Author's note: A songfic! Only it's lyrics from different songs (Nickelback and U2), all out of order (except during the karaoke. Oh yes, there's karaoke). So if you know the songs, it may get confusing in your head. Take the lyrics in the context of the story and not the context of the song. Forgive my clumsy attempt at accents.
[insert standard AU, OOC, and "these characters aren't mine except Raven" disclaimers. That should keep 'em off my back]
Enjoy! R&R pweeze!
With or Without You
by Mordred LeFay
Speeding down the road on his motorcycle, Logan contemplated his latest failure, the latest dead end in his search. Sometimes he wondered if there really was some kind of coverup, or if he was just looking in the wrong places.
Well you can climb to the top of the highest tree
You can look around but you still won't see
What I'm looking for
Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered anymore. All this trouble, all this time spent chasing shadows and for what? Fragments, clues, half-hints, nothing solid, nothing real.
Tired of livin' like a blind man
I'm sick of sight without a sense of feeling
There were never any answers, not really, just evil dreams, dreams that plagued his sleep. Almost every night he'd awaken in a cold sweat, terrified. How people would laugh if they knew: the fearless Wolverine, the most deadly weapon in the world, quaking in fear of dreams, like a child.
And now I dream about it... and how it's so bad
Worse, he couldn't even gain knowledge from his dreams. The images were fleeting, vanishing even as he gasped in terror of them. All he could ever remember were emotions: fear, anger, pain. Even so, he drove himself on in his quest for his past, following leads here and there, grasping at phantoms.
Where the good times gone
The roar of the engine and the rushing noise of the wind in his ears drowned out all other distractions and left his mind free to wander. He was driven, but he was tired. He thought often of the old days, when he had been distracted by other things. When a mission meant tangling with Magneto's forces, not chasing ghosts.
Where the good times gone
Back before Remy and Rogue lost their powers, before so many of them had been scattered by the winds of fate. Were things really better and simpler then, or was it just hindsight and nostalgia? I must be getting old, he thought.
All that stupid fun and all that shit we've done
Where the good times gone
And I still don't know
Sure it hadn't been all sugar and rose petals but there had been fun times, between the tense ones and dangerous ones. Like the time he and Remy wanted to drag the girls to a bar, and the girls ended up dragging them to a dance-club bar on karaoke night. Sure it had music and dancing and flashing lights, and the promise of (starting at ten o'clock, the bartender warned them) drunken idiots singing songs they didn't know the words to, but it was still a bar and it was still fun. It was worth it just to see Rogue trying to teach Raven to tie a cherry stem in a knot with her tongue, and hearing Raven's reply that all of her bar tricks involved a knife in some poor fool's gut.
We're free to fly the crimson sky
The sun won't melt our wings tonight
It was one of those nights. Rogue had rebuffed Remy's professions of love yet again, citing the usual. Logan didn't get involved in particulars. Remy's pride was wounded, of course. Still Rogue agreed to go as long as they took Raven. It seemed like the girls were joined at the hip lately, couldn't go anywhere without each other. Raven was only what then? 18 or 19? but she still managed to charm her way in, after refusing to change into a bird and hide in Remy's coat. They were the trenchcoat twins, her and Gambit, and sometimes Logan wondered if there was anything going on between them. He didn't like thinking about it.
I want to take his eyes out
Just for looking at you
Yes I do
At first Logan thought Remy's plan was to woo Rogue somehow, although a bar didn't seem the best place to do it, dance club or no. Instead he started hitting on anything with tits, chatting up any girl who came close. Ah, he was trying to make her jealous, the rat. The Cajun could be a real bastard sometimes, especially in ladies' man mode, playing up that damn accent and spouting suave nonsense in French. Logan glanced over at Rogue. I hope ya know what you're doin', Gumbo, he had thought.
Logan had turned away, focused his attention on the girls. They were dancing. Rogue had seen Remy's antics of course, but true to form she took no notice. She danced as though she didn't care about anything, like all the world had gone away. That's my girl, you show him, Logan had thought. Then he noticed Raven was dancing too.
Well I remember that summer
Like yesterday
It had been summer but she still wore that damn black trenchcoat, the ever-present coat, which she had shed for once, and had made Logan promise to safeguard it. She complained lightly that she would have to air it out for weeks after being in this smoky place. He took care not to let any ashes from his cigar fall on it. It smelled like her, that coat, like patchouli and spice, lilacs and autumn leaves.
Under that coat though... free from the restrictions on touch that kept Rogue covered up, Raven had chosen to wear one of those daring backless tops, the straps crisscrossing between her shoulders to frame a tattoo that Logan had never noticed before. Imprinted in her sweat-slicked skin was the Japanese symbols for "raven" and "blood." The long black hair that usually hung loose was bound in a messy bun atop her head, and loose strands snaked their way down her face and neck. Suddenly she looked incredibly sexy.
Seen it before but not like this
Remy was getting drunker and drunker, and was starting to whine about Rogue, about how she didn't appreciate him, how she kept turning him down, how maybe he should just give up and move on. Logan ignored him, downed another shot, and turned back to watch the girls some more. They were having the time of their lives, it seemed. Raven seemed to be in an ecstatic trance. Ravens are not the most graceful of birds, but she moved with a sensuous grace, almost writhing to the music. He couldn't tear his eyes away.
Seen it before but not like this
Been there before but not like this
The song ended and the trance was broken. Breathless, the girls slid through the crowd to the bar for a drink. Raven leaned over against the bar and asked for water. She smelled, not unpleasantly, of sweat and musk. She was wearing those hiphugger jeans, he remembered, and as she leaned over he could see there was another symbol tattooed on the small of her back, the symbol for wolf. Another emblem of her pseudo-worship of the Norse god Odin? He heard that god was big on ravens and wolves. Remy, the drunken dog, put his arm around her waist, calling her petit ami, telling her how good she looked tonight.
And I want to take his hands off
Just for touching you
Yes I do
Logan felt a surge of anger that surprised him. He resisted the urge to do anything, knowing Raven was a big girl, that she could take care of herself. "Remy, you're drunk," he heard her giggle, pushing the Cajun playfully away. But she gave him a sexy smirk for just a second before disappearing back into the crowd with a scowling Rogue. So the attention hadn't been totally undesired. What held her back? Rogue's feelings? Perhaps. Remy gave them both a drunken leer as they left.
"Ha, did you see dat?" he slurred, "'ow she looked at me?"
"Which one?" Logan muttered, drinking his beer and trying to act unconcerned.
"Both."
"You tryin' to make Rogue jealous?"
"I waz, but now I don' know." He watched the girls make their way over to the DJ. "The chere Raven is very sexy, non? Mebbe I should give 'er a try."
And I want to rip his heart out
Just for hurting you
"I wouldn't recommend it, bub," Logan warned menacingly.
"Why not?"
"'Cause I know you'd only be doin' it to get back at Rogue, which means you'd be hurtin' two of my girls. You know what happens to chumps who hurt my girls." He clenched and unclenched his fists, as if to remind Remy how deadly they could be, with claws or without. This seemed to penetrate the liquor-soaked fog he was in.
"D'en what should I do?" Remy whined. They were interrupted by Rogue and Raven, who stood before them flushed and excited.
"We signed up for karaoke!" Rogue exclaimed, smiling.
Logan gave Remy a sly grin. "Non, mon ami," Remy protested.
"C'mon, you're drunk enough," Logan prodded. "I know the perfect song."
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