Title: Summer Nights
Author: jmccall93
Email: jmccall93@aol.com
Rating: R (for later chapters)
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 reached his room and closed the door. He hadn't wanted to leave Marie so soon. He was so glad to see her again, to just be near her and be surrounded by her scent. He couldn't take it anymore though once he saw her clothing. He kept telling himself, this is Marie, and you do not feel like that about her. She is too precious to be hurt by the likes of you even if she wanted you, which she doesn't. She's just glad to see you, that's all. Nothing more. You saw how she reacted when she first saw you. Whatever she felt back then is gone. You lost her love when you ran away. She thinks you're a friend, nothing more.
With those thoughts in his head Logan lay down for the night, but didn't waste any time. He went to bed with the small piece of cloth held firmly in his right hand.
Logan couldn't be sure where he was at first. Everything was foggy and he couldn't see very far. Then he heard her speaking. It was Marie. "God, Logan, I'm so sorry," she sobbed through her tears. She was crying huge, hitching sobs, and holding onto his hands while he lay there recovering. Please Logan, please come back to me, don't leave me here alone. I don't know these people! She stood up and leaned over him. While she was looking down at him she put two gloved fingers over his mouth and kissed the back of them. She whispered, so soft, he almost didn't catch it, "I love you, please come back." He could feel her tears falling on his cheeks and running down into his hair. He wanted to say something, wanted to tell her he loved her too, but he couldn't fight his way up through the haze. He was still too drained. Then when he did wake up he had panicked and told Dr. Grey to tell her his heart belonged to someone else. Why the hell did he do that? He knew even then, in those first few waking moments that he was going to run again.
Marie woke up the next morning to Xavier requesting her presence in his office. Jean was already there apparently. She got dressed and padded down there quietly so as not to wake any of the other teachers up this early. Being summer now, she knew they would all want to sleep in.
She opened the door to Xavier's office and closed it behind her. She saw Xavier sitting at his desk and Jean sitting off to his left. The professor spoke first. "Good morning, Rogue. I trust you had a nice visit with Logan last night and had a good nights' rest?"
"Yes, thank you professor, I did. May I ask what this meeting is about?"
Jean looked at Xavier, he nodded so she began, "Rogue, you know the three of us have worked together for 5 years trying to help you learn to control your powers through meditation. Thought the meditation alone hasn't worked to control your powers yet, it has helped. The professor and I have another theory, but no definite way to really test it until know. We'd like to discuss this with you and why we think we may have a breakthrough now."
Marie just looked at them both, speechless. "Well, sure, go ahead".
Jean continued, "Based on what you told us in the past you're first knowledge of your power was when you kissed your first boyfriend."
Marie just shrugged, "Yeah, but you all know this. This is old news."
"Please let me continue…Xavier and I have become attuned to your powers and emotions over the years." Marie arched her eyebrow at this, and Jean continued hastily, "We never intruded in any way into your personal thoughts or feelings. It was just what you seemed to radiate off of yourself that we picked up on. The professor and I both noticed that last night your powers seemed to lessen for a brief time shortly after Logan left Xavier's office. Our theory is that your power in your skin is somehow tied to your emotions. We think that maybe if you are relaxed enough around someone your power might weaken or at least be more controllable. What do you think?"
Marie sat there in silence for a moment. "So let me get this straight. You think that because I'm most comfortable around Logan, I might be able to control my power and touch him skin to skin?"
Xavier spoke up this time, "Yes dear, but mind you this is just a theory. It might not hurt looking into over time. I'm just sorry that none of us ever made you feel that comfortable, and for that I blame ourselves. That's all for right now. You have a lot of thinking to do ahead of you to decide how much you want to pursue this."
Rogue went back up to her room, got undressed and lay down on her bed, pulling the covers over her. Xavier and Jean were right. She had a lot of thinking to do. Did she want Logan to know how she truly felt? Would that ruin the friendship they were just starting to rebuild? Would Logan ever really see her as anything other than the little girl he rescued at the side of the road? Could she really risk telling this man she loved him without him laughing or just grunting at her? What if he ran away again? As these thoughts wove theirs ways through her head she drifted off to sleep.
Logan hadn't seen Marie at lunch so he decided to track to her down. He wondered where she might be. He thought since it was so important to her that he not see her as a kid maybe they could go hang out at a bar tonight. Yeah, his mind screamed at him, somewhere safe where there's too many people, and you can't get into trouble.
He got to her room and saw her door was closed. He knocked but didn't get an answer. He tried the doorknob, not sure why he was doing this. Knowing he shouldn't have, but he couldn't stop all the same. After all, what would Marie hide from him? He had no secrets from her. He stepped inside her room calling, "Marie, Marie…you in here, darlin'…?" and stopped in mid-sentence. Looking over at her bed he saw the rumpled covers. It wasn't the rumpled covers that got his attention though, but what was lying amongst them.
