'Coffee is the poor american mans wine,
He takes it whenever he can,
Drinking gallons and destroying his kidneys.
We can only hope the benefits from the caffeine make him more productive than violent.'
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He'd been waiting in here for a goddamn hour, couldn't she get her ass here faster? He stole another look at his watch trying to avoid the perky smiles that were wafting past him.
Green shirted waiters and waitresses were flashing past him on little missions all around him to fill the needs of the public. Several trays filled with a variety of sized mugs went past his nose, the smell from them giving him a headache. God how he wished he could just get out of there, but he couldn't.
The reason?
Marie.
She'd left soon after the cure had gone through her body, turning her into something that the rest of the student body couldn't or wouldn't accept. A mutant who was now a human, it brought back too many bad memories for those who'd fought at Alcatraz. And for those that hadn't she was just a traitor.
Thing was she never let it get to her, instead she moved out, went to university, studied art, working her way through the place with some contacts from Xaviers. Thing was she also helped to pick up the strays that wound their way to New York, hoping the big city would hide their difference.
She'd contact the school when she had a group or a partcularly strong mutant to help find a life. That's why he was there, usually it was Ro' but she'd been too busy, what with exam papers to write.
So here he was, suffering in a hell that was only made for those who'd never understood the simple pleasure of a fresh made pot of the black stuff. His eyes dragged over the menu again, thirteen different beans, four different roasts, six different flavours of syrup, eight different types of milk, a whole rack of biscuits and twirling sugar. Hell even the sizes were in a language he'd never seen before an that was sayin somethin'. Even the small tea menu had more than Ol Wheels had had back in the kitchen at home. Grunting he caught the eye of the perky waitress that had been given his table to look after. Smiling in the blank do-gooder look that he's always associated with really good drugs she came over to his small table.
"Is there anything I can assist you with?" Her little bouncy frame danced in front of his vision, as if she couldn't keep still for a second. He felt like grabbing her arm to just stop her from moving but he'd be thrown out on his ass for it. Raising his gaze he locked his own eyes with the pin-pricks that were shining out from an ice blue sea.
"Coffee, plain, black. Strongest you have, but bring it in a mug, not a paper cup, no syrup, no sugar, no milk, no cream. Just plain black strong and hot, clear?" The bobbing head flashed a grin that was only now beginning to slip as she wrote down his preference. Her mouth opened again to ask something else when he just looked right through her, she never spoke the words that crowded her tongue. Swallowing them back down she went back to her station with his order.
Wiping a tired hand down his face he was about to give up and walk out when he spotted Marie's tell tale hair in the window. His heart leapt a little, she was expecting Ro' of that he knew but would she be glad to see him?
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Marie could feel her new charges nerves hike when they entered the city proper. Her mutation was one where her body shifted and swirled with current, she drained machinery. Sparked out when she was nervous, she could even fire bolts of electricty if she wanted. It had been that ability that had brought her to her attention, lightning on a spring day and the air was clear. Marie had taken her time in contacting the girl, she was a runaway and she'd worked on getting her trust. Now it was time to send her to Xavier's, a place where she could finish the schooling she'd run away from.
The thought of the mansion made her own heart ache a little, about the people she'd left behind. Everyone was so busy they'd hardly noticed she'd gone, Jubilee had been to see her as had Kitty and Bobby. Her ache about their relationship had been one thing she'd been running from. That even after she'd gone and taken the cure she still wasn't enough for him, it hadn't been about her skin at all. It had been her.
So she'd gone, taken the offer from Ro' and set herself up as a contact. Her degree was still on track and she foudn herself liking her world again, there had been one missing piece of it and he made an appearance in her work a little too often.
Logan.
She'd caught herself painting him, a plane of his back from memory, she'd earned a great mark with the peice but she'd hidden it away when she'd taken it home. It wasn't until her first year show that she found the thread of him in her work.
A puff of cigar smoke here, a quirky piece of hair at the edge of a canvas, a reflected look from an animal, a bike on the corner waiting for it's owner. It wasn't obvious to her until she'd seen them all together, then the thread of him was there for her to see.
