Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel characters or any of the X-men. The same can be said of the wonderful world of J.K. Rowling. I am not making any profit, but simply having fun. I did however create Emma Winter.
Memories and dreams are in italics.
Edited in March 2021 during lockdown.
A roar of a bike ripped Rogue away from her thoughts and the young girl walked quickly to her bedroom window to check where the sound. Deep down inside she would have recognized the sound anywhere, and as expected it was Scott's bike that Logan had on permanent loan.
Logan was speeding away from the mansion with the history teacher glued to his back and her arms wrapped comfortably around his waist. Rogue stared after the bike as it rode away, her mind in turmoil.
Rogue's frown got deeper as she thought of the casual way the two seemed to be bonding in a very short amount of time. It irked Rogue more than she wanted to admit that Logan was spending every free moment with Emma Winter. Rogue had noticed that the new teacher constantly had a soft smile on her face when Emma was around the feral mutant.
Only a few hours earlier Rogue had casually suggested to Logan that they would go to the movies to watch whatever film he wanted. The man had quickly rebuffed her saying he had other plans and gave her no further explanation.
Rogue knew the reason why; everyone at the mansion knew that Friday evenings were date nights for Logan and Emma. No one knew if their relationship was getting serious, or if it was simply a great friendship, but it annoyed Rogue that there was no way to get Logan to change his plans, not even for her who had known him longer than anyone in the mansion.
Rogue had been getting increasingly more agitated towards Logan and his attempts at ignoring her. He was always sweet and kind to her when they met; the problem was that they hardly ever met at all anymore. Rogue knew that since Bobby had come into her life, no one in the house had taken it seriously, not even Logan who knew her the best of anyone living in the mansion.
Rogue's mutation wasn't under control when she and Bobby started dating and they could barely kiss the first year of their relationship. Nevertheless, with the professor's help, Rogue had finally been able to control her treacherous gift. That was a huge burden off her shoulders the first time she could turn her skin off and kiss Bobby for the first time without being afraid.
Although Rogue was very happy with Bobby she had never quite gotten over her puppy love of Logan. Even though the much older mutant had never treated her anything other than as his daughter, Rogue had often wondered how it would be if the two of them had ended up together. She had tried to ignore the times that Logan had flirted with Jean in front of everybody at the mansion. Rogue could understand why he had been infatuated with the red-haired doctor. Jean was perfection, everything she did, even the most mundane things, were done with grace and integrity that Rogue could never compete with.
The only time Rogue despised Jean was when the woman had told Logan about her schoolgirl crush on him. One day, a while before Rogue started to date Bobby; Logan had started to distance himself from Rogue. He had become constantly busier and never had time to hang with Rogue as he had done during the first year at the mansion.
At first Rogue had said nothing hoping that it was a phase that would blow over. However, after a while, it became shockingly clear that Logan's distraction was there to stay. Rogue had suspected Jean of opening her big mouth and had confronted her on the issue. Ultimately Jean had admitted to hinting to Logan that Rogue had some feelings for him. There the teenage girl had her confirmation and after that, she tried her best to put up a mask that everything was good in the world and she never showed Logan any reason to wonder if she had any romantic feelings for him.
She had thrown herself into a relationship with Bobby as to forget Logan. That hadn't worked; neither had she expected it to, not really.
After the new teacher had arrived things had become increasingly more difficult for Rogue to get any time with Logan, even getting him to the movies on Sunday evenings was impossible as he spent them relaxing after being out all weekends.
Rogue had quite liked Emma Winter when she had started at Xavier's. The woman seemed down to earth; she was quite young but very strict when it came to schoolwork. Emma expected nothing but the best from her students but instead, she was more than willing to help them with assignments and other things that interested the class.
The positivity flew out the window when Logan started to be interested in Emma. There was no way that Rogue could ever be friends with the new teacher after that. Even though she tried to hide her animosity from the woman Rogue still felt like Emma knew of Rogue's feelings for Logan.
Rogue almost jumped out of her skin as a well-built arm snaked over her stomach and held her tightly to a muscular chest. A kiss was planted on her cheek and the scent of Bobby aftershave filled her nostrils.
"Want to come to the movies with the gang?" he murmured in her ear after noticing how deep in thought Rogue had been lately. It was time to try to cheer her up. Being alone and moody wasn't good for her, she needed the company of her fellow mutant friends.
Rogue turned around and kissed Bobby quickly on the lips before answering with her southern drawl, "sure, let me change clothes and then we can go."
She walked with a smile to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. As she washed her face, she tried to forget the image of Logan and Emma driving away from the mansion.
