Chapter Text
———foreword———
It had been a few weeks since the whole TVA-time-ripper-almost-destroying-the-universe-and-multiverse thing, but Logan was happy.
Wade had stopped Logan before he could walk away and brought him to his apartment to meet his friends. Logan had felt like he belonged to something for the first time in a while, and he was surprised that this feeling of love and inclusivity wasn’t foreign to him after all these years.
Wade especially went out of his way to introduce Logan into his life. It was as if it was his way of saying thank you for helping him save his universe and everyone that lived in it.
Well, everyone who was inside that polaroid photo. Logan didn’t think Wade really cared about anyone beyond his 9 or however many friends. But regardless, Logan was more than happy to have been given a second chance at life.
He religiously blamed himself for what happened in his own universe and by being here, surrounded by people who cared about him, he truly felt like a new man. But that’s not to say that he has completely overcome his past, but he does find some sort of comfort in the people here.
It was…nice. He could get used to this.
———present———
Logan thought there was a limit to how annoying Wade could get when he’s comfortable but he was wrong. So unbelievably wrong. It was like Wade reached a whole new level of stupidity and irritability once Logan moved in with him and Althea (Logan refused to call her Blind Al because he thought it was rude and Wade made sure to regularly poke fun at him for being an ass-kisser).
“Hey Peanut, what did you want on your pancakes? Butter? Maple syrup? Ice-cream? Whisky? Or are you more of a rum kinda guy?” Wade yelled out from the kitchen. He kept rambling to himself but Logan had already tuned him out after the first few words.
With all things aside, Logan couldn’t ignore the fact that the man was a strangely good cook. He would often awake to Wade cooking them breakfast in the morning or he would come home to a freshly-made dinner laid out on the table. So out of all the flaws Wade had, and he had many, many flaws, Logan couldn’t fault the man for his cooking abilities.
Logan groaned and turned over until he was laying on his back. He wondered when Wade had gotten up to make breakfast, but quickly brushed the thought off because in reality, he didn’t really care that much. He hoisted himself up and out of the bed and emerged from their bedroom looking like a rugged mess.
Wade was still in his Hello Kitty pyjamas and wore an apron that read ‘Kiss the Cook’ with what seemed to be a hand-drawn arrow pointing downwards. Logan rolled his eyes and made his way to the couch before he eventually sat down next to Althea. She was already dressed and ready so he assumed she was about to leave for her daily gambling session at the nearby casino.
Logan was always confused as to why the woman even bothered when she couldn’t see what cards she was playing. But to his surprise, there was never a day that Althea didn’t return home with a suspiciously large and bulky purse. How that woman was still alive with all the cocaine she snorted, Logan would never know.
“Why does it smell like somebody just died in here?” Althea bluntly yelled out after he sat down. Logan looked away and discreetly shuffled further down the couch, hoping to get out of her range.
“Oh, good morning sleepyhead! I thought you were never going to wake up after everything that happened last night. I mean I don’t blame you, probably still a little bit sore. I sure as hell know I am.” Wade winked as he swivelled on his feet and faced Logan.
“What’re you talking about, bub?” Logan questioned as he adjusted his position on the couch to be seated upright.
Wade’s face lit up in betrayal, as if Logan had forgotten something important like an anniversary. He gasped and placed a hand to his chest.
“I’m seriously clutching my proverbial pearls right now! You forgot what happened last night? How could you! I thought we shared a moment!” Wade retorted as if he was seriously offended.
Logan looked at him with blank eyes. Come to think of it…what happened last night? He couldn’t remember a single thing.
“Stop it with the innuendos and just tell me what happened.” Logan grunted, he was getting annoyed because he felt like he was missing out somehow.
“Well I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say things got a little messy,” he giggled as he turned back around to flip a few more pancakes. “Oh and I’d recommend that we go buy some new bed sheets soon, our ones are long past their expiration date.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
After the past couple weeks of living with the asshole, Logan had grown desensitised to the majority of his immature and inappropriate comments. But sometimes it just got on his nerves.
Logan jumped off the couch and away from Althea (who looked as if she wished she was deaf too) before he stormed into their bedroom.
Yeah, they shared a bed. At first, Logan was skeptical about it because Wade had done nothing but make comments about his body and how horny he was when they fought (which was a lot). But he got over it when he realised that it was either that or he had to sleep on the couch. For the most part, Wade kept to his side of the bed. Sometimes he would wake up to find Wade glued to his side or laying on top of him like a human blanket, but he didn’t really mind to be honest.
Logan didn’t really want to know what he was about to see but he rolled back the covers anyway and found a massive pool of dried-up blood and a few scratches along the centre of the bed.
“What the-” Logan muttered before Wade barged in holding a monsterous pile of pancakes in one hand.
