Kitty's knee bounced impatiently as she waited in the common room, her eyes darting around the blue room every few minutes cataloguing ever minute change. While Rogue had a tendency to keep to herself she generally showed her face by eleven on weekends, even if it was just to let people know she hadn't run away again. Running a hand through her brown hair, Kitty ignored the looked Pyro shot her and instead re-focused her eyes on the door.
Frustrated at her friends nervous ticks, Jubilee placed her hand firmly on the other girl's knee. "If you don't stop, I'll get Bobby to freeze your leg to the floor and we'll see how well you can phase out of it."
Bobby paled at the sound of his name, only losing more colour as Jubilee continued. Moving over next to the pair, he leant down in front of Kitty, taking her shaking hands in his own. "I know you're worried about her but she's a big girl, with a badass ability that will protect her and while I know none of us have been told anything about what happened when Rogue ran away, you know just as well as I do that she's capable of taking care of herself."
Unable to help his snort of amusement John, pushed himself off the wall. It was amazing how quickly everyone had taken to ignoring the fact that Rogue had apparently bleached her hair white during that time. So yeah, she was definitely able to take care of herself but at what cost. While he wasn't a hairdresser, even he knew there was something mutant related in that story.
When he thought about it John couldn't help but wonder if the teachers - including the ones that went after Rogue - even knew what really happened. He couldn't shake the feeling that the only ones who knew what truly happened was Rogue and Wolverine. Either way the girl was definitely shifty.
Deciding against worrying the group further, especially since he too was starting to get a little anxious himself at Rogue's continued absence, John redirected his thoughts, finally speaking up after his initial snort. She may be shifty but she was kind of his friend. "Besides if she can't take care of herself she's always got Wolverine." It was a simple statement but no one was able to deny the strange bond the two had even if they didn't understand it.
He watched as everyone's eyes clouded over remembering the night before Rogue had run. He didn't know exactly what had happened to make her flee but he had a fairly good idea.
Since Rogue wasn't officially enrolled in the school yet she had been placed in the guest quarters and the four of them had decided to find out a little bit more about the new girl. Employing their sneaking skills they'd been creeping up the corridor leading to what they hoped was her room when they'd heard Wolverine screaming for help.
They'd arrived just in time to watch Rogue's tiny, delicate hand reach out and brush Wolverine's cheek. At first they'd been confused, then they noticed the blood staining Rogue's ripped nightgown and watched with a morbid fascination as her skin stitched itself back together and her breathing evened out as Wolverine's began to falter. Seconds later she snatched her hand away and was fully healed, while Wolverine had crashed to the ground and started seizing.
By that point they were surrounded by Ms Munroe, Mr Summers and Dr Grey and the whole group they watched as Rogue fought with herself, wanting to reach out and comfort Wolverine but knowing what would happen if she did.
Rogue's flight instincts seemed to have won over and she had run through them muttering a simple 'it was an accident' in what seemed like the perfect mix of her own southern accent and Wolverine's gravely growl.
John remembered questioning which one of them she was excusing or whether it was their collective actions she was addressing, for he was certain the blood on Rogue's nightgown had come from her being skewered by Wolverine's claws long before she'd accidentally drained him.
While the four of them had already made a silent pack to stay quiet about the whole event it appeared that some of the other students who had been drawn by the noise had no such qualms.
Rogue had barely left the Wolverine's side when he was recovering in Dr Grey's lab but regardless of that they had easily picked up some of his less desirable but very dominant traits showcasing themselves in her. Traits that only seemed to increase once Rogue got out more after she returned with the team complete with the new addition of two very white streaks of hair.
In fact it was only about a week ago that his traits seemed to finally disappear from her personality all together - almost like a switch had been flipped - but at the same time they'd lost Rogue too. She seemed to withdraw into herself more like she was searching for something inside her that she'd lost. She started to sleep in more and even though it wasn't tinged with Wolverine's distinct inflections, she started to growl more of her answers, her own accent disappearing within the animalistic sound.
So despite everything, John thought it was a reasonable assumption that Rogue may have just taken off… again.
Scott paced as he glanced over at four of his most daring students. He wasn't a hundred percent sure what happened at Liberty Island given that his eyes had been closed for a good portion of it and then from what he'd spoken to Jean about all she knew was one minute Logan was up and restrained to the wall, the next he was on the ground playing dead. However the one thing he knew without a doubt was the urge to run was one of Wolverine's extremely dominant traits and he worried that it might have become too dominant.
Hell, he was fairly certain Rogue's own basic instinct was to run and as such he understood why the four of them were staring uncertainly at the door.
