A/N: This fic is a gift for my frequent beta and friend SinJazz!

Whilst I rooted this story more in comic book canon I have hopefully generalised it enough that anyone with a cursory knowledge of X-Men can follow along well enough.

I'm not an X-Men expert and I have never really written much fanfiction outside of Sailor Moon, so I welcome any feedback folks may be willing to offer.

A BIG thank you to Lillie Bell for betaing this fic. Check out Lillie's work on Ao3 and also her tumblr (lilliebellfanfics) chock full of great writing advice!


In Logan's opinion, birthdays were god awful; particularly his own. Even if he had any idea exactly how old he was, he would have stopped counting a long time ago. Ever since that horrible birthday 'surprise' courtesy of…him.

"Many happy returns, runt."

Snow flecked Sabretooth's blond hair, eyebrows and the dirty yellow mane of his costume.

Creed's lips curled into a cruel smirk that didn't fail to display a pronounced canine or two. "Did you think I wouldn't find you up North?"

Though his face was half concealed by the mask, there was no mistaking the cold scowl Logan shot back at Creed.

"Just didn't want t'be interrupted when we started to dance. It ends today, bub."

Snikt!

Six blades glistened amidst the swirling snow.

The two combatants began circling one another like lions, the ground crunching beneath their feet.

"You an' me have been doing this since before either of us can remember. Our powers make it that we can keep going till doomsday. What makes you think it'll end today, runt?"

With each rotation, the powdered ground was growing lower as the pair stepped into their old footprints.

"Because today," growled Logan, "you ain't gonna heal from what I'm gonna do t'you."

The circle shrunk, collapsing into a spiral.

"Now that is a surprise," mocked Sabretooth. "I didn't expect to you to get me a gift today."

They were so close now, Logan could make out the different shapes Creed's words made in the icy air.

"What damn foolishness are spewing now, Creed?"

Creed smiled again, this time Logan noticing just how chapped his lips were.

"All that talk about how you're gonna do me in permanent-like. That's like the Logan I used to know and loathe back in the good ol' days."

Logan felt sick remembering the "good ol' days" where he and Creed actually worked together for the government.

"Don't get me wrong, runt, you were always soft. But ever since you shacked up with those kids up in Westchester you became a complete clown." Once more, chapped lips curled over yellow pointed teeth. "What was it you said to t'me once, back when me and the Marauders were doing 'pest control' for Sinister?"

A lifetime's worth of training in martial arts, the military and in the Danger Room was the only thing that prevented Logan from lashing out right then and there.

"Ah, that's right," continued Creed, putting on a deliberately bad impersonation of Logan, "You're a killer Sabretooth. But me, I'm a man who sometimes kills. Or some crock of shit like that!"

Logan's eyes narrowed.

"You ain't no man, runt. You're a predator. An animal. Just like me."

The pair's concentric stalking had brought them a mere six feet apart.

Logan barely noticed. He barely noticed the sound of the birds fleeing the scene. The smell of congealed blood clinging to Creed's mane. The bite of the frigid wind upon his exposed arms.

Everything had fallen away without him even realising–everything except Creed's posture, the slightest of twitches in his muscles, and the direction his eyes were looking. To Logan's displeasure, Creed's words had drifted away, too.

"I'm nuthin like you, bub."

Even as he said it, Logan's mind flashed with memories to the contrary.

All the government wetwork he'd undertaken alongside Creed.

His rampage through the Weapon X facility.

The Hellfire Club goons he'd sliced and diced to save his teammates.

And the many, far too many, times he'd lost control. And how secretly good they'd felt at the time. The rush of adrenaline. The relief from letting go. How wonderfully natural it all came.

"Yer right," replied Creed, bringing Logan unpleasantly back to the present. "Yer lower on the food chain!"

Sabretooth lunged forward, talons extended and aimed directly at his opponent's heart.

A guttural roar built in Logan's throat. Then there was suddenly silenced.

Sabretooth's step had gone wrong. Though he had half extended his muscled upper body, his left foot hadn't moved at all. Eyes widening and brow furrowing, Creed's feral expression contorted into utter bafflement as first his knees and then the rest of him planted face first into the ground, the disturbed snow caking his mane.

"Look who's lower on the food chain now," said a disembodied voice.

Logan's brow furrowed in confusion. A young woman with curly brown hair, clad in a blue and gold costume, arose from beneath the icy earth like a sprite.

"Kitty? What're you doing here, darlin'?"

"Duh! It's your birthday!"

Logan scowled as he grabbed Kitty's arm and pulled her away from Sabretooth who was rapidly regrouping, having already pulled his face out of the snow. "This ain't no joke. Sabretooth-"

"Can't really hurt me," Kitty interjected, momentarily phasing two feet beneath the ground and then back up again to prove the point. "Besides I phased his foot into the earth so he's-"

A primal roar erupted next to them as Sabretooth, using both arms, yanked his left foot free and glared at the duo, murder in his predatory eyes.

"You were saying," replied Logan in a deadpan voice.

Before Sabretooth could stand back up however, Logan detected the faintest scent of…ozone?

CRACK!

Creed was hurled back by a bolt of lightning, slamming into a tree.

"Happy birthday, my friend." The words were spoken with the gentleness of a summer rain.

"Thanks, Storm." As Logan looked up, the clouds seemed to part, the daylight shining down upon a regal woman carried gently to the ground upon frosty wind. "Nice t'see ya. But this is personal business between me and that scumwad over there. So if you two wouldn't mind–"

"Ah! But I think the fraulein would mind, mein freund." Logan let out an exasperated sigh at the sight of a blue furred demon crouching upon a tree branch above. "After all, if it is personal to you it is highly personal for us, too, nein?"

