Logan was hurriedly cleaning and packing the tool chest. He had graduated a month earlier, and began working fulltime at Mr Johnson's auto shop that same day. He enjoyed the work, Tony was a good teacher, and a good boss. The pay was okay, but with baby due to arrive in two months the financial stress of being a parent was starting to hit the young couple.
Logan had resolved to not ask his dad for money, or baby stuff, his dad appeared to have caught on to that though and had taken to buying things and giving them to Marie before Logan even knew about it. He knew dad was only trying to help but it made Logan feel like he'd failed, he couldn't provide for his own family. To make up for this he'd begun looking for a second job, what he'd discovered was a well-paying venture, of questionable legality... cage fighting.
He had initially gone around the bars looking for a job as a bouncer, he'd had to approach the seedier looking joints that were less likely to ask for ID and more likely to just accept his verbal 'twenty-three'. He was tall for his age - just shy of eighteen - and the regular workouts in the mansion’s gym, and sparring sessions with his dad, kept him buff. It also turned out growing facial hair was a piece of cake for him, so he'd grown an impressive beard which added to the look - on the plus side, Marie liked that too!
He had been in one bar when the owner had laughed in his face when he'd said the type of work he was looking for, his only excuse for what he did next was that it had been a long day and he had already been turned down multiple times. Turning to the bouncer who was on hand, getting ready to throw him out for wasting the owners time, he had told them he would demonstrate and for the six-foot-five bouncer to give his best rowdy drunk impression. Within minutes the bouncer was out cold, and Logan shoved him out the door.
The barkeep, and another guy, had excused themselves to the other end of the bar, held a hushed whispered conversation, most of which Logan hadn't been able to hear, before returning and asking if Logan would be interested in a fighting gig. It wasn't paid, unless you won, but if you won you got a quarter share of the nights takings, that share was usually around three thousand dollars. For a few hours work that was a sweet take home, on the plus side it was all under the table.
Logan had agreed to give it a try, and was told to come back on Thursday night, at nine pm, and to expect to be in until one am if he was going to take the win. Then he went home and, for the first time in his life... he lied to his father.... Apparently, he bought it. He was slightly more truthful with Marie but that was more because he had told her the job he was trying out for was in a bar and he was underage, so could she please not ask questions. Marie wasn't entirely happy with the idea of him taking on a job that wasn’t exactly legal but agreed for him to give it a shot if that's what he wanted - but he had better not get caught.
That Thursday he had turned up, and cleaned house, though he was careful to do so in a way that wasn't too obvious just how easy it was for him to beat his opponents. He had taken home forty-two hundred that first night, and between three and six thousand the next two weeks. Tonight would be his fourth fight night, and this one was going to be big. An out of town 'champion' was expected so the crowd would be bigger than usual, and the bets would likely be flowing against him, which would mean higher takings for the bar if he won.
First, he had to clean and degrease all these tools though.
Tony came by as he was putting the last of the tools away, complimenting him on his good job before handing him an envelope stuffed with cash.
"What's this?" Logan asked confused, his cheque was paid into his bank account on Tuesdays after all.
"A tip from your motorcycle customer, you did the work, only fair you get the reward," Tony replied with a grin, "Buy that girl of yours something pretty," he suggested with a wink, before telling him to hurry up, he wanted to lock up early. With a grin Logan finished his sorting, stuffing the cash inside the hidden compartment in his motorcycle’s storage before he headed out to get dinner, and then on to the bar for the fights.
The out of town champion appeared to be a no-show by about halfway through the night, though the barkeep just chuckled and replied, 'Wait for it', when Logan asked about him. It wasn't until the final fight of the night that all his meticulous preparations fell apart.
"Now ladies and gentlemen, the round you've all been waiting for!" the MC announced to the crowd, "Can our local hero, the Wolverine, conquer the Sabretooth!"
As the crowd roared, Logan looked up as his challenger entered the ring. "Oh fuck," Logan breathed, as he stood face to face with his own, incredibly pissed off, father.
"Oh fuck is right boy, get your god damn ass out of here," Victor growled at him menacingly.
Logan looked for a minute like he might consider it, until he looked at the betting board. If he could pull this off he'd net close to ten thousand... but could he actually beat his father, the man who taught him everything he knew. With a scowl he walked to the door of the cage, and slammed it shut before he could re-think his decision. He didn't know if he could do it but he was damn well going to try, maybe his dad would go easy on him, maybe even let him win...
Judging by the look on his face, no, he was in for a world of hurt, oh well.
