Note: Rogue is not my characterbut I made Tom Payne up.
She woke up, wrapped up in someone's arms. Someone large and very masculine. Her skin against his skin. Rogue murmured happily then came to her senses.
She sat up in the bed, only to realize her state of undress then she blushed. Rogue pulled up the sheet. She looked down to see a man with a huge scar running down his face. Rogue thought even if he didn't have that scar, he still wouldn't be considered conventionally handsome. His hair was trimmed neatly and dark eyes appreciated her beauty. There was something reassuringly solid about him; he looked as if he came directly from the school of hard knocks.
"Good morning, gorgeous." He pulled a cigarette from a pack on the night stand.
"Who are you? Where am Ah?" Rogue asked, gazing around, clutching the sheet frantically.
"My name's Tom." He swung out of bed, wearing nothing but his briefs. His body was heavily muscular and bore signs of being stabbed, shot and there was a burn scar on his shoulder. "So I take it you don't remember last night. I'm sorry that I took advantage of you then. "
Rogue took a good look at him...silver peppered the hair at his temples. She supposed he must be in his early forties. He looked out the window and to the town laid out before him.
"It's ok. Ah really don' remembah anythin' though." She got up off the bed and touched his arm. "It's ok."
Tom turned his attention back to Rogue. "It's not my habit to take advantage of ladies." He smiled down at the Southerner. He didn't believe his luck when she came back with him, how light and hot she felt in his arms. The way she moved against the sheets...
"What's done is done, Tom." The room was not a well appointed one with about a dozen bottles of beer on the table...it had that popular lived in fashion statement. Their clothes were scattered around the room and she picked up what was tossed off with abandon. She remembered a little...and blushed a deeper red. She remembered his kiss, his passion. Then her mind blacked out...she couldn't recall anything else. Which was, perhaps, a blessing.
"Mind if Ah use your bathroom and git a shower?" Rogue asked, shyly. She felt vulnerable and exposed. Her heart beat quicker though she had no idea why.
"Feel free." He said, smiling at the young woman. "I don't mind.That's what a bathroom is for." Tom decided to handle the situation delicately.
Rogue came back, dressed in her jean shorts and a T-shirt. She sat down on the bed. Tom had taken the time to put on his clothes while she was in the bathroom. He wore a tanktop and jeans. Steel toed boots peered out from under the well worn jeans. It was clear to her by the way he moved...he was a brawler. Not a fancy-smancy martial artist, his fighting experience was more practical. No wasted movements from him.
"Do you remember anything last night? Do you remember how we met?" He asked, poking around in his trench coat for a bottle of hooch. He offered her the first sip and she accepted, handing it back to him, who finished it off.
"No. Ah don't. All's Ah remembah is a little bit of what happened when we came back here." She didn't quite meet his eyes; the young woman was embarrassed. "Tom..." "We'll talk about that later." The older man patted her hand. "You didn't seem drunk, or I wouldn't have..." He drifted off. They would discuss that later. Her lapse in memory was more important to explore.
"Ah can recall leavin' a mansion, flyin' to go somewhere. Ah ...don' know where though." Rogue's voice was tinted with frustration. "Ah don' recollect much other than mah name, and not even why Ah was at the mansion."
Was she a mutant? Tom thought. Well that explains... "Perhaps you were 'detained' between there and here?"
She looked at him with green eyes that were this side of heaven. "Maybe. Again, Ah ain' so sure of where to start lookin' even."
"Then we start by poking our nose where it isn't wanted, Rogue." He started resheathing his knives. She watched him for a moment, quiet and solemn.
"You don' mind followin' me around?" Rogue got up and moved around the room, her eye still on the big, ugly man.
He stood in front of her, as solid as a wall. Tom gently touched her porcelain skin, then withdrew his huge hand, which appeared to be callused with hard use. She could only guess at what the 'use' was. "You were the first woman who saw something other than this wreck. As you might have noticed, I'm not easy on the eyes."
"Ah don' like people cause of their appearances. Ah like 'em for the content of their character." Rogue said, in a voice soft as silk. "Now how about showin' me around this here town. Give me the lowdown."
Tom smiled. "Sure thing." He led her out of the room, down the stairs and onto the street. "Well, first of all, this town is named Basin City. Or you can call it by the nickname the locals give it. Sin City. There's three families struggling for control, now that the old regime is basically over. The Lyonnes'...they are pretty hoity-toity, but don't let their pretty facade deceive you. Then there's the Suvaris and their brood of ill-tempered brats. All seven of them are bad news."
He walked across the deserted street, littered with tattered newspapers and assorted colorful plastic wrappings. "Then...there's the Paynes. My family. Well, not really since I was conceived and born on the wrong side of the blanket. My old man's gone now, but my half brother is a piece of work. He don't like me and I return the feeling."