It stood to reason really, she still had him inside her head, vastly faded but he was still there and parts of her still hungered after the scent of cigars and the feel of the wind on her skin. So she'd redoubled her efforts not to think about him, he belonged in the past, he was happy doing what he could for the school. While she had her own life to live, she didn't need his protection anymore. She was human now and yet part of her still wished she could feel the way she used to, protected when he held her, when her only protection had been her skin. Now she had nothing but her own self to protect her, now she was human.
They were walking to the meeting place, the coffee shop, Ro' loved the arabian roast here and so it was a kind of ritual. They'd meet, introduce the school to the new student and Ro'd leave with them, taking them to a better life. It had only hurt the first five times, to see the look of sympathy on Ro's face as she helped the new student to find their feet. She'd just let herself remember that she was the one who left, they just let her.
Pushing open the coffee shop door she scanned for Ro', not seeing her distinctive hair she wavered a moment until a large hand rose above the crowd of heads. The knuckles were ones she knew, one's she'd drawn over and over.
Logan.
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Shit, he nearly choked when she came in; her hair was wrapped up in a plait that fell over her shoulder. The kid with her obviously dressed in something that Marie had bought them. They were covered head to toe, her mind still bought long sleeve by the looks of things, even though she didn't need it anymore.
He watched her look round for Ro' her eyes scanning over him quickly and he felt his skin react to her gaze. The prickle that hadn't been there for a few years, not since Laughlin. He raised his hand to tell her he was there, her face registering shock but then splitting into a smile he hoped was for him and not just a person to hand the kid off to. Marie navigated through the tables and brought her charge with her, passing the green shirted waiters an waitresses with ease.
When she reached his table he felt his nerves hike, squashing them quickly he rested back in his seat as they sat with him. The kid looked nervously at him and he tried to smile but the kid didn't trust him. The scent of their fear was almost as strong as the coffee around him. He was about to speak when the waitress chose that moment to bring him his coffee over, dropping the large mug on the table she was about to leave when Logan grabbed her arm.
"I asked for coffee, plain, black. Not *this*." The top of his coffee had a swirl of something on the top of it. Cinnamon.
Keeping his temper he turned to the now faultering smile of his waitress, keeping his words simple and one sylabble he tried again.
"Coffee, *black*, nothing *in* it, nothing *on* it, strong and in a *bigger* mug. Clear?" The waitress picked up the mug and looked at the two new people at his table.
"Anything I can get you?" Her smile was back in place and the incident with his own coffee was shoved aside.
Marie ordered a columbian roast grande latte with white chocolate swirl and a brownie, the kid with her didn't know what to have so Marie just made it for two. When the waitress departed again Marie turned to Logan, her eyes never still on his features. As if she was trying to find any differences between the him that was here now and the one she remembered.
"Long time no see Logan, where's Ro' couldn't she make it?" Marie was trying to hide her pleasure at seeing him but he wasn't going to call her on it here.
"School boards bein' on her case about the exams we set, so she's doin em ahead of time so they can see the depth of learnin' needed."
Marie nodded, it made sense to her the school board had been on Ro's case last year, it made sense to deal with things now before the exams had to be sat. She could see the twitching of Logan's hands, he was uncomfortable here in all this sensory mess.
"Been waiting long?" His eyes locked onto hers and they both felt a shudder go through the other at the contact.
"More than I wanted to darlin' but it hasn't been too bad." She knew he was lying, he hated being here but they couldn't meet in a bar. Not with the ages of some of the kids she brought to meet Ro'.
Smiling Marie introduced her charge, "Logan this is Cheryl." The kid looked at him with the same look you'd give a cop when you'd just smashed into a street sign. "Cheryl wants to go to meet everyone at the school, she'd like to see if it'd be for her." Marie rubbed the younger girls arm, trying to reassure her, taking Cheryl's arm in her hand she looked at Cheryl then at Logan. "Cheryl this is Logan, he helped me to get to Xaviers." The scent of fear dropped a little as she relaxed, seeing into the gruff exterior of him and seeing it for what it was. An exterior shell and damn him if it didn't annoy him, he was getting pansy-assed.
