SLAM.
"If you—"
SLAM.
"—one more ti—"
SLAM.
"You son of a bitch!"
"Wouldn't go slinging that insult if I were you, runt. Seeing as how your mother wouldn't touch you with a—"
I jerked my end of the bed to the side, slamming the side of it into the wall and trapping Victor's arm in between. He growled at me, and I snarled back.
"I wouldn't keep shoving you into the wall if you carried your share of the weight, runt."
"I am carrying, you're just being an asshole!"
"Are you really carrying, Jimmy?"
No.
But I didn't fully understand how I had even gotten roped into helping him carry HIS king-sized bed up four flights of stairs in the first place. So hell no, I wasn't taking as much of the weight as I should.
"Are you just being an asshole?" I shot back.
He didn't answer either, so I took that as a yes. We both glared at each other for a moment before I shifted my hands to get a better grip on the frame, and we started walking again. We went slow because I had to walk backwards up the stairs, but Victor stopped shoving me against the wall.
"Remind me again why the fuck I'm helping you?" I grunted.
"Because I said so."
I glared at him for his smart ass remark, and he snickered.
"Because I got Marie a nice chair for her room."
"I coulda gotten her one." I grumbled, trying to crane my head around to see behind me.
"Stop that." Victor ordered. "I said I wasn't gonna run you into any more walls."
"No you didn't."
"We had a tacit, mutual understanding."
"Have you always been such a smartass?"
He grinned widely. "Yeah. All my book learning and big words always did piss you off. Besides, you're busy struggling with your lesson plans."
"I am not struggling!" I argued. "...how far have you gotten?"
He gave me that shit eating grin again. "Done."
"How?!"
"I taught you how to read, write, do math, damn near everything else you know." He said, steering me into his room. "You had a tutor, but he was boring and an idiot, so you never listened. And I practically raised you since you were twelve. So I already have experience teaching an adolescent brat."
We lined up his bed frame where he wanted it and set it down. I just wanted to know why he had to get one made out of solid oak. Sure, it would be sturdy as shit, but it was heavy as fuck too.
"C'mon, Jimmy."
I followed him out of his room and down the stairs, thinking about what he'd said. I'd gotten a few more memories back, but they weren't clear. They were more emotion than clarity, and I hadn't exactly been surprised when most of the feelings I'd gotten from dreaming of my childhood had been loneliness and anger. I just didn't know anything specific. And that really pissed me off, because as far as I could tell, I had a mother and father, so why did the only happy "memories" I had have to do with Victor?
But Victor said I'd killed our father, so I doubted we had a great relationship to start with.
I hadn't talked to anyone about the dreams I'd been having, mostly because the only person I'd ever really shared my feelings with was Marie. I just didn't feel comfortable doing that shit with Chuck. But I didn't want to talk to Marie about it until I knew the whole story myself, which meant I'd have to talk to Victor first. That was a hell of a lot easier to do when we were throwing punches, but he'd eased off being a dick lately. And if I started shit, Marie would get all disappointed because I knew how much she liked the idea of us all being one big happy family.
So I knew I'd have to suck it up and talk to him like a normal person, I'd just been putting it off.
"Here, grab the memory foam and don't fucking rip it. I got the mattress."
Victor tossed something big and oddly...squishy...at me. It was rolled up though, so I easily tucked it under my arm while he picked up the King sized mattress.
"The fuck is this shit?"
"Don't you fucking listen? It's memory foam, dipshit. Tempurpedic."
I gave him a blank stare, and he rolled his eyes.
"Makes the bed real soft."
I grunted and considered giving him shit about being prissy house cat until a fight started, but then I thought about how big and worried Marie's eyes got whenever we fought.
Stop being a pussy and jest fuckin' ask 'im.
"Why'd I kill our father?"
"Thomas." Victor instantly corrected. "He deserved it."
I stayed silent and slowed my pace until he slowed down too and sighed.
"He lived near your folks' manor as the groundskeeper, and had an on and off thing with your mother. But she didn't ever want to leave Mr. Howlett because he was rich and Thomas was just some drunken asshole."
We started up the stairs, moving as slowly as possible because we both knew this conversation would be over and never spoken of or admitted to once we reached his room.
"Rachael was in town picking up something or other your mother just had to have by tomorrow, and I was upstairs getting a book to read you to sleep when Thomas came in, drunk as usual. He started yelling for Elizabeth, about how she needed to tell you the truth."
"About me being his son?" I asked slowly.
