Your personal Tumblr journey starts here
another un-edited chunk, definitely gonna be a few more chapters into the fic but here yall go!
Feral Baby Logan AU
The first time they spar, though, it triggers a memory (and a subsequent panic attack). The Beast just holds his wrists, murmurs reassurances, and rubs his thumbs against the outside of Loans knuckles, uncaring of his claws. After that, they really do start to bond. So much so that it causes…some codependency issues in Logan when he has to be apart from His Person. But, that all comes later.
Wolverine manages to hound the Beast into (play) fighting with him. He’s been at the Institute for all of a week and already feels like he’s going to shake out of his skin from boredom.
Everyones treating him like he’ll break if he does any fighting at all, which is boring, and he has to eat all of his meat medium or more because everyone keeps staring at him and watching what he eats,which is annoying, and there's no one else in the building that's his age or anything to do, which is infuriating.
On top of all that, he’s been forced to meet with Jean Grey and Charlie every day for at least an hour. His head always hurts after, and the last few days have just been with Charle’s after Jean ran out to throw up in the hall bathroom. And that’s not mentioning the weird nightmares he’s been having these past few days, of people he doesn’t know holding him down, the loud cracking of the collar ringing in his ears even after he wakes.
All to say, if he doesn’t get this tension out soon, he's going to explode. Beast must have seen some of his distress on his face, because he sighs, takes off his reading classes, and nods.
“Alright boy, but you must remember some rules. One,” he holds up a large blue finger.
“If I say stop, we stop. Secondly, you may not use your claws. I know you like using them, but this is a spar, not a fight, and I do not heal as quickly as you do.” He grins. “But biting and your normal claws is allowed.”
Logan doesn’t waste a minute. The moment Beast steps into the ring, Wolverine pounces, a Feral grin in place as he jumps to climb the much larger man. He’s surprised when his weight topples the man, both of them sprawling into the mat. Beast huffs out a laugh, and then grabs him by his shirt and -gently- throws him over his shoulder onto the mat. Logan wheezes, but scrambles up, a grin on his face. This is going to be fun
It’s on their fourth round that it happens: Beast surprises him. He does something to quiet his steps enough for Logan to lose him as he jumps away to get some distance. He’s trying to locate him before he closes his eyes, and realizes the man is somehow behind-
Before he even finishes his though, he sees something blue and lashes out, claws immediately extended, managing to scratch Beasts shirt before-
Beast grabs him by the front of his shirt, lifting him from the ground. There’s a dangerous glint in his eyes, a rage. It’s now that Logan remembers how much larger and stronger this man is.
“Boy-”
A dozen voices overlap.
He’s not a boy, but everyone insists on calling him one. They love it in the lab, like he’s to stupid to understand what they're doing to him. Like he can’t understand when they rip his teeth out for attacking an essential catch, or fighting the doctors when they cut off his fingers and carve out his joints ‘for research’.
The man in front of him flicks through forms, brown hair then black then blond, hand growing larger and smaller, clawed-
And all Logan knows
Is a feeling of dread.
So he runs.
Claws retracted, he blindly swipes his arms, hearing a grunt of surprise as he's dropped like a sack of potatoes, and he's running off at a sprint before he can think.
He hears speech, more shouting, but it doesn’t matter. He has to get out.
His ears ring as he runs towards the only thing he can locate: his room.
He slams into door frames, shoves past a few taller kids, and launches himself into the most protected part of his room: the corner between his bed and his bedside table.
It's not until he's huddled in between them that he realizes he forgot to close the door
Fuck.
He’s dry heaving, trying to prevent himself from vomiting when he realizes it is his shirt that's choking him. He rips it off, the fabric feeling just like the collar-
no no he promised he could behave- they promised- please- he was sorry-
and gasps through flashes of pain, pressing his hands against his neck to prove it’s not there anymore, they didn't like to punish animals, weapons like that here.
“Logan?” Beast is standing in his open door
He wants to scream at him to go away, to leave, to get out of his room; this is the only place he’s safe. But all that comes out is a crackling whimper.
Hank sighs, and walks in.
Logan hisses, looking very frightening in the corner of his room. His hair is falling into his face, eyes flicking around the room, but only locking onto Hank as he crosses the threshold of the door. There’s dried blood on his neck, on his hands, on his chest. He hurt himself trying to get away.
Hank pauses, and then kneels. He crawls the rest of the room until he’s in front of Logan, who’s biting his lip so hard it keeps bleeding enough to drip down his chin.
Beast reaches a hand out slowly but steadily. He smells bloody. And nervous. But he doesn't smell mad. It doesn’t make sense.
Logan whines, eyes slamming shut as he feels his claws slowly pop out, trying to defend him despite his knowledge it would be useless. They scrape his neck, but he keeps his hands close to his ears.
Beast grabs his wrists firmly, and his blinks as he just
“C'mon son, you have to stop scratching, you’re just scaring yourself more” He guides his hands down. Once there in his lap, Hank scruffs him gently, one firm hand on his neck as the other one remains in Logan’s, thumb rubbing the edge of his claws.
It’s familiar.
Another memory, a breath whispered along the shell of his ear. A feeling of comfort
"C'mon runt, breathe.”
Hank echoes it, calling him son and counting out how long he's supposed to hold and then release.
He breathes
Hank's hand guides his face into the crook of his shoulder and something about the security, the safety of his room, the calm response of the doctor… the warmth of someone else cradling him.
Logan breaks.
His calmed breaths abruptly turn to sobs, and when Hank attempts to gently dislodge him (to see what he did wrong) he’s surprised by Logan clinging to him, hands shakily fisted in hims shirt, face smooshed into his neck, hard enough that Hank can feel the tears on his shirt.
And he does what no one else has done for him in years…
He stays.
He tells comforting lies, tells Logan he won’t be punished for hurting him, says they're never gonna put the collar on him again, that he’s safe, not just in his room, but in the whole mansion.
Even as Logan shakes apart, Hank's hands and breath stay constant, a lighthouse to Logan's hurricane.
When he's done crying, he pulls away, staring at the ground. He pretends like his nose isn’t dripping, and sighs.
“…Sorry.”
“It's alright, child. You are new here, and I know it is difficult to believe, but you are welcome to lean on any of us if you require assistance and support.”
In some part of his brain, Logan is screaming at himself
Child is even more infantilizing than a boy…there's no way he's going to let him call that.
But…
He noticed. He’s the first person to have noticed. And He’s the only person who hasn’t been scared of Wolverine the entire time he’s been here. So.. Beast gets a pass.