Marie usually got partnered with Logan during training exercises. None of the others really wanted to be with her voluntarily. Even now. Despite the strides she'd made rebuilding her relationships, they'd never really forgiven her for taking the Cure and she was always the odd one out, especially when it came to exercises meant to hone their powers.

She didn't really mind anymore. She liked being partnered with Logan. He always made her feel safe and he was smarter and more fun, too. And he liked breaking the rules as much as she did. They worked well together now, both as partners and as friends. Swinging a hammer next to him for a year had only intensified their bond.

This evening Storm had them running night drills on the property instead of in the Danger Room; a variant of evade capture, mutant style. The last group to be captured won. Winners got bragging rights and two tickets to their choice of show, limited to anything playing at Madison Square Garden in the next six months. Marie had to give it to 'Ro, she knew how to motivate them. A light spring rain had dampened everyone's spirits, but that was the point. Shitty things happened when it was raining too. They needed to be prepared.

Paired off in twos — Bobby with Kitty, Gambit with Jubilee, and Piotr with Storm — they disappeared into the forest to see if they could evade capture by Hank, who had a formidable brain and his own set of cunning animal instincts.

Logan crammed his straw cowboy hat down a little further on his head and hunched his shoulders against the rain.

The hat was a familiar old favorite. "I've never seen you wear that hat on a mission before," Marie hissed as they ran through the undergrowth, putting as much distance between them and the others as they could.

"Fuckin' hate rain runnin' down the back of my neck."

Marie cinched her hoodie a little tighter. "I hear that, sugar."

They stopped a couple of miles in. Logan wasn't even winded but Marie had a stitch in her side and was panting hard. He was tempted to touch her, to pour a little of himself into her, but he needed all of his senses about him tonight. These kinds of drills always made him edgy.

Their trail had been random, stopping and starting and crossing over itself to confuse anyone who followed. Scouting around, Logan found a fallen log at the top of a small rise and they wriggled under it, covering most of the small opening with moss and ferns. It was even relatively dry, despite the gray drizzle.

"Not bad," she breathed quietly.

"High ground, out of the elements. Can see a good ways all around. S'a good spot." He moved closer to share his body heat with her. The musk of the wet earth, the cozy cramped space, the pliant length of her pressed up against his body from shoulder to knee like they were curled up safe in a den; it was all disturbingly soothing. A man wouldn't take such comfort in that feeling, he knew. But it didn't change how it felt, how the animal felt. It was distracting, too. She was sweating from the run, amping up her natural scent of spice and honey and earth. His proximity was beginning to arouse her. He could smell her grow slick and ready for him. It was an unwelcome distraction he couldn't afford now. He didn't play games with her safety. "You good, kid?"

"Yeah." She pressed closer, tangling their legs and pulled the leaf litter and moss over them both before settling down against his side and trying to slow her breathing. He radiated warmth and strength and confidence. Her breathlessness wasn't entirely due to the run.

"Good. Now shut up. Hank's hearin' is almost as good as mine."

An hour passed. And then another.

The forest was silent and still. There was only the drip of rain and their slow, even breathing.

"I think we lost 'em, baby."

Marie turned her head to whisper in his ear, keeping a careful distance from his skin and hating how hard it was to focus with him this close. Their lives could depend on what she was learning now. She shouldn't be thinking of how his body felt and how much she wanted to feel him shift and cover her, to feel the press of his hips against hers and his weight pushing her down into the soft loam.

As close as they were, she could see the pulse beating strong and steady at the base of his throat. God, she'd licked him right there. He'd liked it. She could still remember how he'd felt shuddering under her tongue. She wanted to feel it again. Here. Now. To open his pants, put her mouth on him and drink down his pleasure. To feel his heartbeat on her tongue and to savor his most intimate taste.

Something about this wild place was calling to her, bringing up things she wasn't even sure she should want. Things that embarrassed and aroused her that she'd stashed down deep. The urge to strip and roll naked with him here in the dirt and mud, to get on her knees and feel him behind her, spreading her legs. A strange compulsion to feel him shove her onto her belly and bite her neck while he took her roughly on the ground. To rut and bite and scratch and cry down the moon with his come in her belly and the taste of blood on their lips.

Logan could see it all, flickering in her eyes. A dark smoldering heat that made it hard to breathe.

Christ. She was killing him.

He forced down a growl. "You should know better than to look at me like that right now."

"I know," she said softly, putting her head on her arms and closing her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm trying."

"Try harder." The words themselves were stern, but Marie could hear the warmth in them and the unspoken suggestion to save those looks for later.

Biting her lip, she shook the erotic thoughts away and tried to focus on what was happening now. "If this were real. How long would you stay quiet?"

"A day. Maybe more. Depends on who's lookin' and why. Once you got a good place, s'more dangerous to move. It's different for you. You gotta eat. Drink. I can be still as long as I have to. Drinkin' dew or rain'. Suckin' on moss. Eatin' bugs. It ain't what I'd order up, but it's worth knowin'." He could kill damn near anything that came looking for him, but even he had limits. Pride always took a back seat to survival.

He talked to her then, about as much as he could remember when it came to how to hide and track and evade capture. Hard things. Scary things. Embarrassing things. Disgusting things. Things a person could do to survive if they had to, if they were desperate. Things he'd done. He told her everything. Gave her all of it. Someday it might save her life.

