Hello, this is a random one shot I thought up one day. Its kind of a spin off of what I read that day with my own twists and turns of course. I know what is she doing putting out another story when she has a few unfinished. Sorry but I promise to finish the others ok chill. I'm cat and I dearly hope you enjoy this one shot…
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the rapid raging plot bunnies running rampantly around my mind.
Logan prowled the halls of the school Xavier had set up with an animal like stalk. He had gone past room after room immersing himself in the smells and sounds of not only the school but its inhabitants. He was on some random floor and wing that he knew not the name or number of. He padded along the corridor across the plush beige carpet that felt soft beneath his bare feet. He was clothed in jeans and a thin grey tee giving him that rugged look he so desired. He loved looking rough and rugged about the edges he wanted to look like the untamed beast he believed himself to be.
He stopped at a set of double door they were a dark cherry he noticed oddly as he reached his hand out to push open them grasping the silver knobs in his hands. He knew as he stalked into the room silently that she was there. He'd been everywhere through this school and he had yet to encounter her smell in the vibrancy of the moment. There was nothing like that smell in all the world to Logan, the smell of the woman he'd been tied to for longer than he could name.
Jean stood in the corner of the library near the fireplace and comfortable chairs accompanied by a pouf couch. The chairs and couch were clad in a heavy green cloth that was stately and yet immensely comfortable to the skin. She stood in the darkening room as the last embers of the fire died where they were in the stone fireplace not far from her. She was dripping wet as she stared into the storm, the tempest pouring forth from the heavens. They cried with her that night, they held her in a way no other being could. She was clothed in a long pale off white color dress that clung to her in its wetness.
She knew who it was that walked through the darkened room stalking through the rows of books. Coming ever closer without coming out of the shadows she knew he so dearly loved. She smiled as she spoke shattering the companionable silence, "Hello Logan." The greeting was proper if nothing else a pure symbol of her and yet it held a certain warmth that sent a jolt to Logan's heart.
"Hey red," was the gruff reply as he came out of the shadows to see her. He could make out her silhouette but after realizing what she was wearing and its apparent state he firmly refused to look at her shifting his gaze out the window. The window she had been staring out of for hours on end for years, the window he know found immensely interesting, he wanted to afford her some sense of respect even in her dilapidated state. He didn't have to look up to know that her hair would be askew and soaking wet a blanket of fiery crimson covered in tears from heaven.
She stalked past him in those moments of observation close enough to touch without ever once brushing his skin with hers. She stopped at the door of the library pausing and half turning back to him before speaking, "Coming logan?" He needed no second invitation to follow her out of the room and back into the hallway. He kept his distance as she walked a path familiar to both their feet. He paid little attention to where they were going but ever so more to the storm raging in him at the sight of her in such a state. He went from wanting to throw her up against a wall and have his way with her till she screamed his name to wanting to merely hold the obviously hurting woman before him.
He looked up only when she had stopped padding along the carpet. She pushed open the mahogany door without every touching the ornate silver knob. He entered behind her just in time before the door snapped shut of seemingly its own accord. He took one glance across the room summing it up in his mind. It was quaint and quiet reserved like jean herself. The room was neat and tidy to an almost painful point and nearly devoid of personal touches most students and teachers found dear to themselves. He noticed a single photo lingering on the night stand and took in a sharp breath as he his mind caught up to the image he was seeing.
It was a photo from years ago; it was a photo of the two of them caught in a raining shower of autumn leaves somewhere in a clearing deep in the schools grounds. He hadn't known she had taken the photograph till a copy had appeared a few years ago as a Christmas gift to him. Logan looked up again to see jean taking a seat at a desk as the desk lamp came on without the use of physical hands lighting the room in a dim glow that obscured the tempest just beyond the window.
She chortled under her breath at the vehemence with which he was glaring at her bed Jean shook her head red locks spilling about in a halo of crimson in Logan's direction. His entire body had tensed almightily when jean had motioned to her bed as she took the desk chair. With arms folded she tilted her head to the left as she spoke, "you assume too much logan." He had nothing to reply to her remark with. She rose as he sat with trepidation onto its seemingly innocent covers. She moved away from him crossing the sea of dull green carpet with brae feet. Hr hands touched the cool frame her feet halting before it. A door to the right opened with a touch of help from jean.
Out of it came a shoe box that floated over to where Logan sat. Logan was shifting uncomfortably on the midnight blue quilted covers. He looked up ceasing his fidgeting for a moment to gaze at it wordlessly. Jeans voice echoed through his head softly, "Just look at it Logan."
Stepping into the cascading heat Jean felt purged of everything that was etched across her marble skin. The skin in its bare form was marble in its coloring hardly marred in any place. Jean blocked everything but the water from her mind with slight difficulty. She blocked out whom and what Scott was doing even Logan in the adjoining room. She crumpled to the stone floor clinging to the harsh grout with her hands. Her breath came in short gasps the heat of the water pounding into her becoming too much for her body. She had closed the door to the shower letting the steam build and boil over her crushing her to the ground of the shower. The tears came in an icy cold contrast as she retreated into her skin her mind pushing with vengeance the knob back knowing is she didn't she'd be sporting rather terrible burns all about her body.
