#wolvernighttooth

I just wanted to share my thoughts on an AU a friend and I came up with! 

What if, in some universe, X-23 (Laura) was only six-years-old when Wolverine met her, and he actually raised her instead of letting her find her own way?

(TW: Character death mention)

My thoughts:

Laura Kinney canon to 616 has passed away due to an abnormality in her genetic code from when she was cloned. Her healing factor stopped working, and the Adamantium in her claws kills her because she can no longer stop the metal from poisoning her.

Adult Laura was in a place where she found happiness and acceptance, having moved on from being seen as a weapon. She was well on her way to being seen as a “hero”, adopting a no-kill policy, as well as working as an agent for good and change within the pro-mutant movement by undertaking rescue work. 

She was good friends with Gambit and Rogue.

On good terms Wolverine (who is married to Nightcrawler/in an opportunistic ENM relationship with a NON-RELATED Sabretooth), and saw him as a father figure.

Her passing leaves a large hole within her group of family and friends, affecting Gambit and Logan most deeply.

A little over a year has passed. Logan gets a communication from S.H.I.E.L.D., specifically Nick Fury, and is called in for a meeting. Logan is greeted by a younger version of Laura (approx. 6-years-old), who was displaced from her home dimension, which is in a state of ruin and decay from which no one can save it. 

Logan is given a choice, stating that he can raise her in their home dimension, or that she can be returned to a different one. 

Logan chooses to raise her, even though Laura is fresh from The Facility, and mostly presents as “feral” and “unmanaged”. 

The transition is rocky at best, Laura speaking little and often experiencing unchecked outbursts of rage and violent emotion.

The person she relates to most-heavily is Victor Creed (Sabretooth), who is imagined to be a lot less “unhinged” in this AU, but still fairly in-touch with his wild and untamed nature. (Think roaming tiger!)

Logan/Kurt/Victor all reside at Logan’s hunting cabin.

Laura sleeps outside in the trees for the first couple of months, accompanied (at a distance) by Victor. 

Victor and Laura do not get along at first. Laura hates Creed, and the feeling is mutual; it’s not until she manages to ambush Sabretooth while he’s hunting that they begin to bond. It takes her biting the shit out of him for him to feel any sort of other emotion towards her, and they quickly become thick-as-thieves afterwards. 

Victor spends a lot of time training with Laura, helping her blow off steam. He also teaches her to hunt properly, and how to defend herself, which makes her feel more confident, as she becomes less afraid that those who hurt her in the past would be able to do the same thing again.

Logan and Laura have a stand-offish relationship, both too stubborn to put up with one another at first. Logan doesn’t listen, and Laura doesn’t listen… like father, like daughter. Logan can at least get her to listen some of  the time. 

Logan spends a lot of time “gentling” Laura; exposing her to different situations, and reinforcing (mostly) the good things about each one of them. 

Kurt is gentle towards Laura, but also firm; probably the most consistent with routine and teachings. He’s good at grounding her during panic attacks. 

He spends a lot of time reading to her, and provides comfort that Logan and Victor cannot. He teaches her to be secure.

Laura eventually begins to come around with the help of consistency and routine.

I have more headcanons, if anyone is interested in hearing! :D

What if, in some universe, X-23 (Laura) was only six-years-old when Wolverine met her, and he actually raised her instead of letting her find her own way? If you haven't seen my first post, you can catch it here <-

Kurt is “Vati”, Logan is “Dad”, and Victor is “Papa”. 

Laura has so many nicknames: Kid/Kiddo (Logan), Haschen/Liebchen/Schatz/etc (Kurt), Cub (Victor).

As she becomes open to meeting people outside of her immediate family, she bonds with Gambit, who becomes the “Fun Uncle” figure. They like to cook together, and spend a lot of time in the kitchen with one another. 

At first, Remy finds it hard to not mourn the “original” version of Laura. Memories of going on missions, riding motorcycles, and the closeness they shared have to be put into perspective. 

