Marie and Logan, pre-Halloween festivities

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

Before heading out for the evening, Marie goes to check on Logan. She gets nervous when she sees he’s packing up, but then he makes her a promise.

Marie leaned her parasol against the wall, smoothing out the front of her dress. She rapped her gloved fist lightly against the door. "Logan? You in there?" she called out, knowing full well that he was.

"Door's open" Logan growled through the door. When she had opened it, he was in the middle of packing what few clothes he owned into a Xavier's duffle. He'd rearranged his room again, returning it to a bog-standard "motel" decor style just like any other unoccupied room in the Mansion.

Her hands dropped to her sides, a flash of dismay appearing on her face before she forced it to disappear. "You're running again," she said flatly.

Logan shook his head, then turned around and looked at her. "Nice dress." he said with just a faint twitch of a smile. "And just gettin' away for a couple of days. Got the itch to get out, breathe some clean air."

Marie walked into the room, sitting on the empty bed. "Your version of a couple days doesn't always match up with mine," she said.

"Be back in a week. Tops." he said. "It's not runnin', it's just - clearing my head." He didn't tell her that the Mansion was seriously beginning to drive him nuts - the smells, the noises, and his vast dislike of spending too much time in one place were a poisonous mixture inside of him.

"Ah can understand that," she said softly. "Part of why Ah agreed to go to Kosovo and then went down to spend the weekend with Clarice." She cast her eyes down to her feet. "This place can sometimes feel a little to claustrophobic."

Logan just nodded in agreement, then cramed another sweatshirt into the bag. "You going down to go party with the rest of the geeks?" he asked with with a wink.

"Figured Ah should make an appearance an' all 'fore Ah take Jennie and a few of the kids into the city for the parade." Standing up, she spun around, the dress flaring out over the hoop skirt before settling back down. "Plus, Ah gotta show this ol' thing off."

"Nice." he said with a small laugh. "Have a good time." He had a date with cold beer, a pool table, and maybe he'd go head to that little sawdust-on-the-floor place up the road a spell and see if Holly was in town.

"One week," she said, shaking a finger at him. "Ah'm holding you to that..." her voice faded for a moment. "Otherwise, Ah'll find you and if you haven't been kidnapped or tortured, you'll wish you had been." The last was said with a smile, though her tone was deadly serious.

Logan quirked an eyebrow at her. "Sounds pretty serious. Guess I'd better behave." he said with another grin. "Hey, by the way. You ever need the bike, keys are in this thing here." he said, nudging the top drawer of his chest-of-drawers with his elbow.

Marie nodded, her eyes widening slightly. "'kay." Her skirt rustled as she stood up and walked over to him, placing a hand gently on his arm. "You gonna be ok?" she asked.

Logan didn't do anything untoward when she touched him, but even with a light touch it was fairly obvious that he was tense. "Don't worry about me, kid." he said, trying to be reassuring. "I'll get by."

"But if Ah don't worry about you, who will?" she chided. "You don't do it for yourself. Always putting on the brave face saying everything's ok, when it's not always that way."

"Mac and Heather." he said with a grunt, then grabbed his bag up off the floor. "Maybe. Enjoy your party, kid. Be a kid for a while."

She ducked her head, a small sad smile on her face. "Ah'll try." She kept to herself that she had stopped being a kid the day she manifested. "Sure you don't want to join us?"

"I'm sure." he said with a not-entirely-exaggerated shudder. "Not really my thing."

“Yeah, Ah know…but Ah’m always gonna ask.” She hesitated for a moment and then wrapped him in a hug. “This’ll all end up right, one way or another. Just gotta have faith.”

Logan stiffened as she hugged him, but after a moment he relaxed and then hugged her back. "Be a lot better if I had something to do, some way to contribute." he muttered.

"Just gotta focus on using your strengths,” she replied, keeping her arms around him. "You know, maybe working with some of the X-Men or something, helping them with their hand to hand." Seperating from him, she leaned back on her heels and looked up into his eyes. "You got other ways to contribute.”

"After how much face I lost, you really think anyone not named Marie'd show?" he asked.

"Only way to find out is to try. An' Ah bet you'd get some of the others...'Ro for one. Angelo." He'd at least come for me. "Clarice too." Marie shrugged. "Once they see how much you have to offer..."

Logan snorted, but it was a thoughtful snort. "Maybe." he said, and that was as much as he was willing to grant her, latitude-wise. "You got a party to get to, kid. And I got a date with a cold beer or twelve."

She nodded, knowing that he needed to work his way through this in his own way. He’d promised to come back and that was enough for her. "Don’t do anythin’ Ah wouldn’t do,” she said with a wink, though the smile on her face was still tinged with sadness.

Logan forced a grin to his face. "Doesn't rule out much, and I like chicken-fried steak." he smirked. Then he took a moment to collect himself, grabbed his duffle, and made for his door.