Spider @spiderjumper - Tumblr Blog

Jun 3

Snowed In

Logan Howlett 'Wolverine' x Male Reader

Summary: A blizzard hit before you could return home for the holidays, leaving you stranded with the last man you wanted to be around.

A/N: This musty little mutt won the poll, and I think it was simply because I mentioned possible smut. However you won't be getting any in this fic, best you'll get is some making out. Mutant powers wise, I'm talking about Wolfsbane, who has wolf transformations aka transform into a wolf-like form giving animal like senses, speed, strength, agility, fangs and sharp claws.

CW: Rivals to Lovers (if you squint) - Slow burn (also if you squint) - Suggestive - Brief argument - Makeing-out - Fluff - Mentions of Bi reader - Reader has Wolf transformation powers - Long fanfiction

Words: 18.6k

Logan Howlett. You hated that name. Hated the man it belonged to.

You hated hearing it moaned and shouted on the other side of the shared wall, a sound that bled through the plasterboard like a constant, crude reminder. And you hated how every time you’d pound on his door in protest, he’d answer while still completely naked, leaning against the jamb, staring up at you with that infuriating grin on his face. Sweat slicked his skin, and his dark hair was perpetually tousled from whatever mess he’d just made.

“Lookin’ to join?” He’d ask each time, without fail, the question coated in lazy condescension because he knew exactly how much it grated on you.

Sometimes you’d catch a glimpse of who he had in his bed—Jean, Scott, Kurt, Ororo, hell, maybe even some random girl or guy he managed to sneak past Professor X’s mental radar and into his room. They’d shoot you brief, apologetic looks, like they knew you weren't above violence, or even using your teeth to rip Logan's throat out just for a few hours of quiet while his body did its obnoxious healing thing.

You hated how cocky he was, how he genuinely seemed to believe the universe revolved around his singular, self-serving orbit. Charles and Erik would always tell you to give him time, that you’d eventually warm up to him once you got to know the real him. But how the hell could you? Getting to know that mutt—who constantly smelled of stale cigar smoke, wet dog, and sharp, untamed musk—felt like asking you to forgive the people who had once treated you like some feral animal. You might give them a sliver of leeway because they didn't know any better, but Logan? Logan knew better.

He lived to antagonize you, wearing you down until you were at his throat, pinning him against the nearest wall as your sharp, extended nails dug into his tough hide. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed how easily he could turn you from a relatively level-headed man into a feral beast when he pushed you in all the right, predictable ways. He’d tease you, call you names. Pretty Boy was his favorite because he knew you despised it, and only because he knew you did. Not because he noticed the way your cheeks would heat up and you’d stumble over your words before simply growling and walking away.

Logan would never admit it, but he liked you. He liked how hard you tried to be normal, how diligently you attempted to keep yourself together when he’d needle you. He even liked how, on those rare nights he wasn't with someone just to annoy you, he could still hear you through the wall. He liked you—those stupid reading glasses you wore that he'd always make fun of, the silent, ferocious way you were protective of the students, and how utterly different you were from anyone else in his orbit. And maybe, just maybe, Logan liked the impossible idea that it was you in his bed, not Scott, not Jean, not Kurt, but you, the man who hated his guts and made no effort to hide it.

This night was no different. You lay in bed, the pillow clenched tight over your head as you tried—and spectacularly failed—to drown out the rhythmic, echoing noise coming from Logan's room. It was like the fewer students that had left for winter break, the more obnoxious Logan became, as if he knew you’d restrain your reactions if there was a larger audience.

A low, guttural snarl escaped your throat. Your nails, sharp and hard, ripped a tearing line down the faded blue fabric of your pillowcase. “That dumb mutt,” you growled into the damp cotton.

Your legs swung over the edge of the mattress, your bare feet hitting the cold wooden floor with a decisive, shocking slap before you could properly register the decision. You didn't give yourself time to reconsider. Your hand shot out, grabbing the cheap brass doorknob and yanking your bedroom door open, the sound echoing slightly in the quiet corridor.

You marched the few feet to Logan's door. You paused for a moment, chest heaving, the cold air raising goosebumps across your exposed skin. The smell—Logan’s scent, thicker and hotter than usual, mixed with cheap cologne and something sweet and musky that wasn't Logan—hit you like a physical barrier. Then, your fist came up, slamming it against the wood, a percussive explosion in the quiet hallway.

The door flew open almost immediately. Logan stood there, completely naked, leaning against the doorway, framed in the soft, yellow light of his room. His eyes trailed your body slowly, deliberately, taking their time. He noted the way you looked; he always did. From the plaid flannel pajama pants that hung snug on your hips, the waistband of your boxers just peeking over the top, the subtle trail of hair that led below your pants and up your abdomen to cover your broad chest, and even the numerous scars that were no doubt a legacy of X-Men missions and, ironically, the occasional spar with Logan himself. You weren't anywhere close to as hairy as he was, but Logan had always enjoyed the way you looked, and right now he was enjoying how you bared your teeth, your canines slightly elongated and sharp. He watched how your hands flexed so you wouldn't sink your own nails into your skin, how utterly and beautifully feral you looked.

The silence stretched, broken only by the loud thumping of your heart.

“It’s midnight,” you finally bit out, the word thick with restraint. “I leave in three days. Can’t you… can’t you fucking wait till then?”

Three days. Three days until you left for winter break to see the people you considered family for the holidays. Logan wasn't fond of that; he didn't want to not have you around, but he certainly wasn’t going to admit it now.

He just shrugged, his eyes still lazy. “You could just—”

“I don't want to join you!” you exploded, cutting him off, throwing your hands up to briefly muffle a frustrated scream. “Sleep! That’s all I want! For once, can’t you keep your fucking dick in your pants when I’m trying to sleep?!”

You craned your neck, managing a quick, venomous glance over Logan's shoulder and into the room. Scott Summers was laying there, rigid and pale, the sheet pulled high over his chest, actively avoiding eye contact.

“And fuck you, Summers!” you added, feeling the sheer futility of the argument wash over you. “Fuck both of you!”

Without waiting for either of them to respond, or for Logan to unleash his next inevitable taunt, you spun on your heel and stormed off down the hall. Perhaps you could convince Hank to let you sleep on the floor at the end of his bed, like some pathetic dog. He had before, anyhow.

You had barely slept that night. The floor of Hank McCoy’s lab-adjacent bedroom was an improvement over the noise, but not by much. The spare cot he’d set up was too short, the pillow too thin, and the lingering scent of chemicals and clean formaldehyde in the air was an unsettling contrast to Logan’s rank musk, but unsettling nonetheless. You spent the long hours staring at the faint glow of the lights filtering through the blinds, running over the previous night’s humiliation until you were wired and weary at the same time.

Hank, bless his brilliant, towering heart, had tried. He’d left a glass of warm milk and a worn copy of Principia Mathematica on the bedside table, hoping the sheer density of the prose would bore you to sleep. It hadn't. He finally padded out of the room just before dawn, murmuring an apology for the noise you had escaped and heading directly to his lab, leaving you alone in the silence. But silence, you realized, was sometimes just as loud as Logan’s racket.

By the time you dragged yourself down to the main kitchen, the sun was fully up but felt weak and distant. Most of the remaining students and X-Men were scattered around the long table. This was the final, chaotic breakfast before the majority of the team—including one of the key players in last night's drama—departed for the holidays. Only Charles and Erik remained constant fixtures, seated at the head of the table.

You bypassed your usual seat, which was far too close to Logan’s customary spot, and slumped into the nearest available chair. Your eyes felt weighted with lead, the dark circles underneath them pronounced enough to earn their own zip code. Your hair, untamed after a night of tossing and turning, stuck out in every direction, a mess you hadn't bothered to fix.

You hadn't even bothered with your own clothes. The shirt you’d undoubtedly snagged from Hank’s closet that morning—a faded, soft cotton University of Oxford t-shirt—swallowed your comparatively smaller frame, the sleeves drooping past your elbows.

You poured yourself a mug of black coffee, but your lips simply pressed against the ceramic. You weren't drinking it; you were just trying to absorb the minimal warmth through your mouth.

Scott Summers was seated across the table. He was still wearing the same tired, apologetic expression he’d worn in Logan’s doorway, but he kept his head down, meticulously buttering a piece of toast he would likely never eat. He hadn't met your eyes once.

Logan, however, couldn’t seem to look away.

He was across the room, hunched over a plate piled high with bacon, but his gaze kept returning to you. It wasn't the taunting, mocking stare of the night before. This was different—a slow, assessing watchfulness. His eyes traced the exhausted slump of your shoulders, the way the borrowed shirt hung loose, and the almost painful way your jaw was clamped shut. He caught the deep shadow under your eyes, and for a fleeting moment, the usual cockiness seemed to deflate, replaced by something… recognition?

You finally looked up, unable to stand the oppressive silence, and your gaze flicked past Logan. He averted his eyes immediately, suddenly fascinated by the texture of his bacon.

Your eyes landed on Charles Xavier. He was sipping his tea, but his expression was soft, deeply sympathetic, and almost apologetic. You felt a wave of resignation. He must have read your mind, which was still screaming, "I hate him! I hate him! I can't sleep!" from the previous night’s turmoil.

"Well, it looks like the weather is going to get worse over the next few days," Ororo announced, breaking the strained silence with a calm, meteorological observation. She was efficient, always ready to take charge. "We’re tracking a potential blizzard. Hopefully, it doesn't hit before everyone's flights are scheduled."

She paused, turning her focus to you. "You're one of the last ones to leave, aren't you?" she asked, her tone gentle.

You only managed a weary, non-committal nod, focusing on the rim of your mug. The thought that you might be stuck here for the entire holiday, indefinitely sharing the institute with Logan, sent a silent, internal scream ricocheting through your exhausted skull.

“It’s a nasty front,” Erik commented, not looking up from his paper, but his voice was dry and amused. “A fitting closure to the year, wouldn’t you say, Charles?”

Charles ignored Erik’s philosophical jab and looked directly at you, giving a soft, encouraging smile. “We’ll keep an eye on it, dear boy. If things look bad, we can always find you an earlier flight. There's no need to stress."

You just shook your head. You didn't trust yourself to speak; you felt like any attempt to use your voice would shatter the fragile truce you had established with the morning.

"No, don't worry about it," you finally mumbled, the words sounding gravelly and distant, even to your own ears. You just wanted to disappear. You slowly slid your chair back, the harsh screech of the wood against the floor sounding like a gunshot in the otherwise quiet room. "I think... I'll just skip breakfast. I need a shower."

You left without looking at Logan again, but you could feel the weight of his gaze following you until you rounded the corner into the hallway.

The shower did little to relax you. No matter how hot you turned the water, the heat only seemed to bake the tension deeper into your muscles. Your mind felt like a feedback loop of buzzing static, cycling through the previous night’s humiliation and the quiet scrutiny of the morning.

You leaned your forehead against the cool, slick tile wall, letting the water hammer down your neck. Your eyes were nearing shut, chasing a moment of exhausted oblivion, when the sound cut through the artificial rain.

Click. Creak. Thud.

The distinct sound of your bedroom door opening and closing.

