Oh no, Ah know this silence, Ah know this feelin and Ah know jus what's coming next. It's going to be tell-me-your-story-time. Ah just hate that part, Ah really do. It's ain't never turned out good yet and Ah'm jus so tired and cold. Out here, miles from anywhere, Ah don't wanna get kicked out again.
Ah dunno, maybe he is thinkin something's up already, cos he keeps lookin at me sideways, all these little glances. Ah know its not for mah face or mah figure, Ah'm just a hot mess tonight with my raggedy clothes and cheeks all chapped up from that snow.
This truck ain't that warm either, an Ah think the dampness in mah gloves is re-freezing, darn it! Ah'm just gonna take em off and drape em over the heater a little. My that heat feels good on mah fingers. It's amazin really how sensitive they get, all mah skin really. I suppose Ah'm so used o feeling the world through a shield of silk or leather that everything feels like the first time to me.
"Look, you get warmed up, I'll turn the heaters up ok? Just keep your hands there right, cos shit, I mean, uh, uh, aw, well look, Jesus, anyway your fingers are going blue alright!"
"No!"
Oh mah Gawd, oh mah Gawd, he jus grabbed my hand! He grabbed me by the wrist and pulled my hands towards that darn heater, Ah was so close to his skin, I could feel the heat from him burning through mah coat, radiating from his hand to my bare skin, just a breath apart. Ah should never have taken mah gloves off. How can Ah be so darn stupid? And now Ah gotta say something, cos he's looking all hurt that I screamed and flinched back, but Ah'm just too tired to explain it all now....
"Uh, ok. Ok Marie. I won touch ya ok? Jus, stay there, try an take a breath darlin, can ya? I just want ya to be warm an look, I got some jerky here in the glove box, here ya go..."
Ok, ok, ok, I can do this.
"So what darlin, uh, did someone hurt you? Cos, you know we can take care of things like that."
"No! Well, yes, but that's not it. Look, oh Gawd, it's just I'm a little different, is all, ok? My skin, just don't touch it, Logan. Don't touch my bare skin, it, it could hurt you. That's all I'm saying."
And now he's looking at me, and he looks surprised, not angry, that's so funny, not many people react well to mutant hitchhikers, even ones with my unusual skills.
"So, how did a southern magnolia like you wind up in the great white north huh?"
Well there's an unexpectedly welcome change of subject, the first time I've ever been happy to roll out my sorry little story. It's so prosaic, and I've told it too many times, it doesn't affect me now. It's just boring, the words, the reactions I always get. But why isn't he scared about my skin? Doesn't he get it yet? He sure is smart enough to.
"Oh, well, Ah'm from Mississippi, an really all I wanted was to see the snow. So I came on up here."
Now he's giving me 'the look'. Ah admit, Ah don't know what look it is, but is is A Look, all capitals and that's for certain.
"Look, baby..."
Darlin? Baby? Ah jus told him Ah could kill him with a fingertip! What is happening here in this man's head?
"Look baby, you got your skin, I got these claws, I can tell you're lying' so let's just start again shall we? Because you ain't no ordinary runaway and I don't like the sound of untruths comin' from your lips."
Oh holy, claws, he said he has claws and there they are. Extending a few inches from his knuckles, there's shiny, metal, curving claws. That razor point on them too, and that's sure something.
"Do, they hurt, Logan, do they hurt when they come out?"
"Every time, Marie."
"Thank you. Really, thank you."
I know it might seem crazy, thanking the man whose just shown you one of the many ways he could probably kill a person but Logan has just done me a real favour, because Ah am too tired. Ah'm so tired I can't even puzzle over my luck at us both meeting up, two mutants running, and finding each other. All Ah care about right now, is that Ah am warm, Ah feel safe for the first time in weeks, and Ah can sleep. Ah don't have to guard anymore, to lie anymore.
"What the hell you thanking me for Marie? Shit, don't you know what these things do?"
"Logan! Ah came up from Mississippi after my mutation came on. Ah ain't got no money and Ah ain't got no friends now, because no matter how rich Daddy is, no kind of money can buy acceptance in my home town."
"Now the reason Ah look like Ah fell out of a old time magazine, is because Ah grabbed all the clothes Ah could when Ah ran and that wasn't many. An now Ah been running for a long time. So Ah'm wearing just what's left, which is the coat Daddy bought me to go to Europe that one time, and if you'll believe it, my debutante dress."
