"You just gonna sit there in silence for hours?" He asked, casting her a quick look before looking back to the rain battering the wind-shield.
"Yeah, I can see how this situation is incredibly irritating for you." Emma huffed. Did he even know how to apologise, or did he just assume he was always in the right? "I'll make you a deal, I will loosen up but only if you answer a couple of questions." She offered, his hands clenched on the steering wheel and he looked pretty pissed off. What was he expecting her to ask?
"You ask your questions and if I choose not to answer then you can sit in silence for the entire road trip." He counter offered. Ok, that seemed pretty fair.
"First question, are we going to the mutant place that you work at? And why?" Emma asked.
"That was two." He smirked, Emma rolled her eyes at him. "Yes we are going to the the Professor's school, if we want to do anything involving Trask then we are going to need him." He told her.
"Question two, why didn't you contact me at all, do you regret, you know...Canada." Emma was trying not to die from embarrassment.
"I didn't contact you because I thought we both knew I was coming back. And I don't regret Canada, that's the first time I've felt like that in a while." He replied calmly. He knew he was coming back, it would of been nice if he'd let Emma in on that but it was a good enough answer that she was willing to let it go. As for the Canada thing, that's the first time she'd ever felt that good and at ease as well. "Am I off the hook?" Logan asked.
"In some respects, yes" She smiled. Emma opened up the glove compartment and began looking through the CDs. Etta James, Nat King Cole, Johnny Cash, Vera Lynn? "How old are you?" Emma laughed, not that she didn't like these CDs.
"They're classics." Logan told her. "What were you expecting, Britney Spears Greatest Hits?" He asked sarcastically. Well, at least he knew who Britney Spears was.
"No. Unless you have that CD in which case I would definitely listen." She laughed. Ok, what else was there. Aha! Dolly Parton, now they were cooking. Was it weird that somehow as hyper-masculine as Logan had this CD? "I never really took you as the Dolly Parton type." Emma smiled, holding up the CD.
"What can I say, she's the queen of country." He shrugged, that was true. Emma put the CD and listened, she had so many things she wanted to say that she didn't actually say anything.
XXX
Several hours later, Emma sat in the passenger seat enjoying a Big Mac with loud, unapologetic moans.
"You know it's just a burger right?" Logan asked, speeding the car up slightly.
"Are you jealous?" Emma smirks, although she realises the comment probably has more of an effect on her than him. Being near him again has just made her realise how much she wants to...well, be near him again.
"Am I jealous that I've got to drive from one side of the country to the other, while you eat burgers and nap, damn right I'm jealous." He replies sarcastically, maybe she does have absolutely no effect on him.
"I can drive if you want." She offers, feeling slightly bad for him. Although he is the one who uprooted her for this impromptu road trip.
"That's not what I meant." He says, keeping his eyes trained on the road ahead.
"What did you mean?" She turns to look at him, he gives her a quick glance and notices his jaw tense slightly.
"You're pissed off with me but I don't know what to say to change your mind." He says, giving a shrug that doesn't come off as completely nonchalant.
"I'm not pissed off at you." She says, Logan gives her a highly confused look.
"You said you were." He counters, looking at her as if there is a very real possibility she's got short-term memory loss.
"I know what I said but I'm not, I'm just stressed out amongst other feelings." Feelings such as falling head over heels for him, not that she was ever going to say that out loud. "We're a team, we're in this together...aren't we?" She asks giving him a probing look.
"Together then." He nods, speeding the car up and heading straight for New York.
XXXXXXXXXX
"Should I be this nervous, he's just a person right? A person who can read my thoughts and control my mind. Nothing to worry about, right?" Emma looks up at Logan, he gives her an amused sidelong glance. She was about to meet the professor and she was nervous as hell.
"Relax, he'll appreciate having someone normal around for once...well I say normal." He smiles and Emma throws him a glare in response.
"And he's called the 'Professor', I feel like he's going to tell me I have one week to get him his money or he'll throw me off a bridge." Emma says jokingly.
