This wasn’t part of the deal. The machine was supposed to turn Marie into a mutant. It wasn’t supposed to leave her unconscious for over two hours. The only thing that was keeping Logan for ripping out that bastard Erik’s throat was that he refused to leave Marie’s side. Not until he knew that she was all right.
Propped up on one elbow, Logan stared down at Marie’s sleeping face. He lightly traced her features with the tip of his finger, his finger barely touching her skin. Erik had told him not to touch Marie overly so. They wouldn’t know what her mutation was until she woke up. According to Erik, it was entirely possible that Marie’s mutation could have something to do with her skin. There were mutants out there, after all, who could kill with a touch and for all they knew, Marie could now have that mutation. It was the one downfall of Erik’s machine. There was no way to choose what type of mutation the person would get.
Logan couldn’t contain the whimper that escaped his throat when Marie continued to sleep through the third hour. Sliding down the bed, he wrapped his arms around Marie’s waist and curled around her, lying his head on her stomach. He bit savagely into his bottom lip in order to keep the tears that he could feel forming from sliding down his cheeks.
“Please wake up, Marie,” Logan mumbled, turning his face so that it was pressed against her stomach. He inhaled deeply, a tiny smile forming when he realized that he could smell his scent mingling with hers. Logan began rubbing his face against her stomach, trying to inhale as much of that glorious scent as he could.
At the feel of Marie’s hands sliding through his hair, Logan’s head shot up.
“Hey there, sugah,” Marie murmured, smiling tiredly at him.
A wide grin on his face, Logan crawled up her body, positioning himself comfortably between her legs. He lowered his head between her breasts and began to sob. Loud, wracking sobs that shook his entire body. When Marie’s arms came around him, holding him tight, Logan began to cry even harder.
Marie was awake.
“Shhhh.... It’s all right, sugah. Ah’m all right,” Marie whispered, sliding one hand up and down his back while the other stayed in his hair.
Logan pressed a kiss over her heart then lifted his head, offering Marie a watery smile. “You weren’t waking up.”
Marie’s face crumpled and she brought a hand around to cup Logan’s cheek. “Ah’m sorry, sugah. If Ah’d known Ah was scarin’ ya so much, Ah woulda woken up sooner.”
Logan turned his face into her palm, pressing a kiss against her wrist. He allowed a few more tears to trickle down his cheeks, uncaring of anything save the fact that Marie was awake and smiling up at him with that beautiful, soft smile of hers.
“No one was telling me anything. All Erik told me was that I couldn’t touch your skin until you woke up. Nothing else. He wouldn’t even tell me why you passed out,” Logan lamented, moving one hand into her hair to play with the white streak that had appeared there following her mutation. Towards the end of the procedure, the two streaks of pure white hair had filtered through the rest of her hair, scaring Logan more than anything else thus far had.
“Why couldn’t ya touch me?” Marie asked, stroking his cheek with the pad of her thumb.
Logan shrugged his shoulders, leaning into her touch even more. “I’m not sure. Something about you possibly being able to suck the life outta me with a touch. I wasn’t paying too much attention.”
Marie’s eyes grew wide at that, instantly pulling her hand away from Logan’s face. “Then why the hell are ya touchin’ me?! Ah could hurt ya, Logan!”
“If you could hurt me, it would have already started,” Logan reasoned, sliding his index finger along her bottom lip.
“But Ah coulda hurt ya ‘fore this. Why didn’t ya tell me?” Marie demanded. There was no malice in her voice, only fear. Fear for his well being.
“I didn’t tell you because I wanted to touch you and because I knew that I’d heal from whatever happened,” Logan pointed out, taking her free hand in his which had previously been stroking her hair. He brought her hand up to his lips and pressed a kiss against her palm, showing her that he wasn’t the least bit scared about the fact that she could very well have poison skin.
“Has anyone ever told ya that yer too reckless fer yer own good?” Marie teased, placing her hand back on his cheek. “So now that we’ve established the fact that Ah don’t have poison skin, how do we tell what Ah can do?”
Logan was at a loss. He hadn’t had to figure out what his gifts were. All that he had done was had a nightmare and woken up with nine inch metal claws protruding from his knuckles. The healing had been pretty obvious once he had resheathed the claws. It was a completely different story with Marie. Marie’s mutation hadn’t been natural like his was.
