Chapter Text
A party should not be the best time to quit hard liquor, but Logan had found it surprisingly easy to stick to beer and soft drinks for the evening. Maybe it was the happy chatter of Wade’s family around him drowning out the guilty echoes in his mind. Or the smiles Laura gave him, every time Logan made a clumsy joke. Even the dog helped distract him, especially when Laura styled her silly tuft of hair different ways or asked her for high fives, which Logan had to help with. Logan had to admit, for all that Mary Puppins was a genetical nightmare for the species, she was kind of cute.
It also helped that Logan did not have to worry about finding a place to sleep anymore. Admittedly, the rickety pullout wasn’t exactly a proper bed but for someone who had spent most of his nights over the last years sleeping in a car, on a bar stool, under a table, or in whatever dry spot in an alley he could find, it was comfort itself.
To his own surprise, Logan didn’t mind sharing it with Wade all that much. He guessed that after fighting each other, being tied to each other, fighting beside each other, and saving the multiverse together, sharing a bed wasn’t that big of a deal.
After the party, when everyone had left, and Althea had gone to bed, Logan and Wade cleared away the remnants of the party. Logan worked quietly, collecting empty bottles and cans in a box for recycling, while Wade happily chattered away. Logan brushed past him into the kitchen, giving him a playful little nudge with his elbow.
“Do you ever get tired, Mouth?”, Logan asked but his smirk betrayed the teasing. Wade grinned broadly but shook his head.
“I might get tired but that doesn’t mean I shut up, as you know firsthand, peanut”, he replied.
“Too true”, Logan huffed and followed Wade to collapse the dinner table. After stowing away the middle segment, each of them pushed at one half of the table. He had to wiggle the tabletop to have it slide towards the middle at all, it kept jamming in its rail.
“Easy does it, this is a delicate lady”, Wade cooed, and Logan frowned at him.
“The fuck are you talking about?” Logan growled, wiggling on till both halves met with a click.
“The table, peanut”, Wade smirked and leaned coquettishly over said table to tap Logan on the tip of his nose, one leg flipping up. Logan had half a mind to bite his finger but didn’t. “You must handle her with care, she’s all we could afford off craigslist. Now come on, let’s make the bed.”
The sofa was quickly converted into their bed, covered in ratty grey sheets. The pillows and duvets were all the more colourful, thanks to Wade. Logan didn’t comment on the comic book prints. They were clean and warm, that was all he cared about. He spread them out while Wade was in the bathroom. Logan heard him singing through the closed door and couldn’t help a little smile. That man really never shut up, not even with a toothbrush in his mouth.
After Logan had his turn in the bathroom, he switched off all the lights on his way to the sofa. Logan could see Wade clearly, even with just the dim glow of the streetlights filtering in through the curtains.
Wade had curled up on his side, facing the middle of the bed, one arm shoved under the pillow, the other wrapped around his unicorn plushie. The dog had curled up in the crook behind Wade’s knees and was snoring already. The scene looked ridiculous but also strangely adorable.
Logan was fascinated by how little Wade cared about other people’s opinions of what he enjoyed or found comfort in. Logan wouldn’t dare judge him anyway. Being a grown man going to bed in Hello Kitty pyjamas and with a stuffed unicorn was less fucked up than needing a whole bottle of hard liquor for an undisturbed night’s sleep.
Well, at least today he’d try to do without that.
Logan carefully lay down on the free side of the couch, doing his best to distribute his weight slowly so the sofa’s frame didn’t crack. Once he was stretched out fully, he sighed and turned towards the middle as well, shoving one arm under his head. Wade was watching him, a smile tugging at his mouth.
“It’s so cool how your eyes glow in the dark”, Wade whispered and Logan chuckled.
“Your squeak that first night said otherwise”, he reminded him and closed his eyes, hiding the reflection of what little light there was in the room.
“That was only an expression of my complete awe and surprise”, Wade claimed and Logan shifted his head into a more comfortable position.
“Shut up and go to sleep, bub”, he murmured.
“Yeah, yeah, in a minute.” Wade kept talking and Logan rolled his eyes under his lids. “Just wanted to thank you for earlier. With Vanessa, you know?”
At that Logan did open his eyes again, just a fraction, with a slight pang in his chest. Yeah, he had gently pushed Wade to talk to his ex. And had done his best after not to eavesdrop, concentrate on other conversations around him.
“Don’t mention it”, Logan rumbled, while watching the soft smile on Wade’s face. It was impossible to miss how much he still loved Vanessa. The other’s fingers were kneading the plushie, and Logan was biting his lower lip.
“You know I’m really bad at not mentioning anything.” Wade chuckled, hugging the unicorn tighter to himself. “So again, thank you, peanut. You’re a good wingman. I’m meeting Ness for coffee later this week, thanks to you. Just wanted to let you know.”
“Anytime, bub”, Logan sighed. “Now shut up and let me sleep or get me a drink.”