Victor glanced over and grunted. "Mr. Howlett tried to get between them and Thomas shot him. You'd sneaked out of your room and seen it all, and your claws popped for the first time. You rushed and gutted him."
Think I remember that. And then runnin'...
"If he deserved it, why didn't you kill him?"
His jaw clenched and his freehand clenched at his side. "I was scared of him. I didn't think anything could kill that bastard."
I deliberately kept my eyes straight ahead, but I kept track of him in my peripherals. The words Victor and afraid just didn't go together. He was too crazy for that. And big. I'd seen the reports of him taking on entire camps of mercenaries by himself and walking away. He was the only person I'd ever fought who never had a single trace of fear in his scent, even when I ripped out his throat.
"Elizabeth started screaming, so I got you out of there. She always was a cunt anyway, and I knew she wasn't going to stick up for you." Victor finally finished as we approached his door.
I drew up short and stopped. "Why?"
"Hell if I know why women act like cunts." He grumbled.
"No, why'd you help me? You were..."
"Just the help?" He finished for me. "Like I said, your mother didn't give a damn. She just wanted a baby to show off, but once you started thinking for yourself, you weren't so cute anymore. Rachael and I raised you. I didn't know for sure that you were my brother, but even if you weren't, you still were."
I stepped inside his room and changed the subject. "How does this foam shit work?"
He followed after me, carrying the mattress beneath one arm. "You set it up against that wall over there."
"That wall?"
"Yep."
"How the hell is putting it on the wall going to make the bed softer?!" I demanded.
Victor finished positioning the mattress on the frame. "It won't, dipshit. You gotta put it on the fucking bed. I know One Eye wants us to tell the kids there are no stupid questions, but you're pretty fuc—"
I dropped the foam and punched him in the arm. He rolled back with the hit, still laughing at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"No one thinks your jokes are funny."
That wiped the smirk off his face.
"Your mate laughs at my jokes." He retorted.
"She's too young to know better!" I snapped back.
He scoffed and began rolling the foam out on the mattress. "Get the fuck outta here, runt."
"Eat shit, Victor. You're such an asshole."
"That's not how assholes work."
I slammed the door on my way out.
"Hey, darling." I walked into Marie's room and kicked the door shut behind me. "How'd your session with Chuck go?"
I saw her shut her sketchbook out of the corner of my eye as I flopped down on her bed, making sure to rub my scent into her sheets. She showed me some of her sketches every now and then, mostly nature scenes and animals in those water paints she liked. But I didn't press her about it, because I figured her art was part of coping whenever she felt stressed or the voices got too bad. And she let me have my space and talk to her in my own time about my personal shit, so I tried to do the same for her.
Even though I really wanted to know what was in those damn books of hers. She had at least seven of them all filled up. Maybe she'd show me what she was always sketching one day.
"Ah showed him around in mah head so he could see what's going on." She said, swiveling around in her stupid special fucking chair.
"That okay?" I asked.
"It was fahne." She answered with a smile, then brightened up even more. "Ah learned a lot about telepathic powers too. If Ah practice enough, Ah think Ah might be able to keep telepaths outta mah mind. Ah might even be able to keep out voices if Ah hafta touch people."
I got comfortable in her bed while I listened to her talk excitedly. She didn't sound emotionally scarred from having someone else root through her head, and she actually looked really happy about the possibility of learning more control. That was a large part of why I insisted we stay here after all, so maybe I was feeling a bit too paranoid about Chuck. He was a good guy anyway, for a telepath.
"Ferals are naturally difficult for telepaths to read." I told her. "Maybe having me and Vic in there will help you."
Marie was silent for a while, thinking things over. She had a tendency to get lost in her own head sometimes, but I'd put both my voices in there, so I didn't usually worry about it. Her eyes focused back on me after a moment, then looked me up and down as she swallowed. I held back a grin at how obvious it was where her thoughts had headed.
"Item Number twenty-three." She announced. "Ah want to draw yah...naked."
I thrusted my hips up a bit. "You gonna paint me like one of your fresh girls?"
"It's French girls, Logan." Marie laughed and corrected me. "French."
"Do I get half-credit for being Canadian?" I asked, grinning back at her.
"Close enough."
I ghosted my hand over my crotch. "Darlin', ain't nothin' close enough 'bout this."
"Close, but no banana." Victor called from his room.
Marie started laughing, and I glared at the door. He was lucky I was so damn comfortable or I'd have to get up and bust his ass for that. I was used to hearing everything in all the rooms around me from living in hotels for so long, but it was still weird as hell living next to someone with hearing just as good as mine. Even in our separate rooms, we could clearly hear each other talking in a normal voice, and it actually took an annoying amount of concentration to tune it out.
