Rogue stood in the entrance hall of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. When she'd arrived and saw all the 'students' moving about she knew it wouldn't be as easy as knocking on the door and asking if Logan could come out and play. She'd quickly found the secretary's office and inquired after him. The secretary's smile never left her face when Rogue game her name, but she could feel the telepathic probing at the edges of the mind.

She could feel them watching her now. Not the students that passed by, but there were others, probably X-Men, keeping an eye on her. Cyclops had shown up and started a conversation with the secretary. He wasn't hard to recognize with the glasses, however he appeared too quickly after she'd talked with the secretary to be coincidence.

Rogue was too good at her job not to notice the increasing tension around her. It was best to remain casual; she continued to stare out the large windows at the autumn landscape beyond. Idly she thought she could get used to this place; even with the strain her presence was causing, she could sense the calm that could be found. There was something to be said for stability and reliability, two things her life had always lacked.

Distinctive footsteps sounded in the hallway behind her and she tightened her grip on the oversized weekend bag. She turned to face Logan as he came to a stop beside her. For an instant she wanted to drop her bag and fling herself into his arms, but she was afraid that he would not reciprocate. Better to hold onto her bag, it was safe and would not reject her.

"Yeah." Logan's voice was cool, his face expressionless. He missed nothing, not the white-knuckle grip on the bag or the green coat whose depths Marie was trying to hide in. She looked calm and collected, but her apprehension was palpable.

They stood for a while saying nothing, yet he would wait as long as she needed. Marie had come to Xavier's of all places; he could let her take her time. He knew from the last few months it was futile to push her, it got them nowhere but hurt.

Finally, Rogue forced her mouth to form the word "Hey". For such a little word it seemed monumental. She wanted desperately to kiss him; maybe she could convey her feelings to him in one touch like he did to her. But they were in a school surrounded by X-Men waiting for her to make a move and she didn't want it to be construed wrong.

"Could we talk somewhere less public?'' she asked. There was no way she could say anything with all these people watching.

Nodding, he took her bag and led her down a hall. They stood silently waiting for the elevator. Once inside, she asked, "Are you sure they want me walking around here?"

Logan gave her a wry grin. "If you want, Mystique or Magneto could probably give you a floor plan."

"Good point."

They exited the elevator and walked down another hall to the last room on the floor. A quick inspection confirmed it as Logan's suite. This upper level was quieter than the entrance hall and didn't have the prying eyes of wary X-Men. Xavier and the others must really trust Logan's judgment to allow him to bring her up to their living quarters without any further security measures, she thought. Rogue guessed they didn't really need to frisk her with two very powerful telepaths in the building.

Logan placed her bag at the end of the couch and taking her coat draped it over a nearby chair. He took a seat on the couch near the end, angling his long legs to rest on the coffee table. Most people thought of him as impatient and there were a few items that he had no patience for, but Marie wasn't one of them.

Rogue had made her way to the window. "Nice view."

He only grunted in reply. The silence stretched on, however she noticed there was no mounting tension, no push for her to spill her guts and get it over with. He hadn't been lying when he'd told her that first evening he didn't mean for everything to happen so quickly. One more thing that didn't match the myth that was Wolverine.

"How long would you have hung on last week?"

"As long as you needed." It hadn't been what he wanted, but he had listened to her breathing on the other end of the phone. He knew she was thinking of him and he could believe she cared for him enough to let out a shaky breath or two.

She let her shoulders slump. Logan loved her even more than he was willing say and she was suddenly afraid what little she could offer wouldn't be enough. "I know you wanted to have this talk a while ago, but I wasn't ready. Don't know if I'll ever be ready. I'm not good at letting people in."

Clouds floated peacefully by outside the window. Rogue wished the turmoil she felt could be replaced by such a peaceful existence. She sighed heavily, something else her life had lacked. That wasn't entirely true, the time spent with Logan she had been able to grasp at contentment.

What was love anyway? Somewhere buried inside was a long ago, forgotten Sunday school lesson. Love is patient, love is kind. But what came with that? …without love, I am nothing.

Logan smelled the tears before they began to trickle down Marie's cheeks. He couldn't force her to do anything, but he could offer her comfort. "Come here."

She turned when he shifted positions. He thought she was going to refuse, or maybe even bolt from the room. Her warm brown eyes were filled with confusion and pain, but there was nothing else he could say or do to take it away. He'd tried and the most he could do right now was be a shoulder to cry on.

If she made the wrong decision at that moment she felt she would lose everything that she wanted. Logan was worth giving up her old life for, but how did she know it would work out? Could it be that was the first step in knowing what love was, involved stepping into an uncertain future with only hope to hold onto?

Rogue snuggled down into his embrace, taking strength from the support he freely gave her. In the past she would have loathed the sniffling idiot she'd become, yet that past held little for her other that mounting bitterness at life.

