(A/N: Here's the deal. Nire is not any sort of Marie. She's one of those 'I was bored and had no clue where I was going with this story so I added a new person' characters. But don't worry, she's going home soon. There's no more chapter after this for a while cuz I've only got half of the next one written, and it's going slow. But, after that, I've got about 6 more written, so… if ya want me to just skip the next chapter and put up the ones after that, tell me… And if anyone wants more Nire than what I've got (I mean, more in this story), which I doubt, tell me, otherwise, she's gone and the story ends soon. Ummm… I think, besides Chpt.6, I've got up to 11 or 12 written. And will SOMEONE read the original story I posted and tell me what they think? PLEASE? And, does ANYONE like Nire? I mean, c'mon, someone has to. I'll tell y'all who she is in a while, once she's gone, maybe.)
Discaimer: Nire is completely mine. Her thoughts are mine, her actions are mine, etc. Bwahahahahaha.
Chapter Five - Late Night Discussions
The next morning, the Nire of the night before was gone. Back was the surly, snapping wolf. Rogue showed her where the dining room was. The girl immediately took a table in the corner, sitting in the shadows. She did not even bother to get food. Rogue saw that Logan had saved her a seat - he always did - but she shook her head slightly and nodded towards Nire. He just rolled his eyes. Maybe he'd go sit there later.
"Mind if Ah sit here?" Rogue asked, standing in front of a chair. Nire grunted something in reply that Rogue assumed to be a yes. "Aren't ya gonna eat anythin'?" she asked as she sat down.
"Too damn early. I'm only here as a one-time thing so everybody knows to stay the hell away from me." Nire fell silent as she continued to glare at anyone who ventured too close.
"Me an' a couple o' mah friends are goin' shoppin' later today for clothin' for the prom. D'ya wanna come?"
"Nope. Thanks for th' offer."
Well, Rogue couldn't say she didn't try. The rest of the meal was spent in silence - well, Rogue tried to make small talk, but Nire pretty much ignored her. That didn't mean she wouldn't stop trying to be her friend, of course.
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Rogue, Kitty, and Jubilee finally completed Rogue's outfit. It took them hours, but it was done. After seeing how much trouble Jubes was just doing this, Rogue was glad only Logan had been with her, picking out her dress. She could not wait for Logan to see her in the complete ensemble.
Monday morning, when Rogue woke up to get ready for school Nire was still sound asleep. Rogue tried various ways of waking her up, from yelling to throwing things at her. In between tries, she got dressed. Finally, she screwed up the courage to grab Nire's shoulder and shake her awake. Not even that worked, and Rogue was beginning to worry.
"C'mon, wake up! Are ya okay? Are ya dead or somethin'?"
Nire groaned. "No," she mumbled, "I'm hoping that if I ignore you, you'll go away. It ain't seemin' t' be workin', though." She yawned. "Whaddaya want?"
"The Professor said ya had ta go ta school, remember?"
"Well, what time is it an' what time do I have to be there?"
"6:30 an' 7:20, Ah guess."
"Wake me up at 6:50, 'kay?" Before Rogue could even formulate an answer, Nire was sound asleep again.
During the day, Nire sat in the very back of all her classes and glowered and growled at everyone. She had them all, even some of the teachers, terrified of her. She did not pay attention at all, but if the teachers were willing to repeat their questions, she could answer them.
Her last class of the day just happened to be Logan's self-defense class. Logan threw a fit when he found out - the fight could be heard all over the school. It was quite humorous for Rogue to listen to. Nire stayed leaned up against the back wall for most of that class, too. She smirked a bit as she watched Logan and Rogue demonstrating things - there was way more body contact than strictly necessary. She almost laughed outright as she watched Kitty try to get this one move. Finally, she took pity on the girl and stalked over to offer help.
"Look, yer doin' it totally wrong. Have y'ever seen 'The Matrix'?" Kitty gulped and nodded. "Well, y'know at the end, after Neo's figured out he's The One, and he's dealing with Agent Smith, and he's got his leg up, and he's looking kind of dazed and amazed, and he's twisting his leg to put it down?" Kitty nodded again, looking around for someone to rescue her. Unfortunately, the other three were busy. "Okay. Think of that and do it like this. Watch carefully." She demonstrated. "Out, up, over, down, punch one-two. Got it?" For the third time, Kitty nodded. "Good. Try it."
Kitty was so terrified of Nire that she totally missed up, even worse than she had been before. Nire rolled her eyes and sighed frustrated.
"Look. You're eighteen, I'm fifteen, and you're terrified of me. Now, think about how sad that is for a moment. Have you figured out how sad that is? Good. I don't bite, regardless of how it appears. Relax and try again."
Kitty took a deep breath and let it out slowly, once more glancing around for someone to save her. Of course, Rogue and Logan were still trying to help Bobby. There was no one to save her, so she just concentrated on what Nire had said and what she had done… and she did it!
"See?" Nire stalked back to her place against the wall.
"Hey, thanks."
Nire just grunted and glared.
