Marie awoke to the sound of the alarm clock blaring in her ear. Groaning loudly, she smacked the annoying thing with her hand. Another day had found it’s way to her and she wasn’t looking forward to getting up. It was 6:30 in the morning and she had just enough time to jump in the shower before facing the people that seemed to hate her. What a way to start a day.

Feeling the hot water splash down her face helped Marie to relax a bit. She could do this. She could make these people realize that she was no more harmful to them than the next mutant. As she stood there under the calming water she thought about last night. Logan had done the one thing the others refused to do…..he talked to her. Before she knew it, a small smile was playing on her lips as she thought of him. He was by no means a prince charming, yet the roughness of him drew her in. Marie hoped like hell she would have more moments with the man named Logan.

Climbing out of the shower she made her way, to what few clothes she had, hanging in the closet. The selection was few and far between so she grabbed the first thing she saw, which was a pair of denim jeans and a black tight fitting turtleneck. Walking over to her dresser, Marie grabbed her black gloves and slid them in to place. She slowly turned to look at herself in the mirror. Her body was covered in every place but her face and she let out a small, sad sigh. ‘So much for being the sexy woman impressing the men’, she thought.

Walking out into the hall, she noticed it was completely deserted. Everyone must have already made their way down to the dining room for breakfast. Again, she would have to walk in to the stares and sneers. As she got closer she could hear the sounds of laughter coming from the room. Everyone seemed to be in an upbeat mood, which could turn into a great thing for her.

Entering the dining room, all laughter and talking ceased. Marie’s heart started to pound loudly in her chest as she took in all of the people staring at her. Was it so hard for these people just to except her presence? She walked to the breakfast bar and started placing food on her plate. Even with her back turned, she could feel eyes boring into her.

Marie found a small table in the corner that was empty, so she made a bee line for it. Taking a seat, she looked around for Xavier, but he was no where to be found. ’Great’, she thought.

“Hey….hey vampire.”

Marie flinched at the whispered words coming from behind her. She didn’t want to turn around to see the owner of the voice calling out to her. Closing her eyes, she willed herself not to cry. She would never give these people the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

“Hey, I’m talking to you girl. You don’t belong here. Why don’t you do us all a favor and go back to your goons at the brotherhood.”

Before she could speak, she heard a low growl coming from beside her. Marie looked up to see Logan, standing there, staring daggers into the person taunting her. There was an audible gulp as the boy turned back in his seat. Logan made his way to the empty chair, in front of her, and sat down heavily. She stared at him as he continued eating his breakfast. Slowly, she watched him raise his eyes to her and give her a small wink. There were no words spoken as they eat their food. The others did not dare try to taunt her anymore as Logan sat with her.

“Where’s the professor,” Marie asked.

Logan looked up from his food and shrugged his shoulders. “Business trip I guess.”

“Oh….okay.” Marie was disappointed that he wasn’t here. She was hoping like hell she could start working on her control today. She guessed it would have to wait.

“So, you got any plans today,” Logan asked as he stuffed a fork load of eggs into his mouth. Marie shook her head no. “Well if ya want, you can hang out with me in my classes today. I teach a combat skills class and it might be interesting to ya to see these snot nose kids get knocked around by me,” he said smirking.

This man confused the hell out of her. Why was he being so nice to her while everyone else treated her like the plague? The confusion must have been showing on Marie’s face because Logan asked her what was wrong.

“Why are you being so nice to me? I’m the enemy remember?”

Logan took a deep sigh and looked around the room at the others. “I guess I know what it’s like to be the outsider.”

He did not elaborate on what he meant by that, and Marie didn’t feel comfortable asking him to explain. She was grateful that at least one person, a side from the professor, wasn’t scared to talk to her. “I’d like that Logan. Thank you,” she said with a small smile.

As they walked towards the Danger Room, Marie watched Logan out of the corner of her eye. She watched his walk and the way he made his presence known to the people passing by. He had an air of dominance in his step and she smiled a little thinking of what it was going to be like to watch him kicking some ass. Looking at the people that they passed, she noticed how they all made an attempt to step out of his path. She would definitely have to figure out his story sooner or later and why everyone seemed terrified of him.

He brought her to a large circular room that made her eyes bulge out. It was completely empty yet the shear size of it blew her away. She walked to the middle of the circle and turned around slowly, taking in every aspect that was the Danger Room. Turning towards Logan, he smirked. She liked that look on him and couldn’t help the rose color that filled her cheeks. Marie could get used to seeing that smirk.

“Come on darlin‘. You’ll watch from here,” he said walking towards a set of stairs.

Marie did everything she could not to let that term of endearment go to her head. Of course he didn’t mean anything by it. Walking into the control room, Marie saw that she had a perfect view of the Danger Room below. He walked her to a chair and gestured for her to sit down. She did so and couldn’t help the way her heart sped up at his proximity. She really had to get a hold of herself and fast.

She felt him lean down to whisper in her ear, “Enjoy the show darlin”.

Before she could react to his closeness to her, he was gone. She let out an unsteady breath and wiped the perspiration off of her forehead. ’When did it get hot in here’, she thought. Minutes later she watched as seven people walked into the room. They were all clad in black leather, which made her take a deep breath as she remembered the night they had fought her and the brotherhood. She recognized some of them being there that night. The others, she had only seen in the dining room looking none to happy that she was there. They came in and started to stretch and warm up.