The thing you hated most about your mutant powers wasn’t that you were practically a bigger, more sensitive ‘mutt’ than Logan himself—it was the sensory overload. You could hear everything, smell everything, and gods, you hated it. Even over the sound of the running water, your enhanced hearing picked up the settling of the door latch and the slow, heavy tread of footsteps on your bare wooden floor.

You knew those footsteps. Heavy, weighted, and moving with an easy arrogance that suggested the person believed they had every right to be there.

Logan’s footsteps.

That five-foot-three, obnoxious mutt was in your private space, and you couldn't fathom why. The thought alone tightened your fists and sent a fresh wave of heat across your face that had nothing to do with the scalding water. Was he here to continue the antagonizing from the night before? Did he truly have no boundaries?

With a sharp twist of your wrist, you slammed the shower handle into the off position. The sudden silence was deafening, leaving the air heavy with the sound of your ragged breathing and the quick drip, drip, drip from the showerhead.

You stepped out of the tub and quickly grabbed the nearest towel, wrapping it hastily around your waist. The movement was jerky, fueled by a mixture of anger and a sudden, unwelcome wave of adrenaline.

Before you could even fully secure the towel, the lightweight bathroom door swung open without a knock.

You stood there, framed in the rising steam, dripping cold water onto the wooden floorboards of the bedroom you had barely spent time in this morning.

Logan stood a few feet away, hands shoved casually into the pockets of his jeans. He was wearing a fresh flannel shirt—dark red, inevitably—but the scent of him, that sharp blend of musk and cigar that your senses amplified, was immediately suffocating in the small space.

He looked you up and down, taking in the wet hair plastered to your forehead, the towel clutched low on your hips, and the steam curling around your tense, scarred body. A slow, infuriatingly sly smile spread across his face, not reaching his eyes.

"Did I interrupt you, bub?" he drawled, the words delivered with a deliberate lack of concern.

"What do you want, Howlett?" you grumbled, your voice thick and low, cutting right past the question. You ignored the way his gaze lingered for a beat too long on the water droplets clinging to your shoulders, focusing instead on his forehead. "And don't tell me you're lookin' to join."

Logan chuckled—a dry, rasping sound in his chest. "Relax, Pretty Boy. I’m not here for a show. Though, hell, if you're offering..." He finally pushed off the door jamb and moved one hand out of his pocket, holding something small and white toward you.

"Your reading glasses," he stated, his tone suddenly flat. "You left 'em on the kitchen table this mornin' when you stormed off."

He tossed the folded glasses onto the unmade bed behind him, where they landed with a soft, surprising bounce on the duvet.

“You couldn’t have just… dropped them off?” you asked, your voice edged with disbelief, pulling the towel tighter. “You had to come in?”

Logan took a single, slow step closer, closing the distance between you, and the scent of him intensified—the smoke, the wet dog, the raw musk.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he countered, his eyes finally locking onto yours, the predatory amusement back in full force. “Besides, I figured you needed another reminder. Keepin’ you on edge. Helps me sleep, you know.”

He gave a final, irritating smirk, turned sharply, and in the three seconds it took him to cross the room and open the door, he had stolen all the air and privacy from your personal space.

"Oh," he paused at the doorway, looking back at your still-dripping form. "And your cologne smells like ass, by the way. Stick to the chemical smell from Hank’s room."

And then he was gone, leaving the door slightly ajar and the cold morning air rushing in to replace the steam.

You stood there for a long moment, water still dripping from the tips of your hair onto the floor, the steam from the shower dissipating rapidly into the cold air Logan had let in. You stared not at the open door where he’d just vanished, but at the mundane, folded object lying innocently on the duvet: your reading glasses.

He was lying.

You knew with absolute certainty that you hadn't left them on the kitchen table. You hadn't been wearing them last night, and you definitely hadn't taken them to Hank’s room, where you could barely focus on sleeping, let alone reading. In fact, they usually rested right here, on the nightstand beside your bed. Logan hadn't retrieved them from the kitchen; he had merely been looking for an excuse—a pretext—to violate your privacy, to see you vulnerable, and to deliver one last, infuriating jab.

Your jaw ached from the tension you had held since last night. You walked slowly out of the bathroom, leaving a trail of damp footprints, and snatched the glasses off the bed. They felt heavy and cool in your hand. He had touched them. He had been standing right here, inside your room, inside your boundaries. The realization made your skin crawl.

You tossed the glasses onto the nightstand, where they belonged, and grabbed a set of clean clothes from the dresser: thick cotton pants and a plain, dark-grey t-shirt. The need for escape was so sharp it felt like a physical pain in your chest.

Two more days.

That’s all you had. Forty-eight more hours to survive the shared air, the thinly-veiled antagonism, and the confusing, intrusive attention of Logan Howlett before you could catch your flight back to Canada.

Canada. Back to the people you called family, the people who wouldn't treat you like a bomb waiting to go off, or some strange, complicated project that needed constant poking. They offered simple, unearned affection, a respite from the constant strain of being an X-Man, and certainly a break from being Logan’s favorite punching bag.

But two days suddenly felt like an eternity—a sentence you weren't sure you'd make it through without serious incident.

You glanced at the window. The grey light from the sky was deepening, turning a bruised purple-grey that promised snow. You could already sense the subtle change in the air pressure, the faint, metallic scent of a major storm gathering on the horizon.

You found yourself fighting a surge of desperate, claustrophobic anxiety. If that blizzard hit early, as Ororo had warned, the airport would shut down. Flights would be grounded.

If you were trapped here, confined to the mansion with only Charles, Erik, Hank, and Logan remaining… The thought made your palms sweat. It wouldn't be a peaceful holiday. It would be a cage match. You’d be locked in a tense, silent war of nerves, with Logan gleefully pushing every single button until you snapped.

You pulled the shirt over your head, the action clumsy and rough. You desperately needed to get out of this room, away from the lingering, sharp smell of the man who had just stood here.

You needed to be somewhere safe, somewhere where your nerves weren't constantly humming at a dangerously high frequency. Perhaps the library—it was always quiet, and Hank kept the heating low. Anywhere but here, in the cold, violated quiet of your own room.

You grabbed your worn backpack, intending to load it with books and supplies, and head to the library for an all-day retreat. You had to physically distance yourself, to survive these last two days, no matter what it took.

It was as if your deepest, most recent fears had manifested overnight. The blizzard had already started, swirling outside in thick, fast-moving sheets of white, long before you were able to drag yourself out of bed. The pale morning light filtering through the window was diffused and cold, painting the room in shades of icy blue.

You reached for your phone. The screen was flooded with missed calls and texts from your family back in Canada, the messages a mix of concern and frantic questions: Did you get an earlier flight? Is the airport shut down?

One text notification stood out, sharp and definitive: a formal message from the airline confirming your outbound flight was canceled. There were no flights taking off in these conditions. You were grounded.

You wanted to scream, to throw the phone against the wall, to rip apart the already damaged pillowcase. Anything to release the suffocating surge of frustration. But you didn't. You simply lay there, staring at the phone screen, completely numb, suspended in the cold reality.

Everyone else had gotten to go home. The mansion felt vast, sterile, and silent in a way it never did when filled with students. Charles and Erik were at home because, quite literally, this was their home. And Logan? Logan never seemed to have anything else besides this school. Now, by default of a cruel twist of fate, that was all you had, too.

Your finger drifted across the glass, tracing the contact photo of your mother. You pressed the call button, listening to the agonizingly slow ringing, hoping beyond hope that she would pick up.

She answered on the second ring, her voice immediately warm and familiar, a steady anchor in the swirling chaos. "Hi, sweetheart! I was just about to call you again. What's the word? Did you manage to—"

"I'm sorry, Mom," you choked out, cutting her off, the apology tumbling out before she could even finish her thought. "My flight was canceled. The weather got too bad overnight. I… I can't make it."

You heard the subtle shift in her breath on the other end of the line. She could hear the distinct crack in your voice, the tightly suppressed tremor that meant you were desperately fighting back tears. She couldn't blame you. Sure, the X-Men were the best you could hope for when it came to a chosen family, but they weren't her. They weren't your home. All you wanted right then was to be small again, wrapped securely in your mother's arms, hiding from the world like you did when you were a kid.

The conversation that followed was mainly her talking, her voice a soothing, practical balm.

“Oh, honey, don’t you worry about it for a minute,” she insisted firmly. “It’s a nasty storm, and the most important thing is you stay safe. The holidays are about more than just a single day, you know that. Once everything clears up, you can still come. Even if it means you won't get to see everyone, you can still spend a few days here with me and your father."

You swallowed hard, gripping the phone tight enough for your knuckles to turn white. You'd take that deal immediately—a few days of quiet, safe escape, even if it meant a delayed celebration—over being trapped here.

The conversation continued, punctuated by her gentle reassurances and your monosyllabic confirmations, until a sound broke through the muffled speaker and the quiet sadness of the room.

Knock. Knock.

It was a soft, polite tapping at the door. Too quiet, too measured, and too decent to be Logan. It had to be Charles, stopping by your room to offer sympathy or perhaps invite you to sit with him and Erik by the fireplace in the library.

You pressed the phone tight against your ear. “Mom, someone’s at the door, I have to go.”

“Okay, dear. Just promise me you won’t spend the day moping. Call me later, alright? We’re so proud of you.”

“I love you,” you managed, the words still thick with suppressed emotion.

“I love you too, sweetie. Now go answer that door.”

You ended the call, set your phone down, and scrubbed a hand roughly over your face. Taking a deep, fortifying breath, you walked across the room and opened the door.

It wasn't Charles.

It was Logan. He was wearing the same irritating flannel shirt, but he stood stiffly in the hallway, looking distinctly uncomfortable. He took one look at your face—the puffy eyes, the dark circles, the raw exhaustion—and his usual snarl faltered.

“Shit, bub,” he huffed, the word cutting through the quiet. “Were you crying?”

But for once, it didn't land like an insult or a calculated jab. His tone was rough, yes, but there was a distinct, almost startled note of genuine concern woven into the gravelly sound. He looked like he genuinely didn't know what to do with the fact that you might be upset.

You stared at him, the residual sting of tears blurring your vision slightly. The exhaustion was a heavy weight on your chest, robbing you of your usual verbal defenses. If this had been yesterday night, during the confrontation in the hall, you would have snarled a vicious denial and tried to punch him. Now, you just felt hollowed out.

“What do you want, Logan?” you finally asked, not bothering to lower your voice or modulate the weariness that made the name sound flat and defeated. You ignored the question entirely, stepping back slightly to widen the space between you, though you didn’t close the door.

Logan didn't move from the threshold. He shifted his weight, and you could feel his gaze—unusually steady and serious—boring into your face. He didn't offer a smirk, or a challenge, or even the expected derogatory name.

“Charlie sent me,” he grunted, shoving his hands back into his pockets, though the movement looked more nervous than casual this time. “He saw the flight news on the institute feed. Figured you might need… hell, I don’t know. Something.”

You knew Charles hadn't just 'sent' Logan. Charles had likely read the distress signal radiating off you and then subtly nudged Logan, knowing the volatile combination would force a response, but Logan would never admit to being an unwilling errand boy for a sympathy mission.

“I don’t need anything,” you replied, the words clipped and final. “Especially not from you. You can go back to whatever you were doing, Howlett.”

