Marie was standing at the kitchen sink, humming softly to herself as she washed the dishes. A hand suddenly touched her waist, causing her to jump in fright. The hand was immediately removed, and a sheepish but amused looking Logan offered a hurried apology.
"It's okay," Marie replied, blushing at her own reaction, the one she had after the fright passed, "I just didn't hear you come up."
"Oh, sorry, I keep forgetting that," Logan apologized again. "So, is it alright if I touch you?" he asked softly.
"I suppose so," she responded, smiling when Logan's large warm hand immediately wrapped around her waist again, and gently eased her closer to him until she could feel the warmth of his hard body pressed up against her.
His eyes were intense but soft and focused, and she didn't notice his other hand raise until he brushed a lock of hair back from her face. He tucked her hair securely behind her ear, as his hand continued on to trail down her neck. Slowly tugging her closer, until his lips met hers--
Marie jerked awake, body warm and flushed, as the dream faded away. Even in her dreams her fear of being touched was not completely banished, and she just knew it was because of her own unease and uncertainty around her mutation. Logan hadn't mentioned to her again removing the collar but she knew, from the dark looks she had caught him directing at it, that if she asked he would have it off her in a moment. It had taken her a week to psyche herself up to be able to consider giving it a try, and her repeated dreams of being touched – specifically touched by Logan – were one of the reasons why she had finally decided it was time. If she was going to make herself vulnerable to him, she had to make herself vulnerable to herself first.
She would ask him first thing in the morning to take the collar off, for now she would try and get some more sleep.
--
Logan lay still and quiet, hoping Marie wouldn't realise he was awake. He had started to become so in tune to her body and its reactions, that he had started to wake and respond to *her* dreams. Waking up abruptly to a warm and aroused woman in his arms was a lot better than waking up to nightmares, though it made sleeping next to that woman without making some sort of advance on her really hard, in more ways than one. Feeling Marie relax into sleep again, with a soft, happy sigh, he resigned himself to another uncomfortable, sleepless night.
So it was a surprise to him when he woke with a start, when Marie sat up in bed suddenly, with early morning sunlight peeking around the curtains.
"Morning," Marie said cheerily, a relaxed and confident smile lighting her face.
"Morning," he mumbled, rolling onto his back before suddenly realizing, that probably wasn't a very discreet position, and rolling partially back onto his side. "What's got you so chipper this morning?" he teased.
"I have come to a decision... I want you to take the collar off," Marie declared, holding up a hand and demanding he wait, when he immediately sat up to get to work pulling of the collar. "Do it carefully, in case I need to put it back on, and don't touch me or my skin unless I say you can," she set out her conditions.
"I understand," Logan agreed, "May I remove the collar now?" he queried, refraining from reaching for her again until she gave him permission.
It took ten minutes, and Logan pulling out the tool box for some helpful tools, before the collar finally switched off as the locking mechanism popped open. Marie let out a significant full body shiver as she felt her skin reactivate, her mutation burning over her body in a tingling wave before she was able to breathe again.
"You alright?" Logan asked gently, looking for all the world like he wanted to reach out and hug her, though he refrained from doing so.
"Yeah," Marie murmured, "I never realised how intense that was, I didn't feel that when it first came on I'm sure."
"Maybe you were just too distracted when it first turned on," Logan suggested. “May I touch you?" he asked, when he still looked like he wanted to hold her.
"Not my skin," Marie said softly, even as she nodded her consent. As Logan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap, she felt strangely comforted and at peace, even with the niggling fear in the back of her mind that she could quite possibly kill him if he slipped.
For several long minutes they just sat, Marie adjusting to being dangerous to the touch again, while at the same time feeling comforted in the fact that someone still cared for her in spite of that. Her next thought brought tears to her eyes; this is how her parents should have reacted when she became toxic to the touch. She snuggled down into Logan's embrace as she let her tears flow.
"You feeling okay?" Logan asked worriedly, even as he tilted her head back. "Don't cry darlin," he encouraged, and she knew if she let him he would wipe the tears from her eyes himself, a thought which brought a soft smile to her face.
"I'm good, thank you, I never realised how much I needed this, you know, someone to just show me that I was still okay, thank you," she said, before extracting herself from his arms, and wiping her tears away.
"Anytime darlin," Logan offered with a grin. "Something else that might help, if you can feel your mutation like that, might be meditation, you ever done that before?" he asked, pulling himself out of bed, and stretching before he pulled on a single flannel shirt over the t-shirt he had worn to bed.
"You mean 'new age, devil worshiping, baloney'?" Marie queried with a teasing grin, "Might have heard of it," she added.
"Shit your parents were weird," Logan offered with a chuckle. "Get dressed, I'll teach you, it might help, if you can learn to separate the feeling of your mutation you might be able to make it turn off," he suggested, which sounded sensible to Marie.
She dressed, while Logan went into the other room to build the fire back up. Pulling on thermal pants, and a pair of what looked like yoga pants, on the bottom, and a thick, baggy, long sleeved woollen jumper on top. Her toes were cold so she added thick woollen socks, and in the interests of safety-- damn it, she didn't have any gloves, except the woolly winter gloves Logan had bought her but they wouldn't be comfortable for wearing twenty-four-seven. She left them on the dresser as she followed after Logan, she would just have to be careful to make sure she didn't touch anyone.
Logan had moved the chair and the dining room table back a bit, leaving a clear spot in front of the fire where he was already seated, cross legged on the floor. He caught Marie's adorably confused look as she regarded him, and he innocently queried, "What?"
"You’re just a mess of contradictions, you know," she replied, smiling at him as she took a seat, cross-legged on the floor opposite him.
Logan chuckled. "Yeah, well, when you've been around as long as I have you learn a thing or two," he shrugged nonchalantly, as he tugged her closer, and adjusted her position slightly. "Now, first step is to learn how to focus, just sit there, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing... don't try and control it, just let it go, in... and out, and focus on feeling the rhythm," Logan instructed, demonstrating for her.
She felt awkward at first, and her mind tried to wander, the other voices in her head constantly trying to interrupt. Logan always seemed to know, and would murmur softly to get her back on track.
They had been sitting in near silence for almost ten minutes when suddenly a little voice whispered, "What are you doing?"
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