Family Ties:
Chapter 4
Ha HA! Praise me, foolish mortals! I have the X-men 2 book! And low and
behold.NIGHTCRAWLER! WHOO!
Now you'll know who's the person right behind you going, "Psst! Guess
what's gonna happen now!" *cackle*
Also, I am warning you now: HIGH mushy-ness content. Who? Just read, you.
*****
"You sure 'bout this, lady?"
Rose made a face at him, her eyes narrowing. Her tail lashed impatiently against the concrete. "If I vasn't, vould I be here?"
Logan thought about this, rubbing his bristled chin. "Can't argue with that."
Two days after the "photo incident", Rose had seemingly recovered from the fact that her old associates was coming to Bayville. Still, a few of them had noticed that whenever she was watching TV and the commercial came on for the Adolph & Family circus, Rose was usually seen walking, almost running, out of that room, shaking like she had just seen a ghost.
Rose was determined to get over her fear, and decided to take private fighting lessons from Wolverine. She felt that if she could master the arts of defense and attack, maybe her panic might fade and maybe even disappear entirely.
Again, Logan hesitated. After all, he was actually rather found of her.and her cooking. He didn't want to hurt her too badly. She was rather frail. "Are-"
"LOGAN!" roared Rose in a temper completely not her own. Her tail slapped the ground harder than before, making a loud crack! sound on the ground.
She suddenly didn't look all that frail anymore. Now that Logan looked, she was actually very muscled under her brand-new, sleek-fitting uniform. It bared her torso, shoulders, and hips, and the jet black cloth was so dark that she could have walked up to him naked and Logan wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. It was evident that her years of flying on the trapeze had left its legacy behind in her smooth but defined muscles and slender frame. Rose had worn much baggy clothing that Logan had never had the chance to notice it till now.
So why was he looking now?
"Vell?" Rose asked impatiently. Her gaze traveled to the students nearby. A few of them looked uncertain, others looked completely certain.that sweet, fragile Rose was going to get pounded into the dirt. Kurt was one of the latter. "Are ve going to do this or not?"
Logan smiled like a dog that had just found the bone in the center of a steak. A challenge! "Alright. But you'll be the one sorry."
Rose actually laughed. "Ve vill see about that, mein herr."
Logan, of course, had no idea what Rose had called him. "Whatever."
He rushed right at her with a thundering challenge of his own. At first, Rose just stood there, looking as calm as calm could be. The very second that Logan was about to give her a gentle but firm punch, she was gone. He blinked, his brain trying to comprehend what had just happened when his acute senses warned him of something above, coming down on him, fast.
Very fast.
Logan barely had time to react before two outsized feet slammed him into the concrete. Rose jumped away to give him a fair chance, landing with a graceful leap that could have put Nightcrawler to shame. When Logan got back to his feet, he saw a playful smile on her lavender face. She gestured for him to come closer with one lengthy finger.
He only grinned and accepted her invitation, rushing forward a second time. This time, he actually elongated his claws with a faint snikt!. The students were obviously startled that he was actually going to use them in this battle. After all, Demoness had no healing factor like his.
"Your turn," he murmured quietly so that only Rose heard. She grinned toothily and became invisible yet again. Logan wondered how to best counteract this and realized his eyes would only cripple him. He closed them, letting his ears and nose take over.
At first, he heard and smelt nothing. But then.
The slight noise of a long tail moving along the floor. Her odd smell of books and cooking trickled into his sensitive nostrils. Wait.wait.
"Ha!" Logan swerved around, his claws nearly impaling Rose as she reappeared behind him. Only her agility save her from being shish kebab on pure admantium. She responded with agility that Logan had seen only Mystique perfect, that sort of grace that made her movements look almost fluid.
With another shout, he lashed out again, but hit only air. Rose had already seen that coming and had leapt straight up, nearly seven feet into the air. There, she found a tree branch and grasped it with hands, toes, and tail. For a moment, she looked like an oversized picture of a monkey in the Amazon from National Geographic.
