Author's notes: Part of my 100 promts project. I can't promise I'll ever get all 100 of these written but I've decided to bite the bullet and start uploading them anyway. Relationships are intended to be ambiguous - so you can interpret them whatever way you please.
Characters: Rogue; John; Bobby
Time frame: X-Men (first movie)
035. Sneer
John never smiles.
Rogue notices this after only a few days of hanging around in Bobby's shadow. He sneers a lot; and smirks and scoffs and sniggers. But he doesn't smile. Not really.
After a couple of weeks, it crosses Rogue's mind that perhaps he only smiles when she isn't around, but she thinks this unlikely and shakes the thought off like cold water. She can hardly consider herself to be that significant. John certainly wouldn't like her to think that she mattered; especially not to him.
The day Logan leaves, Rogue abandons the foosball table for five minutes and leaves Bobby to the mercy of John and a guy whose name she can't remember. She doubts John can remember it either. When she returns, Bobby has won and John is smiling; smiling because Bobby always beats him; smiling because no one will believe he lost anyway. Then he turns and sees Rogue watching them and his smile falters, but doesn't quite fall.
'Looks like he doesn't need you after all.'
It's almost a jest, but not quite. Bobby punches him in the arm as he passes, leaving John in his shadow.
'Don't be an asshole.'
That's not a jest and Rogue sees the smile turn into a sneer. A sneer that isn't quite as sincere as it sounds.
'Whatever.'
Bobby's too busy looking at Rogue to notice; John's eyes darken in his shadow.
That's when Rogue realises why John never smiles.