from the other direction and nodded to another one he passed. The grizzled guy on the Harley sped up to match his speed, then looked over and grinned at Logan. Logan nodded back.
The guy still kept grinning, despite missing a few teeth. The other biker swerved a little closer and the Wolverine tensed, not sure what to make of it. The biked yelled, “You got style!” and laughed. Logan was confused, but nodded and gunned the bike, racing to the breakdown lane on the left to leave the moron behind.
Logan slowed down in the emergency lane after a couple of miles, easing back to let a family sedan overtake him on the right. He looked over to gauge the distance to move back to the fast lane and saw two little girls waving at him. What the fuck? Little girls did not smile and wave at him. He was a big, scary looking, badass motherfucker on a Harley. Then the mom in the front seat smiled and wiggled her fingers too, said something and the little girls laughed behind the window and waved some more. Disgruntled, Logan slowed down to let them pass him, and crossed 3 lanes of traffic, enjoying the blare of horns behind him as he took the exit to the auto shop. He spent some time poking through the aisles until he found what he wanted, but the whole time something was setting him on edge. It seemed like every asshole in the place was looking at him. It wasn’t like he was some new guy, hell he was in here every week. Every the clerk who rang up his order had a funny look on his face as he made conversation.
“Having a good day?” For someone reason the cashier’s voice cracked. Logan grunted something noncommittal, wanting to get the fuck out of there b/c everyone was acting weird. “So, you like Japanese stuff?”
“What?” That was a totally random question. I mean, he used to live in Japan but no one outside of the mansion knew that.
“Nothing.” The clerk’s face was red. Logan growled, took the alternator and stomped out. The unmistakable sound of guffaws reached his ears. What is with everyone today?
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Wolverine is confused.
Chapter End Notes:
More to come tomorrow. Thing will start popping then.