Logan tried to catch Rogue’s eyes as they left the Blackbird, but she managed to avoid him by offering to show the young family to some guest rooms where they could get some much needed rest. She didn’t look at him once as she led them away, and it took all of Logan’s willpower not to go barreling through the group at the bottom of the ramp to catch her and drag her away.
During the battle he had taken out some of the rage he felt watching Rogue fly through large explosions on his opponents. When he saw her entre that barn alone he sliced off the gun hand of the man facing hi m and ran forward only to be stopped by the enemy behind him bravely—and stupidly—jumping on his back. Taking care of that idiot had helped him regain some control. Watching Storm and Kitty follow Rogue into the bar fairly calmly had helped, too. The fact remained, though, that she had deliberately ignored his warning to be more careful.
Knowing that Rogue would probably take as much time getting the family settled in as she could, Logan made up an excuse to stay behind with the Blackbird by saying he had heard a noise in the engine and wanted to check it out. That almost backfired when Scott offered to help, but he shook his head and waved the other man on, saying that it was probably just a lose bolt or something. His teammates headed off to take care of the other refugees or to shower and change. Logan guessed the Scott and Storm would spend the rest of the night closeted with the Professor and making sure the refugees were settled. The other women would probably hurry through their showers so that they could hit the hay.
Rogue, who could always shower in her own bathroom, would probably head back down to the sub-levels in an attempt to avoid him again. The showers would be unoccupied by that time, so she would have solitude and quiet to recover from the mission, something he knew for a fact she enjoyed because she had told him so once after one of her earliest missions. In fact, he was counting on her doing exactly that.
Rogue crept along the main hall of the school to the elevator that led to the lower levels. She knew everyone else was already in their rooms because she had heard them coming upstairs while she was busy helping the Burkes get comfortable in their guest suite. The children had been so exhausted that she had put her hood back on, explaining about her skin as she did so, and then carried them to their room while their parents, bone-tired themselves, followed. She left the hood on while tucking them in, which allowed her to kiss them on the forehead when she wished them sweet dreams. The hood stayed on for Mr. and Mrs. Burkes’ sakes as she helped them into bed, too, and promised to arrange a big breakfast for them all in the morning.
Once Rogue was back in the now-quiet and dark hallway, she had realized that her black leather uniform and black hood would allow her to more easily slip down the stairs unnoticed. She figured that Logan was probably waiting in her room to yell at her, and she just wasn’t ready for that yet.
So she entered the elevator with a sigh of relief and hit the button that would send it gliding down. The halls of the lower level were also dark, so Rogue felt safe pushing her hood off her face to rest on her hair. It kept the long brown and white strands off her face as well, a welcome help with her constantly annoying hair. She headed down the hall to the women’s locker room. The place felt deserted so she walked quickly from one hall to the next, occasionally looking over her shoulder. Even the clinic lights were out; Dr. McCoy had obviously gone to bed when informed that neither the refugees nor the X-Men had any immediate medical needs.
Rogue pushed through the door to the locker room with yet another sigh and flipped on the light. She went over to a bench and dropped down on it, finally allowing herself to feel the terror of the night and the pain of the whiplash she had probably received from being too close to that first explosion. Closing her eyes, she let her head and shoulders droop forward and reached up to rub her neck, wincing a little at the pain. She stopped rubbing her neck and rubbed her eyes with her fingertips instead.
A large pair of hands wrapped around her neck from behind, fingers digging into the flesh of her collarbone. Rogue had only an instant to be startled and scared before the hands began where hers had left off, rubbing her sore neck and shoulders.
“What was that about being invulnerable earlier?” came the growl from behind.
Rogue didn’t know how someone so angry could give such a good massage, but right then she didn’t care. She let herself relax back into his hands, practically purring. “Muscle strain isn’t going to kill me, Logan,” she said. Maybe this fight wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought.
Wrong. The hands on her neck tightened perceptibly. “So the thought of breaking bones doesn’t scare you? I could strangle you, snap your neck right now, but that’s not a big deal? You could be crushed, drowned, but those aren’t problems?” Logan didn’t start out shouting, but he was definitely getting there when she reached up and pried his hands loose before jumping up to face him.
“People break bones all the time. Increased strength, remember? My bones withstand more pressure, and that helps if some asshole tries to strangle me! It also helps me get away if something tries to crush me or drown me! I’m not exactly breakable anymore, Logan, so quit it with the macho stuff! You’re not my father, and you’re not my fucking brother, so in my book that gives you no right to treat me as if I’m glass!” Rogue shouted back.
“Dammit, you’re wrong! True, you aren’t my daughter or my sister, but you’re my friend, and in my book that sure as hell gives me a right to make sure you’re as safe as I can make you in this fucked up world! I’ve lost too many friends not to. What good does your strength or your flying do if you get knocked unconscious? You’d better hope you’re not wearing that hood and that the bastard hitting you gets your face and not your hair, or you could wind up just as dead as anyone else! And then what will I do?!” With every shout Logan took a step forward, and Rogue stepped back, until the last when she ended up pressed against the wall with Logan yelling right into her face. “When I think about the risks you’re taking, I could just strangle you myself!” Logan finished, raising hands still encased in leather as if to suit actions to words.
Rogue raised her own hands from behind her back, hands now bare of gloves and lethal, to fend him off, although she wasn’t really scared of Logan. Still, she had never seen him so angry and felt the precaution was more than worth it. She caught his wrists and held them, his hands inches from her neck. They stared at each other for several tense moments, blazing hazel eyes meeting shocked brown. Finally, Rogue lowered her eyes and hands and stepped into Logan’s outstretched arms, wrapping her own around him and careful to keep the skin of her face away from his.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking about it that way. It was just so strange, such a rush to suddenly be so strong. I…guess I got carried away,” Rogue said, waiting tensely for his reaction.
Logan’s arms closed around her like a vise, but a comforting one. She felt the tension run out of both of them. It was so odd, hugging Logan. Despite their growing friendship since her return with Carol’s powers, they hadn’t hugged after that first night in her room when he held her as she cried over death and disappointment. The hug felt wonderful, as if she were coming home all over again.
“God, Marie, when I got on that jet and smelled burned leather and hair…I knew it was you, and all I could think of was that you could have died and that you went into that barn alone…” Logan’s chest rumbled with a growl when she jumped at that and then buried her face deeper into his shoulder. “Thought no one noticed that, huh? If I hadn’t had an idiot hanging on my back at the time, I might have killed you myself. Don’t ever do something so stupid again, Marie, or I swear I won’t be responsible for the consequences,” he said.
Rogue leaned back and looked up at him. “I promise to be more careful on missions. I swear. I don’t want to make my friends unhappy,” she said sincerely.
Their eyes met again, and for a second time they froze. Rogue was suddenly much more aware of the fact that they were pressed together chest to knee, and she could tell that he was, too. Oh, my, she thought, feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks in a deep blush.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
So this chapter skips between their viewpoints a bit, and there's a cliffhanger. One that won't be resolved tonight, I can tell you, although maybe before I go on my trip...This is the part that has to do with that dream I had, specifically Rogue's point of view.
Chapter End Notes:
Mwahahahaha! I wonder how in the world they'll resolve this...