Chapter 2

Rouge flung open the door to the institute a couple of hours later. She guessed now that the x-men must have planned her a surprise birthday party or something, because they'd taken off without her after school, which just wasn't like the usually responsible Scott and Jean. Looking around the entrance hall, Rogue couldn't see or hear anything, so she assumed that the rest of her teammates were lurking in one of the rooms, probably under a banner to wish her happy birthday. Well, she would just make them wait for what they'd put her through today. She began to flounce off towards the kitchen, when Evan came running out, a bag slung over his shoulder and a glass of milk in his hand.

`Whoopsee, sorry Rogue' he said, giving her a quick smile before racing off to the doorway, where Scott and Jean were waiting for him.

`Hurry up Evan, we don't wanna miss the movie do we?' Jean said, leaning to the side slightly and putting a hand on her hips. Rogue rushed forward.

`Are y'all just goin out? Without tellin' me?' she hissed, prodding Evan in the chest for good measure. She was absolutely livid.

Scott ran a hand through his hair, unsure of what exactly was going on. `Well, you didn't show up after school, and we all decided to go and catch a movie. We figured you wouldn't want to go' he said, trying to calm down the steaming Goth girl before him.

Jean stepped forward, a concerned, motherly tone in her voice that made Rogue want to slap her. `Did somebody upset you Rogue, because I think that you may be taking out your own problems on others. Why don't you cool down, or maybe I could help' she said.

Rogue was steaming. She stamped a foot heavily on the ground and screamed. `For gods sake psychic, you of all people should know that today is mah damn birthday.' With a final glare Rogue vanished up the stairs, leaving a group of guilty teammates in her wake.

What they didn't see was what Rogue had been muttering to herself as she fled.

`Don't let `em see you cry, don't let `em see you cry.' She repeated in a flat monotone. As soon as she shut the door to her room though, her defences broke down, and black streams of tears ran down her face, cracking the image of an untouchable girl and letting out the vulnerable girl that lay beneath. For as much as Rogue hated attention, as much as she wanted to pretend that she didn't care, what had happened today had hurt her. She had left her old teammates for these people, she was supposed to trust them, and none of them cared enough to find out anything about her. It hurt.

She pulled herself up from the floor, and gazed into the mirror, wiping the streak of white from her face. She looked a mess, her make up was streaking, and her eyes were splotches of black and red, bloodshot from where she'd been rubbing them. The sight made Rogue realise why she hated crying so much. She hated for people to see what was under all that clothing and make up, because the closer they got to the real her, the harder it would be for her to turn away from them, to resist the desire of touch. And when she cried, that shell she had worked so hard to build up was broken, and people could take advantage of that to try and get closer to her. As long as she couldn't control her powers, that could not happen.

Rogue wiped away the last of her tears with a tissue, and proceeded to scrub her entire face clean. The others had probably left by now, Jean, Scott and Evan would have told the others, and there would have been shocked little gasps. And sure they may have felt guilty, Kurt and Kitty may even have felt bed for her, but it wouldn't have stopped them going out and forgetting the unpleasantness, because that's what most her housemates saw her as; an unpleasant member of the group who one should be quite scared of. Even Scott thought that, even if he didn't show it, even if he didn't know it. That was what hurt the most.

The only person to even acknowledge Rogues birthday was Pietro, which was just bizarre. They had barely spoken to each other whilst they had been together in the Brotherhood house, yet he knew more about her than any member of the X-men, her supposed `teammates'. She became even more resolved to help the white haired boy in his cookery classes, even if it was to impress girls.

Rogue's thoughts were interrupted by a gentle knock on the door. Thinking it was Xavier, she padded across the carpet, ready to tell the old man in the kindest way possible, to but of her business.

What she found when she opened the door, were a group of three sheepish looking teenagers. Kurt and Kitty stood side by side, the tail of the fuzzy blue elf swishing to and fro. And in front of them was Bobby, or `Iceman', a sweet kid who was new to the institute, and who had always gone out of his way to be nice to her.

`What are ya doin here?' she asked suspiciously, and Bobby stepped forward, holding out something for her.

