TITLE: The Time is Now (2/2)
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.


@~~>~~~


"So how do you rate?" Logan said loud enough for Marie to hear
him through her bedroom door as she changed. He had taken her
up on the offer to accompany her to the cottage while she changed
for dinner.

"You mean having this place to myself?" Marie called back,
frantically trying to find something nice to wear over her body
covering.

"Yeah, everyone else lives in the main house." Logan scanned the
framed pictures setting atop a table in front of the window facing
the garden they had just come from. His eyes stopped on a
particular one and before picking it up to inspect a little closer, he
turned and gave a quick glance to the bedroom door. Seeing that
the door was still closed, he picked up the frame and took a closer
look at the photo. It appeared to be of Marie and a decent looking
man with auburn hair posing in a very friendly manner. Logan
frowned and felt the slow burn of jealousy. He swallowed hard and
silently cursed it to back down.

A sweet familiar scent played upon his heightened sense of smell.
He realized Marie was in the same room. Awkwardly he set down
the frame, hoping she didn?otice which one he had picked up to
inspect. As he did he accidentally knocked a wooden frame next to
it down causing it to fall to the hard tile below and break apart.
Bending down to clean up the mess he?ade, he realized it was
a picture of him and picked the photograph up. ?, I?orry
about that..?? said as he stood looking at the photo.

?don?orry about it.??e grabbed the picture from his hand
just as his eyes caught a glimpse of the writing on the back. He
could swear it said, ?eed you here.??ilt for leaving her
overwhelmed him yet once again.

??ou get a picture of me anyways??? wondered, knowing
he had never posed for one.

?uh??rm gave it to me??ere?ecurity camera?verywhere
around here you know???od, how embarrassing! This was going
well!/ Marie thought to herself.

Logan was pleased at the thought of Marie keeping a picture of
him. He knelt again to pick up the broken pieces of frame with a
smirk on his face and set them on the table.

? I almost forgot! Come here!??rie took off in the direction of
her room again and gestured for him to follow.

Logan a bit uncomfortably and very slowly, walked toward Marie?
room wondering what it was she had forgotten. He knew it was an
innocent gesture, but he had missed her so much, and had
chastised himself many lonely nights on the road for imagining
meeting her in such a room under very different circumstances.

As he made his way towards her, memories of the first time they
were in his room together at the school began to dance about his
consciousness. It was the first connection they made, the first
resurrection. So morbid yet so intimate. He had been having a
nightmare and Marie, hearing him, came to wake him. Startled by
the nightmare obviously from his dark past, his eyes opened and
did not recognize the concerned young woman hovering over him.
With the thick haziness of sleep still overpowering the steel
enforced rage of his dream, he reacted. In a split second his claws
were out and with a blood-curdling yell, they were through her
chest. He sat there in his bed for a moment with his claws inside of
her, fighting to reach full consciousness. He watched her crimson
blood drip down his razor sharp blades. With sudden realization of
what he had done, he retracted his claws and wanted nothing more
then to die himself as he watched her delicate face turn stone
white. The memory made him want to vomit.

Standing just inside the doorway to Marie?edroom, he shook off
the unwelcome memories and watched as she opened the side
drawer of her nightstand. Then walking over to him, she reached
out, took one of his hands and dropped the familiar silver dog tags
into his open palm. As she did so, saying. ?new you?e back
for these someday.??t;br>
On an impulse fueled by emotion, he captured her gloved hand in
both of his own. /Deal with this now Logan!/ he told himself.

Marie looked down to their hands and then back up to find a very
serious Logan gazing directly into her eyes.

? glad your back.??e managed to say first.

?now, me too.?? said as he carefully pulled her into his
embrace.

He felt Marie relax at his touch and he allowed himself the pleasure
of stroking her silky brown hair and then gently kissed the top of
her head.

THE END
@~~~>~>~