A life expectancy that was only six months, got proved wrong. A year was the max she was supposed to make it if things didn't improve. Still, here she sat two years after her diagnosis, talking to the one person who she owed her entire life too. He was the love of her life. Even when she practically told him that she didn't want anything to do with him, he came back to try and save her again. It may have took her almost dying(or making the biggest mistake of her life) to get them both to realize it, but they were together now.

John was sitting next to her laughing about something Logan had told him. He might not realize it but tomorrow is the one year anniversary of their getting together. Each day she has managed to fall more in love with him. Who couldn't fall in love with that adorable floppy smile? He didn't show it to everyone though, she was the only one the smile's full power got unleashed on. Truth be told, she was completely defenseless to it.

"Logan said he wanted to take me out 'hunting' sometime so he can show what you're really supposed to do in the woods. Which apparently isn't start forest fires." John laughed as he leaned back on the worn blue couch in the REC room.

"Imagine that." Rogue laughed, she threw her legs over his and reclined back against the arm of the couch.

"Well, I never knew. If its flammable, I intend to burn it." His laugh was music to her ears.

Even as much as she was in love with him, there were things she didn't know. He had learned how to put a guard up when she would kiss or touch him, to keep her from seeing his past life and current thoughts. She couldn't sneak and do it while he was asleep cause Logan never gave them a chance to sleep in the same room unless it's the REC room on the couch, where he could watch them carefully.

She still didn't know anything about his parents, or why he never made an attempt to contact them about anything. She had even contacted her parents to update them once a month. Albeit, she never told them where she was, she wanted them to rest easy knowing she was alive.

He never mentioned his parents, though a few times when she watched him sleep, his temperature would raise up and his muscles would twitch as if he were having a terrible nightmare. When she would touch him to see if she could see it, he would wake-up. One time she did get to see a spilt second of it. That spilt second scared her spine stiff. She was seeing from what must've been John's point of view. A man was towering over him, beating him and cursing him very loudly.

John woke-up before anything else happened. He looked at her confused at her expression, which was utter shock. What the hell had happened in John's past?

She never got the chance to invade his dreams like that again. John never so much as dozed off around her. As if he knew she had snuck into his memories.

"You need to see someone about that." Rogue giggled as John stole a blanket from the other end of the couch to cover them up.

"Nah, I'm good." John spread the blanket over them, tucking it in around the edges.

"No you're not. You're bad, very bad."

"True. I would rather be that, cause apparently trying to be good and perfect drives you crazy. Look at Bobby. Lost his stupid ice prick mind."

Well, technically, Bobby didn't go crazy. He just got super mad after the wedding got canceled and all his secrets came out. He left right after graduation and no one had heard from him since. Not that anyone wanted to really. They treated him the same way they had been treating John….like crap.

John didn't let Rogue close enough to even see Bobby, much less talk to him. Not that she wanted to anyway.

"Yeah. Pitiful." She sighed. Her hand found his and she played with their fingers, intertwining them and undoing it. She kept her eyes focused on their hands while she tried to pick into John's memories again. What she saw after all, might have just been a bad dream, not a memory.

"Don't do it." His voice warned.

"Do what?" She acted startled.

"Try to pry. I can feel when you are digging for something. All you're going to get is heat." He smiled, his hand taking control of the two hands.

"I wasn't-"

"I know you were. I can feel it."

Rogue puckered in defeat, "What does it feel like then?"

"Like someone trying to pick a lock with a pin. There are something's that aren't meant to known or shared." He tugged her arm, causing her to scoot over and sit curled up next to him.

She wanted to add, 'like your past?' but she held her tongue.

"Hey," He called her out of her thoughts, "Don't worry. I have a boring past life. Things got interesting when I came here."

"And when you left here, then you came back here." Rogue freed her hand from his and lifted her necklace. John had given it to her shortly after the whole wedding incident. It was a silver heart with the a key shaped section missing. The heart read "the holder of the key holds the key to my heart. John, of course, had the key on his necklace that was currently tucked under his shirt.

"Its dorky. Quit looking at it." He pushed the object back down.

"I love it." She argued bringing the necklace back up to eye level. Apparently this was the gift he was going to give her before Bobby proposed to her. Not that he had told her that, Logan had spilled when she showed the necklace to him and Storm.

"Course you do. You love weird things." He chuckled.

