Status: Completed
Taming a Beast
22.
“Logan,” I whispered, my eyebrows furrowing. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, I had to see you, for one. For another, the Professor called me for back-up. I don’t think he predicted this happening,” Logan said, frowning. I took his word for it; Logan was one of our best fighters. I thought it was weird that the Professor hadn’t sent him in the first place, but I guess that was just to make sure I would go and face my past. The Professor was big on that, as Logan could also prove.
“So,” Logan said, breaking the silence, “you and Gambit?”
I sighed and gave up my tough exterior. The truth was, Gambit’s kisses were nothing compared to Logan’s. On top of that, I realized how wrong I was to get angry with Logan after he was influenced by that girl. He couldn’t help it, and I understood how he had feelings for her still even though it was in the past and he loved me now. Why did I ever doubt him?
“I’m so sorry, Logan, I just... I needed someone to comfort me. And I know that’s no excuse, but...”
“Don’t say another word,” Logan said soothingly the moment I lost the words to speak my feelings. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around me, tipping up my chin to face him. “This is mostly my fault, love. But if you’re asking for forgiveness, consider it given.”
He leant down to kiss me, and he surprised me. It’s not that the action was uncalled for, it’s that it wasn’t the same as all our other kisses. His lips didn’t mold around mine, and his grip didn’t feel the same as when we usually kissed. I stepped back quickly, trying to fight a gasp. Whoever it was impersonating Logan tipped their head, looking at me curiously and putting out their hands for me to take. “What’s wrong, baby?”
Logan had never called me ‘baby’ before. This wasn’t Logan.
I shifted quickly and so did they. I transformed to Lady Deathstrike, while they transformed to Juggernaut. I shuttered involuntarily at the memory of my first encounter with Juggernaut, but it also fueled me because he had taken away my parents and had me isolated from my own family.
We began to fight, me clawing its skin and it trying to punch me or pick me up to throw me against an opposite wall. I internally called for Gambit to come assist me, but no help came.
Until I heard the most familiar roar in the world.
The real Logan-- I could tell by his metal tags around his neck and the fact that he tried oh-so hard to push the fighter away from me-- tackled the psuedo-Juggernaut and sliced his claws through its chest. I phased down and watched as the body literally sliced into two, the torso falling one way and the waist and below falling another.
“You should be the only person in the world who’s allowed to do that,” Logan said, throwing the body to the side as the girl phased down. She had a young, pretty face, but she also had a crude scar that took up the majority of the left side of her face. Logan looked over at me and lost the disgusted look on his face, replacing it with one of desperation. “Shiloh, I...”
I grabbed his face and pushed my lips to his before he could finish. That was the kind of kiss I was used to and had been craving ever since our last fight. That was the kind of kiss I had foolishly been trying to reciprocate with Gambit. That was the kind of kiss that only the true Logan and I could share.
He pulled away from me and asked with a subtle smile, “Am I forgiven?”
“We’ll talk about that later,” I promised him. “For now, we’ve got to go find Gambit. We stupidly split up, and since I met trouble, he probably did as well.”
Logan nodded and just as we started toward where Gambit should’ve been, both of our phones went off. It was Storm telling us to head back to the plane; the asylum was a fake cover meant to lure us in while Magneto kidnapped a Senator. We needed to head back to the school for a debriefing, so it was time we left.
Bobby told us he had killed Pyro; I told them about meeting my power twin. When Gambit saw I was walking with Logan, our fingers intertwined, he understood and acknowledged me with a nod and a forgive-and-forget smile that I wanted to hug him for, had Logan’s lips not been distracting me with their constant movement above their own despite the protests of everybody else.
We headed back home and changed out of our clothes. I took a shower, and when I came back out to my room, Logan was lying on my bed, waiting for me. I crawled up next to him and cuddled up to his side, sighing contently. He asked me, “So... forgiveness.”
“You’ll have to work a little bit harder,” I answered quickly. “Get up and do three-hundred push-ups.”
Logan looked over at me warily, but rolled off the bed and onto the floor. I started laughing and hopped off the bed as he stood up and smirked at me, putting his hands around my waist. I looked up into his eyes, putting my hands on his shoulders and staring deeply into his eyes. He kissed me, slow this time, and pulled away just as slowly to take in my reaction and the passion of the moment.
I asked him, “How does this work?”
Even though the question sounded weird considering we had been dating for so long, Logan caught on to exactly what I meant. What I meant was, what was our future together? Would we get married? Have kids? Or, because we were mutants, what would happen to us? We were still people at heart, so weren’t we entitled to live the same type of lives? Or was it foolish to bring another mutant child into this world?
