Hearts & Diamonds 3
Number of words: 1095
Summary: In which Kana has a nice late chat with Wolverine.
Author's comment: This has been sitting in my iPod Touch for a long time. I'm still dissatisfied with it, but I've moved on to the next chapter already. Suggestions for improvement are greatly appreciated.
For the millionth time, Kana shifted in the bed, willing herself to sleep.
Sleep, she told herself. Oblivion. Rest. Nothingness.
When she'd run out of synonyms, she gave up and got out of bed. In the opposite bed, Rogue groaned, turned, then settled deeper into her cocoon of blankets.
Kana glanced at the digital clock a Rogue's bedside. Just after two. She didn't think she'd be able to sleep any time soon.
She was wearing only a thin white yukata, but figured if she ran into someone else, she was decent enough. She stepped out of the bedroom and fumbled her way to the kitchens through the dark hallways. When she thought she was in the right room, she groped for the light switch.
The light flickered on.
"You shouldn't be awake."
Kana jumped at the voice, blinking and trying to adjust to the sudden flood of light. When her eyes stopped streaming tears, she focused on the scary-looking man with side burns leaning casually on the wall, beer in hand.
Logan, her mind supplied. Codename Wolverine. She remembered him from dinner earlier. He was next to the light switch, holding a bottle of beer in one hand.
"Jetlag," she said. "I can't sleep."
Logan took another sip of beer. Even in that casual motion, there was something animalistic about him, like a wild animal was lying in wait under his skin, ready to go berserk any second.
"Huh," he grunted. Kana walked towards the fridge, opened it, and took an apple. Plonking herself on one of the chairs, she took a bite.
"Are you going to stand there all night?" she asked.
Logan gave her a long, hard look. She took another bite of her apple, doing her best not to show she that she was intimidated. He was a frightening man, she decided, and not one to be messed with. She repressed the urge to shiver.
"Well," Logan said as he sat down the chair directly opposite hers. "Don't think I'll make it any easier for you for training tomorrow."
Kana blinked, certain that somewhere out in the wide universe, a record was skipping.
"Training?" she repeated, dumbfounded.
"Yep," Logan grinned. There was nothing nice about the expression. "How else are you gonna learn to use your powers, kid? Or take out other big bad mutants?"
"Hold on," Kana interrupted, panicking. "The Professor never said anything about this."
"Yeah well," Logan said. "Ignorance ain't an excuse." He gulped down the beer, clearly enjoying himself. "No need to be scared, kid." The nasty grin on his face suggested otherwise.
Kana scowled. "I'm not scared."
He appraised her, and nodded, believing her. "You've got guts, I'll give you that."
"You don't get it." Kana bit her lip. "I won't use my powers against another person. I won't."
She set down her apple and stared down at her hands. Normal looking hands, right?Rogue had said. Painfully, deceptively normal.
"Kid, maybe that'd work in dreamland, but you're in the real world now." Logan shook his head. " 'fraid to break it to ya, but you're a mutant, and you're gonna be attacked by humans andsome asshole mutants your whole life. Nothing you can do about it. But that's what training's for. 'least we'll be giving you a chance to survive."
Kana chewed her lip. "I don't want to use my powers to hurt anybody," she finally said. "I... It's not right. I know life isn't all rainbows and ponies. I'm not a complete idiot. Though," she added defensively, seeing the smirk on his face. "You think otherwise. I know self-defense. Hand-to-hand combat. I have some training in weapons." She was biting her lip so hard now she'd split the skin, tasting copper in her mouth. "I won't hurt people with my powers."
"What kinda powers do you got, kid?" Logan asked, genuinely curious.
"Is it customary for you all to ask that?" Kana asked, trying to avoid snapping. It came out whiny and petulant instead. But it was all they asked when they saw her, the newbie. "I mean, can't a person's powers be private?"
Logan gave her a long and hard look. "Kid," he said. "I don't know what kinda place you came from, but here, your powers ain't something you have to hide. They're a part of you."
The look she gave him in return was one filled with so much despair and self-loathing, it made his skin crawl to look at it. Then she blinked, and the expression was gone.
"I know," she said quietly. She was silent for a minute. "I'm a hydrokinetic. Water manipulator."
"Ah." Logan didn't understand it. He'd expected her to have some awful power with terrible side-effects, like Rogue, but her mutation sounded fairly tame. But it didn't sound like ordinary teenage angst.
"So why are you awake?" Kana suddenly asked.
"I'm not a kid, I don't needeight hours of sleep like you babies," Logan snorted.
Kana shrugged. "How much have you drunk?" She sniffed, smelling the alcohol that clung to the man's body. It was obviously not his first bottle. Or second, or even third.
"I've got healing abilities," Logan said. He grinned. "Takes a lot to get me drunk."
"But why are you drinking?" Kana asked, then realised she'd gone too far. The grin slid off Logan's face, and he glared at her.
"Sorry," she said. "Forget I said it."
The awkward silence hung, thick and heavy. Logan had finished his beer and pulled another one out of thin air, gulping down the alcohol without pause. Kana wondered if she got up and left, the both of them could pretend the conversation never happened. Before she did though, Logan broke the silence.
"So," he grunted. "Which part of Japan you're from?"
"Not from Japan," Kana corrected. "Hainan. Southern China."
"What's with the kimono then?"
"Yukata," Kana corrected automatically. "My mom's Japanese," she went on to explain.
"I lived in Japan for a few years, once."
"How'd you find it?"
Logan's eyes seemed to mist over. He roused himself and shook his head, taking another swig of beer with more vigour than before.
"That bad?"
"It wasn't all bad," he said softly.
"Ah." She had no idea how to respond to that.
Suddenly, Logan got up, pushed his chair behind. The scraping of the chair was deafening.
"You should get to bed soon," he said curtly, then turned and left, leaving a confused Kana with a million questions. She stared at the empty space he had occupied and wondered what the hell had just happened.
Author's comments: The Japan thing is a reference to Wolverine's past with Mariko Yashida. Why'd I pick Kana to be Asian? It'll be explained later chapters.