SO LIKE A ROSE

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the X-Men franchise; I just borrow the characters purely for my own (and maybe yours!) entertainment.

Author Note: Welcome new and old readers! Thank you for the support and apologises for my lack of commit. To keep this short, I am planning on republishing the first three chapters that have been released in 2012. The purpose is improve the follow of reading, fix typos, add more content and ensure the old thoughts and ideas are in sync when I'm going to drop new chapters this month.

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* Italics within text are for thought or emphasis.

CHAPTER ONE

It was a Saturday afternoon, with the sun at its highest point in the sky. Rogue was by herself roaming towards the north east of the Xavier institute grounds, navigating herself slowing till she knew she was alone at her favourite spot.

Rogue approached a tall oak tree, her tall oak tree. The only place in the vast grounds, that she felt a place of familiarity and belonging. For some strange reason she always thought that the tree had a sense character, standing proud and solitaire from the rest of the greenery that was surrounding, inviting her to come and forget her worries…school, mutants, people, the fight for survival, and the worst of all, her loneliness.

She moved herself to lay in the shade, created by the thick branches of the oak tree. The wind blew gently which caused a few leaves to fall, one in particular she watched, brown in complexion and slightly shrivelled as it swirled around till it landed by chance on the tip of her nose. The foreign feeling of the leaf give her a slight tickling sensation on her nose, that made her twitch it, which caused it to lose balance and fall away. Rogue gave a deep sigh as she rolled over to lay lounging on her stomach and resting the side of her head on her crossed forearms.

Rogue found herself thinking of how ironic her situation was; the nature that currently surrounding her was so welcoming and easy; and yet her life was not. She had been a resident and student at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngster for almost a year, before that she had once led a small town girl life in Mississippi as Anna Marie. She had a childhood full of love and happiness; it was only around her mid teen years when the significant changes in her life began. Firstly it began when her mother developed a new relationship, the man caused her mother to become cold, strict and at times violent. After one night, she had approached her mother to discuss the unhappiness that the new relationship was causing in her. Even at her young inexperienced age, she understood that things were not right.

Unfortunately Rogue sincere efforts only caused the rift to widen between them until finally things were said and secrets were revealed that made it literally impossible to going back to normal. The argument had led her to learn that the woman she had grew up calling her Mama, had actually been her Aunt Carrie, who had took it upon herself to raise her after her parents had abandoned her. Disgusted, betrayed and confused, she gathered a few things and savings from her part time job, she had walked out with no intention of returning. Rogue didn't feel safe and everything she thought she knew about herself ended up being one big fat lie.

She remembered wandering a small time that night, contemplating whether should take the four bus ride to go to Jackson or out of state. She was deep in thought that she didn't realise, that Cody had pulled up with his old school convertible p car and cruised beside her until he stuck his head of the driver's side and shouted,

"You ain't giving me nothin' to work with Darlin'."

Rogue turned her head slowly in his direction. "Huh?... Cody?"

"Been hootin' your way an' you gurl, didn't even bat those pretty lil greenies of yours." Rogue had stopped walking, which prompted Cody to stop his car, he opened the door and got out. He gently pulled her arm out of the duffle she had hanging off one shoulder and dropped it in his back seat. He then turned back to her, grab her by the hand and guided her over to the passenger side, where he opened the door and motioned her to get in.

For as long as she could remember, Rogue always had strong feelings for Cody Robbins. Well most of the girls did for his easy going nature, gentlemanly way and handsome looks. But they had history, they started off being equals, play mates running wild and silly but when his father's business really started kicking off, Cody ended up moving to the wealthy part of town and mixing with a different sort. However, he had never forgotten her and always had time for her or was there when she needed him the most. Like that night, she unloaded and told him everything, for a short time there was a feeling of a sense of relief and peace. Until he asked her;

"Have you ever been kissed girl?".

Rogue opened her eyes quickly, she didn't want to remember anymore, she wanted to keep those painful memories hidden deep, she couldn't afford to lose control. Now, as a student of the Xavier institute, she had come to a place, where she had to stop running because there was an understanding. They all shared the mutant gene, unique to everyone individually but they were one in the same.

She had started as the outcast of the group, but when the revelation between the relationship between Kurt, Mystic and herself came to light, friendships between other students and herself started to change. Kurt, Kitty and herself had become a trio of friends. But recently, with Kurt assigned to one of Xavier secret mission, she had seen a slow negative change in the dynamics of her friendship with Kitty and herself. Kitty had betrayed and lied to her.

Maybe it was jealousy she was feeling, that was slowly turning her bitter and making her exaggerate the situation. However, earlier in the day she had asked Kitty if wanted to drive into town and catch a movie, to which her usual pretty and always cheerful companion gave her a nervous response and mumble something about how she was suddenly feeling under the weather and rather just stayed indoors. Unfortunately for Rogue, an hour later she happened to come across an exchange been Kitty and one of the other girls Jubilee, who had recently became a Xavier student. Deep in conversation, the girls were happily excited and giggling. All Rogue could make out from Kitty was,"...please keep it a secret, okay and especially don't tell Rogue". Jean Grey then approached them and all three girls walked away together in union. Jean of all people, as well, the one who made her transition in the institute most difficult and had Scott eating out her hands.

Rogue wasn't upset, for the fact Kitty was making a friend (as she was always making new friends anyways) or evening keeping secrets from her; it was really just the fact that she felt that she was losing her. Kitty recently had been avoiding spending time with Rogue, always claiming that she was too busy. It not that she had come to rely on Kitty, it was just, Kitty was first of the girls to make an honest effort with Rogue, she never saw her as the cursed freak mutant outsider, but instead gave off the impression that maybe they were even best friends and was always wanting Rogue to open up and be herself.

