"The professor and Jean are on a mission to recruit a new mutant." Ororo was sitting at the kitchen table about a week later. Logan walked over to the cabinets, looking for something to eat. "Did you hear what I said?"
He looked over his shoulder. The irritation was rolling off of her in waves, good. Ororo could hold a grudge like nobody's business. If annoying her was the way to get her to talk to him, he'd take it. Living in a house with teenagers was bad enough but living close to her, smelling her everywhere while she avoided him was torture. Not that she was avoiding him perse. She was too classy to do the whole middle school walking out of rooms or using intermediaries to talk to him routine, but the coldness and the clipped responses were enough to make his skin crawl. Especially when he know how distant it was from her usual temperament. He'd thought being apart from from her was bad, but having her so damn close...
"Sorry, thought you were talkin to someone else." He said, turning and leaning against the cabinet. "Seeing as you don't seem to want to talk to me."
"The professor left me in charge." Ororo sipped her tea, ignoring his swipe at the silent treatment.
"Fantastic." He grunted. She got up. He panicked slightly; was she leaving? "Any orders, boss lady?" At least he managed to keep the desperation out of his tone...he hoped.
She stopped, for a second it looked like she'd say something, but she shook her head and walked away. Logan growled. The giving her space routine hadn't been working. He might have to change tactics.
There was noise outside her greenhouse. Strange, seeing as all the children had gone to school. Ororo glanced outside and grit her teeth. Logan was washing his bike and being completely obnoxious about it. She was sure the water hitting her windows was deliberate. If it had been 3 years ago she'd have found it funny, but now...
Concentrating, she gathered a warning cloud above Logan's head. He glanced up as thunder rumbled and she swore she saw him smirk before he aimed a stream of water at the green house window. Oh he was going to get it. Rain poured on his head and around his bike. The ground grew muddy and his clothes grew sodden. Perfect. Smirking, she sent a bolt of lightning next to his bike. Logan yelped and jumped out of the way. Looking at her in bewilderment, he growled. She cleared the sky.
"Trying to fry me, Ro?" He got close to the wind, looking into the greenhouse.
"Honestly Wolverine." She said. "Do I ever miss?" She motioned to his bike. The bolt had hit the mud next to his bike and splattered it all over his hard work. He growled. Ororo smirked, turning her attention back to her plants. She could hear Logan grumbling outside as he cleaned off his motorcycle. Suddenly it went quiet.
Looking up, she saw that Logan was no longer outside. The motorcycle, now gleaming, was abandoned. She frowned, moving towards the window.
Then Logan ran out of the institute, wearing his uniform. he looked angry. He didn't look back once before jumping on his bike and driving out. She fought the urge to follow, memories of the two of them fighting along side each other. Being partners, equals...before he'd left. She sighed. She had more pressing things to worry about than Logan. Charles would be coming back with the new recruit soon. Going to the kitchen, she altered the cooking schedule: there was no sense scaring a new recruit with Kurt's particular brand of cuisine. She'd just started making a pizza when the kitchen doors burst open. She turned, ready to summon her powers when Logan stormed in, glaring at her.
"We need to talk." He growled.
"I'm busy."
"This can't wait." He pulled down his cowl. "I had a run in with Sabertooth today-"
At the mention of the other mutant's name, the shock Ororo had felt at Logan's sudden entrance turned to anger. Of course he'd bring up Sabertooth.
"Well, I suppose you'll be packing your bags now." She said.
"Don't give me that." Logan said. "We both know I had to leave-"
"Without a word?" Her control was wavering and she was shouting. "Without so much as a goodbye?"
"He almost killed you." Logan shouted back but he took a step back, his shoulders hunched.
The door opened and Scott walked in. Looking at the two of them, he cleared his throat. "I'll, um...come back later."
Ororo felt her face grow hot, then grabbed Logan's arm. She didn't want to have this conversation where they could be interrupted. Dragging him to the danger room, she input the privacy code, then glared at him. "Well then?"
He was rethinking the brilliance of his plan. She was standing there, hand on her hip, as if daring him to try and explain. As if she knew everything he'd say would fall flat. "I'm not leavin again." he said. "But you can't tell me you don't get why I had to last time." He shuddered at the memory of her in a hospital bed. "He could'a killed you, Ro."
"But he didn't." Ororo said. "And you left. I had to recover. Alone." Logan winced.
"Sabertooth would have never left you alone. He could smell me on you, Ro."
Her eyes widened, no doubt remembering the why and how of that particular detail. He pressed on.
"The only thing to do was draw him away. As fast as I could, before he could hurt you again." Logan growled. The professor had helped by removing all memory of the institute and Ororo from the other mutant's mind, but Logan hadn't wanted to take the chance that he'd come after her again. "I'm not proud of it, but it was more important to me that you were safe."
Ororo's fists clenched. For one crazy second he dared hoped that she'd forgive him, then she whispered. "And telling me this would have been too much?"
She was stubborn, but then again, he thought to himself, that's why he loved her. "Contact would have made Sabertooth think..." He hesitated, not sure how to proceed, but she seemed to understand.
"You didn't want him to think I was important to you." She shook her head. "And apparently you wanted me to get that impression as well." She turned to leave the Danger Room.
"Ro, I'm not done talkin'." He protested. This wasn't at all how he'd imagined this going. Of course it wasn't going to be easy, but it was almost as though she no longer...
His shoulders slumped. As if she no longer loved him.
"You've had 3 years, Logan." There were clouds forming on the ceiling of the Danger Room and the moisture from the air disappeared. She was trembling.
"I had to make sure he wouldn't hurt you and apparently I didn't try hard enough." The overwhelming pain of his realization hit him like a ton of bricks; after 3 years on the run, Sabertooth had still managed to track him to Bayville. To her.
"So go." She motioned to the door. "We both know that's how you handle things."
"Ro-"
"DON'T." Thunder rumbled and her eyes flashed. "Call me that." She put her hands on her hips. "You left because you were scared, not that Sabertooth would hurt me, but because I told you I loved you. You felt trapped and the first opportunity to run, you took." She turned, inputting the code to exit the Danger Room. "So here's your chance. Your great enemy is back. Don't let any of us stop you from your crusade." She waited by the open door. He shook his head.
"I screwed up." He said, his tone measured. "I admit that and I'm not leavin, Ro." She flinched at his use of the old pet name. They stood, looking at each other. He wasn't going to walk out of the room first and clearly she was thinking the same thing. "Get comfortable, Storm." He said, crossing the room to lean against the opposite wall. "Cuz I'm not walkin out of this room before you do."
She shook her head. "You are insufferable." She turned, leaving. "I am not playing this game with you."
"I'm not asking for you to..." He wasn't sure how to voice what he was thinking. He'd never been creative with words, always preferring directness to frilly empty declarations. "I don't expect you to forgive me or have things go back to the way they were. But you are still important to me, Ro. So I'm not givin up until you at least don't hate me."
She leaned her hand against the doorframe, squeezing it slightly before whispering. "I have never hated you, Logan. That is precisely the problem." She stepped out, the door closing behind him. Logan let out a growl.
"Computer." He said, looking up at the controls. "Run simulation Logan 3." He needed something to slice.
