It was a rainy Sunday morning when Logan woke up, greeted by the warm tones of his room in Xavier's school. He hadn't had any dreams that night, which he was grateful for, but still had an unsettling feeling in his gut. He could hear the students in the halls, stuck inside as quiet thunder rumbled overhead, and he decided that everything in the mansion was in order. So why did he have such a feeling of dread?

As he sat up and rubbed sleep from his eyes, he wondered what exactly was going on. Everything seemed to be fine. He stood and got dressed, opening his door and walking out into the hall a few moments later. One of the newest children bounced by, faltering as she glimpsed Logan.

"No running." He said when he realized he had nothing else up his sleeve.

She nodded quickly and looked at the floor. "Yes, Professor Logan."

Then she was off again, walking until she thought he couldn't see her. He was always awkward with the kids, especially the ones he didn't know. He had grown up with Victor. He didn't have much in the way of a nurturing instinct.

As he wandered the halls, he realized that everything was just...normal. He saw Kitty Pride at one point. He saw Ororo. They both just greeted him and continued on their way. At one point he caught a glimpse of Jean, but she was with Scott, and he growled to himself and turned on his heel. He wasn't going to let that asshole ruin his morning, especially with it going so well.

He went to the kitchen and got himself breakfast, enjoying it alone. One thing he had always liked about the mansion was its constant supply of good food. He had spent too many years living off of military meals or grabbing whatever he could find, and now that he was able to actually sit down and have a complete breakfast of sausage and eggs he almost didn't know what to do with himself.

As he was cleaning his plate, he heard a knock at the door and rolled his eyes. Someone else would get it. It wasn't his problem. He was now determined to enjoy his day, and that included ignoring almost everyone who tried to bother him. Even when he smelled fruit. Even when he heard a shout. Even when he heard Beast roar loud enough to shake the entire house.

Whatever. Hank had it covered.

...right?

The fruity smell twisted around him, and he wondered what exactly it was. Then another scent joined it, one that he hadn't been around in a long time, and he finally groaned to himself in exasperation and anger.

"God dammit!" He shouted to no one in particular, tearing out of the kitchen and towards the front door. Of course his god damn brother had to show up, out of nowhere, for probably no good reason, on what was supposed to be a nice, rainy day off. Of course. Of fucking course.

He got to shove Scott out of the way as he ran, though, which was a plus.

When he reached the doors, it took a moment to take it all in. Victor had Beast pinned against a wall, both snarling at each other while clearly straining for control. A girl stood in the doorway, calmly watching the two as if this were normal, and as Logan approached her, Victor whipped his head around to snarl at him.

"Calm down," Logan snapped.

The girl had gray hair, lank and wet from the rain, and she was absolutely drenched. Her black hoodie seemed to be hanging off of her, weighed down with water, and she looked utterly exhausted. As he got closer, Logan realized that she was the source of the fruity smell, and kicked himself for not realizing sooner that it was the scent of a woman.

"Victor," she said sharply, her voice tired. "Let him go."

To Logan's surprise, Victor actually listened. Who was this girl that she could control his monster of a brother? So far, he had been the only one that could ever stop his rampages. But here was this tiny woman, soaked to the bone and clearly pissed off, ordering him around and actually getting results.

"Come here." She snapped. As Victor withdrew from Beast, he gave her a reluctant look and she added, "my...back hurts?"

Despite the obvious cover up, Victor rushed to her side, behaving in a way that Logan had never seen before. His brother was dangerous, especially towards women, and whatever he had been doing to this girl had to be horrible.

It still didn't add up to why they were there, though.

"Victor," Logan growled, hands in fists at his side. He let his claws slide out just enough to be noticed.

Victor eyed them. "Runt."

"This is the runt?" The woman asked. "You've got to be shitting me. This is not a runt."

Who was she, that Victor had told her about Logan, using his old nickname?

Victor put an arm around her, making eye contact with his brother. "He's a runt. Always was. Always will be."

It was a threat.

Logan squared his jaw. "What are you doin' here?"

"I'd like to know as well," Beast growled as he straightened up, a hand at his bruised throat. The gray haired girl watched him curiously, amber eyes wide as she took him in, as if she had never seen a giant, blue mutant before.

