From the day we met
You made me forget
All my fears
Knew just what to say
And you kissed away
All my tears
I knew this time I had finally found
Someone to build my life around
To be a lover and a friend
After all my heart had put me through
I knew that it was safe with you
And what we had would never end
Wrong again
Rogue shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Her roommates, Katherine Pryde and Jubilation Lee, were staring at her with their mouths hanging open. The three young women had been having a ‘girl talk' session in their pjs, finally being able after two months to enjoy themselves without feeling completely guilty that they were here and Dr. Grey wasn't. When Jubilee had asked Rogue when she had first fallen in love with Bobby Drake, Rogue had answered without thinking.
"Ah'm not in love with him."
Kitty, usually the quieter of the two, got over her shock first to ask softly, "What do you mean, Rogue?"
She sighed and looked down at her gloved hands. She would take them off for bed, but while the three of them were awake and talking, she wouldn't take that risk.
"Ah don't love him. Ah care very deeply about him, and he says it's enough…"
"But?" Kitty prodded gently.
"He keeps pushing for meh to kiss him again, and Ah'm afraid Ah'm gonna find out when Ah touch him that just caring for him isn't enough. Ah blocked it out as much as Ah could when we kissed at his house. Ah think the stress of the situation helped meh not get his memories that time."
"Chica," Jubilee finally re-entered the conversation. "Why be with him if you don't love him?"
"Bobby is fun and nice and he cares about meh. Ah've never had that, and maybe it's selfish, but this may be mah only chance to be in a relationship. There aren't many people who are as fearless about mah skin as Bobby is. He's been so sweet to meh ever since Ah first came here."
Rogue reached a hand toward her neck and clutched at nothing. Kitty nudged Jubilee and the other girl nodded sadly. For the last two months, Rogue had continued to reach for Wolverine's dog tag whenever she felt particularly emotional, still not used to it not being there.
"Ah know he wouldn't ever hurt meh or leave meh. God, Ah am selfish."
"You have every right to be," Kitty cried, her brown ponytail bouncing for emphasis. "You have been through so much shit, you deserve as much happiness as you can get. And you make Bobby happy, too."
Rogue smiled her thanks, but Jubilee just stared at Kitty.
"What are you staring at?" Kitty asked.
"You swore!"
"Oh, mah god, she did!" Rogue exclaimed.
Kitty blushed and turned her nose up at them. "Shit."
Jubilee and Rogue burst into laughter, collapsing on their beds. Kitty, next to Jubilee, gave in after a minute and started laughing too. When they had gotten control of themselves, Jubilee bounced back up.
"I'm hungry," she announced. "Let's go raid the kitchen."
"You're always hungry, Jubes," Kitty laughed.
"I have a fast metabolism," Jubilee responded, pulling on slippers that matched the yellow suns on her pajamas.
Looking at their friend's tiny figure, the other two girls had to agree. They crept down the hall and the stairway to the first floor quietly, Rogue thankful for once that Logan had left the mansion again. He would have heard them no matter how silent they tried to be. Kitty clamped a hand over her own mouth to stop a giggle from escaping when the bottom step creaked. The young women took the last twenty feet to the kitchen at a dead run, Rogue sliding a little in her sock-clad feet.
All three girls froze in shock when they walked into the kitchen. It was already occupied. Bobby Drake was locked in a heated kiss with Siryn, the two teenagers' arms wrapped tightly around each other.
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Everybody swore
They'd seen this before
We'd be fine
And you'd come to see
That you still loved me
In good time
And they said there's nothing you can do
It's something that he's going through
It happens to a lot of men
And I told myself that they were right
That you'd wake up and see the light
And I just had to wait 'til then
Wrong again
"He doesn't love her, chica," Jubilee said softly as she led Rogue away from yet another public scene of Bobby and Siryn's relationship. "Even Siryn knows that."
Rogue shrugged, weary of having everyone feel sorry for her. Everyone in the school knew about Bobby and Siryn hooking up. It was kind of hard not to when any room in the mansion could possibly be the stage for the latest of their public displays of affection. They had been given stern lectures and even a detention or two from the concerned professors, but not even the need for oxygen seemed to part the two much.
She and Bobby hadn't spoken since the kitchen incident. He had tried once, but as soon as the words `she lets me touch her' were out of his mouth, Rogue had called to the forefront the faint echo of Logan that resided in her mind and had snarled and punched Bobby so hard in the jaw that she had knocked him out. She wished Logan had been there to see that, and she smirked for him as she turned away from Bobby's unconscious form.
Rogue had gotten off very easy. Xavier had told her not to let it happen again and offered to work more one on one with her to control her powers. They'd had a few lessons so far, and Xavier felt Rogue was making progress. One side effect of that was that she could now call up powers she had previously absorbed without having to touch that person again. She was the only `Junior X-Man' who was allowed solo sessions in the Danger Room, and Scott was grooming her for a position as a full X-Man. Rogue had a direction in her life now, and she actually felt that she was making a contribution.
But she was still lonely. Kitty and Jubes were great friends, but she needed more than they could give her. The relationship she'd had with Bobby had been simple and uncomplicated, but it had made her feel wanted. Like she could be more to a man than just a mutant with very strong powers. She caught herself reaching for the long-gone chain around her neck and resolutely put her hand back down by her side.
