Author's Note: I'm enjoying this way, way too much. Thank you to all the kind reviewers, you make me blush so. This chapter is a little less funny, and I've officially made romance the secondary category, though it's not really underway yet. There's more Scott bashing in this chapter, but again, nothing awful.
"Come on."
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"It'll only take you like, two seconds."
"No."
"Why not?"
Yeah, why not?!
Rogue sighed, sitting Pietro down on the porch of the Brotherhood's sagging Victorian house and standing over him, hands on her hips.
"One: Tabby, Lance, Todd and Freddy are gonna be home any minute, I shouldn't intrude."
But I'm inviting you! It's my house too you know!
"Pietro, tell yourself to hush. Two: I have no desire to see the inside of your room. Three: I'm- Pietro Maximoff, are you looking up my skirt?"
No fair! How come I have to be in the mind? The mind-Pietro complained. Pietro batted his lashes at Rogue.
"Busted," he said. "But come on, help me up to my room. It's cold out here," Pietro gave her the saddest face he could muster.
"Sad puppy faces work a lot better when you haven't just been caught being a pervert, Maximoff."
"Not in my experience," Pietro said, extending his hands. "Help me up. I need a nap, you've worn me out."
Rogue sighed, and helped him up.
"Why don't you just have some pixie stix like you always do?"
"Take me to my room and I will," he said, leaning part of his weight on her shoulders as he had before. She opened the door and heaved a deep sigh as she saw the angle and length of the staircase.
"We're indoors, you sure I can't just leave you here?" she grumbled.
I'm going home with you stripes, no way around it!
"I'm sorry I asked."
"I didn't
say anything," the real Pietro replied.
"I know you think you didn't,"
she replied, starting up the stairs.
"What the hell did you go and touch me for anyway?" she asked, making a
mental note to snarl any follow up questions, as this one had dangerously
approached whining. Pietro shrugged.
"What can I say, introspection isn't my strong suit, so you get to evaluate me."
"Thanks a million."
"Oh, mope about it why don't you. I want a second opinion. I'm not shallow. Any angsty secrets emerging yet?"
Rogue paused as she hit the top of the stairs.
"Even if there were any, why would you want me to know them?"
"Proof that they happened, I guess," Pietro said. "Or maybe I just want you to blackmail me into being your boy-toy." Rogue just sighed again and marched towards his door.
"Third on the right," he contributed. She glared at him and went for the door knob.
"It's not like I haven't lived here, you know. If you've got secrets you wanna get out, why the hell don't you just tell somebody?" she sat him down on his bed and was helping to pull off his shoes before she had time to think about it.
"Why tell someone when I can show you? You'll know my memories the way I know them, maybe better."
Without having all the words in the way, Rogue thought.
Exactly, mind-Pietro said.
Pietro lay down in his bed, stretching out again.
"I feel like I could sleep for days. What a difference nine seconds makes. Your power's weird," he said, yawning and blinking. Rogue snorted and tossed the bedspread up over his face.
"Not as weird as you are, slick. Get some rest, when I see you Monday, you had better have gotten this out of your system." He sat upright under the blanket, like a Halloween ghost, but with navy pinstripes.
"Sure you don't wanna sleep the weekend away with me, stripes?"
Rogue snorted.
"Like your voice in my head is gonna shut up long enough for that."
She has a point, mind-Pietro replied.
You know he can't hear you, right? Rogue thought. Out loud she said, "I'm going home. Enjoy your nap. If you pull a stunt like this again I'll hamstring you." Pietro tugged the blanket down off his head and lay back down.
"I wouldn't've had to, but I have to prove I'm not…" yawn. "Shallow." He dozed off.
"He's a sweet kid when he's not running around like a maniac," said a voice from the doorway. Rogue turned to see Tabby, leaning against the doorframe.
"You see the irony there?" Rogue asked her. Tabby smiled and shrugged.
Aww, thanks Tabby, I think… mind-Pietro beamed.
"He wants your approval for some reason," Tabby shrugged again, her usual humor subsiding into something more serious. "Go easy on him, okay stripes? It's a big ego, but it's more fragile than we've been led to believe."
"You got a thing for Maximoff here?" Rogue asked, arching an eyebrow. Tabby snorted and smiled.
Aw yeah, she wants me.
"I'm sibling-fond of Quickie. You know blue, foreign and fuzzy is more my type."
"Yeah, go easy on him, too."
Tabby and Rogue stepped out of Pietro's room and headed down the stairs.
"Sides, if he were shallow, he wouldn't care, would he?" Tabby asked.