Mutant...Logan's nostrils flared as he took in her scent again. Fruit, winter air, female, and...something else. Something he wasn't used to anymore. He almost couldn't believe it, but she was a feral, just like him. Where had Victor managed to find her? Males were rare enough, but females? Almost unheard of now. They were all dead.

Victor refused to break eye contact with his brother now that he saw he had figured it out. "Lemme speak with the professor."

"You will not-"

"Logan, what's going on?" An esteemed voice asked from the hall. Xavier wheeled in, accompanied by Ororo, and Logan watched Victor stiffen.

"We need to talk with you," the woman blurted out, twisting her fingers nervously. Something seemed off about her. There was something he was missing, something he wasn't noticing, and as the professor led them to his office to speak without anyone sticking their noses in, the mystery gnawed at Logan more and more.

His brother didn't keep women around. He was a one night stand kind of guy, and his "dates" usually ended in bloodshed. He didn't understand romance, nor had he ever displayed any desire to. He had raped and tortured girls, especially while in the heat of a bloodlust, and he had never, not once, showed any legitimate interest in pursuing a relationship of any kind. It made Logan wonder if the two weren't romantic or sexual partners at all, and if this was all just some kind of twisted business deal or trap, but as Victor continued trying to stay in between the gray haired girl and his younger brother, he could tell that something was definitely going on. Victor was constantly in contact with her, brushing against her, pulling her against his side as if he were trying to hide her, watching everyone else with dark, accusing eyes that suggested he was on guard.

He probably was. Victor had always been the jealous type. He didn't like to trust anyone else, and he had always been selfish, except when it came to his brother. Even that had turned shitty, though, and Logan assumed Victor had just let the Sabretooth eat away at him and take over. The bloody, violent, warlike beast that knew only killing. That's what his brother was, a monster of war, of bloodshed, of anger and evil. But...he was still his brother. That's why they had stuck together for so long; Victor cared for him when no one else would, and taught him everything he knew. He didn't grow old the way everyone else did. He protected his little brother until he was strong enough to protect himself. In a lot of ways, he really had been good, but that didn't mean that he had stayed that way.

"Ororo, would you mind checking on the students?" Xavier asked curtly as they entered his office. "I fear the thunder may upset some of them."

"I know it upset me." Victor's companion grumbled as Ororo left, giving them a wary look as she strode out.

Xavier wheeled himself around to the far side of his desk, Beast following him, and gestured to her. "Miss Ria, please, have a seat."

She immediately plopped down in the chair across from him, despite Victor's small grunt of protest. "Oh, shut up. We've been walking for days. I'm exhausted and I'm cold and I'm drenched." She snapped at him.

The professor smiled and Victor snarled.

As Logan walked around them, preferring to be next to the professor where he could better protect him, he glanced down from his brother's eyes at the girl and caught a glimpse of something as she moved her hair off of her neck to run her fingers through it and wring it out. Was that…? No. It couldn't be. He stopped and looked, for real this time, and saw that he had been right; there was a massive scar there, at the spot where her neck met her shoulder, and the sight of it made him growl. He knew what that was.

His brother had taken a mate.

"What the hell is goin' on here?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest, his jaw squared as he ground his teeth in anger.

Victor just growled, clearly not in the mood to talk, leaving the girl in charge of explaining why exactly someone who had caused so much trouble for Logan was currently sitting in the one place he shouldn't be allowed, with something he shouldn't be allowed to have.

"Miss Ria, please." the professor nodded gently towards her and Logan wondered exactly what he already knew. He generally tried to be polite-too polite, in his opinion-and didn't like to barge into anyone's mind if they weren't causing problems, but Logan had always suspected that he poked and prodded around more than he liked to let on.

The girl, Ria, suddenly looked uncomfortable. Well, more so than she already did. "We just basically walked and hitchhiked here from the Yukon…"

So that's where Victor had been hiding out. He should've guessed.

"...I haven't eaten in a day and I feel like I'm dying." she put her hands in her lap and looked down. "Victor said we'd be safest here."

"Who exactly are you runnin' from that you'd come here?" Logan snarled. The school was safe, with so many powerful mutants teaching there, but it wasn't exactly a welcoming place for people like Victor.

"Who, indeed…" Beast said thoughtfully from his place on the professor's other side.

