Hey ya'll! I'll leave comments to the end of the chapter, ENJOY!
-Ultimategammy91
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Chapter Nine – Cute and Weird
Several hours later…
By the time dinner had rolled around, practically everyone had heard of, seen of or met Adélie, Rogue's daughter. While Ororo and Kitty had detained Adélie however, Rogue kept to the doorways and shadows to watch over the girl from afar. However, there was no hiding from the girl once Ororo announced dinner.
While the majority of the students took up the grand Cafeteria to eat their meals, the original team along with several additions they'd attained over the years, took up the original dining hall though the table had been extended somewhat since the numbers in staff grew. Rogue followed as Adélie was led into the dining hall by a continuously talk-active Kitty and Ororo. Much to Rogue's appreciation, Ororo had silently agreed to take things over with handling Adélie for the rest of the afternoon but there was no doubt in Rogue or Ororo's mind that Rogue had to take some responsibility at some point and soon. As Rogue followed in tow she watched as Ororo stepped away from the seat beside Adélie, bent down and whispered something that made the little girl nod in response. When Ororo stood straight again, Rogue was before her with a questioning expression across her face. However, instead of making some kind of explanation, Ororo smiled and eyed the seat beside Adélie as if to say 'go on.' Rogue's eyes widened. She wasn't prepared for this but then who could be prepared for something like this? Ororo gave another reassuring smile before departing to go sit beside her husband. Rogue let her gaze follow Ororo until she sat herself down beside Logan. However, when Logan gave her a meaningful look, she turned away.
"Mama?"
Rogue's heart jumped a few beats at the voice before she turned her head with a jolt towards the voice's owner. Adélie stared up at her with a half-vacant expression while her eyes seemed to fill with puzzlement at her sudden appearance. Rogue smiled feebly, half biting down on her lower lip in a strangely un-Rogue-like manner. Her heart hadn't slowed to its usual place yet but she ignored it to speak.
"Ya mahnd if ah sit down with ya?"
Adélie's eyes widened for a moment but before Rogue could interpret it, a wide smile broke across her face and she nodded vigorously. Rogue smiled, feeble yet again, but nonetheless sat herself down in the chair beside her. Though she didn't really take much notice of it, each and every pair of eyes that knew what had happened stared at them with interest from the corner of their eyes. Finally, after a few moments of silence and staring at their empty plates, Rogue turned to Adélie and spoke up.
"Listen, Adélie, ah'm sorry 'bout before in the med bay. Ah was jus'- surprised. Not every day ya meet ya future daughter ya know?"
Adélie nodded without an inch of shyness in her manner. Rogue compared her manner to the way she acted around the others. She had noticed how she tended to shy away or become slightly defensive around the others, apart from Ororo of course. Rogue decided that was probably because she was her mother and they, as far as anyone knew, were strangers. But why it is she acted so naturally around Ororo was still something she would have to ask about later. Rogue's thoughts were broken by Adélie's voice.
"Ah'm sorry too Mama. Ah didn't mean f' ya t' beh so uh- surprised."
Rogue blinked, her eye brows disappearing under her white fringe for a moment. Adélie, meanwhile, kept her gaze on her plate and continued to fiddle with the end of her fork on the table. Finally, Rogue reached out and gently placed a hand on Adélie's smaller one; making her meet her gaze before she spoke.
"Nothin' t' forgive. Let's call it even an' say we both got a bit o' a shock okay?"
Adélie smiled and nodded in agreement. At that moment, the doors to the dining hall opened and a couple of staff members came into the room with great platters of food in their arms. Once the food was delivered to the grand table a murmur of plates chinking and silverware clattering became mixed with the general noise of conversations. Adélie and Rogue came to a mutual agreement of not talking while they ate. Rogue dished Adélie a full helping of spaghetti before piling her plate with the same and some salad between them. Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Kitty and Kurt observed them with growing interest. They began to whisper amongst each other with hidden smiles and chuckles.
"Look at that- zhey look so similar no?"
Kitty giggled behind a raised hand but nodded amiably as she replied in excitement.
"I like, totally agree! Adélie is so sweet but she looks like a miniature version of Rogue. Except for the hair though, that blonde streak's like a total 'spot the difference' thing."
Kurt nodded as he stuffed his mouth with a rather large piece of lasagne. When he swallowed (knowing how much Kitty would scold him for 'eating with his mouth full') he replied.
"Ja. Where do you think she got that from?"
Kitty shrugged.
"Her Dad maybe? Speaking of which, I wonder who he is."
Kurt nodded but frowned at the idea. Though he knew it was probably stupid of him to be so overly protective of his sister, especially of someone she more than likely hadn't met yet, he couldn't help it. He couldn't help the need to watch out for her in case she got hurt. Not that finding out who the father of her child is was a terrible thing of course. At least, as far as they knew.