Logan sighed, gaining back my attention.
“I don’t know how this is going to work, and I don’t know if we’ll ever be accepted by the outside society. But one thing I’m sure will never ever change in a million years is the way I feel about you. You’re the one I think about every moment of every day, the one I’d give my life up for. You’re the one who keeps me grounded, who keeps me from unsheathing my claws on Scotty at every chance. And although I had my thing with Kayla and my thing with Jean, you are, ultimately, the girl I’ve always wanted to be with and the girl that fate wanted me to be with,” Logan said to me, holding my waist in his hands as he met my eyes.
I laughed, wiping away some of my tears as I asked, “Did you really just use fate wanting us together as a reason I should forgive you?”
“Yeah, maybe I did. Because that’s one more thing that you’ve done for me-- you’ve changed me from the bitter mutant I was when I first met you, to something almost resembling who I was in my more humanistic years. You and I both know you’re not the first to do so, but that doesn’t matter. What does is that it means that I feared if I didn’t change, you would move on and leave me behind, and I didn’t want to lose you,” Logan whispered to me, stroking my cheek with his thumb. “I’m not afraid of being with you, but I am afraid of being without you.”
“Logan...” I began to say, but he began to drop down to one knee. I could not believe my eyes. Literally, I thought I was hallucinating, and I know all the girls in movies and books say that when they guy they love proposes to them, but seriously. This was Logan we were talking about; he hadn’t even gotten married to Kayla, who he had dated for two years. But I guess everything happened for a reason.
He took out a velvet box and popped it open, showing a beautiful ring I wasn’t really sure how he got on our budget. But I thought it was one of those don’t-ask-don’t-tell moments, so I didn’t utter a single question about that. Instead, I asked him, “Logan?”
He met my eyes, his face deadly serious but his eyes nervous as he asked, “Shiloh, will you marry me?”
I stared into his eyes, and it was as if I were dying; all the moments of my life flashed before my eyes. The first time he told me he loved me, when he accidentally clawed me, when I met him for the first time. Tears rushed into my eyes as I whispered the one word I had wanted to say for just as long as he wanted to hear it, if not longer.
“Yes.”
THE END
“Well, I had to see you, for one. For another, the Professor called me for back-up. I don’t think he predicted this happening,” Logan said, frowning. I took his word for it; Logan was one of our best fighters. I thought it was weird that the Professor hadn’t sent him in the first place, but I guess that was just to make sure I would go and face my past. The Professor was big on that, as Logan could also prove.
“So,” Logan said, breaking the silence, “you and Gambit?”
I sighed and gave up my tough exterior. The truth was, Gambit’s kisses were nothing compared to Logan’s. On top of that, I realized how wrong I was to get angry with Logan after he was influenced by that girl. He couldn’t help it, and I understood how he had feelings for her still even though it was in the past and he loved me now. Why did I ever doubt him?
“I’m so sorry, Logan, I just... I needed someone to comfort me. And I know that’s no excuse, but...”
“Don’t say another word,” Logan said soothingly the moment I lost the words to speak my feelings. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms tightly around me, tipping up my chin to face him. “This is mostly my fault, love. But if you’re asking for forgiveness, consider it given.”
He leant down to kiss me, and he surprised me. It’s not that the action was uncalled for, it’s that it wasn’t the same as all our other kisses. His lips didn’t mold around mine, and his grip didn’t feel the same as when we usually kissed. I stepped back quickly, trying to fight a gasp. Whoever it was impersonating Logan tipped their head, looking at me curiously and putting out their hands for me to take. “What’s wrong, baby?”
Logan had never called me ‘baby’ before. This wasn’t Logan.
I shifted quickly and so did they. I transformed to Lady Deathstrike, while they transformed to Juggernaut. I shuttered involuntarily at the memory of my first encounter with Juggernaut, but it also fueled me because he had taken away my parents and had me isolated from my own family.
We began to fight, me clawing its skin and it trying to punch me or pick me up to throw me against an opposite wall. I internally called for Gambit to come assist me, but no help came.
Until I heard the most familiar roar in the world.
The real Logan-- I could tell by his metal tags around his neck and the fact that he tried oh-so hard to push the fighter away from me-- tackled the psuedo-Juggernaut and sliced his claws through its chest. I phased down and watched as the body literally sliced into two, the torso falling one way and the waist and below falling another.
