Wicked Game

disclaimer: don't own the x-men, I'm just playing so please don't sue *s*


just coz I love muffins ... here ya go *s* and maybe, just maybe ... there will be another one (or two tomorrow ... ) .. and finally some smut then *s*

note: any mistake you may find ... they're all mine ...


~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Walking back to the bedroom, he found Rogue standing beside the open glass door. She’d wrapped the bed sheet around her like a sleeveless dress. Logan took a deep drag on the cigar, god it tasted like heaven, and pondered on what to say to her. It was still early in the morning, around 06:30 am, or so he thought.

“Hey …”

Rogue turned around at the sound of his voice. Her facial expression was serious and weary, but still she smiled at him.

“Hey, Logan.”

“Sorry ‘bout … that …”

Rogue shrugged. “It’s okay, Ah’m not angry.”

“’kay … so …”, he said, and positioned himself on the bed.

When she turned to face him again, her eyes were wide, and the features had shifted from grave to determine. She went over to him.

“What kinda of magic do you use on me, Wolvie, to make me so … so weak”, Rogue said hoarsely.

Logan leaned his back against the bedpost and quickly masked his surprise. He wasn’t used to having Rogue approach him like she was now, and why she was doing it. She lusted after him, he knew that already, but there was something else to it. It suddenly felt like she had the upper hand, and he didn’t mind that one bit as he enjoyed having her eyes roam appreciatively all over his bare chest.

“When tomorrow comes Ah won’t be here anymore, it’ll be too much to handle, seeing you with her, knowing you share every night with her.” Rogue climbed onto the bed, and straddled him. Her hair fell like a curtain around her face. “Ah’ll be leaving, and Ah’ll be off to somewhere Ah can never be hurt, but for now –“

Logan grabbed her arm. “You’re not going anywhere, darlin’. You are so going to talk to Xavier about this … this stupid thing you think you can’t handle” he growled, and bared his teeth.

“You can’t make me, Logan.”

“Oh, yes I can, and I bloody hell will.”

“You don’t say things like ‘bloody’.”

“Don’t change the subject, kid”, he snarled, put the cigar between his teeth and smacked her bottom. “I’ll do it again, if ye’re even thinking about leaving, make no fuckin’ mistake ‘bout that, and it won’t be pleasurable like just now sweetheart, oh no, that cute little behind of yours will be all pretty and pink, once I’m through with ye.”

Rogue made an exasperating sound in her throat. “What the hell am Ah to do with you, Wolvie? First you get me into your bed, then you kiss me, then you throw me into the shower with mah clothes still on, you wrestle me, you kiss me in public, you shred my night wear in the bathtub, like that’s the usual thing to do, and as if that’s not all – you’re doin the whole neanderthal thing, and to top that cut mah undies into pieces. What does that tell ya, huh? Well, bub?” She added that last line, deliberately saying it in a mocking way, since it was something he often said to people, all just to make fun of him.

Logan took a drag on the cigar, before firing back at her. “That I’m an insensitive son of a bitch, or that you are a freakin’ stubborn woman? Beats me, darlin’” He grunted and inhaled another healthy amount of smoke down his throat. Oh, yes, he was winning this game easily.

Rogue frowned angrily at him, and jerked her wrist free. She folded her arms, and was still frowning. “Okay, okay so Ah’m stubborn, but that does not give you the right to demolish mah clothes. It doesn’t give you the right to … kiss me like that.”

Logan coughed. Okay, so she was trying to win some brownie points. Well, we’ll just see about that, won’t we? “It doesn’t? Correct me if I’m wrong, but you did kiss me too, at least a couple of times. Any regrets on that? Any at all?” When she refused to answer, he couldn’t help but chuckle. Oh, teasing her was always such a thrill.

“Why is it that you can make me angry without even trying? The nicer you are the angrier Ah get, Ah don’t understand ya, Logan, Ah really don’t.”

“Whatever do you mean? Now … still planning on leavin’?”

