Finding You

The plaque that read “Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters”, dazzled in the sunlight, as it fell to the ground when an unexpected earthquake occurred. Avalanche was at his wits end pacing back in forth of the room arguing with Toad over the phone as to why he stayed at the X-mansion. His feet were stomping on the ground and while holding his head he never noticed how the lights above him were shaking until a girl morphed through his door.

“Lance, your going to bring the whole house down!”

Toad was in his ear and he was getting nowhere “I told you don’t touch my Air Force 1’s with your sticky ass hands, you can borrow anything but that!”

Kitty was trying to interrupt to try calm him down, and Lance turned his attention to her when she started counting and breathing. He was going along fine and the teetering of the planted pots stopped. Until, he heard a bing from his phone and his eyes almost bulged out of his head when he found a picture of Toad letting Blob wear his clothes with the message “I borrowed anything, but that.”

“I gotta go!” Lance almost flew out of there, forgetting his promise to Kitty about trying the X-men out, and the front gate got smashed down on his way out. This happened all before 9 am.

Then at 10:30 Rogue went to get her laundry, some gloves she decided to wash last minute, when she opened the dryer she found her gloves shrunk next to a perfectly sized uniform. You got to be kiddin me. “Who would put their clothes into an already used dryer!”

Kurt Softly landed next to her after telaporting from his room he smiled at Rogue “thanks for taking that out for me!”

Rogue ended up beating Kurt with her shrunken glove.

And everyone was up on Saturday and the whole house decided to be fighting almost like every other day and Laura was sick of it. She could hear every argument, every person’s angry whispers and all the slamming doors. Her hairs were standing up and it was like she was in fight mode. The breakfast was too hot and it burned her tongue and the coffee Logan was drinking made her nostrils itch. I hate it here, sure she loved it when everyone got along, but throw 200 teens together and you don’t get a lot of happy days.

The sound of turning knobs became unbearable and she covered her hands to her ears. Logan noticed his daughter getting antsy at the little round table they were sitting at, “you wanna go for a walk?”

Laura silently nodded, she was worried that if she verbally answered she would cry. Laura hates crying. It makes her body itch and it makes her feel weak, even though Logan explained long ago it’s okay to cry. Deep down she believes he’s lying. Sometimes Laura feels like one day she’ll wake up and be back at Hydra and everything in her life now has been a lie. Laura believes in a lot of lies, but when she’s walking alongside her dad it makes her want the truth. Wants it all to be true.

Logan and Laura decided to walk around the mansion more in the woodsy area, he would’ve offered to take a motorcycle drive, but the engine would be too loud in a time like this. He watched as the Laura took deep breaths and tried to calm herself down he ended up rubbing circles into her back, until she felt better. Gentleness has never been his forte, but with tying to raise Laura he has gotten better.

Laura leaned into his touch and shyly hid her face in his shirt I don’t like this she pouted I’m getting soft…his hands gently rubbed her head. It’s been a few years now since coming to X-mansion and meeting Logan, with a smug smile she thought I’m so glad I didn’t kill them.

A few more pats and they were again walking side by side, Laura wanted to hold his hand and swing it with a gruff Logan let her. “What are we doing today?”

“What do you mean, what are we doing we’re walking.”

Laura rolled her eyes “no, I mean later.”

“Why would we do anything later?”

“It’s a Saturday I wanna do something.”

In a groan he asked “okay, what do ya wanna do kid?”

“Can we go to the mall?”

Logan was surprised “The mall? Wouldn’t that be worse then what’s in there” he gestured with his head to the mansion “why do you wanna go with even more people?”

“Well, I need to buy something.” Laura tried not to sound embarrassed, but she already knew that he knew something was up. She was just hoping that he wouldn’t pry. She would roll over and die if he found out.

“What is it that you need so bad?”

Laura wanted to hit her head against a tree, how could she explain to her father that she wanted to try makeup. She sometimes hated the texture and the smell, but she wanted fun colors. She wanted to fit in with other girls she saw. Most weren’t wearing leather or flannel, she liked all of that, but also wanted to try different things. I just want cool eyeliner, but explaining to Logan came with the faces he made.

She crossed her arms “you’ll make a face if I tell you…”

Logan caught himself from rolling his eyes “…fine I promise I won’t make a face.”

Laura watched him nod himself in reassurance “I want to get…makeup.”

Logan accidentally made a face.

Laura rolled her eyes and walked away “see I knew you would make a face.”

“No, it’s just like your 8, why would you need makeup?”

“I’m not 8 I’m 10.”

“Okay, okay.” He put a hand on her shoulder “I just want you to let yourself be a kid first.” His voice sounded sad which made Laura want to cry again. If I could turn back the clock I would.

“Stop reminding me.”

“…Kid..”

