Sun and Skin on Saturday
by
Ally
Disclaimer: They're not mine, but the idea is. You have a problem with it, apply with my Logan for an appointment.
Feedback: I've decided that, since I didn't get a lot last time, this time I'd beg. C'mon, people, this stuff is my mana!
Archive: WRFA (always, Sarah, always). Anywhere else, ask. It's not like I'm gonna say no!
A/N: This was a completely unexpected story. I blame Sarah, Leyenn and Furball, my evil purple, fur-covered muse of a demon. Li, I hope you like what I did to the last part. It just came to me. Oh, and Erin made Marie stop being stubborn about sharing with all us L/R obsessed souls, so thank her. Plus, this is the first fic that I think I've channeled Logan and Rogue for. I don't know if I could take much of that at a time. They're so DIFFICULT sometimes!
She opened her door as silently as she could, slipping out and shutting it softly and quickly. Her long cloak covered her, making it impossible to tell what she wore underneath except for a pair of sturdy looking hiking boots peeking from underneath the hem. She carried a bag bulging with items that could only be guessed at.
The woman, known as Rogue to almost everyone at the mansion where she lived, crept down the high-ceilinged halls and out one of the back exits. She began to run across the large back lawn, towards the line of trees that were a smudge against the sky brightening with the coming dawn. She was unaware of the figure watching from the roof of the mansion and the dark look that came into his eyes when the saw her running, bag bouncing against her hip.
Rogue slowed as she reached the forest that was the only barrier between her home and her goal. This was the reason she'd chosen to wear the boots. A couple of past experiences when she had been wearing sandals had prompted her to buy the sturdiest pair of boots in her size that she could find at the mall.
She made her way carefully through the trees and bushes. There were a lot of sharp thorns in those bushes that she didn't feel like prying out of her skin. Finally, she broke through the trees and stepped into sunshine. Rogue grinned at the sight before her as she wiped away the sweat forming on her upper lip.
The water was a rippling reflection of the sky's current bright magenta. Gentle waves caused by a light wind splashed up on the grassy bank in front of her. This was her refuge on days like this, when it was already 70 degrees Fahrenheit and rising at dawn, according to the thermometer she kept at her window. No one else ever came here. She wasn't even sure if anyone besides maybe the professor knew that the small lake existed.
Rogue took a moment more to take in the beauty of the lake, and then she got to work. She dropped her bag carefully onto the ground and knelt beside it. Opening it, she pulled out a blanket and then spread it over the grass to her right. Two towels, a portable CD player/stereo, a book and a brown paper bag full of her favorite snacks followed the blanket out, and these she laid on the green-and-white checkered cloth. Finished with her unpacking for the moment, Rogue stood up and stretched a little. Then she shrugged out of her cloak and tossed it to aside.
What she was wearing would probably have sent the entire male population of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters into cardiac arrest. Actually, it was what she wasn't wearing that would have affected them so badly, and not because her skin could drain life like a needle could draw blood. No, the failed hearts would all have been attributed to the dark green two-piece bikini that no one in their right mind would have called clothing. Barely more than three scraps of cloth, it showed off the fact that her figure was all curves at the age of eighteen, and that despite having to be covered from head to toe in front of people due to her mutation, she still managed to have tanned skin the color of dark honey.
Rogue was almost unaware of the damage she would have done. She wore the bikini more because she could, out here alone and with her cloak at a safe distance nearby just in case. It was damn hot and she needed the bare skin and water that so many of the other residents of the mansion were able to indulge in during the hottest part of the year.
It took Rogue only a moment to turn on her CD player and check to make sure that her favorite CDs were in the three-disk holder. She hit play and the first track on the first CD began to blast out from the speakers. She winced and adjusted the volume a bit so that it wouldn't draw any unwelcome guests. Then she grinned a little to herself and headed for the water.
It was Saturday and she was gonna enjoy it.
***
He didn't know what the hell she was thinking, running like she was. Didn't she know there were other answers? Hadn't he told her, shown her in the months he'd been back that staying put and working things out was better than running and having the problems you faced plague you from day to day? He didn't care what had happened, nothing should have been bad enough to make her run.
He was just going to get her and bring her back where she belonged. That's what he told himself as he followed her path across the wide expanse of grass that students who remained at the school during the summer used for games and relaxation. He knew that it would be hard to convince her to return, but he had to tried his damnedest because he needed her there with him. She was his support, his best friend, the only person he'd ever let close enough to confide everything. The only person he had ever wanted to die for, if only it would save her life. That it had only made him feel that he should do more for her, somehow, because he'd lived too and so his vow to protect her was still in effect.
