Logan was in the garage, working on the truck he and Rogue had bought on the weekend. It needed a lot of work before he would be happy driving the kids in it but they got it extra cheap after Logan managed to talk up the problems, that the seller clearly knew about but wasn't advertising. It was nothing he couldn't fix, and cheaply if he got all the parts through the Professor's contact.
Tomorrow was valentine's day, the first year he had to actually do something on the day. He was stumped for ideas though, he didn't want to disrupt anyone else's plans by asking them to babysit, not to mention everywhere would be crowded, so dinner was going to be in but he was still drawing a blank on what to do that could be considered special.
He picked up the sound of footsteps approaching the garage tentatively, it was a toss-up whether it was someone who knew he was in there and didn't want to disturb him, or someone who knew he was in there and was going to try and prank him. A gentle breeze carried through the scent of the potential intruder. "I'm in here Caleb, come on in."
"Hey dad," the boy mumbled, when he eventually walked in, before jumping up to sit on a nearby work bench.
"You okay?" Logan asked, noting the distracted air around him.
"I don't know," Caleb murmured, as he shifted uncomfortably.
Logan grabbed a nearby rag to wipe the loose grease off his hands as he walked over and sat next to him. "Want to talk?"
"Not really," Caleb replied, grinning when Logan laughed in response. "I don't know what's going on, tomorrow's valentine's day, a week ago I asked Flora if she was free for dinner tomorrow, she said yes, so I've been working on that assumption until I mentioned it at lunch and she suddenly said she couldn't do dinner, she had to do something she'd forgotten about, when I asked what, she made an excuse without really answering and then took off. She's been really distant the last few days, I get she's busy, and she's got her own friends and all that but I feel like she's avoiding me, like she's afraid to be seen with me, and I don't know why or what to do."
"That's weird, you haven't made any comments that might have made her feel uncomfortable?" Logan asked, he'd overheard the teenage boy talk that went on around the mansion, when they thought the girls weren't around to hear them.
"Not that I can think of, and I've been thinking hard," Caleb replied, looking dejected, "I've literally gone over every conversation I can remember us having for the last week, it's not that many, and on Tuesday she even called home from my room and we both talked to her parents, so... do I just forget it, I mean, maybe she does have something else scheduled... I can still give her the flowers I guess."
"I wish I had an answer for you kid, I'd suggest tracking her down and talking to her but if she's avoiding talking to you maybe not the best idea, women can be confusing, sometimes all they need is time to think over what's going through their heads, or maybe she's just got a lot going on right now and is a little stressed," Logan replied with a shrug, as he jumped off the bench to get back to work. "Leave her the flowers, maybe add a note to let her know dinner's still available if she changes her mind, see what happens. In the meantime, you have any experience with engines?"
Caleb grinned as he climbed down too and followed Logan to the truck. "Nope, can you teach me?"
"Sure can kid, just get that shirt off, your mom will kick my ass if I send you back with your clothes covered in grease," Logan replied with a grin.
Over the next few hours they worked on the car, Rogue and the little kids stopped by on their way back inside from their latest forest walk. Sarah stuck her head in at dinner time and asked if they were coming, they declined, neither were hungry right then, they could grab something from the kitchen later. When they finally called it quits, cleaned up, and headed in, the ground floor was almost completely deserted. They were engrossed in a discussion about hockey, and poking fun at each other’s favourite teams, as they raided the fridge, when the kitchen door opened and Flora walked in.
She smiled happily at the father-son bonding being displayed by the pair and apologised for interrupting when they finally noticed her and dropped their conversation.
"It's no problem," Caleb hurried to assure her, "Is everything okay? Have I done something to upset you?" he rushed to ask, taking the chance to try and talk seeing as how it appeared she had intentionally sought him out.
"That's what I was looking for you to talk about, I'm sorry about this afternoon, I don't want to cancel our plans, if you're still wanting to do dinner tomorrow?" Flora asked nervously.
"Yeah, definitely," Caleb replied with a relieved smile, "But, why did you say that then?" he added worriedly.
"Because Marcus was sitting right behind us, he's been pestering me the last couple of days to go out with him on valentine's day, I tried to brush him off but he kept bugging me, I didn't want to tell him I already had a date with you, after the fight... I didn't want to risk you getting hurt again... I told him I was doing something with my girlfriends, and then when you mentioned dinner, I had to cover and... I'm sorry," Flora responded, looking genuinely remorseful, "I came to find you as soon as I could slip away from everyone else, so I could apologize."
Caleb looked simultaneously relieved and even more worried. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you and I are okay but you shouldn't have to lie like that to feel safe, honestly, just tell Marcus to stop bothering you, and don't worry about telling him the truth, if he wants to pick a fight I'll deal with him, I don't think he will anyway and even if he does Johnny's not here anymore so it won't be like last time," Caleb said to her, as he hugged her tightly.
