Too Good To Be True

Part Three

   Rogue scooped a large mouthful of mint-chocolate ice cream from the criminally-large tub that she had managed to trap between her knees, licking the leftover chocolate chips off her spoon and grinning as she felt the chilly mouthful move down her throat. "Man, I'm such a pig," she giggled stupidly, in between licks. "You shouldn't have let me order this, honey – I'll be hyper all night. I think ice cream does funny things to a Kree metabolism, especially one as screwed up as mine…"

   Jenny raised an eyebrow. "So I noticed. You're such a problem child, Lou – I don't know what I'm going to do with you…" she said in a light tone, before she pointed at the screen. "Now shush – Neo and Trinity are about to kick some serious butt, and I want to hear every single gunshot, okay?"

   Rogue gulped down another mouthful of ice cream. "Gotcha," she murmured through mint and chocolate-flavoured cold, and then she settled down to continue watching the DVD that Jenny had managed to rent from the local Blockbuster that afternoon, bright flashes of slowed-down movement splashing across the TV screen. She adjusted the covers of the bed a little, and then smiled naughtily, an irresistible chuckle forming in her throat. "Sadist."

   Jenny blinked in disbelief, and touched the 'pause' button on the remote that she held in her left hand. "I am not," she said, indignantly, before she dug the index finger of her other hand into the plastic tub on Rogue's lap, and then decorated the end of Rogue's nose with a sizeable blob of light green ice cream. "Now that's sadism." Rogue gasped as the cold of the stuff struck her, and then retaliated by smearing a line of ice cream down the side of Jenny's cheek with two fingers.

   "No, sugar," Rogue chuckled as Jenny wiped at her face with her hand, "that's payback."

   "If you say so, Lou," Jenny said, before licking the ice cream off the end of Rogue's small snub nose with a single quick movement. "I call it 'making a mess', myself – but if you want it to call it that, then you go ahead, sweetie. I won't stop you."

   "Gee, that's nice to know. I'll bear that in mind, I guess." Rogue laughed, before she drew closer to Jenny and captured her mouth in a delicate kiss, before the other woman could sit back down again. "I had a great time last night, you know," she said in a softer tone, as she gazed into her lover's jade eyes, almost hypnotised by the flecks of gold that were scattered around Jenny's irises, as if they were pennies in a fountain. "Thanks for taking me to that bar."

   "Don't… don't mention it, Lou," Jenny said, slightly taken aback. "You'd have done the same for me, right?"

   Rogue smiled, a bashful look crossing her pretty features, and then she playfully traced her tongue along the side of Jenny's ice-cream-smeared cheek. "I'd like to think so, Jen. Don't think I could have pretended to be Jon Bon Jovi as well as you did, though."

   Jenny laughed. "I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or not," she said with a wink, squeezing Rogue's knee with the hand that wasn't holding the remote control. "I mean, that could either mean I'm a great singer, or I look far too masculine for my own good."

   Coughing slightly, Rogue ran her fingers up the centre of Jenny's chest, walking them over the surface of her girlfriend's sternum and between her full breasts like a tiny pair of legs. "Well, honey, I wasn't gonna mention the manly rug you got growin' in right here, but since you brought it up…" She kissed Jenny's collarbone, feeling the slight fizzle of electricity run through her lips as her girlfriend began to protest jokingly. Her fingers brushed Jenny's naked hip beneath the sheet that was draped across their legs, and she cuddled closer to her girlfriend's body, kissing her lightly on the lips once more. "Don't mean I don't still think you're cute as a bug, though," she said, her tone as complimentary as she could make it. "Love you."

   "Love you too," Jenny replied, before a sceptical look crossed her face for a moment or two. "Hold on a second… I know that look – what do you want, Lou?"

   Rogue raised an eyebrow. "I'm shocked, Jen. Why can't I tell the woman I love just how I feel about her now and again?" She nuzzled Jenny's neck with the tip of her nose, and laughed softly as Jenny leant into it, like a cat being stroked. "I wanted to thank you for being there for me last night, too," she added softly. "Felt nice to have you there. I know that woman couldn't really have hurt me – never really needed much protection from anything for years now, not since I stole Carol Danvers' powers – but you made me feel a lot more secure. That means a lot." She slipped her hand into Jenny's palm, and squeezed gently, feeling a sensation almost like a comfort blanket settling around her shoulders when she felt Jenny squeeze back.

