Paws For Thought.
Chapter Four: Of Dreams & Ferals.
It turned out getting close to Logan whilst he was asleep was a hard matter indeed. The first time she had tried she had only just missed being kitty-kebab by an inch. Turns out, he's as sensitive asleep as he is awake. Clearly heightened senses included touch. Rogue briefly considered that must be both a pro and a con when it came to pleasure - causing her to snicker mentally at the thought - but it didn't help her or her goal. On her second attempt, he had rolled over and almost squished her with his large, muscular thigh. She realised then just why cats could be insanely quick when they had to be.
This was her third attempt. With a couple wiggle of her hips, she jumped from the wooden floorboards up onto Logan's bed where she landed neatly between his spread legs. So very slowly, making sure to keep her fluffy tail up in the air, she inched towards his feet. Not only was it the furthest point from his claws, but she hoped as long as she didn't touch the sole of his foot that he wouldn't notice her there. Ever so slowly, she carefully placed a paw onto the back of his left heel. She made sure each pad on the bottom of her paw touched his skin, and with relief she felt her mutation activate. It felt ten times fainter and weaker then it used to, but it was there, and with her head turned so she was looking over her own shoulder as she watched Logan's face intently she was keeping alert for the point where she needed to stop. It would probably take longer since her mutation was weaker in this smaller form, so for the first time ever she wasn't feeling overwhelming panic, anxiety, along with a heady dose of tenseness doing so. It was rather therapeutic actually.
Unfortunately this attempt didn't work out either since seconds later Logan suddenly sat bolt up-right, awake, and from the glazed look in his eyes he was hearing a telepathic conversation in his head. Probably from Emma Frost, who had done it upon orders from Storm. The second he had started to sit bolt up-right and scared Rogue so much that she leapt backwards off the bed and landed on the wooden flooring.
Eyes wide, Rogue quickly scampered under the single bed and listened as Logan got off the bed. She peered out from under the bed to the sudden view of Logan naked. Completely and utterly naked, with his world class backside facing her. He definately did not have a hairy ass. Oh no. Rogue was pretty sure if she had been human, she would have been drooling in this moment and almost whimpered when he pulled on a pair of jeans, blocking his ass from view. To her delight though, he turned around, showing off his muscular and powerful chest to her. Unfortunately the view didn't last since he pulled on a white wifebeater as well as a chequered red, black, and white shirt over the top. She heard the thuds of Logan putting on his boots before he made his way to his bedroom door. Quickly, Rogue followed.
She made sure to keep quiet as she followed him from his room and towards - surprisingly - the Blackbird hanger.
Where was he - or the team, she noticed as she sneaked into the hanger - going?
Rogue frowned as she noticed Emma Frost - still in white lingerie - board the Blackbird moments after Logan. Beast, aka Dr Hank McCoy, followed her alongside Iceman, aka Robert Drake, with Nightcrawler, aka Kurt Wagner, and Shadowcat, aka Katherine Pryde right behind them. Rogue followed behind the team, making sure to stay hidden, and bolted behind the large box that contained the first aid kit. The sound of the basketball court parting soon overwhelmed her sense of hearing, and before she knew it the plane was in the air.
"I can't believe it, can you?"
Kitty whispered toward Bobby, having sat beside him with their fingers intertwined. Upon hearing this start of conversation, Rogue crawled forward a little to try and catch what was being said.
"No. I mean, who would want to experiment and breed strictly feral mutants? The whole thing is really twisted, but why would they restrict themselves that way? It doesn't make sense."
Logan growled from his seat, sending a fierce glare at the two-no-longer-teens. Silence ensued for the rest of the flight, although Rogue's thoughts were going a mile a minute. So, someone had set up a secret labratory where they captured, experimented on, and bred Feral mutants. From what she could tell, Logan and Sabertooth were the two strongest Ferals alive right now however neither had been captured. Was that on purpose? Were they free because they were too strong to capture, or was it for a different reason? Was someone trying to breed a Feral powerful enough to be able to defeat and capture Sabertooth & the Wolverine? Or were they hoping upon leaving the pair alone they would be able to continue their work?
Rogue may have got a few answers but clearly all they did was bring up more questions. She vowed to stick by Logan's side. She may be weaker in this form but she'd defend her mate regardless. She was not going to let him get hurt or worse whilst she still had breath in her body.
It wasn't long before the Blackbird landed, however, it was soon realised by Rogue five minutes later that they had landed a fair distance away from where the lab was. How did she know? Well, she was currently panting heavily as she walked so far behind the X-men that they were in the horizon. So much for sticking by Logan's side. Still, it wasn't her fault. She was only a small cat. For every stride the average human made she had to take at least five... maybe ten strides to match it.
By the time she reached the Lab's barbed wire fencing, the X-men were already in the thick of it and she was exhausted. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to put a forest around a steep incline of a hill and the lab on top of said hill? Seriously. Rogue could only find herself thankful - whilst muttering curses in her head to whoever created this damn landscape - that there was a hole (small but big enough for her) in the fencing. She dragged herself through, only to growl in annoyance as she noticed there were stairs - big, steep stairs - going up to the front door of the lab.
