“Okay, that’ll be all for today. See you tomorrow—don’t forget to read chapters 20 and 21 and complete the practice problems.”

The rapid scooting of chairs and stuffing of textbooks into backpacks nearly drowned out Scott Summers’ parting words to his calculus class. It was the last period of the day, and students who had been slumping wearily in their seats suddenly appeared to gain a new burst of energy, as if they’d just chugged an unhealthy quantity of Mountain Dew.

Rogue’s movements were decidedly less frenetic and more hesitant than those of the other mutant students, who stampeded out of the classroom like a herd of miniature elephants. It was her first day at this institute for “gifted youngsters,” and while the system wasn’t all that different from her high school back in Meridian, she couldn’t help but feel out of place. She was contending with the inevitable awkwardness of being an unfamiliar face thrust into a crowd of already established social groups and cliques.

Admittedly, most of the students she’d met so far had been friendly enough. Still, there had been quick, wide-eyed glances and furious whispers each time she’d entered a classroom—not to mention more than a few questions about her mutation, the unusual circumstances that had brought her to Xavier’s, and the hulking, almost fierce-looking man who had arrived at the school with her. Rogue was not particularly comfortable discussing any of those topics as of yet.

“You coming, Rogue?”

She glanced up quickly, startled out of her thoughts, yet simultaneously grateful for the interruption. Kitty and Jubilee were watching her, books in hand, wearing expressions that seemed both friendly and slightly wary at the same time.

She gave a quick smile, hoping she didn’t look too absentminded, and gathered up the notebooks she had been given earlier that morning. “Sorry, I was just thinking.”

Kitty returned the smile with a grin of her own. “Don’t worry about it. I know it’s a lot to take in on your first day. C’mon, let’s go back to our room and dump these books, then we can head to the kitchen for some ice cream or something.”

Rogue’s ears pricked up a bit at the mention of ice cream. She’d always liked cold things. “Sounds good,” she replied with a shy smile, following them towards the door. She knew she wouldn’t be able to find the kitchen on her own if her life depended on it, although she vaguely remembered seeing it during a brief tour of the mansion earlier. Fortunately, Kitty and Jubilee had apparently been appointed her guides to the school as well as her new roommates.

She took a few steps into the hallway, which was slightly more dimly lit than the classroom. Blinking a few times to allow her eyes to adjust, she nearly smacked into her roommates, who had come to an abrupt halt. Rogue teetered on the balls of her feet for a moment, trying to regain her balance, before she registered Logan’s brawny form leaning against the opposite wall.

The man they’d called Wolverine back in Laughlin City stood casually—at least, as casually as possible for him—arms folded across his chest. His eyes took in his surroundings with an air that was perhaps deceptively calm. Rogue watched as his gaze slid to Jubilee and Kitty, the glance quick but sharp and assessing at the same time. She had the distinct feeling that there wasn’t a lot that he missed.

Kitty and Jubilee were still stopped, exchanging looks of uncertainty tinged with equal parts curiosity and wariness. They relaxed slightly when Logan’s eyes moved from them to Rogue, and they shuffled a few steps down the hallway to watch from a distance, whispering to each other all the while.

Logan waited until they were out of earshot before he spoke. “Hey, kid,” he greeted, his voice low and gruff, but not harsh.

“Hi,” Rogue returned, smiling a little. It was the first time she’d seen him since the debacle in Alberta, when he’d ended up sprawled unconscious on the hood of his truck. Xavier had assured her that Logan was being well cared-for in the school infirmary, but she still felt relieved to see that he was no worse for the wear. The sense of reassurance fleetingly struck her as odd, seeing as though she barely knew the man, but she brushed it aside. “Good to see you in one piece.”

He grunted, his lips tightening a bit into something that managed to be both a grimace and a rueful smile. Rogue guessed he was thinking back to the same event. “I heal fast.”

Her eyes widened slightly as she remembered how quickly the gashes on his face had disappeared after the truck accident, not even leaving scars. “Yeah.” She fidgeted a little, unable to think of anything to add.

Logan pushed off the wall and took a step closer to her, either not noticing her discomfiture or overlooking it—most likely the latter. “They treating you okay?” he asked, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked her up and down.

She nodded quickly. “Yeah, everyone here seems pretty nice. I got to have my first real meal in a while—not that the beef jerky you gave me wasn’t fantastic, but it wasn’t exactly a full-fledged dinner, you know?” She grinned and lightened her tone a little, letting him know she was teasing. “I’ll get to sleep in a bed tonight, too, which will be nice. I have to admit, though, it is a little weird having to sit in classes and take notes again after having been on the road for eight months. But it’s not really a big deal.”

Logan grunted again. Rogue hesitated a moment, unsure if it was a sign of approval, disapproval, or just an indication that he was listening. She tilted her head a bit and studied him, trying not to look too obvious about it. It was a little difficult to read his expressions, but she thought he looked slightly skeptical, distrustful, like he was trying to determine whether or not she’d been brainwashed by the school’s professors.

Her forehead furrowed a little as she let her thoughts drift back to the few moments she’d spent in Logan’s camper before the whole thing had blown sky-high. She’d told him it looked “cozy,” but her earlier comment hadn’t been a lie—the poor thing had definitely seen better days, and the few possessions he’d kept inside it had also looked pretty beat up. His was clearly a roaming lifestyle, never staying in one place very long, never settling.