As she watched them get ready for combat practice, she noticed Logan coming into view and liked to have fallen off her chair. “Holy mother of God,” Marie whispered. There, in all his glory was the best looking man that she had ever seen in tight black leather. They had to have designed that black leather suit for Logan, it fit him perfectly.

“Ok ladies, your objective is to capture your enemy which is…..me. You have one hour to achieve this and if you don’t, well I look forward to kicking the shit out of you.” Marie couldn’t help the giggle that came out of her mouth hearing Logan talk like a bad ass. “COMBAT PRACTISE 13,” Logan yelled. There was a computerized voice that confirmed Logan’s command and the lights went dim.

Marie watched in fascination as the white circular room turned in to a modern day apocalypse. There were cars turned up side down, and buildings in ruin and on fire. She could not believe what she was seeing. Now she understood the purpose for the room’s size. Marie watched as the seven people went on the search for their subject. Her heart started racing as she saw Logan moving in and out of view. She had no idea how he was going to defend himself against these seven mutants.

What came next had Marie on the edge of her seat. She watched as balls of flames shot out in one direction and a line of ice in the other. There were sparkles as if fireworks were being set off and things disappearing and reappearing in other places. She watched as a girl went straight through a car to hide on the other side. Cards, as if they were bombs, exploded in mid air. She gasped as she saw one of the people take to flight with wings like an angle. And then she heard it, a sound as primal and animalistic as the animal itself. The roar was like nothing she had ever heard and she watched Logan…..no this had to be the Wolverine, come into view again. He was hunched down waiting to attack and attack he did. He had let all of them make the first move and then he went in for the score.

It only took minutes but Marie was breathing so hard that she thought at any minute she would pass out. All seven members of the X-Men were laying flat on their backs. Logan walked around them in a circle unscathed. He had single handedly taken each one of them down in a not so nice way.

“I think I made my point very clear. Class dismissed,” Logan said walking away.

The apocalyptic scene disappeared and went back to the huge circular room. “Wow,” Marie breathed. She wanted to try this room out so bad.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear someone enter the room. “What are you doing here?” Marie jumped from her chair at the sound of the angered voice. Turning around, she saw the ruby lens man staring at her. He was visibly upset that she was in the control room alone. Looking past her, she watched as his face became furious. Marie looked at what he had seen and panic overtook her. The X-Men were still on the ground trying to recover from Logan’s beating, yet Logan was no where to be found. She knew in an instance what this man was thinking.

“It’s not what you think. I…..I was watching Logan’s class f…from here.” She hated the way her voice was shaking. She had done nothing wrong, yet she felt that she had to defend herself. As if in slow motion, she watched the man reach up towards his glasses. Marie slammed her eyes shut in anticipation of the burn that would come but nothing happened. She opened her eyes when she heard someone being knocked into the wall.

“I’ve waited a long time to have a reason to gut you One eye and I’d be damned if you didn’t give it to me,” Logan said through clenched teeth.

“Logan what are you doing? She tried to kill the Beta team,” he said aggravated.

Marie watched wide eyed as three large claws made their way out of Logan’s knuckles, sliding dangerously close to the man’s neck. “That was me you jackass.”

“How was I supposed to know that? I come in and see one of the brotherhood in the control room and then see my team down. What would you think,” the man asked defensively.

The claws slowly made their way back into Logan’s hand as he released the man. “Scott, I thought you of all people would show a little tolerance. How about stepping up and being the leader that you’re suppose to be and show these geeks how to fuckin’ act,” Logan said pointing to where the Beta team was still laying.

Logan turned to Marie and motioned for her to follow him. She walked slowly past the ruby lens man very cautiously. She could feel his eyes, under his glasses, staring holes into her. As she made her way towards the stairs, she felt Logan put his hand on the small of her back and she flinched without meaning to. He dropped his hand fast and looked at her apologetically.

“I know the claws look scary.” She was caught off guard by the sadness in his voice. Marie realized that he took her flinching as a sign she was scared of him.

“It’s not the claws I’m scared of Logan. If you had deadly skin, the thought of touching wouldn’t be high on your list of things to do.”

She watched him think about what she said and then nod in understanding. “Fair enough,” he said.

They walked out into the backyard. It was a beautiful windy day, just right for all of her clothing. They sat down on the table that she had eaten on last night and didn’t speak. Just being out in the open air was washing Marie of the panic she felt earlier.

“I…um, I’m sorry that these idiots are treatin’ ya so shitty. I’m actually surprised in a way.” Marie looked over to see Logan staring at her. For the first time since they had met, she saw his eyes turn soft. She was amazed at how many sides there was to this man and she had a feeling that she wasn’t even close to the very surface of who he was.

“I’m not. Since my mutation manifested that’s all I’ve known,” she whispered.

He didn’t comment on that. Marie guessed that this man wasn’t used to deep conversations with people. She had to ask him one question that had been bothering her since she saw the claws. Marie didn’t know why she needed to know the answer…..she just did.

“W….when they come out, does it hurt?”

Logan slowly looked down at his reddened knuckles and took a deep breath. “Every time,” was his only answer.