Her surprise at Logan's physicality had faded a long time ago. It had made sense, when she'd thought about it; everything he was, was tied to his senses, his body. It followed that he'd get his best input from those senses.

So, his need to touch her, the constant desire for physical contact, had stopped surprising her, for the most part.

But he was managing to do it today.

They'd taken seats for the ceremony next to Hank and Ororo. He'd slung his arm over the back of her chair, his hand cupping her shoulder, and interlaced the fingers of his other hand with one of hers. Their entwined hands were resting on his thigh, which in turn pressed against hers.

She was pretty sure he would have picked her up and put her on his lap if he'd thought he could get away with it.

And then Leah thought about it some more.

Not how I ever thought today would go.

Okay – she got it. The contact was helping him believe that all this was real – that she wasn't going to just vanish, turning out to be an illusion or something he only thought he was remembering. Maybe that was part of the root of all of the touching too, but it was even more powerful today.

Works for me.

She squeezed his hand and he looked over at her and smiled.


"You may kiss the bride."

Music swelled, and the groom did indeed kiss the bride, to massive cheers, applause, and a few whistles.

The ceremony and reception were both outside on the mansion's extensive grounds. Scott and Jean had elected to keep the affair relatively small, sticking to the members of the team and the school, and a few others. In addition to Leah, they'd also enlisted Ororo's help to ensure that the weather would be perfect…70 degrees and sunny, only a few picturesque puffy clouds in the brilliant blue sky.

It was almost like a family reunion, as members of the team who were no longer full-time at the school returned for the occasion. Charles was clearly over the moon at getting to see so many old friends.

The band started to play, and most of the team started helping shift chairs around; Leah grabbed a glass of champagne and made a quick circuit to check all the flowers. Despite them being cut, they were still mostly alive, and she did what she could to keep everything from wilting. They'll last the evening, anyway.

Scott and Jean reemerged from the mansion, having disappeared for a little private time directly after the ceremony, and Leah rejoined Hank, Ororo, and Logan in the slowly-forming receiving line.

Logan nodded approvingly at her glass. "Got the right idea there."

Hank was nodding too. "I think you are definitely on to something. Logan?"

"Don't have to ask me twice."

The two men left the line to hit the bar, trusting the women to hold their places. Leah grinned at Ororo and drained her glass, having instructed Logan to grab her a refill.

"Nice work." Leah gestured at the outdoors in general.

"You also." They smiled at each other. "Perhaps we should consider this as our new business venture."

"Yeah?" She thought a moment. "Not a bad idea. Quit this whole X-Men thing and just hire out for weddings? You deal with the weather, I'll deal with the flowers. I've heard ideas I liked a whole lot less."

Ororo chuckled. "I believe we would both get bored."

"Eh, you're probably right. Let's keep it on the back burner, though…"


The headaches hadn't returned. Neither had the voice. And she'd hadn't had any more of those strange blackouts…

She was starting to believe she'd imagined the whole thing.

Jean braced herself as the line moved and Scott warmly embraced Leah, thanking her again for her work with the flowers. And then it was her turn.

Before she could say anything, Leah extended a hand. "Let me see your bouquet." Jean handed it over, and the faint signs of wilt on the leaves and flowers vanished, everything perking up.

Leah handed it back. "There. It'll look perfect still for all the pictures."

"Thank you."

Jean's voice was soft, and Leah peered at her curiously. After a moment, she offered a smile. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Jean repeated. There was another awkward pause. "I'm…I'm sorry, Leah."

"For what?"

"I haven't been fair to you at all. And I'm sorry for it."

Leah kept her jaw from dropping and instead tried to smile again. "Well, thanks, and no you haven't, but we can talk about that later. You should enjoy today."

She extended a hand and Jean slowly took it. "Thank you."

As Leah walked away, Jean's temples throbbed. Black rushed in.


His nostrils flared. Something was wrong.

The air was too hot. Way too hot.

His skin prickled.

Logan looked at Jean, now directly in front of him, and was startled by the brightness of her eyes, the flush to her skin.