The trees proved little hindrance to Logan. He could track her scent anywhere. There wasn't another one like it, and he'd had it memorized from square one. When he noticed that the trees were thinning he began to move more cautiously. He could hear loud music and splashing. What the hell?
He looked around a tree and through a stringy bush to see Rogue, his little Marie, wearing--well, maybe it was a bathing suit, he wasn't sure. It was practically non-existent anyway, so it wasn't his fault that he noticed the way her breasts curved and how small her waist was and the way her stomach dipped in right at her hips. He also certainly couldn't help staring at how smooth her skin looked or the beautiful golden color that she'd somehow acquired. No, it wasn't his fault at all. Dammit, he should burst out of the damn bushes and tell her something about decent coverings.
But the smile on her face as she twirled around in the water stopped him cold. She looked so happy, and he knew why now. She was showing more skin than he'd ever seen and splashing around in water while the heat of the day began to pound even as the sun showed over the trees on the other side of the lake. She was, in fact, acting like every other girl her age should be able to.
In Logan's mind, though, Marie shouldn't be dressing that way or twisting her body just like that or--fuck! She was just eighteen, and he sure as hell shouldn't be having these thoughts about her!
As she waded out further into the lake and dove beneath the water's surface, he asked himself why the hell he was reacting this way. He'd never had thoughts like these when she was draped over his lap while they watched a hockey game or a movie that she just knew he'd love. . . not that he ever did, but he watched ëem anyway. He never thought about how that deadly skin would feel through a thin silk sheet when she was lying on his bed chattering about her day while he sat at his desk reading the latest sports news from the four magazines delivered to the mansion.
Why the hell now? He didn't think it was seeing all that bare skin, really, even though it seemed really strange to him to see his Marie as good as naked in front of him. He remembered when she'd stormed into his room three weeks ago in her bra and panties and a little slip to ask him which dress he thought she should wear, the green or the black. He hadn't had a reaction like this. It would have been like noticing that his little sister was hot or something!
Except that she wasn't his little sister. Hell, the only relation they could claim was having screwed up lives and memories and nightmares of a lab where terrible things had been done to his body and doctors drank champagne with four star generals. No, she wasn't his sister, and he wondered why he'd tried to convince himself that she was as she began to make her way across the water of the lake, doing the backstroke for a few minutes before changing to a sidestroke that gave him way too good a view of the side of her breast.
If he was perfectly honest with himself, and he really tried to be most of the time, he'd admit that she scared him a little. The devotion he felt to her, the caring, the feeling that she understood him and would accept him no matter what he did, they all scared the hell out of him. He'd never felt so intensely for anyone before her. She'd managed to wrap herself around his heart, and he just wasn't sure to do about it so he treated her like a friend, a sister he didn't have.
Only now he was watching her swim in that damn bikini and asking himself what the hell he'd been thinking. She was gorgeous, sex in dangerous skin, and that should have shouted itself to him the second he'd returned from Alkali Lake and all the pain he'd found there.
The only answer he could come up with was that she'd been too innocent, in his eyes, for him to think about her and sex at the same time. She'd cuddled with him and hung on his every word, and he'd convinced himself that it was all he wanted from her. All he'd ever want from her.
Fuck that. He'd been dead wrong, and now he was going to have to deal with it. Hell if he knew how, though.
He hadn't taken his eyes off her once in the last half hour that she'd been swimming, but as she began to make her way out of the lake he suddenly felt like the situation was turning just a little too voyeuristic. Not that he really wanted to take his eyes off all that magnificent exposed skin, but he didn't like the way he was looking at Marie, really. He would tear off the balls of any other guy looking at her like that.
So he did the only thing he could do. The one thing he'd been trying to tell her not to do, the thing he'd been mad as hell at her for when he thought she might be doin' it. He ran.
***
Rogue loved the feel of the water sliding down her bare skin to drip onto the grass and mud beneath her feet. She loved the way the sun had begun to beat down on her, making her skin heat up and tingle.
Her stomach, deprived of a proper breakfast, let her know that it wasn't happy with the lack of food combined with exercise. She decided to humor it and sat down on the blanket, pulling the brown bag into her lap.
She searched through the food she'd brought until she found what she'd been looking for: a chocolate glazed doughnut with strawberry frosting. Yuuum.
Rogue enjoyed the way the newly exposed sun beat down on her as she finished off her doughnut in no time flat. She leaned back on her elbows, legs stretched out in front of her, and let the sun dry the lake water remaining on her skin.
It was easy just to close her eyes and let her mind wander, here where she knew she was safe and everyone in the mansion was safer. She didn't have to worry, didn't have to pay attention to whether an inch of bare skin was in a position to render someone unconscious. . . or worse.
