The sound of snow crunching under their feet echoed across the downy white paddocks as Kiera led Samael, the last of the horses she needed to bring in for the night, back to the stables. The sun had long ago sunk beyond the horizon, heralding the daily migration of students down to the dining room for dinner as she worked on. But now, her work was almost complete and she couldn't wait to head back up the stairs to her apartment above the stable for something to eat. 'Preferably something warm.' She thought, fully feeling the chill of the day as she walked into the warmed stable, her cheeks flushing a bright red as she led Sam down the aisle.
As she shut him up in his stall for the night, Kiera could have easily just spun out on her heel and raced up to her refuge had the whickering and stomping of her horses not reminded her of the fact that she still needed to toss hay down to them all before any of them would let her have any peace tonight. Sighing softly, she chuckled as she turned from Sam's stall. "Punctual little buggers ain't ya?" she muttered as she climbed the stairs to the hayloft, thankful that, like the rest of her stable, the hayloft was at least warm.
She moved though her last chore for the day mechanically, dropping hay down through the holes in the floor to the waiting animals below while also making a note to herself to check the plumbing tomorrow morning to make certain that none of the pipes had burst. She had done her time hauling full water buckets down to each and every stall under her care before she had finally scraped together the money to install a nice direct feed system. The temperatures weren't expected to drop too far tonight, but it never did hurt to check. All this she did while dreaming of what she would do first once she was done. "Maybe a bath first, before I eat." She murmured.
"We missed you at dinner tonight Melinoe."
"Shit!" Kiera shouted, starting badly enough that she dropped the flake of hay she was about to drop down. Taking a moment, she took a breath, pressing a hand to her heart, willing it to slow down after the fright while also throwing some reinforcements towards the mental walls she kept permanently in place. When she finally felt ready, Kiera picked up the flake and tossed it down before she answered. "Sorry to disappoint, but I had work to do Jean. What do you want?"
Kiera felt more than heard the frustrated sigh echo through her brain, but she refused to respond. She was too damn tired to deal with the redhead's crap for much longer tonight. All she wanted was a little peace and quiet so she could relax. Was that so much to ask for? "There's no need to be rude Melinoe." Jean replied, a little snidely, eliciting both a sigh and a roll of the eyes from Kiera. She continued to move about the hayloft, waiting for a point to be made. "I am simply checking in on you, that's all."
"You saw me at breakfast." Kiera replied. Deciding that she did not have the patience for this tonight, she just jumped straight to the point. "Now I will ask again Jean. What do you want? I would really like to end this conversation so I can take a bath. And please don't go lecturing me on my attitude, or my tone or whatever the hell is now stuck in your craw because honestly, right now, I just don't care."
"Well..." Jean seemed rather at a loss for words when confronted with Kiera's apathy. Kiera had to admit, they normally would have had at least a little bit more back and forth before getting to this point, but frankly, she just was not willing to deal with the bullshit right now. "I... I don't suppose you've heard from Logan have you?"
'Oh God, not this shit again.' Sighing, Kiera took a moment to lightly bang her head against the rafters. This had been a damn near daily question ever since Logan had left. Well, that, or what the hell she may have told Logan before he left. Somehow, Jean had found out about Kiera's long goodbye to Logan. More than likely there was a rumour flying around about her and Logan started by some young buck who had spotted their hug. It had been a touch longer than may have been appropriate for friends, but still. Why the hell couldn't people just butt out of her life? For God's sake, even Scott had recently started getting in on it. "No Jean, I haven't. I haven't spoken to him since he left. Why?"
"No reason. I was just wondering if you'd heard from him, that's all."
Kiera snorted softly in response, not really believing her, but choosing not to argue. The conversation was more likely to end faster that way. "Well I'm sorry to say I haven't heard from him."
"Would you actually tell me if you had?"
Rolling her eyes, Kiera tossed down the last flake of hay to Sam. "Yes Jean, I would. It's no secret that Logan and I are friends." Before the words were fully out of her mouth, Kiera felt a wave of disbelief roll over her. Jean really needed to learn how to hide her emotions during these kinds of conversations. "Now, if you had asked me what had been said, that's none of your business. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm filthy, I'm cold, and I'm tired. So unless you have anything else to say to me, I'm going to go soak, eat, and then go to bed."
Silence reigned in Kiera's head as she slowly made her way down to the side entrance to her apartment. Slipping her shoes off in her mud room Kiera tossed them beside the door followed swiftly by her coat onto its designated hook. "No... I suppose that's all... Will we be seeing you at breakfast tomorrow?"