"I missed you." She played with a button on his flannel shirt. "I miss eating take out with you. I miss trying to annoy you while watching hockey, the smell of your cigars, your favorite beer in the fridge, and the stupid way you hang your wet towel back up so neatly."

He snorted at the last one. "Is that all?"

"No, there's another list." She burrowed deeper into him, letting out a sob. "But I don't know what love is. There is a vague memory of my parents, but it's been so long and you're the first person that has cared for me beyond what I could do for them."

"I peeked," Rogue wiped her nose on her sleeve. "At your memories."

Logan stopped rubbing soothing patterns on her back. "And?"

"It scared me, with how much you…" She placed a shaky hand on his heart.

This was her sticking point; he now understood that she couldn't see herself as worthy of love. Couldn't even think of herself in those terms.

"Love you?" he supplied.

She nodded, a sob wracking her body. The relief spread through her body, she hadn't ruined everything. There was still a chance he would be willing to try again. "I didn't know how much it meant to hear you say it until you quit telling me." Rogue looked up at him through watery eyes. "I tried to put all these feelings into physical actions. I thought the sex would be enough, because I didn't understand that you needed to hear it also."

Shifting around, she kneeled beside him, looking Logan in the eye. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to say those words out loud. And it's selfish of me to want to hear you say it and not tell you in return."

Marie was right; he hadn't wanted to admit that not hearing her say 'I love you' had been a blow to him. In the other timeline one of the things that won him over had been how freely she'd told him. Logan had even grown accustomed to her whispering those words to him around others.

"Does it help to know that I like you more than dark chocolate?" At the confusion on his face, she rushed on, "It's okay. I know I rank ahead of a fine hand-rolled Cuban cigar and a smooth aged Scotch." She held her bottom lip between her teeth in anticipation.

The hope radiating from her drained some of the tension he'd been holding onto for months. Logan was optimistic there might come a time when she would tell him once more. Until then, he would need to start looking for her declaration of love in other ways.

"There!" she sounded squeaky. He raised an eyebrow at her and she took a breath to calm her frazzled nerves. "You were thinking about saying it." That was better, and some of the pain she'd been feeling from her broken heart was fading.

"How…" he began, but didn't trust his voice to continue.

Leaning forward, Rogue skimmed her fingertips from his forehead around his eye to his cheek. "All the hard little lines soften." Her fingers traveled further down to the corner of his mouth. "And this hint of a smile plays right here." She let her hand drop. "Then your eyes fill up with… emotion and you let me in, make me feel a part of something bigger and better than myself." Closing her eyes, she continued, "You make my heart flutter around in my chest and I can't breathe…"

He watched the hope grow and a little bit of peace settle on her features. Opening her eyes, a ghost of a smile crept onto her lips. He took a chance that they might both be ready, and said the words he could no longer hold back. "I love you."

This time she did fling herself into his arms. She hugged him tightly. "I know." Being back in his embrace made her feel safe. "I like you way more than chocolate," she whispered.

Logan continued to hold her. He knew that as long as she was trying he would be able to give himself to her again. Marie had made her way to the mansion and had even talked openly about her feelings. This was a huge leap from anything else in the last month.

He honestly didn't think they would make it this far. The last time he'd seen Marie at her apartment had been overwhelmingly painful, but he'd still been unwilling to admit how much it hurt to see her and have no connection. When she had called last week he knew he made the right choice; just hearing her voice broke something inside that he didn't think could be repaired.

He'd worked hard for his face of stone and the resolve to not give in. It almost abandoned him when he saw her in the foyer; he'd wanted to take hold of her on the spot, but his gut told him to wait her out. Sitting here, with her in his lap, felt right. They had an understanding that he could work with and build on.

She sat back onto his lap, and laid her head on his shoulder. "I missed this, being with you." She started fiddling with the collar of his shirt. "I could get used to this, if you're okay with it?"

"We could give it a go." He kissed the top of her head. After a few minutes, he finally asked. "What's with the bag?"
"I had this grand plan, my all or nothing plan." Rogue looked at him coyly through the hair that had fallen across her face. "I let my apartment go and got rid of all my stuff. If we couldn't patch things up then I was going to start over from scratch."

Tucking her hair behind her ear, he kissed her softly. "You need a place to stay?"

A look of concern crossed her face and she nodded. "I didn't want to think past talking to you."

Huh, he could certain understand the reasoning behind that position, given the last few months of their relationship. He'd acted the same exact way at one point or another. "Well, you could stay here. If you think you can put up with the way I hang up my towel and telling you that I love you--"

She cut him off. "Yes!" Clearing her throat, Rogue tried to sound less desperate. "I mean, sure that would be nice."

Finally, without making a move, Logan said, "We should probably get you unpacked."

Nodding her agreement, she added, "Do we need to right now? I'm kind of comfy." He simply kissed the top of her head again. Unpacking could wait, now that she was back in his arms again.

~*~
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