Rogue stared at her alarm clock from the haven of her pillow. Seven a.m. Damn. After the night she just had, all she wanted was to sleep in, but apparently her body had other ideas despite shitty sleep and a lot of crying. The icing on the fucking cake had been a recurrence of Logan's nightmare, possibly brought on by briefly using her powers on him the previous night. Just thinking about it was enough to bring back the anger and hurt from the words they threw at each other. Oh, sure, Logan had admitted he wanted her, but then he basically blamed it on her clothing and called her a whore! Rogue ground her teeth together, hand fisted into the soft cotton of her pillow, and without thinking about it she yanked it from under her own head and threw it at the door. Face plastered to the mattress, chest heaving and now both hands clenched into fists, she imagined what she'd like to do to Logan just then, and none of it was kiss and make up.
Then she realized that she could do better than just imagining. Rogue jumped out of bed and rummaged through her drawers until she found what she was looking for. She quickly stripped then pulled on black spandex workout shorts and a green sports bra. Briefly she considered a T-shirt then snarled, rejecting that as a hang up from her argument with Logan. She brushed out her hair, practically ripping through knots acquired tossing and turning while trying to sleep and taking perverse pleasure in the pain she was causing herself. Then she pulled the brown and white mass back into a ponytail, braided it and looped it around itself several times before securing it with a second hair band. She slipped socks and sneakers onto her feet, then she quickly brushed her teeth to get rid of the morning funk in her mouth. Finally ready, she opened her bedroom door as quietly as possible and made her way to the third floor access to the elevator. Rogue stepped in and said, “Danger Room” as the door slid shut behind her.
Rogue held herself tensely as the door to the sub-level opened revealing a dark hallway. As she stepped out of the elevator, the lights came on. Rogue cursed herself for jumping, especially since she knew the lights were motion sensitive. She listened for a moment but couldn't hear anyone else on that level. Reassured since she knew she was about to break the rules, Rogue walked quickly down the hall to the double doors that promised her some good old-fashioned stress relief. She blessed Scott silently for coming up with this as the door sensor scanned her retina, then she walked through the opening portal.
No one was supposed to use the Danger Room alone, although Rogue knew Logan did. Just then she couldn't have cared less about that particular precaution. She knew she'd been doing better than merely “good” at self-defense and combat training, especially hand-to-hand, for the past two years, classes that Professor Xavier thought were necessary for young mutants in the current times as a safeguard. Training with the team had barely broken her stride. The only difference had been the introduction to her new favorite place in the mansion—the Danger Room.
“Computer, open simulation FOH23,” Rogue instructed, calling up her favorite of the programs they had practiced with so far. It was perfect for her style of fighting.
Thanks to recent breakthroughs in holographic technology and the Professor's connections which kept them up to date on the latest, a dark forest sprang up around Rogue. She was standing in the middle of the only clearing in sight. She smiled, feeling the anger coursing through her. “Computer, play RogueWorkout,” she called out. That was her favorite play list. She had downloaded it into the school's internal network audio files long ago so that she could use it in the gym when she was by herself, really disliking those ear bud headphones. She knew the Danger Room computer had access to the network. Music filled the large room, the beat making Rogue twitch with the need to move to it. She was ready.
“Computer, begin combat simulation.”
Almost immediately, Rogue was being attacked by robots wearing holographic projections of generic Friends of Humanity fighters. One after another they came for her. Each blank face became Logan's in her mind as she kicked, punched, grappled with, slammed against trees and otherwise damaged the robots. Rogue felt a little of her anger draining away as she fought. Of course, there was the distraction of a foot finding her already-sore ribs, a hand grabbing her wrist and flipping her onto her back, an arm around her neck, choking her, before she managed a flip of her own. Pain shot through her with each contact, hers or theirs, making her fight back that much harder to let the physical pain wash over her and hopefully drown the emotion hurts.
Rogue was in the middle of delivering a high kick to the throat of one particularly persistent soldier when the program froze and her music stopped. Her kick knocked the soldier over, but there were no more attacks, and then the robots disappeared back into the “trees,” mostly likely really going back to their charging stations. Only outside interference from someone with command access could do that, she thought. There were only two people in the mansion with that kind of access, and she prayed silently that Scott had been the one to find her illicitly using the Danger Room, not—
Logan woke up from restless sleep for a final time at seven-thirty a.m. He admitted defeat at that point, got up, threw on a pair of sweatpants, and left his room. Scenes from the past night played in his head as they had all night, further darkening his mood as he headed down to the Danger Room.
