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“Logan?” Morph asked.
“Hmh?” Logan responded, continuing to read a comedically large newspaper with a bold headline and photograph displaying the carnage of the X-Men’s latest scrimmage in Madripoor.
They were back in the States, Washington DC to be more specific, in a small diner to be
precise
. With the night of the living sentinel situation, the team returned to look for more answers. Following up on Trask was their main priority. They needed to find a way to access whatever files the government had on him, having once funded the sentinel program, it’d have to be somewhere in the military records. It’d have been easier to find where those files might be had Trask not been… dropped from a roof. The rest of the team was at the mansion preparing for a time-travel endeavor with Cable to attempt to rewrite the story. Both being men scorned by time, Morph and Logan had broken off to do things the old-fashioned way before they went fiddling around in the past. The only problem with the old-fashioned way was how long the boring parts could be.
Thank god for bars, and diners with free coffee refills.
“I’m worried about Rogue,” Morph said with a frown, tracing a finger around the rim of their coffee mug.
“You’re always worried ‘bout somethin’,” Logan grunted, not looking up from his newspaper.
“You’re always angry about something, but I never say anything,” Morph responded, wrinkling his nose. It didn’t take long for the smile to fall again.
“ Really, though. She’s not being herself.”
“Hotheaded, reckless, impulsive, hasty?” Logan tipped the edge of the newspaper and peeked a blue eye out to look at Morph, “Need more convincin’?”
“Hasty and impulsive mean the same thing,” squinted Morph, closing their eyes and leaning their head back against the booth with an exaggerated sigh.
“Leave the teachin’ to the Professor,” Logan smirked, finally setting the newspaper off to the side, putting his elbows onto the table to lean in towards Morph, “So, what’s botherin’ you about Rogue?”
Morph opened one brown eye to look at Logan, being in their “human” form to better blend in or so they said. It wasn’t exactly easy to be incognito while wearing a bright yellow spandex leotard, but hey, they were born to stand out.
Morph put on a toothy smile, puckering his lips as a chunk of their brown hair briefly turned white.
“Ahm gonna drop someone offa’ buildin’, shugah!” Morph mimicked Rogue’s voice, holding on an exaggerated grin for effect before he shook his head, making the white in his hair fade back to brown.
“She killed someone, Logan.” Morph hissed, holding up a hand to their mouth and leaning across the table to avoid being overheard.
Logan rolled his eyes, leaning back and pointing between himself and Morph, “What, and we haven’t?”
Morph’s face fell, that’s how it was? Morph almost lost hold on his human form, coming close to slipping back into their neutral form.
Was Rogue dropping someone off of a fucking building comparable to being mind controlled in Logan’s eyes?
“That’s not the same and you know it,” Morph snarled, turning to look out of the window.
“No,” Logan huffed, “No not that , Morph. God, I might be an asshole but I’m not a dick.”
Morph tossed the hair out of his eyes as he turned to look at Logan with a cocked eyebrow, Logan frowned.
“Fine, maybe a little,” he grunted, “I meant that we’ve all had our bad days. Doesn't matter though, ‘cuz we always got eachother’s backs when it counts. Rouge’s lost, but she aint gone, and we’ll be here for her while she figures herself out.”
Morph situated himself to face Logan again, daintily folding their hands on the table in front of them “Eloquently saved, you once again have my respect.”
“That being said, don’t go acting like you didn’t want to drop that son’of’a bitch off the roof either,” Logan said, picking a toothpick out of the container next to the mustard and popping it between his teeth.
Morph shifted uncomfortably, reaching for their coffee and taking a sip just to have something to do. They’d thought about it. He hadn’t had the best reaction when Rogue had killed Trask. To be fair, she’d just dropped a guy off of a building . That being said, Trask was responsible for the machines that’d killed two of the men she’d loved… Had Morph been in her shoes…
Morph set his coffee down and looked back to Logan.
“I don’t know.” They held up a hand to silence Logan’s grunt of disbelief, “I know I know , but I’m serious, I don’t know.”
Logan shrugged, “All alright, you don’t know.”
“Are you saying that you
wanted
to kill him?”
“I’m not complainin’,” The Wolverine snorted, rubbing a hand over his stubble.
Morph didn’t say anything, but something on his face must have given away his shock as he stared at Logan.
“That jackass is the reason I buried an empty coffin with your name on the headstone, bub,” Logan explained, looking at Morph with an intense gaze. Steely blue eyes nearly unreadable, that is, if you didn’t know him well.
“Oh,” Morph muttered, leaning back in his seat… It made sense. The two of them never talked about Morph’s time being “dead”. It was hard for Logan to reflect on the time when he was mourning his best friend. And it was hard for Morph to look back on… well, the experiments they endured under Sinister’s control.
“Yeah… oh, ” Logan echoed. He sniffed, casually moving the toothpick around his mouth with his tongue.
