Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Logan.”

Logan only ever walked away. He ran from his problems, and he hid from his feelings when they got too real. Time and time again, when someone called after him, he walked away.

Logan turned, looking back to see Wade standing from the bench, ugly rat-dog tucked under his arm, looking frankly ridiculous in soot and blood covered red spandex. He looked nervous, like he fully expected Logan to roll his eyes and keep walking. Like he expected to be insulted and left alone.

Logan tilted his head at him, a silent gesture for Wade to catch up, something which he did very quickly.

“I just— since you don’t have anywhere to go, probably. I mean, you could go to the X-Mansion, they’d probably welcome you with open arms or open legs or whatever, but I didn’t know if that’d be hard for you to go there and… Do you wanna meet my blind, elderly, African-American roommate, Blind Al?”

Wade’s rambling was annoying, but at least it made sense. Logan really did have nowhere to go, and here Wade was, holding out a lifeline.

“Sure, bub, why not.” And seeing Wade light up at those simple words almost made the apprehension worth it.

Logan knew how this worked, and he was going to make it as painless as possible. Al — he refused to call her Blind Al — wouldn’t want a washed-up alcoholic as a new roommate who couldn’t even pay rent, if he was lucky he could sleep on the couch or the floor for one night, and then he’d have to go.

The whole walk back to Wade’s apartment was filled with chatter, most of it meaningless. It was very comfortable, just to bask in an easy flow of conversation which he only interrupted to snort at a dumb joke, or ask Wade what the fuck he was on about.

“Do you reckon it’s something I can put on my résumé?” Wade asked, fumbling with the keys as he tried to keep ahold of a squirming Mary Puppins. Logan held his hand out and Wade gave him the keys with a grateful smile.

“Saving the multiverse?”

Wade nodded, pushing the door open with his shoulder. “I was more thinking our little team in the Void, the Resistance, or whatever. The Avengers seemed to really want to know if I was good at working in a team.”

Logan smiled. “You might get more credit if you mentioned stopping Cassandra from destroying every timeline to exist.”

Wade turned and pointed a finger at him. “But see, then I’d have to put your name on it, honey badger, because that was a two-person job, and that’s not as impressive.”

“About damn time! You holdin’? I’m all out of devil’s dandruff and I’m shakin’ like an angry vibrator!”

Wade grimaced as he looked into the apartment, Logan following his gaze to see an old woman hobbling towards them.

“Thank you, Al, we have company,” he said quickly, whether to spare himself, Al, or Logan from the embarrassment, Logan couldn’t tell. “Althea, this is…” Wade trailed off as the woman approached them, looking over at Logan for some sort of support. Logan just gave him a gentle smile. “This is Logan,” Wade finished.

The apartment was a mess. Scraps of coloured tissue all over the floor, ripped pillows and scuffed floors, cracked tiles and peeling wallpaper. Logan had never seen such an inviting place.

“Sorry about everything,” Wade mumbled. Logan turned to look at him, seeing the other man duck his head nervously. “I didn’t really have much time to clean up after the party, what with the kidnapping or whatever.”

Logan frowned. “Party?”

Wade looked up at him, confusion painting his face for just a moment before he realised. “Oh, right. Yeah, it was my birthday when the TVA decided to grab me out of nowhere and throw me in the Void and everything.”

Logan felt sick to his stomach. “Fuckin’ shitty way to celebrate a birthday,” he said, revelling in the way Wade let out a snort-laugh.

“Tell me about it. Got a pretty good present, though.” He said the last part quietly, as if nervous to see Logan’s reaction.

“Well, according to that Paradox fuckhead, you got the worst present,” Logan laughed.

“There’s a reason he’s a fuckhead. Anyway, bathroom is over there, the shower pressure sucks ass but it usually does its job.”

Logan followed Wade around the apartment in silence, appreciating the house tour. It was small, cramped, and smelled suspiciously like weed, but it was charming, in a way. The kitchen and living room were open plan, and the bathroom and bedroom were off down the hall.

“So, yeah. That’s my humble abode. A crack home, if you will.” Wade wandered over to the couch in the living room, shoving the coffee table aside. “It’s a pullout sofa-bed, don’t worry. Not the most comfortable thing, but there’s sheets, a blanket, a pillow, and no exposed springs, so it works.”

Logan tilted his head. One crucial detail seemed to have been missed by Wade. “Where do you sleep?”

Wade looked over at him, as if he wasn’t expecting this question. “Me? Oh, well, usually on the sofa-bed, but I can sneak in with Blind Al while you’re here.”

Althea trudged past him, knocking into his shoulder as she did so, making a beeline for her bedroom. “No you fuckin’ won’t, I’m not touchin’ your cold ass legs with a ten foot pole.”

Wade rolled his eyes. “She loves me, I swear. And don’t worry about me, peanut, I’m accustomed to sleeping on bad surfaces. Or not sleeping. Really, it doesn’t bother me. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Logan frowned. “No you won’t.”

“I’m confused. First Al says I’m not allowed to snuggle with her wrinkly ass, and you’re saying I can’t sleep on the floor?” To his credit, Wade did look genuinely confused.

Logan rolled his eyes, moving to the other side of the sofa to help Wade pull it out into bed form. “I’m a shitty guest, but I’m not that shitty. I’m not kicking you out of your own bed onto the floor, I’ll sleep on the floor.” He caught his tongue before the ‘it’s more than I deserve,’ slipped out.

“No, honey badger, I appreciate it, but you’re old as fuck, and your senior citizen back wouldn’t like that.”

“Then there’s room for both of us.”

Wade froze, mouth hung open. He was silent for a whole three minutes; Logan counted. “You’re fucking kidding me, aren’t you? The Wolverine, inviting me to sleep in the same bed as him? Bunkmates? Me?”

“That’s all it takes to shut you up for a bit? Wish I’d known that before. And yes, I am. Try and cuddle me and I’ll make you wish you were dead, but there’s enough space for both of us, and I’m not that much of a prick.”

Wade pressed a hand to his chest. “Peanut, you have no idea how much this means to me, and I promise I will only spoon you if you ask.”

When Logan looked back down, he realised that they had already set up the bed. “I’m gonna take a shower, get this blood and ash off me.”

The shower had a curtain, thankfully. Logan wasn’t sure he trusted Wade not to burst into the bathroom under the guise of needing to pee just to stare at him, especially considering he immediately learned that the lock was fucked. He must’ve been right, too, because he heard the door creak open not long after he went in.

Wade wasn’t kidding when he said the water pressure sucked, but there was hot water, and that was really all Logan could ask for.

He stepped out after giving himself a quick wash, feeling grateful that Wade owned soap that wasn’t obnoxiously scented. He took a clean towel from the rack under the sink and realised that he’d have to put on his suit bottoms and TVA jacket again. He debated washing them in the sink, just to save himself from the realisation that he’d showered for no reason, but just as he was about to give up and put them on again, he noticed something sitting by the door.

Logan picked up the note sat atop the small pile of clothes. It was a sticky note with a pink edge and a small white cartoon cat in the corner. Scrawled on it were the words: ‘Sorry if they don’t fit well, I tried. Also, didn’t think u would wanna wear my underwear, but I’m ok with u going commando.’

Logan shook his head, partially from shock that Wade had not only offered up his own clothes, but also tried to find something he thought would fit Logan, and partially because even in written form Wade found a way to be an asshole.

The clothes Wade provided ended up being a pair of grey sweatpants and a flannel shirt. Logan put them on (with his own underwear, he wasn’t sinking that low yet) and was pleasantly surprised to find that they fit pretty well. Considering he and Wade were of similar height, albeit Wade was a bit taller, it shouldn’t have been too hard to find something. The shirt was a bit tight — Logan was more broad-shouldered than Wade — but otherwise it was nice.

“Hey, peanut, hope those fit. Didn’t want to leave you getting back into that greasy suit and getting yourself all dirty again. Do you mind if I go have a shower now? Thanks, Wolvie.” Wade spoke fast, not really pausing for a response. He swept past Logan, his arms full of his own change of clothes, bathroom door slamming shut behind him.

Logan tried to make himself useful, collecting bedsheets from the closet and putting them on the sofa-bed, taking what he assumed to be Wade’s pillow from the floor and throwing it onto the left side while taking a spare from the closet for himself. He grabbed a blanket as well and laid it on the bed, and once he was finished, it didn’t look too bad. Comfortable, even.

The bathroom door swung open again and Logan looked up. Wade was standing in pink pyjama pants and a shirt with the same white cat from the sticky note.

“Wow, you really weren’t kidding,” he mumbled. Wade shuffled around to the living room, clearing his throat as he sat awkwardly in the sole armchair. “So do you, um… have any shows you want to catch up on?” He asked, gesturing at the TV.

Logan snorted. “Bub, I haven’t looked at one of those in at least a decade.”

“So can I…”

“Put on whatever you want, I don’t mind.”

It was still the afternoon, nowhere near time to sleep, especially not for Logan. He usually stayed awake until he passed out at a bar or in the streets, only waking up well after midday. Something about having matter and antimatter coursing through his body, tearing down and reshaping every atom after fighting a hundred immortal assholes must’ve really done something to him though. Logan was tired, and he couldn’t even remember when he last slept.

Laying in a bed for once, fresh clothes on his back, skin clean, and knowing that he was safe, the faint sounds of a show introduced as The Great British Bake-Off fading into the background, Logan let himself close his eyes and lean back.

“You going to sleep, peanut?”

Logan just grunted in response to the soft voice, readjusting his position to lay down properly.

“Fair enough. Might join you soon.”

Logan only slept for a little over an hour, drifting in and out of a light cycle. When he came to again, he groaned and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, sitting upright.

“Sleep well, Wolvie?”

Logan rubbed at his eyes as he huffed a laugh at the voice. “I dreamt some annoying prick dragged me into a different universe.”

Wade hummed, and Logan opened his eyes to see the man standing in the kitchen, leaned against the counter with a mug in his hands. Mary Puppins was sat at his feet like a loyal guard dog.

“At least it was a dream and not a nightmare?”

“Dickhead.”

“And to think I’m the one housing you.”

Logan ignored him, instead getting up to wander into the kitchen. “Where’s Althea?”

Wade gave him a pointed look. “The loveable crotchety old bitch is out getting some more of her favourite nose candy, the little addict. I told her to make herself useful and buy some dog food at least, and she told me to go fuck myself. Pretty sure I’ll have to buy Mary’s stuff, if you want to come.”

“Pets are allowed here?”

Wade shrugged. “Probably not. Landlord doesn’t come ‘round much, though. You should come shopping with me, ‘cause I don’t know what sort of shit you like to wear, and you can get your proper size.”

Logan found himself following Deadpool down the street less than an hour later, still dressed in Wade’s sweatpants and flannel shirt. Why Wade insisted that he’d wear his Deadpool suit to go shopping, Logan wasn’t sure.

“Smell that? Sweet, disgusting New York. Smells like smoke, piss, and deep-fried food.” Wade inhaled dramatically, dropping back to walk in line with Logan.

“Whatever you say, bub.”

The locals must have gotten used to their ‘friendly, neighbourhood Deadpool,’ as Wade liked to call himself, because no one gave him more than a wary look and a wide berth. Logan, on the other hand, was accosted with stares and whispers. He kept his head down as the two men entered Walmart. These people thought he was someone else. A dead hero. A saviour. He was a dead man walking.

“Right, now I didn’t make a list because it’s just a few things, and lists are boring. We’ll go one aisle at a time and yes, we need to visit every aisle.” Wade seemed completely unconcerned by the weird looks that Logan was getting, or the clear part in the crowd that was forming around them. “You should probably steer the cart, because I will make it into a game if given the reigns.”

Wade’s lack of worry calmed Logan’s nerves slightly, but nowhere near making him comfortable. Everyone was looking at him. The whispers were swirling around him, and it didn’t even seem like the people were bothering to keep quiet so he wouldn’t hear, or maybe it was his enhanced senses.

‘What is he doing here?’

‘He died…’

‘The Wolverine?’

‘Can’t be. Some doppelgänger or obsessive fan.’

‘Sick joke to make. He only just died.’

‘Is that Deadpool?’

“Okay, let’s just get moving.”

Wade seemed to be determined to spoil his ugly mutated rat of a pet. When Logan reached for some generic dog food, Wade slapped his hand away and gasped.

“I can’t believe you’d want to poison our baby, honey badger.”

“It’s fuckin’ dog food, what more could you want,” he protested.

Wade held a hand to his chest in offence and pointed at another bag. Logan squinted to read it. ‘Perfect for sensitive stomachs.’

“It’s wet food, and it’s going to stop her from getting tummy aches.”

“Why would— you know what, I’m not gonna ask.”

The rest of the shopping trip went as such. Logan would go to get something for Mary Puppins, and Wade would complain until Logan begrudgingly threw something much more expensive in the cart. When it came to actual groceries for actual humans, Wade just grabbed whatever the fuck he saw first and looked like it probably had the least nutrients in it.

“Clothes shopping time, Wolvie!” Wade announced. Logan bared his teeth at Wade. He could practically see the man’s grin through his mask.

“I don’t—”

“Get out the way, peanut. Here you go,” Wade said, presenting a credit card to the cashier.

Logan blinked. He leaned over to Wade. “You don’t have to pay for my shit,” he growled.

“Sure, because you’re gonna pay with a crisp high five?”

“No, but—”

“That’s what I thought.”

It was frankly embarrassing to have Wade covering the cost of three pairs of pants, a six pack of boxers and five shirts, but it wasn’t something he could fight on. He had no money except for a nearly drained card which likely wouldn’t even be accepted in a different universe. Logan would have to find a way to pay Wade back, he couldn’t stomach the thought of being in debt to Deadpool.

“You didn’t have to pay for me,” Logan reiterated as they walked out of Walmart. Even through his goddamned mask he could see the way Wade rolled his eyes.

“Well, Wolvie, it’s nice to know that you aren’t above shoplifting, but I’m a bit tired today and would really prefer not to stab a cop today.” Wade swung two plastic bags in his hands. “And if it makes you feel better, Howard Blume is the one paying.”

Wade flicked the credit card at Logan who caught it and noticed that, sure enough, the card belonged to a one Mr. Howard G. Blume.

“A friend?” Logan asked.

“If that’s what you call stalker ex-boyfriends, then yeah, sure. Some teen girl told me to rough him up a bit, and then he was nice enough to let me use his card. Said he wouldn’t even cancel it until it’s been a week.”

“I fucking hate you,” Logan muttered.

“I’m hurt, peanut. Can you cook?”

The conversation switched topics rapidly, something which Logan had come to notice about Wade since meeting him.

“Good enough, it’s food. I don’t fuckin’ know, bub. I don’t think I’ve had a proper meal in a few years.”

When they arrive back at the apartment, Logan has had his ears thoroughly talked off, though he found he didn’t mind much. Mary Puppins leapt at his legs and whined to be picked up, but Wade only offered her a quick head scratch. Wade happily dropped his bags onto the dining table in the kitchen and takes off his mask to put next to them. He began to hum a tune as he systematically unpacked the groceries. There must’ve been a method to his madness, as despite where he put everything having no discernible order, Wade seemed to know exactly where everything went.
Logan stood awkwardly in the kitchen behind Wade. Was he supposed to—

“I cleared out a shelf in the closet for your clothes while you were asleep, honey badger, so you can put them there if you’d like. Or get changed already, if you want, but I really don’t mind if you just keep what you’ve got on.”

Why did Wade think of everything? Just as Logan turned to do what Wade had told him to, plastic bag of his new clothes in hand, Wade called him back.

“If you’re going that direction, peanut, you can also put this in the bathroom. There’s a cup next to the sink. I got you a yellow one because it’s on-brand.”

Logan looked at what Wade was holding out to him, and seeing what it was, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to run away, stab the man, or cry. No, definitely not cry, he corrected himself. Just fight or flight. For Wade was holding out a yellow toothbrush for Logan, something that he himself hadn’t even thought about, let alone spotted Wade grabbing it.

“Alright, yeah, thanks, bub.” Logan hesitantly took the toothbrush, his voice stunting in places. He wasn’t entirely sure why this meant as much as it did to him. Maybe it was because no one had cared about him in decades, maybe it was because he hadn’t cared about himself in almost a century, or maybe it was because that one small act showed that Wade thought he actually fucking mattered. It didn’t matter that he was wrong, but instead that Wade believed he was right.

Toothbrush clutched tightly in hand, Logan made his way down the hall to the closet, and noticed that Wade had in fact cleared a shelf for him to use. He growled at nothing in particular as he shoved the bag of clothes into the closet, deciding to return later to unpack properly. In the bathroom, Logan dropped his new toothbrush into a cup on the sink, used as a makeshift holder. He watched it, sitting next to two other toothbrushes, a red and a blue. Logan hated that he immediately knew which was Wade’s, seeing as the man had already mentioned being ‘on-brand.’

“Is Al back yet?” Logan asked as he left the bathroom. He moved to the kitchen so that he could talk to Wade properly. The man jumped.

“So you are keeping my clothes, then? Cute, peanut. No, I swear that woman is a hooker or a pimp or something, comes and goes as she pleases, and don’t try asking her where she goes, because you’ll get a cane to the shins, which just isn’t fun on a regular day.”

“Will she be back tonight?” Logan scratched his head. He didn’t know why he was hoping she would be. Maybe he just needed a buffer from Wade, someone who could deal with his bullshit instead.

Wade shrugged, turning back to whatever he was doing with the stove. He sniffed something bubbling in a pot, grimacing and reaching for some sort of spice. “Could be, might not be. I’m sure you already saw, but there’s some pillows in the closet you can use to make a barrier.”

Logan blinked. “What?”

Wade waved a hand. “I won’t be offended, peanut, you can grab a second blanket and everything, keep your heterosexuality and masculinity held close to your chest and stuff, y’know what I mean?”

“No.” It wasn’t a lie. Logan didn’t know what half the things that Wade said meant. The man would say something completely nonsensical and then snicker to himself like it was an inside joke only he knew.

Wade sighed, turning around and leaning back against the counter. “You can build a little Wall of New York in the middle of the bed and we can each have our own blanket so that there’s no touchy-touchy in the night, and you don’t catch the gay. Or the cancer. Whatever you’re more scared of.”

