Title: Summer Nights
Author: jmccall93
Email: jmccall93@aol.com
Rating: PG-13 (slight cussing, this fic does have Wolverine after all!)
Disclaimer: Don't sue. I do not and never will own X-Men. I would love to own Logan though!
Feedback: Please. Good and bad.
Summary: Pure Logan/Marie fic. What happens when Logan returns?
Archive: What's this? Someone please tell me!
Logan wandered the grounds looking for Rogue, putting his gloves on as he walked. He found her down a small, isolated path through the woods. It was evening, but even in the dark he could see very well. He found her sitting at the side of the path on a small bench.
He walked up and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey kiddo, sorry it took so long. I wanted to get everything unpacked in my room. How've you been?"
Marie scooted over so Logan could sit beside her. "Fine, I guess. How about you? Did you find what you were looking for?" She absentmindedly started playing with the tags around her neck. She watched him start absentmindedly rubbing his knuckles.
"No, I didn't um…Rogue." Marie looked up a Logan with a question in her eyes. "Yeah, Xavier told me you didn't like being called Marie anymore. Anyways, it doesn't seem as important anymore. Alkali Lake was deserted and any other leads I was given were all cold or dead ends. I've come to accept I may never find the answer. I'm tired. Tired of the unanswered questions and the running. So I came back here. Maybe if I can just find some sense of peace I'll be happy." Logan looked closely at Marie fiddling with the tags.
Marie looked up at him sadly, "I suppose you want these back." She started to remove the tags before Logan grabbed her wrist. "No, kiddo, you keep them. They hold better memories for you than they ever did for me." She let go of the tags, relieved, and let them fall back to her skin so she could feel the cold metal against it. Maybe the tags weren't as important to him as she had once thought. Then does that mean he really did come back to see me, not to get the tags? She dared to hope. "Logan, you can still call me Marie. I just don't like anyone else using that name."
Logan figured it was time to broach the subject. He took both of her hands in his and caressed her knuckles with his thumbs. Marie looked down at their hands and then back up to Logan. "Kid, when I saw you today you looked so lonely. What happened to the girl I left behind?"
Marie's expression got a little hard, "Don't call me kid anymore. I haven't been one for several years. I'm not a child. I teach here at the school now."
Logan could tell he had hurt her feelings, and felt terrible. "I'm sorry Darlin'. You're right. You most definitely are no longer a child. I'm sorry if I upset you. So tell me, what is it you teach here?" Logan thought to himself, don't let her trembling eyes fool you idiot, you lost her love when you left five years ago.
"I teach kids how to control their powers… or at least start too," she added hastily when she saw Logan's eyebrow arch up while he looked at her bare hands. "No Logan, I haven't gained control over my powers yet, but Professor and I have been working on it over the years with Jean. I guess you could say I really teach meditation to help the kids get a deeper understanding of their powers."
Logan brought his attention back down to her hands. Such tender hands, he thought. He wanted to bring her hand up to his face. Then immediately berated himself, Logan, you idiot, you're going to give Marie the wrong idea. His mind then shot back, "Would that be such a terrible thing?" He put and end to those thoughts before they could lead anywhere. "Then why aren't you wearing your gloves Marie?
"That's why I come out here, away from everyone. No one else really knows about this place. I got permission from Xavier to extend the path and put the bench here. I think he could sense I needed a quiet place to retreat to that no one knew about. I knew you'd have no trouble finding me. I come out here when I want to take my gloves off and just feel the breezes on my skin." Marie felt kind of bashful talking about a place so private to her, but she knew Logan would understand.
Logan had to press the issue. He put his hand on her arm "Marie…I know you may not want to talk about this and if you don't I'll understand. I want to know what happened to you while I was gone. I had hoped to come back to find you happy and with boys standing in line to ask you out. Instead I return to see you silent and brooding. What happened? Please tell me."
She sighed heavily and stood up, pacing back and forth before she turned to look at Logan, at this man who had invaded her very soul and left a piece of him with her in her heart when he left. "I don't know Logan. Everything was like you said at first. After my friends left for college and Professor started tutoring me here and working with Jean, I…I just felt so lonely. Even when Jubilee would come back to visit it wasn't the same anymore. She and Bobby started dating and I saw Jean and Scott all the time." Marie started rubbing her hands up and down her arms, hugging herself. "To see people I love able to touch each other with such freedom, it just became more than I could take. I can't feel comfortable around anyone unless I'm sure there's at least one layer of clothing between us."
And what about me darlin', do you love me? Logan thought. Stop it Logan! You know better than to ask her to answer that. Can't you see she's not comfortable around you anymore?
Logan stood up and walked over to her, wrapped his arms around Marie and pulled her close. He started to remove his jacket. "Marie, darlin', you'll catch a cold without any thing on your shoulders or arms. Aren't you're legs cold either?"
Marie laughed to hear such a sweet offer. "Thanks, Sugah, but I come down here with shorts and a tube top on a lot just so I can feel the breeze on my skin. Being cold makes me happy, makes me feel alive. It's the coldness on the inside that I don't like."
Logan had noticed how skimpily she was dressed, but was too concerned with her to pay much attention to it. Now that his attention had been drawn back to it he needed to leave before his thoughts got the better of him. "I've had a long drive darlin'. I think I'll go on up to bed and see you tomorrow." He leaned in to give Marie a hug and kissed the top of her head before turning to leave.
Marie looked up at him as he turned to go. "Night Sugah, thanks for coming to talk to me. Maybe we can talk some more over the next couple of days now that school's out and all."
With that Logan looked back and headed back up the path to the teacher's dorms.
She watched him head back up the way he came. "Oh Logan, you have no idea what your coming back has done to me. You have no idea how wonderful it feels to have someone nearby again who cares for me, and isn't afraid to touch me or let me touch him, even if you do think of me as a child."
OK, GUYS, PLEASE R&R! Should I continue? I'm on the process of writing the other chapters already.