"For fuck's sake, Vic! Shut the hell up!" I shouted at him.
"'Cause it's...not...a banana! It's...a penis!" Marie gasped through her laughter.
She did laugh at his lame ass jokes, goddammit.
"Get it?" She asked me.
"Do you get it, Jimmy?"
"ARE YOU FEELING IT NOW, MISTER KRABS?!" Jackie screeched, adding in her own special brand of crazy.
"I hate you all." I growled at them.
I took a deep breath to calm myself with Marie's scent, but then there was a knock at her door.
"We're gonna watch the game, runt."
"Record it for me. I'll be down later." I said with a twinge of regret.
"What are yah missing a game for?" Marie asked me.
I shrugged. "Wanted to talk to you about your list."
"What about it?"
"You said spanking was on it, and if you want that sort of thing, it's fine." I let her know. "But since we just started getting physical, I'd like to let some stuff happen naturally, not just crossing things off a list."
Don't wanna hurt her again...
"Maybe doing something from the list could be a special occasion or once in a while thing, like what yah said in the shower." She suggested.
"Yeah, darling. That would be good. And I wanna talk to you about each one before we do it. Some of it's about safety, and some of it's 'cause I like making you blush." I said, smirking when she did exactly that.
"But can Ah draw yah now? No stripping or anything this time, jus' as is." She assured me.
"Sure."
Her excited smile made it worth it, but I shifted uncomfortably on her bed as she got her sketchbook back out. I planned on watching the game later, so I didn't mind missing it—as long as Victor kept his damn mouth shut about the score. But...did I need to pose or something?
"Do I need to, uh...do anything?" I asked her.
"Nothing special." She said, shaking her head. "Yah don't even have to hold still. How about yah tell meh about yeh day? Yah had that staff meeting while Ah was with the Professor, right?"
I settled back on the bed and told her about two hour staff meeting I had to sit through, which mainly consisted of Scott being a dick and Dr. Grey making eyes at me. I left out the part about Dr. Grey though and mainly just bitched about how I had to go through "sensitivity training" before I could teach. At least Victor would be stuck in there with me. It was nice having Marie listen to me, and I promised myself I'd talk to her about all of my family shit, just...later.
I woke up at 2:17 in the goddamn morning, to the sound of feet in the hallway. Three people, two male, one female, teenagers by the smell of the hormones. I got out of bed with a snarl.
Goddamn teenagers.
Fresh meat.
They crept along the hall, whispering to each other to be quiet and which one's hers? I bit back another growl. The little fuckers were probably looking for Marie's room. She hadn't talked much to any of the students, and they were probably trying to prank her for being the new kid. I waited until they passed my door so I could back them into the dead end opposite the stairway, but then I heard Marie get up. I stayed still, silently urging her to go back to bed, but her door creaked open instead.
I threw my door open and stalked into the hallway, coming up behind the little fuckers. They immediately huddled together and started backing away from me, toward the end of the hall, but then Victor came out of his room, trapping them between us. I felt a brief sense of deja vu, like we'd done this maneuver before, but trapping other soldiers instead of teenage brats.
"Oh look!" Jackie gasped as she strolled out behind Victor. "Our sacrifices have arrived."
The two boy dumbasses moved in front of the girl dumbass, one of them on each side of her, each keeping an eye on me and Victor. Although the boy dumbass farthest from me was having a hard time keeping his eyes off Jackie's tits, since she only had on one of Victor's tank tops. And she was apparently very cold. I gave the boy dumbasses credit for at least trying to protect their girl, but boy dumbass number one looked ready to piss himself.
That's the little shit who keeps tryna act like One Eye.
His very own protege.
The Wolverine purred in my mind at the thought of scaring the shit out of Cyclops' special little boy scout student. I got so much shit for my relationship with Marie, how come no one ever looked twice at how weird that was?
"She's joking." Marie promised them.
I growled low to get their attention. "I'm not. What the fuck do you dumbasses think you're doing up here?!"
"Um...hey." Girl dumbass waved at me. "I know it's been a while, but I'm Jubilee, remember?"
Intrudin' on our territory. The Wolverine grumbled.
She was here last time we were though. Little mall brat or something.
Still a dumbass fer comin' up here.
Yeah, but she ain't gonna be sniffing around our girl.