“When did you get changed?” Logan wasn’t sure why that was the thing his brain had decided to focus on, but it was strange. Before Logan had gone to put his new clothes away, Wade was still in his Deadpool suit, but now he was stood in front of the stove in a black jumper and the pyjama pants from earlier.

“While you were putting your shit away. It’s my house, I’m allowed to take my suit off.” Wade sounded almost defensive as he tucked his hands into the pocket of his jumper, frowning slightly. It was like he expected Logan to get angry at him for… changing out of the suit? Maybe?

“Yeah, I know, I don’t care, bub. Just wondering. And I don’t need a fuckin’ wall in my bed, just don’t try and cuddle or whatever.”

Wade seemed to drop whatever strange thought was going through his mind, as he brightened up and grinned at Logan. “No spooning, got it.”

Wade continued to cook dinner, his stream of consciousness having a direct path to his mouth, as always. Logan sat on the pullout bed, half listening to whatever Wade was on about, half watching some shitty reality show on the TV. Or, at least, he was half listening until he heard Wade’s voice drop to something more genuine. Or maybe it was the use of his own name — his real name, not a pet name like Wade had continuously used since they met.

“But, y’know, I still mean it, putting up with my shit long enough to save the whole fuckin’ multiverse. Hell, if I were you I would’ve let me die in that Time Ripper. I was a dick to you, and now you can’t even get back to your own fucking universe. Thanks, Logan. And of course I still manage to make my apologies long as shit. Sorry.”

Logan turned his head to look over at Wade, who was standing by the table, two spots set up with a meal. “What?” He managed to ask.

Wade smiled ruefully. “You weren’t listening, were you? I don’t blame you.” His voice took on a sadder edge, and Logan felt like he was required to remove it as soon as possible.

“No, I was listening, I just—”

“Don’t worry about it, peanut, dinner’s ready.”

As much as he didn’t want to drop it, Logan knew that pushing the subject would just anger Wade, and besides, what would he even say to that? ‘I would’ve left you if I had the chance’? ‘I only got in that Time Ripper with you because I didn’t want every single person out there to be erased’? He wasn’t even sure if those statements were true anymore.

Instead, Logan just stood up and went to the table, taking his seat in the one next to Wade. In front of him was a plate of spaghetti and a glass of water. When Logan looked up, he could see Wade eying him nervously.

“Not the best chef, I’ll admit, but I hope it’s edible,” he joked, but Logan could see the truth he tried to hide.

Logan grabbed his fork and took a bite. The sauce was a little lumpy and had too much cheese in it, and the pasta might’ve been a little overdone, but it was the best thing Logan had tasted in years.

“It’s fucking amazing, thanks.”

Wade snorted. “You don’t have to lie—”

Logan met his eyes. “I’m not. I really like it. Remember what I said earlier? Haven’t had a proper meal in a few years.”

Wade seemed to let himself smile from that, but he squirmed a bit under Logan’s gaze. “If you don’t shut up I might start to think you actually like me, peanut.”

Logan’s mind went to speak before he let himself think. It was scary how easily the ‘I do’ nearly fell from his lips, but it was true, wasn’t it? Somewhere between a hate-filled fight in the world’s shittiest car and eating shawarma with a rat-dog on Wade’s lap, Logan had started to actually like the mercenary. He was infuriating, immoral, immature, and far too goddamn loud, but Logan liked him. In spite of that or because of it, he didn’t know, all he knew was that he did.

“You know, I saw a lot of Wolverines before I found you,” Wade said around a mouthful.

Logan hummed in acknowledgment, looking up at him.

“The first one was really short— like, comic-accurate. Tiny little baby Wolvie, y’know?”

Logan tilted his head, curiosity piqued. “How short?”

Wade gestured vaguely with a hand and Logan burst out laughing.

“His head was only just taller than the bar,” Wade snickered.

“Was that the worst one?” Logan had a feeling he was going to regret this line of conversation, but he was very, very interested in knowing what other versions of him were out there, especially considering he saw just how wild they got with the Deadpool variants.

Wade shook his head, eyes wide. “Oh, fuck no. There was this one that seriously might’ve been a caveman or Neanderthal or something, absolutely wild hair. He started trying to kill me immediately, in his fiery little alley.”

“Wait, how many were there?” Logan asked, taking a sip of his water. It wasn’t alcohol, and he knew he was going to start wanting some soon, but for now it was alright.

“Variants?” Wade clarified. “Exactly one hundred and thirty three before you. All of them tried to kill me or just… weren’t gonna work. There was this one that was in a little cabin in the woods giving strong Brokeback Mountain vibes, and I would’ve gone for him but he decided to install a brand new window in my stomach via shotgun, so we had to pass unfortunately. Just didn’t work well with a group. Plus he looked really old. Needed some pyramid scheme anti-aging essential oils.”

Logan paused, letting his brain work through what Wade had said. He was already starting to learn how to decode the extended metaphors he used. “Did he just look older? I didn’t realise that the variants could be different ages.”

“Did you not see Kidpool and Babypool? Surprisingly, I’m not actually an infant. Besides, you’re like… a century older than the original Wolverine in this timeline.” Wade shrugged, acting as if this wasn’t a big deal. “But he looked like he was a century older than you. You look great for your age, peanut.”

Logan huffed, rolling his eyes at Wade and looking back at his plate, twirling his fork.

“Anyway, there was the one that looked really promising, but then the Hulk came and threw me into a tree and I kinda fell into a portal. Oh, and Patch! Some gambling addict version with an eyepatch… he didn’t like me much. And my favourite—” Wade cut himself off, tilting his head as he thought. “—Second favourite; a groaning, dying one crucified on this big cross in a land made of only bloodied skulls. That one was great. I think he wished he was dead. And we can’t forget the Cavillrine.”

“The what?”

“Definitely would’ve gone with him if he didn’t throw me across the room with six new breathing holes into a portal. And that’s the last one before I met you, peanut!”

Logan sat back. “So you weren’t kidding when you said every other Wolverine would’ve really hurt you,” he murmured. Wade nodded enthusiastically.

“That’s when I knew you were the peanut for me. The Wolverine to my Deadpool, the claws to my cancer. Worked out great, didn’t it? I scored the best one out of all those fuckers.” He grinned happily, and Logan couldn’t help but return his smile, even if only a little. Wade really wouldn’t drop his stupid delusion that this Logan was somehow not the worst, despite knowing what he had done, and it was almost charming in a way.

When the table went quiet, only broken by small sighs or scraping forks, Logan found the silence to be strange. He’d gotten very used to Wade’s constant chatter. It was a nice buffer between him and the echoing in his mind.

“Thanks for dinner, bub,” Logan said once they were both finished, the corners of his lips twitching up.

Wade waved a hand as he swept Logan’s plate out from under him. “Don’t worry about it, it’s whatever.”

Logan only just caught the small blush on Wade’s face before he was turning away to bring their plates to the sink.

“I will take payment in the form of your opinions on the Bachelor though. For some reason, he kept Kasey last night, and I just can’t work out why, she’s a bitch!”

“What’s the Bachelor?”

Wade turned dramatically, hand held to his chest. “Peanut, you better be kidding.”

Logan shook his head, repressing another odd smile at the theatrics.

Wade snapped his fingers, leaving the kitchen. “Right, follow me.”

“Is that Kasey?”

“No, that’s Kathy.”

“Her?”

“Uh, no that’s Krystal. Or Kelsey?”

Logan stared. They all looked the same, and they all had stupid K names. “Why are they all blonde?”

Wade shrugged. “It’s popular, I guess?”

Kylie threw a glass of wine in Kassie’s face before Katie broke up the bitch fight before it got too out of hand. Then it cut to an interview with Kaylie, who was fanning her eyes and crying about how Kirsty called her a slut.

“Who should I hate again?” Logan asked. He couldn’t even remember who half of them were.

“Kasey.”

“Can I hate all of them?”

Wade snorted. “Sure, but he’s gotta marry one of them.”

Logan baulked. “Marry?”

“Yeah, that’s kind of the point of the show, Wolvie. Bunch of girls, some guy who couldn’t find one person in the wild to like him, eliminate until there’s only two left, then marry one of them. Hardly ever works out in the long run. I can count on one finger how many couples I’ve seen make the distance.”

“How desperate do you have to be…” Logan mumbled, bewildered.

Wade laughed, properly this time. “Well, I’m sure you’ve never found yourself lacking in that department, peanut. Don’t you have girls lining up?”

Logan stayed silent. He didn’t really; not for a long time. He was the worst Wolverine, after all, and even before that, he was just a miserable old drunk. Sure, some people were more than happy to get the badge of honour that came with fucking the Wolverine, and Logan often went along with it, but it never went much further than that.

Jean’s words echoed in Logan’s mind. ‘Girls flirt with the dangerous guy, Logan. They don’t take him home. They take home the good guy.’

He shut down that train of thought before it went too far. He couldn’t think about any of them. It didn’t matter how much he tried to forget, he couldn’t, the most he could do was push it to the back of his mind and

‘I can be the good guy.’

But when Wade turned off the TV and sunk down into bed, softly petting Mary Puppins who he had insisted was also allowed to sleep on the bed, all Logan could see was Jean’s face, slick with blood and her eyes blank. He cupped her cold cheek, wiping some of the blood from her nose away. Of course he couldn’t be the good guy. He never was.

“Goodnight, Wolvie.”

Chapter Text

Wade tried — he really did — to keep himself corpse-still, but it was near impossible to tell your unconscious body what to do. When he woke up with one leg slung over Logan, he hurriedly pulled himself away. Wade listened into the silence, but all he could hear was Mary’s snuffling from the floor where she was asleep in a pile of Wade’s clothes. She must’ve jumped down in the night.

It was dark, must’ve been around four or five in the morning. He sat up, getting out of bed. Wade took a moment to stare at Logan in the least creepy way possible. He was asleep still, which was lucky, as Wade was pretty sure that if he was awake Wade would’ve earned at least three new stab wounds for breaking Logan’s ‘no cuddling’ rule, regardless of how accidental or minimal it was.
Wade shuffled through the dark, making his way to the kitchen where he made a pot of coffee. He did this every morning; waking before the sunrise, getting some coffee, and going to sit on the fire escape.

It was cold outside, and as Wade crawled out the window he shivered, hit by the sudden breeze. The metal of the fire escape was no kinder, but Wade didn’t care. He closed the window behind him and sat down, tucking his feet up so he was sitting cross-legged. His toes were already starting to go blue, as were his fingers, but he didn’t really care.

Wade held his mug tightly, taking a sip every now and then. He couldn’t remember when this new routine started, but it had long since become his normal.

Four days ago Wade thought his entire world was going to vanish. Going to be torn from him just as he started to feel a tiny bit more normal again. Since then, he had gone through more than he ever thought possible, travelling all manner of universes in search for a replacement Wolverine after the original went and died.

Wade smiled ruefully into his mug as he remembered how useless he felt being told that getting a new Wolverine wouldn’t be enough to save his friends. Being sent to the Void was strange, but surely there was something he could do to get out and snitch on that Paradox asshole to his bosses at the TVA.

A psycho bald lady read his every insecurity.

‘Oh honey, you don’t really seem like the world-saving type.’

It stung, because Wade knew just how true it was. He was a failure, and he had no chance of doing the one thing that he wanted, which in itself was a selfish request.

‘Did I hit a nerve?’

‘You’ll never fucking matter.’

‘She never said that!’

‘No, but I bet she thought it.’

It was true, wasn’t it? Everything Cassandra had said had been true, which added just another layer to how sick she was. Vanessa couldn’t have dealt with Wade any longer. He’d ruined everything, gotten her killed, and he couldn’t even get his own head out of his ass long enough to realise that his actions had consequences.

The words that spilled out of Logan’s mouth in that godforsaken car stung, because once more, they were all fucking true. Wade had started to learn that the truth hurt him most.

Wade shouldn’t have lied. He shouldn’t have told Logan that the one thing he wanted most, something Wade had already identified as a weakness, was able to be fixed when he had no clue. The worst part was realising that he couldn’t even go back and make things right, because the boss lady from the TVA had rejected the idea.

Logan hadn’t acted like it bothered him, but Wade knew it should. It probably did, and Logan was just being nice enough to not try and kill Wade for ruining everything again. Or worse, somehow, leave him.

Wade didn’t know why he called after Logan, but he was glad that he did. He had no idea why Logan had stayed, but fuck, if he wasn’t going to make this the best home that man had ever had.

“What’re you doin’?”

Wade jumped, turning to the window. He hadn’t heard it open, having been lost in his thoughts, but now he was looking up at Logan’s head poked out the window.

“Oh, sorry, peanut. I didn’t mean to wake you up, you can go back to sleep, I don’t mind.”

Logan frowned. “I woke up anyway, dumbass. How long have you been out here?”

Wade hummed, placing his mug down on the ground. “Like, twenty minutes, maybe.”

“I’ve been awake for longer than that, bub.”

Logan climbed out the window to sit next to Wade, leaning back against the building with one leg stretched out and the other bent at the knee. He was already dressed for the day, wearing a white tank top and jeans, red flannel shirt thrown on over the top. Wade looked out into the street, surprised to see the sun having already risen.

“Oh, yeah, must’ve got distracted.” It happened more often than not. The voices in his head ran in circles, and his brain kept providing new trains of thought to get lost on. Sometimes, if he was lucky, his mind went completely silent, and he could float in a space of just being there. Without all the noise that he always lived with.

“Are you… feeling alright, bub?”

Wade gasped, placing a hand on his chest and turning to Logan. “Are you kidding me? Am I dreaming right now or is the Wolverine seriously asking if I’m okay?”

Logan glared at him. “I’ll remember not to do it again.”

“Nooooo,” Wade whined, curling in on himself as he pretended to cry. “Why do you hate me, Wolvie? Please, go back to being nice, I was starting to like it.”

Logan managed to successfully bring Wade back inside after a couple minutes, and once Wade’s feet hit the floorboards inside, he realised just how numb they were. It was a strange sensation, because it felt like he was just floating from the mid-calf down.

“It’s fucking eight?” Wade realised when he saw the shitty clock over the door. He must’ve been sitting outside for hours.

Logan didn’t respond, merely shoving Wade forward into the kitchen. “Eat.”

Wade scoffed indignantly about being manhandled, turning to the table. “What do you even want me to— aw, peanut! You sneaky little honey badger, all this for me? And it’s not even burnt!”

Wade laid the enthusiasm and surprise on thick, hoping that the exaggeration of it masked the actual emotion behind it. Hastily made bacon, eggs and toast was waiting for him on the dining table. It looked nice. Perfectly crisp bacon, eggs sunny-side up, and the plate even looked artfully designed, though Wade was sure he was just imagining it.

It was so sickeningly sweet. Logan had told him just the day before that he hadn’t even made a decent meal for himself in years, and the first thing he made wasn’t even for himself. It was for Wade. Wade shook his head. No, the first thing he made was for himself. These were probably leftovers that he had thrown together onto a plate after making his own food.

Logan wanted to go get insanely drunk, pass out at a bar at ten in the morning, and then wake up in an alley or on the floor of the bar with slightly less memories than he went out with. He stared intensely at the ground. He was just being courteous. A final thank you to the man who had paid for Logan’s new toothbrush, clothes, food, and then let him sleep on his bed.

“I’ll fucking throw it out if you don’t eat it,” Logan snapped. Wade just smiled and slid into his chair. Logan shifted uncomfortably where he stood. He wasn’t really sure where he was supposed to go. Was it time for him to find a plastic bag to shove his new clothes in, wave goodbye, and hope he can find a comfortable park bench for the next few nights while he tried to earn enough for a shitty motel? Or was he supposed to say a proper thank you first? A thank you that had more words than a plate of food did. Logan wasn’t very good with words.

“Whatcha doing today, peanut?” Wade garbled around a mouthful. Logan crinkled his nose at the sight before properly processing what Wade had said. So it seemed he was going to rip the Band-Aid off for him, then. At least he tried to make it nice.

“There’s this fucking awesome looking movie out at the moment, and I’m not lying, would totally love to go see it but I understand if your old man eyes can’t look at a screen for longer than thirty minutes. And I suck at sitting in movie theatres for a long time. It’s honestly better at home, because then you can pause it whenever the fuck you want and go do something else, so I’ll probably wait for it to come out on some streaming service or whatever. Or pirate it, I’m not above that.”

Logan stared. That didn’t sound like getting kicked out.

Wade laughed. “Why do you look so surprised? If I’m not above murder-for-hire, then why would I draw the line at piracy? Fuck the billion dollar corporations.”

“Don’t you want me to leave?” Logan asked before Wade could go on a tangent about his hatred for Big Pharma or something.

“No? Unless you want to, in which case I would love for you to fuck off and hope that reverse psychology actually works,” Wade said, frowning. He had his half-eaten piece of toast in front of his mouth, bacon and eggs piled on it. He looked oddly comfortable, and Logan realised that he had only really seen Wade in near-death scenarios, or shortly after, not lounging at home.

If he wasn’t getting kicked out, then was he allowed to stay? And did Wade want him to stay? It sure sounded like it. Logan wasn’t sure what to do with that. It had been a very long time since anyone wanted him to stay with them, and he couldn’t even remember if it had ever happened before. Surely Al wouldn’t want him around, though, so maybe it was better that he left anyway.

“Uh, peanut? Did I break you or something?” Wade waved a hand in front of Logan’s face, and he blinked, snapping out of his thoughts. Wade had finished eating, and had stood up to look at Logan quizzically.

“No, it’s fine. I just don’t want to get in your way or anything,” Logan mumbled. He had no idea what to do in this situation. Was he just supposed to nod and walk away? Insist that, no, he was going to leave anyway? Deflect? That could work.

Wade laughed. “Believe me, I’m more than okay with you being in my way, honey badger. Not that you are, but if you ever feel like it, not gonna argue,” he said with a wink.

“What time did you wake up?” Logan blurted. He ran out of time to make a proper decision on what to do, and he needed to draw the conversation away from the subject. Maybe if he could get Wade talking about something again he could fall back into his usual routine of sounds of acknowledgment and telling him to shut the fuck up, regardless of how little he meant it.

Wade tilted his head. Logan was getting nervous that he might be able to read his internal debate on his face. “Maybe five or six? I don’t know, didn’t look at the clock. It was too dark to see it anyway.” Wade seemed to decide that was all he needed to say, as he stepped past Logan, giving him a quick pat on the shoulder as he did so. “Gonna hit the shower. I swear I can still smell that shit from yesterday. I mean, sure, there was a shit-ton of blood from all those imposter Deadpools, but did it get baked into my skin or something?” Wade trailed off as he wandered into the bathroom, complaining about tattoos not sticking around, but the smell of blood lingering on his skin.

