Ch.5: Intrusion
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of them...stupid copyright laws...
Descending into the basketball court had been a surreal experience for Rogue; the only memory she had of this school was from Carol, and that had been from an attack with the Brotherhood. With that thought, one of Wolverine’s memories surged to the forefront of her mind unbidden – the same attack she had been thinking of, but from his point of view. Shaking her head to dispel the strange two-way memories, she unbuckled the safety belt she had reluctantly put on (after all, she wasn’t called invulnerable for nothing) and followed Jean out into the underground hanger, staring around the huge space whilst trying not to display any obvious awe as she slung her duffle over her shoulder.
“Jeez, where do all the funds for this place come from? All these invisible planes, secret underground hangars, a whole set of dominatrix costumes...”
Glaring at her, Logan stopped on his way to the showers
“Look kid, we’re taking you in for your own safety and for no charge and on your own conditions, so stop being so damn rude or you’ll find yourself out on your ass with no place to stay.”
“Whatever. But a word of warning; call me kid again and I’ll tell everyone that ‘Bub’ isn’t just a name for other people
Making a clearly disbelieving noise, he looked her up and down then turned, stalking out of the room with a parting ‘See ya round, kid.’
Turning to Jean with an exasperated growl, she waved a hand in the direction he had left in.
“Is he always this damn irritating?! And just what in the hell does ‘pffft’ mean, anyway?”
Jean smiled, going down to the ladies changing area and motioning for Rogue to follow.
“You’ll get used to it after a while, trust me. By the way, if you do ever join us, this is where you’ll get changed for the missions and pickups and so on. That door leads to the main area where the suits are kept and then onto the men’s changing area. Try not to peek too much...Someone will be down in a few minutes to show you around the mansion, and then they’ll take you up to Professor Xavier’s office; I’ll be there in a while.”
Seeing Rogue look around with mild interest, she left her to get showered and changed, glad to be rid of the rather rude and uncultured young woman for a while.
Rogue looked around the room some more, allowing herself a little more interest now that she was alone, but still sneered at the leather suits all hanging up in their glass cases just ready to be worn for another mission. It was all too damn nice.
Everywhere was clean, the leather was in perfect condition except for slits in Logan’s gloves (and she certainly didn’t linger over the case holding Logan’s suit, no siree), and everything was shiny white and chrome.
Before she could continue exploring the main area, she heard an unseen lift ding softly and a door (chrome and shiny of course) in the wall right next to her slid silently sideways to reveal the short, somewhat annoying yellow clad girl that had been in the bar the first time the x-men had visited.
“Afternoon chica. Decided to join us after all, then? I knew sending Wolvie would be a good idea...”
With a knowing grin, Jubilee motioned for Rogue to join her in the lift as she moved aside to make room and pressed a button to take them upwards. Cracking her gum, she held out a bare hand with a smile.
“Name’s Jubilee, but you can call me Jubes.”
Momentarily taken aback by Jubilee’s bravery (or stupidity), Rogue instinctively pulled her gloves up past her wrist before shaking Jubilee’s hand. A quiet voice in the back of her mind asked how long it had been since she had been greeted by a handshake, especially one so brazen.
“Rogue. But I’m sure you already know that.”
Not offering any other name, Rogue turned to the doors so they were stood side by side, Jubilee chattering on about some mall that had the best glove shop. She merely stood in silence, watching the numbers light up one at a time until the lift finally slowed down to a stop and gave another soft ding to signal its arrival in the upper levels.
Taking on the persona of a tour guide, Jubilee stepped out of the lift and faced Rogue, pointing to her left down a corridor.
“This corridor to your right leads to the school kids’ dormitories, bathrooms and a study room. To your left is the entrance hall that leads to the Professors office and more dormitories and the classrooms (we have way too many of the little midgets here for my liking). Up those stairs is the adults’ rooms, mine included, and then some boring stuff like the library. Any questions?”
“Yeah – where am I staying? It had better not be near any of the kids because I swear I’ll end up sucking one of them dry if they make too much noise...”
Unsure if she was kidding or making a serious threat, Jubilee looked at Rogue’s take- no-shit-from-anyone face and decided it was safer to sidestep that one.
“Uh...how about if I just take you to the prof’s office? He can field any other questions you have...”
“Whatever. Just as long as he doesn’t do his little brain-invasion trick – I’ve heard about that from other people and I don’t take kindly to people who enter my head without my permission...” She flashed a grin at Jubilee, even though it may have seemed more like a baring of teeth “...I’m sure you’ve heard of what happened to others who tried that...”
Jubilee, having not believed what she had been told about Rogue before now, suddenly had a particularly graphic image of what someone had told her before the new mutant’s arrival. Apparently a man had been found in a tree with a few more joints than he used to have, several vital things missing and constantly muttering the words ‘don’t touch’ when he was finally revived.
