A/N: I own nut-tink! Nut-tink at all! Besides the plot, of course...
This chapter is dedicated to dawn444, theisis70 and Melancholy Rogue for helping me test out new ideas and encouraging me to write! Thanks ladies, I don't know where this story would be without you all!
Chapter 11
Muddy and Marie
Red and One-Eye quit their harping about me and Marie's relationship after all that bullshit. Jeannie even kept her distance from me for a few days, I think I scared her a little when she realized she didn't have that kind of influence over me anymore. 'Cause unlike Scooter, I wasn't looking at her through rose colored glasses or being led around by the little head. Rogue and I were getting alone great, though, still eating all our meals together, going for walks in the garden and me teaching her self defense. It was about a week after the dynamic duo tried to separate me from my girl, three weeks into our lessons, when I decided it was finally the right time to go ahead with my plan. So during our next work out, when I was showing her a choke hold, I touched her. I let the couple inches of exposed skin of between my glove and my long sleeved shirt skim across the bottom of her jaw. She freaked out of course, jerked away right off and I know if she could have, she'd of been screaming my name out in fear right then.
'Cause I only touched her for like, two seconds, I didn't pass out or nothing. Just dropped to my knees and got a little dizzy. I nearly abandoned the whole damn idea when I opened my eyes again and saw Marie hovering over me, tears making her pretty brown eyes shine. She looked so damned guilty and scared that I actually felt worse seeing her like that, than I did when I touched her. It took me a while to calm her down and I ended our session early that night, she sure as hell wasn't up to continuing after that. She tried to get me to go see Hank, but I told her this could be kept between us. No harm, no foul and all that. Took awhile, but she finally agreed as long as I promised to go see him if I felt even a little out of sorts later on.
When I was lying in bed thinking about everything that night, I decided in spite of her near panic attack, to keep going with my plan. Even if what I was doing to her now upset her in the short-term, she'd be better off long-term. And I sure as hell wasn't going to let my mate stay vulnerable when I could do something about it; make her stronger. So if sneaking in quick, little touches every now and then so she gets my healing, my senses, is what it takes, then that's what I'm gonna do. Plus, I know she would never willing agree to do it, not as long as it hurts me. So I just make each touch look like an accident. The Wolverine is fully on board with the plan, too, he wants a nice long life with his mate and he's hoping sharing my healing factor with her makes sure of that. But the damn animal refuses to acknowledge that ugly little thought I have nagging me in the back of my mind that if my girl rejects me when she figures out what I'm doing, at least she'll still have my mutation to keep her safe. That's worst case scenario though, and I don't let myself think about it too much, usually just real late at night or after a nightmare.
Anyway, the next morning when I picked her up for breakfast she was completely relaxed and acted like normal, even if the dark circles under her eyes told me she didn't get much sleep the previous night. Probably worrying over me, I'd bet. She was a little...quieter than usual, if that makes sense. Obviously she's quiet, she's fucking mute, but she was more – subdued, that's the word, than most mornings. Still though, I didn't want to fuck with what wasn't broken, so I resisted the urge to ask her why the hell she wasn't still freaked out from the night before. I mean, she'd been so upset about hurting me then, that I figured she'd real tense and skittish for at least couple days afterward. Thought I'd be spending a lot of time reassuring her I wasn't in pain or scared of her now. Understandably, I was kind of worried about this unexpectedly calm reaction of hers, so I did ask her how her head was, if she got a lot from me this time. Marie just shook her head a little and smiled a kind of funny smile at me. When I pressed her, all she wrote was 'Just what you were thinking at the time. Keeping me safe.' That made me feel better 'cause it explained why she wasn't as antsy as I'd expected she'd be.
Our routine went on uninterrupted for another couple weeks, me 'accidentally' brushing my bare skin against her neck, her ear, her chin. Basically, whatever uncovered skin of hers I could reasonably get away with. I made sure to pace out the touching, spread them out over a random number of days. And I always waited until Marie was completely over the last incident before I staged another one. Usually it was during our self defense lessons, while I showed her some new move or when I corrected her stance. We even had a few real accidents, like the first time she managed to flip me: her forehead bumped mine, (she wanted to wear a bandanna after that but I wouldn't let her). Another time was when I was teaching her how to pin someone bigger than her and the bottom of her shirt got untucked and pulled up. My cheek just barely grazed against the side of her bare stomach and fuuuck, did she smell good. Both salty and sweet, 'cause of her sweat mixing with her natural sort of flowery scent. Felt real soft too. The Wolverine nearly broke the restraints I keep him in when I'm not fighting. I just barely held myself back from running the tip of my tongue along the curve of her side and tasting her.
