"Rob

"Rob! Look out!" yelled Kitty. Rob could feel Rogue's bare hands on his face.

"Man, what are you doing?" he asked. "Get your hands off of me! We just me!" He pulled away from Rogue's hands. He then remembered what Logan had told him earlier, about the girl with powers similar to his own. Could she be that girl? She was wearing tights and a long sleeve shirt over a tank top. Her gloves lay harmlessly on the floor nearby.

"I didn't affect ya?" Rogue stared at him. She looked towards him, then experimentally placed her hand on his arm. Rob once again shook it off.

"Don't touch me," he warned again. "Your friend Kitty got hurt because she brushed up against my arm."

"Why don't you cover your skin up?" Rogue asked.

"'Cause I'm hot!" Rob said. Everybody in the room could sense the annoyance coming from him. "You wanna see me hurt somebody? Fine!" he grabbed onto Rogue's arm. He braced himself for the sudden surge of powers and memories, but nothing happened.

Rogue looked at him in the eyes. "Nothing happened," she whispered.

"That's not right." Rob said back. "I almost killed my grandfather when he touched me. How could you be immune?"

"The first guy I went out with was in a coma for awhile after he touched me." Rogue began, excitedly, "do you absorb the life force of humans and the mutant powers of mutants?"

"Yeah, but I've also got really keen senses and depending on where I'm touched, I absorb different amounts of powers." Rob said.

"I don't understand why this makes us immune to each other, but I haven't touched somebody else in such a long time, I don't really care." Rogue said. She looked at Rob with happiness in her eyes. Rob backed away slowly.

"You're the first person I've touched in awhile. But that doesn't make you anything special." He backed away. He didn't want to become close to anybody. They might just kick him out like his grandparents did. He didn't want to experience that again. It had been unpleasant enough the first time.

"Rob," the Professor said, sensing his distress, "I'd like you to see a demonstration of all the other X-Men's powers." Rob slowly nodded his head. The Professor seemed to think he was going to stick around for awhile. He'd spend his three days, then decide. Demonstrations of powers weren't going to make him want to stick around. Lunch would though.

"My code name is Cyclops and I can shoot a red optic beam out of my eyes." Scott said. "I'm not going to demonstrate because I could shoot the place up."

"Ok," Rob said. He listened patiently while the other X-Men demonstrated their powers. He longed for the burger that he had set out to get before he was attacked. Evan's spikes briefly impressed him but the hunger soon set in again. When they were finished, Rob looked from one person to another. They were all staring at him again. He hated it when people stared at him.

"I'm hungry," he said. He'd never been one to just wait for something to be offered to him.

"I'll take ya to the kitchen." Rogue said quickly. A little to quickly for his taste. He didn't want to get close to her just because he could touch her. He wasn't even sure if he liked the girl.

"Um. Ok." Rob said. He followed her out of the main room and through twisted hallways to the kitchen. Rogue excitedly starting pulling boxes out of the cupboards and exclaiming about how good something was. Rob looked at her warily. He didn't want to get close to anybody at the mansion. He didn't know how long he was sticking around. He might only be here for the three days he had promised Logan.

He turned away from her, surveying the room. It was huge, with enough food in it to feed the homeless for years. Rogue was tossing boxes around like they were nothing, when they actually meant so much. If it hadn't been for the last ounce of his grandparents kindness, he would have starved on the street.

"Get out of here! You're not welcome anymore. If you can't show respect for your Grandmother, then we're not going to let you stay here. I don't care if you don't have anywhere to go, just leave." Rob's grandfather yelled. Rob looked quickly from one of his grandparents to the other. They had taken him in when his parents died and now they were kicking him out? He was only seventeen.

"You don't understand! I can't kiss her good night. I'd kill her!" Rob yelled back. His grandparents looked at him warily.

"No you wouldn't. It's a simple kiss. Don't tell me you're one of those mutants we've heard about." His grandfather looked at him in the eyes. Rob paused. It was the one simple pause that did him in.

"You are…" his grandmother whispered. "You're a mutant. No wonder your parents died."

"It's not my fault! I was born this way." Rob yelled.

"Get out of my house. You're not welcome here." His grandfather yelled. Rob quickly ran up to his room. He stuffed some clothes, valuables, and his wallet into a duffel bag. He picked up a picture from beside his bed. Four smiling adults stared back at him. His parents and grandparents. They'd promised they would always be there.

He stuffed the picture into his bag and ran out of the house as fast as he could. He got to the bus stop and took the bus to Boston. A new city for the mutant to hide in.

"I'm not hungry," he said to Rogue. Rogue looked at him again.

"Ok," she said weakly. "I'll show you to your room. It's upstairs." Rob silently followed her through the hallways again. She pointed one of the doors in the long hallway. "Right there." She quickly ran down the hall and pushed opened the door to another room. Rob walked into the room. It was large and plush. It was very different from the crap hotels he had gotten used to living in. He walked around it. His bag had been set down by the bed. There was another smaller paper bag on the bed. Rob opened it. It was a colorful X-Men uniform like the ones that Rogue, Kitty, and Kurt had been wearing earlier.

"They just don't get it," he whispered. He picked up the bag with the spandex horror in it and tossed it into the back of his closet. "I might not be around here long."