You started to pull the door inward, a clear signal that the conversation was over.

“Wait up, Pretty Boy,” Logan caught the edge of the door, not forcing it open, but holding it firmly enough to stop your motion. He spoke quickly, before you could completely shut him out. “Look, I heard the weather report, okay? It’s a mess. This ain’t going to clear up today. You’re stuck here for the long haul.”

He paused, and the silence was broken only by the muffled sound of the wind whipping snow against the outer windows of the mansion.

“I’m not here to rag on you,” he continued, his voice lowering, becoming almost conspiratorial, which was deeply unsettling. “The old man needs some wood brought in from the shed. Hank’s busy trying to rig up some backup power source. It’s hard work, good for runnin’ off steam.”

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze lingering on your tired eyes. “Figured you might wanna trade the smell of chemicals for the smell of pine and snow, instead of just sittin’ here and starin’ at the walls.”

It was the closest thing to an olive branch—or at least, a highly customized, Logan-brand invitation to physical labor—you had ever received from him. He wasn't offering comfort; he was offering an outlet. He was suggesting that shared work, not conversation, was the only way they could coexist right now.

You hesitated, leaning against the doorframe. Every fiber of your being screamed at you to refuse, to stay in this room and wallow in your misery and hatred. But the thought of being confined to the mansion, listening to the silent tick of the clock and the endless howl of the wind, was worse than the thought of working alongside him. At least physical exertion would dull the screaming in your head.

“Fine,” you sighed, running a hand through your damp, messy hair. “But we aren’t talking. And you stay two steps behind me. I don’t want to smell your cologne or your damn cigars.”

A ghost of the familiar smirk finally touched the corner of his mouth, but it was surprisingly brief and lacked its usual venom. “Deal, bub. Go get some boots on. And bring a jacket, unless you like your feral mutt coat to freeze solid.”

He dropped his hand from the door, taking a half-step back to give you room. He didn’t wait for you to shut the door or thank him. He simply turned and started walking down the hall toward the main staircase, the heavy, weighted rhythm of his footsteps already fading into the background, leaving you with a strangely quiet room and a temporary sense of purpose.

You shut the door quietly. The immediate anger was replaced by a dull dread, but beneath it, a tiny, reluctant spark of relief flickered. You wouldn't be staring at the walls. You had days of forced proximity ahead of you, and at least now, you had an hour of productive, outdoor misery to start with.

You didn't rush. Despite the immediate need for distraction, what you really required was a clean slate. You stripped and stepped back into the bathroom, letting the water run scorching hot. It wasn't a long shower, unless you counted the few minutes you spent simply leaning against the wall, sulking about your canceled flight, before finally forcing yourself to lather up and wash away the morning’s exhaustion and the faint, lingering scent of Logan.

When you finally stepped out and wrapped a thick, fresh towel around your waist, you stared at your reflection in the fogging mirror. The dark circles under your eyes were still prominent, but the heat had brought some color back to your pale skin.

Your mind, now slightly clearer, immediately began racing through a million different scenarios concerning Logan’s sudden, practical offer. Why the truce? Why the invitation to physical labor?

Maybe he was setting a trap, a perfect, isolated opportunity to harp on you about last night’s breakdown.

Maybe he just wanted to show off his superior strength, rubbing in the fact that your enhanced abilities didn't necessarily translate to brute force labor like his.

Maybe, and this thought was the most unnerving, he actually felt a flicker of pity, and this was his deeply awkward attempt at damage control.

You shook your head sharply, dislodging the anxious thoughts. It doesn't matter. Focus on the work.

You finished drying off, moving with deliberate speed. You chose heavy, durable canvas pants, a thick thermal long-sleeve shirt, and finally, a warm, insulated jacket. You pulled on your heavy, laced-up boots, the familiar weight and solidity a small comfort.

You grabbed your room key and phone and opened the door.

Logan was waiting for you, exactly where you expected him to be: leaning against the wall near the stairwell, casual, impatient, and utterly infuriating. The low light of the hallway caught the faint glint of silver as he raised his hand to his mouth.

A freshly lit cigar was clamped between his lips, a plume of thick, acrid grey smoke curling upward.

He didn't move as you approached. He simply lifted his chin and blew the smoke directly toward you.

It was a blatant, deliberate provocation. The expensive cigar—probably something rich and Cuban that Erik had somehow procured—was irrelevant. To your amplified senses, the heavy, noxious fumes hit you like a chemical weapon. The smell of tobacco, no matter how aged or expensive, registered as pure, suffocating poison. It was his signature move, a visceral way of marking his territory and forcing your reaction.

Your nose wrinkled automatically, your lip curling back. You stopped a foot short of him, your teeth baring instinctively, the sharp canines clicking faintly as your jaw tightened. You locked eyes with him, your exhaustion replaced by a fresh surge of white-hot anger.

“Are you serious, Howlett?” you gritted out, the effort of keeping your voice low and flat making your throat burn.

Logan just shrugged, pulling the cigar away with a slight, arrogant tilt of his head. He watched your visceral reaction—the bared teeth, the pinched expression—with a renewed, familiar spark of enjoyment in his eyes. The concern from earlier had vanished, replaced by the predator’s gleam.

“Got to warm up the lungs before we hit the cold, bub,” he drawled, his voice muffled slightly by the cigar. He took another long, slow drag, refusing to put it out. “You said no cologne. You didn't say no smoke.”

“It’s a twelve-hour drive to the nearest patch of wild tobacco and you know I can smell that thing from the attic,” you snapped, unable to hold back. “Put it out.”

He raised one eyebrow slowly, drawing out the tension. He took the cigar from his mouth and held it between two fingers, letting the smoke continue to drift toward you, challenging you to escalate the conflict.

“Or what?” he asked, the familiar, taunting smirk returning. “You gonna pin me against the wall again, Pretty Boy?”

You felt the shift in your stance—your feet planting wider, your shoulders hunching slightly as you prepared for a fight, ready to lash out and put him back against the wall, regardless of the consequences. The raw, guttural anger was back, hotter and quicker than the cold dread of the cancelled flight.

"No," you breathed, the word a razor-sharp whisper. You didn't move forward, relying instead on the intensity of your gaze and the sheer promise of violence radiating off you. "I'm going to rip that thing out of your mouth, Logan Howlett, and make you eat it. You want to work? You want to burn off steam? Then you put out the damn fire and stick to the deal we just made."

Your use of his full name, delivered without shouting, seemed to momentarily short-circuit his anticipation. He recognized the tone: the line had been crossed from playful antagonism into pure, controlled fury.

Logan held your gaze for three long heartbeats, the cigar still smoking lazily between his fingers. He knew you were serious. He knew your limits, and he knew pushing you into violence now—when you were already raw and exhausted—was both what he craved and, maybe, what he should avoid if he wanted the wood chopped.

With a heavy, audible sigh that was 70% irritation and 30% grudging compliance, he lifted the cigar. He didn’t drop it, but instead, he used his thumb and forefinger to pinch the glowing cherry end, extinguishing it in a single, practiced, brutal motion. The hiss and the sharp smell of burnt tobacco mixed with the lingering smoke, but the active threat was gone. He then tucked the mangled, cold cigar into the breast pocket of his flannel shirt.

"Fine," he muttered, shaking his head. "Always a damn diva."

He didn't wait for your reply this time. He just turned, walking toward the main stairwell. "Let's go, Pretty Boy. The snow ain't gonna wait for your little sulk session to finish."

You followed him down the stairs. The mansion was silent, save for the rush of the ventilation system and the distant, low hum of machinery—Hank’s backup power efforts. Charles and Erik were nowhere to be seen, likely cloistered in the study or library, enjoying the quiet.

When Logan pulled open the massive oak service door leading to the back of the grounds, a gust of wind slammed into the hallway, carrying with it a shock of icy, wet air and a dense spray of snow.

The outside world was blindingly white. Visibility was poor, maybe thirty feet at best. The ground was already covered in over a foot of fresh, wind-sculpted drifts, and the air was thick with precipitation. It was a true, fast-moving blizzard—not a flurry, but a tempest.

"Damn," Logan muttered, pulling his jacket collar up high around his neck. "Guess the weather channel wasn't lying. Looks like we're settling in for the long haul."

You wrapped your jacket tighter around your torso, the cold biting through the heavy fabric immediately. Your sensory abilities, which had been a curse indoors, were now focused on the raw elements. You could taste the mineral tang of the snow, hear the subtle, deep whoosh of the wind around the stone chimneys, and feel the almost painful pinpricks of ice hitting your exposed skin.

"The shed is by the back fence line," Logan said, indicating a vague direction with a jerk of his chin. "We'll follow the tree line. Don't go wanderin' off—it'll swallow you whole out here."

You only nodded once, the sheer scale of the blizzard rendering dialogue unnecessary. You had your distance: the two steps behind him you'd demanded. You watched the way his boots carved deep, distinct paths through the deep snow, his body low and solid, completely at home in the punishing conditions.

The walk was immediately difficult. Your breath plumed out in white clouds, instantly torn apart by the wind. The temperature drop was fierce, making the inside of your nose and lungs ache with every intake of air.

As you trudged on, fighting to match Logan's powerful, unwavering stride, you found yourself doing something unexpected: relying on him. Not for company, certainly, but as a marker, a lead anchor. You focused on the red of his jacket, on the unique, powerful odor of him—now thankfully diluted by the cold air and the clean scent of snow—as he forged a path.

You hated him. But right now, out here in the swirling, deafening white, the only thing more dangerous than being near Logan was being alone.

The walk to the shed was brutal, but once they reached the small, three-sided lean-to nestled against the back fence line, they found a small measure of shelter. The dense structure of the shed blocked the worst of the direct wind, and the logs inside were neatly stacked, dry, and ready for splitting.

Logan immediately located a pair of heavy, split-head axes. He tossed one toward you, handle-first, and you caught it instinctively, the cold metal jarring your gloved hand.

“Don’t stand around,” Logan grunted, already selecting a thick, knotty section of oak. “Get to it. The longer we take, the longer we freeze.”

The next half hour was quiet, save for the rhythmic, violent exertion of splitting wood.

It was exactly the physical outlet you had desperately needed. Every swing of the axe was an intentional release. You channeled the humiliating moment with Scott, the crushing disappointment of the canceled flight, the violation of the cigar smoke, and the sheer, unending presence of Logan into the blow. The blade sank deep into the wood with a satisfying thwack, and the energy of the impact rattled up your arms, shaking the tension loose from your shoulders.

You chose the biggest, most awkward logs, attacking the grain with a feral intensity. Sweat soon beaded on your forehead despite the arctic air, steaming faintly as it met the cold. You weren’t just chopping; you were destroying. Your breathing was harsh and loud, and you let out low, involuntary grunts with the effort, the sharp smell of split pine and musk mixing with the metallic scent of exertion.

Logan worked methodically, efficiently. He was a machine, his massive forearms thick and steady, his movements conserving energy. He split his logs cleanly, with a controlled, precise power that was infuriatingly effortless to watch.

But he was watching you, too.

In the brief moments between your swings, when you reset your posture and lifted the heavy axe over your head, you could feel his gaze. He wasn't looking at your technique; he was observing your intensity.

