Taming a Beast

I heard a school bell ring, and then feet shuffling as the kids all headed back into the dorm since it was the end of the day. Half of them came into the kitchen, and stopped when they saw me. Suddenly, I was being clobbered by half of them, the ones who had been my students right before I left.

“Shiloh!”

“Shift!”

I laughed as Wolverine stepped back, grinning at me and shaking his head. He wasn’t close with that many kids considering he scared more than half of them away, and it was just one of the many fields in which one of us excelled and the other didn’t. I hugged as many of the kids as I could, kissing the top of their heads and listening to their stories of when I was gone. I tried to keep track of all of their stories before Rogue finally saved me and said, “Okay, okay, kids, Shiloh’s got to go. Even teachers have to train.”

All the kids whined and I promised them that I’d come visit them later, still laughing. They all headed towards the media room or their respective dorms, while Rogue, Logan, and I began walking down the hall to the Danger Room. I laced my fingers through Logan’s the moment that we made it out of the kids’ eyesights, feeling so good to be with him again. Rogue winked at me, then said, “I can’t believe the Professor is already putting you back in training. You’re not getting any rest.”

I shrugged. “I need all the practice I can get. Plus, I’m hardly tired.”

Logan looked over at me worriedly, and I could see it was taking all of Rogue’s strength not to laugh at his strangely concerned attitude, the actions that were almost never aimed towards anybody besides me. Logan said, “Rogue’s right, Shy. I know for a fact that it taxes you whenever you shift, and I’m sure teleporting wasn’t easy either.”

“Look, the Professor wants me to practice, and I’m happy to oblige. Just let me do what I want to do, and we can worry about me catching up on sleep or whatever later, okay?” I asked both of them, entering the Danger Room. Gambit, Storm, and Cyclops were talking in the middle of the room, and turned towards us when we entered. I saw Gambit give Rogue a once-over, and she blushed and turned away. I rose my eyebrows questioningly towards Logan, and he smirked.

“So, what’s the dilemma today?” I asked as Logan pulled me by the waist into his side.

“You know I can’t tell you that,” Professor X’s voice called from somewhere above us. “Pick your teams.”

“I’m feeling guys against girls,” I said, looking around at my friends. They all nodded, getting excited as the environment began shifting. Everybody began walking away, and Logan went to go walk away, but I grabbed him by the wrist. He turned around and looked at me curiously as I pressed up against his body, sliding my hand underneath the shoulder of his shirt and up to his neck as I pulled him towards me. His hands grabbed my body as our foreheads pressed together. I whispered, “Loser has to kiss winner?”

Logan smirked down at me, staring at my chest, my lips, then my eyes. His eyes glinted in the low lighting of the room as he said, “You’re so on.”

I walked away and could feel Logan’s eyes on me until I stepped around a tree in the forest environment Professor X had put us into. I walked to where I knew Rogue and Storm were as we plotted out a plan. Professor X started the timer and we raced off. I shifted into Professor X and located Logan, then shifted into Gambit and ran towards him. I walked up to him and he froze, looking at me. I smiled and then I found myself pinned up against a tree. I spoke, “What the hell, Wolverine?!”

“Nice try, Shy,” he said, his eyes glittering. “I saw Storm take Gambit out.”

I shifted down and he smiled at me, but not before I swept my leg underneath his feet, knocking him to the floor. He roared and I shifted back into Gambit, sliding a charged card out of my sleeve and throwing it to Logan as it sliced his cheek. As he ran towards me, I dealt another charged card, but my energy gave out and I collapsed to the floor, shifting back. Logan stopped running and came to sit next to me, taking my head into his lap. “Shiloh?”

I heard leaves rustling and I saw Rogue’s bare hand touch Logan’s shoulder. He began losing the color in his face, and he turned to tell Rogue not to do that, that I really was hurt. After he disappeared, Rogue saw me and cussed under her breath, yelling, “Terminate the sequence!”

The environment disappeared and Logan was by my side in seconds. Storm rushed over and pressed her cold fingers to my neck, saying to everybody around us, “She’s just over-tired.” She then turned to Professor X. “Xavier, I told you not to put her back into training. She just came back from a huge quest that was taxing on her in many different aspects. She needs time to recover.”

“I’m fine,” I muttered, trying to stand up. The only reason I didn’t fall was because Logan had stood with me and was supporting me, Gambit standing nearby in case Logan let me slip or something. In seconds, Logan had picked me up bridal-style and was talking directly to Professor X.

