Logan woke the next morning, to a weight on his chest, and a comforting warm scent just under his nose. He couldn't help the involuntary grin that crossed his face when he opened his eyes and glanced down to see Marie's head lying on his chest, her arm wrapped around his waist. This was a first, and he hoped it wasn’t the last. The fact that the blankets had been pushed down in the process, and his right shoulder was now freezing cold as a result, not enough to prompt him to change anything about this situation.
As he lay in silence, in the early dawn gloom, his thoughts from the day before came back to him. He had left in anger, because it was an easier emotion for him to deal with than hurt. Losing himself to the thought 'why was he keeping her, why did he want her', first posed to himself in anger as he considered the logistics of calling in the X-Men to come and take her away. Eventually with, not an understanding exactly but a knowledge, that she was meant to be with him, and he needed to make more of an effort to show her he would not just provide for her physically but also emotionally. He still didn't understand where the instinctual reaction he had to her had come from but as he had allowed his instincts to take over, and knock his pride down a peg or two, he found desires he had never felt before, settling into his soul.
He didn't want to own her, or control her, he didn't want her staying with him out of lack of options. He wanted her to be an extension of him, and strangely, for himself to be a part of her, they were two pieces of a whole. The feeling he felt when he first laid eyes on her... as near as he could interpret it, it was like the universe, fate, god, whatever you wanted to call it, had handed him the other half of a soul he didn't know was missing. That was why her unspoken accusation had hurt him, that she didn't feel the same way made him doubt his own feelings in the matter.
Until he realised one minor detail.
She was so young, and had been so hurt, traumatized no doubt. While he had been too, it was longer ago for him than for her. He had relearned the lessons he had already discovered in the long, long life he had lived before a small group of humans had tried to destroy him.
Some people couldn't be trusted.
Others could, and it was worth the risk to find them.
He couldn't be mad with her for acting out of her insecurities but he wasn't going to let her fester in them either. He would teach her to trust again, he would show her what he already knew; that he loved her, he would care for her, he would protect her. He would show her that not only could she rely on him, but he would teach her to rely on herself too, so she could let others in without fear, and protect herself from those who would harm her. Then, one day, when she was stronger emotionally, he would show her how they fit together, two bent and twisted pieces of a beautiful whole.
He felt her stir against his chest then, and moved his hand leisurely against her back, soothing and comforting her when she tensed at feeling him under her cheek. "Morning," he whispered softly, once she had relaxed, "You sleep okay?"
"Mmhmm, yeah," Marie murmured, still sleepily. She shifted just a little, bringing her hand up from his waist, to rest on his chest beside her face. Logan smiled softly as he felt her fingers absently tracing patterns on one pec, even as his own hand continued it's soothing motion on her back, as they otherwise lay in silence.
"Logan?" Marie asked suddenly, "We're you serious when you said you wanted to keep Bella... as your daughter?" she queried absently.
"Yeah, yeah I am," Logan murmured back after a few moments of thought.
"But... why would you want that? Don't take this the wrong way but you don't exactly give off fatherly vibes, if you know what I mean," Marie said, sounding apologetic as her scent flooded with embarrassment even before the words has left her mouth.
Logan chuckled. "I know, believe me I know, I don't know what it was about her, maybe it was an extension of how you made me feel, thinking of kids, with you right there beside me... just seemed right," he eventually replied.
Marie hummed a little, thoughtfully, as she went back to absently stroking the hairs on his chest. When her finger ran lightly over his nipple, sending a shaft of heat directly to his groin, he figured he had best find some way of distracting himself. If Marie didn't want to touch him with her mutation to see what kind of man he was, he should probably find some way of verbalizing it.
"I'd honestly never even thought of kids, as anything but noisy, annoying, small humans that get in your way all the time, I guess my only exposure to kids was when I was forced to venture into civilization, like shops or malls, when I needed stuff, or running into vacationing family's at diners – then I went to the school--"
"The mutant school, in New York?" Marie clarified, recalling that detail from their earlier conversation. When Logan confirmed she curiously queried, "Why did you go there?"