He noticed the frantic pace, the over-the-top effort, and the sheer, palpable wave of pent-up anger you were directing into the wood. He could hear the desperate edge in your ragged breathing. You weren't just splitting kindling; you were trying to break something vital.

He paused after splitting a large cedar log, dropping his axe head first into the snow beside the chopping block. He took a long, slow moment, pulling the collar of his jacket down just enough to speak clearly.

“You’re gonna burn yourself out, Pretty Boy,” he observed, his voice rough but level, completely devoid of its usual mocking lilt. “Save some strength for the haul back. It’s uphill.”

You ignored him, lifting your axe high for another strike against a particularly challenging knot.

Logan watched the blow land. The wood resisted, the axe sticking deep but not splitting the log. You pulled back, lips thinning in frustration, and spat out a low, frustrated curse.

“You hate being stuck here that much?” Logan asked, the question hitting you like a cold slap.

You paused, resting the heavy axe head on the block. You turned your head just enough to look at him, but didn't bother to hide the hostile glare in your eyes. “What do you think, Howlett? I just got off the phone with my family, telling them I wasn’t going to see them for the holidays. What the hell do you think?”

Logan finally looked down, scraping the toe of his boot against the frozen earth under the shed’s floor. The sudden seriousness of his tone was what truly caught you off guard.

“Your mom,” he started, his voice lowered, almost hesitant—a tone you had genuinely never heard from him before. He lifted his eyes, not to challenge you, but just to look. “She sound alright? You guys… close?”

The question was a direct hit below the belt. It was invasive, personal, and worst of all, it was genuine. It cut through the protective armor of your anger, exposing the raw vulnerability you had just managed to subdue.

You gripped the handle of the axe so hard your gloves squeaked. You could smell the pine sap on your own hands, but the metallic tang of unshed tears was suddenly closer.

“It’s none of your business,” you bit out, the words laced with pure venom. “Stick to the wood, Logan.”

He didn't flinch. He just nodded slowly, accepting the rejection. But instead of returning to work, he held your gaze for another beat, his expression unreadable, before finally saying, "Yeah. Just curious, is all."

Then, without another word, he picked up his axe and resumed splitting wood, leaving the heavy, unspoken question hanging in the arctic air, thicker and more complex than the smoke from his extinguished cigar.

You didn't look at him again. Your eyes stayed locked on the stubborn, unyielding grain of the remaining logs. "It’s none of your business," had been your answer, and Logan hadn’t pushed, but the silence he left in its wake was filled with an awkward, buzzing awareness.

You felt your throat tighten. It wasn't the cold; it was the realization that he saw you—not just the feral rage, but the underlying pain of the canceled trip. Logan had just demonstrated a depth of observation that both unnerved and infuriated you.

You focused on the work, hammering the axe into the wood until the sweat was running cold down your back. Logan fell back into his methodical rhythm, splitting logs with the kind of efficient, brutal strength that made the task look like a simple inconvenience. The silence returned, heavy with unspoken things, punctuated only by the repeated thwack-CRACK of the axe heads.

After another fifteen minutes of relentless effort, you had a respectable pile of split wood.

"That's enough," Logan announced, tossing his axe aside. "It'll get us through the night, maybe tomorrow morning. Any more and we’ll be out here till Christmas."

You dropped your axe, leaning against the cold, damp wood of the shed wall, sucking deep, aching breaths of the frozen air. The physical exhaustion was a welcome pain, successfully drowning out the mental noise.

Logan walked to the corner of the shed where several heavy, canvas logging slings were stored. He grabbed one and tossed the other to you.

"Haul time," he said. "We load these up and carry them up the hill to the kitchen entrance. You take the light stuff."

"I can handle my own weight," you challenged automatically, though your muscles were already screaming a different tune.

"I know you can," Logan replied, his voice neutral. He was already loading his canvas sling, selecting thick, heavy logs—the ones you hadn't been able to split with a single blow. He didn't offer a taunt, just a fact. "But I'm stronger, and I don't need a break every five minutes. Let's make this one trip. Get it over with."

You bristled at the implication of weakness but couldn't argue with the brutal truth of his assessment. You grudgingly began loading your own sling with the smaller, lighter pieces, securing the canvas straps over your shoulders.

The trip back was exponentially harder than the trip out. The wind was worse, whipping the snow into a white curtain that reduced visibility even further. Worst of all, the slight, steady incline of the hill felt like scaling a mountain with fifty pounds of wood digging into your shoulders.

You followed Logan’s heavy tracks, leaning into the wind. The cold seeped past your gloves and boots. The weight on your back shifted and pressed, and soon your lungs were burning. You focused on the back of Logan’s head, his figure a low, dark silhouette fighting the white onslaught.

Midway up the slope, you stumbled. Your foot slipped on a patch of ice hidden under a new layer of powder, and the heavy load pitched, pulling you off balance. You barely managed to catch yourself before falling face-first into a drift, but the straps of the sling cut painfully into your neck and collarbones. You let out a muffled grunt of pain and frustration.

Logan stopped immediately. He didn't turn around, but you saw his shoulders tense.

"You good, bub?" he called back, his voice strained against the wind.

"I'm fine," you choked out, adjusting the load with trembling hands, trying to ignore the sharp, sudden pain radiating from your shoulder. "Just keep moving."

Logan remained motionless for another beat. Then, without a word, he set his own massive load down in the snow—a pile that looked twice the size of yours. He walked the few steps back, reaching out a heavily gloved hand and grabbing the top edge of your canvas sling.

"Give me the heavy ones," he ordered, not asking. Before you could protest, he uncinched your sling and began methodically transferring the largest remaining logs from your pile into his own, already monumental stack.

"Logan, stop," you protested weakly, leaning back against the sudden relief of the lessened weight. "I can carry it."

"Shut up," he snapped, the roughness back in his voice, but there was no malice in it—only impatience. "The faster we get this fire roaring, the sooner you can get back to sulking in your room. Now move."

He readjusted his own sling, which was now dangerously overburdened, and looked at you, a silent challenge in his eyes. He didn't wait for your nod. He simply turned and started back up the slope, shoulders straining visibly, leaving you with a lightened burden and a terrifyingly confusing mixture of rage and reluctant gratitude.

The final stretch, though steep, was manageable thanks to the logs Logan had reluctantly, yet forcefully, taken from your sling. You stumbled up the last icy step toward the heavy, insulated door leading to the service hallway near the main kitchen.

Logan didn't use his hands to open the door; he simply leaned his monumental, overburdened shoulder into the solid oak. The door gave way with a heavy thud, and a wall of dry, golden heat from the mansion’s interior rushed out to meet you.

The contrast was immediate and disorienting. The biting cold was replaced by comforting warmth, and the howling wind was silenced, replaced by the crackle of a distant fire and the low, steady hum of the institute’s heating system.

You both dropped your loads simultaneously. Your own sling landed with a modest thud. Logan’s stack of wood, which looked impossibly large, crashed to the floor with a loud, satisfying CLATTER, scattering logs across the polished tile.

You gasped, not from exhaustion, but from the sudden, delicious relief as the heavy straps fell away from your aching shoulders. You peeled off your soaked, stinging gloves and rubbed your hands together, trying to coax warmth back into your numb fingers.

Logan ignored the logs he’d dropped. He stood for a moment, simply leaning against the closed door, his chest heaving under the thick flannel shirt, his own massive hands pressed against the small of his back. His breathing was still deep and labored, proof that even he wasn't immune to the punishing effort.

The silence returned, different now. It was no longer the strained, hostile silence of the hall, nor the deafening, task-oriented silence of the shed. It was the quiet of shared physical recovery.

You looked at the mess of wood. “I’ll clean up this mess,” you muttered, reaching for the empty sling.

“Don’t bother,” Logan interrupted, pushing off the door. He walked over to the largest pile of wood and, with casual ease, began scooping up the logs with one arm, using the sling as a temporary basin. “The old man will be waiting for this. We need to stack it by the hearth.”

You watched him work, mesmerized by the sheer, unthinking utility of his strength. You picked up the smaller, scattered pieces, loading them into your own sling.

As you worked, Logan spoke, his voice low and gravelly, directed toward the wood pile rather than you.

“You didn’t have to push yourself out there,” he said, the words sounding grudging, like they were painful for him to admit. “I wasn’t gonna stop if you didn’t keep up, but you didn’t have to prove anything, either.”

You straightened up, the fresh batch of logs warm in your arms. “I wasn’t proving anything to you, Howlett. I was proving it to myself. I don’t need your pity, and I don’t need you to carry my weight.”

Logan paused, resting the heavy sling on his hip. He finally looked at you, and the look in his eyes was complex—a mix of tired impatience and something softer, something almost paternal that you immediately bristled against.

“Pity?” He gave a short, cynical laugh that held no humor. “Kid, I don’t pity anyone. If I felt pity, I’d be useless. But I know stubborn when I see it. You were fighting the wood like it was the last day of the world. Just save that energy, alright? You’re going to need it.”

He walked past you, shouldering his massive load again, and started toward the archway leading to the mansion’s main rooms.

"The long haul, Pretty Boy," he tossed back over his shoulder, the name back in his vocabulary, but it sounded less like a taunt and more like a simple, weary acknowledgment of your shared, miserable situation. "It’s only day one."

He disappeared around the corner.

You stood there for a moment, gripping the straps of your lighter sling, trying to decode the entire interaction. He had violated your space, challenged your boundaries, offered aid, insulted your effort, and then left you with a warning that felt suspiciously close to advice.

The blizzard had trapped you, but the wood chopping had changed the rules. You were still enemies, but now you were enemies who had survived a storm together, and Logan had seen you cry and had carried your burden. The thought was infinitely more terrifying than the prospect of having to sleep on Hank’s cot again.

You tightened the straps and followed the sound of his heavy footsteps and the rhythmic thud-clunk of logs being stacked near the grand fireplace. You knew, with a sinking certainty, that this was just the beginning.

After the wood was stacked by the massive stone hearth in the main lounge, you had kept your distance. You moved with cold efficiency, refusing Charles’s gentle offer of hot cocoa and ignoring the subtle, observing presence of Erik. You didn't even look in Logan's direction, but you could feel his low, rough energy settling into the room, like a predatory creature nesting near its kill.

It seemed Logan was keeping his distance, too. He didn’t follow you. He didn’t issue another rough order or throw a final, irritating taunt. The unspoken truce, however fragile, held.

You retreated to your room, peeling off the wet jacket and mud-caked boots near the door. The room felt warm and blessedly silent, a stark contrast to the relentless storm outside.

You pulled your phone out and sat on the edge of the mattress, the soft fabric of your pants a welcome change after the stiff, frozen gear. You scrolled through your contacts, your thumb hovering over your mother’s name again.

She would know what to do. Not logically, of course; she didn’t know Logan Howlett or the complexities of mutant psychopathy. But she knew you. She would know how to navigate the confusing, suffocating mix of antagonism, anger, and abrupt, unsolicited aid that was going on between you and him. She was the one person who could listen to the whole bizarre scenario—the moaning, the cigar, the shared log-hauling—and simplify it, telling you exactly how to feel about the whole damn mess.

