Disclaimer: Not my characters, just my imaginings.
A.N.: Okay so this is REALLY short. In fact, I may post an extra chapter today just to make up for the brevity of this one. Hmm... I'll have to think about that.
"You go down there and you have fun like everyone else for once." The protest never left her lips because he interrupted firmly in his 'I'm the big, bad Wolverine so you have no choice' tone. "I mean it. Go."
"But I really don't think…"
"Damn it Marie, the only 'but' you need to worry about is the one I'm gonna beat if you don't go down there and dance like an idiot with all your friends!"
"You would not," she threw back. The look on his face had her second-guessing that assumption, though. She tossed her hair defiantly before moving quickly to the stairs just to let him know she wasn't intimidated, even if she was just a little bit. She figured it wouldn't do to have him getting too cocky.
When he came down to check on her later, she was smiling and twirling about, laughing with Jubilee and Kitty. He watched with a smirk that he'd been right until he really looked closely. The chocolate eyes weren't glowing like they should be if she was genuinely happy. The watchfulness of her while she moved, the tugs on her sleeves to ensure staying covered, the barely noticeable sigh that escaped every so often… Marie was not having a good time at all. She was tense. She was worried.
Logan shook his head just once before wandering into the room trying to look natural about it. She saw him and put on quite a show of enjoying herself, but he wasn't fooled. A song came on that he recognized and he went to stand at the edges of the improvised dance floor. Kitty and Jubilee nudged her in his direction, knocking Marie off-balance and she stumbled into him. He caught her close and, with a smile for her, spun her back to them. She stayed closer to him than the other dancers and under his watchful eye was able to relax a bit more. Marie knew Logan wouldn't let anything happen.
They didn't linger more than half an hour more before the party started breaking up. The others started drifting away in pairs while Logan and Marie swayed to music only they could hear. The drag of her feet and droop of her shoulders told him what kind of shape she was in. "Come on, darlin'. You're wiped. Bed for you."
Wordlessly she nodded and let him lead her to her door, nudge her through, and pull it quietly shut behind her. "Night, sugar," she mumbled without thought.
Standing in the hallway listening to make sure she got settled in all right, he let a soft smile settle on his face. "Night, darlin'."
The relatively normal pace of life in the mansion was about to be disrupted, so it was a good thing all within its walls slept deeply and peacefully that night. The one thing that mutant high could always be counted on delivering was the unexpected.