Rogue didn't see him at first. She was too focused on her need to release some of the energy she was feeling in sweat and straining muscles. She stepped into the gym and wondered who had left the lights on. Shrugging at the idle thought, Rogue went for the treadmill. A light jog would get her heart rate going and still not be too strenuous, she decided. Since the treadmills were all closest to the door, she had no reason to look toward the weight lifting area at the back of the large room. That would come next, after she got in her usual three miles. Turning on her iPod and slipping in her ear buds, Rogue programmed the machine and started jogging.
Twenty minutes later, completely lost in the music and the feel of her feet pounding along the treadmill's conveyor belt, Rogue looked up and nearly lost her footing. Logan stood across the room, watching her. Something in his face made her stomach clench, so she quickly looked down at the little red numbers showing how many minutes she'd been running and how many miles she'd gone. Her breathing was getting unsteady, no doubt from the run, so she took several deep breaths to fill her lungs. She used her music to stop any sounds his footsteps might make and prayed that he was leaving soon. This was the first time they had been alone in a room together since he came back to the mansion, and with everything else going on in her life, Rogue wasn't sure how to handle it.
It seemed like she couldn't find her rhythm again after meeting his eyes. Rogue ground her teeth together in frustration and pushed up the levels until she was all out running. Maybe that wasn't the best thing for her, although Hank never said she couldn't sprint. Sweat trickled in a steady stream down her back, and Rogue tried to focus on that, on the way her thigh muscles burned pleasantly, on her calves, anything except the man across the room. She was startled when a large hand reached out and pushed the button to lower the level to somewhere around a walk. Rogue snapped her head up to glare at him and yanked out one ear bud.
“What the hell do you think you're doing?” she demanded.
Logan frowned at her. “You're gonna hurt yourself if you overexert like that. I doubt Hank wants to deal with a miscarriage—unless you're trying to lose the baby?”
Rogue gasped and smacked the stop button the treadmill. She stepped off and glared up at the man she'd once loved. “Hank has approved my current exercise regiment until my third month. The only thing Ah can't do is go around getting kicked or punched. So don't go trying to tell me what Ah can do, Wolverine!”
The frown deepened. “I just didn't want to have to rush you down to the med lab, Rogue. Sorry if I got a little worried thinking you might be doing too much in your condition!” he growled.
Rogue couldn't help the bitter laugh that escaped her lips. “Since when have you been worried about me? Oh, wait, no, that's right. You were worried that you might have to do something. Ah forgot that it's all about you, what you want to do—or don't want.” She marched past him toward the weights, head down.
Logan tried to grab her arm, but she just pulled easily out of his grip and kept going. Rogue heard him following her, and it was all she could do not to turn around and attempt to do some rearranging of that metal-covered skull of his. She picked up a free weight and began to do curls. She clenched her jaw and tried to ignore the large presence behind her.
“You're wrong about that, Rogue. I wanted you. I still do,” he said softly.
It took all of the self-control Rogue possessed not to throw the damn weight at him. “Bullshit, Logan. Are you forgetting who found you fucking Jean on the kitchen floor? Ah think the whole school knows what you wanted, and it wasn't me!” she ground out through gritted teeth. She refused to meet his eyes in the mirror she faced, instead concentrating on watching her form. It was almost impossible not to watch him, though, as he raked his hand through his hair. She reveled a little, just a little, in the guilt that flooded his eyes. He was hurting. Part of her felt that was only fair, while the other part hurt for him hurting, which made no sense at all given the circumstances.
“Look, Rogue, I know I fucked up. I just...I guess I didn't want to admit how much of a hold you had on me,” he said.
She threw him a skeptical glare and switched arms. “Why do Ah think that you're just saying that because now Scott and Ah are sleeping together? Is that it, Logan? Do you have some sort of sick, twisted need to get into Scott's bed, so you keep trying to fuck the women he's fucking?” Wow, that came out of nowhere, but she was so angry with him that it was either insult him or beat up on him, and beating him would involve touching him, which might not be a very good idea.
Logan growled at her. “The only bed I'm interested in getting into is yours!” he yelled.
Rogue stilled. Finally she met his eyes fully in the mirror, weight raised halfway in in her hand. Very slowly she put the weight down and turned to face him.
“You had your chance, Logan. You blew it. Ah've come to grips with that, as much as Ah can, but there's no way that we are ever going to have anything again. So just accept that and move on. Maybe you can find an acceptable red-head at the bar in town. Maybe you could even try being pickier about her being an actual red-head, too,” she said sarcastically. It looked like her work out was done. As she shoved past Logan he grabbed her arm.
“Why don't you just touch me so that you can realize that I'm telling the truth?!” he asked her harshly. “I want you. It was always about you, even when I was just trying escape you!”
Rogue's eyes blazed. “Not the smartest thing you've ever said, Logan, and boy have you said some stupid shit,” she spit at him before shaking him off as if he was no more than a fly. She stormed out of the gym and up to her room. Throwing herself on the bed, Rogue stared at the wall and willed herself not to cry. She ignored the few drops that slid down her cheeks and onto her pillows aberrations, nothing more. They didn't mean anything.
She would never touch him again, not the way he had demanded her to. Never, never, never...
Logan watched Rogue stalk out of the gym and wanted to howl. He wanted to rip something apart, rend and tear apart the world if that's what it took. He was angry with himself for running from her to another woman, angry with Jean for being there when he ran, angry with Rogue for seeing it, and angry with Scott for being there to pick up the pieces he left behind. He headed down to the Danger Room for the second time that day to try and work out some of that anger and frustration because, behind the rage, he had to admit that he had known all along that it wouldn't be words that won her back to him. It would have to be his actions because his actions had lost her in the first place.
As he pummeled away at the simulations of Sentinels, soldiers and mutants, Logan began to form a plan.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
All does not go well...
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry this was a little short, and after such a while not posting! I'm going to try and pick it up a little with updating and developing a bit more.