"Logan."

Her voice sounded odd. Was there an echo?

"Hey Jean. Congratulations."

Hesitantly he reached out and hugged her, and almost jumped back in surprise. The heat was coming from her.

And now that he looked, the bouquet she was holding was starting to wilt again, even though he'd seen Leah just fix it…

What the hell?

Jean tilted her head to the side. "You are happy."

"Uh…yeah. Yeah, I am."

"Interesting."

He looked over and saw – gratefully – that Hank, just behind him, had finished talking to Scott. "Guess I should get out of the way, huh? Keep things moving?"

She didn't reply, and he beat a hasty retreat, catching up to Leah and slipping his arm around her waist, knocking back a swig of the whiskey he was still holding. Glancing behind him, he saw that Jean's overly-bright eyes were still fixed on him.

"Hey." Leah tapped his hand, resting on her hip. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He pulled his attention back and smiled down at her, breathing in the scent of her hair. "Let's grab Hank and Ororo and then get something to eat."


The sun might be on its way down in the sky, but Leah was absolutely radiant in his arms. She'd danced with Hank, Peter Maximoff, and even Scott on the fast songs, but he'd claimed her for every slow dance.

"Think I'm starting to like dancing."

Leah smiled at his comment. "You've certainly been more willing than at Christmas…"

"Didn't want Hank to get lonely then." Logan grinned, looking to his left to where Hank was dancing with Ororo. "What do you think?"

"He's still refusing to tell me anything. But I don't know if you noticed…somewhere along the way, it's definitely turned into the four of us hanging around together. I think we should try and get them out on a couple date. Dinner in town or something." She sighed. "Whenever I can actually leave again."

He was torn between wanting her as protected as possible, and empathizing with his stir-crazy lover. "Hopefully not too much longer. Weather's getting good enough for some long bike rides."

"Charles still hasn't found anything." Leah sighed again, and he squeezed her waist.

"Hey." She looked back up at him. "You being safe is worth a little cabin fever, right?"

"Right, but Logan, it's summer…speaking of cabins, we should be thinking about when we're going north, not how much longer I'm stuck here..."

He echoed her sigh. "Yeah. Okay. Tell you what - let's talk to Charles. See what he thinks about us going to Canada for a week during the June break. Just us, place is hard to find, you're probably almost as safe as here. Can't hurt, right?"

She smiled, pleased by the idea. "Right. Being in another country might actually be good protection. I doubt I'm important enough to risk an international incident. And a week away would be heaven…sleep in, get caught up for the summer term…"

"Figure out where in that cabin we haven't had sex…"

Leah laughed. "This'll be, what, our third time there? No, fourth. I think we've pretty much covered it."

"Especially after that first trip." He smiled and chuckled. "Fuck, I couldn't control myself. I was a goddamned horny teenager around you. All I had to do was look at you to want to tear your pants off."

"And all of that is different from now…how, exactly?"

"Sometimes you wear skirts."

Leah laughed, working hard to keep the volume down, and he pulled her tighter to him as the song ended.

"Leah…"

"Hm?"

Maybe it was the whole wedding thing getting him in the mood, but the cliché didn't bother him: he took her hand that he was still holding, and pulled it to his chest. "You know it already, but…whatever I got that passes for a heart…it's yours. The whole damn thing."

She smiled, and curled her fingers over his shirt. "Are you getting sentimental because it's a wedding?"

"Maybe. And…just good, to tell you. So you know."

She didn't care about how public it was; that deserved a kiss, and she stretched up and gave it to him, rising on her tiptoes and feeling his arms tighten around her to hold her against him.

When she felt like she'd kissed him enough – for the moment – she backed off and whispered against his lips. "How long till we can leave?"

"Not soon enough."

"Should we go find a broom closet?"

"No." He leaned back slightly to look into her eyes. "Tonight…whenever we get out of here, we're going upstairs and locking the door and making love till the fucking sun comes up. So we'll wait till we can actually go to bed."

