Chapter 51: Yes There Are Other People Involved

Kitty sat nervously at the table and looked up as Pete entered the room. Their dinner was spread out on the surface.

"Sorry I'm late, Katya," he said in his quiet way. "My last class made a bigger mess than usual. It took longer to clean up."

"That's all right," she replied.

Pete sat down with her and looked at her curiously.

"Is everything okay?" he inquired.

"Well, uhh," Kitty began tentatively. "Well, you know how we were going to wait a little while before having children?"

"Da."

"How does November sound to you?"

Pete blinked.

"Does this... are you... you mean..." he stammered.

Kitty bit her bottom lip and nodded.

"We're going to be parents?" Pete asked.

"Yes, we're going to be parents," Kitty confirmed with a smile on her lips.

Kitty then started in surprise when her normally quiet and subdued husband let out a whoop of joy and started doing a happy dance around the room.


"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Kendall! Happy birthday to you!" sang the crowd.

Kendall stared at the single lit candle in the cake before her.

"Let's blow out the candle now," Storm said, leaning over with her head by Kendall's.

Kendall reached out for the cake and Storm caught her hand before it went in it. Storm blew out the candle (by actually blowing, not using her powers), There was applause and Kendall smiled like she'd just done something good. The cake was removed from Kendall's reach and cut up.

Rogue looked at Kendall with a smile on her face. She looked so much like Storm with the same white hair and blue eyes.

"Cake, chère?" Gambit offered as he stepped over to where she was leaning against the wall.

"Thanks, sugar," Rogue replied, accepting the plate from him.

"A year goes pretty fast, don't it chère?" Gambit mused. "Feels like only yesterday we got the news she was born."

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Well, perhaps not yesterday," he considered. "Maybe a week or two ago."

Rogue giggled.


Angelica and Sam were watching Tabitha and Tracy dancing on the table at the party being thrown by some of their college friends.

"Do you think it's wise leaving Tracy with Tabby?" Angelica asked. "I mean, she has had a bit to drink tonight and Tabby is... well, you know Tabby."

"Think she might con Tracy into doing something she wouldn't normally do?" Sam inquired.

"Sometimes I just don't think Tabby knows when to quit."

"Probably not. Eh, we'll keep an eye on them and if things start going weird we'll break 'em up and take 'em home. Well, take Tracy home anyway."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room:

"What do you say the odds are of getting a lesbian kiss?" Roberto asked John, pointing his thumb at Tracy and Tabitha.

"Well," John considered seriously. "Tabby has no shame so we have pretty good odds of her ending up topless, but Tracy wouldn't really do anything like that."

"She has been at the vodka though," Roberto observed.

"True. I'd say 50-50."

In another corner of the room:

"Sometimes I really hate Domino," Paige sighed.

"Yeah, why's that?" Danielle asked.

Paige pointed to where their friend was busy kissing a rather good looking guy. "She gets all the hot guys."

Danielle giggled. "Hey, do we know where Jubes is?"

"No idea. She and that Ralph guy she's been seeing got into a fight or something. Haven't seen her since."

Upstairs:

Jubilee pinned Bobby up against the wall in their exchange of sloppy drunken kisses as they made their way down the hall. Bobby's hand found a door knob and he opened it only to be greeted with a "Hey!"

"That room's taken," Bobby said between kisses.

Jubilee didn't reply, she was far too busy doing other things with her mouth. They staggered, bouncing against the wall in the process down to the next door. This bedroom was empty and it was in there that Bobby and Jubilee...made themselves at home.

Later, back at the hub of the party:

"Hey guys," Sam greeted John and Roberto as he and Angelic joined them.

"Hey" John said after a swig of his drink. "See? I knew Tabby would end up topless sooner or later."

"Typical," Angelica muttered.

"Hey Tabby!" Roberto yelled and pointed to Tracy. "Kiss her."

"Don't encourage her," Angelica said, glaring at him.

"Okay!" Tabitha replied merrily.

"Aww man," Sam sighed. "Ange, get Paige for me would you?"

Sam zipped into cannonball mode, rocketed towards Tracy and scooped her up before Tabitha could make her move. Roberto cursed while Tabitha merely laughed and continued dancing. Angelica went off to collect Sam's sister. Paige was not impressed to be told they were going home.

"Note to self," Paige muttered, "never go to a party with Sam again."


The following morning Jubilee woke up with a groan, rubbing her head. Her eyes opened and she blinked in momentary confusion: this was not her room. She rolled over and her gaze lay on the last person she expected to find in bed with her. She screamed.

