For Kitty and Jubes, the decision wasn't a very difficult one. Both of them being Rogue's age, they saw the matter less as that of a man in a position of authority taking shameful advantage of a vulnerable young girl and more as that of a young woman reaching the age of making her own decisions regarding her own sex life. Yes, he was much older than she - but Wolvie seemed pretty ageless, so in a sense it didn't seem to matter. (And in any case, age didn't always detract from a man's babe factor, as Harrison Ford oh-so-amply proved.) The "Daddy" thing was more than a little kinky - but it wasn't like he really was her father, so it was just a game, and that was all right. Even Kitty and Jubilee realized that there were much more harmful games that could be played out in bed.

The overriding factor as far as they were concerned was that both members of the mismatched couple seemed to be happy. Rogue was perky, chipper, exuberant, or smug on a varying basis. Logan seemed also to be pleased, though in a particularly Wolverinish manner that had less to do with overt signs of joy and more to do with the subtle absence of blatant hostility. Anything that made the Wolvmeister less irascible could only be considered a Good Thing.

So Jubilation and Katherine held their peace regarding their roommate's new boyfriend. They never actually sat down with her and explained their positions on the matter - but Rogue couldn't help but notice how they carefully refrained from mentioning the times she snuck back in after lights-out, or from asking anything about the major segments of her free time that were spent with Logan. She guessed that they at least suspected, but chose not to risk betraying herself by seeking to confirm what they might or might not know. The current situation was more than acceptable - better not to alter things, possibly for the worse.

But not all residents of the X-Mansion would be quite so equable regarding Rogue's ability to make her own sexual decisions. Regrettably, one of these happened to be passing too close to Logan's room late one night while he was engaged in finding out how many times he could make Marie scream during a single act of intercourse.

Only a last-minute half-hearted telekinetic save kept Jean's midnight bowl of ice cream from crashing to the floor in the hall as she heard the cry of, "Oh, God, LOGAN!" She didn't immediately recognize the voice, so shocked was she at the mere knowledge that Logan, the Wolverine, He Who Wanted Only Jean, was currently acting out her own barely-acknowledged fantasies with another woman.

It wasn't really a consciously thought-out decision to pry when she let her mental barriers thin, so much as an almost-panicked seeking of confirmation - had she just heard what she thought she heard? Had it really meant what she very much feared it signified?

Had Jean been thinking clearly at the moment, she would have recognized the jealousy fueling her reaction, in both her dying hope of reading something reassuring to her own ego in Logan's mind, and her angry impulse to discover the identity of her rival.

From thinning her shields, it was a moment's work to probe outward, behind the closed door, seeking... Logan's thoughts were as ever difficult to read, the unsteadily shifting balance between the rational Logan and the instinctive Wolverine leaving his mind murky and telepathically confusing. She only caught a flash or two, [...so helpless/innocent/young/trusting/beautiful...,] flickering through a haze of impulses too primal to be readily accessible to her own questing thoughts. Nothing of what she had hoped to find - no fantasy of herself in the forefront of his mind while his body was occupied with a woman attractive mainly in her mere availability. Rather, he seemed intensely and personally focused on the object of his current attentions and desire.

It took only a fraction of a second for Jean to sense this from her might-have-been lover. Still reacting rather than thinking, she shifted attention to her rival, even more angrily interested in her identity than a mere second before. What she found was even more of a morass than Logan's psyche - a fragmented swirling of incomplete personalities jumbling uneasily within the same mind, too crowded to identify individual thoughts. Identification in and of itself, as only one mutant under Xavier's roof carried passengers within her head.

The new shock sent Jean fleeing down the corridor to the safety and privacy of her own room.

Forgotten in her haste to escape, the dish of ice cream dropped the final inches to the hall carpet. It landed with a dull thud, rocked, slopped a bit, but did not break.

Jean ducked into her shared room, closed the door behind her, and leaned against it. Her ever-conscientious lover, propped up against the pillow with the stack of papers that he had felt compelled to begin grading in her absence, looked up from an English composition and frowned. "Something wrong?" he asked, allowing a trace of worry to leak into his ever-controlled voice.

Studying her fiancé as though she'd never seen him before, Jean felt a rush of relief at what an upstanding man she'd chosen to stay with. Unlike the man she had been so dangerously tempted by, Scott would never be so - so twisted - as to seduce a student. Let alone such a young student, or a little girl with such extreme needs and severe emotional problems...

