Disclaimer: I think we can count on this not being mine.

A/N: Thank you to Devoted2You for the review. Hope you all like this next chapter. Throughout the story, I do go back and forth between their real name and their mutant name.

Chapter Two *Hysteria*

~I'm not breaking down, I'm breaking out~

John found himself face to face with a furious Bobby. His first thought was Oh fuck, he saw me with Rogue, but then Bobby had shoved a cigarette butt in his face. John winced mentally, recalling that Rogue had left her cigarette butt in the room.

"What the hell John," Bobby fumed. His face was flush and if John looked closely at his temple, he could of sworn he saw a vein bulging from there.

He sighed and leaned on the doorway, knowing that Bobby was going to lecture him about some stupid facts dealing with lung cancer or some other shit like that.

"It's bad enough when you smoke in here and leave the smell lingering in here, but do you really need to leave evidence behind? You're starting to make my clothes smell. The other day, when I sat down next to Rogue, she looked at me funny and asked me if I smoked."

John smirked at that thought, knowing that it certainly would've seemed strange if mini-Scott dared do something like bad ass Logan.

"It's not funny," Bobby said angrily. "And even worse, you have to drag some poor girl into your bad habits? I mean," he scoffed and threw his hands up, "it's one thing to ruin your life but-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait, what? What girl?" John asked him.

Bobby glared at him and showed him the remains again. John looked at it closer this time and saw lipstick on it.

Didn't know she was wearing any, John mused.

"I mean, unless you're going to confess that you like to secretly like to dress up as a girl when you're alone," Bobby said.

"Fuck off Drake," John muttered and pushed past him. "Whatever I do and who ever I do my activities with are none of your damn business," he snapped. "Plus, we're not all closet drag queens like you." he slipped into his bed and pulled the covers over his head.

"I'm not a drag queen," Bobby snapped back.

"Yeah, and I made out with Rogue," John muttered, rolling his eyes and turning over to face the wall. Bobby scoffed and dropped the conversation. Not that he had much of a choice.

John closed his eyes and burrowed deeper into his bed. Strangely enough, he could still smell Rogue mixed with the fumes of her cigarette.

He smiled and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, everyone woke up jittery. It was the last day of school and then they had two and a half months of pure bliss.

Rogue sighed and put on thin light pants and a spaghetti strapped shirt with a long sleeved shirt that had holes. She let her hair drape down and slid her gloves on before walking out the door, only to accidentally walk right into someone.

"Oomph," she grunted and glared at the body. It turned around and she found herself glaring at John.

"Jerk," she muttered.

"Morning Princess," he laughed and winked at her.

"Hey Rogue," someone else said. Rogue looked over and saw Bobby there.

"Oh, hey Bobby," she smiled. He grinned back at her and was about to say something when John leaned on the wall, cutting off his view of her.

"So," John forced her attention back on him, "You ready for break?"

"Who isn't?" Rogue rolled her eyes and walked past him. "Hurry up or we'll be late you guys."

John smirked and followed after her, Bobby trailing behind.

Bobby was looking at Rogue strangely, wondering when John had dubbed her 'Princess'. To the extent of his knowledge, John had never given anybody a nickname. Or woken up early to go meet a girl. He looked up and realized that they had both disappeared.

"Shit," he muttered and took off.

Rogue sat next to Dazzler and John sat behind her. A second later, Bobby ran into the classroom just before the bell rang. He sat in front of Rogue and slowed his breathing.

"Psst," John whispered. Rogue kept her head down and continued writing the information down about some essay, ignoring him. "Rogue," he muttered and threw a crumpled paper at her head.

She turned around to tell him off just as Storm looked over.

"Rogue, please turn around," Storm said. Rogue did as told, her face slightly pink as some of the students looked over at her.

"Sorry ma'am," she muttered.

"As I was saying," Storm continued, "you are required to read a novel or a play and write a review about it. The ones you are allowed to read or watch will be posted up at this door tomorrow. This will be your summer assignment and I will expect it on my desk the day we come back if you wish to continue on to the next level."