"Yah!" Bobby yelled.

This was followed with simultaneous cringes as their mutual hangovers objected to the noise. They stared at each other.

"We didn't..." Bobby said slowly. "Did we?"

"I hope not," Jubilee replied.

There was silence for a moment and then Bobby swore under his breath. Jubilee looked away. They both knew that they did and neither of them wanted to say that aloud. More silence followed.

"This is awkward," Jubilee said finally.

"You think?" Bobby replied.

"We should go."

"Yeah."

Silence.

"You're not getting up," Bobby said

"I think you've seen enough of my naked body for one lifetime," Jubilee replied primly. "Besides, I don't see you getting up."

"Yeah, there's a reason for that."

"Well, we can't stay in bed with each other indefinitely. One of us has to get up, get dressed and get out so the other one can get dressed and get out."

"Fine," Bobby said tersely. "I'll get up, but you close your eyes."

"Right, like I really want to see that."

"Again you mean."

"Shut up."

"You shut up."


"Hi Jubes," Rogue said, leaning against the railing of the balcony of the staff room besides her friend.

"Hey," Jubilee replied.

"So, something wrong?"

"Nope, everything's just dandy."

"Uh huh."

Jubilee glanced over at Rogue. Rogue just looked out at the view. Jubilee sighed.

"You know the party last night?" Jubilee asked finally.

"What about it?"

"Ralph broke up with me."

"Aww Jubes," Rogue said sympathetically. "I'm so sorry."

"And then I slept with Bobby."

Rogue blinked. "You slept with Bobby?"

"Yep."

"Wow. Well, that explains why y'all have been avoiding each other all day."

"Yeah. I have no idea what to do," Jubilee said with a sigh and hung over the railing. "I mean... Bobby for goodness sake. Bobby."

"Yeah," Rogue considered. "You did use protection right?"

"I'm on the pill."

"That works."

"Hell, I don't even want to consider getting...that...with Bobby. It's Bobby! Argh!"

Rogue giggled.

"It's so not funny," Jubilee objected.

"Bobby's not all that bad."

"Says his ex."

"No really. He is actually quite sweet. Look, give it a couple of days and then try talking to him. You're gonna have to sort this out eventually anyway," Rogue said seriously. "You live together; you can't avoid him forever."

"I can try."


Come the twenty-first of April and it was Rogue's second seventeenth birthday. Continuing in the tradition, Gambit presented her with a new shirt. It had a picture of a couple of guns, lipstick, cards and a rose with the words "Southern Girl" up the top, and in smaller writing down the bottom: "You're messin' with the Wrong Woman".

"It's so true," Bobby said.

"I kick ass," Rogue agreed. "Thanks Swamp Rat."

"Any time, River Rat," Gambit grinned at her.

"Why do you persist on calling each other rats?" Kitty asked.

"It's a nice break from 'chère' and 'sugar'," Rogue replied. "We can't be all lovey-dovey all the time."

"Lovey-dovey and cutsie-wootsie?" Tabitha giggled.

"It disgusting, isn't it?" Gambit said.


Rogue looked up from her Joanna Allerdyce book, which she had been reading while on office duty, when the buzzer went off, signalling someone at the gates. She didn't recognise the flame-painted car on the monitor and hit the button for the intercom.

"Hi, can I help you?" she asked.

"That you Rogue?" asked the male voice on the other end.

"John?" Rogue exclaimed.

"I prefer Pyro, if you don't mind," Pyro replied. "Also, I come in peace and all that."

"Okay sugar," Rogue replied. "But I should warn you, I'm gonna have to have security on standby when you come in."

"Ooh big bad Brotherhood on your doorstep," Pyro teased. "Hey, is Colossus there?"

"Making requests huh?"

"Yeppers. Also, I have some with me who wants to meet him."

"You have a passenger?"

"Yep, no one you know though, hence the need for introductions. You gonna let me in or not?"

Rogue chuckled and hit the button for the gate in time with Pyro's "Open Sesame!" She then hit the internal intercom to alert Logan, Storm and Pete that Pyro was on his way in. This done, she watched while Pryo came down the driveway and stop outside the front door.

Rogue got up and opened the front door as Pyro and a blonde girl in her early teens emerged from the car. As they approached, Rogue could see that the girl was covered in coloured tattoos. Rogue was torn between admiring the intricacies and horrified that someone so young would have so many.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey," Pyro replied cheerfully. "You haven't changed a bit."

