Over the next month both Marie and Bella worked on strengthening and controlling their powers. Bella's hallucinogenic 'fairy dust', as Logan nicknamed it, could induce visions controlled by whatever Bella was thinking or feeling. That could be both a blessing and a curse, the pair had found out when Bella began having nightmares about her time with the traffickers, and even before. If her projections were anything to go by, there was no way either of them would be making any attempt to reunite Bella with her parents.
Bella herself had discovered an enjoyment for trying to prank Logan with her hallucinations. She wasn't happy whenever he managed to figure out she was fooling him, which he usually did, and took great pleasure at managing to trick him in the tiniest ways. Her greatest feat to date was creating an illusion that the kitchen table was one foot further left than it actually was, and when Logan put his mug down, there was no table physically underneath it. Thankfully Logan had seen the funny side of that one along with the girls, though he made Bella clean up the resulting mess, which she did, giggling uncontrollably the whole time.
Marie's control was slower in coming. Several of the voices had escaped a few times but each resulting set back had left her more adept at strengthening the walls and locks, until it appeared they were now impenetrable. From there she moved on to focusing on her mutation. Logan had convinced her to touch him a couple of times, so she could ascertain what it felt like when it activated, as a reference point. He was correct in his assumption that he could handle touching her better than any of the others before, managing to touch her skin for a full thirty seconds on one occasion before he almost passed out. He managed to stay conscious but spent several long minutes on the floor recovering, and telling Marie off for fussing over him when she should have been focusing on herself.
The first time she had touched Logan she had gotten distracted by his heightened senses, he was really interested to hear, from a practical perspective, just how different his own senses were from 'normal'. As he said, he knew he sensed everything 'better' but it was hard to comprehend just what 'better' meant when you knew no different.
The second time they touched had been an accident. Marie had been asleep, not wearing her gloves because she didn't like how they made her hands clammy when she slept. One of her nightmares, her own personal brand of torture, had struck, and when Logan tried to wake her she had lashed out at him in her sleep. He had actually passed out on that occasion, and Marie had been beside herself with terror that she might have hurt him, or worse. Eventually Logan’s voice in her head had convinced her he was fine.
She had spent the rest of the night sitting cross legged on the bed beside him, as Logan helped her refine her meditation techniques... from inside her own head. It had been a bizarre but effective teaching tool. She had also had a first hand, in depth, dose of Logan's feelings in regard to her, and she had seen for herself the truth in Logan's earlier assurances. He was happy just to have her around, and while he wouldn't turn down more, her happiness and comfort were more important to him than his own.
Christmas had come and gone, and Logan had surprised the girls with his own covert preparation for the cultural celebration. The cabin wasn't big but they had woken one morning to Logan propping up a small tree in the corner of the main room. They had decorated the tree with popcorn, paper ornaments, and painted pinecones. Christmas dinner had been venison, supplemented with all the trimmings, and Logan had surprised Marie again by not only knowing all the herbs and spices he had purchased but being a damn good cook to boot. Christmas dinner was better than anything her momma had ever made, and the company was a lot better too. Logan had even produced a few more hidden pre-purchases as presents for the two girls – a silver bracelet with little fairy charms for Bella, and a silver necklace with a pretty engraved locket for Marie. Bella had drawn pictures for Logan and Marie as her presents to them. Marie had felt quite self conscious at not having anything to give Logan herself, though both seemed happy with the brownies she managed to bake without burning.
She was still thinking about Christmas a week later, even though she was supposed to be meditating. She wouldn't have peace and quiet for much longer - Logan was very particular about not letting Bella stay outside for too long - so she had better get on with it!
‘It wasn't a Christmas gift but it sure would be nice to start the New Year without this pesky life-sucking skin,’ she thought irritably.
Focussing on her skin, and the gentle hum she had come to recognize was her mutation, she passionately told that feeling, "Just stop already, damn it!" She sat, frozen in shock for a few minutes, when immediately, just like that, her skin stopped humming.
"No way," she murmured in disbelief, as she focused again. No, the hum was definitely gone. She tossed up for a few more minutes whether she should try and turn it on again before deciding, worst case scenario, she would just end up where she had been five minutes ago.
"Skin on," she stated, because this was her body and she was in charge – and saying it aloud made it seem more real. She felt a little sick when she felt the buzz wash over her again, and barely managed to hold back her panic as she demanded, "Off!" Breathing a sigh of relief when her skin calmed again.
And just like that, as if it wasn't the single most monumental achievement of her life, her mutation was controlled.
She spent a few minutes bouncing around, and happy dancing, and crying tears of pure joy, and only just caught herself before she could rush outside to share her news with Logan and Bella...
No, she didn't want to just 'blurt it out', she wanted to do something a little more memorable. A lot more memorable in fact. She smiled when she felt Logan's voice inside her head, trying to talk her out of the plan she was quickly formulating. Then she promptly shoved him into his mind-room and locked the door.
Logan and Bella returned from their walk-snowball fight-winter survival lesson, in due course, and the rest of the afternoon and evening passed as usual. It wasn't until Logan was up in the loft, reading Bella bedtime stories that Marie put her plan into action.
Lighting both lamps on the bedside tables in their room, but turning them down low, Marie set the mood, before she slid open one of her drawers of the dresser, and removed the dark green, silk nightie she had turned her nose up at the first time she had seen it. Undressing quickly, she slid it on, then climbed into the bed. Damn, she had been right, it was freezing. It wouldn't be for long though if anyone could warm up 'the bed' it was Logan, he was like having her own personal furnace right beside her.
