Chapter 9: Repetition

Clara smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Logan..." she growled, softly. "Alright, Mariai, I need you to take John back to the school, he'll tell you how to get there." Mariai nodded, whistling for her wolves.

John, however, stepped foreward, anger burning in his eyes. "I don't want to go back yet. We still have several days you know. I can be out of school for a few days."

"John, not now, I need to go find him, and then..." She jumped out of the way as the wall behind her was scorched. "What the...?! John!" As she stood up, trying not to put weight on her bad leg, she had to dodge flames again.

"You're as bad as everybody else! I'm capable of more than you think I am!" He yelled, throwing the flames towards her again.

Mariai ran into him, trying to gain control over his mind, but his rage was to great. Though she did get him to drop his lighter. She kicked it over to Clara, holding the boy back, her wolves snarling down at him.

Clara snarled back at him, but decided she didn't have much time before Logan was too far away to get to. "Fine, you guys go into town and try to find us a place to stay the night. Your pets will probably have to wait in the woods." The two large wolves lowered their heads from where they were normally held above the woman's head. "Calm down, mutt." The male growled louder.

"Kiba, Cheza, leave her alone!" Mariai commanded. "Will do Claire, but his lighter?"

Clara looked at the boy, who had calmed down as Mariai held her sword to his throat. She threw the lighter to him, and John caught it. "Protect her, John. I don't want a scratch on her." Her friend wanted to protest, but got that Clara was trying to make him feel important. After a short nod, Clara turned on her heel and ran out on her wolf paws, limping.

She followed the scent out of the labratory, and out into the pouring rain. "Logan!" Clara called loudly, being nearly drowned out by the high winds. "I know you can here me!" she started down the hill which was surrounded by miles and miles of trees in all directions. "Come on! If you make me search longer than I have to, I'll get grumpy. If I return without you, Xavier will kill me!" she sighed as she saw a shape dart through some trees up ahead of her. "Damn it," she scoffed.

Running after him, she finally saw him plainly again. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Leave me alone Clara, I don't have anything I want to say to you," he continued on, not looking at her.

She turned into a human again, chasing after him, "I tried leaving you alone! You're the one who pressed it."

He turned to her, anger blazing in his eyes, "I didn't know! I wanted the truth, I wanted to know who you were, who she was! You can't be the same person as her, she was sweet, and kind. I-I stopped doing drugs, I started doing well in highschool, and then college. I stopped going to jail because of that one girl! I find it hard to believe that she's you, but I guess she is. I liked her better!"

"What was I supposed to do, say, 'Yeah, we were lovers back about eight years ago. Then you decided to be all heroic and sign up for some stupid experiment of my dad's to try and impress him, completely forgetting the fact that my dad hated all mutants, especially my brother and I. Then, you tried to be even more heroic, and must have been ignorant enough to forget my brother's power, and thought you were taking out some stalker guy who was threatening me, and you gave me three long scars on my face. Oh, you don't believe me, oh here, let me show them too you.'" She finally stopped, her eyes as angry as his now.

"Maybe not in that way, but I spend everyday trying to remember..."

"And I spend everyday trying to forget! Why should you win?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Don't you do that whole hip thing with your hands, it makes you look like a child." he hissed at her.

Clara's eyebrows raised, "A child?! A child!" she slapped him across the face, forcing his head sideways. He continued looking at the ground, his face stinging. "Fine, stay here, I don't want to deal with you anymore either. If you feel like coming back, we're staying in the city west of here, once I get John back to school, I'm leaving again. There is no way I'm coming back again." She turned and started walking back the way she came.

He remained silent, not moving as she walked away...

"How'd it go? Where's Logan?" Mariai asked as Clara knocked on the door. When Clara refused to answer, Mariai rolled her eyes, "Okay, John's taking a shower, and the wolves are hiding somewhere, so it's just you and me again. What happened?"

"I'd rather not..." Clara slumped back on the bed, closing her eyes. "Where'd Kurt go?"