"I must concur with my fellow cobalt-coated compatriot, Logan."

Logan's gloved palm flew to his face. "Cripes, not you too, Hank."

"But, of course," said Beast with a smile and a shrug. "Who do you think concocted the chemical that successfully masked us from your and Sabretooth's astounding olfactory detection?"

"Da! Tovarisch Beast wanted to make sure we gave you a big surprise for today!" A gleaming metal mountain of a man made his way over the hill, his hands extended out as if to hug the entire group.

"'Course, took us a while t' find ye once we landed the old Blackbird. Didn't want t' spoil the surprise."

Logan's eyes widened. "Banshee? I ain't seen you in a dog's age, bub."

Logan shook the hand of the gold and green clad Irishman. "Wasn't about t' miss sharing a pint with me ol' pal on 'is big day. And naught t' worry," he winked, "I won't be doing any singing fer ye."

"How did you all find me? I made a point o' covering my tracks and making sure no one was around."

"I was able to sense you."

Once again, Logan looked skywards. A vision in green, gold and fiery red was descending to Earth.

"Thought I had shielding from psychics."

"You do. But apparently I am an…exception", said Jean.

The corner of Logan's mouth twitched into a coy smile. He hardly failed to notice the rosy hue on Jean's cheeks that he was certain had nothing to do with the weather.

"Everyone, get into position. Just as we practised this morning." Logan's gaze shifted to the tall, commanding brown-haired man whose eyes were obscured by a yellow and ruby visor.

"Just one problem, Cyke. I wasn't exactly clocking in any hours in the Danger Room today."

"I know, Logan," replied Cyclops, "You just relax." He placed a firm, yet friendly, hand upon Logan's shoulder. "We've got this one."

From behind him, Logan heard a pained groaning noise. By the time he'd turned around, Sabetooth was standing on two rather shaky legs, leaning against a tree for support.

"See what I mean about you turning into a clown, runt? You got the entire circus to do the fighting for y-"

Sabretooth was swiftly silenced as a crimson energy blast slammed into him, sending him hurtling two dozen feet backwards.

Cyclops released the trigger on his visor and motioned for the others to pursue Sabretooth. Within seconds the entire team charged after Creed, a green, red, black, silver, blue and gold mass disrupting the otherwise white landscape.

Logan was left standing alone. Feeling uncharacteristically flabbergasted, he pulled his mask back, as if the act would somehow help him make more sense of what just happened; and how he felt about it. This was not, after all, how his birthdays typically went.

"Hope you're enjoying the party I threw ya, sugah."

Logan cocked an eyebrow. Of course. Why wouldn't she be here?

"Hell of a party."

Even as he said it, a tree fell in the distance, crimson light ignited across the sky, followed by another volley of lightning and two screams, one unearthly and the other a loud "yelp!"

Next to Logan, the woman in green lifted her hood, her face the only patch of skin exposed to the frigid elements. Logan knew that, for her, that was pretty typical regardless of the weather.

"Ah thought you deserved at least one Creed-free birthday. This was the next best thing ah could muster."

Over the years, Logan had found innumerable uses for his old secret service training. With a certain reluctance, he put it to good use as he replied. "I 'preciate it darlin', I really do." Anyone who wasn't a psychic would have been convinced by the reply. Anyone would have been satisfied with his reply. Anyone would have been unaware of how Logan was not appreciative. Because he did not believe he truly deserved this day.

Rogue however, was not anyone.

"You know, after a while, when the effect of mah power fades, whatever ah'm left with…It's like I'm watching a movie. Like ah'm in the room with whoever I touched, not like ah am whoever I touched."

Logan looked at Rogue, her solitary white streak of hair almost disappearing as the snow coated ever more of her brown locks. "And it never really leaves me." Nonchalantly, Rogue removed a glove and observed her bare hand. "Not completely."

A horrible, uncomfortable possibility dawned upon Logan. For a rare moment in his long, long life, he felt like a helpless child.

"That's how ah know Creed probably fed you some hogwash that likely got under yer skin." She looked up, her young eyes locking with Logan's impossibly old ones. "And that's how I know you ain't no animal. You ain't no killer."

She smiled and brought her hand up, stroking his cheek and mutton chops. It was only then Logan noticed she had surreptitiously replaced her glove.

"Yer a good teacher. Yer a great friend. Yer a wonderful man. And, more than a man…" Rogue's hand shifted from Logan's face to behind his head. A second later, his mask was back in place, the material practically caressing Logan's face. "Yer an X-Man."

Despite the near arctic cold surrounding them on all sides, Logan suddenly felt no discomfort at all. From the moment the mask slid over the top half of his face, he'd felt a pleasant warmth emanate from it, encompassing first his head, working its way down to his torso, his legs. Finally, that warmth, that seemed as obvious as it was familiar, embraced his heart.

"I know Cyke told me to relax…but-"

"Like I said," Rogue interrupted, "Ah, know you. Let's go kick Creed's ass."

As the pair charged into battle, a tiny part of Logan considered revising his opinion on birthdays.


A/N: Happy birthday SinJazz!

Also, just to let you know I am involved in a discord called 'Moonlight Legends' which is dedicated to sharing all sorts of Sailor Moon fanworks, including other fanfics. If you would like to join so you can share your own work, get help with your current projects or just connect to other fan creators shoot me a PM and I'll send you an invite. All are welcome!