"Now don't laugh, Ah earned what Ah could and Ah spent it on food and gas money. An Ah'm not ashamed of that. Now you hush up, cos Ah am tired, and hurting an, fixin to go right to sleep. Goodnight Mr Logan."
And there she goes, curling up, snuggling down into that sable of hers an goin right to sleep. Huh, she's a little spitfire that one.
She told me, put me in my place. Well, I'll be damned. Sweet southern runaway in her ball gown. It's not a story you hear everyday and somehow I believe it. She's all curled up now, just out, deep sleep. I gotta lotta good here, girl like her, smellin so good, letting me watch over her as she sleeps.
The way she did it all, just flipped into a temper and told me straight her whole story and then, no discussion, she's going to bed. Good night Mr Logan and that's all she wrote. But damn me, another mutie. What are the odds on that?
An the way she was with the claws. No ones ever asked me that before, if they hurt. Most women, they're running, ain't never had one hang round long enough to ask a question.
She's a good person, she smelled that way right from the start.
She's lookin sweet when she sleeps. Her face all smoothed out and those cheeks all pinked up from the cold, she smells good when she's sleeping too, warmer somehow, softer. I ain't never smelled a woman sleeping before, not that I can remember anyhow, I used to kick em out if they ever tried any of that, I ain't looking for a Mrs. and most of the woman I'm knocking about with know that too. But she looks good. An we got a long drive ahead of us.
Huh, she's shifting in her sleep, slipping her little feet outta those too-big boots. Ain't it funny she can't touch, cos right now, if she was a normal woman, and I was a normal man. I'd pull her close to me, wrap her up against my shoulder under my jacket, sharing heat, feeling her heart against me, the rhythm of her breath, murmurs in her dreams. But we ain't normal. She's got skin that maims and some serious quasi-military training in that sweet head of hers and I'm older than rocks and twice as hard.
She wouldn't wanna be all pulled up to a man like me anyhow, an I wouldn't risk scraping something so beautiful with the claws. Scrapping or worse, impaling more like. But then, if she can hurt me and I can hurt her, then maybe equally matched there would be ways around it, I mean it's not like I have to touch her bare skin to hold her...
I tell you, when she flinched back from me earlier it was like confirming every bad thought I've had and every bad thing I done.
There I was, trying for a little redemption, here at everlast point, as close to the end of the road as I might come, for my soul anyways. Just trying to give a little kindness to a real live angel and she threw it right back at me. That's what I thought. Damn stupid, I should've trusted her. She's a good woman. She had her reasons.
I was glad when she told me cos the smell of a lie offa this one is more than I can stand. I preferred to hear the truth no matter how bad it is, comin offa her lips. An those lips, she looks like some princess, but those lips have me thinking things I know I shouldn't. I don't know what I did to get to see this girl but whatever it was I'm finding out and doing it over and over.
Now I gotta stop thinking about her lips, an her scent, and how she accepted me, reached for me, showed caring for me, and how she jus saw the claws and went right on, setting' me to rights, reading me the law and tellin me how it's gonna be. An I gotta stop thinking about other times that fire might come out in her because it felt damn good to be on the receiving end of it this time, and I can't exactly stop for a little relief with her right next to me, even though she does make the cab smell so damn good, and her soft lips saying my name is playing over and over in my mind, an my jeans are feelin five sizes too small, I can't because she could wake up and....
Ok! That's is, let's change the subject. Think something else, z, y, x, w, v.....
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Author's Chapter Notes:
And so we continue. This chapter includes my first ever attempt at writing Marie POV and a mid-chapter POV shift (I know, you are excited already, I can tell). This is still unbetaed, but I am looking for a beta and will pay in gratitude and plot bunnies. Constructive criticism is welcomed! Thank you for reading. This chapter is brought to you via laryngitis, large amounts of pain, and concern for my relatives in hospital. Well, at least we know challenges fuel me to create (other realities). I have been lurking as I read some amazing fics on this site (by people like Drg, Sare Liz & others) and began to freak out over why I am imposing my badly written fiction on the world. But, this story wanted out, to get better, I need to write and we have 2 chapters to go after this and then I head back to 'They Should Have Known It Would Be a Love Story'. With Rogue laying down the law and Logan letting his mind wander there are some fun and explanations here.... enjoy x
Chapter End Notes:
Thank you for reading, do let me know any feedback or constructive criticism, what you liked, where and how I could improve -with gentleness please! I must say all the hits and reviews on this story just have my squeezing in delight. Gratitude x