fateandfortune | At the Starting Point [For Logan]

"I saved your life!"
"No, you didn't."

Standing there, in the middle of a snowy road in Nowhere, Canada, feeling the cold seep through her too thin layers of clothing, Rogue had to wonder how her life had come to this. Her mutation, her parents, running out of money halfway to Alaska and ending up hitchhiking with truck drivers and random strangers. She was supposed to finish school, do something with her life. Get married, have kids, live in a house with a wrap-around porch where she could drink sweet tea and watch the sun set.

That perfect life had been left behind in Mississippi and now any hope she had of a new one in Alaska was driving away.

But then he stopped and suddenly there was hope again.

"You don't have anything to eat, do you? ...I'm Rogue."
"Were you in the army? Doesn't, doesn't that mean you were in the army?"
"Wow."
"What?"
"It's just that, suddenly my life doesn't look that bad."
"Well, if you prefer the road..."
"No, it looks great. Looks cozy."
"Put your hands on the heater. ...I'm not gonna hurt you kid."
"It's nothing personal. It's just that, when people touch my skin, something happens."
"What?"
"I don't know, they just get hurt."
"Fair enough. So, what kind of name is Rogue?"
"I don't know. What kind of name is Wolverine?"
"My name is Logan."
"Marie."

People would probably think she was crazy, getting a ride from some guy she'd just seen beat the tar out of someone else, who had metal claws and a definite anger problem. But she didn't really have many other options. Whoever he was, whatever it was he could do, she had to believe that he wouldn't hurt her. They were alike, both of them mutants, and that had to mean something, right?

There was a bit of silence in the cab, more comfortable now that they at least knew each other's names properly, and Rogue let it be for a few minutes, her nervous social chatter taking a backseat as she considered what she would do after this. That probably depended on how far he would take her, what direction they were even going in.

"Where are you headed?" she asked him, glancing over with open curiosity and a bit of worry.

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He really should've just left her on the road, like any fucking stowaway. Didn't even have the decency to ask for a ride. Hell, she should've bummed a ride from anyone else in that bar, she clearly knew what he was. She'd seen what kind of person he was, and she'd still stupidly decided to try hiding in his truck, hoping he stopped somewhere civilized, probably. Joke was on her.

Pulling away after kicking her out, he couldn't help glancing in the rearview mirror. Standing there with her duffel by her side, hood pulled up on that ridiculous cloak-coat thing that wasn't gonna do her a damn bit of good in the Canadian cold...looking small and helpless...

Yeah, maybe she had seen what kind of person he really was. She'd taken a chance, and it had paid off, because he'd stopped the truck and waited while she hurried after and got in. No matter what her story was, she was just a kid, and he couldn't just leave her there, especially when it was unlikely there'd be much more traffic passing by before nightfall. She'd freeze to death.

He hadn't counted on how chatty she was, although maybe he should have, considering she was female. Yeah, he'd met men who were the same, but he'd never met a woman who didn't want to fill up silence with stupid chatter.

Well, not all of it was stupid. He learned a little of her story - not nearly all, hardly anything, but enough to start making some guesses why she might be on the road hitching rides. He learned her name, learned she had a fucking sassy mouth on her. He liked that, actually, but he'd be damned if he let her know that. No matter how much he appreciated it, he didn't want to encourage it, either.

Where was he headed? He didn't really have a destination in mind. Just driving until he reached somewhere he could make some money, now that Laughlin was dried up for a while. "There's a town about twenty miles from here," he finally said. Even if he didn't find anything there and moved on, he could dump her off and move on without a guilty conscience.

She'd spent her life learning how to read people, judge whether they were someone she could trust or someone she needed to watch herself around. Life as a foster kid who had constantly been passed around meant gauging whether it was safe to be herself around others, though more often than not she'd stuck to being as polite and proper as she could. Things had gotten better since she'd been adopted, she'd come more into her own, but since this whole mess had started a few weeks back, she'd been relying on her wits and sassy side to help her survive, and so far nothing had been too bad.

"Twenty miles," she repeated softly, trying not to sound too let down by it. He wasn't going all the way to Alaska, so she might as well just be grateful that she was out of the cold and making any progress at all. If the town was at all better than Laughlin City, then at least she could try finding another ride that her get her closer to her destination.