"Probably not." She replied. "It's one of the few days where I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn. I intend to sleep in as much as I can." Stepping through the door into her kitchen, Kiera felt a relaxed smile spread over her features. "Now, goodnight Jean." With that, Kiera firmly closed the door on the conversation while at the same time, opening the door to her bathroom. Even just being in the room cased a warm relaxed feeling to slide through all her muscles. Slowly padding to the massive soaker tub at the back of the room, Kiera perched herself up on the lip and turned the faucets to draw herself a bath, thanking God and Xavier for the massive amount of space she had at her disposal to put into this apartment and make it her oasis.
Glancing around, Kiera smiled. It had taken a crap-load of money, almost a year of renovations, and every ounce of patience she had in her, but her place was finally exactly as she wanted it, with her bathroom seated in its rightful place as the crowning jewel. The tub had been built up on a raised mahogany platform with another raised step off to the right where she could set candles to feel like she was at the spa. Three of the walls were covered in a weird wall treatment one of her designer girlfriends had found for a ridiculously cheap price. Kiera had no idea what it was, but the effect was amazing. It was like she was lost in the tall grasses of the Serengeti. That, combined with the bamboo plants she had placed along the back wall and the pattern on the ceiling Kiera had combined with a series of blue LED fixtures really did make the place look like a room in a spa. With a warm wood wall and river rock floors combined with the cavernous body shower Kiera had installed along with the stereo system that she could access from either of two control panels, one by the tub or the other inside the shower; it just made this room less relaxing oasis and more ridiculously, sinfully over-indulgent treat for the senses. Yeah, it was more than a bit over the top but you know; she'd had the money, she'd had the time, and considering how hard she worked every day she felt she more than deserved this kid of indulgence.
It took a good amount of time for the tub to fill and by the time she slipped into the steaming hot water, Kiera had checked all of the doors and windows, started a load of laundry, and turned on her stereo, filling her bathroom with calm music. The heat from the water worked to quickly banish the cold she still felt clinging to her bones, eliciting a deep groan of relief from her. The day had been long and the cold had only served to make it longer. "God, is there anything better than a hot bath after a frigidly cold day?" she asked to the mostly silent air, thinking over just how much of her savings she had blown on this bathroom and how every single penny had been worth it. Sinking deeper into the water, she slowly scrubbed her arms with her loofa, languishing in the feel of the lather on her skin.
But her peace was short lived. Much as she tried not to let them, Jean's words were starting to worry her. She hadn't heard from Logan in a while, was he even ok? To that end, where the hell was he. The last time they had spoken, he had just crossed the border to Alberta. 'Should I see if I can't find him somewhere? Maybe just to check in and make sure he's ok? Or would that just be prying too much? He might think I'm trying to smother him.' Puffing out her cheeks, Kiera blew out a sigh of frustration. She just didn't know what to do about him anymore. She knew what she wanted to do, what she wanted him to do, but every time she got close to maybe feeling like she could open up to him about everything, he would suddenly start to back off, to panic.
'The last thing I want to do is back him into a corner.' Kiera thought, gently splashing the water over her shoulders. 'Setting aside the fact that I would hate myself for doing it, I'm pretty sure he'd hate me even worse for having done it.' Using her toe, she turned on the hot water tap, keeping the temperature of the water up. Sighing quietly, Kiera reached up and flipped her hair up over the lip of the tub, barely registering the soft slap her sodden tips made against the porcelain sides. 'Damnit Logan, why do you have to be that torturous combination of hot, strong, stoic, and the biggest friggin' commitment-phobe a person could ever meet?' "Ugh!" Kiera cried, her hand coming up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "What the hell am I doing?" she whined, grimacing at the pathetic notes in her voice as she did. Growling quietly, Kiera slipped her legs down under the water so she could stay warm as she performed her task.
Closing her eyes, Kiera schooled her breathing, ensuing that each breath was strong, steady and measured. Her body was already incredibly relaxed, so now it was just a matter of centering her mind and spirit, short work given the surroundings she had created for herself. It wasn't long before she felt her consciousness floating up away from her form. It took a moment to get her bearings but soon enough she was flying faster than the wind across the hills and valleys of the US and quickly approaching the highlands of Alberta. Her surroundings flew past so quickly, the only thing she could be sure of was that it was night and the night was deepening the further she went.
