Rogue had received a thorough telling off for napping on the couch. Apparently, while she was sleeping, the King of Thieves himself and his two sons had shown up to see her acting like a hobo. Rogue had never understood her mother's attitude when it came to Guild leaders or king pins. At the end of the day they were still thieves and murderers no matter how they tried to glamour it up.

Not that Rogue was one to talk, Raven had trained her to be what she was today. She could kick just about anyone's ass because sometimes people needed a taste of their own medicine. There also wasn't anyone else on Earth who was better at gathering information than she was thanks in large part to her one of a kind mutation. Everyone wanted her to join their team or organization just like everyone wanted Mystique, but like her mother, she remained neutral and instead built up her contacts.

The worst part of maintaining said contacts was socializing with them. Some of them were pretty cool to hang around like Domino but then there were others like Sabertooth, who was also apparently her uncle. The point was, she didn't generally like to mix business with pleasure and her trip to New Orleans was supposed to be a vacation.

Rogue peered over her sunglasses at her mother who was currently blocking her sun. Waking up this morning, all she wanted was to lay out by the pool in the courtyard and work on her tan. It was going great until Raven had marched out to her.

"Yes?" She drawled out, throughly unpleased at the turn of events.

"You need a dress for the ball tomorrow night." She stated in that tone Rogue had come to associate with an impending lecture. "Do you have a dress?"

Rogue smirked. "Ah have lotsa dresses." Of course none of them would be appropriate for the ball which her mother knew perfectly well.

Mystique raised one perfectly arched brow that accurately displayed just how unamused she was. "Get dressed, we'll go down to that boutique I told you about in the Quarter."

Rogue gave a long-suffering sigh and rose from her lounge chair. As much as she liked dressing up and going out, she hated shopping with her mother who was always full of criticism. Not everyone could shape shift into their perfect dress for every occasion. Rogue wasn't even sure if her mother had any real clothes.

Three hours later found Rogue standing on a stool while a seamstress poked her with pins. She sent a scathing glare to the woman who returned it ten fold and told her to mind herself and not move. One more poke and Rogue was going to bunt her through the window like a football.

The dress she had eventually decided on was a pretty midnight blue color with silver flecks of glitter right in the fabric giving off the impression that the night sky, with all its stars, had been wrapped around her. Tomorrow night she would pair it with long white opera gloves and a pair of silver three-inch heels the sales woman had picked out.

She would look gorgeous, not that it mattered it the frown on her mothers face was anything to go by. Mystique circled her like a shark would circle a wounded man in open waters. She had always been like this, so critical of Rogue and everything she did. The complaints and criticism had gotten to her for a while when she was a child, but these days she just took what she said with a grain of salt and rolled her eyes.

It infuriated Mystique to no end.

"When can we pick the dress up?" She asked the seamstress who had finally finished pinning the gown up. It had to be let out in the bust and taken in at the waist and her mother was paying extra for it to be done by tomorrow.

"At noon." The woman said while she helped Rogue slip out of the dress, mindful of her skin.

Rogue counted herself lucky that she was born in a time where mutants were accepted. She had seen her mother's memories of when she was a child and mutants had been hated and feared. The images and nightmares she got from that time were horrifying. She had been taught in her studies that the tide of mutant favor had changed during the two world wars were mutants had stepped up to fight for their country along side their human brethren.

Humans and mutants still disagreed occasionally but the fear was gone for the most part. It allowed the little girl down the street with bone growing out of her face to play with the other kids on the street. There were still those who sought to stir up trouble like Magneto, Mystique's one time lover, who believed that mutants had the right to rule over non-mutants. Of course, there were an overwhelming number of mutants and humans who strongly disagreed with this. Lucky for Rogue that Mystique didn't see eye to eye with the megalomania and left him, her rebound being Wolverine.

"Very well." She said and started talking prices while Rogue went to go change.

She had opted for shorts as Louisiana was hotter than hell, and thrown a pair of nude pantyhose on under so as to protect those around her from her deadly mutation. A white tube top with matching white lace attached to the top kept her covered and cool. It was difficult to love hot southern weather when you had a mutation like hers and needed to keep covered.

When Rogue returned it was to see her mother inspecting her manicure and the seamstress was walking into the back with a glower on her face. Her mother tended to have that effect on most everyone who's butt she wasn't kissing.

They walked out of the shop together but separated at the car. Mystique had errands to run that Rogue didn't care to tag along on. Instead, since she was already out, she wanted to explore the city and grab a bite to eat. So with a wave to her mother who half-heartedly returned it, she walked down the side-walk enjoying the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter.

A jazz band danced down the street, playing their instruments. A man with a dark tan and playing the trumpet gave her a wink before dancing on down the street. She laughed and continued to stroll down the street, taking in all New Orleans had to offer.

She eventually found herself across from Jackson's Square and decided it was time for lunch. Cafe Pontalba looked promising so Rogue walked in and took a seat near one of the windows. She watched the people through the window as the enjoyed themselves while she waited for her waitress to surprise her with lunch. It ended up being a po boy and Abita, a local Cajun beer. All and all it was pretty good and then she was on her way again.

She had stopped on the other side of the Square to admire an artist as he painted the busy street in his view. It was a beautiful rendering full of the excitement that could only be found in New Orleans.

Rogue was about to move on when she felt a kid siddle up beside her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw it was a boy who couldn't have been older than fifteen with handsome features and mouse brown hair.

He wasn't particularly close to her person at all, and if Rogue wasn't who she was than she never would have noticed his subtle movements. Rogue shifted and turned her head to fully look at the boy.

"Don' even think about it." She said.

There was a brief flash of panic that crossed his face before he turned to face her. He wasn't dressed like an urchin that needed to steal to survive. He looked like he came from a good family, such as the LeBeau's maybe. Probably.

"Ah don' know whatcha talkin' 'bout femme." He said, sounding successfully offended.

Rogue smirked and produced the compact wallet she carried with her when she went sightseeing. It mostly held credit cards with only about two hundred dollars in cash. His eyes widened ever so slightly when her wallet was back in her possession. The boy looked like he was ready to bolt.

"Don' worry about it." She waved off his concern. "Though if you want a good mark, ya might try that big fella." She pointed behind him to a large man with an even larger wife. Both were dressed in nice clothing and the woman was wearing diamond earrings.

The boy turned back around to face her with a sheepish look. "Merci, an' desole 'bout that."

She waved him off and turned to go home. The sun was setting and the Thieves were out in their element. It was better if she got back home before they tried to rob her blind.

A/N

Still working on other fic's too, I promise.