Part 3-‘So This Is Home…?’
Rogue made her way quietly over the grass, silent and low past the main entrance and round to the side of the building. She reached the kitchen window and smiled quietly to herself. The opening was exactly where she had expected. Dear, devoted brothers, even ones linked only through an adoptive mother they always had there uses, Kurt had left one of the windows just slightly ajar. A barely noticeable crack, and easily missed by one who wouldn’t have cause to look.
As she shimmied and slowly wedged the window open, and began her ascent she wondered at the comical absurdity of the situation. Here she was a 23 year old, adult enough to drink and brawl in bars, but still acting the pubescent teenager, scared of being caught out. The slight pause for thought as she was still only halfway through the window, with her ass and legs still dangling outside, ensured the dark figure waiting inside had enough time to step out of the shadows and catch her off guard.
He seized her about the waist and she felt herself being hauled roughly through the sill and into the kitchen. He grunted with assertion as he lifted her clean off her feet and set her back down, pushing her against the fridge and leaning into her.
She gasped a halting breath as she heard the swishing of a familiar set of blades, and felt the cold metal slowly make its way along the length of her throat before jutting uncomfortably underneath her chin. Despite the precariousness of her position Rogue smiled, taking her hands from where they had been pinned by her sides she ran them up her assailant’s arms purposefully. Letting the gloved hands ripple gently over the biceps, she came to rest them on his shoulders.
‘Late night…?’ He asked, unimpressed.
‘Not really, just lost track of time…’ Rogue tilted her head slightly to one side and tried her best to look innocent. He wasn’t falling for it.
He sniffed the air contemptuously, ‘Right, the library again…?’
Rogue shrugged, ‘Sure…’ He increased the pressure under her chin once more; Rogue thought she could feel the tell-tale pricks of blood where the metal was pressing against her skin. Far from being repulsed by it, the animal in her craved the sensation, the touch, and the danger.
He laughed slightly, ‘Funny all that studying, you should be about as clever as the Professor by now…’
‘I’ve used that one before huh?’ Rogue tried to remember the last time she had used the excuse of study for her late nights.
He nodded, ‘Last time I checked libraries didn’t stay open until two in the morning, or serve beer…’
She grew tired of his questions, and decided to take a different approach, one she was sure was going to work. ‘Didn’t your mama ever tell you it’s rude to point?’ she whispered, her eyes boring intently into his. Trailing her hand back down his arm she took hold of his hand and pushed it and the blades away. She held onto his hand turning it over in her own, gently rubbing the palm with her fingers never breaking eye contact with him.
But she should have known Logan was never going to be that easy. His face set grimly and he pulled his hand away from her roughly, retracting the blades.
She smiled all the same, and pushing past him made her way out of the kitchen. She had barely taken a few steps when she felt his strong hand grab her roughly by the forearm and pull her back towards him.
It was odd really, the way the dynamics in their relationship had shifted, and she supposed it had begun a little after Jean’s death and unbeknown to Logan about the same time as the voices had started in Rogue’s head.
He had begun to notice things about her, the depths of the green in her eyes, the curves, the full lips, the way her X-suit fit so…snugly. It had unnerved him at first; she had been nothing but a petulant teenager when they had first met, although now she had grown into an equally petulant but very attractive young woman. But Logan had his reserves and Rogue of course had her trust issues and there was Bobby, so they had settled for an uneasy sort of sexual tension between them. Something they were determined neither of them was going to act on.
They stood that way for a while, close with the air thick and the breathing heavy, he stared at her as intently as she had been regarding him. Still holding her by the arm he leant close before whispering with some menace, ‘Don’t play games with me kid…’
Rogue brushed his hand away freeing her arm; she chuckled lightly and made to leave again. This time she managed to make her way out of the kitchen and was actually halfway down the hall, when he grabbed her and pulled her inside the den. She was surprised, and twisting away from his grasp pushed him away, taking on an offensive stance, ready to fight if she needed to.
But Logan had other things on his mind, taking up the remote control he flicked on the television and the screen flickered into life. She followed his gaze to the set where a rolling news channel was broadcasting the evening’s big news.
‘This is the scene of carnage left behind tonight at the aftermath of yet another unprovoked mutant attack. The casualties involve a man said to be in a serious, life threatening condition, we understand he is comatose. Several others were treated for smoke inhalation caused by a series of explosions detonated by one of the retreating mutants…’
Rogue looked on unmoved as the screen cut to the bar owner clearly a little too excited about his sixty seconds of fame.
‘…and you know she just put her hands on that poor guy, and sucked the life right outta him…and then the other freak turned up and all hell broke loose…’
The eager reporter nodded along with fake empathy and genuine interest, ‘And do you have any idea what could have caused the altercation …?’
‘No sir I do not, the guy was just talking to her and nothing more…them mutants they ain’t nothing but freaks…we should just round them up…’
‘Thank you sir…’ the reporter cut him off hastily before the bar owner had the chance to launch into his list of profanities.