Under the circumstances, the surge of pleasure - at recognition of having decided properly when faced with a potentially disastrous choice - was easily mistaken for a wave of love. Perhaps some of it even was. In any case, it left Jean with the urge to share with her lover.

"Logan managed to seduce little Rogue."

"WHAT?!"

"I just heard them, down the hall."

"Are you - are you sure it was them? Sure it was her?" Scott looked as flabbergasted as she still felt, which was comforting.

"I - I dropped my shields and looked. Didn't really think about what I was doing, just had to be sure..." She trailed off, not wanting to explain what she had wanted to be sure of.

Scott, luckily, completed the sentence for himself with the assumption that Jean had recognized Rogue's voice and merely sought confirmation of identity. "You did the right thing," he stated with the assurance of the Fearless Leader Praising a Teammate For Appropriate Action. "He can't be allowed to get away with this."

The small voice of rationality in the back of Jean's mind, beginning to suspect ulterior motives in her own urge to act to separate the lovers, was lulled and comforted by Scott's reaction. He couldn't be jealous of Logan's affair with Rogue, so if he felt the same way about this relationship then it must be bad, and not just a case of Jean's hurt feelings leading her to punish the sources of her emotional discomfort...

Emboldened, she followed Scott back down the hall, where he firmly knocked at the Fatal Door. "Open up, Logan," he announced, Fearless Leader Preparing to Deal With Unpleasantness. "We need to talk."

After a lengthy pause, during which Scott knocked again and repeated himself, the door opened. Logan stood there, tousled and perhaps a bit sweaty around the edges, wearing nothing but his jeans and a rather self-satisfied expression. "You had a problem, Scooter?... Jeanie," he added with a nod of greeting to her.

"Did you really think you could get away with it, Logan?" Scott asked rhetorically, crossing his arms and taking a Displeased Leader stance.

"Get away with what?" Logan inquired, the blend of disingenuousness and irritation in his tone leaving the question open of whether he was attempting to hide his actions or merely saw nothing wrong with them.

"Did you really think you'd be allowed to carry on an affair with one of the students?" Scott pushed the door open despite Logan's attempt to keep it mainly closed, assisted by Jean's telekinetic shove. "Get up and come out of there," he added, directing his words to the form lurking beneath the covers on Logan's bed.

The blankets were reluctantly lowered, Rogue's dark eyes cautiously peeking over the tops of them to meet the accusers in the hallway. Knowing herself to be unmasked, she sighed and began to crawl out of her lover's bed, before Logan's voice halted her. "Why should she leave?" he demanded, taking a step forward.

Scott gave him a disbelieving stare. "Because she's an underage student, and you're not allowed to - "

"Who says?" Logan cut him off.

Cyke set his jaw. "It's the law, Logan," he almost snarled.

"So?"

This halted Scooter for a moment. He actually hadn't really stopped to consider how little Logan might consider himself bound by legal niceties like age of consent. Which was definitely shortsighted of him, given how familiar he already was with Logan's easy contempt for the laws forbidding assault and outright murder - to say nothing of his cavalier attitude towards grand theft auto.

Intrigued by the drama being played out, Marie sat up for a better view, absently letting the blankets fall into her lap. Scott gaped in surprise, seeing clearly what hadn't really registered before - Rogue seemed to be completely naked. [How the hell did Logan manage - ?]

Following Cyke's stare, Logan took another step forward, reclaiming his grip on the door. "Quit staring, One-Eye! This ain't a fucking peep show!" Belatedly, Rogue grabbed for the sheets and pulled them back up in front of her little breasts.

Which put a whole new spin on things, now that the Wolverine seemed to have gone from Irritated through Defiant and on into Protectively Jealous, with an option for immediate upgrade to Seriously Pissed. Rapidly calculating the possible and likely outcomes of a fight if he and Jean tried to force the issue right then and there, Scott came to an unwelcome conclusion.

Setting his jaw, "Fine. We'll discuss this in the morning. With Professor Xavier," he added with a warning tone.

"Fine." Logan matched him tone for tone. "We'll do that. Now scram." He slammed the door in their faces while Scott was still fumbling for a response that might preserve what remained of his Leaderly Dignity.

