"Unbelieveable" Ororo felt a stab of frustration as she stood in the doorway of the bar.
Logan raised his head and squinted through his swollen eye at her. "Hey Ro." He grinned, and empty bottle of whiskey squeezed in his hand. "How you doin'?"
"Get up." she hissed, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him off the bar stool. "This is the 3rd time this week."
"Awww you worried about me?" he cooed, getting to his feet.
"It's Tuesday." Ororo muttered. Now that he stood, Ororo could see the large amount of blood on his shirt and drying on his chin and under his eye. Though the injuries had for the most part healed it didn't change the fact that they had happened.
"This 'snothing. You should see the other guys." Logan said, watching her assessment.
"I did." She growled, dragging him out into her car and throwing him in the passenger seat. "It was all I could to get the police off your back. You're so lucky that the bar tender told them that they attacked you." She glanced over at where Luke Cage was standing with a group of police officers and gave him a grateful look. The bartender nodded.
"Luke's a good guy." Ororo muttered. "And a way better friend than you deserve." She buckled him in.
"While you're down there." He said, running a hand through her hair.
"Logan." She said through gritted teeth. "You have a metal skeleton and I can summon lightning. " She pulled away from him and glared. "I just drove all the way down to Hell's Kitchen to save your sorry ass, stopped you from rotting in jail, and paid your bar tab. So don't test me."
She got into the driver's side and turned on the ignition. They drove in silence and promptly got stuck in traffic on the 95. Ororo closed her eyes and exhaled in frustration; the cars weren't moving; they were trapped.
"I screwed up." Logan mumbled.
"Really?" Ororo said, staring resolutely forward. "What gave you that impression?"
"Jean"
"For fuck's sake." Ororo growled, Logan stared at her wide eyed; she rarely pulled out the big curses but tonight she was too frustrated to censor herself. "Not this again. Jean is never leaving Scott, Logan. I don't know why she keeps toying with your emotions and she's my best friend but I am sick and tired of picking up after her mess. You need to wise up and realize that you could do better."
"But-"
"I don't want to hear it." She said, and outside lightning flashed and clouds rolled in, looming ominously overhead.
Logan looked taken aback. Usually Ororo would listen and offer kind words of consolation. He'd witnessed her temper before, but it had never been directed at him. She had more patience than most for his shit.
"Ro." He began.
"I don't want to hear it." She said. "I want silence. All the way to the institute."
"Ro"
"SILENCE." Her exclamation was enhanced by the thunder that roared outside. Logan looked away. It took them 4 hours to get the Institute and neither of them spoke a word. When Ororo pulled up in front of the institute, she stopped the car. Neither of them moved.
"You should clean yourself up." she said tonelessly. "Wouldn't want Jean to see you like this."
"Ro." Logan said. She turned to glare at him. "Thank you."
She nodded stiffly. Then got out of the car. "Take it back to the garage." She said, going inside. The next morning Scott's motorcycle had been stolen and Logan was gone on one of his trips.
"Where's Logan?" Jean asked one morning about 2 weeks later. She'd joined Ororo in her morning yoga session.
"How should I know?" Ororo said, stretching and trying to empty the jumble of her mind. She'd worried that her friend would try to initiate this conversation and in her current emotional state it was unlikely that it would have a good outcome. She was grateful for her mental shielding so Jean didn't know what was on her mind.
"He just, disappeared and he hasn't left any word." Jean sighed. Ororo gritted her teeth and sat on her yoga mat, this was going to take a while. "I'm worried about him."
"Are you?" Ororo asked, her voice cold.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jean frowned. She might not be able to read Ororo's mind, but there was no mistaking the tone.
Ororo shook her head. "I'm done being the designated cleanup crew to your soap opera. The next time Logan and Scott decide to take it to the lawn, I'm not raining them out. I'm through driving to every bar in a 30 mile radius to pull Logan's ass out of whatever mess he lands himself in. I'm done talking Scott down when he decides to leave. I'm…" She shook her head. "Jean. This isn't funny, this isn't cute. Scott is a good man and Logan is…Logan, and neither of them deserves you playing with their emotions." She bit her lip. "You're my best friend, but I'm done fixing your drama."
Jean crossed her arms. "No one asked you to 'fix my drama'."