But that was only for a split second. The next, she bounded off and landed on all fours onto their "fighting arena". Otherwise known as the garage.
The two of them stared at one another for nearly thirty seconds. Logan evaluated how Rose was doing. She was actually doing better than he first thought. He could hear her heart pounding, saw her chest heaving in and out, and smelt her sweat. But she hadn't given up, and that impressed him. On all four of her odd appendages, with her wings full extended, blood- red pupils blazing and violet skin glistening with sweat, she seemed to be living up to her alias, and then some. She truly would have been frightening if he didn't know the saintly soul inside.
She leapt again, but missed him entirely. Logan realized that she had meant to fly past him. Just as he turned around, he felt her large feet clamp themselves onto his waist, a large mighty tail wrap around his legs, and two-digit hands grip his head, rendering him helpless.
He held his breath, actually in a state of shock of how she kept him in place. "You're good," he panted to her quietly.
"If I vasn't, I vouldn't be alive, Volverine," she murmured in his ear. One curl of purple hair fell past his neck. The silkiness of it made Logan think of the slick skin of a python. Goose bumps rose on his arms and neck.
"Ready to give up, Logan?"
He took a deep breath, then released it. "Sure. Why not?"
Slowly, Rose released her control on him. The minute she let go he spun around and administered a hard-core punch smack in her face. She staggered and fell backwards. For a few tantalizing moments, she sat up and smiled sweetly at him, like he had done nothing more than give her a compliment. "Nice punch," she commented, brushing away the small line of blood from her chin. Her voice was practically dripping with amusement, and that entertained Logan greatly.
He actually laughed and walked over, extending a hand to help her up. Rose gladly took it, pulling on it to hoist herself up. That, and with Logan's own towing, jerked her up quickly. She lost her balance and collapsed in his arms.
Time stopped. The students, the trees, everything was slower now. Rose, out of pure instinct and from past events, instantly thought of fleeing, of becoming invisible and slinking off.
But the strength in Logan's rough and tough arms caught her by surprise. It wasn't the horrible, ruthless strength that she had suffered; it was the kind that offered protection and comfort. Rose found herself captured by his gaze, a prisoner of his hardened eyes.
Logan was likewise having an unexpected reaction as well. As always, he had nearly pushed her away like he did everyone else. Had she been a man, Logan probably would have punched her again. And yet, something held him back. He had never noticed just how curved, sleek, and smooth her body was until this moment. Her slick uniform was wet with her sweat, as did her fur, but he found the smell not disgusting, but rather. relaxing. That wasn't the only smell on her; she had the fragrance of fresh-baked bread, of rice paper with ink painstakingly written with care on them. She smelled of every single flower in the garden; rose, lily, daisy, you name it. The strongest smell that Logan caught, however, was fear.
Rose was afraid; afraid of touching someone, of being touched, in any shape, form, or fashion. Logan felt a small shudder pass through her. I'm scaring her! he thought, feeling a bit rejected.
He gently let her go, releasing his tight grip on her waist. She unraveled her tail and arms from his chest, gave him one last, fearful look, then left the garage, leaving behind one very confused wolverine.
*****
"They sooo obviously like each other!" Kurt gloated at school later that day, propping his feet on the table to balance at a precarious angle while sipping on his soda. Plastered on his smug face was a confident smirk.
"Duh," Kitty said sarcastically, fingering her roadkill, otherwise known as meatloaf. "You'd have to be, like, blind to not notice it!"
"Huh! Probably even the dead saw it!" remarked Rogue with a sly smile.
"So." Scott paused, giving the moment a dramatic air as the other X- men members stared curiously at him, and folded his fingers together. "How do we get them together?"
