Title: The Birth of the Rogue
Series: Sequel/Epilogue to Immaculate Misconception
Author: Evelyn Benton
Rating: Young Adults
Date: 09/27/03
Genre: General, Romance
Fandom: X-Men (Wolverine/Rogue)
Archive: Stellar Phenomena and FanFiction.net; all others, please ask.
Disclaimer: Twentieth Century Fox and Marvel own X-Men; I own this non-profit fan fiction; no copyright infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Please note that this takes place after X2: X-Men United.
Challenge: This is an answer to the WRFA 3rd Annibirthary Challenge.
Dedication: This fic is dedicated to all of the extraordinarily kind and generous people at WolverineandRogue.com. Thank you for creating a beautiful shrine to our favorite couple and allowing us to contribute to it. You guys do a fantastic job--thank you!
Summary: “I probably could have settled for living with your memories, but if I get a choice in the matter, I don’t want to live my life without you in it.”
“C’mon, Rogue!” Jubilee whined, looking at her yellow watch for the tenth time in three minutes. Jubilee and Kitty were taking Rogue to a fancy restaurant to apologize for the embarrassment they caused her with their misconception about her. They even bought Rogue a new dress for the occasion, but Rogue was not certain if she liked it.
“I’m not coming out!” Rogue yelled out from the bathroom.
“Fine, I’m coming in!” Jubilee announced. She jumped off of the bed, and after smoothing down her short yellow dress, she strode purposefully toward the bathroom door. She was just about to use her powers to fry the lock off of the door when the doorknob turned, and Rogue came into appearance.
She was wearing a bathrobe.
Jubilee huffed. “Fine, fine. If you won’t wear that one, then wear something out of your closet. My closet. Hell, even the Professor’s closet would work right now! We’re late!”
Rogue pouted a few moments, trying to figure out a way out of the dinner. All she wanted was some alone time. She was feeling much better following her encounter with food poisoning, but the misinterpretation on the part of Scott and her friends left her uneasy. For the first time, she realized she could never have children. Before, she realized she could never feel a mother’s touch, but now it dawned on her that she could never be a mother or give a mother’s touch.
“Okay, I’ll wear the damn dress,” she grumbled.
When Rogue emerged from the bathroom, Jubilee could not believe her eyes. Rogue was not only wearing the dress, but she was wearing it with her skin exposed. The dress was a simple black cocktail dress that barely came down mid-thigh. It was off the shoulders and offered only a small view of her cleavage. Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, with only the white strands hanging down on either side of her face. Rogue considered wearing stockings and her gloves with it, but she had no intentions of leaving the house at all. She was only wearing the dress for the sake of politeness.
“I’m wearing it—happy?” Rogue asked, doing a quick turn for Jubilee.
“Ecstatic.”
Jubilee gripped Rogue’s arm with her gloved hand. “You’re going.”
“No, I’m not.”
“You’re not staying home tonight, Roguey. We owe you, like, big time times infinity.”
“Jubes…”
When the two arrived downstairs at the foyer, Kitty was waiting for them dressed in a chic gray pant suit. “Ready?” Kitty asked Jubilee.
“Ready,” Jubilee responded. The two gloved girls grabbed Rogue by the arms and lead her back into the mansion.
“What’s going on?” Rogue demanded, not liking where this was heading.
Within moments, the threesome arrived in front of the doors to the private dinning room. Kitty opened the door, revealing Logan, dressed in black slacks and a crisp white shirt that was actually buttoned all the way up to his neck.
“Enjoy your dinner!” With that, the door slammed shut and the sound of heeled shoes could be heard scampering away.
Rogue stood there, dumbstruck. “I had nothing to do with this.”
“Me neither,” Logan admitted. “You hungry?”
“Nope.”
“Me neither.”
“Wanna go somewhere else? This room is holding bad milk memories for me.”
Logan smiled, understanding her dilemma. “Sure. Where to?”
After Rogue quickly retrieved her long black gloves, the two drove for over thirty miles on Scott’s bike before arriving at their destination. There was a small, quiet bar out in the middle of nowhere that Logan had discovered three years ago when looking for a hideaway from the annoyances of the mansion.
Inside the bar, Logan led Rogue to a private booth in a darkened back corner. When the waitress came, he ordered a beer and Rogue ordered soda water.
“I think I was pretty good to you when you weren’t feeling so hot, but when the tables were turned and I needed you…” Logan stated as he unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt. Rogue knitted her eyebrows together. “The nose,” Logan elaborated. “You pack a mean wallop for a little thing.”
Rogue smiled. “I had a good teacher,” she countered.
“You never do that in class.”
“I never feel like it.”
Logan grinned wickedly. “We’ll just have to make sure you feel like it on Monday, won’t we? But hey, who am I to complain. At least you dealt Boy Scout a nice little blow.”
“I like being fair,” Rogue answered quickly before turning to thank the waitress for bringing her drink. She took a sip of the beverage.
“So that’s why you hugged Scott and not me?” Logan dared to asked. He raised his beer bottle to his lips and took a generous swig.
Rogue watched him incredulously. “I do believe you’re jealous there, sugar.”
