Hope & Logan: Some Wilderness Survival Talk

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Logan spots one of the kids with a wilderness survival manual on his way to the kitchen and gets curious. He meets Hope Abbott and tries not to be the same ass he was to the Amaquelin sisters.


With yet another frown Hope looked through the various pages on things like making fire, setting up water filtration or making a shelter. They had covered each of them with the New Mutants of course, but the things still seemed so... vague. Some things had made sense while she saw it demonstrated, but looking at the drawings now...

Well, they didn't make much sense.

Logan was on his way to the kitchen to grab some food when he spotted one of the kids tucked into an armchair in the living room. That wasn't unusual in and of itself. It was the wilderness survival guide in her hands that was. He paused and considered asking her about it, but shook his head then continued to the kitchen. He grabbed himself a sandwich and two Pepsis then headed back out. He paused again when his gaze caught on the girl. What the hell, he'd just wonder if he didn't ask. He walked over and settled onto the couch opposite her. "Hey, kid, interestin' readin' you got there. For a class or somethin'?"

"Uh... what?" Hope startled a little, meeting the intense eyes across the table. "I am terribly sorry, sir." Still a little startled, she fell back to the courtesies that were a part of her as much as breathing. "Were you referring to this book?" Hope held up a book, a copy of the SAS Survival Handbook.

"Nothin' to apologize for. I startled you." Logan was reminded something fierce of the Amaquelin sisters and of Crystal in particular. How he'd dealt with them had been shitty and that was on him. They'd grated on his nerves like nothing else, but he should've been above reacting like that. Maybe that's why the sight of the girl sitting here reading a survival manual had thrown him that much. He wasn't the same man from then, mentally more beast than man. He wasn't gonna make the same mistakes he made then. "Yeah." He picked up one of the Pepsis and held it out neck first to her. She didn't look like she'd be interested in that kind of stuff and he had half a mind to ask her why she had the book. But that'd probably just offend her so he held his tongue.

Still quite confused, Hope almost automatically accepted the bottle with a quiet 'Thank you, sir'. She only put it down on the table though, not making a move to open it. "I do not think we have real met before, sir. I am Hope Abbott." She stood up, smoothed out her skirt and held out her hand to shake.

Okay, maybe not as much like the royal princesses he'd dealt with before. With them, he'd have gotten a haughty look and a disdainful question about why he was interrupting their coveted alone time. The manners were dead on though and he sucked at dealing with manners. The couple months he spent with Marie wandering through the upper crust in Europe had made him better at this stuff, but he still never be comfortable with it. He decided to forgo standing up 'cause he'd end up towering over her and he didn't need to scare the kid right now. "No, don't think we have. I'm Logan." He leaned forward and took her hand to shake firmly. "Nice to meet ya."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Logan." Hope fluently resumed her seat and tilted her head quizzically. "Is it perhaps possible Matt mentioned you, sir? He told me he was working on his powers with someone new."

He arched an eyebrow. "Yeah, probably. I've been doin' some additional one-on-one trainin' with him. Same with Barton." Logan didn't think she'd be even remotely interested in extra training, but that wasn't what he was interested in anyway. He nodded toward the book she'd set down. "They got you kids learnin' survival skills?"

"We have a theme this year with the New Mutants. One or more of my fellow students came up with the theme of zombies. I believe the survival skills could be useful in case there is ever a zombie uprising and we have to survive on our own..." Hope explained, a small blush coloring her cheeks. "We have covered things like how to make a shelter, how to make fire or how to set up a water filtration unit."

Logan wasn't so sure zombies would ever happen, but it was a good enough excuse for the kids to learn some practical skills. He couldn't find too much fault with it. If the kid thought that was the only time skills like these would come in handy...well, he wouldn't strip that bit of innocence away from her yet. He nodded. "All important things to know 'cause you never know when they might come in handy. I got a few stories you wouldn't believe. You understand how to go about doin' everythin' they showed you? 'Cause I know seein' it done in front of you is one thing, doing it yourself is another."

"Uhm... that was why I was looking through the book. They showed us and we practiced. But..." She glanced at the book again. "It is not really my strongest suit, sir."

He figured as much but it wasn't a knock against her. Some people were just better suited to some things than others. "I could help you out with that if you want. I'm a pretty good hand at all of that stuff." Logan got plenty of practice over the years that he could remember anyway. No telling how much more he'd forgotten from the years he couldn't remember.

A quick smile flashed over her face at his offer. "Thank you, sir. That is very kind of you. If I may be very honest though, I would not even quite know where to start...."

Logan swallowed a bite of his sandwich before he replied. "Could always start with the basics? Unless there's somethin' you like best out of what you've covered then we could start there." No harm in making sure her fundamentals were solid. Not that he didn't trust whoever trained them, but since she'd already admitted to most of it not taking it was better to go over the basics again.

"I think you might be right in that, Mr. Logan." Hope eyed her book. "The information in the book is interesting, but putting it into practice...." She shook her head. "Perhaps the weekend might work? I believe the weather is going to remain quite nice for a few days?"

"Works for me. I'll be out near the woods in the afternoons so when you get a sec, just head out there and we can get started." Well, so far he hadn't antagonized the girl or insulted her. Logan would call that decent progress and a much better start than he had with the royal princesses.