They hadn't slept quite well in the car the last two days and though her nightmares would probably haunt her tonight, she was too exhausted to stay awake while sharing the bed with Logan. Healing from virtually everything is fine, but his body still needed sleep, which he had lacked of in the last few days.

After the supplies were safely stowed away on the Jeep's backseats, Logan suggested to call it a day. He'd get up earlier tomorrow and look for the trailer and fetch breakfast while Rogue would still sleep.

As soon as they stepped into the small foyer of the Inn, an elderly woman greeted them with a genuine smile from behind the reception desk. The two mutants approached her – Rogue taking in the waiting area, consisting of a couch and armchairs in front of a fireplace. Logan met the woman's gaze his usual grumpy face relaxed a little, after all he was here to get in touch with his past and scaring away the residents of his former hometown wouldn't be helpful in that matter.

"Welcome."

"Hello, we need a room for at least…" Logan contemplated a moment the condition of his cabin. "… the next five days."

With a smile Rogue added quite fast, "With two beds, please." Wolverine knew why his girl voiced this request and his tired body and mind thanked her.

The woman's fingers flew over the computer's keyboard and her smile faded somewhat. "I'm very sorry, but we have only rooms with one bed left." After a pause she clarified. "It's tourist season."

The Canadian only shrugged as he threw a glance at his love next to him while digging for his wallet in his jeans' back pocket. "Then we've to get creative, Marie."

"But all our rooms have a couch." Their host explained and retrieved a key holding it to the brunette, who lifted her gloved hand beyond the counter and accidentally revealed a box of snacks she was holding. The girl blushed caught and clutched her Oreos to her chest like a young child would with its favorite teddy bear. "It's fine, honey." The elderly woman smiled again. "I'm Helen Sheridan. My husband and I are the owner of this lil' Inn. As long as you don't start cookin' up in your room, you can take your sweets up to your room."

"Thank ya." Rogue's blush still wouldn't fade from her cheeks. This was a hotel and not one of the crappy motels, they used to stop.

"Breakfast is inclusive. From 7 till 9 am." Helen read the signature on the paper, she had slipped towards the man for the contact information. "Have a nice stay, Mr. Howlett."

"Thanks."

Her eyes darted back to the paper and the name. "Logan Howlett… I knew I've seen you before!" Helen's face lit up in disbelief and excitement. "My son Rick used to work with you at the loggin' side." Her enthusiasm died down when she saw the man frown in puzzlement, his eyes holding an odd mixture of hope and pain. "I'm sorry. I must confuse you with someone… It's you just look so much like him."

"No, ma'am. You might be right." Logan wasn't one to throw around with private information or his trauma about his lost past, but this town symbolized a turning-point in his search for his identity and he needed to give those people something in order to gain more aspects about his former life. "Had an accident and lost my memories." The Wolverine inside him snarled about the pity he saw in the woman's features, but Logan ignored him. "Only recently… I found out 'bout my name and where I used to live."

"Oh, dear." Helen watched the brunette clasped the man's large hand and squeeze it reassuringly. "You used to work as a logger. Your girlfriend was a teacher at the local elementary school. Her name…"

"Kayla Silverfox." Logan put in as a faint picture of Kayla and him driving to work appeared before his mind's eye.

"Oh, yes Miss Silverfox… If I remember correctly the two of you vanished twenty years ago…" Her words trailed off when she saw the hurt flicker in his hazel orbs.

"Kayla didn't survive that accident back then." The Canadian gripped the strap of the duffle bag on his shoulder tighter when he heard Rogue's steady voice.

"We're here to jog his memories. But the drive here was long and we need rest." She could feel his exhaustion. The visit of his past is taking its toll at her love. His life had always consisted of pain and loss and even the strongest man could deal with such information only in small doses at a time.

Their host looked bashful. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I got carried away." She gestured over to the stairs leading upwards. "Your room is on the second floor at the far end of the corridor."

"Thank ya. " The young woman smiled at her and she and Logan made they way to their room, while Helen wondered about the kind of relationship her two newest visitors stood to each other.