Giving up on the attempt to intimidate a closed door, Cyke turned and promptly lost what little composure remained by stepping squarely into Jean's abandoned bowl of ice cream.

"Dammit! Jean..."

"...Oops. Sorry - forgot I'd left that there..."

The feminine giggling and gruffer chuckles heard from behind the closed door didn't help his mood any.

* * *

"Send lawyers, guns and money The shit has hit the fan"

- "Lawyers, Guns and Money," by Warren Zevon

* * *

The next morning, Jeannie and Scooter were up bright and early, ready to Strike a Blow For Morality. While Jean trotted off to announce the situation to Xavier and have him ready and waiting in his office, Scott grimly headed down the hall to roust out the guilty couple.

Still annoyed with himself for his less-than-spectacular performance in handling the situation the previous night, he was doubly determined to retain control in the upcoming confrontation. Knocking firmly at the door, he opened it without waiting for a response from within. "Everybody up and dressed - we're going to be in Professor Xavier's office in twenty minutes."

Logan raised his head from the pillow enough to eye Cyke dismissively over one shoulder. "You do that, Scooter. We'll be along when it ain't so damn early..." The smaller form buried under the blankets alongside him mumbled and shifted closer, not bothering to open her eyes.

Cyclops stiffened, infuriated as ever by Logan's dismissive attitude regarding direct orders. "You'll be along now - in case you've forgotten, some of us have classes to get to this morning!"

That was actually a reference to Logan's refusal to deal with students before eleven, but Rogue twitched and opened an eye. "Maybe we'd better get up. I've got history at nine..."

"If you say so, baby," Logan said, making it blatantly clear that he was following her suggestion rather than Scott's order. He stretched thoroughly, taking his time about it, before giving Marie a showy kiss on the hand that was at least half for the benefit of their fuming audience.

Sliding out on his side of the bed, he stood up and ambled towards Cyke, ignoring his own lack of clothing. Retrieving a sock and a pair of Powerpuff Girl panties that had landed next to the door, he asked on straightening up, "Are you planning to stand there and watch us get dressed?"

Given the menacing undertone coming from the guy who had to be griped at to remember to wear underwear on his midnight refrigerator runs, Scott was able to correctly interpret the real question as being, "Are you planning to stand there and watch my girl get dressed, or do you want to live long enough to go talk to Wheels?"

Not being particularly suicidal, he responded by pointedly consulting his watch. "Eighteen minutes," was his parting shot before closing the door and leaving.

* * *

"Well come on little baby
won't you cut the chitter chatter
Come sit here on Daddy's lap
and won't you tell me
what's the matter."

- "Kiss My Ass," by Oingo Boingo

* * *

Actually, it was closer to half an hour before Logan and Marie put in an appearance. Expecting the wait, Xavier had made use of the time to discuss the situation with his two oldest students.

Evidently things were going as badly as he had feared. Not only were Logan and Rogue indeed involved in an illicit liaison, but Jean and Scott were taking extreme positions against the couple. Both were insistent that steps be taken to halt the relationship and separate the pair, with Scott adamantly declaring that Logan's offense proved him unfit to be around juveniles or to be one of the X-Men. Jean, usually the defender for Logan, this time remained silent as her fiancé called for the Wolverine's eviction from the school.

Which was only to be expected, given Scott's long-held animosity towards Logan and Jean's freshly wounded ego. But Xavier strongly disliked the idea of casting out an almost-friend and partially-respected colleague on the basis of a single incident, at least without deeper investigation. Hence the coming discussion with the pair.

On the surface, a relationship between a little pre-teen girl and a man certainly old enough to be at least her father was a bad thing, a sign of an unhealthy association made between two people emotionally unready or unwilling to deal with lovers of their own age. A very easy assumption to make would be that Logan was controlling Rogue - in this case, likely taking advantage of her childish infatuation with the man who had saved her life.

But this was a complicated situation. For one thing, the girl's ability to absorb and retain personalities through touch meant that she had Logan in her head. So did this mean that she already knew him more intimately than if they had been married for years - or did it mean that parts of his personality had overlaid or even overwritten hers, creating a sort of narcissistic attachment between the pair?