Rogue wearing an excuse for a dress that made him want to rip it off of her and take her right there up against her car. Rogue curled up like the innocent kid he was very aware she no longer was, watching a scary movie in a dimly lit room. The feisty lecture about sneaking up on her. Those were the good memories from last night.
The lingering scents of Rogue, sex, and that asshole she kept meeting as he passed her car while going back into the house. The stupid things he'd said because she'd made him so angry by saying she wasn't his, and the slap she'd laid on him when he insinuated that she was whoring herself out. Her final words to him before she fled, words that hurt a hundred times worse than the slap because they were true, all of them. Those were the parts that sucked the most.
Balanced on a razor edge between good and bad had been her admission that he could have had her if he had only been paying attention. Also the kiss, the one he forced on her because it was that or strangle her. Remembering the feel of her body pressed against him, all soft curves and lean muscle, was making him horny, which just added to his need to beat something up since chances of him getting relief any other way seemed pretty slim just then. The Danger Room it was.
Only the Danger Room was already in use when he got there. Logan frowned and wondered which of the lazy fucks it could be since almost no one was awake at this time on a Saturday morning. He moved to the observation room and switched on the cameras. What he saw made him so enraged that his claws popped out reflexively, and it took some effort to draw them back in. Rogue was in there, alone, ignoring what she knew was a sensible safety protocol! Logan was momentarily distracted by the way she looked as she wailed on the hologram-cloaked robots, that body hugged by snug black and green and little else transitioning smoothly from one attack to another, a wild grin lighting her face and eyes with each impact.
Then a soldier wrapped his arm around her neck and squeezed until she flipped him over her own head, but not before Logan noticed how she gasped for air. Logan's fury returned in full force, and he entered the authorization to halt the program just as she gathered herself to kick another soldier in the throat. Then he slammed out of the observation room and over to the large silver doors. One retina scan later the doors opened to reveal hundreds of trees surrounding the small clearing where Rogue stood breathing heavily. She turned at the sound of the door opening, braced her feet and raised her chin defiantly as she met his eyes. Her grin had disappeared, replaced with a sneer.
“What do you want?” she asked as if she had every right to be where she was, putting herself at risk.
Logan kept his mouth shut as he paced toward her, deliberately slow as an animal stalking its prey might be. Her eyes narrowed and nostrils flaring, Rogue watched him warily.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” he asked, voice low and deadly cold as his eyes raked over her, checking for injuries and registering every bruise, every scrape and cut. He picked up the tang of her blood in the air and snarled.
“I had some anger management issues I needed to work out,” she drawled sarcastically, giving a little shrug.
Logan brushed off that hit. “Yeah, me too, darlin'. Thing is, when I use the Danger Room alone, I'm not endangering my life!” He couldn't help raising his voice.
Rogue just scoffed. “I can handle myself, Logan. I wasn't even using a potentially lethal program, just one for hand-to-hand,” she informed him stiffly. “But if you need to use it now, I guess I'll go for a run,” she said with another shrug as she turned to leave.
Logan was too angry to let her. “I don't think so, Rogue. Computer, lock door, authorization W69L16,” he said, smirking nastily when he heard the click.
Rogue spun around to face him, her eyes wide. “What the fuck are you doing?” she yelled at him.
“I'm about to show you how lethal hand-to-hand can be, darlin'. And no using your skin,” he said, circling her.
Rogue's eyes lit viciously, and she bared her teeth at him. “Then no claws, sugar,” she ordered as she braced herself.
Logan launched himself at her, fist headed straight for her face. Rogue ducked smoothly and used his momentum to ram her own fist into his solar plexus. The brief flare of pain and lack of breath gave her an opportunity to move out of his reach--almost. He reached out a hand and snagged her shoulder, slamming her to the ground. She was back on her feet in one fluid motion that sent a wave of lust pounding through him. She managed a kick that connected with the soft tissue of his side instead of his adamantium-reinforced ribcage. He grabbed her arm and spun her so the for one moment they touched chest to thigh before she stomped on his instep, the surprise making him let her go. It was in that moment of closeness that he caught the first whiff--aroused Rogue. She was getting as turned on by this fight as he was!
