Finger-Painting With Fire (Part Three)

It was a quiet plane ride back to Xavier's, mostly because we had gagged Deadpool this time around. Still, in the twenty minutes I sat filthy and bleeding in the co-pilot chair, it was enough time for the lack of any conversation at all to get awkward.

"Did you know he was going to do that?" I eventually asked Logan. He had been way too calm upon picking me up. Actually, everyone had been. As if everything had been under control, or at least expected.

Logan didn't bother looking away from the windshield as he addressed me, "Not that exactly, but yeah. Figured he'd pull something."

I felt my mouth fall open. He knew that was going to happen? "...Why?" I said, "Dude, why did you let me do this then?"

At that, Mister Logan breathed out a sigh through his nose. Turning the autopilot on, he turned in his seat to face me directly, "Glowstick... you've got a nasty habit of sticking your neck out on gambles."

"You do pull this kind of crap a lot," Julian said from the back, only to be met with glares from both me and Logan, "I'm just saying!"

Regardless, Logan quickly focused back onto me, "Slim made you team leader for a reason. You can't just go all maverick whenever it suits you. You're responsible for more than just yourself."

"But that's why I try to take the most dangerous stuff myself," I tried to defend myself. It was my job to look after everyone under me. And how could I order any of the team to do anything that I wasn't willing to do myself? "Are you telling me it's a bad thing I'd rather I get hurt myself than let anybody else take the bullet?"

"You do it even when you don't need to," Logan pointed out, "Look at today. Did you really need to do this today? To the point where you ran off half-cocked without a second thought? You didn't bide your time for a minute. And why? It's not like you were striking while the iron was hot. There wasn't even an iron to strike with."

If you only took Mister Logan by what you saw on the surface, you would think he was just heat, anger, and instinct all the time. But the guy had been alive for over damn century. He'd seen it all. That aside, he actually was a damn smart guy well worth listening to. I had no tangible intelligence to work with, and wound up operating on the word of a headcase that had ostensibly tried to murder me three times in less than twelve hours. It wasn't a good look, no matter how I might have thought to spin it.

For Wolverine of all people telling me I needed to check myself for being out of pocket, that was saying something.

He continued, "As a guy who has had many a bounty on his head, trust me. This ain't getting solved in a day. It might never get solved. You may never know who posted it. You may never know why," At that, he grinned, "Hell, twenty years from now, you might still be walking around with a big, fat target on your back in the shape of a dollar sign," It felt like he wanted me to ask him how he knew.

That was all well and good, but it sounded like his way of getting me to slow down and take better care of myself was to let me run headlong into a minefield, "So, the answer to me being reckless was to let me be reckless and get bamboozled by the killer mercenary after my balls?" I gestured to Deadpool, bound and gagged in the very back, being sat on by Saberwolf.

"Just sitting you down wouldn't do anything, 'cuz I know you've heard this before," Logan replied, "From experience, I know you learn best in the processing stage after getting your ass kicked. So, I let you get your ass kicked. But it was controlled. Mostly, anyway."

"Wasn't exactly a Danger Room session," I muttered, nursing my various injuries.

"And it all could have been avoided if you literally did nothing," Logan said, clearly amused, "Don't turn into an adrenaline-fueled busybody. Not everything is a race against time. Sometimes, you've gotta play the long game."

"Move not unless you see an advantage," Laura said quietly, "Use not your troops unless there is something to be gained. Fight not unless the position is critical."

I turned and stared at her, "Girl, I know you're not about to sit there and start quoting Sun Tzu at me."

She raised a challenging eyebrow and got up from her seat, walking directly over to me to sit in my lap, "I could sit here and quote Sun Tzu to you, if you prefer."

"Hmm," I wrapped my arms around her waist as she put hers around my neck, pulling my head against her chest, "I do prefer."

Mister Logan had no time for the two of us getting comfortable mere feet away from him. He was not pleased at playing audience to me and Laura getting familiar, "Every-fucking-body, get the fuck back in your own fucking seat!"

I didn't put it past him to crash the plane, given that just about everyone onboard except for me would probably walk away from it.