First X-Men fic :D

Rated T for a small amount (of fairly strong) language, but not too much. Nothing else to worry about :)

Hopefully the characters aren't too dodgily written, but I have only seen it twice, both times with missing bits (although different each time lol) :/

I don't own anything...but I bet you guessed :P

It was completely dark. Pitch black, with not even the faintest flicker of light to penetrate it. Nothing.

Or, was there something? As time passed (and God knows how much time was passing in this nothingness) there came sharp stabs of almost unendurable pain – on his face, his back, slashes across his chest. Shit, that hurt.

Then, both the darkness and the pain slowly, very slowly, faded. The blackness became a soft, warm red: the type of colour you can see when all the lights are on, but you have your eyes squeezed shut against the artificial glare. The pain was still there, but less – just a few muted throbs every so often now.

There was sound too. The closest was a woman's, her voice soft, and unintelligible. There was a man too, and then, much to his surprise, an outburst of snarling and swearing, which he guessed was that of a young girl. She had a temper on her, that one. Strangely like his own.

Feeling gradually returned in this manner, the words became more intelligible, and then, just now, he felt delicate fingers slide up his bare chest, feeling under what he recognised as hospital dressings.

"That tickles," he protested, opening his eyes slowly, blinking in the sudden glare of florescent lights. Dr Grey was leaning over him, and a smile graced her face as his much larger fingers grasped hers, taking them off his chest. Hmm, she was still as gorgeous he'd remembered.

"That was a brave thing you did," she murmured, her dark eyes smouldering at him. He was taken back to that night, Rogue lying lifeless in his arms, a streak of white staining her dark hair, then the sudden pain as his wounds reopened, and then the blackness…well he damn hoped Marie had made it. He liked that kid.

"Did it work?" he asked, trying not to sound as worried as he felt. Because he was very worried. Not because he…well, it felt like she had always been there, ya know? He didn't want to have that taken away.

"Yeh – she's fine," Jean assured him, smiling again. "Took on a few of your more charming personality traits for a while – but we lived through it."

Well that was a pretty big relief if he was honest – not trying to get all emotional or anything, but Marie being dead would have upset him a fair amount. So was that what all the snarling had been about? It was hard to imagine a surly, aggressive Rogue, but it sounded pretty damn adorable.

"Good," he murmured back, allowing himself a small smile too.

"I think she's kind of taken with you."

"Well you can tell her…my heart belongs to someone else."

Whoah! That was just one step too far with the flirting. Sure, she was gorgeous, and looked shit hot in that tight black leather uniform (maybe Summers' wasn't quite as stupid as he had first seemed, sticking them in that leather, haha) but any sane man would notice that. Any male who wasn't instantly attracted to her was probably blind, but that was all it was. Attraction because of how she looked. This line of thought was getting way too emotional again, but unless he was very mistaken, Jean did not have his heart. It felt as though someone had it, but it wasn't the red-headed doctor.

"You and I – " she begun, and Logan felt an irrational stab of annoyance. He wished he'd kept his mouth shut now. He sat up suddenly, but she didn't jump, and he grabbed the shirt next to the bed, balling it up in his fist, and standing up.

"How's the Professor?" he asked roughly, pulling the shirt over his head, unconcerned by the slightly confused expression she was wearing. She'd get over it soon enough, she had one-eye for company anyhow. She didn't answer his question, and glancing to the bed next to his own, he could see that Xavier was awake, and fine. Really, he'd just asked for a change of subject.

"Where are you going?" she questioned him, frowning.

"To see Rogue," he replied, halfway across the room. "Want to see if she's alright."

"I told you, Logan, she's perfectly well."

The doctor seemed more annoyed than confused now, he could smell it on her, although her outward appearance was calm and unconcerned. Perhaps it had been a little careless, suggesting that his heart belonged to her – albeit completely accidental, he had just meant it to come out as some harmless flirting, didn't really think about what he was saying – but she did have Summers, so he couldn't understand this awkwardness. Still, he was Wolverine, and he didn't really take feelings into account if he wanted to go somewhere. And he wanted to see Marie. So he did, turning his back on her, wrenching open the door, and striding into the oversized mansion, looking for Rogue.

He picked up on her scent pretty quick, and spotted her sitting in the sun with that ice boy, and a girl he remembered could walk through walls – what was her name? Katie?…no…Kitty. That was it. He noticed that Marie was sitting on her gloved hands, and leaning ever so slightly away from the others, and he guessed she was still worried that she might accidentally brush them with any exposed skin. He felt a rather uncharacteristic rush of pity towards the poor girl, who, as Xavier had pointed out, would not be able to touch for the rest of her life.

The pity evaporated as he saw her eyes wander across the grounds, coming to rest on him. She gave him a huge smile, which he returned, grinning still wider as she leapt from the bench and ran over to him. Next thing he knew, she was hugging him tightly, laughing with relief. He was surprised at the contact, but held her close, grinning into her hair. Maybe she wasn't so worried about touching people. She just liked him better than the others.