SERIOUSLY?!
With great reluctance, Rogue made her way up the stairs by jumping from one stair to the next. By the time she reached the front door she was praying for the entire menu of Burger King and KFC to replenish her dwindling energy supply. Still, she carried on. She had to find Logan and make sure he was okay. It took a few tries, one dead end, a lift, and several doors before she found where Logan was. He was on a floor she could only describe as 'The Dungeon' and he was just letting out the last feral mutant captive from her cell.
Rogue felt a sudden spark of energy at the sight of her man, and with a mental grin began trotting towards him. However she had only moved a few strides when the captive just set free began making moves on her mate. Despite being filthy and bloody, the buxom redhead - she had to be a redhead! - with furry cat ears and tail that looked similiar to a Cougar's, still managed to look like a seductive slut as she pressed her womanly curves against Logan's body. It didn't care that she may or may not just be hugging him in thanks, or that the tramp had been abused, or was dirty and malnourished. Right then all Rogue could see was red, and with a flurry of speed she ran towards the pairing. Once close enough she leapt into the air and with a satisfied feeling landed claws out on the redhead's head.
Various hisses and meows left Rogue's lips as she yanked at the greasy red hair of her victim. She didn't even notice Logan's shocked expression or hear him continually try to calm down the cat as he tried to get close enough to grab it. Unfortunately, Rogue was causing so much pain - to her own delight - that the redhead was now jogging and jumping around in an attempt to get the cat loose.
Rogue would have done more damage if an explosion hadn't blasted one side of 'The Dungeon', causing the steel bars and concrete from the cells to fly everywhere. Mutations activated everywhere in an attempt to protect themselves from being harmed. Much to Rogue's chagrin, Logan tackled the redhead to the ground covering both Rogue and the redhead in the same swift swoop. Once the explosion had died down, the rubble settled, everyone began getting up and uncovering others who could not get up on their own. Fortunately there were no major injuries, although the blast and subsequent tackle had dislodged the fluffy Rogue from the redhead's head.
She got up onto all four paws as quickly as possible but it still wasn't fast enough for another attack at the redhead. Logan was already herding the group of kidnapped mutants out of the new large hole in the wall. The floor above was the actual one level with the ground, but the explosion had blasted away the bottom half of that floor's wall and floor as well as 'The Dungeon' floor's entire wall including the cages. Fortunately, the subsequent rubble had ended up in a pile that led up to the hole in the next floor's wall, and thus Logan was getting everyone to escape through there. Unfortunately, it was a hell of a lot more moving for Rogue.
With a mental grumble, Rogue made her way up the incline. She hadn't even reached halfway when a large hand grabbed her scruff, picking her up. She blinked her chocolate brown eyes only to see it was Logan who had come back for her and picked her up. She found it almost odd really that he had come back for her, but was rather relieved by it.
One, she didn't have to climb up the incline on her own. Two, she was at Logan's side as was her goal. Three, it meant he had to care for her, even though to him she was only a cat.
She let out a relieved breath, only for her moment of peace and happiness to be gone moments later when Logan abruptly let go of her. She landed with a thud on the grass seconds before the familiar 'SNICKT' sound reverberated.
"Nice to see ya, runt."
Sabertooth growled, slashing through a human soldier's throat with his extended claws.
With blood on his claws, and the moonlight caressing his tall as well as very muscular frame, Rogue contemplated that she would have desired him had he a less... scary and intimidating personality. At least with Sabertooth you knew where you stood at all times. There were no grey areas.
"What are you doin' here?"
Logan growled fiercely, his six adamantium coated bone claws glinting under the moonlight.
"Ol' Buckethead heard about the ferals 'ere. Decided it was his duty to help."
Sabertooth responded, his eyes wandering down to the feline that sat beside Logan's feet. A smirk crossed his lips as he stared at her, a darkly mischevious look entering his feral amber eyes. Logan instinctively moved to stand infront of Rogue as a warning growl rumbled in his throat.
"Leave 'er alone!"
It wasn't much later that the X-men and the Brotherhood escaped with all the kidnapped mutants. Rogue found it odd (whilst in Logan's arms thankfully) that on the way back to the plane the Brotherhood followed. When they got to the Blackbird this was explained by various off-road vehicles parked alongside. A few of the ferals - the ones that seemed the stronger type of Feral annoyingly enough - got into the jeeps whilst the rest were brought onto the Blackbird. That wasn't the end of the strange night however. Oh no. Sabertooth actually boarded the Blackbird seconds before the jeeps drove off, leaving the X-men stunned at his audacity. After a strangely erotic arguement between Sabertooth and Logan (well, it was strangely erotic for Rogue) the Blackbird left with all aboard.
Rogue was just thankful to fall asleep on a spare seat.
Author's Note: Here you go everyone, the next chapter! Hopefully you all enjoyed it. Quick question though - Sabertooth refuses to be a background character for this, and so I ask you do you want this to stay a strictly Wolverine/Rogue pairing, or do you want to add Sabertooth to the mix? Its up to you, vote now! =D