*****
The next day, Jean watched three of her fellow X-Men with an unhappy new awareness of the emotional undercurrents swirling about them. As Rogue watched a CNN report detailing a few unfortunately well-witnessed conflicts between mutants (including the X-Men themselves in a couple of incidents), Remy came in, settled on the couch next to her, and started trying to wheedle her into changing the channel to ESPN. Wandering in from a training session in the Danger Room with a few of the younger team members, Logan took up a stance behind the couch.
For such an apolitical sportsfan to defend the choice of bad mutant PR over college football, there had to be other factors involved. As Remy teased Logan that he was becoming as bad as Scott and Xavier for worrying over the news, Jean was alarmed to see Wolverine respond by tapping warningly on Remy's shoulder.
With his knuckles.
Logan never made a fist as a friendly gesture — and never, *never* touched anyone with his knuckles except as a direct act of violence or an explicit threat. It was roughly the equivalent of tapping someone with the barrel of a loaded gun.
And the really frightening thing was that Remy didn't seem to realize that he was the tensing of a few extensor muscles away from having nine inches of adamantium buried in his chest cavity.
"Remy! Could I see you in my office for a moment?"
The three of them glanced up. Remy lost the playful, "You know you love me," grin and got up off the couch. Before turning to leave the room, Jean saw Logan jump clear over the back of the couch to take the vacated place next to Rogue.
Closing her office door behind them, Jean turned to face the younger man. "Remy, I had a talk with Logan yesterday."
He had the sense to look alarmed. "You *what*?!"
"After what you told me, I had to. And he... well... he cleared a few things up." Pause, while Remy digested this. "Logan doesn't *have* issues with his sexuality."
The kid looked injured. "You didn't believe me, so you went to him for the ‘truth'."
"No — or rather, I thought you must be mistaken. Until he told me about your, ah... relationship. Which he admitted to as soon as I asked him about it." Taking in Remy's stunned look, she repeated herself. "Logan doesn't *have* issues with his sexuality. He has issues with you seeing Rogue."
"What?!"
"I didn't know this either until yesterday, but when he left her here right after they both came here, it was to wait for her to grow up. He's... apparently he's in love with her, but she was too young to be legal when they met. And when he came back for her, you and she were..."
Remy frowned, clearly turning things over in his mind, reassessing them in this new light. Then he gave her a disbelieving look. "He wants my girl, and so he jumps on *me* and rips *my* clothes off? I don't buy it, chere."
"He said it was the only way he could keep from killing you. I don't understand it either, but Logan's mind works in unusual ways. He said... he said it was because you smelled like her, and like sex."
Remy looked a bit pale. Jean was relieved to see the disbelief leave his face. "Explains why he's never interested when Rogue's been out of town, or not in the mood..." His mouth quirked as some of the humor of the situation occurred to him. "Pretty inconvenient — I'm either getting it twice, or not at all."
"Remy, please — be careful. Don't — don't push Logan too far."
"‘Don't push *Logan* too far.' That's great, just great. And here I was worryin' about *Rogue* catching me runnin' around behind her back..."
*****