Beat of the Heart, Chapter Two: No Shame
Here's the second chapter! I forgot to mention this in the previous one but all the chapter names are from songs! So feel free to listen to them while you read.
It's only about an hour or two later when you see Logan again. Charles had decided that he still wanted the scan performed on Logan and assigned you to the job as Jean was ‘busy’ doing something with Scott. So you travel back to the dorms and knock on Logan's door. You hear some shuffling before the knob twists before the door is pulled back, revealing a properly dressed Logan. He’s dressed in a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans.
His face is scrunched up in what looks like annoyance for a moment though it quickly melts back into the teasing smirk he has been giving you thus far.
“Couldn’t wait to see me again, could you sweetheart?” Logan teases. He crosses his arms and leans against the wooden doorframe, almost mimicking how you had earlier in Charles's office.
You huff at his insinuation. Standing back from the door, you roll your eyes before correcting him. Because while, yes, he looks good shirtless, you do have a job.
“Sorry, big boy, but I'm here for a more scientific reason. Charles wants me to run that test we were going to do before you woke up. Walk with me. I'll explain the process on the way.” You turn, not glancing at Logan as you walk towards the elevator. Only once inside do you look at him.
Logan did, in fact, follow you to the lift; slipping inside next to you. He's standing much closer than necessary, making heat tingle across your skin. You shove the feeling down to get control of your powers, preventing your veins from starting to glow.
When the door closes, you start telling Logan the process and reason for the test you will run on him.
“On your side of things, it will be easy; all you have to do is lie down on a bed in a machine. It's like an X-ray and MRI all in one but attuned specifically to mutants and their abilities. We use it to see exactly what a mutant's abilities are, how it affects their body, and if they have any injuries we can't see on the outside.”
You glance at Logan to see if he's listening. And to your pleasant surprise, he seems to be actually taking in the information you are giving him. A smile creeps up on your face at the sight. You wouldn’t expect anyone to pay attention, and you wouldn’t blame them for it either. But there he was, listening to your every word as you explained a complex machine's purpose.
When you reach the mansion's basement level, the elevator dings, and the doors open with a quiet mechanical noise. You lead Logan out into the hallway. After about a minute of walking you reach the infirmary doors. Once again, your hand is pressed against the sensor and the metal doors slide open.
“Give me a minute to put my stuff on and then we can get started,” you tell Logan as you pull your lab coat on for the second time in the day. “Actually, could you take off your shirt? It’ll make putting the sensors on easier for me.” You don’t even realize the possible implications of your statement till you’re finished putting on your gloves and you see Logan's smirk.
A blush quickly rises to your cheeks. You scoff at his expression and shove his shoulder.
“Oh, shut up and get your mind out of the gutter. I didn’t mean it in that way.”
Turning on your heel, you quickly walk into the infirmary proper, hoping to hide your embarrassment with distance. You can hear Logan chuckle from behind as he follows you. Once sensors are retrieved from their drawer, you instruct him on which bed he must lie on.
Once he is reclined, you begin placing the sensors. They are clear sticky circles with minor metal attachment points. You put them on his shoulders, upper arms, forearms, temples, pecs, and abdomen.
As you place the last sensor on his left shoulder Logan shifts on the bed. He leans his head up and to the left, making eye contact with you as his eyebrow raises and a smirk crosses his features.
“Knew you jus’ wanted to see me shirtless again,’ he teases. Instead of verbally responding, you simply rip off the patch you had just placed, a small smile of satisfaction gracing your features when you see him wince.
“Ah yes, I’m totally doing all of this just to see you without your shirt off when I could instead be relaxing, definitely, for sure,” you quip. Before Logan can retort, you press a button on the outside of the medical device.
The bed slowly moves inside the machine, and once the door shuts, you release a quiet sigh and drag a hand over your face. The burning blush on your cheeks is brought to full attention by the nerve sensors in your hand. Of course, he was attractive without a shirt, there was no denying it, but he didn’t have to be cocky about it. Logan just couldn’t let you enjoy it, could he?
