I wanted more cute stories about little Elle and Logan. So here's one. It's cute, but it's also functional. So it's not just a fluffball. :)

"Logan, can I have a teddy bear?"

Logan looked up from repairing the door jamb of the abandoned cabin they now called home, and saw little Elle standing at his back. The eight year old was holding a pillow and was dressed in the ridiculous thrift store pajamas that he had picked up during their travels, but at least she didn't appear to be cold. He hadn't gotten any of the baseboard heaters repaired yet.

"I think I might've had a teddy before I got kidnapped, but I don't remember. A teddy might help me sleep better, since you won't let me sleep with you."

She got him. Logan didn't mind the kid sleeping on the couch with him when he was listening to the radio, or snoozing in his lap after lunch, but he didn't want her sleeping with him at night because of his rather violent nightmares. He wouldn't be able to stand it if he ended up harming her. Also, he didn't want her to know he was sneaking out in the middle of the night to go win money in local bar fights. She wouldn't like that at all.

"Okay, kiddo, I'll find you a bear when I go into town. You going to bed?"

"I was gonna, but the window keeps blowing open."

Damn, another thing to fix. "Oh." Logan listened for a moment to Elle's breathing- she was still sounding somewhat rough from her bout with those diseases, so the last thing he wanted was her sleeping in a room that could potentially turn into an icebox.

"I have an idea, Ellie, wait here." Logan left Elle in the main room for a few minutes as he headed to the back. She stood still for a little bit, but as Logan was taking a little longer than her small attention span would allow for, she started wandering around the empty room.

The cabin wasn't that fancy- apparently the previous owner died in a hunting accident and since it was so out of the way, the residents of the town wanted nothing to do with it. That's how Logan had managed to smooth talk the mayor into letting him have it. There wasn't much in the way of furniture or entertainment, though, and the few books that Elle could understand all had pictures of deer guts in them. Yuck.

"Okay, this should work out." Elle turned around to find Logan carrying her mattress and a big pile of blankets. He moved a few things out of the way and dropped the mattress in the middle of the floor, right in front of the fireplace. "Here you go, you can sleep here in front of the fire. It will keep you warm along with these blankets, and there should be enough layers to keep you toasty if the fire goes out in the middle of the night."

"Are you gonna sleep out here, too?"

Logan paused. This was a Saturday, and Saturday nights always meant more money in his pocket at the roughhouse. But then again, Elle was wheezing a little more than she should be. "...Yeah, I'm gonna finish some of these repairs first, then I'll take the couch."

A big smile lit up Elle's face, and she wormed her way into the blankets on the mattress. She laid there watching him for a while, until she finally passed out. Logan stopped what he was working on when he heard her breathing catch, and sat on the couch to observe her.

Logan didn't remember very much about his past, but he was sure that he didn't have much to do with kids. They were awkward little things who tended to get in the way. But Elle... something about her was different and it made him protective of her. At first he thought it was their similar healing abilities, but that couldn't be it.

Maybe it was how this little girl managed to survive such horrible experiences without breaking into pieces. Logan had a feeling that if he went through such trauma at that age, his mind would snap. Elle on the other hand took everything in stride, though she did seem to become much livelier once he rescued her. Even that bout of measles didn't put a dent in her mood, and she'd been as close to death as she was when he pulled her out of the snow.

He also had to admit she was the cutest little kid he had ever seen. Elle tried to act mature, but usually her baby face and simple mannerisms gave her away. Logan felt awful that day he came home and found her passed out outside the cabin in the snow; he'd seen her looking at a book and assumed she knew how to read, here it turned out she was only looking at the pictures. He should have known better, after all she did say she was imprisoned since she was four and it's not like Stryker would have taught her. Poor thing.

Logan closed his eyes for only a minute, to think about what all he needed to get at the hardware store in the morning. He must have dozed off, because the next thing he saw was a withered grassy arena reflected through a red lens. A tiny thing in a potato sack was scurrying around in front of him, and then tried to get away behind him. Logan was faster, however, and caught it with his claws as he turned around. But then he saw what it was.

Waking with a horrible gasp, Logan realized he had a nightmare about harming Elle. His claws were extended, he was soaked in sweat, and his heart rate was through the roof. He couldn't remember the last time a nightmare scared him that badly. The worst of it was that when he checked himself to see if he cut anything, he realized Elle had crawled off of the mattress and into his lap. Elle was on his lap the whole time.

"Oh, fuck!" Logan quickly pulled up Elle's covers and checked her for any wounds. There was some blood, but it apparently was his own. As far as he could tell, he'd only hit his own knee and the couch. Letting out a sigh, he leaned back and stared out the kitchen window at the predawn sky.

"Don't scare me like that, kid."

By the time Elle woke midmorning, Logan was nervously running his hands through her hair. "Hi, Logan."

"What're ya doing, crawling up into my lap like that? I said to lay in front of the fireplace."

"Um... I dunno..." Elle started chewing her lip, reminding Logan that he was dealing with a little kid after all.

Discretely folding the bloody blankets over so that she wouldn't see them, he tried to soften his tone. "You'd have been warmer in front of the fireplace, goofball. But since you're up now, you better go get cleaned up and dressed if you want to go into town with me today."

Elle sprung out of Logan's lap with glee, since she was usually left behind when he went into town. While she ran off to the bathroom, Logan quickly hid the soiled blankets and changed out of his torn pants. That was a good pair, too.

