It took a month for the first attempt. They came at them during the spring break, when there were fewer children in residence.
Logan and Victor managed to keep them safe, but after that, Victor insisted that Rogue and Leech be separated, it was easier to hide Leech among normal people since his mutation only effected mutants.
Victor kept her almost chained to his side, and it drove her nuts. After that first kiss in the infirmary, he'd kept his hands to himself, and she wanted to explore why she could touch him without either of them ending up in a coma.
The one good thing was she wasn't alone anymore, not even to go to the bathroom, he stood right outside the stall door in public and outside the door to her bathroom in her room. They'd moved her into her own room, and he slept on a pallet on the floor.
"Look, it's Rogue and her pet Sabretooth. I'm surprised she doesn't have him on a leash."
She wanted to hit the damned kid. They didn't understand and weren't willing to cut him some slack.
"Sorry 'bout that." She muttered under her breath.
"They don't bother me." He said. "As long as you are safe."
That was about all he said. She almost wished he'd let the animal out for a while, at least it might try to kiss her again. She could hear his inner battle every night in his sleep, and wanted to comfort him, but the one time she tried he'd growled and snarled until she just climbed back into bed.
It was bad enough, him clamming up and not talking to her, but the him in her head was just as silent, and guarded. Accessing his memories was a battle, and she knew it was because there were things he didn't want her to see. Right now it wasn't worth the battle, although she knew both versions of him were watching her closely, but for what she didn't know.
She'd tried, many times, to reach out to him, to try to help him adjust, but each time he pulled farther away. She even tried reaching out on a personal level, but he just glared at her as if she'd turned green. She'd had enough.
She sat down on the bench under the apple tree. He stopped and glared at her but just stood there, watching the sky, the tree line of the forest, even the other students at the school.
"Ya know ya don't have ta play bodyguard all tha damned time." She let out a good growl to match his.
"Until you're safe, I do." He growled back.
"Well, ya could at least pretend ya liked it." She groused back.
"I do like it. I get to spend time with you." She glared at him.
"Not talkin, not communicating isn't spendin' time with someone." She snapped.
"I talk, we're talking now." He said with a snort. She threw up her gloved hands in disgust.
"Ah've had about enough of this. First yer broken and need mah help, then ya wake up and yer someone else again, somewhere between animal and Victor, then I drain ya, and get the one in mah head, and that one's just as damned stubborn, then ya kiss me an' my mutation doesn't kill ya, and now ya just walk around behind me like a shadow and don't say a damned word. I can't TAKE it."
"Rogue, I can't let my guard down, those people are nothin' ta fool around with, they almost killed me." He growled back, and she could feel, and smell that it was the frightened words of the little boy.
"Bein' friends wouldn't let yer guard down, hell bein' somethin' else wouldn't either."
"Oh yes it would." He started pacing in front of her.
"How?"
"I'd be thinkin' about how ta get in your pants, not about keepin' ya safe." This time she knew it was Sabretooth. She'd started a game with herself, trying to identify which half was speaking at which time.
"Leech is safe, and I'm safer here than almost any place." She started.
"YOU are only safe if I'm on watch." He growled, and she knew it was both at the same time.
"What if Ah don't want ta just be safe. You said I belonged ta you, but you sure as hell don't act like it."
"Darlin' I'm getting less than two hours sleep a night, there's still things my body's healin, and yes damn it I want you, but I want you safe and alive, not dead because I wasn't payin' attention because I was ruttin with you instead of keepin' my eyes peeled.
"RUTTIN'" She snapped. "You son of a bitch."
He grabbed her by her shoulders and lifted her until she was at his eye height. "If I think of it as anything else then I spend all my time wantin' ta do this." She was surprised for a second and didn't realize he was kissing her. She tried to pull back, to stop her mutation, but it just stayed dormant. She wrapped her legs around his waist for better leverage, and started kissing him back. For someone with little to no experience with women, the man could kiss. She could feel him, thick and hard through his jeans, pressing against her, and she moaned. His scent was full of musk and it was starting to drive her insane. She wanted more of his skin, wanted to touch and taste all of him.
She felt him jerk suddenly, and then heard the rapport of the gun shot. He let out a roar, and turned in the direction of the shot, dropping her onto the ground behind him. She clung to the back of his belt, a sting in her side making her light headed. She looked down, and saw blood on the back of his shirt, the wound exposed by the hole working to try to close.
