Disclaimer: I do not own X-men.
Thanks for the great reviews on my other story. Promise they'll be an update for you all soon. Hope you like this one. It was kind of random, and inspired by several of the other stories on this website.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Beep, Beep, Beep.
Groaning, Rogue rolled over and slammed her hand down on her alarm clock, effectively turning it off. Now, normally, Rogue hated mornings, especially when she was getting up earlier than she needed to, but since she had started going for an early morning run, she was getting used to them. Don't get me wrong she still hated them, but she was coming to tolerate them more.
This morning was no different, and Rogue pulled herself out of bed, glancing over at her room mate to make sure that she hadn't woken her up, and pulled on her running gear of sweats a tank top and sneakers. She clipped her ipod arm band in place, and slotted her ipod inside it and quietly made her way out of the room and down the hall, glad that she had control over her powers now so that she didn't need to touch Kitty every morning so that she could use her phasing power to sneak past Logan's room, knowing from past experience that the man hated to be woken up for no good reason, and apparently Rogue going running was not a good reason.
After a couple of minutes, Rogue managed to make it downstairs and out the front door of the Xavier mansion without waking anybody up, so breathed a small sigh of relief and headed out of the gates to go for her usual morning run, listening to the music pumping in her ears.
30 minutes later and Rogue returned to the mansion. She headed to the kitchen to get a drink and could hear the sounds of the others just beginning to stir, although no one had made it down to the kitchen yet, making it a quiet heaven for Rogue. She quickly grabbed a bottle of water and drained it, to make up for all the water her body had just lost, and then added her usual cup of coffee, before heading out to the back garden and into the thick forest of trees that bordered the Xavier institute. After a couple minutes of walking, ahe found her small clearing where she came most mornings after her run just to sit and meditate. The Professor had originally asigned her the task as a way of helping to control the psyches in her head, but it had helped with so much more that Rogue hadn't been able to give it up. Since she had started meditating, she found that it was much easier to control her temper as well as the psyches in her head. Not she needed to worry about them anymore.
All too soon, Rogue's watch began to beep telling her that she needed to head back inside to get ready for the danger room session with Logan and the other senier X-men. She gave a sigh as she headed back into the mansion and up to her room, where she found Kitty rushing around the room in her usual state of panic. "Er, Kit, are yah ok?" She asked cautiously, noticing that her room mate seemed a little more flustered than usual today.
"Rogue! Like, oh my God, I am so glad you're here." She exclaimed, abandoning the pile of clothes she was tossing everywhere to run over to the girl who was stood just inside the doorway.
"What's the matter?" She asked.
"I, like, totally can't find my uniform. Did you see what I did with it, like, after the last training session?" She asked her, a tone of desperatrion in her voice.
Rogue sighed. "Kit, yah gotta be more careful with yah stuff. Here. Yah flung it on mah side of the room yesterday so ah hung it up for yah." Rogue told her, pulling said uniform out of her wardrobe and handing it to Kitty.
Kitty breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh my gosh, like, thank you so much Rogue. Logan would like totally kill me if I was late or lost it." She told her.
Chuckling, Rogue pulled her own uniform out of the wardrobe and tossed it on the bed as she began pulling off her running gear. She couldn't help but be glad that she had outgrown her old uniform. 'Not that I didn't like it or anything, but the shoulder pads weren't really my thing. This one's much better.' She thought to herself, as she pulled on the new black spandex uniform, which had an emerald green 'X' accross the chest, she had a belt to match, and to Rogue, the best thing about the uniform was that the only yellow on it was the actual 'x' on the belt buckle, the belt itself being the same green as the 'x'. As she donned her black boots, fastening the green clips, she looked up at Kitty, only to see her checking her reflection in the mirror.
Rolling her eyes, but unable to keep from smirking slightly at the same time, Rogue walked over to her friend and grabbed her arm, pulling her towards the door. "Come on Kit, yah can check out yah reflection after the danger room session." She told her as she led the girl down the corridoor to the lift.
"Like, relax Rogue, we've got plenty of time." Kitty argued.