X X X X X

The room was clean and homey furnished. The sun fell through the curtains onto the couch on the opposite wall and the king-size bed in the middle of the room. On each of the two pillows rested a small bar of chocolate, to sweet the welcome. Logan opened the door to the bathroom, noting with a smile that it harbored a bathtub next to a small shower-cabin. He usually enjoyed the warm drops sprayed from a shower onto his tensed muscles, kneading the stress away, above a bath, but at the moment the chance of a relaxing bath sounded alluring.

Rogue flapped onto the bed, kicking off her boots, making one of them hit the dresser on which the small TV was positioned. "So people remember ya, sugah. And they do in a good way." Her head titled to the side, meeting Logan's gaze as he approached her and set their bag onto the sofa.

"Seems so." A faint smile tugged on his lips. It felt still so surreal that he was finally in touch with his long lost past. He had always been on the hunt for leads to his former life, always expecting to find his answers slowly and with much effort. But now everything lay before his feet and he just needed to put the puzzle together.

The words Stryker had told him at the raid of the mansion had always haunted and scared him. That his past might have been darker and plastered with more corpses than the last 19 years of his miserable existence were. But at the moment his past had its shady sites and he surely had committed a lot of injustice and massacres, but all in all it seemed James Logan Howlett wasn't such a despicable person he dreaded he might have been.

Howlett had lived a pretty normal and peaceful life with his girlfriend in their cabin in the Canadian wilderness. He had a job as logger and seemed to have friends among the locals, who still held fond memories of him and Kayla. Maybe his Marie was right and there was no need to fear James Howlett, since he wasn't that different from his former self.

Rogue had already fetched one of the chocolates and was sucking on it with pleasure. He unwrapped the second sweets and plopped it into his mouth earning a pout from the beauty spread out on the bed. She had hoped to also get his.

With a teasing smirk Logan crawled onto the mattress and leaned over her body. He saw her swallow her chocolate and bent down to capture her lips into a passionate kiss, his tongue was granted access immediately and found its dancing partner in her hot mouth. She tasted sweeter than ever and he cursed her mutation as it stepped into action and he had to break away reluctantly.

Marie smiled up at his face. "Thanks, sugah." And she let the second piece of chocolate melt on her tongue.

Placing a peck to her lightly swollen lips the Canadian rolled off of her and leaped to his feet. "Gonna take a long bath, darlin'. Now is your last chance to use the toilet."

"Huhu, afraid Ah would get a glimpse of your naked ass, sugah. Never thought ya the prude type." Marie slowly got up from the soft beddings and neared the bathroom. She knew he didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable or push her. This all was so new to her and her returned mutation wasn't a hindrance for the Wolverine as he had already told her about a possibility for them to become intimate.

X X X X X

Rogue had showered after her love had finally left the bathroom almost an hour later. If it wasn't for his healing factor she'd have worried that he might had hit his head and lay bleeding on the floor or that he had accidentally drowned. But she figured he needed the time alone in the relaxing water to brood over their findings.

When she entered the main room dressed in her pajama shorts and a sleeveless shirt, the brunette noted that the pillow and blanket she had placed onto the couch for her to sleep there, have already wandered back to their former spot on the bed. On the one nightstand stood a half empty bottle of beer, on the other Rogue's Pepsi. They had smuggled the drinks in their duffel bag into the room.

Logan wore his usual night attire: His battered blue jeans and his wife-beater. "Logan." Her voice held understanding, but also worry. She approached him at his position looking out the window. "One wrong touch and Ah could kill ya during sleep." Her eyes were fearful.

He turned around to face the troubled girl, his eyes kind and reassuring. "You know how dangerous it is to be near me during a nightmare." His hands wandered to her waist.

"But ya would never hurt me on purpose."

He saw the concern for him in her chocolate eyes. "Neither would you!" His gaze switched quickly to the bed, then back to Marie. "There's only this one bed and I refuse to believe that I will never be able to sleep with you next to me." This might happen if his plan with becoming immune to her skin wouldn't work.

