Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men, or anything to do with it (other than the movies…) unfortunately...
Warning: Spoilers if you haven't yet seen X-Men 3, The Last Stand
To Be Normal
'Marie,' she thought to herself, testing the name she had not used in so long. 'Marie, Marie, Marie'. She liked the name well enough. It was hers, it belonged to her,... or at least who she should have been. Marie was whol she truly wanted to be. Marie... the normal person who can touch people without killing them.
The new prospect the television revealed both filled her with hope and frightened her. Finally! She could touch and be touched without hurting anyone! But would it work? Would it really work?
Rouge dared to hope.
Secretly she packed her bags and purchased a ticket over the phone.
Sneaking out of Xavier's School would be the hard part.
Calmly the next day she made her way toward the door, as if she were only going outside for a breath of fresh air. No one seemed to look twice at her. No one except Logan.
He asked her where she was going. She didn't want to lie to him. She couldn't. After she had had to touch him to heal herself, she knew he would at least understand.
"I'm not your father... I'm you're friend. Just make sure you aren't doing this just for some boy," he tried to make her promise.
She nodded her head. "I'm not. I'm doing it for me."
Despite herself, she couldn't keep from hugging him around the middle where his clothes and her sleeves would keep him protected from her touch.
Then she left. She would return, she knew, but no longer as a mutant. She would still be her true self at heart, but she would be changed too.
Getting the injection was actually easier than she had thought. Rouge had waited in line, helped strap herself into the chair, and barely flinched when the nurse pricked her skin with the serenge and flushed the cure into her.
Then she had shuddered.
And suddenly it was over.
Marie felt her hands and her arms as soon as she was out of the chair. She didn't feel any different. Her skin still felt just the same, but had it lost its potent bite?
On the train back to the school, she brushed a stranger by accident, almost afraid of trying out her new ability.
Nothing had happened.
The man had not even noticed.
As she sat down, she shivered with glee.
Finally she could touch someone! But who first?
Bobby? Her boyfriend? He always felt so warm and inviting from behind the shield of her thin gloves?
Or her family? They had never rejected her, but they had shied away. Marie didn't blame them for being afraid.
Or what about Wolverine? Logan had been there for her from the very beginning of her ordeal it seemed. He was there when she had ran away, and she had been there for him when he found out about his past. He had even knowingly risked his life to save her when Magneto had her in his clutches. By pressing his bare hands to her bare cheeks, he had passed his ability to heal on to her while draining his own life force.
Yes. She would share her new gift with Logan first.
Arriving back at the school, Marie suddenly had the feeling that much had changed.
'Of course much has changed! Alcatraz,' she remembered. And she hadn't been there... for Logan, for Bobby, for anyone...
Her hair brushed and whipped around her face as she made it to the porch of the magnificent building.
There he was, leaning against the railing, staring off into space.
"Logan!" she yelled at him, pulling his attention away from whatever reveries had held it.
"Rou-! Marie," he said barely above a whisper. He noticed that she wasn't wearing her gloves.
She flew at him as if she hadn't seen him in years.
Logan didn't flinch. There was still cloth sheltering him from harm if she had changed her mind.
"You're back, I see."
She just laughed. Marie couldn't remember ever being so happy. ' Like Christmas for a little kid,... Only this is a gift most take for granted.'
"I did it," she whispered. "I did it."
Logan stepped back and put his hands on her shoulders so he could look her in the eye.
"I...I wanted you to be the first one that I...' she stammered.
He smiled at her. He couldn't help it, but tears rimmed his eyes, threatening to fall.
Her back of her fingers brushed against his cheek. She could feel the unshaven stubble. She sensed ever detail.
Her eyes roamed his. Then she felt his hand grasp hers; rough, but at the same time smooth and gentle.
She gasped.
"Th-thank you," her voice threatened to fail her.
His grip on her hand tightened, but it was far from painful. "No, thank you. I know how much it means to you. I may not be able to understand it completely, but I know..."
He kissed her on her forehead and smoothed her hair, his hand slowing when it reached the streak of stark white.
"Now I'm sure you want to go see Bobby," he smiled. "Just promise me you'll wait for a while before doing anything more than handholding and hugs."
She bit her lip as her face flushed. "Of course," she nodded. "You know this isn't something I take lightly."
"Of course not. Now go!"
He waved her off. Try as hard as she might, Marie couldn't make herself walk through the door into the school.