Moon Rising

By: Clarity Scifiroots
Fandom / Pairing: X-Men, Logan/Rogue – set in movieverse just as X2 begins
Disclaimers apply.
Request filled: kneazles's nightmare theme
Summary: Rogue discovers someone can hold the nightmares at bay.

Every night since that fateful kiss—her first kiss—she'd had nightmares. "Pleasant dreams" became a foreign concept for her. She fought off sleep for as long as she could in hopes that she would be exhausted enough that her brain would just shut down for a while. Sometimes it worked.

She had dreams about things other than that kiss, though. Magneto played a primary role in many of her nightmares. Too many nights she started awake with the horrible feeling that she had taken too much from Logan and he was dead; those nights she crept down the halls to the now empty room. She curled up in the big bed and clutched the dog tag in her hand, reminding herself that he was coming back and if anything had happened to him the Professor would say something.

Logan did return after his six weeks away searching up north. Somehow she could feel when he arrived, so she was there to greet him in the front hall just as he was walking in. He called her "kid," but she liked to think that the warm spark in his eye was worth hoping for something more. Even though Bobby interrupted, she knew that Logan had picked up on her weariness and was studying her closely. Bobby dragged her off before they had time to talk alone and she felt a twinge of anger at her friend's jealousy; she had already told him she wasn't very interested in his passes.

Night had settled in by the time she was alone again and she took the opportunity to drop by Logan's room. She caught her breath when he met her gaze calmly. She felt completely vulnerable to him under his gaze, but it was comforting to feel like she wouldn't even need to speak to be understood.

He motioned her to come in and shut the door. When she hesitated a few feet inside, he approached her and wrapped her in a tight embrace. She trembled in relief and clutched him tightly, hoping he wouldn't let go any time soon. He seemed to know without asking what she dreamt about; he eased one of her hands from around his back and held it over his heart. She couldn't look up at him, instead concentrating on his hand on top of hers and the steady beating of his heart.

He let her curl up in an extra blanket on top of the sheets while he reclined on the other half of the bed and seemed to pay partial attention to the newspaper he was looking at; but if she needed, she could reach out and clutch his hand to make sure he was real and wouldn't fade away.

That night she had no nightmares.

Fin