"I know, I just, I worry, I know you don't go looking for fights but they sure seem to find you, and I don't like being the cause of them," Flora replied, not making any move to completely untangle herself from him when they released each other. They sat down side by side, opposite Logan.
"So, all is well in paradise again?" he asked jokingly, as he watched the pair. Anyone who couldn't tell those two were a definite item was thick as two short planks.
"Yeah, we're good now, but do you think you could talk to him..."
"No!" Flora interrupted, "That would make it worse."
"I'll see if Scott can talk to him, how’s that for a compromise, it's not right that you're being made to feel insecure, he needs to learn to take a hint without a girl having to resort to lying to him, and he needs to learn it now before he gets out into the real world where it won't be a teacher giving him a warning it'll be a judge," Logan responded. "Speaking of plans for tomorrow," he added, "You two seem to know what you're doing here, can you help an old man out with some ideas, I have no idea what to do for Rogue tomorrow, it's gotta be kid friendly because we don't have a babysitter."
"Flowers?" Caleb offered.
"Sorted, I was going to cook her breakfast, she's got classes all day, I was thinking cooking her dinner but that's kinda ordinary..." Logan trailed off.
"Does she take a book or bag with her for classes, you could pop notes in it for her to find during the day, and I know it's still a little chilly but you all seem to enjoy the outdoors, you could take a picnic dinner in the woods, there's a nice spot down by the lake, you could take blankets and pillows and watch the stars, I'm sure Ava and James would enjoy that too," Flora suggested.
"Those are absolutely fantastic ideas, Flora you are a genius!" Logan replied, he could definitely work with all of that, and the weather should be fine tomorrow, if a little chilly, but they'd met in the snowy wilds of Canada so a bit of New York chill would be nothing.
--
The next morning Logan was up early, the kids had woken up soon after he had gotten up, probably hearing him moving around. They were all fixing a big breakfast when Rogue wandered out to see what the hushed giggles were all about. She slid her arms around Logan's waist as she smiled up at him.
"I was planning on fixing you breakfast but it seems you beat me to it," she told him, before standing up on her toes to press a kiss into his bearded cheek.
"You gotta be quick around here," Logan replied with a chuckle, "Now go back to bed so we may serve you properly ma'am."
"Eek, no ma'am, you make me sound old," Marie giggled.
"Oh well, we can't have that now can we sweet cheeks," he replied, cheekily pinching her butt. "And take this one with you," he added, plucking James off the chair he was standing on and tossing him to Marie. The boy giggled some more as he flew through the air before Marie caught him, he then triumphantly brandished the sausage he had successfully stolen while Logan wasn't looking, much to his parent’s amusement.
As the lounged in bed eating together Marie questioned him about what else he had planned for the day. "Don't make dinner plans," Logan replied cryptically.
"Ooh, are we going out?" Marie asked, trying to dig for hints.
"Technically yes, dress warm and comfy, I'll pick you up at six. And seriously, dress really warm," Logan told her.
"Who's watching the kids?" Marie asked, as James cuddled up to her.
Ava giggled as Logan shushed her, the kids knew his plan but he wasn't too worried about them giving anything away, they were going to be with him all day so it wouldn't matter. "They're coming too," he replied. Marie sounded mildly disappointed as she replied with a generic 'oh' before she glanced over at Ava.
"So, what are we doing tonight Ava?" she asked the little girl with the mischievously sparkling eyes. Ava's only reply was to motion zipping her lips closed. "This isn't fair! Am I the only one who doesn't know?" Marie asked, in mock exasperation.
"Yep," James answered, "'Cause it's a su’pwise, so dada said we can't tell."
"And do you always do what dada tells you?" Marie challenged.
"Yes, 'cause I'm a good boy," James replied, nodding his head decisively.
"Fair enough," Marie laughed, as she hugged the little boy tightly to her and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. She had gotten a lot more relaxed with touching and being touched since the kids had come along Logan again noted, it helped that they were very careful about not touching her skin but also very eager for contact and physical reassurance. Her maternal instinct wouldn't let her ignore their, often unspoken, requests for touch.
Once Marie was off to class midmorning, Logan and the kids began their preparations for that night. Their first stop was the clearing by the lake, they had a tarp, a small electric power pack, and several foam bed rolls pilfered from the survival class camping stash. Once a spot was cleared and the tarp laid out, Logan made a decent size 'bed' with the piled-up bed rolls until it was thick enough that the ground wouldn't be too hard underneath them. He had a fitted sheet to hold it all together in a rough bed shape, before they headed back indoors to get the next load of stuff they would need.
