Disclaimer- I don't own X-men Evolution, big surprise to you I'm sure.

A/N- Thanks to S (you know who you are) for being a Beta of sorts, may you be free of idiots for at least a fortnight.

Musings and Such

A trail of distress caught his nose. Logan inhaled deeply in the cool night air, the unlit cigar in his hand poised for his evening ritual. Logan shook his head and slipped the cigar into his shirt pocket. Time enough for that later, distress was in the air. He took a another deep breath, trying to match the scent to the person. A student who had a great deal of chemical presence. It was Cannonball. His real name: Sam. Mostly hung out with Bobby, generally shy, somewhat quiet but was growing to be more outgoing. Liked baseball a lot.
And is really upset about something. Logan followed the trail, which was still very fresh, out into the property. Sensors placed by rocks and trees identified his presence and remained silent. Logan slipped along the grounds of the Institute, walking with his natural grace of a hunter on the stalk. He was paying careful attention to any noises that filtered into his ears, but mostly he was following his nose. His eyes caught a speck of movement in a tree just as his ears heard the rustle of branches from someone climbing. Logan almost smiled; that particular tree was his favorite. A great ancient oak he liked to nap lying against it, a cool beer in one hand and a motorcycle magazine in the other. The scent of the boy was clearer now, along with the emotional distress and another smell that Logan could almost recognize.
Logan stood under the great boughs of the tree and looked up at the boy sitting on a branch a good 15 feet above the ground. Sam was sitting on a branch, his legs akimbo and leaning back against the trunk. Logan went into a crouch to launch himself up the tree. He jumped up and easily caught a large branch with one hand. Pulling himself up he put one foot on another thick branch and eased himself up the trunk until he was right next to the boy. Logan paused to consider the fact that he would most likely make the boy shit his pants when he made a noise.
"Nice out ain't it?" He said quietly, barely a whisper, ready to snatch the boy if he looked like he would fall out. Sure enough the blonde mutant almost jumped off the branch in surprise. After a couple seconds of hard breathing Sam relaxed. Logan just watched him, his gaze unwavering and to Sam slightly unnerving. That extra scent was almost there, but the slight evening breeze was carrying any odors around the boy away from Logan's nose.
"Yeah, I guess." The boy obviously had something weighing heavily on his mind, the boy's pheromones had already told Logan that. Logan pulled out his cigar and lit it with one smooth motion. He drew in a mouthful of sweet smoke and blew it out. Sam was a watching him with a little bit of awe at just how bad ass he thought Logan was. Logan decided to take a more direct approach.
"You out of bed for a reason, Bub?" The boy grimaced and shifted, his blonde hair seemed to glow slightly in the moonlight.
"Uhm, well-yeah but it's kinda personal." Logan nodded and leaned against the tree, taking a deep breath as the breeze changed. What he got on the air almost made him fall out of the tree in surprise. Sam reeked of semen, and definitely not just his own. Well that explained something. The distress was still there, but not the stress of rape. Of course Charles wouldn't have let anyone capable of rape into the institute.
Logan stayed quiet, wondering how to approach this. Best bet, the boy had been fooling around and was now questioning his sexuality, or had been fooling around and thought it meant more than it really did, or-Logan grimaced. Emotional situations were definitely not his forte, as Charles would have said. Logan was a Wham! Bam! Thank you, Ma'am type and for now, he didn't give a damn. He'd find love in good time. He certainly didn't want to get heavily involved with anyone until he had some stuff cleared up. Stop lying to yourself; you won't love anyone because you already love him. Logan's grimace dropped from his face as he took another pull on the cigar. Fury still kept him updated on Steve's condition, even if there hadn't been any real changes since the 50's. Of course that was one reason he was working for Charles. Who else could put several world-class geneticists in touch with SHIELD to work on the super soldier serum?
"Have you ever been in love Mr. Logan?" That was not a question he'd been expecting, which really showed how well he knew teenagers. In retrospect it made perfect sense.
"Yeah, once." Had it been love? Fuck if Logan knew. But it was as close as he'd gotten in his life. That he could remember at any rate. He hoped that there wasn't some woman with a gold ring and a kid somewhere out there.
"What's it like?" Logan tapped the end of the cigar. Hand rolled tobacco from Cuba, it just didn't get better than that for cigars in Logan's opinion. He'd gotten tired of smoking the shit sticks they sold at the local Bayville store and had taken a quick trip to New York for something worth smoking.
"What's it like?" What had it been like? It had been electrifying, terrifying and exhilarating in a way that nothing else could be. Intense emotion, so intense describing it only dimmed it. It was listening to the sound of someone's voice and getting high off it. It was sharing secret looks that made you smile so hard it hurt. It was hot sex after liberating a death camp and sending Nazis off to hell. Well that last one probably wasn't too applicable.
"Hrm." Logan responded instead. He looked at Sam, saw that the distress had eased but there was still heartache there.
"Love, it's like a real adrenaline surge. Ya get a real rush and your stomach can twist in knots." Oh he remembered that, back before he'd become this cold callous killer he was now. Back when just looking at Steve could send shivers down his spine. "Ya wanna hold onto 'em so tight you never let go. When they get hurt it's like you're hurt, and when they smile you get high off it." Logan stopped; he rarely let go like that and just talked. Sam was looking at him with wonder.
"Wow, who'd you fall in love with?" Logan smirked. Sam was in for a little bit of a shock.
"Captain America and I had a thing goin'," he said calmly and took another drag on the cigar, blowing out a smoky O. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam's eyes widen and his mouth open in amazement. His open gaping reminded Logan of a catfish he'd caught once. He looked at the cigar and stamped it out on the back of his hand. The pain was brief, intense and he felt a drop of sweat trickle down his face. He couldn't say why he did it; maybe the pain reminded him of something he didn't even know about. Maybe he did it just because he could.
He and Sam stayed out most of the night talking. The stars watched impassively as they did all things. They watched until Logan carried the boy in to bed. Clouds soon swept up to smother the dawn and cover the twinkling points of light.