Clutching clinging she fought to stand letting the invisible hands of her mind wrap her in a burnt orange fluffy towel. A burst of steam alerted Logan to Jean's presence. She had toweled off and was adorned in a far too thin robe for his taste. The robe spilled to only the tops of her knees its sheerness flickering with the reflection of the desk lamp even as it was a heavy jaded green color. Logan looked up at her with surprise written across his face his right fist lay clenched to his side his left was occupied with the strewn contents of the battered and aged shoe box.
Jean reached across him collecting the contents with her hands she muttered as the curtain of her hair fell between them,"You always did assume too much logan." She took the time to cross the room again and open the closet doors with her own hands. Deciding to shift through the clothes with bare hands she felt the cool touch of the cloth against her skin. Jean found the dark corner her deepest and darkest secrets had lain in for a long time. She closed the door letting the ocean of garments flow back over the crevice in the depths of the darkened closet. She turned on her heel swaying slightly from the carpet her eyes faltered staring into nothingness. Jean broke the silence again crossing the chasm with a gossamer rope, "Surprised any Logan?"
His face contorted as he stood unable to contain the anger coursing through his veins rapidly. "I'm sorry," such simple words and yet the conveyed so much and so little. He choked the words out anger mounting at his inability to express everything he wanted to say. "Not your fault Logan never was" she chortled a little under her breath, "it's not even Scotts fault." Logan's claws shanked out as his hands curled into fists, "he should have been there damnit, he should be there now." She smiled with a tinge of bitterness in it as she spoke, "it's not his fault, even if he had loved me it wouldn't have fixed it. Logan he did the best he could." Logan shook his head dismissively at her statement, "he should have done more why didn't he do more," he muttered more to himself than her.
Jean crossed the distance between them physically pulling apart his arms to force her way into his personal space. She took his face into her hands feeling the roughness of his skin against the smoothness of her palms. His eyes wild with anger were caged by herds, hers that were calm albeit saddened. In the presence of such sorrow, such grace measured in her very being by the rain that filled her soul. In her eyes he saw every tear she had never shed, every fear she had never spoken aloud even to the silent nights she so dearly loved. She refused to bridge the gap to speak into existence, into being the hauntings ghosting across her being. In the presence of such calm his fire was extinguished leaving only cold embers left in its wake.
He seized her tightly in his arms fighting back the tears raging to the surface threatening to boil over into a tempest of the broken soul. Jean clung to him shaking with everything that had happened, with the waves of it all tugging at her heels with a sharp undercurrent. She pulled back weakly smiling at him tears brimming about her emerald eyes. His calloused hands gently brushed across her cheeks pulling a whimper from her lips. Stepping backwards he stopped momentarily when he balanced on the edge of falling backwards against the quilts atop her bed. She pushed him to the bed landing sprawled against him. Sucking in deep gasps o air she clung to him like a last lifeline of her soul, her mind, her heart.
They clung to each other, him holding her as the darkness washed over them. The desk amp flickered off letting the room shift effortlessly into gloomy paleness. The tempest outside raged lighting streaked across an onyx sky as the heaven poured forth their penitence for the iniquities of the world. Logan reached down yanking the covers of her bed that lay crumpled at the end of her bed, a few spare blankets for the drafty nights, upwards to cover her shivering form. Jean's head lay cushioned upon his chest her breathing erratic their limbs tangled together as he held her.
"Logan do you trust me?' The words shifted more through his mind rather than taking their normal discourse through his ears. He mustered all he had to answer her straining to say that sort of thing. He wasn't one for coddling or unnecessary affection. His inner beast howled against such an admonition, it wasn't in his nature to do this to be this. He had sex and left in the morning without looking back and that was it nothing more and yet he wanted to be more. For her sake he wanted to be that man but he doubted with everything within himself that particular idea.
Something in her balanced on the precipice of her mind, she feared attempting to live through that depth of rejection again to live through this again. She didn't want to face the pain of reaching out and being turned away once more. She didn't want to give all she had and it be unwanted, not again. Jean physically pulled back from Logan fear rolling off her in tsunami type waves. Logan could smell the fear, taste the worry rolling It thickly across his tongue savoring it.
"Yeah Red I do," he could the taste the way her body relaxed at his words creasing away the worries that ruffled her. He pulled her closer neither opening their but opening an eye ever so deeper within themselves. Jean wrapped her arms around herself walking through what was now a tree shaded trail in late autumn just before dusk. The leaves had fallen in amber burnt golds and crimsons shifting gloriously in a waltz of nature throughout the trail light partnered with the leaves gliding smoothly to their destination.