After taking a moment to collect yourself, you set your hand on the casing of the x-ray machine. Then, you use your powers to connect to the machine. You feel the familiar thrum of electricity against your fingertips and crawling through your veins, connecting you to the electrical wiring inside the machine. You’ve done it so often that you barely have to focus on connecting.
What you do next, however, requires more concentration. You close your eyes and focus on the machine's scanner. Your vision is blurry initially, but after a few seconds, you can see Logan from a top-down view.
Ignoring the heat that returns to your skin, you switch the view to X-ray. To your surprise, Logan's skeleton is either made of or has metal surrounding it. You can’t tell which kind, but the machine will tell you when the full scan is finished.
You pull out of the machine and open your eyes. They are again blurry but clear up in a few seconds, and then you walk over to the infirmary computer.
You flick your wrist towards the computer, turning it on with your powers. It prompts you to log in. You type in the code, then start the program for the scanner's results. Even though you have some of the best technology in the country, the two devices always take forever to connect on their own. So, using your mutation, you artificially connect the two.
Scott would always scold you whenever he caught you doing it, saying that they ‘should only be used for important or dangerous situations.’
Charles would also scold you on occasion. Although, that was for a completely different reason. He wanted to make sure you weren't stunting your neural pathways by doing something the easy way too often. You usually listen to Xavier and give Scott a small shock and a grin.
I mean, why would you purposely wait for minutes when you could make it happen in mere seconds?
A little ding sound notifies you that the machines have successfully connected and that the scan will now be slowly transferred into a file on the desktop. So, you grab your note clipboard and pen from the desk and write down your observations.
The full scan and download of files take about 10 minutes. The computer makes a little noise and prompts you to save the file. You click the prompt before walking over to the scanning machine, placing your hand on it again, and using your powers to release Logan.
When Logan comes out, his eyes are closed, and his eyebrows are bunched in his seemingly permanent furrow. The little wrinkles between his eyebrows make you want to gently smooth them with your thumb, but you resist the urge and pat his shoulder instead.
Logan blinks his eyes open, sitting up on the medical bed. He rolls his neck, creating a few popping noises as he does so.
“Did you enjoy your trip?” you jokingly ask, a teasing smile plastered on your face. “I know I enjoyed the peace and quiet.”
Logan rolls his eyes and stands up. He grabs his shirt off the table he had set it on and pulls it over his head. You bite your lip at how his back and shoulder muscles move and quickly look away at the computer.
“As if I even talk that much,” he grumbles. Logan turns to face you, crossing his arms over his chest and raising his eyebrow at you. “Let's see the fancy machine's results. Unless this really was just a long ploy to get me to take my shirt off.”
His light frown turns into a smirk as he teases. It reddens your cheeks with heat, and your veins faintly glow with buzzing energy. You don't give him the pleasure of a response.
Logan follows you over to the computer. You double-click on the file to open it, waiting a few seconds for the full pictures to load. You expect Logan to simply stand by you or even behind you.
But instead, both his arms are placed by your sides on the desk. You can feel a whisper of his chest against your back, separated by only the clothes you’re wearing, his arms pressing against yours. Logan’s body is caging you against the desk. And it’s making your entire body flush with heat and butterflies, veins glowing with the energy you’re having difficulty controlling.
So, to distract yourself from the warm body pressed to yours, you focus on the computer. First, you look at the skeleton scan. Using your powers instead of a mouse, you zoom in, closely looking at Logan's skeleton, specifically the three claws between his ulna and radius in each of his arms.
“That's where your claws slot into your arms, and the scan tells me right here that your skeleton is covered in a metal we call Adamantium,” you inform Logan, pointing at what you are talking about.
He hums in acknowledgment. His nods along to the information you tell him are almost teasing, his breath dancing across your neck from the close proximity.
You move on to the muscular scan, but there isn’t much it tells you, so you quickly move on to the final scan. It’s the one that picks up the mutant gene. The one that tells you precisely what someone's powers are.
You’re just about to begin looking into Logan's power and telling him what you find when the sound of someone clearing their throat breaks the silence first. The two of you whip your head to the sound. You see Scott walking in with his arms crossed.