“Oh yeah, you had a little bit of a nightmare and I woke up to find myself impaled by your little steak knives,” he gestured at Logan’s fists. “Might I say, not my favourite way to wake up. I would’ve preferred a handjob or maybe even just a cuddle would’ve been nice. But it’s okay, we all start somewhere so I forgive you.” Wade chuckled as he stared down at what looked like a murder scene.
It dawned upon Logan that if it weren’t for the idiot’s regenerative abilities, he would have killed Wade. Out of everything he had left behind in his universe, his nightmares followed him and continued to haunt him almost every night.
“Fuck, Wade…I’m so sorry, fuck-” Logan stuttered before Wade cut him off.
“Honey badger it’s okay, I said I forgive you. No need to have another mid-life-crisis. We can just buy new bed sheets.” Wade calmy said as if this was nothing new to him.
Logan was appalled at himself. This wasn’t right. If it had been someone else, literally anyone else but Wade, Logan would’ve awakened to a corpse lying coldly beside him.
“No, this isn’t right Wade. Fuck…You shouldn’t have to deal with my bullshit. It’s okay, I’ll just sleep on the couch for the time being. Just until I get things under control.” Logan sighed as he dropped his face into his hands.
Wade was a little taken aback. After all, he had only seen the infamous ‘Wolverine’ act all macho and manly and who’s vocabulary consisted mainly of f-bombs and the typical mean comments about how unbearable Wade was to be around.
But he had gotten to see the softer side of the man when he’d wake up to find Logan faintly crying in his sleep. In literally any other circumstance Wade would have been turned on by seeing him in that state but instead he would cradle Logan back to sleep after his violent nightmares. And Wade usually woke up before him anyway, so he would untangle himself and Logan would remain blissfully unaware of what happened during the night.
This was however the first time Logan had drawn his claws during one of his nightmares.
“Uh…Wait, okay okay. I already told you I didn’t mind it. We all have nightmares, and it’s not your fault your claws just pop out like that. Plus, it’s not like I’ll die from it anyway. So please, just stop talking like that before the author has to add an Angst/Hurt tag to this fan-fiction.” He charmed as he stepped closer to pat Logan on the back reassuringly. Logan burrowed his brows at the last comment but nonetheless he appreciated the gesture.
“Anddd these pancakes are getting cold and I spent all morning making them and I’m not about to watch them go to waste so vamonos!” Wade said as he quickly guided Logan to the kitchen table.
Logan brushed away the lingering thoughts and sat down to eat his pancakes. They both decided that they would go shopping for bed sheets later on that day. But deep down, it still bothered him that Wade was so readily accepting of his dangerous unconscious habits.
Although Wade never seemed to be truly bothered by it, at least not on the surface, Logan tried his hardest to ignore it.
———later that day———
Logan wore his infamous navy boot-leg jeans and a grey jacket over the top of a white singlet that clung to his muscular build. Wade on the other hand wore a dark graphic-tee that had some weird design on it that Logan didn’t know the reference of over the top of some black basketball shorts.
In his first week of staying with Wade, Logan had made it his first priority to re-buy his entire wardrobe as quickly as possible so he wouldn’t have to wear whatever strange clothes Wade had. Even if he had left everything else behind and started anew in this universe, Logan could at least wear the same sort of clothes he did back then.
The streets were quiet for a warm spring’s day, with the only form of life seeming to come from the various bars scattered around.
“Well it’s 5 o’clock somewhere I suppose.” Wade had seemed to take notice of Logan staring down the countless people stumbling out of the nearby bars.
Wade clutched their new bed sheets to his chest and skipped ahead before he quickly stopped to stare into a shop’s window display. His eyes light up with child-like awe.
“Holy shit! Peanut, look!” Wade shrieked as he enthusiastically pointed at the display shelf that exhibited various Avengers memorabilia. “I’m totally fan-girling right now. Wait, that’s Thor. THOR! WHY WERE YOU CRYING?” Wade yelled as he banged on the window to where a replica of Thor’s suit stood.
“Stop it, you dumbfuck! You’re going to break the window and we can’t afford to replace it.” Logan snapped as he motioned Wade to get away from the window.
Wade ignored him and continued to aggressively fan-girl over the merchandise.
“You know I tried to join the Avengers? Yeah, it was the opening scene of our movie before we did that whole saving-the-universe-and-even-multiverse-thingy. But long story short, I got rejected and then had this massive mid-life-crisis and became a car salesman to sell shitty cars to a bunch of shitty families. I even wore a gorgeous toupee that everyone found attractive. Honestly, should I go back to that?-” Wade blabbered before he cut himself off.
“Oh my god. Peanut, that’s YOU!” Wade squealed as he pointed at a Wolverine shrine that stood in the middle of the store just beyond the window displays.
