"Hey, chica, do you see whom I see?" She placed her hand on her friends arm and motioned to a table near the door to the adjoining booze-and-fight-room as she called it.

The slim brunette almost gapped at the sight of the all too familiar skunk-stripes of the young woman, the Asian girl was pointing. "That can't be!"

"Mer, mind if Molly 'n I wait on your table?"

"Why?" Meredith frowned a moment and placed the ordered food down on the counter. "Both of you?"

"An old friend sits at that table. Wanna surprise her."

"I don't mind."

"Thanks, chica!" The black haired girl beamed at her while taking the plates from her hands and watched Molly do the same with the order on the counter. They approached the young woman from behind each a grin on their faces. "Bet the chicken nuggets with fries is for Stripes, isn't it, chica?"

"Ehh, yes?!" Startled Rogue snapped her head in the direction of the quite familiar voice that used her old nickname. Her eyes widened in joy and surprise at the sight of Jubilee standing smiling next to her and she jumped from her chair and almost launched herself at her best friend. "Jubes!" Behind the Asian was another known face. "Molly!" Rogue watched both girls place the plates on the table before Jubilee hugged her close. "Hey, Rogue! It's been an eternity!"

"Hi!" piped Molly from behind the firecracker.

'What the fuck are the kids doing here?!' But Rogue decided to ignore her inner Logan for once and was happy to see her friends again.

When they finally broke away Jubilee's hand nudged against Rogue's long gloves and carefully the younger girl grasped her friend's gloved hand with a sad expression. "Oh, Roguey. It's back?" A short nod was her answer. "I'm sorry."

"Since when?" the other girl was curious.

Rogue felt Jubilee squeeze her hand. "A few days. Ya heard of the mall massacre?"

The eyes of both girls widened and Jubilee whispered in disbelief. "You were there?!"

Molly gaped at the brunette for a moment. "They said in the news that mutants saved the people. Did you?"

On Rogue's affirmation the Asian girl's face showed even more surprise. "Wow. Then you can skip danger-room-classes!"

"Don't think so, Ah had a lot of help and luck." Rogue giggled, the faces of her friends were just too funny.

From the first moment Jubilee was curious about the other people at the table and was now raising an eyebrow at them. "So, chica, had expected to find you in the company of a certain grouchy and overprotective Mr. Sexy?! Seems I was wrong with that."

A frown crossed Rogue's face for a short moment, when she realized that Logan was still fighting and it was her family her friend was looking at. "Oh, these are mah parents and mah little brother Josh." The young woman smiled at her family while introducing. "Mah schoolmates Jubilee and Molly. Ya know from the school Ah told ya."

"Hi!" chorused the two girls and Rogue saw her brother smile at her friends, especially the barely dressed Molly.

Suddenly she faced her friends with a frown. "Why are ya here? Shouldn't ya be at the mansion?"

"We have vacation."

"Still that doesn't explain why ya are here working in this bar?!"

"We're earning a little extra cash, Rogue."

Rolling her eyes Marie already knew for what purpose Jubes would need the money: Shopping, shopping and even more shopping. "Don't they miss ya?"

The firecracker just smirked. "They think we are with Kitty. Visiting her family."

"Does Kitty know?"

"Not really." There was that evil smirk of the firecracker again and Rogue knew better than to get caught in one of her little schemes. So better don't dig any further.

Molly seemed to know this wasn't the best topic to speak about, especially with adults present and so she changed the topic. "Will you come back? It wasn't all peachy, but we really miss you, Rogue." She smiled at the other brunette with sympathy.

"Your bed in our room is still waiting for you to return. Storm said everything should be at its place when you would come home." Jubilee chirped in sincerely hoping her friend would return.

This revelation lifted a lump as heavy as a mountain from Rogue's heart. She contemplated a moment remembering the mansion, the people there, it felt like home. "Ah think Ah will eventually. But not so soon." But these words were enough to make her friends beam at her like stupid.

"That would be great, Roguey."

Rogue's father kind of liked the thought of his daughter returning to this mutant school – almost everything was better than his little Marie traveling through the country or more from bar to bar with this violent no-good Logan. But then again what did that talk active girl just say a moment before? "May Ah asked, who this Mr. Sexy is?"

'Uhu, let me guess: He's dark haired with a thing for beer, cigars and cage fights?'

'Shut it, Victor!'

The Asian waved her hand in front of her as if this was common knowledge. "Oh, just someone at our school Roguey had an eye on."

"That's not true, Jubes!" The brunette's cheeks flushed.

'Totally not, runt! Bet you're blushing right now!' She heard Victor's annoying sing-song voice ring in her head, hoping that ignoring the older feral would make him shut up, since her other options hadn't worked.

"You know, Logan is sick with worry about you." On Molly's words it hit her mother that Mr. Sexy was indeed Logan as she had dreaded it to be.

Jubilee's smile gave way to concern. "He was so pissed when he returned and you were gone. Almost thought he would gut Bobby for breaking your heart!"

"He didn't do anything to Bobby?" Rogue got a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew how protective Logan was when it came to her and it was no secret that he never liked Bobby and was only 'civil' to the boy because of her.

"Luckily, Iceman was at the stables and Wolvie just borrowed a car from the garage and hit the rode again." Jubilee's eyes held a sparkle while her fingers made speech marks at the word 'borrowed'. "He is looking for you, Rogue!"

The brunette sank down on her chair again shaking her head. "No, he isn't."

Both girls looked excited. "He is!"

"Nah, can't be." A grin creped onto the brunette's features. "He already found me." Her gin widened when she saw the faces of her friends.