But the thought of articulating it—Mom, this infuriating, centuries-old mutant who hates me just carried half my firewood load because he saw I was crying about a canceled flight, and now I don't know if I hate him or just want him to disappear—made you cringe. You were a grown man in your mid-twenties, a member of the elite X-Men, trusted with saving the world. Logan was older than you cared to admit, a living legend wrapped in flannel and cigar smoke. You couldn’t bring yourself to ask something so profoundly childish.

With a heavy sigh that mirrored the slow settling of the mansion around you, you tossed your phone onto the duvet. It bounced softly, landing screen-up, ignored.

You pushed yourself off the bed and stood in the middle of the room. The silence was almost meditative. You stripped yourself naked, letting your dirty clothes fall to the wooden floor, making no immediate effort to pick them up.

For a long moment, you just stood there, eyes closed, your muscles still trembling faintly from the exertion of the firewood. You let the pervasive, dry warmth of the heating system envelop your bare skin. It was a cleansing moment, a chance to shed the persona you had been forced to maintain—the angry, defensive rival—and just exist as soft, exhausted human tissue.

You felt the lingering aches of the morning: the strain in your neck from the logging sling, the cold bite in your lungs, and the dull, emotional throb behind your eyes. Your enhanced senses were still humming, but here, in the silence, they were reporting only the benign: the scent of cedar from the firewood clinging to your skin, the faint, clean smell of the electric heating coils, and the distant, muffled whump of snow hitting the roof.

You opened your eyes, taking a deep breath. The storm was outside. The conflict was outside. For this moment, you were simply warm, exhausted, and alone. It was a temporary, fragile peace you knew would shatter the moment you left the room, but you held onto it, needing to recharge before facing the long, confined days ahead.

The moment of stillness passed. You moved toward your dresser, the silence of the room punctuated by the soft thud of drawers opening and closing. You chose clothes that felt like armor against the biting cold and the internal tension.

First, a fresh pair of cotton boxers. Then, warm fleece joggers—soft, comfortable, and a clear signal you weren’t planning on leaving the mansion again today. You pulled on a t-shirt, noticing as the fabric settled that it was a tad snug across your chest and shoulders, a consequence of years of training that had traded youthful slenderness for hard-earned muscle and density.

Finally, you pulled on a heavy, grey cotton pullover. The fabric was familiar, worn smooth from countless washes. In the corner, near where your heart beat steadily, was a small, embroidered patch of your dad’s favorite hockey team logo. You weren’t even sure why you had it; it definitely hadn’t been a conscious choice. You figured your parents, or maybe your mom, had snuck it into your luggage years ago when you had packed up to become an X-Man, a silent, loving reminder of home. Putting it on felt like pulling on a layer of familial protection.

You didn’t bother with socks or shoes, opting instead for the quiet padding of bare feet on the hall rugs. You grabbed your thick-framed reading glasses off the nightstand, settling them onto the bridge of your nose—a small, intellectual signal Logan often seized upon to call you "Pretty Boy," yet a necessary piece of equipment.

Then, you picked up the novel you’d been meaning to finish. It was a dense, leather-bound classic, a gift from Emma Frost. Her inscription inside the front cover, penned in an elegant, spiky script, was pure Emma: To a man who is cute, educated, and deserves to be better read than the animals you tolerate. Despite the playful dig at your teammates, whatever romantic connection had once sparked between you and the White Queen had long since dissipated into a mutual, appreciative friendship. The book, like the pullover, was another marker of your own identity, something Logan would inevitably mock but couldn't touch.

You took your phone from where you’d left it on the bed, sliding it into the pocket of your joggers. You navigated out of the contacts screen—no more attempts to call home—and locked the screen. The attempt at external comfort was over.

It was time to face the inevitable.

Tension coiled in your stomach, but you tamped it down. You were rested, clean, and warm. You opened your door and stepped out into the quiet hallway, walking with a deliberate, even pace toward the faint, alluring scent of burning wood and old leather—the main lounge.

You didn't know what you would find there, but you hoped Charles and Erik were present. You needed the buffer. You needed witnesses. You knew, however, that with the weather trapping all of you, the atmosphere of the mansion would remain tightly wound until the storm broke.

As you neared the lounge, the sound of the crackling fireplace grew louder, and you could feel the pull of the warm, inviting light on the edges of the room. You just had to make it to a comfortable chair before Logan could stake his claim.

You walked into the main lounge, the sight immediately providing the buffer you desperately needed. The room was glorious—warm, softly lit by the massive, roaring fireplace, and heavy with the scent of burning cedar and aged leather. The logs you and Logan had hauled were stacked neatly beside the stone hearth, crackling merrily.

Seated across from one another at a low mahogany table near the fire were Charles and Erik. They were engrossed in a game of chess, the ivory and black pieces arranged like silent armies between them.

Charles was draped in a familiar tartan blanket, his brow furrowed in concentration. Erik, conversely, looked immaculate in a dark, impeccably tailored sweater. You could tell immediately, from the subtle, rosy blush creeping up Charles’s cheeks and the faint, predatory smirk twitching at the corner of Erik’s mouth, that the Master of Magnetism was employing his favorite distraction tactic: undoubtedly thinking of something deeply sexual the two could be doing instead of engaging in strategic warfare.

You were used to it. You were used to them being this way with one another—the constant, complex dance of minds and affection. Their open, unashamed intimacy was a major reason why you had become so comfortable and open about your own sexuality over the years. That, and the fact that Emma had cheerfully and unapologetically flirted you out of any remaining self-doubt, all but solidifying your bisexuality and daring anyone to have a problem with it.

Charles was the first to notice your presence, his attention momentarily pulled from Erik's mental maneuvers. His hand, which had been resting on his temple in thoughtful concentration, dropped to his lap under the blanket. He gave you a warm, genuine smile, his eyes carrying the lingering sympathy from the morning. He watched as you stopped silently just beside the table, your bare feet making no sound on the thick rug.

You didn't need to speak. You simply reached out a hand, your attention immediately drawn to the board, your intellect taking over. You ignored the white queen that Charles had been planning to move and reached instead for a black knight. With a smooth, decisive motion, you moved the knight three spaces forward and two to the side.

"Checkmate," you hummed softly, folding your arms across the hockey logo on your chest.

Erik’s head snapped up from the board, his concentration shattered. He looked from the board to Charles, then finally up at you, his usually sharp, calculating eyes momentarily wide with annoyed defeat. He had been so focused on distracting Charles that he hadn't noticed the tactical blunder two moves prior—a blunder you had instantly spotted.

"Damn it," Erik sighed, a genuine note of irritation in his voice. He glanced back at the board, then fixed you with a wry, grudging look. "Well played. I suppose having four eyes on the board is technically cheating, but I'll allow it this time." He paused, a small, knowing smile breaking through. "Touché, dear boy."

Charles laughed—a deep, relieved sound—and reached out to squeeze your arm, his hand resting near the familiar logo on your pullover. "Thank you. I think Erik was trying to burn the clock out on me."

Erik simply chuckled, his eyes returning to Charles, the promise of distraction now renewed. "I was merely trying to illustrate the superiority of creative thought over rigid structure, Charles."

You felt a familiar warmth in the easy camaraderie. You weren't a child, but here, in the glow of the fire, you were simply the favored younger man, appreciated for your intellect and comfortable in their established world.

You pulled up an empty armchair near the hearth, settling in, grabbing the novel Emma had gifted you. You opened it, grateful for the sense of sanctuary, and the silent, unspoken knowledge that Charles and Erik would serve as an effective, immediate buffer against anyone else who might walk into the room—namely, the one person who carried logs for you one minute and mocked your existence the next.

You hadn’t realized how much time had passed. The heavy stillness of the blizzard outside seemed to stretch the afternoon into a timeless vacuum. Hours had evaporated in the warmth of the lounge.

Charles and Erik had long since departed, wishing you a quiet afternoon and retreating to their private wing, which was situated far enough away that even with your enhanced hearing, you couldn't pick up on anything but the softest, most benign domestic sounds. The buffer was gone.

You flipped a page in Emma’s gifted novel, but the words started to jumble together halfway down the paragraph. The combination of early morning exhaustion, the physical exertion of the wood haul, and the deep, silent warmth of the room was finally catching up to you.

You let out a quiet sigh, the sound barely audible over the diminishing crackle of the hearth. You carefully slipped your bookmark—a stiff, leather strip—into the page and closed the heavy book, setting it on your lap. You pulled off your thick-framed reading glasses, rubbing the bridge of your nose and your tired eyes before staring into the dwindling fire in front of you.

The flames were low, licking weakly at the last few large logs. The room, which had been so gloriously warm, was beginning to cool noticeably.

You finally stood up, moving with a practiced, fluid economy of motion. You walked over to the neat pile of wood you and Logan had hauled in, selecting a few of the dry, smaller pieces to help revive the blaze. You were so completely focused on the task—the clean, comforting sound of the kindling catching, the growing roar of the fresh fire—that you didn’t hear those familiar, heavy footsteps approach. Your senses, dulled by exhaustion and the temporary peace, had betrayed you.

You only realized you weren't alone when a large, shadowed figure stopped right beside the armchair you had just vacated.

You turned your head just as Logan reached down and casually picked up the novel that had been resting on your lap, dusting the fine lint off the leather cover with his thumb.

He flipped the book open to the frontispiece, where Emma’s elegant inscription was visible. He read the words silently, a small sneer forming as he registered the 'cute and educated' sentiment.

"You and Frost, huh?" he scoffed, his voice low and dismissive. He didn't look at you; his gaze was fixed on the page, the book held loosely in his large, calloused hand. "Hard to believe she’d date someone like you. Seems too... clean."

He finally looked up, his eyes locking onto yours over the top of the novel. The look was pure, antagonistic skepticism, dismissing your entire persona—the warm joggers, the thick glasses, the intellectual pursuits—as a facade.

You snatched the book back, tucking it firmly under your arm. "It's none of your business, Howlett," you snapped, the anger immediate and unwelcome. "And we are friends, not dating anymore. But why don't you stick to the logs, since that's what Charles pays you for?"

Logan didn't react to the jab about his job. He simply leaned down, his eyes scanning the space around the armchair, and a familiar, sly smirk spread across his face.

"So, the genius is finally giving up the fight?" he murmured, leaning closer so his breath, smelling faintly of coffee and old smoke, was warm on your ear. "Looks like the pretty boy ran out of steam before he even hit page two hundred."

He didn’t wait for your retort. He just straightened up, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction at having successfully broken your quiet sanctuary, and sauntered over to the fireplace, claiming the warm spot you had just created.

The sheer, unapologetic arrogance of his actions—stealing your peace, mocking your intellect, and then physically claiming your warm spot—snapped the last frayed thread of your self-control.

You walked over to the fireplace, ignoring the rising heat from the freshly stoked flames, and stood directly in front of him. Logan was lounging against the stone mantelpiece, basking in the firelight, still sporting that infuriatingly lazy smirk.

"What do you want, Logan?" you demanded, the words raw and strained, a hairsbreadth away from a shout.

He slowly moved his gaze from the hypnotic flames to your face, his eyes heavy-lidded and mocking. "What do I want?" he drawled, pushing off the mantel just enough to look even more relaxed. "I want you to stop acting like a melodramatic schoolgirl who can't handle a little snow day, Pretty Boy. Go pout in your room."

