Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men. And I'm not making money off of this.
Author's Note: Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. The one-shot bunny came knocking on my door and between that, class, church, and everything around the house I didn't have chance to write, edit, and post like I had been. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! Enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So does this mean you're going to let me fight?" Marie asked Logan while they were browsing around in the mall.
Logan grumbled mentally. He had never really liked the idea of her fighting, powers or not. Yeah, maybe she could heal on her own now, but it killed him to see her hurting, even for a second. He had almost vowed to never let her get pregnant again while she was in labor, refusing anything to help with the pain, until he saw James. Then the pain it had caused him melted away at the same time hers did.
"It's not my call." Logan told her. She still had the right to a free will. He wouldn't stop her if she wanted.
"In the end it isn't, but you're opinion still matters." Marie told him.
"I know you are capable. You are a good fighter, after all, Magneto and I are still stuck in your head somewhere. But some wounds…" his words broke off, not wanting to verbalize his fear of her dying.
"I know the risks. I'm not going to go out there to get myself killed. I just want to know that you are okay with me being out there with you. When James is old enough to fight, I don't plan on sitting at home knitting socks." Marie told him. Logan knew that wasn't her at all. Rogue was still part of her and seeing the danger room and the uniforms only added fuel to the dim fire of her urge for adventure and action. This was part of her before they even met. How else would the girl from Mississippi ended up in a filthy bar so far north.
Logan turned to face her, stopping her in her tracks. "Do you want this."
"Yes."
"Then fine. But I'm going to work with you more on your fighting. If I think it's too dangerous, I'm going to tell you and you better at least listen. We both have more to lose than just ourselves now." He told her. She kissed him, trying to calm him down. He smiled back at her, admitting defeat in that small action.
"I'm finished shopping. Are you ready to go back to the mansion." She asked him.
"We have one more stop to make." He told her as he led her to the car. If he was going to teach her to fight, she was going to learn to fight with more than bear hands. Xavier was never all that big on actual weapons. He would need to find something for her. He drove to a near by blade shop.
"What's this all about? Last time I checked, you still have your claws." Marie told him, looking at him questionably.
"But you don't." He told her as he got out of the vehicle, waiting for her to follow. The bell over the door rang as they walked in, alerting the owner to someone being in the shop.
"What can I do for you sir?" The old man asked.
"I'm looking for something for my wife." Marie sulked behind Logan, caring James in his car seat, not liking the way the man looked at her.
"A mutant needing a weapon?" The man looked at The Rogue questionably. While news of who she was and what she could do was wide-spread, the fact that she no longer had her mutation was not widely known.
"How did you know I was a mutant?" Marie asked him. The man just pointed to his own hair, mirroring where her streaks were.
"It's not all that common." The man told her. "I don't really care, just odd."
"Well, if you know about her then you know it doesn't do her too much good without actually touching someone. I want to be able to give her some space if she needs it." Logan told the man. The man turned towards a back storage room of the shop.
"Follow me." He told them and they followed. "Let's see here….I have a wide variety, could you narrow down what you were looking for?"
"Show me what you got." The man went to lay out a weaponry assortment on a before empty table in the back. The blades came in all shapes and sizes, from different origins. A few things caught Logan's eye. He picked up a set of daggers. The blades were the length of his claws, the metal was cold and comforting. He knew he could teach her to use them well. And the idea of her fighting with them caused the Wolverine to smile.
"We'll take these."
"And these." Marie said, eying a set of throwing knives. Hand to hand was nice, but so was catching your enemy from a distance. Logan simply smiled at her. He remembered how feisty she could be. The man boxed up their purchases and headed to the front with them. When the man gave them the total, Logan laid down the cash and they left.
"So when do we start?" Marie asked him.
"As soon as you find a babysitter." Logan told her.
"Well, I have to meet with Emma soon. I'll ask 'Ro if she will watch him for a little bit." Marie told him.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ororo jumped at the chance to have James to herself for an hour or so. Marie felt safe leaving her child in her care. Now they were in the bare danger room; just her in a pair of jeans and fitted long sleeve t-shirt, him in his jeans and wife beater. He handed her the daggers.
"I want you to get a feel for them." He told her. She handled them like an expert. The way she handled them reminded him of the way he would fight with his claws, but with a bit of her grace.
She loved the way they felt. The Logan she had long kept locked inside her mind was excited and gave her tips on using them. The weapons felt in her hands as if they belonged, as if they were made for her. The cold, now warming metal felt so familiar. She felt graceful and beautiful with her new weapons, it was something she had never felt with her mutation. She felt confident with them. She knew with practice she would be able to hold her own.