Some of the kids groaned and Husk sighed.

"You guys are now free to talk amongst yourselves."

They started moving around so that they could sit with their friends.

"I can't believe that that woman expects us to work over the summer. I mean, does she think we have no lives or something?" Husk complained as she sat next to John.

"Earth to Paige," John said, "most of us don't." she laughed and shook her head.

"Touché Allerdyce," she said. "So, Julian and the rest of us are leaving tonight. We wanna make sure you're ready for the 'escape'."

"Right, about that," he began.

"John, you got to be fucking kidding me," Husk muttered. "We've all known when the date was to leave and we were supposed to finish tying up loose ends until we come back. After all, you are the one who planned the whole damn thing. What the hell is going on?"

"Right. Let's just say a new loose end popped out of nowhere last night," he told her. He looked over to where Rogue was and saw that Boom-Boom was talking to her. "Look, trust me when I say that this could end up being extremely beneficial to us. All of us," he told her harshly.

"Fine," she shot back, "but you have to tell Julian yourself. Cause I sure ain't cleaning up your damn mess for you."

"Thanks, I knew you'd understand," he grinned and got up and left. Husk rolled her eyes and watched him to see if she could figure out what was keeping him behind.

"Husk," Julian was suddenly next to her, "are we all set for tonight?"

"No," she said angrily, her eyes never wavering from John. Who the hell was that girl he was talking to?

"What do you mean no?" she found herself facing him and looked at him nervously. This was exactly why she didn't want to be the one to break the news to Julian. The boy could get scary as hell.

"Um, John said he has to talk to you," she told him.

"Damn it! He's the one who fucking planned the whole thing," he said, fuming.

"You better calm down, Storm is still in here," Husk reminded him.

Julian breathed in and nodded.

"You're right. Of course, I'll simply talk to him later," he said, calmly.

"Jeez Julian, you're one scary dude," she muttered as the bell rang.

Everybody headed off to their next class and Husk quickly ran off before Julian could interrogate her any further.

He made his way over to John and pulled him away from Bobby and that other girl.

"Excuse me," John said coldly. "I don't care if you're-"

"There better be one hellvu an excuse for your actions," Julian interrupted him. "So start talking now."

"Fuck man, couldn't you wait a few damn hours before getting all pissy on me," John snapped a him.

"Hey, you better remember that I'm going to have be explaining why everyone isn't there tonight," Julian snarled.

"Yeah, I'm not stupid. Look, just say that I'm trying to bring somebody that could really help us out and in return, she can help said person," John said.

"Give me a name," Julian growled.

"Hell no. That I'm keeping secret, so piss off," John retaliated and left.

Julian glared at him and stalked away.

"And now you guys can head off to celebrate your freedom," Professor Xavier laughed as the final bell rang. The whole school rang with the students cheers and the classroom doors burst open. The hallways flooded open with students and their teachers left to their rooms or offices.

"I am so excited for the party tonight," Kitty giggled. It's gonna be so much fun." Laurie smiled at her and stood back as some of the other older students walked by them.

"Hey babe," a boy came over and picked her up, twirling her around. Laurie giggled and kissed Josh lightly on the lips.

Kitty rolled her eyes and smiled at the two. She was happy for her friend. True to her mutant name, Laurie tended to stand on the sidelines with all the other wall flowers at the school. But once she had caught Josh's eye, he had refused to let her go. Now the two had been happily going out for two months. Of course, once they had started going out, Wither had disappeared.

"Come on Kitty," Laurie said, "We're meeting the rest of the team."

They walked down to the game room and saw Sofia talking to Julian. Notorious bad boy who always snuck off to the streets. If rumors were to be believed, he would go out to buy more drugs and sell some also. Sofia blushed as Julian bowed and he left when some of the other teens were arriving.

