"Rogue, chica, you in here? I thought you said - whoa, shit! Sorry!"

Jubilee clasped a hand across her eyes and turned away immediately, but it was too late for that. She'd already seen far more in that single split second than she needed, thanks.

Rogue, pressed up against the wall of the training room with her skirt pushed up around her hips. Logan, on his knees in front of her with one of her long, nylon-clad legs draped over his shoulder. Her gloved fingers were threaded through his hair and she was holding his head against her body . . . yeah. That was an image Jubilee felt quite sure would linger on and on, burned into her retinas.

"I'm so sorry - God, I'm just - Rogue and I were supposed to go to the -"

"Get outta here." That from Logan, kinda growled. Kinda muffled, too. Charming as always.

Jubilee beat a hasty retreat, tossing another apology over her shoulder. As she made her way back through the mansion, she tried her best to keep from marveling at the fact that it was Logan on his knees and not the other way around.

She knew if she didn't squelch the wisp of desire curling through her, she'd never be able to look at him again without blushing. Let alone yell at him. That just pissed her off a little more.

She got stopped on her way back to her bedroom by Kitty Pryde, keys in hand and a determined look in her eyes. "I'm on my way into town to do a little shopping," she said, and when Kitty shopped, she meant business. "Wanna come with?"

Jubilee shrugged. Her plans with Rogue appeared to have gone south - no pun intended, of course - and she couldn't remember ever turning down a chance to walk the mall. Besides, she was more than a little sick of hearing or seeing or dealing with the ongoing Logan'N'Rogue show.

"Sure," she answered, shrugging. "Let me run and get my bag, okay?"

"Meet you at the car."

She had just found her purse and was slipping her yellow jacket on when Rogue burst through the doorway, her face flushed and her clothes fairly rumpled. "Jubes," she said, hand on her heaving chest as she tried to calm her heavy breathing. "I'm sorry, I completely forgot about the movie. I lost track of time and . . . "

"And you found something far more enjoyable to do than hang out with me and watch some dumb movie," Jubilee supplied, and not without a slight hint of heat, either.

"Hey, I said I was sorry, okay? Gimme a minute to get cleaned up and we'll go, we'll only miss the trailers and -"

"Sorry, chica," Jubilee cut her off. "Kit-Kat's waiting for me in the garage. We're gonna hit the mall, so don't worry about it, all right?"

Rogue narrowed her eyes, growing increasingly frustrated. "Don't be that way."

"I'm not being any particular way, Rogue. I've gotta go."

"Jubes -"

"See ya."

---

"So," Kitty began, pausing to take another sip of her soda. "Are you gonna tell me what crawled up your ass and died?"

Jubilee swallowed her mouthful of hamburger before answering. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Please," Kitty scoffed, waving away that answer with the napkin in her hand. "Clearly something's up with you and Rogue - I mean, usually you don't see one of you without the other, and now? Here you are, having dinner with me in the food court at the mall. Did you have a fight or something?"

Jubilee shook her head. "No. It's not like that. It's just . . . no. We're not really fighting or anything."

Kitty munched on a few fries while she contemplated her friend. Finally, she hazarded a guess and said, "It's `cause Logan came back with you like, six months ago or something, and he and Rogue started dating. Or whatever they call it. And she hasn't had much time for you lately, huh?"

"I'm twenty years old, Kitty," she unnecessarily reminded her. "It's not like I'm going through separation anxiety or something. So we're not as close as we maybe used to be. What’s the big deal?"

"It's a big deal to you," Kitty told her, her voice gentle. "She's been your best friend practically from the day she arrived. And now you probably feel like she's ditching you to spend all her time with Logan."

"It's just - I mean . . . "

After a moment, Kitty prompted her to finish her thought. "What?"

"She talks as if they just invented fucking, the two of them." Stabbing a french fry into a paper bowl of ketchup, she added, "I mean, I'm glad they finally got their shit together, but man. If she's not in his room doing God knows what with him, she's in our room doing her schoolwork and telling me all about how in love they are and how happy he makes her."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

Big sigh. "Yes, yes, of course it's a good thing. She's wanted him for so long - hell, it was me who went and dragged him home for her. I'm glad she's happy. I am."

Kitty tilted her head to the side as she listened. "But . . . ?"

Jubilee wouldn’t meet her eyes; there were tears stinging the back of her own.

"But I miss her."

---

It was well after dinner time when Jubilee got back to the room she shared with Rogue. Knocking sharply on the door, she turned the knob and pushed slightly, entering the room with her eyes covered.

"Are you alone?" she asked, somewhat seriously. "If not, are you decent?"

"Oh, shut up!" Rogue yelled, embarrassed but laughing. "It's just me."

"Whew." Jubilee sat her shopping bags down on her bed, plopping down beside them. "I think Kit and I blew our monthly allowance in one go, and it's only the seventh of the month."

Neither one appeared at all inclined to talk about their little blow-up earlier, and like many fights they'd had, this one got swallowed whole and forgotten.

"Did you have fun?"