"I don't think a weapon ever looked sexier." Logan told her.
"I think I would agree." She told him, smiling back at him.
"Don't get too full of yourself or anything."
"I'm not. They just feel right. It's hard to explain. The Logan in my head likes them as well."
"Is he still bothering you? I thought he got locked up a long time ago."
"He likes to put in a word or two every now and then." She said, letting the blades fall to her sides.
"Yeah, we can be stubborn like that." Logan told her. He almost hated the idea that he was still in her head. He knew the kind of person he was before he met her and he wasn't too fond of Marie being subject to it. "Moving on." Logan said as he brought his claws out. "I want you to softly block my shot, those blades won't withstand a heavy blow from adamantium." She did as she was told and it surprised him yet again at how skilled she was at blocking. Yes, he had taught her self defense, but working with a weapon was different. Her mental Logan must be working overtime.
They continued for an hour, just slowly adjusting. Logan felt better about the idea of her fighting, but he wasn't ready to let her go yet.
"Darlin' that's enough for today. Maybe tomorrow."
"I needed to talk to you anyways." She told him as she went to put her weapons away. She wasn't bringing them into a room with a baby, not yet.
"What about?"
How was she to begin this conversation? To her, what they had was enough, but apparently Emma thought maybe things would be technically easier if they had something else.
"I was talking to Emma and filling out the paperwork for an online degree program." Logan didn't see what was so serious about this. She was hesitating so much, it had to be serious. "And one of the questions they ask is about marital status."
"And…"
"Logan, we aren't legally married." It was something he hadn't really thought about. Nearly twenty years spent running never really gave him a reason to think about the legality of things. He just did and that was the end of it. "I know it may not mean much to you, but I can't bring myself to mark single on them."
"I don't want you to."
"Well unless I have proof, and I don't think they'll accept a picture of a ring or the confession of your undying love as proof."
"Wouldn't I need something saying I actually existed first?"
"Well, I brought that up. Hank is going to try to get something done. The whole amnesia thing is for once working in your favor."
"Once it's all finished, all we have to do is sign a paper." Marie told him. As a child she had thought of what it would be like to wear a long white dress, walk down the isle to someone attempting to play the wedding march in a church, but she knew that wasn't him. It wasn't really part of her anymore. But the dream of marriage had also died about the time she realized she could kill someone by touching them.
"No ceremony, no nothing? Don't you want any of that?" Logan asked her. He would give her the world if she asked for it.
"We don't need it." She told him.
He stopped her in her tracks, turned to face her, and lifted up her chin so her eyes would meet his and asked her, "But do you want it?"
"I don't know. It isn't that important. I have you and James. I used to wonder what it would be like, but can you really see us having a regular wedding?"
"You'd look beautiful in white." He told her, kissing her forehead as he smiled down at her.
"Except for the fact that I'm not allowed to wear white. That's a whole purity thing."
"Then where whatever you want. You're beautiful in my eyes and you have an amazing and pure soul, well, when me and Magnet aren't trying to pollute you." He got a laugh out of her.
"If you want me to wear white I will. But I don't need a wedding. I'm not going to ask you to stand there in a tux, looking nervous like you're about to drop, and walk down an isle with people we were never that close to look on as we say some vows that have been said a million times before. We aren't that type of people."
"Then what type of people are we?"
"We're the type of people who keep away from others and run north whenever we feel like runnin'. We aren't the type for pomp and circumstance."
"Fine, it's whatever you want."
"But what do you want?"
"I want you by my side and happy." He said as he pushed a white lock out of her face.
"I'm not leaving you anytime soon."
"Not even when I look 40 and you're 80?"
"Ah suga' I don't think your memory is as good as it used to be." She said softly to him, in a sarcastic patronizing way.
"What do you mean?" He truly was puzzled.
"Our son gave us a gift. The same thing that heals you keeps you young, and now I have at least a small portion of it." Realization suddenly hit. He may not have to lose her after all.
"Woman, I don't know if I could love you more." He told her as he picked her up and spun her around.
"Give it time."
"You just did." He told her as they walked back to their room; his hand over her shoulders and her arm wrapped around his hips. "And by the way, Ororo volunteered to watch James for the rest of the night. She thought we could use the rest."
"Well, it's too bad we won't be getting any rest." She told him, letting a hint of seduction and passion surface in her voice.