Even with his glasses on, Scott's face and body language express disappointment and exasperation. He steps closer to the two of you, stopping just a few feet away. You glare at the man. Scott seemingly ignores this in favor of scolding you.
“Sorry to interrupt your clearly very important business but Charles wants to know if the scan is complete.”
Logan steps back from you, allowing both of you to turn around and look at Scott fully. You roll your eyes at him.
“Yes, Scott, it's done. I was reviewing it with Logan, showing him the capabilities of our machines here. Though if Charles wants them, I’ll head there right now.”
Scott gives you a curt nod, turns to face the doors, and then leaves the infirmary just as fast as he arrives.
You groan and drag a hand over your face. You send one last glare in Scott's direction before turning to Logan.
“Sorry about that. You are more than welcome to join me, but I really do need to get those files to Charles.” You touch the computer's console once more. You have to concentrate a bit as you find the correct computer and send the files over.
Logan waves you off with a little smile, “Nothing to worry about, I’ll see you later, yeah?” You give him a smile in return and nod.
“Yeah, I’ll see you later.”
The two of you exit the room together. Logan patiently waits for you to take off your lab coat before leaving out the second set of doors. The two of you go up the elevator together and separate to different parts of the mansion.
Once you reach the meeting room, you are greeted by the sight of Charles and your fellow X-Men (except for Scott). You scoff internally at the man's audacity to scold you when he doesn’t even attend the meeting.
Charles smiles his familiar, comforting smile and gestures to the computer in the room. You return the smile, then turn the device on and open the file with your mutation.
Much like with Logan earlier, you show the skeleton scan first; explaining that his skeleton has Adamantium grafted on top of it, and his claws hide in the bones of his forearms. You show the following scan once everyone has absorbed the information. Since you had seen before that the muscle scan didn’t reveal much, you elect to only show the mutation scan, putting it side by side with the skeleton one.
This time, you will not be interrupted by Scott. So you can actually explain your full findings.
“From the scan, it appears that Logan has potent regenerative abilities. This allows him to have the claws without causing severe damage and having whatever process to cover his bones in metal not kill him.”
You can tell that everyone in the room, including Charles, was just as surprised as you were when you saw the results. The meeting room is silent for a few seconds. But then people begin discussing the scans amongst themselves and how valuable Logan could be to the team.
While this is happening, Scott approaches Logan in the hallway of the teacher dorms. Logan had been heading to one of the common rooms, but Scott stopped him by calling out his name. Logan turns to face the other man, crosses his arms, and looks at him expectantly.
Scott returns this by crossing his arms.
“Alright. Listen, I know you just got here, but you need to stay away from my medic. They don’t need you distracting them from their work, nor do the rest of us X-Men,” Scott scolds, pointing a finger at the other man.
Logan rolls his eyes and retorts mockingly, “I think they can make that decision themselves, Cyclops.” While saying Scott's code name, Logan shakes his head slightly from side to side before brushing past him to continue to the common room.
It is dinner time at the X-Mansion, which means that all the adults are eating together in the kitchen. It resembles breakfast, just with different food. And much like breakfast, Logan is the last to enter the kitchen. You smile when you see him and call Logan to sit beside you.
Ororo is sitting on your other side; she gives you a little nudge to the side and a playful smile. You return it with a roll of your eyes and a nudge.
Logan sits in the empty seat next to you, giving you a small smile as he begins eating his food.
The room is quiet and the air is awkward. The others seem to be glancing at Logan, seemingly waiting for him to say something. He was the new guy and no one wanted to overstep but they also didn’t know how to bring him into the normal conversation. However, you didn’t let that stop you.
“Sucks being the new guy at school when you’re an adult, huh?” You tease Logan.
After that, the two of you immediately hit it off, joking, laughing, and bouncing off one another. This releases the tension in the room and the dinner table is again full of conversation.
After dinner, you and Scott wash and dry the dishes together. The team takes turns every day, and today, it was you and him. Logan stood close by, off to the side, continuing the conversation you were having during dinner.
Logan had offered to help with the dishes, but you told him, “New guys don’t wash dishes their first day.” He rolled his eyes but conceded to making you laugh from the side.