“I get where Rogue is comin’ from. You wouldn’t have wanted to see me after Cyclops made me leave you behind, ‘specially not after I thought you were…” Wolverine’s expression darkened, a wave of animalistic anger barely contained beneath the surface.
“Had I come across Trask then? Let’s just say he’d be in worse shape than he is now.”
Logan grunted. Morph heard the familiar snikt of Logan unsheathing his claws under the table for emphasis. Ever the drama queen.
Logan’s eyes finally caught Morph’s and the anger dissipated almost instantly, another snikt signaled that he’d retracted his claws again. A faint red faded into his ears and cheeks before he coughed and quickly looked away, crossing his arms.
“But, anyways.” Logan fumbled around trying to pick up the menu, he looked at it intensely, “Do you think the steak here is any good?”
“I’m sorry, what the fuck?” Morph asked, half tempted to reach across the table and grab the menu from Logan’s hands.
Logan looked back at Morph, his face blank.
“What?” Logan blinked.
“That was the first time you’ve ever really… talked about it,” Morph winced, “about my ‘death’.”
Logan’s turn to go for his cup of coffee, gulping a mouthful down like it was alcohol before looking back to Morph.
“‘S hard to,” He grunted, frowning, “I thought you were dead … You were the greatest friend I'd ever had, and in an instant, you were gone.”
Morph felt a strange pang in his chest at being called a ‘friend’, It was obvious that’s what they were but… it was odd. A dull ache.
“With you gone I got bitter… Copin’ with things by fighting until I dropped,” Logan interrupted Morph’s thoughts, “Cyclops became my punching bag, more than usual.”
“That’s not saying much,” Morph muttered, giving a small smirk to Logan.
“Yeah well, I had Hank add a ‘Cyclops Setting’ in the danger room. ‘Needed to punch him.” Wolverine responded, his brow furrowed.
“When he an’ Jean got married I missed the ceremony. Couldn’t go.”
Morph didn’t want to talk about Jean. At all .
“I know. I was there .” He joked, trying to hide their discomfort as they shifted in the seat. Logan’s eyes glazed over as he was deep in thought.
“I didn’t want Scott to have what he’d taken from me,” Logan admitted, his nose wrinkling as he said his name.
“Yeah, I know. Jean Grey, everyone’s queen.” Morph sat on his hands to avoid doing jazz hands.
“ No ,” Logan said, “Not her. Convinced myself it was but…”
Morph’s heart pounded in his chest. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears as his coffee-colored eyes searched Logan’s face, desperately looking for the answers in the slightest crease in his forehead or wrinkle by his eye.
“Logan what-,”
“You guys ready to order?” The waitress cut Morph off, tapping her pen against her notepad. Logan slowly turned to look at her, a silent rage building in him as Morph saw his knuckles tense.
“A few more minutes would be great Thanks!” Morph smiled at her, trying to look calm and normal. The waitress quirked her lips, giving the two of them a snooty look before she clicked her pen with a sigh.
“OoOokay…” She said, puffing her cheeks out as she slowly turned to walk away.
Morph looked back to Logan, his eyebrows creasing.
“What do you mean?” Morph asked, desperate to know. He hoped that the waitress hadn’t scared the thought from Wolverine’s mind. Logan glared at him, but there wasn’t any malice behind it.
Logan huffed, looking down at the table in front of him.
“I didn’t want to leave you behind… I didn’t want you to be dead, didn’t want to live in a world where Scott was happy but I’d never hear your stupid laugh again.” Logan admitted, “I thought it was Jean I wanted but… I just wanted the happiness that Scott had from bein’ with’er.”
Logan’s blue eyes finally met his again, his gaze soft as a sad smile ghosted his lips.
“I wanted you . I wanted you back, Kevin.” Logan finally said.
Morph felt a gasp escape his lips, his eyes widening.
Nobody ever called him by his first name, he doubted the rest of the team even knew it outside of the Professor and maybe Hank. Sometimes something as simple as a name was enough to make someone feel important. Feel loved …
“Logan, I-,” Morph sighed before Logan held up a hand.
“No, it’s fine. You don’t have to say anything,” he grunted, running a hand through his hair before he looked away hastily. “I made breakfast strange, sorry. Let’s jus’ forget about it and stay focused on the mission oka-”
Morph interrupted Logan’s uncharacteristic blabbering by grabbing onto the front of his jacket from across the table, pulling him into a deep kiss. He could feel Logan tense in surprise at first before eventually leaning into it, melting into him.
Embarrassingly, Morph felt his body subtly shift as he tried to keep concentration on holding his form. His appearance didn’t change drastically, his body just distorted slightly, like ripples in water as his mind was distracted by the feel of Logan’s lips against his own.
Fortunately, their booth was far enough out of sight of any of the main patrons that they wouldn’t be seen.
The two finally came apart, Logan heavily falling back in his seat as Morph covered his face in his hands.
“I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t misinterpret-” Morph started, looking to Logan with guilty eyes before Logan grinned a sharp-toothed smile at him.
“No, you were right on the money, Morph.”