“Maybe …”

Logan put the cigar in the ashtray, a god awful piece of crafted glass, on the bed stand and placed his hands on Rouge’s hips.

“I know I’ve said this before, but you know I’d never hurt you.”

Rogue stroked his cheeks with her satin clad hands, she traced his neck and chest in one slow, almost painful, motion.

“Ye do know that?” he said.

“Yes, yes Ah do know that, that’s why it’s so hard. I’d rather leave than be forced to live this close to you, Logan, and not being able to touch you the way Ah want to. The same way any other person can touch one another.”

“Rogue …”

“And even if Ah did, this wouldn’t last, just because of it …”

“You are in denial, if you think there isn’t anything at all to be done. I think this problem you have, not wanting people to touch you, and vice versa, that it is part of that … that horrible experience you went through … If you could talk to someone professional about it, and later together with Xavier then maybe … maybe ye could …” Logan let the words trail off, not sure if he’d said too much, or the wrong things.

“Ah don’t know … Ah just don’t know … it hurts too much to think about it, you know …”

“I know it does … I’m sorry if I said something to –“

“No, no you didn’t … Ah’m okay, Ah just want to … Ah don’t want you to settle for anything less than what you deserve, and you deserve more than Ah could ever give you …”

“And you know what that is?”

Something flickered in Rogue’s eyes – hurt, anger, maybe. She thought about Jean no doubt.

“I really don’t by this leaving-crap, Rogue, I really don’t. Are you so lost that ye think there’s no hope at all? How do you know there isn’t anything that can be done? What if ye can learn how to control it? Then what?” He grabbed her arms to emphasize what he’d just said. “Look at me, Marie, and tell me what hell ye’re gonna do then”, he said roughly.

She held his gaze for a while, eyes wide and full of something he didn’t want to put into words.

“It is you, Logan, it has always been you, ever since Ah first saw you in that cage fight so may years ago in Laughlin City. You were different; Ah could see it, I felt it, just by looking at ya. Ah knew you were special”, she said slowly, and lowered her eyes, “just not how special.”

Rogue seemed strained to him, her voice came out low and there was some undercurrent to it that made him think of a wounded animal left alone in the dark.

“I’ve been tryin’ to make you angry, to make you less caring, to make this thing go away but Ah can’t no matter how hard Ah try. Ah just can’t, and it won’t leave me alone. You haunt my dreams. That’s why Ah have to leave, and if Ah’m not around … you can be with her … with Jean …”

“But I cannot let ye go, ye hear me? And what’s with all this ‘you can be with Jean’-shit? If you haven’t figured it out by now …”

“Logan …”

“You’re not leaving, and that’s fuckin’ final. You’ve tried to leave before, remember, but I convinced ye to return, because this is where you belong, Rogue, with people that know what you are, and that aren’t afraid of you.”

“But Ah was so young then, and what did I have to come back to … no … ”


“Yes, but you have grown since then too, and I don’t know any other mutant with more life experience than you have, and just by having that ye should be strong enough to make the right decision. And that, sweetheart, is to stay.”

“But why do you want me to stay, Logan?”

“Because … I couldn’t live with myself knowing I could’ve done more to help you control that power of yours. Because the place would be emptier without having you around, and I’d be busy fighting off Kitty and Jubilee every day if ye leave”, he said and stroked her hair, and fingered the white streaks. “And because I’d miss ye far too much.”

“But why?”

Logan softened, looking into Rogue’s large brown eyes. “You really need me to spell it out for ye?”

Rouge went still, her face blank and calm.

“The same reason why you want to leave. I can’t let ye go, knowing ye might find … shelter … somewhere else, and knowing I could’ve done more … something to prevent it. I want you to stay because you want to, because I don’t wanna be without ye. At the statue of Liberty … I don’t want to go through something like that again, I want you here. Here with me, Marie”, he said, softly.

“You mean that?”

“Yes, I do. I want you here with me, not anywhere else. I want you. You, darlin’.”

