I had this little thought a few days ago and just had to get it out in writing. Personally, I've liked the idea of a Rogue/Ray friendship, and I figured this would be a way to do it. No shipping in this fic, though if there are any Rogue/Ray fans out there, you can look at it however you want.

Setting: sometime in early Season 2, before Tabitha leaves and Beast joins (I can't remember which happened first)

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN XME. Only Ray's parents, brothers, and puppy. Oh, and his dad's partner.

EDIT 02/13/2013: I've made some alterations to the earlier part of this fic, mostly because I remembered that at this point in time, the New Mutants are still relative newbies, amd not even Logan would send them up against lethal obstacles in a TRAINING SESSION!

WORD COUNT: 1748

'It's official. I hate the Danger Room. Okay, so it's been a long time since I first realized it, but I'd just like to bring it up one more time.'

Ray ducked to dodge yet another laser light beam and swerved to avoid the thick, heavy swinging pole, just two of the oh-so-fun surprises in today's session. They had to run through a labyrinth littered with various traps and make it out without getting taken out.

An extra incentive had been placed at the end of the course: a week free of the Danger Room for whoever got through the fastest.

All the obstacles were, of course, non-lethal, and would leave you bruised at worst. Mr. Logan had no false hopes that they would be able to handle the actual lasers, or flamethrowers, or whatever crazy shit he usually reserved for the more experienced students. Instead, they were faced with swinging, padded objects, their paths being suddenly cut off, and a myriad of projectiles. He'd heard the buzzing of a saw at one point, but it was during Kurt's run, so he assumed that was being saved for the 'original six', as they were often referred to.

Bobby currently had the time to beat, but Ray felt he had an advantage here. The others weren't so used to running through twisting tunnels, not knowing what was around the corner. Ray was. Their reflex times facing a sudden, unexpected threat weren't all that great. Ray's were better. They didn't have to spend three years knowing that any turn they made could have something unpleasant on the other side. Ray, as much as he hated it, did.

It showed when the path twisted to his left; he took the turn wide, allowing himself to see what was ahead while staying as far away as possible in case something jumped out at him right there.

He saw nothing, but you didn't go through a life like his without developing a healthy (okay, maybe slightly unhealthy) dose of paranoia. Sure enough, sets of disks popped out of one wall, shooting across his path. Ray skidded to a stop just in time, and zapped the wall they were coming out of.

Unfortunately, he failed to notice the crack in the floor. The trapdoor opened up underneath him, and he landed hard on his butt about six feet below. "Dammit!" he growled as a set of bars closed over the opening.

"Berserker's out," Wolverine growled over the PA, "Rogue, you're up." Ray sighed and sat down in his little prison. He'd have to wait until everyone else was finished before he would be let out. It was wide enough that he could stretch his legs out while he sat and waited.

He pulled off his gloves, looking over his right hand. It'd been caught in one of those metal walls that popped up to block his path, and he could already see a bruise forming. "Dammit," he cursed again.

About a minute later, footsteps could be heard, and he saw the bars sliding away, and the trapdoor closing up, leaving him in darkness expect for a couple emergency lights lining the bottom. At least Wolvie had thought of that, instead of leaving someone alone in the pitch black. Ray got up, just in case Rogue fell in as well.

Sure enough, there was a clattering noise, and the shaft was filled with light as the door fell open again, this time with Rogue tumbling through it. She managed to hold onto the edges, but then the bars popped out and knocked her hands off the sides, and she landed just like Ray had a minute earlier.

Ray cleared his throat. "S'pose it's nice to have some company down here," he commented. He held out his hand to help her up, but when she took it, Ray felt a jolt and dropped to the floor, his head pounding.

"Aw, crap!" he heard Rogue cry, "Ah'm sorry! One of mah gloves got ripped by that damn sawblade! Are you o…"

Her voice trailed off, and she gasped.

Shit. Nobody except Mr. Logan, Ms. Munro, and the Professor knew about his past, but Rogue had just gotten at least a piece of it.

His mind was reeling. What had she seen? How much did she know, or would figure out later? Would she tell?

Neither of them said anything as the last two mutants – Kitty and Evan – ran the course, and then the floor of the cell rose up to let them out.

Ray didn't want to deal with this, so he retreated to his room as soon as he could, ignoring the other guys teasing Bobby about losing his top time to Kitty and asking him if he wanted to join them for a game of basketball. Images of home and the tunnels ran through his mind, pelting him with guilt. If any of the others were to know of his past, they would never look at him the same way again. Whether it was pity or even disgust, Ray didn't care. He wasn't sure which reaction he'd hate more, but he'd get them both, one way or the other.