She burrowed deep under the blankets, pushing them up to her chin, so Logan couldn't tell what she was wearing underneath, and waited for him to make his way to bed. She was feigning sleep when he entered, though she didn't miss his chuckle when he called her out for still being awake. She just smiled, keeping her eyes closed, until she felt him sit down on the edge of the bed after getting changed.
"Leave it," she whispered, when he leaned over to snuff his lamp. At his confused query she shrugged noncommittally when she replied, "I'm enjoying it, it makes the room look pretty."
"Alright darlin, I'll leave them until you fall asleep then," Logan responded with another chuckle, as he slid under the blankets, rolled over toward her, and... his hand stopped when it brushed against her silk covered waist. "Marie...?"
"Logan?" she responded coyly.
"There something I should know?" he asked, and she didn't miss the strain in his voice that she knew was an appreciative growl.
"Yes, yes there is," Marie replied, just a hint teasingly. "Do you know what day it is today?" she asked, it was mostly rhetorical but Logan still responded in confusion that it was December thirty-first. "Mmhmm, New Years Eve, that means tomorrow is New Years Day, that means my year from hell is over, and I want to dive headfirst into the new year... with you... *with* you," she repeated, running a hand over Logan's covered chest so there could be no mistaking what she meant by "with".
"What brought this on?" Logan queried, the soft smile on his face not enough to banish the apprehension behind his eyes.
"I realised something," Marie informed him, "I do feel the same way you feel, it just took me a while to trust that feeling but I do now, I trust that feeling, I trust you, and most importantly, I trust me," she explained. "And I want to start this year off as I mean to go on, with you," she finished with a smile.
Logan bit back a groan as both her hands played over his chest, as inexperienced as she was, she seemed to be a natural as her nails scraped lightly at one nipple - he nearly growled aloud at that. "You don't think this is kind of sudden?" he murmured, trying not to show just how intensely he was reacting to her. Hell, he was painfully hard already and she had done little more than indirectly tell him she loved him and touch his clothed chest.
"No, I mean, we've been sharing a bed now for, what, two months, and you have been a perfect gentleman the whole time I would add, I'm ready, I want this, I want you. Don't you want me?" she asked teasingly, pouting as she suggested it.
"God damn do I want you," Logan growled, finally letting his hands move back to her, and begin to pet and stroke her over the thin, now warm, silk. "Fuck I want you so bad," he almost whined as he tugged her closer, not able to resist grinding his crotch into her thigh so she could see just how much he wanted her. "What's wrong?" he asked, pausing when he felt her tense against him.
"Uh, nothing," she whispered, blushing bright pink. At his responding growl she ducked her eyes, and said a little uncomfortably, "It- it's pretty big," as she brushed against his crotch.
"You know, guys generally take that as a compliment," Logan replied, as a grin broke out across his face, he bit back the chuckle though, sensing there was some underlying worry for her. "Is there a problem with that Marie?"
"It's really big," Marie reiterated nervously.
Logan couldn't help the chuckle that time, until he realised, Marie had seen some horrific things in the minds and memories of the men who had harmed her, men who were no doubt tiny little limp dicks, because let's face it, that type usually had 'a type'.
Before he could say anything to reassure her she asked softly, "Will it, like... fit? Will it hurt?"
"Marie..." he began, moving a hand up to her face, and gently stroking her hair. "I'm not going to lie, it's going to hurt a little but not because of that, just because it's your first time, and the first time apparently always hurts for women, but I am going to do everything I can to avoid that as much as possible, I want this to feel good for you, and if it's too much for you, or you want to stop, you tell me and I will... and also, yeah, it'll fit, it'll fit perfectly," he assured her with another grin before leaning forward and beginning to feather quick, light kisses across her face, too quick for her mutation to grab at, assuming of course her mutation had still been an issue.
Marie let him feather kisses across her face, rolling them over as he did until he was resting over her, his weight on top of her a comforting presence rather than a fear inducing restriction. When he kissed her on the lips, for the third time, she felt her hand move, almost of it's own volition. Up his chest, and over his shoulder, to sink her fingers into his thick hair, and she held him in place as she returned his kiss. It took Logan several moments to realise nothing was happening from her skin, and he eventually pulled back to look her in the eye, catching her satisfied grin as he did.
"Something you want to tell me darlin?" he teased, moving his own hand to her face, running his fingers over her skin, and dipping his head to continue kissing her again.
"Do you want to know or are you going to keep cutting me off?" Marie breathlessly giggled when Logan released her lips again.
"My apologies, you were saying?" Logan asked, before promptly moving his lips to her neck, and beginning to suckle, and kiss, and nip his way down to her collarbone. How the hell did he expect her to concentrate on forming coherent words when he was doing that anyway... "Well?" he pressed, after she moaned, and arched into him when he nibbled a particularly sensitive spot on her neck.
"Huh?" she asked in a daze, returning her eyes to him to find out why the heck he stopped kissing her. "Oh, uh, I turned it off," she hurriedly said as she pulled his lips back to hers.
"Just like that?" Logan queried, pulling away from her but giving her a teasing look, so she knew he was deliberately messing with her.
"Yes, just like that, I got frustrated at the buzzing and told it to 'just stop already', and it did," Marie rushed out, with a glare before she moved to kiss him again. "God damn it, I swear Logan if you mess around much longer I'm going to--" Marie exclaimed, when Logan pulled away from her again.
"You're going to what?" Logan asked, apprehension returning to his gaze as he observed her, not that she noticed.
"I don't know, I'll think of something..." Marie responded, blushing prettily.
"You're sure this is what you want Marie?" Logan queried softly.
Marie turned her full attention onto him, and gazed up at him adoringly. "Yes, this is the one thing I am one million percent positive about," Marie assured him, and finally Logan returned to his attentions, kissing her tenderly, as he began to coax known, but foreign, responses from her body.
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