‘This latest attack has given further rise to the argument in favour of the Mutant Registration Act, under such legislation all known mutants would be legally obliged to state their whereabouts and their abilities on a national register widely available to the viewing public. It is argued that the registration is the only manner in which humans will be at all capable of keeping the mutant menace in check. The human victims of this growing mutant violence will surely be inclined to agree…’
Logan flicked the screen off in disgust as the reporter launched into details, he turned angrily to Rogue. ‘Tell me you had nothing to do with this.’
She was still focused on the now blank screen, she shrugged her shoulders and without even looking at him replied flatly, ‘Ah had nothing to do with it.’
He didn’t believe her, ‘Look kid, you’re not doing yourself or the cause any favours by getting into trouble, beating people up in bars…’
Rogue turned to look at him sternly then, those words, those two particular words inflamed some resentment deep within her. ‘The Cause…?’ she repeated, a sarcastic edge biting her words.
‘The Cause…are ya really so blind Logan? The cause is long gone; it’s long been dead on its feet. Look at us, holed up in this place, caged like animals. And after all we’ve done for them, saving the world and making sure they all sleep sound in their beds. And how do they thank us? By a death sentence they’ve aptly named the Mutant Registration Act…’
Logan could only look on astonished at the depth of her venomous tones. She approached him her hands balled up into fists. ‘A greater understanding, that’s what we looked forward to right, what we were promised would come? Well ah’ve finally seen it for the pile of crap it is. They’ll never accept us…, they’ll never want us.’
The older mutant thought he finally understood, ‘Hey, I know you’ve had it tough this past year, we all have…’ the way Rogue had spoken of being wanted, he supposed she meant Bobby. ‘It’s a tough break with Iceboy, but there’ll be somebody else...’
As he laid a conciliatory hand on her arm, Rogue looked up at him suddenly, her eyes ablaze. An understanding had finally hit her as well.
‘Ya knew didn’t you…?’ She half-spoke, half-whispered the words, she shook her head, he must have supposed that Bobby had told her, instead of finding out the way she had. There was no way Logan could have known she’d found out about Bobby’s cheating on her by spying on him through a window. She pulled her arm away, and felt sick to the stomach. They all knew, everyone at the Academy had known, and now all the curious glances, half-sympathetic and half-laughing looks aimed towards her made sense.
‘Ya’ll knew…’ she repeated, ‘how long…? How long have ya known?’ she demanded of him.
Logan held up his hands and gestured disarmingly, ‘Look kid…I promise you no-one else knew, just me… I caught ‘em out…’
‘Don’t call me kid.’ She muttered under her breath. ‘How long…?’ she would settle for nothing less than a full confession.
‘Couple weeks that’s all, I promise…, it’ll be alright kid.’ Logan reached out taking hold of her arm once more. He was unprepared for her reaction.
She placed her hand firmly on his upper arm and using an energy reserve he could never believe she had, Rogue lifted him and turning as she did so threw him towards the wall! He slammed against the bookcase with a satisfying thud before landing hard on the ground. Books rained down on him, the bookcase itself threatened to fall on top of him, until he managed to balance it by staking it with his claws and pushing it back against the wall. Her grip and throw had been so fierce she managed to knock the wind out of him.
The strange thing was that he got a sense of deja-vu; her battle move had seemed oddly familiar, like he was battling an old opponent, not Rogue. He was not the first man that evening to wonder exactly who this girl was. He scrambled to his knees, and looked up at her curiously.
‘Don’t ya ever call me kid again…’ she was oddly calm once more, even smiling, and turning on her heel walked away from him with a very satisfied bounce of the hips.
It was only much later when Rogue had locked herself in one of the bathrooms that she remembered to breathe. She took huge gulping breaths and sunk down slumped against the door utterly spent. Then the tears had begun hot, furious, angry tears that burned.
They all knew, and they’ve been laughing at you…’ She didn’t stop the voices this time; she just let them wash over her, in her crouched position burying her head further into the cold tiled floor.
Look at you, one of the most powerful mutants letting the X-men make a fool out of her, bawling your eyes out in the bathroom, while they laugh at you…they’ve been laughing at you. Did you really think you could trust any of them?
That got her off the floor. She stood on her feet and studied her reflection in the mirror. Poor Rogue, poor little lost girl, always alone…always. Look at the state of you, no wonder you’re a joke to them, a drunk…
‘AAGH!’ The taunts were too much, the deceit, the lies, it was all too much. Before she knew what was happening she had put both her fists through the mirror. The sharp glass bit through her gloves as it broke, and she could feel the shards pierce her skin, her warm blood seeping out and filling up her gloves. A hundred broken Rogues stared back at her through the shattered glass, a thousand scattered views.
She needed a drink.
Having found said drink, Rogue was out in the open air once more. Taking soothing swigs from the bottle of scotch and balancing precariously from a great height. Dancing when drunk is never a good idea, dancing when drunk on the turrets of Professor Xavier’s Mutant Academy building is a worse one.
She inhaled the night air deeply, and outstretched her arms as the soothing cold wind battered and tickled her in all the right places. She smiled, ridiculously giddy, and keeping her arms outstretched attempted a pirouette right there on the turret, from that great height.
Rogue would never have been able to keep her balance on that narrow width, not even if she had been stone cold sober. But she wasn’t sober and over she went. Falling…falling…falling, with the ground rushing to meet her at an incredible pace…
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
All that UST it's a killer.