Rogue and Logan sat across the table from one another, the room completely black except for a small overhead lamp illuminating the table and casting shadows on their stony faces.
"Ah Stay." Rogue broken her façade, the corners of her mouth turning upwards. She glanced down at the dollar bills that lay between them. The smile broadened.
"Alright Kid. I Stay."
A Jack of Diamonds fell onto the table, flicked from the left hand of the untouchable mutant. But in her right still remained the Ten of Spades, ready to be revealed. Yet it glowed. Bright neon red, brimming with energy that made her entire arm trembling.
It exploded, burning her fingers and sending her into tears. Her hand hurt so badly, and she had ruined on of Logan's good cards.
Rogue woke up in a daze, not really sure if her dream had been real or simply a figment of her imagination. Her hand seemed fine, it was not burnt, yet it tingled, as if it had convinced itself that the vision was authentic.
"But that's just stupid…" She thought to herself. She'd never absorbed his powers, she'd never touched him, not once. "It's just a stupid dream," and so she rose from bed, pashing it's memory to the back of her mind.
~*~
The rest of the mansion was in a chaotic state. The summer vacation was coming to a close, which meant the return of school, stress, and an end to listless freedom and laziness. Kitty, now endowed with a four wheeled vehicle, had volunteered to drive some of the incoming freshman into the city to buy supplies. Kurt had gone with, and by the time both had returned that afternoon, they looked as if they were on the verge of a breakdown.
Bobby and Sam sat down at their normal table, eying the room for a sucker who would take them in a card game. It was widely known among the X Men that Bobby Drake was the resident card extraordinaire, strait faced and the perfect liar in his favorite game, "BS." They played for cash, the four of them, Bobby, Sam, Ray, and Kurt, every Sunday night. And it was quite a celebration when Iceman was dethroned. The game was played like any regular game of BS, only every time you got caught cheating, you put in a dollar. Likewise, any time you falsely accused someone of cheating, you also put in a dollar. Winner took the pot. It was Bobby Drake's little way of earning cash, and earning himself idol status to some of the younger girls.
However, on this Sunday, it appeared that the game was going to have to take a rain check. Ray had been in bed all day with a migraine, making it near impossible for him to keep his wits and play. And Kurt? Well, Kurt was a bout to lose his mind after spending the day with the hyperactive freshman. The last thing he wanted was to empty his pockets for Drake.
Amara caved in after incessant pleading from Sam, leaving only one vacant spot.
"We just need one more person, come one, one more!" Bobby attempted to persuade other students, but was failing miserably.
Rogue strolled into the rec room just then, a book in hand and determined to sit in her window seat and soak up the fiction.
"Come on Rogue! You know you want to!" Taunted Iceman, waving a pack of cards in front of her face. Her eyes widened and the dream from the past night played itself boldly into her mind. She tugged at the glove on her right hand.
"Alright, Ah'm in."
A half hour later the game was coming to a close. Amara looked at her hand hopelessly. She had near half the deck and it seemed she had no chance of ever claiming the pile of money as her own. Sam was just as bad, which was quite unlike him. The real game here was between Bobby and Rogue.
"4 Eights." Sighed Amara.
Rogue counted ahead. Sam would have nines… and then... She looked at her remaining card, the Ten of Spades.
"2 Nines."
A huge grin spread across Rogue's face. That money was going to be all hers…
"Attention all Staff and Senior Students. Please report immediately to my office."
"I guess that means us." Amara said happily. All she wanted was to get as far from that game as possible.
"And just when Ah was about ta win to…" Rogue muttered to herself. She held her final card in her gloved hand as she and many of the other rec room inhabitants headed up the stairs to the office.
Scott and Jean took this as something urgent, like a national crisis, and rushed into the room without so much of a knock. "Professor, what's wrong?"
Rogue stepped in behind them, and the ten of spades fluttered from her hand to the floor.
In one swift movement, it was retrieved by a stranger to the mansion. "Gambit believe dat dis is yours, Chere." It began to glow in her fingers, and they held it between them for a brief moment.
"This betta not be a repeat o' last time, swamp rat." Rogue's voiced was filled with irritation. The last time he had given her a card, it had nearly blown her arm off. The radiance diminished, but the triumphant sparkle in the Cajun's eyes remained.
"I believe you have all been aquainted with Mr. LeBeau." Rogue stepped back and her eyes fell upon each and every one of her teammates, who all seemed to be in agreement by giving the Cajun suspicious glances. "He has left Magneto's team and has expressed great interest in joining the X-Men. I have accepted his proposal."
"But Professor, how do we know he's not here to spy on us?" Scoot Summers, always the voice of reason.
"Not to worry Scott, Mr. LeBeau has allowed my to scan his mind, and I assure you that his intentions are true."
The card game met it's conclusion, yet it didn't seem as exciting as before the interruption. Rogue took the pile smugly, and made sure to count each and every dollar bill – thirty three in all – in front of Bobby, then watch him squirm in jealousy.
With the game over, she retreated to the window seat and pulled out the novel that had been stuffed uncomfortably in her back pocket for so long.
Scott made his rounds of the room, reminding all the students that even though tomorrow was the first day of high school classes, there were still Danger Room sessions scheduled for before and after school. Rogue was quite disappointed to find herself once again scheduled with Kurt and Kitty. Being that the three of them had very little power when it came to attacks, the sessions were often quite dull and repetitive. Certainly nothing like the ones that Scott and Logan had, with projectiles and explosions galore.
The clock struck ten, which marked the bed time for most of the younger recruits. When Rogue looked up from her book, she noticed that she was the only student left in the room. Everyone must've cleared out early to get a jump start on the next day. But Rogue was an insomniac anyway; school or not she never had the blessing of falling asleep easily. If she was going to read, It might as well have been in the rec room, because upstairs you could find little peace among the symphonic snores of a miss Katherine Pryde.
"What ya readin'?" Her green eyes narrowed at the sound of the thick Cajun voice. She chose not to answer. If he was really that interested, he could look at the cover. And half expecting it to be some vampire novel, Gambit did so, but was surprised at what he discovered. "Pride n' Prejudice? Well well, Remy be tinkin' there is more ta ya then ya be lettin' on chere."
