A Strangers Kiss
By: Calypso
Summary: Sometimes there is one so perceptive as a stranger. Scott and Rogue through the eyes of a visitor. (Scott/Jean Rogue/No one) (Sortta cute and fluffy if you make it to the end)
Disclaimer: Me no own Xmen… me DO own this story and the original character.
Authors note: I know that this will seem somewhat hap hazard to anyone who's never read my fanfiction before. The story is basically just thoughts running through *someone's* mind as she wanders through the mansion.
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A crazy man that found a cup, When all but dead of thirst, Hardly dared to wet his mouth Imagining, moon-accursed, That another mouthful And his beating heart would burst. October last I found it too But found it dry as bone, And for that reason am I crazed And my sleep is gone. -W.B. Yeats
The silence here is deafening; I don't remember this place ever being so quiet or these people so fragile.
There is something different in the air tonight. Something different in their hearts.
I've wandered through these halls almost every night of my life, but no one ever seems to feel my presence, at least I don't think they do. For they always leave me in peace.
Perhaps they don't know I come here, perhaps they do but don't begrudge me a little food and an occasional night's shelter. But somehow I don't believe that.
Somehow, I'm certain that to those residing in these walls, I am as insubstantial as air. To them I am invisible and so to me they are transparent, to me their hearts are laid bare so that I might feel their emotions, their minds open so that I can see their thoughts.
Tonight however things aren't the same, it is not merely the absence of the powerful woman that has changed things, nor is it the damage those soldiers caused. Tonight those thoughts are different those emotions troubled.
I stand before the stairway, and I wonder if I should accept its challenge and climb up to those waiting for me above. I wonder if I dare bring myself so close to other living beings, if I dare to finally do more than to watch from afar those to whom I am akin.
Something is different tonight. Something draws me up these stairs.
There are doors on either side of me, and from each one leaps a dream, a nightmare, a phantasm. I walk past them without a sound, without a thought. I arrive in front of a different door... this one calls to me.
Within, I find four beds, and within them four girls, I see only one of them. She is the one who cries in her heart. In her heart, she as lonely as I am. We are both surrounded by people, but both so utterly alone. And yet… she is blessed, for unlike me she at least is loved.
It hurts to be here, to confront who I am by seeing her. Suddenly, more than anything, I want to leave.
I glance at her once more before stepping through the door, I think perhaps this will be my last visit here. To her. Because in truth, it all just hurts too much.
I slip down the hallway and up the stairs once more.
This time I'm going to the one room I used to fear to visit. The room that used to scare me – her room.
The powerful lady lived in this room, her presence radiated through the very walls. Sometimes she radiated love, sometimes fear, and sometimes there would be that terrible, terrible feeling. That was what scared me.
I walk into the room because I want to find the other, that other one that slept here. The one that I didn't fear, the one I wanted to see.
He is there.
His face is open, desperately pained. And yet... beautiful in its suffering. His breathing warms the air.
I draw near to him. He entrances me… and causes me to trust.
For the first time I can remember, I know the warmth of a human touch. And yet… even in sleep he remains so very very sad.
Perhaps… perhaps I could help… and silently, I kiss away his tears.
"Jean?" I am frozen, because suddenly he is awake, suddenly, his eyes are wide open and his breathing is no longer calm. He stops.
He looks at me ever so carefully… and yet somehow… still… I don't fear.
"Where did you come from?" He speaks to me – but I can not reply.. "Do you want to stay?" I cannot find my voice. And yet…
A sound comes, and I realize that it comes from me.
"Meow." And I think he knows. I do want to stay.
"Come here Cat, maybe if you stay we'll both be a little less lonely." He holds me close, and I know he understands.
He isn't like the others, this one, he knows.
As he hides his tears in my fur I am suddenly struck with a thought. I'm not alone anymore.
And suddenly, neither is he.
"Meow"
My dear, my dear, I know More than another What makes your heart beat so; Not even your own mother Can know it as I know, Who broke my heart for her When the wild thought, That she denies And has forgot, Set all her blood astir
And glittered in her eyes.
W.B Yeats
Fini