Now For Logan

With the exception of Rogue who couldn't be woken, the girls drug themselves into the dining room for dinner.

Their bodies were toned and trained to take all kinds of abuse in battle, but there was something about shopping that could wear them out like nothing else.

Logan watched them flop into chairs and tiredly begin filling their plates with an arched black brow.

"What have you girls been doing all day?"

Kitty stifled a yawn, put some vegetables on her plate and answered, "We took Rogue shopping."

"What for?" he growled.

"Everything," Tabitha replied as she dug into her meal.

He frowned at all that that answer could possibly mean and Betsy decided she should fill him in a bit.

"Our Rogue's wardrobe was getting a tad old so we took her to the mall for a makeover, luv. We got the works – make-up, jewelry, fab clothes, leather and linger … eh, you get the idea," she looked down at her plate with a faux blush like that last bit had been an accidental slip of her tongue.

Logan sat there with a forkful of steak hovering near his parted lips as his mind became filled with images of Rogue and leather and linger … eh.

Jean's eyes widen at some of the images swirling through his head and she stared at him until Betsy kicked her under the table.

~~ No looking at that! ~~

Jean blushed guiltily at the reprimand and wondered if Scott would have such vivid thoughts when he learned of the leather addition to her wardrobe.

Betsy laughed suddenly as she followed the other girl's thoughts getting a glare from those green eyes.

~~ Oh, but it's all right for you to peep into my thoughts like that? ~~

The telepaths glared at each other then collapsed in their chair giggling.

Logan shook his head, muttered something about "kids" and finally ate that bite of steak.

~*~*~

He rarely did these late night bed checks anymore, but Betsy had sent him a rather worried telepathic message that she heard someone messing around downstairs and she wasn't sensing anyone she knew in the lower levels.

So he shook off the remnants of his restless sleep, slid from bed to slip on a pair of sweat pants and moved as quietly as possible downstairs to investigate.

Once in the shadows at the bottom of the stairs he stopped to listen for any unusual sounds.

Logan heard them and they were coming from the darkened kitchen.

Creeping slowly toward that room his nose detected two familiar scents.

Leftovers from dinner and Rogue.

A wicked smile curled his lips as the opportunity to lecture her for sleeping through dinner presented itself and he stepped into the kitchen to deliver that lecture.

Only to swallow his tongue and forget how to speak when he saw her.

Her trim little body was illuminated by the light of the open refrigerator she was bending into and he could easily see what she was wearing.

Little covering as it was to his way of thinking.

"What the hell are you wearing?" he finally snarled, his eyes still locked on the silky garment.

Rogue shrieked, nearly choked on the mouthful of chicken she had, hit her head on the freezer door as she straightened away from the fridge and dropped the wing she'd been munching on to the floor.

Lacking any other option, she spit the food in her mouth into her hand and glared at him while she coughed over what had slid down her throat.

"Are ya tryin' to kill me?!"

He stared pointedly at her nightgown and resisted the urge to ask her that same question.

Noticing his stare, she froze.

Completely.

Then her eyes slowly slid shut and she began to silently pray that she hadn't given in to the urge she'd had upon waking from her nap to slip into one of the sexy nightgowns Betsy had bought her.

Taking a deep breath, she dropped her head downward and cracked one eye open to look at herself.

The eye closed again the second in took in the image of her body clad in nothing but the Lace-Up Satin Gown with it's V-neck, lattice ties up the side from her hips to under her arms and the long open slits down her legs.

She thought of playing it cool – acting like she knew she could have gotten caught running around the mansion like this by someone and sooo didn't care.

She thought of trying her hand at being a seductress and giving him some come on along the lines of, "Ya like what ya see, shuga?"

She thought of a few different scenarios, but what she actually did was duck and run.

~*~*~

Logan stared after her then picked up the chicken she'd dropped, threw the food away and shut the refrigerator door.

As he did so, his sensitive ears picked up some familiar laughter.

Scowling, he followed the sound to find Betsy and Jean practically rolling on the floor laughing in the hallway outside the kitchen.

"Was that your idea?" he asked them.

Both girls were startled into silence by his appearance and the question.

"What?" Betsy asked innocently.

"You think I don't recognize a set up when I see one, girl?"

Jean's eyes widened with horror and she looked at the other girl.

