Marie thought she was doing pretty well, considering. Getting dressed had been a slight chore, seeing how Jubilee wouldn’t let her out the door in her original choice. Something nonsensical about melting like the polar ice caps on the sun. Yeah, it might be hot in tights, jeans, a tank top, long sleeved shirt, opera length gloves, a scarf and hoodie with the hood up, but it was better than adding to her mental collection. She sighed, tugging at the cuffs of the long sleeve T-shirt she had been stripped down to before turning the volume up a notch on Bach. The girls wouldn’t feed her or let her find her own stash until she lost the hoodie, tights, tank top and switched her gloves to shorter, more breathable ones.
She felt naked and lonely but strangely claustrophobic at the same time because of how close the other girls were. Norbert had been left to fend for himself in her room, This was the first time in 5 years he wasn’t by her side. She could still hear him, yeah, but it was different because she couldn’t feel him as well. It was getting hard to breathe. She leaned on the railing. People she didn’t know were about to see her and she was naked and alone. But not alone. Shit, even she was confused by her own feelings.
She shuffled down the stairs behind the twosome and started talking without even realizing it. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for me to be going to eat with the others? I don’t want to disrupt anything. You guys could just get me something and I can eat in my room. Or I have oranges in there. That would be the perfect lunch.” Ending rapidly, she started to turn around to head back up when sparks appeared in front of her eyes, stopping her flat.
“I’ll make sure those hurt next time if I have to,” Jubilee stated calmly, grabbing Rogue’s arm and continuing to the cafeteria. “Now, you need to do this sometime and the longer you put it off, the worse it’s going to be when you suck it up and try. And today’s the perfect day because it’s Sunday, meaning people tend to trickle in and out to eat instead of all arriving in one bunch. So, there won’t be as many to worry about.”
“Where’s the adventurous Rogue who came up to our strange car on the road?” Kitty piped in, slinging an arm around Rogue’s shoulder and ignoring the flinch that accompanied the touch. “You were all spine then.”
They didn’t understand how hard this was. “This is different. I didn’t have a choice on the road so I pretended like I was brave. Yours was the only car I had seen in hours and I didn’t think I would have another chance. And you guys looked, um, true, I guess. Wholly yourselves.” What the hell was she even saying? They were going to think she was even crazier than they already knew she was. “I mean, I watched you for a minute and Logan looked mad, sure, but it wasn’t deceptive. I mean-“
Jubilee laughed, cutting her off. “Stop the runaway train mouth, Roguey. I’m the conductor on that line.” She stopped in front of a door with the word cafeteria painted in red letters accompanied by a little fork and knife symbol and turned suddenly serious. “We’ve both been there, Rogue.” A nod to Kitty. “Everyone here has. At some point, each of us has had to walk through that door into the unknown. We had to trust that we could handle the normalcy of eating in a room with other people. To trust that nothing bad would happen in that short amount of time.” They locked eyes and Rogue felt her heart lift. Ok. She tried a smile, suspecting it looked slightly forced. She could do this.
“Besides,” Jubilee grinned, “Don’t try to explain why we’re better than the unknown. You’ll never do the three of us justice. We know we’re better.”
Kitty flipped her hair and batted her eyelashes extravagantly at Rogue. “My name is Jubilee. I’m super modest. I never say anything that people might take badly or to heart. My- Oww!” Rogue laughed as Kitty rubbed the spot on her arm Jubilee had pinched.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” she jumped in, hoping to stop a slap fight from starting. Here we go, she thought, pushing open the door to reveal a madhouse.
Jubilee felt Rouge go stiff beside her. She looked around to see what would have given the girl pause, seeing only about 30 of the students milling around and sitting at the tables laid out across the space. The only “adult” present was Logan, sitting at their customary table on the opposite side of the room, devouring a roast beef sandwich with a look of absolute bliss on his face. He glanced up when the door closed and gestured to Rogue, who was stiff and pale, but otherwise seemed to be ok. Jubilee shook her head, no they didn’t need his help, and pushed the girl towards the buffet line.