"Scott!" protested Jean, looking appalled by his question. "I can't believe you would say something like that!" She sat down in a huff. The force of her anger had her hair floating around her like a royal red cloud. "If they want to get together, it's entirely none of our business. We have to stay out of it."
Blank stares all around.
Kurt yawned. This was so NOT the way he wanted to handle this new game. "Vhatever." He turned back to the others, an impish gleam in his eyes. "How do ve get them together? They like each other, but I don't think they're going to say so."
"Kurt!" snarled Jean. She was like a bulldog about these things. There wasn't a way to shake her off until she wanted to or you conceded. She usually won.
The Nightcrawler ignored her completely. "Maybe more training sessions?"
"No," sighed Rogue glumly. "Rose said she wasn't going to do that anymore."
"Oh. Vell, how about ve get them together on the Blackbird on a mission.a fake mission!"
"Are you kidding?" Kitty said, her voice dripping with scorn. "The prof would kill us."
"Vell I don't see YOU thinking anything up!" Kurt cried, throwing his hands up. Unfortunately for him, that sent his chair tipping all the way back. He landed butt-first on hard, solid concrete. The others laughed as he rubbed his distressed behind. "Ha, ha, laugh it up." He bounded back onto the chair, like the fall had never happened. And then it came to him. "Vell.how about this."
*****
Later that evening.
"Arrgh!"
Logan was going to blow his top.
His all-time favorite motorcycle had been tampered with. If Sam and those other brats had been joyriding again.snikt!
With a tolerating sigh, he kneeled, grabbed a nearby case of tools, and went to work. A screw there, tighten another here...
"Logan?"
Logan turned around and faced Rose. She stood in the doorway in a pair of baggy P-Js, apparently ready for bed. In her hands were a sketchbook and a 2B pencil. She smiled at him. "Is something vrong vith your bike?"
"Yeah. The motor wouldn't run."
"Ah." She walked down the steps carefully, her silky nightgown gleaming in the faint light of the garage. Sitting down on the stool next to Logan, she said, "I am afraid I vould not be much help, mein herr."
"What does that mean, anyway?"
"It means 'my master' or something like that."
Logan let out a gruff laugh at that. "Master, eh? How about we just stick with Logan?"
Rose shrugged it. "Okay."
She sat silently, watching him work, curse, growl and snarl, then work again. To her amazement, he got a lot done, despite the fact that he seemed to be using more gnarls than tools. She had a sudden stroke of genius and began to sketch as he worked, cursed, growled, and snarled.
Half an hour afterwards, Logan washed his hands clean of oil and sweat having finally finished. He looked over at Rose sitting cross-legged on the stool, drawing like madwoman. How she held that pencil remained a complete and total mystery to him.
He strolled over and peered over her shoulder. His eyes widened to their largest at the "sketch" she had done of him and his motorcycle; it was like she had taken a black-and-white photograph of him. Every hair on his body, every muscle, every screw and gleam of metal on the bike, had been defined to the point where it looked like the drawing was going to leap right off the canvas and drive away.
"That's good," he said with real meaning.
Rose didn't answer him immediately; she was working on his head, adding in the very last lock of hair. When she finished, she slowly turned to him and looked him right in the eye. "You think so?"
"Yeah."
This truly delighted Rose. "Thank you.Logan." He sat down next to her, still admiring the picture. He noticed her flinch and, with the gracefulness of a lioness, slipped away until she was nearly on the edge of the bench.
"What? Did I do something?"
"No!" she said, waving her hands, then letting them fall into her lap. She stared hard at the floor, remaining silent for almost a minute. Logan waited until she let out a heavy sigh. "I am sorry. It.is not you, honest."
"You have bad experience with some guy?"
Rose jerked her eyes from the floor and stared at him. "Yes. Actually, more than one.but one in particular."
"Uh-huh."
She stared at him again, her eyes uncharacteristically dull and morose. "Volfgang. He.thought of me as little more than property, you can say."
"Okay. This Wolfgang sounds like a jerk."
