Logan was eating breakfast when it happened. A young Asian girl, Jubilee, if he recalled correctly, placed her tray down on the table next to him and said, "This seat taken?" She didn't give him a chance to answer; she just sat.
Before he was able to respond, Marie's roommate Kitty sat down on his other side.
He glared at the two of them, but he must have been losing his touch because they ignored it and smiled brightly.
"We just wanted you to know," Jubilee said conversationally, "that if you hurt Rogue, we'll kill you."
Kitty nodded her head in vigorous agreement. "And we could, too," she added.
He wasn't sure if he should laugh or growl. He was happy his girl -- god, that sounded so good on the one hand, and so disgustingly sappy on the other -- had friends willing to stand up for her, but he didn't like being threatened by teenyboppers. He settled for raising an eyebrow and saying, "Really?"
Kitty nodded again. "Really. If you're just playing around with her, no place on earth will be far enough away to hide."
"And you better get her a nice gift for graduation," Jubilee said.
"I better what?" he growled. Some kids looked over to see what was going on. He glared and they quickly turned away.
She didn't even flinch, continuing to shovel eggs into her mouth. "You heard me," she said through a mouthful of food.
He had to laugh. "Kid, your attitude is gonna get you in a lotta trouble someday."
"Someday?" she snorted. "How about every day?"
And every morning thereafter the two young women sought him out and asked him to go shopping. Asked, hell -- it was sheer coercion and he was starting to break. He tried everything to avoid them, but he began to see that the whole student body was conspiring against him. At least it meant that Rogue wasn't an outcast for taking up with him.
He'd be working somewhere remote -- out in the stables, or by the lake -- and he'd nod and glare at the boys, hoping they'd get the hint and not rat him out. But no, somehow, Jubilee or Kitty -- or both, sometimes -- would come by not five minutes later. And they always said the same thing, "You have to buy Rogue something for graduation." A man can only take so much pouting and pleading from teenage girls, even an almost invulnerable man with an adamantium skeleton.
Of course, he was no match for them. He was in the garage working on his -- Cyke's -- bike when One-Eye himself came in. They'd been avoiding each other fairly successfully since their confrontation in Xavier's office.
"So this is where you're hiding."
"I'm not hiding." He sounded petulant even to his own ears.
"Kitty and Jubilee are looking for you," Scott said, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice. Logan glanced around quickly. He didn't smell them yet, so he was safe for a few more minutes. "You may as well give in now. You can't win. They're relentless."
"They want to take me shopping," he confided, unable to keep the horror from his voice.
Scott blanched. In a rare moment of solidarity with the other man, he said, "Get out of here. I'll hold them off as long as I can." Logan left, running like a pansy from two very determined teenage girls.
It was, in the end, useless, as he'd known it would be. When they told him how excited Rogue was about her new dress, and how she had no real jewelry to wear with it, he was lost. He didn't like the idea that she was missing out on anything the other girls had.
So there he was in the jeep with Kitty and Jubilee, who were arguing over the radio station. He settled that instantly, putting on a Janis Joplin CD and threatening Jubilee with three inches of claw when she complained.
They walked into the mall and Logan once again thought about what a bad idea this whole trip was. Kitty and Jubilee walked ahead of him, chattering. He took in the sights, sounds and smells, and remembered why he hated malls. Teenage girls wearing too much makeup, perfume and hairspray flirted with teenage boys wearing too much cologne and even more hairspray, while mothers with young children tried to get some shopping in before the sugar shock hit.
"Where should we start?" Kitty asked.
"Why don't you kids pick something out and I'll wait in the car?" <Yeah, I'm a coward,> he thought.
The girls exchanged a look. "Victoria's Secret!" Jubilee exclaimed, causing several people in their vicinity to turn and shoot him dirty looks. <Great, I'm a coward, and half of Westchester county thinks I'm a pedophile.>
"How about the bookstore?" he suggested.
"You're going to say, 'I love you' with books?" Jubilee said scornfully.
He bared his teeth and growled, which had no effect on the girls. When did he lose control? he wondered. And how was it possible that he was in love with one of these creatures? But Marie was different -- she could be giggly, sure, but she also knew how and when to be quiet and serious. <God, I really am whipped.>
"What about Bath and Body Works?" Kitty offered. They headed toward the store.
"Ooh, and you could get some candles and then light them and have sex by them," Jubilee said excitedly. This time his glare must have been more ferocious, because she calmed down immediately.
"Jubes!" Kitty gasped.
"Look," he said, wearily, "Marie smells great just the way she is. She doesn't need all sorts of flowery crap covering up her natural scent." They were at the entrance when he realized what kind of store they were dragging him into. "And I am *not* going into that store."
"Why not, Logan? Afraid someone might see you and think you were buying yourself something?" Jubilee asked, cracking her gum.
He growled and stalked away. There had to be someplace he could shop without totally humiliating himself or compromising his manhood, he thought. The two girls ran to catch up with him, and Kitty saved his ass by exclaiming, "Tiffany's! I didn't know they had a Tiffany's in here."
He sighed in relief. Jewelry, he could do. They'd told him she needed jewelry. It was the perfect solution. If he'd remembered that earlier, he could have avoided the whole Victoria's Secret debacle.
He jerked his head toward the stately-looking store and made his way over. The clerks' eyes widened when he strode in. "You," he barked at one young thing who couldn't have been more than eighteen herself. Another, older, woman with silvery hair interposed herself between them.
"May I help you, sir?" she asked, not at all fazed by the surly man in the leather jacket. The rich are often eccentric, she knew.
"My girl's graduating high school. Need to buy her something nice."
The woman led him over to a case holding silver jewelry. "Your daughter likes silver?"
He didn't correct the misconception. Safer that way. He looked to Kitty and Jubilee. They nodded vigorously. He pointed to a pair of dangly heart earrings by Elsa Peretti. "Those."
"A fine choice, sir. Shall I wrap them for you?" the woman said, unlocking the case. He nodded. "Cash or charge?"
"Cash." He pulled is wallet out and peeled off two hundred-dollar bills. Kitty and Jubilee exchanged glances. That was impressive.
"Very good sir. Will there be anything else?"
His eye was caught by a bracelet of silver hearts that matched the earrings. "That bracelet? It goes with the earrings?"
The woman nodded. "Yes. You have a good eye. These are lovely pieces for a young girl."
"Wrap that, too," he said, pulling out another hundred.
She busied herself with wrapping the little blue boxes in blue paper and tying white bows around them. He handed her the cash, took his change and the bag, and stalked out, Kitty and Jubilee trailing in his wake like geese after their mother. He shoved the bag at Kitty. "You carry it. If you lose it, I'll kill you."
"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Jubilee asked cheerfully.
He shot her a dark look and said nothing on the drive home. He was secretly glad they'd forced him into going -- he knew Marie would love the jewelry, and he hoped she would be appropriately grateful. <Stop that!> he told himself. <You didn't buy her a gift because you want to get into her pants, you old fool.> And it was true. He just wanted to see those sad eyes light up. He hoped they would.
End Part One
Go to Part Two