XCave.NET

** ** indicates telepathic communication
‘ ’ indicates thought
“ ” indicates spoken words

*I hope yer right*

“Where were you?” a cold but worried voice greeted Logan the moment he stepped into *his* room.
He knew she was here, he had smelled her the moment he had starting walking up the stairs, her scent growing stronger with each step as he walked along the silent corridors.

“What are ya doin’ here?” he growled, the alcohol and the memory of what he had witnessed in the infirmary making him snap at her. Walking to the dresser, he emptied his pockets and stood there, facing away from her.
“Waiting for you,” Ororo answered in a clipped tone. “Where were you?” she repeated her previous question.
“Out,” was the one word Logan gave, before repeating his own question. “Why are ya here?”
“I told you I was waiting for you,” Ororo snapped, worry clear in her voice. Anyone with normal senses wouldn’t have detected it, but then again Logan wasn’t just anyone. He was the Wolverine, the super-assassin, who had killed more people than he could remember. He had ‘enhanced’ senses, fuck it….he was an animal.

---

He was so lost in his self-depreciating thoughts that he didn’t notice Ororo come and stand behind him.
“Logan,” she whispered softly, her perfectly manicured hand reaching for his shoulder.

The moment her fingers touched him, he jumped as if her touch scalded him.
“Logan…” Ororo’s voice cracked. What had happened to him? This morning everything was fine…..and now? Now he could not even bear to look at her leave alone bear her touch.

“What dya want ‘Ro,” Logan asked in a tight voice, still not facing her. “Why are ya here?”
“Logan, what happened? Why are you acting like this?” she once against reached for him, but was stopped short when he turned in a flash and caught her slender arms with his large calloused hands, gripping them tightly – too tightly in fact, his grip hurting her.

“What happened?” Ororo was surprised by the look in his eyes. Where his voice was dead cold, his eyes were burning with passion, hurt and…..a sense of loss. “Do ya have ta ask what happened?”
“Logan, you are hurting me?”
At her words, Logan immediately let go of her, stumbling back, away from her. “Leave ‘Ro.”

“Logan….” She reached once again for him. “Logan please.”
“LEAVE,” he almost yelled out. Lowering his head, he once again turned away from her. “Leave ‘Ro….go where you wanna go. Just leave me alone.”
Ororo’s approach stopped instantly. She had been afraid of this. He no longer wanted her.

She had come to his room to talk to him about what happened with Scott. She had seen Scott when she had been visiting Forge in the infirmary.

//Flashback//

“Ororo….there is something else I want to tell you,” Forge had said to her.
“Yes” she had tensed up at his tone. They had been talking freely and somewhere along the way, her hand had wound up held in his.
“I…” he started hesitantly. “I love you.”

Ororo had stood silently for a few seconds, stunned by his sudden declaration. She knew that Forge was attracted to her, maybe even had some feelings, but to her he had been just like many before him, a handsome man who had pursued her for sometime, then once they realized that there wasn’t any future in that, they would gradually break away and start pursuing someone else. They either moved into the friend-zone or completely severed contact with her.

But none of them had been so forward as to profess their love for her. She didn’t know what to say to him? She didn’t want to hurt him, nor did she want to lead him on? Maybe things might have progressed differently if Logan hadn’t come back into her life? But now he was there and she didn’t want anyone else? Logan had been and still was the only man for her.

“Ororo…” Forge slowly slid her hand upwards to her wrist, gently caressing and enjoying the feel of her honey smooth feel. “Ororo?”
Coming back to her senses, the first thing Ororo did was pull her hand from his grip. It was so sudden that he didn’t get a chance to tighten his grip, and ended up grasping at empty air.

“Ororo, please say something?” Forge’s voice was gently but urging.
“What do you want me to say?” Ororo stepped away from her, his gaze not him his.
“Well,” he smiled at her. Her shyness raising his hopes. “….usually its good to return the complement.”
“I….I…” Forge smiled wider at her hesitance. “I’m sorry but I can’t.”
“You can’t?” his voice hitched.
“I’m sorry Forge if I led you on to believe that there was something besides friendship between us,” Ororo apologized. “I don’t love you. I like you, but just as a friend.”

“But we can have something more than friendship,” Forge pushed on; unaware of what had transpired during the time he was unconscious. “We are progressing so well. I am sure that given the time….”
“No Forge,” Ororo cut him off. She wanted to end this before it went any further. “I don’t anything more than friendship to offer to you.”
“Can you tell me why?” he asked, his tone sullen at the rejection he was having to face.
“I love someone else,” Ororo proclaimed without any hesitation. “I love Logan.”
Forge winced at the name of the non-present….no he was no longer a non-present competitor.

However, he wasn’t ready to let up yet.
“But does he love you?” he shot in the darkness. The slight hesitation on Ororo’s face telling him that he had hit the mark. “Does he love you?” he asked a second time, in a softer tone than the first time.
“I don’t know,” Ororo’s voice dropped. “I think he does.”
“What if he doesn’t?” Forge gained the confidence Ororo had just lost. “What if he doesn’t? What then?”

Before either of them could anything else, Scott walked in from the inner rooms, his nose was bandaged and a slight swelling had set in on the right side of his face.
“Scott, what happened?” Ororo took advantage of his intrusion to get away from Forge and his probing questions.
“Wolverine happened,” Scott grunted out, his voice slightly nasal due his injury.
“Wolverine?” Ororo’s brow furrowed. “What happened Scott?”
“He hit me,” Scott spat out, wincing the next moment at the pain shooting out from nose. “He hit me,” he said softly.
“Why?” Ororo came to stand next to him. “Tell me everything.”