And then there was the touch situation. Logan had already been the only person at the X-Mansion willing to touch her - apparently much more willing than anyone but Storm had realized. But if Scott was correct in reporting that Logan seemed able to touch Rogue's skin with impunity, that raised the question - how? Was it a method that would work if she touched other people, or was it something unique to Logan? If the latter, he could prove to be the only man she could touch, possibly for the rest of her life. In that case, separating them could be doing Rogue a grave disservice.

So Xavier kept an open mind, despite the condemnation of his adult students. And no matter what the case, he needed to finally interview the pair involved to get at the truth of the matter.

And here they were now.

Logan came into the room first, stalking in scanning faces watchfully as though preparing for conflict - or combat. Little Rogue followed him, with a flirty little swish of her skirt. In contrast to her lover, she seemed insouciantly unconcerned. Judging by the defiant gleam lurking half-hidden in her eyes, it was a front.

"Ah, Logan... Rogue... If you would care to take a seat..."

Logan didn't seem enthusiastic at the prospect - the more so since Scott and Jean were present, and neither one was sitting - but he grudgingly settled himself into the chair before Chuckie's desk.

Unfortunately, Scooter and Jeanie didn't sit, as Logan - and Xavier - had been half-hoping they would. Instead they hovered, adding to the interrogational feel of the situation.

Marie considered carefully for a moment, then also sat - on the arm of Logan's chair. He caught the flicker that passed across the Prof's face at that, and sensed Cyke and Red's barely suppressed outrage. [Good girl - don't let them make us out to be in the wrong. We are, by their standards, but we won't admit it and won't beg forgiveness. And if they can't live with that...] He put his arm around her, in a public display of solidarity. She leaned a gloved arm on his shoulder, comfortable and formality be damned.

Xavier studied the couple carefully. Logan tended to go through life projecting the attitudinal equivalent of a "POOR IMPULSE CONTROL" sign, but right now he seemed to be in an especially touchy mood. To the pair of telepaths in the room, Wolverine might as well have had a neon sign blinking "READY TO RUMBLE" over his head.

The question was whether Scott had picked up on that.

Choosing to jump right in - ideally forestalling Scott and Jean's own agenda for the meeting - Charles stated in a calm, measured, non-accusing tone, "I'm sure you're aware of why I wished to speak with the pair of you. Jean and Scott have brought a situation to my attention that I rather feel needs to be addressed."

"What, that she's my girl? Yeah, it's true. So what?" Logan's arm tightened around Rogue's waist. She shifted her arm, from elbow propped on his nearer shoulder to draped completely across his shoulders.

Regrettably, Cyclops jumped in while the Professor was formulating his response. "'So what'? 'So what'?! Sir she's well underaged - and a a student! This is not only immoral and unethical, it's illegal!"

"So?" Logan and Rogue's response was simultaneous. Rogue continued, "I'm happy, he's happy. So what's the problem?"

Cyke was actually silenced for a moment in his shock. Somewhere in the ire he had been directing at Logan - whose role in this seduction seemed clear-cut and obvious - Rogue's opinion of the relationship had been ignored.

Jean stepped in, voice dripping the maternal warmth and the assurance that came with being an Incarnation of Perfection. "Rogue, right now I know you're enjoying the... attention, and Logan can be very... impressive when he chooses to be, but he really isn't the best choice for you. You need someone a little closer to your own age, someone more..."

"Responsible? Stable? Sane?" Scott offered as Jean paused to consider the qualifications of the Perfect Mate for Rogue. (Because Rogue had "special needs," and Logan was Jean's - no, not hers, because she had Scott - but surely he couldn't be Rogue's...)

"Logan's responsible!" was Marie's knee-jerk reaction, before she paused to consider the adjective. Well, given that he was in the process of being called on the carpet for statutory rape, she wasn't in the best possible position to be arguing the case from. Recalling his tendencies to sneak her out past curfew and allow her to share his beer and even raid his cigar stash on occasion, she hastily changed her line of defense. "And why would I want someone 'stable and sane'? We wouldn't have anything in common," she finished with a remark that was only half a joke. Logan gave her a Look, but was sufficiently aware of his own personality flaws not to object too strenuously to her easy acceptance of Scott's charges against him.

