Logan made it back to the mansion in one piece after beating Sabertooth once more and making him only wish to mess with him or any of his team members again. He had taken longer to arrive home than usual to try and ease his pounding heart. The pounding thump had faded away into a constant throbbing pain that did not seem to go away, even with his long detour. Sasha's convertible was parked in the garage, a slight relief of the pain that was constantly in his chest, but it still ached like no tomorrow. The mutant proceeded to go inside of the mansion, but was quickly stopped by a bland scent in the air. Mystique. He growled and balled his fingers into a tight fist, ready for action again; however, the smell of the shape shifter had vanished without a trace. There was no way she was gone and he knew it, but he had bigger fish to fry with checking up on his teammate who had fallen out in his arms.
It was strange. He could smell the thick odor of cigarettes in the air of the mansion that nobody else could pick up on. Elf was in the kitchen piling copious amounts of filling on a sandwich and proceeding to squirt large quantities of condiments onto his next meal. Kurt had spoken to him, asking him is he was alright, but he just felt, mentally, as if he was out of his body and into another world full of that same cigarette smoke and corny 80s rock and roll music. He saw himself fuss at Kurt about eating too much before he would turn away and proceed to find out where the smell was coming from. The smoke in his head was a different story. It was as if the more he tried to figure out what it was from, the thicker the smoke got and the louder the music became. He could feel himself get frustrated causing a headache to form on the right side of his head, but he was not going to let this go away. He was tired of never having a clear memory, all he wanted was to be able to recall moments of his past, was that so damn hard? Charles had broken through other barriers, but this one just seemed hopeless. In an attempt to try and combat the smoke and haze, his mind went to the moment Sasha was placed in his arms on the battlefield and he could feel his arms, fingers, and chest just tingle the moment she touched him. As he walked down the halls, he looked and inspected his hands as if he was trying to figure out how he got to this point in his life.
"Mr. Logan?" Kitty's voice rang through his fog. "Mr. Logan, are you alright?"
He looked up to see the half pint looking up at him with worry in her eyes. A grunt came from his lips as he shook his head, "I'm fine. How's Sasha doing?"
Kitty smiled, "she's doing great; awake and everything! Right now she's talking with Mr. McCoy, I don't think you should interrupt though." She cupped her hands over her mouth, "they seem like they were a couple!"
Logan raised an eyebrow and proceeded to Sasha's room, trying to hide the fact that he was hurt the moment Kitty had said the word "couple". What was wrong with him? He had just met the girl, there was no way he could have feelings like this. His ears could pick up on the ring of laughter between Hank and Sasha, and his nose could pick up the strong aroma of cigarettes flowing out from underneath one of the room's door. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before banging on the door.
"We don't want any!" he could hear Sasha shout. He took that opportunity to open the door to reveal Sasha and Hank laughing like teenagers.
She had a cigarette in her hand as she sat on her dresser with the window open to try and hide the smoke, and was still wearing the off-the-shoulder dress that hugged her body tightly as well as black leggings underneath. A smile was painted on her lips as she wanted to reassure his temper than she was just joking with him and did not want him to catch a case with her. "You know you're welcome, Wolverine. Besides, you are an instructor of mine."
He huffed, "well this instructor is going to make you pay for that remark."
Hank shook his head, "I'll just leave you two alone." The intelligent mutant made his way out the door.
Logan pulled a chair away from the wall and straddled it in front of the dresser that the psionic mutant sat on, smoking away. She took a long drag of the cigarette before exhaling the smoke through her mouth and nose.
"What brings you to my Castle, Mr. Logan? Shouldn't you be tossing some poor child around like a ragdoll?"
He sneered, "I don't just single out children; I toss everybody with a pulse."
Her thin finger began to twirl one of her violet curls around her finger, "Well Papa, my back hurts and that freak probably broke a few ribs, but other than that I'm okay."
His chest tightened; teammates getting hurt was never good, but when it was because of his own demons, the beatings hurt more. His eyes followed her hand as she rubbed her side underneath her arm to check how her bruises were doing since she was still tender and swollen all over the place.
"It was weird," her arm reached out to bring a box of her cigarettes to her, pulling the white stick out and placing it between her lips. "He acted like I had stolen you from him, or something. You two have…sexual tension?"
Logan chuckled and shook his head, "you're really a glutton for punishment, aren't you?"
She exhaled her smoke out the window and shrugged to him, a look of innocence on her face, "my professors always said that I never thought about what I was going to say. I was the one who brightened their day!"
As they spoke, one of Sasha's cats, fat, grey, and fluffy, popped itself out from underneath the bed. The cat sniffed Logan's leg and proceeded to rub herself profusely against his calf, purring loudly and meowing. The mutant looked down and watched the animal leave a solid gray patch of shed onto his leg, he actually reached down and ran his rough hand down the cat's head and back. The cat meowed as he did in a loving bliss that she only showed to people she had known. His eye's zoomed on to her red collar with a pink heart engraved with the name Lilli. Funny, that name looked so familiar to him. The cat jumped up in his lap and proceeded to leave a trail of gray fur wherever she was. The cat meowed, loudly, her tail flicking back and forth before she dug her claws into Logan's thigh to prove that she was as happy as she could be. Logan's teeth gritted the moment her felt the animal's claws slightly penetrate his skin like a paper cut; however, he always had a soft spot for loving animals.