Kitty and Kurt fell into a thoughtful silence as their gazes remained on the pair before them. Strangely, Rogue and Adélie had decided to fill their forks at the same time. They dug into the centre of their plate instantaneously, turned the fork in their fingers before lifting the fork at the exact moment in the same sort of rhythm. However, before taking their fills, they each raised their other hand and took the liberty of wrapping any stray noodles around the fork, licking the sauce of their fingers before taking their bites and chewing.
Kitty and Kurt turned their heads slowly to meet each other's gaze. With a single glance, the two broke out into chortles of giggles, causing some people around them to stare with curious eyes and raised brows. Once recovered, they turned back to each other to speak.
"This is just too cute."
"Ja. Cute and weird."
"Totally."
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After dinner, when every belly was full and content, the mansion slowly began to slow down and prepare for sleep. Though many students paroled the corridors, watched TV in the common rooms and visited each other (at least until curfew), Rogue made sure to have Adélie in bed by 10:00pm. On Hank's orders, she wasn't to stay up too late for the wounds on her legs would heal quicker if she were well fed and rested at a reasonable hour. However, it was generally agreed that Adélie could not stay in the medical room any longer. So, seeing it as a natural decision, Adélie was to stay in Rogue's room. However, there was still the matter of getting a mattress into the room. Fortunately, the school was well supplied in mattresses, it was the matter of actually moving it to the room was the issue.
After leading Adélie to the store rooms on the ground floor level and picking out a single-size mattress, Rogue and Adélie began the dauntingly long process of heaving and pushing it up the stairs. They were on the second level, about two corridors away from Rogue's room, when Adélie and Rogue stopped to take a break to catch their breaths. Adélie leant against the edge of the mattress, her slender arms flopping over the edges while her head rest on the top. While Rogue slid down to the floor and rest her back against the wall that they had propped the mattress against. After a few minutes of attempting to breathe again, Rogue spoke up.
"So, ya had fun with Kitty t'day raght?"
Adélie nodded and smiled. Rogue didn't know why but there was something familiar in the way she smiled. It was far too cheeky to be her own, almost smug at times when she looked close enough but she couldn't match it with anyone she knew.
"Mus' be from her Daddy ah guess."
Rogue acknowledged the possibility grimly. She didn't want to think about that just yet.
"Dat Kitty, she talks a lot. She always lahke that?"
Rogue let out a soft chuckle and nodded as she replied.
"Yeah pretty much. That girl could enter an' win a talkin' Olympics if she wanted to. Easily."
Adélie gave a somewhat creepily similar chuckle to Rogue's but replied.
"Ya always told meh Aunt Kitty was a chatta box, ah never really thought ya meant it lahke that."
Rogue turned to look at her daughter, her face filled with sudden curiosity.
"Ah thought ya didn't know Kitty?"
Adélie suddenly became nervous again, a small glimmer in her eyes told Rogue but it disappeared with a second glance. Adélie shifted and came to sit beside her mother, her back against the mattress, as she replied.
"Ya used t' talk 'bout them a lot when ah was real little. 'Bout uncle Kurt, Aunty Kitty, Aunt Ororo, Uncle Logan an' all those guys. Only, ya got real sad afterwards. Lahke ya really missed dem."
Rogue stared at her daughter for a moment. The image of a life without the X-Men suddenly brewed in her mind. What had happened to make her leave them? Was it her husband's doing? Rogue shuddered at the thought and forced the image out of her mind for the moment. She didn't need that now. She was still coming to terms with actually talking to Adélie in the first place. After a moment's silence, Rogue spoke up again.
"We should probably start movin' again- this thing won't move itself."
Adélie nodded and got up to help her mother again. About twenty minutes later, huffing and puffing, they made it to the right room. Rogue ordered Adélie to help shift the mattress around so that they could slide the mattress through the door on its side. Though it sounded easy enough, the carpet floor didn't agree with the plan and caused the mattress to stand stubbornly in the doorway. Rogue gave a sigh and brushed back a sweaty piece of white hair from her forehead before clasping her end of the mattress. She took a stance ready to push as she spoke.
"Okay- on mah call, ya pull while ah push okay?"
"Okay- oh! Wait, ah got an idea!"
Rogue didn't even get to answer for not a moment later Adélie had merely grasped the end of the mattress and with a familiar flash of gold light occurred and the mattresses disappeared only to appear again at Adélie's feet. Rogue managed to stare with wonder across her face for a full minute before stepping into the room to speak. Rest and hand on her hip she cocked the other hip to the side and spoke.
"Now why didn't ya think o' that before?"
Adélie blushed slightly and replied as she smiled that unknown, familiar smile again.
"Ah forgot."
Rogue stared at her for a moment before giving a dismissive shrug and turned towards her closet. She pulled out a set of white bed sheets and purple pillow from the top shelf before turning back to the mattress. Adélie lay sprawled out on the mattress, grinning up at the ceiling. Rogue couldn't suppress the small smile of amusement before she aimed and threw the purple pillow at Adélie's head. Adélie jumped as the pillow hit her in the face but when she drew it away she smiled up at Rogue and hugged it close. Rogue gave an amused chuckle before kneeling down on the floor beside the mattress. Chuckling, she spoke up.