Xavier attempted to regain control of the discussion. "Rogue, we're not here to make accusations - " Scott set his jaw angrily at that little statement of policy, "- but surely you can appreciate our... concerns. Whenever we see a large age difference in a romantic relationship, sometimes there is a case of the older partner having an unhealthy amount of control over the younger."

"You're saying you think I'm the one calling all the shots here." Logan snorted at the very idea.

Rogue laughed. "Believe me, he doesn't tell me to do anything I don't want to do anyway!"

Unfortunately, this did not win them any points from Scooter and Jeannie. "Rogue, I'm sure you think that, but this really isn't any good for you..." Scott was nodding, agreeing with his fiancee, as she continued. "You're really going to be much better off with someone your own age..."

"'Someone my own age'? 'Someone my own age'?! Jean, do you know how many people I have in my head? Do you know how old some of them are!? I sit around listening to Bobby and Jubilee going on about MTV and rollerblading and movies and all I can think is how young they are! I try to talk to them sometimes, about something serious, or about some of the problems I have that they're never gonna know about because they're alone in their heads, and they just stare at me and try to change the subject. And you want me to date someone like that?"

Charles' gaze sharpened . This was exactly the kind of thing he'd been wondering about - the factors that Jean and Scott hadn't been taking into consideration.

And they still weren't considering. "Rogue, one day someone will come along who will understand everything you're going through and listen to you and take you seriously - " Jean began.

Rogue cut in. "Yes. He already has, and I'm sitting right next to him."

Scott ran right over the top of whatever Jean's politely considered response might have been. "You can't believe that! Rogue, he's just using you - as soon as he gets bored, he'll be after the next woman to come along. He can't be trusted!"

Logan's politely considered response to that one was to settle for turning in his seat to glare at Cyclops and growl, while tightening his grip on Marie's waist possessively, rather than taking the asshole's head off.

Marie rubbed his shoulder soothingly. "I trust him - and I know him a lot better than any of y'all do..."

This struck a nerve in the supposedly unflappable Jean, who up until the previous evening had believed that she knew Logan better than anyone else under Xavier's roof except possibly Charles himself. "Then you're making a mistake!"

"And it's my mistake to make - if it is a mistake, which I obviously don't think it is - and I'm the one who'll be living with the consequences, so why don't you just back off and let me run my own life?"

It was the perennial cry of the child, believing themselves to be already in the adulthood they were on the cusp of. Familiar with the pre-teen capacity to consider oneself mature while making juvenile decisions, Scott dismissed the protest. "Rogue, you're not old enough to run your own life. That's why you're here."

Not the wisest statement to make.

"No, I'm here because my parents thought the same thing, so I left them and wound up here. If I have to, I can leave here just as easily."

Xavier straightened in alarm. He could see the determined set of Rogue's jaw and the warning glint in her eyes. Further, he got the point - this was no idle threat. She had run before - from home and from his school. If driven to do so again, she would.

Logan had been letting Rogue do the talking because he sensed that her half of their relationship was both the obvious target of attack and the strongest possible defense. Suspecting now that Scooter and Jeannie were about to blow off Rogue's warning as childish bullshit, he spoke up. "Even easier - this time she wouldn't be goin' alone."

"Are you threatening to abduct a minor unless we sit back and let you go on committing statutory rape under this roof?!"

Well, Cyke at least had gotten the point. Judging by the outrage on Jeannie's face, she was on the same page. Logan suspected Chuckie had the sense to have taken Marie's threat seriously as soon as she made it.

"Pretty much, yes."

"It wouldn't be abduction - I'd be going willingly," Rogue added.

[This has gone on long enough,] Xavier decided. "If I may interrupt, I believe that most of you have classes to go to right now. We'll continue this later. Logan, if you would stay on a bit longer...?"

The call of duty was enough to distract Scott from his attack - though he might have protested were it not for the promise of a later session. Jean seemed less inclined to leave, but was just aware enough of her own bias in this matter to follow her fiance's lead.

Little Rogue was not at all inclined to leave her lover alone to deal with the Professor, but under the circumstances felt that a refusal to go to class would only hurt matters. She ruffled his hair affectionately. "See you at lunch." He gave her waist another squeeze before releasing her, glancing up to meet her eyes. She caught the underlying worry in the look he gave her, understanding that baiting Scooter was a hobby but that he actually cared about what Chuckie thought of him. Not that he'd come right out and admit it - but she knew. She leaned down and gave him a reassuring kiss on the cheek.

