Summary: While visiting a haunted house for Halloween, secret feelings are revealed.
Disclaimer: X-Men is property of Marvel and Fox and Stan Lee and blah blah blah...
"Tell me again what the hell am I doing here? And why I had to pay five dollars to see this crap?"
Rogue rolled her eyes. "We're at a haunted house, John. At least try to act scared, all right? And besides, what else were you going to do on Halloween? Hand out candy at the mansion? Have another intense session of opening and closing your lighter?"
They were walking down a darkened hallway, fake cobwebs and powdered dust were sprinkled on every available space. "Are you kidding me? This crap is supposed to scare me? I think seeing Jubilee in the morning without her makeup is scarier shit."
Rogue thought he did have a point there. From what they had seen so far, this haunted house looked like it was put together by a bunch of two year olds who thought plastic bones and a couple of white bed sheets were suppose to scare the living daylights out of people.
"Well, just be glad we're not with her and Kitty at that Monster Halloween Film Festival. I remember you screaming like a little schoolgirl when we watched Nightmare on Elm Street."
John laughed. "I think you have me confused with your boyfriend."
"My boyfriend? You mean Bobby?"
"No, Professor Xavier," he said sarcastically. "Yes, of course, I'm talking about Bobby. Speaking of which…where the hell is he?"
"He's not my boyfriend."
He stopped his search for Bobby to arch a brow at her. "So what do you call a guy who took you on – what is it now? five? six? dates."
She smirked, then asked coyly, "You've been keeping track on how many dates we've been on?"
"Now I know you're kidding me. Every fucking time you guys are gonna go out, he makes it out to be like the fucking President is coming to dinner. I've never seen a guy primp so much or change clothes so many times."
"Oh." She hid her disappointment by looking at a twitching skeleton.
"Look at that idiot…what the hell is he doing now?"
She turned to find Bobby behind them, looking like he got caught in some kind of sticky mess. There was a mass of white goo in his hair and all over his jacket.
"Don't tell me, Drake. You got caught in that damn spider web?" John chuckled. "How the hell did you miss seeing that thing? You walked right into it, too, didn't you?"
"Would you please help me?" Bobby tried to get the stuff out of his hair but only made things worse as it stuck to his fingers and wouldn't come off no matter how hard he tried to shake his hand.
"Bobby, I think you need to wash it off. It's not going to come off any other way," Rogue said, a little annoyed as Bobby did some kind of weird jig to try to get the stickiness off his hands. "Come on, I think I saw a bathroom outside."
The three of them headed toward the exit. An occasional vampire or witch would pop out of a closet or a fake casket to try to frighten them. It didn't work.
As Bobby went off to find the bathroom, John and Rogue stood around trying to decide what to do next.
"There's a couple of game booths over there. You want to go play something?"
"No."
"You want to go look at the pumpkins? Somebody carved some pretty nasty looking ones. More talented than whoever decorated this crap shack."
"No."
"Fine, stand here and freeze while you wait for your boyfriend to come back. I'm going to get a soda."
"He's not my boyfriend," she muttered under her breath. She watched him leave, making his way through the crowd toward the concession stands.
She didn't know why she was acting so petulant. Well, that wasn't true. She knew exactly why she was acting that way – she just didn't want to acknowledge it.
She sighed heavily. She looked around and saw that Bobby was still in the bathroom so she slowly made her way to where she thought John would be. She was a little thirsty.
Then she stopped in her tracks. She couldn't believe her eyes.
There was John talking to a girl.
A girl.
Talking.
With John.
No, it wasn't talking that they were doing – more like flirting.
The girl was laughing at something John had said, like he was the funniest guy in the world. He leaned forward to whisper something in her ear and she giggled like the bubbly blonde that she was.
Rogue felt like she was frozen in place, she could only stare at them.
Then the girl placed her hand on the front of his jacket as if she was feeling his chest.
That's it.
Rogue shoved the girl away and grabbed John by the arm, whirling him around to face her. She slapped him so hard, even with her gloves on, she could see the red outline of her hand starting to form on his cheek.
"What the fuck?" he snarled at her.
"You're suppose to be here with me, asshole!"
"What the hell are you talking about? You're here with Bobby! Remember? Your boyfriend?"
"You are so fucking stupid, John Allerdyce!"
She could hear him call her name but she walked away, not knowing or caring where she was headed.
"Will you just slow down for a second? Rogue!"
She turned around angrily, her hands on her hips. "What?! What do you want?"
"What is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me? God! You are stupid!"
"Just tell me what's going on!" He paused for the briefest of moments. "And stop calling me stupid!"
She couldn't look him in the eye. She just mumbled out the words.
"What?" He looked completely confused.
"I like you, okay? There I said it! Even though you're probably the biggest stupidest densest moron on the face of this earth and is so completely oblivious that a girl is trying to get your attention, I like you anyway! Satisfied?" She gave him an angry push and tried to walk away again.
"Oh no…you're not getting away that easy." He slid a hand around her waist while his other hand came to rest on her hip, pulling her close to him. "So, this is an interesting turn of events…"
Her hands rested on his shoulders, feeling a tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach as she stepped further into his embrace. "Shut up."
"Why'd you go out with Bobby all this time?"
"Because…"
He chuckled. "That's your excuse?"
"He asked me. And you…didn't."
"So if I had asked you, you would have said yes?"
Her hands started to play with the lapels of his jacket. "I guess you'll have to ask and find out for yourself."
"You want to play hardball, don't you?"
She gave him a small smile. "Well?"
"What about Bobby?"
"I told you. He's not my boyfriend. We just went out on a couple dates." She looked at him, waiting. "You're out of excuses."
"Rogue…"
"Yes, John?"
"You want to go out sometime?"
"Took you long enough…" She pulled him by the lapels and planted her lips on his.
It wasn't Rogue's mutation that made them break apart, it was the severe lack of oxygen.
When rational thought finally came back to him, he looked at her incredulously. "When did you…?"
"A while now…been practicing...just in case you finally became, you know, less stupid..."
He grinned. "Have I mentioned Halloween has become my new favorite holiday?"
Bobby came out of the bathroom, drying his hands on some paper towels. He threw the towels into a garbage can as he looked around. The crowds were thinner – just a couple of kids milling around, parents carrying sleepy children. But he couldn't find Rogue or John anywhere.
He then noticed that the car they had driven was missing too.
"John? Rogue?" he called out. "This isn't funny! You guys better not have left me! AGAIN!"