Chance Encounter - Wolverine/X-Men Fanfic

Chapter 2: Just how much of an adventure are you up for?

"Last thing I remember is bein' ran through with a military grade pigsticker and tossed out a low flying plane." Logan explained.

Max looked over at him, eyes wide.

"Whoa. How'd you get to be so resilient?" she asked, curling a stray lock of honey colored hair behind her ear.

"I can heal back from anything – so far."

His eyes stayed straight ahead as he answered; his tone casual but his body language somewhat tense. It was as if he was searching for something.

"Who'd you piss off?"

Max kept pace with him, wondering what he kept scanning for. Did he think that the men who had left him for dead would come looking for him again?

Logan let out a harsh laugh.

"The list of people I ain't pissed off is a hell of a lot shorter. Fuck if I know. I didn't recognize any of 'em. Military meatheads with an axe to grind, maybe."

"Do people usually try to kill you on a regular basis?"

"They all seem to wanna take a shot. Nobody actually succeeds."

He looked over at her now with a wry smile, an eyebrow quirking up. "My turn?"

Max grinned and nodded. "Sure. Shoot."

She was truly enjoying his company. It was easy talking to him – and the fact that he already knew about the wolf put her as much at ease as she'd ever felt around anybody outside the Pack. She hadn't had somebody that she felt safe about sharing her secret with since leaving home. It was a surprising relief to have it out in the open with somebody. Finally.

"What made you stay last night? Why didn't you just hightail it back home when you ran across me?" he asked, now back to keeping a roaming eye on their surroundings.

A blush crept into her cheeks as she answered, "You fascinated me. And you smelled really good, after you cleaned up. You presented me with something that I haven't had in my life in many years. An adventure."

Logan remained silent for a few beats, then Max added, "That and you looked like you could use a friend."

The silence grew between them, and Max could sense a subtle change in his scent. Logan looked over at her, his tone soft as he replied, "Means a lot, pup. You stayin'. It helped."

Max nodded and grinned. "I could tell. I'm glad I stayed too."

Logan chuckled and hefted his pack higher on his shoulders as Max spotted her car.

"There it is!" she pointed off to the right, seeing a flash of metal glinting in the morning sunlight.

Max gave the vehicle a quick once-over to insure that nobody had messed with it during the night. When satisfied that everything looked alright, she opened the back door and collected a set of clothes from the back seat. She slid a brown tiered gypsy skirt over the black gym shorts he'd loaned her before pulling them off and handing them back to Logan, who had again turned to look at something else so that she could change.

Max thought it very gallant. If she didn't know better, she would've pegged him for the openly leering type.

As she pulled an olive colored tanktop on, she said, "You can turn around now."

Max handed the tshirt back to him with a smile.

"You need a ride somewhere?" she asked, hoping he did. She didn't want to leave him here – and was somewhat surprised to find that she really wanted to spend more time with him. She hadn't met somebody this engaging in years.