Disclaimer: I own nothing but my laptop and a teddy named Mikey.

A/N: Oh, the sucky-ness of I! University, crashy Internet, writer's block, and so forth. You know the drill, so sorry.

A super-duper big thank you to the rewievers and an apology for the shortness. This is a transition chapter, before the action starts again.

I haven't been able to decide between all the awesome reviews. So the title and plot of the next chapter will be the reviewer's choice one.

Enjoy.

Tabula Fucking Rasa

Chapter 21: An Interlude.

It had been one crazy day for the Institute and its inhabitants. Bobby was seeing triple as he made his way to the sanctuary of his room.

He was rubbing his eyes tiredly with one hand as he rummaged around for the key, and finally locating it he jammed it into the lock and was about to turn it as he heard the sound of someone mumbling down the hallway. That part of the corridor hadn't been populated in a while, not since Piotr and Angel had moved to the teachers' wing.

Bobby had chosen to remain behind in his and John's old room, which had been specially insulated to suit them. It was designed to stay at a certain temperature at all times, lower now that John didn't live there anymore.

Looking to his left he was met with the sight of none other than Toad who was apparently having some difficulty with the key card to Piotr's old room. Bobby's room was the only one on the floor that still had an old fashioned key-and-lock combo. The professor had changed it back after the famous prank war of three years ago, when Bobby and John had taken on Magma and Jubilee as revenge for… something or other. With two fire controllers on the war path, a fair few plastic cards had been melted.

"Bloody piece of shite… come on," Toad was murmuring to himself as he tried to manipulate the bendy piece of plastic coated cardboard with just one hand while holding on to his laptop with the other.

Bobby seemed to remember Toad being the designated mechanic of the Brotherhood. He also remembered the tale of his near-exclusion from active duty after the run in with Storm in New York City. According to John, he'd lost most of the mobility in his fingers as a result of burns and nerve damage. There had also been something about the loos of night-vision.

"Need a hand?" he heard himself ask.

The mumbling instantly stopped and the older mutant turned to look at him. Bobby swallowed.

I just asked a nearly crippled terrorist if he needed a hand! I'm dead!

"What?" Toad asked incredulously, as if he couldn't believe his ears. It came out sounding like 'Wot' to Bobby, kinda like John sounded when he was drunk or tired.

"Uhh…" Bobby repeated. "Do you need a hand with that?"

Toad seemed to be thinking about that for a while. At last he shrugged and said "Sure."

Iceman breathed a sigh of relief and walked the ten yards or so between them. Toad was a little shorter than him, he was surprised to notice. He seemed to be around his mid twenties or so, younger than Bobby had thought he would be. He hadn't had a good chance to indulge his hobby of 'people-watching' with the former terrorist, mainly because he'd had other things to do and partly because of fear.

As he took the key card from Toad's hand, however, he couldn't help but notice the scar tissue criss-crossing the yellowish-green skin of the amphibian mutant.

"It's impolite to stare, X-Man," Mortimer grumbled and pulled his hand back.

"Oh, I'm sorry… it's just. That had to hurt, man!" he commiserated. "I've had a taste of Storm's lightning before… nothing like that though… still hurt, you know? I mean…"

"You're babbling, Iceman."

"Sorry."

"'S alright. Sin said you did that a lot. Guess for once he wasn't exaggeratin'."

Bobby got the door open and Toad walked in with a low whistle. "Nice digs. No wonder you people are such poufs."

He sat the lap top on the bedside table and turned 360 degrees inspecting his new room, shrugging off his duffle bag.

"This is a student's room. The teachers' are nicer," Bobby said a little self consciously.

"Are they really?"

"Umm… John said that there'd be more people coming. Do you know who?"

Toad was busy toeing off his shoes and looked up a little distractedly?

"Eh?"

"Do you know who else is coming?" Bobby repeated.

"Yeah… Cyph' an' the kiddies," he shrugged. "Maybe a few others."

"I'm not sure…"

"Cypher is a technopath and the kids are Wanda and Pietro Maximoff. They'll like this place," Toad said with a small wicked smile. "Lots of innocent little X-kids to boss around. It'll be great."

"Sounds like fun."

"Doubtlessly. Look, I'm going to kip for a bit so why don't you be a good little chap an' bugger off for about eight or nine hours?"

Toad threw himself down on the bed bouncing a bit.

"Oh, sure. Goodnight."

"Nighty-night."

-()-

The atmosphere wasn't any less tense on the second floor where John and Rogue were getting ready for bed.

John wasn't so oblivious that he hadn't noticed the cold shoulder he'd been receiving all night and never one for beating around the bush he'd asked Rogue what was wrong several times, receiving the same answer each time: "Nothing's wrong John."

Well, now they were in private and he'd be damned if he went to bed with whatever the issue was hanging over his head. Some would have quoted the old adage of 'never let the sun set on an argument', but not John. No he was border line pissed off and he'd never had any patience for dodging issues. Not ever.

"Marie," he started.

"John." His name was delivered in a blank voice, completely noncommittal. Apparently Rogue was feeling especially girly.