"Wow Sofia, trying to tame the bad boy?" Nori asked her.

"Oh god, no," Sofia laughed nervously. "I think he's too much to handle, even for me."

"But he is pretty hot," Kitty laughed, "You have to admit that."

"Ladies, please," Josh said, "you'll wound my ego and make me fear that my beautiful flower here may leave me for him."

The girls laughed and Laurie blushed.

Down the aisle, up the elevator in an empty room, kids started sneaking into the room.

Mercury and Catiana were the first into the room. Soon, they were followed by Julian and Slipstream. Not to long after, John and Husk were there.

"Nice to see everyone was able to attend," Julian said, looking directly at John. John simply leaned on a wall and crossed his arms. "We're leaving tonight as soon as everyone heads off to the party. Slipstream here will create a portal, so we'll be able to leave without alerting anyone. John, you'll just have to find your own way there."

"John's not coming?" Mercury asked him.

"No, John is not. He has some unfinished business," Julian sneered.

"All right then, now that everyone knows," John stood up straight, "I'll be leaving y'all here. Wouldn't want to divulge any secret info while I'm around. You never know, old Chuckles may just come poking around my head at some random time."

"Bye John," Catiana ran over and hugged him tightly. "See you over on the other side."

"See ya kid," he smiled and ruffled her hair. "Everyone else," he waved at them. "Julian," he flipped him off and left the room.

"I don't think John really likes you," Mercury said to Julian.

"No shit Sherlock," Husk laughed. Julian just shook his head and sighed.

At 8 o'clock, as the people headed down, 5 teenagers headed up to the roof. A light shimmered in the air and soon they went through. John watched it all from his corner and saw Slipstream look back at him. They acknowledged each other, but didn't say anything. Soon Slipstream went through and the portal closed.

John sighed and finished the cigarette he was smoking. He flicked it off the roof and went down to his room. Everyone was downstairs at the party, including Rogue. John flopped down on his bed and closed his eyes. This was definitely were he didn't want to be. He didn't really understand why he was here. In all honesty, he shouldn't care about some girl, but Rogue was forcing him to without even saying a word. She could just flash him a smile and he was hers to command.

He groaned and smothered his face with his pillow. For the past 4 years, he had remained somewhat faithful to a distant memory of his old group. To a girl who used to love him.

Yeah, and they all let you go away. Even her, he thought. And it's not like you even liked her, period.

It was true. In order to survive the streets, John had joined three other teenagers like himself. Their ringleader had been 16 year old Gambit and his enigmatic girlfriend Shadow. So of course, the young Nightingale had attached herself to John and professed her love to him. He had never said it back, not being one to commit himself to anyone, but he hadn't rebuked the girl either. That would've been extremely stupid of himself, knowing that she could've trapped him in some kind of nightmare for the rest of his life.

A knock on his door brought him out of his foggy sleep and he got up to answer. He opened the door and found Dazzler standing there, wearing some sort of short dress and trying to be alluring.

"Hey St. John," she said huskily. John looked around, hoping that there was somebody else around with that name.

"Um, Alison, you don't really want to be here," he said slowly. "You're drunk and you don't know what you're doing."

"Don't play games with me boy," she said, grabbing his shirt and pulling herself closer. "You want me just as bad as I want you."

"Get off me," he grunted and caught her wrists. She pressed herself to him and John twisted her off and she stumbled. "Get the hell out of here," he sighed and closed his door. He shook his head and laid down.

Around 11, the door swung open silently and someone crawled into his bed. John didn't wake up and the person snuggled into his covers and scooted closer to him.

Early dawn poured into John's room and he opened his eyes, stretching his muscles to get them to function. Somebody rolled over and he sat up in surprise. He looked over and saw a brunette girl in his bed.

"What the hell," he muttered. Just as he was about to shove the girl off, a white strand of hair caught his attention. He looked at her strangely and sighed, falling back on his pillow. He looked over to Bobby's bed and saw that it was empty.