`I'm sorry it's not very good, but we didn't have much time you see. None of us knew that it was your birthday today, and we're so sorry. So we decided to stay home and try and make it up to you.' He said all this whilst going more and more red, making Rogue give a reluctant smile. She looked down at the card that Bobby had placed in her hand. It was hastily made, drawn on with crayons and felt tip pens, but it looked wonderful to her.

She turned back and walked into her room, beckoning for the others to follow.

`Come on then, lets get us a little party goin!'

`Come on Speedy, ya burnin it!' Rogue cried in frustration as Pietro dashed around the kitchen at lightning speed, trying his best to salvage what he could of the chicken curry that was currently producing a black kind of smoke from the pan.

She then had to bite back a giggle as quicksilver set fire to his apron whilst desperately trying to save his cooking. A few seconds later, he was standing in the midst of a black smoke cloud, with a rather rude shape burned through the front of his apron. The two teens both looked at it for around three seconds, before bursting into fits of hysterical laughter. This was the fifth lesson that they had had, and Pietro, if anything, had gotten worse. So far he had murdered pancakes, and omelette, a chocolate cake, a fruit salad, and the curry. Rogue was beside herself.

It wasn't as if it were an awful thing for her to do. She'd found out in the last few weeks that Pietro was actually quite good company to be around. He was funny, if slightly egocentric, and his culinary disasters always proved to be good fun. But beneath it all, she sensed that there was something else, a darkness that she'd only ever seen before when she had glanced in the mirror at her own reflection.

`This is stupid.' Pietro cried, flinging the apron on the ground and jumping up and down on it. `I'm supposed to be good at everything, why, oh why can I not cook??'

Rogue shook her head. There were also times when the speed demon could be a bit of a prick.

`Look Pietro, ya're not throwin yaself inta it. Ya need ta have a passion for it, ta enjoy what ya makin, and believe it will work.' She blushed when she realised that she'd said all that about cooking.

`Is it me,' Pietro said, amusement clear in his voice, `or is the ice queen actually beginning to thaw a bit.'

Rogue chucked a tea towel at him, and he began to clear up the latest catastrophe, grinning all the time. Then he looked thoughtful for a moment, and spoke again.

`Rogue, can I ask you a question?' he said, a little bit tentatively.

Oh god, Rogue thought to herself, he's going to ask me about leaving, he's going to want to know why I joined the X-men. I can't say it was because of Scott, that is so embarrassing. Besides, she was over Scotty boy now. Completely. Totally. Well, definitely a bit.

`Why do you dress as a Goth?'. Pietro's question startled her completely, shocking her into giving an answer that was entirely truthful.

`To tell ya the truth, if ah were to be able to control mah powers, I'd change mah look tomorrow. Ah guess its just a way of blockin people out, or scaring them away.' She laughed hollowly.

`You don't scare me!' Pietro said, half joking, half serious. Rogue stared off into space for a moment before she spoke again.

`Ah guess that people are already scared of me, of what ah can do. Guess ah'm just goin along with what they already think.'

`Screw what people already think, just be yourself.'

`Yeah' she said softly, `ah suppose you're right'. She picked up her things and walked silently from the room, leaving quicksilver alone with his thoughts.

Rogue rounded the corner from the cookery room, and found herself staring into the face of Scott Summers, whose face was set into a grim line.

`The games up Rogue, just what are you doing with Maximoff.' He said, trying to inject a sense of authority into his words. It didn't work; it only made her more defiant.

`That is none of your business Scott.' She said, trying to walk away.

`Are you going back to the brotherhood? Is that it? Are you going to abandon us?' he shouted, forcing her to wheel round angrily and face him.

`No ah am not Scott. Ah don' care whose side Ah'm on, cuz in the end, all of us, even the Brotherhood, we're all mutants; we're all the same. So take the stick out your ass and come down to join the rest of the normal people. Who knows, if ya got ta know them, ya might like em.' She finished, waiting for his reaction. In truth she was rather shocked with herself, she hated the idea that he could inspire that much anger in her, and she didn't want to make him angry in return. She waited, a little nervously, to see what she would do.