The sky cleared. The stars came out. They kept talking, tangled up together in their cozy, makeshift den. The moon rose. For a long time they simply laid together in silence, her head resting on his chest as the night pressed down on them like a blanket of stars. With all the tension between them lately, they both savored the unexpected peace they'd found, the soft rise and fall of his chest under her cheek and his hand in hers.

It was Logan who finally spoke into the silence. He wanted to stay longer but Marie didn't have his healing. Curling up on the wet ground for hours on end wasn't good for her and he was too close to the edge to let her take his mutation into her again right now. He knew that would only end up one way.

"Guess we better head back."

"Sure." She kept her voice light, but it was difficult to let him go.

They wriggled out from under the fallen log and got up, brushing themselves off before reaching out to knock the worst of the remaining forest debris from each other. Marie reached up and pulled a few leaves from Logan's wild hair. He made a point of leaving the leaves in hers and she couldn't help but wonder if Logan was struggling with his own primal fantasies of taking her here in this wild place. They started walking. Marie noticed Logan was still on edge, as if he were half expecting Hank to burst from the trees at any moment.

"You still bringin' dinner down to the house tomorrow, kid?"

"I lost again, didn't I?"

"Heh. Yep."

"It's not fair. How can I have so many brains up there and still lose at poker every time?"

"'Cause I play to win, baby." And because there was no way in hell he wanted Marie cooking for that idiot Cajun, not even now that he was putting it to Jubilee. Logan had never been very chummy with him, but things were less pleasant now that they'd had words.

"Got any requests?"

She saw his teeth flash in the dark.

"Venison steaks with baked potatoes, fried okra and pecan pie." His smile grew wider. "God, I love that. I could eat my body weight in pecan pie."

"Is it the taste or the density?" He had a unique metabolism. His healing factor burned calories at an enormous rate. He could put away an incredible amount of food.

"Neither. It's the texture of that shit the pecans are in. All gooey and sweet."

The way he said it shook something loose in her brain. "So you're saying you like it because it reminds you of oral sex?"

Logan tripped.

Marie flashed him a smirk of her own from inside the hoodie.

"Jesus, kid."

"Penthouse tonight?" she whispered with a laugh.

"No. Gonna read one of yours tonight."

Marie stumbled.

"Heh."

She punched his arm.

"I can see why you like the words," he said as they emerged from the trees.

"Why's that?"

"Because when it's just the words, when there's no picture to distract me, I can make it be anyone. Anyone I want."

Marie stopped walking abruptly.

Logan plowed into the back of her.

He caught her quickly, afraid of what might happen if they wound up on the ground together again. The resulting wet tangle of awkward limbs broke the tension, and he steadied her as they separated.

They both thought of that moment the leonine man had steadied the woman after they'd caught their breath, and for one wild moment, Marie thought Logan might kiss her.

He set her from him gently instead.

"Just call me Grace," she teased, trying for an easiness she didn't really feel.

"Marie, baby?"

"What?"

"Two pies tomorrow." His expression was positively wicked. He knew she could feel it too— that spark. It was growing, getting wilder, harder to control. Her scent and body language told him she was on the edge. She had claimed him in a room of people but never alone, never when it was just the two of them and the inescapable truth.

They both knew that whatever happened tomorrow would be more intimate than simply sharing a meal. The promise in his eyes made her skin crawl with pleasure. And then she frowned.

Logan followed her line of vision and a frown appeared on his face too.

All the lights in the mansion's kitchen were on. The team was back and had clearly been there for some time.

They strolled in, wet and covered with leaf litter and mud.

"Oh my God! There you are, chica! We thought you bailed." Jubilee bounced out of her seat.

Marie looked around. It looked like the exercise had ended in everyone returning for sundaes.

"How'd everyone do?"

"Bobby and Kit-Kat got caught first." They both blushed. It was obvious they'd been distracted. "Then Piotr and 'Ro. Me and the Cajun thought we had it locked, but no Wolvie and no Rogue when Hank brought us in. That was hours ago. Did you two motor, or what?"

"Jubes. Look at us." They were wet and filthy. "We've been evading capture. I've been learning how to not get dead. We were talking."

Gambit opened his mouth.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, bub." Logan gave him a hard look and he shut his mouth with a showy, gallant little nod that made Logan's blood pressure climb. They hadn't been the best of friends even before Remy had talked dirty to his girl while fucking Jubilee on the couch. The swamp rat was still pissy with him about their resulting conversation. It had taken the bruises a while to fade, too.

"You did it, girl!" Jubilee eyed her. "I'd hug you, Roguey, but this is Prada and you're all icky." She slid the chocolate ice cream down the bar instead. "Congrats on winning, though. Adam Lambert's gonna be playing at the Garden in three months. Hint. Hint." Marie rolled her eyes.

Logan rolled his neck with a pop. He wanted a hot shower, a soft bed and a stiff drink. Not necessarily in that order.

"I needa drink."

"Soda's on the table, Wolvie."

"A real drink." Logan smirked as Gambit's fingers stiffened around his can of Coke. He glanced over at Marie. "Dinner tomorrow, kid."

Two pies, sugar.

She held up two fingers and he grinned. "Yup. See ya."

"What's with you flashing the Wolvster the peace sign, chica? That's like the textbook definition of lost cause."

Marie just shook her head. "Nothing, Jubes. Now where's the fudge?"

Up next: She's Like the Wind. 'She rides the night next to me. She leads me through moonlight, only to burn me with the sun...' Things heat up and a night on the back deck changes things forever.