Rogue kept pulling at her shirt and gloves, trying to cover skin that wasn’t visible while whipping her head around to keep track of everyone moving in her vicinity. “Doing ok, lady?” she asked, worried that Rogue hadn’t said anything.
“Our doubts are traitors and cause us to miss the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt,” Rogue spouted, moving closer to the line and keeping the wonder twins between her and the crowd.
“Good, Rogue. Try to keep the pep talk going if it helps.” Jubilee looked at Kitty and shrugged before handing Rogue a tray and starting to make her own lunch selections.
“Are there always this many people in here?” Rogue whispered to her, eyes darting over the crowd. Jubilee noticed she seemed to be absently picking up the same food as her, evidently not willing to make decisions when presented with the reality of school meals.
“Sometimes,” Kitty replied, putting a milk carton on Rogue’s tray, making Jubilee smile because she was always trying to mother people. “Normally there are more people than this. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. And everyone here is a mutant so they’ll understand if you dress differently because of your skin. Everyone is at least a little weird.”
Rogue, still staring at everything and looking freaked out but fascinated, was oblivious to Bobby coming up behind them and raking his eyes from her feet up. He opened his mouth to say something when more Shakespeare cut him off.
“O wonderful, wonderful and most wonderful wonderful! And yet again wonderful, and after that, out of all hooping”. Rogue blinked and seemed to finally notice they had a joiner, smiling a little. “Hello,” she said, waving a glove encased hand. Bobby stayed rooted on the spot, mouth still slightly open in surprise. Jubilee kicked him lightly and laughed as he snapped his mouth shut and walked away without saying anything.
“Was it something I said?” Rogue asked, concern and a little lines of hurt appearing around her mouth. Jubilee snorted.
“Nah, darling.” Logan spoke up. Evidently he had grown tired of waiting for them and decided to come figure out what the hold up was. He grabbed another sandwich on a plate and turned started back to the table, raised eyebrow suggesting that they should follow if they knew what was good for them. “Icicle isn’t the brightest bulb in the box. He probably didn’t know what to do when presented with you three at the same time. I know it’s enough to scare me at occasionally.” He sat, pulling Rogue’s tray over beside him, indicating she should sit with her back to the wall.
“She’ll feel better if she can watch everyone.” Was the supplied explanation Jubilee got when she smirked at him.
“He’s right.” Rogue assured, sinking down in the chair. “Now I know where everyone is so I can’t be snuck up on.” She started to pick up her sandwich, smearing mayonnaise on her gloves.
“Hey!” They said together as Jubilee grabbed her hands, sandwich plopping back onto the plate, and started tugging on the fingers of the gloves. “You’re getting them all gross,” she whined at Rogue, who had tugged her hands back over into her lap. “You’re not going to have anything wearable if you eat with them on. I am the fashionable one. You must listen to me.”
“Or I could kill you if I took them off!” Rogue whisper screeched, keeping her hands hidden. Ok, think Jubes. This could lead to disaster if they didn’t nip it in the bud at the beginning. She could just see Rogue now, slowing burying herself under layer after layer of clothing, cutting herself off from normalcy, another prison really.
“Look, chica. We’re the only ones here. We won’t touch your hands. You can see anyone approaching because of where you’re sitting. Nothing’s going to happen. We’re not afraid.” She nodded, hoping that Rogue would believe her, and watched as the other girl looked at Logan and Kitty in turn before sighing.
“If ya’ll are sure,” she said, pulling the gloves off and putting them in her lap. “It is easier to eat without them. Just, Logan?” She waited for him to look at her. “You can see everyone in the room too. Don’t let anyone touch me, ok?”
Jubilee smiled at his “Sure, kid,” and watched Rogue pick her sandwich up again. First excursion, a success, if anyone asked. She applied herself to her lunch, just letting the dull roar of the cafeteria surge around their little group.
Later that day, Rogue sat in the grass next to a bench on the edge of the flower garden, soaking up sunshine and just relaxing with her Disney mix. Norbert was under the bench, rolling around, probably getting dirty as hell, and Jubilee and Kitty were in their room working on homework for their online college classes. They’d protested her escaping but Logan had come to her rescue, backing her up on the fact that overstimulation so quickly could be just as detrimental as under.