~~ Stay cool. ~~

~~ He's on to us, Elizabeth! ~~

~~ He hasn't a clue, luv. He only thinks I arranged this little episode as a prank. ~~

"What are you up to?" he demanded of them as their mental discussion left him in silence.

"Nothing really, luv. I had no idea that's what would happen when I sent you down here. I swear," Betsy said.

"You knew it was Rogue messin' around down here, though," he stated.

Both girls nodded.

"We had no idea she'd be wearing anything we bought her today, though," Jean confessed.

Logan sensed their sincerity and began thinking about her admission.

"D'ya get her a lot of that stuff today?"

The girls rejoiced at his interest in that area, but they had to play it cool.

"Um … that's really not for us to say, luv," Betsy said nervously.

"I … I think it's time we got to bed," Jean rose to her feet, also playing at being nervous in this situation. "It getting pretty late and we've had a tiring day."

It was on the tip of his tongue to make a remark about how they should have thought about that before their little game, but they darted around him and ran upstairs before he could utter the words.

"Kids," he growled as he too headed to the upper level to return to sleep.

~*~*~

"Whoa! Would you look at that?!" Scott exclaimed suddenly.

Logan lifted his head from the engine of the van he was working on to look at the young man.

From the other side of the vehicle, Kurt let out a long loud wolf whistle.

Turning his head in that direction Logan saw they both appeared to be staring at the same thing and he moved out from under the hood of the van to see what had their attention.

He picked up a grease rag and absently wiped his greasy hands on it before his gaze followed theirs.

To land on Rogue.

His hands stilled and the rag dropped forgotten to the ground as he stared at her.

She was standing very self-consciously in the center of her group of gal pals in an outfit they'd obviously selected for and forced onto her.

His eyes devoured all the pale flesh left exposed by the green tube and skintight emerald green leather pants.

He applauded their choice even as he wondered what the hell they were thinking leaving her skin unprotected.

"Good thing the Professor fixed her skin," Scott said to Kurt behind him, almost as if reading Logan's thoughts.

The man turned to stare at the pair.

"What are ya talkin' about?"

Kurt turned to hide a smile with a cough and Scott leaned cockily against the van's bumper.

"Hank and the Professor gave Rogue a cure for her mutation yesterday," the older boy said. "Works pretty good on me, too."

At those words, Scott pushed his trademark sunglasses up over his forehead to rest atop his head and he gave a shocked Logan a wink of his harmless right eye.

The man glared at the boy suspiciously then turned to Rogue who was being fawned over by her friends.

Those friends were reaching out their bare hands to touch Rogue's bare arms and shoulders.

Without even thinking before he acted, Logan strode over to that group, grabbed Rogue's bare arm himself and stormed into the mansion with her dragging behind him.

She sputtered and demanded explanations at his actions, but he just kept moving until they were down in the lab with Hank.

"Explain," he ordered the big blue man.

Hank turned to face his unexpected guests and looked curiously at the way Logan was clutching Rogue against him.

"Explain what, Logan?"

"How the hell I can do this," the man growled as he ran a bare finger over the girl's equally bare shoulder, causing Rogue to shiver just a bit.

He was left momentarily speechless by the uncontrolled show of aroused reaction from the girl at Logan's caress and just gaped at the couple until Logan growled impatiently for an answer.

Hank cleared his throat and focused his thoughts on the ruse that the team was working on carrying out.

"I've developed a serum that I believe will permanently cure dangerous mutations. Kurt and Scott were testing it, but Kurt began to miss his powers and Rogue has volunteered to take his place in helping me out. As you can see, her skin is no longer absorbent."

Logan bought it hook, line and sinker.

~*~*~

Outside the conspirators were gushing over their success.

"I do believe we're all set to proceed to the final stages of our plan," Betsy cooed.

The group around her nodded enthusiastically.

At his nod, Scott's sunglasses fell from their perch upon his head down to the ground.

Jean huffed and used her powers to pick them up and place them over his eyes again.

"Don't get too used to this, doll. Remember it's only temporary and we can't have the others seeing you like that and asking all kinds of questions. We're only doing this to fool Rogue," she lectured her boyfriend.

He frowned at the reminder that as soon as Rogue was convinced that she could control his deadly eyes would be back.

Sensing how the reminder effected him, Jean slipped under his arm, snuggled up against his side and began projecting all kinds of thoughts into his mind until he led her off so they could be along.

The others rolled their eyes after the couple then returned their focus to planning "the date."