Logan now stood in front of the Academy, contemplating. It's the middle of the night, no one would notice if I left. Since when have I been one to think before acting? Sighing and continuing his pacing of the front yard area, he thought. Well, if they don't want me back then I guess I'll just leave right? I mean what's the worst that could happen? Be asked to leave? I can deal with that. After telling himself that he was entering the mansion, not because he thought it over, but because he had grown tired of pacing, and the lawn was beginning to show signs of stress, he strode towards the front door. Opening it quietly, he stepped into the threshold, breathing a sigh of confusing relief. Looks just as I left it. He noticed a light on in the kitchen, someone must be awake. At first he panicked, there is no going back if you go in there. He nodded to himself and began to walk towards the kitchen.
"Rogue? You know you're coming home mighty late young lady and…" Ororo stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Logan, mouth gaping. Logan was now frozen in place; he could neither move nor speak. "Whe… Wha… Where have you been?" She shot glare in his direction.
"Uh..." He gave a small, trying-to-be-confident-but-failing-horribly laugh, "Canada?" He offered.
"Canada? Canada? Is that all you have to say for yourself is that you were in Canada? What? We didn't deserve a call or some type of contact?" Logan looked at her and tried to contain his shock. "Do you know how hard it's been?" She continued, "How many times I've had to deal with problems and such all on my own?" She was almost crying now, "I had so much to deal with; it would have been nice to have someone to help…" Logan walked towards her and attempted to comfort her, but she pushed him away. "I have to deal with my anger first, I can't just accept that you're back and move on, this is going to be a hard one. You should probably get ready for a lot of anger from the students; they were very worried about you. Rogue actually tried to run away once to go and look for you…." Logan just stared, they missed me? Ororo shook her head at his lack of action and words and left the room to go upstairs.
Logan decided it would probably be best to sleep on the couch that night. Lying down on the couch, he thought about what tomorrow would bring. Well according to 'Ro, a lot of anger, he sighed, I kind of deserved it, it might have even been easier to deal with the pain with my 'family' anyways. He had always been the one to be alone, the loner, who dealt with problems by himself and kept his distance in times of crisis, and here he was admitting that perhaps it would have been better, maybe a little easier if he had had some help with it, he shook his head, it was all too much to think about at that moment. Sighing and relaxing on the couch, he fell asleep.
He awoke the nest morning to find a body on his chest. It was Rogue; she must have gotten in late last night, for he hadn't actually fallen asleep until about 1 or 2 in the morning. She began to stir and open her eyes; she looked up and stared at him.
After staring at each other for about five or ten minutes Rogue broke the silence.
"Where were you?" She asked quietly, sitting up. He grimaced, the last time he answered that question he had gotten in a little bit of trouble.
"Canada." He looked down at her hands, which were playing with the fabric.
"What were you doing?" Softly, she swallowed back her tears. Logan, being a man, took no notice of this.
"I honestly couldn't tell you, sometimes I was running, others I was passing out from exhaustion, and then sometimes I was just wallowing in my own guilt and suffering." He could feel her eyes on him; he wished he could give her a better answer then that which he had just presented. She looked down, choking on her next words.
"I missed you." Now he realized she was about to cry and pulled her towards him.
"I missed you too." He held her for a bit, "I'm sorry kid, I just, god I, I jus' got a little overwhelmed." She nodded.
"You know, we were hurting too…" He squeezed her a bit.
"I know that now, but at the time, I didn't think about any one but myself, it was all me, you know how I am…" She looked up and smiled a little before nodding.
"Glad to have to you back Logan." She smiled weakly, "I think I smell the beginnings of breakfast in the kitchen, are you gonna join?" She stared hopefully in his direction. He sighed and nodded, apprehensively making his way towards the kitchen.
The moment he stepped into the kitchen every bit of noise that had been present previously had vanished, leaving an awkward silence to follow. He thought that they would have seen him on the couch, but judging by their reactions, they didn't. Logan sat down and looked at everyone.
"Look, I'm sorry I left, I know it was wrong, I understand that you all had similar pain to deal with, and I was being selfish by leaving like that. I also realize that I was being a complete asshole by not calling or giving you all some sort of contact with me, just to even let you know I'm okay. I've already had the talk from 'Mom' over there." Nobody laughed, he thought he was being funny, but apparently in the current situation, it was not funny.
"Since we're using the parent analogy, where was our father-figure all this time?" Bobby gave a sarcastic look. Boy, when did he become a smart-ass?
"Well, I've never really thought of myself as a father figure bu-"
"Never mind." Bobby looked back down at his plate and continued eating, as did everyone else. The atmosphere was still quite awkward, and he decided that it would probably be best to leave the room after he ate, maybe go and meditate in the garden or something. Maybe go and pay some respects to the gravestones.
After some mental debate, he decided he wasn't really ready for the gravestones yet and he would be meditating in the garden after eating.
Logan stuck to his plan and moved to the garden after his breakfast. Sitting down in a little bit of a corner, where there was the most shade, he crossed his legs and relaxed. He let his senses run wild; he could hear the animals, mostly birds, in the trees behind him. He could feel the coolness of the trees' shadows. He could practically taste the oils of the plants in the air. He could smell the flowers and plants around him. He could also smell something different, what was that… Fire?
Fire? Why was he smelling fire, he quickly moved towards the smell, the graveyard? He reached the graveyard before everyone else, although they arrived soon after. It was the weirdest thing they had ever seen. There was a burning pit of fire around the grave area; it was as if the depths of hell had just opened up in their place of mourning. All of a sudden the fire ceased, Logan and Ororo quickly moved to the site. Astonished, they both stared in silent awe.
"From ashes…" Ororo muttered.