Just The Scent of You - Chapter 8

Inspirational Music for this Chapter

Chapter 8 - Giving Chase

Logan’s POV

Where the hell has this woman taken me? She called it ‘Gotham City’. I’d call it ‘Shit City’ and that was being courteous. Every alley we passed seemed to have this creepy fog nestled within it. When I say fog, I do mean fog; thick and the oddest colors like green and blue. We didn’t pass a single block that didn’t have a person that didn’t seem to either be strung out on drugs, mentally deranged, or just plain down on their luck. Moreover, don’t even get me started on the smell. I could only describe it in a way that resembled moldy cheese and corn chips. I have six knives that protrude from my knuckles at any given moment and this place made even me uneasy. I couldn’t believe Selina had actually grown up here, lived here; it definitely explained a lot and made me a little wary on her level of batshit craziness. We came to a stop in front of a plain, brick building with stair fire escapes outside each of the windows. Selina looked up to the building and began to feel around in her pockets.

“I guess I should’ve stopped to think about the fact that the keys for my place are back in ‘Neverland’,” she said as she used her fingers to make quotation marks in the air. She smirked to herself as she moved to open the front door, which made me quirk an eyebrow.

“Don’t apartment buildings usually have some sorta security to get through the front door, you know, keep the crazies out?” I asked as I followed her through to the lobby area.

Selina responded with a bout of laughter as she made her way to the stairs. I looked around and spotted the elevator that had a sign that read ‘Under Construction’ draped across it. The sign looked like it had been there for years and even had smiley faces drawn into the O’s.

“Honey, half of the crazies already live in this building and after the fourth break in, I’m pretty sure the apartment complex started to suggest just owning a gun. Get my drift?” Selina responded as I followed her up the stairs while I occasionally and unabashedly snuck a peak at her ass.

“Why the hell do you even live here, Selina? It is an absolute shit hole, hell the whole city is,” I said to her as she turned around for a moment and started to walk up the stairs backwards.

“Never a more wretched hive of scum and villainy,” she said and I couldn’t help but smirk at her movie reference.

“Way to avoid the question, Obi-Wan,” I responded and she seemed to be shocked that I even knew where the reference came from. She paused a moment on the stairs and looked down at me.

“I’m not sure whether to be exceptionally turned on right now that you knew that or to yell the word ‘nerd’ to the top of my lungs and pull your underwear up over your head,” Selina said with a smirk. I narrowed my eyes at her as I raised a single fist to display in between us with a light growl.

“Just try it,” I simply said as I watched Selina lean forward and place her lips delicately on my fist before standing straight up again.

“Mmm, I do love dark and brooding,” she said, as I raised an eyebrow to her again. It was amazing how completely different she was from the woman I originally met, but still so much of her was subconsciously there even before her memories returned.

We reached the top of the stairs and made our way down the hallway. We passed an apartment with the door wide open where an old man walked absently around in circles in only his stained tank top and boxer briefs. Another apartment I could hear screaming and death metal music blasting through the door, another one I could hear the blatant sound of a headboard banging against a wall and the grunts and moans of what could only be two people fucking, and yet another door there was clearly a quick, unashamed drug exchange transaction occurring. This happened to be the apartment right next to Selina’s, which made my jaw square off in annoyance. As I watched the two drug heads in their exchange with my arms crossed over my chest, they seemed to eye me suspiciously but then quickly retreated when Selina’s whine grabbed my attention.

“I should’ve guessed I was going to be welcomed by this considering I’ve been gone for months now. Just perfect,” Selina said as she plucked an eviction notice from her apartment door. Suddenly, the door from across the hall flew open and a very old woman with straw for hair immerged, holding a black cat in her arms. Selina’s eyes widened as she ran across the hall, a completely different demeanor taking over her features as she grabbed the cat from the woman’s arms.

“Oh my goodness, Isis! My wittle wittle girl, I am so sorry Mommy left you. Gertrude, thank you SO much for taking care of her,” Selina said as the old woman put her hands on her hips and I stood a few feet away, simply observing for now.

“Where in tarnation have you been Selina? Three days had gone by and I heard her just meowing up a STORM over there. I asked the landlord if I could grab her because I had no idea when you’d be back!” the woman clamored as Selina continued to nuzzle her face into the cat’s fur, the cat purring back in response.

“I had a family emergency in Canada. I was out and about when I got the call and I didn’t even have time to come back and pack anything for the trip. I honestly didn’t even think I’d be gone that long. I’m so thankful you took care of her, what can I do to make this up to you?” Selina said, having made up an excuse for her departure on the fly rather flawlessly. It always astonished me those that could lie so convincingly. The woman held up her hands as if in defense and shook her head rapidly back and forth.

“No, no. It was my pleasure, Sugarpop. I love little Isis, I just hope your family is ok and-,” the old woman started to say before she was caught off guard by...me. The old woman spotted me brooding in the corner of the hallway and took a keen interest apparently, as I watched her run her hands through her hair and attempt to smooth out the wrinkles in her clothes.