"This team is my family." Ororo said. "And I don't want my family to be hurt, but I'm tired." She turned away from Jean. "Now either join me doing yoga or get out."
Jean watched her thoughtfully. Then she began stretching next to Ororo. "He talks to you more than anyone else." She said softly after about 10 minutes of silence.
Ororo exhaled loudly. "I'm going to my room." She said, getting up.
Logan came back 3 days later. Ororo was in the garden enjoying the sunshine while tending to her own personal part of the grounds. She sensed him behind her, but didn't say anything. They stayed that way for a while, her on her knees in the dirt, tending to her plants him watching her.
"So, you going to help? Or is your plan to block the sunlight?" She said.
"Depends." Logan moved forward and crouched next to her.
Ororo raised an eyebrow.
"On?" She said.
"Whether or not you're still mad at me." He said.
"I'm always mad at you." Ororo said. "Help me with these roses." She motioned towards the flowers that she was planning on planting. Logan nodded. They worked side by side in silence. It was strangely comfortable and natural.
"Do you want me to get the hose?" Logan asked when they were done.
"No need." Ororo smiled as rain began to fall lightly on her flowers from a single cloud over head. Logan watched, transfixed…until Ororo directed the cloud to pour on his head.
"Hey." He growled, trying to evade the water.
"Now I'm not mad at you." Ororo said, smirking and getting to her feet. She turned, intent on going back to the institute, when Logan grabbed her from behind and pulled her under the cloud.
"Shut it off, Ro." He growled.
"You think I'm afraid of getting a little wet?" she countered, elbowing Logan in the stomach. Logan grunted, but didn't let her go; she'd doubted that it would work, but it had been worth a try. "Really don't want to hurt you." She said.
"I'll heal." Logan said, he was breathing heavily. His stumble brushed against her ear, making her shiver. She'd been alone ever since 6 months ago when she'd returned from Wakanda, and she really didn't want to think about that now. Not when Logan was pressing her against him and caressing her arms gently. She closed her eyes and relaxed into his touch, the pouring rain lessening to a slight drizzle. Leaning back, she let him nuzzle her neck. He turned her around slowly. "I missed you, Ro." He said, pressing her against him, running a hand through her hair. "So, so much." It was when he leaned forward intent on kissing her that she came to her senses. Blasting him with a face full of hot air, Ororo used the wind to push him far away from her. She cleared the cloud.
"No." She said. Then she walked away leaving a bewildered and soaked Logan in the garden.
He sat next to her at dinner. She ignored him, talking instead to Remy who'd just come back from New Orleans. He didn't try to join their conversation, and left to go to his room. Ororo noted that he hadn't said a word to Jean all night.
She was reading while getting her hair braided the next morning when he walked in to the hair salon and sat across from her. She glanced up from her book and frowned at him. "What are you doing?"
He shrugged. "You always say you get bored during these sessions."
"And you thought you brooding in front of me would make me less bored?" Ororo asked, her attention returning to her book.
"Maybe I'm bored." He said. "And maybe we need to talk."
"This isn't the place." Ororo said.
"That's what you think." He smirked. "Don't these appointments usually take up to 7 hours? I've got you trapped."
"Is this your boyfriend?" the woman doing her braids asked.
"No." Ororo said, glaring at Logan who was looking smug. "He's my…" She trailed off unable to find a satisfactory word to describe him. "He's leaving."
"Ro." Logan said, but she opened the book and ignored him, darkening clouds outside warning him not to cross her. He huffed and left, slamming the salon door behind him.
"It looks good." He said when she got back to the Institute. He was waiting for her in the entrance
"Thank you." Ororo said. "If you wanted to have that talk now-"
"Logan." Jean called out from the top of the stairs. "I've been looking for you. Where have you been?" She was smiling broadly. Ororo rolled her eyes. So that's why Logan was so desperate to get back into her good graces.
"Ro." Logan said.
"I'll leave you alone." She said, turning.
"Wait." Logan said, coming in front of her to block her.
