*****
"Who's winning?" Kurt asked while helping himself to a beer.
Logan allowed it — Nightcrawler being one of the few he liked well enough to share his alcohol with. "Penguins, of course. How the hell Arizona got a team in the first place is beyond me — no one plays hockey in the damn desert..."
Kurt settled himself into a crouch on the back of the couch — normal seats weren't designed to accommodate tails comfortably. "Obviously someone must, or Phoenix couldn't have home games."
A wordless grumble at the essential truth of the statement was interrupted. "What's the score?" Rogue asked, walking around the couch to snag another of the rapidly-disappearing beers. "Scootch," she told Kurt, who politely edged over a couple of feet to allow her to sit next to Wolverine. Aside from other side effects of Logan-absorption, Marie had been left with tastes for beer and certain televised sports.
"Coyotes are getting their asses kicked four to nothing." Wolverine sniffed suddenly and gave Rogue a look out of the corner of his eye. Smelled like she'd just had a little liaison with Gumbo. Logan took another swig of beer to hide his sigh. Right now what he wanted most in the world was to push Marie back down on the couch and start erasing that little asswipe's scent from her body, replacing it with his own. Kurt's presence be damned — hell, he could watch if he wanted to. Probably be educational for him.
"Somethin' wrong?" Marie asked, glancing from the screen to Logan.
"Nothing."
"You sure, friend Logan?" Kurt asked from the other side of Rogue.
"Nothin' I want to talk about," he said brusquely. [Nothing, just that I've been fucking your boyfriend, Marie, and I may be doing it again later this afternoon if he's around me before he has a shower. Nothing that needs to concern you and oh, God, but I want to go over every inch of your body with my tongue...]
"All right." Marie seemed a bit miffed, but she returned her attention to the game. Kurt, not a particular hockey fan, spent another minute or so eyeing Logan thoughtfully, who caught him staring in his peripheral vision but chose to ignore him.
"And we're watchin' hockey today, are we?"
[Oh, hell, not *him*, not *now*...] Unfortunately, it was indeed Remy — and Logan could smell Marie on him even from across the room. [Go away, don't decide you need to come bond right now, go find something else to do...]
After impishly eyeing the small amount of space between Logan and Rogue — Logan could just *see* him considering the idea of squeezing himself in between them — Remy sat on the couch on the other side of Rogue from Wolverine. Kurt moved over, resuming his gargoyle pose in the space between Logan and Marie, neatly sparing Logan an unobstructed view of Marie leaning into her lover's arm.
Logan managed to stand it for about ten minutes — until Gambit, a non-hockey-fan, became bored with the game and began whispering love talk into Rogue's ear. Wolverine was unfortunately able to hear every word, as Remy began suggesting that they leave the other two to their viewing and head back upstairs for another round.
"Well, *I've* seen enough," he announced, getting up and grabbing his remaining couple of beers.
Marie looked confused. "But there's still a full quarter left to the game."
"Hey, don't I get a beer?" Remy asked, spotting them for the first time when Logan picked them up.
"No," Logan replied shortly while walking out.
Rogue and Gambit exchanged confused glances. "Why don't I go follow him, see what's wrong," Nightcrawler volunteered, hopping down off the couch.
He caught up with Wolverine in the kitchen, working on another beer while inspecting the contents of the fridge. "You're quite sure it's ‘nothing you want to talk about'?"
Logan debated the possible responses. "Nothing."
"You quit watching the game for ‘nothing'?"
"I just don't want to have to hang out with Gumbo while I watch." Deciding he really wasn't hungry after all — at least, not for food — he closed the door.
"Ah."
"I really don't like that guy."
"Ah." A blink of unsettlingly yellow eyes.
"I really don't know what she sees in him."
"Perhaps he makes her happy."
A sigh. "She can do better than him, though. She can do a *lot* better..."
Kurt had no reply, and when Logan headed back up to his room he went back into the rec room. Remy, disappointed both in his campaign to lure Rogue back upstairs and in his attempt to get her to change the channel, offered to go chase down Wolverine, but the other two weren't impressed with the idea.
"It's worth a shot. Besides, hockey ain't my game." So saying, Gambit rose from the couch after giving Marie a parting kiss, and headed out.
"Are you sure we should let him?" Kurt asked apprehensively.
"Aah, Logan'll gripe at him and chase him off. At least it gets him out of here so we can watch the game in peace."
Upstairs, Remy knocked at the door of Logan's room.
No response.
He knocked again, then opened the door — unlocked as usual, since Logan had no worries of people wandering in during his absence and could scent them out if anyone did — and discovered the room was empty.
Shrugging disappointedly, he wandered back down the hall and up the stairs to his own room.
He found Wolverine waiting for him there as soon as he opened the door.
*****