The situation she found herself in was completely overwhelming, more so than anything else she had dealt with since getting out. Up until landing at the mansion, she had been in survival mode, striving to get somewhere safe, somewhere she would be able to adjust. Not caring to think too far into anything.
Now, she had time to think and that was a blessing and a curse. She’d been locked up in a space that was roughly four hundred square feet for five years. Long enough that she knew every dark spot on each plank of wood. Every squeaky floorboard. How the toilet flushing made the shower cold instead of hot and how the moon shining in from the skylight cast a blue-ish tint to her bookshelf. There, she was queen. Here, outside the attic, everything was new and loud and bright. And smelled so much. She had been in a space with nothing but her own sent and the smell of laundry soap for so long that she thought her nose had died.
She sighed and plucked a blade of grass, smiling in delight when the wind caught it and fluttered it away from her. This, she thought, spirits rising from the simple beauty. If she could see things like this everyday, sit in the sun or the rain, swim in a lake and just be wherever she wanted to be, it would be worth anything. Worth the pain of working through her issues and getting used to all the visual and emotional noise. Worth whatever effort she would have to put in to earn her keep.
Over lunch, Logan had said that now was the time to adjust and heal. To find her place in mansion life, see if she could get a degree or what subjects she needed to study to be proficient. Then, he said, they could tackle the harder crap. How to control her mutation, a scary thought, and the ‘what am I going to do with my life’ stuff that she would have probably known already had her parents not gone the incarnation route. And Kitty had made it very clear that Logan always had the last word if people knew what was good for them.
“Well, Norbert. I think we ended up somewhere perfect for all of that.” She said, picking up her complete works of Shakespeare and to see if the Bard had anything impactful to say about her life. That was silly. Of course he did. But, two pages into The Tempest and right after she had restarted her CD, a whispered conversation back to her right caught her attention. Damn that super hearing that wouldn’t go away, anyway.
“I know what I heard, John. She must like him if she’s quoted him twice where I could hear. She needs to talk to someone besides Logan and his harem anyway.”
“Shit, Bobby. You keep talking about them like that and you know he’s gonna hand you your ass in training. And I’ll be standing there, laughing my dick off, yelling I told you so.”
“You know it’s just a stupid nickname. Yeah, they seem to hang on him and do whatever he says, but obviously he doesn’t sleep with them. Kitty’s way sensible for that. And Jubes wouldn’t do that to Remy.”
This ‘John’ character spoke again, though Rogue had no face to attach to the voice. And, since she was pretending not to hear them in hopes that this Bobby person would decide she wasn’t worth the trouble to talk to right now, she wasn’t going to turn around to look. “Way to give Logan the vote of confidence not to sleep with anything that walks by.”
That was hurtful. Not once in their association had she ever felt sexually threatened by Logan. Threatened physically, maybe. But not sexually. And, at this stage of her life with the crap she’d dealt with, she was pretty sure any obvious interest at all would make her feel threatened.
“Well, if the shoe fits. Anyway, she’s pretty and she doesn’t know anyone here. I’m going for it,” Bobby retorted.
Things like that were exactly what she meant. Pretty? She didn’t feel anything like that right now because she was so messed up. She shouldn’t look it either. And now she felt threatened. In a place that Jubilee and Kitty assured her was now home. This was not a good leg to start on with another mansion resident.
Bobby, who was evidently the person who had run from her in the cafeteria and, Norbert added, on the stairs when she was out of it, came out from behind the hedge and headed straight for her. She turned her head to watch him approach, and squaring her shoulders, half sat on Norbert to feel him with her.
She had to admit, Bobby was attractive in the boy next-door kind of way. Blonde spikey hair, which could use less gel if anyone was asking her, and blue eyes. Stacked shoulders and narrow hips with good musculature on his legs, visible under his cargo shorts. The type of boy that every momma would love her little girl to be with. He terrified her. He looked like Cody and her momma had loved Cody. Which means he couldn’t be good for Marie.