"I told you already." She said. "I'm done dealing with this mess. I've got my own life to live, Logan." She looked up at Jean. "And you've got your own mistakes to make." She pushed past him, going up the stairs to her room. She shut the door, leaning against it and trying to make sense of her swirling emotions. She had wanted to kiss Logan in the garden. It had surprised her how much she'd wanted it, but she respected herself too much to be Logan's consolation prize because he couldn't have Jean. She deserved better than that. Shaking herself, she decided to take a page out of Logan's book and leave the institute for a while; to clear her head and distance herself from her emotions. Opening her window she flew out just as Logan opened the door to her room. He walked to the sill watching as she flew off into the sky.
So they fell into an awkward routine. Ororo taught her classes, meditated and tended to her garden. She ran simulations in the Danger Room and helped the various other inhabitants of the institute with their problems. She avoided Logan. He'd tried confronting her, but after the 3rd time she blew him off he stopped. Probably to chase after Jean.
She was sitting in the garden reading when Logan found her a few weeks later.
"If I sit here will you leave?" He asked.
Ororo raised an eyebrow, but shook her head.
"Good, because I need my Ro back." He said, sitting next to her on the bench.
"Why? Girl problems?" Ororo said sarcastically.
"Actually, yes. Don't-" he said, putting his hand on her arm as she made to leave. "It's not what you think."
"I'm think that I have better things to do then listen to another Logan pity party." Ororo sighed. "Let go."
"It's true that at first I wanted to talk to you because I needed the support you always give me, but…" he paused, running a hand through his hair. "Then I realized I don't want that anymore. I…Ro you're the only one here who really puts up with my shit even when I treat you bad. I –"
"You're projecting your feelings towards Jean on me because who you actually want isn't available." Ororo said. "Logan, I care for you, but I'm no one's consolation prize." She pulled her arm away from him and walked away.
Logan glared in frustration at Ororo's retreating back. What had changed in the last 3 months that made her so reticent? He'd known her to be private, but this was different. He went back to the Institute and sought out Hank in his study.
"Furball." He said.
"Logan." Hank had climbed his bookshelf to reach a particularly high book. "How might I assist you today?"
"I need to ask you about Ororo." He looked hesitantly over at the collective works of Freud inside which he knew Hank had stashed the good stuff. "and I am definitely going to need some of that."
Hank chuckled and climbed down the bookshelf. "Looks like someone is finally coming to their senses."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Logan growled as Hank walked over to pull a bottle of whiskey out of his copy of "Interpretation of Dreams."
Hank sighed and poured both of them a glass. "Just that Ororo's been carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders ever since she arrived at the Institute. She's always solved everyone's problems, but never taken time to consider hers. I think she's finally decided to put herself first." He handed Logan a glass. "Which is going to lead to some changes around here. I don't think everyone has quite realized how much we rely on her and what that reliance has cost her."
"Are you talking about T'Challa?" Logan growled. "Ro said that the split was mutual."
Hank sadly shook his head. "In matters of the heart, things are rarely that simple."
"What?" Logan said. "Why wouldn't she fight for the relationship if she still loved him?"
Hank shrugged. "A question you need to ask her not me." He took another sip. Logan contemplated the information. Ororo had come back from Wakanda about 6 months ago. He'd heard about the annulment, but she'd been carrying herself so well, he'd thought she was fine…how could he not have seen how much she'd been hurting? And to pile his problems on her shoulders. He felt sick and ashamed, two feelings he was familiar with, having done so many things he regretted, but there was something about letting Ororo down that was different. It was as though he'd violated some sacred trust between them.
"Thanks Hank." He said.
She wasn't at dinner. Kitty told him that no one had seen her since the let out of her last class. He'd knocked at her door, but no one was inside. He could have asked the professor, but he viewed the difficulty in finding her as his punishment for not being there for her sooner. He'd begun to lose hope of finding her when an alarm went off, signaling a breach of the school grounds. He rushed out to investigate and there she was; hovering above the school…fighting Juggernaut. Hurling lightning and wind at the other mutant she looked like an all-powerful goddess, which, he mused, she was to some people.
Letting out his claws he rushed forward.
"Need some help?" he asked. Ororo raised an eyebrow.
"If you think you can keep out of the way." She said.