   "Ah, you don't have to thank me for that, honey – I'd have kicked that girl's ass whoever she was hitting on. Some people just deserve to have their egos bruised because their attitude stinks," Jenny said softly, her voice tickling Rogue's ear. "But I thought I'd make it an extra-special ass-kicking because it was you. Whatever it takes to get you to wear that Victoria's Secret stuff I bought you, after all…"

   Rogue laughed, and swatted playfully at Jenny's arms with her hands. "Dream on, Rawhide – the day I dress up like a catalogue model is the day the world ends."

   Jenny did her best to look utterly crushed, doing her best impression of Droopy in order to make Rogue feel guilty. "I feel so betrayed," she wailed in a plaintive tone. "I'd have thought that what I did deserves at least a showing of those cute Daisy Dukes you like to wear, after all."

   "Ease up there, Rawhide," Rogue exclaimed, shaking her head at Jenny's lascivious expression. "We ain't in Hazzard County yet. 'Nother couple hundred miles and a couple dozen dropped IQ points oughtta get us there, though." She hopped out of bed and posed with her hands on her hips, the nascent moonlight coming in through the gap in the curtains and casting angular slices of its soft light on Rogue's T-shirt-clad body. "And besides, sugar, if I do that now, what else can I do to keep you?"

   "Oh, well, I heard your boysenberry pie was something to die for. Is there any truth to that, or was I just hearing so much scuttlebutt?" Jenny asked in an overtly-innocent fashion, but also in such a way that was calculated to get a response. Sure enough, Rogue's face twisted into an irritated frown as a particular memory swam to the surface of her mind, through all the other borrowed memories that were still floating around her skull like lost and aimless shoals of fish. She ran her hands through her hair as she got back into bed, and then pursed her lips before she spoke, trying to find the right words to use without sounding as annoyed as she was.

   "I… guess you could say that," she said slowly, trying to stop her veins throbbing at the recollection of the event. "I've only done it once, though – and when I did, nobody got to eat any of it; Remy charged it up and threw it at Bishop." Jenny turned her lips inwards for a second or two, to try and stop the laugh that Rogue could clearly see building in her throat, before she composed herself enough to reply.

   "He… threw it at Bishop?" she asked, almost incredulous.

   "Yes, Jen, he charged up my boysenberry pie and threw it at Bishop," Rogue said in a clipped tone, folding her arms and pushing her lower lip out a little. "I worked for hours on that damn pie, and it ended up getting splattered all over my face."

   Jenny clapped both hands over her mouth and nose, shaking silently with laughter, her eyes twinkling in the room's half-light. "Oh, Lou, I'm sorry," she gasped. "I was just imagining you covered in pie crust … I couldn't stop myself."

   "Neither could Remy," Rogue replied, trying to look as dignified as she possibly could in the midst of her recollection of the embarrassing events. "I swear I'd have pounded him flat – that is, if his wife hadn't showed up just before I punched his face in."

   Jenny stopped laughing, and extended a confused forefinger towards Rogue, her expression clouding over with puzzlement. "Remy's… wife?"

   "Yes, he didn't think to tell his potential new girlfriend that he still had a wife back in New Orleans," Rogue said bitterly. When Jenny looked even more confused, she continued "Welcome to the X-Men's world, honey. We get estranged wives, evil twins, alien clones, parallel-reality mirror images and God knows what else showin' up on our doorstep every other week. Hell, Joseph is supposed to be Magneto, and he's less than half the guy's age – even the Professor has no clue what happened to him. So you can see what kind of a mess you've gotten yourself into by getting involved with me – you better expect our cyborg kids from the future to start turnin' up sometime soon, carryin' guns big enough to shoot a T-Rex with."

   "Are you serious?" Jenny asked, scratching the back of her scalp with her free hand. "That actually happened?"

   Rogue nodded. "'Fraid so, sugar. Happened more'n once, actually." She sighed, stroking Jenny's cheek absently, little blue arcs of electricity connecting with her fingers and popping quietly as the contact was broken. "You get used to it after a while, though – I bet Scotty's got a big ol' chart of the birthdays he has to remember taped to his bedroom wall." She counted off a few fingers, mouthing names to herself, before she spoke again. "Let's see… he's got Nathan – that's his son with Maddie Pryor – then he's got Nathan's kid sister Rachel, and Nathan's alternate-reality twin brother, Nate Grey. Plus there's Stryfe, Nathan's clone, Corsair, Scott's space-pirate dad, and Alex, Scott's brother. Not to mention his grandparents up in Anchorage –"

   "I think I get the idea," Jenny said, a little bemusedly. "And you say you people get used to this kind of thing?"

