Tell Me No Lies

Several times he heard someone try the door and ignored it. Very few people had the key to every room in the damn mansion. He had some time with his girl before whoever wanted in found someone with a key, or enough telekinesis and control to manipulate locks.

Marie was warm and soft in his arms, contrary to the steel that ran through her spine. The rest of the school might think she was weak, a traitor to their kind or cause, for taking the Cure. Even if the damn thing didn't work. But he knew better. Let any of them live with the fear of hurting someone every minute of their lives and the isolation of being alone in the most complete way and they'd take the cure faster than lightening.

None of them had ever been completely cut off from every other person in the world the way Marie had. He rubbed his lips over her forehead and inhaled the scent of her hair, contentment filling him. "It hurt at all?" He asked finally.

"Does what hurt?" She sounded like a cat purring, too replete with contentment to put much effort into the question.

"Keepin' your mutation off," He inhaled her scent again, the animal inside him couldn't get enough of it.

"Nah," Her voice had a smile in it now. "These days I keep it on mostly so no one else touches me unless I want them to. They were all so damn judgmental, they grab me without thinking they'll get a nasty shock."

"Good." He knew it was petty but he didn't really care. It wasn't like she'd kill them and it served them right. If they'd made half an effort before the cure maybe she wouldn't have felt it was her only option.

"You still mad at me about it?"

He sighed, she didn't ask easy questions. "Wasn't ever mad about your reasons darlin'. I understood why."

"But you were mad." It wasn't a question this time. Marie knew him well enough to know he'd been furious.

"Yeah. It meant I'd lost my chance with you. You'd die." He felt like howling at the thought. "I was ready to kill someone."

"You still mad sugar?" Now she sounded worried and he couldn't have that.

"Not at you darlin'." He tilted her face up to his so she could see he wasn't lying. "Mostly at all these idiots who think they got a right to decide when I should be able to touch you or who you should take to your bed."

Her smile was soft and a little shy. "Are you gonna touch me sugar? You don't even know if I'm your type."

He knew his smirk was pretty filthy because she blushed a little bit. "Darlin', you're so my type its a little ridiculous. Soft skin, soft hair and big eyes. Sweet voice and gorgeous smile. And long fuckin' legs."

Her blush deepened and she looked down. He hated that she didn't see how beautiful she was. "I don't know anything...Logan, I'm... I'm not..."

"Experienced?" He rubbed his mouth over her forehead and temple, easing down to that blushing skin, tasting the warmth of her skin. "Marie... I'm not after whorin' around. You're... you're forever to me. I wanna learn what you like. Wanna be what you like." He held her a little tighter, "'Sides, it ain't like I'm some young, fresh faced kid. Like everybody says around here, I'm old and... well, me."

He knew what he was. Change wasn't something that came easily to him. He probably drank too much, enjoyed cigars and cage fighting and civilized was the last way to describe him. "Maybe you ain't interested in forever. Now that you got your skin under control you can do better than some grizzled old cage rat like me."

Her scent changed instantly, hot and fierce in his nose. "Don't you dare say that! You're a man. You're strong and... you're..." She shook her head, looking up at him angrily. "You're beautiful. And whenever I'm with you I feel safe. You're never mean to me. Or snide. You don't make fun of my accent or put me down."

"I'm old and ignorant," He reminded her. "All I know is fighting."

"But you're not stupid." She touched his whiskered jaw hesitantly. "I know you. You're a good man. You'd never hurt me. And you'd let me take care of you. You wouldn't mind all my fussin'."

"I like when you fuss," He kissed her pretty mouth gently. "I always liked it. Made me feel like you cared about me."

"Because I do." She rolled her eyes at him, her sass not stifled for long. "I always have. You just thought I was a kid."

He shifted a bit uncomfortably and shook his head. "Nah," He admitted in a low voice, still feeling half ashamed. "That was the problem. I knew you weren't a kid. You're a woman. That was why I tried to stay away."

"Because everyone here told you I was a kid. I was sixteen." Her hand was so gentle on his skin, it felt so damn good. "Logan, have you ever thought that maybe you're a lot older than everybody thinks you are?"

"Well we know I was this age back in the sixties." Logan looked at her with a half smile, turning his head to kiss her palm.

She smiled and shrugged. "If you were older, if you grew up durin' a time when it was the norm for a girl to get married at sixteen or seventeen, then seein' me as a woman...that'd be normal for you." Marie lifted herself in his lap and kissed him softly. "I'm eighteen now. I'm legal. And I don't care what anyone else thinks."

"People are gonna talk darlin'." He reminded her. "It won't just be the people here. We go out, you're gonna get looks. People are gonna look down on you."

"And they'll act like you're doin' something wrong too." Marie's jaw was set. "I'll get older and our ages will match a bit better then." She smiled a bit. "And you don't look half so old when you shave sugar."

"Well then I'll shave if you want." He kissed her again and felt the animal inside him nearly purr with contentment. "Long as you you're mine Marie." He hesitated, "And you turn on your mutation sometimes, take some of my healing, so you stay the same age as me." He kissed her, his mouth firm on hers, trying to convey his desperation. "I can't lose you darlin'. I can't."

Her mouth softened under his, her lips sweet and hungry. "I can't lose you either Logan. I love you sugar. So you just tell me when, so I don't hurt you."

"We'll work it out." He sighed, relieved beyond words that she wasn't going to fight him on that. "Just can't lose you darlin'."

"Logan," Her voice was hesitant but he could tell what she wanted to ask was important. "I always thought you were... sorta wound around Jean's little finger."

He couldn't help chuckling. "Well I wanted to fuck her, yeah. But I never gave her my tags. Never wanted to." He held Marie tighter against him. "I won't lie Marie. I went sniffin' around Jean for a lot a reasons. Attraction yeah. To screw with Scott... and because if I was sniffin' around her, nobody paid any attention to the way I looked at you."

"I didn't like you sniffin' around her." Marie admitted. "She...could be kinda bitchy. She was a real queen bee. Like all those cheerleaders in high school who thought they were gonna marry the mayor's son."

"Well you're the only woman I want a life with darlin'." He kissed her again, groaning at the sweetness of her. "I might be attracted to other women but I promise I won't do anything about it. You're the one I will always come to. You might get sick of dealin' with me." That was a real fear, one he hadn't meant to admit, that Marie might not like havin' an animal like him in her bed.

"I doubt it honey." She kissed him. "I got enough of you in my head to know that you're a little...oversexed?" Her smirk was sweet and devilish. "And I've got a hunger in me for you. If you ever get to be too much for me...you can just give me a little hit of your mutation and that'll heal up any aches so I'm ready to go with you again."

Now that was a use of his and her mutation that he'd considered but he hadn't thought she would come up with the same thing. "You wanna see how that goes with us?"

"You mean now?" She looked up at him thoughtfully. "Skip classes and what have you and just...hole up together?"

He grinned at her. "Yeah, that's kinda what I'm thinkin'."

Her smirk was adorable and hungry at the same time. She looked so damn sexy it oughta be illegal. "You're on sugar."

Author's Note: So a little more of this and some of Logan's motivations. I think people forget that the way we grew up influences us more than we realize. Logan grew up in the eighteen hundreds, long before central heat or gas stoves. Life was hard back then, people married young and a lot of the time they died young too. So his life on the road, living in the camper on the back of his truck, would be almost luxurious compared to the way he'd grown up. Even without his memories, the way he was raised would have influence. He just wouldn't know why he felt the way he did.