I suck at summaries. Mainly because if my life was a book, it would be the most boring book in existence... until I met him.
The “him” I am referring to is the tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous (seriously, handsome doesn’t even begin to cover it here) man who stalked into my parents house one day and completely turned my world upside-down, and let’s not forget back-to-front.
The first thought out of my head after I saw him (after I got my brain functioning again, and my jaw off the floor), was, “Damn!” which was quickly followed by, “Oh, damn,” when a beautiful African woman with snow white hair walked through the door behind him.
As it turns out my original fears as to said man’s availability were unfounded, the woman introduced herself as Ororo Munro and proceeded to recite a prepared speech to try and convince my parents to send me to some school in New York state where they could help me learn to control my powers.
My parents, of course, were only to pleased, that someone, anyone, had finally come to take me off their hands, and readily agreed that, “It would be best for her”. Gee thanks Dad, I’m not even out of the house and already you’ve forgotten my name.
‘Tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ just leaned casually against the door frame the whole time and glared at everything and nothing. The glare got darker when he too picked up the fact that my own father wouldn’t use my name.
My parents were ready to wave goodbye but I was a little curious, if I was going to be living at this place I wanted to know everything about it. An hour was spent in conversation, me asking questions, them, mostly Ororo, answering. I asked about everything from location, size, student population, whether I’d have to share a room (not something you want to be doing when your skin can kill people), what classes they offered, and even what the climate was like.
During this interrogation, I learnt that Ororo was a weather controlling history teacher, and ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ taught “Art,” which was actually meaning martial arts, among other defensive and offensive training he provided for students and future “X-men”, though I didn’t learn this until later.
My last question was about the only creature in the world that seemed to care about me and my existence, my dog, Jack, a big shaggy ex-farm dog who I’d had since he was a year old, and whether he could come with me. He had been my best friend since I was 10, and he was the only creature that would approach me since my skin ‘turned on’, he would comfort me when I was crying, sleep on my bed when I was scared, or just sit beside me, like he was now, and offer me comfort just from his presence.
Ororo started to say something, when ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ interrupted after a quick look at me, and having taken in my one gloved hand resting in my lap and the other, un-gloved hand, resting on the dog’s head, said “Yes.” Ororo quickly said that I could take him with me but some of the students didn’t like dogs and if his presence caused too much of a stir he would have to leave.
The next thing I knew I had been packed off to my room to grab my belongings. Looking around my room I started thinking about what I needed, what I wanted, and what I wanted to leave behind, I left most of it.
I eventually decided on a few outfits, my small jewellery box, my diary, laptop, and a stuffed bear that my Great-Grandma gave me when I was born 17 long years ago. I also took Jack’s blanket, his favourite chew toy, and reminded myself to collect his food dish from the kitchen on my way out.
I turned to leave my room only to find ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ watching me from the door, I just about jumped through the roof, I didn’t even hear him coming.
“Thought you’d got lost,” he grumbled, “Hurry up,” and he turned and disappeared silently down the stairs, it was actually hard to believe a guy that big could walk so quietly, even that one creaky stair that had busted me more than once when I was sneaking home after curfew didn’t make a sound when he walked over it.
When I got to the bottom step ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ grabbed my bag and took it out to the car, my mother waved goodbye to me from across the room, my father just nodded his head in my direction, the only movement other than my mother’s hand, was Jack, who, spying the open door, grabbed his leash and came and sat down next to me.
I fixed the leash on his collar and started towards the door, I had to run back inside after one step, I forgot the dog bowl, before hurrying back out to the waiting SUV and dropping the bowl next the my bag.
I jumped into the back seat, before I remembered my silly dog couldn’t jump and so couldn’t get into the car, ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ saved the day and lifted him onto the seat and shut the door, the dog instantly pushed his wet nose against the glass and waited for the window to open so he could stick his shaggy head out.