With the Professor and Jean at a conference in D.C this weekend it was the perfect chance for Rogue to run and run far.
A soft but firm hand gripped his shoulder, halting his pacing and turning him so he had no choice but to look into Ororo's penetrating eyes. He was certain she could see all his worries just with one gaze, in a lot of ways she was more intimidating than Jean or the Professor - not that he'd ever tell her that.
"Come on." Pulling Scott along beside her Ororo walked over to the unsettled teenagers, gesturing for them to follow her, they might not have psychic powers but they were trained to be perceptive and she was worried about their newest addition as well.
Walking through the house, they cleared room after room, only getting more and more agitated as their searched returned nothing.
Sparing a glance at the garage Kitty finally squealed in delight as a feeling of hope spread through her body. There in the corner was Logan's bike. "He's here. Wolverine's back."
John walked over to the bike, noticing the slight improvements that had been made since he'd been gone. "Man he's got a nice bike." He noticed Bobby nodding in response as he moved his hand over the various components reverently.
Scowling at the boys who were fawning over his bike, Scott begrudgingly admitted Logan had made some nice changes. "It's still my bike." Ignoring the look Ororo shot his way, he called Bobby and John back over knowing they needed to focus on looking for Rogue. "Wait… where's Jubilee? And Kitty?"
Hearing Kitty's terrified squeal they quickly rushed out into the hallway only to find Kitty latched onto Jubilee's arm trying to pull her back down from the staircase. "I'm not in the mood to discover if I can phase through his claws and everyone knows how much you irritate him - I personally think it has to do with his dislike of that much yellow - please just let your stupid crush go."
Almost immediately the rest of them realised Kitty had made a grave mistake as Jubilee's eyes flashed dangerously as she looked down at her friend.
"You think I'm doing this because of a crush," the word was spat out with so much venom that Kitty immediately dropped her arm and took an instinctual step back, "the one person who has a hope in hell of finding Rogue before she does something stupid is miraculously here and you don't want to do anything with that. Well, Rogue is my friend and I'm not going to stand by and let something happen because I was too afraid to face the Wolverine."
Running quickly up the stairs, Jubilee pushed her hands inside her pocket to keep them from shaking and giving just away how terrified she actually was. Glancing back once she noticed the others had fallen into step behind her and she gained a little more confidence knowing they had her back.
Reaching the floor she was looking for her steps finally faltered her hand raised halfway to the wooden door before it dropped back to her side.
Despite their argument, Jubilee felt herself relax a little as Kitty wrapped her hand around her arm in silent support. John and Bobby flanked them on either side as Ms Munroe and Mr Summers stepped in front of them.
Ororo couldn't help but roll her eyes as she looked over at Scott. She understood why the kids were fearful, after all Logan and Rogue were only around for a few hours before Rogue ran away - an action which caused Logan to run around the mansion screaming at the kids to find out what had caused her to flee.
All of which was followed by the X-Men team being deployed for some mission the students were never fully briefed about, hell, the teachers weren't ever truly debriefed about it either.
Then once they'd returned and Logan had regained consciousness, whenever he was not a stone throw away from Rogue he was threatening the students that annoyed him in an offhand manner and growled noncommittally at the ones who didn't.
Hearing a loud warning growl from inside as she raised her hand to knock she involuntarily retreated a few steps. There was something innately frightening about the Wolverine and no matter how many times she tried to remind herself that he was Logan as well, there was no getting past that final barrier that kept her from trusting him with her back.
John smirked as he recognized the growl for what it was. After having heard it from his foster father if he even thought about making noise before three in the afternoon, he knew that was a 'fuck off before I kill you' growl. Relaying his observation to the others he smirked as they all nodded in a mix of confusion and uncertainty trying to figure out what to do next.
It was Jubilee who had the answer they were all looking for. "Rogue's fine." She watched as they all turned to look at her as if waiting for her to explain further. "Would Wolverine really be sleeping if Rogue was in trouble. He has like a sensor in his brain tuned to her or something."
Almost as if it was planned, the group all released a sigh of relief before splitting up and heading out again.
Looking back at Wolverine's door with a sneaky grin, Jubilee whistled quietly to herself as she thought back to where she knew her friend had spent most nights of this past month since Wolverine had left. While what she had said was technically true, there was no way in hell that Wolverine would be sleeping if something had happened to Rogue, she would safely make a bet that right now Rogue was in there with him.
With a quiet chuckle she headed down the steps as John called up to her wanting to know what her smirk was about and what he could do to get in on it.