His face went several different shades, and his mouth twitched violently, finally splitting open into a grin.

`Don't count on it! Look Rogue, I don't exactly agree with your opinion of the Brotherhood, but I also see where you're coming from. They are mutants, and I guess we should kind of look out for each other. And about the stick up the ass, well I think you're just spouting out popular opinion there.' He said, smiling easily, and Rogue wished she could see his eyes, so that she would know if the pain she heard there in his voice was reflected in them. As a wise man once said, the eyes are the window to the soul.

`I just don't want to see you hurt, I care about you.' He smiled at her in a parental manner, and began to guide her towards the car.

Not in the right way you don't. Rogue thought ruefully.

`Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease. Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease' Pietro begged, getting down on both knees.

`All right all right, ah'll make ya some damn cookies.' Rogue sighed. Pietro still had yet to make any progress with his cooking. She got a feeling he came to the lessons not to cook, but just to muck about and hang out with her, a thought that wasn't in any way displeasing to Rogue. She had taken his advice, and had started to show people her true features. The clothes were still the same, but she now wore far less make up on her face, and the effect was astounding. People now swore that she was new to Bayville; such was the change in her appearance. Rouge hadn't morphed entirely; she still retained her iciness, and aloofness. And to her eternal torment, the guys of Bayville High seemed to find it attractive. She now received wolf whistles as she walked down the halls that made her want to bury her head in shame. Risty had been having a field day with it.

When she had come into the cookery room that day, Pietro had done a double take, before walking right up to her, so that they were almost touching. He had then leant forward, and whispered in her ear.

`God how I wish you could touch.' Rogue's fatal skin had glowed scarlet, mainly with pleasure, though she refused to admit it. There was still the problem of a certain shade wearing senior, whom she had noticed with disappointment didn't find her new look quite as amazing as the other guys did.

Now, as she began to form the cookie dough into neat little rounds, she found herself looking across the room at Pietro, who was finishing off the bag of chocolate chips. His face was alive with pleasure, and the sun was catching little glittering strands of white in his hair. Rogue couldn't help it, she found herself sighing.

This caused Pietro to look up sharply, which in turn sent Rogues head slamming into the oven door she was opening. The speed demon rushed over to her, and helped her stand properly, before depositing the tray of delicious looking cookies in the oven. He looked up into her face, and immediately spotted the glob of raw cookie dough in her white streak of hair. Tenderly, and without thinking, he reached forward and removed it, brushing her face where there was a bruise forming.

He saw shock register on her face, and it was a good few second before he realised what had just happened. He had touched her, and nothing had happened.

`Ah, ah, ah' Rogue began to stammer, as if she didn't quite believe it was true. She didn't finish her sentence though, as she collapsed immediately, falling to the floor on a heap. Pietro ran to her, picking her up in his arms as if she were nothing, pausing only for a moment to marvel at their actual touching. He ran with her outside the room, and saw help at the end of the corridor. He ran at full speed, not caring if anyone did see his powers.

`Risty' he said as he came to a stop by Rogue's best friend. `Rogue collapsed, something's wrong with her, we have to get help!' he said, using every ounce of control to speak slowly. Risty looked shocked as she saw her friend, but then she sprung into action.

`Pietro, go ring for help, I'll see if I can find out what's wrong with her.' Pietro didn't have time to argue, Rogue needed his help. He took off down the hallway at record-breaking speed. Only when he was gone, did Risty finally smile in triumph.

`At last' she said quietly, the rapture evident in her voice. `It has happened.'

DISCLAIMER: The characters are property of Marvel and WB.

AUTHORS NOTE: So, what did ya think?? Thanks for the comments, I've got the story pretty clear in my head now, and if you like it, I can do a sequel. It's gonna end up Rogue/Pietro, but I warn you, it will not be that simple for em! I do need another opinion though, just to pick your brains some more. Evil Jean, or just plain irritating Jean? Oh yeah, Scott won't be evil in this one, he'll be a bit of a pain in the ass, but he won't be evil.