Jean stood surrounded by the swirling leaves tangled about her by the fierce icy wind blowing about her. The icy gale tore her breath from her throat with a vengeance. She crumpled to the ground feeling the dirt beneath her palms even as she slipped away into the darkness. She was falling and she couldn't feel Logan there anymore, she could only feel the absence of any person's presence. Yet in those fading last seconds he tightened his physical hold on her to the point of painful bruising occurring beneath the skin.
She wasn't drowning anymore of the she was most definitely sure. Jean could feel herself unlocking the darkened closet's doors, breaking the last stone that held the dam in place. She knew the impending flood could destroy them both but she needed to do this. For the first time she needed to let another individual in, she'd always held back on Scott. Maybe something instinctive in her registered the future that would befall them. As the last barrier fell forward yanking it to the ground the flood of memories raged along their connection violently. Logan registered that two of the memories stood out the darkest in the undercurrent washing about him. The two stood out potently coming last in the barrage with a harshness that left his very soul raw.
The first was a hazy memory that submerged Logan in a pain that was more than just sorrow just disappointment it was something deeper something without a name. He saw Scott rather intimately glued to what appeared from his limited view to be a woman. He seemed to be standing partially in an half open half closed door way. As Scott moved down the woman focusing his attention at her neck Logan was afforded a perfect view of her face. High sculpted cheek bones set across onyx skin, Ororo was the individual pressed so intimately against the wall by Scott.
He felt the closing of the door by Jean more than saw it. He knew that neither person occupying the room had bothered to look up or be torn from their torrid activities. He now understood the comments Marie had loosely made to him about jean losing her temper and sending Scott flailing into a glass wall of one of the exercise rooms. She had even in those moments of anger guarded him from any true injury sustainable at her hands. Logan now knew what had tripped that particular switch. He thought angrily how that bastard had deserved to feel a tenth of what Jean had felt after catching her friend of years with the man who had professed love to her for several years fucking.
The next memory shuddered along their connection. Logan was taken aback by the sheer feeling of terror wrapped tightly around this memory. Tightening his hold on Jean to an almost bruising point he held her tightly giving her that last bit of courage to show him her darkest memory.
The day was cold and rainy as Jean walked home late that afternoon. The place she was coming from had long faded away not truly important. She strode down the sidewalk through the rain clinging to her jacket and thanking the deities above her for her remembering to take the tiny little purple umbrella she cherished. Sharp hands grasped her throwing her harshly into an alley and up against a brick wall. She was painfully pinned between a man and the wall. Her fear was so thick Logan could taste it as it became bitter in his mouth.
The man's features were obscured by the rain from jeans line of vision. She felt as well as heard the sharp click of the knife he carried coming out to play. He pressed the knife against the flat of her stomach whispering deadly words, "Now, now freak what have I caught eh. Use one of those weirdo powers of you and I'll slice you before you can blink." Logan register her age realizing Xavier had yet to come to her. He knew that she had developed her powers by herself to some degree but he could feel the trepidation rising in her. She was too scared to risk using her powers against the man he was too close and she didn't know if she unleashed the box if she could seal it back.
Logan watched in horror as the man ripped through her clothes as she stood there silently trying to think of a way out of the situation. He stood there as a third party completely unable to help her or save her from the events about to unfold. The man sliced through her underwear and yet jean did not even whimper she was just too frightened to do anything. Logan turned away at the sight forcing himself not to vomit at that moment. He vowed that if he ever found that damn scumbag he would pay most dearly for what he had done.
He turned back when he felt the man leave. Jean had crumpled to the ground in the dirt and grime of the alley in her shame. She lay there for gods know how long lying there soaked through to the skin bleeding painfully. She lay there until the darkness came, until her mind sheltered her away into a refuge deep within herself.
With rushing speed Logan came back to their present situation. Jean was leaning back from him every so silent her lips parted as she gasped for breath, the terror of the memory enough to force the air from her lungs as fear had clutched her heart. He opened his eyes and they connected with hers. He looked into the eyes of the woman he loved and the woman he now knew more intimately that perhaps any other individual ever would.
Logan leaned closer to her touching his forehead with hers. He brushed their lips together receiving a delightful whimper from Jean's lips. He pulled her closer pushing his tongue deep into her mouth as she responded back. They broke the kiss coming up from air. He earned a small smile from jean as she snuggled deeper into the chest offered as well as the arms offered. Logan watched as she fell asleep clinging to him, his mind wandered from the trial clippings to more delightful ideas of nights to come with jean. He had every intention of making this a nightly occurrence if he had his way.
He smirked at a few interesting thoughts as he drifted into a heavy slumber feeling her presence wrap around his mind all the while. Early in that morning the tempest finally clamed as the pure light of the moon shone in upon the two forever bathing them in that luminous silvery light from heaven above.
AN: I hope you enjoyed this, no there is not another chapter to it I think its fairly self explanatory. Review at will of course, also just as a note I'm not a fan of people just having sex together. Believe me if you had shared those kinds of memories most people wouldn't feel like making love so there. Happy Holidays, blah………….