My parents had migrated to the porch where they said final goodbyes to Ororo before turning and walking back inside and shutting the door, I almost cried then, almost, until Jack turned, tipping his head on the side, seemingly in consideration, abandoned his post at the window, lay-down on the seat and pushed his head into my lap. ‘Tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ was also keeping a close eye on me via the rear-view mirror, and a flashed him what I hoped passed for a happy, carefree smile... I don’t think he thought it was.
When everyone was in the car we set off towards the highway and headed north. The trip was pretty quiet, Ororo tried talking but I wasn’t interested and just stared out my window, she gave up after a few minutes, and for the next two or so hours the only sound, other than the engine, was the dog snoring softly on my knee.
We stopped just before dusk, and ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’ dropped us at a diner while he went to get a few motel rooms for us. He got back just as our orders were arriving and over a very, very rare (as in all but mooing) steak, he finally introduced himself.
Logan, aka ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’, was pretty quiet but when he spoke you answered him, no questions, and I did, though, a little reluctantly when he asked about my now old home, friends, etc. He asked for minimal details on that, I guess he knew it was making me uncomfortable, before Ororo began asking me about my interests, hobbies, and other things I enjoyed.
In all it took four days to get to New York, I can’t figure out why on earth they didn’t just get the jet to pick us up, of course, I didn’t know about the jet at that stage, but it would have saved a lot of time, though jet fuel is pretty expensive I suppose.
When we got back, it was late, they had a room ready for me, a smaller room on the teachers wing especially so I could have a room of my own, and the first thing I did was have a nice long bath while Jack explored the bedroom, and eventually made himself comfortable on the bed, right on top of my pillow, damn dog.
When I finished in the bathroom, I slipped into my nightie and kicked the dog off the bed, I gave him the pillow seeing as how he had covered it in dog hair, and he took up position on the floor, right in the middle of the room. I couldn’t sleep, so I got back up and unpacked my bag and put all my stuff away, I still wasn’t sleepy so I booted up my computer and checked my e-mails, nothing but spam.
I still wasn’t tired so I started up my media player and got some music going, not too loud, as I had discovered that Logan had very good hearing, he hated loud noises and his room was right next to mine. I wrote in my diary for a while, and then went out onto the little balcony that opened off my room.
It was a shared balcony I found, shared with Logan’s room next door, and Logan was just coming out onto it as well, lugging a big bush it looked like in a small pot. I looked at him strangely for a few seconds before he said it was for the dog, no doubt at some point the dog would need to go to the bathroom and he could pee on the tree. That was very thoughtful of him.
Over the next few weeks I settled in to classes and school life, I made a few friends, and a few enemies, apparently jealousy is a little rife here when certain people are given ‘special’ treatment, like their own room. Or maybe it was the fact that when certain people bought that up I replied, “Well I could bunk with you and suck your life out?” Seriously, I think said ‘enemies’ are just scared.
After that, was when my world got turned upside down. This metal controlling maniac tried to kidnap me, several times before he was successful in destroying a train, almost killing Logan, and finally getting me. That was, at the time, the scariest day of my life.
But Logan, of course, saved me, just about dying again in the process of giving me his life-saving healing power via my life absorbing skin, for three days he was locked up in the infirmary in a coma. The X-men’s doctor, Jean, wouldn’t let me see him, something about not knowing how he would react when he woke and not wanting me to get hurt.
But he did wake, and he came and found me, said he wanted to make sure I was alright. Apparently the Professor told him I had got some of his memories and stuff, he said they were pretty bad and I shouldn’t think about them, and that he was sorry, I stopped him there and told him that bad memories and a few nightmares were a small price to pay to be alive.
It was then I started to realise the danger I, along with most other mutants, was in. What if the X-men hadn’t come to me first? Would my parents have been as eager to hand me over to someone like Magneto? Or what about the people who tortured Logan and tried to turn him into a mutant monster? I don’t think Logan understood why I was crying but he gave me a hug anyway (now that I wasn’t expecting) and told me to come to him if I had any trouble with the nightmares.
I was starting to think there might be a lot more to the gruff Canadian than all his team mates think, and I was right. We became fast friends, partners in crime Scott referred to us, apparently, we were, and still are, worse than Jubilee.