Remy also spoils Laura rotten, much to the dismay of Logan and Kurt; Victor is the same way with her.

Rogue teaches Laura about confidence and standing up for herself. Laura very much admires Rogue, and how strong she is. 

Rogue takes Laura to get her hair done properly for the first time, especially since Logan usually insists on barbering her with his claws. 

Laura loves stuffed animals. Her favorites are a ragged old “Bamf” doll that Kurt found in the back of his closet, and a sabretooth teddy that Victor got her for her first birthday with them. 

Laura co-sleeps with her parents sometimes, curled in the middle of all three of her dads. Someone often ends up falling out of the bed, mostly because Laura sleeps like Logan, spreadeagle with limbs flopped in all directions. 

Lil Laura AU info here <-

Laura didn’t like that Vati was sick. It started when Kurt hadn’t been able to take her to the Planetarium for their field trip. She’d gotten up and ready at 5:30 AM as usual, and had even tied her own shoes before coming down to help set the table for breakfast. Instead of seeing Vati at the stove making pancakes, it was Papa making eggs!

Laura knew that wasn’t right… usually Vati made pancakes, and they did spelling before going out to say goodbye to Papa and Dad for the day. Victor smiles and rumbles happily as Laura hugs him around the middle, but frowns as he sees her look of confusion. 

“What is it, Cub? Is something wrong?”

Laura nods slowly, looking around the kitchen, “...where’s Vati?”

Victor goes quiet for a moment, reaching down to smooth Laura’s crazy hair as he scrambles the eggs with his other hand, “He’s not feeling well today, Cub. Dad is in the bedroom making sure he’s ok.”

Laura frowns, leaning into Victor’s touch, “He’ll feel better soon though, right? His healing factor will make him feel good before going to the Planetarium.”

“No, Cub. He’s going to be in bed for a couple of days; Vati doesn’t heal like we do, and Dad and I are pretty sure he has the flu. You’ll have to go to the Planetarium another day.”

Laura nods as Victor pulls his hand away to take the eggs off the stove. Looking towards her parents’ bedroom door, she looks up at Victor again as he plates the eggs with a couple slices of toast. 

“Can I help you carry those to Vati?” 

Victor smiles, offering her a plate, “Both hands.”

As he grabs the other three plates and a cup of tea, Victor watches as Laura pushes the door open quietly, the darkened room lit by only one bedside lamp. They’re met by the smell of vapor rub and the sound of Kurt’s coughing, Logan at his side, doing his best to keep the man comfortable. Laura comes around to Kurt’s side of the bed, looking up to see Nightcrawler blowing his nose into a hanky. The Elf smiles weakly as he sees Laura, flopping back into the pillows propped up behind him. 

“Guten morgen, Liebchen… es tut meir lied, I don’t think ve’ll be able to go to zhe museum today.” 

Laura nods, holding the breakfast offerings out to him, “That’s ok, Vati… I just want you to feel better. Papa and I brought you breakfast.”

Logan reaches across, taking the plate carefully from Laura in Kurt’s stead. Setting it in his lap, Kurt smiles a bit as Laura climbs up to be beside him. 

“I am not so veak zhat I cannot lift my own plate, but danke, you three.” Kurt chuckles, but devolves into a coughing fit. Covering his mouth with his elbow, it takes him a moment to be able to breathe clearly again. 

Logan and Victor seem worried, Laura looking at her parents’ faces in order to gauge her response. She’d never really been sick, or around a sick person before; all she knew is that she wanted Vati better. 

“Sounds like you’ll be on bed rest for the remainder of the week, Elf.” Logan takes his and Laura’s plates, sitting in the bed beside Kurt. 

Victor sits on the floor on Kurt’s other side, leaning against the nightstand, “...wouldn’t doubt it if you still need rest getting into the weekend, too.”

As Laura is handed her plate of eggs and toast, she points to the mug of tea by Victor’s side, “Don’t forget Vati’s tea!”

Victor smiles, nodding, “Good remembering, Cub.”

