THE ILLUSIONIST WOMAN

two. Allure to the Darkness

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"COME HERE OFTEN?" Logan smirked around his cigar at the brunette, brown eyed beauty leaning against the door frame to the balcony. Her eyes were round, but if he payed close enough attention, they wistfully sparked an ethereal golden glow. Like lightening flashing in the night sky.

As expected, her eyes rolled in annoyance. Despite her curled, red painted lips, he'd think she was serious. But the playfulness in her gaze drew him to think otherwise. 

"Only to see you, if you must ask." She padded closer to him, gazing like he were the earth and sky. Such admiration frightened him, but he kept himself at bay.

There was something attractive about being wanted by her. A temptress in the night. An angel of the heavens. Yet, she willingly sinned when warranted. She was magnetizing, borderline addicting and he had no clue why. Her charisma was a learned behavior, so was her overtness. He could tell that she used to be shy in her passed life, or even a few years ago, and was learning to push herself out of her comfort zone.

The fact that she was showing it to him, never failed to intrigue his twisted mind.

She was seduction walking. Her effortless walk, which leveled a cat's stalk towards it's prey. The gentle sway and caress of her chocolate hair. The wispiness of her long eyelashes as they brushed against the tops of her cheeks. Even her smile. Full grin with pearly white teeth, it was contagious.

Logan didn't know if he was being hypnotized of if he was genuinely becoming a sap for this woman. This life loving, goddess of a woman.

He tugged his cigar out with a moments hesitation as she grew closer. Her fingers reached for the bud but he lifted it slightly out of her way. On a whim, he turned the cigar and posed it at her plush lips, waiting for her to open them. She did so obediently, taking a puff before sighing in the toxic smoke.

"What are you doing out here?" She wondered breathily. Truthfully, he was still in a stupor by the way she took a puff of his cigar. His heart stuttering for a second too long. "It's cold."

Sliding an arm around her waist, he tugged her closer to his frame. Her poncho left the sides of her stomach revealed and his rough hands melted against her tanned, soft skin. He sunk into the waistband of her jeans as he gazed into her molten eyes. 

"I'm warm blooded," He excused to which she pursed her lips. She didn't let that phase her question and she waited for his new answer. "I've been thinking."

"And I suppose since your being so aloof, you don't want me to know what you've been thinking about?" She nodded, averting her gaze to the courtyard of the school. Mostly everyone in their younger years had gone inside for curfew purposes. Leaving the older teenagers to hang around the pool and basketball court.

"I can't tell you, otherwise --"

"Otherwise, I'll tamper with things. I know," She drawled in repetitive boredom, raising her hand to caress the column of his neck. His unkempt facial hair scratched against her fingertips and he found himself loving the contrast of the skin on skin affection.

She lazily drew intricate designs against his flesh, tempting him with her pointed fingernails as they pressed into him. Logan grew momentarily distracted and grabbed her wrist to cease the thoughtless fidgeting.

Through his eyes, she looked to be on a mental journey. Her eyes far away until she settled on him once more. She did this often, spacing out. It most likely meant she was seeing a glimpse of the future. It was hardly noticeable when it happened, but maybe he paid so much attention to her, he knew each time she zone in and out of the present.

"Do you regret it?" A whisper, causing his heart to speed up ever so subtly. Her lips brushed against his own and the hair stood on end from the electricity humming between them.

He thought this concept over for a minute before shaking his head. This caused their lips to initiate a chaste kiss. The pull in him towards her grew stronger every time they kissed.

Logan found his grip tightening on her waist, sprawling his large hand up her multicolored poncho. "No, no I don't. Trust when I say, things are better now."

The brunette frowned for a moment before curling her lips into a small, genuine smile. "I believe you." Running her fingers into his wavy, dark hair, she allowed her nose to brush against his. A shaky breath leaving her lips before Logan capture them in a rough lock. An animalistic, languid stroke of his tongue delving into her mouth as her grip tightened on his strands.

There was teeth and rushed breath. A scandalous display on the balcony of a private school for mutants. Yet, they didn't seem to care. Logan just wanted more.

With a harsh exhale, Logan sat up in bed. Sweat slathered all over his tanned skin and his hair stuck to his forehead. He blinked lethargically, wiping a hand down his face as his eyebrows furrowed. He was in a state of perpetual confusion.

"You alright?" A feminine voice broke up the deafening silence. Groggy and hoarse from sleep.

Logan glanced over and didn't recognize her as the woman in his dream. In stark contrast, she had curly blonde hair with pink streaks. Sleepily peeking up at him with bright green eyes as the shadows of the night coated her sheet covered figure. 

Hell, he didn't recognize the woman in his dream either. He never met anyone that looked like her. Some brief one night stands came close to her features, but they weren't around long enough to be so familiar with him. The way she looked at him, it was as if she knew him intimately. And her touch, it did something primal within him.

Shaking himself from visions of her, he grunted in reply. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Mkay," She muttered before stuffing her head back into the pillow. Logan stared at her for a moment longer before getting out of the bed. The house wasn't even his own and he vaguely remembered going along with coming to her place after drinking at the bar.

