He couldn’t sleep. Nasty headache kept pestering him, something that should have been impossible considering his mutation. He stood by the window, having pulled his jeans on but not bothering with the shirt. He had cranked the radiator of the room high anyway to keep the baby warm. The baby. It was sleeping so peacefully, all snuggled up to a blanket Rogue had brought with her. He let his gaze roam over the room, stopping to the baby for a moment as he pondered his options. Not that there were so many. But taking the baby to social services and then just abandoning it to the mercies of the faceless system really grated his nerves.
He huffed and turned his gaze. It was raining outside. Black asphalt was gleaming wetly.
“Trouble sleeping?” Rogue asked and he just about jumped up in the air. He hadn’t even heard her getting up, and now she was standing right behind him, one hand braced over his shoulder. “Wasn’t that tired, that’s all. You?” He asked. He could more feel than see the girl shrugging in the darkness. “I guess I wasn’t that tired after all…” She said, then to his surprise snuggled closer, leaning against his back, glowed hands wrapping around his waist. “I missed you,” she whispered.
What was it with clingy chicks anyway? Older ones he understood, they were in a hurry to find a suitable candidate to sire their children, but what made the baby, and now Rogue to treat him like he was some overgrown teddy bear?
“What do you want?” He asked. Even before the words left his mouth he realized that it was a mistake. Rogue scooted off from him instantly and when he turned she was returning to bed. He could smell her embarrassment. “What do you want?” He asked again. The damage was already done; he might as well get the answer now. “Nothing…” Came the muffled answer. “Bullshit, kid. You’re after something. Everybody is. Why don’t you spit it out?” He pressed on. “It’s nothing.” Her voice was trembling now. “It’s something when it’s making you cry. Talk to me, kid.” For that Rogue rewarded him with a pillow. It came in low, hitting him squarely to the crotch. Again it was a stroke of luck that her chosen projectile had been a pillow instead of the heavy lamp standing on the table next to bed.
He stalked closer and trapped Rogue against the bed with the blanket she had been clutching. He waited until she stopped struggling, then leaned closer to look in to her eyes. “What. Do You. Want?” He asked. Rogue’s lower lip was trembling, but the fight didn’t leave her eyes when she whispered her answer. “I want you to stop calling me a kid,” she hissed, renewing her efforts to gain her freedom. “And what would it change if I stopped doing that… Kid?” He asked.
When the blanket refused to budge the girl resorted to her last option. He had the time to see a brief flicker of hesitation in her eyes before her lips slammed to his. He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the burning pain that was sure to come. His momentarily confusion gave Rogue enough room to wriggle her hands free and she grasped his hair, pulling him even closer to his demise. And it never came.
When he came up for the air Rogue was staring at him flabbergasted. She seemed to be as puzzled over the situation as he. “You still don’t know how to turn it off?” His question was more of a rhetorical than anything else, but Rogue shook her head to confirm. Their gazes trailed over the room as one, stopping to the baby who slept peacefully in the improvised cot right next to the bed.
“It’s… She’s a mutant?” Rogue stuttered when he retreated from the bed, his eyes fixed to the baby. “More like an anti-mutant. Out. Now.” He grunted, not waiting for the girl to follow, and fled from the room.
“What the hell are you doing?” Rogue asked, peering from the doorstep. He stood in the pouring rain, feeling the last vestiges of the headache washing out of his system. Everything came back. Noises and scents of the night, sickening clarity rushing over his field of vision, sharpening his eyes until he could see even the smallest grains of sand at his feet. He fell heavily on his knees, fresh and brisk air filling his lungs and the brightness of the neon lights making his eyes water. He could hear Rogue taking few hesitant steps towards him, then falling to the ground, gasping for air and screaming.
He managed to scoot where she lay. When she started to sit up and tried to grasp his bare arm for support he moved out of her reach. “It’s back. Your mutation. It’s back just like mine. We’re off from its reach…” He said. “The baby… It’s… The baby…” Rogue stuttered, blinking back tears. “Yeah. It can suck off socks even from your feet, kid. How’s that for a mutation?” He huffed.
They crept back in to the room. Abandoning the baby really wasn’t an option. And now it looked like leaving it with the social services was even a poorer one. If there was one thing that Magneto had been right about, it was the fact that a war was brewing at the horizon. The baby would be used as a weapon in that war if humans got their hands on it.
“But we have to be careful. We’re just humans now…” Logan grunted, flopping on to the bed on his back. Rogue snorted. “Speak for yourself, big guy. You’re the one with super-heal. I just suck,” she sighed, curling over the recliner, her gaze on the sleeping baby. He couldn’t help it. The mental image her words conjured made him choking out rather unmanly fit of giggles. “Yeah. You suck, darling. Just like our baby. IRS would be fucking proud to have you two on their payroll…” He blurted. “Our baby? Darling? What has gotten in you?” Rogue asked. “Christ. First you nearly take my head off for calling you a kid, then it’s not good if I call you darling, either? What the fuck should I call you then?” He huffed exasperated. “Marie would do just fine. I like how it sounds coming from your mouth…” Rogue whispered.
He had deliberately left her other question unanswered. He wasn’t willing to admit his little slip-up even to himself, but the truth was, that some time during the night he had started regarding the baby as his. But he did have a question of his own.
“Why did you try to kill me?” He asked, more hurt than scared. Rogue kept her gaze on the scenery outside of the window. “Why did you kiss me?” She asked. “Last time I checked it was you who kissed me, not the other way around,” he sputtered. Rogue turned to look at him. “You didn’t have to kiss me back. I was just trying to scare you off from me… Darling,” she said. “Oh, really? That’s why I got your tongue shoved down at my throat? You sure do have funny way of scaring people off…” He grunted. Rogue turned her gaze back to the window.
She was most likely telling the truth. In all honesty he should have been afraid. He should have bolted off from the bed when their lips met. And he shouldn’t have let her deepen the kiss, or to start answering to it when it became apparent that her mutation wasn’t working.
“Well… Call it temporary insanity. Won’t happen again,” he finally huffed, closing his eyes and wondering who the hell was spewing that bullshit from his mouth tonight.
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And here's the next pic: http://roudevil.deviantart.com/art/My-Protector-75903019