He looked down at her, stopping a couple of feet away and throwing out a smile. “But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”
Didn’t he look pleased with himself? For what? Learning something about the new girl, by eavesdropping on things he shouldn’t have heard, and trying to exploit it to his advantage. And now he was poking fun at her. Why else would he think that quoting Shakespeare was a smart move?
She watched his smile fade as she pushed to her feet, not answering because sudden, irrational anger had her biting her lips. Who did he think he was? So she wasn’t the same as everyone else. So she had been through a lot and had developed coping mechanisms. Who the fuck was this, this, maggot in front of her?
“You, sir, are never allowed to make fun of me. What is it; let’s taunt the new girl day? I know I’m fucked up. Thanks for driving that point home.” She was fuming, heaving great puffs of air laced with cigar smoke, not that she noticed.
She steam rolled over his response, not wanting to hear stupid excuses. “And really? Out of all the Shakespeare works documented, 37 plays and 154 sonnets, you pick Romeo and Juliet. Let me guess, you picked it up on an afternoon special that you were watching because they canceled your cartoons. Over quoted, overdone tripe, nowhere near his best romantic work. And you pick the second most over used line. Way to drive it home that you’re a moron.” Where was all this rage coming from? Yeah, she was mad, but not this mad. She didn’t care about him enough to let him make her this mad. Had the volcano finally erupted?
She snatched up her book and stormed off, passing/ignoring an irritated looking Logan who was glaring at Bobby. Spinning on her heel 10 feet away, she added, “If you must quote that play, at least use something less known. Example: O! She doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night, like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. Never abuse Shakespeare.” And she was gone, out of the garden and slamming into the mansion. Screw that boy and everyone like him. She was just fine with the few friends she had if everyone else was going to be like that.
Logan looked at Bobby, who was beet red and looking down at his shoes. He heard John laughing somewhere beyond the hedge and shook his head. “Boy, I don’t know what you said to her and, frankly, I couldn’t give too shits less. What I do care about is you not saying anything to her again until she approaches you.”
He puffed out a breath. “You know what it’s like for some of the people who come here. She’s been through more than you can dream. Give her time to settle in. Talk to her when she looks ready and only after she talks to you first. If that never happens, sucks to be you. Go about your life. If she comes to say sorry, which I’m sure will happen at some point, accept it. And don’t, and I fucking mean this so pay attention, suggest anything beyond friendship.” He cocked his head. “You got me?”
He reined in a smirk as Bobby’s head flopped up and down like a bobble head riding down a dirt road. “Go.” And watched him run, picking up John on the way by.
Good. The girl didn’t need to be dealing with anything beyond settling. The Bobby incident would be gossiped about, most likely started by John as soon as he could get alone, and everyone would know that Marie wasn’t willing or able to be approached like that right now. Which would give her the time she needed to figure herself out.
Feeling more settled, he reached down and grabbed Norbert, turning the animal over and over in his hands, looking for dirt or grass stains. Finding none, he tucked the fluff ball under his arm and hightailed it to the mansion, heading for Marie’s room to reunite the lost friends.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
Love Love Love Love to my reviewers. It's good to know that someone is still reading this and what you think. I'm always looking for feedback, good or bad. Kiss Kiss
Chapter End Notes:
Once upon a time, when this bunny first bit me, I thought up the Bobby scene here. I don't know why and it's crazy that it took until chapter 13 to get it in here, but I like it.
Quotes:
"Our doubts are traitors and cause us to miss..."~Measure for Measure
"O wonderful, wonderful and most wonderful..."~As You Like It
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks..."~Romeo and Juliet
"O! She doth teach the torches to burn bright..."~ Romeo and Juliet
Quotes:
"Our doubts are traitors and cause us to miss..."~Measure for Measure
"O wonderful, wonderful and most wonderful..."~As You Like It
"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks..."~Romeo and Juliet
"O! She doth teach the torches to burn bright..."~ Romeo and Juliet