**Scott, Ororo, please come to my office** Xavier’s voice sounded in their heads.
“Yes Professor,” Scott answered moving towards the door, Ororo walking next to him. She needed to find out what had happened between Scott and Logan and she wasn’t going to let go of Scott until she got her answers.

-----

Fortunately or unfortunately, she got those answers sooner than she expected it, and not from Scott. She got them from Xavier.

She had come to know about the *joke* Scott had pulled on Logan. He had told Logan that Forge was her boyfriend and Logan had reacted he only way he knew, he had punched Scott right in the kisser, just missing it and landing it on his nose and cheek. That explained the injuries he was sporting.

Ororo herself had wanted to give him a doze of the same medicine that Logan had given, albeit in a larger amount.

Xavier had mediated between them, telling Scott to refrain from any more ‘cheap hits’ against the newest mansion resident and to Ororo he had told that she should inform Logan about the mansion rules and regulations and that he should also refrain from letting his fists do the talking for him.

Both team leaders had silently listened to their mentor talk. Once he had finished they had gone their separate ways, with Scott retreating to his and Jean’s room and Ororo heading for Logan’s room only to find him gone. She had been searching for him, when one of the students had informed her that the last he had seen of Wolverine was when he was heading out of the mansion as a passenger on Gambit’s bike.

Ororo had returned to Logan’s room, waiting for his return.

//End Flashback//

In the hours she had spent in Logan’s room, she had mulled over the sudden changes in her life over the past few days.

First, she had almost developed feelings for Forge, something that had not happened with any of her previous *suitors*, not even Warren, who had been very refined and very persuasive. Even he had given up after three months, finally moving on to the love of his life, Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock.

Forge had slowly inched forward, until today. Today he had told her that he loved her, something she did not expect even in her wildest thoughts.

Then, there was Logan. He had finally turned up after seven years of captivity and inhuman experimentation. He had been ripped apart and metal had been pumped into him, coating each millimeter of his bones, right up to his previously bone claws. The procedure had changed him, even she had sensed as much. Where one he had been prone to intense bursts of anger, now he just went into a berserker rage, as he had done during his fight against Sabertooth.

Seeing Logan and being with him, even after all this time had washed away any doubts that had risen in her mind. She was in love with him. Just as she had been all those years ago when she was a thief and he was an escapee from a secret government organization. She hadn’t realized it then, but she was in love with him then too.

But did he love her? Was he in love with her?

-----

She had been determined to confront Logan with this revelation and question him about where his own feelings towards her lay?

That had been before his last words to her.

*Just leave me alone* if that was what he wanted, that was what he was going to get. She knew about Logan’s introspective moods, she had seen enough of them in their time together.
However, just as she knew that he wanted to be alone right now, she also knew that once he came out of his mood, he would come looking for her.

Stepping back to give him his time and space, she bade him a soft good night and left for her own loft suite, closing his room door behind her.

-----

Later in the night,

Logan had been unsuccessfully being trying to get some sleep. Ororo’s lingering scent and the waned effects of the alcohol hadn’t allowed him to do so.
Deciding to get something to eat, he tiredly pushed himself out of his bed and stumbled down to the kitchen.

He had just got some dinner leftovers out of the fridge when a steady hum of motors reached his ears. ‘Chuck’ his determined.
“What happened Chuck? Can’t get ta sleep?” he asked over his shoulder.
“I could ask the same from you,” Xavier’s tone had a smirk in it.
“Na, just wanted ta get something to feed the ol’ healing factor,” answered Logan, turning to present a large sandwich to the Professor. “Want some?” he offered bluntly.
“No, thank you,” the professor held up his hand. “I had my fill at dinner.”

Both of the sat in silence as Logan gobbled down the sandwich, washing it down with a can of some *sissy-pansy* kind of pop he found in the fridge. It wasn’t beer, but fulfilled its purpose.

Once he had finished eating, washed his plate and dried it, he turned to the Professor.
“Come out with it,” he spoke evenly, all previous mirth gone. “I know ya want ta say something?”
“What makes you so sure,” Xavier raised an eyebrow at him.
“I may not be a telepath or have fancy degrees to put Professor Doctor in fronto’ my name,” Logan narrowed his eyes at the Professor. “But I know when someone has an itch, and right now ya have a serious one. Cause there ain’t no reason fer ya ta come lookin’ fer me so late in the night.”
“What makes you so sure that I ‘came looking’ for you, as you so eloquently put it,” Xavier’s voice was just as tight.

“Cut the crap, Professor,” Logan stepped towards Xavier, stressing on his title. “Ya just came here, waited fer me ta make and eat the friggin sandwich, wash the plate and clean up after me, and now yaw anta say *nighty-night* and go yer way. I don’t think so. So get out what ya have in yer mind.”

“Very well,” Xavier straightened up in his wheelchair, his blue eyes staring right into Logan’s hazel ones. “I did want to say something to you.”

-----

“Huhn….” Scott Summers stirred awake. Had he heard something?

*Wrroommmm…Wroommmm….Wwwwrooommmm…..*

“Hey that’s my bike,” he cried out at the familiar sound of his self-customized motorcycle reached his ears.
Jumping out of his bed, he rushed to the window, just in time to see his bike racing towards the mansion gates, the stocky figure of the rider also known to him. He was about to call out after him, but something he distracted him long enough to have the bike cross the gates and turn into the main road.

Grabbing his robe, he ran to Wolverine’s room. Reaching there he found that not only was the door not locked, it was flung open. Stepping inside he was greeted with a perfectly made bed.
Everything was just as it should be….that is, if no one was living in room. Then it dawned on him, what had drawn his attention. Resting behind Wolverine, had been a small bag….a small bag filled with the meager belongings Wolverine had gathered during his stay at the institute.

Ladies and Gentlemen…

….the Wolverine had left the building.