Author: Logan Berry
Summary: Over a beer Logan admits to Scott that he's up to something. Scott believes it's a woman.
Rating/warning & pairing : Logan /Scott, PG-13 some language
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to any Marvel Characters. Kaylan O'Connor is a fictional character and is owned by the above author.
Feedback very welcome
Why am I sittin' 'ere night after night watchin' over ya? I got other stuff ta do ya know. All this effort is drivin' me crazy. Th' effort it takes not t' just come over there an' drag ya back t' the mansion. Woman yer a distraction I don't want, but I'd never forgive m'self if som'ing happened t' ya.
"Beer!" It wasn't a question, it was a command.
The kitchen was quiet for early evening - most of the children were either at prep or in the games-room. Logan and Scott were back on speaking terms, just. The week after Kaylan left had been busy, Scott and Logan had been forced, due to nature of the present situation, to work closely together, Logan collecting info from attack sites and Scott correlating the data. Logan always found re-con a necessary pain in the ass, but detailed planning was vital if they were to discover who or what was behind Kaylan's frozen x-gene. The two worked quietly and efficiently, only speaking when completely necessary. No mention was made of the fight, but Logan occasionally caught Scott glaring at him and absently rubbing his neck. Now, with the brief opportunity of a break, the two men found themselves together in the kitchen on the hunt for food - and in Logan's case, drink.
"Ok, but just the one." Scott replied.
'Tsst...tsst'. Logan popped the tops off two bottles and handed one to Scott, taking a stool at the breakfast counter. He checked his watch; two hours and he'd be gone. The soft hairs on the back of his neck prickled at the thought.
"Out again tonight?" Scott asked, noticing the furtive glance.
"Yup." was all Logan answered as he put the bottle to his lips. "I can feel a lecture comin' on, go ahead Cyke, ge'd it off ya chest."
"You know you can't keep swapping your night-shifts with other members of the team, it isn't fair...and besides they're going to get sick of you asking." Scott tried to sound authoritative, but he knew he was wasting his breath. Logan's irritable mood had been persistent ever since Kaylan's rescue, to the annoyance of many of the team, most of all Scott, who's patience was beginning to wearing rather thin.
"Kurt likes workin' nights." Logan responded, thinking on the little arrangement he had made with the Nightcrawler a week ago.
"Well, it's got to stop!"
Logan silently glared at the commander, taking another deep drink of beer.
"Where are you going anyway? You've been out every night for the last week." Topping the list of Scott's grievances with Logan was his recent spate of nighttime sorties.
"Wouldn't ya like t' know one-eye." "Who are ya, m' Mom?" Logan growled.
Scott wasn't sure which way Logan might jump I his present frame of mind and he was too tired for an argument. "Whatever it is, I hope it's not trouble." He added.
"It ain't Cyke, well not yet it ain't." "Maybe you shudda kept that comment t' ya self...Bub." Logan got up for another beer, 'Tsst...tsst'. Dropping a second bottle in front of Scott, he grabbed a jumbo bag of potato chips out of one of the cupboards and threw them onto the counter.
"How do you do it Logan?" Scott asked as he opened the bag. The question came out of the blue and Logan had to choke back a mouthful of beer.
"Do what?" he coughed.
"Just come and go as you please." Scott questioned.
"It don't take much talent...ya just open th' door..." Logan replied sarcastically, Scott fixed him with a side-ways glance. "'sides I got Mother Summers t' keep an eye on me...right?" He finished, raising a brow and smiling.
"Everything's simple for you isn't it? You think everything is black or white don't you?" He had wanted to ask Logan that very question since his arrival at the mansion. Scott took his role within the team very seriously and he found it hard to accept Logan's nonchalant attitude to his position within the team.
"Ya think so huh?" "try bein' driven nuts, that ain't simple." Logan reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a cigar, biting off the end, he lit it and took a few drags. Clouds of smoke billowed across the kitchen causing Scott to cough. "Ya don't know shit about me kid".
"How can you walk in and out of peoples lives and not think it effects them?" Scott thought back to the how Rogue had coped in the weeks after Logan left for Alkali Lake. She had spent many hours with Ro and Jean trying to overcome the feelings of rejection from the man who had saved her life, twice.
"I do what I thinks right…ya don't like it...tough." Logan leaned back in his stool, "It don't pay t' have ties Scott, one day ya'll learn that." He answered wistfully, reflecting on long painful memories. "They can take it away so easy."
Scott shook his head. "That doesn't give you the right to do as you please. You have to consider the team…"
"Ya wanna keep askin' them question's Mama, or ya gonna end the lecture right now? I said I'd have a beer with ya, I didn't say I needed yer agony-aunt advice." Logan growled as he roughly pushed the stool back from the counter. Grabbing the bottle he headed for the door; he'd had his fill of Scott for one evening.