"Actually, I've probably changed more than you realise," Rogue drawled.

"What are you doing here?" Logan's voice demanded from behind.

"Nice to see you too, Wolverine," Pyro replied cheerfully. "I have some information, a message from Magneto and...a favour, if you will. We might wanna go inside and sit down for this one."

"How about we just keep things out here?" Logan asked.

"But I've just been telling Paint how hospitable you all are," Pyro replied. "You wouldn't want to make a liar out of me? I come in peace, take me to your leader, and all that."

"It's okay Logan," Bobby said dangerously from behind. "I can put out any fires he starts."

"I'm a fire-controller, not a fire starter," Pyro corrected, walking up the stairs with his arm around Paint's shoulders. "Duh."

"C'mon guys, let's play nice," Rogue interjected. "Why don't we take this into the office? There's a table, chairs, plenty of drinking water and it means I can sit in on it and make sure y'all don't kill each other."

"I'm with her," Pyro said, grinning.

Logan kept his eyes on Pyro as he and Paint entered the mansion. Paint was wringing her hands nervously, but that didn't stop her from looking around with fascination at the mansion interior. Rogue led them all into the office.

"Where's Pete?" Pyro asked after he sat down.

"He's a little busy," Rogue said. "He'll get here when he's done."

"This better be important," Logan said, sitting across from Pyro.

"You guys familiar with the Stryfe Group?" Pyro asked.

"We may have heard of it," Logan replied.

"Well, they're basically your generic drug company, but on the side they exploit mutants to create their 'speciality' items."

"Sublime Specialities," Rogue said. "Mentis Compesco."

"Yeah," Pyro confirmed and then continued darkly. "That's their best seller. Wanna know how they make it? They have a captive telepath that they harvest for DNA on a daily basis. In fact, the demand is so high they even had her cloned to meet it."

Pyro smirked as he took in the combined horrified reaction of the three in the room.

"They make a stack of other stuff, all made from mutant DNA. Personal force fields, enhanced physical abilities, heck they're even trying to track down someone with a healing factor to create an 'instant cure' line. We," Pyro went on smugly, "have been trying to rescue our exploited brethren and shut them down."

"Jimmy," Rogue said, her eyes wide with realisation. "That's why Worthington Labs was broken into. That's why they came after Jimmy."

"Yeah," Pyro nodded. "They realised they weren't going to get the leech outside of your school, so they had to get someone inside to get to him. There's quite a demand for shutting down mutant powers too. Even if the Cure only lasts a month, it's still a valuable commodity and you let their agent in. You let them harvest his DNA."

"We didn't let him do anything," Logan growled.

"You invited a flatscan into your school," Pyro pointed out. "What the hell did you think was going to happen?"

"We have two 'flatscans'," Bobby said, using his fingers as quotation marks, "in our school that have been working out pretty well and get along fine with everyone. Personally, I think it's nice to see Xavier's dream coming true, even if it's just a little bit at a time."

Pyro was about to reply when Gambit and Pete arrived.

"Colossus!" Pyro exclaimed. "Awesome to see you again, mate. I have someone I want to introduce you to."

"Okay," Pete replied, a little taken aback.

"What's going on?" Gambit asked, slipping his arm about Rogue's waist.

Rogue gave a quick run-down and Pyro gestured for Paint to stand.

"Paint, this is Colossus. Colossus, this is Paint," Pyro said. "I was telling Paint how you're into art and all that jazz and, well, you should see what Paint can do. Hey, Roguey, got some paper?"

Rogue pulled out a sheet of scrap paper and handed it to Pyro, who in turn gave it to Paint and encouraged her not to be shy. Paint held the paper in her hands and a moment later coloured lines spilled forth from her fingers, filled the page and eventually settled into a picture of a sun setting behind a pair of hills. Pete was suitably impressed.

"This is excellent work, Paint," Pete said as he admired the picture.

Paint bit her lip and shuffled her foot shyly.

"Oh," Rogue exclaimed suddenly. "All the tattoos... You made them didn't you?"

Paint nodded.

"They look very cool," Rogue said.

"Thank you," Paint said softly.

"Paint was one of the mutants we rescued from the Stryfe Group," Pyro explained. "We're hoping that you guys wouldn't mind taking her in."

"Of course not," Rogue said quickly before certain hostile people in the room could respond. "She's more than welcome here."