“Oh my, Selina! You didn’t tell me you had company…who is the Wolfman lumberjack you are hidin’ over there?” the woman asked as I raised an eyebrow at being referred to as not only a Wolfman but a lumberjack as well. I glanced down to my flannel shirt and smirked before pushing off the wall and walking up to stand beside Selina. Selina cleared her throat as she glanced over to me and then parted her lips, ready to lie. I jumped her to the punch.

“I’m actually an escort. Selina hired me for the weekend. She’s into the burly, woodsman, scruffy types in men and just couldn’t seem to find one to fit her fancy until she saw my ad,” I said to the old woman as I extended my hand to her. I caught Selina’s glare cutting daggers into the side of my head from my peripheral vision as the woman blanched and put her hand in mine, to which I turned it and place my lips onto her knuckles with a wink. Selina let out a nervous laugh as I felt an elbow lodge into my ribs.

“Cat’s out of the bag…Honey-roll,” I said to Selina, mocking the term of endearment the old woman had used moments prior. Selina forced a more genuine smile across her lips as she glanced back over to the woman who was watching us with her hands folded into the other under her chin.

“Awww, maybe this’ll turn out like ‘Pretty Woman’…just you know, the opposite! Though I’d definitely not call you ‘pretty’ you, beastly man you,” the old woman joked as she playfully hit my forearm with her hand and I couldn’t help but smile at the absolute torture spreading across Selina’s features.

“Gertie, do you still have that spare key for my apartment that I gave you? I must have lost it somehow in all the chaos in Canada,” Selina said, trying to divert the conversation as quick as possible. The old woman nodded emphatically as she ducked into her apartment. After a few loud bangs and a couple of old lady curse words, she returned with the key and handed it off to Selina with a sly grin.

“Mmhmm, anxious to get inside aren’t ya?” the woman said as Selina grabbed the key and pressed it into her palm. She glanced over at me for a moment before looking to the woman.

“Oh you have no idea. We’ll try to keep it down.” Selina said as the old woman through her hands in the air absently.

“Oh, please! I couldn’t hear a semi full of cymbals crashing into a gong half the time! Scream away. You always seemed a screamer,” the old woman said with a wink as Selina’s eyes grew wide and she nodded once before turning on her heel, making a beeline for her apartment door.

“Have a good night!” Selina bellowed as she opened the door and tossed her cat inside. I stuck around a moment longer, absorbing the win some more from the old woman before I felt a sudden tug on my jacket as Selina grabbed me and yanked me inside. Once the door was slammed behind me, I felt Selina’s hands plant into my chest just before she shoved me up against the door. Normally, I might have found this attractive, but not with that venomous look on her face.

“Escort?! Are you trying to get me had, Logan?” she asked and I couldn’t help but laugh as I effortlessly pushed off the door and started walking her backwards, her hands still on my chest.

“Not used to being on the opposing side of the lie, are you Selina?” I asked with a devilish grin and an equally devilish grin spread across her face as she back planted into a nearby wall. I raised my hands on either side of her head and peered down at her, my nostrils getting a full whiff of that intoxicating scent that absolutely oozed from her pours. Selina stared up at me before suddenly sliding down the wall and under one of my arms, her cat meowing in protest as she shook some cat food into a nearby bowl.

“I’m going to change. Feel free to make yourself at home. A word of caution though, some of my drawers are booby trapped if you feel so inclined as to snoop through any of them. I, of course, will undoubtedly not tell you which one’s those are,” she said with a wink as she disappeared into a back room. I smirked to myself as I walked over to a nearby window and pushed it slightly ajar. I reached into my inside jacket pocket for a cigar and lighter, not hesitating to begin the slow puffs that allowed the tobacco to escape from the compacted tobacco leaf.

I’d be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t attracted to Selina. She was a package deal. Could handle herself in a tussle, sexy as hell, loved beer, tough as nails, and had now been through the same bullshit I myself endured. I couldn’t even tell you what was stopping me from throwing her ass on the closest surface and screwing her senseless. If I had to take a guess…it was trust. I’ve lived long enough to know that ninety percent of the people in this world you can’t trust any further than you can throw ‘em. Selina claims she is a thief by trade, a profession that surrounds itself on one ever encompassing lie. It’s quite a monkey to hoist on your back. All these thoughts seemed to fly straight out the damn window when I saw Selina immerge from her room in her ‘change of clothes’.

The cigar that was currently resting in my mouth fell to the ground as my lips parted at first glance of her. She was in a head to toe, skintight cat-suit, motorcycle boots, black gloves and what appeared to be a hood of sorts with…cat ears? Fuck the cat ears; what I couldn’t take my eyes off of was the zipper in the front of the cat suit that was currently unzipped almost all the way to her navel. Selina put a hand on her hip as that same devilish grin spread across her face. She then pointed to the ground absently toward my feet.

“Your pants are on fire,” she said simply and I glanced down, noticing that I was in fact on fire from the cigar that I stupidly dropped out of my mouth.

