Neko:In the previous chapter, both girls approached Jean for help with their date with Todd. I thought it would be implied that while they didn't get to tell Kitty who the boy was, they did both tell Jean.

1

By now, students at the Mansion had gotten themselves into spying positions. Whether it took ice-sliding to the roof, hanging from one's tail in a near enough tree or simultaneously standing in the good echo points on the grounds and trying to piece it all together by memory later everyone that attended Bayville High and the Charles Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters was prepared.

The adults were not.

Logan scratched his head, gnawed on his cigar and glared around as if he didn't trust what his senses are telling him. They told him that Todd, of all people, was here to take girls, plural, on a date.

"I mentioned that one shares my DNA and is as close to my daughter as there is in the world, right?", he asked.

The boy, holding two halves of a bouquet in either hand nodded. Logan's hand moved from the top of his head to his chin.

"You know what I can do to you, right?"

The boy shrugged and looked just as uncomfortable as Logan.

Rogue and X-23 were several yards away, further down the driveway. They were in each other's faces, certainly.

"What do you mean, 'I get it'?", Rogue fumed.

"I found Todd attractive and approached him.", X-23 explained again. "You saw someone previously available as unavailable and that made him more attractive from your perspective. It's the reason why male agents are paired with female agents when they're assigned to approach female targets. Didn't anyone here get espionage conditioning?"

"I didn't know you made a move on him!", Rogue pointed out.

X-23 frowned. "But aren't you a psionic, that can grab the memories and personalities of a person right out of them?"

"I never touched you.", she reminded the shorter girl.

"Hm. Did you talk to Jean? I asked her for help with my outfit and she's a farther reaching telepath.", X-23 surmised.

"I asked her for help with my clothes. For my date.", Rogue stated.

"Well, the other option is that Todd is confident enough to court multiple women at once." X-23 deduced. "Impressive."

As X-23 walked over to Todd, Rogue gaped. "No it isn't."

Logan continued to glare at Todd. "Are you still intimidating our date?", the girl asked.

Logan spied her out the corner of his eye as he continued to face Todd. "Shouldn't I be."

"How's your healing factor today?', she followed up.

"Pretty good I guess, if-ugh/", Logan was cut off as two adimantinum claws tore through a lung to puncture his heart and aorta.

"Stop scaring our date!", X-23 demanded. She turned to Todd, whose jaw had drop he showed nearly as much tongue as when in combat. "Flowers? Why...oh, I was told about this possibility. Are those for me?"

The boy nodded vigorously. He held out the right half, thought better of it and held out the left, but reconsidered. He ended up holding out both halves to ward off impending doom. X-23 took the bouquet on the right.

"Rogue, are you coming?"

Rogue was kneeling next to Mr. Logan, about to panic and apply what little first aid she could in about that order. Fortunately for her, Mr. Logan stood up on his own even if he had his arms wrapped around himself. What truly scared her was that he didn't even seem angry. Mr. Logan always seemed angry.

"This as important to you as it is to her?", he ground actually considered the question.

Todd's bathed appearance and having at least split up the bouquet he had purchased showed he had put some thought into this. It was still an incredibly hugely improbable chance that she might end up with anyone. But at least she had one. "I'm sorry.", Rogue whispered.

"Not yet you aren't.", Mr. Logan informed. "Tomorrow, when you're detailing the X-Jet. Then you'll be sorry. But in the meantime, beat it."

"Thank you.", Rogue then raced up to Todd and took the remaining flowers. She then hopped into Lance's showed all due diligence in evacuating the area.

2

Rogue and X-23 rode along in silence in the back of the jeep. Toad worried about the road, showing he had driven maybe twice outside of driver's ed. He would sometimes seem to brace himself and then look in the rearview mirror at the passengers. He'd then shake his head and jerk the jeep back into the center of the lane.

"Yeah, this akward.", Rogue commiserated.

X-23 gave her a glance before her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, the silence.

"Rogue's right. On a date, you're supposed to get to know someone. So Todd...Mr. Lensherr tells me you're a mutant supremist."

Todd did not have nor cause an accident. He was prepared to testify to that in court.

Rogue crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at the rearview mirror.

"Uh...that's a heavy question, yo.", Todd began. "I mean, the answer to that depends on the definition of supremist and the mutant."

Rogue cut in. "Like what the definition of 'is' is, shug?"

"You were at the house once, you know.", Todd threw back. "You know it's not that simple.