She studied him for a couple of seconds, all kinds of emotions crossing her face, flowing from her though him and Wolverine.

“You really do mean that”, she finally said, whispering.

“It makes you sad, why?” Rogue was looking at her hands in a way that made her hair hide most of her face. Wolverine could smell her being worried, her emotions was like a tangle of threads and knots, of thoughts and feelings.

“Tell me what I can do to make ye stay. Anything and I’ll do it, just don’t leave.”

“If Ah stay, then what?”

“Then … then we will deal with your power. I believe ye can learn to control it, you’ve already shown a lot improvement since I first met ye.”

“And if Ah do learn how to master it …”

“Well, then you can touch me any way you like, love, and I won’t have to smack your bottom … unless ye want me to”, he said, smiling and patted her thigh. Oh, he could definitely imagine that, that creamy white and cute ass of hers turning pink while he was smacking it. Just thinking about it made him hard.

“Ah don’t know if Ah can … Ah’m so scared that Ah’ll end up alone … again … that everything will fail, that it’ll be like it was with Cody … just the thought of it being a possibility … it frightens me, Logan, because Ah don’t evah want to hurt the one person that truly understands me. That would kill me for real this time.”

“Please … just dare to jump, Rogue, baby, just this once”, he said, while stroking her cheek. She looked just like she had when she’d planned to run away from the school, when he found her waiting for the train to take her away from the world of mutants.

She put her hands on his chest, and caressed him slowly. “Do you know what you’re asking me, Wolvie?” Her voice had gone all serious, but he could still smell traces of fear in it, just as easily as if they’d been visible to the eye.

“I know you, Rogue, that should tell you something.”

“So maybe Ah’ll stay … for a while … what will you do?”

“A lot of things, and if you’re thinking about Jean … or Bobby … I’ll talk to her, but my guess is that Scotty’s taken care of that already.”

There. He’d finally managed to bring up the subject, what he was to do with Jean. If she didn’t already know, he’d have to tell her, not the most pleasant of thoughts – she’d be hurt probably, but then there was always Cyclops to soothe her feelings. Logan suspected though, that Ororo might beat him to it, knowing her she’d been pretty pissed at him lately, and she was also close friends with Jean. And Rogue. Maybe not the ideal situation, but there wasn’t anything he could do to change it.

“Ah can’t share you, Logan, not in … that … way, so if Ah’m to stay …”

“You tell Iceman the same thing.”

Rogue touched his cheek, traced his lips and raked her fingers through his hair in a way that felt a lot like a leave taking to Wolverine, and he hated that dark numbness that lingered in her eyes, in everything that was Rogue and Marie. Everything that was her. But this wasn’t goodbye. It wasn’t.

“You look so serious”, she said, leaned in to him and placed a kiss on his forehead then rested her cheek against it.

“It’s all this talk about goodbye”, he mumbled, stroking her back.

“Ah haven’t said goodbye, this is not goodbye, not now …and you know what they say about saving someone’s life?”

“What?”

“That you’re bound to them for the rest of your life, or when you have to save them in return. And Ah haven’t saved you yet.”

“And you’re gonna have to wait a long time for me to die.”

“No, Ah don’t”, she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Ah am that one that can kill you, without effort … and you want me to stay.”

“I know that already, and you are staying. And I am also the only one that can touch you and not die, and I also saved ye twice before this third time, remember? That should count for something”, he said, all sorts of emotions flowing through his mind as he visualized Rogue leaving and dying without being there to save her. It had been close on the way to Alkali Lake, and thanking Kurt for being Kurt and saving Rogue when she got sucked out of the plane … he had a lot of catching up to do.

“So Ah’m stuck with you, is that what you’re saying?”

He nodded, and tried to look stern. “Yes, damn it, that’s what I’m saying, and have been trying to tell you for some time now.”

Rogue fell silent, and he couldn’t think of anything else to say, it seemed like the ball was sort of on her court now. Not to mention the ones she sat on at the moment, he thought and managed not to grin.