"Nobody told me you were up again," she told him, sounding kind of resentful. "I was worried about you."

"Yeah, well, only just woke up. Just wanted to see you were ok, kid. Don't reckon Doctor Grey was happy with me running off though."

"I s'pose she wasn't," Rogue conceded. "Are you ok, Logan? I'm sorry you had to do that."

"I'm not," he told her, his eyes tracing the strands of white that framed her face "Couldn't have let you die, kid."

She smiled a bit at that, and glanced back at her friends, who were goggling at her, possibly because she had just thrown herself at grouchy Wolverine, when she made a point of avoiding any contact at all from anyone else, because of her death-skin. Logan followed her gaze, and scowled. Bloody gawking kids. She seemed to notice his annoyance.

"D'ya want to move?" she asked, her eyes meeting his again. Wow, she knew him well.

"So," he begun, as they walked slowly back to the mansion together, ignoring the funny looks a few of the students gave them. Most weren't interested, lying around in the late afternoon sun, chatting, oblivious to the fact that Logan and Marie had both nearly lost their lives, and were now up and about again. Not that he'd want them to. Never really been the kind of guy to want a load of half witted kids staring at him just because he saved someone, or came back alive from horrific injuries. He left that kind of thing for the showy hero types. Which reminded him…

"Jean told me you were pretty taken with me, after what happened," he blurted. Well fucking done, Logan. Foot stuck firmly in your mouth today. Halfway down your throat, rate you're going.

And now poor Rogue was going red, and he wished he could take back the words, and put them firmly back in his mouth where they belonged.

"Not that I believed her," he added gruffly, attempting to climb out of the pit he'd just managed to dig. "Always comes out with a load of crap, I s'pose. Just reckoned you ought to know."

"I think they all think that," she admitted very quietly, so that he had to move closer to her side to catch the rest of her words "I mean, sure I was worried: I woke up, and I felt your hand on my forehead, then saw you nearly fall off the statue of Liberty, blood everywhere. I don't see why not wanting you to die is a bad thing."

He nodded, and gave her a smile, slinging an arm carelessly round her shoulders, as they reached the front door, and the cool of the mansion.

"I certainly didn't want you to die, kid," he commented "Why e'nt they gossiping about me being taken with you?"

"I guess they wouldn't expect you to want someone like me."

Hmm, fair point. Still, just because she wasn't the normal type of girl he would go for, didn't mean they had any right to assume that he wouldn't like her in that…God, he was messed up. Why was his brain twisting everything today? Even a short walk with Rogue had him questioning his feelings for his friend. It was silent again, but it was nothing unusual between them. Sometimes, it was better to sit (or walk in this case) in companionable silence, than force conversation. Both of them knew that, and would talk when they had something to say.

He thought back to that rather unfortunate comment he had made to Jean earlier, and frowned. He remembered thinking that while she didn't have his heart, he had thought that someone did. Someone…surely he should know who his heart belonged to! And surely – surely he, Wolverine, should bloody well be able to keep a tighter hold on his emotions. As far as he could remember, which wasn't really very far, he hadn't ever seriously cared about anyone – certainly not enough to start thinking stupid things like this. All the women to whom he'd been romantically linked in the past hadn't really lasted long…well, none of them had really stayed with him past the first night: and that was how he liked it. Always moving forwards, no regrets, nothing tying him down, and certainly a tight grip on his heart. He hadn't even really considered its existence before, except as a pump that kept the blood so often spilled, pumping round and round and round…

"Oh, I don't know," he said slowly, making her start slightly, not expecting his voice in the quiet.

"What?"

"I don't know," he admitted, sighing. "I'm trying to figure something out, but it won't come."

"Is this about your past?" she asked, looking concerned, and laying a gloved hand on his arm, gently. "I thought the professor said he'd help you find out about it."

"No," he said, slowly, trying, for once today at least, to pick his words carefully "Although I'm still gonna do that. No, I was just thinking about something I haven't really thought of before."

Wow. Something completely honest, and well thought out. That was a first.

"I guess you aren't gonna share then?" she asked hopefully, but when he didn't reply she didn't press it. That was a really good thing about Marie, she wasn't a nosey little brat like so many of her peers. Inquisitive, perhaps, but not sticking her nose in places where it wasn't wanted.

"I'll catch you later, Marie," he told her suddenly, taking one of her gloved hands in his for just a moment, then loping away from her. Just before he turned the corner, he had the sudden urge to look back, and saw her looking over her shoulder at him too, an odd expression on her face. Then she turned away, and he rounded the corner, and Rogue was out of sight.

Reviews? I'm not entirely sure if this should be continued, or just stand as a little one-shot…thoughts on this? Love to know how I did, anyway...

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