Logan laughed. “Of the Pre-pubescent Pansy? I don’t think so, darlin’.”
Rogue’s smile widened. “Oh yeah! You’re so green you should have a Crayola label wrapped around you.” Logan shifted uncomfortably. “You know, I’m not really sure which color I like better on you: green or red.”
“Red?”
“When you thought I was pregnant with another man’s baby.” Logan grunted to himself. “What was that?” she asked, listening more carefully.
“I wasn’t mad.”
Rogue nodded to herself. “That was a nice try, but next time, attempt to say it without the locked jaw, okay?”
“What is this, Beat up Logan Day, Part 2?” Logan finally asked. He leaned back against his seat and crossed his arms across his broad chest.
Rogue imitated him. “That would be defensiveness.”
“Kid, what on Earth are you getting at here?”
Rogue’s playful teasing mood vanished, and her face darkened. “We always go back to that, don’t we?”
“What?” he demanded. Logan swore to himself that he could never win with this woman.
“’Kid.’”
“I’ve always called you that. You’ve never complained before.”
“There’s a difference in calling me ‘Kid’ and treating me like a kid. You go from being over protective and jealous, to the King of Denial in two seconds flat,” Rogue accused. “If it were an Olympic sport, you’d win gold every time,” she mumbled.
“What do you want from me?” Logan asked, holding his arms up in surrender.
Rogue leaned forward, folding her arms across the edge of the table. “Truth.”
“Truth?”
“I want to know how you feel about me. What am I to you?”
Logan bit down on the inside of his lip for a moment. “Fine. You want the truth. I was jealous. I was so damn jealous over you possibly having another man’s baby. Over you pawing all over Scott. Over you and that Bobby punk.”
“That’s been over.” By the look on Logan’s face, he was still filled with jealousy over the young man being part of Rogue’s life in the way Logan could only dream about.
“I see you as an unreachable perfection. You’re at a level I can only wish I was at. You’re classy, young, and have a full future ahead of you. The best I can do for you in stand in your shadow and keep the evil boogie monsters away from you. And I’m not even that good at that.”
Rogue was silent, and Logan was getting riled up. He was not one for expressing his emotions, and now that he was being forced to do so, he felt he could not control them at all. Logan hated not being in control of himself.
Rogue was still silent, and she was unable to look into his eyes. That bothered him more than an outward rejection would have ever bothered him. He was putting his untouchable heart into the untouchable hands of a 20-year-old young woman who supposedly had a crush on him, yet seemed the least bit interested in his affections. When he had given her his anniversary present, she sounded like she was about to say she loved him. Could things change so much with this girl in less than twenty-four hours?
“When you found me, I was still going over new names in my head. I had been on the road for months, and not a single person I encountered on the road asked my name. My name, the new one I picked, was gonna to be something sacred. It was gonna be something I would choose to share with others who were special to me.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to be called. I tossed around mysterious names like Sonja, and Raven, and something even more ridiculous like Luna, but I couldn’t pick out one that fit me. When I sat down in your truck next to you, I knew my name. You were unconventional, and a loner, but you still seemed to be more a part of society that I was. So, I became a Rogue because I lacked any ties. Rogue was born on the day we met, and I don’t regret it…neither my name nor meeting you.”
Rogue finally looking up, meeting Logan’s eyes for the first time since his earlier confession. “Friday was our anniversary, but for me, it was my….annibirthary,” she said awkwardly as she made a face at her made up word. “You’re still in my head Logan,” she reminded him. Logan grimaced at her words, and Rogue reached across the table, taking his hand into her gloved hand. “I probably could have settled for living with your memories, but if I get a choice in the matter, I don’t want to live my life without you in it.” Rogue looked away for a second as unwanted tears filled her eyes. “I can’t give you anything in a relationship. I can’t touch, and I can’t have children. It’s unfair to ask you to give up those things to be with me. But I’m not greedy…I’ll take you anyway I can…as a friend, a comrade…”
Rogue’s heart sank when Logan slid out of the booth and stood up. Instead of leaving as she expected, he took a step forward and kneeled down beside Rogue, looking her straight in the eyes.
“You can have me as whatever you want, Marie,” Logan promised, calling Rogue by her given name for the first time. He traced his fingers over her cheek in a rapid yet gentle motion, not giving her powers enough time to kick in. “You’re not a Rogue anymore.”
END
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Author's Note: Please note that this takes place after X2: X-Men United. This is a sequel/epilogue to Immaculate Misconception, but can stand alone.
Challenge: This is an answer to the WRFA 3rd Annibirthary Challenge.
Dedication: This fic is dedicated to all of the extraordinarily kind and generous people at WolverineandRogue.com. Thank you for creating a beautiful shrine to our favorite couple and allowing us to contribute to it. You guys do a fantastic job--thank you!
Challenge: This is an answer to the WRFA 3rd Annibirthary Challenge.
Dedication: This fic is dedicated to all of the extraordinarily kind and generous people at WolverineandRogue.com. Thank you for creating a beautiful shrine to our favorite couple and allowing us to contribute to it. You guys do a fantastic job--thank you!