Jubilee nodded, grinning wickedly. "Yeah. Not nearly as much fun as you did, though."

Rogue's fair skin flushed and she drew her knees up to her chest, hiding her face in a pillow. "I can't believe you walked in on us."

"Man, you're shocked?" Jubilee lobbed a pillow at Rogue's head, laughing at her friend's discomfort. "I can't believe I walked in and found Logan going down on you, right there in the training room. Aren't Southern women raised better than that?"

"I know!" Rogue moaned, still hiding her face. "What would my momma say?"

"Who cares?"

"I do," Rogue answered, her expression turning somewhat serious. "Listen, Jubes . . . I gotta tell you something."

Shit, Jubilee thought. Here we go.

"Okay," she said, sitting up straight with her back against the wall. Across the room, Rogue sat on her own bed much the same way. Over their years living together, they'd spent many a night that way, talking to each other across the messy room they shared. "Shoot."

Rogue seemed to be building up her courage. Jubilee watched her mouth for several different words, all without sound, before she jumped in with a good guess. "You're moving out," she said, rather calmly.

"Yes," she said simply.

Jubilee nodded, telling herself again that this wasn't anything she wasn't expecting. "When?"

Rogue shrugged in response. "Soon, I think. As soon as Ethan leaves, I'm going to take his room."

Jubilee had to run her words over in her head a few times. "What the hell are you talking about? You're not moving in with Logan?"

"No," she said, smiling slightly at her friend's confusion. "I'm going to live on my own for awhile."

Anger welled inside Jubilee almost immediately. "What the fuck did I do wrong? I could understand you wanting to leave so you can move in with him, but I don't get why you're leaving to live by yourself."

Rogue was off her bed in a second, across their room and onto Jubilee's bed before she even had time to think about it. "No, girl, don't get mad at me. You haven't done nothing wrong. That's not what this is about."

Her anger not at all subsiding, Jubilee just gave her a look that said, `yeah? go on, I'm listening.'

Sighing deeply, Rogue moved around to sit beside Jubilee with her back against the wall. "When I was growing up, my momma used to say that while she never regretted marryin' my daddy so young, she always wished she had taken time to live by herself for awhile beforehand."

Jubilee wasn’t following this bend so well. "And?"

"Logan and I . . . this is for the long haul," Rogue told her, taking her hand and twining her fingers with her gloved ones. "I'm not leaving because I don't want to live with you anymore, Jubes. And as archaic as it might sound, I'm not going to live with Logan before marriage, either."

Jubilee was surprised by that, and it must have shown on her face because Rogue answered her unspoken question. "Why did I sleep with him before marriage then, right? Well, because I've known for a long time that it would be him and no other. But even though I left Mississippi and my parents' house a long time ago, I was raised a strict Southern Baptist."

"No living in sin for you, huh?" At her nod, she added, "Just sinning, then."

"Jubes!"

"Hey, after what I saw today . . . "

They both laughed a little, then Rogue squeezed her hand and leaned her shoulder against hers. "I'm movin' to my own room because I don't want to go directly from living with my family to living in his house in town. I want some time in there to live alone."

Hearing her say that she considered her to be her family, Jubilee's heart lightened considerably. "I'm sorry I've been sorta shitty lately, you know? It's just that, every time Logan's come home over the years, you've dropped everyone and everything to spend all your time with him. And I was always cool with it, cause that's how I am," Jubilee told her, smiling a little. "But that was back when he would always go away again, and I'd get my best friend back. And this time . . . "

Rogue squeezed her hand again, tightly. "This time he's not going anywhere and you think you're gonna lose me?"

"Yeah."

"You're a dipshit, girl." Jubilee snorted around the lump in her throat and Rogue continued. "You're the one who's been there whenever I've needed you, for so long now. You're the one who spent her spring break pulling Logan's head out of his own ass."

"And that was all kinds of fun, chica."

Rogue made sure she had her attention before saying, "You're the one who's gonna help me plan my eventual wedding. You're gonna be among the very first to hold my children. You're gonna watch them for me and they're gonna love you. And you know what else?"

Her sudden tears made it nearly impossible to speak. "What's that?"

"I'm gonna be right there for you, too, when you finally choose a guy from your dozens of boyfriends. For all that stuff," she told her, her own voice nearly swamped with tears. "Loving Logan doesn't mean I love you any less, or that I don't need you anymore. I know I've sucked at letting you know that, and I’m sorry."

"I shouldn't have been so pissy about it," Jubilee insisted, only to be cut off before she could say anything else.
"No, you should have been a little more pissy, actually. I've been too wrapped up in my own life to even really notice that you've been feeling . . . left out of my life, or - or pushed aside."

"I'll get over it," Jubilee replied, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. "I never was too good at sharing."

Rogue let go of her hand to wrap her arm around her shoulder, drawing her close for a tight, careful hug. "I love you, Jubilee. You're the best friend a girl could ever hope for."

She sniffled against her shoulder, feeling like a little kid.

"Right back atcha, Marie."