The sarcasm, coupled with the condescending tone and the final, dismissive wave of his hand, was simply too much. It negated the forced intimacy of the shared labor, the brief moment of genuine concern, and the absolute hell of the canceled flight. It was all a game to him.

You didn't think. You didn't plan. You just moved.

With a low, wordless growl that felt instinctual—a sound ripped straight from your core—you lunged. You slammed your hands into his chest and shoved him backward with all the speed and force your enhanced body possessed.

Logan didn't have time to register the attack, much less brace himself. He hit the stone fireplace with a jarring CRUNCH, the impact shaking the mantelpiece and sending a spray of embers up the chimney flue.

You didn’t let go. You grabbed the lapels of his flannel shirt—the same damn shirt he always wore—and hauled him forward until you were right up in his face, your chest heaving, your breath hot and frantic against his skin. The heat from the roaring fire was intense on your back.

"You think this is funny?!" you yelled, the volume startlingly loud in the quiet lounge. "You think any of this is funny?!"

You were shaking with unleashed fury, the words tumbling out, fueled by two days of accumulated rage and the exhaustion that made you incapable of filtering your vitriol.

"I hate your guts, Logan! I hate the way you smell, like a wet dog and cheap whiskey! I hate how you act like you're above everyone else, always sneering, always judging!"

Your grip tightened on his shirt, the fabric bunching painfully in your fists. Logan remained pinned against the stone, his eyes wide with surprise, the smirk completely gone, replaced by a mixture of shock and a dangerous, quickening spark of his own inner beast.

"I hate how you treat this place like your own damn personal brothel, shouting and moaning all night long!" You jabbed a finger hard into his collarbone. "I hate that you knew I was trapped, that you knew I was upset, and you still blew that goddamn smoke in my face because you just had to push it!"

You leaned in closer, your voice dropping slightly, the intensity making it more terrifying. "And you know what I hate most? I hate that you do it on purpose! You enjoy it! You enjoy watching me lose control, watching me get feral, just so you can laugh about the 'Pretty Boy' snapping!"

You could feel the hard, unyielding muscle of his body pressed against the stone. You could smell the sudden increase of his own musk, a warning sign that his healing factor was kicking in, preparing him for a fight.

"Just leave me alone, Howlett!" you finished, your voice cracking with the sheer, desperate plea buried beneath the rage. "You ruined my sleep, you ruined my holiday, and if you don't stay out of my way until I can leave, I swear to God, I'm going to rip you apart and leave you for the cleaning crew!"

You released his shirt with a final, furious shove, stumbling back a step and breathing heavily, waiting for him to retaliate, to unsheathe his claws, to tear you to pieces. You didn't care. At least the screaming had stopped inside your head.

The lounge was silent again, save for the violent hiss and pop of the fire behind Logan. Your own ragged breathing filled the void you had created, the intense, high-octane anger leaving you dizzy and trembling.

You expected the claws. You expected the roar. You expected the immediate, painful retaliation that Logan always delivered when physically challenged.

But Logan didn't move.

He remained pinned against the cold stone, his back arched slightly from the force of the impact. His features, which had briefly contorted into a mask of pure shock, slowly smoothed out. The dangerous, metallic scent of his healing factor was present, the low, feral tension still humming off him, but he held it back. The claws stayed sheathed.

He simply stared at you, his eyes—usually sharp with cynical amusement—now incredibly clear, dark, and utterly focused. He wasn't looking at your hands or your stance; he was looking straight into your wide, exhausted eyes.

A slow, deliberate breath escaped his lips, pulling the cold air into his lungs. He was taking in every word you had screamed, every raw, exposed nerve ending. He recognized the breaking point, the genuine, unadulterated pain beneath the threats of violence.

"Done?" he asked, his voice low, guttural, and so quiet it forced you to strain to hear it over the fire. It wasn't a question demanding confirmation of his safety; it was a simple, flat inquiry about the duration of your rage.

You couldn't speak. You just stood there, shaking your head once, unable to pull your gaze away from his intense focus.

Logan eased himself away from the fireplace, straightening his flannel. He rubbed the back of his head where it had hit the stone, the motion casual, as if you had merely bumped into him in a crowded hallway.

He took a step toward you, then another, closing the gap you had desperately tried to create. You stood your ground, too spent to move.

He stopped directly in front of you. He didn't raise a hand, didn't taunt you, and didn't even acknowledge the laundry list of insults you had just hurled at him.

Instead, his eyes dropped briefly to the hockey logo on your chest—the familial shield you had unconsciously put on that morning. Then, his gaze lifted back to your face.

"You think I don't know why you hate the noise?" he murmured, the words rough and astonishingly soft. "You think I don't know you can hear every goddamn thing in this house, Pretty Boy? Yeah. I know."

He reached out a hand, slow and deliberate, and gently touched the knot of muscle in your jaw, right where it was trembling. It wasn't a hostile touch; it was almost diagnostic.

"You're wired tight," he continued, ignoring your sudden, startled flinch at the contact. "Always have been. You walk around here like you're waiting for the next hit. I push you because you keep so much locked down, it's gonna kill you if you don't let it out."

He dropped his hand, the warmth of his fingers abruptly replaced by the cold air. The genuine concern was back, stripped bare of sarcasm, but cloaked in his typical rough delivery.

"And yeah," he added, a flicker of something unreadable—maybe shame, maybe just flat honesty—entering his eyes. "I know I shouldn't have brought that damn cigar in here. That was a bad play."

It was the closest thing to an apology he would ever give—an admission of a tactical error and a genuine acknowledgment of your sensory disadvantage.

He turned toward the fireplace, grabbed the log you had been intending to put on the fire, and tossed it into the flames with a muted thump. The fire roared higher, throwing golden light across the lounge.

"You're stuck here," Logan said, keeping his back to you. "I'm stuck here. You wanna read that fancy book? Fine. You wanna stay quiet? Fine. But we got two more days of this blizzard. You try ripping me apart again, you better make sure you finish the job, because I won't be helping you with the clean up."

He didn't wait for your response. He simply walked toward the nearby bar area, pausing to give you one final, deep look.

"Go take a breath," he advised, his voice still low. "And figure out if you're mad because I was here, or because you can't go home.”

You stood motionless in the middle of the lounge, the intense heat of the fire doing nothing to settle the chaos thrumming beneath your skin. Logan’s touch—that brief, almost clinical pressure on your jaw—had left a phantom spark, generating emotions you never wanted to admit, much less analyze.

Your heart was still hammering against your ribs, a frantic, heavy drumbeat. Yet, through the sudden clarity of your enhanced hearing, you could distinctly pick up the equally rapid, rigid thump-thump-thump of Logan’s heart in his own chest, even as he leaned against the bar. He was just as wired, just as affected by the explosion as you were.

"Why," you murmured, the word barely a breath, directed more at the universe than at him. "Why are you like this, Logan?"

You turned fully, looking at his broad back, at the rigid set of his shoulders.

”Because I want you”, Logan thought, the realization a raw, desperate punch to his gut. “I'm in love with you, dammit. And I can't touch you without ruining you. I don't know how to do anything but hurt what I care about.”

Logan felt the invasive presence of your senses, the expectation for an answer. But everything he was thinking—the raw confession of attraction, the fear of his own toxicity—was buried too deep.

He simply shrugged, a tight, dismissive motion that failed to convey any casualness, before turning back to the bar, his attention fixed on some imaginary task on the polished wood.

You watched his retreat, the shrug serving as his final, infuriating refusal of intimacy or explanation. You nodded slowly to yourself, accepting the silence for what it was—a wall he would never climb over.

You walked back to the armchair, grabbed your book, and left the lounge. You didn’t go to your room; the silence there felt too suffocating. You didn't head to Hank’s room, or towards the distant wing where Charles and Erik were. You simply started roaming, walking the endless, carpeted hallways of the institute, a restless, pacing patrol, trying to understand whatever was going on.

You mumbled to yourself, the words low and bitter, audible only to your own hyper-aware ears. "Figure out why I'm mad? What the hell does that even mean?" The question echoed Logan's final advice, forcing you into a painful self-interrogation.

"I'm mad because he doesn't know when to stop," you repeated, walking past the closed library doors. "Doesn't know when to simply leave me alone. Doesn't know how to respect a boundary."

You passed a window, the glass rattling faintly under the assault of the blizzard. You were mad because the cancellation felt like a personal betrayal, leaving you stranded in the presence of your most infuriating antagonist.

But then your mind drifted to the confrontation, the heat of the fire, the pressure of his body against the stone. Your face flushed in the quiet hallway.

You whispered the question that was truly tormenting you, the shame of the admission burning in your throat. "But... was I also mad because sometimes... I wished it was my name I heard him moaning?"

The admission hung in the cold air of the hallway, a terrifying truth you had only allowed yourself to whisper in the heat of rage. The thought was immediate and intrusive: the primal, untamed power you sometimes saw in him, the sheer, intoxicating danger. You hated him, but your body—your instincts—sometimes reacted to him with a complicated, feral longing you couldn't rationalize.

You stopped walking, leaning your forehead against the cool, painted plaster of the wall, breathing hard. The line between absolute hatred and agonizing, reluctant desire was blurred and dangerous, and you had just realized you were stranded right on top of it for the duration of the blizzard.

The blue glow of the television screen flickered against the walls of your room, the cheesy dialogue of a 90s rom-com serving as a poor shield against the silence of the mansion. You were tucked under the duvet, your phone buzzing intermittently with texts from your sister. “Stay safe,” she wrote. “We’re saving a plate of leftovers for you. Love you.”

The messages loaded slowly, the spinning icon a testament to the storm’s interference with the cell towers, but even the connection to home couldn't ground you. Because no matter how loud you turned up the volume on the TV, or how much you focused on the glow of the screen, you could still hear it.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

It was faint, buried under layers of stone and wood, but your senses wouldn't let it go. Logan’s heart. It was steady now, a heavy, rhythmic pulse that seemed to vibrate in the very soles of your feet. It was obnoxious. It was confusing. It felt like he was still in the room with you, his presence a permanent stain on your sanctuary.

"I can't do this," you groaned, the sound muffled by your pillow. You hated the way your chest felt tight—not with the sharp edges of anger, but with something warmer and far more dangerous. You needed out.

You kicked the warm sheets aside, the sudden chill of the room a welcome shock. You didn't think; you just moved. You pulled on thick wool socks, shoved your feet back into your heavy boots, and zipped your insulated jacket up to your chin.

The hallway was a ghost town as you navigated toward the front of the mansion. The main lounge was dark now, the fire reduced to a bed of glowing red embers, but the scent of cedar still hung in the air. You pushed through the massive front doors, the hinges groaning against the buildup of ice.

The blizzard hadn't stopped, but it had shifted. The violent, horizontal sheets of snow had settled into a steady, heavy fall of fat flakes. The wind had died down to a mournful whistle, leaving the world wrapped in a suffocating, beautiful white shroud.

You headed straight for the center of the driveway, toward the grand stone fountain. It was a jagged sculpture of ice now, the water frozen mid-cascade into long, translucent claws that caught the faint light from the mansion’s windows.

