[log] Marie, Logan: ...let him count his gains.

[x-rogue.livejournal.com]

Logan's none too pleased at the idea of having to put up with Scott over dinner, he gets his thinking adjusted a little on that matter. Brief discussion of everyone's favourite groundskeeper and everyone's favourite supervillain, and some cuteness thrown in for good measure.


Logan followed his nose, so to speak, to Marie's room. He'd seen her
invitation to Scott for dinner. The weekends were his; he couldn't help
but be a little jealous. And it was /Scott/, so he was maybe more than a
little grumpy about the prospect. He knocked on her door. He could
smell the bread. And garlic, of course.

"Come on in, Logan." Marie swore she could hear the sulk in the knock.
She was up to her elbows in dishes at the moment, almost done cooking
altogether.

He pushed the door closed behind him, leaning against it. "Dinner with
Scooter, huh?"

"Yes." Marie shook water and suds from her hands and grabbed a dish
towel. "You don't have to stay, Scott and I will be fine on our own." She
dried her hands and made her way over to Logan. "But I'd like it if you
stayed."

Logan's shoulders slumped; he was already defeated. He raised one
eyebrow, though, and asked, "Is there somethin' innit for me, if I do?"

"Aside from a good meal?" Marie put her arms around his neck. "You'd be
making me very happy." She nuzzled her nose against his. "And I fight
better when I'm happy."

"Mm." He wrapped his arms around her waist. "'m convinced. ....do I
hafta be /nice/ to 'im?"

Marie leaned into him with a sigh. "Civil. Merely civil. And his name
is Scott. Call him what you like at your place, but here, he's Scott."
Her face was serious as she looked up at him. "After you, he's family to
me. He's the one who didn't quit looking for me in August even after
Charles couldn't find me. He was the one out in the dark in a field in
the middle of nowhere calling my name. He's earned civility, at the
least, I hope."

Logan's eyes widened; she'd never really told him that. He nodded
reluctantly, but seriously. "Yeah. Yeah, he has."

"Thank you." Marie kissed him gently and then backed away, biting her
lip, turning back to the kitchen. "Yeah. He was the one who found me.
Broken arm. Broken ribs. Burns all over my shoulders and other arm.
Bruises everywhere. Stanley and his power in my head." She went back to
doing dishes, watching the light on the bubbles as she washed and stacked
pots automatically. "Stark naked. Walking home in the dark. He gave me
his shirt."

He walked over to stand behind her, close enough that he could feel her
body heat through his shirt. He was quiet for a long time, just
standing there, feeling her being /alive/. "I'm sorry I wasn't there," he said
eventually, then sighed quietly. "But I'm glad Scott was."

She closed her eyes and let herself fall back against his chest. "I was
thinking of you the whole time I was looking at the stars to figure out
which way was home."

A smile tugged at his lips, but it was bittersweet, weighted down with
guilt. He pressed a kiss to her hair and murmured, "I'm glad you knew
how."

Marie turned around and kissed him on the mouth. "We're both home now,"
she said softly. "And that's all that matters."

Logan nodded. "An' I've got Scott t'thank for at least part of that."
He could do civility. He owed him that, at least.

"I love you," Marie said impulsively and kissed him again. "I don't
want to forget how lucky we really are." She couldn't shake the empty
space that still stood beside Scott when she thought of him.

Logan thought about how new their relationship was, and how old. And he
couldn't help thinking about Scott, whom they'd just been talking
about, and how he'd lost everything when he lost Jean. "Very lucky," he
agreed, kissing her in return.

Marie ran her warm, damp hand over the back of his neck, feeling the
tension there. "I missed you," she said quietly, then kissed his cheek.
When she stepped back, she was smiling. "Let me finish the dishes up.
Tell me how the training's going?"

Logan walked over and sat in a chair facing her. "The class's doin'
good. Some'r better'n others. We're gonna start workin' with trainin'
weapons in a coupla weeks, see how that goes."

"They're going to let you get away with that?" Marie asked, a slight
edge to her voice. "I'm surprised we've not had the cutlery all replaced
with plastic sporks. Someone might figure out that you can gouge a
person's eyes out with a grapefruit spoon if you're in the mood for it."

"None of 'em have edges," Logan reminded her. "Even th'swords're fake."
He chuckled. "Shiro's gonna be disappointed."

"Someone could trip on one and fall," Marie said sanctimoniously as she
dried a spring-form pan carefully so it wouldn't rust in the cupboard.
"Or be turned into a mad killer with a lust for blood because of being
exposed to such concepts." She put the pan away, rising so she could
reach the top shelf and muttered, "But I'm not bitter, of course. I just
had no idea that extended army service, trauma, and coma made one an
expert in adolescent psychology. Who knew?"

Logan snorted. "Problems with Chuck's brother, huh? Well, if one of 'em
trips, it's their own damned fault. And," he added thoughtfully,
"havin' a lust for blood's not all bad..."

"No, it's not." Marie began to set the table. "And they'll get a taste
for it one way or another the way things are going. It's all in how
it's handled, isn't it? But I should really let it go. It's not his fault
he gets on my nerves, not entirely, and I can't quite tell if being
irritated is all me or not."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Somebody in there gettin' cranky, y'think?"

"He keeps throwing Erik's name around. The other one that I hate
using," Marie admitted. "And he knows him, or at least they're aware of each
other. I thought he might have, the way I was feeling. I'd been so off
kilter with those two in a row, and then him being so irritating,
throwing the name around, and all. I'm not terribly surprised."

It made sense, with the way Logan perceived Marie's mutation, that that
would happen. He just hadn't realised Cain'd been pissing her off so
much. "Did y'tell him t'knock it off?"

"Not in so many words. But I told him what was going on. He said if he
wasn't pissing me off on his own, he wasn't trying enough." Marie made
a face and started assembling a salad, tearing the lettuce with small,
sharp motions. "I'm just going to avoid him as much as I can, unless
it's in person. It's not so bad when we're in the same room, which makes
a weird sense."

It didn't make much sense to Logan. He had an easier time dealing with
people at a distance. But then, he and Marie had very different ways of
approaching things like that. Things like people. He shrugged off the
thought and stood, walking over to peer over her shoulder. He poked at a
piece of freshly torn lettuce. "Mm, dead plants."

Marie shook her head. "You don't have to eat it. There's a plate of
antipasto in the fridge you can go get if you're hungry. Lots of
artery-clogging meat on it, including a very nice Genoa salami. I wouldn't do
you the disservice of making you eat something that couldn't run away on
its own. Except for bread, and I won't tell if you won't."

Logan leaned in to nip at her ear. "Can /you/ run away on your own?" he
growled softly, teasing.

"Yes." Marie laughed and turned to kiss him. "But I'd rather not where
you're concerned."

"Mm. I'd catch you," Logan assured her, grinning. He leaned down to
kiss the corner of her mouth. "But I'd rather not hafta."

"You caught me a long time ago and you didn't even know it." She leaned
against him briefly. "God. I'm so happy it's stupid. See what you did?"

He smiled, tugging on a lock of her hair. "You're not the only one,
hon." He stepped back again and waved to the lettuce. "I'll let y'get back
t'your dead plants." Looking at it a little more closely, he offered,
"'ser anythin' y'want me t'do?"

"No, not at all. Go hunt down a few beers if you like, though," Marie
suggested.

Logan laughed and nodded. Walking toward the door, so that he could go
up to his room to collect a few bottles, he called over his shoulder,
"They don't run away either, y'know."

"Your secret's safe with me," she shot back as he left the suite.