The Wolverine backed off a bit at that, but he still wanted to come out all the way and turn the boy dumbasses into huddling balls of fear and piss. They were a little too old to be called cubs, and the animal didn't take well to other males on our territory, especially with our mate so close by. But popping the claws around kids was just fucked up, so I shoved him back down. He put up a damn good resistance for a moment before I reminded him that we could torture the hell out of them with little to no consequence as soon as we got them in our class. They'd run laps until they puked and then they'd pick their asses up and keep running. He finally retreated at that, and I focused back on the girl dumbass.
"You're the little brat who kept hanging onto my ankles and shocking me."
"Yeah...sorry about that. But now that you're back, I just wanted to say hi." She said with an unconvincingly bright smile.
Victor snorted. "Don't you know better than to trespass on private territory? I even put up a warning sign."
I nodded my head toward the claw marks we'd each left on either side of the girls' room. I had a set of my claw marks next to my door, and he'd marked up his too. Hell, we'd even put our marks on the stairway leading up here. Nothing said keep the fuck out like goddamn claw marks.
Dumbasses.
"Wait, wait! You can't kill me yet—Kitty still owes me ten bucks." Girl dumbass protested.
"What was the bet?" Jackie asked.
Girl dumbass gave me a nervous look. "Five bucks if Wolverine had a brother, and another five bucks if he was actually bigger."
"You bet against me?" I growled.
"Um...I didn't really believe you had a bigger brother, though. It was just wishful thinking, honest!" She said quickly.
"Don't kill that one. I like her." Jackie said.
I glared at the two boy dumbasses and ignored her. "You two dumbasses have anything to say for yourselves?"
Boy dumbass number two fiddled with his lighter. "Couldn't let her come up here alone."
"And we heard you were keeping a new student up here." Boy dumbass number one said.
"Mah name is Rogue, an' Ah need a room up here because mah powers are dangerous." Marie told them firmly.
I had to hold down a low purr of pride for my darling. She sounded confident and mature, and she wasn't having any of their shit. I'd gotten such a good goddamn mate.
"Really? What can you do?" Boy dumbass number one asked.
"Mah skin drains a person's life from them." She said without a change in tone. "If Ah touch them too long, they can die from it."
Boy dumbass number two upgraded himself to fucktard when he grinned at MY girl and said, "That's hot."
I snarled at him and felt the Wolverine start pushing to come out again, but Marie stepped between us.
"It's alright, he's jus' a smart-mouthed kid. Ah can put him in a coma if he pisses meh off too much." She said in a soothing voice.
I relaxed a little at that. Yeah, I wanted to punch the fucktard's face in, but at least I had a mate who could take care of herself. And if I beat the shit out of him, it'd just teach him not to ever touch her. If she beat the shit out of him, it'd teach him that she didn't want him to touch her. I tried getting the Wolverine to see the difference, but he didn't calm down until Jackie stepped forward and grabbed the fucktard by his ear. She twisted hard, and he practically dropped to one knee with a satisfying yelp.
"Thank you for that commentary, Paris Hilton, but that's not how you speak to a lady." She scolded.
For a second, her scolding tone and the grip she had on his ear gave me another one of those weird deja vu moments. I either needed to get my psychological shit together or stop hanging around her and Victor, because it was starting to make my head hurt. She gave an extra little twist to put emphasis on her words, and he whimpered softly. She caught my eye, and I gave her a nod.
"Damn right. What's your name, fucktard?"
"Pyro."
Jackie twisted again, and I fought down a grin at his yelp.
"Saint-John Allerdyce."
I glared at boy dumbass number one, and he quickly provided, "Robert Drake. Iceman."
"And I'm Jubilation Lee! Are you really Sabretooth?" Girl dumbass asked Victor. I'd forgotten, but she was one of those brats who couldn't shut up.
Victor let his claws out on one hand. "You will refer to me as Mr. Creed and to Wolverine as Mr. Howlett. We'll be your Physical Education teachers next semester."
The smell of the dumbass teenagers' fear cranked up a notch at the sight of his claws and his creepy ass soft voice. That demented little smile he gave when he told them we'd be their teachers didn't help any either, but I couldn't find it in my heart to feel sorry for them.
"You got a name too?" Fucktard asked Jackie once she let go of his ear.
"Jackie."
He leered at her. "That your stripper name?"
I was almost impressed at how badly the little fucktard wanted to die. Victor didn't make a move on him though, probably to see what Jackie would do. I doubted even she would have the balls to flirt with another male in front of him, even a teenager, but I wouldn't be surprised when she eventually came back smelling like another man.
Jackie only grinned a little. "Nah, that's Danielle."