It had been a long time since she had tried telepathically communicating with someone from so far away, but so far everything seemed to be going according to routine. As she thought about it, Kiera decided it would probably be best if she simply looked in on the ornery feral as opposed to actually disturbing his night. A quick glance around his mind to make sure he was ok and finding the answers he needed and she would be out of there, hopefully before he woke up. This was, of course, all assuming he was asleep; something she did NOT want to disturb. She had seen him grouchy before, she could only imagine what he would be like if she woke him out of a dead sleep just to assuage her own girlish worry.
It was pitch black when she landed, and she did mean pitch, to the point where you couldn't see your hand before your eyes and were likely to trip over your own feet. Closing her eyes, Kiera took a moment to breathe figuring out just where in Logan's mind she had dropped herself. She could feel a slow, steady pulse beneath her toes as lights flickered about her in random patterns. 'Looks like he's asleep, his autonomic nervous system is running pretty steady. I must be somewhere in the Medulla.' She thought as she began to slowly move through his mind, now well aware of her position. (After all, one did not acquire the ability to peer into men's minds without learning at least the very basics of its physiology)
Creeping through the mind, Kiera tried to slowly find her way into the long-term memory banks to try and see if she couldn't possibly find some recent memories, just to see that he was ok. "Yup, and that's just what I'm going to keep telling myself." Kiera said as she approached her destination.
Now, she wasn't sure if it was a manifestation of her own power, or of this was just the way everyone structured themselves mentally, but for some reason the memory banks always seemed to present themselves as a waterway of some sort. Older folks had massive rushing rivers, young children were trickling streams, social butterflies were often winding creeks, all of them. Kiera had yet to find a mind that didn't present itself to her as some form of waterway. But this, this was different. She was already aware that Logan was, in the layman's sense of the term, ancient. This made for one of the largest rivers she had seen in all her born days as a telepath. But the interesting twist was the dam. The massive grey concrete dam keeping half his life back from him stretched as far as her eyes could see. Until such time as he discovered what secrets were kept behind that massive wall, it would always be there, reaching for the sky and stretching as far into the horizon.
But today the dam did not concern her. She was not here for the secrets of the past and so, upon reaching the bank of the mighty river, Kiera turned away from it, turning her palm down towards the turbulent surface of the water. As she walked, Kiera felt the various waves of emotion running off the memories and up into her palm, guiding her. It was the wave of pain that eventually stopped her in her tracks, wrenching her head around so fast it almost caused whiplash (If her astral projection could have actually gotten whiplash, she wasn't sure). Kneeling down on the river's edge, Kiera gently slipped her palms under the water, cupping them as though about to take a deep drink and catching the memory in her palms. Pulling the memory up out of the flow, Kiera watched Logan fighting a bunch of obviously drunken yahoos in some random dive bar. His claws were in, but he sure was giving them hell, much like he usually did. It made her grimace to watch him get hurt, even with his advanced healing factor, but at least he seemed to be holding his own. And when she hadn't felt any residual pain when she had landed so she had to figure he was ok now, even though she was pretty certain this fight had occurred recently. Sighing in relief, Kiera felt the worry Jean had managed to plant in her mind slowly fade a little. It wouldn't ever really go away until Logan was back at the school, but at least now she could sleep.
"Kiera?" Kiera jumped spinning around guiltily, her heartbeat ramping up to that of a hummingbird's. Cursing silently, Kiera realised that she had been so absorbed in Logan's memory; she had been stupid enough to not notice the slight changes in the rhythms of his mind as he woke up. Now he was standing behind her; shirtless, jeans rumpled and hanging low on his hips, hair sticking up every which way, probably wondering what the hell she was doing in his brain. "What are you doing here?" Yup, she figured that question was coming.
"Hey Logan." Kiera replied, rising from her spot, brushing imaginary dirt from her knees. "I got a little worried when I hadn't heard from you so I figured I'd check in on you really quick." Her nervous hands rose up to brush a stray lock of hair behind her ear, though she wasn't sure why she did it.
"And you couldn't just ask me?"
Kiera winced at the underlying growl in Logan's voice. He was hurt that she would just wander into his head without permission, particularly after she had promised not to. "I would have if you had been awake when I landed. When I figured out you were asleep, I figured I'd just check on you to make sure you were ok and be gone before you woke up." Her fingers needed to move, itched to play with something. So, as was her habit, she reached up to play with a pendant she hadn't been aware her double was wearing. "I kinda figured you needed the rest." Biting her lip, Kiera finally met Logan's eyes. "You aren't mad are you?"
Her question gave him pause. Was he actually that angry at her? He had been out cold till a few minutes ago and she had never broken a promise to him before. Before he even knew it, the core of his anger had started to melt away. He clung to the residual outskirts, if only for the sake of his reputation. "Why did you need to check in on me?" he asked, a slight growl still shivering under his words.