Each time we Touched (with a capital T), like not through gloves or layers of clothes, Rogue always got upset right after. The longer the contact the longer it took me to recover, and the same went for her. The real accidental Touches always wiped me out more 'cause I hadn't had time to get physically ready. I worried about those ones the most too, since I couldn't be sure what Marie might get from me when I wasn't keeping an eye on my thoughts. But she never gave me any reason to worry that she knew most of our 'accidents' weren't really accidental. Whenever I asked about how much of me she got, she always wrote that she never got more than an impression of me, an echo. That we never Touched long enough for her to get more than that. Reading that always made me feel better, if I was just a ghost in her mind that probably was for the best. She sure as hell doesn't need my nightmares or the few Godawful memories I do have of my past. As long as she gets my healing, I could give a rats ass. Her getting my senses, too, would be a bonus...
But besides for all that shit, she was doing real good in her training. I was even considering bringing her into one of my Junior X-Men sessions pretty soon but I figured she probably wasn't ready for working out with other people just yet. I wanted to see how she did with other people (ones who didn't know about her mutation), so I took her out to lunch one Saturday. She sat behind me, her arms wrapped around my middle real tight, on the Harley I'd 'borrowed' from Scooter. We went to this big outdoor shopping center that had a bunch of restaurants for my girl to pick from. She ended up picking a small sports bar with this real excited smile and bright, eager look in her brown eyes.
I told myself I'd ask her after lunch when the last time she'd eaten out at restaurant, since she'd left the mansion.
While we were walking over to the place, Marie spotted this tent with a banner with "Westchester Animal Shelter Adoption Fair" printed on it. There were a bunch of cages and little pens with different dogs and cats inside them. Of course as soon as she saw them she looked up at me with this real hopeful expression in her eyes. Christ, she nearly pouted, how the hell could I say no? So we went over and she played with a few puppies in one of the fenced in areas.
Soon enough I could see she'd bonded with one of the little guys. 'Course he was the ugliest one there. He was white and with a whole bunch of patches and spots in different shades of brown: light brown, dark brown, reddish brown and brown brown. The damn thing looked like a white dog who'd just had a hell of a time playing in mud. I mean, I could smell he was clean, freshly bathed actually, but he just looked dirty. He was kinda cute otherwise I guess. Smart too, took to Marie straight off and kept right by her side the whole time while the other dogs messed around. While she was playing with him, I talked with one of the shelter people who said the muddy looking one was 11 months old and had been rescued from an abusive home when he was six months. They were worried he might not ever get adopted 'cause most folks want the real young, cute puppies, like eight, nine weeks old. The older the dog, the harder they are to place. Plus, as soon as people heard he was part pitbull, they immediately lost interest. Even if they've been playing with him a couple minutes earlier, they start saying they don't want a vicious or dangerous dog like a pitbull. This was the little guy's 4th adoption fair.
Well, after about 15 minutes I could literally smell Marie's hunger, so I went over break up the party since I knew she'd willingly keep on ignoring her stomach to play with the mutt. The two of them were sitting on the grass facing each other while my girl scratched behind the pup's ears. Fella didn't seem to mind one bit that she was wearing gloves.
"Almost ready to go, darlin'?"
She looked up at me with those big eyes and I could see plain as day that she'd fallen in love with this raggedy stray. She was sad, but nodded up at me. Damn dog looked up too. Fuck if he didn't have practically the same brown eyes as my girl. Same sad look in them, too, like the little bastard knew I was taking his new best friend away forever. Shit.
"I'll wait for ya over here, take your time, darlin'." I walked over to one of the volunteers standing by a table, a kid in his mid 20s maybe. Looked like a hippy. "You see that dirty lookin' dog over there?"
"Um, the one playing with that girl with the white streaks?"
"Yeah. That one. I'm takin' him."
"OK great, my name's Pete. I just need you to fill out some paperwork over here-"
"I don't got time to do it now. You're gonna hold him 'til I get back."
"We don't normally do that-"
"Well, yer gonna this time. And yer gonna make sure nobody else takes him before I get back." I'll throw in a little growl there, make sure he knows that's how it's gonna be.
"Of-of course sir. We'll be in this spot until sunset, after that you could- you could come to the shelter to get him..." Yeah, I think he gets it. Looking a little green around the gills, even. Wuss.
"Good. Glad we've got an understanding. Name's Logan, I'll be back for 'im in a couple hours."
Rogue made her way over to me soon after Pete scurried off and smiled, kind of thanking me I think, for letting her play with the dogs. I grinned back and we walked over to the sports bar she'd picked for lunch. Had a good time too, she even got me to laugh a couple times with some of her stories. I think my favorite was the one where she won a couple hundred bucks in a game of pool against this cocky hustler thanks to her absorbing a better pool shark a month before. She'd been able to talk back then, so she'd turned up the Southern charm and strung the guy along, upping the bets until she wiped the table with him.