Thank you for small miracles, he mused and put his arms around Rogue's waist slowly. It was pleasing to see that she fit him perfectly, but at the same time, he knew he wasn't exactly allowed to pursue her.

"Not that I would," he muttered, nervous of where his thoughts were pulling him towards. After all, he was John Allerdyce, and he settled with no girl. He toyed with girls, he didn't keep them. Rogue turned around and she scooted closer towards him. Her hair was near his nose and when he inhaled, it smelled like strawberries. He put his face close to her neck and inhaled, discovering that she smelt like warm vanilla.

"John, are you smelling me?" Rogue's tired voice was coated in her southern accent. John looked up and shook his head, eyes wide like a little boy who had been caught taking a sweet. "Then what were you doing?" she giggled.

"I, uh, I was going to um," he swallowed nervously and cleared his throat, "see if your powers affected me when you're asleep." He smiled proudly at the fact that he could still somewhat lie on the whim.

"Okay," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I was," he muttered, pouting. Rogue laughed and shook her head.

"Aw, you're so cute," she said, squeezing his cheeks. John scowled and took her hands off. "Don't get mad, sugah," she said and flicked his nose. "I gotta go though." She sat up and slid on the heels she had been wearing the night before.

"Nice legs," John smirked. Rogue turned and glared at him. He stuck his tongue out at her and she laughed before finally leaving.

"What are you doing girl?" she muttered to herself as she made her way to her room. She slid out of the dress she had been wearing last night and put on shorts and a long sleeved shirt. She took out her slippers and went out her room to the kitchen. She took out a coffee pot and made one for herself and anyone else who was going to drink some. She sat down with her mug and drank her coffee slowly as she thought about her life so far at the mansion.

The first two days had been unexpected and somewhat traumatizing. After Bobby had told her to leave the mansion, she had ran to her room to grab her bag and jacket. Naturally, she had ran into John who had simply watched her run off. But only after he had made sure that she was going to be okay. After she had come back, she had stayed away from Bobby for awhile.

She laughed wryly when she recalled him coming up to her after the day after the X-men had brought her back. She had exploded, screaming the worst words in the world and then slowly stormed off. Of course, once Logan's worst traits had left, she had gone and apologized to him.

Not that she ever explained to him why that had happened.

I need to get out of here she sighed and sipped on the cool coffee. Rogue set it down and rubbed her head. She was getting the voices in control and now Logan and Magneto usually stayed in designated areas. They weren't trying to take over anymore and get out. And they had finally stopped trying to kill themselves in there.

Footsteps caught her attention and she saw a pretty little girl come out of nowhere. They stared at each other when the younger girl grinned at her and skipped off, humming some song.

Rogue smiled softly and shook her head.

"Now don't tell me the princess loves to wake up early," John's voice came from the doorway and she looked up at him. "Guess you slept pretty good last night, huh?" he winked at her and headed to the cupboard.

"I am sorry if I bothered you," Rogue said. "I didn't mean to end up there, I was just-"

"It's fine," John told her, putting his bowl down on the table. "Nobody died, you didn't even wake me up, blah, blah, blah. Okay?"

"Okay," she murmured and smiled softly at him.

"You know, Rogue-" John started but was cut off when they heard others coming into the kitchen.

"Oh, the coffee is already made!" Kitty said happily and Colossus came in with other students. Rogue waved bye to John and slid out the room.

"Hey John, I'm surprised your still here," Sofia said when she came in.

"Why? Just because your wanna-be boyfriend is gone?" he sneered and walked out.

Kitty looked at Sofia who had a shocked look on her face and the younger girl shrugged her shoulders.

"I totally take back about Julian being to much to handle," Sofia finally said when she pulled herself together. "I would prefer him over John any day."

"Yeah, John's a bit more abrasive," Kitty agreed.

"So I see," Sofia murmured.

A/N2- When Laurie mentions the team, it's the team that Sofia leads, the New Mutants.