"That's a long story so settle in," Logan teased before he began to explain. "So, the guys I was working with to rescue Kitty, when I found you, they work out of the school, most of the kids at the school are runaways, like you were, that they've rescued in one way or another, but they don't only rescue runaways. Just like there's bad humans, there's bad mutants too, one of those bad mutants is a guy named Magneto, his power is that he can manipulate metal, as the corny-ass name suggests-" he paused to listen to Marie giggle at that comment- "Anyway, Magneto somehow found out about me, and the metal that's inside me, it's apparently very rare and he wanted it, so, he was going to capture me and, well, rip it out of me, the X-Men, the team from the school, they found out about his plan and tried to track me down to warn me but Magneto and his goons got to me first.
"Magneto couldn't extract the metal out of me alone, his power wasn't strong enough for him to extract it in a way that wouldn’t overly damage me, and he was hoping I would survive having the metal removed and, I don't know, stick with him and be one of his lackeys – he's a weird old fucker with bizarre ideas – but he had this machine though, that was going to help him strip the metal out of my body, it had only just started running when the X-Men figured out where he had taken me to, and thank fuck because it hurt like hell. They blew the machine up, with me inside it, I think that was an accident but I still use it to piss off Scott, he's the team leader, real stick up his ass kind of guy, easiest ways to get a rise out of him are to question his credentials, ignore his dumbass instructions, or flirt with his fiancée, I admit to liberally doing all three but I think it's fair enough, the guy almost killed me blowing up that machine with his laser eyes," Logan groused, though Marie could hear the amusement in his voice— whoever this Scott guy was Logan must like him well enough underneath everything else.
"So, I was in pretty bad shape after the machine blowing up thing, and they took me back to the school to patch me up, One-Eyes fiancée is their doctor, which is how I discovered how much it pissed Scotty-boy off when you flirt with her, recovery took a while, not physically exactly, the healing had me back on my feet in a couple of hours but there must have been something inside a little bit messed up because I felt like shit for a few days, that's why I didn't put up much of a fuss when they asked me to stay while they tried to track down Magneto, who somehow managed to escape, that damn fucker always gets away, he's got a date with my claws as soon as I can pin him down but he's slipperier than an eel. After about a week, they offered me a position at the school, on their team, helping rescue kids and kick bad guy ass, I figured I could do that, then Chuckles thought it was a great idea to get me teaching the kids something useful, and that's how I ended up supervising a survival camp of fourteen teenagers, which eventually became teaching them how to fight, self defence, some of them might go on to become X-Men themselves... Turns out kids aren't as bad as I always thought, sure, they'll try you patience sometimes but they're still green enough for you to kick their ass in training a time or two, and just like that, a little respect," Logan said, letting loose a satisfied but amused growl.
Marie giggled again, not least of all because when Logan growled the hair on his chest tickled her. "So, how long have you been working with the school?" she queried softly.
"About four years, Kitty was one of the first students I met, she walked through a door right in front of me, got a fright and fell through the floor, poor kid had just started at the school, her parents sent her because they didn't know how to help her stop falling through the floor every time she got a fright - I think her brother was onto the right idea, he kept spooking her just to see it happen - she was fourteen, still just as green today as she was then but she's a sweetheart. That friend of hers though, Jubilee, god that girls got a screw loose, we rescued her in LA, she was hiding out in a mall, just trying to keep warm and avoid a group of mutant hunters that were trying to find her, she thought I was one of them and when I found her she lit my metal lined ass up like a Christmas tree, her power is some sort of plasma energy bursts, she almost fucking electrocuted me, then had the audacity to sass me for 'sneaking up on her'... she’s a good kid though, going to get her ass kicked next time I go back for getting Kitty in trouble, I know she had something to do with it," Logan finished, even as he realised Marie wasn't really listening to him anymore, not since he mentioned Jubilee paffing him, she was more focused on not laughing.
