My Withering Heart

Description: When Rogue discovers the cure isn't permanent she accepts that she will never be happy. Then she meets Kevin Ford, a mutant who can't touch just like her, but he see's his power as a gift not a curse. Slowly Rogue begins to fall for him but the closer she gets to him the more she realizes that he has a secret, one filled with blood.

Prologue

John sat in an old bashed up dinner waiting for an old friend. Well friend was an understatement but there was no point thinking about it… they were long over.

John heard the door open and turned to see Copycat standing at the door in all her beauty. As usual she was wearing tight clothes that clung to her like a second skin and her platinum blonde hair hung by her shoulders. She smiled when she saw him and sauntered over. Vanessa was beauty itself. She had the power to make any man fall under her spell, like a siren.

She slide into the seat across from him and peeled her jacket off revealing three claw like scars across her shoulders.

"Nice to see you Pyro."

"Don't go all formal on my Carlysle." He grinned which caused her golden eyes to sparkle.

"Sorry… I'm just tired." She said with a small smile.

"I've heard." she leaned closer to him, intensity burning in her eyes all traces of a smile gone.

"What have you heard?"

"That you got yourself tangled up in the Hellfire club."

"I didn't get "tangled up"… I joined." He sighed.

"I am," she gently placed her hand on his and looked at him with her golden eyes. "Magneto's gone John, the brotherhood is over and the time of the Hellfire club is now."

"Glad to see you learned the pitch." She sighed and John saw pain flash in her eyes.

"It's not a pitch John. There good people, the take care of me and a damn sight better than Magneto ever did."

"You've heard the rumors Vanessa." It wasn't a question.

"And there not true."

"I find that hard to believe." John pulled his hand away from her and sat back in his seat. Vanessa bit her lip as her eyes filled with water.

"I want… I want you to come with me John," He rolled his eyes he thought she knew him better than that. "It's a chance for a better life. They treat us right. We live in a house, a real one, not a cave or in the woods… and there's always food, we won't ever have to go hungry."

"I can't do it anymore."

"What?"

"I can't be ma anymore." Her eyes widened in understanding and she shook her head.

"You can't be serious John? You can't go back, not now!"

"You wanted to go there before in case you forgot, you begged me." She flinched.

"I was being naïve."

"Well," John dropped money on the table and climbed out of the booth. "You still are."

-()-

Wither stared at the ceiling as he played with his fingers, He was bored. There was nobody around. Selene, Fredrick and Emma were still in Europe somewhere, doing god knows what. They never told him anything. Sebastian was locked in his office working on his latest plan. Copycat had vanished off to see her ex. Lorna was locked in her room depressed that Gambit hadn't returned from him mission with Wallflower. There was nobody there. Well there were the Cuckoos but he wasn't going to go near the sisters, they scared the shit out of him.

So Wither was on his own with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling. He could watch T.V but he just found it boring nowadays, there was never anything interesting on. He would read but there was nothing left in the house to read, well it was more of a mansion than a house.

Suddenly he heard the front door slam shut so hard it shook the walls. He could only guess who it was. It was a bit of a pain living with so much women who all had tempers, things normally ended up broken.

"Have fun on you're date?" he asked when he heard the familiar clicking of Copycats boots.

"Oh yeah, loads." He sighed as a crash filled the room and sat up straight to see her glaring at an overturned table which had a shattered vase around it.

"You ok?"

"Peachy." She hissed threw clenched teeth.

"Feel like talking about it?" She turned to Wither with tear filled golden eyes and he bit back a sigh. Why were the girls always crying around him? Did he have a sign over his head or something?

"He won't come," she crossed her arms and looked at the ceiling trying to stop her tears. "He told me I was naïve to think so."

"He'll change his mind Cat."

"He wont and don't' call me that," she sank into one of the many armchairs and pinched the bridge of her nose. "John and I have never been easy, even in the beginning. First he refused to acknowledge we were even a together. He treated me like a plaything and I took it because I loved him. Then everything at the cure centre happened and it just went even more downhill from there." Copycat sighed at looked at Wither with sad eyes.

"I'm sorry Wither I'm babbling about my non ex-boyfriend."

"It's ok Cat, its better than you wreaking the house," She grimaced and cast an uneasy glance at the overturned table and shatter glass. "That was Emma's favorite vase."

She through her hands in the air and groaned. "Could things get any worse?"

Two Weeks Later...

Rogue ran through the halls to Storms office. She was late by almost a half an hour. If she hadn't had that extra training session with Piotr she would have been fine. Her muscles wouldn't have ached and she wouldn't have fallen asleep.

Life with the cure wad different, different but good. Even though she was no longer an x-man she still got to do some training, Logan wanted to make sure she could defend herself. What surprised her though was that she was actually good at hand to hand combat. She had almost take Logan down but he had been going easy on her.

Things with Bobby were just great. Bobby was… perfect. Rogue was absolutely in love with him, although she didn't like him when he was around Kitty but that was just a minor thing. She couldn't even think of him with grinning like a school girl. First love was great and everything she expected.

The world was good. The x-man had been all but dormant after Alcatraz, well except for when the brotherhood tried to reform. Rogue tried not to think about that night, it had almost been a blood bath.

She shook her head and realized she had been but ground to a halt. She quickly picked up her pace and ran the rest of the way.

Rogue reached Storms office breathlessly a few moments later. She was just about to open the door when if flew open. She yelled and jumped out of the way as a body almost crashed into her. She stared as Bobby hit the ground with a crack, blood trickling from his nose. Her eyes snapped to the doorway and she gasped. John stood in the doorway, panting for breath as he glared down at Bobby. When he noticed Rogue he grinned and wiped the blood from his lip. "Hey Rogue. Miss me?"

A/N: So this is the prologue to my new story! Woo! It's going to mainly follow Rogue and Wither's story but there is a sub plot in there with Pyro and Copycat. (I couldn't have a story without my pyromaniac and my little bunny boiler could I?)