A/N: Can't remember if Kitty and Iceman kissed in the movie or if that was a deleted scene, but for my purpose, it happened. Clearly don't have the rights to Marvel right here. If I did...let's just say we'd be seeing a lot more of our adorable southern skunk vixen. Tell me what you think, y'all.

Rogue snuck out of her room after lights out. She wanted to surprise Bobby. She got there and he was nowhere to be found. She knew Scott did hall patrol about this time, so it wouldn't be a good idea to sneak back to her room.

She tried sitting on his bed. Then lying. Still restless, she got up and walked to the window. She leaned against the frame for support as she watched the scene below. Bobby and Kitty were ice skating. Rogue tried to swallow her apprehension, but she couldn't tear herself away from the window and continued to watch them.

When she saw them kiss, her heart felt like it had stopped beating and dropped to her stomach.

She was crying when he finally came back to his room.

Bobby seemed surprised to see her. "Rogue!" There was nothing on his face that would have hinted he might be guilty of anything unsavory. "What's wrong?" He asked when he saw she was crying.

What was wrong? Didn't he realize she could just touch him and have every treacherous thought and memory? Then again, why should he worry when he knows there no chance of them being able to touch? Rogue supposed.

She swallowed and tried to use all her courage. "I saw you kissing Kitty." She desperately wanted him to say that it was some trick. Some latent mutant ability that Kitty had. That he couldn't help it. Even if it weren't true, she could pretend and everything would be fine.

His face was stricken. "Rogue, God. That was a mistake, I—"

Rogue turned her face from him in pain. "My whole life's been a mistake, Bobby. I don't blame you. I can never give you what she can."

He knelt before her where she sat on the bed. "Rogue, I am so sorry. Feel how sorry I am!" He reached to touch her uncovered cheek.

Rouge didn't even have time to flinch. She felt his remorse race through her mind and her heart. "Bobby, that don't make me feel any better! It makes me feel worse." She yelled, pulling away and shoving at his hand. She didn't want him to be so unhappy because of her.

"Please forgive me! I swear it was just a-a moment of weakness. I love you, Rogue!" He was desperately pleading with her.

Rogue heard his words and knew they were true. His mind and emotions were still entangled and mixed with hers. And she could see it plain as day in his ice-blue eyes.

"How can you love me if you can't touch me?" It was his thought. She just gave it a voice.

He paled with recognition. "Rogue, God, please—"

There was nothing he could say. Rogue knew they both knew it. "I don't think I can do this anymore. To either of us." She whispered.

"Please take me back, Rogue!" He pleaded.

Rogue stood and he scrambled to his feet to try and block her way. "I wish it were that simple, Bobby. It's not just you. It's everything. I think-" it was hard to think when his personality was battling hers "-I think I just need some time."

"Anything, Rogue, you know I would do anything for you." He said softly, his eyes earnest.

"I mean time away from the institute, Bobby." Rogue said clearly.

"No! Rogue, don't go!" He begged. "Everyone will know it's my fault and I couldn't take away your only home. I could never do that to you."

Rogue almost scoffed. He probably thought he'd never kiss another girl on her, either. "I've got to." She said simply.

"No! You don't have anywhere to go. Please let me go. I'll go instead, back home, give you space—" He still stood in her way.

"That won't work, Bobby. This is my problem, not yours." She sidestepped him.

"Please, Rogue…" He said weakly.

Those were the last words she heard before she took off. He tried to follow her but she took off running. He assumed she'd leave out the front. She knew he would. So she left from the garage.

She found where Logan kept his keys hidden. A memory left over from the times they'd touched. She'd never ridden a motorcycle, but the knowledge was there. She jumped at how loud it was when the engine started.

Her body knew what to do without any help from her. Muscle memories that weren't hers.

She raced out of the garage. She didn't need to look behind her to know Bobby was standing at the institute doors, watching her go.

She was walking through the protestors, her eyes locked on the building they surrounded. It was her third time around. She watched with apt attention every time she saw someone enter the building. Each time she wondered what mutation they had, what curse, that would make them go in the building. Each time she wondered if that was her. She imagined the individuals that had the courage to take the cure felt free and normal when they finally did.

She was sick of being this freak. Her mind suddenly felt clear. Nothing else mattered as she decided she wouldn't be Rogue anymore. She'd just be Marie. She took off for the doors, shoving past people towards the entrance. If she could have run, she would've. She was so close!

A hand grabbed her arm. "What do you think you're doing, kid?"

She struggled as Logan pulled her away from her freedom. No one seemed to notice the girl being hauled off by the gruff man. They were too busy yelling and waving their signs to even see her.

She was crying when he pulled her into the ally. She hit at his chest feebly. "This is my decision, Logan. Let me go!" She pulled, but she might as well have been pulling a freight train.

"Kid, you'd be making a mistake." Logan tried to reason with her.

"My whole life's the mistake!" She yanked again, wrenching her shoulder so horribly that it twisted with pain.

"So, what, you're going to give up? You'd let them win?"

"I was never even in the game. I don't want to play at all. Just let me go. Please."

"I'm not going to let you ruin your life because of some adolescent hissy fit." He tried to make his voice reasonable, but it came out harsh.

She wasn't listening anyway. "You don't understand!"

"I do, kid. I smelled Pryde on Bobby. I get it. But you aren't about to do this because of a boy."

It's not just that!" She hissed. "No touching, ever! No kids, no husband, no family, no connecting, no touching, nobody, nothing!" She'd screamed the last word.

Logan was angry now. "Is this what you want?" One of his hands came to rest on her neck where the scarf left her skin bare.

He held her securely as his life and power poured into her. She clawed at his hand. Her mind felt like it was splitting in two as his thoughts overwhelmed her. She screamed as it became unbearable.

