Bamph.

Rogue stared into her mug, it seemed so strange her ,after months of feeling the burning post break up pain, to feel this all consuming nothingness. She knew, from the swagger in his step and the knowledge that he had had a visitor in his apartment for the last few days that he had slept with Belladonna. She knew that it was an undeniable truth and she was pretty damn sure that just about everyone else in the mansion knew as well.

Rogue knew that this day had to of come, that Remy wouldn't have passed through the rest of his days in a celibate state, however much she had prepared herself for it though she could not have prepared herself for the nothingness that consumed her now. It was extremely strange and unwelcome, she would have preferred the raging fire she had expected would finally drive her from the mansion, but this morning when she had walked in the door and she looked at Remy to see him almost glowing in aftermath she still felt like she could get through the day with a shred of dignity.

"How strange." Beast had walked into the room and noticed Rogue sat at the table staring into her mug.

"Whats strange Hank?" Although she only really called people she was close to by their first names Rogue always called Beast by his real name, it seemed wrong to call such a calm and collected man Beast.

"I've been monitoring your blood for the last couple of months" Every X-man had to go for routine check ups with Hank, to make sure they were healthy and mainly to monitor their DNA to see if anyone was developing or mutating. "and it seems that you are developing your 'X' gene at an abnormal rate."

"What does that mean doc?"

"Well, after you gained control of your powers you seemed to stop mutating, me and Xavier came to the conclusion that you had reached full potential. However I carried on with your blood sampling for the sake of routine and going over your files for the last 6 months it would appear as though you are mutating again." Hank furrowed his brow in concentration at the paper for a few seconds. "Your developing at around the same rate as Kitty at the moment, which as you may know isn't very fast but is of course still there, however when you first started mutating again you were developing at around the same pace as Scott which is pretty much dormant, so its picking up pace."

"So whats going to happen to me then?"

"Oh I have no idea, only nature and time will tell, I shouldn't worry." He filled his own coffee mug, smiled and left the room.

Rogue sat on the end of her bed, staring at the college application sat in front of her, it wasn't any Ivy league college, but it wasn't a community college either, it was close enough to still see some of the people she cared about but far away enough that no one there would know who or what she was. Kitty had thought it all through, she had said to Rogue that although she didn't want to loose her she couldn't watch her destroy herself anymore. There was a soft knock at her door.

"Can I come in?" Warren poked his head around the door and smiled.

"Of course Warren" Rogue had stood up from the bed and placed the application behind her. "What can I do for you sugar?"

"I was just wondering how you were, I hadn't heard from you since our dinner, did I offend you?"

"No not at all! I'm sorry I've just been all over the place recently, I should of called." Rogue hung her head in shame because she meant it,
Warren had been amazing to her that night, and had given her the space she needed afterwards, he was every bit the gentleman and with a face like the Angel he was was he was also every girls dream.

"Hey Rogue, don't be like that its OK, I understand." He moved closer to her and cupped her face and gently moved it up to look into his, they stood there like that for a moment, Rogue thought he was going to kiss her, willed it in fact but he slid his hand around the back of her head and gently moved her towards him so that she could bury her face into the crook of his neck. He smelt wonderful and for the briefest of moments Rogue thought that she could do this, that she was ready. She thought about what life would be like if she let Warren in, she thought about riding around new york in the back of his car with him, she thought about day trips to Paris and wearing evening gowns at his work functions, him always having his arm around her and proudly introducing her to all of his friends, meeting his Farther and winning his approval. But just as quickly as it came, it went and she began to think about always riding shotgun in a small beat up hunk of junk and stealing kisses at traffic lights, and day trips to central park, about wearing jeans and just knocking around the apartment, about always holding hands and feeling connected, about knowing that his family didn't want to know him and therefore she was his family, and then she pulled back and looked into Warrens steely blue eyes and thought to herself that he was everything that every girl would want, that he was everything she should want, but knew he would never be enough for her. She felt guilty and selfish as she pulled away, knowing that she was pulling away from a future that would make her happy but she also knew that she would never be satisfied and that despite the fact the she could grow to love him, they would just be holding each other back.

As she pulled away she was sure that she saw then a swirl of a brown trench coat escape beyond the view of the open door but just as soon as she registered what she thought she saw she dismissed it.

Later that morning, Rogue walked into the rec room and saw Kitty sprawled on one of the sofa's flicking through channels aimlessly, she looked at Kitty's figure from the door way and had a moment of clarity, she knew now that she wasn't going to move on in a hurry,
she knew that either her and Remy were either meant to be together, and therefore would eventually get back together or that she would meet someone one day that she could (though she couldn't see how) love more than Remy, but either of the choices seemed along way into the future and in the mean time she thought, that it was time she started to rebuild the bridges she had burnt.

"Hey Kit? Can I grab a hand with something please?"

Kitty turned her head and for the first time noticed Rogue standing in the doorway.

"What is it Rogue?" Kitty seemed resigned, like the long tortured friend that Rogue had turned her into.

Rogue had a sheepish grin playing around her features as she said "Oh just some stuff" and Kitty turned around fully on the sofa so she could see Rogue properly and she saw that Rogue was beginning to look like her old playful friend that had disappeared months ago, and Kitty smiled and jumped up and followed Rogue out of the room.

Rogue lead Kitty up the stairs and along one of the corridors and into her room, were most of everything had been sprawled out across her bed.