"A vhat?"
"A jerk. A royal asshole."
Rose smiled at this. Logan thought that she had a nice smile, at least when she didn't flash those killer molars at you. "I see. Yes.Volfgang is most certainly a jerk."
"Nice to know we agree on something."
She laughed! Outstanding!
Both of them stood up. Because of her bones mutating so that she only stood on the balls and toes of her large feet, she actually stood taller than he did. Logan found this a tad bit amusing; it felt kind of cool to look up to her.
To his surprised, she stumbled and was saved by a hard meeting with the floor by his arms. She let out a small shiver, then decided that maybe this man was different. She folded against him, leaning her head on his shoulder for support, putting her whole body weight on him. He took this with ease.
"You okay?" he asked her softly. "When was the last time you slept?'
"Honest?" She paused, a slightly amused grin on her face. "Not since I found out the circus vas coming."
"That long? Jeez, you really are scared of this guy, huh?"
Grimly, she nodded her head. STUPID! he cursed himself. Apparently, no matter how much you learned about women, you always had something to learn. He looked at her. She deliberately kept her gaze from his, apparently trying to keep him and his impulses at bay.
It wasn't working.
Logan was barely breathing, not wanting to ruin such a delicate moment. Rose felt and smelled his breath on her skin and her mouth involuntarily opened in response. Her head tilted the slightest bit, to give Logan an easier access.
The kiss was there, begging to be had. Any other tie, he wouldn't have paused. But now he did, his keen senses telling him every feeling she was experiencing: lust, excitement.fear. Fear of what?
Their conversation from less than a second ago slapped him in the face. How could he be so stupid as to forget already! He could have punched himself full in the face for making such a dim-witted move.
"They were all the same," Rose whispered, her wispy gray eyes no longer avoiding his but staring, goggle-eyed, right at his. "All of them only vanted one thing.and they alvays got it.couldn't stop them.they vouldn't leave me alone..." She began to tremble like she had earlier that very same day. Her eyes were perfect copies of deer caught in the headlights of a vehicle, unable to move, unable to defend herself, unable to run at all.
"Rose." He pulled her closer, trying to comfort her from the inner demons that tormented her. It wasn't a Wolverine move.but Logan was still human. Whether he liked to admit it or not, he had a heart of gold encased by a solid coat of admantium. She still shook in his grasp, hands clawing into his shirt and tearing the fabric, preparing herself for what was going to happen next as her lips brushed his.
It was like fireworks had exploded inside his skull. The first contact was exactly like tasting sugar for the first time in your life. It stuck with you, making your body beg for more, screaming for one more taste.
There was moistness on his cheek. Logan opened his eyes and saw that her tears had fallen on his cheeks. "It's okay, Rose," he said, brushing the tears from both his and her face. "It's alright. I'm not like them."
She, too, opened her eyes. It was painstakingly clear to see that she found that hard to believe. "Really?"
Logan smiled. "Really."
She began to tremble again, but this wasn't the shiver of facing a horrible fear. This was the shiver of receiving a wonderful gift, something she would treasure forever. She kissed him, willingly, on the cheeks and lips. Neither said a thing; what could they say? There were no words that were needed. Not now, perhaps ever.
Rose was awestruck at this man, this Wolverine. He was most certainly not like any other man she had met; he cared for what she thought, what she felt, and would cease if she asked him to. There was no fear of him now. Quite the contrary, she had been worried of him being frightened of her. It made her heart and soul ache.
Logan wanted to kiss her again, more than he wanted to know about his past, more than the very breath he drew.
But she shook her head, drawing away. "Logan, no," she pleaded, her eyes brimming with tears. "I'm not ready.not yet."
Against every instinct and urge surging through his body and soul, he nodded and watched as she strode away, leaving behind her wonderful picture. Logan had a feeling that she meant to. This isn't me, not at all, he thought to himself. Every challenge he had faced had been ripped into shreds with pure physical strength and stamina. Nothing had stood in the way of the Wolverine.
