The next morning dawned grey and cold again, only this time Marie woke to find herself plastered against Logan, legs entwined, nice and toasty warm. If it wasn't for her bladder, she would have been content to stay that way indefinitely. She was attempting to extricate herself from Logan's grip without waking him when he rumbled from underneath her.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"I have to pee," she said, giving up the pretence of sneaking out by rolling over and sliding out from under the covers. "Sorry, I didn't want to wake you," she continued when she returned to bed. He rolled over and spooned her before she could return to her previous position.
"You didn't," he told her, "Was too busy thinking."
"About what?" she asked, enjoying the feel of his arms around her after what felt like so long without him, even though it had only been a few days.
"You," he admitted with a soft smile. "This place is a school, Ororo was telling me about what they do here, while we were looking for you, I think they're expecting you to stay here,” he revealed, clearly making an effort to sound neutral.
"It is a school," Marie confirmed, "And they've been trying to convince me to stay but--"
"I want you to stay," Logan interrupted.
"What!?" Marie cried, sitting bolt upright in bed before she spun around to face him. "No, no I won't stay, not without you," she replied shaking her head determinedly.
"Hear me out Marie," Logan placated gently, "I've been thinking about this for a while now, even before we were brought here, I've been thinking about getting you back in school, at least to finish high school, this place would be perfect, it's full of mutants, you wouldn't be at risk of being an outcast like at a normal school, you could just focus on your studying. I can't stay here with you in New York though," he shushed her, before she could voice the objections on the tip of her tongue. "What's been going on, us, in Canada it was legal, if a little frowned on morally by most people, but here it's illegal darlin, age of consent in New York is seventeen, and there is no way in hell I'm going to be able to live in the same building as you and keep to myself, not now that I've had a taste, and you couldn't either and you know it," he added, with a wolfish smirk.
Marie glared at him, but her own blush and barely contained smirk was all the proof they both needed that he was right.
"And I can't take you back to the cabin, not yet, the place was trashed from what I remember of the events leading up to our... vacation. So, I propose, I go to the cabin, rebuild and repair the place, you stay here, safe and warm, and finish your schooling, I'll come back, on April tenth, not a day later, and then we'll stay here, together, until you graduate and we can move back up North. Does that sound like a reasonable compromise?" Logan asked, regarding her seriously, from where he remained reclined on the bed.
Marie considered his plan thoughtfully, before replying, "Just until April?-" Logan nodded- "If you think this is a good way to dump me and move on I swear to god I will hunt you down to whatever shit hole you crawl into and make you suffer," Marie threatened, only half serious.
"Darlin, I'm going to be suffering every second I'm away from you," he assured her, as he gently caressed her baby soft cheek.
Marie smiled brilliantly, though there was a hint of sadness behind her eyes. "I guess it's a plan then, but you'll call, won't you? Don't leave me all alone here," she whispered.
Logan pulled her back down into his arms as silent tears leaked past her lashes. "I'll call whenever I can kid, I'll even go buy us each a phone especially for it, that way you can call me too, whenever you want, any time, day or night."
They cuddled for a while longer before they heard footsteps walking down the hallway. The door into the empty room next door, Logan’s room, opened. The footsteps faltered before moving into the room, presumably checking the bathroom.
"Quick, put your pants on before they get in here," Logan commented with a chuckle, "Don't want to go giving these geeks any more ideas," he added with a sly wink.
Marie stifled a laugh as she slipped out of bed and pulled on her jeans and a sweater, while Logan pulled up the bed to make it look reasonably tidy. He sat down on the couch when he was done, while Marie sprawled back out on the bed a moment before the door opened with a far too brief knock. To any outsider it would look like they were just lounging around chatting.
"There you are Wolverine," Jean spoke, eyeing the rooms occupants with suspicion, "I trust you found your room okay last night?" she asked.
"Yeah," he replied simply, "Was just about to head down for breakfast with Rogue, did you need something?"
"Well, I prefer not to release my patients without a full check-up, which I didn't get a chance to do before you discharged yourself at some point in the night, I'd like to see you in the med lab at some point if that's alright, after you've eaten is fine," Jean stated, angling just slightly toward teasing, but firm.
"That won't be necessary, healing's back up to full strength, energy levels will be back to normal once I've eaten," he informed her.
"Still, for the completeness of my records I'd like to be sure," Jean pressed.
Logan shrugged. "Suit yourself, I'll come down at some point." He turned away from her then, indicating the conversation was over. Jean bristled just a little in response.
"Rogue," she said, with false sweetness, "You're late for class, you should run along."
"I haven't been scheduled classes yet," Marie replied, smiling sweetly, "Ms Munroe can't do my placement tests until the end of the week so I'm just going to hang out with Logan for now, now that he's finally awake."