Nightcrawler accepts the tea gratefully, sipping it carefully as he elects to favor the fluids over the food. Sighing, the man looks to Laura with a half smile, “Haschen, you look worried.”

Laura nods, half-heartedly picking at her eggs. Logan gently pats her on the shoulder, squeezing gently, “Vati will be fine, Kiddo. He just has to rest.”

“Maybe you can help nurse me back to health, ja?” Kurt chuckles, but coughs again, “I’d love it if you’d read me a story, Haschen.”

With a determined look in her eyes, Laura quickly scarfs her toast, setting the plate aside as she scrambles off of the bed. They watch as she runs towards her room, pulling the door open. It isn’t long before Laura returns with a stack of children’s books, biting her lip in concentration as she attempts to balance them. Sitting on the end of the bed, she pulls a book off of the top of the pile and crawls up next to Kurt. 

Snuggling next to the man, she opens the book and looks up at him, “Can you still help me with the big words?”

Kurt smiles, nodding. Settling back, he wraps an arm around Laura’s waist and sips his tea with his free hand. 

“Once upon a time…”

---

Laura sleeps beside Kurt, book propped against her chest. Kurt snores as well, arm still draped loosely around his daughter’s waist. Logan and Victor look at each other from the doorway, impressed both of them had made it that far through the pile of books. It’d been several hours since they’d started reading at breakfast, a gentle stream of sunlight falling across the bed. 

“He’s finally asleep,” Victor whispers, smiling, “...Cub did it.”

Lil Laura AU info here <-

“She’s still up there?” Logan’s voice is quiet, just loud enough so that Victor can hear it. 

“Yep, all day… don’t see her comin’ down anytime soon, Runt.” 

Logan gives Victor a look, tossing his hands up in frustration as he turns to go back to the cabin. Victor follows, sighing as he runs a hand through his blonde hair. He’d been letting it grow again, especially with winter coming. As they return to the warmth of the cabin, he leans down to kiss Kurt on the forehead as he greets them at the door. 

“She’s not coming in?” “Mm, nope. Logan’s not happy about it, either.” Victor shrugs off his coat, tossing it over the coat tree beside the door. Logan follows suit, lingering by the window as he pulls back the curtain. 

“Laura’ll be fine… she’s obviously a tough kid, to have survived all this time.”

Logan looks to Victor as he speaks, crossing his arms, “...yer gonna sleep up there with her, Bub. We can’t have a six-year-old spend the night in a tree, near winter, in an unfamiliar environment alone.” 

Victor growls, brow furrowing, “Why me?”

Logan points at Victor accusingly, “She’s up there because of you! You’re the one who chased her when she started running from me. If you wouldn’t have chased her-”

Kurt clears his throat to interrupt their argument, eyebrow raised as he looks at his partners. 

“Zhis is not helping! It doesn’t look like ve’ll be able to get Laura inside tonight, so zhat means zhat Victor spends zhe night in the tree vith her, und Logan? You camp out at zhe base of the tree to make sure Victor doesn’t need any help throughout zhe night.”

Both men stare Kurt down, but the Elf stands his ground, smiling pleasantly. 

“I vill get your blankets und bedrolls ready. Dinner is on zhe stove.”

---

Victor grumbles to himself as he scales the tall pine. As he gets within view of Laura, he pauses, choosing a strong branch to occupy for the evening. 

“You’re lucky we like you, Cub. Looks like we’re spendin’ the night out here with you…”

Laura ignores Victor, arms crossed as she leans against the trunk of the tree, gaze turned to the clear night sky. Sighing, Victor hangs his backpack on a nearby branch, pulling out his thermos and a heavy blanket. Wrapping the blanket around his shoulders, he opens thermos, the hearty scent of venison stew filling the air. 

“Smells good; the Elf is a good cook.”

