Too Good To Be True,
Part Two
The darkness of the Massachusetts night sky was offset a little by the glowing pools of light that had come from the street-lamps spaced equally along the sidewalk. Rogue slipped her gloved hand into Jenny's bare palm and sighed. "Nice night, huh?" she asked wistfully. "Always used to think nights like these were a gift from God Himself." She laughed. "Bet that sounds dumb, don't it?"
Jenny shook her head and chuckled. "Not at all – I felt the same way when I first kissed you, after all." Rogue rolled her eyes and stuck two fingers down her throat theatrically.
"Yuck. Anyone ever tell you you're a shameless flatterer?" she said, nevertheless feeling a little spring come into her step as the impact of the words sank in.
"All the time," Jenny replied, before she glanced up at the street-lamp nearest to them, and an idea seemed to physically flash across her pretty, elegantly-structured features. "Hey, Lou, I have to try something, just this once," she said, tugging Rogue towards the puddle of golden light that had been splashed onto the slabs of concrete paving. Then, turning towards Rogue, she pointed up at the lamp itself. "Always wanted to kiss a 'special somebody' under one of these – you know, like they did in those old Bogart movies, right at the end."
Rogue pursed her lips. "I bet you say that to all the girls," she laughed, before drawing herself close to Jenny and slipping her arms about the other woman's waist. "Do I get to be Ingrid Bergman? 'Cause I don't think I could pull off being Bogey as well as you…"
Jenny raised her eyebrows, and then stuck her tongue out at Rogue. "You know, I really should kick your ass for that, Lou. Saying things like that to your girlfriend is hardly the best way of getting any action." Nonetheless, she still drew Rogue close and kissed her deeply under the artificial glow cast by the light above them. Rogue wilted against her, all her inbuilt resistance abruptly dissipating as she felt Jenny's tongue gently play between her teeth. She felt Jenny's delicate, long-fingered hands enclose her in their embrace, and she leant towards the other woman without even thinking about it, her heart pounding in her chest like machine-gun fire. When Jenny finally broke the kiss, she had to put a hand to the lamp to steady herself because she was so utterly unsure of which way was up, and which was down. Jenny smiled, and cupped Rogue's chin in her palm gently. "Here's looking at you, kid," she whispered, her jade eyes gleaming with echoes of her elfin laughter. "Anyone ever tell you you're a great kisser?" she asked, echoing Rogue's earlier question with a wry smile.
"Not often," Rogue said, her head still swimming. "Usually they're too unconscious for me to get much of an opinion."
"Well, then," Jenny mused, "looks like I'm a privileged visitor, doesn't it?" She looked at her watch for a moment or two and then thumbed towards the end of the street. "We better get going. Happy hour just started at this dyke bar I know, that's just around the corner. Besides," and she grinned, "they do karaoke, and I want to get in the queue early."
Rogue shook her head, putting two fingers to Jenny's lips as she did so. "Oh, Jen, you don't have to do that if you don't want to. I was only kiddin' –"
Jenny shushed her by kissing her gloved fingertips and smiling broadly. "Nah, that's okay – I want to do it. What my lady wants, my lady gets, right?" She laughed evilly then, as she withdrew from Rogue's arms and began to lead her down the street excitedly. "Besides, if I do it, I want to see you do it, too. How about you sing a little Sheryl Crow for me?"
Rogue laughed, and slid her arm around Jenny's waist as she caught up to her girlfriend, matching her pace with little effort. "I could do that now, if you like." She took a deep breath, and began to sing the first couple of verses of the first Sheryl Crow song that sprang to the forefront of her mind. "A change would do you good!" she sang, her voice ringing out like a bell in the quiet night air. Jenny quickly put one hand to her chest and fanned herself theatrically with the other.
"Oh my," she said, pretending to swoon. "I think you just got yourself a groupie, Lou. How can I serve you, my beautiful rock star?" Rogue grinned, and squeezed Jenny around the waist playfully.
"Oh, I think you're doing fine so far," she said wistfully. "I'll let you know if I need anything, okay?"
Jenny laughed. "Your wish is my command," she chuckled, pausing in her stride to bow down at Rogue in mock-obeisance. "I am but your humble servant, after all."