At one point, while you were scrubbing a bowl, Logan made you laugh enough that you let go of the faucet, splashing water on yourself and Scott.
Scott jabs you in the side, “Watch what you're doing I like this shirt.” It is a blatant lie, and you lightheartedly roll your eyes, giving Scott a jab in return, charged with a tiny amount of electricity. Not enough to hurt, but enough to pull a wince out of the man.
At first, he glares at you, but when Scott hears your devious giggle and sees your grin, he can’t help but laugh along. You turn your attention back to the task at hand, giving Scott the cleaned bowl.
He joins you and Logan in your banter, occasionally telling Logan about something embarrassing you did to which you blush and try to get him to shut up. And when you can’t, you tell embarrassing stories about Scott in return.
Once the dishes are done, Scott and you both have spots of water on your shirts, and the three of you walk together back to your individual rooms.
Scott is the first to split off, telling you a quick ‘goodbye’ as he slips into Jean's room. You smirk and nudge Logan, the two of you quietly chuckling at Scott's lack of subtlety.
Soon, the two of you reach your rooms. You're hesitant to say goodnight, not wanting to end the fun you're having. But it’s late and you already feel sleep tugging your eyelids.
“Goodnight, Logan, I’ll see you in the morning?” You tilt your head a bit and give him a genuine smile.
In return, Logan gives you a similar smile, “Yeah, g’night, Y/N.”
The two of you part, shutting your doors seconds apart. You sigh, getting into your typical pajamas and flopping onto the bed, soon falling asleep.
Later into the night, sounds from the other side of the hall wake you up. Sitting up and blinking your eyes awake, you strain your ears to listen, hearing the sounds of Logan in pain and thrashing on the bed.
You jump out of your bed, tossing your covers to the side. You practically sprint to his door, opening it hastily only to find Rogue absorbing Logan's power to heal herself. There are three bloody punctures on her shoulder, clearly caused by Logan's claws.
Once you see that Rogue's wound is fully closed, you pull her carefully from Logan, making sure not to touch her skin yourself.
You turn towards the door to see Jean, Scott, and Ororo standing at the doorway, watching you in surprise as you handle the situation wonderfully.
Jean is the first to approach, kneeling beside the bed and quietly asking Rogue what happened. Rogue explains that Logan was having a nightmare and he had accidentally stabbed her when she tried to wake him up.
While listening, you check in on Logan, ensuring his powers are still working and healing him properly. You check his pulse and get a sense of his temperature with your hands. He’s a little clammy and his heart rate is up a few beats from the adrenaline but other than that, Logan is back to normal.
You smile as Logan's eyes close, returning to the peace of sleep. Turning your attention to Jean, you look her in the eyes and give her a nod. She returns the nod and gets up, ushering the other two out of the room and down to their rooms; reassuring them that you have the situation under control.
You look at Rogue, finding the girl curling in on herself. She’s clearly scared and ashamed of what she did, even if no one ended up seriously hurt. You carefully place your hands on her shoulder, only touching her clothes. She looks up at you, eyes wide.
“You know, everyone struggles with their powers. Especially ones that can hurt others if you’re not careful,” You tell her, hoping to bring some comfort. “When my powers manifested, I hurt people too. I shut down the power of an entire block in the city and sent electricity through everyone inside my house. I didn’t kill anyone, but no one looked at me the same after that.”
You sigh at the memory of your mutation making itself known, “I don’t blow out power grids anymore but I’m still learning daily. I still mess up and hurt people. I don’t mean to. It's just a natural part of learning to control your mutation.”
You can see the way your words affect her. Rogue immediately relaxes her tense shoulders, breathing regularly, and eyes no longer wide. You want to hug her but settle for patting her shoulder.
The two of you leave the room, closing the door behind you. You didn’t even realize that Logan was awake while you comforted her. You didn't notice the small smile gracing his features. You tell Rogue goodnight, watching her disappear down the hallway.
You sigh softly, returning to your room. Laying down on your bed again, you pull the covers back over yourself. The pull of sleep wraps you in its embrace as you close your eyes and return to slumber.
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