A few months later, the mansion was attacked by a secret paramilitary group that was experimenting on mutants; I think they might be linked to whatever was done to Logan, some of those guys looked familiar. And again, Logan saved me, and then we both helped save all the mutants on the planet, and no I am not over exaggerating here. My outlook on life changed then, hence the previous reference to ‘back-to-front’, you don’t realise how much life means, or how much it’s worth until you’ve almost lost it, in my case, twice.
After that the humans decided we were a disease, and so they made a ‘cure’ for mutations. I have to admit, I took it, grabbed it with both hands even though I didn’t know anything about how it worked, which it turned out it didn’t as my powers came back after only a few days, it did however allow me to learn a good control over my skin.
After I took the cure and then learned to control my power I didn’t want to go back to Mississippi, my parents all but threw me out and hadn’t contacted me once, they didn’t deserve to know me anymore, so I went back to the school. Logan was sitting out front, at first I thought he was just out for a smoke, he’s not allowed to do so inside, though he does, quite often. Turns out he was waiting for me.
He was the first person I touched skin on skin in almost two years, he shook my hand when I announced I was touchable before I rolled my eyes at him and threw my arms around his neck, he returned my hug then offered me a celebratory beer, even though I was only 18, and we drank in silence for a while before it started to rain and we hurriedly rushed inside as thunder and lightning started booming and flashing across the sky.
After the alfresco beer, we decided to take the celebration up a notch or to, and raided the freezer for ice cream before heading up to Logan’s room to watch the NHL final. We didn’t watch much of the game after Logan started a freeze war; he kept sticking his cold spoon down the back of my shirt, so of course I had to return the favour.
Eventually it turned into an all out pillow war, Logan finally admitted defeat at around 11 after I knocked him on just the right angle and he fell of the bed, then the fearless leader showed up after hearing the commotion (or rather the thud of Logan hitting the floor, I think he left a dent) and kicked me out of Logan’s room, spoil sport {sticks tongue out childishly}.
Summer came, and for the first summer in two years I could walk around wearing what all the other girls wore. It didn’t take long, as in all of two days, for me to notice something was wrong with Logan, and I had a feeling I knew exactly what it was. To test my theory I needed a few things, so I willing went shopping with Jubilee, Kitty and a few of the other girls.
That should have been Logan’s first indicator that I was up to something! He didn’t seem to notice though, and I began putting my plan into action. What plan? you may be asking. My plan, seduce ‘tall, dark, and drop dead gorgeous’, like I’d wanted to do since the moment I first laid eyes on him. I was perfecting the execution of my plan all the next day through class; thank god my mutation means telepaths can’t read my mind!
After the final class of the day it was quickly decided that all us ‘kids’ would meet in an hour for some swimming. Stage one, in progress. I hurried through my homework before emptying all of yesterday’s shopping bags on the floor and fishing around in the pile for the string bikini I bought yesterday. Perfect.
I fitted it on, and admired it hugging my curves, the ones it covered anyway, before grabbing a towel and slipping onto the balcony and into Logan’s room through the French doors. He was lying on his bed reading (and I use the term loosely) some glossy magazine with motorbikes and women wearing about as much as I am now on the front cover. He took one look at me and just about drowned himself on the beer he was drinking.
“What do you think?” I asked innocently, twirling around like a four-year-old in her new favourite party dress. His eyes were just about popping out of head, and his pants were looking a little tighter than they had a second ago. I made some excuse about my bedroom door being “broken or stuck, or something,” and that if he didn’t mind I’d just use his door ‘til it was fixed. He made no comment so I turned and continued on my way out the door, catching a glimpse of him in the mirror staring at my retreating behind. Stage one complete.
After a few hours, it was getting close to dinner so we all decided to head back indoors and get changed, when I got to my room, the door was still “stuck”, or rather locked, as I’d left it. Was it too much to think stage one was as successful as I hoped it would be? Not quite I quickly discovered.