“I’m going to take her up to her room now, and you’re not going to force her or persuade her to do anything else. She needs her sleep, Professor, and with all due respect, your judgment was wrong,” Logan said, turning the room to silence before he left with me in his arms. When we made it out into the hallway, I hit his chest and he looked down at me. “What?”

“Logan, you shouldn’t have talked to the Professor like that. He’s just doing what is right for me, and that would be more training, not rest. I must train so that I can stop having moments like these,” I said to him. Logan’s lips pressed into a thin line as he started walking up the stairs with me, not struggling even a bit. He didn’t talk to me until he had laid me down in my bed and climbed onto the bed to join me. I rolled towards him as he played with my hair, frowning.

“I thought you were dead, or gone,” he murmured to me, looking into my eyes as he got closer to me and moved his hand to my back. “I was horrible to be with. I yelled at everybody when they asked simple questions or said simple statements, and I practically unsheathed my claws on them whenever they mentioned you. I hated walking into your classroom and not seeing you there, or noticing how dusty your room had gotten. I’m not going to risk anything that might make me lose you again.”

I reached over and cupped his face in my hands, his hands in the small of my back. I hadn’t seen Logan this upset in... well, frankly enough, ever. He wasn’t exactly one to display his emotions for the whole world to see, and getting him to finally admit his feelings for me was one of those feats that could only be done by one person.

I met his eyes fiercely and said, “You might’ve thought you did, but you never, ever lost me, Logan.”

He tightened his grip on me and pulled me in tighter, hugging me to his body. He leant down and hid his face in my neck, kissing my skin. His lips murmured against me, “I’m so glad I didn’t. More than you’ll ever know, Shy.”

I laughed, sitting up and pulling away from him. “I think I have a good idea.”

His face grew deadly serious as his grip got even tighter on me, which I hadn’t thought possible a few moments ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if his grip caused one of my internal organs to rupture any moment now. He whispered to me, “You know, you think you do, and then it actually happens, and you realize just how much you downplayed it.”

I leant over and pressed my lips to his, and I allowed his hands and my body to get reacquainted. He roughly pulled me onto his lap as his hands held my thighs to his. I pulled at his hair and the months of being apart were made up for in a quick fifteen-minute session. We pulled away from each other, breathing heavily, and Logan lightly pressed his lips to him once more before announcing, “I’m hungry.”

I laughed and got off his lap as he gave me a boyish smile. I took his hand and he stood up from the bed, slipping his arm around my waist as we walked to the door together. He held open the door for me as I exited just like the gentleman he was as I commented, “Typical guy.”

He shrugged, smiling widely as he hid his face in my neck and muttered, “I’m mostly hungry for something else, if you know what I mean.”

I laughed and pulled away from him, running to the other side of the hallway. “Yes, I do know, Logan, but that can wait until later. And you certainly shouldn’t be saying anything like that out of our privacy areas. One of the kids could turn around the corner at any second and be scarred for life.”

Logan scoffed. “Some real-life interaction would do these kids some good.”

I shoved him playfully and he followed me to the dining room where the kids were helping themselves to food and whatnot, then sitting at the several tables we had throughout the room. Logan and I got our special meals as I got a cake with ‘Welcome back’ written on it with my meal, then took our seats at the teachers table with the rest of the X-Men.

Gambit and Colossus had been eyeing my cake ever sine I had sat down and I sighed, pointing to it and saying, “Go crazy, boys.”

I guess Scotty and Logan took that as the okay to join in on the festivities as they took the cake and split into quarters, each digging in. I laughed, shaking my head as Jean ridiculed them for taking my cake, the usual case at the table. Logan’s hand reached under the table and squeezed my upper thigh as he began running it over my jeans. I laced my fingers through his and smiled as Colossus, Scotty, and Gambit all mocked Jean until she moved pieces of food to hit them.

“Food fight!” One of the students yelled as we began tossing food all around the room. I laughed while Logan growled, both of us joining in on the fight. I stood up on a table and looked down at all the mutants, the children and others who I had grown so close to and who I couldn’t believe were not accepted by society. But I suppose I should be thankful for that-- without that exclusion, I would’ve never got to meet them myself.

A blob of chocolate pudding hit me in the face and I glared down at Logan. He smiled mischievously up at me as I jumped down from the table and smashed a piece of my cake on his face. He stared at me with a wide open mouth before I leant over and wiped some icing off his face and licked my finger. He growled at me, but smiled, as I spun on my heel and ran away before he could catch me.

I had never been happier.