The fight was close, each man trading heavy blows, meant to hurt but not debilitate the opponent. The fight dragged, on and on, much to the delight of the crowd, the bets flew, and grew, as the fight stretched on close to half an hour. When it looked like the fight was never going to end the MC announced a final timed round, ending in either a pin, knock out, or highest number of strikes.
It was time to make this count, Logan knew, even as his body screamed for him to give up already. His healing was running so slowly from the continual onslaught that he had an unhealed cut above his left eye leaking blood into his eye, and he thought he had at least one broken rib that was chaffing painfully. He could only hope Victor was in as bad shape.
As the final counter ticked down Logan looked for any opening he could, all of a sudden he saw a move he recognized, and if he recognized it, he could counter it. Striking hard and fast he slammed through Victor's defences, and attacked without mercy. Victor hit the floor, momentarily knocked unconscious though Logan knew he wouldn't be out for long, so he pinned him for good measure, hoping the count would be done before he could get his bearings back.
As the crowd roared one final time as the MC called time on the fight, Logan collapsed onto the ground beside his father, even as the MC declared him the winner. They both lay there catching their breath for several minutes before gingerly climbing to their feet.
Victor left quickly, without a word, while Logan hung around to collect his winnings, he knew this wasn't the end of it, he was going to be in deep shit very soon. He sighed as he rested his head on the bar top in front of him while he waited.
"That was a damn good fight son," a familiar voice sounded from right beside him.
"Could this night get any worse," Logan groaned.
Tony, his boss, chuckled as he sipped his beer. "For you, probably not, what do you think he's going to do to you when you get home?" he asked amused.
"Well, it would be highly hypocritical of him to have a problem with me cage fighting, when he came here to cage fight himself," Logan pointed out hopefully. The MC wandered up then and handed Logan a fat wad of cash, a quick perusal of the funds told Logan there was close to sixteen thousand dollars now in his hand, the MC handed him a bag for the cash before walking away.
Glancing around him as he pulled the money under the bench where only he and Tony could see it, Logan split the pile and tucked the cash in various zip up pockets of his jacket, before discretely filling the bag with spent peanut shells. Logan then got up and headed for the door, Tony calling out for him to wait up as he downed the last of his beer and followed him out. Sure enough, as Logan had feared, there were four guys waiting outside who quickly began to tail them across the parking lot, clearly after the cash.
"I just put down the extinct kitty cat, you really want to try me?" Logan scoffed over his shoulder, as he feigned ignoring the group behind him.
"After that fight, I'm surprised you can even stand, I think four fresh fighters should be able to take you down pretty easy, don't you?" the head honcho replied, with a sneer.
"You'd like to think that wouldn't you," Logan replied, dumping the bag containing the peanut shells into his bike's cargo hold. He intercepted the first swing a split second later, noting Tony, who had followed him all the way to his bike, had sense enough to take a step back.
Logan had taken out one guy, and was onto the second when the other two decided to attack at the same time. He was seriously outnumbered, and exhausted, when one of the guys got past him and grabbed the bag, taking off at a dead run. Logan feigned trying to take off after him, earning himself a swift kick in the gut from one of the other assailants before the rest of the group took off. He let them go, not letting his grin show until he had his back to the fleeing assailants and it was just him and Tony again.
"You're one smart cookie son," Tony commended him with a grin. "Your dad said for you to meet him here before you go home," he added, handing Logan a note with the name and address for a nearby motel scribbled on it.
With a sigh, Logan took the address. "Thanks, and if I don't see you again it was a pleasure working with you, say something nice at my funeral?" Logan quipped, as he swung his leg over his bike, with a pained grunt, before he headed out.
Tony chuckled as he watched him drive away, he'd better be at work tomorrow, illegal fighting injuries were no excuse for an absence he had decided. That kid had balls though, going up against his own dad like that.
--
Logan pulled into the motel lot, spotting his dad's truck he pulled up beside it and headed to room forty-two. He raised his hand to knock but the door was wrenched open before his knuckles could connect. Before he could react, he was flying through the air, landing on one of the beds across the room. The ringing in his ears was compounded by the slam of the door.
"What the hell do you think you were doing!" Victor roared, stalking the room in front of him.
"Following the directions Tony gave me," Logan replied smartly, holding his partially healed rib that had just snapped again.
"That's very funny wise ass, try again," Victor shot back.
"I went there to fight, okay, for money, what were you doing there?" Logan replied pointedly.
"Touché," Victor replied, "But I'm not an underage kid with a pregnant girlfriend at home waiting for him."
"Marie knows, she said it was okay," Logan shrugged.