“Fuck’s sake, he’s gonna use up all the damn hot water,” a voice grouched. Logan turned to see Althea walk into the room, holding onto the dining table to steady herself.

“Morning,” Logan offered once he gained control of his voice again. Al smiled in his general direction before taking a seat at the table.

“Morning, Logan. Did Wade try and hug you in his sleep? Sorry about him, he’s a little shit.”

Logan needed to leave, as soon as possible, hopefully. Wade might not want him to leave, but Logan couldn’t stick around. Any time he did, he was reminded that he was far better alone. He got his friends and family hurt or killed when he stayed around.

“No, he’s— he’s fine.”

Al snorted. “I don’t know how you deal with him. I’ve known him for years and I still can’t.”

Logan nodded, mostly to himself as he knew Al wouldn’t see it. He didn’t even fit here; it wasn’t his universe. If he stayed, then he would forever be the guy masquerading as a hero. He didn’t deserve the praise and admiration that went to this universe’s Logan.

He was taking up space in Wade’s apartment, barging in like he owned the place and sleeping on his bed and eating his food, making him spend his own money on Logan’s new clothes because he didn’t have a thing to his name.

Even if he wanted to leave, Logan wasn’t sure he could. He didn’t exist in this universe, let alone have money or bank accounts or a social security number. He wouldn’t be able to get a proper job, nor provide any identification to get his own apartment. Logan was nothing but a dead man in this universe.

Logan tried to make himself useful, taking Wade’s dishes he left behind and going to wash them in the sink.

“I don’t know how that dickhead managed to bring home such a helpful man. What’s he paying you?”

Logan snorted, looking over his shoulder at Althea. “Thanks, and he’s not paying me.”

Al tilted her head. “Really? I’d be charging an hourly rate,” she mumbled.

“Would you like me to get you some breakfast?” Logan offered, hoping to get on Al’s good side. She already seemed like a nice lady, and Logan wanted to be respectful for her, considering he had just moved into her living room without asking properly.

“God, you’re a sweet one.”

Logan took that as a yes, grabbing another few rashers of bacons to cook for her. He hoped she’d like it, distantly wondering if he should ask if she was vegetarian or vegan before realising that she could probably smell the bacon cooking and she hadn’t said anything about it yet.

“Oh, I picked the best housewife, that’s for sure.”

Logan let out a growl at Wade’s words, glaring at him from over his shoulder. He was slightly surprised to see Wade fully dressed in his Deadpool costume, mask and all. He assumed that the man must’ve picked up some shady mercenary job, a strange feeling building in his chest as he vaguely wondered why Wade hadn’t asked him to come. Logan shook the thought away as quickly as it arrived. He wasn’t going to become Wade’s mercenary partner. Deadpool clearly didn’t need anyone by his side, least of all a broken, fucked-up drunkard. And Logan hadn’t given Wade any indication of wanting to join him, so he had no reason to assume.

Serving up Althea’s plate and feeling slight pride in the smile she gave him in return, Logan slapped at Wade’s arm when he tried to steal some of her toast.

“But peanut! It was nice!” He whined. Logan kind of wanted to stab him, but he didn’t want to get blood all over the kitchen. It wouldn’t be fair on Wade or Al.

“Not yours, bub. You had your food already,” Logan scolded. Wade sighed loudly, walking off to flop down on the couch that Logan had remade that morning.

“Fuck you, peanut. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

Logan tilted his head. He had thought that Wade was going to be leaving the apartment to go do his job now, but instead he just flicked on the TV and searched through the channels.

“Are you—” Logan didn’t get to finish his question when there was a quick succession of harsh knocks at the door. He didn’t miss the way Wade froze, nor the sharp intake of breath before he slowly got up from the couch.

“I didn’t invite anyone over,” he mumbled, moving to stand next to Logan.

“No?”

Another bang on the door made Wade jump. Though Logan wasn’t sure why this was making the man so skittish, it made him wary of the person behind the door. If Wade was scared of who it could be, then Logan wasn’t sure if he wanted to face them.

“Logan Howlett!”

Logan flinched. Someone already knew he was here. Someone was already coming to hunt him down and kill anyone who got in the way. This was why he needed to leave, it wasn’t safe for him to be around anyone.

“We come with the TVA.”

Oh.

Wade seemed to visibly relax. “Those sons of bitches really can’t get enough of you, can they?” Wade laughed, walking over to the door to open it. His joking nature returned, and it made Logan feel a little safer.

Three TVA agents in their odd armour were standing in the doorway, the one closest to the front looking slightly unsettled as he glanced at Wade. He cleared his throat, locking his eyes on Logan.

“Mr. Howlett, we have come to collect you to take to the TVA office for a scheduled meeting. It is important you come, and we will resort to force to bring you there if we must.”

Logan frowned. “I didn’t schedule a meeting.” He watched Wade’s hand twitch, knowing it rested just over his gun holster.

“It was scheduled on the TVA’s behalf,” the man said.

“Can you fuckers stop showing up at my door randomly? Send a motherfucking text next time!” Al shouted from her spot at the table.

Another agent, a woman, inclined her head towards Al. “We apologise, madam, we hope for this to be the last time we come across each other in this manner, but it was vital to collect Mr. Howlett for this meeting.”

“Yeah, whatever, just give a fucking phone call for warning next time, would ya?” Al waved a hand to signal her part in the conversation was over.

“What’s the meeting about?” Logan spoke up. The agents all turned to him.

“We cannot disclose that at this time. If you come with us, all will be explained,” the first agent said firmly. Logan glared at him through the helmet obscuring his face.

“I’m coming,” Wade blurted. Logan’s head snapped to him.

“To the meeting?” Logan confirmed. Wade nodded, looking between him and the TVA agents at the door.

A shrill bark distracted everyone as Mary Puppins leapt down from where she was napping on the couch. She jumped excitedly at the TVA agents’ feet, yipping happily and whining for attention.

“Some guard dog,” Logan grumbled. He turned back to the agents at the door, frowning. “He comes,” he said, pointing at Wade. Wade straightened up, probably surprised by Logan’s reaction. He glanced at him with wide eyes, tilting his head. Logan gave a sharp nod.

“Really, it must be only you, Mr. Howlett,” the female agent said.

“He comes, or I don’t,” Logan growled.

The first agent slowly pulled a Tempad out of a pocket in his suit. Logan followed it with his eyes as he passed it to the female agent.

“Package deal, pals, what can I say?” Wade chirped, skipping over to Logan’s side. “And if you really don’t want me come, I wouldn’t be too opposed to some extra exercise. I enjoyed my last little day player battle.”

The first agent stiffened, but he still turned to the female agent and nodded to her. The third agent was busy herding Mary back into the apartment and off his leg. The agent pressed a few buttons on the Tempad and an orange rectangle portal appeared just behind Logan and Wade with a blip.

“If you must, Mr. Wilson.”

The first agent extended a hand, gesturing for Logan and Wade to enter the portal. Mary whined and ran away from the portal, tail between her legs, Al continued to eat her breakfast, seemingly unperturbed by the TVA’s sudden arrival. Logan distantly wondered if this had happened more than once, and if she had gotten used to it.

“Please, Mr. Howlett, Mr. Wilson, do not make this more difficult for us,” the female agent said, stepping forward to herd the men into the portal. Logan growled as her hand grazed his back, but she didn’t seem to care. With a hand firmly on each of the men’s shoulder blades, she guided them through the orange light.

When they emerged on the opposite side, the woman let go, though not without one last shove to push them into the room. Logan recognised it as where he had been shortly before getting seen to the Void. The woman walked out from behind them, standing to the side with her hands clasped behind her back, Tempad tucked into the pocket on her belt.

Two more shimmering noises made Logan look behind him, the remaining two agents appearing from the portal. The third agent stood next to the woman, the first taking his place on the other side of the walkway.

“Mr. Howlett,” a voice greeted. Logan’s head snapped back around and he stared at the person who called him. That woman from the Time Ripper in the brown suit had appeared from nowhere, regarding him carefully. “And… Mr. Wilson.” Her voice was more strained as she looked at Wade, clearly not all that thrilled to find that he had also come along.

Logan’s eyes shifted to the woman stood next to her. He didn’t recognise this one, but she was wearing a crisp grey suit, hands neatly joined behind her back and blonde hair carefully pinned back in a ponytail.

“If you don’t remember, I am B-15, and you may call me as such. I am the head of the TVA in all sectors, and you may recognise me from the arrest of Paradox, the old supervisor of Earth-10005. Thank you for coming to meet us, Logan.”

B-15’s eyes flickered over to Wade for a second before she refocused on Logan.

“You should change your name to B-12, it rolls off the tongue better,” Wade said, shrugging. “But why are we here?”

B-15 cleared her throat. “Well, we only expected to see Logan for our meeting, but I suppose it may be useful for you to be introduced to the new supervisor of Earth-10005 as well, Mr. Wilson.” She nodded at the woman next to her, and she stepped forward, holding a hand out to shake Logan’s. When Logan didn’t take it, the woman gave an awkward cough and turned to Wade who very slowly shook it, watching the woman carefully.

“It is wonderful to meet you. The rest of the TVA has been buzzing about the new dual anchor beings; it is something we have not seen before.” The woman smiled, taking a step back. “I’m Pandora, former vice officer of timeline security here on Earth-10005, now supervisor.”

Logan eyed her warily. He wasn’t sure why he had any reason to trust this woman. If she were anything like her old boss, she was going to be nothing but an arrogant bitch.

“Why are you all named after abstract concepts and weird things? Paradox, B-15, Pandora… is your real name something normal? I bet it’s, like… Caitlin or Brittany or something,” Wade wondered aloud, his brain to mouth filter as broken as always.

Pandora smiled, and Logan was impressed to see it only looked a little pained. “No, I assure you, Mr. Wilson, my name is indeed Pandora. I am here to introduce myself to the both of you and have a conversation with Mr. Howlett. I intend to keep to myself as much as possible, as the TVA is supposed to do. Paradox interfered with the timeline far too much, as our purpose is to operate in the background, unseen unless we need to be.”

“What do you need to talk to me about?”

“Right, yes, thank you, Mr. Howlett—”

“Logan,” he corrected, cutting her off. Pandora’s jaw set.

“Logan. B-15 and I must speak with you alone.” Her eyes flicked to Wade and gave him a quick nod.

Logan froze. This was it; this was how they were going to send him away. Take him into a different room and tell him that he had to go back to his old universe, spout some shit about his presence messing with the timeline, then zapping him away before he could even argue. Logan couldn’t go back, he just couldn’t.

“We understand you may be hesitant, Logan,” B-15 spoke up. “But it is very important this discussion is kept private.”

From the corner of his eye, Logan could see Wade looking back and forth between B-15 and Logan, gauging their reactions.

“Why can’t he hear it?” Logan tried to keep his voice determined and steady, brow furrowed, but he was worried that the others could hear it waver. He wasn’t even sure why he wanted Wade to come with him, as there’d be nothing he would be able to do to stop the TVA sending him away if they felt like it. Maybe it was just the comfort of having an ally in the room, or maybe he expected Wade to protest or fight for him. They could probably take the two women, incapacitate them, and make a run for it, but really, how long can you run from a large organisation who can mess with the very fabric of time?

“This is the exact reason why I came along, hi, yes, hello, I’m an anchor being here too. If you wanna talk to hot stuff over here—” Wade gestured to Logan, “—then you can talk to me too.”

Pandora cleared her throat. “This has nothing to do with either of your statuses as anchor beings. If it was, we would want to talk to both of you.”

Wade seemed to be ready to argue more, but Logan placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t bother, bub. It’s fine,” he mumbled. Logan turned to B-15 and Pandora, nodding. “Alright, where do you want me to go?”

The four of them took the elevator down one floor where Wade was safely deposited in some sort of waiting room, complaining all the way about how mind-numbingly boring the place looked. Pandora seemed like she was stuck between wanting to kill Wade, send him home, or give him an iPad to play with. Her eye twitched as she smiled at him, apologising for the lack of entertainment, and hurried back into the elevator.

Walking down seemingly endless corridors was putting Logan on edge, not at all helped by Pandora trying to initiate small talk.

“I hope you’ve made yourself comfortable here?” She asked. Logan frowned. He didn’t want to talk to this woman, least of all about the world that she was about to rip him away from.

“No.”

“Ah, well, hopefully you will soon,” she said awkwardly. Logan knew he wasn’t making it easy on her, but he didn’t particularly care. That was until he processed what she had just said.

“You aren’t sending me back to my old universe?”

Pandora smiled weakly, all three of them coming to a stop in front of a door which B-15 unlocked with a card around her neck.

“We’ll cover that in here, Logan,” B-15 clarified, walking into the room and looking back at him expectantly.

Logan followed her, Pandora entering behind him and closing the door. Logan looked around the room. If he had to guess, he assumed it would be Pandora’s office, especially considering that she went and sat in the large orange chair behind the desk. B-15 sat in a different chair slightly to the side next to her, and Pandora gestured for Logan to take a seat in the chair across from her.

“We’re glad you were able to join us without too much difficulty, Logan. Before we begin, I would just like to clarify that B-15 is only here as a precautionary measure, depending on your decision. Being the head of the TVA, she is extremely busy and only comes to specific timelines under extraordinary circumstances, and should you ever need to interact with the TVA again, it will likely only be me you will be speaking to.”

Logan nodded hesitantly, taking his time to mull over Pandora’s words. ‘Extraordinary circumstances’ didn’t fill him with too much confidence.

“Right, so if you’re ready to begin, we can start our little discussion,” Pandora said, smiling. She reached for a few stapled pieces of paper, quickly scanning the first couple lines. “First order of business would be letting you know what has become of my former boss, Mr. Paradox. He has been removed from this timeline and demoted to a junior member in Earth-616’s monitor system alongside well over ten thousand others. He no longer has any power, and should not be able to bother you anymore.”

Logan inclined his head, acknowledging her words. He wasn’t overly happy to hear that Paradox hadn’t been imprisoned or at the very least removed from the TVA as a whole, but this would have to be. Beggars can’t be choosers, after all.

“Secondly, we must deal with the newest development on you and Mr. Wilson’s emergence as the new anchor beings of this timeline.”

Logan forced himself to pay close attention to Pandora’s next words. This was what was going to tell him if he was going to be removed from this timeline.

“While this is something we have yet to see happen, judging by the degradation rate of the timeline having stopped, it is safe to assume that the two of you are equal in your bond to the universe. Of course, if you should choose so, we believe that your departure from the timeline would not cause its collapse, seeing as it would then shift to relying solely on Wade Wilson.”

“What do you mean ‘departure’?” Logan asked quickly.

Pandora grinned. “Yes, thank you. We would like to request your final decision on your residence in the multiverse. We understand that these are very rare circumstances and would like to extend a few options in accordance. Should you wish, we can return you to Earth-8556, the universe you originate from, or you can remain here on Earth-10005 as one of its two new anchor beings.”

Earth-8556. So his old home had a name after all. Logan had thought that maybe he had let it go to shit enough that it wasn’t even worthy of being tracked by the TVA anymore.

He couldn’t go back; Logan knew that. Nothing was there for him aside from mutant-hating organisations which had cropped up due to his mistakes, and millions of people who wanted him dead but were unable to kill him. He couldn’t even drink himself into oblivion, being rejected and thrown out of every bar he managed to stumble his way into.

It was an easy question to answer, so why was Logan unable to make himself say the words? Maybe deep down he still hadn’t let go of his X-Men. He may have said that the suit was the last thing he had of them, but wasn’t the whole universe they had lived and died in also something? Maybe the eternal punishment of staying in Earth-8556 was what he deserved.

If Logan agreed to leaving his old world behind permanently, it was like he was finally acknowledging that his X-Men — his family — weren’t ever coming back. Acknowledging that they really were all dead, and he was letting them go. Was that what they would’ve wanted? Would they have wanted him to continue without them, or would they have wanted him to hold onto them and not let their memories die just as their bodies had. Logan knew the answer, of course. As much of a dick he had been to them all, they had loved him, and he had loved them. If he were to die before them, he would’ve wanted them to move on, and he knew the same would be true in reverse. It still felt awful, though, to sit in a room in an entirely different universe and agree to throwing them aside in favour for a new life, but it was what they would’ve wanted. He sounded like a disgustingly self-comforting obituary, trying to pat himself on the back and deny what he had done and attempt to clear the guilt, and it made Logan feel sick.

Logan’s mouth went dry and his throat constricted. He wasn’t going to break down in this office. He wasn’t going to cry selfishly about having killed his family and now forgetting them.

“I’ll stay here,” he forced out, voice cracking. Pandora looked up from where she was looking over the paperwork and nodded. She glanced at B-15, who removed a Tempad from her pocket.

“Thank you, Logan, you’ll do well here. That was all I needed to be here for, and I believe Pandora will be able to sufficiently handle the rest. Though I would prefer not to see each other again for a time, I bid you good luck.”

Logan blinked rapidly, staring at a spot on the floor. He heard the blip of a portal appearing, and the whoosh of B-15 disappearing through it.

“It’s good to have you, Logan. I had hoped you would say that, you have made a wise choice.”

Logan glanced back up to see Pandora looking at him, smiling softly. She pushed a piece of paper across the desk to him, holding out a pen for him to take.

“The last thing we need to cover before you are free to go is a bit of paperwork to get yourself a legal identity in this universe. It won’t take long at all, as the TVA will handle everything from here. All we need is a name and a date of birth, feel free to use your real one.”

Logan looked at the paper, slowly taking the pen from Pandora. The date of birth was simple, April 29th, 1761. He caught a glimpse of Pandora frowning as she watched him write, and he vaguely wondered if this world’s Wolverine had a different birthday.

All they needed was a name. A name, that was easy, right? All he needed to do was write his name, but it wasn’t that simple, was it?

He’d been Logan for as long as he could remember, but had never been presented the chance on a silver platter for the name he went by to become his real name.

James Howlett, just write James Howlett, he thought bitterly. His hand wasn’t cooperating. Why was this such a big deal? It was just a name.