"Hey, Logan, what should I wear? All these clothes are pajamas."

Logan stuck his head in Elle's room when he heard her question, and found her sitting on the floor surrounded by all of her clothes. They had nothing when they were forced to flee their last location, and since Elle had been deathly ill, Logan wasn't able to take her with him whenever he went scavenging. Hence all the random thrift items. As he watched her dig through the pile, he realized that perhaps he did wind up with too much sleepwear.

"Uhh, well, I'm gonna get you some new clothes today so just put on something that looks like normal clothes for now."

Elle bobbed her head, then grabbed a shirt emblazoned with a giant Cabbage Patch Kid and a pair of pants that looked like they were made out of flowered wallpaper. At least the boots he found for her would hide the ankle cuffs. Logan left her to finish getting ready while he gathered his wallet and keys, then shoved a piece of toast in her mouth and led her out to the pickup truck.

Logan plopped Elle in the passenger seat, then got in and started the engine. No sooner had he reached for the cigarette lighter than Elle scooted right up against him, a goofy smile on her face.

"Now what are you doing?"

"I wanna sit here," she declared, pulling her knees up to her chest and leaning against his shoulder. "There's a seatbelt..."

Defeated, Logan put his cigar back in his pocket. Looks like his smoke would have to wait. "...Alright. But keep your feet away from the gear stick."

"I want this one! No, wait, this one! Aaah, that one, that one!"

Logan leaned against a wall as Elle buzzed around the kids section of the department store, marveling at all the different outfits. They hadn't even made it to the toy aisle yet and she was already acting like the kids in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. He was even getting looks from some of the other customers, but an angry glare in return scared them off. Elle was having a good time, that's what mattered.

She soon came toddling up to Logan with an armful of colorful clothing, and after Logan made sure she got the right sizes, they were tossed into the basket. "Okay kid, now what?"

"Bear."

"Right."

Elle ran for the toy section, and Logan prepared for another drain to his already meager finances. But surprisingly, he watched her run straight past the expensive looking Care Bears display and right to a little bin with "fun farm" plastered on the side. These animals were a big contrast to the well picked over and precisely manufactured Care Bears. The fun farm bin was barely touched, and the animals within all had a handmade quality to them making each one look unique.

"Aww, I want this one!" Elle said, holding up a large brown bear with a bow on its ear. "But why does it have an extra tag on its arm? None of the others do..."

"It says it's reduced price because it's missing the bow on the other ear," Logan read from the tag. "There's another one in here with both bows, you want that one instead?"

"NO!" Elle hugged the bear protectively and turned away. "She's different just like we're different. Who cares about those normal ones, anyway?"

"Alright, sorry I said anything." Logan watched as Elle glanced back at the bin, and pulled out another animal with a short face and a stocky build.

"Look at this one! I want it, too. Is it a baby bear?"

Logan snickered to himself as Elle poked at the stout little critter. "No, that's a gulo gulo, not a bear."

Elle pouted at Logan's laughter. "Goo goo? That doesn't sound right. What's a goo goo?"

"A wolverine," he said, putting it in the basket and heading for the register.

Elle clung tightly to her new teddy as she followed Logan around the hardware store. Even though she kept her eyes on Logan, she couldn't help but notice the nasty glares directed their way from the clerks at the counter. "Did we do something wrong?"

"Just ignore them, they're always like that," Logan mumbled as he threw as much of his list as he could afford into the basket. The owner of the hardware store was only slightly prejudiced, but the owner's son was a regular at the local cage fights. A regular who couldn't hold onto his money.

Once all that he had funding for was accumulated, Logan headed to the register and sat the basket on the counter. It just sat there untouched. "...Is there a problem?"

"We don't serve your kind here," the owner replied, moving so that Logan could see the shotgun atop the desk behind him. "Get the hell out of my shop."

"Look, I'd prefer not to get into this with the kid here," Logan said, stepping in front of Elle to shield her as he sighed. "If you let me buy this stuff now, you can keep the change and you'll never see me in here again." He punctuated his statement with a hundred and fifty dollars laid on the counter.

"Bribing us with my own money, freak?" The owner's son moved to grab the gun, but his father stopped him. "...Take the shit and get out!"

Logan scooped up Elle and the merchandise, hurrying out of the store before things got ugly. "...They're not all like those two jerks back there, Elle. Most people don't care if you're a mutant or a nonmutant, they only care if you're a good person. The problem is that our kind are unfortunately overexposed to the worst of society."

"...Like the people who kidnapped us?"

"Exactly. Now stop chewing on your bear's ear."

Elle let out a nervous giggle as Logan put the things in the truck bed, then stuffed her in the cab. "I was just a little scared, is all. I didn't know what they were gonna do..."

"Those guys know they need more than a shotgun to deal with me," Logan said with a smirk as he started the truck. "So don't you or your teddy bear worry. I'll keep you safe."

Her face lighting up, Elle hugged her bear tight and snuggled up against Logan for the ride home. After such an eventful day, bundling back up in front of that fireplace was starting to sound real appealing...

I actually have the brown bear. It was missing the bow tie around its neck, that's why hers is missing a bow around its ear. :D

And FYI, I wrote the "gulo gulo" line like several months before I found out that there is an identical line in an All New Wolverine comic with Gabby and Jonathan. *facepalm* I'm not changing it.