Logan was in his room, he hadn’t ‘fixed’ the door and he hadn’t made a runner before I got back, he was still ‘reading’ the same magazine too, though I noted it was upside-down. I turned behind me to shut the door, ‘accidentally’ dropping my towel on the floor when I did so, oops, this swim suit didn’t leave much to the imagination when dry, when wet, well now, that’s a whole ‘nother story.
It appeared to have at least some of the desired effect on Logan who growled low, though as soon as I turned around his eyes quickly shifted to a spot on the page in front of him, “Did you say something?” he shook his head hurriedly, and reached for his beer. I slowly wandered across the room thinking ‘please look up, please look up, please look up’, white swim suit material has a tendency to go slightly see through when wet you know.
A choking sound coming from the form on the bed acknowledged the granting of my request as I passed by. As innocently as I could muster I turned towards Logan, “Are you feeling alright?” In all honesty, he looked extremely uncomfortable.
“Mhmm,” he mumbled. I shrugged and continued towards the French doors and disappeared into my room and hurriedly changed into something suitable to wear down stairs for dinner.
‘Something suitable’ ended up being, a very, very short, sleeveless, low-cut, white sundress, that if I bent over just enough you could see my panties, I didn’t have the courage to go commando in this one, what if someone else saw? I quickly towel dried my hair and tied it up in a messy knot, leaving two white streaks, courtesy of Magneto, to frame my face.
I’m not a big fan of make-up, I never wore a lot in Mississippi and Logan doesn’t really like it, too fake, but I applied a little bit of eyeliner to frame my deep green eyes just how Jubilee showed me, I passed on the lipstick though. And I was ready; I hurried back through to Logan’s room hoping to catch him before he went downstairs.
His room was empty when I entered, damn, I shrugged and made my way across the room when I heard a sound from behind the closed bathroom door, it sounded like someone, namely Logan, was in pain, oh no wait, definitely not pain, I realised when I heard a groan that sounded like my name, definitely time for stage two.
I slipped back onto the balcony while Logan tidied up and waited until I heard the bathroom door open, then bounced into his room, definitely not a good thing to do in public wearing that dress let me tell ya. Logan saw me the second I came in the room, and appeared to immediately begin wishing he hadn’t.
I didn’t give him a chance to think before I took his hand and told him to hurry or we’d be late for dinner, he followed for a few steps before he pulled me to a stop. I turned, irritated, back and asked what was wrong. He stared me dead in the eye, though he did look to be having quite a bit of trouble doing so and said, “Go get changed into something decent kid.”
“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I challenged.
Logan heaved a sigh, “Look Marie, I know you’re enjoying being able to show off your skin and not have to be constantly covered... Shit kid I don’t know how to say this without upsetting you...” he trailed off before a told him to just spit it out already, and he took a quick breath and rushed out with, “Marie you don’t look nice dressed like that, you like one of these chicks,” he picked up the magazine he had been looking through before so I could see bikini babe on the front cover.
“You seem to like them alright,” I stated.
“But... Oh crap, how to say this... Marie you don’t want to be like those women, you’re better than them, all they are is something to look at, and yeah you’re right, I enjoy looking, but... When men look at those women they don’t care about them, they’re just something for us to use to get something for ourselves, and I don’t want people to look at you like that,” he stopped, and looked back at back up at me, he must have seen my tears because he hurriedly apologized, “I’m sorry Marie, I don’t want to hurt you but I would hate it if you got hurt because I didn’t say something and...”
“Thank you,” I whispered quietly and threw my arms around him, okay so I’d much rather he’d have thrown me down on the bed and had his way with me but that was really sweet, forget seduction, I’m just going to tell him, I thought, pulling back to look up at him. “Logan...” I started, but he interrupted me and said I should get changed before we tried to talk, or we were not going to be doing much talking, he didn’t say the last part with words though.
I hurried into my room and hurriedly pulled on the first things I could reach, my favourite old blue jeans, with a half dozen holes and paint spots acquired in art class (the real art class not Logan’s “art” class), and an old racer-back tank, it really was too warm to wear much else, then I raced back to Logan’s room.