Straightening, Rogue slid off the chair arm and to her feet, realizing then that every eye in the room was on her - or perhaps more accurately, on the anomalous skin-on-skin contact just demonstrated. She headed for the door with an elaborately casual air, giving Jean an acerbic look as she passed. [You had your chance, and you passed him up. Don't blame me because you were an idiot,] she thought, making it as loud and clear as possible and hoping like hell that Red actually caught it.

Jean may have missed it, but Xavier didn't. He gave the exiting trio a measuring look, adding the knowledge to the mental picture he was forming of the emotions and tensions swirling about the two couples. When the door closed, he turned his full attention to Logan.

"Perhaps it would have been better for me to have spoken to the pair of you without Jean and Scott present - but they were the ones to bring the matter to my attention, and in truth I wanted to see how you both were going to react to such overt disapproval." He sensed Logan relaxing at the realization that he was no longer under direct attack, and continued. "But now I'd like to ask you a few of the questions that I wasn't given the chance to earlier. To start with, Rogue touched you, just now, and nothing happened. How?"

Logan shrugged dismissively. "Just took a bit of practice, with someone who wouldn't wind up spending a week in the Medlab after every try. She got it down."

"Yet she still wears gloves...?"

Logan shrugged again. "First she wanted to be careful because she didn't trust herself yet, and now she does it because she's so used to them. I had to make her start taking them off when I take her places, so she'd learn to relax in public." He half-smiled. "And no, she hasn't had any accidents brushing up against people without being all layered up, and yes, she's safe to touch. For anybody, not just me. I think the only reason she hasn't told everybody so she can ditch the gloves for good is she doesn't want to deal with the fuss." He looked wry. "And that means that no, she's not with me just because I'm the only one who can touch her, or something like that."

Clearly Logan understood that the claim of being the only one able to touch Rogue safely would have been a powerful argument towards preserving his relationship with her. The fact that he'd chosen to be honest instead was a point in his favor.

Moving on to the next question, "Which would certainly make things a great deal easier were you to leave the school with Rogue." Charles raised an eyebrow.

Logan sighed and nodded. "It would - but I don't want that any more than you do. I know she's better off here than on the road, and I want her to be able to finish up and graduate. She tells me she can do that anywhere we picked to settle down for awhile, or just pick up her G.E.D. - but I'd rather she did that here. It's a good school and her friends are here and it's safe and it's a lot more comfortable than bein' on the road all the time."

"So you are keeping her best interests in mind."

Logan frowned at him. "Yes. Always."

Probing delicately, "Some would argue that it isn't in the best interests for a young girl of 12 to allow her to involve herself with an adult."

Beginning to glare, "That sounds like Cyke and Red, and it's pretty goddamned unfair. Counting all the secondhand experience she's got, she remembers more than the two of them combined. Besides, like she said - comes a point you gotta let someone start making their own mistakes, cause right or wrong they're the ones who've gotta live with the results."

Xavier leaned back in his chair. "And do you think she's making a mistake?"

Logan sighed. "I don't know - hope not." Then he gave the Professor another of those sardonic half-grins. "Besides - how many people do you know of any age who can get 'involved' with anyone else knowing for sure it won't turn out to be a mistake?"

Charles silently acknowledged the point. "And you were expecting the rest of us to just close our eyes to the fact that this relationship is actually illegal?"

Logan shrugged a little, then tilted his head to one side. "Well, we weren't exactly going around telling everybody we were together or acting all lovey-dovey in public or anything. Making it real easy to ignore. Besides, how much of that stuff we do running around in black leather and hopping around in our private jet is legal?"

The Professor gave him a quelling look. "Odd of you to bring that up, given that most of the illegal acts performed by the X-Men seem to be your own..."

Logan refused to be quelled. "And this is a lot more harmless than killing somebody, right?"

It was a telling point. Relenting, "I can't exactly have one of my 'teachers' openly consorting with one of 12-year-old students. Periodically we must concern ourselves with public appearances to remain a licensed school..."

Logan shrugged again. "We won't get in anybody's faces about it, and no one has to know that isn't being nosy anyway."