When Logan looked back at the paper, he had filled out the name. ‘Logan James Howlett.’ His eyes flicked back up to find Pandora’s. She nodded once more and took the pen from him, sliding the paper back across the desk to her.

“Thank you again, Logan. We’ll take you to collect Mr. Wilson and then you are free to go. Any documents you should need will be delivered to you within the next few days.”

“Peanut, next time you decide to leave me behind, make it in a not so boring room, will you? I was almost to the point of cutting off my toes and timing how long it took for them to grow back.”

Wade’s voice was, surprisingly, a welcome distraction from Logan’s thoughts.

“I’d give you one hour per toe,” Logan deadpanned.

Wade sighed. “You underestimate me, honey badger, I’m saying thirty minutes. But that’s not the point, what were you talking about?”

“Just letting me know that Paradox won’t be around anymore, then asking if I wanted to go back to my old universe or stay in this one,” Logan mumbled, shrugging. His palms were a little sweaty and he could feel the dull headache that had been bothering him for days now starting to get a little stronger. How long had it been since he’d had a drink? The night before storming Cassandra’s lair, so… two days? Nearly three? It felt longer.

Wade tilted his head. Logan tried not to look too hard into the way his face fell. “Oh… so what time are you leaving? Do you need help packing?”

Logan frowned, staring at Wade confusedly. “What are you on about, bub? I ain’t leaving.”

Wade straightened up, surprise painting his face. “Really?”

Logan shifted uncomfortably on the couch. “Not unless you want me to—”

“Oh, no, no, god no, peanut, I thought we covered this, you’re good to stay as long as you want. I just thought you wouldn’t… nevermind, it’s nothing. I think Al would cry if you left, though, she’s already raving about how much she loves having such a respectful, attractive new roommate.”

Logan snorted, reaching for the remote that Wade had been waving around dramatically. Logan had started to notice that Wade talked with his whole body, gesturing wildly all the time.

“She’s blind, bub. She can’t see.”

Wade’s eyes widened. “Oh, believe me, I have given her some graphic descriptions.”

Logan shook his head. “I don’t even want to know.”

“Probably not.”

Logan absently scratched the top of Mary’s head from where she laid next to him on the couch, using his other hand to flick through the TV channels.

“So what are you doing today?” Wade asked, ten seconds of silence seeming to be his limit before he needed to fill it.

“Not much,” Logan said. “Thought you were going somewhere earlier, before the whole TVA thing.”

After they had gotten back to the apartment, Wade had loudly declared that going back to that shithole had reminded him that he hadn’t fully recovered from the Time Ripper and being in the Void, and then shouting for Logan to shield his eyes because it was a pyjama day and he wasn’t going to wait for Logan to leave the room before stripping.

“Nah, I just wear the suit a lot. It’s comfy, but not as comfy as pyjamas, and I just can’t be fucked right now.”

Logan nodded. He understood that, to a degree. Once he had returned, he had silently agreed with Wade’s sentiment. It wasn’t a long outing, maybe two or three hours all up, but it made him realise that he was still so tired from everything that had happened in the last four days, both physically and emotionally. He had also changed after getting back — in the bathroom, of course — into a simple sweatshirt and boxers, and collapsed onto the couch beside Wade.

“So what do you think about the new lady? Better than Paradox, right?”

Logan hummed. She didn’t seem terrible, but he was glad to hear that the TVA would mostly stay out of the way in the future.

“Don’t know, don’t really have an opinion. Good thing that the TVA isn’t really going to keep hanging around us though.”

Logan wondered when it was that his brain had decided that he and Wade were an ‘us’, but he supposed it made sense. The two new anchor beings, no matter how much he tried to run, he and Wade kind of were a package deal in the TVA’s eyes.

Chapter Text

On Logan’s sixth day of living with Wade, his excuse of being too tired to leave the apartment for longer than an hour was starting to wear thin. He had spent most of the week sleeping off alcohol withdrawal and lingering exhaustion from saving the multiverse, occasionally throwing up when the headaches became unbearable.

Even Wade had decided that his pyjama day defence no longer stood, and had started going out again while wearing his Deadpool suit from time to time to get ‘important business’ done. Logan was almost certain he was taking morally ambiguous mercenary jobs again, though he supposed he had no room to judge, considering he had barely got off his ass in the last week.

It was one of Wade’s ‘important business’ days when Logan’s new documents arrived at the door, along with something else.

Being left alone in the apartment was a little strange. Al had gone out to what she claimed was bingo, but Logan guessed was her dealer’s house, and Wade had waved goodbye to Logan shortly after, smacking an obnoxious kiss on his forehead that earned him a swift punch to the gut.

Mary squinted up at him through her watery eyes, and Logan let himself smile at her. No one was around to see him, and the dog wasn’t going to tell anyone. The beast had grown on him over the last week, and he’d started getting soft on her, sliding her scraps of human food under the table when no one was watching, and letting her curl up on his lap when he was on the couch.

“I know, bub, I’ll get it.”

The knock at the door had interrupted Logan’s very important task of trying not to fall asleep as he stared blankly at whatever movie he’d managed to find on the limited channels.

Mary whined and jumped off the couch when Logan got up, her hairless tail wagging rapidly as she followed him, nearly hanging off his ankles. He grinned at her and gave his leg a little shake to push her back a little. Reaching the door, Logan unlatched it and swung it open. Expecting to greet someone, maybe a food delivery Wade had ordered and forgotten about, or an elderly friend of Al’s who was looking for her, Logan was surprised to find nothing there. Just as he was about to slam the door, cursing about ding-dong-ditching still not being a thing of the past somehow, a flash of white caught his eye.

Logan picked up the envelope from where it was lying on the floor, frowning as he turned it over. There was no return address, nor stamp, or even the apartment’s address, but very clearly in neat cursive handwriting was his name. ‘Logan James Howlett.’

Glancing quickly up and down the hallway as he’d catch sight of whoever left the envelope, Logan slowly closed the door, stepping back into the apartment.

“The fuck?” He mumbled to himself. Mary yipped, drawing his attention back to her quivering little form, confused as to why there was no new visitor to greet. Or maybe she just needed to piss. He’d take her out in a minute, or Wade would, whenever he got back.

Unsheathing his claws, Logan used one to slice open the envelope carefully. There were two pieces of paper in there, one yellow and one white. Moving to sit at the dining table again, brow furrowing, Logan took out the letters.

The yellow one was pretty simple; a short note letting Logan know that later that day a TVA agent would arrive to hand-deliver his new passport, social security number, debit and credit card, and a prepaid phone, already set up for him.

The white one was a little more concerning. Logan placed the yellow letter on the table alongside the envelope, training all of his attention onto the sheet of paper in his hand.

‘Logan,
Please come to the subway station closest to you at 12pm today and go to Platform 2. Though we understand your potential hesitance, it is in both your and an ally’s best interest that you come alone. We have eyes everywhere, and will know if you choose to go against this advice. Don’t be afraid; we are only trying to offer you privacy in a moment we are sure you will want of some.
12pm, Platform 2. Don’t be late.
- Time Variance Authority’

It seemed the TVA hadn’t been entirely honest about staying out of the way.

Logan stared at the letter for a long moment. He could throw it away, forget about it, go back to watching mindless TV while he waited for Al or Wade to get home. But some part of him, the same part that wouldn’t let him rest at night, wouldn’t let it go.

Logan looked up at the clock above the door, watching the seconds tick by. 10:36am. If he was going to follow the letter’s instructions, he had less than two hours.

Logan stared back down at the letter, carefully looking over it. His first instinct was to assume that it was a trap. Evenly spaced typeface set in the centre of the page, the only handwritten portion being an illegible signature underneath the TVA’s sign off. The insistence to go alone was suspicious, but it also aligned with what the TVA had tried to make him do last time, so maybe it wasn’t too unbelievable.

The other part drawing his interest was the mention of an ally. If they were talking about Wade, they would surely just use his name. No, this was certainly someone else. Someone who he knew, at the very least.

Mary’s paws landing on Logan’s shin tore his focus away, and he looked down to see her hopping at him, wanting to be picked up. Distractedly, he did so, letting her perch happily on his lap, tongue lolling out of her mouth.

“Any advice, bub?”

He wasn’t sure why he asked, but he took Mary’s thousand-yard stare and wagging wrinkly butt as answer enough. She didn’t know.

“Honey, I’m home!” Wade sang, swinging open the front door. Mary leapt off Logan’s lap, barking enthusiastically and diving headfirst at Wade’s legs. Logan cursed himself for getting so distracted he didn’t notice Wade’s scent approaching, and he rapidly shoved the white letter in his jeans pocket, turning to look intently at the yellow letter.

Logan knew how to look after himself, should he need it. He was still less than enthused to be living with Wade when he knew what happened to those he stayed around, and letting Wade tag along to a potential trap set by enemies was just going to make everything worse. Logan couldn’t die, and he couldn’t really get permanently hurt. Walking into a trap was something he was able to do, so long as he knew it was coming, and he didn’t need Wade to come with him. And in the event it wasn’t a trap? Well, that was just all the more reason to go alone. The TVA seemed to be insisting that it was for Logan’s benefit to be alone, as well as some ally. He wasn’t sure what allies he had, but he didn’t want to get them hurt.

“Whatcha lookin’ at?” Wade asked, leaning over Logan’s shoulder to peer at the letter. He smelled like smoke and blood, and Logan was now certain he was right about ‘important business’ meaning merc jobs.

“TVA sent it. Say they’re dropping off my shit today,” Logan grunted, hoping Wade would take that as explanation enough and leave him alone to think.

Wade nodded, tilting his head to better read the letter. His spandex-clad shoulder was just brushing Logan’s, only serving to frustrate the man more. “Ooh, money!” Wade squealed, snatching the letter in an instant and hungrily scanning over the semi-large sum the TVA had promised to deposit in Logan’s new bank account. “No fair! They didn’t give me any,” he grumbled, throwing the letter back to the table and crossing his arms like a petulant child, the brow of his mask furrowing.

“They probably know I’ll give some to you,” Logan said, mind anywhere but the present as he wracked his brain for any potential allies he might know in this universe. He hardly knew anyone’s names, let alone enough to call them an ally. Besides Althea, Wade, Pandora, and Isabella, the owner of the bodega down the road, Logan hadn’t held a conversation longer than six words with anyone.

“Oh, you’re feeling like being a sugar daddy, peanut? That’s cool, I can work with that.”

“Uh huh, I’m gonna go out,” Logan said quickly, standing up and pushing his chair out and going to grab his shoes from the rack by the door. Wade stepped back, watching Logan carefully.

“Um, honey badger, you good?” He asked, still a careful teasing lilt in his voice.

Logan just made a noise of confirmation, sliding into his shoes and staring at the clock. It was nearly 11am, and the subway was barely a twenty minute walk, but Logan wasn’t sure he’d be able to deal with Wade’s shit much longer, and he wanted to be prepared for whatever this meeting might become. He considered putting on his Wolverine suit, but decided against it, knowing it would probably just raise Wade’s suspicions even more, and no doubt would cause the general public to either be afraid or swarm him.

“Logan? Where are you going?”

Hearing his actual name in Wade’s voice was surprising and it drew Logan out of his mind for a moment. Wade sounded genuinely worried, or upset, even. Logan took his jacket from the hook above the shoe rack and shrugged it on.

“I’ll be back soon,” Logan said in lieu of an actual response. In truth, he didn’t know when he’d be back, nor if he would be at all, but it was easier to just quell Wade’s concern so that Logan could go.

“Peanut—”

But Logan didn’t get to hear what Wade was going to say, because he was out the door before he could finish his sentence.

It turned out that it was probably a good thing that Logan left the apartment early, as he soon found out that he did not know where the subway station was. He had a vague idea, given he had lived in the general area for almost a week, but Logan hadn’t learned where everything was.

Stopping at the bodega Wade always dragged him to shop at, Logan entered with a ring of the doorbell. The owner, Isabella, looked up with a smile.

“Mr. Logan! Hello,” she said brightly, waving him over to the counter. Logan wasn’t sure why Isabella had immediately remembered his name, but he still gave her a small smile in return. The woman was very nice, always sunny and kind, even to customers who didn’t deserve it.

“Hey, Isabella,” he greeted, stepping up to the counter. “Not here to buy today, sorry, I just wanted to know if you had a map to the subway, or just some directions you can give me?” Logan fidgeted with his hands, shifting uncomfortably. He didn’t like asking for help, and certainly not for free help. Truthfully, he didn’t like asking anything. Not questions, not for things.

Isabella just smiled like this wasn’t rude. “Sure, sure! Just keep walking down this street and on the third left,” she directed.

Logan nodded. All he wanted was to leave; he felt more awkward by the minute, but he didn’t want to be an asshole and just run out of the store the second he got what he needed.

“Thanks, sorry I can’t stay and talk, but—”

“No, it’s fine! Bye, Mr. Logan!” Isabella said cheerfully, saving Logan from his internal struggle. Logan simply nodded again, hurrying out the door before he could overthink it.

Logan fished the letter out of his jeans pocket before shoving his hands deep into his jacket pockets. He didn’t know the time, but he was sure it couldn’t be long past eleven. He kept his head down as he walked, making sure he didn’t meet anyone’s eye.

Wade was right when he said the streets smelled like piss and smoke, and Logan’s nose wrinkled. People bustled past him, walking with purpose, either looking straight ahead or with their faces buried in their phones, typing or scrolling so fast they surely didn’t have time to read what was on their screens. It must have been around the time of most people’s lunch breaks, because the streets were busy all around him with people dressed in formal work clothes, spilling out of office doors. Logan tried to keep himself distracted, thinking of everything that could be waiting for him on Platform Two. It could easily be something the TVA forgot to tell him on his first meeting, or something more concerning. Maybe they had changed their mind, and they weren’t going to let him stay.

Before he knew it, Logan had reached the stairs that led down to the subway. A large clock was set in an arch over the entrance, extending into a roof. 11:32am. He had thirty minutes until he was supposed to arrive.

Logan merged with the crowd flowing smoothly down the stairs. Logan distantly thought that New York was like a machine, all moving parts working perfectly in sync with one another. Logan felt out of place.

A colour-coded map told Logan where to go, and he followed the lines painted on the ground. Platform Two, Platform Two, Platform Two. It echoed around his mind like a broken record. Who was his ally? Was someone waiting for him here? What if—

“Ticket.” A hand shot out and stopped Logan before he could go through the turnstiles.

“Oh, no, I’m just going to meet someone—”

“You need a ticket to go through,” the man said sternly. Logan looked to his left to see everyone else tapping a card to a turnstile and instantly being let through, not a security guard in sight. Of course he had decided to go for the one entrance manned by an actual person. It would’ve been so much easier to get through a machine-operated one than face a human.

Logan frowned. “But I’m not even getting on a train.”

“Don’t care. No ticket, can’t go through.”

Logan glared at the man. “Fine,” he growled. “How much for a ticket?”

The man smirked like he’d won something, and Logan had to fight to keep his claws held back and not embedded in the guy’s face. He pointed over at something that looked like an ATM set into the wall. Logan eyed it warily. His knuckles started to itch, almost as if his body was trying to remind him that he wasn’t like everyone else in the subway, and that he could solve his problems in a much more direct way. Logan took a deep breath. He couldn’t do that — not when he was trying not to draw attention to himself.

The security guard chuckled to himself when Logan turned around to walk away, and it was difficult for Logan to restrain himself. “No need to make a scene,” he breathed, looking around for alternative solutions. He wasn’t sure how much longer he had before his deadline, but he certainly hadn’t forgotten the TVA’s instructions. Don’t be late. Probably around twenty minutes.

A large group of teenagers spilled into the subway, laughing loudly. One of them, a shorter kid, walked up to a turnstile, tapping something against the machine and gesturing for his friends to go through. It didn’t look like a credit card, so Logan had to assume it was some kind of ticket or refillable travel card. A plan began forming. Logan never had the strongest morals anyway, and he wasn’t going to hurt the kid…

Logan approached the group, the kid still chatting as the last of his friends walked through the gate. Just as he turned to follow them, Logan’s arm shot out, stopping him.

“Hey, kid.”

The teenager looked a mix between annoyed and a little frightened, an understandable reaction. “Yeah?”

Logan released the kid, glaring. “I need to borrow your card for a sec. I’ll give it right back.”

The kid blinked, clearly thrown off by the request. “Uh… what?”

“I’m not asking,” Logan growled, eyes narrowing. The kid looked more unnerved than scared, but clearly it was enough, as he passed over the card. “Thanks,”Logan said gruffly, nodding. He tapped the card to turnstile and walked through. True to his word, he tossed the card back to the kid once he was on the other side, shoving past his friends.

The TVA was becoming a thorn in his side. Logan hadn’t trusted them from the start — government agencies always had a hidden agenda, and these time-travelling bureaucrats were no different. He hoped this would be worth it, or at the very least not some kind of fucked up prank or trap. Having had more time to think, Logan was quite sure that the letter was indeed from the TVA. It had come alongside a note letting him know that his stuff was arriving soon, and the envelope was sealed when he opened it — the letter hadn’t been slipped in.

Logan’s eyes remained trained to the ground, following the coloured line on the ground that would lead him to Platform Two. He glanced up every now and again, searching for a clock to let him know of the time, but finding none. It started to get him frustrated — what kind of subway didn’t have a clock on every goddamn wall? How else was he supposed to know if he had missed his non-existent train that the security guard had tried to make him buy a ticket for?

By the time he arrived at the Platform, the large screens above him stated that the train would arrive in ten minutes. Logan stood by the wall and waited, still scanning for any hint of a TVA employee, or even his potential ally. The air was stale, and Logan could hear the hum of the fluorescent lights and the rumble of a train that never came.

Everything in Logan told him not to trust this, to walk away before he couldn’t anymore, but wasn’t that what it always said? It hadn’t earned him anything but trouble and pain so far, and what could he possibly lose? Your second chance, a voice inside him whispered, but he shoved it down. He didn’t deserve a second chance anyway.

He should’ve ignored the letter, he realised now, but something instinctual had almost forced him to come, even following the instruction to come alone despite knowing that Wade would’ve tagged along, no questions asked. Maybe it was something self-destructive; if he couldn’t drink, if he couldn’t die, then he could at least walk into bad decisions again and again. He wasn’t sure how to place it, but there was something that had triggered a sense of obligation in him. It clearly wasn’t for the TVA; he didn’t owe them anything.