His face was contorting and shriveling. She begged for him to stop, sure he would kill one of them if he continued and she wasn't entirely sure it would be him. She had no idea how he'd lasted so long against her skin.

"Stop!" She cried as his emotions and pain batted into her over and over like the worst moments of his life were on repeat.

He let go of her neck and she sagged with relief. But he was in her face in an instant. "Is this what you want?" He growled.

Then his lips were on hers, forcing them open and crushing them so hard they bruised. She tried to protest, but she could hardly think or feel with all that was Logan crashing into her with surround sound.

It was everything a kiss shouldn't be. Desperate, angry, empty of anything but Logan's personality forcing its way into hers.

He'd known his power to heal would help him last against Rogue, but he had no idea that he'd last this long. That was why he'd come and he wouldn't leave until she saw sense.

Rogue had his thoughts in her head and she hated him in that instant. He was kissing her the wrong way, without love or tenderness or even affection on his mind. She felt his strength inside her and found herself kissing him back in angry frustration to try to punish him for using her, but all it did was press them closer as he continued without faltering.

Rogue found herself pressing into him, trying to actually use her powers for the first time to take his entire healing factor so this mockery of human connection would finally end. But Logan proved to be an unending source of life and Rogue just couldn't take it anymore. She was going to explode. Just as that thought crossed through her head, she felt a tearing pain in her arm running all the way down to the knuckle.

She wrenched away with his stolen strength and slapped him across the face. She'd meant to, anyway.

Three gaping slashes in Logan's cheek started dripping blood. Rogue looked at her hand in horror. Three claws had forced their way from her skin. She looked at Logan, terrified of this new deformity.

It had finally been too much for Wolverine. He fell, out cold. She caught him easily with his borrowed strength, despite his Adamantium bones. She eased him to the ground gently and sat with his face in her lap. The scratches on his face weren't healing and he wasn't breathing.

Dimly, she realized that neither of them had been breathing at all during the kiss. They'd been suffocating each other and his healing factor had been the only thing keeping them alive without oxygen.

She held her face low as she gazed at him. She'd done this to Wolverine. The man was a legend among legends. And she was such a monster that she'd done this to him. Even as she continued to despise herself in that alley, maybe even more so than she had before, she knew that she wouldn't take the cure.

Maybe too much of Logan was in her now for her to make that choice. His stubbornness or his strength. Maybe that was his plan all along.

It took him almost twelve hours to wake up. "About time." She said grumpily. She shoved him off her lap and stood up.

Logan shook his head and winced, instantly regretting the movement. He didn't say anything.

"I don't want to go back there." Rogue told him before he could tell her she had to go back. She couldn't go back, not yet.

"I can't make you do anything, kid." Logan said brusquely.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "You're right. You can't drag me off through a crowd so that you can force your mind into mine so that your personality can manipulate me into changing my mind on a major life decision that should have been mine and mine alone. Nope, can't do that at all."

"Been thinking about that sentence long, have ya?" Logan asked, rubbing his forehead.

"You have been out for half a day." Rogue said curtly. "I've had a lot of time to think."

"Geez," Logan said, "Small wonder I feel so great."

Rogue huffed.

"Thanks for not leaving me, Marie." His eyes looked so deep inside her that Rogue gulped and looked away. She knew what was behind those baby blues.

"I'm not going back." She whispered.

"Me either." Logan said. Rogue's shocked eyes snapped back to his. "I could use some time away. Never really liked staying in one place, anyway."

"You'd come with me?" She asked, surprised.

"Wouldn't let you go alone." He said simply. "But you do have to go back eventually." Rogue shook her head, but he cut her off. "I'm not saying right now, kid. Take some time, wait 'til you're ready, but eventually you're going to need to learn to control your gift and I think the institute is the place you'll want to be."

"What if I'm never ready, or I never learn how to touch without hurting people?"

"Then you'll deal with it as it comes up." He made everything sound so simple. It made Rogue wish everything were so clear.

"You're the only one that could've made me…" Rogue didn't know how to finish. Stay? Change her mind? Keep fighting through it? Care?

"Why do you think I came?" He asked, flinging an arm around her shoulders. She flinched, but didn't shrug him off. "So, kid, where do you wanna go? Alaska?" He suggested.

Rogue smiled and tentatively put her arm around his waist. "I don't care. Just as long as I don't have to be alone."

"You don't ever have to be alone, Marie. I'll always be here for you. And as hard for you as it is to believe, everyone at the school is there for you, too. "

Rogue put her head on Logan's jacketed shoulder. "Maybe." She admitted. She knew they were friends.

"And if you want, I'll kill Jack Frost when we get back." He promised, hugging her closer.

Rogue gave a genuine laugh. "It's fine. I think I want someone a little more" like you. She almost said. "Warm." She finished lamely.

"Rogue—" Logan started.

"Relax, Wolvie." He winced at the nickname. "I've been inside your head, remember? I know." Rogue said sadly. "You're not into brunettes. Or white stripes, either, for that matter. That's ok. I don't think I like your kissing very much, anyway."

Logan gave a genuine laugh. It was soft and it sounded good on him. "I could show you how I really kiss. You might be surprised." Then he sighed. "We are quite a pair."

"We will have to go back, eventually, won't we?" Rogue said. It wasn't really a question. She was just realizing how true it was. It was her turn to sigh. "But first," Rogue paused. "Let's get the hell out of New York. How about Minnesota? It's closer than Alaska."

Logan said he didn't care. "That reminds me. My bike, Marie."

Rogue's eyes widened.

His hand crushed her shoulder, but she still had his healing ability. "Don't think I've forgotten."