"Yeah well, that was a long time ago kid," he saw Marie's reaction to the word, her eyes dulled a little as she thought it was directed at her. He decided to change it, "Sorry, your name's Cheryl, not kid. Bad habit." The light returned to Marie's gaze and lit her smile as Cheryl looked between them both.
The waitress brought over their order, two large mugs of what looked like off coloured milk were brought and a mug of black coffee. Logan finally had what he wanted but his nose was filled with the smell of the girls drinks and he took a swig of his own.
He almost spat it across the damn room, it was chocolate flavoured, white chocolate flavoured. His waitress had just gotten back to the counter when Logan just stood up and stalked over to the wooden serving counter. He slammed the mug down and stared into the almost vacant blank stare of his waitress. He was standing over her but he still had the feeling that his intimidation of her wasnt working. Grinding out his words as he gripped the offending mug and put it in front of her eyes. "I *said* black, nothin' *in* it, nothin' *on* it, strong, largest fuckin' mug you have and you bring me this *shit*." A small amount of claw was showing and her eyes dropped to it, the pupils finally widening from speeding to fear filled. Pushing the mug into her now shaking hand he growled at her, "BLACK, nothin' in IT, nothin' on IT, STRONG, BIG mug. Got it?!" The waitress blanched and quickly set to his order, he watched every movement and finally he got what he was after. Snatching the mug away he stomped back over, the entire place was quiet but as soon as he sat back down conversations started again.
Marie was trying not to laugh at him and the younger kid next to her was trying to hide in her own large drink. "What?" Marie just shook her head trying to keep her laughter from ringing out and she was beginning to fail. "What's so Goddamn funny?" He was beginning to feel angry, upset that she was laughing at him when she just pointed to the large menu on the table. Snatching it up he looked at where she'd pointed, there on the back was the dark coffee section. The coffee he'd been trying to get was there, it was called 'Wilderness', of all the damn things it could have been called it was that name that had Marie and her friend in stitches.
Dropping the menu he just stared at her chuckling face, she pulled up the menu and pointed to the next one down. It was almost the same as the one he had but it had one difference, it was sweetened with Maple Syrup. His voice ground out the words to their waiting ears, "'Canadian Wilderness', fuckin' figures." He couldn't help but smile at her laughter after she'd pointed it out to him.
"Shit what next? Columbian 'neck ties'?" Marie's eyes darkened a little as she glanced at her charge, she knew what that comment meant but thankfully Cheryl didn't.
"I hope not Logan because comin for a coffee would be a whole different ball game then."
He met Maries eyes and watched as she drank from her large paper cup. Not sure what to do next he just drank his coffee, finally right and warming him through.
As if sensing his need for her to make the next move, Marie began talking about the school and the benefits of it. When she was just explaining how the school could help her conrol her gifts Cheryl dropped her own question in. "If it's so good how come your not there now?" Marie looked a little flustered but she recovered well but her scent betrayed her and Logan picked up her distress well hidden but still there.
"I moved on, they helped me as much as they could and I decided to help others like me, like you." She left out the part where she'd taken the cure, it would be a choice for each person when they got to the age of consent. She wouldn't taint their decision with her own.
Cheryl turned to Logan and stared through him, her mouth saying what was on her mind. "So you helped Marie? You took her to the school?" Logan let the question run around his head before answering, seeing the look from Marie and scenting her need for him to back her up.
"Yeah I did, Marie climbed into my trailer," he looked at Cheryl and pegged her for around 15. "She wasn't much older than you when she did it, found her almost threw her to the curb but I didn't. Best thing I ever did." The wide eyed stare from Marie almost made it worth while talking about that bit of history.
Cheryl looked to Marie and she spoke direct to her, "Why did you trust him? I mean why him?" Marie looked at Cheryl and saw that she needed to hear the truth from her. But if she did she'd be revealing feelings she'd never shown to Logan, she'd been his friend but they'd kept a distance between each other. If she spoke what her heart had kept hidden he'd know but Cheryl needed a home and if her heart had to suffer because of it.....