“No” Laura turned around and crossed her arms “you always remind me, like poor Laura, she never got a childhood, you don’t need to remind me! I was there.”

Logan tried to interrupt, but Laura stomped away. He held his head in his hands “I fucked up again.”

Laura entered the X-mansion and slammed the front door, passing Charles in the hallway and ignored his “good morning” while stomping up the stairs to her room.

Like clock work Charles watched the front door to see Logan half-running after her, but when Logan saw Charles he slowed down next to him.

“I see your having a good morning.”

“Tell me about it.” Logan gruffed out, as he ran his hand through his hair he debated talking to Charles about it, but then he wheeled his chair in front of him “why don’t we go somewhere more quiet.” Logan easily obliged giving a few huffs and sighs, but deep down his shoulders relaxed when talking about his issues, especially those of raising a child.

Charles wheeled himself to his office and closed the door with the flip of his hand, and watched Logan lean against his oak desk with his arms crossed. “Why don’t you tell me what happened?”

Logan sighed “Honestly…I don’t even know, we are getting along fine, but these past few months she’s been picking fights with me left and right.”

Charles listened more nodding his head, but thought it’s definitely deeper then she’s letting on.

“…and it’s like she isn’t happy here anymore, I don’t know if the noise is too overwhelming, or if it’s me. It’s like she wants more than I can give her…”

“Well what do you think she wants?”

Logan shrugged “if I could be different, it would be easier for her, like last week she was mad at me because I couldn’t braid her hair. She was never like that before? I mean what’s the difference between a French and a dutch braid there’s even a fish tail thing? I don’t understand. She used to be…”

Charles waited, but Logan never finished his sentence, so he interjected “you’ve changed, you should allow Laura to change as well. Maybe she’s frustrated, because she see’s herself changing and not you. Maybe you can try doing the things she likes, even if your bad at it, your intentions are there. Then Laura can appreciate you for the things you can provide and the effort and time you gave her despite the failure.”

Logan listened and thought about it I guess it wouldn’t kill me to try to braid her hair again, “fine, it’s just…I want her to be happy, but what if that’s not with me?”

Charles couldn’t ignore the pain in his friend’s voice, “She loves you Logan everyone get’s set backs in raising children, it doesn’t mean they love you less. Or that you love them any less. Try not to think of it as that.”

Logan nodded “I think I’m going to go take Laura to the mall, I’ll be back…” he stood up from the desk he was leaning on and gave a little wave to Charles as he smiled smugly,

“The mall?”

Logan rolled his eyes “don’t even ask”, he walked out the door and went down a few hallways, to Laura’s room. The door to the room was blue and she carved her name into the wood, it was crooked and there were other scratch marks that were etched in for when she got mad.

He knocked a few times, and heard a sniffle “go away!”

Logan leaned his head against the door, “Laura…can I come in bub?” the silence grew longer and Logan was a man with little patients. “I will take you to the mall…”

“You won’t make any weird faces?”

Logan tried not to roll his eyes or scrunch up his eyebrows “…no…I will be faceless just how you like me.”

He heard footsteps to the door, and a slight turn of the knob, the door creaked open to Laura standing there. “You can wear your normal face….if your good..”

Logan brushed the hair from her eyes and then kissed her forehead. He stood there for a minute as Laura tried to gently bat him away.

“I know it’s hard living with me, I just want you happy.” He rubbed circles into her back as he gently nudged her into a hug, “so if anything is wrong, tell me and I won’t be mad or judge you.”

“Or think I’m weird…?”

“Well….”

Laura playfully hit him, “mean.”

Logan smiled while patting her head he would’ve teased her more, but he knew he was on thin ice. “Okay, let’s go…to the mall… on a Saturday.”

Laura smirked “there’s that enthusiasm”.

Both of them made their way to the garage and Logan was about to hop on his bike when Laura commented “where would we put the bags?”

Logan stopped mid leg “…bags?”

That’s how Logan got stuck with driving the mini-van, he sighed “we should have picked the smaller car.”

Laura was looking out the window at passing trees and imagining herself jumping branch to branch, “if we didn’t take this car then Kitty would’ve had to practice in this. You know how she drives wouldn’t you prefer her practicing in a smaller car, it’s less bulky.”

“Yea I guess…”

Laura leaned over from the passenger seat, “when can I drive?”

Logan huffed and put his pointy finger against her forehead pushing her back in her seat so she wasn’t leaning over, “when your feet can reach the pedals.”

Laura crossed her arms and scowled out the window she was practicing her Dad impressions in the side mirror.

Logan gave her a glance “why are you looking like that?” She had her eyebrows scrunched up, had a disgusted look, and was rolling her eyes.

“Oh… like you…I don’t know genetics?”

Logan clicked his tongue and thought, I don’t make those faces…

After a twenty minute drive and a grueling fight with traffic they arrived, the mall.