You cleared a spot on the stone rim with your gloved hand and sat down. The cold was immediate and unforgiving. It bit through your joggers, seeped into your bones, and began to numb the frantic racing of your pulse. This was what you needed. The physical sting of the arctic air acted like a sedative for your brain, freezing the messy thoughts of Logan and Emma and Canada into a solid, manageable block.

You sat there for what felt like hours, your breath blooming in thick, silver clouds. The silence of the grounds was absolute, broken only by the occasional snap of a frozen branch in the distance.

Then, motion caught your eye.

Near the edge of the tree line, a flash of rusted orange moved against the white. A fox, its fur fluffed out against the cold, was darting through the drifts. It was focused, its ears pinned forward as it trailed a rabbit. The rabbit was a blur of white-on-white, desperate and fast, weaving between the trunks of the ancient oaks.

You watched the primal dance with a strange sense of envy. Their struggle was simple. Survival. Predator and prey. There was no confusion there, no suppressed longing or complicated history. There was just the chase and the cold.

Your body began to lose its feeling. Your toes were blocks of ice, and your nose felt like it might break if you touched it, but your mind was finally, blessedly quiet. The "Pretty Boy" who read books and cried over canceled flights was gone, replaced by something as still and cold as the frozen fountain beneath you.

But even out here, in the dead of a winter night, you found yourself wondering if Logan was at a window somewhere, watching the snow—and watching you.

The numbness was a mercy. It started in your fingertips and crawled up your arms, a slow, icy paralysis that finally muffled the thundering confusion in your chest. Out here, under the obsidian sky, the world didn't care about your bisexuality, your family in Canada, or the way your skin burned where Logan had touched you. The world just was.

You watched the fox disappear into the brush, the hunt moving out of sight, leaving you alone with the fountain. You felt like one of the stone carvings—still, cold, and drifting toward a deep, winter sleep.

"You're gonna catch your death out here, kid. Even with your genes, there’s a limit."

The voice didn't startle you. You had smelled him long before he spoke—the scent of leather and that sharp, metallic edge of his scent that always cut through the frost. You didn't turn around. You couldn't. Your neck felt like it was made of frozen iron.

Logan stepped into your peripheral vision, his heavy boots crunching softly in the fresh powder. He wasn't wearing his jacket. He was just in that same flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows as if the sub-zero temperatures were nothing more than a brisk autumn breeze. The steam rising off his skin made him look like a ghost standing in the moonlight.

"Go away, Logan," you croaked. Your voice sounded like dry leaves scraping against pavement.

"Can't do that," he grunted. He stepped closer, leaning his hip against the edge of the fountain just a few feet away. He looked out at the woods where the fox had gone, his eyes tracking movement you were too tired to see. "Charle’s worried. Says your mind is screaming so loud it’s giving him a migraine."

"Liar," you whispered, finally turning your head to look at him. "Charles is asleep. You're the one who followed me."

Logan didn't deny it. He reached into his pocket, and for a second, you thought he was going to pull out a cigar just to spite you. Instead, he pulled out a small, silver flask. He unscrewed the cap and held it out to you.

"Drink. It’ll kickstart your blood before your heart decides to quit."

You hesitated, looking at the flask, then up at his face. The moonlight caught the rugged lines of his jaw—the same jaw you had shoved into the stone earlier. There was no anger there now. Just a quiet, heavy stillness that matched the night.

You took the flask, your frozen fingers fumbling with the metal. The first swallow of whatever rotgut whiskey he kept on him hit the back of your throat like liquid fire. You coughed, the heat radiating down your esophagus and blooming in your stomach. It was a violent, jarring sensation, forcing life back into your senses.

"Better?" he asked, taking the flask back and taking a swig himself.

"No," you admitted, your teeth starting to chatter as the warmth forced your body to realize just how cold it actually was. "Everything hurts again."

"Yeah, well, pain means you're still in the game," Logan said. He looked at you then, really looked at you, and the sarcasm was completely stripped away. "What are you doing out here? Really?"

You looked down at your boots, now half-buried in the snow. "Trying to find a place where I don't have to hear you."

Logan winced, a tiny, almost imperceptible twitch of his eye. "The heartbeat?"

"The heartbeat," you confirmed. "The breathing. The way you smell. I just... I wanted a minute of silence."

Logan let out a long, slow breath that turned into a cloud of mist between you. He looked like he wanted to reach out, to touch you again, but he kept his hands shoved into his pockets.

"I can't stop being what I am, bub," he said, his voice dropping to that low, gravelly register that made your stomach flip. "And I can't stop being where you are. Not for two more days."

He stood up straight, the height of him blocking the wind. "Come on. Back inside. Before I have to carry you, and we both know how much you’d hate that."

He turned to head back to the mansion, but he paused, looking back over his shoulder.

"The fox got the rabbit, by the way," he said quietly. "In case you were rooting for the underdog. Nature don't care about pretty. It just cares about who wants it more.”

The cold was beginning to feel like a heavy blanket, making your movements sluggish and your thoughts drift like the snow. You looked at Logan, his silhouette sharp against the white expanse, and the whiskey he’d given you burned a hole through the numbness.

"Is that what we are?" you asked. Your voice was small, catching on the frozen air.

Logan stopped in his tracks, his heavy boots sinking deep into the drift. He turned back, his brow furrowing as he looked at you. The moonlight made the shadows under his eyes look like bruises. "What are you talking about, kid?"

You gestured weakly toward the tree line, toward the dark patch of brush where the fox had finally cornered its prize. The violence of it was hidden by the distance and the dark, but the reality was there. "The fox. The rabbit," you murmured, your cheeks and nose a bright, stinging red against the pale skin of your face. "Is that what this is? You just... chasing me until there’s nothing left to catch?"

Logan didn't answer immediately. He walked back toward the fountain, his presence looming over you, blocking out the faint light from the mansion windows. He looked down at you, really seeing the state you were in—the shivering, the glazed look in your eyes, the way you were huddled into yourself like a wounded thing.

"You think I'm hunting you?" he asked. The growl was back in his voice, but it wasn't aimed at you; it sounded like he was angry at the very idea.

"You're always there," you whispered, your teeth chattering so hard it was difficult to form the words. "Every corner I turn. Every time I try to breathe. You're poking, prodding... waiting for me to snap. It feels like a chase, Logan. And I’m tired. I’m so tired of running."

Logan dropped into a crouch in front of you, his knees cracking in the quiet night. He was so close now that you could feel the heat radiating off his body, a furnace-like warmth that made your frozen skin ache. He reached out, and this time he didn't hesitate. He grabbed your gloved hands in his bare ones, squeezing them tight. His skin was scorching.

"Look at me," he commanded.

You forced your eyes up to his.

"I ain't the fox," he grunted, his gaze boring into yours with an intensity that felt more intimate than a touch. "And you sure as hell ain't some helpless rabbit. You’ve got claws of your own, even if you’re too 'polite' to use 'em most of the time."

He leaned in closer, the scent of him—leather, woodsmoke, and that heavy, intoxicating musk—filling your senses. "If I was hunting you, bub, this would’ve been over a long time ago. You think I’d spend my time hauling wood and bringing you whiskey if I just wanted to tear you apart?"

"Then what is it?" you pushed, your voice cracking. "If it's not a hunt, why can't you leave me alone? Why do you make it so hard to be in the same room as you?"

Logan’s jaw set, the muscles jumping under his stubble. For a second, you saw it again—that flash of something raw and terrified in the eyes of a man who was supposed to be fearless.

"Maybe I'm just making sure you're still there," he muttered, his voice dropping so low it was almost lost to the wind. "Maybe I'm just waiting to see if you'll ever stop running and actually look at what's standing right in front of you."

He stood up abruptly, pulling you with him. Your legs felt like jelly, and you stumbled, falling forward into his chest. He caught you, his arms wrapping around you with a strength that was both a cage and a sanctuary. For a heartbeat, you let yourself lean into him, your cold face pressed against the warm flannel of his neck. You could hear it then, louder than anything else in the world: his heart, slamming against his ribs like a trapped animal.

"Come on," he said, his voice rougher than usual. "Inside. Now. Before you turn into a goddamn ice sculpture."

He didn't let go of your arm as he led you back toward the mansion, his body acting as a shield against the wind, leaving you to wonder if the chase was over—or if he had finally caught you.

The walk back to the mansion was a blur of crunching snow and the crushing heat of Logan’s hand on your arm. He didn't just lead you; he steered you, his body a literal wall against the wind. By the time he shouldered the heavy service door open and pulled you into the mudroom, the sudden change in temperature felt like a physical blow.

The air in the mudroom was thick with the smell of damp wool and floor wax. You stood there, swaying slightly, as the feeling began to return to your face in a wave of agonizing pins and needles.

Logan kicked the door shut, the latch clicking with a finality that echoed in the small space. He didn't move away. He stayed right in your space, his chest heaving as he watched you shiver.

"Strip," he ordered, his voice like gravel.

You blinked at him, your brain still sluggish from the cold. "What?"

"The jacket. The socks. They're damp from the frost," he grunted, reaching out to yank the zipper of your coat down for you when your frozen fingers failed to move. "You stay in wet clothes, the chill stays in your bones. Move."

You obeyed wordlessly, peeling the heavy layers off and letting them drop onto the bench. You sat down to tug off your boots, your hands trembling so violently you could barely grip the leather. Logan watched you for a second, a low growl of impatience vibrating in his throat, before he dropped to one knee between your legs.

He didn't ask. He just grabbed your heel and yanked the boot off, then the other, tossing them aside. His bare hands—still unnaturally hot—wrapped around your feet through the thick wool socks.

"You're a goddamn idiot," he muttered, but he was rubbing your feet, the friction sending jolts of warmth through your legs.

"I just needed it to be quiet," you whispered, looking down at the top of his head. From this angle, you could see the grey hairs peppered through the dark brown, the way his hair was matted from the snow. "You make so much noise, Logan. Even when you're silent, you're loud."

Logan stopped rubbing. He kept his hands cupped around your feet, his head bowed. The mudroom was silent, save for the hum of the heater and the sound of your own jagged breathing.

"I know," he said, so quiet you almost missed it. He looked up then, his face inches from your knees. "I've been alive a long time, kid. You learn to take up space just so people don't try to take it from you. But I didn't mean to crowd you out of your own head."

He stood up, the movement fluid and imposing. He reached down, grabbing your elbows and hoisting you to your feet. You were still shaky, your balance compromised by the lingering chill and the sheer intensity of him standing so close.

"Is that why you do it?" you asked, your voice gaining a bit of strength. "The poking? The prodding? Just to see if I’m still there?"

Logan’s gaze dropped to your mouth, then back to your eyes. The air between you was suddenly electric, the "fox and rabbit" metaphor feeling uncomfortably real again. But he wasn't lunging. He was waiting.

"I do it because you're the only thing in this whole circus of a school that feels real to me," he admitted, the honesty of it raw and jagged. "Everyone else... they're either icons or projects. But you? You're just you. And you hate me so much it's the most honest thing I’ve got."

You felt a laugh bubble up in your throat—a dry, hysterical thing. "I don't hate you, Logan. I tried to. I really tried. But it's hard to hate someone when you're too busy wondering what they taste like."

The silence that followed was deafening. Logan’s eyes widened, his pupils blowing out until his eyes were almost entirely black. The heart you had been hearing through the walls—the one that had driven you out into the snow—was now a frantic, wild thing beating right in front of you.