"Marie knows you're out cage fighting grown men for cash? And getting mugged," Victor queried disbelievingly, throwing a familiar looking bag at his chest. With a grin Logan threw the bag back along with a direction to, ‘open it’.
Frowning Victor ripped open the bag, pausing as a grin broke out across his face before he started to laugh. "Fuck, I sure did teach you to be too damn sneaky," he commented when he was done laughing.
"No, you taught me to be smart and if I had to take risks to make them calculated," Logan replied, "With that much money at stake it was inevitable that someone would try and go for it."
"So why did you fight them then?" Victor asked, clearly he had been hanging around to watch the aftermath.
"Because if I let it go too easy, they'd know they were being played," Logan replied with a shrug. "Now, are you done being a sore loser yet?" he asked cheekily.
"I'm not being a sore loser Logan and you know it, I'm damn proud of you for that fight, hell I was fighting hard out there, I know you were too, but good on you, glad to see all my hard work has paid off," Victor said with a proud grin. He added seriously, "I just don't want to see this come back to bite you or Marie in the ass, cage fights get busted regularly, most of the time the fighters get let off if there are no complaints laid against them but you wouldn't be Logan, you're underage, you shouldn't have even been in there, and if you get arrested, what's going to happen to Marie? You're going to leave her alone out here with a new baby, you're going to be separated from your child, it's not worth it for a little cash, if you need cash there is plenty available to you..."
"I don't want your money!" Logan shouted. "I don't want you buying necessities for my child, for my family, they're my responsibility, I provide for them, it's bad enough taking the Professor's hand out of free accommodation and now medical care as well because they talked Marie into having the baby at the mansion, I just... I need to prove I can do this," he finished in a murmur.
"The only person you're trying to prove this too is yourself Logan, that's your pride talking," Victor spoke again, not sure how to get this point through to his son. "Believe me Logan, I am so proud of you for working so hard to provide for your family but this is early days yet, getting a hand up from your own family is nothing to get upset over, no one will think less of you for that."
"Raven Lehnsherr will," Logan threw in with derisive snort.
"Yeah, well, Raven Lehnsherr thinks a lot of things about a lot of people, her opinion isn't worth worrying about," Victor replied with a chuckle. "How about this, if you need cash, I can give you a loan and you can pay me back later? Or, I can see what I can do about getting the inheritance your mom left you released early, would that be better?"
"Mom left me an inheritance?" Logan asked confused.
"She did, it was an inheritance she got from her grandfather, and later her parents, we didn't need it so she left it in a trust account, and her will left it specifically to you, it's scheduled to be released to you when you turn twenty-one," Victor revealed.
"Why did you never tell me about this before?" Logan asked suspiciously.
"Because I wanted you to learn the value of money, and working hard for what you get, and I didn't think you knowing you had a substantial windfall coming would help you learn those lessons, unfortunately I think I might have taught you those lessons too well," he added by way of reply, with a grin. "Or are you going to turn down your dead mothers’ money too?" he asked, when Logan still looked suitably suspicious, and boy was that the lowest blow he'd ever swung.
"No," Logan replied with a sigh, even though it felt like taking the easy road out. "How much are we talking anyway?" he added curiously.
"With eleven years accrued interest? Probably somewhere around seven million," Victor replied, as if it was chump change. He chuckled when Logan's eyes almost bugged out of his head when he heard the figure.
"Is that enough to get a promise out of you of no more cage fighting?" Victor asked seriously.
"Yeah dad, no more cage fighting," Logan promised.
"And just for the record, no drug dealing, street hustling, pimping, or people smuggling either, got it?" Victor joked.
"Sweet, I can still live my dream of becoming a hitman," Logan replied, rolling his eyes before they both burst out laughing.
"Just out of curiosity, what were you wanting the money for anyway?" Victor asked once they sobered up.
"A kid-friendly car first of all," Logan replied, "My motorcycle's economical for me to get to work so I didn't want to get rid of it, and I'm not going to tell Marie to get rid of her car, it's not really practical for a baby but that's hers, I should be able to provide a reliable family car."
"Well, we should be able to get a decent car with whatever you got tonight," Victor said, "What about the rest?"
"I was putting it aside for accommodation and childcare once Marie starts college," Logan admitted.
Victor grinned broadly, "God damn I'm proud of you kid, that's really responsible of you, keep up the good work, you're going to make a damn fine father."
"You think so?" Logan asked, suddenly sounding uncertain.
"I know so," Victor replied. "Now let's get you home to Marie, and to bed, so you're healed up enough to get to work tomorrow."
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Chapter End Notes:
I had to get cage fighting into this story somehow :)