--
Marie's class was quietly working through a test as she glanced down at the paper in her hand, when the piece of paper had fallen out of her book as she opened it for her lesson, she had thought it was her bookmark. It wasn't until she had picked it up later, to mark her place and continue her lesson, that she realised it was actually a note reading: 'You are my metanoia.' And accompanied with a definition, 'Metanoia, noun. The journey of changing one's mind, heart, self, or way of life.'
The Logan inside her head chuckled at the sappy comment. 'You see what you reduce me to darlin, I used to be a badass,' he good naturedly tsked.
'You're still a badass, my badass, you're just a sweet badass now... any idea what he's planning?' she thought back.
'Not a clue, even if I did have an idea, I wouldn't tell you,' he replied.
'Ooh badass, keeping secrets from your fiancée?' she ribbed.
'Not secrets gorgeous, surprise, big difference. Now get back to teaching your class,' he chuckled, before slinking back into the shadows of her mind.
She found another note during her next class, this one reading: 'I will always be your caim.' with the definition, 'Caim, noun. "Sanctuary"; an invisible circle of protection that reminds you, you are safe and loved, even in the darkest times.' Through the day she uncovered more notes, each one including some obscure word and its definition, each one meant to describe how much he loved her or how much she meant to him. She folded and tucked each note into the bouquet of flowers that had been delivered for her at lunch time.
The delivery guy from the florist had literally bought a cart into the cafeteria during lunch break and read out a list of names, handing flowers to each person in turn as they came to collect. Scott had gotten a dozen red roses for Jean, Ororo had received a large bouquet if bluebells and forget-me-not. Sarah had received two arrangements, one little bundle of sweet pea, and the second a mixture of orange and yellow tulips, Rogue had also received tulips so she assumed those were both from Caleb, her second bouquet, of white and purple roses, the same as Logan had gotten her for their date, must have been from him.
Ava received two little bouquets, baby’s breath and white lilacs in the first, and the second of cherry blossom, she was so excited and distracted by the fact that she got flowers that she missed the grins on her dad and brothers faces, as Rogue teased her about having a secret admirer.
Flora however, outdid everyone in the school, to the point she needed someone to help her just to get all her flowers to her table. She had small bouquets of pink coreopsis, another of miniature sunflowers, and another of dahlias. All of that was followed up by the biggest bouquet of brightly coloured gerberas Rogue had ever seen. Flora didn't say anything, just blushed brightly at all the attention she got for being the most popular girl in school; it seemed Marcus wasn't the only other kid with a crush on her.
By the end of the school day she had found six notes in total, however, she couldn't find Logan. Their suite was empty, though another note had been left for her on the dining table, this one didn't have any flowery words, instead, it instructed her to wait in the suite until he came to collect her. She'd returned to the suite at four pm, from the note she assumed he wouldn't be long but as it was approaching six, and he still hadn't arrived, she started to worry.
That morning Logan had told her to dress warmly, warm and comfy, she assumed that meant whatever they were doing was outdoors. So, she'd dressed in thermals, comfy jeans, a thick sweater, and equally thick fluffy socks. Her boots and jacket were ready and waiting by the door but as she stood at the window staring out into darkness, she couldn't help but wonder just what Logan was planning outdoors, in the dark, with the kids.
A knock at the door startled her out of her thoughts, with a confused frown she went to open the door. At the threshold stood Logan. "Come on, grab your jacket let's go," he said with a grin, when she just stared dumbly at him. She had her boots on and walked out a minute later, pulling on her jacket as she went.
"Where are the kids?" she asked, as Logan shut the door behind her before taking her hand and leading her toward the stairs.
"They're waiting for us," Logan replied, "But they're busting to give you your surprise so we can't keep them waiting too long."
"Wait, have you left them alone somewhere?!" Rogue asked incredulously.
"They're not alone, even if they were they'd be fine, they're smart enough not to wander off, and they heal so they're not likely to hurt themselves, not permanently at least," Logan answered with a shrug, he wouldn't tell her but he had planned to leave them waiting alone, it been pure coincidence that Caleb and Flora had come along when they had and offered to watch them while he went to get Rogue.
Stopping on the back-patio Logan lit a kerosene camping lantern. "Where on earth did you find that?" Rogue asked with a laugh.
"Buried in among all the survival class camping gear, I figured it was slightly more romantic than an LED torch," Logan replied, as he picked up the lantern before taking her hand again and leading her into the woods.
It didn't take Rogue long to figure out where they were heading, when she did, she picked up the pace a little, amusing Logan who teasingly commented on how impatient she was. She just stuck her tongue out at him as she pulled him down the path that lead to the lake. When they stepped into the clearing Rogue gasped in surprise, the clearing was surrounded by hundreds of fairy lights hanging from the trees, a small fire was crackling away off to one side, and what looked like a bed, a deep pit of pillows and blankets was sitting in the middle of the clearing.
