Story Notes:
I do not write strictly movie verse as honestly can't abide by that Rogue, so I smash comic canon with the dynamic of the movie verse. As me and my friends say, "read the canon, watch the canon, see the canon go off the rails, throw away the canon".
The sound of the music over the speakers, not loud, she could still hear herself thinking; didn’t have the temptation to step outside from it over powering her. What was playing anyways? A brief pause in her eyes scanning the room while she tried to place the lyrics- Paralyzer, that’s what it was, and she resumed her slow perusal of the other customers. It was the middle of the week, and too far north for the place to see much traffic past truckers or the occasional barfly, maybe the rare presence of someone on a road trip. They were two such people, and the irony of stopping in a place that if you changed the decor, and switched out the summer for winter, would not be that far off from the bar she had met Logan in, was not lost on her. Even Logan had made a wry grunt of agreement when she pointed it out.



Knowing him now as she did, she was often surprised he even set foot in bars- the noise, the smells, the tendency for people to become inebriated and make poor decisions; it was a mixture that didn’t actually beg joining in when you were not only easily irritated, but had heightened senses. Hers weren’t to his level, as he regularly reminded her to be thankful for. She supposed he was right. Sensory stimulation was already a problem she dealt with, and now it was higher than average thanks to Wonder Man and her newly adjusted biology.



And she did know that it wasn’t the same as his; there was the fade of sensory input as his powers faded from her own any time after she had absorbed him. It wasn’t painful, or saddening, but it was often a relief and noticeable as the sounds or smells stopped fighting her eyes for priority. As of right now, it was those green eyes that were seeking out Logan. She often felt as though she would be able to find him without help from powers, even without looking, or being too far away to smell the mixture of his cigar, body wash, and musk. There was just something about his presence that pulled at her, drew her attention when she didn’t have a cacophony surrounding her, or in her head.



Unsurprisingly, she caught sight of him in the back corner of the bar leaned over a pool table while smoking his cigar. The dusty, worn out light would probably have camouflaged him were she not able to see in the dark, and she didn’t doubt that was why he had chosen that particular table while she’d been in the bathroom.



Weaving through the other tables, and sliding by someone cutting her an eye {a little too low for her liking}, she sidled up beside him as he studied the racked balls. Hip bumped into his lightly, and her bare hand found the small of his back, nails dragging just a little up and down the musculature. She could feel the tension, that was always there to a degree in public, lessen {even if only fractionally}. There was no response from him initially as he drew on his cigar, but soon he switched the side of the mouth he was propping it in, and strong hand ended up in her back pocket, squeezing firmly. She smirked, shaking her head just enough to need to toss some white curls out of her eyes as she took her other hand and reached for his beer, helping herself to it. Anyone else that knew him probably wouldn’t dare such a move, but the only response she got was him bumping her back with his own hip to indicate she needed to get the hell out of his way to that he could take the break shot.



Obliging, she shifted so that he could, turning around to rest her ass against the old wood of the pool table. There was a small smirk on her face and she watched through lowered eyelashes. There was nothing that needed to be said between them, just quiet exchanging of places as they took turns lining up with the cue ball, a small touch here and there- bump of the elbow, the brush of a hand against upper arm, further furtive grabs of her rear. There was no need for words, just allowing the focus to be the game and each other while they alternated and then Logan proceeded to clean the table, sinking ball after ball. Rogue didn’t have a problem with it though, she liked watching him, and he liked being watched- at least by her.







Xavier had made it pretty clear that while there was very little that could be done to stop a handful of the students from utilizing their powers to evade boundaries, Logan still needed to make attempt at keeping his alcohol out of their hands. As such, Logan had made sure there was a refrigerator {one of the midsize ones ideal for a dorm room} in his room. He wasn’t going to be drinking room temperature beer if he could help it, and chasing down the Drake kid to cool his drinks was more of a pain in the ass than simply drinking the thing warm. That, and having his own little fridge allowed for him to buy his own, quality bacon that no students or faculty would be getting their hands on. The kind that was worth the price that made him curse under his breath every time he had to go out and buy it.



Maybe starting the morning with a beer and bacon was questionable practice, he really did need to eat something more than that, but right now he simply wanted to just get out of the school as quickly as possible. He just really wasn’t in the mood to deal with people today. The fact he was down to his last beer, something he had noted when he had grabbed beers for him and Anna when they had watched the hockey game the afternoon before, was not helping with the mood. He hated shopping. It was a chore, it involved a lot of people, a lot of rampant stupidity, a lot of things he just didn’t have the patience for but somehow had to scrounge up anyways. Hand dragged down his face heavily before he opened the door only to find there were two full six-packs in the fridge now, the spare one now on its side on the upper shelf on top of the bacon.