"God, you're going to think I'm totally pathetic." Kiera said, shaking her head, causing random little strands of hair to be caught in the imaginary breeze flowing through his head. He couldn't help but give her a quick once over. Her hair was loose, not something he saw often, and flying in a breeze. She was barefoot, clothed in a wispy white robe that hit just above the knee when the breeze allowed it to fall flat. She seemed to have almost an ethereal glow, but he attributed that to the both of them being buried somewhere in his mind. Her hand let go of the pendant at her neck and she swept both palms over her hair, capturing most of the loose strands under her palms. Sighing, she launched into her explanation. "I was feeding the horses when Jean cornered me, mentally anyway, and she asked if I had spoken to you recently. I didn't think much about it at the time, but you know how I am. I got to worrying and I figured I'd just pop in and ask you how you were, just to make sure you were ok and make myself feel better."
"You're right, that is kinda pathetic." Logan teased. "You don't usually let Jean get to you like that."
Kiera shrugged, puffing out her cheeks in a sigh of frustration. "I know! And that's what pisses me off most about all this." She met his eyes again and he caught a glimpse of the war going on inside her head. "I know you can handle yourself Logan, I know you can deal with just about everything that comes at you and yet, she has the accuracy of a fucking laser to plant that tiny little seed of doubt, that needy side of me. Ugh!" Her hackles were way up on this issue. Kiera was an independent woman and to appear even the tiniest bit needy to anyone, even him, rankled her. He watched her as she began to pace the banks of his memories, a caged tigress just waiting to strike
"Will you just calm down Kiera." Logan said, chuckling slightly. It's not as though anyone else would know about this conversation. "You're still one of the baddest bitches I know, ok?"
Kiera stared at him a moment before letting out laughing. A long, smooth belly laugh that seemed to lift all the weight from her shoulders. "You jackass." She laughed, sighing softly as she calmed down. Glancing around, she smiled. "Well, I should probably let you get back to sleep huh?"
Logan just shrugged. "Yeah well, you probably have things to do back at the school."
"Not really." She replied, shaking her head. "I was done for the day before I came here."
"Yeah? So what were you doing then?" Logan asked, eyeing her. He watched her bite her lower lip (One of her cuter habits) as she muttered out her answer. Leaning forward, Logan smirked slightly. "What was that?" This was going to be good.
"I'm taking a bath." She repeated, just a little louder, her cheeks coloring with a slight blush.
Logan's face remained impassive, but her answer stopped him in his tracks. He needed it to stop him in his tracks 'cause if he went down that road any further he would never be able to get back to sleep. "As in currently?" he asked, unable to stop himself. Grimacing slightly, Logan cursed the animalistic side of him that had asked that question.
"Well I didn't say was did I?" she replied; a small, knowing smirk crossing her lips. "Anyway, I'm going to get going. You don't mind if I check in every now and then?" Kiera cast a sheepish glance over her shoulder at the river behind her. "Even if it means that I have to go dipping into the river instead of asking you directly? Something I probably should have asked you before you left."
Logan looked at her for a long while, probably making her worry that he was going to kick her out of his mind for good. "Only if I'm asleep or too busy to answer." He finally replied, feeling better at the smile that was crossing her face.
"Well, duh." Kiera replied. After a moment's pause she stepped forward, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, trying not to show him just how much she was missing him. It took him a little by surprise, but his arms responded automatically, wrapping tightly around her shoulders. They held the hug far longer than their first and once again for far longer than friends normally would, but being secreted away in Logan's mind, they didn't care. Finally pulling back, Kiera smiled. "I'll be seeing you soon Logan. You take care of yourself ok? Or I will kick your ass."
Logan just smirked. "Don't worry, you know I will." He replied, letting her go. He watched as she took a step back, gave a little wave, and then seemed to vanish into thin air. He started at the speed with which she disappeared, wondering exactly what might have been going through her head.
Sighing, Logan opened his eyes, taking in the crummy motel room he had got for the night. The barest minimum a person needed to survive a night alone. Growling, he got up off the bed, well aware he wasn't about to get back to sleep tonight without a very cold shower first. As he padded towards the bathroom, a smirk bloomed upon his lips, just imagining that, at this very moment, Kiera was hauling herself out of the tub. At this very moment, she would be drying herself off before heading to bed; heading, hopefully, to a night of pleasant dreams. 'Damn it.' He thought, turning on the water and wrenching the dial as low as it could go. 'This is going to be harder than I thought.'