Xavier gave him a stern look. "If I am forced to, I may have to undertake disciplinary action. If I am forced to... And you can't expect approval from the others who know."

Logan half-smiled. "Scooter and Jeannie I can deal with."

* * *

"And I don't care what people say
And I don't care what people think
And I don't care how we look
walking down the street"

- "Little Girls," by Oingo Boingo

* * *

Logan's confidence proved to have been justified.

As expected, Scott threw a fit when he learned that the Professor was not only allowing Logan to remain at the school but had given tacit conditional approval of the relationship he had with Rogue. He caught Logan in the Danger Room immediately after a session and let him know just how he felt about the matter.

Logan was vastly amused. "Funny, I'd have expected you to be thrilled to learn that I hadn't really been trying to take your girl away. Just been jerking your chain all this time..."

After pondering this for a speechless thirty seconds or so, Cyclops settled for, "If you hurt her, I'll see to it she's the last girl you ever touch, healing factor or not."

"Wouldn't have it any other way..." Logan left Scooter to adjust to the realization that Logan + Rogue = Logan off the market and Jean no longer at risk. When next he ran across Cyke, the outrage had noticeably cooled.

Jean's reaction was less straightforward. When she went to Logan to express her disapproval - catching him alone in his room while Rogue was in the rec room with her friends - she told him that he'd been deplorably inconstant in his prior romantic affections and that she hoped he would have the decency to treat Rogue with respect and not casually toss her aside for the next pretty face to catch his attention.

Logan was uncompromisingly blunt with her. "It was Marie from the beginning, Jeannie. All I was doing with you was hassling Scooter. I'm sorry if you thought I meant anything else by it - but for fuck's sake, you read minds! I thought you understood all along..."

Jean managed a response that she could never remember afterwards - she only hoped it had been reasonably coherent. She fled to her room - thankfully Scott-free at the moment - and spent several hours numbly curled up on the bed dealing with the new blow to her ego.

After some time the fact that she had a fiance who loved her very much and whom she also loved began to feel important to her again. By much repetition she began to convince herself that the fact she had never acted on Logan's flirtations proved how minimally attracted to him she had actually been. Scott was endearingly affectionate when he returned to their room early in the evening, which also helped. By morning she was able to face the prospect of showing herself in public again - even in front of Logan and Rogue.

But from that point on she resolutely pushed the whole concept of Logan-and-Rogue - as a couple, as lovers rather than merely friends or surrogate relatives - firmly from the forefront of her mind. On the surface, she classified it as a private matter she was going to leave to those involved - to make their own mistakes, without her assistance or interference. In her more emotionally honest moments, she admitted that she still winced at the reminder of her own rejection, and was too biased to deal with the pair objectively. Leave it to Scott - or better yet, Charles - to serve as relationship arbiter, to keep watch over the couple and to decide when and if external involvement might at some point prove necessary. She would leave the matter up to others.

As the other adult on campus and as the one who had first alerted Xavier to the possible improprieties, the Professor felt that Ororo deserved to be notified that her suspicions had been validated. She accepted this news with quiet aplomb, refraining from any reaction that could have been interpreted as an "I told you so," beyond the not-quite-suppressed glint of triumph in her eyes.

The only ruffling of her calm demeanor came when she asked what actions were being taken and was told that the matter was being officially ignored, aside from the close watch being kept for any signs of abuse, mistreatment or excessive control. However, when Xavier pointed out the more unusual aspects of the pair's relationship and reiterated that the couple was being quietly supervised, she proved her levelheadedness by accepting the matter and adding herself to the group monitoring the two.

Matters having been settled, equilibrium was reached. Logan and Marie maintained an innocent facade in public and lost the habit of worrying about being "caught in the act" in private. Jubi and Kitty learned that the adults at the school were aware of the matter, and found it unworthy of comment on the occasions when their roommate spent the entire night elsewhere than in her own bed. Periodically a random student might overhear something while passing Logan's room, or catch Rogue going from one of their rooms to the other at a suspicious time, but these tended to either keep their speculations to themselves or go to an adult - and since all of the adults at the school tended to react with, "We know - don't worry about it," rumors were kept to a minimum and easily dismissed.

Occasionally cries were heard in the night, though largely muffled behind the soundproofing.

"Oh, God, Daddy, YES!!"

But for the most part, silence reigned.

The End