Logan stared at his hands. If he flexed his wrist just right, he could feel the familiar dig of his claws under his flesh. It was almost grounding, in a way, yet it also reminded him of just how fucked up and dangerous he was. It ran bone deep, and there was nothing he could do to escape it.

A gentle chime and robotic female voice echoing along the platform made Logan look up. “The train approaching Platform Two is bound for Central Park. Please watch the gap.”

The low grumble grew stronger beneath Logan’s feet, the grind of metal on metal stabbing into his eardrums painfully. The distant headlights of the approaching train cut through the dimness, casting flickering, jagged shadows on graffitied walls. He tensed as the train came to a halt, the hiss of brakes slicing through the air, accompanied by a dull chime to signal the opening of the doors.

What was once a mostly calm platform of commuters waiting patiently became alive with a new flood of people, jostling and bumping into each other as they spilled out of the doors. The conversations they had with friends or over the phone all blended into an unintelligible hum, punctuated by the clicking of shoes on the linoleum. More bodies rushed in, pushing and shoving to take their place on the train before someone else could. There were too many on the train. People were shoulder to shoulder and chest to back, but more people shoved. Logan waited.

He wasn’t sure who he was looking for, but he was sure he’d recognise them when he saw them. The blur of faces, the wall of bodies shifting and swirling like a tide were all unknown to him. It was near-claustrophobic, and Logan felt his muscles tightening, breath hitching. The stench was far too strong, noises oppressive all around him.

A sharp hiss. The doors slid shut. The train jerked forward, pulling away from the platform, the sound of its departure nothing more than a low growl. Slowly, people began to scatter and thin.

The train was scheduled to arrive at 12pm. It was past the time he was told to be here, past the time they had told him to not be late to, but clearly hadn’t had the decency to follow themselves.

And then he saw her.

She looked as if she felt just as out of place as he did, standing stiffly in the moving crowd, shoulders hunched as if bracing for a fight, even while standing still. Logan’s breath caught. He pushed off the wall and stepped forward, not even completely sure what he wanted to do. When she caught his eye, it seemed she made the decision for him. In less than six steps she was across the platform, wrapping her arms around him in a hug that knocked the air from his lungs. For a moment, Logan stood frozen, his hands hovering awkwardly by her sides, unsure of if he should hold her or let her go. But when Laura pressed her face deeper into his chest, something in him snapped into place, and his arms wrapped around her own their own accord, pulling her close. Logan held her tight, placing his face in her hair.

It was strange. She wasn’t his daughter, not in name, nor in actual biology, but everything in Logan seemed to settle when he held her. That ugly, animal part of him that Logan hated so much purred in contentment, finally feeling like the world was settling back into place.

Almost as if fearing her reaction, Logan slowly, gently, sniffed at her, pleased to find that she smelled oh-so familiar, and just like him. Like his kin.

Logan blinked rapidly, his throat tightening as he swallowed down the lump threatening to choke him. He could feel the heat in his eyes, but he shoved it away, focusing on the solid weight of her in his arms and the steady rhythm of her breathing against his chest.

All of a sudden Logan was so grateful for the TVA insisting he come alone, knowing full well that if Wade had come too he would’ve been making jokes about the Wolverine reunion, probably making Laura uncomfortable, and immediately pointing out the wetness already gathering underneath Logan’s eyes.

He blinked it away quickly. He didn’t want to cry — couldn’t let himself break — but holding his not-quite daughter in his arms was almost too much to bear. She wasn’t his in any right, and Logan didn’t have any connection to her at all. He hadn’t known of her existence less than two weeks ago, nor was she the father she had lost, but his mind was murmuring that she was his, and that’s all that Logan cared about in that moment.

If Laura noticed the slight red of his watery eyes when she pulled away, she didn’t mention it, and Logan had the courtesy to offer her the same kindness, ignoring the tear streaks on her cheeks. She sniffed deeply, composing herself and wiping rapidly at her eyes.

Logan took a deep breath, clearing his throat as he dropped his hands back to his sides. “Hey, kid,” he tried with an awkward smile. His voice sounded gravelly and raw, but he could hardly bring himself to care. Logan hadn’t ever expected to see her again, but now that she was here, he almost never wanted to let her out of his sight again. Something so paternal took over, and it nearly scared him with how strong it was.

“Hi,” she said, her voice stunted. Logan noticed she was wearing the same outfit she had been in the Void, only clean. Dirt and bloodstains were all gone and any holes or tears were patched up until he wouldn’t have been able to tell they had been there. Her backpack was gone, and the arm of her pink sunglasses was tucked into the neck of her shirt. She looked okay; healthy.

“Did the TVA send you?” Logan asked, still scanning over her entire body, searching for any sign of the battle that he and Wade had been forced to leave her behind in, but there was none.

“Yeah,” Laura murmured, chewing her lip and looking everywhere but his eyes. “They said someone was going to be here to meet me, but I didn’t—” she cleared her throat, “—didn’t think it’d be you. They just said that the person waiting for me was an—”

“Ally,” Logan finished, reaching into his pocket for the letter and passing it to Laura. “They told me the same thing.”

Laura looked over the letter slowly, mouth pressed into a thin line. “I don’t like them,” she said finally, looking back up at Logan. He snorted.

“Yeah, me neither, kid, trust me.”

Laura frowned. “They didn’t tell me anything. We were just trying to deal with the last of Cassandra’s army, then we saw her make her own portal and disappear. Blade was injured, and we were trying to help him. We stayed in Cassandra’s lair for a little while, but only a couple hours later a few TVA agents showed up and grabbed me.” She took a deep breath, getting angrier by the second. “I tried to fight them off, but then they hit me with that stick and I got transported somewhere.”

Logan tilted his head. “Did they tell you what universe you were in?”

Laura shook her head. “I stayed in one of their headquarters, they called it a safe house wing. Then they told me I was going to come here.”

“Well, it’s good to see you, kid.”

“You too, Logan.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? You’re gone for three hours without saying where you’re going, I think you’ve either gone and got shitfaced again or some fucking Wolverine killing machine has got you, and then you just show up again like nothing. I was looking for you everywhere, and you don’t even— oh my god.” Wade froze, eyes widening as he caught sight of the girl behind Logan.

Logan growled, claws starting to inch out of his flesh. He was only barely resisting the urge to shove Laura further behind him to stop Wade from staring at her. It seemed Laura had a similar reaction, as she moved to be a little more shielded by Logan’s frame, peeking out from behind his shoulder to glare at Wade, too proud to actually retreat.

“If it’s a fuckin’ problem she’s here, then—” Logan snapped, quickly cut off by Wade waving his arms.

“No! No, not at all, I just… didn’t expect to see mini-Wolvie again, and definitely not… in my apartment...” he trailed off, eyes darting between Logan and Laura. “Is she staying here? Because…”

“You’re on the fuckin’ floor, bub,” Logan snarled, sheathing his claws and walking into the apartment, Laura closely following. Wade moved out of the way, grumbling under his breath about Logan’s chivalry going out the window.

“Do we have to go clothes shopping for her too? ‘Cause I know I was nice last time and paid for everything, but seeing as you’ve got cash now, peanut, I think I’d gently suggest that you buy it this time around.”

Laura’s answering hiss seemed to be enough to get Wade to back off a little, raising his hands in surrender.

“Fuck, you’re both as feisty as each other, alright,” Wade mumbled, following after the two Wolverines. “So are you actually gonna explain where the fuck you went without a word? I thought you managed to die or you were a— Doesn’t matter. Where the fuck were you?” He demanded, trailing after Logan who was guiding Laura to sit at the dining table.

“Getting Laura,” Logan replied, leaning to talk softly with Laura. “You hungry or anything? I don’t think we have much, but I can make something up.”

Laura tilted her head to the side before nodding, her nose twitching as she took in all the new scents around her. When Logan went to move away and start making her some food, her hand shot out and grabbed onto his forearm in a vicelike grip, standing and following him when he gave her a quizzical look.

While Logan couldn’t say Wade was the most polite person ever, he clearly had some tact, slowly backing away from the two when he noticed Laura’s response. He must’ve gotten changed after Logan left, because he was now in a regular pair of pants and a long-sleeve shirt with pastel colours. Wade left the room quietly, probably the first time he’d done something quiet in his entire life.

“You good?” Logan whispered to Laura once Wade was out of earshot. She still hadn’t released his arm, having followed him over to the cracked kitchen counters. Laura pursed her lips.
“Smells weird. You don’t,” she said simply, letting go of his arm and watching him carefully as he pulled various ingredients out of the fridge, sniffing each one to see if it was off yet. Wade was terrible at throwing out food when it went out of date.

Logan nodded. He understood that. Being surrounded by a bunch of new smells with enhanced senses was never pleasant, and it usually left Logan particularly on edge. He wondered if Laura was the same, and if it was also easier for her to be around something familiar.

“Who is that?”

Logan hadn’t exactly expected the question. He had thought that Laura would recognise Wade, but then he realised that she probably hadn’t seen him without the mask, and his scent wasn’t as covered by blood, smoke, and Logan, as it had been in that car she had found them in.

“Wade. The guy from the Void,” Logan said, returning to his job of smell-testing for edible things. “Chicken sandwich good for you?” When Logan looked over to see if his choice was alright, he saw the corner of Laura’s mouth tick up into a small smirk. “What?”

“Deadpool, huh?” She asked, reaching for some of the cabinets above her head, searching for bread.

Logan frowned. “Yeah?” Had she expected him to just go on his own way after the Void? To be fair, he had thought that he was going to do that as well, but had surprised himself.

“Didn’t think you liked him all that much. Seemed like you hated him, to be honest,” she said, smiling. Laura handed Logan a bag of bread, and he distracted himself from thinking too hard by making her sandwich.

“Things change. He’s still a fuckin’ nightmare, but he ain’t too bad.”

“Sorry.”

Logan’s head snapped to look at her. “For what?”

Laura sighed, shrugging. “For being in your way.”

Logan turned to her, dropping everything to the counter and slowly raising a hand, placing it on her shoulder when she didn’t flinch.

“Kid, you’re never gonna be in my way, alright? I—” Logan’s breath caught, “—I want you here.”

A flicker of a smile crossed Laura’s face, and that’s all Logan needed to see. Maybe it was weird to hug the girl who wasn’t really your daughter twice in less than two hours, but to Logan, she was. Every instinct, scent, and gut feeling was screaming that he needed to protect her, and that she was his.

“Sorry I couldn’t be there before,” Logan mumbled into her hair as she wrapped her arms around his back.

“But you showed up.”

“You’re gonna have to sleep in a shitty pullout bed,” Logan said, pulling back with a rueful smile. Laura merely shrugged.

“Better than at the TVA,” she argued, grinning up at him.

“How’s that?”

“I’m not alone.”

Chapter Text

When Logan awoke the next day, it was in a situation he hadn’t experienced in a very long time, if ever. Alongside someone else, no claws buried deep inside them, no cold corpse wrapped in his arms. He wasn’t nursing a hangover, and it wasn’t well past midday. In fact, Logan woke up with a smile, which was something he hadn’t done in so long, he wondered if he had ever.

Logan didn’t want to wake Laura. She deserved to rest, at least a little, something the bags under her eyes hinted hadn’t been the case in the recent days, or perhaps even long before.
He inched out from under the thin sheet thrown over them, careful not to move too fast and disturb her. When Logan had successfully escaped the pullout sofa, he moved to the kitchen, stretching his arms over his head, hearing metal bones cracking sickeningly.

Wade had ended up conceding and agreeing to let Laura sleep on the pullout with Logan, convincing Al to let him in her bed on account of the ‘sweet baby Wolverine deserving comfort and not old lady smell’. Logan couldn’t help but wonder if Wade really was as offended as he was making out to be, but it seemed just to be a front.

“Sorry about kicking you out of your own bed,” Logan had said the previous night, watching Laura from the kitchen as she sniffed different pairs of pyjamas Wade had offered her, running the fabric through her hands to find the most comfortable one. Enhanced senses could be a real bitch sometimes.

“Gentleman persona only lasts a week, huh?” Wade said ruefully, leaning his forearms on the counter, a small smile on his face as he watched Laura too. “Think she’ll pick the Sanrio ones?”

Logan snorted. “They’re all Sanrio, bub.”

Wade gasped, glaring at Logan. “You take that back, I see llama ones, I see Care Bears, I see…” Wade trailed off, smirking. “I see your kid has good taste.”

Logan looked back into the living room, suppressing a small smile of his own as Laura walked to the bathroom clutching grey pyjama pants with his cowl patterned on it, a shirt he couldn’t quite see bundled under her arm.

“She’s just picked the softest one, doesn’t irritate her. Doesn’t mean anything,” Logan said gruffly, trying to pretend that it didn’t warm his heart a little to see someone his instincts told him was his daughter choosing the set of pyjamas with little cartoon versions of his superhero mask on them.

“Sure,” Wade drawled. “Totally isn’t because she’s proud of her dad, after, y’know, saving the world and then still taking her in,” he said, tipping his head towards Logan and giving him a teasing look.

“‘M not her dad, bub,” Logan sighed, feeling strangely disappointed at the truth.

Laura chose that moment to reenter the room, clad in Wolverine themed pyjamas. “Why do you own this?” Laura deadpanned, frowning at Wade. Wade just shrugs. “They’re new,” she said firmly. It wasn’t a question, more of a statement. An observation.

“Correct you are, mini-Wolvie! Bought within the last couple days, brand new, perfectly clean and untouched, you don’t need to worry about catching cancer,” he winked.

“I can’t get sick.”

“Man, thought you’d be more fun than an old man, Gen Z are so much cooler,” Wade mumbled under his breath. Logan growled in warning, and Wade threw his hands in the air. “Animals! The both of you!”

They had gone to sleep earlier than what had become the norm over the last week, Laura and Logan on the pullout couch, Al and Wade in Al’s room.

“Morning, Logan.”

Logan smiled at Al, remembering that she couldn’t see. Maybe that wasn’t the point; maybe he was just happy.

“Good morning,” he greeted, stepping past where she sat at the table, sipping something that was certainly Irish in nature. Logan could smell the alcohol she’d combined with her coffee.

“How’s the kid?” She asked, and Logan shook his head.

“Still asleep.”

“N’ ‘m not,” a voice said roughly. Laura walked into the room, the heels of her palms massaging her eye sockets. Logan frowned.

“It’s early, kid, go back to bed.”

Laura dropped her hands to her sides and smirked. “Aren’t you old? Don’t want to have to deal with your grandpa nap later, so maybe you should.”

Logan was pleased to see she looked relatively well rested, the deep bruises under her eyes lightening a little bit, hair frazzled from sleep. He couldn’t help but be a little worried, though. Wade’s party was going to be that night, and he wasn’t sure if he would want Laura to be there. Wade had already insisted that Logan was more than welcome to be at the party, and that he would be the guest of honour. Laura, on the other hand, had only just shown up, and Wade had already done more than enough letting her sleep in his bed and stay in his house for a day.

Logan’s mind set back into its usual planning state, always trying to be two steps ahead. Logan could definitely get a job now, having received his legal documents, but it’d have to be something simple without needing much prior experience, probably manual labour or something else blue collar. He could use some of the money the TVA had put in his new bank account to rent an apartment, maybe get the bare minimum of furniture. He was already pushing it by trying to cram three people in a tiny one bedroom apartment, but adding a teenage girl into the mix, making four people, was not feasible.

The front door burst open and Wade tumbled through, four shopping bags weighing down his arms, Deadpool mask contrasting greatly with his civilian clothing.

“Wow, I feel like a working father with a stay-at-home wife. Peanut, we need to have an argument about how pissed you are that I don’t consider taking care of our baby badger ‘work’, we can go full rom-com mode and have our once-per-season big fight.”

“I’m not your kid,” Laura snapped, Logan grinned at her, proud to see her return it with a wicked smile of her own.

Wade placed his bags on the ground and tugged off his mask, throwing it onto the table by the door. He frowned. “Wow, you really are a clone of him, aren’t you?” He said, gesturing to Logan. Logan groaned.

“Do you ever shut the fuck up?”

Wade gasped, placing a hand to his chest in mock offence. “I can’t believe it. You should know that by now, peanut! You’ve known me for a long time—”

“Hardly more than a week.”

“—so you should know,” Wade continued on, talking over Logan. “That I do not shut up, unless you plan on occupying me with something that will remain unnamed as we have a child and an elderly woman in the room.”

“My presence has never stopped you before, motherfucker,” Al proclaimed. Logan snorted. It had seemed like this was how Wade was all the time, and Al being nearby hadn’t stopped the flirtatious and strangely horny comments to Logan over the past week.

Wade frowned at her. “I’m sure you can smell the betrayal I’m feeling right now. And besides, maybe I’ve started to catch on that you aren’t deaf, as you have reminded me even more frequently than usual.”

Logan moved to the door, grabbing two of the bags on the floor and silently going to help unpack them. Wade grinned at him, taking the other two bags.

“So, is anyone going to ask me what wonderful food I got for my starving family?”

Logan paused for a moment, pretending to think. “No,” he said eventually, smiling to himself and unpacking the groceries on the table.

“Thanks,” Wade pouted sarcastically. “Guess you don’t get any, then.” He made a show of hiding one of the smaller bags behind his back.

“Oh no,” Logan drawled, pointedly ignoring Wade. Laura huffed a laugh, moving into the kitchen properly and taking a seat beside Althea, who started a quiet conversation with the girl.

Logan chose not to mention that Wade’s surprise breakfast was already spoiled for two out of three people in the room, considering their superhuman sense of smell, and possibly also spoiled for Al, who had a surprisingly strong nose. Crepes from the shop down the street that Wade wouldn’t stop raving about. Logan had passed it a few times when he walked down to the bodega, and had come to recognise its scent.

“Bitch,” Wade hissed as he stepped past Logan, putting the bag of takeout crepes on the table.

Wade wouldn’t really need a guest of honour at his little party. Wasn’t it a makeup birthday party for himself anyway? Logan could go sometime during the day with Laura, find a cheap motel to crash in while he searched for an apartment they could rent, and then he’d be on his feet again. The TVA would hopefully leave him alone, and if they didn’t, Logan might see Wade from time to time when they needed to talk to the dual anchor beings. He’d have a regular life sinking into the background, just the same as any other man raising his teenage daughter as a single father. That’s what he wanted, right?

