“I can’t believe this is really happening!” He turned to look at the girl on his side, his eyebrow raised questioningly. Marie was practically beaming from utter joy.
“We’re out! We’re walking out here! Nothing and nobody’s trying to attack us! We don’t have to kill anybody, and we don’t have to get back on that cursed jet never again!” Her mirth was contagious. It felt as if a heavy weight was suddenly lifted from his shoulders, and he was able to break out his first honest smile in weeks.
“Just don’t get your hopes up yet, kid. We need to eat. To do that we need to kill,” he reminded her.
“Oh, shush! You know what I mean. As far as it’s hunting for food, I’m okay with that,” Marie pssahhed, then stopped dead on her tracks, her gaze cast down to the side of the path they were walking.
“There are berries. Logan, there’s fresh berries here!”
They hadn’t exactly been starving, they had food with all the right nutrients, with just the right amount of calories and vitamins, but it was just dried rations they had managed to scavenge from the ruins of a store that sold outdoor gear. Blueberries, albeit slightly raw, tasted like heaven would probably taste.
“Should we save some for Scott and Jean?” Marie asked rosy hue on her cheeks and her lips dark purple from the juice of the berries.
“They’ll be coming through here when they’re ready. They can get some of these on their own,” Logan said popping a handful of berries in his mouth.
“But we better get going. We can always come back later.”
“But Logan...”
“Stop pouting, Marie. We have a home base to scout for. After we find something suitable you can eat as much berries as you like,” he grunted, now slightly annoyed. It was moments like this when it became painstakingly clear how young she truly was. Barely out of high school. Still capable of pouting among many other things. Was it really last night when those puckered lips had wrapped around his cock at the cramped locker usually reserved for cargo? He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Was it really a good idea to start thinking about things like that? Was it really a good idea to think at all?
“...babies. They need lots of taking care of, so it’s really not a good idea to have one right now. What do you think?” Marie’s voice, especially the tone and the words she used wrenched him back from his musings, bringing forth a sickening clarity. Sun was too bright, berries too sweet and the goddamned birds were chirping loud enough to shatter his eardrums.
“A baby? You’re pregnant?” He managed to force out through his clenched jaw.
“No, silly! But Jean thought that she was. Last week. And she thought that it made her somehow a bad person when she found out that there was no baby and she was happy about it, and I said to her ack! ... What the hell are you doing, Logan?”
It was purely instinctual. He grasped a firm hold from the front of her shirt and hauled her violently against a nearby tree, dry twigs bristling and the bark of the tree chipping from the force of it.
“Don’t you ever... Fucking never scare me like that... Understood?” He hissed, his face hovering only inches apart from hers. Her eyes were wide as saucers and he could hear her heart, struggling against the bony cage it was trapped in, racing to deliver just the right mixture of hormones to prepare her to either fight or flee.
“Yes...?” She whispered, her lips trembling. She was agreeing, at least partially. There was a question hidden in that one syllable she had uttered. And now he could hear Scott and Jean approaching, bickering about this or that, generally raising enough ruckus to chase of anything and everything from several mile radius. He kissed Marie briefly, then forced a gentler tone to his voice.
“We’ll talk about this later. I’m... I’m not mad at you, kid. I... Later,” he stuttered and pulled her after him, back on to the path where they faced their teammates.
“You know, Logan... When I asked you two to scout the surroundings, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind,” Scott said smiling widely. It was quite obvious that packing up the Blackbird hadn’t been his top priority either. He looked more relaxed than they had seen him in weeks, and Jean was still all flustered and flushed up, demurely trying to pat down telltale strands of red hair that had escaped from her perfectly twisted bun.
“Berries! We were just eating blueberries!” Marie quickly interjected before Scott had the time to rib Logan some more. She wasn’t all too sure of how Logan would react to crude jokes about sexual preferences or even sex in general.
“Blueberries? Show me where! I have been starving for something fresh to eat!” Jean exclaimed, Logan’s tense posture and Marie’s uneasiness giving her all the guidance she needed.
“Come on, flyboy! Let’s pick some berries!” She decided and grasped Scott’s arm, dragging him away from the path with her.
“But what about the home base...”
“I’m sure that Marie and Logan can handle that, I think Logan is going to scout out that lumber mill he saw from the air. I’d much rather eat berries than sawdust, don’t you agree, Scott?”
With that said they both disappeared in to the thicket lining the path, leaving Marie and Logan alone again. For a while they just stood there, facing each other. She shuffled her feet nervously.
“Umm... Logan? About what happened earlier...”
“We’ll talk about it later, kid. It’s not something I’m going to discuss when there’s audience close by.”
“You’re not mad at me?” The insecure look on her face just about broke his heart. He pulled her in to his embrace, burying his face to the silky cascade of her hair.
“I’m not mad at you, Marie. And I’m sorry for what I did, there’s no excuse for that... I just got so fucking scared and worried...”
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