More than just some little girl on the side of the road to take care of when it was convenient, she added silently to herself.
"Yeah, Rogue," Kitty comforted from the other side of her. "When he's done sowing his wild oats, he'll remember how much he loves you and come crawling back. Just give it a little time, you'll see."
For a moment, Rogue let herself hope. Maybe Bobby did just need to get it out of his system, or maybe her progress with Xavier would get so good that she'd be able to touch and he could make out with her instead of the Irish girl. All she had to do was wait.
But three months later when Bobby and Siryn announced their engagement, Rogue knew she'd been wrong, and so had her friends. The relationship of her ex-boyfriend and the red haired mutant (what was it with redheads anyway?) might have started out based on hormones, but they were serious now. Rogue and Bobby would not be getting back together. Ever.
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And it seemed to me the pain would last
My chance for happiness had passed
And nothing waited 'round the bend
I was sure I'd never find someone
To heal the damage you had done
And my poor heart would never mend
Wrong again
Six months and three days after he had left, Logan came back. He had arrived at the mansion to find only Xavier and the younger kids; the X-Men were on a rescue mission trying to help a mutant who had been captured. Because Xavier knew the team needed help due to the psychic bond he and Rogue had developed working together, Logan was sent to help them.
When he arrived on the scene to see a gun aimed at Marie, who was standing in front of a young man he didn't recognize, Logan snapped into action. With a deadly ‘snikt' his claws were out and ready to tear anyone apart who got in his way. As he ran past her, Logan could have sworn he heard her sigh with relief. The obviously military man who had been threatening his Marie was quickly – and permanently – out of commission.
When he turned to check on her, Marie wasn't paying any attention to him now that the threat had been handled. Marie said something briefly to the plain-clothed teenager with her and the boy nodded his head. Logan watched in astonishment as Marie touched the boy's face briefly with an ungloved hand. The youth didn't even stagger.
Marie directed the young man - Logan thought he heard her call him Avalanche - around to the other side of the group of humans the X-Men were fighting.
Marie moved to stand beside Logan and said, "You may want to hold onto something, sugah."
Logan wondered idly for a moment if she would protest if he wrapped his arms around her. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and her hands spread in front of her. Logan glanced across the field to see the young man in the same position.
In his head, Logan vaguely heard Marie's voice saying, "Now Storm."
Logan watched as small funnels lifted the other X-Men (he, Marie and Avalanche stayed where they were) from the ground just as it started to shift. Two smallish earthquakes swept across the field, knocking most of the enemy off their feet. When the two un-natural disasters met, the whole area shook with an earthquake Logan figured had to be at least an 8 on the Richter scale. The ground split and buckled in places and every one of the humans was now on the ground, several of them unconscious. Scott called the retreat to the Blackbird.
"You've grown up, darlin," Logan remarked to Marie as they ran side by side. A smile lit her entire being until his next comment, when her face became curiously blank. "Where's the Icicle?"
"On his honeymoon," she answered.
They had reached the Blackbird after the others, and Marie went to check on Avalanche. Logan sat down in an empty seat and watched Marie talk to her friends Jubilee and Kitty as they flew back to the mansion. Thinking about what he had seen on the ground and the calm way she was handling the aftermath of the battle, Logan realized that Marie had indeed grown up. He had no idea why she and the Ice-kid weren't together anymore, but he couldn't be happier about it.
Xavier filled Logan in two days later on what had happened between Marie, a girl named Siryn and Bobby. Logan had been plotting to rip the little prick a new one when Xavier informed him that the break up had been what catapulted Rogue on the road to self-discovery and confidence in her worth as a member of the X-Men, though not as a woman. When Logan asked if she was seeing anyone now, Xavier's eyebrows had risen a good three inches before he had smiled knowingly.
"No, Logan. She is free now."
Logan had grunted in reply and gone in search of Marie. Passing him in the hall, the blazingly yellow-clothed Jubilee pointed him to the garden out back. He ignored the giggle that followed him as he stalked off in that direction. He found Marie underneath a tree, reading a novel.
"Ya know," he said as he approached. "I'm still waiting for a proper hello from you."
Marie looked up and stared at him for a few minutes. Evidently she liked what she saw, because a twinkle entered her eyes.
"Ah never got a proper good-bye, sugah."
"Stand up," he commanded gruffly.
He took note of the absence of gloves on her hands. Xavier had told him that Rogue could now control her skin for hours at a time, and Logan knew without a doubt that she wouldn't have bare hands unless this was one of those times. As soon as Marie was on her feet, he hauled her up against him. Her plump lips parted in surprise just before his mouth swooped down on hers. When she moaned against his mouth, Logan deepened the kiss, tasting her for the first time. She was heaven and sin rolled into one.
"Bye and hi again, darlin'," he whispered when he pulled away, his voice huskier than normal.
A smile spread across Marie's face, lighting her eyes. "Hi, yourself, sugah."
"You wanna go to a movie or somethin'?" Logan asked.
"Or something," Marie answered, pulling the man she had always loved back into her embrace.
The End.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
The song lyrics are "Wrong Again" performed by Martina McBride.