Logan stepped forward slowly, making her walk backwards towards the bed. When her legs touched the mattress his eyes began to twinkle with a predator's lust. "We are both dangerous in bed." His hot breath tickled against her lips before he kissed her pushing her carefully down on the bed. He broke the kiss only shortly avoiding the pull on his life-force. She immediately responded to his soft lips, her bare hands tangling in his dark mane. After a few of those resumed kisses Logan finally pulled away looking straight in her brown eyes. "You won't leave my side tonight, my love." With a quick peck he rolled off of her and stretched out on the bed next to her slender frame.

Panting hard Rogue sighed and titled her head to the side to see her love. "That's torture." She wanted a long lasting kiss, the opportunity to explore his mouth with her tongue, and not those teasing glimpses.

"You say." Lifting an eyebrow he stood up and left the room. "I'm gonna take a really cold shower."

The brunette giggled about the bulge in his pants and rolled off the bed and headed for another pair of pj pants – long ones and fetched Logan's red button-up from the floor shrugging it on.

X X X X X

It was still early and the sun just peaked up behind the mountains when Logan woke up feeling Rogue's warm body snuggled next to his. He wore a long sleeved shirt she'd talked him into the night before, but somehow he sensed warmth coming directly from her skin to his hand. Frowning he looked down. Rogue's glove had slipped a little down and her bare wrist was in direct contact with his hand – nothing separating them.

His bewildered gaze rested for a small eternity on their touching skins. But soon joy replaced his puzzlement and a smile of true happiness graced his lips as he carefully - to not wake the beauty - tugged on her glove. When the disturbing fabric was gone – he had thrown it across the room onto the floor – he gently laced their bare fingers, savoring the feeling of her warm and soft palm against his large one.

His plans to get up early thrown in the wind, Logan eventually broke their contact and slid away from her frame. Stripping off his shirt he then concentrated on pulling her glove from her other hand, tugged under her belly in her sleep. He held his breath in apprehension as she groaned and rolled to her side, but her even breathing told him she was still deep asleep. When he had finally freed her hand from her glove he slid back to his former position next to his love and she immediately snuggled into his side. Her head shifted so her bare cheek rested on a spot on his hairy chest above his heart while she draped her arm over his abdomen and her fingers caressed the flesh of his side in her sleep.

He saw an adorable smile form on her pink lips and he wrapped his uncovered arms about her slender form tightly, making her moan lightly. Nuzzling her thick hair he kissed her head lovingly. "I love you so much."

X X X X X

"Good mornin', my love." He greeted the waking beauty in his embrace with a wide smile, his fingers caressing her bare back tenderly - his hands had found their way under her layers of clothing a while ago.

Still half asleep Rogue smiled back, not realizing his shirt was gone as were her gloves. "Morning, sugah." Taking a deep breath she moved her bare fingers through the dark curls of hair on his chest. She nuzzled further into his broad chest and placed a quick kiss onto his warm and naked skin beneath her cheek, sighing contently. 'Ah don't wanna wake up from this dream.'

'You already have, runt.'

'Stay out of mah dream, Victor!' She growled at her mental passenger. Then it hit her. He couldn't invade her dreams this way. "Logan!" Suddenly the brunette pushed herself away her eyes widened in shock. "Are you nuts?" With blazing anger about his recklessness she took in his bare torso and her uncovered hands.

"Calm down." Logan sat up in bed a content smile on his lips. "I held you like this for the last hour, Marie." His voice was calm and his hazel eyes kind and full of joy.

"What?"

The horror in her tone was hard to miss, yet he ignored it and shrugged. "It's possible to completely turn off your powers. You did this in your sleep." He saw the surprise in her agitated features as she processed this information, still disbelief, fear and anger dominant in her chocolate orbs. "I think it's your own fear lockin' you up under all that layers of cloth." He mused aloud, watching her reaction from afar. Logan knew better than to approach her – bare skin or not – in such a mood and situation.

Rogue glared down on her bare hands for the friction of a second, before staring daggers at the Canadian. 'Mah own fear? … How dare he!' He might know her like nobody else did, but this audacity was too much to bear. "Don't go all Freud on me!"

Before he could go on with his musings the brunette had jumped to her feet and bolted over to the bathroom, fetching her clothes from a stool on her way.

X X X X X