Until Rose.
Odd how the fierce beast had been bested by a single flower.
"You sure 'bout this, lady?"
Rose made a face at him, her eyes narrowing. Her tail lashed impatiently against the concrete. "If I vasn't, vould I be here?"
Logan thought about this, rubbing his bristled chin. "Can't argue with that."
Two days after the "photo incident", Rose had seemingly recovered from the fact that her old associates was coming to Bayville. Still, a few of them had noticed that whenever she was watching TV and the commercial came on for the Adolph & Family circus, Rose was usually seen walking, almost running, out of that room, shaking like she had just seen a ghost.
Rose was determined to get over her fear, and decided to take private fighting lessons from Wolverine. She felt that if she could master the arts of defense and attack, maybe her panic might fade and maybe even disappear entirely.
Again, Logan hesitated. After all, he was actually rather found of her.and her cooking. He didn't want to hurt her too badly. She was rather frail. "Are-"
"LOGAN!" roared Rose in a temper completely not her own. Her tail slapped the ground harder than before, making a loud crack! sound on the ground.
She suddenly didn't look all that frail anymore. Now that Logan looked, she was actually very muscled under her brand-new, sleek-fitting uniform. It bared her torso, shoulders, and hips, and the jet black cloth was so dark that she could have walked up to him naked and Logan wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. It was evident that her years of flying on the trapeze had left its legacy behind in her smooth but defined muscles and slender frame. Rose had worn much baggy clothing that Logan had never had the chance to notice it till now.
So why was he looking now?
"Vell?" Rose asked impatiently. Her gaze traveled to the students nearby. A few of them looked uncertain, others looked completely certain.that sweet, fragile Rose was going to get pounded into the dirt. Kurt was one of the latter. "Are ve going to do this or not?"
Logan smiled like a dog that had just found the bone in the center of a steak. A challenge! "Alright. But you'll be the one sorry."
Rose actually laughed. "Ve vill see about that, mein herr."
Logan, of course, had no idea what Rose had called him. "Whatever."
He rushed right at her with a thundering challenge of his own. At first, Rose just stood there, looking as calm as calm could be. The very second that Logan was about to give her a gentle but firm punch, she was gone. He blinked, his brain trying to comprehend what had just happened when his acute senses warned him of something above, coming down on him, fast.
Very fast.
Logan barely had time to react before two outsized feet slammed him into the concrete. Rose jumped away to give him a fair chance, landing with a graceful leap that could have put Nightcrawler to shame. When Logan got back to his feet, he saw a playful smile on her lavender face. She gestured for him to come closer with one lengthy finger.
He only grinned and accepted her invitation, rushing forward a second time. This time, he actually elongated his claws with a faint snikt!. The students were obviously startled that he was actually going to use them in this battle. After all, Demoness had no healing factor like his.
"Your turn," he murmured quietly so that only Rose heard. She grinned toothily and became invisible yet again. Logan wondered how to best counteract this and realized his eyes would only cripple him. He closed them, letting his ears and nose take over.
At first, he heard and smelt nothing. But then.
The slight noise of a long tail moving along the floor. Her odd smell of books and cooking trickled into his sensitive nostrils. Wait.wait.
"Ha!" Logan swerved around, his claws nearly impaling Rose as she reappeared behind him. Only her agility save her from being shish kebab on pure admantium. She responded with agility that Logan had seen only Mystique perfect, that sort of grace that made her movements look almost fluid.
With another shout, he lashed out again, but hit only air. Rose had already seen that coming and had leapt straight up, nearly seven feet into the air. There, she found a tree branch and grasped it with hands, toes, and tail. For a moment, she looked like an oversized picture of a monkey in the Amazon from National Geographic.
But that was only for a split second. The next, she bounded off and landed on all fours onto their "fighting arena". Otherwise known as the garage.