"Don't know exactly who." Victor said roughly. "Pretty sure they're connected back to Stryker's work, though."

Logan stiffened at the mention of the name.

"I was a test subject," Ria said quickly, moving to stand up. "I'm not lying. I can tell you don't believe us. Look." she stood and pulled her hoodie up to reveal a belly covered in scars and Logan growled to himself. He didn't like the concept of anyone being locked up, especially women.

After a tense moment of silence, the professor finally spoke. "Hank, could you please get us some tea? I believe we have some things to discuss."

Victor still wasn't in the mood to talk, and Logan was fine with that. He didn't want to hear another word come out of his brother. Ria, although clearly exhausted and understandably irritated, agreed to tell them everything on the condition that she and Victor be granted sanctuary in the mansion. Logan had tried to protest, of course, not wanting his brute of a sibling in the same house as so many mutant children, but Xavier ignored him and allowed it. He seemed to trust that it wasn't a trap, and as Logan watched his brother and noticed the dark circles around his eyes, he realized that Victor would never allow himself to look so tired and haggard in front of anyone he was trying to intimidate. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, and as Logan paid more and more attention to him, he could see his slightly labored breathing as he struggled with the effort of staying awake.

Hank brought them tea and both feral brothers refused, choosing to stare each other down instead. Ria accepted it gratefully, and Xavier had a cup as well as he smiled gently at her. They seemed to be getting along well so far, and Logan was glad that he wasn't going to have to worry about the girl like he would his brother. She was in far worse shape, with bags under her eyes, a constantly growling stomach, and the tendency to turn around and physically snap at Victor whenever he did something she didn't like. Maybe she wasn't bad at all, if she was able to keep him in check like that.

Logan flexed and let the tips of his claws slide out in a warning to Victor, who responded with a sneer and flex of his own claws. The signature smirk that Logan had expected was absent, though, and that's what really concerned him; his brother was cocky, arrogant, and he was rarely serious like this. It meant that something was actually weighing down on him in a way that war had never seemed to, and that was impressive.

"So, Miss Ria." the professor began.

She sighed. "Please just call me Ria, professor."

He cracked a wry smile. "Only if you'll call me Xavier, my dear."

Logan noticed that he was treating her as an equal, and became thoroughly confused.

A smile twitched on her lips. "Whatever you say, old man."

"Start from the beginning, please. I'd like everyone in the room to be on the same page."

So he had gone into her head already.

"How far is the beginning?" she asked almost nervously.

"Wherever you'd like it to be."

She was quiet for a few seconds. "Well. Well, several years ago I was...taken, by soldiers. I can't remember how. It's all blurry, and fuzzy...they took me to a facility and started operating, experimenting, poking around in my innards. You know. Like they like to." she sighed, unable to even keep up with her own sarcasm. "The doctor told me I was rare. They gave me a number. 213. For years that was the only name I had."

Logan growled. He knew what that was like.

"They wanted more ferals. They said they needed more soldiers. The doctor told me a story about how they used to have some." she smiled weakly at Logan. "Figure that was you two."

He felt a pang in his chest. Yeah, that had to be him and his brother.

"They didn't have a way to do it naturally, though, so they would inject me or cut me up and try to make things stay and grow. It never worked, and they just...over and over, the same thing every time, just cut me open, sew me up, wait a couple months and do it again to clean house when they realized they had failed again."

"That is beyond horrible," Beast murmured.

"They were idiots, though," she sneered viciously. "They starved me to the point of lost healing abilities. My body locked itself up and refused to work for them because it wasn't safe. I couldn't go into heat, and then they realized they wouldn't be able to do anything unless I was completely fertile. So they knocked me out, stuck me in a box, and were shipping me off to another facility when I got the fuck out of there and found Victor."

She looked back up at him fondly, reaching up to put a hand on his arm. "He took care of me. I got a bed and food for the first time in god knows how long."

Logan was shocked. His brother, actually taking care of her? No. No way. The only person he had ever looked out for was him, and those days were behind them. Victor didn't just suddenly take strangers in and help them out. He wasn't a good samaritan, and he never would be.

"And what of your current predicament?" the professor asked, listening to her intently.

A very slight pink tint spread across her face. "See...I...we had to run, because they showed up a few nights ago trying to get me again, because…."