Sasha watched with curiosity as the cat made nice to the mutant in front of her. Lilli did not even come out when Hank was in the room, what made this man so special? She slid off the dresser to fetch her overly affectionate shedding, fur ball from her teacher before she turned his uniform into a walking ball of gray fluff. Logan held out his arm to keep her at bay.
"It's fine. I don't mind."
She placed her hands on her hip, throwing her bangs to the side with the flick of her neck, "you are better with animals than you are with people."
"Yeah well, people aren't exactly deserving of my ways."
She shook her head and slid back on her dresser, watching as her cat was essentially using Logan as her personal masseuse.
"She hasn't came out at all since I came here, except for when I'm in the room alone and she knows it. Heck, even my other cat is camping out in my dirty clothes hamper," her finger pointed at the fluffy, orange, black, and white head with lime green eyes peering from underneath a pair of jeans. "SHE'S even interested in you. They could have given a damn about Hank."
Logan grunted and placed the cat on the ground, running his hand down her back once more. He got up from his chair and brushed the fur from his suit. "My way with animals."
Sasha lifted the cigarette to her lips and inhaled the smoke, but quickly exhaled once he had gotten too close to the door. "Logan, wait."
He stopped, a look of confusion and his usual frustration with how people would end up getting close to him.
"Thanks for stopping by."
A small smile cracked through his tough guy appearance as he opened the door and made his way out before closing the door softly, not even realizing that he had smiled to her and that his stomach felt as if it was doing loops. He shook his head and began to think that spending some time at his favorite bar would make him feel better. Even though there was no way he could drink himself into a coma, he really hoped that maybe his hardened physique was failing since his stomach was bouncing all over the place. Before taking off, he changed out of his uniform into his street clothes, purposefully avoiding everybody on his way out.
Jean sat with Charles in his office, the air thick with tension and concern. The red-head was going over Sasha's performance on the battlefield and what she had experienced in Sasha's mind when she had used her powers. Jean was worried and was obviously stressed about her teammate's mind whenever it would link with Logan's. However, it was strange, whenever Jean was linked with Sasha's mind, her thoughts would always feel so much clearer and her powers so much more accessible to her. Maybe the professor was right in terms of mental prowess; she was much better at keep her emotions away from the battle field whenever she was linked to Sasha. Logan, on the other hand, was a sea of mental anguish, so it was almost certain that a beginner in psionic control would be overwhelmed. Charles was completely silent the entire time Jean was telling her story. Even he looked overly worried and concerned; but not because of the same reasons as Jean. He kept piecing together how he felt their minds intertwined in more ways than one. His mind could not help but linger on the oak tree that he saw in both of their minds meaning that they had to have shared a time together in the past.
"Professor, maybe Sasha should not link with Logan. It seems to do more harm than good." Jean spoke.
Charles turned his chair towards the door to address his pupil face to face, but instead saw the stout body of Logan dressed in his orange and black uniform standing in the now-opened doorway.
"That girls IS more harm than good." The mutant spoke, slamming the door behind him as he walked into the room.
"Logan what is the meaning of this?" Charles spoke.
The mutant began to morph from the muscular man, to a tall, shapely, athletic woman with dark blue skin and blood red hair. Her features were catlike, her golden yellow eyes filled with malice and hate for everyone, and everything, around her.
"Mystique? What brings you here?" Charles spoke, his hands folding nonchalantly in front of his face.
The woman crossed her arms in front of her chest, "I am here because you have our destruction running around in this place."
Jean attempted to read Mystique's mind but was quickly blocked and shunted out.
"DON'T even try, brat." Her index finger forced its way towards the red-headed girl, voice filled with venom. "I come here to bring a message to you X-men, so I would prefer my thoughts to remain to myself."
"You better state your case very well, Mystique. I am not exactly keen on somebody framing my students for something that they have not done." Charles' eyes narrowed, already not believing anything that would she would bring to the table.
Mystique growled, "Charles, I saw things when I was with Apocalypse. I saw the words that would bring on the death of the world. While the 'one who takes gives power to the chosen one, the one who gives takes away the breath of life'. I would not lie to you about this, especially when MY mutants are in the balance. She needs to be destroyed. Get rid of her."
Charles was obviously not amused. "Mystique, it is hard for me to take you seriously over as big of an issue as this."
The blue woman bore her teeth, her pupils turning into slits as she stared down the telepath. "You turn a blind eye to a problem when that problem lies in your own hands, but this time you can't just look away. Address her and destroy her in any way you see fit! She will be our destruction, YOURS and MINE. Get your head out of the clouds and wake up to the fact that not everything in a pretty package is good."
"Mystique, if you go after any one of my students-…"
The blue mutant kicked open Charles' office window, preparing herself to leave his presence. If he was not going to listen to her and take action, she was going to get rid of that nuisance in her own way, properly.
She perched on the edge of the window, chuckling to herself, a devilish look in her eyes. "Don't worry Charles. Your students will be just fine," her body morphed into a black raven, cawing loudly before flying away.
(Author's Note: School has started again and that might mean that I will either update less or update more depending on how badly my classes will kick my butt. If I take a little longer, don't fret! I still love you and I promise you all that I will update! I do not want this going down the toilet because of stinky homework. As usual, read, review, enjoy!)