"I love you don't I?"

"Point proven." He kissed her cheek softly, he let his guard down just at that point and let his heat rush into her skin at the contact. "I'm glad that stupid cure finally wore away."

"Its not all gone, but for the part that is, me too. I can live a normal life now. That's thanks to you too. Did you know I never knew why I wasn't getting better? Turns out, I was so stressed trying to seem perfect for Bobby all the time, I was hurting my recovery. Of course, I didn't notice, cause I always tried to be good for Bobby. I was stressed even when I wasn't stressed. But when I'm with you…I'm simply me. Like I don't need to try anything." She looked straight into his eyes as she said this.

"You're just right the way you are." John added.

"I don't want you to change either. But I do want you to talk to me about your past. I want to know what made the man I love…the man I love. I want to know which parent's looks you have, where you got your attitude, how old you were when your mutation first showed, what your childhood best friend's name was, what you were like as a kid…all of it!" Rogue batted her eyes at him, something she had learned was hard for him to resist.

"Its boring. I don't even remember half of it, after all, I've been hit on the head and knocked around so much." He was trying to play up his laughing to dodge the subject.

"Space." Logan entered into the room and walked to the cooler in the back of it.

"Come on, we're outta high school, Logan." Rogue propped herself on her knees and looked back over the couch at him.

"You're under my roof." Logan snapped the top off of an coke bottle.

"Technically its Storm's roof." Rogue corrected him with a cocky grin.

John tuned the rest of the their argument out. It was a talent he had acquired over the past year, that along with being able to keep Rogue out of his memories when she touched him. She did break through it once we he was asleep though. Since then she became more persistent to learn about his past.

John didn't like to think about his past though, much less talk about it. Rogue still had some sort of relationship with her parents, he didn't. Once he ran away he never attempted to contact them again. Most of the time, he never thought of them.

He glanced sideways at Rogue, who was still play arguing with Logan. She was so happy in her little world. She had just gotten over something that was going to kill her (well not completely) and was able to live a normal life. Also, their one year anniversary was tomorrow there was no reason to unload his past right now. His life story would just ruin it.

Her being nosey had forced him to be very careful and keep his guard up constantly around her. For some reason his past was making itself present again anytime he closed his eyes to sleep. Harsh and bitter memories tortured him and made he bolt up in the middle of the night. It was all too much for her. She was happy for the first in a while and he wanted to keep it like that. He didn't want her to feel sorry for him, he wanted her to just love him. One day he would have to confess to her, just not today or any time soon.

"You've already been kissing him too much! You've got his attitude." Logan's voice broke his train of though.

"Nun-uh." John spoke up, "That is her very own attitude. Not mine. I know cause I have to deal with it when she gets mad. So don't blame me."

"Yeah." Rogue giggled, her face was already lit up red with laughter. "My attitude."

"Well, curb it young lady or you will be grounded." Logan took a long sip from his coke bottle.

"Honestly, doesn't anyone find it a bit strange we've been together for a year and NOTHING has happened? It has to at least be hard to believe, right?"

Logan choked on his coke at that point, "I find it very easy to believe and what I believe had better be the Truth, young lady!"

"It is. Don't freak out." Rogue rolled her eyes as Logan coughed his coke back up from the pipe it had went down.

"Hey, Rogue, I have to go and see about something so I'll catch you later?" John suddenly stood from the couch.

"Its 11 P.M., what do you need to do?" Her laughter clamed a bit.

"Sleep. I got up way too early today."

"Sleep in here. We were supposed to watch movies."

"You don't want to watch movie. I know what you want to do and I'm not letting you."

"What does she want to do?" Logan asked, once he finally calmed his coughing.

"Pry and snoop around." John ratted her out.

"On what?"

"Me. Keep her company please. I really would love to stay but I have to be back up early again for morning duty with the kids." John yawned and headed for the exit.

He couldn't stay awake a minute longer if stayed in their relaxing with Rogue. If he fell asleep and had another nightmare, which was bound to happen, Rogue might get nosey and see it. He couldn't have that. Even worse she might see what he got her for their anniversary.

YAY!!!! That's it for this one!!! I hope everyone is eager for more!!! Tell me what you think!!! Go check out my YOU TUBE (link on page) for a sad excuse of a Pyro video I made. LOL

RAWR