She seemed too embarrassed to say it, and Victor finally spoke up. "She's havin' my cubs, and those humans want 'em."

Now Logan was really shocked.

Part of him was enraged. "You knocked her up?" he roared at his brother, pointing an accusing finger. "You ain't fit to be a father, Victor!"

"At least I didn't kill mine," he snapped.

"Asshole!"

"Fuck off."

Logan walked out from behind the desk, grabbing the front of his brother's jacket and pulling him close. "You can't tell me what to do anymore."

Victor snarled and grabbed Logan's shirt, shoving him back into the wall. "Remember your place, runt."

Meanwhile, the professor looked on with only mild alarm, while Beast looked on with much more alarm, and Ria just sighed and put her face in her hands, seemingly with no alarm whatsoever.

"Gentlemen, please," Xavier said.

They continued squabbling, growling and snarling and shoving each other around the room as they argued and Victor, exhausted as he was, tried to re-assert the dominance he had lost when they parted ways.

"They've got a few years of...brotherly love to figure out," Beast commented, trying to decide if he should do anything or if getting between them was too dangerous as Victor took a swipe at Logan's face.

"They've no intent to kill each other," Xavier said calmly. "Hank, if you wouldn't mind, I believe it would be in our best interest to get Ria a physical exam as soon as possible, given her past and current circumstances."

Beast nodded, flinching when a glass shattered against a wall. Ria peeked out from her hands, her eyes more tired than ever, and gave another sigh.

"If it's all the same, I would honestly like to sleep right now."

"Of course, my dear." Xavier said. "We'll ready a room for you immediately."

She smiled weakly before whipping her head around to glare at Victor and Logan, energized by the promise of rest. "Both of you!" she snarled.

They both froze, Logan's claws out at Victor's chest, stabbing through him just a bit. Victor didn't seem to care.

"Stop acting like children and leave each other alone!"

"But he-"

"-This asshole-"

"I don't care who's an asshole," she growled darkly. "I am pregnant and I am tired and I will not tolerate any of this bullshit."

They both grumbled and hung their heads, earning an impressed grunt from Beast and a small smile from the professor. It seemed clear who was really the alpha in the newly formed family group, small and delicate-looking as she was. As Ria stood and followed Beast to the room she and Victor would be staying in, she issued warning snarls to both him and Logan every time they tried to start something, and when they finally made it to their destination, she was so tired out from it that she was hardly more than a walking corpse.

She immediately went in and laid down on the small bed, not even looking back at anyone else. Her breathing deepened the moment her head hit the pillows. Logan watched from the doorway as Victor shouldered past him to join her, sparing his younger brother a threatening glance before sitting down next to her and glaring at Logan.

"Get out," he growled.

Logan crossed his arms over his chest. "We gotta talk, Victor."

"About what?" his brother snapped.

"What exactly you're plannin' on doin' now." he glowered at Victor. "If you're gonna be a father, you have to start actin' like one."

"I know what I'm doin', runt."

"No you don't." Logan took a step towards him. "You've got no idea how to do this."

"I know exactly what I'm doin'!" he stood up. "I wanted this. She wanted this. She went into heat and I did what I was supposed to."

"The world ain't like it used to be," Logan said. "We can't just live off instincts."

Victor took another step so that he was face to face with his brother. "Listen, runt. It's worked so far. I trust the Sabretooth, an' you should start trustin' the Wolverine."

"Do you even like her?" Logan asked. "Or are you just usin' her like everyone else you meet?"

Victor's lip raised in a sneer before something changed in his expression. He was letting his exhaustion get the best of him, tired eyes looking straight into Logan's own. His voice was uncharacteristically gentle as he cast a glance back towards Ria. "I love her."

Logan didn't know how to respond. He had never expected to hear those words come out of his brother's mouth, nor had he ever expected to see him in such a state. "She's really the one, huh?"

Victor looked back at him and nodded almost sheepishly. "I wouldn't've brought her here if she wasn't worth protectin', Jimmy."

That's how he knew that things were serious. Victor would never dare, or want to, set foot in Xavier's school outside of dire circumstances. "Guess she's part of the family then."

Victor's usual smirk flashed across his face. "Just like old times?"

Logan sighed and nodded, something like excitement jumping inside him. "Just like old times."