A few hours later Emma and Logan were standing side by side on the veranda of Logan's cottage. They had finished their session and nothing new had come up. It seemed that Logan suffered from survivor's guilt over Jean's death as her last moments alive came up again and again in his mind. It made him feel impatient, but Emma had tried to assure him that it was perfectly normal that those things that were on one's mind would come up in legilimens sessions.
Still, the two friends were glad that they were getting the chance to get to know one another outside of the school and delighted to be able to help each other work through the pain of their pasts. Both of them struggled with restlessness that seemed to quieten when they visited the cottage, it had become a little haven for Emma and that had surprised her immensely.
"I wanna have a smoke before we head home," Logan said and Emma nodded in agreement. They sat on the steps of the veranda in silence watching the sun go down. Both of them were deep in thought, and for a while, they didn't say a word until Logan finally commented.
"Your scent changes when you use magic," Logan commented while chewing on his cigar, his hazel eyes glued on Emma's face that blushed crimson at his words.
"I smell?" Emma asked astounded while feeling self-doubt creep in. The witch brought one sleeve of her sweater up to her face and smelled but couldn't smell anything unusual, just a strong scent of Logan's cigars.
Logan laughed boisterously when he noticed that Emma seemed to be so uncomfortable about something that came as natural to him as scent.
"Don't get paranoid; scent is part of my thing. My senses are heightened".
Emma looked at him curiously and then the question was out before she could stop it.
"How do I smell then?" the witch asked, her dark eyes wide in wonder. Logan raised his eyebrow and grinned teasingly at her not wanting to tell her that she smelled good enough to eat. Somehow the mutant had the feeling that the witch would become skittish if he would say that too soon.
"Stupid question" Emma mumbled embarrassed when she saw his eyes twinkle with laughter, the green in his eyes increasing as it did every time the Wolverine wanted to come out to play.
"Nah it ain't a stupid question," Logan replied and Emma saw his nose twitch as he inhaled deeply through his nose. The witch stared at him in amazement; Logan was using his heightened senses to scent her.
"Cinnamon, you smell like cinnamon. When you use magic the scent gets much stronger," Logan said smiling a toothy grin filled with affection before turning his gaze back towards the horizon.
Cinnamon, that wasn't too bad, it always reminded her of Christmas at Hogwarts. Her expression becoming softer, and the witch smiled tenderly into the night.
Emma's next question came out a while later, "What is your thing Logan?"
"What thing?" the mutant asked not understanding what the witch was talking about.
"The gift, mutant thing?" Emma tried to explain hoping she wouldn't insult him, "I know about the metal blades that I saw in the Danger Room but that's it."
"Gift eh? Been spending time with 'Ro?" Logan asked mockingly and Emma nodded with a grin on her face. Ororo was famous at Xavier's for her gift speeches, and it was something that Logan cared little for.
"A gift is something you can return," Logan said resentfully to the young woman sitting next to him who didn't seem to quite understand the hatred he had for his mutant powers.
"Sorry Logan, I didn't mean to..." Emma tried to apologize when she felt Logan's frustration. It was a tender subject for many mutants, but it seemed that Logan had many unresolved issues attached to his mutation.
"It's ok, don't worry. I heal and I have these. I guess you have seen them before," he said as three huge blades shot out of the knuckles of his hand.
Emma didn't say anything, but Logan felt saw her body twitch with fright at the sight of his metal knives. Seeing the blades up close was completely different from seeing them inside his head where everything was somehow distorted. Even as Emma had been digging through his memories it had felt surreal, seeing the claws come out without any effort on Logan's part was another matter entirely.
"That is not organic is it? You couldn't have been born with these," Emma asked while unconsciously reaching her hand towards to blades as if she wanted to touch them. That was before she saw Logan shift as if in alarm as if uncomfortable with her coming near the blades.
Emma stopped her hand from reaching out and dropped it awkwardly down to her side.
"Chuck agrees. He said I wasn't born with them. All my bones have this metal on the outside."
Every bone in his body? How was that even possible? Emma realized that Logan had to be incredibly strong just to be able to stand, let alone fight as he did with the weight of the metal pulling him down.
The witch twitched again when the sound of metal rubbing against metal was heard and the blades retracted into his arm. Then she watched the wounds heal immediately in stunned silence. This time Emma didn't hesitate as she grabbed Logan's hand and stroked her thumb gently over his knuckles where open wounds had been only moments earlier. The only evidence of the blades were little drops of blood indicating that something had happened.
"Does it hurt?" Emma asked curiously seeing him grin at her amazement. She was like a child; experiencing things she had never thought were possible and Logan was more than happy to answer every question the young witch had.
"Every time," Logan murmured softly, his eyes gazing into hers while she continued to stroke over the skin of his knuckles. The mutant felt his heart beat faster with every touch and realized that he was falling under the spell of the dark-eyed witch who seemed to accept Logan for who he was, no matter what she had seen in his past.