"So, is it a woman?" Scott asked as Logan headed toward the door. The way he'd been acting all week, Scott presumed it was either that or he'd lost a fight with someone.
"What!" Logan sounded more shocked at the question than he intended. His internal defenses snapping into place. Taking a swig from the bottle to hide his surprise he turned to face the question.
Scott pressed, feeling he'd hit a nerve, "Who you've been seeing all this time...is it a woman?"
Logan glanced at Scott, an eyebrow raised. "Why? Would it make ya feel better if it was?" His bravado belied his thoughts. "Kaylan".
Scott's thoughts turned to Jean. She had been a contentious issue between them ever since Logan's arrival and it always got Scott's defenses up. "If it meant you stopped hassling Jean, then yeah it would make me feel better."
"This don't concern Jeanie, one-eye, though it'd make it easier if it did, damn it!" Logan thought
"You still haven't answered my question?" Scott said.
"No, th' answer's no, I ain't seeing no woman". Logan lied. The thought of Kaylan filled his mind and he felt a gentle heat rise in his cheeks. He put the cigar to his lips, took a long drag and blew out the smoke to hide his discomfort. "Jeeze, I can smell 'er right now." "But th' night's young..." he sneered.
"Ya see! That's what I mean... nothing touches you does it?" Scott exclaimed.
Logan had to laugh at the up-tight commander, "Ya worry too much 'bout other peoples stuff." He chuckled, returning to sit back down at the counter.
"Do you want another?" Scott asked as he got up for another beer. 'tsst…tsst'.
Logan smiled, "Ya know, ya can rely on me Kid, I ain't goin' no-where."
"Because you got something going on, right?"
"Right."
There was long pause as Scott sat back down at the counter and grabbed a handful of chips, considering his next question.
"So if it were a woman, hypothetically speaking, what would she have that would keep you here?"
"Ya gotta thing 'bout chicks tonight haven't ya Scott...Jeanie not puttin' out?" Logan laughed.
Scott fixed him with a sideways glance, intent on not rising to Logan's wisecrack.
Logan considered Scott's question, images of old encounters flickered in his mind. "What would a woman have?" He mused. "Oh, I dunno ...er...Green eyes, short red hair...nice as..."
"Logan! For fucks sake...." Scott shouted slamming down his beer bottle and sending a wave of froth across the counter.
"Hey, Hey! Scotty...I'm just yankin' ya chain, kid, com' on...don't take it so serious." Scott shrugged and reached across to the sink for a cloth to wipe the beer up.
"A woman...to keep me here...err well." Logan thought about his life or what he could remember of it; years on the road moving from place to place, the dives he'd lived in and the women he'd known. He tried not to think of Kaylan, but the image of her eyes and soft pale skin filled his mind, along with an overwhelming need to see her, and an anger at his weakness for being so needy.
"I dunno," he said, feeling the conversation was getting way to close to home. The blue-eyed mutant woman, un-aware of her true nature, filled his mind. Their first encounter had left Logan almost ready to kill; her unrestrained scent driving him crazy. But since her departure from the mansion, the more he tried to get her out of his mind the more he needed to see her. The powerful feelings he was having for this woman disturbed him and excited him at the same time. "She needs my protection, she's ain't safe on her own. Them mongrels could be back anytime, that's what's keepin' me here."
"Come on Logan." Scott laughed regaining his confidence at Logan's discomfort.
The image of her played through his mind. "Well, I guess she would have to be good lookin'."
"That goes without sayin'."
"Slim...but shapely," he added. "Ya know wha'd I mean?"
"Yep" Scott nodded.
Putting down the bottle on the counter he glanced at his watch again, knowing his nightly foray across town was imminent.
"You gotta go?" Scott questioned, spotting Logan's second look.
Logan shifted in he chair, "Yeah kid, ya still gotta problem wi' that?"
"I guess I don't have a choice do I?" Scott laughed.
"Guess not." Logan growled.
"Well then, take your phone!" Scott added.
"Yeah…Mom." Logan raised a hand in answer as he passed through the kitchen door, the pleasant ache of anticipation filling his body.
Them moves o' Scott's ain't gonna do jack if them guys come back. Don't ya know how unsafe it is fer ya? Damn it Logan, a beer, a shower and the TV, that's what ya should be doin'. But no, ya gotta go bein the protector, the tough guy. Jeeze ya can be an ass some-times. Its fer 'er own good, just keep tellin' ya self…who 'm I kiddin'…I'm fallin' fer her.