Yeah… that’s what he wanted.

The crepes weren’t half bad, but Logan didn’t quite understand Wade’s enthusiasm on them. Laura seemed to like them, or perhaps she was just really hungry, because she scarfed them down like a starved dog.

“So, I got all the RSVP’s, we’ve got most people I invited coming,” Wade said through a mouthful. Logan wrinkled his nose. He didn’t have the best manners — none at all, in fact — but it was still a little disgusting to watch someone talk around a half-chewed glob of food.

“Who’s gonna be there?” Logan asked.

“Uh, Vanessa, Dopinder, Domino, Peter, Colossus, Al, Negasonic Teenage Whataburger, Yukio, Laura, and you!” Wade said proudly, counting on his fingers. “Oh, and me.” Wade frowned at his hands. “Ran out of fingers…”

Logan ignored him, his brain too busy short-circuiting. Wade had said that Laura was invited, and he’d said it so nonchalantly, as though it wasn’t a big deal that he was insinuating that Logan’s pseudo-daughter was more than welcome to come to his replacement birthday party. As if he hadn’t already been way kinder than necessary by inviting Logan, not to mention letting him live with Wade and sleep in his bed and eat his food, then allowing Laura to show up with no warning and agreeing easily to giving up his bed entirely for the two strays he’d brought home. Now he was inviting Laura to his birthday party, and brushing it off as if it were nothing. Did he not want Logan and Laura to move out?

Wade was still talking about something or other, probably not important.

Sure, Wade had already made himself clear on not wanting Logan to move out, but now that he had dragged Laura into his apartment as well? His mind should’ve changed, right?

“Peanut? Honey badger? Babygirl? Logan?”

Logan looked over at Wade, who was staring at him strangely.

“You kinda went into a whole different world there, you good?”

Logan nodded sharply, turning back to his plate before realising it was empty. He’d already finished his breakfast.

“Okay, I was asking if you wanted to take Laura and Mary Puppins on a walk. You just seem a bit out of it.”

Logan wanted to slam his head into the table, maybe knock himself out for a bit. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do or what he was supposed to say.

“You can ask me,” Laura grumbled from the sofa which was still set up in all its barely-a-bed glory. When had she moved?

“Sorry, baby badger!” Wade called over his shoulder. “Wasn’t sure if we were on speaking terms yet.” To his credit, Wade didn’t sound annoyed, though he also didn’t sound apologetic. Laura just glared at him.

Logan cleared his throat. “Yeah, maybe later,” he mumbled, pushing out his chair and heading for the bathroom. He just needed a minute to think without being interrupted by someone asking him what he’s staring at. His plans, however, were foiled by a hand shooting out and landing on his chest, stopping him in his tracks. Logan looked down at Laura who was staring at him with a determined look.

“No me pruebes, Logan, we’re going.”

Logan raised an eyebrow at the Spanish. He wasn’t sure where Laura would’ve learned it, having been in the Void most of her life. Maybe the other Logan taught her it. The vague threat wasn’t missed by Logan, though he wasn’t sure Laura would actually hurt him.

The two held eye contact, each daring the other to submit and give up first. Logan looked away, sighing heavily. “Fine, we’ll need to get dressed, though.”

Another small smile flickered across Laura’s face, and Logan couldn’t help but mirror it. There was something about this kid that made him feel so… different. Like he needed to try and coax that smile into appearing more often and bigger. Maybe going for a walk wouldn’t be so bad.

Logan tried to ignore the shit-eating grin Wade gave him when Laura went to the bathroom with the previous day’s bundle of clothes.

“Father-daughter bonding time?”

Logan growled, claws just beginning to pierce through flesh. “Not her fuckin’ father, bub. Hers is dead.”

Wade must’ve heard the slight bitterness seep into Logan’s voice, because his smile fell and he moved to grab Logan’s arm. “Doesn’t mean you can’t be now,” he whispered, brown eyes meeting Logan’s. He could almost let himself believe that— no. Logan tore his arm from Wade’s grip, glaring at him with bared teeth.

“Don’t fuckin’ touch me,” Logan snarled. “You’re wrong. I’m getting changed in Al’s room.” He stormed off, waiting until he was safely behind Al’s bedroom door to bury his face in his hands. This was why Logan always ended up alone; because he just couldn’t fucking help it. He always screwed up, said things he shouldn’t have, hurt people who didn’t deserve it. And Wade implying he could be this universe’s old Logan? It didn’t sit right. It didn’t sit right because the Worst Wolverine was less than nothing, and Logan could deal with Wade’s that he might not be, but dragging Laura into it was a step too far.

Logan wanted her to be happy more than anything. Just one glimpse at her in that subway station was all he needed for every wall he’d ever built to crumble like it was made of sand. Sure, there was a green-eyed jealous mess inside him that purred that he’d found his child, but it wasn’t true, and he could ignore it — he had to — for Laura’s sake. He wasn’t going to try to replace the father she had lost, because in comparison, Logan was barely worth the dirt on her shoes.

Logan dug his fingers into his eye sockets hard enough he saw red, vision spotty when he blinked open his eyes again. It was fine, he was fine. He was going to go on a walk with Laura, get the dog some fresh air, and then think of a plan for what to do after the party when he had to move out.

He changed quickly, shedding the sweatpants and large shirt he had designated as sleepwear and pulling on the first set of clothes he’d grabbed from the cupboard in the hallway on his way to the bedroom. It was fine, he was fine. His chest hurt and his head pounded, but it was fine. He’d feel better once he got outside.

Logan heard the click of the bathroom door opening and hurried to pull his socks on. He didn’t want to keep Laura waiting.

When he left the room and returned to the living room, Logan wasn’t sure what he had expected to find, but it certainly wasn’t Wade and Laura sitting on the floor, working together to put on Mary Puppins’ boots. Logan frowned.

“What are you doing?”

Wade looked up at him, surprised to see Logan standing there, while Laura continued the task at hand. There was only one boot left, but Mary was beginning to fuss.

“Peanut, she needs her shoes to not hurt her dewicate wittle paws, right, Laura?” Wade said in a baby voice. Laura sniffed, still not looking away from where she was trying to wrangle Mary into putting her shoe on.

“I stepped on a nail, two pieces of chewing gum and a puddle of urine yesterday,” she explained. “Easier to wash these than wash her.”

“Exactly, see, Laura knows what she’s talking about,” Wade said triumphantly, smug look on his face as if to say ‘ha, two against one, loser.’ Logan hated that he could practically hear Wade’s voice in his head. He settled for rolling his eyes rather than agreeing that, yes, the streets of New York were far too disgusting to brave without shoes, even for a dog.

Laura seemed to have successfully gotten the final shoe on Mary’s foot, clipping on her leash and standing up. She was wearing the same thing as yesterday, and Logan wondered if they’d have to go shopping soon. She cleared her throat and looked over at him. “Ready to go?”

Logan hated that he could see himself in her face, not so much physical as it was a feeling, yet another instinct whispering that he was looking at his daughter. He shook himself out of his thoughts, vowing to himself that he would stay out of his head while on the walk. “Yeah, sure, let’s go.”

Logan glanced at Wade, frowning when he saw the man still barefoot. He raised an eyebrow, silently questioning, but Wade just smiled softly at him. Laura was already halfway out the door, and Logan had to quickly slide on his boots, hurrying to follow her.

Mary’s tongue lolled and flapped as she trotted along in front of Logan and Laura. They’d barely made it out of the apartment building before the interrogation started.

“What’s wrong?” Laura asked, frowning. Logan was a little grateful that it didn’t sound demanding yet.

Logan cleared his throat, looking out into the expansive streets as he tried to remember the way to the dog park Wade had told him about a couple days before. “Don’t know what you mean, nothing’s wrong.”

Laura growled softly, and yet again Logan was struck with their similarities. The feral little girl next to him was so much like the animalistic man he tried to hide.

“Just… thinking, I guess. ’S a lot, new universe and everything. You okay?” Logan conceded.

“We’ll talk about me after, and I can tell that isn’t what’s bothering you. You can tell me, Logan.”

She didn’t understand. She didn’t understand that he couldn’t tell her, because he couldn’t lay any burdens on her shoulders. He couldn’t tell her that every time he stopped moving for longer than a minute the voices and screams wormed into his mind, telling him he didn’t deserve this second chance. He couldn’t tell her that he was trying to convince himself that he couldn’t be her father, not after she’d lost the one that truly mattered. He couldn’t tell her that all he thought about these days was what Paradox had called him — beyond forgiveness, the worst. Especially not because it was all true.

The two turned a corner and Logan stiffened slightly when a random woman waved at them, polite smile on her face. He didn’t deserve this.

“We need to move out, and I’m trying to think of somewhere we could go,” Logan admitted. He might not be able to tell her everything, but he could at least let her in on a little bit of the truth.

“We?”

Logan’s stomach dropped. He trained his eyes on Mary’s rat-like tail. “Well, I just meant there ain’t really enough room at Wade’s place, and we should probably find somewhere bigger or somethin’, but if you don’t want me to come with you that’s fine—” He tried to backtrack quickly, but Laura just shrugged.

“No, that’s fine, I want to stay with you if that’s cool. Was just wondering who ‘we’ meant, just me and you, or Wade too?” Her voice went a little softer, and Logan couldn’t tell if it was from fear of rejection or trying to comfort him a little. Logan chewed on his lip, sharp canines catching on his skin.

“Wade won’t want to leave Al,” he said firmly, ignoring the prickly feeling in his chest that Logan didn’t want to leave her either. He wasn’t supposed to get attached, especially not to a human who he could hurt so much more than another mutant.

Laura nodded. “So all four, then?”

Logan’s throat was dry. He couldn’t do this, maybe he had to admit this was another reason he always walked away. He couldn’t settle down like this, he couldn’t make this decision, right? What if Wade didn’t want to move out? What if Laura got sick of him and realised just how horrible he really was? What if Al couldn’t move out?

“Probably figure it out later though, yeah?”

Logan’s shoulders slumped. He wasn’t sure if Laura noticed the tension in his muscles or smelled the discomfort, or if she just happened to say the right thing, but he was very grateful for this clear exit of this conversation. He nodded, clearing his throat and looking down at Laura, who was already watching him carefully.

“Yeah, sounds good, kid.”

Before Logan knew it, they had rounded the corner and arrived at the dog park. He gave Laura a shallow nod and walked towards the gate, a small smile playing on his lips as Mary strained at the leash, clearly excited to be back at the place she recognised. Once safely inside and the gate behind them closed, Logan bent down to unclip Mary’s lead, and off she went like a rocket.

Laura gestured towards a nearby wooden bench, and the two made their way to it, sitting down to watch the freaky looking dog try to incite much larger ones into play. There weren’t too many people — or dogs, for that matter — at the park, but there were enough.

“She’s interesting,” Laura begins, turning to Logan. He snorts a laugh.

“That’s one way to put it. Disturbing might be another.” But there was no real bite to his words because, heaven help him, Logan had started to grow quite fond of Mary.

“Not very nice to say that about Al,” Laura said, smirking. Logan couldn’t help but be a little proud of her in that moment. He remembered when he used to be the guy making little smartass comments.

“Sorry,” he said, rolling his eyes and letting himself smile properly at her joke. “But have you seen how much coke she hoards?”

Laura grins, and Logan brightens up. He wanted her to keep smiling, she deserved that.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, watching Mary run circles around dogs twice her size and listening to birdsong in the trees. The dog park was lovely, a little alcove of safety from the rest of New York City. There wasn’t anyone smoking those weird smelling boxes, and it was relatively quiet, save for sounds of nature and distant traffic. Logan liked this. He liked being able to fall silent without having to come up with something to talk about. Maybe that was a perk of having someone with your DNA.

The relative peace didn’t last long, though.

“I heard what Wade said.”

Logan had to think for a moment. Wade said a lot of things, and Laura could be talking about anything. Maybe it was that disgustingly off-colour sex joke last night when it looked like she was asleep, or Wade whispering to Logan that they needed to get Laura some new clothes soon if she was planning on sticking around.

“And what you said to him. This morning.”

Logan realised, unfortunately, that did not narrow much down. Wade said a lot, and Logan told him to shut up a lot.

“He talks a lot, but you get used to it. Sort of,” Logan said. He was getting used to Wade’s blabbering a little bit.

Laura frowned. “I meant when I was in the bathroom. About my father.”

Oh. Oh. That wasn’t good. Enhanced hearing. Someone with his own DNA certainly would have the same mutations, and Logan silently scolded himself for not realising sooner.

“I— yeah, look, kid, I didn’t mean for you to hear that,” Logan murmured, looking away. He didn’t want to see Laura’s face at however she took this. Rejection, insensitivity with how Logan spat that Laura’s real father was dead, rudeness for even insinuating that he could possibly replace the old Logan, or just downright pathetic.

“I just— I’m not… him,” Logan stressed. “I can’t be him. I’m the worst for a reason. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I’m just trying to take his spot, I know I’m not your dad or anything, I just… fuck.” Logan put his head in his hands, still too afraid to look at Laura. He was cowardly, and he always had been. Running away and hiding from everything and everyone, because he was fucking pathetic.

Slowly, hesitantly, Logan felt a hand be placed on his shoulder.

“I know you’re not him. You can’t be, because you’re not the same person.”

Logan tensed. This was everything he’d wanted to hear since arriving in Earth-10005, but it also stung in a way. But maybe that was just the pain of having someone he so desperately wanted to stay close to reject him like this.

Laura cleared her throat, and Logan felt the hand on his shoulder shift a little. “But I don’t want you to be him.” Laura’s voice cracked, and Logan wanted to hug her again, promise he wasn’t mad at her, but that was probably the last thing Laura wanted right now.

“If you don’t want to be my father, you don’t have to be. You just need to be you.”

Logan froze. “What if I did want to?” He croaked, a sliver of hope shining through. Laura laughed wetly, patting his shoulder.

“Then I’m here.”

Wade was, admittedly, very bored. Al had left not long after Logan and Laura, calling to Wade not to wait up, and now he didn’t even have his precious tiny angel Mary Puppins to entertain him.

But it was fine, because Wade knew that father-daughter time was important, even if Logan denied that was the depth of his and Laura’s relationship. Wade wasn’t stupid, despite how he may act sometimes, and he knew Logan was only in denial. Laura clearly didn’t hold any sort of grudge, and seemed to want to properly get to know the alternate version of her dad, but Logan had gotten all up in his head about Laura not wanting him to take up the role.

“Stupid fucking— why couldn’t I have gone, huh? Well, duh, Wade, you’re not a fucking father or a daughter, and even if you were, they need to spend time together, ugh.” Wade made his voice all high pitched and mocking, rolling his eyes dramatically at the ceiling.

“We can hear you, dumbass.”

Wade shot upright, turning to face the door from where he sat on the floor. He saw two Wolverines with near identical frowns and furrowed brows staring at him, a squirming Mary Puppins tucked under Laura’s arm.

“Oh, didn’t realise we were on insult basis yet, mini Wolvie! That’s exciting, a whole new stage in our step-family relationship,” Wade grinned up at her, at least a little comforted by the fact that Laura didn’t seem to get any angrier. If anything, her expression relaxed a little, though she still growled at him as she stalked into the room.

“So… how was your daddy-daughter date?” Wade grinned up at Logan, who glared at him.

“Shut up, Wade.”

But Wade certainly didn’t miss the faint smile Logan tried to hide as he swept past him and into the apartment. Seems like it went well.

Chapter Text

Wade was, in all honesty, probably more nervous than he was excited about this replacement party. Was he supposed to just be calm about this? The last time he was here, standing at his apartment door, greeting all his friends coming to celebrate him, he was soon kidnapped and nearly killed permanently in exchange for his family’s lives.

Now, he stood in the same place, opening the door for Dopinder and letting the man grab him in the tightest full-body hug ever, praying to god that he wouldn’t nearly lose everyone again.

“Logan, this is my most favourite beloved and only slightly murderous taxi driver, Dopinder. Dopinder, this is Logan, and this sweet little girl is Laura.”

Laura frowned, but still had the courtesy to smile and shake Dopinder’s hand, Logan stepping up after her to do the same.

“Nice to meet you,” he said gruffly, stepping back with an awkward smile when Dopinder started buzzing like he was about to trap Logan in a hug akin to the one Wade had been suffocated in.

“You’re the first one here!” Wade grinned. “Punctual as always, my friend.”

“Yes, of course! Wouldn’t miss it for the world, even my scheduled court appearance for Bandhu’s murder couldn’t stop me!”

Wade wiped fake tears from his eyes, so proud of his protégé. “They grow up so fast, don’t they, Wolvie?” He asked, stepping back to lay his head on Logan’s shoulder, surprised to not be immediately shoved off or stabbed.

“Yeah, sure thing, bub,” he huffed.

But when Wade tilted his head to look up at Logan, he saw how his eyes lingered on Laura. It must hurt knowing that you missed the most important years of your kid’s life, even if they technically weren’t your kid.

Wade took his head off Logan’s shoulder, giving him a quick pat on the back for being such a good sport and not committing various acts of violence in front of Wade’s friends just yet, and gestured for Dopinder to come inside properly.

“Well, don’t just stand there warming my doorway, come on in! Ignore the bloodstains…” Wade led Dopinder into the apartment, informing him to take a seat wherever he wanted. “So where’s metal tits? Not you, peanut, different one, with even more solid tits, though that’s because they’re made of metal, yours is all muscle, babygirl.”

Logan rolled his eyes, unimpressed, while Dopinder merely smiled as he sat down at the dining table. “I didn’t understand most of that, but Mr. Colossus will be here shortly with Miss Ellie and Miss Yukio!”

As if on cue, there was another knock at the door.

“I’ll get it!” Wade shouted, scrambling to the door even though no one else had made a move towards it. When he opened the door, his heart nearly stopped at the sight of Vanessa smiling broadly at him. How had it been less than two weeks since he’d last seen her, and yet it still felt like it had been an eternity? It wasn’t for the first time that Wade had caught himself wondering if time perhaps worked differently in the Void. It might’ve made sense, seeing as it felt like he’d known Logan for a lot longer than he actually had, but maybe that was just what strangely symbolic hand holding did to a man.

“Hey,” Vanessa said, tilting her head a little. It was only then that Wade realised he had been staring while lost in his thoughts, and he quickly tried to fix his expression into something less creepily intense.