"Ooh…" Rogue cooed, posing as regally as she could, her gloved hands curled into fists and planted on her hips, and her chin angled up so that she could look down her nose at Jenny's posturing. "I like the sound of that."
"You're supposed to," Jenny said, a mischievous gleam coming into her eye. "That line never fails, Lou. Make somebody feel special, and they'll never refuse you anything again."
"Is that right?" Rogue raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "You got proof of that, have you?"
"Of course," Jenny said. "When we get back to our hotel room, I'll show you it." Abruptly, she pointed up the street, towards a neon sign that glowed purple in the darkness. The curled letters read The Cockatoo in elaborate script, a few of the curves sputtering occasionally and rendering certain parts of the logo darker than the rest. "Here's that place I was telling you about. Doesn't seem to be much of a queue yet, though; I guess we must've made good time." She gestured towards the doors with an extended thumb. "Come on – I'm buying."
"Well, when you put it that way," Rogue said, "wild horses couldn't keep me away."
*
The first thing Rogue noticed about the bar was that it was packed – utterly packed – and she was immediately grateful that she had remembered her long-sleeved spandex top and gloves; the last thing she wanted was to start absorbing memories left, right and centre. She waited at the edge of the bustle around the bar, keeping her hands to herself and trying to keep her eye on how much progress Jenny was making towards getting her the glass of Southern Comfort she had requested, until she felt a quick nip at her backside. She ignored it studiously, clearing her throat and focusing more astutely on Jenny, as she elbowed her way towards the bar. She felt it again, a little more insistent this time, and she turned, to see a short-haired woman with brightly-dyed-green hair standing behind her. The woman's green bangs hung lankly around her face, which was decorated with a couple of garish piercings in her nose and lower lip, and her face was painted with neon-bright make-up. "Hi, gorgeous," the woman said lasciviously, edging closer to Rogue with every word. It wasn't often that Rogue felt nervous, but this was one of those times. "Buy you a drink?"
"Sorry, ma'am," Rogue said as politely as she could, even though her heart was pounding a mile a minute. "My girlfriend wouldn't like that, I don't think. She's already buying me one right now. I'm waiting for her. She'll be back directly." She was well-aware that she was babbling, but she couldn't think of anything else to do – if it bought her time to escape this unwelcome attention, she figured it was worth it in the long run…
The woman shrugged. "Well, she's not here now, is she? C'mon, sweetheart; do me a favour here. Why don't you start by telling me your name?" She paused. "How about I tell you mine first? That's fair, isn't it?"
"I guess," Rogue said uncomfortably, feeling heat prickle at her cheeks.
"Great," the other woman said, excitement thick in her words. "You can call me Gina, beautiful. Now, what's your name?"
"Louise," Rogue muttered, barely audibly. "Look, I really have to see what my girlfriend is doing. Nice to meet you." She turned to go, but then the other woman grabbed her covered wrist fiercely, dragging Rogue in close to her body before Rogue had a chance to react.
"Why don't you stay for a while?" Gina said with a shark's smile. "We could get to know each other better." She drew closer to Rogue, her mouth a few breaths away. Rogue could smell the tang of strong liquor and cigarettes on the other woman, could detect the odour of arrogance that oozed off her – the sense of inevitability that Gina seemed to have about this conquest being successful – and she pushed her away as quickly as she could.
"Don't," she said. "I don't want to hurt you." She clenched her gloved fists, ready to make a quick getaway, but then…
"Is there a problem here? Can I help you, ma'am?" Rogue felt her heart leap into her mouth as she heard Jenny's familiar voice from behind her. She saw Gina scowl and shake her head sullenly.
"No," she snarled. "No problem here."
"Good," Jenny said calmly, her eyes virtually crackling with electricity as the other woman began taking hesitant steps backwards. "Now please leave my girlfriend alone, or I will have you thrown out." Rogue could feel the anger radiating off Jenny's body almost as strongly as her bioelectricity, and it made her feel extremely relieved when the other woman melted away back into the throng of bar patrons before disappearing without trace.
"Thanks a bundle, Jen," she said, taking the drink that Jenny had brought back for her and taking a small sip from it. As she felt the warmth of the liquor hit the back of her throat she continued "I thought I'd never get rid of her."