The man chats idly to himself, using his camp spoon to scoop out a mouthful of his dinner. As he raises the utensil to his lips, he looks up as he hears the limb above him shake. Laura stares down at him, gaze rather intense. Victor raises his eyebrow, but continues with his meal. After two mouthfuls, he makes eye contact with Laura again. “Mm… did you want something, Cub?”

Laura’s brow furrows, gaze flicking to his thermos for a moment. Her stomach growls audibly, but she says nothing in response. Sitting on the branch, she crosses her arms and averts her gaze. 

“Suit yourself, it’s good stuff.”

Victor settles back in, taking another mouthful of food. It was a gorgeous night, sky clear and full of stars. However, it was chilly, the late fall air whipping through the branches with a vicious bite. Laura shivers, looking down at Victor as he stays nice and warm under his thick wool blanket. Sighing, she turns her back on him again, leaning against the tree again. 

As the evening passes, Victor watches Laura struggle, huddling in on herself as she attempts to sleep. It’d been like this for the past few months between them, ever since Laura had first arrived in their dimension. She’d been isolating herself, avoidant of as much human contact as she could be. Tired of it, Victor shakes his head, tucking his backpack away. He hefts himself up so that his face is level with the branch above him, reaching out slowly so that he can place a hand on her shoulder.

“C’mon, Cub… come down here with me.”

Laura growls, pulling away sharply from Victor. Sitting up, she hugs the tree and begins to tear, lip wobbling as she sniffs. 

“No, it’s ok Cub, don’t cry. You don’t have to do this anymore, if you don’t want to.”

Laura growls again, but betrays herself as tears begin to roll down her pale cheeks. She sobs audibly, whimpering as Victor reaches up to grab her carefully around the waist. Pulling her down onto the lower branch with him, he leans her against the trunk of the tree and wraps her in the blanket, using the corner to dry her tears. 

“You’re ok… and I’m sorry I chased you earlier,” Victor’s voice is low, but soothing, “don’t cry.”

Offering his hand, Victor is surprised as Laura takes it, her small fingers squeezing his large paw tightly. Wrapping his fingers around her much smaller hand, he smiles a little. 

“Are you hungry? There’s some stew for you.”

Laura nods slowly, using the back of her free hand to wipe tears away from her face. 

“Alright, let me get you some.”

---

Lil Laura AU info here <-

Laura knows her parents hate it when she chews her nails. It is a nervous habit the girl had picked up between dimensions, during her time in the S.H.I.E.L.D. holding facility. Stuck in her cell with nothing to distract her, the six-year-old took matters into her own hands quite literally. Now, whenever she is anxious, she can’t help but fall prey to the tendency, her healing factor causing the nails to regrow almost instantly in a constant allowance. They’ve tried everything they could think of to get her to stop, including breathing exercises to curb her anxiety, and even applying lemon juice in hopes that the sour taste would have an extra effect due to her heightened senses; so far, nothing has worked. 

This time, it is homework that sets her off. Staring at the page of math problems, Laura begins to bite at her nails, brow furrowing as she taps her pencil quietly against the kitchen table. She hates math! All she knows is that this page of arithmetic is what stands between her and her ability to train with her Papa in the woods for the evening, and she doesn’t like it. The idea of having to get every question right in order to earn this is overwhelming, the daunting task a daily struggle for the young girl.  Looking over his reading glasses at her, Logan adjusts his grip on the evening paper and carefully pulls Laura’s hand away from her mouth with his other hand. 

“Kid, we’ve talked about this,” his voice is low, but gentle as he corrects his daughter, “...ya can’t keep chewin’ yer nails like this. I know yer upset about not being able to go outside with Papa right now, but ya have homework ta finish. Do ya need some help?”

Laura pulls away from Logan, averting her gaze as she puts her pencil on the table. Crossing her arms, she presses herself against the back of the kitchen chair, tears threatening as she looks out the back window. At this rate, it would be too dark to get any training in at all…

“Dad, can’t I just go out with Papa for a little bit?”

