Logan waited impatiently after knocking on the door. He sighed and went over in his head all the ways he had fucked up yesterday.
Why had he kissed her? He could have simply offered to heal her instead of forcing a kiss on her. Which she responded to and at that moment he'd wanted to let her drain him dry for just a kiss. But the dumb ass he was, he had to go and show her that it was about his need to heal her.
She'd scared him the way she'd recklessly thrown herself in the melee. Like some kind of bad dream where everything happens in slow motion, he couldn't get to her in time and had to watch in horror as she was hit in the head with a pipe. She'd had been down for only a moment and made it back to the jet under her own power, but he could tell, even a full row ahead of her, that there was more damage than she'd admitted. As a result he'd been unusually harsh with her after the mission.
And why a kiss? Freud would probably have fun with that analysis and so would Marie if she probed his memories deeper than she had last night.
Pushing all those thoughts down, Logan knocked on her door again. He knew she was still in bed, he'd heard her flip over when he knocked the first time. Knowing her like he did, she'd probably pulled a pillow over her head too.
It was already 6 A.M. and if Marie didn't get up the day would be shot. Logan opened the door and entered her room without waiting for an invitation. It wasn't like he hadn't done it before and she'd returned the favor more than once at his door. "Get up Marie. We got places to be."
"Logan!" Came the surprised voiced from under the pillow. Marie lifted the pillow and tried to focus a glare on him. "We don't all have healing factors."
Logan ignored her and went straight to her closet. He pushed around her neatly hung clothes; grabbing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt he remembered seeing Marie wear a couple of times. He threw the clothes on her bed and turned to leave. "You've got ten minutes. Meet me in the garage."
"Wait a minute," she started to protest, but Logan was already out the door.
Rogue jumped from her bed. You didn't get second chances with Logan very often; besides last night's lesson of 'do what I tell you' was still echoing in her head. Quickly she shucked her nightshirt and pulled on the clothes he'd flung on her bed. She wrestled her hair into a presentable ponytail after brushing her teeth.
Five minutes left. She wanted to wear her favorite chunky boots Logan had gotten two years ago, but she didn't have the time to lace them up properly. Instead she settled for pulling on the sneakers she'd left by the desk.
There was enough time to make it to the garage if she hurried. She knew Logan well enough to realize this was probably part of some plan he'd cooked up to apologize for the aftermath of yesterday's mission. He didn't really need to apologize anymore than he already had. Not that he'd said the words, "I'm sorry", but he'd held her and ran his fingers through her hair. Rogue had fallen asleep feeling loved and that was enough.
Logan leaned against the sedan, checking his watch. He suppressed a self-satisfied smile as Marie came jogging into the garage. She had put on the clothes he selected. It pleased him far more than he was comfortable with.
Marie's ponytail swung with each sway of her hips. His hands ached at the memory of the fullness of her hips under his hands in the shower. How her perfect breasts had been so tantalizingly close.
What the hell was wrong with him? He'd been scrubbing her raw in an attempt to wash away his guilt. No way on God's green earth should she ever think of him as anything but the brute he was last night. He knew he was lucky that Marie was so forgiving.
Rogue noticed an odd expression on his face before it turned to irritation and he wrenched open the driver's door. She'd seen him wear that emotion more often lately when he thought she wasn't looking. With the fresh dose of Logan's memories, it might be prudent to take a peek.
Within an hour they were seated in a booth at a diner eating breakfast. Marie stole a strip of bacon from his plate while drenching her waffle in maple syrup. Logan didn't mind her taking some of his bacon, but felt the need to point out that she could order something else. "If you want, I'll pay for a side of bacon."
She licked the syrup off her fork. "I'm trying to be a cheap date," she said teasingly.
He raised an eyebrow at her. "We aren't on a date."
"Whatever." Marie added before stuffing more waffle into her mouth. She smiled inwardly, she and Logan had always flirted, but he was having none of it today. He appeared to be still smarting from the way things went last night added to the seriousness of this task he'd currently set for himself. Give him a few days and they would be back to normal.
He couldn't help watching her pink tongue dart out trying to catch the syrup at the corner of her mouth. He had to look away, guilty with the thoughts the image stirred up. Seeing her naked had only made those images he already of her even more vivid. Unfortunately, because he was a jackass and had treated her poorly, he would probably never get another chance to see her naked.
This plan had seemed so simple when he'd decide to apologize to Marie for being so callous the night before. Now though, his plan was going to require more patience then he previously believed. The past few months Logan had problems keeping her in the kid category. Everything she did screamed available woman and he'd tried unsuccessfully to ignore the change he saw. They had done more flirting and though he was serious, she continued on as light-heartedly as ever.
"So, where are we going?" she asked, putting a fork into one of his sausages, winking saucily at him as she did it. Marie was hoping to lighten the mood, and she was rewarded with a raised eyebrow. If he were dead serious it would have been a scowl. Maybe he wasn't as grumpy as she thought.
"We're going to replace the stuff you had to throw away last night." Her forehead scrunched up in thought. "Your…" Why on earth was this word causing him problems? He'd seen women in their undergarments, seen them out of them too. But Marie wasn't any of those women. "…underthings." Thankful she didn't notice his struggle.