"Which brings me to Magneto's message," Pyro said, his voice turning steel. "Stay out of it. He doesn't care if you don't like his methods, he will bring this mutant exploitation to an end. You're a school, so act like one. Look after the kids and educate them and train them to use their gifts. Leave the outside world to him."

"More DNA harvesting," Logan muttered. "You tell Mags if he needs any help bringing these guys down—"

"Will do," Pyro grinned at him. "See? It wasn't mindless destruction. Awesomely fun destruction, sure, but not mindless. By the way, you may see us on the news a bit more in the months to come. Unless plan on helping us, keep put of it, okay? Pietro's arm is still healing. Don't want to be fighting you and them. Well, actually, hey Iceman, how about a little one on one in the DR?"

"Maybe later."

"Wuss."

"Clown."

"Imbecile."

"Boys, boys," Rogue interrupted. "Is there anything else we should know, Pyro?"

"Let's see, drug company exploiting mutants to make their speciality products, rescuing mutants, trying to take down company without unnecessary conflicts with the X-men who think they're doing a public service, pass on Magneto's message and drop off Paint," Pyro said. "Nope, think that about covers everything. Hey, who's reading Joanna Allerdyce?"

"That would be me," Rogue replied. "Why? She a relation or something?"

Pyro paused and considered her. "I thought I was inside your head?"

"Actually my powers got, uhh a restart," Rogue replied. "I don't have any voices in my head right now."

"Must be peaceful," Pyro replied and then nodded with his head towards Gambit. "You dump the Icecube, Roguey?"

"Yeah, this is Gambit," Rogue replied. "Umm, I don't know if you two met at the fight..."

"Nah I was busy kicking Iceprick's ass."

"You were not," Bobby objected.

"I was the one who did Pietro's arm," Gambit responded coolly.

"Oh you're the one Wanda was pissed at," Pyro replied. "Hey, I thought she said she blinded you?"

"Do I look blind to you?" Gambit replied evenly.

"Hmm, must have been mistaken," Pyro considered, rubbing his chin. "Excellent. This will tick her off again and I love it when she gets angry."

"Why?" Rogue asked, blinking.

"Hottest angry sex ever," Pyro replied nodding eagerly.

"I'm sorry I asked. So, is she?"

"Huh?"

"Joanna Allerdyce, is she a relative or something?"

"Oh yeah, yeah," Pyro nodded. "Ahem. I know her pretty well, actually. You like her books?"

"Sure, they're great," Rogue replied enthusiastically. "I especially love 'The Dark Falls'."

"Really? I like that one too! Erm, I mean, y'know, not that I'm all that interested in gothic romance at all but y'know, like to support my...family. Plus she writes the best erotic scenes," Pyro said with a grin.

"Ah ha," Gambit said smugly to Rogue. "I knew you were reading dirty books."

"Shut it, Swamp Rat," Rogue retorted.

"It never fails to amaze me how the untouchable woman manages to attract so many guys," Pyro teased her. "I should tell Joanna about you. I bet she could come up with all sorts of explanations."

"Nah, I'd probably end up a succubus or a vampire or something," Rogue replied with a smirk.

"That's too easy," Pyro dismissed. "Although, you do fit the role of the femme fatale rather well, and here you're dating a guy with demon eyes, I mean, c'mon, that's got to be a story right there."

"I swear, if a character ever shows up in one of Joanna's stories that sounds at all like me, I'm going to track you down, and kick your ass," Rogue considered. "And then I think I'll ask if Joanna can sign a copy of the book."

Pyro laughed.

"I'll be sure to tell Joanna she has a fan," Pyro teased her. "Hey, she's got another book coming out in July."

"Really? Awesome. I'll be sure to pick up a copy."

"Okay," Logan interrupted. "Is the book club meeting over yet?"

"Well, if it is, then I should be going," Pyro replied. "I've done what I came here to do, so unless Icebaby wants that DR session, I shall bid thee farewell. Paint?"

"Yeah?" Paint asked, looking up at him.

"You will be safe here," he promised her. "Well, as long as they don't hire any more douche bags."


AN: Paint is comic-canon. She only appeared in two issues that I'm aware of "X-treme X-men Xpose" #1 & #2. She was an adult though, not a teenager as she appears in this story, and her abilities were about changing skin tones, but I took some creative license and expanded it so she could paint on paper as well.

Okay, fine, I admit it, I didn't reread the relevant issues before writing the chapter and by the time I did, the chapter was already published. Whoops! My bad. Ahem. Moving right along...

For those interested in her tattoos, you can see them at www DOT deeperinsanity DOT info /paint/paint DOT html