Chapter 10 – Good Intentions

After the last class of her day, Marie decided that she'd get some food into her system before Charles debriefed her about the mission she would be going on that night.

She wasn't worried about the mission, it had been something that her and Charles had been working on for weeks, waiting for Logan to get back so that she knew the school would be in safe hands while she wasn't there. Tonight, was merely a formality to make sure that they both knew exactly what was going down.

As Marie walked into the cafeteria she could smell a range of well-prepared meals, the sweat coming off the group of kids that had obviously just been playing basketball, and the distinctive feral smell of one very grumpy looking Wolverine.

Despite her loathing of the man, Marie couldn't help but smile at him as he was surrounded by some of the smallest kids at the school. And whilst he did look grumpy, she could tell that he was secretly loving being needed again. To be helpful to someone other than himself must have been nice for a change.

She was knocked out of her thoughts as one of her older students accidently bumped into her, having quite a comical face oh him with the realisation as to whom he'd hit.

"I'm so sorry, Miss. I…I…apologise most profusely that I hit you." If Logan hadn't of been there she may have let the bump slip, but she had to keep up the tough image around the Wolverine, to make sure he didn't sniff out her weaknesses and weasel his way back into her life.

She stared at the boy with contempt and spoke in a clear, authoritative tone, "You should watch where you're going next time, Liam. If I didn't have control of my powers I would have sucked the life out of you. Don't be a fool and die because you can't get your head out of your arse and actually walk like a normal person for once."

The boy, Liam, looked like a scolded five-year-old, not the 15 that he actually was, and scampered away back to his seat, not looking Marie directly in the eyes but repeating the phrase, "Yes, sorry Miss. Won't happen again, Miss."

Marie could feel everyone's eyes on them, including Logan's, and suddenly she didn't feel very hungry anymore so instead of the three-course meal she was going to have, she decided to pick up a banana and head back to the D.R. Room for last minute practise before her mission tonight.

Logan watched Marie with interest as she scolded the teenage kid and then decided on a banana for her dinner, there certainly wasn't enough protein in that to keep her going Logan mused, but he decided he wouldn't go after her.

His approach to dealing with Marie before he arrived at Xavier's was to do what he had always done, talk to her like his friend, hang out with her, protect her, and hope that one day it could result in romance. He had assumed, wrongly, that he and Marie could pick up where they left off and that all would be okay between them, but of course it isn't.

So now he had to change his approach. Three years ago, he would have gone after her had she had an outburst like that, would have tried to comfort her or figure out the problem. But now, he really had no idea what she would want. He knew, from how she'd reacted to him earlier that they weren't on good terms, so going after her was out of the question, but that didn't mean he couldn't do something else, he just didn't know what.

And then it hit him. She'd decided to eat a banana for her dinner, but he knew that wasn't enough to sustain the lifestyle she was now living, what with being in the D.R. Room during all of her free time. A banana would not be enough, but the lasagne that he'd just eaten would be.

Logan got up and went back over to the buffet cart and pretended he wanted second helpings of the 'fantastic' lasagne he'd just had, flattering the staff got him everywhere, as it was the best he'd ever eaten. Taking the full plate back from the dinner-lady, he went off to the side where the cutlery and snack items were. He decided he'd take some more fruit up as well, and also a glass of water, just in case she didn't have a glass up in her room. He put the glass, the fruit, the plate of lasagne and cutlery on the tray before making his way towards the D.R. Room (where her smell trail was leaded).

He knew that she'd smell it was him that left the tray, and may not decide to eat the food, but at least he had thought of her needs instead of thinking about what he had wanted (which was to go after her) because that is what she had said. That he always thought of himself. And he realised, as he was walking towards the D.R. Room that she was right. He had always been selfish. Selfish when he went after Jean despite her having a loving fiancée, selfish when he saved Marie from Magneto because he couldn't live without her, not thinking of the consequences of her taking in his memories and selfish when he left and came back and left again. It was in his nature to be selfish but he knew that if he wanted Marie to ever be his friend again, let alone love him, he'd have to change for her.

He could see her in the D.R. Room, so he decided he'd leave the meal in the ladies' shower room and hope that she came out before the lasagne got cold. Logan thought about staying, just for a minute, to see her in action again. But that would have been selfish of him, to invade her privacy once again just hours after she'd complained about it to him.

So instead he headed back towards the elevator and decided that this would be his life from now on, he would put someone else's needs above his own for the first time in a very long time and hopefully, he'd have Marie back in no time.

What Logan didn't see was that Marie had seen what he'd done, and not taking it in the way he intended, chucked the food across the ladies' shower room in a fit of rage.