“Uh, yeah, hi! Glad you could make it, and, um, so early! I mean, not really, you’re on time, kinda. I’m— I’ll shut up now. Sorry.” Wade looked down, slightly embarrassed by how fast he’d already made a fool of himself.

“Can I come in?” Vanessa asked with a teasing smile, but it almost made Wade break out into a nervous sweat. He was not good at this.

“Yeah, sure, of course, sorry.” Wade hurriedly stumbled out of the way of the door, blushing profusely.

Vanessa stepped into the apartment, soft smile on her face as she looked around as if she hadn’t seen the shitty crack den of a home hundreds of times. Wade let himself get lost in her for a moment, taking in every detail like he’d been starved of her face for centuries instead of less than a fortnight. But when she looked back at him, a small, knowing grin tugging at the corners of her mouth, Wade snapped back to reality.

“So… gonna introduce me to your new friends?” Vanessa asked with a smirk. Wade nodded quickly, blindly reaching behind him to grab Logan or Laura. Logan rolls his eyes, but holds his arm out so that Wade can snatch him by the wrist and pull him forward.

Logan allowed Wade to tug him forward, though he shot him a bemused look, the faintest hint of a smirk pulling at his lips. Wade was almost too flustered to notice. Almost.

“This,” Wade began, gesturing dramatically as if Logan were the grand prize on a game show, “Is Logan. Also known as the Wolverine, the Great Canadian Grumble Beast, The X-Man, etcetera. He’s grumpy, occasionally stabs people, and smells like sweaty existential dread, but, he’s also, uh… dependable. Like an emotionally constipated dad from a sitcom. Really good at glaring and killing people, in that order. And he’s also my emotional support Canadian lumberjack.”

Logan raised an eyebrow, smirking, but he didn’t pull away from Wade, still letting the man clutch to his wrist like a lifeline. He held out his free hand to Vanessa, gruffness and stabby-ness seemingly tempered by what was clearly an attempt to make a good first impression. Definitely not because Logan hadn’t even stabbed Wade once since moving in, and definitely not because he maybe didn’t always want to do that anymore. Probably. Wade was definitely living in a fantasy land.

“Logan. Nice to meet you. You can ignore all the other titles.”

Vanessa took his hand, her grin softening to something more hesitant and careful. “Vanessa, nice to meet you, too. Thanks for keeping him alive through everything, even though I know it’s really hard not to want to kill him.”

Logan snorted. “I tried.”

Wade clutched a hand to his chest, falling back on his usual strategy of overdramatising so that people didn’t realise how real the feeling he was exaggerating actually was.

“Aw, look at that! My two favourite people getting along! I’m gonna choose to ignore that it’s bonding over wanting to kill me.”

Really, it did feel great to see Vanessa and Logan getting along alright. He’d been a little worried, though he wasn’t really sure why. But maybe it also stung a little to see Logan being so much nicer to Vanessa than he initially had been to Wade. But also, Vanessa didn’t really kidnap Logan while he was passed out, so maybe it was okay.

Laura cleared her throat from behind Logan, catching Vanessa’s attention. Laura’s eyes were flicking over Vanessa rapidly, like she was assessing a new target to be neutralised.

“Right, yeah, this is Laura, Logan’s mini-me. She’s pretty fuckin’ cool, but don’t tell her I said that because I don’t think she likes me all that much. She’s here to make us all look weak and inferior, so I recommend avoiding direct eye contact if you want to keep your self-esteem intact.”

Laura’s lips twitch in a hint of a smile, and she nods respectfully at Vanessa, though she makes no move to shake her hand or anything of the sort. Vanessa offers a little wave, grinning at the girl.

“So you all live here? And Al?” She asks, looking around the room as if it might offer clues on how four people are squeezed in a one-bedroom apartment. Wade laughed nervously.

“Yeah, kinda, we’re all here, it’s a tight squeeze but great ‘cause we’re all so cuddly!” He joked, but it didn’t really get the reaction he expected.

As Wade was drowning the mildly awkward situation of facing his ex while standing next to a random man he picked up from a bar and took home on seemingly a semi-permanent basis — not that she knew that, probably — and said man’s daughter, he was saved by a knock at the door again.

Slowly but surely everyone arrived at the apartment, first Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Yukio, soon followed by Domino who had caught a ride with Peter. Wade greeted them all with a similar enthusiasm, ignoring the tightening feeling in his chest which only got stronger with every new person that walked through the door.

He wasn’t supposed to feel sick when all his friends came to his apartment to celebrate his birthday, but the last time they had all been like this, they were nearly all gone. Wade knew, logically, it wasn’t going to happen again, but he was still terrified.

“Be nice, they bite, but only if provoked.”

Logan huffed a laugh, and Wade found he really was quite impressed with Logan’s efforts to not appear intimidating. It almost looked like he was having a good time. Maybe.

Al stumbled out of her bedroom shortly after, waving vaguely to everyone. Wade wanted to throw up. The feeling in his chest was making it hard to breathe, and he felt awful. It was fine, he wasn’t going to lose them, but why did it feel like that wasn’t even what he was worried about anymore?

Logan must’ve noticed something, bumping his shoulder into Wade’s and shooting him a quizzical look. Wade forced a false smile, giving him a cheesy thumbs up.

He could ignore the feeling, get through the party, maybe throw up later. He could do that for his friends.

But when everyone sat down at the table to begin eating, Wade wasn’t so sure anymore. He held onto Mary like a lifeline, like she was the only thing keeping him afloat. Sitting between Logan and Vanessa was nearly suffocating, and Wade wasn’t sure who was making it feel that way. Vanessa was his everything, but she wasn’t his anymore, and every time he saw her face it hurt in the strangest way, but it was softening over time. Logan was his hero, and had been for far longer than he had met this one, but now he liked this one way more than he ever possibly could have liked the other. But it seemed like he was doing everything wrong with Logan. He couldn’t provide a good house, or a stable life, or even a not psychotic roommate. Wade wondered why Logan didn’t hate him, but maybe he did, and just wasn’t showing it as much.

Everyone at the table chattered happily, sweet little Mary lapping at Wade’s face. Once everyone started asking about what had happened on Wade’s birthday party the week prior, he jumped into storytelling mode, sharing how he adopted the most beautiful dog ever as well as a really grumpy honey badger. Logan had to interrupt every couple seconds to set the record straight when Wade generously stretched the truth.

“And then we had an incredibly sexy romp in that shitstain of a car. So sexy that I got my throat ripped out, like, twice.”

“We didn’t fuck in the car, Wade,” Logan sighed, filling his plate with birthday cake. Wade gasped, turning to him slowly and placing a hand on his own chest.

“And I never suggested we did, what would make you insinuate that?”

Logan groaned. He walked right into that one. “Fuck you,” he growled. Wade grinned wickedly.

“No, we just established that didn’t happen, are you having a senior moment, peanut? Did you take your meds?”

“I hope you die.”

“Oof, that’ll be hard. Feel free to try whenever you want, though, babygirl.”

Logan shook his head slowly, not bothering to hide the smile he wore. Wade continued his story happily, once again twisting the tale where it suited him, and Logan didn’t bother to set it straight anymore. Everyone around the table clung to his every word, captivated by the way Wade flourished the story with his own spin on small details that only served to brighten it more. Slowly, so carefully Wade barely noticed it happening, the heavy weight on his chest began to lift.

He continued his story, revelling in the tiny gasps and sweet smiles and little laughs at each turn.

“Brain-fucker exploded into a million bits and zipped out of existence,” Wade said animatedly, feeling the grin on his face become less hard to keep on. “It was great. So I was completely ready to do the same thing, but imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes and I wasn’t dead and gone! It was so cool.”

A few pairs of eyes flicked over to Logan who gave a swift nod to confirm Wade’s story. Wade grinned. His friends were such good listeners, which probably boded well for them considering they were intertwined with the Merc with the Mouth. They gasped when they realised Wade and Logan were going to die, despite both of them being undeniably in front of them, and drew sharp breaths when Wade described Logan grabbing his hand at the last possible moment.

Once the story ended, everyone asked a few questions that Wade did his best to answer, shooting Logan a grateful look every time he filled in a particularly uncomfortable or difficult question.
When the table fell into quiet chatter, Wade felt normal again. The horrible, sinking sensation he had been feeling before had faded, and he held Mary tightly. Maybe being able to talk about everything, even the hard parts, had made his brain finally accept that it was over and all of his friends were still with him.

Wade felt hot breath ghost his neck and he turned to Logan, surprised to see him leaning towards Wade.

“Give me the fucking dog, talk to the girl,” Logan hissed, not waiting for Wade to respond before he swept Mary Puppins out of his arms, turning to Laura who smiled and laughed at the ugly thing. Wade could only watch, frozen, as his one anchor in this situation was lifted out of his arms. Now, he had no excuse not to talk to Vanessa.

Slowly, a hell of a lot nervous, Wade turned to the woman next to him. Vanessa looked angelic and beautiful as ever, laughing and smiling at their friends. She must’ve noticed Wade’s movements, because she turned to face him too.

“Well, hi,” she grinned, like it was the easiest thing in the world.

“Hi,” Wade responded, smiling like an idiot. He didn’t know what to do. Since when did this become so hard? He laughed nervously, but it was obviously fake. Wade risked a glance back at his beautiful daughter, Mary, smiling a little as Laura tried to pat down the mohawk Logan had made with the sparse hair on her head.

“You’ve been busy,” Vanessa noted with a wry smile. Wade looked back at her, his eyes flicking over every part of her face. He missed her, he really did, but she was right there, wasn’t she?
He nodded. “I did it for you.” Wade cringed at how his voice cracked. Vanessa stays silent, something flickering in her eyes. Surprise? Shock? Wade hated that he couldn’t tell anymore. He used to be able to read her like a book.

“And even if you don’t want me, I did it for you,” he continued, relieved to hear his voice had settled at least a little. From behind him, he heard Logan burst out in a laugh at something Laura said, who soon joined in with him. It was probably the happiest he’d ever seen the two of them, and he wasn’t even looking at them to see their smiles.

Vanessa’s lips twitched into a small smile, and after a brief pause, her hand found his on the table. Wade looked down at it in surprise, his head snapping back up to meet Vanessa’s gaze. She nodded softly, squeezed his hand and let go, just as fast.

Was it something he said? Was that… good or bad? Wade had done it for her. He did it for everyone who sat at the table, and everyone else who couldn’t make it. He did it for Logan, who had no reason to keep helping him after he found out the truth, but did it anyway, despite having nothing to return to. He did it for Laura, who had given him and Logan the opportunity to save everyone, even if it hurt her to have to look her dead father in the eyes one more time and know he doesn’t remember her. He did it for Elektra, Blade, and Gambit and his sexy voice. He did it for the world. The whole multiverse, really.

Wade looked to his right, his eyes softening at the sight of Logan and Laura talking quietly to each other, each of them with a hand petting down Mary’s back, who was thrilled at all the attention. Logan looked so carefree, the calmest Wade had seen him, and Laura seemed content, happy in the way someone her age always should be. It didn’t really matter what Logan insisted, because Wade could see the way they looked at each other. They were as much father and daughter as anyone could be, and they fell into sync with each other perfectly.

Wade reached out and tapped Logan on the shoulder, who turned to him with a little tilt of his head. God, he was really just a big kitty, and Wade loved it. He made grabby hands at Mary, and Logan handed her over, still reaching over to pet the little thing. Wade hid his grin behind Mary’s tuft of hair. Logan was definitely the dad and the dog he said he didn’t want.

The table devolved into easy chatter and eating, and Wade’s heart felt lighter, warm again. They laughed and joked and talked about their weeks, and it was so right. Even Logan and Laura fit right in, perfectly.

Slowly but surely, the party began to divide a bit, people standing up to wander by the TV or talk to one another in smaller groups, or poke their heads in the kitchen to search for extra snacks.
Wade certainly didn’t miss how Logan had been practically glued to his side for the entire party. It was subtle enough that most people probably wouldn’t notice, but Wade was hyperaware of it. He didn’t miss the way Logan’s shoulder brushed his where they stood, and he definitely noticed the way Logan trailed after him whenever he moved around the apartment to talk with someone else.

It felt more deliberate than possessive, like Logan was trying to anchor himself in a storm only he could feel.

Wade’s first instinct was to make a joke, diffuse the tension in his own chest, but that wouldn’t be fair on Logan. Instead, he kept the revelation to himself for as long as it took for everyone to start entertaining themselves and he wouldn’t be noticed sneaking off.

Wade walked casually into the kitchen, unsurprised when Logan followed close behind like a shadow. Wade let it happen, pretending not to notice until they were safely out of most of the party’s line of sight. Only then did he turn, firmly placing a hand to Logan’s chest and giving him a gentle push until the man bumped into the counter behind him.

“Alright, peanut,” Wade began, his voice a little quieter and a little softer than usual, but a teasing lilt still to it. “You good? ‘Cause you haven’t left me alone since everyone got here, and while I’m all for the personal barnacle, I’m starting to wonder if something’s up.”

Logan’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, his expression hovering somewhere between embarrassment and discomfort. He crossed his arms, but it seemed more defensive than intimidating as he looked anywhere but Wade’s eyes.

“Oh, didn’t realise. Sorry, bub, I’ll give you some space—” he tried, but Wade quickly cut him off.

“No, no, no, don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered. Really, it’s a top tier ego boost, but that’s not what I meant, honey badger. Are you feeling okay? If it’s a bit much I can shoo everyone out, end this party early? I’m really good at coming up with believable excuses, don’t worry.” Wade grinned at the man, tilting his head. “Spectacular, even, and I won’t even make it something weird this time.”

Logan’s frown deepened, but there was a flicker of something else in his eyes — surprise, maybe, or even gratitude. “I’m fine,” he said, but his tone wavered slightly. “Don’t wanna cut your party short, it’s your night.”

“Uh huh,” Wade said slowly, completely unconvinced. “Look, if you want I can set you up in Al’s room and you can camp out there until you feel recharged enough to come back. It’s quiet, dark, and only slightly full of questionably legal substances.”

Logan’s mouth twitched, almost like he wanted to smile, but didn’t quite get there. “I’m good. Sorry for… making you think I wasn’t,” he tried uncertainly.

Wade studied him for a long moment. He could tell Logan wasn’t entirely comfortable, but the man was nothing if not stubborn, impossible to shift unless he wanted to.

“Okay,” Wade said finally. “Only if you’re sure, Logan.”

Logan gave a slow nod, though his shoulders remained tense. Wade took it as his cue to return to the party, turning on his heel with the intention of leaving Logan to his own devices, but before he could take more than a step, Logan’s hand shot out, catching Wade’s wrist in a firm but gentle grip. Wade turned back, confused.

“What’s up? Changed your mind already?”

Logan shook his head, his grip loosening slightly but not enough to let go. His frown faded, the deep crease between his eyebrows smoothing out a little.

“Thanks for askin’,” he said quietly, his gaze meeting Wade’s for the briefest moment before he quickly looked away, landing on a spot just over his shoulder instead. “Means a lot.”

Wade blinked, momentarily thrown off by the genuine sincerity in Logan’s voice. He itched to brush it off with a joke, but something about the way Logan was talking to him was too delicate for that. Wade didn’t want to scare him off from ever being open like this again. Instead, he pulled his hand up just enough to properly hold Logan’s, who looked at their intertwined hands confusedly.

“Anytime, big guy. Remember, you’re stuck with me now.”

Logan snorted, the tension in his shoulders easing just a fraction. Experimentally, Wade gave Logan’s hand a gentle squeeze, his heart swelling as Logan hesitantly returned it. Wade grinned at him, and released his hand, spinning back towards the party.

“Now, come on,” he called over his shoulder. “I can sense Laura hovering just outside the kitchen and I think she’s dying to talk to you.”

Logan followed, his steps slower but more confident. “You can’t sense anything, Wade, you can see her.”

“Same difference!” He sung.

Laura stepped right up to Logan the second he got close enough to see her, looking up at him with harsh brows and a defiant stare that Logan was beginning to both fear and enjoy.

“Colossus invited me to stay at the X-Mansion,” she said quickly.

Logan tilted his head. It wasn’t necessarily unexpected, because it certainly made sense that Laura would be sought out for Xavier’s school, somewhere she could flourish and grow as any young woman should be able, but Logan hadn’t really been thinking about that. He’d hardly been thinking about the future at all, other than where the hell he was going to go.

“What should I do?” Laura asked, looking up at him.

“What do you want to do?”

Laura blinked, seemingly surprised that Logan had asked her opinion on the matter. She frowned, eyes quickly scanning over his face. Logan raised an eyebrow and stared back at her.

“I think I want to go there,” she said finally, her gaze softening to something apologetic, and Logan had half a mind to grab her and hold her tight and tell her she could never do anything wrong, but he doubted Laura would like that in the moment.

Logan nodded before letting her continue.

“Y— someone once told me,” Laura said, catching herself. “Not to be what they made me, and I think going to the X-Mansion… maybe one day becoming an X-Man… could be a way to say ‘fuck you’ to Transigen.”

Logan’s heart sank a little. As much as Laura seemed to see him as someone else, not the Logan she’d lost, she was bound to slip up sometimes. He understood, really, but it still hurt in a way it shouldn’t have. Laura never should’ve lost her real father. He forced a smile instead, focusing on her words rather than what she almost said.

“If that’s what you want, kid, go for it. But make sure it’s what you actually want and not just something you think you need to do,” he offered, hoping it didn’t sound too much like he was speaking from experience.

Laura shifted on her feet, swapping her weight from one to the other. She looked about as awkward as Logan felt. “But I don’t…” she breathed out heavily. “I don’t want to… lose you.”

Logan softened, his heart practically melting. He held his arms open, a silent invitation. “Not gonna happen, I promise ya.”

Laura hesitated for only a moment before she carefully sunk into Logan’s arms, letting him hold her tightly in an attempt to comfort them both. Her head rested on his chest and slowly her arms raised to hug him back.

“So I can… visit, still, right?” She whispered.

Logan chuckled. “I’d come knocking at your door if you didn’t.”

Her hands fisted in the back of his shirt. “You better.”

They were silent for a beat, just soaking in the comfort that being together brought them, no longer tuned in to the lively sounds of the party in the room over. Logan had forgotten how much he missed this — the easy relationship of him and Rogue, Kitty, or Jubilee. But this? This was even better, because Laura was his daughter, and they both knew it. Bone deep, instinctual love was so simple, in the best way it could be.