Poor Juggernaut had no idea what hit him. Logan had never seen Ororo so angry and focused. She'd been bottling up her emotions inside and finally she had a place to let them out. Juggernaut could take more punishment than other mutants and looking at the rage in Ororo's whitened pupils, Logan almost felt sorry for the bastard. A wind with the force to tear the trees from their roots hit Juggernaut, who stood firm against the onslaught. Logan jumped on to his back and slashed the clips holding his helmet in place, the other mutant too distracted by Ororo to notice what Logan had done until it was too late. Logan saw the moment Charles entered into Juggernaut's mind, urging him to surrender and leave the school alone.
Ororo landed in front of the defeated Juggernaut, her chest heavily with the exertion of her powers. Logan walked over to her, uncertainly. "Ro, you okay?" She looked at him, her normally blue eyes still swirling white with the presence of her power. He wouldn't say he was afraid of her in that moment, but he wasn't going to cross her either. "It's me, Ro. You saved us. You stopped him." He murmured putting his hand on her shoulder.
She closed her eyes, inhaling slowly. When she opened them again her eyes were their usual crystal blue. Logan relaxed his stance. She swayed slightly, the toll of letting out her emotions weighing on her. He scooped her up as she fainted and carried her inside, ignoring the others who were looking at them strangely.
She'd be so pissed when she woke up. He mused as he put her down on her bed. He'd have to make up with her before ribbing her about being a shrinking violet, though. At least if he wanted to keep his balls.
Ororo woke with a pounding headache. "What happened?" She groaned, pressing a hand to her temple.
"You're in trouble." A gruff familiar voice said from the corner of the room. "I made some of that leaf juice you like."
"It's called herbal tea." Ororo retorted. "And what did I say about coming into my room uninvited?"
Logan chuckled as he watched her reach for the mug and stare at it cautiously. "It ain't poisoned." He said.
She took a sip. It was somehow still warm, for which she was grateful. "Thank you." She said. "Now why am I in trouble?"
"Because you've been hiding things from me." Logan said.
"What?" Ororo asked.
"What happened with T'Challa, Ro?" Logan asked.
"It didn't work out and –"
"No." Logan cut her off. "That's the bullshit excuse you gave to placate us. Now what really happened?"
"Why do you care all of a sudden?" Ororo asked.
"I always care, Ro." Logan looked ashamed. "It's just sometimes I need to get my head out of my ass to realize what's going on around me."
Ororo snorted in spite of herself. "You said it, I didn't."
"Don't think you're changing the subject on me." Logan replied, smirking at her joke.
"The Wakandan council of elders could no longer tolerate a queen whose time was spent away from her wifely duties." Ororo began slowly. "They wanted me to produce an heir and stay in Wakanda. It meant that I would have to give up the X men." She hung her head. "I loved T'Challa, but this place, these people are my family. I did not want to choose." She looked outside. "He made the decision for me and annulled the marriage."
She heard the familiar sound of Logan's claws coming out. "Looks like I need to carve me some panther steaks."
"That's not necessary." Ororo said. "He was doing what was best for his people. Marrying me was a rebellious act of love, but he is a king and a king does not have the luxury of…" The mantra she'd been repeating to herself felt forced. She didn't realize she was crying until Logan had pulled her into his arms. She pressed her face into his well-worn plaid shirt and let out everything she'd been repressing. "It's a load of bullshit, isn't it?" She murmured.
"Language, Ro." Logan chuckled. "I expect better from you." He rested his cheek on her head. She closed her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?" she heard him ask softly.
"I…I did not want to burden anyone else with my problems." She admitted.
Logan snorted. "So it's okay for us to dump our crap on you, but not the other way around?" Ororo wrinkled her nose.
"Not the best analogy." She said eliciting another low chuckle from Logan.
"Talk to me, Ro." He said, running his fingers through her hair. "Tell me what happened."
So she did. For the next 2 hours she told him everything that had transpired in Wakanda and he sat there and listened, not judging.
"We would have understood if you stayed." He said softly when she was done. She snorted.
"You wouldn't have last 5 minutes."
"Is that the only reason you stayed?" he asked. "Because you couldn't face the thought of not mother henning us?"
"That is NOT what I do." Ororo glared at him.
Logan frowned. "It kinda is." He tugged on one of the small African braids she'd put into her hair. "No other reason?"
"Logan." She looked up at him. "Can we focus on learning to be friends again before we discuss what almost happened in the garden?"
Logan contemplated it. "Whatever you need, Ro." He said finally.