What she was going to do in Alaska when she got there? That wasn't something she'd really stopped to think about yet. It seemed better than way.

Reaching into the duffel bag she'd been carrying, she fished a map out of the very top, unfolding it with a quiet crinkle to look at the area where they were now. Laughlin City was just a speck on the map, but there weren't too many towns nearby, leaving only one or two options for where they might be headed. Either way, she was still smack dab in the middle of Canada with a hell of a long way to go.

Curiosity got the better of him, and Logan glanced out of the corner of his eye as she opened up - a map. Of course. She probably had an actual destination in mind.

He reached over with his right hand and tapped on the map, northeast of Laughlin along the one thin line that denoted the crappy little road they were currently on. "There. Deerstalk." It was bigger than Laughlin City, but not by much. Used to be a center for trappers in the local area - now trapping was regulated to high hell and illegal without a permit and a shit-ton of red tape, so the place had dried up some, but it was still a respectable size.

She didn't move when his hand came closer, though she was well aware of every inch of skin that was so close to her own. Her hands were covered, thankfully, but if they hit a bump in the road and his hand hit her face--

The thought made her lean back a little, but she nodded slightly. "Thanks," she told him with another glance, before unfolding a bit more of the map. It had become a daily habit of hers to study it, looking over the major roads that would take her where she needed to go, taking note of the various cities along the way that might be good for hitching rides. At least the town they were going to was actually on the map.

It was north that they were headed, thankfully, but east instead of west. Still, better than being stuck in Laughlin City. "Thank you," she repeated, folding up the map again. "For giving me a ride. I appreciate it." She really was lucky he'd changed his mind.

Ah, fuck. She had to go and be nice and quiet and respectable, didn't she? All the things that hit his buttons. It would be so much easier to dump her out once they reached Deerstalk if she were loud and obnoxious, or offered to "repay" him for the ride. Not that he'd turn down the offer, but he'd lose respect for her.

"You're welcome," he muttered gruffly, shifting his hands and gripping the steering wheel. It was quiet for a few minutes, which he liked, but again, curiosity got the better of him. "So, where are you heading? I assume you've got a destination in mind." Course, you know what they say about when you assume, but he was used to being an ass.

It was the southerner in her, showing politeness where it was deserved. Kindness and gratitude were things that should never be in short supply, because you never knew when you'd need help from someone else. Those tenets hadn't failed her yet, so she would continue to live by them.

"Alaska," she answered simply, looking down at her gloved hands still holding on to the folded map. "I've wanted to go for a long time, so-- I'm going." As if that were all there was to the story.

"A bus mighta been easier," he muttered. A moment later he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, wondering if she would take offense at that. It was clear she didn't have the money for a plane ticket, and didn't sound like she was visiting friends or knew anybody there, so any money she did have would go to living expenses once she arrived - but if this was just a pick-up-and-go, let-me-run-away-from-home-and-my-problems deal--

Well. He'd been down that road. And she didn't exactly strike him as the type who could tough it out for long.

Do not pity her, he firmly told himself. Drop her off in Deerstalk, deal with your own shit. Do not try to help with hers too. He had his own problems, he didn't need to be borrowing anybody else's.

There was no offense taken at the comment, though she did shift slightly in her seat, turning her head to look out the window so he wouldn't be able to clearly see her expression. A defense mechanism of a sort, against remembering a moment of fear before she'd steeled herself and kept moving forward. "I took a bus," she explained simply. "I could only get as far as Toronto."

Because she didn't have a way of making money that didn't require selling herself in some way to those men who had hands that wanted to wander. Despite what he might think, she'd been careful in who she chose to get rides with. She wasn't an idiot, she knew that even with her poison skin, there were ways people could still hurt her.

Logan pressed his lips together, before finally telling her, "Well, tonight you're getting as far as Deerstalk."

Fuck. He'd make sure she got a real meal in her, trick her into getting a crappy hotel bed for the night. He could afford that. He lived simply and sparingly, and he'd made enough cash from the fight earlier that he could take care of things monetarily. It was emotionally he wasn't equipped to deal with her.

Rogue. Marie. Little lamb wandering into wolves' territory. Feisty, and he was sure if she kept going she'd carry on, she'd survive - but this wasn't the kind of life you lived without losing a part of yourself, a part that she still had.

Fuck.

At the Starting Point [For Logan]

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