“Can I stay here one more night?” Laura murmured, burying her face in Logan’s chest. “I don’t think I’ll have enough time to get everything sorted tonight.”

The real meaning of her words went unspoken, but nonetheless powerful. Logan squeezed her just a bit tighter, grateful that she didn’t want to leave just yet. He wanted one more day with her, even if it was just spending as much time as he could with her until it was time to wave goodbye.

“Of course, you can always come and stay here whenever. I’d say that I would stab Wade if he disagreed, but I don’t think he’d want to. He likes you too, you know.”

Logan felt more than saw the smile curl up on Laura’s face, but it still made his heart swell with pride to know that he caused that.

It looked like everything would be okay, maybe. Even if it was temporary.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t until 9pm that night that the party finally wound down, and that was more than enough socialising for Logan. It wasn’t even until 10pm that everyone had left, except Laura, Al, Wade, and himself, of course.

Laura must’ve thought that it was too long as well, because she barely muttered out a ‘goodnight’ before she flopped down on the pullout couch and fell asleep, still wearing her clothes, with Mary soon jumping up with her and curling up at her feet. Al disappeared into her room not long after, whether to do some lines or go to sleep, Logan didn’t know.

“I think you did pretty well, peanut,” Wade whispered, sliding into the chair next to Logan. “I know it was probably a lot.”

Logan hummed in response, rubbing at his eyes. He wanted to go to sleep, but he didn’t want to leave food out overnight, and he’d rather not leave Wade to clean up alone. Mostly because he didn’t trust him, but also because he wanted to be useful.

“So… what did you think of everyone?”

Logan put his head on the table, arms coming up to rest his forehead on.

“They were nice. I think Laura liked Yukio and Ellie,” Logan mumbled.

“Who’s Ellie?” Wade asked. Logan turned his head to look at Wade, still resting on the table.

“Eleanor, Negasonic.”

Wade frowned. “She has a real name?”

Logan snorted, turning his head back into his arms. “Yeah, thought you would’ve known it.”

“Her other name is way cooler anyway.”

They fell into silence for a while, Logan needing to force his eyes open every couple seconds so he didn’t fall asleep at the table. It was nice. The party was nice. Logan was grateful to see that Yukio, Colossus, and Negasonic didn’t look or act much like the ones from his universe did — he wasn’t sure if he would’ve been able to stay calm if they had. Even thinking too much about what his X-Men’s faces looked like… it made his breath catch and muscles twitch under his skin. He used to think the kids were the hardest to remember — so young and undeserving of their fate — but then there was also the people he was closest to, Hank, Kurt, Charles, Rogue… Jean and Scott.

Logan sighed, willing himself to stop thinking about them. He couldn’t do this right now, but he deserved it, didn’t he? He deserved to think about it constantly, no rest, never let their faces fade from his mind. He deserved to be haunted by them, forever, right?

“Laura’s leaving,” he murmured, drawing himself from his thoughts. It was selfish.

“What? Why? Now? Where’s she gonna go?”

Logan lifted his head and sat up straight, looking over at Wade. He was frowning, almost as if he was genuinely upset that Laura might be leaving. Maybe he was.

“Colossus offered her a spot at Xavier’s. She wanted to go. Leaving sometime tomorrow, don’t know when.”

“Oh.”

Silence fell over them again, and Logan found himself wishing Wade was still talking for once.

“You okay with her leaving?”

Maybe Logan was projecting, asking Wade that question, considering Logan wasn’t entirely sure he himself was going to take Laura leaving well. She’d been living with them for less than three days, but it still felt like nowhere near enough time.

Wade blinked, as if startled out of his thoughts. “What, me? Oh, yeah. Totally fine, just peachy. I mean, it’s not like I’m actually starting to get attached to her and she’s really good with Mary and she’s got the sarcastic comments perfected and I think she might actually maybe like me a little bit even if she doesn’t act like it at all, but I have hope, or something. No big deal, it’s fine.”

Logan shook his head, exasperated. “She said she’s gonna visit. Probably a lot. And you’ve got friends ‘round the X-Mansion, right? When you go visit them you might see her.”

“I know,” Wade said quickly, looking into the living room at where Laura was asleep on the pullout couch. “It’s just… I don’t know. She’s good company. Quiet, but not in a creepy, Al kind of way. And I think she gets my jokes, even if she pretends not to.”

Logan arched an eyebrow, his lips quirking in the faintest smile. “She’s humouring you, bub.”

“Pfft. Everyone humours me. Doesn’t mean they don’t love it deep down,” Wade shot back, the spark of his usual bravado returning.

“Keep telling yourself that.”

Logan liked being useful. It felt like it was the only way to properly repay Wade and Althea for letting both him and Laura stay in their apartment, even if it was a pretty terrible tradeoff for them. Still, he’d made breakfast for everyone again.

The apartment was still, morning light filtering in through the partially broken shutters on the windows, casting long shadows on the floor. He didn’t mind the quiet — especially not after the noise of the party last night — but it also gave his thoughts too much room to wander.

Laura was leaving today.

He glanced towards the pullout couch, where she was still asleep, Mary curled protectively against her side. She looked so small like that, though her face still twitched in a vague display of the guarded young woman she was. Logan’s chest squeezed at the sight, and he busied himself with cooking again.

He honestly wasn’t sure if he’d ever be able to visit Laura if she didn’t come to the apartment. He struggled to even think about the X-Men, but going into a place that looked so much like the one he knew, seeing people who he’d held the corpses of? Cried over? Mourned for years and years? He couldn’t do that, not now, maybe not ever.

The sound of shuffling feet caught Logan’s attention, and he glanced over his shoulder to see Wade wandering into the kitchen, plaid pyjama pants and a shirt that read ‘I have sexdaily dyslexia’.

“Morning, sunshine,” Wade mumbled, voice bleary with sleep. He flopped into one of the dining chairs and rubbed at his eyes, frowning. “No, I’d be the sunshine in our relationship. You’ve got grumpy written all over you.”

Logan, as he usually did these days, ignored Wade’s mostly incoherent rambles. They were nice background noise, if he was being honest. They helped drown out his less than savoury thoughts.

“Smells like you’re overcompensating for something. Don’t be shy, Wolvie, average is less than most people claim it is.”

“Fuck off,” Logan growled, honestly not all that bothered by anything the man said.

“Grumpy,” Wade sighed, getting up from the chair to hop up on the counter next to Logan. “So, what’s cookin’, good lookin’? No, wait, let me try again, I can come up with something better.”

Logan swatted at Wade. “Get your ass off the counter, disgusting.”

Wade shrugged, jumping down with a small smirk. “You’ll change your mind someday, peanut, I can see the tags,” he whispered the last part conspiratorially, winking like it was a secret he wasn’t supposed to let Logan in on. “Besides, I’ve got a nice ass.”

Logan ignored him, as he’d found was best to do these days. “You want food or not?”

“If I say no, will you just stand there all day fulfilling my malewife fantasy?”

Logan frowned. “No, and you either eat or don’t, not my problem if you decide not to.”

Logan was already reaching for the stack of plates to set the table when the pullout couch creaked faintly. His sharp ears caught the rustle of fabric as Laura shifted, groaning softly in that half-asleep way that kids — or teenagers, really — tended to do when faced with mornings. Mary’s paws thudded lightly against the floor as she jumped off the couch, padding into the kitchen with a quick wag of her tail.

“Looks like your sous chef is awake,” Wade commented, watching Mary with a smirk as she trotted up to Logan, tail wagging hopefully for scraps.

“Mary is not my sous chef,” Logan scoffed, though he still gave the ugly little dog a small smile and tearing a small bit from one of the pancakes he’d been stacking up and tossing it for Mary to catch.

“Wrong daughter, peanut,” Wade sung. Logan turned around to see Laura walk into the kitchen, clothes crumpled from when she had fallen asleep in them.

It was hard when Colossus came to pick up Laura, but it was harder when she was gone. Logan felt lost, unsure what to do. There was no evidence that she had been there other than her already-fading scent.

“Feeling lost?”

Logan sighed, scrubbing at his face with his hands. He wasn’t sure he could do this right now.

“I mean, believe me, I get it. I was feeling lost for about six years before the TVA kidnapped me and I killed a bunch of them with Other Logan’s skeleton, and I’m not gonna lie, that was the most alive I’d felt in those six years, y’know what I mean?”

Logan’s head snapped up, and he zeroed in on Wade’s face.

“You fuckin’ what?” He forced out through gritted teeth.

Wade shifted uncomfortably on the couch, knees drawn up to his chest, looking nervous.

“TVA massacre?” He tried, placing a weak smile on his face. Logan felt his very worn patience slipping even further.

“With what?” Logan growled. Wade sunk back a bit, smile vanishing.

“Your skeleton,” he murmured, looking away quickly.

Logan fell back to his spot on the couch, blinking rapidly. The grave, destroyed, desecrated, and humiliated. What if Laura wanted to visit her father, and all she found was a dug-up burial site surrounded by corpses? Something else stirred in Logan that he pushed down. He didn’t deserve to feel that way, but there was just something so… wrong about it. Like a violation, even though it wasn’t his skeleton. They weren’t his bones, but he hated the idea of them being used to murder, even in death.

“Hey, it was funny! A real creative one, pretty much best intro sequence of the year, y’know? We were getting that team-up!”

“Shut the fuck up and let me think,” Logan snarled, feeling muscles and tendons twitch in his arms, a sharp prick between his knuckles.

Suddenly, Logan stood up, causing Wade to jump.

“Get up, where is it?”

Wade hurried to get to his feet, fiddling with his fingers nervously. “Where’s what?”

“The grave,” Logan hissed, glaring at Wade, holding his gaze.

“Oh, right, uh… North Dakota?”

Logan sighed, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”

“Not this time. But I do have a shortcut we can use, maybe?”

“I still don’t like these fuckin’ portals,” Logan growled.

“That’s fine, babygirl, this can be the last time you go through one after we get home.”

Logan turned to frown at Deadpool. “It won’t be.”

“No, it won’t be.”

The orange gateway disappeared behind them and Logan took the time to look around, taking in the surroundings. It was snowing, or at least, it had been. Snow was piled high, freshly fallen, and the lake had been frozen over. The place looked like it could be beautiful, really, even in the winter. There were no bodies, like Wade had warned there might be, but sure enough, red-stained silver glinted in the snow. Bones. The TVA had cleaned up after themselves, but not when it came to Logan’s body.

Logan crossed his arms over his chest, hugging himself a bit tighter. It was cold, and Logan could already feel his bones starting to complain. One of the many downsides of having a metal skeleton is how it contracts in the cold, causing joint pain and stiffness. It had only gotten worse as he’d gotten older, and it felt very much like how two-hundred year old arthritis might feel — that is to say, not good.

“So, how many are there?” He asked, moving to pick up a particularly large bone, a femur, maybe, and dust the snow off of it, frowning at the dried blood starting to flake as well.

“Always two-hundred and seven around you, peanut,” Deadpool said coyly, blowing a kiss when Logan shot him a glare. Despite Logan’s insistence that Wade did not need to wear the suit, and especially not the mask, it seemed he had completely disregarded that suggestion.

“So two-hundred and six, then?” Logan sighed, already far too used to Wade’s dirty jokes.

Deadpool’s brow furrowed and he tilted his head, seemingly thinking. “Yeah,” he decided. “I don’t think your super old skeleton could get it up anymore.”

“You gonna help?”

Wade shrugged, stepping forward to pull a kneecap from the snow, walking to a large hole in the ground and throwing it in. “Alright, but I’m not keeping count, I can’t get past twenty without getting distracted.”

“I’m getting you on Ritalin, bub,” Logan growled, picking up a skull. He frowned, staring into the empty eye sockets and flakes of greying, dead flesh stuck to parts of the scalp. Dried blood clung to the forehead and jaw. So this was the man who was the hero of the world. Logan hardly knew anything about him, other than the fact he had died saving many children, including his own daughter. Laura had said he was a mean, angry drunk, just like him, but other than that, there wasn’t anything about them the same.

He shook the thoughts from his head, going to toss the skull in the hole. He could deal with those kind of self-pitying thoughts later, maybe do some proper research or ask Wade to explain a bit more about this Logan.

It wasn’t Logan’s intention to collect every single bone, down to the individual finger joints. He only wanted to get most of the big pieces and rebury them, just as an ounce of respect to both this world’s Logan, and to Laura. And it was somehow… calming for him. Important.

Logan wasn’t one for symbolism, but there was something about burying his own corpse that felt like saying goodbye to his old life on Earth-8556 and accepting his new position on Earth-10005. Taking the burden off the other Logan’s shoulders and placing it on his own, finally letting the other man rest. Oh, what he wouldn’t give to be getting placed in the ground as well, but that wasn’t an option. Not when he had something to live for.

One of those somethings threw a snowball at the back of Logan’s head, the cold, wet slush dripping down into the neck of his shirt.

“Honey badger, if you’re just gonna stand there all broody and lost in thought, at least let me know so I can go home! I’m not doing this all by myself when it was your idea.”

“Don’t fuckin’ touch me,” Logan snarled, turning around and closing in on Wade, backing him up until his back hit a tree trunk. When Logan unsheathed his claws and held up his fist, the points of the cool metal just barely kissing the mask, Wade put his hands up, the whites of the Deadpool eyes widening.

Wade let out a nervous laugh, breathy and unnatural. “Peanut, I thought you liked a little roughhousing, but this feels a little more ‘The Shining’ than ‘Home Alone’.”

Logan’s claws didn’t waver, but his breathing grew heavier, visible puffs of frosty mist in the cold air. For a moment, it felt like something might snap. Logan thought he was going to stab Wade through his face — not that he hadn’t done so before — and go back on his silent and unwitting promise not to harm his roommate anymore. But he didn’t. Logan’s claws retracted with a metallic snikt and he stepped back.

“Don’t push me, Wade,” Logan growled, his voice low and hoarse. “This ain’t a game.”

Wade straightened, brushing imaginary dust from his suit as if to regain some of his composure. “Noted. No snowball fights during broody burial rituals. My bad.” He glanced over at the hole in the ground, something flickering over his face, despite the mask. “But seriously,” he began, voice softening. “You okay?”

Logan frowned. For just a second, something in his façade broke. A glimpse at who he hid and buried under anger and— no.

“Get out of my shit,” he hissed. “Just get the fucking job done.” He turned to stalk off and continue collecting the bones.

“You know you don’t have to do this alone, right?”

Logan stopped in his tracks, but he didn’t turn around. “I fuckin’ hope I don’t. You’re the one that did this in the first place.”

“That’s not what I meant, Logan.”

He risked a look behind him, catching Wade’s blank-eyed stare.

“You don’t have to be alone forever. You don’t have to be by yourself until you die.”

Logan stared back at the snow, stalking forward to pick up what might’ve been a glinting finger bone. “I can’t even die, Red. I’m fine.”

“He thought that too,” came the tiny whisper from behind him.

Logan felt empty. There wasn’t anything in there anymore, was there? Whoever he was, they died so log ago he couldn’t even remember their name. Perhaps he just buried them, or perhaps he never was that man at all. Then who was he?

Logan had no answer. The roof above him was blank, white softening to grey and then black as the night fell. Soon enough, it was too dark for Logan to tell exactly how far from his face the ceiling was. But he still didn’t sleep.

Wade’s quiet snuffles next to him were the only things grounding him. The only thing that reminded him he wasn’t dead. Maybe he wished he was.

Logan wasn’t dumb. He knew he had no purpose, and he hadn’t since he lost his X-Men. Hell, who was he kidding — he never had a purpose. He was a mistake and he shouldn’t have survived Weapon X. He shouldn’t have lived past the day he killed his father. He shouldn’t have made it past birth. And he couldn’t even kill himself properly.

It was almost ironic, how the closest semblance to a reason for living was everything he’d fought against. Laura, a girl who he wanted to wake up every day for so that he could see her do better than he ever could, and wanted to show her how proud he was. Wade, who pulled him out of his slow suicide — because that’s what it was, no matter how much he tried to deny it — and forced him to do something real again. Even Al, or Mary Puppins… he hadn’t been there long, but he felt more repaired than he had in centuries.

No matter how sick or confusing it was, Logan was really coming to like Wade. The man had good intentions, if less than savoury methods. A good heart. Logan could appreciate that. Wade hadn’t forced him to be anything he wasn’t, and Logan had helped him in return. They had a deal. He just didn’t know what to do now that his side of the deal was finished.

Logan let his eyes close, folding his hands over his stomach. He wasn’t going to sleep, he had accepted that, but maybe being content with resting was enough for someone like him.

“Thor…”

Logan snorted at the whispered breath next to him, smiling in spite of himself. Fuck the Avengers indeed.

Nightmares didn’t come if sleep didn’t. It was the strategy that Logan had been using for years. Either avoid sleep as best he could, or get so drunk he passed out and was unable to be plagued by his nightmares. Sometimes they caught him anyway.

That night, Logan found himself blissfully able to avoid the wide net cast by staying awake. Maybe it wasn’t the best long-term plan, but who was going to stop him? Certainly not himself. And Wade… well. Wade probably would, if he found out. It was ridiculous how it seemed that the man actually did care for Logan.

“Morning, peanut. Sleep well?”

It was the same thing Logan heard every morning, and Wade would smile like his day was made if Logan ever said anything slightly better than ‘fine’.

Logan had thought it was some sort of hero worship at the start, and he was just the closest thing to the man that Wade idolised, but as the days passed, Logan was starting to think that wasn’t the case anymore. Maybe it never had been in the first place. Wade seemed to (for what reason, Logan couldn’t tell) enjoy spending time with him. He liked it when Logan begrudgingly sat on the couch to watch reruns of Friends and Golden Girls episodes Wade watched through Dopinder’s Disney+ account (“It’s not piracy if we already made them billions, peanut!”). He liked Logan trying to teach him how to make anything better than burnt toast, grinning when Logan started loudly questioning how he’d managed to go this many years without learning how to not burn water. He liked grabbing Logan’s hand while they were out walking Mary, swinging their arms obnoxiously between them. And maybe Logan started letting his hand hang by his side when they walked, just because he knew Wade would grab it and flash him a bright smile, laughing while Logan pretended to grumble about it but never tugged his hand away.

Maybe he was going soft.

And maybe he didn’t mind that.