Chapter One- 2 Ways of Forgetting

A/N: We’ve heard it all before, but since the world is full of boring repetitions: I don’t the stuff in this story!! X-cept for my OC Europe!

Summary:

Um… I suck at this… ::sighs:: so, Logan finds an old friend and he rescues her from some dumb sailors and takes her home ~sweet~! Gee!!--- Gee??? *huffs* You should know Logan better than that! :o) And guys, this is Wolverine at it’s best ::grin::

Just read it, okay? Pleeeez review, even (or especially) if you think it stinks!! ;o) Ahhh.. I forgot, I’m always open for new suggestions and ahh!! I forgot ::gg:: pleeez “I’m like, so new into all this stuff” Hummm... Anything else?? I think that’s it… oh wait!! Sure, about the grammar ::grins mischievous:: ::cough:: English isn’t my native language (I’m German, mein Freund ::he he:: hence there might be a Kurt story someday!! He’s like, sooo cute but oh well, Pietro ::druhl:: is my all-time-fave)

~Somewhere in Japan~

Europe had been meditating through then entire morning. She was sitting on the floor of Logan’s “Living room” with crossed legs and closed eyes. Through her closed eyes she sharpened all her other senses, she focused on the birds singing their good-mornings.
Europe and Logan had been through this long time ago.
Though some ~higher circumstances~ Logan woke up way before dawn and Europe coped with that. Even though he never woke her on purpose, there was something that didn’t let her get back to sleep once she noticed that he was awake.

The sun was shining bright outside and the sky was clearly blue. From what Europe could see through the window this was going to be one heck of a day!
She loved this place. Once more she understood why the “loner” of the X-Men had a residence back in Japan.
Logan himself had left a while ago, he did that sometimes and Europe wasn’t bitter about it. It was perfectly alright. After all, he owed her nothing. Moreover, she was his guest and had to accept these little “outbreaks”.

After another while of straight meditation, Europe decided that she was through with the procedure. She yawned and stretched. As she came back to her natural composure, she felt again this warmth inside. Totally absence of hurt or pain, her voyage to Japan made her forget about the tough past…

…Okay, there were two ways of forgetting.
The first one was through alcohol and maybe a fight afterwards.
After her arrival, Europe had spent most of her time in bars. The alcohol made her forget.
Being drunk was the only time when she didn’t think of him.
But unfortunately, you can’t be drunk 24/7. Europe thought back, there is always a time when you wake up with a hangover: Your head aches and you think that you’re gonna die with every inch you move. Every single part of your body pains you and you feel like it’s best to shut the whole system down... Those are the lucky days!
On the bad ones, you wake up without hangover, but the pain is always there. This time it’s your heart that hurts. It hurts so bad you’re expecting to become ill, but you’re truly not. You feel like your body burns you and it’s like someone’s put a knife right into your chest and it won’t go away. You want to collapse or get our of your body but you can’t… All this because if this one word flying constantly through your mind.

Maybe Europe’s life would have ended there and then, but it didn’t. Sometimes it really looks like miracles will never cease!
She had been in a fight with those guys. There were three of them, sailors who were so bored that they had to get drunk and pick a fight.
Three sailors on one girl? That was even for Europe too much! Even for a (former) X-Men, especially an X-Men that didn’t use his powers anymore after her last “stop” at the X-Mansion. Europe was depressed, really depressed and started living from one day to the other in growing agony.
It was Logan who rescued her.

~4 moths earlier~

It had been a normal day and as usual, Logan left his house to make a tour through several bars, playing pool and pass the time. Even a “Loner” like him needed to be surrounded by others sometimes when his thoughts get to him. He had taken a time-out from the “X-Men” a short while ago to finish business with an “old friend” and checked for Mariko-Chan’s grave once in a while.

Mariko was has been his “true love”, and now she was dead.
Logan remembered that it had got to him a lot, but he was still alive, and in a life like his, you learn quickly that a lot of people die everyday and you mustn’t hold on for too long. If you do, the dead will drag you along.

So that day, Logan recognised a familiar smell in the air, he lifted his head and saw that it came positively from the “spying dragon” bar. Carefully, he wandered to the crowd outside which was sure a little more “informed” of the incidents within the bar. He only snatched a few words like “fight”, “damn sailors” and some rambling about “beer getting too warm”
He left the group and walked up the few stairs which led him to a big black door that was ajar. Logan lifted his hat so that he could look ahead instead of only to the ground.

From inside came a limp sigh which was clearly from the victim he had heard about. He clinched his fists and grumbled. Pushing the door open, he had the best view on the fight. There was a big crowd but the circle was open to the entrance.

Logan saw two men in sailor’s uniforms holding each a girl’s arm and another sailor grinning meaningfully at her. Logan’s eyes widened for a second as he recognised the girl.
The third sailor was taller than the others and had short blond hair. The guy looked around to check if he had still the crowd’s undivided attention. As he was confirmed, he eagerly held up his fist to punch the girl again who was unconscious meanwhile.

“I’ll teach ya to behave like a lady!” he yelled, positively stinking of alcohol and about to throw his fist forward.
He couldn’t. There was something holding his arm up, and it held him tight.

The other two guys who were holding the girl froze and lost their grip on the girls arms. Both of them were gazing at the stranger who messed with their fellow sailor and “leader” Cliff.

Whose grin disappeared now as he looked down to his side and saw another hand pinning his own right where it was. He looked down to the belonging person and saw him for the first time: Logan.

Cliff didn’t think of giving up. He had beaten up tougher guys than this one. What could he possibly do? Bore him to death? He was way too old to think he could hold up with Cliff Chambers.

Then their eyes met. Although Cliff was drunk, he could see something in those eyes. They were different form others. In one glare they contained so much anger, so much fury and hate that the young man thought about backing off.

Logan didn’t look away, he held his eyes up, confronting the other man’s. He wouldn’t just go and Logan knew it. Guys like these were all the same. Usually being a wimp but “give em a bottle o’ beer and they feel invincible”

It wasn’t hard to guess what Logan was thinking at that moment, the dark eyes were gleaming, hungering for a chance to fight “If he’s wanting ta fight, I ain’t sayin’ no”