A small quirk appeared in the corner of his mouth as he pulled the two out. He shouldn’t be surprised he didn’t notice her gone. With how quickly she was able to fly, she could have pretended to have gone off to the bathroom and really stolen off to the store and back, and he wouldn’t really notice. He never really questioned if she came back smelling like the outdoors, she was as bad as he was for slipping outside every now and then for some air to feel less stifled by the indoors and people. Anna would need to be thanked later, he thought to himself, giving some thoughtful consideration as to just how he would go about that as he headed down the hall to go make his breakfast.







Thrashing. Screaming. Waking up in a cold sweat wasn’t anything new, it was fairly frequent, even now. The decision to give Rogue her own room soon after her arrival had not been contested by her. She would much rather not hurt someone on accident living in forced, close proximity. It was worth it for the other students’ sleep as well- her night terrors, present from young childhood, had only gotten worse through the years with the number of people she had absorbed. Once she had moved into Logan’s suite, her sleep had improved, as had his. However, the improvement didn’t mean the nightmares were gone for either of them, especially given the frequency that they were both prone to getting them.



Tonight, it was her turn to be the one waking herself with her own cries. She never woke to him touching her, not initially. He always gave her a chance to ascertain her surroundings, and that he was there before he pulled her in. There had been the one time she hadn’t been awake, hadn’t remembered she was in control of her power, and had panicked and fought {at that} upon having finally become fully conscious in his arms. Now, he just waited until he heard the telltale sigh, the moment of her realization that she wasn’t actually reliving any of the many awful memories taken on from other people, but in the bed next to him, and as always, he simply pulled her close. She shifted slightly, turning her back to him as he wrapped a hand around her waist and pressed his forehead to her now messed up auburn curls.



She knew the movement of hiding her face did nothing to conceal the fact she was shedding tears from Logan, but it still made her feel better, even knowing that it wouldn’t be acknowledged. Not out loud anyway. He wouldn’t pry, and she wouldn’t offer, and it would be left alone. Rogue could simply focus on her breathing, his breathing, the way her heartbeat and inhales started to naturally match his. He was always so warm; the heat calming and familiar, as was his scent. It pulled her away from the awful feeling of being in someone else’s mind, committing awful deeds she never actually participated in but had the privilege of feeling it as though it was a first-person experience. There was no need to explain to him what it was like, the similarity of some of their dreams was a cruel irony they didn’t speak of. They simply leaned on the other and attempted to reach sleep again after whoever had been so unpleasantly woken calmed down. It wasn’t a guarantee that she would get back to sleep, but she at least felt secure and was gradually easing back into a state of relaxation, if not actual slumber.







Anna was gone, off to spend some time being a poster-girl for mutants on the Avengers along with Alex. She would do fine, he knew that, even if they were a nearly insufferable bunch of humans with a few exceptions. That wasn’t the reason he was so irritated. No, the reason he was in a terrible mood, besides the fact the hockey game was going terribly, was the fact he was having to watch it by himself, on a shitty motel TV. Logan had made the choice that since work was in the way {and he disliked some of her new team so much}, he would hit the road and scratch the itch of being stationary. They could rely on texts and phone calls, and he could get some breathing room, be less encumbered by living with a large group of children. That wasn’t bad, but it was tiresome between the rules, the noise, watching his every word- only but so much, there were still students with some colorful new vocabulary thanks to him {and Anna}.



The commercial came on and he grumbled something about basic channels under his breath as he picked up his duffel bag and set it on the foot of the bed. There was some jerky in there, he could eat it while he drank his beer. He should probably order some pizza for a real meal after a day of driving. He opened the zipper and paused slightly at the faint smell of…chocolate, which he hadn’t put in his bag. He kept it pre-packed; a go-bag, something always available to up and leave at a moment’s notice. It was a habit that was years in the making. At first, it had bothered Anna, knowing he always kept a means to leave with ease, even if she herself understood in a way, had done so herself when she lived on the streets. That had been by herself though. Eventually, she came to understand it was something to keep him feeling at ease, like everything was taken care of, not that he would be the next person to leave her life.



Hand rummaged through the clothes, coming in contact with some plastic. Too thin, too flexible for the vacuum-sealed packaging of the bag of beef jerky. He pulled it out and smiled to himself, shaking his head. The bag contained a pile of green and silver Hershey’s chocolates, and a small note reading “A bunch of kisses for you when I’m not there~ Anna Marie”.



He was going to have give her shit for that later, since she knew well enough that she was the one who loved chocolate, not him, but the goofy pun was very typical. Something silly to try to get one of those lopsided smiles he typically reserved for her, occasionally the antics of an animal or a small child when he thought no one was looking that she somehow had a sixth sense for. Who was he kidding, she just knew him that well. Even if she didn’t retain a bit of his psyche, they had been together long enough now that she would know, could pull it out of him when she tried. Maybe he could call her up and convince her to leave the Avenger’s tower for a brief enough stint to thank her in person…
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