She felt a twinge of melancholy mixed with empathy as she wondered, not for the first time that day, what trauma he’d suffered that had pushed him into such wanderlust. Of course, it could just be anti-mutant prejudice and paranoia that kept him on the run—like that displayed by the bartender back in Laughlin City. But some intuition that she couldn’t quite explain convinced her there was more to his past than that. Without stopping to ask for her permission, her imagination began to run wild.

“Kid…? Kid.”

The potential scenarios of Logan’s mysterious past running through Rogue’s brain immediately froze as if stopped by some mental pause button, and then disappeared as she registered his voice rumbling at her. Jolted back to the present, she blinked several times in quick succession and looked up at him.

If she’d been having trouble interpreting his expressions before, there was no such difficulty now. Amusement was plainly written across his face as he watched her, one eyebrow raised. She cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks turn pink. “Sorry, what were you saying?”

The eyebrow went up a little higher, and she thought she could hear a low chuckle in the back of his throat. With a start, she realized it was the first time she’d heard him laugh. She was surprised by how much the thought pleased her.

“I asked,” he was saying, “if you’ve met that guy Xavier yet.”

Her eyes brightened, and she allowed herself a moment of relief that he hadn’t asked her what she’d been daydreaming about. “The professor? Yeah, I met him earlier. He seems really cool.” She had liked Professor Xavier almost immediately after meeting him. He had a calming air about him that soothed her frazzled nerves after the truck incident, and his mellow smile, twinkling eyes and very bald head had reminded her of her grandfather. “He said I can stay here for as long as I want.”

Logan nodded slightly and leaned back against the wall again, watching her intently. “Are you going to?”

Despite the logic of the question, it caught her off guard. Finding herself at a loss for words, she chewed the inside of her bottom lip and looked at Logan without really seeing him. She had been debating the issue with herself off and on throughout the day—should she make her stay at the school a temporary one, and take to the road again before long? Or could she create a new life for herself here, surrounded by people who were like her?

That was the problem, though: they weren’t like her. Not entirely, at least. Sure, they all had mutations—gifts, she thought with a trace of bitterness—but their powers were, for the most part, controllable. They didn’t have to worry about getting too close to anyone; they didn’t have to cover themselves from neck to toe, or jerk away from a simple, well-meant touch.

Maybe, she mused, it would be better for them and for her if she left. They would be safe from her skin, and she wouldn’t have to live with the fear of accidentally killing someone.

But on the other hand, she had to admit there had been more than a few times over the past eight months when she’d asked herself how much longer she could go on alone. Once she’d found herself on the road, it hadn’t taken long for the allowances she’d saved to disappear, and she had gone hungry more days than she cared to remember. She couldn’t deny that the prospect of three solid meals a day and a warm bed every night had a tantalizing appeal.

Besides, her mind reasoned, if she was ever going to find a way to control or neutralize her mutation, it was far more likely to happen here, where she had the help of the professor, than on the road.

“I don’t know for sure,” she finally said in response to Logan’s question. “I would like to, but…” She trailed off, fiddling with the dark brown fabric of her glove and glancing up at Logan. He prompted her with another raise of his eyebrow.

She blew out a sigh. “It’s just a lot to process right now, I guess…being surrounded by so many people after having been on my own for all that time, I can’t help but feel like they’re all potential victims of my mutation. It just makes me nervous,” she finished, staring at the floor and unconsciously tugging her gloves higher up her arms.

She didn’t particularly expect a response from Logan. It wasn’t like he could snap his fingers and magically de-toxify her skin, after all. But after a moment, he spoke up again—and maybe it was just her imagination, but she thought that his voice sounded gentler than before.

“Listen, kid,” he said, “I don’t know how long I’m going to be here, either. But however long it is, if you ever need something, you can come and find me.”

She looked up at him then, unable to keep a hopeful expression out of her eyes. “Really?”

He smiled a little. “Yeah.”

“Thank you,” she said, grinning in return. She wasn’t sure why Logan had apparently decided to take an interest in her welfare—she had almost assumed that once he recovered, he would take off back to Canada and never be seen again. The news that he was staying at the institute, even if just for a little while, was a welcome surprise. That he’d taken time to seek her out and make sure she was doing okay was even more unexpected.

A slight movement at the end of the hallway caught her eye, and she glanced down to where Jubilee and Kitty were still waiting, books in hand. She looked back to Logan and smiled a little sheepishly. “I’d better go. I think my roommates’ arms are getting tired.”

He nodded. “See you later, kid.”

She gave him a last smile and rejoined Jubilee and Kitty, following them to her new bedroom. She listened to their chatter with half an ear, but her mind was back in the hallway, thinking over Logan’s words.

She should have been terrified of him, she supposed, after she’d seen him unsheathe his claws for the first time. The Laughlin bartender and Logan’s would-be assailant certainly had been almost petrified with fear. But instead, she felt almost a strange sense of kinship with him—a mutant with deadly skin and a mutant with deadly claws, meeting in a dingy bar in the frozen Canadian wilderness, of all places.

She smiled a little to herself and allowed Jubilee and Kitty to drag her off to the kitchen for a carton of mint chocolate chip. Her future was still up in the air, and her skin was still lethal, but for the first time since she’d left Meridian, she knew she wasn’t alone.

For now, it was enough.