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Logan leaned against the doorway into the large common room, smiling very slightly and chewing on an unlit stogie as he watched the kids playing Twister. Rogue, Jubilee, John, and Bobby were all giggling like they were high, tangled together into a twisted pile while John tried to move one foot without upsetting their precarious group balance, and Logan was glad to see it. Life hadn't been too great for the kids up until now, and it made his minute to see them being kids. They didn't let themselves do that very often, especially Rogue.
//Logan, would you please go answer the door? A young man is about to knock who is desperately in need of a good meal and a friendly face. He's shielded so tightly I can't see much about him, but I can feel his loneliness and hunger strongly.//
//Can't promise too much as far as the face goes, Chuck, but I'm on my way.// Logan was already moving as he answered, walking down the hall towards the main entrance. //I could use a sandwich anyway.//
//Thank you. You are the best one to welcome this young man, I think. He needs our help, but I doubt he'd accept mollycoddling such as Orroro might try to foist upon him.//
Logan chuckled softly. //Independent, huh?//
//Very. It radiates from him like warmth from a fire.//
Logan smiled. //Sounds like my kind of folks.//
//Which is why I asked you to see to him, dear boy,// Xavier sent, amused, and then he turned his attention elsewhere.
Logan turned into the much shorter hall that led to the front door just as he heard a timid knock. He smiled and moved to open the door, his smile falling away when he saw the lanky, shivering boy who stood there. The kid was dressed for much warmer weather than the light snow that was falling outside, and Logan wouldn't have been at all surprised to hear the boy was a street whore, as tight and revealing as his clothes were. He looked like he couldn't be more than sixteen, and had a delicate face that Logan figured would be breathtaking when he grew up, topped by silky-looking deep red hair that spiked up in all directions. All in all, Logan could think of no way to describe him except beautiful, even with the dirty, ragged clothes and the battered sunglasses that hid his eyes away.
Logan stared for only a moment before he reached for the kid's arm to drag him inside. "Get in here before you freeze to death, kid."
The boy's posture stiffened when Logan grabbed him and Logan would have easily seen the fear in his expression even if he couldn't smell it, but the boy didn't try to fight him or argue. Logan had seen that kind of reaction to being touched before and it always made him hate the human race a little bit. The kid was obviously used to being hurt, and just as obviously afraid to fight back, which meant he'd likely been hurt a lot. If he'd been living on the streets like his clothes suggested, there were a lot of people that would take advantage of a kid so pretty.
Logan closed the door and then released the boy as he shrugged out of the flannel shirt he wore over his t-shirt, muttering, "Put this on, just lookin' at you is makin' me cold."
The boy stared a moment more and then finally accepted the shirt, some of the tense fear leaking away. "Remy be grateful, monsieur. It been a long cold walk from de bus depot." He pulled the shirt on, wrapping it around him almost twice because Logan's shoulders were so much wider than his. The shirt was still warm from the big man's body heat and smelled of a soothing musky scent that he figured must be an expensive cologne, to smell so good without being overwhelming.
Logan didn't miss the way the boy snuggled into the soft well-worn flannel and inhaled Logan's scent from the fabric. "Remy your name?" he asked, and when the boy nodded he smiled. "I'm Logan. C'mon, kid. I was on my way to make a snack, you're welcome to join me."
Logan turned away and started to walk quickly back down the hall, and he smiled when he heard Remy hurrying to follow him. "T'ank you, monsieur," the boy said as they walked. "Remy'd like dat. Bre'fast was a ver' long time ago, fo' true."
Logan glanced at the kid, still smiling a bit. "You from N'orlins?"
Remy blushed a bit and nodded. "Left dere early dis mornin'. De man dat's like a pere to Remy put him on de bus an' said dis be de safest place for Remy t' be."
"It is, if you're a mutant," Logan agreed, nodding even as he wondered why the kid spoke of himself in the third person. He was no psychiatrist, but he knew that probably wasn't a very good sign about the boy's mental image of himself. He looked at the boy again as they turned into the narrower hallway leading to the kitchen. "Are you?"
Remy blushed redder, letting out a small sigh and then muttering bitterly, "Remy be one a de freaks, oui."
Logan snorted. "Watch who you call a freak, kid."
Remy cringed slightly, regretting the bitter words immediately. "Je suis désolé, monsieur. Remy didn't t'ink, monsieur looks—"
"Normal?" Logan finished for him.
Remy nodded, swallowing hard. "Oui."