His arms had tightened around her waist again until he was breathing the words against her mouth. She smiled. "This is becoming a theme, staying up all night after parties."

"Figure it's good for us. Keep the fire burning."

Leah laughed. "I don't think that's exactly one of our problems."

"Better be safe…"

"Speaking of that, though, there's a surprise for you under my dress…"

"Mmm. I liked the last one." He leaned down and kissed her again, hard and fierce and fast. "You better remind me not to rip your dress off you. I might forget."

"Don't rip my dress off me."

"Okay."

"Let's go dance again."

"Okay."


She fumbled behind her, trying to work the key in the lock while Logan was kissing her. He'd started on the way up the stairs, which had made for a very interesting ascent, and now had her backed against their door while she was trying to open it.

I want to tell him this is making it take longer, but then he'd have to stop…

Leah abandoned her efforts to open the door and shoved her hands into Logan's hair instead, holding him in the kiss, and felt his arms tighten around her. After a moment, one arm left her waist, and she heard metallic fumbling – he was taking a turn at the lock.

She stumbled back abruptly as he got the door open, both of them laughing and almost losing their balance, finally breaking their kiss.

Once they were both inside, Leah shut the door slowly and locked it.

We're making love till the fucking sun comes up.

He had walked past her and was standing in the middle of the front room, and caught her eye. Deliberately, he shrugged out of his jacket.

Leah smiled and leaned against the door.

He prowled toward her, unbuttoning his shirt, until he tossed it on the floor just in front of her.

She slipped out of her heels. He kicked off his boots.

His undershirt landed on the floor.

She sucked in a breath at the sight of his body. Shit, yes, she saw it every night, and every morning – but it was worth marveling over, jeans slung low on his hips, every muscle defined and cut as if with a knife.

He hadn't even touched her yet. She was done waiting.

She stepped away from the door and into his arms.

Till the fucking sun comes up.

His fingers trailed down her spine, then back up, and she felt him gently cup her face. His kiss was so soft, a contrast to the gentle abrasion of his sideburns against her cheeks; his tongue touched hers almost delicately as his mouth opened, retreating as he turned his head to change the angle of the kiss, and then coming back to lightly touch again. She brushed her fingers over his shoulders, down his chest, still appreciating every inch of him.

"You're still dressed," he murmured, and his hands found her zipper.

The fabric pooled at her feet and she stepped free of it. His eyes were hot as they swept from head to foot.

Slowly, he brought his hands up, tracing her breasts through the satin and lace. "You…are so fucking beautiful."

She leaned up, wanting his kiss, and he gave it to her while his touch on her breasts grew more insistent, firmly kneading them in his palms, and she could feel the heat of his hands through the thin fabric. He reached behind her and unfastened the clasp, tossing the bra to the side, and then resettled his hands on her, the calluses on his fingers rasping against the tender skin.

He backed her into the bedroom and against the bed, and she sat down as the backs of her thighs hit the mattress, scooting up and twisting to lie against the pillows as he followed her down without breaking their kiss. His hands stroked down her sides and pulled her legs around his waist as he settled himself on top of her, kissing his way down her neck and over her collarbone, until his mouth finally found her breasts.

Leah cried out as his teeth nipped first, pulling the nipple into hardness, and then his mouth covered her. His hand was on her other breast and she arched up, threading her fingers into his hair and tightening her legs around him.

More. More. More.

He pushed up to kiss her and then slid down her body, lips moving slowly over her skin, caressing her stomach and pausing at the satin scrap of underwear. He teased her then, nipping along the waistband and guiding her thighs off his waist and apart, her legs – still in her stockings – over his shoulders.

"Logan…" She reached down, trying to touch him, but he dodged her hands and one arm reached up to push her back on the bed.

"You first, darlin'," he murmured against her inner thigh, kissing the skin. "You first."