"What powers do you have?" Girl dumbass asked, like this was a fucking questionnaire.
"Mine haven't surfaced yet." Jackie replied with a shrug.
"Then why do you get to stay up here?" Boy dumbass number one whined.
Jackie smirked at him and leaned a little closer to Victor. "Because that's where Sabre's bed is."
"Well now that we've all introduced ourselves, ya'll should probably go back downstairs." Marie said.
"But we wanted to meet you!" Girl dumbass cried.
"We can study together tomorrow if yah want. Ah'll probably be in a class with one of yah next semester. But seriously, it's late and this was stupid. Ya'll could've gotten hurt." Marie told them.
"If you're okay..." Boy dumbass number one simpered, like I might be fucking hurting her or something.
"Ah'm fahne." Marie assured him.
I'd let Marie do her peace-maker thing, but that didn't appear to be driving the message home. And I did kind of want to see if I could make Cyclops' very own mini-me dumbass piss himself.
Just a little.
"So get yer asses in gear and scram!" I yelled, making them jump. "Back to yer own beds too, move it!"
They scrambled to the door, but Victor whistled at them before they got there. They instinctively stopped and slowly turned back around.
"And if any of you ever trespass on our property again, I will destroy something you hold dear, be it your entire wardrobe, your signed autograph of Captain America, or your mother's lighter." He informed them casually.
They nodded jerkily, but stayed frozen still. He tapped one long claw against his arm, and they turned and started running again. Once the door to the stairway closed, I turned around and scooped Marie up, throwing her over my shoulder. She made whiney protesting noises until I started rubbing her ass, and then she quieted down. Women loved having their asses rubbed. I kicked my bedroom door shut behind me and took her to the bed, tossing her down gently. She bounced a little, then immediately burrowed under the covers as I got in next to her. I pulled her back flush to my chest and wrapped an arm around her to keep her close so I could nuzzle against her neck.
My mate. Only mine.
Hey, she's mine too, bub.
We're the same person, dipshit.
Thought you hated me.
'Cause I'm clearly yer better half.
"As much as Ah loved seeing yah get all grr sugah, what if they go whining to Scott that the big bad Wolverine was mean to them?" She mumbled.
I bit lightly at her shoulder in retaliation. "I am the big bad Wolverine, and making people piss themselves is what I do."
"...that came so close to being sexy."
Now that was downright disrespectful. She thought everything I did was sexy, and she fucking knew it. I grabbed her hip and yanked it back against mine to prove it to her, and she shuddered in my arms the second I started grinding against her.
Wanna 'nother turn with her.
Maybe.
Marie bared her neck for me, but as much as I always wanted to fool around with her, it was late at night and she needed sleep. School would start for both of us in less than a month, and that was stressful enough without her getting sleep-deprivation on top of it. I propped myself up on my elbow and leaned over her to kiss her cheek instead, then laid back down with some space between our hips.
"You gotta get some sleep, darling."
"Yah started it."
I could practically hear her pout.
"You questioned my sexuality." I replied. She started giggling for some reason, so I continued. "Be a good girl, and we'll cross an item off your list over the weekend."
That got her to calm down and behave. I gave her one last light squeeze before I closed my eyes. We'd do something fun this weekend, and maybe I'd talk to her about the emotional shit afterwards, when we were both in a good mood.
Maybe.
A/N: Okay, so I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to write Logan talking to Marie about his childhood, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. It'll probably be in the next chapter or the one after that. I also want to get in some interaction between Marie and the other students...and Marie and Logan crossing an item off her list...and some Wolverine time...ugh. I really don't know what I'll be able to fit in, but that's what the forecast looks like as of now.
And despite popular opinions in reviews, Deadpool (unfortunately) will not appear in this fic. Perhaps if I ever get around to writing a VictorxJackie fic, but I just don't have room/time to incorporate him in here and do his character justice. I may let him start writing my author's notes however...his boxes have some pretty good ideas!
So far the items on Marie's list up for being written are:
Item #58: Spanking.
Item #31: Chocolate dipped Logan.
Item #43: Rigorous dry humping.
(bonus points if in a public area)
Item #27: Sexy shower scene.
Item #64: Roleplaying.
(bonus points for costumes)
Vote in your reviews!
PS: Shameless self-promotion time! I got a plot bunny that wouldn't stop gnawing at my leg and wrote a short short crack fic for the Supernatural fandom! It has some slight Destiel, but it's mainly about the night Castiel heard Milkshake by Kellis for the first time...
