Author: Pirate Turner
Rating: PG
Summary: Logan realizes that Ororo could easily convert him from redheads to Goddesses forever.
Warnings: Het, Early second X-Men team fic
Word Count: 1,499
Date Written: 15 May, 2011
Challenge: For the DiteysBlessings LJ comm
Disclaimer: Logan/Wolverine, Ororo "Storm" Munroe, Kurt "Nightcrawler" Wagner, Professor Charles "Charley" "Professor X" Xavier, all other characters mentioned within, the Blackbird, and the X-Men are & TM Marvel comics and Disney, not the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
"I crept closer; she moved. I waited as I watched her lookin' all 'round fer a sign o' 'er enemy, but I stayed low, kept quiet. She settled back down, an' then I moved again. Her head bucked up, an' she looked 'round but settled when I stilled. I kept creepin' closer an' closer 'til I was finally on top o' her, an' when her head lifted that time . . . "
"Logan," an icy voice cut through the Wolverine's tale that he was relating to his new best friend, if, indeed, he had ever had such, "that is quite enough! We value life here and do not wish to hear of your murders of innocent animals!"
Logan's furiously blazing eyes cut right through the tall, African beauty as he concluded, " . . . I petted her." Disdain dripped heavily in his voice.
Kurt squirmed beside him, his pointed, blue tail whipping like mad with his unease. "Ororo, Logan, . . . please," the furry German's gentle, lilting voice pleaded. "Ve should not fight amongst ourselves. Ze vorld causes us more zen enough hardship; ve should not add to zat vith our own friends."
"She ain't no friend o' mine," Logan growled, having already leapt to his feet. The others of their team had unboarded while they had been talking, leaving only himself, the Elf, and the self-righteous broad before them. "Tell me somethin', Queenie," he snarled at her, his eyes flashing dangerously. "Ya keep yaself so upright that ya can't even walk wit'out a stick up yer butt. Ya don't drink, don't smoke. What do ya do?"
Ororo's wide, blue eyes blinked innocently in surprise. What did she do? She had been a thief, but that had been years ago. She had been worshipped as a Goddess, but she had left her people to learn what she truly was and hone her skills to better protect not just her piece of the world but the whole Earth. "I . . . " she murmured. "I save lives," she said at last.
And then anger fueled her. This cretin who slaughtered innocent, defenseless animals for sport was trying to make her out to be the bad person! Thunder blasted the darkening sky outside as she stepped closer to him, shutting out the small distance that had remained between them. Holding her chin proudly and regally like the Goddess she had been called, Ororo informed him coldly, "I protect the innocent lives that you would allow to be butchered or perhaps even butcher yourself, Wolverine."
"Hmph. Sure ya do," Logan returned, the lack of impression she made on him obvious on his grizzled face and in his dark brown eyes. "An' ya get worshipped fer bein' a flamin' Goddess while yer at it. Ya ain't no Goddess, Stormy. Yer just a mutant, like th' rest o' us, so get off yer high horse."
Ororo stared at Logan in surprise, her mouth hanging slightly open, as he pushed pass her and fumed straight off of the jet. She blinked as the truth of his words hit home and tears began to well inside of her big, blue eyes. She felt a gentle pressure on her shoulder and glanced down at the three-fingered hand that lightly grasped her. Her teary eyes focused on that hand rather than daring to lift to the concerned face to which it belonged.
"Zit's okay, Ororo," Kurt tried to assure her, only the point of his tail swishing now. He knew that Logan's words had hurt her, and though he recognized the truth in them, his heart stung for her.
She was a good woman, if confused, and Kurt knew, too, that, in her country, being revered as a Goddess must have happened as easily for her as being hunted and hated for being a Demon had happened to him in his own country. The world did not understand them. Some still did not even believe in mutants, only in Supernatural beings, and so they either worshipped or hated that which they did not understand. Ororo's powers had enabled her to help her people, and so they had called her a Goddess. It was not her fault, though he now saw that that burden hung heavily upon the regal woman's shoulders.
"Zit is not our fault vhat our people saw us as. It is up to us to prove zem right or wrong and show zem vhat ve truly are." His tail stilled, and he softly caressed her shoulder. "Ve are good people, Ororo, and ve vill use our powers to help our people and ze vorld. Ve vill show zem vhat ve are capable of and save zem vhen zey need us ze most."
"He . . . He's right, Kurt," Ororo whispered slowly. "I . . . " She shook her head as thunder again rumbled in the distance, sounding weaker this time rather than blasting with its earlier fury. "I am no Goddess."
"Nein, and I am no Demon. Ve did not ask for ze labels our people gave us, but ve vill rise above zem."
Ororo shook her head, her long, snowy white hair shimmering down her slender back. "You do not understand," she told him, looking up into his yellow orbs through the tears filling her own baby blues. "You were hated and mistreated by your people who believed you to be a Demon. I was worshipped as a Goddess by mine. I allowed them to do so. Goddess help me," she cried, her tears beginning to streak down her face, "I even encouraged them!" She turned and ran from him then, bursting from the Blackbird and taking off into the graying, evening sky.
Her newfound friends watched her as she flew, and Logan's shoulders slumped as he bit down hard on the thick cigar he clenched in his teeth. He'd hit home, all right, but he'd not meant to hurt her, only to shut her up and get her off of his back. When Kurt finally left the plane, he was shaking his head and barely glanced at him as he headed back into the school. That brief glance told the others just a little of what had transpired and earned Logan sour looks from the lot of them.
He growled softly, his head hanging, and as the others filed back into the school, shaking their heads at his ungentlemanly ways and the rain began to fall in bucket loads, Logan stalked off into the distance. He hadn't meant to hurt her, he thought, only to put her in her place. Though she liked to appear otherwise, Ororo wasn't innocent. None of them were, and he believed that Charley wouldn't have gathered them together if they had been innocent. He needed heroes, but he had also needed people with some experience to rescue his previous heroes.
Heroes. Logan snorted at the word, biting his cigar in two. He took out the separated halves, lit the second one, and smoked both simultaneously. He wasn't a hero any more than Ororo was a Goddess. He heard lightning blasting. Looking up, he saw her soaring in the storm and paused in his rampage.
Her elegant beauty both surprised and enthralled him, and he found himself watching her from underneath the trees as she flew through the storm she had created. She danced through lightning with howling winds blowing her hair and ruffling her cape. She moved in time to the rumbling thunder, howling winds, and pattering rain. She was like a flash of silver dancing in the storm with perfect grace and ethereal beauty that completely blew him away and stole the very breath from his lungs.
As he watched her passing elegantly through the storm she had created, Logan realized for the first time how easy it would be for some one who didn't know better to mistake the headstrong and proud beauty for a Goddess. She was no Goddess, only a mere mortal mutant like himself and the others, but if he did worship a Goddess, he thought, he surely couldn't want for one any better than she. Something deeply buried within him began to stir as he watched her, and Logan shook himself and forcibly turned away.
He wouldn't leave yet, he decided, grinning despite himself. He'd stick around for a while, step on some more toes, and maybe, just maybe, he'd get to know the Goddess of the Storm a little better himself. She could easily convert him, he thought, not just for a moment but for a lifetime, from redheads to Goddesses. His grin grew to match his thoughts as he slipped beneath the trees and turned back around to watch his Goddess express herself more. He'd never tell her again she wasn't a Goddess, he decided, for he'd never seen any one more beautiful, elegant, or worthy of being called such, and in that moment, in the midst of that storm he'd caused her to create, Ororo became Logan's Goddess forever more.
The End