Sam looked at Bobby out of the corner of his eye. He pushed the bacon on his plate around absentmindedly. His conversation with Logan was still ringing in his ears, and watching Bobby eat he realized that he might just have a crush on the boy. When they'd fooled around the other night, Sam had felt something more than just mindless sexual exploration. He'd felt attached, he'd felt good on more than just a physical level.
He looked up from the noisy table and watched as Logan sauntered into the room and took his usual seat. Sam smiled at the older mutant who nodded his head by way of response. Logan looked across the breakfast table and began to pile his plate up, taking the time to smack Kurt's tail as the German boy tried to steal a muffin from in front of the man. "Hey Sam." He turned and looked at Bobby who was already finished with his breakfast and wanted to enjoy his Saturday morning. Sam smiled as he wolfed down another piece of bacon. As he got up with his plate he grabbed another piece and happily munched it on his way to the kitchen. After dumping their dishes off Bobby leaned over to him.
"Today is a bomb day for swimming, wanna go change?" Sam felt all the blood in his body go straight to his alternate thinking center. He must have stammered a response because after a minute or so he found himself in Bobby's room, while a grinning Bobby locked the door.
"Dude Sam I woke up with such a huge one this morning, I gotta get off. Let's do the thing." Sam felt his mouth working as Bobby smiled at him again. Sam realized that his pants were about to be ripped off by a very persistent part of his body. Everything he'd talked about with Logan last night packed up its bags and moved out his head as he took off his shirt and hastily unbuttoned his pants. There'd be time for love tomorrow. For now there was only a half naked grinning aroused boy in front of him. And Sam was going to enjoy him.

The place was as frigid as he remembered. The sterile smell haunted him pricking at memories he could barely hold onto before the flitted away from him. Logan smelled Colonel Fury before the man moved to his side.
"There's been no change Logan." Logan nodded as he looked down at the cold glass case that held Steve Rogers, Captain America, in suspended animation until a cure for his deteriorating genetic material could be found.
"Yeah, I know." A hand laid itself gently on his shoulder, which he shrugged brusquely off. Nick Fury sighed and turned around to leave.
"You know the way out Logan, don't be too long." Logan nodded. He knew the way out all to well. Someday he hoped he wouldn't have to.