“Oh, don’t worry about that – he’s all polite and stuff so I’m sure he would ask first...that is, if he were going to at all which I don’t think he would...”
Quickly realizing she was digging herself a deeper hole, Jubes wisely decided to zip it, an effect that normally only the Wolverine could induce. Leading Rogue into Xavier’s office, she gave the professor a quick grin and got her yellow covered butt out of there before she said something that ended with her in a tree, throwing Rogue a quick ‘Later, chica...’ as the door closed behind her.
Rogue watched Jubilee go with a small smirk; evidently the rumours had reached Xavier’s School For The Gifted all the way from Canada.
“Seems to me that y’all are dying to get me here, then try to get away from me soon as I arrive...”
“Of course not, they are just...a little wary of having such a powerful new mutant here. Please, take a seat Rogue.”
Making a similar disbelieving noise to Logan’s, she lowered herself into one of the hard, high backed chairs in front of Xavier’s desk with a grace at odds with her uncouth manners. She waited for him to break into the old ‘we need your help...’ routine that everyone else had thrown at her the minute she let her guard down, giving him an apathetic look that she hoped conveyed to him her feelings on what might come next. Instead, he smiled and pushed a cup of tea she hadn’t noticed before her way and leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers.
“I realise you are disbelieving of my claim that we want nothing of you or your powers, that we are merely offering you a safe place to stay; but I assure you our offer is sincere. I hope that in time you will trust us and relax – I may not be able to read your mind but a brief look at the somewhat scant amount of information we had gathered on you shows you haven’t done so in a fair while, moving from place to place...”
Although he did not say it out loud, Xavier privately found himself comparing her to Logan before he had settled with them; a lone wolf who kept to himself and constantly moved on. Perhaps they would be able to persuade Rogue to follow Logan’s example and grow a few roots here.
Glaring at Xavier, she snapped at him.
“My lifestyle is none of your business. So I would be grateful if you kept your nose out of it in case I break it for you...”
Standing up quickly, she made for the door and opened it, fuming that they had been watching her, following her movements.
“Just show me where my damn room is before I leave already. I ain’t staying to chat over a cup of damn tea about how I live my life.”
Realising he had touched on a somewhat sensitive subject, Xavier acquiesced with a nod of his head and mentally called for Jubilee to rejoin them and show Rogue to her quarters.
“I apologise if I have made you uncomfortable but we watched you only for your own good. I feared Eric would use you for his machine again and that it would possibly kill you this time. Perhaps we should have made our actions known.
“Yeah well, it’s a little late for apologies now. Y’all should have though of that before you started prying in other people’s lives.”
Rogue caught the slightly nervous scent of Jubilee waiting just outside the half opened door and wrenched it open to reveal Jubilee’s startled face. She stepped forward quickly, closing the door behind her.
“Just show me where my room is before I drain someone dry...”
Giving Rogue a nervy smile, she hurried down the corridor and up the stairs she had pointed out before, her mind whirring with possibilities of what the Professor had done to make her so mad. Had he tried the brain-thing? She hadn’t been able to see the Prof as Rogue had been standing in the way – maybe he was lying sprawled over his desk with pieces missing like that other guy? Maybe she had turned him into a vegetable as revenge for something? She watched the Rogue snarling and muttering angrily under her breath, then her brain caught up with her as they approached one of the guest rooms on the top floor – duh, the Prof had called her on the brain phone so he clearly wasn’t reduced to a drool machine yet.
“Uh...ok, here’s your room. Logan and Jean’s is just down there...” She pointed to the door just down from and opposite to Rogue’s “...If you need anything, and the dining room is just down the stairs at the end of the corridor and on the right for breakfast in the morning. It’s served right up till about 11 o’ clock so you don’t have to get up early. Oh, and the key to your room should be on the dresser”
Another quick grin and a snap of her gum and she was off before Rogue could lay a hand on her.
Rogue flopped back on her bed fully clothed, letting her eyes close; she had been pacing around her new room, giving it a cursory glance and checking for the quiet buzz that would alert her to the presence of a camera – you couldn’t be too careful with these people. Having satisfied herself that she was in private for now, she figured she should get some sleep at last. She gave a wide yawn and kicked off her shoes, snuggling under the covers. A chance to relax at last...
A sudden cry a minute later from down the hall made her sit up in bed, straining to hear what had caused the disturbance. Her sensitive hearing caught the sound of a quiet moan, clearly Logan and another cry from Jean she now realised. Aw Christ. She flopped back again and covered her head with a pillow for all the good it did...the sounds of those two getting it on down the hall was just what she wanted.
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Chapter End Notes:
A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to update! University seems to suck up all my free time. Anyway, I have a lovely beta now (Roguechere) and chapter six is nearly finished :).