8 - [Action]

[snikting]

[Logan makes it home from his mission and you know what? He's dead all over. Exhausted and worn out. He threw himself into the jungle, fought alone, and by all rights should be dead. He may have died more than once, when a Shifter removed his powers and he took some deadly wounds. But then backup would show up, kill the Shifter, and Logan came back to life. Rinse and repeat.

Other people died. He tried to save them, but he was just one man and there was too many of them. So they had to withdraw. And when it was time to go home, he signed up for 'just a few more days'. Even when they told him he had maxed out the points he could earn for the month, he still stayed in there.

Up until today, when the squad packed it all up and he was told he had to go back. As much as Logan would have liked to stay out there indefinitely, he was still a test subject first. Guinea pigs had to go back into their cage eventually.

So now he was back. Where his fake family was. With his fake life. Oh, sure, those memories had become less and less clear. But they were still there and he did not relish seeing any of his 'family'. Which is why he didn't go home. He went to the bar for drinks, sure. He visited the Item Shop to drop in on Rogue on the pretense of looking for his old junk. He played some pool by himself, but he only made it halfway through a game before the kid playing video games annoyed him to the point of leaving.

And then he went back to the bar again. To drink and drink and drink and drink. Chances are, he was going to wake up behind the bar after passing out there. But he certainly wasn't going home to his loving wife. Because that wasn't real and he wouldn't be able to stop himself from acting like it was.]

Comments

[snikting]

Natalia Romanova. Well if that sure as hell didn't sound similar to a name he'd already been given. He gives her a second look over. The hair's unmistakable. The eyes are the same. And he can certainly see key resemblances, even if they're different. And the scent... just enough to draw similarities.

Well shit.

"Yer gonna have to break this one down for me, kid. My memory ain't what it used to be."

[widows_kiss]

"What do you mean?" She was still eyeing him with a hint of puzzled confusion and there was a hint of wariness again in her stance as she searched his face, uncertain. "Did something happen? How much do you need me to remind you of?

[snikting]

"You can start with your pops." Everything, really. He wasn't a stranger to people being turned to children, but this was strange. Though he'd rarely interacted with her, he knew SHIELD had a Black Widow even in his world. But everything from before five or so years ago was a blank. Did he have a history with this assassin he didn't know about? One that even his Natasha had neglected to tell him?

Well, call it selfish, but he wanted to see what he could get out of her while she was still a kid and still honest.

[widows_kiss]

"He's not really," Natalia answered, although that was admitted with a hushed sort of worry and she caught herself glancing around, just in case. "He owns the training facility in Moscow. Taras Romanov. You are..." she pauses, scrunching up her nose, because she doesn't know what they are, actually. She just knows that Taras thinks of Logan very highly. "Partners, maybe? You've been teaching me to fight."

[snikting]

Hm. The name doesn't ring a bell and he can't help but wonder why he would end up in a situation training a little girl to fight. Much less a Russian one. Why would he end up there, of all places? He can't imagine himself having ended up there. But then, with so much of his memory gone, he has no idea what would lead him there.

Dammit.

"I've been known to do that. Ya must have a lot of potential fer me to even bother."

[widows_kiss]

She's not sure if that's a compliment or not - he's not usually the sort to give them, past an occasional brusque 'Good' when she does especially well or the typical 'Again' to restart the set of movements she's perfecting. Still, she lifts her chin a little and meets his gaze squarely.

"I do. You don't teach many of the others. He was pleased."

[snikting]

"Hm." He wasn't really sure what to make of all this. The last thing he needed, after that whole mess, was more family. But this was different. It could be real. It might not be real. He also had the vaguely disturbing notion that he slept with a woman who used to call him 'uncle'.

Dammit, he knew he couldn't trust her.

But this. This was a kid. "So how long ya been in Luceti?"

[widows_kiss]

"A couple of days," she answered with a shrug, scuffing her toe absently against the sidewalk as she eyed him. "They didn't tell me there was to be a test. And no one left me instructions. I don't know why I'm here."

[snikting]

That was the trouble, right there. He could tell her the truth, but he knew it wouldn't matter. In a few days, she'd be back to her usual self and none of this would matter. It'd certainly be simpler that way.

But there was one thing he could at least figure about her. She wouldn't like to be coddled. Regardless of her age.

"There ain't any test, kid. Fact of the matter is, yer not even on Earth anymore. Whatever it is you were preparin' for, this ain't it."

[widows_kiss]

"Oh."

Her expression fell, because she'd been told that before, but she'd been convincing herself that it was just part of the scenario somehow. But he didn't play into the scenarios. Or he never had before this, and she couldn't think of a reason he would start now.

So it looked like she really had been taken. That all the reasons and explanations the strangers had been giving her was true. She ducked her head, staring at her feet as she chewed on her lower lip a moment.

"So what am I supposed to do here?" she finally asked after a moment, glancing back up at him once more, puzzled determination in her gaze.

[snikting]

"Wait. I can't claim it's pleasant, runt, but you ain't gonna be here long. This is a test, but it ain't fer you. It's fer an older you, from a time you ain't seen yet."

[widows_kiss]

She blinked at that, a frown on her lips as she stared at him, puzzling through him, because that was... strange. "What do you mean?"

[snikting]

Sigh. "It means I'm used to you being a bit bigger." He paused as he considered. "... not that much bigger, but an adult. That's the you I'm familiar with, kid."

[widows_kiss]

"Natasha."

It was easy enough to put those pieces together with what she's learned from everyone else. What people are careful to say and not say. She doesn't know how she feels about that.

"I changed my name."

Was she undercover? It was the only thing that made sense.

[snikting]

"So did I. A long time ago."

Not by choice. And never a name he would have chose for himself. But it had happened.

"Live long enough and weird stuff's bound to happen."