"So, why were you out here, why weren't you at the school?" she queried a few minutes later, once the giggles subsided.
"Vacation, as cool as most of the kids are, I need a break from time to time, someone 'accidentally' set my room on fire so it seemed like a good time to take off for a while, give the Prof plenty of time to fix my room up before I go back," he replied, twisting a strand of soft hair around his finger.
"When will you go back?" Marie asked softly.
"I was planning on going back end of spring, early summer, I don't know, never really set concrete plans for myself, might stay up here all summer instead, maybe even next winter too, depends on what the rest of the fam-- what you decide I suppose," Logan responded, just as softly.
Marie didn't reply, just burrowed down into his chest again, distracting Logan from the sound of little feet padding across the loft and down the ladder.
"Marie.” A loud whisper was heard a moment later at their curtain door.
"Come in sweetheart," Logan responded.
"Logan! You're back!" Bella squealed, pushing aside the curtain door and running into the room. She scrambled onto the bed and threw herself at Logan for a hug, which he returned with his one arm that wasn't wrapped around Marie. "It's cold," Bella said, suddenly remembering why she had come looking for grown ups.
"The fire must have gone out," Logan said with a grin, "You snuggle up in here with Marie and I'll go re-light it." In a quick flurry of blankets they swapped places, and Logan left the room, still sans shirt, to get the fire going again.
"Damnit!" Logan muttered loudly a moment later. Before the girls could ask what was wrong, Logan walked back into the room and began pulling on clothes. "You two stay in bed, the chimney's been snowed in, I've got to clear it before I can light the fire," he advised, leaning over to ruffle Bella's hair before he got too far away.
"Be careful," Marie murmured, smiling at him softly, for the first time without that touch of fearful apprehension in her eyes.
Logan smiled back. "I'll think about it," he teased, before walking out, and thumping his way into his boots.
--
Ten minutes later, and covered head to toe in snow, Logan was back, surprised to find both Marie and Bella up.
"I had to pee," the little girl offered as an explanation, once she was done mock-terrified screaming about a zombie snowman.
"Well hurry up and get back into bed, it's freezing out there," Logan said with a chuckle, as he worked on getting the fire blazing, grinning again when Bella scampered back to the bedroom to scramble back into bed with Marie, loudly decrying the cold, and making Marie squeal when she pressed now cold toes against her.
He entered the room, watching the pair squirming around and giggling in the bed, and went to find dry clothes. Slipping out of the room as silently and unnoticed as he entered, he changed in front of the fire, and hung the other clothes up to dry, before returning to the bedroom, now dressed comfortably in sweatpants.
"Logan, Logan, come in the bed, it's cold out there," Bella giggled from under the blankets. With a glance at Marie, who smiled encouragingly at him he did just that, climbing into the bed and pinning Bella under the covers with a metal weighted arm over the top side.
"Where did the kid go?" he asked Marie, in a teasingly confused tone as Bella squirmed and poked under the blankets, giggling as she called out to say where she was.
"Let me out or I'll bite you," she declared a moment later, before doing exactly what she threatened.
"Ow!" Logan yelped, diving under the blankets and grabbing the little girl, dragging her up the bed, to plonk her on the pillow. "You know when you threaten someone like that you have to give them the chance to comply before you do what you threatened," Logan told her, rubbing at the spot she had bitten and growling at her good naturedly. Bella just giggled some more before she launched herself at him and hugged him tightly.
Eventually Bella decided the early morning chill could be braved enough to search out food and again requested pancakes for breakfast. "But Logan has to make them," she demanded.
"Why Logan, what's wrong with my pancakes?" Marie mock-pouted.
"You burn them," Bella replied, matter of factly, to which Marie laughed. It was true, the pancakes she had cooked the morning before had all burnt, it wasn't her fault the fire didn't have temperature controls.
"Well, how about you and Marie mix the batter, and I cook them then," Logan suggested, chuckling when Bella immediately agreed and leapt out of bed to go start getting all the ingredients together.
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