-

Rogue clutched her jacket closer in the autumn wind, waiting for Bobby on a small courtyard bench outside so they could go out together and talk. She had asked him earlier that day and he had agreed with a strange surprise. There were things she needed to say and for him to hear, so she was rather nervous. She liked Bobby, that was certain, and she feared to lose him over a silly fight. She had decided he had acted the way he did because he just cared about her, is all. She was ready to do some serious apologizing.

Rogue felt anxious, and almost feared to stay in one spot for too long, since she had a stalker on her tail now. That darn Cajun. She hadn't been able to get him out of her head all night, wondering if he had taken what she had said to Jubilee the wrong way. It was just what she needed now—to encourage the lovestruck shadow.

"Well, fancy meetin' you here, Chere."

Speak of the devil, she thought as Remy hopped over the bench to sit beside her.

"What are you doing here?" she spat with annoyance. "What do you want?"

"Remy can think of a few things," he said, flashing her his seductive smile. "At the moment, you, Chere."

Rogue rolled her eyes at his blunt honesty.

"Well, ain't you direct…"

"I'm a lot a' other things too. Why don't ya come by my room later and I show ya?"

"You need to get yer head outta the gutter, boy! Look at me."

"I'm lookin', I'm lookin'…" he said, obviously scanning her body again.

"Tell me, did I smile in yer direction? Did I wink? Did I do anything to tell you I was interested?"

"Oh, Remy figured it fo' himself."

"Well, I'm glad you came to this place, then. It's a school, and it just might make you less stupid. It's a long shot, I know…"

Remy clutched his heart, as if in pain.

"You wound me, Chere!"

"You want to see woundin', call me that one more time. Why do you keep calling me that?"

"Look it up. You look at in a French dictionary of beautiful things," Remy looked up and waved his hand across the sky, trying to make her imagine it. "And dere be yo' picture."

"I told you before, my name's Rogue."

Remy put a hand up in surrender and nodded agreeably.

"Hey!" Bobby called, running up. Rogue smiled at the sight of him, and sighed in relief.

"Sorry I'm so late."

"Hi, Bobby," she said back, getting up to hug him, but stopped when she saw his face. He had noticed Remy and frowned darkly.

"Did I come at a bad time?" he asked coldly.

"I'm glad you finally did." She glared disdainfully at the Cajun. "He was just leaving… weren't you?"

"Suppose I was," Remy said obligingly, getting up. "So I see you by my room later, no?"

Rogue rolled her eyes and walked off with Bobby.

"Creep," she muttered as she left.

"You really think so?" Bobby said. "He gets on my nerves too."

"I'd break his face, if it weren't so nicely arranged as it was."

Bobby frowned again at this.

"Rogue," Bobby sighed. He struggled to speak. Not a good sign.

"People are talking," he managed to say.

"What about?" she asked gently.

He frowned again, and looked to the ground.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you. I--"

Rogue suddenly understood.

"Oh, don't make me gag. I can't stand the guy, thinks way too much of himself, and besides, a guy like that would drop me as soon as he gets me. He's cute and all, but he's too in love with himself to love anyone else, and that takes a lot away from his package."

Bobby took several steps back. His face expressed shock, which confused Rogue and set her on immediate alarm.

"What?" she asked.

"I was just going to ask if you forgave me for the other day."

Rogue's heart sped. Oops.

"I never… He…" Bobby began, though not knowing how.

"Bobby, look…"

"You do like him-- Huh?"

"Com'on, get real."

"He's all you've been talking about lately…"

"He annoys the hell outta me, that's why!"

"You spend more time with him than you do me!"

"He stalks me! You think I can help that?" Rogue yelled.

Everyone in the courtyard heard that, including Remy. He chuckled to himself, mentally patting himself on the back.

"Look," Rogue said, lowering her voice. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"Fine," Bobby agreed, though he didn't sound too convinced.

"No, not about what I said, for what I'm about to say."

"What?"

"I think we should--"

Bobby's face suddenly fell to sorrow as he began to understand what she was going to say next.

"Don't, Rogue--"

"—We just need to give each other space for a bit, okay?"

"Space? Why don't you just say you're breaking up with me?"

"I'm not, I just--"

"Want some time to mess around with the new guy until you get bored and want to get me back, right?"

"Bobby!" Rogue shouted. "That's not what I meant, so don't make this about that stupid Cajun!"

"First my family, and now you. If you don't want me, just come out and say it, damn it! God, why can't anyone just say this stuff to my face?"

"Bobby, stop it!" Rogue demanded.

"You already did!" Bobby replied. "Just don't bother, okay? I should have listened to Kitty. She told me this was going to happen."

Angry tears suddenly formed in Rogue's eyes.

"Kitty, huh?"

But he was already leaving. Rogue watched him walk off, her vision blurring slowly as her tears clouded her eyes. She felt terrible.

She looked back at the Cajun loser, who was leaning against a nearby tree and eavesdropping with no shame. She threw him a hot glare, one that cast all of the fault on him, but he just smiled and gave her a wave when he saw her looking his way, then went back to shuffling his cards.

Stupid Cajun, she thought, then stormed off.

-

"Hank," Carol said, bursting into the study unannounced. "I think you had better see this."

-

"Sightings of these so called 'sentinels' are occurring all over the New England states, and there are even some reports of them in the South. The only hostile actions of these walking AI machines have been toward the mutant population, with futile attempts to fight back. What these menaces can do, where they came from, and what exactly they are looking for still remains a mystery."

Carol lowered the volume.

"They say most of them are in New York. I think they're heading for us, Hank."

Henry shook his head.

"The real war against us has come at last."

"Maybe Magneto was right," Rogue commented. "Maybe we are all going to be slaves for them sooner or later."

Hank looked around the room at the teammates, Carol, Rogue, Bobby, Kitty, and Piotr all in turn.

"What are we going to do?" Kitty was the first to ask.

"Get suited up," Carol said at length. "If they come, we had better be ready to defend ourselves."

Henry stared at the screen and frowned.

"Piotr and Bobby," Henry added to catch them before they left. "Piotr, if you would be so kind as to call our friend Warren Worthington, and Bobby, if you could give our new friend Remy a fitting suit… I think we may need all the help we can get."

-

Please review.
Signed,
--RedRogue