Author's Chapter Notes:
I'm back! This one's been hard because I want to make Logan dark and it's hard to write that and still make him relatable. Please review!
Logan watched as Marie leapt forward to attack a simulated threat in the danger room. He was more interested in the way her tight leather suit clung to her curves than her technique but it gave him a good excuse to stare at her.

She knew he was watching her, felt his eyes groping her from behind. She was flattered but he couldn't think of her in that way. He couldn't help his wondering eye sometimes that was all. She wouldn't get her hopes up.

Besides, she was with Bobby now. He was nice and the right age for her. She wouldn't be able to live up to any of the Wolverines expectations. Wouldn't he only expect her to tumble into bed with him and be ready for his type of sex?

She gulped, looking out the corner of her eye sideways at the huge hulk of man. There was no way he'd be a gentle lover, not that she had thought about it. God, she was glad there wasn't a telepath in here. She was projecting her thoughts like crazy.

He was still staring at her; the type of stare you don't do in public. His eyes burned with a fiery liquid intensity, raking up and down like he was furious. She nervously licked the sweat off her upper lip, hoping nobody had seen the way he was looking at her. He didn't even blink.



Logan showed up outside her room later that night. He just couldn't stay away.

Ever so quietly he crept in through her door, which had been locked, shutting it with a small click behind him. Her concentrated scent overwhelmed him, filling his nostrils and brain with unadulterated desire. He ran his hand over her possessions as he tiptoed around her room. The shirt she had been wearing that day, hung on the back of a chair and he stroked the silky material, wondering if her skin would be just as smooth.

Marie let out a soft moan in her sleep and Logan crept over to examine her. Her face was screwed up in a pained expression; he could hear the pulse thundering through her veins in the heavy silence of the room. She was having a nightmare.

"Marie! Marie, wake up sweetheart." He gripped her shoulder through the long sleeve of her pajama top. Her eyes popped open and she let out a yell, wrenching her arm out of his grip.

"What the hell, Logan?"

"I'm sorry, it just I heard you having a nightmare."

"You heard me from two floors away?" her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Yeah, she wasn't born yesterday Wolfie.

"Err.. okay, I just wanted to check on you."

"Oh." Marie looked around, unsure how she should feel that he was keeping such a close eye on her. Their relationship had been platonic, just friends who'd been in the same place at the wrong time. But lately something was different; he'd shifted since his return, into someone she didn't entirely recognize.

"You know, I could sleep here so you feel safe?"

"I don't know, I don't want to get in trouble."

"It would just be between us."

"Okay." She beamed up at him but seemed surprised when he scooted her over. Did she think he was going to sleep in that rickety old chair?

"Move over then." She looked anxious but allowed him to get under the covers.

"Logan, I don't want to hurt you." He loved the way she said his name, how it rolled off her tongue in that buttery, honey coated accent.

"You won't."

"My skin.."

"Healing powers, remember. They don't affect me as much." This was true; she only knocked him out when he held on for too long. And she'd been practicing controlling it. It would be fine.

Marie rolled over, facing the window, trying to quiet her loud mind. Logan is in my room, in my bed. He was only here as a favor to her, to keep her company. Suddenly two heavily muscled arms wound their way around her waist, pulling her to him sharply. She let out a gasp.

Logan deeply inhaled the heavenly aroma of her hair, feeling the heat of her body, struggling to keep himself under control. He would wait for her as long as he had to. She was his.

"Go to sleep." He commanded in a voice that was both authoritative and soft at the same time. Logan took great satisfaction in the fact he was the only man to have ever slept beside her.

Marie listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat, felt the gentle rise and fall of his chest against her back and slowly drifted off into a peaceful sleep.



Marie was pleasantly surprised that Logan wanted to continue their bedtime routine. He would come to her just after midnight, creeping so silently into her room she would have had a heart attack if she didn't know he was coming. He would snuggle in behind, molding his large frame so perfectly around hers. They would fall asleep like that and when she woke up, he would be gone.

She couldn't believe a man like him could have such a tender, caring side. After all, she'd been inside his head and never, as far as she could tell, had he ever just slept beside someone.

As for her nightmares, they were mostly his. All the wars he'd been through, the green room of pain and other situations where he was trapped. They all felt so real as if they had happened to her. But being wrapped in his arms all night long pushed those bad dreams away. Logan's presence, both physical and mental was just the medicine she needed.



The days continued the way they had, with Logan spending most of his time staring at her. Although they hardly spoke in public, people had begun to notice something was up.

"Chica, did you do something to make him angry?" Jubilee asked, nudging her with a pointy elbow and nodding in the direction where Logan sat under the shade of a tree, nursing a bottle of Molsons.

"Err, no I don't think so." Marie tried to ignore Logan and focus on her math homework. She found math particularly difficult but needed to pass this semester so she could keep her options for college open.

"You guys used to be such good friends?" Jubilee chewed her bubblegum loudly, blowing the occasional pink bubble.

"Not really, he was more like an overprotective big brother."

"Right.. kinda like a hot big brother though.. but I guess he's old enough to be your dad?"

Marie threw down her pencil. "Jubes! Please! I'm trying to work here!"

Just then Bobby and John came over to the blanket the girls were sprawled on. They had been away visiting Bobby's parents in Boston for the last few days.

"Hey." Bobby laid down beside Rogue on the blanket, throwing an arm around her shoulders casually. Rogue's stomach still did flips when he used his special smile, the one reserved just for her.

"We'll leave you two to catch up.." John slung Jubilees neon yellow backpack over his shoulder, walking hand in hand with her back towards the mansion.

"Can you turn your power off for a minute? I wanted to try something."

Rogue nodded, unsure what to expect.

"I'm not a hundred percent with it yet so be careful."

Bobby brought his hand up to her face. It hovered there for what felt like forever before his fingertips gently made contact with her skin. Rogue felt a warm flush color her cheek but none of the buzzing which normally accompanied her deadly mutation.

He leaned in slowly, his lips inches from hers. Rogue closed her eyes like they do in the movies for her first kiss. It wasn't much; just a peck with closed mouths. She thought Bobby was being chaste because of her skin but when she opened her eyes she saw he was looking over her shoulder.

Whipping around she saw Logan staring hard, with a new intensity. It was like he'd been dragged down to the depths of hell and all that fire was within him, burning though up to his eyes like he wanted to burn Bobby.

He got up and slunk away, into the boundary of woods that lined the edges of the school, never taking his eyes off her.

"That guy creeps me out." Bobby spoke softly but Rogue knew it was loud enough for Logan to have heard.
Chapter End Notes:
I was trying the jumping between Rogue and Marie thing to show both sides of her personality but I was finding it hard to keep up with. I think I'm just going to refer to her as Marie from now on.
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