"He was like me, dangerous. My skin hurts people, well it did until I took the cure." Cheryl moved away a little as if she was hearing this for the first time but she hadn't she was making sure she didn't miss an emotion passing her eyes. Marie flicked her gaze to Logan then back to Cheryl, "I trusted Logan because he 'felt' right, I'd been on the road for nearly eight months then. Logan was the first person I actually *trusted*. He never hurt me, not ever, just like he won't hurt you either." Cheryl seemed to let this information sink in before she turned back to look at Logan who was leaning back in his seat.
"Why did you take her with you? I mean you could've left her behind..." there was more to the question than what she was saying and it made Logans anger peak as he heard it. This kid had been abandoned, left to fend for herself in a world that hated her kind.
"She sassed me, made me look at her, really look at her. Somethin I hadn't done in a while." He was revealing more than he wanted to but shit when would he have another chance like this?
Marie's face was heating up, hiding behind her drink she swallowed the creamy mixture, hoping that she could get out of here before she let everything inside her slip out. Her eye caught the clock on the wall, it read 3.22pm, she had to get back for 4pm. A tutor was coming to look over her latest work. Clearing her throat she looked at Cheryl, her gaze avoiding Logan's that was now burning through her skin. "So do you think Xaiver's is somewhere you want to be?" Cheryl nodded her hands reaching out and gripping hers, the touch not lost on Marie. It would always be important to her, touch, and this one especailly.
"Yeah, I do, can we go now?" Marie smiled as they all got up, Logan pulling out some cash for the bill. Moving past them both to get to the register. Marie had to leave them here, she had other things to sort out.
"Cheryl I have to go now, Logan will take you to the school. He'll make sure your safe, that you have everything you need, your safe with him Cheryl, I was." Cheryl seemed to take that last sentence to heart and Logan was waiting for them at the doorway. His stance was easy but she could see the tension he held in his shoulders. He'd be more relaxed when they left the city, he never did like coming into the big city. There were too many distractions for him, too many scents, too many bright colours.
Marie said her goodbyes to them both before setting off back home, both Cheryl and Logan watched as the city devoured her shape until she was no longer visable. When they were nearly home Logan cracked a window in the truck and lit a cigar. The scent flooded around the small cab and Cheryl broke her silence. "They're you, all her paintings, they're you." Her smile was infectious and Logan couldn't help but smile a little back.
"What do you mean kid?" Cheryl brought her gaze back to his and answered him.
"Marie, she has some pictures in her home, all stacked against a wall, I took a look at them one day when I was in there. They're about you." The information ran round his head as he entered the gates and handed Cheryl over to Ro'. He had some research to do and he headed for the computer suite.
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Epilogue
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The final show, her nerves were on a knife edge. Every piece of her work was here on the walls, it had to show her progression through the four years of her course. From her first fumbling beginnings to the planned art she was doing now. Even her secret works were here on the walls, the ones that had featured Logan in some shape or form. She'd done a portrait of him, after that day he'd met her to collect Cheryl.
It had been a driven thing, a piece that wouldn't leave her alone until it was down on the canvas. Locked down and away, she hadn't brought it here at least she thought she hadn't but the cluster of people around a painting hung in her section made her wonder why everyone was around what she thought had been a flower study. When she got there the portrait was up there, the brush strokes even and close. She'd caught him, the way he'd been waiting, half of him wanting to leave; the other half tied to the chair by duty. The little sticker by the side of it told it's story, it had been sold. The crowd around the picture wanted to know who it was but she didn't answer them. She wanted to know who it was that had put it up, it wasn't part of her final show.
Finding her tutor talking to some potential buyers she waited for a gap in the conversation and went in for the kill. "Harriet, why is *that* painting up?" Her finger gestured over to the crowd that was surrounding the portrait, Harriets face uncreased as she saw the distress in Marie. Pulling her to one side she took Marie to a space next to a different students work.
"Look at it Marie, really *look* at it. It's beautiful, you've captured someone in a moment of indecision Marie. All of someone in a moment, from the hair on his head to the way his fingers are resting on the table. It's one of your best peices Marie, it *had* to go in. Besides it's sold already, your other pieces are going but you need to get out there and sell your version of the world. Now go and be thankful."