"Well I'm not, kid. No one here is. You're in a mansion full of 'freaks', but we don't take too kindly to that kind of talk." Logan led the boy into the kitchen, glad to find it empty, and moved to lean on the counter, looking at Remy. "Professor Xavier's school is here to teach kids like you how t' live safely with regular folks, not to set up some kind of separate but equal thing. Separate ain't never equal when one group's a minority like we are."
Remy stopped a few feet away, still holding the flannel tight around him and fidgeting slightly. "Remy be t'inkin' separate might be nice sometime. What does dis professor say we to do when dem normal people be de reason we ain't safe? Dey don't like folks what don't be like dem." He looked down, his tone filling with self-loathing as he muttered almost too quiet for even Logan's keen hearing to pick up, "Dey hate even de whores dat look a little dif'rent."
"That why you're hidin' your eyes, kid?" Logan asked gently.
Remy's head jerked up and he looked at Logan, obviously surprised Logan had heard him, then after a moment he nodded. "Oui." He jerked one hand up and pulled the sunglasses off, revealing the most unique eyes Logan had ever seen, black where the whites should be with a dark red where the iris would usually be. Logan knew that having eyes so different from 'normal' probably had put the kid through hell, but he couldn't help thinking that the boy's eyes were beautiful anyway. "Remy can't hide de fact he be a freak no more, monsieur, an' he tired as hell t' be stealin' for his supper 'cause he cain' earn a few dollar t' eat on."
Logan stared into the boy's eyes a few minutes longer and then came to himself with a start when the boy looked away and began putting the glasses back on. "Leave 'em off, Remy. You ain't got no reason to hide eyes nice as those."
Remy looked at Logan again for a moment and then suddenly flushed, giving him a tiny, shy smile. "Y' t'ink?"
"I ain't gonna lie to you, kid," Logan replied gruffly as he turned away to go to the fridge, embarrassed he'd been staring at the boy and a kicking himself for even thinking about how pretty the kid was. "Not even when it'd make you feel better." He opened the fridge and then glanced back at the boy. "Roast beef sandwich okay with you?"
Remy nodded quickly, still smiling a bit. "Oui, merci. Dat be much better dan okay wit' Remy, monsieur."
"Good." Logan smiled slightly and started taking the makings for sandwiches out of the fridge, and his smile widened when he heard the sink turn on so Remy could wash his hands.
//Thank you, Logan. I had a feeling that you would be the right one to calm the boy.//
//No problem,// Logan replied, beginning to open containers so he could make the sandwiches. //The kid just needs someone to give him a chance, I think. He hasn't lied to me yet as far as I can smell.//
//I agree.// Xavier paused and then added, //I believe the boy has a powerful mental gift of some kind, but he has walled his mind away so completely that it is difficult for me to tell for certain. I am not certain if he has it under his control or not, he has closed himself off so completely.//
Logan began building a thick sandwich for Remy that was heavy on the meat and cheese, very aware of the boy standing across the island from him watching the food as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. //Want me to ask a few questions?//
//Not just yet, Logan. Let him settle in a bit before we try to pry into his past. Perhaps he will share his talents on his own once he feels safe here. As I said, I cannot even access his mind enough to be sure I'm right.//
//Gotcha, boss,// Logan said, resisting the urge to nod, then he changed the subject. //The room across from mine is empty. Want me to put him there?// Actually the whole hallway Logan had chosen to live in was empty, but he had a feeling that the kid, like him, would prefer to be as far down that deserted hall as possible from the rest of the mansion. The boy just didn't strike him as someone who'd enjoy being crowded by a lot of neighbors.
//That would be fine, Logan, thank you. I'll speak to Scott about jeans for him to wear until someone can take him into town.//
//Thanks, he's too tall to bum jeans off me, but my shirts oughta do for a day or two. They're gonna swallow him whole, but maybe it'll help him keep warm. Kid's skin and bones.//
//So feed him, Logan, and be sure that he knows he is wanted here.//
//That was the plan, boss,// Logan replied, amused as he put the sandwich on a napkin and pushed it over in front of Remy.
//I will leave you to it then,// Xavier said, amused. //There is chocolate truffle ice cream in the freezer.//
//Thanks!// Logan said quickly, unable to stop a grin just as Remy picked up his sandwich to start eating.
"What you be grinnin' at, monsieur," Remy asked, suddenly wary as he lowered the sandwich.
Logan grinned wider and began building another sandwich. "I just remembered there's chocolate truffle ice cream for dessert, kid."
Remy blinked and then smiled. "Dat worth a grin, fo' sure."
Logan glanced up at him and winked, still grinning as he looked back down to finish making his own sandwich.
Remy watched him for a moment and then started eating, slowly starting to relax again under the influence of the cheerful contentment the other man projected without even knowing it.
Maybe everything would turn out okay after all.
~ End