A soft knocking reached his ears. "Ray?" It was Rogue. "Hey, can Ah talk to you for a minute?"

He sighed. "Door's unlocked," he called back.
She came in, now in her regular clothes with a new pair of gloves. "For the record, Ah'm not sure what Ah saw," she began, "But Ah can tell it's not somethin' you'd want the others to know about. So Ah didn't tell anyone. Ah'm not askin' to know the whole story, but if you want to know what Ah did see, Ah figured you had that rahght."

Ray shrugged. "Go on."

Rogue sat down at his desk. "Ah only got a few images. Some dark-haired kid beatin' the crap out of a little boy, a person in rags with what looked lahke a broken beer bottle, a German Shepherd puppy, this huge girl turnin' into some kahnda alligator, and then Sam, Kurt, and Bobby, but that last one looked like your point of view was from underground, or somethin'." She bit her lip. "Ah can't say Ah got much outta that, and Ah get it if you don't want to explain it, but Ah suppose Ah'd like to be able to make sense of what Ah saw."

Ray remained quiet. She'd pretty much gotten bits of his entire life, from when he was seven and everything was normal to his first encounter with the other students here, not that any of them knew about it.

Rogue was getting up to leave, obviously deciding that he wasn't going to tell her anything. But she stopped just before she reached the door and turned back for a second. "Ah'm sorry," she said, "Ah know what it's lahke to have a complicated past, one you don't want anyone to see. So Ah'm sorry Ah wound up ruinin' that."

"Hang on." Ray didn't know why he blurted that out, but he did. "Those two boys you saw were my brothers, Duane and Tyler. Duane was always like that, but usually with me because I wouldn't let him get at Tyler; I could always take it better than the little guy." Rogue moved back to the desk chair. "Our mom died in childbirth with Ty, and our father became so depressed and started drinking. It cost him his job and our house, and we had to live in some scummy apartment on the wrong side of town. He was barely ever home, and when he was, he was usually passed out or locked in his room, so Duane could do pretty much whatever he wanted to us. My powers kicked in when I was twelve, while I was trying to stop him from hurting Tyler. He kicked me out, and I spent two weeks living on the streets, eventually moving to New York in case he and his buddies decided to hunt me down. I eventually found another group of mutants who lived in the abandoned tunnels under the streets, and they gave me my codename. I was fine living with them, until I spotted Sam, Kurt, and Bobby through a storm drain. Bobby had broken Kurt's holowatch, and they were arguing about it in an alleyway so that Blue Boy wouldn't be spotted. Then Kurt 'ported out of there, and I knew that they had to be mutants, too. So I was able to track them down to this place. Logan caught me on the edge of the grounds and demanded to know what I was up to, but when I explained who I was and where I came from, the Professor offered me a place here, and I took it without looking back."

He sighed. This was the first time since then that he'd told anyone his story.

Rogue was just staring at him. "Oh."

"Yeah, there's not much say, is there? Just… just promise you won't tell the others, okay? Logan, Storm, and the Professor already know, but I'd just like to keep it that way."

She nodded, totally serious. "Of course. It's just lahke with the Professor and Jean; anything we seen that others wanna keep prahvate, we keep prahvate."

He gave her a small half smile. "Thanks."

She started to leave, but doubled back one last time. "By the way, what about the puppy?"

Ray smiled for real this time. "Hermes. He was six months old. We had to put him up for adoption when we moved, but I think Dad's old partner – he was a cop – actually adopted him."

"Well, that was nice. Did you evah think of goin' back for a visit?" She caught the look on his face. "Not to see your older brothah or anythin'; just the old family friends."

Ray shrugged. "Eh, maybe. Have you ever thought of going back home?" He knew from overhearing a comment from Kitty that she stayed at the Institute year-round because she couldn't go home.

She smiled. "Ah am home."

Ray thought about it as she left, shutting the door behind her.

THE END

Well, I hope you liked that! Ray's backstory is something I really love exploring, especially since we see so little of him in the show and the comics (one issue, in which he dies).

My other XME stories also feature Tyler and Duane, with an actual beat-down in 'Family, Meet my Mutant Friends', so it would be awesome if you would check it out. Also, SPOLIER: my sequel to Seether (which probably won't be out for another year; don't get your hopes up just yet) will have Ray going back to his hometown (FMmMF is considered non-canon in my XME universe, since it's set in March and Seether's around January or February, but FMmMF doesn't mention my OCs Rebecca or Julia)

And lastly, after that little bit of shameless advertising, Read and Review, please! It always makes me happy to know what you think. Unless of course it's flaming, in which case, get a life, we don't care if you don't support a certain pairing and we don't wanna hear you bitchin about it. But constructive criticism is welcome. How else are we gonna learn?