"He took the car, he's on his way back to the school," Clara nodded, staring up at the celing. "Okay, if you're not going to tell me what happened, do you mind if I guess?" she asked, lying on the other bed as she propped herself up on her elbow. When she didn't answer, she took it as a yes. "You yelled at each other, because both of you are too stubborn to accept that either of you might be wrong. Now you're going to leave the school, and I don't care what you say, I know you kind of like it there, and probably never see him physically again, but everyday you'll think about him, and you'll miss him. Everyday going by wondering what would have happened if you had swallowed your pride, and had admitted you were wrong. Am I right?"

Clara took a few, long breaths as she chose her next words. "Am I wrong?"

"You're both wrong," she answered.

Clara propped herself up to face Mariai, "We can't both be wrong."

"Want a bet?" she looked over as John walked out of the bathroom, still a little wet.

"Oh, Clara, you're back!" he walked over to the bed where she was lying and threw something at her. Afraid it was fire again, she jumped, but then realized it was a book. "It was good, Logan had good taste...oh, sorry."

Clara looked at the book, and then picked it up and flipped through the pages. She smiled as she came to the part where one of the main character's best friends dies, and she could still see the little stain that Logan had put there when he had tried not to cry.

"How are you coming in that book?" she asked, sitting down next to him on the couch.

"Hold on, I'm getting to a good part," Clara leaned over and read where he was. Instead of staying like that, Logan began just reading it aloud to her.

Clara leaned against his shoulder, and he wrapped his one arm around her, lying it across her stomach. She looked up suddenly when she heard him sniffle a bit.

He blinked, trying to hide it, but a tear fell anyway, and Clara laughed at him. "Oh, is my tough Logan actually crying?"

"It's sad," he said, turning to face her. She laughed again when she saw his red eyes.

"Oh, should we get you a different book?" she reached for the one he was reading, but he pulled it away.

"No, I like this one. Besides, a good cry does everyone good every once in a while, don't you think?" He kissed her gently, then went back to reading the book.

"Go," Mariai said, even before Clara knew what she was going to say.

"Thank you," she jumped up and sprang to the door. Oppening the door, she was moving too fast to stop, and ran into Logan who had just been about to knock on the door. "Logan?"

"I-I-I..." he had had to catch her quickly so that they both stayed upright.

"You...?" she started, hoping he would continue, after he didn't, she decided she'd have to. "You wanted to come back?" He swallowed, and then nodded.

"I'm needed at the school, and I need to look out for Rogue," Logan said, not looking her in the eyes as he put helped her upright, and then stepped past her into the bedroom.

Clara felt as though she had been stabbed in the heart, but said nothing. "We're going back in a couple of days."

"We, so you're going too?" Logan asked with a tone that Clara wasn't sure of. Mariai saw how this conversation could easily go, and grabbed John, pulling him out of the fighting arena.

"I'm going to make sure Kurt and John get back safely. You're going back?" Clara replied, just a hair away from snapping at him.

"I'm going to make sure you all get back safely, and then..."

"Oh, that's right, because I can't do anything right, and if I go, then something's going to go wrong. So you have to come to make sure I don't screw up! Why didn't you just say so?!" she yelled, and Mariai tiptoed towards the door, making sure John was following her in case they had to run for it.

"Would you let me finish?" he asked, annoyed and rubbing his temples with his fingers. "I was going to say..."

"No! I won't let you finish because I don't care what else you were going to say! I want you too..." She jumped as Logan stabbed his claws into the wall beside him, angrily.

He took a few deep breaths to keep from yelling as Mariai shoved John outside, and then stood outside the door to listen. Logan finally turned and looked at her again, his eyes far from angry. "I was going to say, I'm going to make sure you get back to the school safely, and then try to convince you to stay...and if I couldn't, I would follow you where ever you went until you loved me again...or at least gave me a shot at being friends, if nothing more."

Clara was shocked, his eyes searched her for any hint at her reaction. She looked away from him and stared at the floor beside her feet. "I'm not going to just instantly fall back in love with you," she said, sympathetically.

"Fine, I can understand that," he answered. "But you'll give me a chance at least?"

Clara bit the inside of her cheek, "Yeah," she answered, finally, smiling up at him. "I'll give you a chance."