A/N: Hello everyone! Well, awhile back, I promised I would do a sequel to the one-shot "Desperately" by takimiromy. Here it is now. Now listen, I have full permission from the author to do this; if you don't believe me, go ask takimiromy themself. The opening is a little different than what I had originally planned, but I'm pleased with it. So, just read and review!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of X-Men: Evolution. Nor do I have full credit for this idea, as it was inspired by takimiromy's "Desperately."

Anxious Hearts

Chapter One

"What is it?" Kitty asked for what seemed to be the millionth time that morning.

Rogue let out a heavy sigh of annoyance. Had it been anyone but the young valley girl (and Logan, Storm, Dr. McCoy, the Professor, or Kurt), the Southern Goth would have bitten their head off by now (maybe even literally). She kept walking down the stairs, not bothering to look at her as she answered with, "As Ah told yah, Kit...it's NOTHING!"

"Come ON, Rogue!" the younger girl whined. "Like, I know it HAS to be SOMETHING for you to smile like that!"

Now, Rogue glared at her. "Kitty, will yah just leave it ALONE?" Rogue demanded, pushing open the door of the mansion...only to see Scott driving off without them.

"Oh, great!" Kitty exclaimed.

"Damnit!" Rogue screamed, looking around for a solution to their transportation problem. 'Why did Kurt have to ride with Scott today?...' she thought angrily.

"What do we do now?" Kitty sighed in dismay.

"Ah don't know," Rogue honestly answered.

"Stripes! Half-pint!" a familiar, gruff voice from behind yelled.

The two girls turned around to see the infamous Wolverine standing there, taking a sip from his mug of coffee, which Rogue suspected to have whiskey or bourbon or some other time of alcoholic beverage mixed in.

"Hi Mr. Logan," Kitty shyly replied, always a bit wary around the older mutant for fear of dreaded extra Danger Room sessions.

"Mornin'," Rogue greeted him casually.

"Shouldn't you two be on your way to school right now?..." he asked with a threatening growl, as if pre-warning them of the consequences that would come about if they were skipping.

"Well, we WOULD be...if dat lousy–" Rogue began, when Kitty saw her best friend was fixing to be in trouble for swearing once more, she interrupted.

"If Scott hadn't left us...AGAIN," Kitty finished for her.

"Slim ditched ya, eh?..." Logan murmured, halfway amused that the holier-than-thou leader of the X-Men would leave behind a couple of teammates. He took another sip of his strong coffee, before he sighed heavily after swallowing. "...Follow me..." he growled and began walking back into the mansion.

The two girls looked at each other before shrugging in confusion and following him. He led them to the garage and swiftly turned to face them, a scowl on his face. "Now listen here..." he began, growling viciously, "this better not become a habit..."

Before they could answer, he tossed them each a spare helmet as he got on his prized motorcycle. Realizing what he was doing, Rogue smirked with delight as she quickly put on the helmet, while Kitty became deathly pale.

"Really?" they both asked, Rogue's voice filled with excitement while Kitty's was full of dread.

Logan grunted a yes, starting up the motorcycle. Kitty hopped into the passenger's side seat, while Rogue climbed on behind Logan. He revved up the motor once before taking off from the garage.

When he finally got to the school, Rogue energetically jumped off the motorcycle, thanking Logan for the ride...Kitty slowly phased out of the compartment, falling down to her knees, holding her stomach to try and keep herself from vomiting. Logan nodded before taking off, presumably back to the mansion.

"Come on, Kitty," Rogue began as she helped her friend up, practically dragging her inside the school since her legs had seemed to momentarily not work, "We can make it t' class now."

"Y-Yeah..." came Kitty's shaky reply.

Rogue smiled faintly as she got the girl to home room and left for her own. She made it into her seat with exactly one minute to spare. Mentally sighing in relief, she made a note to thank Logan once more when she got back home. As the morning announcements came on, she pulled out her sketchbook from her bookbag, only to have something fall out of it. Not sure what it was, Rogue bent down to pick up, her green eyes widening slightly in shock when she saw what it was: a Queen of Hearts card.

'How th' hell did dat git in dere?' she thought, picking it up quickly.

For a moment, Rogue sat at her desk, staring at it intently. Too many thoughts were swarming in her mind as she gazed at the tiny card. It was just a stupid card, she tried to tell herself. There was nothing special about it...

Ah, if only she could believe it.

Ever since she had received that card in the mail three days ago, Rogue's mind was spinning with different thoughts and ideas. Should she be happy or angry? Shocked? Hurt? Hopeful?... The poor goth didn't know what to even THINK for the moment. The thoughts kept coming for sure, but they were in such a disarray, she couldn't make sense of them. Before she had any more time to dwell on the subject, the teacher began lecturing. Rogue snapped out of her thoughts and placed the card inside the pocket of her notebook and got out her pen, ready to either take notes...or doodle the rest of the period.

By the end of class, she had three pages filled with various sketches of cigarette-smoking Cajuns...