“Ah remember seein’ some news conference with some redhead talkin’ ‘bout mutations. Ah think she said somethin’ ‘bout them startin’ when the person has an episode o’..... Ah think she said it was heightened emotional stress or somethin’ like that. Ah’m not sure anymore.”
“Well how do we heighten your emotional stress?” Logan inquired, not entirely sure what she was talking about. “There’s no way I’m gonna let you get cut open and have metal stuck in your body just so you can have nightmares like mine.”
Marie’s smile returned suddenly. “Well, emotional stress doesn’t hafta be anythin’ bad. It can be somethin’ real nice like ya kissin’ me like ya did earlier.”
Logan loved the way her mind worked. Smiling back at her, Logan leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. That was all the invitation Marie needed. She caught hold of his bottom lip and began sucking lightly on it. Logan was just starting to get into it when Marie stopped suddenly and began pushing him away. Logan could smell the fear on her and he didn’t like that one bit.
“What’s wrong, Marie? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Marie shook her head, lightly cupping his cheek again. “Ya didn’t hurt me, sugah. Ah’m just worried ‘bout the fact that Ah could hurt ya. What if the only reason ya can touch me now is cause mah mutation isn’t workin’ yet. What happens if, while we’re kissin’, it kicks in an’ Ah hurt ya?”
“Then I’ll just get better. No fuss, no muss,” Logan assured her. “I’m not afraid about anything happening to me. I heal.”
Slowly, Marie nodded her head and kissed the bottom of his chin gently. She made a trail until she once again had her lips caught up with his again. It started off very gentle, almost teasing. As his fingers threaded through her hair, Marie tilted her head up so that there was more force behind the kiss. Logan wasn’t complaining. Especially not when he felt her tongue brushing against his teeth.
Marie was lightly sucking on his tongue when it happened.
One moment he had been lying comfortably in Marie’s arms, her legs resting on either side of his hips and her hands tangled in his hair.
The next his body was slammed up against the ceiling.
Below him, Marie was staring up at him with wide eyes. Scrambling off the bed, Marie jerked her head to the right and Logan flew to the right, his body impacting with the wall painfully before he went crashing to the ground.
“Logan!” Marie screamed.
Next thing he knew, a chair bounced off the wall close to where he was lying. Logan could feel himself being pulled off the ground then he was floating. Floating around the room and unable to move of his own accord. That pissed Logan off. He tried to extend his claws and free himself from whatever force was controlling him, but that only made things worse. As soon as his claws were freed, the same force that held his body immobile began stretching the metal knives to the side, bending them in a way that they weren’t supposed to bend.
All that Logan could do was moan in agony. Every time he tried to flex his muscles and pull them back in, the pain became even worse. He could vaguely hear Marie screaming his name. She sounded very far away, though. Almost as though she was on the other side of the world.
Then the rest of his limbs were being manipulated by whatever unseen force was wreaking havoc on his hands. His arms and legs were bending in ways that they shouldn’t have been able to. When his spine began to fold itself in half, it was all Logan could do not to pass out.
“Marie....” Logan whimpered, praying that she would somehow be able to help him.
It didn’t even occur to Logan that it was Marie’s mutation doing that to him until he fell to the ground once again. Logan screamed even louder as he tried to move his twisted limbs. Logan felt incredibly nauseous as the exquisite agony clawed its way through every fibre of his body.
Erik’s voice drifted through the haze of pain that surrounded Logan. “That certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. Victor, take the girl down to the infirmary and make sure that Mystique keeps her sedated until I get there. I must deal with our clawed compatriot at the moment.”
Logan felt himself being lifted off the ground again and prepared himself for the worst. Instead of more pain, he felt it began to ease as his body was put back into its proper position. As he was set back down on the ground, his claws slid into their sheaths up in his forearms.
Logan lay on the ground, gasping and moaning as his body healed itself internally. He could feel things moving around inside of him, putting themselves back in order the way his bones had.
“Marie will need to learn to control her powers very quickly since her lover has a skeleton entirely laced with metal,” Erik said absently, his voice sounding much closer than it had before.
“Marie....?” Logan groaned, letting his head fall to the side so that he could see Erik.
“Has the ability to control metals,” Erik informed him. “If she wanted to, she could break you in half. I strongly suggest that you stay on her good side.