"Where is he? Can hardly believe he would let you go again." Jubilee's eyes were wide as she swept her gaze through the room quickly in search of the grumpy hairy mutant.

"He's having a little fun!" Rogue's eyes wandered to the adjoining room where loud cheering from men could be heard and both girls rushed to the near door peaking into the room.

Jubilee shouted thrilled. "I always wanted to see Wolvie fight!"

Molly squealed high pitched and faced Rogue for a moment. "He fights with bare chest!"

Rogue watched her two friends with a cocked eyebrow and smiled about their girly behavior. "He always does."

"He is hot!" Not that Jubilee had another opinion before; it was just a confirmation for herself and everybody else in the room.

"Yeah." Molly's expression was completely dreamy now.

Rogue shook her head chuckling. "And a new member for the fanclub."

When the two girls returned to their table Mr. D'Ancanto saw his chance to get some real answers no lies or half truths as he assumed he got from his daughter. "So ya two know Logan?"

Without further thinking Jubilee chirped her answer. "Sure, when he's at the mansion Wolvie is our PE teacher." The black haired girl frowned. "Why shouldn't we know him?"

"They don't believe me that Logan is a teacher."

Molly's thoughts were obviously still in the other room with her hot teacher. "It's too bad Mr. Logan wasn't teaching the past year. I really hope you two will return."

"Hehe, that's the reason ya want me to come back, so Logan would stick around as well." Rogue smirked and took a sip of her cocktail in amusement.

"Nah, we really miss you, chica. But you were his only reason to return to the mansion."

"That's why?" Mr. D'Ancanto asked aware that the Asian girl was speaking before thinking and so something interesting could slip.

The firecracker shrugged with her shoulders and made again a face that told them this was common knowledge. "Rogue's kinda his only family."

"At first we thought the two of you were siblings or father and daughter." The younger mutant piped and earned a quite puzzled glare from Marie.

"Why that?!"

Again Jubilee only shrugged. "Everyone jumped to that conclusion after the first night you sneaked into Wolvie's room and you'd touched him."

Molly continued a little excited about the fact that Rogue hadn't gotten wind of that piece of gossip back in her first few days at the mansion. "And when he woke up he wasn't angry but worried 'bout you." Her face went all dreamy again. "Hard to believe you two met only a few hours before you came to our place."

Mrs. D'Ancanto almost choked on her fizzy water. "Ya went into his room in the middle of the night?! The room of a complete stranger?!"

Rogue glared daggers at the other brunette, who now looked sheepish back at her. "Ah wanted to talk to him. We both hadn't had a chance to have a real conversation since we suddenly found ourselves in that school. Ah wanted to hear his opinion."

An uncomfortable silence dreaded to befall the group, but Jubilee was too curious to stay quiet. After all she was Rogue's best friend and knew that the former crush on the feral man had grown into love. "And?"

"And what?"

"You know. You and Wolvie all alone. You cured."

Rogue wondered if Jubilee was her friend after all… Did the chick in all her excitement forget that her parents were sitting at the table listening – they weren't in their room at Xavier's having a girl talk. "We're just friends, Jubes!" Rogue blushed slightly, remembering that everybody knew about her crush on Logan. "Ah think Ah'm still a little girl in his eyes." She saw the doubtful views of her friends. "Maybe not so little anymore he stopped calling me kid at least." She had a hard time ignoring Logan's voice in her mind that told her otherwise – that he saw her as his woman, not his little girl. So he had finally made up his mind in her mind. The blush intensified ten-fold.

"Hard to believe that he didn't try anything with you sticking around 24/7!" Molly chirped and just spoke what Mrs. D'Ancanto'd thought from the first moment she had seen that man.

"He may be the big bad guy, but he has his principles and as soon as he notices ya two, ya'll know what Ah mean."

The girls frowned.

Rogue smiled knowingly. "Ya should ask to pay as fast as ya can."

"Ooookaaaay… See you later, Rogue." Still frowning the girls traded a short view, before walking away and back to their work.

Rogue rubbed her temples, her inner Logan was already furious with the stupidity of the two girls. She had a hard time to not snap at her friends from the first sight she got on the hardly dressed Molly and the after alcohol smelling Jubes. 'Did the kid fell in a barrel with vodka?' The inner Logan was now screaming at her to tell her friends to get properly dressed and back home. To her surprise her inner Victor used his chance to anger his brother even more with comments about to stop to be such a moralizer and that those two would already be married and have kids if they would still live in the 19th century, causing the inner Logan to re-center his anger on Victor. Now both feral brothers were fighting – at least verbally – with each other in her head. She wasn't sure if she liked it better to have those two screaming at each other or one of them to scream at her. In the end it didn't really matter: her head felt like exploding.

Rogue got the urge to hit her forehead against the brick wall next to her but thought better of it. Then her eyes fell upon Logan's beer she'd ordered and lifted the bottle without a further thought.

"Is everything alright?" Her father asked noting his daughter's expression and her emptying the half bottle of beer in a few gulps.

The brunette swallowed the last sip of cool malt down and placed the bottle on the table. "Just a headache."

"Why does everybody calls ya Rogue?" Josh wondered this since his sister had told Dr. Wilson her name was Rogue.

"Ah decided it to be mah name after Ah left. Logan is the only one Ah ever told mah real name."

Rogue suddenly leaped up and her mother wondered what the matter was. "Where are ya going, honey?"

"Damage control." The brunette stated before walking away. "Ah'll be back in a minute or two."