The Fallacy of a Dream

One Shot

*****

"TABLE TWO HAS BEEN WAITING LONG ENOUGH!" The angry sounds of her boss shouted at her as she carried the tray full of cheap beer across the smoke filled room to the awaiting table. Hearing the cat calls of drunken men as they admired her physical assets, Marie felt exhausted. It had been a long day and happy hour, although only lasted from four to six, seemed to drag on as more eager men piled into the bar taking advantage of the half priced beer hours.

"Here you go boys," she said as she set each glass carefully in front of her patrons, making sure not to spill a drop on her long black gloves. That was the last thing she needed, she thought to herself, was having to find another job and relocate due to her mutation. Turning around, she felt a customer at the table inappropriately graze her lower back; of course she ignored it and proceeded to walk back to the bar. According to her boss any inappropriate contact between the servers and customers were only accidental so there was no need to try to act offended.

Setting the tray down at the bar for the bartender to pile another round on, her eyes saw a bright flash at the corner and turning slowly she caught sight of a young man who was watching a dying ember that had burnt a nearby tree.

While everyone was running away from the engulfing flames he stayed and was unfazed by it. Looking closer at him she saw that he was concentrating very hard on the fire, almost as if willing it to death before it can spread to the neighboring buildings and cause more damage. He had a dark long sleeved collared shirt on that was unbuttoned with a wrinkled t-shirt underneath. His ripped and aged jeans and messy hair told her that he must have been as nomadic as she was as she watched him open and close a Zippo lighter on his right hand nervously, still very focused on the dying flames of the tree.

Her inquisitive mind got the better of her and she found herself moving closer to the large window to get a better view, completely ignoring the agitated voice of her boss along with some complaining customers. Once the flames completely died on the trees he turned his head slightly and accidentally met her gaze, both of them feeling a sense of familiarity washing over them.

She felt herself drawn to him, almost as if he had her under some kind of spell and before she knew it she was quickly throwing her apron down and ripping her dirty greased stained gloves off and rushed to the door, not knowing that he was watching her intently as she came to a sudden stop in front of him. They looked at each other, both getting a sense of comfort from the presence of the other but still apprehensive around whom they still believed was a stranger to them. They had never seen each other before, did not even know what the other person's voice might sound like, but for some reason they were compelled to be near each other. Breaking the awkward silence he spoke with a sound that mesmerized and made her feel secure as the huskiness of his word lingered in her ears.

"John," he introduced himself, his mind racing, not sure why he felt the yearning to be so open with the mysterious girl in front of him, a girl who had seen him use his powers and had the ability to expose him for who he was and make him start his life over yet again.

"Marie," she smiled back, a smile that made him weak in the knees. His eyes noticed the creaminess of her skin that begged to be touched and he reached out to shake her hand. She backed away abruptly and it was in that instance that they knew the stranger before them had a similar secret they both shared. They did not know how they knew but their mind just danced on the subject...Mutant. She looked to the open booth that was in the bar where she worked and silently both of them entered the smoke filled establishment and took a seat at the table and without warning, without hesitation, told each other the secret that kept both of them so guarded and so alone.

"I can manipulate fire."

"When people touch my skin something happens to them, they just get hurt."

After hearing what she had to say he felt bold and held his hand out, placing it open palm on the table waiting, anxious for her to place her hand inside of his.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Just trust me."

She looked at him and felt that meeting him was suppose to happen, that all the events in her god forsaken life has led her to this moment and very carefully she placed her hand into his and he just smiled and looked back up at her, completely unharmed and completely infatuated.

She smiled back at him completely unharmed and completely infatuated.

*****

This is actually a snap shot towards the end of my first story called Stolen, which by the way I am still writing so if you are one of the readers of that story, don't worry you won't gain anything from this short excerpt until the last chapter is posted. I was somewhat disappointed with that story and the lack of interaction between Rogue and Pyro as the plot developed and decided to incorporate this one shot for everyone to enjoy regardless of whether or not they read my first story.

I'm debating whether or not to write an entire story based off this one shot and redeem myself for the lack of character development in my first story. Let me know how you guys feel about that and what your opinions are.