For her own personal peace of mind and safety issues. He was accommodating. Nevertheless, he had to get the hell out of here now.

Carefully, he rose from the bed. He hastily looked around for his shirt and frankly, he pants too. The dream he had left him with much to be desired, though he had nothing to do with the brunette he was kissing so passionately. His jeans were dry and stiff from the rain last night, which made his morning hard-on that much more annoying. 

Throwing on his wrinkled white shirt, he snatched his shoes in the living room of her apartment and ducked out of there before she could wake up. Was it wrong that he hardly remembered her name, let alone where exactly in town her apartment was stationed.

Groaning to himself, he squinted in the dark of the early morning. Digging in his jeans, all he had was a pack of cigarettes, a wad of twenty dollar bills and an ID. The glow of the moon shrouded him in a ominous loneliness, but he often told himself he preferred it that way.

He was going to have to take a night bus to the parking lot of the bar. Because that's where his own truck was. If only he could get that ethereal woman out of his mind, his day may turn around for the better. Not that he believed that, Logan was a pessimist to the very bone.

...

CRACKING HIS NECK AS his shoulders jostled to prepare himself, Logan watched the people getting rowdy around the room. It was a run down barn type room. Made of rusted metal plates stacked on top of each other.

It stunk of piss and the worst kind of sweat from the male body. Testosterone overload. Shouting and cursing surrounded him at every turn. Exclaiming bets and cruel banter back and forth between their peers. It was this very chaotic atmosphere that got Logan the most money.

Without the law enforcement around, anything goes. Laughlin City was his ring around corner in the last three days. Whoever thought they could compete with him, toss him around the metal chain link fence for a bit, were given a severe wake up call when they got their ass kicked by him.

Logan decided this was his last night here. He had to get moving. Why? He didn't have a clue, he just went when he pleased at whatever time it pleased him.

Grabbing a half empty water bottle, he chugged it till droplets spilled down into his gruff facial hair, dotting along his bloodied wife beater tank top. He shrugged that off without a moments notice too.

"Wolverine! You're back up," A large man with a weasel grin jabbed his thumb backwards to encourage him inside the ring.

He swished the water within his mouth and spat on the scattered hay ground. His wrist wiped at his jaw before he stood to his full height from the rickety stool. Logan's dark eyes took in the high fence as it was wrenched open for him. A cool blue light shining blindingly bright on the center of the ring.

The raving became a buzzing noise in the back of his mind as he focused in and out on his surroundings. For a second, he did a double take out in the sea of people. Unbelievably, he saw the woman from his dream.

She flickered past his vision for a single hummingbird's heart beat. There and then gone the next beat. His eyes squinted in disbelief and in his confusion, he didn't hear the bell ding to commence the fight.

A fist swung him right in the corner of his jaw and Logan staggered back enough to lean heavily against the chained fence. It bounced with his weight, making that satisfying springing sound to add to the volume of the room. The last guy had got a few good hits in before he was dragged out the ring barely conscious.

He flexed his chin with a grit of his teeth, eyes downcast despite the wildness of the atmosphere. Logan was kicked with his back turned, shoved to the ground on all fours. The crowd cheered with his beatings as he spat a dribble of blood to get the taste out of his mouth.

With narrowed eyes, he looked between the hashed lines of the fence. The platform raised above the front row. He was eye line with the same woman. Flashing before him once more. Logan squinted with frustration, growling under his breath as he felt another cowardly kick into his ribs.

The brunette grew dangerously close to the fence, her fingers curling into the metal holes as her brown eyes implored him to listen. Her ruby lips parted with bated breath, the dip in her brow showing concern. "You're a infamous man, Mr. Howlett. Very wanted."

Her voice was the same Spanish accented one from his dream. Husky and playful despite the seriousness in her chocolate orbs. The volume was but a whisper in the excitement of the night, but he heard her clearly, as if she was whispering straight into his ear.

The suggestive meaning behind her words left him stumped. He instantly grew suspicious of her ominous quip but before he could question it, she had disappeared entirely. Like she wasn't there in the first place.

His dog tags jostled against his bare, sweaty chest, drawing him back to the moment at hand. With another swift kick, the asshole hit him where it counts. Logan rounded himself up and accurately matched his opponents punch with his own. He could feel the guys knuckle crack underneath the pressure, driving him forward. 

 The Wolverine was unrelenting, sending punch after punch until his opponent slumped against the ring disoriented about where the sudden energy burst had come from. The bell dinged and his second fastest record time was accomplished.

He shook himself free of the leftover jitters as the crowd went crazy. Some booing and others singing his praises for letting them win the bets. The sleazy announcer begrudgingly proclaiming, "Ladies and gentlemen, tonight's winner and still King of the cage, the Wolverine!"

Logan walked to the edge, taking a cigarette to nonchalantly smoke a puff or two. His eyes subtly searched for the mystical woman again and he found himself slightly disappointed when he couldn't spot any traces of her.

He wondered if she was ever there in the first place or just a figment of his imagination. A trick of the mind... 

An Illusion.

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Unedited. 6/2/2021

Intrigued? Hope so because their otp and haven't even met yet... or have they?