“You should be the only person in the world who’s allowed to do that,” Logan said, throwing the body to the side as the girl phased down. She had a young, pretty face, but she also had a crude scar that took up the majority of the left side of her face. Logan looked over at me and lost the disgusted look on his face, replacing it with one of desperation. “Shiloh, I...”
I grabbed his face and pushed my lips to his before he could finish. That was the kind of kiss I was used to and had been craving ever since our last fight. That was the kind of kiss I had foolishly been trying to reciprocate with Gambit. That was the kind of kiss that only the true Logan and I could share.
He pulled away from me and asked with a subtle smile, “Am I forgiven?”
“We’ll talk about that later,” I promised him. “For now, we’ve got to go find Gambit. We stupidly split up, and since I met trouble, he probably did as well.”
Logan nodded and just as we started toward where Gambit should’ve been, both of our phones went off. It was Storm telling us to head back to the plane; the asylum was a fake cover meant to lure us in while Magneto kidnapped a Senator. We needed to head back to the school for a debriefing, so it was time we left.
Bobby told us he had killed Pyro; I told them about meeting my power twin. When Gambit saw I was walking with Logan, our fingers intertwined, he understood and acknowledged me with a nod and a forgive-and-forget smile that I wanted to hug him for, had Logan’s lips not been distracting me with their constant movement above their own despite the protests of everybody else.
We headed back home and changed out of our clothes. I took a shower, and when I came back out to my room, Logan was lying on my bed, waiting for me. I crawled up next to him and cuddled up to his side, sighing contently. He asked me, “So... forgiveness.”
“You’ll have to work a little bit harder,” I answered quickly. “Get up and do three-hundred push-ups.”
Logan looked over at me warily, but rolled off the bed and onto the floor. I started laughing and hopped off the bed as he stood up and smirked at me, putting his hands around my waist. I looked up into his eyes, putting my hands on his shoulders and staring deeply into his eyes. He kissed me, slow this time, and pulled away just as slowly to take in my reaction and the passion of the moment.
I asked him, “How does this work?”
Even though the question sounded weird considering we had been dating for so long, Logan caught on to exactly what I meant. What I meant was, what was our future together? Would we get married? Have kids? Or, because we were mutants, what would happen to us? We were still people at heart, so weren’t we entitled to live the same type of lives? Or was it foolish to bring another mutant child into this world?
Logan sighed, gaining back my attention.
“I don’t know how this is going to work, and I don’t know if we’ll ever be accepted by the outside society. But one thing I’m sure will never ever change in a million years is the way I feel about you. You’re the one I think about every moment of every day, the one I’d give my life up for. You’re the one who keeps me grounded, who keeps me from unsheathing my claws on Scotty at every chance. And although I had my thing with Kayla and my thing with Jean, you are, ultimately, the girl I’ve always wanted to be with and the girl that fate wanted me to be with,” Logan said to me, holding my waist in his hands as he met my eyes.
I laughed, wiping away some of my tears as I asked, “Did you really just use fate wanting us together as a reason I should forgive you?”
“Yeah, maybe I did. Because that’s one more thing that you’ve done for me-- you’ve changed me from the bitter mutant I was when I first met you, to something almost resembling who I was in my more humanistic years. You and I both know you’re not the first to do so, but that doesn’t matter. What does is that it means that I feared if I didn’t change, you would move on and leave me behind, and I didn’t want to lose you,” Logan whispered to me, stroking my cheek with his thumb. “I’m not afraid of being with you, but I am afraid of being without you.”
“Logan...” I began to say, but he began to drop down to one knee. I could not believe my eyes. Literally, I thought I was hallucinating, and I know all the girls in movies and books say that when they guy they love proposes to them, but seriously. This was Logan we were talking about; he hadn’t even gotten married to Kayla, who he had dated for two years. But I guess everything happened for a reason.
He took out a velvet box and popped it open, showing a beautiful ring I wasn’t really sure how he got on our budget. But I thought it was one of those don’t-ask-don’t-tell moments, so I didn’t utter a single question about that. Instead, I asked him, “Logan?”
He met my eyes, his face deadly serious but his eyes nervous as he asked, “Shiloh, will you marry me?”
I stared into his eyes, and it was as if I were dying; all the moments of my life flashed before my eyes. The first time he told me he loved me, when he accidentally clawed me, when I met him for the first time. Tears rushed into my eyes as I whispered the one word I had wanted to say for just as long as he wanted to hear it, if not longer.
“Yes.”
THE END