"Oh, good. Jubes said there was a sale at Victoria Secrets." Rogue wanted to say more, poke fun at his discomfort, but this was new. Logan using the word underthings was almost funny. She had his memories; the man could give names for said underthings in three different languages at the drop of a hat. Why was he having problems saying bra and panties to her of all people?
Logan said nothing else as she continued on about the mall. He listened while eating his breakfast, letting her have half of his hash browns.
Rogue gave him a curious look when they pulled up in front of several old storefronts in a residential area. Over the years, living in a mansion with a handful of adult women, he'd overheard a thing or two about finding a well-fitting bra and it had little to do with rummaging through the sale bins at the mall.
Logan opened the door for her to the shop simply labeled Charlene's. A middle-aged woman who turned out to be Charlene promptly greeted them. She motioned for Logan to have a seat in an area at the front of the store as she whisked Marie off to the dressing rooms.
He heard Charlene assuring Marie that her skin condition wasn't an issue to taking good measurements. Logan wanted to step outside for a smoke. His plan hadn't encompassed listening to the discussion of sizes, what colors were best for Marie's complexion, and matching bra and panty sets. This had to be one of the toughest tasks he'd set for himself.
An hour later, Logan heard Marie at the cash register deciding which sets she wanted. He moseyed over to hurry along the process. Since she'd obviously found items she liked, all that was left to do was pay for her selections.
"I don't need all these." Marie was telling Charlene.
"Dear, my guess is that you're wearing chain store, ill-fitting, mis-matched sets. That is no way for a young lady like you to start out life." Charlene said with a note of finality.
There were eight or ten sets on the counter that Logan could see, which he thought was more than reasonable. "Ring'em up," he told Charlene. Then he coolly laid out five, one hundred dollar bills on the counter. He took his change, tucking it back in his wallet. When Charlene pulled out tissue paper and began individually wrapping each set, Logan made his exit trying to ignore Marie's flushed face.
Marie was unusually quiet on the ride back to the mansion. Logan noticed she kept nervously playing with the string handle of the blue and pink shopping bag. He'd known last night that Marie had been disappointed in trashing her matching bra set. He thought replacing them was a good idea and he didn't mind laying down the money for what she wanted.
Perhaps she thought she'd have to pay him back, which was nonsense. Logan knew women were more particular about these type of things then men. It didn't seem unreasonable to him that Marie have one set for each day of the week and a couple extra.
Maybe she thought it was too much money, but Logan had heard Jean and Storm say more than once that a decent bra wasn't cheap. Besides the things Marie did for him, there was no way he could repay her. How did you put a cost on friendship? Logan certainly couldn't pay her back for the patience and understanding she'd shown last night.
"Consider it an early Christmas present," he said, breaking the silence. She looked over at him and he quickly added, "Not like I could put that gift under the tree for you to unwrap in front of everyone."
Rogue felt the flush warm her cheeks. "Imagine the eyebrows that would get raised," she said finally with a laugh. It wasn't like they ever left gifts for each other under the tree; those gifts were for the kids that didn't have a place to go over the holidays. She and Logan always exchanged gifts privately on Christmas Eve. "But-"
He cut her off. "You're a poor college student who can barely afford to get her hair cut every couple of months and I made you throw away your favorite underwear. The least I could do was replace them."
She stared at the bag at her feet. "This is way more than what I paid for those." Rogue knew he never expected her to spend the money he did on their gift exchange. Those boots he got her were way more expensive than the old fashioned razor she'd bought him. Even though he used the razor all the time, it didn't come even close to what he spent on her.
Logan turned his full attention to her. "Look Kid, it ain't about the money. You do all kinds of things for me, let me do this for you."
"Okay." It wasn't like they could return any of the merchandise. She would die of embarrassment trying to return things to Charlene.
Anyway, what was he talking about, the things she did for him? Keeping the best cookies for him when she baked wasn't exactly worth the hundreds he'd laid out today.
They were both deep in thought when they pulled up to the mansion's garage. As they were exiting the vehicle Jubilee came into the garage.
"Girl, where have you been?" Jubilee asked, cracking her gum. "I saw you two pull up. You weren’t answering your phone." She cracked her gum again. "Hey, Wolvie."
Logan nodded at Jubilee. He knew that explaining his thoughts to Marie further would be impossible now.
"Oh, yeah. I was in a hurry and forgot to take it." Marie said apologetically.
Jubilee took Marie by the arm. "Rogue, you we're supposed to help me." She said, dragging Marie from the garage.
Logan sighed, he'd hoped they'd at least get a little time to talk. Not that he'd figured out what to tell her yet.
He looked up when he heard hurried footsteps coming toward the garage. Marie stopped in the doorway. "Logan, I…um…" She looked down at the bag in her hands and blushed prettily. "Thank you."
"It was nothing." Logan was thinking of what else to say when Jubilee called for her.
"Hold your horses, Jubes." Marie turned back to him, with a smile. "I'll see you later."
"Sure Kid," he said, returning her smile.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
A huge thanks to my enabler, RogueLotus, who managed to hold my hand during the holiday season.