She shook her head, trying to clear it, but everything went black.
XXXXXXXXXXX
He could still taste her on his lips as he turned to try to find the sniper. The copper smell of blood was in the air and he glanced down at the hole in the front of his shirt. It wasn't that big, but seemed to take its time healing. That was when he felt her collapse behind him just as the thought crossed his mind, they'd shot him in the back.
"MARIE!" He roared, turning, sheltering her body with his larger one, even though it hadn't protected her from the bullet. He grabbed her and ran, a zigzag line to the building, the X-Men just starting to pour out of the building.
"He's in the trees. I need bluebutt, the bullet went though me and hit her." He growled at Jimmy. Jimmy just nodded and held the door open for him as he ran through the entry and straight for the elevator.
She couldn't die, not now, not when he needed her most. She was his mate...he felt her move in his arms and let out a little groan.
"Damn it...what happened?" She said.
"We were shot." He said simply. "Now you know why I am protecting you."
"Fat lot of good it did ya." She groused. He almost smiled. She couldn't be hit that bad if she was giving him a hard time.
"Hank, bullet wound." He said as he carried her in and dropped her on the gurney.
"So I surmise by your shirt. Why are you assisting Rogue?"
"She's the one who's shot." Hank just gave him a strange look, and turned to Marie on the gurney.
Hank pulled her shirt up to examine her chest. Victor saw bloodstains, but no wound.
"What tha hell?"
"What the hell, indeed." Hank said. "I need to run some tests, and you. my boy need to sit down. YOU are in need of medical attention."
He sat down and stripped off his shirt. The wound was almost closed, but still seeping blood, and he could feel his back sticking to the chair as that end of the wound tried to heal as well. He watched as the last of the front wound closed, finally.
"Yeah, my factor's been a little off since she dropped me." He said.
"Why didn't ya say somethin, ya big oaf?"
"I didn't want to worry you?"
"I need to run some tests." Hank said. They both groaned. They'd be in medlab the rest of the day.
Two hours, six brain scans and eighteen needles later, Jimmy came in.
"We couldn't find him, but we did find his nest. Do you think they are trying to take you out, or have they decided that they are just going to kill Rogue?"
"How the hell should I know. All I do know is they wanted her when I was their prisoner." He snarled.
"Well, I might have some answers to the other questions." Hank said as he walked back in from his lab.
Victor looked at him, almost holding his breath.
"Rogue has completely absorbed the healing factor as a part of her mutation, and the senses. She didn't absorb either of your claws because she got the genetics for the healing and senses from both of you, Logan, before she took the Cure, and Victor after.
"What?"
"Your mutation doesn't just take powers for a short period of time, through prolonged contact you can actually change your genetic structure to absorb their powers permanently, with most mutants, however, the length of time you would have to hold on would be fatal. With these two, it just knocked them out. You had almost completed the healing factor and sense graft when you took the Cure. It stopped the X-Gene from working, but it did not take away anything you'd already touched, as far as your genetic code is concerned, so when you touched Victor, it just latched onto the genes it needed to finish re-sequencing your DNA."
"So why can Victor touch me and not get drained again?"
"I theorize that has to do with the actual link between you and Victor, and it also explains why his factor was slow to heal himself when you were injured."
"What?" He growled.
"She is your mate, the bond that has formed between you is primarily empathic, and quite strong. From the brain scans, the area of the brain that links you two was highly active right after the incident, and then back to normal levels in the last scan. I believe you projected a part of your healing factor to your mate so she would heal first, part of your protective instincts."
"So, Ah've got a healin' factor of mah own, now, but Victor can speed it up?" Marie asked.
"Yes, and it is also how he can touch you, your mutation sees him as an extension of you, of your body. You cannot harm yourself, so it will not allow you to harm your mate."
Victor tried to process that. Her mutation thought he was a part of her, that could make things interesting. He glanced at her, and the look she was giving him. That did not bode well for his ability to pay attention to anything else.
"So he's the only one Ah can touch?"
"Until you get your mutation under control, most likely, yes." Hank said. Jimmy just glared at the three of them.
"Can we talk about security breaches now?"
"What's the matter, the little wifey not puttin out?" Victor sneered at James. Jimmy just glared back and shot the middle claw on his right hand out. Victor laughed. What started out as a crappy day, just got very interesting.