Jenny shook her head. "Some girls are like that, honey. They can be even pushier than guys sometimes." She shrugged. "Comes with the territory, I guess, but I wouldn't worry about it. She's gone now."
"Yeah, that she is." Rogue downed the rest of her drink, her glass rattling as the ice cubes clicked against each other. "And now you're here again. Might as well take my mind off what just happened." She pointed to the podium at the other end of the bar, which had a TV and a microphone stand placed squarely in its centre. "How about a song then, sugar?"
Jenny grinned. "I thought you'd never ask." She tapped her own glass. "Tequila. Best singing aid known to humanity, I'm telling you." Slipping her hand into Rogue's she led her over to the podium and then climbed the steps to the microphone. Tapping the screen of the TV, she selected her song quickly, and then, right before the song started, she shouted "Is there a doctor in the house?!" as loud as she could – an exclamation which attracted attention from all over the bar, as Jenny had presumably intended it to. Immediately after she finished speaking, the first chords of Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine started up, and Rogue couldn't stop herself from grinning broadly as Jenny began to strut and preen like Jon Bon Jovi himself, belting out the lyrics of the song with an infectious enthusiasm, drawing loud whoops and cheers from the women around the podium. When she had finished, Rogue waited for her to get down off the stage, and then stood with her hands on her hips, and her lips pursed in an attractive pout.
"You liar," she said, in mock-indignation. "You told me you couldn't sing!"
"I really can't, sweetie," Jenny said, doing her best to look innocent by fluttering her lashes at Rogue, as if she were Bo Peep or Little Red Riding Hood made flesh. "I told you, it's all down to the booze. Without it, I totally suck."
"Uh huh," Rogue said, sounding unconvinced. "And Momma's not blue."
"Well, from what the other X-Men have told me, she isn't blue all the time," Jenny laughed. "Try again."
Rogue jabbed at Jenny's arm playfully with a loosely-balled hand. "Don't get smart with me, Rawhide," she said, bubbles of happy laughter escaping her throat against her will. "You know exactly what I meant. You sing really well, you know – I had a lot of fun watching you up there."
"Thank you," Jenny replied, almost bashfully. "Now how about you give it a shot?"
Rogue grinned. "All right – I will. Wish me luck…" She bounded up to the podium, bursting with enthusiasm. As she approached the monitor, however, she was almost overwhelmed by the number of songs on offer – which was evidenced by the thickness of the book that held the selection numbers. Rogue gulped, and then simply shrugged her shoulders and picked out the one song that she thought appropriate for the occasion: You've Got A Way, by Shania Twain. As the words began to flash up on the TV screen, Rogue felt her voice quaver for a moment or two, but then she found her groove, and began singing more and more naturally with every bar of music. As she sang, she kept her eyes focused on Jenny, who smiled encouragingly up at her and did not look away, even for a moment. Rogue smiled back at her and leaned down from the podium to sing to her personally, as if there was nobody else in the bar. She knew that was probably a little bit of a cliché, but she really didn't care – let others judge her how they would, but she was going to do whatever she wanted to do right now, and nothing was going to stop her. She reached out with her gloved hand to beckon Jenny up to the stage, so that she could sing directly to her, face-to-face.
Jenny winked at her as the song finished, and led the rest of the bar's patrons in a round of applause, causing Rogue to blush lightly and take a slightly self-conscious bow before she left the podium. When the two of them had vacated the stage in order for somebody else to pick up the microphone, Jenny said "You're just an incurable romantic at heart, aren't you?"
Rogue held her hands up, as if to confess her guilt. "I guess that must be it," she said, laughing. "Too many slushy movies as a kid, I suppose."
Jenny chuckled, and touched Rogue between her breasts with a fingertip. "Well then, I think we're going to have to burn that fever out of you, honey. How about we spend the weekend watching Bruce Willis and Keanu Reeves make things explode?"
"Sure," Rogue replied. "Just as long as we can watch Casablanca afterwards. Deal?"
"Deal," Jenny said, brushing Rogue's chin with the outside of her knuckles. "But if you ask me to pretend to be Bogey again, I'll skin you alive…"