“Wolverine, I dunno if this here’s a place to work off my anger and aggession. Kinda hard to be all sullen in a place like this,” Rogue said as she kicked her combat boots up on the porch railing, tipping back in her rocking chair, raising her beer, and releasing her waist length auburn and white hair from a ponytail.
Wolverine leaned over from his identical pose in the chair next to her, clinking his bottle against hers. “Kinda the idea, kid. There’s better ways to deal with heartbreak than breaking stuff. Of course if you want we can still drive back to the mansion and…”
She laughed, “Nah, I’m tired of breaking stuff, my hands fucking hurt.” She clenched and unclenched them, wincing a bit at the rawness of her knuckles under her gloves. Even with her heavy leather DR gloves on, she’s managed to hamburger both her fists pretty good when she was fantasizing the Sentinel was Bobby. Wolverine had offered to heal her and she blew him off, not wanting mandatory therapy sessions with Xavier if he found out Wolverine had refreshed his faded presence in her mind. Took a couple of weeks for them to fade enough for her to pretend they weren’t there easily. There were there, along with Erik, St. John, a bit of Pete and a couple of other folks, but she said once they just made a kind of background noise most of the time, like white noise with an occasional comment or thought popping through when she was ungarded.
Besides, her ache in her hands was actually a good pain, one from some honest to god blood and sweat, the best kind. “And he didn’t break my heart…just stomped on my feelings a bit.”
He quirked an eyebrow at her, “Reeeeeallly…”
She snorted inelegantly, and swigged some more beer, “Yeh, I was kinda getting over being the ‘it couple’ of Mutant High and he was starting to annoy me, always jumpy like any second I was gonna” and she made a clawing motion with her hand and a sucking noise with her mouth. Wolverine chuckled. “We’d have probably just fallen apart naturally sooner or later anyways, but for him to dog me like that…well….grrrrrrrr!” She gave a convincing imitation of her friend’s own feral snarl, making him laugh.
“Kid, do that the next time you see him, please, I wanna see his face,” he choked a bit on his beer, then sighed in contentment. Oh yeh, this was much better than watching her skulk around pissy at the mansion. His little girl, some beer, no X-geeks, and his cabin. This was the first time she’d been here. Actually it was the first time he’d brought anyone here, preferring to keep it his private sanctuary tucked away in Saskatchewan, He’d bought with a couple years of cage-fighting winnings. But his Rogue, he knew she was the only person he’d share this refuge with. She needed to get away from everyone just like he did. They were like that, the two of them, sides of the same coin.
Later that afternoon, after some lazing about to recuperate from the days long drive, he set to work chopping some wood the old fashioned way, eschewing his claws in favor of some elbow grease, and she swanned around the cabin, giving her commentary on the rustic décor while she unpacked the provisions they’d brought and set the kitchen to order.
“A little masculine in here don’t ya think?” she teased through the window over the sink, while he split logs on a stump nearby.
“Yeh, that’s the point, it’s my place, not some snooty big house with marble and Chippendales shit like Chuck’s.”
“It’s alright…but I was half expecting a dead bear head over the fireplace.”
“Nah, saving that spot for Sabertooth when I finally nail that ugly fucker.”
Her laughter floated though the window and he grinned, mentally patting himself on the back for his brilliant idea to bring her here. This would be fun, a week or so, roaming the woods, swimming in the lake, maybe learning a few things about wilderness survival from him in the meantime, and his girl would be right as rain again.
That ice-prick was going to melt from her memory pretty damn quick, and rightfully so. That little shit hadn’t deserved his little girl. To be honest, he had serious doubts any of the mutants at Xavier’s were good enough for his Rogue. She was just too damn mature for her age, having about 5 different sets of memories rattling around in that head of hers; and she hadn’t been an uncomplicated girl before that either, what with the deadly touch thing.
Ah, kid, life’s been a bit of shit to ya, hasn’t it? he thought to himself, listening to her tuning the radio in the kitchen until she found a rock station she liked. “Well, that’s gonna change long as I’m around. Nothing’s gonna upset my girl, no sir,” and he smiled again as he brought the ax crashing down with a satisfying THWACK, splitting the giant log right down the grain. Rogue started to sing along with the music, and he kept grinning as he bent over to place another log on the stump, hefting the axe once more.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Just where you'd expect them to wind up.
Chapter End Notes:
Action starts in the next chapter.