"Careful, bub," he warned, his voice a dangerous, low rumble. "You say something like that to a man like me, you better mean it. Because I don't know how to play nice."

"Who says I want you to be nice?" you challenged, taking that final, terrifying step into his space until your chest was brushed against his.

Logan didn't hesitate. He slammed his hand against the wall behind your head, his other hand tangling in the hair at the nape of your neck, tilting your head back. He looked like he wanted to break you, and for the first time in two days, you weren't running.

The air in the mudroom, once sharp with the scent of wet wool, was now thick and suffocatingly hot. Logan’s hand was a heavy, searing weight against the back of your neck, his thumb tracing the line of your jaw with a possessive, trembling pressure. You could feel the heat radiating off him in waves, melting the last of the frost that clung to your skin.

"You're freezing," he growled, but he didn't move away. Instead, he leaned in until his forehead was pressed against yours, his breath ghosting over your lips. "And you're talking crazy. Must be the hypothermia."

"It's not the cold," you whispered, your hands finally finding purchase on his forearms. The hair there was coarse, the muscle underneath like corded steel. "It’s been months, Logan. Months of you breathing down my neck and me trying to pretend I don’t feel it. I'm tired of pretending."

Logan let out a sound that was half-sigh, half-snarl. "I'm a century older than you, kid. I’m a monster on a good day and a disaster on a bad one. You’re supposed to be the smart one. You’re supposed to know better."

"I do know better," you countered, your fingers digging into his skin. "That’s the problem."

He didn't wait for another word. He closed the distance with a brutal, desperate hunger that shattered the last of the "Pretty Boy" facade you’d been clinging to. The kiss wasn't soft; it was a collision. It tasted like the whiskey he’d given you—sharp, burning, and dangerous.

Logan groaned into your mouth, a low, primal sound that vibrated deep in your chest. He backed you up against the row of lockers, the metal clanging behind you, but you didn't care about the noise. You didn't care if Charles heard. You didn't care if the whole world heard.

Your hands moved from his arms to his hair, pulling him closer, needing to anchor yourself to the only thing that felt solid in the storm. Logan’s hands were everywhere—gripping your waist, sliding up under the hem of your dad’s hockey pullover, his palms rough against your bare skin.

He pulled back just an inch, his eyes dark and wild, his chest heaving. "This ends here," he rasped, his voice a warning. "You walk out that door, we go back to the way it was. I keep poking, you keep running. You stay... and there's no going back. I don't let go of what's mine."

You looked at him—at the man who had carried your logs, who had watched you cry, who had stood in the snow with no jacket just to make sure you didn't freeze. You saw the fox, but you weren't the rabbit anymore.

"I'm not running," you said, your voice steady for the first time all day.

Logan didn't say another word. He hooked his arm under your knees and hoisted you up, your legs wrapping instinctively around his waist. He carried you out of the mudroom, moving through the darkened hallways of the mansion with a silent, predatory grace.

When you reached his room, the door clicked shut behind you, and the rest of the world—the blizzard, the X-Men, the canceled flights—faded into nothing. There was only the sound of his heart, no longer a distant annoyance, but a rhythm you were finally, perfectly in sync with.

The air in Logan’s room was heavy with the scent of old wood, expensive bourbon, and the lingering musk of the man himself. It was a space that felt lived-in and rugged, much like him. He kicked the door shut with his heel, the latch clicking home with a finality that seemed to echo through the entire mansion.

He didn't put you down immediately. Instead, he pinned you against the heavy oak of the door, his weight a solid, grounding presence against your chest. The kiss resumed, deeper and more desperate than before. It wasn’t just a release of tension; it was a confession.

"I've wanted to shut you up like this for three years," Logan growled against your lips, his voice a low vibration that you felt in your very bones. He pulled back just enough to look at you, his eyes searching yours. "Every time you’d correct me on some history fact or look at me with those damn glasses perched on your nose... I wanted to see if I could make you lose that composure."

You let out a shaky breath, your hands tangled in the thick hair at the nape of his neck. "You did," you admitted, the honesty raw and terrifying. "Every time you walked into a room, I lost it. I hated how much I noticed you. I hated that I knew exactly where you were in the house just by the sound of your stride. I told myself it was because you were annoying, but I was just... I was obsessed."

Logan’s eyes softened, a rare, vulnerable shadow crossing his features. He lowered you slowly until your feet touched the rug, but he didn't pull away. He kept his forehead pressed to yours, his hands sliding down to rest heavily on your hips.

"I watched you," he whispered, the admission sounding like it was being dragged out of him. "That time Emma was leaning over your shoulder in the library? I nearly took the door off its hinges because I wanted to be the one standing that close. I've spent every night this week listening to you toss and turn through the wall, wishing I had the guts to just knock and tell you to come over here."

"Why didn't you?" you asked, your voice cracking.

"Because I'm a wreck, kid," Logan sighed, his thumb tracing a slow circle over the fabric of your joggers. "I’ve had a lot of lifetimes, and most of 'em ended in blood. I didn't think a guy like you—someone who still has a family that loves him, someone who actually cares about things—should have anything to do with a relic like me."

You reached up, cupping his face in your hands, your thumbs brushing over the coarse stubble of his cheeks. "I'm not a 'guy like that' anymore, Logan. Being here, being an X-Man... it changes you. And I don't want someone 'nice.' I want the man who stayed out in a blizzard without a jacket just to make sure I didn't freeze."

Logan’s heart, that persistent, rhythmic thrum you had tried so hard to ignore, was now a frantic hammer against your own. He leaned in, his lips brushing against your ear.

"I kept the cigar," he confessed, his voice dropping to a gravelly purr. "This morning. I didn't light it because I wanted a smoke. I lit it because I wanted you to look at me. Even if it was with hate in your eyes, I just needed you to see me."

You pulled back, looking at him in disbelief, a small, wet laugh escaping you. "You're an idiot, Howlett."

"Yeah," he grinned, that sharp, dangerous smirk finally reaching his eyes. "But I'm your idiot for the rest of this storm."

He pulled you back into him, the kiss turning from desperate to something more certain, more grounded. The secrets were out, the "fox and rabbit" game was over, and as the wind howled against the glass of his window, you finally realized that the noise you had been running from wasn't a threat—it was home.

Logan didn’t go for the bed. Instead, he pulled you into the center of the room, his hands moving with a frantic, rough necessity, as if he were trying to memorize the shape of you through the fabric of your clothes. Every time your lips met, it felt like another secret was being forcibly traded.

"I hated the way you looked at Scott," Logan muttered against your neck, his teeth grazing your skin in a way that made your knees buckle. "The way you’d listen to him like he actually had something worth saying. I wanted to drag you out of those briefings just to see if you’d look at me with that much focus."

You gasped, your head falling back as his hands slid firmly under the hem of your dad’s hockey pullover. "I only looked at him because I was trying not to look at you," you confessed, your voice high and strained. "I was terrified that if I looked too long, you’d see exactly what I was thinking. I thought I was being subtle. I thought I was being the 'educated man' Emma wanted."

Logan let out a low, dark chuckle, his chest vibrating against yours. "Kid, you’re about as subtle as a gunshot. Every time I walked past you, your heart rate spiked so loud I could hear it from the next hallway. I knew. I just didn't think you’d ever stop being so damn polite about it."

He pulled the pullover over your head, tossing it aside without a second thought. The air hit your skin, but you didn't feel cold—not with Logan’s eyes raking over you, his expression shifting from predatory to something deeply, almost painfully, appreciative.

"You're not a project, Logan," you whispered, reaching out to unbutton his flannel shirt with trembling fingers. "And I'm not some icon. I’m just... I’m exhausted. And I’ve wanted this since the day I moved into this mansion."

Logan’s hands froze on your waist. He looked at you, the moonlight catching the moisture in his eyes. "Since the first day?"

"Since you told me to 'watch my step' in the hallway," you admitted with a weak smile. "I thought you were the most arrogant, beautiful disaster I’d ever seen."

Logan let out a breath he seemed to have been holding for decades. He finished the job with his shirt, letting it fall to the floor, exposing the map of scars and hard, corded muscle that made up his torso. He stepped back into your space, his bare chest pressing against yours, the heat of his healing factor making the room feel like a furnace.

"I didn't think I had a chance with someone like you," he said, his voice dropping to a raw, honest register. "I figured I was just the bad habit you’d eventually grow out of."

"Then stop talking," you whispered, pulling him back down to you. "And show me why I shouldn't."

The kiss that followed was no longer a fight. It was a surrender. The "fox and rabbit" had finally stopped the chase, finding a strange, heated peace in the middle of the storm. As you both fell back onto the heavy furs of his bed, the sound of the blizzard outside became nothing more than white noise, drowned out by the steady, synchronized rhythm of two hearts finally beating for the same reason.

The room was silent now, the violent howling of the blizzard outside muffled by the heavy stone walls of the mansion. Inside, the only sound was the crackle of the dying fire and the synchronized, heavy breathing of two people who had spent years pretending they didn't want to destroy each other.

Logan moved with a slow, deliberate gravity, his hands sliding from your waist to your shoulders. With a gentle but unyielding pressure, he pushed you backward. You hit the mattress, the heavy furs and thick blankets of his bed rising up to meet you, soft and smelling faintly of him.

He didn't follow you down immediately. He hovered over you, braced on his forearms, his dark eyes scanning your face as if he were trying to memorize the way the moonlight hit your skin. The air between you was thick, charged with the kind of electricity that only comes after a storm.

"You're sure about this, bub?" he rasped, his voice a low rumble that vibrated in the small space between your chests. "Once I start, I ain't stopping. I don't know how to do 'casual'."

"I'm sure," you whispered, reaching up to thread your fingers through the thick, unruly hair at his temples. "I'm exactly where I want to be, Logan."

That was all the permission he needed. He lowered himself, his weight a grounding, solid heat against you. His lips, surprisingly soft despite the ruggedness of his face, found the skin of your bare chest. He moved slowly, his stubble grazing your skin with a friction that sent jolts of heat straight to your core.

He trailed kisses over your pectoral muscles, lingering over the spot where your heart was still drumming a frantic rhythm. You arched your back, a low gasp escaping you as he moved upward, his mouth finding the sensitive hollow of your neck. He breathed there for a moment, his scent—leather, salt, and raw power—overwhelming your senses.

"You have no idea," he murmured against your skin, his teeth grazing your pulse point, "how many nights I sat on the other side of that wall just listening to you breathe, wondering what this would feel like."

You couldn't find the words to respond. You could only pull him closer, your hands sliding down the corded muscle of his back, feeling the heat of his healing factor radiating off him like a furnace. Every touch was an answer to a question you’d been too afraid to ask for years.

Logan shifted, his hands tangling in yours, pinning them gently to the pillow as he rose back up to look at you. The smirk was gone, replaced by an expression of such raw, unfiltered hunger and protective intensity that it made your breath catch.

He leaned down, his lips meeting yours again. This kiss wasn't like the one in the mudroom; it wasn't a collision or a fight. It was deep, possessive, and lingering—a promise made in the dark of a winter night.

As the last of the embers in the fireplace flickered out, you let your eyes close, finally sinking into the warmth.

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