They met when they were fifteen. She was halfway between ten and twenty; his memories were a decade and a half old. He was an adult and she was a child…but they were both fifteen. They met. Joined the X-Men. Loved and lost and ran and waited. Her body changed from a girl’s to a woman’s; his stayed the same. They learned how to be happy despite their pasts. In a sense, they grew up together.

She dated, he watched. He lusted, she kept quiet.

It's autumn: the trees are every shade of red and gold imaginable, and the sky is a cloudless blue. It’s morning. And they’re drinking coffee.

---

"Good coffee."

This may not work. I don’t know what I really want. I thought I wanted to run. I thought I wanted to hunt. It’s what I wanted for so long that I couldn’t understand that I wanted something else for a change.

I guess I’m gonna work some stuff out. I’m staying. Not just for you. For the team, for the Prof, for the kids who can’t sleep at night unless I’m here watching over them. And while I’m here, I’m going to figure a few things out. Like what it is I really want.

This conversation we’re having isn’t meaningless. I can say what I need to say about ground fucking coffee beans but I know you hear what you’re supposed to. I’ll stay. ‘Cause the *coffee’s* too good to run away from.

This is me not ready to say what I want to say to you. It’s too soon, and there are too many things that could go wrong.

But I’ll stay.

---

"Thanks."

I forgave you for everything you ever did to me. It was hard being a sixteen year old girl lusting after cigars and whiskey. It was harder to explain why I acted funny around Jean for awhile; I didn’t want anyone to know that she turned me on. Your fantasies in my head did that.

But even all those things weren’t half as bad as the nightmares. I couldn’t sleep the night through for weeks. I used to wake up with my pillow shoved in my mouth to stifle the screams. It would have freaked the other kids out too much.

You’re as much inside my head as I am. I know everything there is to know about you. I know the good, the bad, and the stuff that turns me on just thinking about it.

I’m not scared. And I’m still here. Drinking coffee, with you.

---

“You gonna fix that bike you keep whinin’ about?” she drawled, drinking the last sugary dregs from her mug.

He shrugged, casually leaning against the counter as he poured himself a fourth cup of coffee. “Maybe. That or head into town.”

She rinsed her cup out and put it in the dishwasher like a good girl. Her mama taught her well. “If you go, pick me up some okra from the grocery store.”

“’Kay.”

She smiled a thanks at him and patted her hands dry on the towel before fishing her gloves out of her back pocket and slipping them on. There were things to do today. She turned to leave.

“Rogue?”

She stilled.

I want you.

I need you.

I hate you.

I love you.

“Tag's sticking out.”

She reached up and flipped the tag of her black top back into place. “Thanks, sugar.”

She headed out to start her day.