"Yah clock has stopped Kit. Or don't yah remember the little issue we had yesterday before school?" Rogue reminded her.
"Like, oh yeah." Kitty told her.
As the pair arrived in the danger room, they found that the others were already there, the only one missing being Kurt, and he was usually late, allowing himself to sleep in later than the others as he had the ability to just teleport in in a second. Sure enough, just as Logan was walking into the room, Kurt teleported in and came to stand by Rogue and Kitty. "Just in time elf." Logan warned him. "Next time you're late you'll be on blackbird duty for a month." He told him. Kurt gulped whilst the others all smirked at him, Tabby and Even snickering slightly. "Same goes for the rest of you. You're getting mighty cocky since Apocolypse. Lets see what you're really made of. We've got a new simulation today. Mission objective, defeat the enemy and keep everyone alive, and relatively uninjured. You get a red mark, you're out of the game." He told them, before turning and walking out of the room so that he could watch them.
The slight smirk on his face told Rogue that this wasn't going to be as easy as he made it sound. "Hm, that sounds simple enough. We should be done and out of here in a few minutes." Scott speculated.
"Ah wouldn't be too sure about that." Rogue told them.
They all turned to look at her. "What do you mean Rogue?" Jean asked her. Since Rogue had gotten control over her powers, she found that she didn't really dislike Jean as much as she thought she had. I mean, ok, they were far from the best of friends or anything, but they were, in a wierd sort of way, friends now.
"Well, from what heh just said ah get the impression that hh wants to take us down a peg or two. So mah guess is that the enemy, or enemies, are going to be pretty hard to beat. Especially as heh's not sure we'll all make it through alive." She explained.
Their faces turned from confident to a little unsure, and Rogue knew that that wasn't going to help them during this simulation. "Look, ah'm sure we'll be fine. We just need to stay on our guard and expect the unexpected. Standard procedure when Logan's concerned." She reassured them. Their faces looking slightly more optimistic.
"Rogue's right. We can do this. I mean, we won against apocolypse. We can win against the danger room." Scott announced to them all.
"All right you lot, enough gossiping, and get ready." Logan told them over the speaker. As soon as Scott gave him the nod, Logan started the simulation, and straight away they could see that this wasn't going to be simple.
It took them nearly 2 hours to complete the simulation, and they were all relieved that school was starting an hour later today sue to some repairs that had to be finished off before health and safety would allow the students back into the school. So, whilst they had all expected to be able to take their time getting ready that morning, they all ended up in the same rush as every other week day. People shouting and banging on doors, hurrying each other so that they could each get their turn in the bathroom.
Rogue let Kitty use the bathroom first, glad that the pair had their own so that they didn't have to queue up anymore. Whilst the girl did take a long time in the bathroom in the mornings getting ready, Rogue knew that she took even longer getting dressed and gathering all her books together, and as Kitty wouldn't let Rogue leave without her, Rogue knew that it was in both their interests to let Kitty go first. That way they at least had a chance of catching a ride to school with Scott before he drove off without them.
As soon as Kitty came out, Rogue rushed in before Kitty could decide that she had forgotten to do something and had a shower and rinsed her hair. She quickly dried it, but as she looked at the clock she knew that she wouldn't have time to straighen it. Glaring at the curls in her hair, she walked out of the bathroom in her underwear and went over to her wardrobe, pulling out a pair of dark blue jeans and a black tank top, pulling on a dark purple shirt over the top. She slipped her feet into her purple pumps and walked over to her desk, putting her various books and papers into her backpack ready for the day ahead.
"Rogue, I, like, never knew you had curly hair." Kitty told her best friend.
Rogue looked up from her backpack to where Kitty was stood in front of her mirror, applying her makeup. "Huh? Oh yeah, Ah always straighten it. Ah don't like them much." She told her. She then grabbed her brush and a hair tie and walked over to the mirror, scraping back her hair into a ponytail, the white bangs hanging down and framing her face, not quite long enough to tie back yet.
"Why are you tying it up? It looks, like totally great on you." Kitty told her, turning back to her makeup.