“Oh shit!” I yelped as I quickly stamped at my pants with my hand and pressed my hand into the cigar to stop it from starting a fire throughout the entire apartment. I grimaced from the burning pain shooting through my pain, mostly ignoring it as I knew it’d heal in a matter of minutes. I dusted off my pants as I noticed Selina was now standing right in front me, her head canted. I cleared my throat as I let my eyes trail from her boots to her face. Ok I lied; I lingered on her tits for quite some time before they managed to make it to her face.

“So this is your…uniform? Cat ears and all?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

“Oh trust me, it gets the job done. Sleek, dark, distracting…,” she said as she played with the zipper that was still undone.

“…and as I said before, the cat motif was decided long before it became an ironic statement of my life, believe me,” she said as I absently motioned towards her chest.

“Do you always leave it unzipped like that? Seems to make the zipper impractical,” I mentioned and she smirked as she slowly started to pull the zipper up all the way to her collarbone and I almost let out a whimper in protest.

“No, I just wanted to see you squirm,” she said as her eyes dropped immediately to my dick and then back up to my face. I bit at the inside of my mouth and took a step toward her. My heartbeat was so ramped I could feel it in my toes; Selina too, took a step toward me and started to go up onto her toes when a sudden knock came at the door. We both paused and immediately went on the defense. Selina slowly made her way over to gaze into the peephole and laughed before opening the door with a hand on her hip.

The woman in the doorway had black hair that was tied neatly in a bun at the base her skull, glasses, and looked like she may have been Greek, maybe? I’d definitely do her. Selina smiled to her as the woman slowly stepped inside, Selina closing the door behind her.

“Diana, it has been a long time. To what do I owe this wonderful pleasure?” Selina said, putting extra emphasis on the word ‘wonderful’ as I took note. The woman she called Diana idly narrowed her eyes at Selina before glancing over to me. She extended her hand, I in turn shook it, to be nice and all that shit.

“My name is Diana Prince. I work with the Department for Meta-human Affairs and we have reason to believe that the two of you are in grave danger with the Humans Against Mutants Authority,” Diana said simply, glancing between the two of us as she spoke and both Selina and myself let out a bit of a laugh.

“Oh please, tell us something we don’t know, Di. We’ve got it covered though, trust me,” Selina said sternly as the two women squared off shoulder to shoulder. I didn’t know the past with these two, but something told me they had always butted heads.

“Imagine my surprise when I saw your name on the list, Selina. Exploring new territories?” Diana said with a raise of her eyebrows. Selina crossed her arms over her chest and leaned forward for extra emphasis.

“Yeah well, some of us don’t have gifted parents,” Selina retorted as Diana squared off her jaw. I cleared my throat, which made the two of them glance over to me.

“I don’t know what kind of feud is going on between you two but the tension is making me mildly uncomfortable,” I jested as Diana smiled at me before looking back to Selina.

“Selina, this is serious. The HAMA is not a group you want to take lightly or mettle with. You both should leave this to the professionals to reduce the possibility of you getting hurt or…other people,” Diana said as Selina opened her mouth to retort. I decided to answer this in the best way I knew how and took a step forward, unleashing one set of my claws. Diana’s eyes widened as she took a single step back.

“We are professionals,” was all I said as Diana peered on at the claws.

“How did you-,” Diana began to say before suddenly a dark, cloudy, portal appeared out of absolutely nowhere and both Selina and myself watched as Diana’s form got sucked into the portal. Just as quickly as the portal appeared, Diana was gone in a flash and the portal disappeared out of sight. Selina and I stood silent for a moment, in complete shock.

“Please tell me that you just saw that happen,” Selina said, still staring at the space where the portal appeared and Diana once resided.

“Uh, yup…portal came, Diana…gone,” I said simply as we both tried to rationalize the likelihood of this possibility actually occurring.

“I feel like we should, I don’t know…do something?” Selina said as she mentally went over the options in her brain.

“Do what exactly? I say…it’s not our problem. She was a buzz-kill anyway,” I said to her smirking and Selina seemed to be more then satisfied with my answer.

“I couldn’t agree more! Now…I need to go and earn some rent money,” she said as she started to wind what appeared to be a bullwhip around her waist. She lifted the cat-eared hood overhead and positioned a pair of goggles on top. She stared at me as if she were expecting me to say or do…something.

“This is the part where you try to stop me? Convince me to make better life choices, blah, etc., blah?” she said as she held out her hands to each side of her. I crossed my arms over my chest with a shrug.

“I have lost count on my both my hands and feet to the amount of people that I have killed in my lifetime. I don’t think I am one to judge someone who wants to rob a jewelry store or two. I am the fine line between good and evil,” I said in complete honesty, peering on at her to await her reaction. I watched as her hands rested onto her hips and she smiled.

“Where…have you been all my life, Wolvie?” she asked and I smirked, running a hand up the back of my neck, deciding to take this down the playful path.

“Out in the woods…chopping up wood and howling at the moon, apparently,” I said as I watched her body start to saunter over to my own. She raised a hand to run it along the inside lining of my jacket, her knuckles grazing my stomach and then my chest. I could feel a lump starting to form in my throat.

“Well come and chase me…woof,” was all she said before she was suddenly running past me, out the window and already climbing down the fire escape. A wicked grin spread across my face as I rolled my shoulders, ready more than ever to give chase.