I'm Now all of a sudden that changed, and with both Kurt and Kitty's absence Rogue was less approachable to the other students making her lonely situation even worse. Rogue hadn't truly had a close friend since Cody Robbins, and she winced in pain remembering him once again and how badly that ended. With the manifestation of her mutation, a friend lying in hospital helpless comatose and life in Mississippi once again left behind to protect the one closest to her hurt from her curse. Rogue sighed with sadness, as she pulled at the woven friendship bracelet Kitty had given her, remembering the girl's kind words;

"Sometimes a girl needs a hug, I can't hug you Rogue but I want you to take this and remember that I want to be your friend and I'm here for you when you need me."

It was really from that day onwards, that the dynamics of their friendship changed and Rogue really thought she had something with Kitty, possibly even the first female best friend she had in her life. Now uncertain why, Kitty had retreated and she was once again lonely.

Slowly taking a deep breath in, she felt a breeze blow a few strands of hair into her face, she tugged at section of her head that was platinum white, she considered dying it to her natural hair auburn to match the rest of her hair. But she slowly coming to like her unique hairstyle and while she started to let her hair grow out, she noticed that parts of her hair that was white, continued to grow on out white with no sign of any auburn roots. So she would leave it like that, different because she was different too. She twirled her finger around a strand of her hair before releasing it, taking a deep breath as the memory of that day which happened months ago, coming flooding back into her mind, especially whenever she let her guard down.

Rogue closed her eyes; to shut of her visual reality and through the memories of her mind transported herself back to that day, when she first met him.

Rogue stopped running, having no clue where she was. Maybe it was an abandoned shipping related facility, there were huge crates everywhere, making difficult to find the rest of her team. Rogue had been separated from the group as the situation had clearly heated and took a turn for the worse, with the arrival of Magneto newly assembled team. Were these suppose to be her new enemies, she wasn't sure but she was sure they saw her as an enemy just for being an X-Men, they were fight on opposing sides and they were not shy to attack.

Hearing a noise around the corner she pulled off her glove, her senses were tingling on alert mode. She knew someone was there, someone she wouldn't be happy to see, but there was nothing she could do about that. She just had to be ready to give them everything she had, if they had to play fight for survival, she had to win. She quickly rushed around the corner, to create an element of surprise to her opponent but bumped literally face to chest. A board muscular chest, she could tell, as his attire was skintight. She swallowed hard, took a step back and lifted her eyes up to his face.

All she does was stare, he was an Adonis, his face very masculine and rough with facial hair but as if it was a beautiful sculpture. But his eyes were crazy, red on black, demon eyes.

"Oh mah." She let out in a rushed breath. The corners of his mouth slowly lifted up into a smirk.

Rogue knew her mouth was hanging open, and made no move to shut it, she felt frozen in place. She recognised him from earlier; he was with others who were attacking them. Gone was her warrior spirit, a minute ago she was ready to do some damage, and now she was lost in the black pit of his eyes. She couldn't drag hers away, as if they were hypnotising her. She breathed in; she could smell him, cologne and cigarettes. She wanted to get closer to him but she couldn't move; they were only a few inches apart, he was edging closer to her. Her breathing quickened, she was nervous, how could she be like this with him.

She watched his whole face now, his lips were stretched into a smile still, she felt him lift up his hand and bring up a playing card between their faces. The Kings of Hearts, their eyes were locked together as he pushed it into her gloved hands. Eyes now wide in surprise, Rogue held on to it and had it grasped between her gloved fingertips. Instead of him letting go, he slowly drew the card and their hands down, leaning in closer to her. He got so close; she could feel his hot breath on her face. Was he going to kiss her? Rogue eyes blinked slowly.

It seemed like almost eternity had passed before he let go of the card and backed away. He made a salute gesture with his finger, followed by a small bow and then he was gone.

This was when a slightly dazed Rogue, brought the playing card slowly up, staring at it in wonder. She felt a burning sensation on her fingers which held on to card and the type of crackling noise you would hear when sparklers were alight. It took her a few more seconds before she realised it was going to blow up. With all her might, she tossed it as far as possible away from her just as it exploded.

"Why can't ah get this guy outta mah head?" Rogue asked herself, as she opened her eyed looking at the darkening sky.

"Good gawd, what is wrong with meh? The asshole knowingly tried to blow meh up for gawdsake and Im acting like Im in love with him or something." Rogue groaned as she brushed hand along her face.

"But his eyes… It felt like I was being hypnotised. I can't get them outta mah head." Rogue closed her eyes once again to picture them. "Ah can't even concentrate on anything anymore. All ah can see are his eyes, wherever ah go. Ah have to forget about him. Ah'm never gonna see him again anyway..."

The sky suddenly thundered, Rogue felt a rain droplet hit her cheek, bring her out of her thoughts. She slowly sat up, breathing in the now cooler air as more droplets were escaping the overhead leaves protection the oak tree was providing. She looked on out at the rain, before she slowly got up to head on back down her path to the Xavier mansion. When she reached a small distance away from the tree, something made her turn back and look on it. Rouge thought she caught a glimpse of something. But with the rain blurring her vision, hair, and skin clothes hanging heavy, significant dampen. She thought it would be better to seek shelter.

But if she had returned to the tree, she would have found that the joker playing card had been mysteriously landed out of the tree, where she had once lain moments before.

A/N: Pulled on all my knowledge on Rogue and multiple X-Men series to support my writing in this chapter but future developments in the story will be taken where I see fit. I'm not a professional writer but I'm open to positive critique and comments, so please feel free to do so. Sorry for incorrect grammar or spelling to lazy to correct after a while and I speak British English so…haha