Logan blocked another kick from Rogue and used his grip on her ankle to try and send her back down to the ground, but somehow she managed to back flip and land on her feet. Logan used the moments where she was off balance to kick her hip, sending her to her knees with a shriek partly of rage, partly of pain.
“So far nothing lethal, sugar,” she taunted him as she glanced over her shoulder.
Logan charged toward her then, and she crouched on hands and knees, snapping one foot out at the last moment and catching the muscle of his thigh, knocking him off his feet and shoving so he'd land on the ground next to her instead of on top of her. He landed on his back. Rogue jumped on top of him, knee connecting with his stomach and hands pinning his shoulders momentarily. He caught her wrists and rolled, capturing her beneath him.
Logan froze, the feel of her body, slick with sweat and with so little as a barrier between them, bringing instincts he had to struggle to control raging forward. Rogue met his eyes and smiled that wild smile, licking her lips. Logan felt his control slip at the scent of her, anger and pain and arousal mixed together, intoxicating him as it combined with his own scent, tempting him to lift a hand from one of her wrists to run it up the soft, smooth skin of her side. Just as his fingers found her breast, exploring its roundness, Rogue wrapped her legs around his thighs, trapping them, and then she did the hottest damn thing. She flexed her hips and suddenly regained the upper hand by rolling them back over. Rogue's free arm pressed into his neck, bearing down on his windpipe as she lowered her mouth to his for a slow, very hot kiss. Logan caught her hips in his hands, fingers digging into her flesh through the spandex as he rubbed his erection into the apex of her thighs. Rogue moaned and the pressure on his throat increased for a bit before she pulled back. She stared down at him, panting.
Rogue wondered what to say as she met Logan's eyes, suddenly unsure despite their current positions. Catching her change in mood, he sat up and gently moved her so that she was draped across his lap.
“I'm still angry with you,” Rogue told him, watching his every move warily. She knew they were both still turned on by their fight—-evidence was currently pressed against her hip—-but she didn't want her first time with Logan to be marred by the words still between them.
Logan ran a hand through his hair even as he held her close with his other arm. “I shouldn't have said what I did, Marie. I'm just so damned frustrated...”he admitted. “I've been angry with myself for being angry at you for enjoying not having to bundle up for the last few weeks, even though I knew it was stupid to feel that way. Then I realized it wasn't just anger, and I guess the jealousy just built up until I couldn't see straight.”
Rogue sighed and raised her knees to wrap her arms around him, turning a little away from him. “I'm not going to apologize for my behavior, Logan. I really thought you were too busy drooling over Jean to notice me. I did my damnedest to get over you, too,” she muttered.
“I know,” Logan said darkly. When Rogue glared at him over her shoulder, he held up a hand. “I'm not accusing you of anything, okay? It was just really hard to watch.”
Rogue was quiet, eyes back on the holographic grass in front of her. “I told Bryan good-bye last night, you know,” she said softly. When he growled, she looked back again. “I know you didn't like him, but he was a decent guy who treated me well, and he didn't deserve for me to just drop him like he had the plague or something,” she scolded him.
Logan carefully wrapped his arms around her. “If he had hurt you, I would have killed him,” was all he said. Rogue snorted but didn't comment.
They sat there like that, silent, for a few minutes, each one unsure what to say next. Rogue's stomach made the decision for them by grumbling loudly. She laughed weakly.
“I guess I should get some breakfast,” she said, standing up. When Logan just sat there staring up at her, she raised her eyebrows. “You going to unlock the door, sugar?”
Logan got to his feet and sighed. “Computer, end program and unlock door, authorization W69L16,” he commanded.
Rogue gave him a look as they left the Danger Room. “69, huh?”
Logan grinned a little. “Yep.”
“And 16?”
Logan just ushered her to the elevator as quickly as he could.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Author's Chapter Notes:
All right, everyone, here's the next morning...
Chapter End Notes:
Now, I am conflicted because I'm not sure if I should end this here or keep going to explore their relationship and eventually give them some true smutty goodness. What do you think?