"If he weren't vain, he wouldn't care. I'm sure he's not really shallow, Tabby, I just don't know if proving to me that he's not is a good reason for handing me his memories on a plate."
"I don't have an answer for that, Rogue. But you better get home before Summers sends out a search party."
Rogue said goodbye to Tabby and started to walk home, but her borrowed powers were itching inside her.
Come on Rogue, show me what you got, mind-Pietro prodded.
You're on, Quickie.
Ready… GO! Rogue took off, her own private cheerleader rooting for her in her head the whole way home.
*****
Wow… is this what it's always like over here? Mind-Pietro asked.
Pretty much.
You'd've been better off at our place, he added.
Pretty much.
Scott was pacing back and forth in front of the kitchen table, hands behind his back.
"Why are you here? Hm, Kitty?"
"To like, learn to use my powers and fight for justice and stuff?"
"You sound like you're not sure."
"Well, you're like, not building a whole lot of y'know, confidence right now."
Scott nodded grimly.
Is he for real? Pietro asked, incredulous.
Pretty much.
This is unbelievably lame.
Pretty much.
"How about you, Kurt?" Scott asked after a long, dramatic pause. "Why are you here?"
"Um… to try and find acceptance?"
Scott nodded.
"How about you, Rogue? Why are you here?"
"You know why I'm here, Scott, now why don't you tell us what the hell you're interrogating us for."
Go stripes!
"I think you three are losing your focus. This is a great opportunity we've been given, and you three are wasting it. You've been treating this place like a dormitory, and just running around doing whatever you please. I mean, this is an institute, not a dating service for horny teenagers!"
All three interogatees burst into angry protests.
"Like you're such a jerk, Scott!" Kitty snapped.
"Unbelievable, unbe-goddamn-lievable," Rogue snarled.
"We're not doing anything wrong!" Kurt cried, more hurt than angry. "Tabby's my friend, she means a lot to me!"
"It's not my fault Quicksilver's insane, and scratch that, I'll hang out with whoever I damn well please!"
That's my girlfriend!
"I am not your girlfriend!" Rogue snapped out loud, earning her a weird look from Scott.
"Like, not you, she's talking to, like, Pietro? He's in her head again, duh!" Kitty snapped.
"Well, that definitely has to stop, Rogue. This sick fascination with Quicksilver needs to end. We're here to help you," Scott said, voice full of high morals and insincerity. It was a big mistake.
"C'mere you jackass!" Rogue snarled, jumping over the table. Kitty and Kurt grabbed her shoulders reflexively, but then recalled that Scott was being a jackass, and let her go, sitting back down.
"Um… Kitty, Kurt?" Scott said, looking back and forth between the two of them before he hit the floor. "Jean? A little help? Please?"
"I don't think so," Jean said from her end of the table, adequately away from the action.
Wow, Red's not as stuffy as I thought! Pietro giggled.
She has her moments. Now help me beat up Summers.
"Jean!" Scott yelped. "She still has Quicksilver's powers!"
"Say 'I promise to mind my own business' and I'll let you live!" Rogue snapped.
"Jean!"
Jean sighed and raised her hand, putting a wall between Scott and Rogue.
"Pardon me for a sec, Rogue," she said.
No! Lemme at him, lemme at him! Pietro shouted. Rogue rolled her eyes.
You know, you're awfully brave when I'm the one doing the pummeling.
Well no one insults my girlfriend and gets away with it.
I am NOT- Rogue cut her mental tirade short as Jean calmly continued.
"Scott, our institute is based on the idea that humans and mutants can coexist peacefully," Jean continued. "As well as mutants and mutants, humans and humans. That's all Kurt and Tabby, Lance and Kitty, and Rogue and Pietro, well, sort of, are doing. Coexisting peacefully. The way I see it, you're the one screwing everything up." With that, she dropped the shield.
Rogue looked at Jean incredulously.
"Wow. That may be the most inspirational thing I've heard since I've been here."
"Like seriously," Kitty whispered, wide eyed.
Rogue glared down at Scott.
"I can't very well kill you after that," she growled. "Thanks Jean."
"Any time," she said, flipping to the next page of the magazine.
"Hey Kurt!" Evan shouted from upstairs. "Tabby's on the phone!"
Kurt bamfed to take his call, Rogue got off of Scott, and then turned to Kitty.
"You wanna go get some coffee, Kitty?" Rogue asked as they walked out.
"We've got no way to get there."
"I'll give you a piggy back ride," Rogue grinned. "Might as well use Quickie's powers while I got 'em." Kitty giggled as she put her arms around Rogue's shoulders and the two of them took off.