Chapter 2 Try a tango?
Rogue walked into the club the Tuesday after her encounter with Gambit. The minute she stepped in, she looked back to the table they had been at last week and was disappointed to see two blonde kids.
"Lookin' for somebody?" she heard a smooth drawl behind her.
"Just a no-good swamp rat," she replied as she turned to face the red-on-black eyes. He gave no answer to her taunt, but took her gloved hand and led her to the dance floor. A fast Latin-flavored song started playing and he grabbed her hand and her waist as he pulled her closer to his body.
She immediately fell into his tango, but he added all sorts of random turns and dips and even a lift at the end to spice things up.
"Well, Chere, have y' been practicin', or are y' jus dat full of surprises dat y' can dance, too?" he asked.
"Ya ain't too shabby yerself, Cajun."
They had to make their way through a large crowd of people that they hadn't noticed gathering while they were dancing. The two took a seat at the farthest table from the floor and he looked her up and down.
"See somethang ya like?" she drawled.
"Oui." He winked at her. "But attractions aside, how are you doin' wit de people in y' head?"
"Ah did exactly what ya said. Worked like a charm, too. They're a lot quieter now and Ah don't even need my mental wall anymore".
"M'kay den, what I want y' t' do is get out de Chaton's mind. Ya know, y' brown haired ami." He waited as she did that. "Now, y' concentrate on her powers." She did so. "Close y' eyes." He grabbed her upper arm and yanked it downward.
"Hey!" she opened her eyes and looked down to where her hand was supposed to be. "Oh mah god, Ah'm phasing!" Gambit grinned at her.
"Okay den, what y' do now is try out de powers of five other people y' trust. Ya do that fo' me and meet me in trois days at de Acolyte base, 'kay?" she nodded and got up and left.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
She walked in the door at the mansion, and Logan was waiting there for her.
"Where were you? You smell the same as you did last week. Decidedly non-bookish." He queried.
"The library. Lahke always," she lied.
"Then why do you smell like a club?"
"Ah wanted to do somethin' different."
"Then why not say? Ya don't have to lie to me, Stripes." Rogue felt a rare pang of guilt at that. She wasn't about to tell him, or anyone, about Gambit.
"Sorreh, Logan," she mumbled as she walked up the stairs.
After she turned the corner, she decided she was too tired to actually walk to her room. So, repeating the process she had used on kitty's psyche, She brought up Kurt's and 'ported to her room.
Trippy, she thought as she fell into bed.
XxXxXxXxX
"Hey, has anyone, like, seen rogue?" kitty asked that Wednesday morning at breakfast. Rogue, in fact was in the woods behind the mansion. She decided she wanted to try out someone else's powers before school, and figured that the woods were the best place to be alone.
Who's powers to use, though? That was the question. She decided that Logan's enhanced senses were a nice and non-destructive place to start.
Well, she was wrong.
As soon as she had Logan's powers on, his enhanced senses took control of her. The sounds of the bird and the animals in the bushes were so loud! The scents were the worst, though. She could smell all the animals that were there, the ones who had been there recently, and even a group of the students that must have been out there a couple days ago for a training session. The worst was the bear and the mountain lion that she caught wind of. Logan's animalistic nature immediately took over her mind, and she fell into a crouch and started growling. Three bone claws popped out of each hand.
"Holy crap!"
Rogue stood up and stared at her new claws.
"WHAT. WHAT?" Rogue was in shock. "Okay… so Ah can manifest physical mutations. Now, how do they go back IN?"
She tried tensing her fingers. She rotated her wrist a couple times. She was only getting more worried and frustrated, and Logan's temper on top of her already short one wasn't helping anything.
She yelled and stabbed a tree.
"Well, that was productive," she said as she assessed the damage to the tree. Well, at least it had cleared her mind. "Damn, Ah need a smoke."
Slashing the tree hadn't been the way to get the claws back into her arms, but it HAD cleared her mind enough to figure out what se needed to do. She brought up Jean's psyche and contacted Logan telepathically.
Hey, Logan? She asked as she linked to what seemed to be his mind.
Stripes? Since when are you a telepath? He asked.
Never mind that. Ah'll explain if ya just come out here and help me, she said. And without meaning to, she sent a mental image of six bone claws popped out of her gloved hands.
Shit! Stripes!
Just come OUT here, already! Ah can't get them back in!
"How the hell do ya have 'em at all?" Logan asked as he came up behind her. She spun around, startled. He got a real good look at them. "Cripes, kid! Start explainin'!"
"Help meh first!" she half-demanded, half-begged.
"Fine. Tense this muscle," he said, pointing to the middle of her forearm. "Good, now relax it." She did so, and to her great relief, the claws SNIKTed back into her arms. He looked at her expectantly.
"Um, Ah…" what the hell am I supposed to say? I sure as hell can't mention Remy! "Ah'm tryin' out some new stuff, recalling powers that Ah've absorbed. Ah just didn't know I could recall physical mutations until just now."
"Does Chuck know about this?" he asked her warily.
"NO!" she lowered her voice at the suspicious look he gave her. "No. And please, don't tell anyone. Ah… Ah just—Ah wanna surprise everyone!" she came up with an answer on the spot. He didn't drop the suspicious look. "Please, Logan?"
"Fine," he grunted. "But you WILL tell 'em, right? At some point?"
"'Course, Ah will." He nodded and turned to go back inside.
"Oh, and you're late fer school," he threw over his shoulder.
"Damn!"
No more before-school experimenting fer me, she thought as she ran inside.