"Because they're too girly." Rogue explained, although this just got an eye roll out of Kittty. Rogue finished tying up her hair and gave herself the once over in the mirror, making sure that she looked ok, and was pleased with what she saw. Since she had gained control over her powers, she didn't feel the need to put on such a strong front anymore, so she had toned down her makeup somewhat, although the only time you could see her without any on was when she went running, as she didn't like sweating that much with makeup on as clogged up all your pores and Rogue hated getting zits.
Satisfied with how she looked she grabbed her bag and turned to face Kitty waiting to see if the Valley girl was ready yet. "You know I, like, don't think curls are girly Rogue, they're pretty, especially yours, and they're natural too. You should, like, wear your hair like that more often." She announced, before putting the lipgloss in her bag and walking towards Rogue, who was waiting by the door.
"Thanks for yah advice Kit, but ah think ah'll stick to straight for mow." She told her as the pair walked down to the car, pleased to see that it was still there. They soon found out why though.
"Come on Jean, where are you? We're going to be late." Scott grumbled as he paced back and forth outside the car, Kurt and Evan watching with a mixture of amusment and annoyance.
"Hey Kurt, Even, what's going on?" Rogue asked as they approached the pair, all of them watching Scott pace.
"Oh, morining Kitty, morning Schwester. Scott is annoyed because Jean is taking zo long getting ready, but he refuses to leave wizout her." Kurt explained to them as they continued to watch him.
Suddenly the door to the garage opened and Miss Perfect herself came running through. "Oh my gosh, you guys. I am so sorry I'm late. I was a little slow in getting to the bathroom." She apologised, climbing into the car, where Scott was ushering them all so that they could get going.
Rogue looked at the girl curiously, as did Kitty, both of them knowing that the Professor had fitted Jeans room with a private bathroom like theirs, so that she didn't have to queue in the mornings anymore. So, technically, there shouldn't have been anything preventing her from getting into the bathroom. But they also noticed the girls slight awkwardness and couldn't help but wonder at it. However, they knew better than to ask any questions in front of the guys, all of whom were completely oblivious to all of this.
As soon as they arrived at school, they all went straight to their second class, which for Rogue and Kitty, happened to be Math. They seemed to spend the majority of the class passing notes, Rogue starting as usual, after all, she hated math (A/N: me too. I'm pretty rubbish at it, but hey, isn't that what calculaters were invented for?), so she usually tried to find a way to ignore the droning voice of the teacher for the hour slot that she had to spend sitting behind her desk and pretending to pay attention. THe usual relief swept accross Rogue as she heard the bell ring for the end of the lesson, and she and Kitty quickly gathered thei things and rushed off to their next class, agreeing to meet up at lunch.
French, on the other hand, was one of Rogue's favourite classes in school, right alongside art and drama, and suprisingly, history. She didn't really understand hat bit either. Anyway, this was the one lesson that Rogue was actually on her own for, with none of the other X-men in this class, and none of the brotherhood either. She didn't really mind though, she was too interested in learning the language to bother about something like that.
Now, I should probably take this opportunity to explain that whilst the other x-men also studied French, they weren't in the same set as Rogue, as she knew more than them. In other words, she was studying French at a higher level. Hence, why the others are not with her, and why the class is a little smaller than average.
As soon as the teacher walked in the door, all conversation ceased and everyone paid attention, just waiting to find out what they would be doing for the lesson. "Bonjour class." The teacher greeted.
"Bonjour Madame." They all replied. Rogue thought that this might be the one place in school, heck, maybe even in all of Bayville, where it didn't seem to matter that she was a mutant, because they were all too busy learning and having fun, to bother about it. 'Maybe that's why it's one of my favourite lessons, because it gives me hope that one day the Prof's dream really will become a reality.' She thought to herself, however, she quickly shook it away so that she could pay attention to what the teacher was saying.
A rather uneventful lunchtime, during which Kurt, Evan and Bobby messed around, earning them stern looks from Scott, whilst the others just laughed at them, Rogue endured a painfully boring biology lesson followed by her art class, which she enjoyed. She completed her sketch of the arrangement of glued sweets the teacher had handed to her at the beginning of class, and turned it in, along with the rest of the class, although she had scalded several of the boys who had tried to eat some of their sweets, only to find that they were glued down, something which had amused Rogue greatly.