"Well I wouldn't go that far." A calm voice interrupts, Emma internally groans before turning around to see the Professor move himself in front of her. "And you can call me Charles." He adds, giving her a gentle smile. Emma throws Logan an 'I messed that up, didn't I?' look before turning back to Charles.
"I'm Emma." She greets, extending her hand and smiling nervously at the professor.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Logan talked a great deal about you and that is something I never thought I would have to say." Charles says, looking up at Logan with a teasing yet good-natured smile on his face.
"I think you're exaggerating slightly, professor." Logan says, raising an eyebrow at Charles. Emma tried not to feel so satisfied with the knowledge that Logan had spoken about her at length.
"Now Emma, I want you to tell me everything you know about mutants and about Trask." Charles, says turning his chair and going through the opening doors to his office. Emma looks around for Logan, who is leaning against the wall and giving her a bemused smile.
"He wants to speak to you alone." Logan tells her, she feels like she's joining some bizarre cult or something, actually maybe that was accurate way to sum up this thing.
"I'll see you later though?" She asks, feeling genuinely quite anxious.
"Do you want to know my room?" He laughs, just seeing how at ease he was here made Emma feel more confident.
"Get out of here." She laughed, smacking him on the arm and following through the professor to his study.
XXXXXXX
That night Emma laid in bed thinking everything that Charles had told her and all the things she had told him, a significant part of the conversation had been Logan. The professor had showed her some of the trials and pain of the 'Wolverine'. Honestly, she could see why he was so pissed off at the world. Everytime she closed her eyes, Emma could see a different flash of her past or of his, With the knowledge that she wasn't going to sleep anytime soon, she headed out to find the kitchen.
XXXXXX
"Can't sleep?" A voice called as Emma opened the freezer, after recovering from the minor heart attack she looked over to see Logan sitting at the counter. Did he ever have a peaceful night of sleep?
"No, thinking too much." Emma told him, closing the freezer and sitting next to him. "Nightmares?" She guessed, looking up at him.
"Got it in one." He replied, in a mocking tone before sipping his beer.
"Really, a beer? It's 2am." Emma said, aware of her hypocrisy as she dug into her pint of ice cream.
"If you're here to judge, get out the kitchen." Logan smiled, nodding towards the door. "So thinking too much, what about?" He asks.
"Trask, mutants, my brother, home, you." Emma says, looking down at my ice cream like she's never seen something so interesting.
"Well I was hoping to keep you up all night but this wasn't the scenario." He says jokingly, before fixing her with a serious stare. "What do you worry about?".
"The professor told me about you." She says slowly. She honestly doesn't know how one human, or mutant in this case, can go through so much and still keep it together. Although it definitely explained his attitude problem.
"Did he now? I've been around for a while so you might have to be a little more specific." Logan replies, looking at her in a way that somehow manages to be sarcastic.
"There's obviously been a lot of conflict and loss in your life, if we do this Trask thing then it's going to be more conflict and potentially more loss. I don't want that for you, you don't deserve it." Emma says, wondering if he's ever known what it's like to feel completely unthreatened.
"I appreciate the sentiment but I'm a big boy, I can handle it." He gives her a slight smile.
"I guess you're right, as much as it pains me to say." Emma replied lightly, remembering how much she enjoyed being in his company, which was weird considering that could not get further away from being a 'people person'.
"Would you be interested in going into the city tomorrow night?" Logan asks, throwing Emma a quick glance.
"Are you asking me out on a date?" Emma asks, trying and failing to repress her smile. Who knew he was such a gentleman at heart?
"If you want to call it that." He says, an amused smile playing around his mouth.
"I do want to call it that." She says, getting up and putting her ice cream back in the freezer.
"Then sure it's a date." Logan agrees as he rolls his eyes. Emma realises that she hasn't helped him with his nightmare situation, although he probably has his own routine down by now. She decides that there is one thing she could do to help, she walks back over to him and kisses him softly but softly soon turns to getting out of control. "Goodnight, Logan." She laughs, pulling away from him and beginning to leave.
"Sure I can't convince you to stay in my room?" He calls jokingly.
"Ask me tomorrow night." She replies, smiling to herself as she heads back to her room.
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