Logan internally cringed. He wasn’t their Wolverine. He was merely a replacement anchor-being for this universe whose original Logan had selflessly sacrificed himself. It was funny how the multiverse worked in the way that Logan could go from being the most hated person in one universe to a widely-respected idol in another.
But before Logan could get caught up in his thoughts, Wade grabbed his wrist and tried to drag him into the store.
“Cmon! Pleaseeee! I want to see if they have the suit in my size and then we can twin!~” Wade teased as he tightened his grip on Logan’s wrist and pulled him harder.
“Fuck off.” Logan growled as he tugged his hand out of Wade’s grasp. Wade frowned dramatically but swivelled around and started to strut into the store.
Then suddenly, a group of raggedy, drunk men stumbled out of the bar next door to them loudly. They laughed obnoxiously before they settled their eyes on Wade who was still clutching their bed sheets to his chest.
“Fucking freak.” A man spat as he and his goons looked him up and down with a disgusted look.
Logan had expected Wade to make some witty remark but to his surprise, the merc-with-a-mouth fell silent.
This would often happen when they were out, but most of the time Wade would make a joke out of the situation or poke fun at the asshole who insulted him. But this time was different.
Logan watched as the happiness drained from Wade’s face and his usual overly confident, annoying demeanour deflated. But just as quickly as he was pushed off his high-horse, he regained his composure and put on a facade as if it never happened in the first place.
Logan watched as Wade turned his back to the group of dickheads and waltzed into the store with his head held high. The drunks scoffed and joked around before their eyes fell on Logan who stood there, confused and a little angry.
“And what do we have here? This must be the freak’s boyfriend. You’re fucking disgusting, cock-lover.” The man snapped before he spat next to Logan’s shoes.
Logan peered up and glowered at the men.
“The fuck you say, bub?” Logan’s gravelly voice grumbled as his claws slowly unsheathed from his knuckles.
The drunkards’ eyes widened before they stumbled away uttering a few whatever’s and freak’s under their breaths. Logan watched as the group made their way down the street to their next pitstop (another bar, unsurprisingly) - but not before they catcalled a few poor women who were just trying to pass by.
He sighed with a mixture of anger and shock but turned to face the store where Wade awaited. When he walked in, he found Wade bent over the Wolverine display where he fondled a few t-shirts and action figures before setting his eyes on a plushie.
Wade spun around and held the Wolverine plushie out to Logan, with eyes that gleamed with excitement. Logan opened his mouth to say something but quickly shut it as he realised that Wade didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk about what had just happened.
“Isn’t he just adorable! I mean I have the real deal that sleeps next to me every night but at least I’ll be able to squeeze this one without having to worry about waking up to a nasty jab to the stomach. Or even better, I’d much prefer to wake up to something else inside of me.” Wade flashed a sultry look before he squeezed the plushie tightly.
Logan ignored the comment because he was more occupied by the fact that Wade, Wade-fucking-Wilson, the merc with a mouth, had failed to land an insulting comeback or at the very least make a witty remark.
He had known that Wade suffered with major body image issues because of his scars and hated seeing him like this. He hated seeing Wade pretend that it didn’t hurt him. Or on the flip side, Logan hated hearing Wade make his frequent self-deprecating comments about his scars before someone else could beat him to it.
But unfortunately for Logan, Wade never seemed to want to talk about it. Well not seriously anyway. He would sometimes briefly mention his scars but he never actually got anything off his chest and just kept it to himself. Logan saw beyond Wade’s facade and saw that he was really just a self-conscious man that so desperately wanted his scars to go away so he wouldn’t have to be the butt of everyone’s jokes anymore.
It broke Logan’s heart and he didn’t know why. Ever since he was pulled out of the bar on that fateful day, Wade had done nothing but annoy the man. He had a knack for getting on the nerves of everyone he met. But seeing him like this was just sad.
———later on——
Their walk home was strangely normal with Wade’s typical ramblings about obscure topics that Logan only caught a few words of here and there. Logan wished that Wade would just at least once stop the charade and speak his mind (which surprised even Logan himself because he often got annoyed at just how much the man spoke his mind).
With everything that Wade pushed down, he was like a ticking time bomb that would go off at any minute unless diffused soon.
———that night———
Even their night was oddly normal. Wade cooked some spaghetti with garlic bread and then they spent an hour or two mindlessly watching bad TV shows like TLC’s ‘My Strange Addiction’ and ‘90-day Fiancé.’ Wade was a very vocal watcher and felt the need to comment on every little thing that happened in the shows as if it wasn’t all scripted anyway.
Shortly after that they both stumbled to bed, exhausted and ready to fall asleep in a matter of seconds. Logan couldn’t help but recount the events of the day as the man laid peacefully beside him. But his eyes fought against him and started to close with a mind of their own.
“Goodnight, Wade.” Logan whispered as he rolled over so his back faced him. Wade hummed pleasantly before they fell into a comfortable silence and drifted off to sleep.