I told her about the time I got chased halfway down a mountain by a mama bear when I accidentally got between her and her cubs. That was the first time I heard my girl laugh. It struck me dumb almost. Not in a bad way, 'cause it's a real nice thing to listen to actually, it's just her laugh's not like most people's. It's quieter, rougher and kind of breathy, sort of reminds me of those smokey voiced women in old black and white movies. Marie blushed bright pink when I couldn't stop grinning at her after hearing it, she kept playing with the white parts of her hair, looking up at me from under those long lashes of hers over our shared piece of three berry pie.
When we left the restaurant she very shyly slipped her gloved hand around the crook of my elbow, keeping her eyes firmly locked on the ground. I could smell how nervous she was doing it, taking a chance I wouldn't jerk away from her touching me. Instead, I pulled my hands out of my pockets, making her hand fall away from my arm. I caught the sharp scent of her embarrassment and rejection but smiled when it turned to surprise and happiness as soon as I put that arm up around her shoulder. I liked that way a whole lot better, she was closer to me now and it felt more...intimate. Plus it made The Wolverine purr at the public display of our claim on her, that she belonged at our side.
When walked past the adoption fair again, we saw the dog Marie had played with earlier now had a big ribbon around his neck that proudly announced "I'M ADOPTED!" Rogue slowed down a little when she saw it, got a few tears in her eyes, but we kept on going. I think she didn't want to get any more attached now that the little guy seemed out of her reach. The bike ride back to the school helped 'cause she was smiling again by the time we pulled into the garage.
oOo
Right after lunch I told Marie I had to talk with Chuck and then run some errands but I'd catch up with her for dinner. She seemed a little surprised, kind of disappointed that we weren't gonna hang out together all day like normal, but she just smiled at me and nodded. I went straight to Wheels and after some minor emotional blackmail (Rogue had always had a dog growing up and missed having one so much here at the mansion), got his permission to adopt that ugly mutt for my girl.
I took my truck to pick the little bugger up and was pleased at how quickly a couple of well placed snarls could speed the paperwork along. In less than a half an hour I was the new owner of 'Muddy,' a 10 month old pitbull mix. I even got him a new collar, an official Harley Davidson one in black leather with some metal studs on it. Hell if I'd admit that to Scooter, though.
I didn't want my Marie to see me sneaking the dog into the mansion, so I recruited Hank for that part. While I kept my girl busy at dinner downstairs, he moved 'Muddy' from where I'd hidden his crate in the laundry room to my room. After we finished eating, I told her I wanted to grab something real quick from my room before we took our usual walk. She followed me up and I could barely keep the shit-eating grin off my face in anticipation. As soon as I opened the door, the damn dog jumped straight onto Marie, barking and wagging his whole body like crazy. Marie was shocked at first, then started hugging and petting Muddy and smiling up a storm. Even her eyes were smiling. I told her how I'd gotten the adoption people to put the little guy on hold and then I'd gotten the OK from Xavier. Went back and hid him next to the dryer until Hank brought him up to my room while we ate so she wouldn't see him before the big reveal. She was so damn happy, practically crying when she mouthed 'thank you' to me.
The next day I took Marie and Muddy (she decided to stick with the nickname I gave him since it fit pretty well, plus she was a big fan of Muddy Waters), out to to play in a fenced in a part of of the mansion's grounds. The three of us had a great time together running around like idiots and I have to say I'm pretty damn pleased I went with my gut and got her the dog. And I think me and Marie are doing really good too. While she and Muddy were messing around, he got a hold of the red scarf she was wearing around her throat and pulled it off her, leaving that Goddamn scar out in the open, exposed. But instead of freaking out and covering right back up, she just started playing tug of war with Muddy using the scarf. Didn't even think twice about me seeing her throat all bare like that. It was kind of like a compliment to me twice over, really. One, that she didn't mind me seeing her scar and two, she ain't worried about her skin too much when she's with me. She knows I'm not gonna be nervous around her bare skin (Ooo! Scarey!), and act different 'cause of it. That I'll be careful, but if there's an accident I won't blame her or nothing. Shit, I'm Touching her intentionally every chance I can get now, 'course she don't know that. But I think she does know I'm not gonna get scared off no matter how many times she knocks me on my ass with that mutation of hers. And that, that makes me and The Wolverine pretty damn happy.
oOo
A/N: Sorry for the long delay in getting this out, but I hope the length makes up for the wait! I've posted an image of Marie and Muddy on my LiveJournal page (link on my profile) so please check it out and leave comments about what you think! And a big THANK YOU to everyone who voted in the Puppy Poll, you guys rock!
ALSO! I re-edited Chapter 10 so check it out for some added material!
And, check out the song listed below to hear exactly how awesome the great Muddy Waters is!
www [dot] youtube [dot] com/watch?v=q_BNz_B1PNg&feature=related
Thank yous for Chapters 10 & 11:
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Searching for Serenity
Rebel's Queen
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xWrittenInBlood – Thanks for reviewing, I'm so glad it was worth the wait. Damn chapter to write grumble grumble ;-)
calla – I know! I hate Jean too! And you're right about her, too...