Logan went back inside the bar filled with a new conviction that he had to make things right between them but unsure how to make that happen. He took his seat again without looking at his teammates or Michel. He stared at the new glass of whiskey in front of him for several minutes just listening to the conversations murmuring around him before slowly taking a sip. The burn felt good, so soothing, and he was finished by the time Rogue hopped back off her stool.
“All right, Ah have an apartment where you can change, and then we'll just wait until night to head out. Mike, please let Remy know we'll be meeting at the St. Louis Cathedral at sunset,” Rogue said, reaching up to pat the man's cheek as she passed him by.
“Anything for you, Rogue,” Michel told her. “And Angie.”
Rogue shot him a sad smile before turning to the X-Men. “Ah got a ride here today from a neighbor, so can I hitch with one of you?” she asked.
“Sure, Rogue. C'mon, we have tons to talk about!” Jubilee said, jumping forward and grabbing her arm before anyone else could respond.
The X-Men headed out and down the street. Logan watched Rogue and Jubilee as they walked, heads close together. The city noise and conversations of the others made it a little difficult to filer out what they were saying, but Logan felt that he needed to keep tabs on Rogue now. To do that, he needed to gather as much information about what she'd been doing as possible.
“I can't believe you haven't tried for Mike!” Jubilee said.
Logan watched a blush creep up Rogue's neck and knew it reached her cheeks. “Jubes! He's my boss, for one thing. And he's not really my type.”
“Oh, so what's your type, chica? Tall and red?” Huh? Damn! What the fuck was that about?
Rogue laughed a little. “That was just a bit of craziness, babe. The boy's too inclined to sniff around, if you know what Ah mean. It was fun while it lasted, but it wasn't for keeps, and we both knew it,” she said, confirming Logan's fears but setting most of them to rest at the same time.
Jubilee shook her head. “I don't know, Rogue. He seemed pretty gone on you when I was here!”
Rogue shook her head. “Trust me, Jubes. He was gone on another girl the night after Ah told him Ah wasn't going to be going out with him anymore. Remy's just like a tomcat, always in heat!”
Logan's knuckles itched. Remy, huh? He wondered if the guy they would be meeting later and this one were the same. He was betting they were.
“Those are the ones who are the most fun, though!”
“Oh, Ah had my fun, Jubes. Don't you worry about that,” Rogue laughed. Logan's gut clenched at the little purr in her voice.
“So is he any good in the sack? Now that I don't have to worry about you, chica, I might give him a whirl,” Jubilee said eagerly.
“Sensational. Get him to do the card trick. He'll know what you mean,” Rogue said, that purr even more evident. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Ooooh, after seeing what he can do with a deck of cards, I can hardly wait!”
“Of course you can't, babe. You're as bad as he is!”
That didn't sound very good. Logan knew much more than he ever wanted to about Jubilee's sex life due to the fact that her room was a little too close for comfort sometimes. If this Remy person had a similar appetite...not good. He might have to kill him before Jubilee could have her fun.
They finally reached the cars. Somehow, in the shuffle everyone else piled into one car. This left Rogue and Logan to take the other one. Logan saw her lips tighten before she held out her hand.
“It's my apartment. Ah'll drive,” she said.
Logan shook his head. “You can just give me directions,” he told her.
Rogue glared at him. “See what Ah mean? You always have to be in control!” she said through gritted teeth.
Seeing that he was proving her point, he reluctantly tossed her the keys. “Fine. Drive,” was all he said.
Rogue slid in behind the wheel and adjusted the seat and mirrors. Logan saw her glance at him before she pulled out. “You know they did that on purpose, right?” she said as she entered traffic.
Logan snorted. “Yeah. I think they were afraid to get caught in the crossfire.”
Rogue smiled slightly. He loved seeing her smile. It was just one of the many things he'd missed about her. “Ah have a feeling you're right. Never would have thought of them as cowards, though,” she mused as she drove.
Logan settled back in his seat. “There's a difference between facing deadly fire and friendly fire,” he said.
Rogue just smirked, nodded and kept driving. They were quiet for a few minutes before Logan turned his head to look at her again. Yeah, there were definitely more white strands in her hair. He hadn't been mistaken about her eyes, either. They were green, a deep velvety green instead of the chocolate brown he was familiar with, and he wondered for the first time how well he really knew Rogue. Yes, they had lived in the same house for years, and for a couple of years before she left they would hang out pretty regularly, but he was beginning to realize that there were a lot of things he didn't know about her.