"Whats going on in here? Did you piss off Jean again?"

"No not quite" Rogue laughed. "I'm spring cleaning."

"Riiiiight." Kitty looked a Little confused but then she noticed that some of the clothes and things that were on the bed seemed familiar, but not in the sense that hey were Rogue's things but like she had seen them somewhere else. "Oh my God Rogue, is this like, all of Remy's stuff?"

Rogue nodded and smiled, there was old t-shirts, video games, DVDs, half empty packs of playing cards, empty cigarette cartons, everything that Rogue had kept since the break-up, and then Kitty's eyes wandered over to the small vanity desk in the corner of the room were there was a neatly wrapped gift, an envelope and a purple band. Kitty looked at Rogue then and saw the purple band that used to be attached to her wrist wasn't there anymore, she thought for a second that maybe Rogue's smile was one of hysteria, that she had finally gone insane and was about to burn everything, but no, all she saw was a girl who had finally let go and was beginning to regain some of her former self.

"Could you help me pack all this stuff into boxes please Kit and then come with me to drop it off?" Rogue asked, and for a second Kitty saw the vulnerability in her friend and she couldn't refuse. So they spent the rest of the morning packing away all of Remy's things, neatly folding T-shirts and sweat pants, stacking the games and DvD's and slowly Rogues room started to look like a shell, something that wasn't quite filled, Kitty hadn't realised how much of the stuff in Rogue's room had been Remy's. The CD player was now all packed away, the wardrobe and a few of her draws were now half empty and there were now only 5 or 6 CD's left in the rack. Rogue looked around the room and shook her head slightly.

"Wow. It looks like I've been robbed!" Rogue stole a side glance at Kitty and began to smile. "I'll just HAVE to go shopping to fill all these empty spaces, but were will I find someone to go shopping with at such short notice?" Rogue put the back of her hand to her forehead and pretended to collapse onto the bed, but by the time Rogue had hit the sheets Kitty had already grabbed 2 of the boxes and was running out of the door and yelling back at Rogue.

"We've already wasted half the day! I'll put these in the trunk and get the engine running, you have five minutes to bring the other 2, I'll meet you in the car!"

Rogue picked up the other 2 boxes and went to walk out of the room when they seemed to go right through her hands and land on the floor with a thud. Rogue looked at them and was confused for a few moments but quickly dismissed it as clumsiness and picked them back up again, then before she left the room she quickly remembered the present and balanced it on top of the boxes with the band and the envelope.

Kitty pulled into the drive of the huge house were Remy lived, it had been converted into 3 different apartments and Remy lived on the ground floor,
which was handy considering all the boxes she had to carry in.

"How are you feeling Rogue? Are you sure you don't want me to do it?" Kitty asked in concern.

"No its ok, he won't be in, I've still got his key so I'll just let myself in, dump all the stuff and leave the key on the side." but Rogue didn't turn or smile, she just looked dead ahead for a second before lightly shaking her head and forcing a smile and got out of the car, she struggled with the boxes for a moment but managed to pick them all up and held the present under her chin with the band dangling from between her teeth.

She waddled up to the door and let 2 of the boxes that contained just clothes or things that weren't fragile fall to the floor, she put her old key into the lock and heard the familiar click, and walked in, she kicked the boxes on the floor into the hall and went to the door with the shiny brass 1 on it, she unlocked the door and walked in. The familiar musty scent of the rooms hit her and she felt nostalgia run through her and make her torso ache. She stacked the boxes neatly by the kitchen counter and placed the present on the counter with the band on top, she removed the key from it chain, and then saw it was the key chain that he had bought when he had had to go to Paris alone for Xaviar and left that too, she wrote a note apologising for the delay in the returning of his things and then reread it and threw it away. Then wrote it again, and placed it under the key and key chain.

She turned and looked at the flat for the last time, she looked into the living room and remembered that he had one of her Dvd's in there and decided to go retreive it instead of hassling him for it. She walked past the sofa that Jubilee and Lupin had slept on and then looked again, there was an old pillow with a head shaped dent in it and a blankett carelessly thrown over the other end of the sofa, there was a sock poking out of one of the cushions and a pair of Remy's boots on floor. Rogue furrowed her brough in confusion, why would he sleep on the couch? It gives him a terrible neck ache.

"Remy is that you?" the feminine voice floated through the rooms from Remy's bedroom and a blond haired head poked out from behind the door.

Shit. Rogue mentally swore to herself, she had completely forgotted about Belladonna being in town.

"Oh hello, you're the girl who answered the door at the mansion aren't you?" She said conversationally. "Remy's not here, he went out on a call, I have no idea what or where about though." She smiled and Rogue smiled back as politely as she could. "You must be Kitty? The one who can walk through walls?"

"Erm, no I just had a key, I was just bringing back some things Remy left at the mansion that I though he might need, sorry to of disturbed you, I'll go." Rogue turned to leave but Belladonna had caught her arm to stop her.

"Wait, are you Rogue?" There was no malice in the woman's eyes, there was something there though that Rogue couldn't quite describe, curiosity maybe?

Then they both heard it, the unmistakable turn of a key in the lock, Rogue froze and Bella looked up to see Remy walk in the room with a young man following in behind him.

A/N sorry its taken so long to update! Hope you like the chapter! :)