The sun was beginning to feel pretty damn good. Rogue could almost feel each individual ray as they spread over her body, heating her. In fact, if she used her imagination, and she had pretty damn good imagination, she could think that the rays of intense heat were something far different. She could pretend that they were his fingers, sliding over her skin, making her hot for a reason other than the temperature.
Yeah, that would be his index finger, running up her leg, over her knee and along her inner thigh. Yeah, like that. Damn, veering up, sliding over her stomach and up. Now on her breasts, so hot. Teasing her with long strokes that made her want to scream.
Rogue's breathing was heavier. She let her own fingers begin to wander. They roamed breasts suddenly fully bared to the sun's heat, circling nipples that grew painfully tight. She squeezed her eyes shut at the pleasure she was getting, imagining Logan's larger hands replacing her own slender fingers.
Her hand trailed down her stomach, retracing the path the sun had taken not too long before. Sweat was already taking the place of the lake's waters, and the fingers played in the wet drops along the top of her bikini for a minute before dipping lower. She rubbed the flesh of her upper thigh with her fingertips slowly, drawing little circles on herself before letting her hand drift to the left.
Her fingers hesitated over the material that barely covered the ache between her thighs. She brought his face to mind, effortlessly picturing his eyes glazed with passion and the growl that would be coming from deep inside him as he touched her. The fingers descended then, and she moaned loudly, nearly surprising herself. But the pressure being applied between her legs was so wonderful that she couldn't take her concentration off it for very long. Besides, it felt sort of good to make some noise here, where no one could hear her anyway.
The wet material in her way was too much. The fingers pushed it to the side and delved deeper, making her let out a growl of her own. They stroked her, driving the fire inside her higher with each touch. First one finger slid down and into her, then another joined it. They began pumping slowly to begin with then gained speed quickly. Her breathing was heavy and short, loud in her own ears as her moans had been. Damn, it felt so good, and in her mind it was he who caressed her skin like this, making her crazy with desire.
Her other hand joined the first, pressing down on her overly-sensitive clit as the fingers of her other hand thrust in and out, hard and fast. After what seemed like an eternity of sensation she came, screaming his name at the climax of her pleasure.
"Logan!"
She was limp on the blanket, her body satisfied with what it could get. . . for now. She knew that eventually it wouldn't be enough, but there was really nothing she could do to make Logan see her as anything other than "the kid." He'd have to discover the fact that, yeah, she'd grown up, for himself.
She only hoped that he would see it soon because, much as it relieved the part of her that ached for his touch temporarily, it was never enough.
Dammit, it was never enough.
***
Logan regretted running as soon as he reached the mansion. It was the coward's way out, and he would gut the first person to call him a wimp. So he stalled, had a few beers, and did some more thinking.
Yeah, she was young, but so what? If his body refused to age much more than it had, or at a normal pace, then just about every woman in the world would be off-limits to him before too long. So the whole age argument was just another excuse to keep himself from facing his own fucking problems.
He cared so much about her. She deserved the world because she was obviously so damn special. Not just beautiful. She was that, of course. It was the way she managed to stay so sweet and loyal and optimistic despite having had the worst of what her abilities could do foisted on her that made her unique in his eyes. He'd never known anyone like that before meeting her. Even the ones who called themselves "X-Men" didn't have that. The world effected them, their opinions and views of life, every single day. It changed them. Marie wasn't letting it change her.
He didn't know if he could give her the world. Hell, he didn't know if he wanted to be the one to try. All Logan knew was that he wasn't about to let anyone else give it a shot now that he saw her, finally, as a woman who could make his life complete.
It was going to require patience, this chase he was considering. Marie wasn't about to let just anyone catch her. Look at the way she avoided that damn Frenchman every time he tried to come onto her. This was gonna take subtlety that the assholes at the mansion didn't have. Logan, the Wolverine, was going to have to use every instinct in his mutant body to hunt down this prey.
And he didn't even know what he'd do when he caught her. He would catch her, though. He was sure of that.
Having come to this conclusion, Logan decided to return to Marie. After all, maybe she could use some company out there, and she knew that he wouldn't mind all that exposed skin. No, especially now. Not that she had to find out about that for a while.
So he made his way back to where he'd found her the first time, and it was the sounds that caught his attention first. Low moans almost hidden by the music. Sounds that shouted sex.
Damn. What the. . .
He reached the forest's edge and nearly choked in shock. Marie was lying on her blanket, one hand between her thighs and her head thrown back, eyes closed. After getting over the shock, Logan's interest grew. He watched her other hand join the first, and as he smelled the distinct scent of sexual release. . . he made a mental not to remember that. . . he heard it.
"Logan!"
Shit. Well, maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all.
Logan turned away for the second time. He wasn't upset anymore, though. No, for what seemed like the first time in a long while, he felt hope for the future.
It was a damn good feeling.
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