   Rogue giggled. "Oh, sure you do. After you visit your first alternate reality, or meet your evil twin, everything else looks kinda boring. Why, I haven't been grocery shopping in years without expecting a doorway to the Mojoverse to open right in front of the Captain Crunch boxes."

   "The… which?" Jenny asked, confused.

   "Magical dimension run by a big fat spineless yellow dude with magic powers," Rogue said in a single, unbroken breath. "Used to be all creepy fantasy-land stuff, but then he decided TV was a better way of getting people to behave themselves." She shrugged. "He used the X-Men as a way to get higher ratings – he gave Betsy some bionic eyes and filmed us through them."

   Jenny shuddered. "Sounds like a creep to me."

   "Yeah, that's pretty much what we figured out, too," Rogue agreed, her hackles raised by the simple memory. "Gives me the creeps just thinkin' of that fat tub of blubber filming Betsy twenty-four hours a day." She shrugged. "Guess there are some things even X-Men don't get used to, after all."

   Jenny's expression of distaste turned into a relieved smile. "Glad to hear it, Lou," she told Rogue with a small burst of laughter, which erupted from her throat like champagne bubbles bursting. "Otherwise I don't think I could have kept your interest much longer."

   Rogue shook her head and trailed her hands through Jenny's hair, tangling her fingers in the long brown strands absently. "I don't think there's much chance of that happening, sugar," she said, her eyes half-closing themselves lazily before she laid her head next to Jenny's. "I haven't watched all your Disney movies yet, after all." She paused. "Better hide 'em – I'm up to Aladdin so far. Once I've watched 'em all, I'm gone."

   "Is that a threat, Lou?" Jenny asked. "If it is, remind me to hold all your Pogs to ransom when we get home." She smiled, and lay back into the soft cushion of pillows that she had constructed for herself. "That way you'll have to stay."

   Rogue pouted. "That's low, Rawhide," she said. "There are some things you just don't touch – and a girl's Pog collection is one of 'em."

   "Well I suppose I shall have to find something else to steal, then, won't I?" Jenny said thoughtfully. Then, she pointed at the TV with the remote control. "I guess I can think of something later. Right now, I want to see some kick-ass fight scenes – that okay with you?"

   Shrugging, Rogue turned her attention to the TV screen, which was still showing Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss frozen in mid-pose. "Sure. I don't have a problem with that," she murmured, snuggling down underneath the sheets and wrapping her left arm across Jenny's stomach. "Bring it on."

*

   When the movie had finished, Rogue yawned and stretched. "Well, that's the movie done, Jen," she said in a tired voice. "Should we talk about where we want to go next?"

   Jenny shook her head. "Not until the morning. Besides," and she stretched a little also, "I've always thought that road trips should be when you just… drive… and see where you end up." A thoughtful expression passed over her face. "I've always wanted to drive through Arizona, though – just to see if there really are skeletons by the roadside, like in the movies. Just something to bear in mind for the future, I guess."

   "Yeah," Rogue murmured tiredly. "Maybe we could go to Chicago, too – maybe do an entire circuit of the country. We could see how long it took us to do all forty-eight connected states, couldn't we?"

   Jenny laughed. "We'd be out here for weeks, Lou. Don't you think your friends would start to miss you?"

   "I guess they might, but they're used to people movin' from place to place all the time," Rogue said in a matter-of-fact way, even through her deepening exhaustion. "It's like a halfway house in that mansion. There are so many people comin' and goin' that I don't think I'm any different. Hell, they probably think I deserve a vacation once in a while. It won't…" and she yawned again, more deeply this time, "won't be a problem."

   Jenny raised her eyebrows. "If you say so, Lou." She laughed suddenly, as something struck her. "Hey, I guess we've started talking about where we wanted to go after all." She kissed Rogue lightly on the forehead, drawing a weary sigh of contentment from the other woman. "Sneak."

   "That's me," Rogue mumbled sleepily. "Maybe we should wait until the morning after all… can barely keep my eyes open." She closed her eyes slowly, and then started to slumber gently against Jenny's shoulder.

   "Goodnight, Lou," Jenny whispered, brushing her lips gently across Rogue's. "Sleep tight."