The two of them stared at one another for nearly thirty seconds. Logan evaluated how Rose was doing. She was actually doing better than he first thought. He could hear her heart pounding, saw her chest heaving in and out, and smelt her sweat. But she hadn't given up, and that impressed him. On all four of her odd appendages, with her wings full extended, blood- red pupils blazing and violet skin glistening with sweat, she seemed to be living up to her alias, and then some. She truly would have been frightening if he didn't know the saintly soul inside.
She leapt again, but missed him entirely. Logan realized that she had meant to fly past him. Just as he turned around, he felt her large feet clamp themselves onto his waist, a large mighty tail wrap around his legs, and two-digit hands grip his head, rendering him helpless.
He held his breath, actually in a state of shock of how she kept him in place. "You're good," he panted to her quietly.
"If I vasn't, I vouldn't be alive, Volverine," she murmured in his ear. One curl of purple hair fell past his neck. The silkiness of it made Logan think of the slick skin of a python. Goose bumps rose on his arms and neck.
"Ready to give up, Logan?"
He took a deep breath, then released it. "Sure. Why not?"
Slowly, Rose released her control on him. The minute she let go he spun around and administered a hard-core punch smack in her face. She staggered and fell backwards. For a few tantalizing moments, she sat up and smiled sweetly at him, like he had done nothing more than give her a compliment. "Nice punch," she commented, brushing away the small line of blood from her chin. Her voice was practically dripping with amusement, and that entertained Logan greatly.
He actually laughed and walked over, extending a hand to help her up. Rose gladly took it, pulling on it to hoist herself up. That, and with Logan's own towing, jerked her up quickly. She lost her balance and collapsed in his arms.
Time stopped. The students, the trees, everything was slower now. Rose, out of pure instinct and from past events, instantly thought of fleeing, of becoming invisible and slinking off.
But the strength in Logan's rough and tough arms caught her by surprise. It wasn't the horrible, ruthless strength that she had suffered; it was the kind that offered protection and comfort. Rose found herself captured by his gaze, a prisoner of his hardened eyes.
Logan was likewise having an unexpected reaction as well. As always, he had nearly pushed her away like he did everyone else. Had she been a man, Logan probably would have punched her again. And yet, something held him back. He had never noticed just how curved, sleek, and smooth her body was until this moment. Her slick uniform was wet with her sweat, as did her fur, but he found the smell not disgusting, but rather. relaxing. That wasn't the only smell on her; she had the fragrance of fresh-baked bread, of rice paper with ink painstakingly written with care on them. She smelled of every single flower in the garden; rose, lily, daisy, you name it. The strongest smell that Logan caught, however, was fear.
Rose was afraid; afraid of touching someone, of being touched, in any shape, form, or fashion. Logan felt a small shudder pass through her. I'm scaring her! he thought, feeling a bit rejected.
He gently let her go, releasing his tight grip on her waist. She unraveled her tail and arms from his chest, gave him one last, fearful look, then left the garage, leaving behind one very confused wolverine.
*****
"They sooo obviously like each other!" Kurt gloated at school later that day, propping his feet on the table to balance at a precarious angle while sipping on his soda. Plastered on his smug face was a confident smirk.
"Duh," Kitty said sarcastically, fingering her roadkill, otherwise known as meatloaf. "You'd have to be, like, blind to not notice it!"
"Huh! Probably even the dead saw it!" remarked Rogue with a sly smile.
"So." Scott paused, giving the moment a dramatic air as the other X- men members stared curiously at him, and folded his fingers together. "How do we get them together?"
"Scott!" protested Jean, looking appalled by his question. "I can't believe you would say something like that!" She sat down in a huff. The force of her anger had her hair floating around her like a royal red cloud. "If they want to get together, it's entirely none of our business. We have to stay out of it."
Blank stares all around.
