Control: An X-Men Adventure and Wolverine Romance

Babysitters

I tried to become less withdrawn from the School. In my first couple of months at the house, I had largely isolated myself. Slowly I was getting more comfortable connecting to other people. Sometimes I would encounter Bobby in the kitchen - he liked to sit there when he had trouble sleeping, the same as me, and by extension he introduced me to his girlfriend, Marie, who everyone affectionately called Rogue. She was a sweet girl and easy to get along with.

I also noticed that Logan had a soft spot for her. Despite his tough exterior, he clearly looked out for her like an older brother - she mentioned how they had arrived at the school at the same time after crossing paths in Loughlin city, and how he had saved her life when Magneto had tried to kill her. This added a lot of context to the short-lived team up at alkali lake - an alliance against a common enemy, rather than by choice.

I didn't tend to interact with the younger children so much, aside from one or two occasions. This only made me more nervous when I was tasked with keeping an eye on a handful of them one evening. Scott, Jean, Storm, and the Professor were all needed elsewhere and so they had asked Logan and I to keep an eye on some of the kids who were young enough to need supervision. We gathered them in one of the recreation rooms. The group of about twelve were happy to play with the various toys and art supplies and mostly were very easy to watch. Logan, obviously quite grumpy at being relegated to this baby-sitting job, stood in the corner.

After setting the only two important ground rules: 1 - no one leaves the room without an adult and 2 - everyone is kind to each other, I let them get on with whatever they wanted. I settled down with a book I'd been reading lately. Some time passed this way, with the kids playing nicely and nothing of note to report. Logan remained standing in the corner, looking like a night club bouncer.

I put down my book and approached him as he stood stoically, arms folded across his chest.
"You don't have to look like security detail"
"You'd be surprised" he muttered.
"Ah come on" I teased, gently tugging at one of his arms. He gave me a pointed look but relented, slowly unfolding his arms with a low grumble of disapproval.

Suddenly, two of the kids ran in between us, screeching. A little girl, with a head full of pretty beaded braids, and a little boy with jet black hair and thick round glasses, barelled into my legs. They knocked me just off balance enough for me to fall forward. I stumbled into Logan, who was unmoved. An uncomfortable laugh escaping my lips, I quickly pushed myself away from his chest. He looked down at me with the faintest hint of a smirk.

"Watch where you're going," I chastised them.
"Sorry!" The girl replied.
"What's your name?" Asked the little boy, who had a shy demeanour in direct contrast to the loud little girl.
"My name is Cassandra, but you can call me Cass," I explained with a smile.
"Yeah, we know that, but what's your other name?" The little girl asked, with an eye roll as though I was being incredibly stupid.
"I don't understand," I said, looking quizzically at Logan.

"What's your mutant name?" Asked the boy.
I frowned in confusion.
Logan huffed in amusement.
"My mutant name?"
"Yeah, everyone has a mutant name," the little girl explained.
"Oh, I don't think I do," I began.
Logan cut me off.
"Sure you do, Grizzly".
I shot him a glare.

"Whoah that's a cool name!" Said the little boy.
"What does it mean though?" Asked the girl, seemingly unimpressed.
"It means, you don't want to make her grumpy," Logan mocked.
I shot him another glare.
"Well, I have claws and I'm strong, like a grizzly bear." I did my best to explain, feeling pretty ridiculous about the whole concept.

"What about him?" One of the kids, more of whom had gathered round, stage whispered to me, pointing to Logan.
"Oh he's the wolverine," I announced, in my best melodramatic delivery.
"What's a wolverine?" Asked the third kid, a girl with a shock of bright pink hair, eyes wide.
"It's a badger," announced the girl with the braids, confidently.
I snorted a little in laughter at this, it caught me so off guard. The little girl frowned, clearly thinking it was directed at her. Logan looked thoroughly unimpressed. Before I could gently correct her, she had more to say.
"So really he should just be called badger, it's much easier to understand".
The other kids nodded in agreement.

"So what are your powers?" Asked the pink haired girl, excitedly.
"Yeah, tell them, Badger," I urged mockingly.
This ellicted a scowl from Logan which I only found even funnier.
He said nothing, of course, so I decided to try and explain.

"A wolverine is actually the largest animal in the weasel family. Badgers are part of the same big branch of animals, but they are a bit different. Like how a leopard is different from a lion, but they're both big cats."
"So he's not a badger?"
"No. He's not."
"Where do they come from?"
I glanced up at Logan, who still looked unamused but slightly less murderous.
"Canada mostly," I answered.
"What do they eat?"
"Oh they're not picky, they can eat all kinds of things. They can catch prey much bigger than them because they are very strong and have very sharp claws."
The kids looked wide eyed.
"Does mr Logan have claws too?" Asked the little boy, eyes wide behind his glasses.
"Yes, when he needs them."
The children were stunned into a silent kind of awe.

"Grizzly bears - they're really big and strong, and there's lots of them in Canada too. Do the wolverines fight them?" Asked the boy wide-eyed.
"I don't know, maybe they fight sometimes." I mused.
"Who would win the fight?" Asked the pink haired girl.
I smiled and made eye contact with Logan over the top of the little kid's head.
"Hard to say for sure. Both are pretty tough in a fight," Logan mused.
My heart did a funny little thing when we made eye contact, which caught me so off guard that I felt myself blushing a bit.

In typical kid fashion, our audience quickly lost interest and instead the girls tugged on my arm.
"Can we give you a makeover?"
"Pleeeease?"
I laughed nervously, worried what I was getting myself into, but agreed.

Sitting down cross-legged on the floor, suddenly there were three kids around me. Two girls and a boy, poking at my eyelids and cheeks with makeup brushes and tugging my hair into their best attempt at braids. Logan was clearly finding this very amusing, still leaning with his back to the wall. Bright pink blush was being aggressively aplied to my cheeks, and glitter eyeshadow rubbed all the way up and into my eyebrows.

As they excitedly held up the mirror to my now clownish face, I caught sight of Logan trying to suppress his laughter.
"What?"
"Sorry, it's just... you've never looked more beautiful," he said with a snort.
I rolled my eyes.

"You look like a princess!" squealed one of the girls excitedly.
"She needs a crown!" said one of the boys.
After some rummaging in the dress-up box, a bent tiara was uncomfortably jammed down onto my head.
I don't think I had ever seen Logan so amused.

"Thanks guys, what a lovely makeover. I'll leave you a five star review." I said getting to my feet again.
"Now its mr Weasel's turn!" announced pink-haired girl.
I grinned, the kid had clearly not quite understood my expalnation. I guess technically, she wasn't incorrect.
"Yeah come on, step into the beauty salon, Weasel."
His scowl returned.

The kids jumped up and down in anticipation. I gestured for him to sit down on the floor. He protested but I pulled him into the circle of excited little mutants.
"Come on, I thought the Wolverine was tough," I teased.
He glared at me silently.
"Ah, come on Logan, live a little. What the worst that could happen?"
"I could end up looking like that," he gestured to my face.
I laughed.
"I don't think he wants to guys, you'll have to find another victim."
I took a swig from my water bottle.

"What if Cass gave you a kiss, would you do it then?" Said the girl with the braids.
I coughed and accidentally spat some of my water out, which the kids of course found hilarious.
"Hey you guys are the ones selling the makeup service, not me!" I protested, blushing a little again.
I couldn't even make eye contact with Logan in that moment.
"But would it work?" Asked one of the boys.
"Come on now, stop that - don't be little weirdos. Or I'll leave a bad review" I answered, chasing them off.