"I don't think I'm the mindset that I'd be if I had the Maximoff twin's looks and Gambit's powers."

"Who?", X-23 asked.

"One of Magneto's stooges.", Rogue dismissed.

"But when you're me...", Todd trailed off.

"Let me guess.", Rogue asked. "Kicked out the house cause it weirded everyone out before you could get a good grasp on your powers. Raving psychopath offers you a place to belong coupled with a bit of self-esteem in the idea that you're better than the bullies."

Todd stopped the jeep. "We are better than the bullies."

He got out and opened the door for X-23. "They don't give Nobel prizes to morons. They don't give fortunes to the lazy. They don't give championship rings to injured guys."

The boy hopped over the car to open the door for Rogue. "Sure, you have to earn what you get. But Homo Superiors can earn it in ways that nobody could before, yo."

The two girls drew closer so that he could talk to both at the same time. "Look, it's like this. I got a few points on this and I know X's men (and ladies) don't like it but it's what I think, okay?"

The girls looked at each other, then nodded to Todd.

"Alright.", Todd drew in a breath and let out a tone that X-23 could have sworn was a croaking if it had been in the normal hearing range.

"First, what's the damn difference, really? No one was as smart as Leonardo Da Vinci or Issac Newton but they get respected for having been better than other people. Why is it the head of Stark Industries or Shaw Corporation are applauded for making repulsor weapons and Sentinels of all things, and not your boy Forge just because his talent comes from a different gene than theirs? Why did your brother get cheers flipping through a circus and assaulted when the costume couldn't come off? That's bullshit.

"And cowardice. I mean, the normies (that's what we call flatscans)/"

"'Flatscan' is a slur too.", Rogue informed him.

"Jesus, what do you call 'em?", Todd asked.

Rogue shrugged. "People."

"Oh, like we ain't?", Todd countered.

X-23 chuckled.

Rogue glared at her. "Fine."

Todd had the good grace to look sheepish. "Well, thanks. Anyway...the X-gene Negative are completely afraid of us. And for no good reason. Didn't Jean get kicked off the soccer team and have all her trophies taken away because she was X-gene positive. And you can't give me that 'powers allow her to cheat' because if she had, every single parent that taped a game would have noticed it. Usain Bolt can win gold medals because he was born fast and Pietro can't? That's the being scared part. Then it's the no cause for it! When was the last time a mutant high school kid came in and used his powers instead of an assault rifle to make a name for himself? Hell, my house is packed with supremists and none of us burned a cross on nobody's lawn.

"Mystique told us that Magneto had a saying, yo. 'I'm glad they call me an evil mutant, because that means they're afraid. That means I'm doing my job.' But they call everybody an 'evil mutant', even Scott. 'Ugly mutant', even Storm. 'Gene-freak', because in the same way 'sand-nigger' says 'nigger' isn't enough, 'freak' isn't enough. The best they have is what, Amanda's fetish?"

"Kurt's not a fetish!", Rogue defended.

"Of course 'crawler isn't a fetish, that's my point. But to Amanda he is. The only person who wanted to use Jean's powers to cheat at anything were Duncan and his gang. You really think Pietro couldn't finish college by the end of the year at an hour a day? That Lance couldn't mine himself rich instead of bustin' ass down at the junkyard? But because we're out numbered a hundred thousand to one, they want to limit the competition to things they can win: like the fat kid that always wants to wrestle but never runs." Todd finished.

"So excuse me if I'd rather think of myself as Homo Superior, yo. Especially when the alternatives are looking a jaundice scrawny dude every morning and being pushed around just as much as I was when I was still 'normal' in Brooklyn."

"I'm sorry that you've been led to feel that way, Todd.", Rogue responded. "The X-Men are working toward a day when you don't have to."

"Well, you let me know when that day comes. Until then, maybe it's some fake self-esteem but it's mine.", Todd said softly, if a bit bitterly.

Rogue took his left hand in her gloved right. "You don't need fake self-esteem. How many other guys can take two girls out on a first date."

X-23 took his right hand in her left. "Besides, it's a lot more thought a position than the Professor told us it was."

"Well, you'd better enjoy it when you can get it.", Todd warned. "Thinkin' ain't my strong suit, yo."

X-23 nodded. "Hopefully, loving is."

Rogue gaped at her.

"What, you were thinking it too."

"I was not."

"You're psionic!"