Marie was on her stomach, asleep, facing away from him, with the covers pulled down to her lower back. "Oh, shit," he muttered. He couldn't believe what he was seeing and how it was affecting him. He knew he shouldn't be surprised that she slept in the nude though. She might not be able to touch other people but she could at least revel in the touch of the cool, cotton sheets. He walked up to her slowly and pulled the sheets and the comforter from the bottom of the bed to cover her shoulders. No sense in letting her know what he had seen, he thought. It would probably just piss her off and make matters worse. He tapped her on the shoulder through her comforter, "Marie, wake up. Darlin', wake up."
Marie could hear someone talking to her in her sleep "…wake up." She opened her eyes and rolled over, being sure to take the covers with her. She didn't want anyone to know she slept in the nude and they were thankfully all the way up to her neck. Noticing Logan she casually spoke up, "Oh, hey, Logan, sorry I must have dozed off for longer than I thought. What's going on?"
"Well, I was thinking, since you're not a 'kid' anymore if you'd want to go hang out at a bar tonight? Give us a chance to just hang out, away from all the geeks still here."
The idea sounded great to her. She didn't go to bars much. Too many people there for her to be nervous around. She knew she could feel safe going with Logan though. "Sure thing, Sugah. Just give me about an hour to get ready, and we can head out. How 'bout I meet you in the foyer?"
Logan smiled and turned to leave the room and them thought to remind her, "Dress accordingly, we'll be 'borrowing' One-Eye's bike. See you in an hour."
Marie rummaged through her closet and found the outfit. Perfect, she thought. Not too much, but definitely not too little either. She didn't want to shock Logan too much or scare him off.
Logan was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. He didn't want to take a chance that Scott was using the bike, so he'd actually gone and asked the jerk if he could borrow it.
Scott had started to tell him, "Hell no," before he explained he wanted to take Marie out for drinks away from the school. At the mention of Marie and knowing that she really needed this, he relented, grudgingly, handing the keys over to Logan. Logan had just started walking away without even thanking him when Scott called out, "You'd better be careful with her! She's like a sister to me and I'll kill you if you hurt her. She's pulled away from everyone else and if you do anything and she pulls away from you she'll be lost for good. Just remember that, Logan." Logan turned glaring at Scott, and grunted. Then thought better of it and mumbled, "Thanks for the bike, man", leaving Scott gaping in his wake. He actually said thanks to me? This must be important to him. Scott shook his head and wandered back to the garage to work on another bike.
Logan could hear someone at the top of the stairs and looked up in time to see Marie begin coming down to meet him. My God, what was she wearing? And what about her gloves? Wouldn't she want them with her? They were going to a bar after all, and though he didn't want to admit it there would probably be tons of guys wanting to touch her, dance with her… He slammed the door on those thoughts and just swallowed hard as he waited for her to come down the rest of the stairs and just admired the outfit. He had to admit it was appropriate. The green, snug fitting, off-the-shoulder top really showed off her pale shoulders. The top didn't really have any sleeves, just wide straps that barely touched the edges of her shoulders. The bottom of her shirt flared out a little bit and just barely skimmed the top of her black leather skirt and showed peeks of her flat stomach. The skirt itself was a decent length, not short enough to be trashy, just a hint of sexy. To top the outfit off she had on black leather zip up boots that went to just above her knees, not too far from where the skirt ended. When she neared the bottom he finally noticed what was on her arms. She had apparently found skin toned sheer opera gloves, like those things that women wore on their legs.
He noticed Marie was looking at him funny, with her head cocked to the side. Oh, she'd asked him a question and he didn't answer. He looked at her questioningly so she'd repeat the question. "Well, what do you think? Do you think I still look like a kid now?" Logan just grunted and turned around to go out the door. "Come on let's go." She'd seen it though, she thought, as she smiled to herself. She'd seen the look that flashed in his eyes briefly as she came down the stairs. She certainly hoped to get more of those looks from him tonight.
They'd gone outside to get the bike. Logan gave her a helmet and his jacket to put on even though he refused to wear one himself. After he got on the bike he finally decided to mention it, arching his eyebrows as he asked, "So, how are you planning to ride behind me with that skirt on?" "She just looked at him and smiled a wickedly. She grabbed both sides of the shirt and hitched it up her legs a little bit to give her enough room to get one leg over the bike to climb up behind him. She didn't stop watching his expression and smiled a small secret smile to herself after she was on the bike and holding onto him.
Logan was sorry he asked the question as soon as it came out of his mouth. He really did not need the visual of her hiking up her skirt like that. Just the sight alone made him blush hard and he had to look away, swallowing at the same time. He wasn't sure either, but he thought Marie saw his reaction and was pleased by it. Which made him even more uncomfortable. He was beginning to hope he just survived the night.
OK, GUYS, PLEASE R&R! Should I continue? I'm on the process of writing the other chapters already.
I hate this chapter, but I couldn't think of a better explanation for her to overcome her powers without it sounding too wishy-washy!