“Shutting up alright, dead silence coming right up. Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite”, Wade replied. “Not that we have bedbugs, hopefully, I think the cockroaches ate them.”
“Wade”, Logan growled, closing his eyes and turning away form the blabbering fool. Not that it had any effect on Wade. At least the pointless rambles about the ecosystem of the flat drowned out any other thought Logan could possible have had otherwise. He tuned it out by the third tangent and drifted off to sleep.
He woke up like he had the previous mornings, with Wade almost on top of him. It didn’t seem to matter what position they went to sleep in, sometime during the night Wade discarded his plushie and wrapped his arms, and sometimes legs, around Logan. So far, he had pretended to be asleep until Wade woke up and let go. Logan didn’t want innuendos or apologies from Wade that early in the day.
In fact, he didn’t want to talk about the situation at all. Because if they did, Logan would have to think about why he didn’t just shrug the other man off, or at the very least complain about being used as a cuddle pillow.
Which could mean that Wade would stop doing it or, worse, change their sleeping arrangements. He had offered to leave the couch to Logan and bunk down with Althea before. Logan didn’t want that. He’d fuck up soon enough, once the nightmares started again or some other shit made Wade realize who he was sharing his bed with.
Instead, he waited each morning till Wade scrambled out of bed, complaining about bladder capacity, or rather lack thereof. Logan quietly slunk into the kitchen, meaning to set up the coffee machine. When he opened the cabinet to get the ground coffee, he suddenly had the whole cabinet door coming towards him.
“Fuck.” Logan caught the door and stared at it, at the hinges, flipped the door in his hands and stared at the frayed screw holes. “This place is falling to bits”, he sighed and set the cabinet door aside where he hoped Althea wouldn’t trip over it. He finished preparing the coffee just as Wade left the bathroom, already whistling a tune under his breath.
“Oh, honey badger, did you tear off the door with your super strength?”, Wade laughed as he saw Logan in front of the frontless cabinet. “Or is this some ADHD-home-improving? Could come in handy, I do tend to forget what’s behind closed doors. Al doesn’t but what does it matter to her if cabinets have doors or not? She can’t see what’s inside anyway.”
“The screws tore out”, Logan interjected. “Do you have a toolbox so I can fix it?”
“Uuuh, you’d have to ask Al, she’s the handymam around here. She built all of our second-hand IKEA”, Wade said and crossed his arms at the wrists. “I got two left hands when it comes to assembling stuff. Unless it’s rifles or explosives, I’m all right-handed with that.”
Logan frowned at Wade with his mouth half open.
“What?” Logan threw up his hands in disbelief. “You mean you leave building furniture and shit to your blind, elderly roommate? Cause you think…” He broke off and shook his head. “No, you know what, never mind. I’ll just ask her once she’s up. Or find a store and get what I need for fixing this.” Wade grinned and nodded happily, not minding Logans accusations at all.
“You do that, peanut. Oh, that reminds me! You got something in the mail.” Wade spun around and started rummaging through a pile of paper on the counter. Logan tilted his head, unsure where this was going now. “Aha! There it is!”
Wade brandished a large brown envelope and practically skipped over to Logan, holding it out to him with a bright smile.
“Here you go, sweet pea”, he declared, leaning against the counter beside Logan as he took the envelope. It had his name with this address on it, which was weird enough since he had not registered anywhere yet, and no visible indicator of the sender.
“I think it’s from our friends at the TVA. Go on, open it.” Wade bounced on the balls of his feet, way more excited for TVA mail than Logan.
“What do they want?”, Logan grumbled, slid one claw halfway out and sliced the long side of the envelope open.
Inside the big envelope were several smaller ones and a sheet of paper with indeed the TVA logo. Logan pulled that out first and held it so that Wade could read along with him.
“Uuuh wow, they put the fix in good”, Wade whistled, and Logan had to nod his agreement. According to the letter, the TVA had basically reanimated all of dead Logan’s accounts. Driving license, social security number, visa for working in the US and whatnot. There was even an expertly forged Canadian passport. Or maybe it was real, Logan sure couldn’t tell the difference. He stared at the balance at the bottom of the bank statement. Nothing horrendous, but enough to give him a comfortable start into his new life till he got a job.
“I can give you my share for rent and food”, Logan muttered, not looking at Wade. “And pay you back for the clothes and stuff.” To which Wade shook his head vehemently.
“Naah, those were presents, peanut. Or reparations for fucking up your suit, whatever will make you accept them and keep your money”, he protested, draping an arm around Logan’s shoulders and patting him on the chest with the other hand. “Couldn’t leave you to walk around half naked or wearing out my shirts by squeezing your magnificent tits into them.”
Logan sighed, they had had that discussion before. He wasn’t that much bigger built than Wade. And Logan had lost the squabble about paying Wade back for the clothes before, though that had been on the grounds that he didn’t have any money to do so.
“Alright. Thanks again, Wade”, Logan relented. He brushed Wade’s fondling hand away from his chest, like you would shoo away a fly.