Kurt yawned. This was so NOT the way he wanted to handle this new game. "Vhatever." He turned back to the others, an impish gleam in his eyes. "How do ve get them together? They like each other, but I don't think they're going to say so."
"Kurt!" snarled Jean. She was like a bulldog about these things. There wasn't a way to shake her off until she wanted to or you conceded. She usually won.
The Nightcrawler ignored her completely. "Maybe more training sessions?"
"No," sighed Rogue glumly. "Rose said she wasn't going to do that anymore."
"Oh. Vell, how about ve get them together on the Blackbird on a mission.a fake mission!"
"Are you kidding?" Kitty said, her voice dripping with scorn. "The prof would kill us."
"Vell I don't see YOU thinking anything up!" Kurt cried, throwing his hands up. Unfortunately for him, that sent his chair tipping all the way back. He landed butt-first on hard, solid concrete. The others laughed as he rubbed his distressed behind. "Ha, ha, laugh it up." He bounded back onto the chair, like the fall had never happened. And then it came to him. "Vell.how about this."
*****
Later that evening.
"Arrgh!"
Logan was going to blow his top.
His all-time favorite motorcycle had been tampered with. If Sam and those other brats had been joyriding again.snikt!
With a tolerating sigh, he kneeled, grabbed a nearby case of tools, and went to work. A screw there, tighten another here...
"Logan?"
Logan turned around and faced Rose. She stood in the doorway in a pair of baggy P-Js, apparently ready for bed. In her hands were a sketchbook and a 2B pencil. She smiled at him. "Is something vrong vith your bike?"
"Yeah. The motor wouldn't run."
"Ah." She walked down the steps carefully, her silky nightgown gleaming in the faint light of the garage. Sitting down on the stool next to Logan, she said, "I am afraid I vould not be much help, mein herr."
"What does that mean, anyway?"
"It means 'my master' or something like that."
Logan let out a gruff laugh at that. "Master, eh? How about we just stick with Logan?"
Rose shrugged it. "Okay."
She sat silently, watching him work, curse, growl and snarl, then work again. To her amazement, he got a lot done, despite the fact that he seemed to be using more gnarls than tools. She had a sudden stroke of genius and began to sketch as he worked, cursed, growled, and snarled.
Half an hour afterwards, Logan washed his hands clean of oil and sweat having finally finished. He looked over at Rose sitting cross-legged on the stool, drawing like madwoman. How she held that pencil remained a complete and total mystery to him.
He strolled over and peered over her shoulder. His eyes widened to their largest at the "sketch" she had done of him and his motorcycle; it was like she had taken a black-and-white photograph of him. Every hair on his body, every muscle, every screw and gleam of metal on the bike, had been defined to the point where it looked like the drawing was going to leap right off the canvas and drive away.
"That's good," he said with real meaning.
Rose didn't answer him immediately; she was working on his head, adding in the very last lock of hair. When she finished, she slowly turned to him and looked him right in the eye. "You think so?"
"Yeah."
This truly delighted Rose. "Thank you.Logan." He sat down next to her, still admiring the picture. He noticed her flinch and, with the gracefulness of a lioness, slipped away until she was nearly on the edge of the bench.
"What? Did I do something?"
"No!" she said, waving her hands, then letting them fall into her lap. She stared hard at the floor, remaining silent for almost a minute. Logan waited until she let out a heavy sigh. "I am sorry. It.is not you, honest."
"You have bad experience with some guy?"
Rose jerked her eyes from the floor and stared at him. "Yes. Actually, more than one.but one in particular."
"Uh-huh."
She stared at him again, her eyes uncharacteristically dull and morose. "Volfgang. He.thought of me as little more than property, you can say."
"Okay. This Wolfgang sounds like a jerk."
"A vhat?"
"A jerk. A royal asshole."
Rose smiled at this. Logan thought that she had a nice smile, at least when she didn't flash those killer molars at you. "I see. Yes.Volfgang is most certainly a jerk."