He heaved a sigh of exasperation and cursed silently.

"Look, either you tell me what the hell is up with you, or I'll be sleeping on the floor," he stated.

"The floor?" Marie sounded like she didn't believe he was serious.

"Room doesn't feature a couch, so yeah, the floor," he groused. "What's wrong?"

"You really have to ask?" She looked at him then, incredulous. Her face was firmly set in its 'if you don't know what you've done, I'm not gonna tell you' mode. He was very familiar with that look, but it had always been directed at Bobby, not him.

Must be a boyfriend privilege. Great.

"Do not start that prissy girl bit with me, Rogue. I'm not in the mood, ever!" he said irritably.

"God, you are such an insensitive asshole, John! I swear…" She threw up her hands and sat down on the bed, facing away from him.

He scowled at her straight back and considered just going to sleep. He was tired, had a headache and his nerves were frayed all to hell. But he knew her. If they didn't get this solved like right now, it would fester and grow. He was just so tired…

"I'M insensitive? You've been Miss Icequeen all day and I have no idea what I'm supposed to have done. Now I'm tired, I'm stressed out by all this shit and I need to know that…" He paused. "You know what… never mind. I'm going to sleep."

"You could have warned me." Her voice was quiet and small. She sounded just as exhausted as he felt.

He sat down next to her and took her hand. He needed her calming influence to keep his head clear. This was important.

"Warned you about what?" he asked, his voice even, but not hostile.

Surges of emotion rose through the point were their skin touched. Fear, anger and apprehension.

"About them!" she cried. "'Bout our life suddenly being invaded by the damned Brotherhood, that's what!"

"They're here for a reason, Rogue," he said, trying to impart some of the urgency he felt through their link.

"So Mystique said, but I need to know why!" She turned to look him in the eyes, her own filling with tears.

Jesus… don't cry.

"I can't tell you, Marie. Not yet." He stroked her fingers with his own, and looked down. He'd been keeping secrets all his life, why was this so hard now?

Love does that to you. You still think keeping her is a good idea, Firestarter?

The Phoenix's voice was calm and genuinely curious.

I still believe it's worth it, yes, he answered her.

"You don't trust me?" Marie said. At his silence she continued, her voice flat and defeated. "After all this, you don't trust me."

He was shaking his head, before she finished her last sentence.

"I do trust you, Marie, and I need you to trust me back," he said, squeezing her soft hand. He swallowed and added a word he hardly ever used: "Please. This is hard enough as it is…"

A hint of worry crept through his mind, spreading from her hand through his.

She really cares.

The thought warmed him, even as it gave birth to a small tinge of sadness. Rogue closed her eyes as the emotion reached her.

"Okay. I'll trust you, Johnny, but this better be damned good."

He breathed a sigh of relief, crisis temporarily averted.

"Thank you, now come to bed. I'm completely done in."

He flopped down on the bed, rubbing his face with one hand and scratching his stomach with the other. The scars were obviously still itching she thought.

She let out a small snort of laughter as she lay down next to him.

"You sound all British. Guess being around Toad brings out the Australian in you?"

"I guess."

As she put her arm around his waist and laid her head on his shoulder, a position she had gotten used to in a frighteningly short time, she frowned as she noticed very faint tremors running through him.

"You're shaking."

"I know. I'm just tired."

She raised her head on one hand, leaning on her elbow and looked down on him.

"Hogwash! There's something else, isn't there? Is it Wanda?"

John blinked a few times in confusion. "Huh?"

"That girl on the phone; she sure seemed upset to hear from you. Ex-girlfriend?"

Now that she thought about it, it made sense. He had been gone for months; there would have been plenty of time. She couldn't help the images of a beautiful guerrilla girl, like something out of an Isabel Allende book kissing him goodbye before sending him to war.

Her little fantasy-scape had just begun to be accompanied by a stirring violin soundtrack when it was interrupted.

John laughed.

"What's so funny?" she asked, put out.

"Remember when we watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?" he asked, still chuckling.

"Yeah, the one where Kitty kept squealing over the 'like super hot doctor'? What about it?"

"Ferengi Rule of Acquisition number 119."

"119…Never sleep with the Boss' daughter?"

"Exactly."

"You mean?" She raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"Yep."

"Magneto's daughter? You're kidding."

"Nope. Wanda and Pietro are his; not that he acted like it most of the time. Neither of them was active, but he worked them twice as hard as the rest of us." John shook his head, looking serious suddenly.

"I take it, that's pretty hard…" she ventured.

"You have no idea," he agreed with a nod. "No 'Father of the Year' award for Magneto, that's for sure."

"Oh… so not a girl friend."

"Why, Miss D'Ancanto. Are you jealous?" His eyes were sparkling at her a self-satisfied smirk gracing his features.

"I'll show you jealous!"

"Please do."

TBC

A/N: So, yeah. Short and all.

Please when you review, leave me any ideas you might have for incidents or happenings in the next chapter, as well as any title ideas. The dedication and all is still up for grabs!

Review! At length, please, to make up for my muse, who is AWOL!

Ebon Hush