"Of course," Jean replied tightly, "Well, I'll see you both later then." She turned and walked away, pointedly leaving the bedroom door open.
"Come on," Logan said with a grin, once Jean was out of earshot, "Let's go eat." He took Marie's hand and the two of them walked down to the ground floor and to the kitchen, rather than the cafeteria, which was deserted now that classes had started.
They were working together to cook a substantial breakfast, when Scott entered the room. "Morning," he said, as he took a seat at the kitchen counter and pulled open the newspaper that had been discarded there.
Logan and Marie greeted him in return but that conversation went no further, as they returned their attention to their breakfast and friendly banter. They moved to the kitchen table with loaded plates once they were finished cooking, ignoring Scott completely as it became more obvious that he was in the room solely to watch them.
They finished breakfast, and then set about cleaning up after themselves, washing every dish they used and returning it to where they had found it, before Logan finally turned to Scott and addressed him directly. "Do you know if the Professor is going to have any free time today that Rogue and I could speak with him?" he queried.
"Uh, actually yeah, he asked if you'd be able to meet with him at twelve," Scott replied.
Logan checked a nearby clock. "Two hours, yeah, we can do that. You can show me around in the meantime kid," he added, as Marie shot him a brilliant smile and they left the room together, leaving Scott behind.
They spent the next two hours exploring the mansion and grounds, Logan was particularly interested in checking out the security systems, especially the perimeter detection systems. They viewed the classrooms, and explored the common areas, Marie challenged Logan to a game of pool on the table in the back corner of the rec room, and came very close to beating him too.
When the bell rang mutedly, to signal the students lunch hour, the pair made their way to the Professor’s office at the front of the building. They had to wait for the last few straggling students to leave, before they were called in. They had just taken seats, after the Professor had greeted them, when the office door opened again and admitted Scott, Ororo, and Jean.
"Didn't realise this was going to be group therapy," Logan joked, looking annoyed at their audience.
"I feel it would be the quickest way to get everyone up to speed, and I apologise Rogue that it took so long for us to have our usual meet and greet, normally we do so on a new students first day but this was an unusual situation all around," Xavier spoke.
"Well, I'm not a student so no harm done," Marie replied, ignoring the eyebrow Logan shot at her.
"I see," the Professor continued, "Are you not intending to remain at our school?" he asked.
Logan and Marie looked at each other for a moment before Rogue sighed and replied, "Yeah, I'm staying." Not exactly sounding enthused by the idea.
Logan grinned and shook his head at her. "We just need to sort out the details for that," he addressed to the Professor, "I'll cover any tuition and accommodation costs for her until she's graduated, on the proviso she keeps her own room, and I want to be kept updated on her progress, and any trouble she gets into," he added, grinning at her when she childishly stuck her tongue out at him.
"What makes you think you have any entitlement to that information?" Scott asked irritably.
"He's the only family I have, and I'm leaving if you can't respect that," Marie responded bluntly.
"Of course," Xavier replied immediately, "If that is your wish, we would be happy to make your records and progress available, however we would request the standard information that we require from family members of our other students from you, Wolverine. We will also need your personal information, Rogue, to transfer your educational record."
"I take it you've got forms for that," Logan said, to which the Professor reached into a drawer and produced two sets of paper work. The papers floated across the room to both of them, courtesy of Jean's telekinesis.
"That is a cool power," Rogue mumbled.
"Careful who you say stuff like that around kid, might get yourself in trouble in some circles with comments like that and the ability to steal mutations," Logan added with a chuckle, as he began filling in the form he had been given. Rogue laughed before adding, ‘Borrow, Logan, not steal’.
"So, your name is Logan?" Jean addressed him.
"Well will you look at that," Logan commented, looking down at the form he had started filled out, "’Logan Howlett’, I guess so," he grinned at Jean, as he continued to write.
"What is your name?" Scott addressed to Rogue.
"Rogue," she replied, pointedly covering the name she had written on the piece of paper.
"Marie, that's kind of redundant now don't you think?" Logan asked with an amused grin.
"Nope," she replied matter of factly, "They'll know my name but no one uses it unless I give them permission to, and the only person I've said can use it, is you."
Shrugging in acceptance of her statement, Logan turned back to the Professor and went over details of Rogue's enrolment and accommodation, confirming she would indeed get to keep her own room. He also extracted agreement for himself to be returned to his cabin in Yukon, via the fancy jet that had brought them here. The Professor confirmed Logan was welcome back whenever he wanted to visit and could be accommodated on site, much to Scott's obvious annoyance. Logan confirmed he would be passing back through mid-spring 'sometime'.
Once all the details had been squared away, the Professor suggested that, given it was now after one pm and classes were restarting, that Logan and Rogue take the rest of the day to relax, and Scott would fly Logan out first thing in the morning.
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