"Nice to know we agree on something."
She laughed! Outstanding!
Both of them stood up. Because of her bones mutating so that she only stood on the balls and toes of her large feet, she actually stood taller than he did. Logan found this a tad bit amusing; it felt kind of cool to look up to her.
To his surprised, she stumbled and was saved by a hard meeting with the floor by his arms. She let out a small shiver, then decided that maybe this man was different. She folded against him, leaning her head on his shoulder for support, putting her whole body weight on him. He took this with ease.
"You okay?" he asked her softly. "When was the last time you slept?'
"Honest?" She paused, a slightly amused grin on her face. "Not since I found out the circus vas coming."
"That long? Jeez, you really are scared of this guy, huh?"
Grimly, she nodded her head. STUPID! he cursed himself. Apparently, no matter how much you learned about women, you always had something to learn. He looked at her. She deliberately kept her gaze from his, apparently trying to keep him and his impulses at bay.
It wasn't working.
Logan was barely breathing, not wanting to ruin such a delicate moment. Rose felt and smelled his breath on her skin and her mouth involuntarily opened in response. Her head tilted the slightest bit, to give Logan an easier access.
The kiss was there, begging to be had. Any other tie, he wouldn't have paused. But now he did, his keen senses telling him every feeling she was experiencing: lust, excitement.fear. Fear of what?
Their conversation from less than a second ago slapped him in the face. How could he be so stupid as to forget already! He could have punched himself full in the face for making such a dim-witted move.
"They were all the same," Rose whispered, her wispy gray eyes no longer avoiding his but staring, goggle-eyed, right at his. "All of them only vanted one thing.and they alvays got it.couldn't stop them.they vouldn't leave me alone..." She began to tremble like she had earlier that very same day. Her eyes were perfect copies of deer caught in the headlights of a vehicle, unable to move, unable to defend herself, unable to run at all.
"Rose." He pulled her closer, trying to comfort her from the inner demons that tormented her. It wasn't a Wolverine move.but Logan was still human. Whether he liked to admit it or not, he had a heart of gold encased by a solid coat of admantium. She still shook in his grasp, hands clawing into his shirt and tearing the fabric, preparing herself for what was going to happen next as her lips brushed his.
It was like fireworks had exploded inside his skull. The first contact was exactly like tasting sugar for the first time in your life. It stuck with you, making your body beg for more, screaming for one more taste.
There was moistness on his cheek. Logan opened his eyes and saw that her tears had fallen on his cheeks. "It's okay, Rose," he said, brushing the tears from both his and her face. "It's alright. I'm not like them."
She, too, opened her eyes. It was painstakingly clear to see that she found that hard to believe. "Really?"
Logan smiled. "Really."
She began to tremble again, but this wasn't the shiver of facing a horrible fear. This was the shiver of receiving a wonderful gift, something she would treasure forever. She kissed him, willingly, on the cheeks and lips. Neither said a thing; what could they say? There were no words that were needed. Not now, perhaps ever.
Rose was awestruck at this man, this Wolverine. He was most certainly not like any other man she had met; he cared for what she thought, what she felt, and would cease if she asked him to. There was no fear of him now. Quite the contrary, she had been worried of him being frightened of her. It made her heart and soul ache.
Logan wanted to kiss her again, more than he wanted to know about his past, more than the very breath he drew.
But she shook her head, drawing away. "Logan, no," she pleaded, her eyes brimming with tears. "I'm not ready.not yet."
Against every instinct and urge surging through his body and soul, he nodded and watched as she strode away, leaving behind her wonderful picture. Logan had a feeling that she meant to. This isn't me, not at all, he thought to himself. Every challenge he had faced had been ripped into shreds with pure physical strength and stamina. Nothing had stood in the way of the Wolverine.
Until Rose.
Odd how the fierce beast had been bested by a single flower.