Pushed back out into the throng Marie wanted this to be over, taking her heart in her hand she went to talk to the crowd her mind wondering just who had bought the picture. If she waited until the end of the show she'd find out, then she could try to convince them that she didn't want to sell it. It meant too much to her to sell, it was Logan, *her* Logan, the only one she'd ever have and to try to make another would be wrong. No she had to keep this one, no matter what the cost.
The last collection had been done and as yet no one had come for the portrait, all of her unsold work was going to a gallery to be hung but this one she had to take home. It was safe at her home and she left a message that the owner could collect it from her. Pleased that it would be with her a little longer she made for home.
It was a week later when she heard someone outside her door, a friend had taken a message for her at the gallery. The owner of the painting was coming to collect it today, smoothing down her hair Marie opened the door.
Logan stood there, hands in pockets, a small wry smile on his lips. When she didn't invite him in he just side stepped her and went inside. Shocked she shut the door after him, her voice returned when she saw him tracing his own form on the canvas. "Logan someone's comin to collect that soon." He just nodded and continued his touch of the canvas, the way the brushstrokes formed his body, his hair and eyes.
"I know, I bought it."
The words dropped like lead in the room, she knew how much the work had been sold for and it made her stomach flip. "Logan...why did you?" Her throat constricted as she watched him turn toward her a smile in his eyes.
"Cheryl was right you did paint me lot in your first year didn't you? I saw pieces of me everywhere, looks like I was still rattlin around your head darlin'. Faded though in your second though." Marie tried to think about how he knew that....the show he must have been at ths show but she hadn't seen him had she?
"You were at the show?" Her voice was a little subdued as he walked over to her, leaving a small gap between the two of them. His eyes roving over her face, trying to find her emotions, to read them in her eyes as well as her scent.
"Yeah I was there, why didn't you see me?"
It had been such a rush, she thought back to the night, there'd been so many people, so many things going on around her. She hadn't seen him or had she? There had been one moment when she'd thought she'd caught sight of someone dressed in a dark blue suit. He'd been there one second, then she'd been distracted and he'd gone. "No I didn't see you there, at least I don't think so." He smirked a little and moved out of her space a little.
"Pity, don't often wear a suit Marie. But I did for you."
There was more to his words than what he was saying and they both knew it, tired of the game she decided to end it. "Why are you here Logan? Have you come to collect your paintin'?" Her accent slurring her words after so much time away, he noticed and approached her again.
"Yeah, that is if you want to part with it? I heard that you didn't want to sell it, that you'd give anything else to keep this one. Even the rest of the collection, why?"
They were back to her revealing her feelings again, she really didn't want to say it only to see the rejection from Logan in his eyes. He'd never say it but it's be there for her to see, but she couldn't let the picture go. It was *hers* the only piece of him she owned, even his presence in her head had faded over the years.
"It's mine Logan, Ah don't want you to take it. Ah'll give you your money back but Ah'm not lettin it go."
"Why not?"
Oh god he was going to make her say it....she braced herself and pulled every last ounce of strength she had to do this. "Because it's the only piece of you Ah have left Logan, the little piece of you Ah had up here," She tapped the side of her skull. "Aint here no more, so I did this." Her hand waved at the painting, the way his face was half looking out of the large window to the city scape beyond. Her words just flowed out of her as she looked at it, "Ah *need* it Logan, Ah can't have the real one so this'll have to do. It's all Ah have left." Her arms wrapped around herself as she stood there naked under his gaze, finally what she'd been feeling was being expressed. That she needed him, loved him and she didn't want to see the rejection covering his face when she faced him finally.
He moved toward her, handing her her coat he guided her out of the apartment, "Got your keys?" She nodded her head down as she followed him down the stairs of her building. When they got downstairs he opened the door for her, her gaze finally resting on his face. In the shadow of the building she saw him, really *saw* him, he was offering her more than a walk. And they both knew it, it was him leaving her a choice of how she took it from here. Walking in silence together, she took his arm and felt his breathing relax as if he'd been holding it in. Smiling they went for coffee, only this time he knew what to order.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Logan gets to wait while Marie meets him with a 'stray', thing is there's nowhere safe enough for a kid to come into but a gourmet coffee shop......this is what ensues, when we have a tired Logan, a perky staff and a happy Marie.