Ava and James excitedly jumped up from their places around the campfire, running to her as they yelled happily, "Mommy, mommy, do you like it?"
"I love it!" Rogue replied, "It's so pretty, did you guys do this all by yourselves?" she asked teasingly.
Ava giggled. "Daddy did it but we helped," she said proudly.
All James said was, "I got mushmallows," as he held out a sticky melted marshmallow towards her.
"Hey, I said no marshmallows until after dinner," Logan growled playfully, James just laughed as he quickly shoved the treat into his mouth.
Caleb and Flora wandered over, ready to make themselves scarce now that Logan and Rogue were back. "Thanks for watching them," Logan replied, nodding to the two kids who were dragging Rogue around the clearing to show her things close up.
"It's okay, I like spending time with them,” Caleb shrugged, he really liked being a big brother it was a nice change from only having his mom, not that there was anything wrong with her, it was just nice having siblings. He was definitely going to have to teach them how to wreak all kinds of mayhem as they got older.
"And thanks for the flowers Logan," Flora smiled at him prettily.
"You are very welcome, I figured I got my other daughter some so fair was fair," he chuckled when the girl beamed at him as she threw her arms around him. She had been homesick a lot over the last few weeks, anything he could do to make her feel more at home was a good thing, and he had no doubt that before too long she would be his daughter, by law at least.
"Which one's did you give her?" Caleb asked curiously, a hint of something else on his eyes.
"The coreopsis," Flora replied, "He even remembered the right variety too, the twinklebells are my second favourite flower in the whole world."
"I figured this guy would be getting you your first favourites; way to one up the entire school population by the way, how much did those cost?" Logan chuckled, as he glanced to Caleb.
"They were worth it," was all he would say before he turned to Flora and asked, "So who were the other two from?"
"Oh my, jealous, are we?" Flora teased, "I don't know who the sunflowers were from, but the dahlias were from Marcus, so... I gave them to Kristy because she has a crush on him, maybe he'll take the hint and move on." That answer seemed to appease Caleb's mild bought of territorial jealousy, before they both bid a final farewell and disappeared back down the trail. Logan could hear them talking for a while as they went, mentally congratulating the boy on his genius when he heard Flora comment that she couldn't see where she was going and was worried about tripping over, Caleb's solution, he'd carry her, literally sweep her off her feet.
Logan pulled dinner out from where it was keeping warm by the edge of the fire, it was all finger food so they wouldn't have to worry about losing cutlery but it would need to cool a bit before it could be handled. He pulled out a comforter from the pile of warm blankets, there was an electric blanket buried in there keeping everything toasty for now. As Rogue took a seat, he wrapped the comforter around her before crawling in with her, the kids each wrapped up in their own blankets as they ate.
After dinner was consumed, at a leisurely pace, Logan bought out more marshmallows. James loved the sweet treat and was surprisingly good at roasting them perfectly, Ava on the other hand preferred to set hers on fire and use them as a torch, which led to Logan warning her if she did it again, he wasn't giving her anymore marshmallows. She pouted through roasting several more marshmallows perfectly before she shrieked and hurriedly blew the next one out. "That was by accident daddy, I promise," she said, almost in tears when Logan growled at her… he let her have another...
Once they were full, and had run out of marshmallows Logan said it was time for bed, picking Marie up he carried her over to the blanket pile, depositing her among the pillows. James and Ava dived in after her, and the three got comfortable while Logan threw a few more pieces of wood onto the fire before turning off the fairy lights.
"Oh my gosh," Marie exclaimed, as the twinkling stars in the clear sky above them were revealed.
"This is nothing," Logan commented, as he crawled under the blankets with them, "One day, I'll take you all on a road trip and we can go right out, far away from the city, where you can see all the stars, and if we go right up north we can see the northern lights too."
"But where all the stars now?" James asked confused.
"Most of them are hidden, the light from the city washes them out so you can't see them from the ground, you can only see the biggest and brightest ones here," Logan explained.
He spent several hours pointing out various constellations and telling them all the stories and legends that went with them. Rogue was amazed, how did he know all this, it was like the obscure words on the notes, maybe Logan should be teaching an English class rather than Defence. Eventually, one by one, everyone began to fall asleep in the cosy warmth of their pillow pit.
The moon rising, just after eleven, woke Marie. Logan was still awake, lying watching her sleep in the silvery glow, he kissed her nose before he suggested they take the kids inside to bed. The pit was still warm enough but the fire had died out and the temperature was dropping quickly. Gently they each picked up a sleepy charge and began the trek inside. Logan kicked dirt over the remaining embers of the fire, and turned off the power pack that had been running the electric blanket and lights, before they left.
As Marie fell asleep again later, in their own bed, she smiled over at Logan. "That was nice, you give good surprises," she said as drifted off.