"None o' that now- this bed needs covers first, then ya can sleep all ya want."
Though Adélie gave a mock-sad pout, she sat up and put the pillow aside before helping her mother put the sheets on the mattress. Once covered, Rogue disappeared to her closet again and returned with a set of clothes in her hands. She unfolded them and raised each piece before her, as if to size them up with Adélie, before deciding to throw two items at her. Adélie caught each one with a giggle of amusement before looking them over. She had been handed a small baby-blue T-shirt and a pair of stripy white and blue pyjama pants. Rogue answered her unspoken question as she retreated to the bathroom with her own pyjamas in hand.
"Ya gonna have t' make do with the long pyjama pants sugah, 'til we go shoppin' for some clothes for ya."
Adélie nodded to no one before a smile broke across her lips and she replied.
"Bet Aunty Kitty would love that!"
Rogue chuckled and nodded to no one as well as she changed behind the bathroom door. Silently, she smiled and her daughter's words took double meanings. "Kit'll love the shoppin' trip too." She made a mental note not to let Kitty play dress-up with her daughter. Secretly, she wanted that privilege. Thoughts of dressing up a baby Adélie began to form in her mind and she wondered what it would be like to do something like that. Be a mother.
After pulling on her pyjamas, a pair of long black pyjama pants and a long-sleave maroon shirt, followed by socks and a pair of gloves to 'keep it safe', she exited the bathroom. When she came out, she found Adélie already dressed, the long pyjama legs falling baggily at her ankles while the shirt fit her perfectly. However, it wasn't these things that drew in her attention. It was the fact that Adélie sat at her Vanity chest looking through a leather-bound photo album that got her attention. Panicking, Rogue strode over to the girl and spoke, her voice harsher than she intended but firm.
"What are ya doin'?"
Adélie jumped at her voice and turned to look at her with anxious eyes. The firmness in her voice seemed to be quite a familiarity for her, as she let go of the page she was turning instantly. It was a child-like reaction, to inch away from whatever was causing them the scolding, as if it would avert their wrongs because the did not touch it. Rogue narrowed her gaze, raising a brow at her daughter in what she believed was a motherly warning. Adélie shifted uncomfortably under the stern gaze and averted her gaze away from her mother as she spoke.
"Ah never got t' see any o' yah baby photos. Ya left it here when we- uh. Left."
Rogue's stern expression evaporated and was replaced with a look of puzzlement and awe. She hadn't shown her anything of her childhood? Rogue stared at Adélie as she continued to shift uncomfortably on the Vanity seat and refused to meet her eyes. Gently, Rogue sat herself on the vacant spot on the chair and picked up the discarded page Adélie had begun to turn. She turned it to find a worn and faded photograph of her as a toddler, grinning toothlessly at the camera-man as she pushed a doll pram across a simply living room. She was a rounded, chubby toddler, with wisps of auburn and white atop her head while her eyes were, in the photo, a faded grey-green. Rogue fingered edge of the photo with a tender glance before turning to see that Adélie was watching intently. After a moment, she turned to Adélie and smiled.
"Real chubby bubby wasn't ah?"
Adélie, taking note of her kind tone, nodded with a hint of a smile on her lips. Her gaze roamed over the several other photos spread across the open pages before reaching out and pointing at one of them.
"Ya look so cute Mama! Is that ya Mama? Raven?"
Rogue paled at the name, a cringe pulling at the stomach as it rolled off her daughter's Southern tongue. Had she told Adélie about her mother? Or were things so different in the past that 'Raven' was a common name in the household? Turning to face her daughter, Rogue nodded but when she spoke, she questioned.
'Do ya- Do ya see Raven at all in ya tahme?"
Adélie shook her head, to Rogue's relief, before speaking again.
"Nah. Ya an' Grandma don't get along too well,"
Rogue mentally chortled. "There's the new understatement of the year."
"She sent meh Christmas and Birthday gifts every year though."
Rogue was surprised by this but reassured herself of the idea of her mother having 'good intentions' towards her 'granddaughter.' Considering the potential of Adélie's powers, Rogue was not surprised Raven tried to befriend her daughter. Not in the least. Before she could ask any more questions however, Adélie had turned the page and they were both looking at a pre-teenage Rogue. Adélie chuckled as she pointed to the picture of Rogue dressed as Witch for Halloween.
"That ain't how witches dress."
Rogue furrowed her brow and turned to Adélie.
"What do ya mean sugah?"
Adélie gave Rogue a furrowed brow before replying in an almost matter-of-fact-manner.
"Ah don't dress lahke that an' ah'm a witch. What do dey t'ink we do? Fly around on broom sticks?"
Rogue could only widen her eyes in response. This was unexpected.
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AAAAANNNNNND the plot thickens! You didn't think I named this story "Witch Child" for no reason do you? REVIEW! But don't expect me to explain anything about Adélie being a witch, cuz I don't want to spoil the next couple of chapters! Remy makes another appearance next chapter! PROMISE!
-ultimategammy91