Before she knew it, it was the end of the day, and as soon as art class was over, Rogue rushed back to her locker to grab her books and homewrok assignments before making her way out of school and over to Scotts car where the others were all gathered. For once, Scott hadn't driven off without her, and she was pleased, although she thought that Kitty and Kurt might have had something to do with that.
30 minutes later and Rogue was safely back and the mansion and relaxing in her room. Sat on her bed, reading her latest vampire novel, her earphone stuck in her ears, letting the book suck her into a world of mystery and intrigue, an odd sort of romance set in the south, reminding her of a place she once called home.
"Rogue?" Came a voice at the door. When no one answered the door opened a little, to see Rogue sat on her bed, her foot tapping slightly to the beat of her music, which could just be made out due to the volume of the music. "Rogue?!" The person called, a little louder this time.
Rogue looked up, seeing Storm stood by the door. She pulled out her earphones and gave the woman a small smile. "Hey Storm. Is everything alright?" She asked the weather witch.
"Yes thank you Rogue. I just came to tell you that dinner is ready." She told her.
"Ok, thanks." She told her, dog-earring the place in her book and switching her ipod off as she went to wash up ready for dinner. She already knew that it would be takeout, after all, it was Logan's turn to cook, and he wasn't very big on the concept, so he usually ordered in, or went to some restaurant in town and got them to pack it all into containers. The Professor didn't really approve of this, but as Logan frequently used his favourite restaurant he let him off and didn't comment. It wasn't like it would make much of a differenct anyway. Logan was Logan and nothing was going to change that about him.
After dinner Rogue went to the library to tackle some of the homework she has been given by her teachers, although she left her math books up in her room, knowing that she wasn't even going to attempt to look at the problems until at least next Wednesday. After all, it was Thursday, which meant that after tomorrow she had two whole days of no school, plus an extra seven seeing as how it was end of term.
At 9pm Rogue was interupted by Jamie, the young boy having become quite attatched to Rogue during his time at the institute, and suprisingly, Rogue had developed a soft spot for the boy. "Rogue?" Came the voice that she had come to recognise very well over the past couple of years. When Jamie had first arrived at the insitute, he had a black eye, was rather skinny and had several scrapes and bruises on his body. Rogue had instantly recognised them, remembering a time when she had sported similar injuries, she had felt oddly protective of him, knowing what it was like and not wanting anyone to go through what she had gone through. The boy had opened up to her, and she was always his first port of call if he ever needed anything.
Rogue looked over at the young boy and smiled at him. "Hey Jamie, how are yah sugah?" She asked him.
Jamie came futher into the room towards Rogue. "I'm good. Mr Logan says I have to go to bed though. Would you read me a story?" He asked. "Yours are better than Storms and Hanks." He added.
Rogue just chuckled at him. "Of course ah will. Lets go. Don't want yah getting into trouble with Logan now do we?" She told him, as she led him out of the library and up to his bedroom. Sending the boy off to change into his pajamas and brush his teeth, Rogue turned down the sheets so that he could climb into bed, and then tucked him in once he was comfy. She then perched herself on the edge of the bed and began to tell him a tale of vampire knights fighting dragons and greedy monarchs so that they could get the powerful stone of thunder, so that they could free the vampires as the monarchs had stolen in order to control all the vampires in the land. By the end of the story Jamie was sleepy, she could see his eyes drooping, but he wasn't quite asleep so she sang softly to him, stroking his hair a little until he was fast asleep.
As soon as his breath became slow and even, Rogue smiled and left the room, going to gather her things from the library before going to bed herself, finding her room mate already fast asleep, chuckling a little at the beauty mask that Kitty was donning, ready for her special date with Lance tomorrow night. Turning off her light and climbing into bed, it didn't take long before Rogue fell asleep, wondering what tomorrow was going to bring. As her own breathing became slow and even, nobody noticed the pair of red eyes watching her, leaving when they were assured that the girl was asleep.