I could smell smoke as soon as I approached the door; it wasn’t cigar smoke like normal. What I saw when I entered was a shock and a half, Logan was burning the motorcycle magazine, and he appeared to be enjoying that as much as he had enjoyed reading it.
“What are you doing?” I asked, curiously, as I came closer to where he was seated on the edge of the bed, burning the pages over the trash can.
“What does it look like?” he asked sarcastically.
I rolled my eyes at him, “Fine, why are doing that?” I asked, as if he didn’t know what I was really asking.
He turned to look at me, without answering, and proceeded to reveal that he had figured out what I was doing after watching me at the pool today and seeing how before I went out to the pool I added boardies and a rash vest to my ensemble before going out to join anyone else, he also informed me that the towel stunt was just plain mean.
I blushed bright red at that, I apologized and said that I just wanted him to look at me the same way as he looked at other women, like he actually thought I was beautiful after having told me so for so long when others, or just myself, made me feel otherwise.
Logan dropped the smouldering magazine into the trash can and turned my face towards him, “You don’t want me to look at you how I look at those women Marie, those women want me to look at them the way I look at you, like they are the most beautiful women on the planet, because you are, and you don’t have to try these stupid stunts to get my attention, you’ve already got it.”
I hugged him again, quickly hiding my face because I knew I was going to cry again, he hugged me back this time and whispered in my ear that he loved me, he always would, then he went and blew the romantic moment by saying we should get down to dinner before someone came looking for us.
We walked down to the dining hall together hand in hand; we split up after getting some food and went to sit at our usual tables. I was immediately grilled by the girls as to whether my plan had worked, at my answer “yes and no” Jubilee immediately piped up and said, “You either got laid or you didn’t chica, which was it?”
“I didn’t,” I replied, adding a quiet “Yet,” I hope Logan caught that!
Dinner was barely finished when the Professor called all the senior X-men, of which I was not one, to his office. The jet flew off into the gathering dusk twenty minutes later, and after watching their departure the rest of the student body continued on with their usual Friday night activities.
I stayed up later than usual that night, hoping Logan would return, but he didn’t, and I eventually couldn’t keep my eyes open so went to bed, it took me a while to realise why I couldn’t get through my bedroom door, until I remembered that I had been in such a hurry to talk to Logan earlier that I forgot to unlock it.
Don’t you hate that feeling when you are so tired you go to bed, only to find as soon as you lie down you can’t get to sleep. Well eventually I did, then, I wished I hadn’t. I hardly ever have Logan’s nightmares anymore, neither does Logan, the Professor thinks it’s something to do with a feeling of security a person gets from being reasonably settled in one place but that night I had one of the worst nightmares I had ever had.
When I finally managed to wake up, I think Jack jumped on me, I had to rush to the bathroom to greet my returning dinner, and desert, and the snack I had before coming up to bed. After that I had a hot shower, trying to scrub away the feeling of hands poking and prodding at me, among other things. Throwing on a fresh pj’s I looked towards my mussed up bed, no way was I getting back in there.
I slipped out of my room, into Logan’s, I often slept over after nightmares, sometimes he’d even sleep over in my bed after he’d had a nightmare, I was hoping the feeling of calm that usually came from sleeping in Logan’s bed would come tonight, even if Logan wasn’t here with me.
I was starting to feel extremely uncomfortable about Logan’s absence too, they had left at about seven pm, it was now just after three am. Maybe they’re just doing recon or something, I tried to reassure myself, my helpful brain adding, ‘yeah, and the whole team had to go, at no notice, for recon why?’
I settled down in Logan’s bed and waited for him to come home, I was asleep before too long but woke with a start about an hour later, someone was watching me...
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Story Notes:
AU but draws main plot lines from the movies, ie: Mags using Rogue to power his machine, Stryker attacking the mansion, and the cure.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Chapter 1 of 3, watch this space!
Chapter End Notes:
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