At some point he got rid of her panties. She had absolutely no idea when or how, because suddenly his tongue was swirling over her in a way that drove away conscious thought, and it was just his mouth – and fingers – on her. He teased her mercilessly, occasionally lifting away and applying his mouth to thigh or stomach or breast, only to return and stoke her arousal even higher. She was sobbing, whimpering, soaking wet for him, and cursing when he finally slipped his fingers inside her, and came almost instantly at the feeling, biting the pillow.

He pulled his fingers out and she shoved him back on the bed, swiftly getting rid of the rest of his clothes and settling down next to his lap. He was already rock hard for her, and she licked a drop of moisture from the tip of him, making him shudder.

"Leah…"

"My turn now."

She slowly took him in her mouth but had barely gotten started when he yanked at her hair. "Not like this," he groaned. "Want you on top of me…"

Well, when he put it like that, she wasn't going to argue. She was still wearing her damn stockings as she straddled him and sank down, his fingers curling over her hips and guiding her movement. Her hair was half down already and he pulled it the rest of the way free, sighing with delight as it cascaded over her breasts and down her back.

She leaned over him, changing her angle and letting her thigh muscles do the work, and he groaned again, reaching up to touch her cheek with one hand. "Don't fucking stop, Leah…"

"I won't," she whispered. "Touch me Logan…please…"

He did and she started moaning and didn't stop, speeding up her rhythm as the knot of pleasure tightened between her legs at the touch of his fingers, drawing tighter and tighter until she shattered and he snarled, spending himself at the feeling of her climax.

She curled up against his side as he wrapped an arm around her, holding her in afterglow.

"Mmm." She nestled closer, making incoherent sounds of contentment, and felt him kiss her temple.

"Pretty much," he rumbled.

She yawned and he chuckled. "Don't start that…I meant it, I'm keeping you up till dawn…"

Leah laughed. "Promises, promises…"

"Hmmm?" He took her hand from where it rested on his chest and guided it down to his lap, showing her that he was already fully prepared to keep that promise. Leah raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and say that keeping the fire burning is definitely not a problem for us."


After finally falling asleep at dawn, it was noon before they got up. Even then, Logan was still lounging in bed when Leah came out of the shower, wrapped in a towel and starting the long process of tousling her hair dry.

He was sipping coffee, and motioned to a second mug on the bedside table. She groaned in thanks, sitting on the bed and leaning over to kiss him, feeling his hand land on her thigh and creep under the edge of the towel. She hummed happily.

"I love Sundays."

"Hmmm." He kissed her again. "People need to get married more often, if it means we get to sleep till noon with no one bugging us."

She grinned as she sat up, continuing to towel at her hair. "Did you like your surprise?"

"Mmm. Yeah." He smiled, casting his eye over the clothes scattered across the floor. "Liked that set the first time. Like it even more now."

Leah paused, the towel coming to rest in her hands. "What do you mean the first time?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You brought that to Canada on our first trip."

"Yeah, but…I never wore it…"

"Yeah you did." He was staring at her, confused and a little worried. "I remember, Leah."

She was shaking her head. "No, I never did…" She tried to smile. "You never needed anything extra…"

"I know you wore it. I know it."

"Okay." Leah took a deep breath, the scientist in her taking over. "Let's be logical about this. When did I wear it, exactly?"

He thought for a moment, slowly sifting through each night of their first week together at the cabin. "We came back on Saturday."

"Right."

"Then it was…" He counted on his fingers, silently ticking the days off. "Thursday night."

"Okay. What else special did we do that day?"

"It was the day after we'd decided. That we were gonna be together. I kissed you a lot." He frowned in frustration, shrugging. "We had sex a couple times. Once on the kitchen table. I think you made chicken something for dinner?"

"Chicken stew? I remember that."

She cast her thoughts back to that night. She remembered making it, chicken and rice and vegetables. "And brownies, right? That I almost burned."

"Yeah. Right. I went out to smoke after dinner. Came back in and there you were on the couch, in that bra."

She thought again. Her face drained of color as her eyes flew to his face.

"Logan. I don't remember anything about that night after we had dinner. Nothing at all."