Logan sighs, setting the paper aside as he stands up. Coming around to Laura’s side of the table, he picks up the discarded pencil and holds it out to her, “No, Laura. I’m sorry, but if this doesn’t get done, then ya can’t train today. Maybe if we work together, we can get this done?” Laura finally looks up at Logan, hand subconsciously raising to her mouth. Rubbing the back of his neck, Logan pulls a chair up beside Laura, raising his eyebrow as he points at her hand. Laura stops chewing her fingernails for a moment as she realizes what she is doing. “I’m sorry, Dad…it just happens! I-I can’t help it.” 

Tearing up, Laura sniffs, fat tears beginning to roll down her cheeks in frustration. Logan gathers her in his arms, hugging her as she cries. At the sound of tears, Kurt appears at the doorway to the kitchen. Coming over to Logan and Laura, he sighs and gently wraps them both in a hug. 

“It is ok, Haschen. Do not cry…”

Logan and Kurt discuss in hushed tones, looking at one another with concern. They know they have to do something, the question being “what”?

“I vill go get Papa. Maybe ve can think of some things together, ja?”

 Laura nods at her Vati, looking up from Logan’s tear-stained flannel shirt. 

--- 

Homework abandoned for the moment, the four of them meet in the living room, sitting in a business-like circle on the floor. 

“What about a deal?” Victor leans back on his hands, an easy smile on his face, “Cub doesn’t chew her nails for a week, and we raise her allowance?” Logan chuckles, shaking his head, “Vic, she doesn’t get an allowance yet. She’s six…”

Vic huffs, raising his eyebrow, “Well, maybe we could fix that!”

Kurt waves his hand, looking at Laura, “Nein, nein… let’s start by asking Laura. Haschen, vhat do you think vould help you?”

Laura perks up slightly, “No math!”

Logan chuckles, looking at Kurt, “Walked right into that one, Elf.”

Kurt sighs, smiling a little, “Nein, Haschen. You still have to do your school vork! I meant, vhat do you think ve could do to help you? Remember, like vhen ve tried ze lemon juice.”

Laura sighs, shrugging. Rubbing her hands on her knees, she looks up at Logan, “...what’s that stuff called?” Logan raises a questioning brow, “What stuff, Kiddo?” “It’s like… paint?”

Kurt and Victor look at each other at the same time, eyebrows raised, “Nail polish!”

Logan nods, smiling, “Good idea, Kid. I think we have some floating around here somewhere…” 

---

As Logan applies the final coat of black polish to Laura’s nails, he motions to Victor as he holds his hands out. 

“See? Now hold them out like Papa is. It’ll keep the polish from getting smudged.”

Victor and Kurt both hold their hands out, nails painted to match Laura’s. Laura laughs, beaming as Logan puts the lid on the polish, leaning against the coffee table as he reaches to get the homework. 

“I’ll write since your nails are wet, but we gotta try this. Ok… what’s 4+24?”

Laura looks thoughtful, leaning against Victor and Kurt as she continues to hold her hands out. “...28?”

They all smile encouragingly, Victor letting out a small cheer.

“That’s my Cub.”

“Ja! Gut, Haschen!” 

Logan nods, scribbling down her answer, “Yep! Ok, this one’s harder. 66 minus 20?”

Laura looks determined, still keeping her hands in front of her, “...46?”

Logan nods again, continuing to ask her questions. As they progress through the entire math sheet, Laura feels at-ease. By the time they’re done the entire thing, Logan chuckles. “I think yer nails are dry now, Kiddo… and guess what?”

“Hm?” Laura looks up at him, seeming unsure. 

“You did it… no more math or chewed fingernails, and you can still go train with Papa.” Laura blinks, looking at her hands. Sure enough, no chewed nails! Pushing herself to her feet, Laura crosses the room towards Logan.

“Thanks, Dad!” Throwing her arms around his neck, she hugs him and beams. “Proud of you, Kiddo.” Logan hugs her, patting her on the back, “Now, go train with Papa like you wanted… Vati and I will make supper.”

Laura lets Logan go, racing to hug Kurt and Victor as well.