Logan figured it was time to focus on one of the more recent things he didn't know, though. “So, what was that about the homicidal maniac?” he asked, trying very hard to be casual about it when really he wanted to rip someone's throat out at the thought of Rogue near someone matching a description like that.
Rogue sighed, rubbed the back of her neck with one hand. “Nothing Ah couldn't take care of,” she told him shortly.
“Obviously. I'm still curious, though. I can tell you're a lot stronger than you used to be, physically.” Logan almost choked on his own understatement, but he was still trying for casual.
Nodding slowly, Rogue finally said, “Ah was out with a guy a few months ago, at a party with him and some of his friends. Ah found out later they were mostly Thieves' Guild members. Ah guess someone had it in for some of them because suddenly a fucking hole was in the wall, and a woman walked through it. She had this crazy cold look in her eyes, and she looked around for a few seconds like she was trying to find a target. Well, then she started laying into this guy Jean-Pierre, and the next thing Ah know he's on the ground, his skull just flattened like a pancake on one side. Then she comes after my date. Ah...hadn't told any of them that Ah was a mutant, even though Ah knew some of them were. Ah wanted an ace up my sleeve, you know? So just as she was drawing back to deck Remy, Ah grabbed her bare arm and turned on my skin.” Rogue fell silent for a few minutes.
“That's new, isn't it?” Logan finally asked. When she glanced at him he added, “Your control. You weren't able to do that before.”
Rogue's lips tightened in a way that told him she was annoyed. It took her a few more minutes to answer. “Yes, Ah was.”
“You were?” Okay, maybe he shouldn't have yelled that, but what the fuck?
“The day Ah left Ah came to dinner without my gloves on. You didn't even notice, Logan.”
Oh. Shit. He'd been so focused on keeping everyone safe and his lingering grief that he hadn't paid attention to one of the most important days of her life. That could not be good, and the only thing he could think to say was, “I'm sorry, Marie.”
He saw her lips quirk up a little at the corners. “Ah figured you would be. Ah got over it, mostly.”
When she didn't say anything else he prodded, “So what happened once you touched that woman?”
Rogue grimaced. “Ah realized that she wasn't gonna stop. She was a mercenary named Carol Danvers, and the government fucked her up pretty good at one point, actually driving her crazy. The people who hired her...they weren't gonna stop, either, as far as she knew. Their price for the heads of my friends was certainly high enough to give her plenty of incentive to keep going. So Ah held on until she stopped moving, and then she stopped breathing. Ah knew Ah had killed her, but Ah was so busy with what was going on in my head that Ah just couldn't care then. Remy tried to pull me away from her, and Ah was screaming at him not to touch me because Ah couldn't get control back right away. He just wrapped me up in his jacket and took me back to my place. He made some calls, and the body was disposed of.” She said it coolly, but he could smell the controlled terror and anger that the memories were bringing to the front of her mind.
“So you killed her. Did you keep her mutation?” That seemed like the next logical question, although there were a thousand others he wanted to ask about this Remy guy.
Rogue nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, Ah did. Ah'm getting real good with 'em, too. Show me some claw,” she demanded.
Logan looked at her like she was demented but eventually obliged. He cursed when she wrapped her hand around it quickly, squeezed and let go. “Fuck, Marie!”
Rogue held up her hand. Her perfectly smooth, uncut hand. “My skin is invulnerable, Logan. Ah don't have to worry about pesky things like bullets or blades anymore,” she said smugly.
Logan just stared at her hand until she dropped it back to the wheel, trying to recover from the shock. “And when have you encountered adamantium since that happened?”
“Ah haven't.”
Logan restrained the urge to strange her for her stupidity. He growled instead and glared out the window at the pedestrians and cars they were passing. That's when he noticed how fast they were going. When he looked in the side mirror and saw Scott still following, he didn't say anything. If the girl wanted to be a speed demon, let her. Hopefully she knew where the local speedtraps were and would avoid them. The minutes ticked as they drove,and the silence was getting to him. Before she left, they used to be able to sit together quietly for hours. It was comfortable then. Maybe it was the the unasked questions from the past year, but something was making it a little difficult for him to keep his mouth shut.
“So what else have you been up to besides taking out psychos?” Logan asked, keeping his eyes on the scenery even though he desperately wanted to look at her.
“Oh, this, that and the other thing. Ah bartend on the weekends, and Ah do some substitute teaching to get by,” she replied. Just then she swung the SUV to the side and whipped into a parallel parking spot in front of a slightly-rundown apartment building. “We're here!”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hmmm...I guess I have unresolved voyeuristic tendencies. Maybe that's why I can get so obsessed with 'ships!
Chapter End Notes:
It's starting to get easier for them...