Name: Touch of Intimacy

Rating: PG-13

Summary: “I’m falling in love with you.”

Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters.

Authors Note: Inspired by an Eastern Promises fic I read called “Paper Delicacies” by Lye Tea. It was brilliant—so poetic and yet in such simple words—so I thought I’d give the format a try, although a couple of them didn’t end up in just one sentence.

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1 – Affection

He hates affection—hates the idea it puts in people’s heads, hates the vulnerability it puts out in the open, hates that someone would be so trusting of and so comfortable with him (that he’d be comfortable with them) to get that close—but she loves it. He offers as much as she’ll accept.

2 – Picture Frame

Two gloved hands interlaced. Rustic leather decayed against the backward trees. A burgundy scarf billowing in the sudden gust of window, reaching out. His lips forming a hint of a smile as she gazed lovingly, affectionately, hopefully at him, a sliver of teeth tugging on her bottom lip. Autumn leaves bristle around the distant couple.

3 – Survive

“He eats to live, not lives to eat,” she expounds as a new girl cants a disapproving eyebrow at his beer vice.

4 – Farewell

He stopped prolonging the inevitable and she stopped asking him to stay: “If I don’t let you go, I’ll lose you for good.”

5 – Dogtags

It isn’t exactly a military branding and a chain, the frail silver link twined around her wrist decorated with only a couple charms. From his lips there was a vow to bring back a piece of each city/town he slipped into, to accompany the two initials dangling. It isn’t exactly a military branding and a chain; it’s more.

6 – Alone

A little less tragic, a little less radiant.

7 – Darlin’

He could name all the things she has a tender affection for: classic Audrey Hepburn films (Sabrina, notably); a slice of Storm’s apple pie; the smell of rain minutes before it falls amongst the trees; making Sunday lunches for the children while they watch a movie; the way he calls her—and only her—“darlin’”.

8 – Welcome

He scares her sometimes; he’s always been a laconic man, but as he clutches her waist, head desperately pressed to her stomach, trembles whispering under her fingertips, she’s never been so afraid. “I just need to feel you,” comes his ragged voice. It’s a week before she knows what has him so shaken.

9- Royalty

The King of the Cage had returned with his Queen of Hearts on his arm.

10 – Class

“I won’t be going easy on ya, darlin’,” he bespeaks to her, arms crossed over his chest, defiant, matter-of-fact.

She smirks. “Good. You won’t be playing favorites.”

He tilts his head in a one-shouldered shrug then, as he’s brushing past her, his breathes in her ear, “But I am.”

11 – Friends

They’re friends—the best of—but the warmth between them is more than the heat of the purring engine and the sunlight streaming in from the mansion’s windows.

12 – Break

When Bobby dumps her, she breaks his nose; hours later, Logan breaks off a beer cap.

13 – Haunted

She strokes his cheek tenderly, satin glove running his hair smooth, forehead creased with a worried wish. No reaction, merely a groan in the far away.

“What happened to you, Logan?” she inquires softly as he continues to slumber, never peaceful, never without haunting, never alone.

14 – Scars

She places her hand on his chest, over his heart, thumb stroking the fabric of his T-shirt, and tells him that not all wounds heal instantly.

15 – Death

The thought of losing her—of holding her limp body in his arms, not hearing her heartbeat, her scent fading away—again—keeps him awake at night, knowing that if he couldn’t save her then he wouldn’t be able to save himself.

16 – Dance

“Are you going to dance with me tonight?” he inquires as she loops her arms around his neck, head cocked to the side teasingly, and drawls, “Possibly, potentially, eventually,” her hips already moving in tandem with his.

17 – Motorcycle

She asks him to teach her drive—“You know, in case something happens.”—and they end up the exact place they always do: arguing. She’s popping the gears, shrieking every time the Triumph Speedmaster lurches under her, and slapping his hands when he reaches around to demonstrate (again), instigating a blow-up that leaves them on opposite sides of the road.

“Truce?” she calls, eyes narrowing, and he growls a détente, “Fine.”

18 – Cure

Skip. Stop. Pause.

19 – Skin

She rubs her arms self-consciously, unaccustomed to the feel of air across her skin, insecure without satin or leather clenched around her fingers.

20 – Kiss

“This is what touching you should feel like,” he breathes between their lips.

21 – Lovers

There’s a change in the air (it’s torturously palpable), things aren’t going the way they’re meant to (but what really does?), and the buzzards begin to circle cavernously (behemoths), feeding on those stolen moments in the dark corners of the mansion.

22 – Fight

“I don’t have to resort to memory to know that I care about you, Marie.”

23 – Heart

He breaks her heart one inch at a time; the careful seams fall away.

24 – Separation

Her hand in his, him trying to stop her, eyes telling stories, is all it takes. Letgo, letgo, pleaseletgo.

25 – Question

“She’s good for you.” Hank murmurs one night in the kitchen over two cent advice, to which Logan sighs, “But am I good for her?”

26 – Reaction

He wakes to her scream. There are bandages sponging blood scattered around him, on the floors and on the med tables, IVs attached to his arms in vain. She’s in Storm’s arms, gasping for air, struggling to breathe, hand clutched to the other woman’s arm, tears leaking from her eyes as she squeezes them closed. He wonders how long he’s been dead for such a reaction.

27 – Eyes

He gazes into her, right into her almond eyes, as if touching some intimate part of her soul with that smile she gave him.

28 – Love

“I’m falling in love with you,” he confesses, murmurous; she smiles, “I’ve been in love with you.”

29 – Savior

He was her savior, the shape of salvation; she was his savior, the angel of redemption.

30 – Soulmates

Wolverine and Rogue met as strangers at a bar in Laughlin City. Logan and Rogue were thrust into the mansion as one another’s only friend and ally. Logan and Marie became each other’s saviors, the untouchables, the cheerleader and hero. James and Marie were soulmates from the very beginning.