TITLE: The Time is Now (1/2)
AUTHOR: jaded
EMAIL: shore@maui.net
RATING: PG
GENRE: vignette L/R friendship/romance
DISCLAMER: They ain?ine either, though I wouldn?urn ?
away if they needed a place to hide out for a bit as long as I could
go for a ride in the X-jet! ;-)
ARCHIVING: Ask first please
SUMMARY: Logan?eturn to the school. It?ust a silly little
reunion??nda fluffy
NOTES: I was using this in the fic I?urrently working on and
then decided against it, being that I felt it was too fluffy when what I
really enjoy is angst. But I kept having fun with it and decided not
to waste it. Heck I?use it to test the waters and see what it feels
like to actually submit something. This is my first fic ever, and I
never thought I would do something like this, so please humor
me??onstructive criticism and mucho encouragement is always
greatly appreciated.
MORE NOTES: As this is coming from a story where Logan thinks
of Rogue as Marie and calls her such, and Rogue thinks of her self
as Rogue along with the rest of her peers, I called Rogue, Rogue
when it was from her perspective and called her Marie when it was
from Logan?.hope that?ot too confusing.


@~~>~~~


They were her children. She knew it was silly, but still she thought
of them as her children. They were the only form of life that
accepted her touch with out it's very essence being siphoned out.
Instead, her "Babies" as she called them, actually flourished with
her care as she spent her days in the gardens showering them with
attention.

Rogue carefully patted the moist soil around the last of her newly
sprouting seedlings, then stood to take a look at her
accomplishments for the day. Before her lay a healthy garden, full
of life and all tended by her ungloved hands.

Her hands, they were a site. Short rough fingernails caked with
mud, dry calloused fingertips, small cracks stained green from
pulling weeds. /It?orth it though./ she thought as she examined
them. Alone in the garden while she tended to her "Babies", she
didn't have to worry about her deadly touch. Here she found as
much contentment as she could hope for, just being able to tend to
her seedlings with bare hands.

They let her think of this place as her garden, even called it as
much. Her garden was the only place she allowed herself to
venture outside of the cottage Professor Xavier provided for her with
out wearing the special thin covering designed to cover most of her
body. Here, in her garden, she would pretend that nothing had ever
changed; things were exactly as they used to be.

"They told me I'd find you out here Marie." Someone from behind
interrupted her musings.

Rogue, startled at the unexpected yet familiar voice, felt a slight
rush of adrenaline. At her request, rarely did anyone come to her in
the garden and more then that, no one here called her Marie. Only
one person did that, and he?eft years ago. Dare she get her
hopes up? Having worked so hard to accept his absence, she
silently warned herself against doing so. As she knelt there the
garden, she turned her head to look behind her. Catching sight of a
particularly hairy man with very windblown hair, she completely lost
her balance.

With a raised eyebrow and a kind smile, he quickly stepped closer
to help her up, and then caught himself as he remembered it
wasn?ossible. He laughed. "You okay?"

"Uh..Yeah??anks!" She said in disbelief and a little embarrassed
as she pulled herself up and began to brush the mud off her rear
end. This definitely was not the reunion she had imagined over the
years.

?..??e a little mud?? Logan gestured to his own face
showing Rogue where she had mud on her face.

/This is great./ She thought. /I've spent the last few years of my life
lost in a day dream over this man's return and here he is..??at
do I do? I fall on my butt./

Trying to wipe the mud off of her face, she struggled to regain her
composure. It had been so long, yet still in a way, it seemed Logan
was with her every day. At this, she found herself smiling. She had
experienced this man's thoughts long ago so thoroughly and
completely through his life giving yet forbidden touch of his skin to
hers. Because of this, she had no doubt as to how he felt about her
before he left. He was painfully battling the emotion of falling in love
with her and the desperate need to figure out who he was.

She was too young to even understand her own emotions let alone
deal with the complicated mess he left in her mind. Yet, when he
said goodbye, she knew he would be doing so. She knew his need
to find his past as if it where her own and she accepted it.
However, she never gave up hope in his promise to return, nor did
she let herself forget that she knew for a fact he had a very special
place for her in his heart. His departure was an unspoken
understanding for the both of them and a promise to come to terms
with it and their feelings in the future.

Rogue stood there now in her garden contemplating Logan and how
she still felt about him, wondering what to do next. She had
imagined such reunions with him in her girlish fantasies over the
years of his absence. However, looking down at her white exposed
skin as she wore only shorts and a tank top, frustration took
control in an intensity she had not felt since she first dealt with the
realization of her lifelong quarantine.

"About time ya come back." She smirked, tossing her hand shovel
to the side.

"Well??p;quot; Logan cleared his throat. "You should hurry up and
change, Professor X expects us all for dinner at 5:30 sharp??e
kind of welcoming home thing I guess." He said, gruffly avoiding
her gaze and obviously fighting to hide his own joy at being back
with the only people he felt were his family, and the only woman he
had been able to think about for the past 4 years.

"Come with me if you like." Said a seemingly unconcerned Rogue,
as she head towards her cottage.