Of course, now that Nire was back against the wall, the others took notice of Kitty. "Any progress, Kitty?" Logan asked.
"Uh-huh."
"Okay, come over here. You planning on doing anything, Nire?"
She grunted again. "Whaddaya want me to do?"
"What can you do?" Logan left Rogue teaching her two friends and went to confront Nire. He hoped for a good fight - providing she could fight well.
"That depends on whatcha want me t' do."
"Well, what can you do?"
"I dunno. Whaddaya want me t' do?" Nire hoped if she got Logan pissed off enough, he would give her an all-out old-fashioned tavern brawl. Fighting herself in the woods wasn't very good for practice or keeping her skills up to par.
"Well, then, let's just see what you can do. Everything goes, but try to keep it clean."
Both of them silently congratulated themselves on getting their fight. Logan hoped it would be a good one - Nire knew it would. When Rogue realized what they were going to do, she almost tried to stop them. Almost.
"This should be interestin'," Rogue muttered as she led the way for them to lean against the wall. "C'mon guys. This looks like it's gonna take up the whole room."
"Why?" Bobby asked. Kitty and Rogue rolled their eyes at him.
"Please," Kitty said softly, scornfully. "The tough, biker guy against the curly, frigid bitch?"
"Aye, a surly, frigid bitch with the ears of a bat." Kitty paled and blushed at the same time. Nire's attention drifted for a moment as she remembered - remembered the games of hide-and-seek that invariably turned into how-quiet-can-you-be, so the other wouldn't hear. Her hearing was almost as good as his - they would spend hours, hunting each other. She was so deep in memories, she barely realized that her body was on autopilot, blocking whatever Logan threw at her and tossing half-ass punches back. She put her mind into the fight - this was probably the last one she was going to get for a few months until she could handle going back.
To the three watching teenagers, it was a beautiful - if deadly - dance. Nire, despite her large frame and stocky body, moved with liquid grace, fluidity that looked out of place being done by her. Logan - no, he was Wolverine right now - moved with feral savagery. He seemed almost infuriated by her easy parries. Rogue could see that Nire was merely toying with him, as a cat will toy with a mouse before the final deathblow, and was sure he knew it, too. Their bodies were blurs of movement. Logan could move surprisingly fast for a man with a metal skeleton. Rogue was jealous of the fifteen-year-old, as pathetic as that was. But, she was jealous of anyone who got that close to the gruff man, anyone who could touch him - even in a fight - without gloves on. The bell that signaled the end of school rang, but no one noticed it, save Nire.
"School's out." She effectively 'killed' Wolverine in seconds. "I win. Bye people." She disappeared to - wherever - before anyone could speak.
Kitty and Bobby stared, amazed, after her. Rogue, however, watched Logan - for that's who he was again. He glared at her as she tried not to laugh at the look on his face - an expression of mixed amazement, anger, and humiliation. He stalked out, growling to himself. Rogue managed to wait until she was pretty sure he was out of hearing before bursting into helpless gales of laughter. Her two friends just stared at her until her mirth and she wiped the tears from her eyes.
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Rogue found that Nire was the most talkative at night. They had many interesting conversations - once past you got past the surly exterior, Nire was a very intellectual, philosophical person. Rogue found that they were actually becoming friends. Logan could actually tolerate her after a while, so the three became an inseparable trio. The three loners sticking together - how fitting.
One night, only a few days before the prom, Nire was being unusually open. Rogue decided now was the time to ask, "Why don't ya like people touchin' ya?"
Nire was silent for so long that Rogue feared she had closed up again. Finally, she spoke.
"Letting people touch you… it signifies a certain amount of trust. Trust that I don't put in anyone anymore. It allows a clearer path into your heart. I hold everyone at arms length, not allowing any contact, fro a reason. The same one for which I appear to hate the world. If you let anyone into your heart, even the tiniest bit, you're leaving yourself open for betrayal. A betrayal that comes more often than it doesn't. I let myself come to care about too many people, too deeply, and paid for it. I'm not making that mistake again, ever."
"What left you so cynical and jaded?" Rogue asked quietly. She did not expect Nire to answer, but she did.
"They say 'tis better to have loved and lost that ne'er loved at all, but really 'tis better to have never loved at all. I let someone work his way through the armor around my heart, into the core, and he used my trust to betray me. But never again will that happen."
"All because of one guy?" That was out before Rogue could think better of it.
"No, I've actually always been like this. He managed to 'bring me out of my shell'. Then, he just reinforced my views. G'night."
That single word ended most all of their late-night conversations. After Nire had gone to sleep - or pretended to - Rogue lay, reflecting on their past conversations. One particularly interesting one had been on religion. Nire's views were that most of it was a 'bunch of bull shit'. She had gone throught he list - Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, etc.
"Well, what about Christianity?" Rogue glanced at the fluorescent numbers on her alarm clock - 1:30AM. Thank God it was a weekend.
"Christianity is the worst out of all of them. Think about it. There is no god but the one God. All other religions are false - false gods, false everything. You can't be Christian and something else, like you can be Wiccan and another religion. Christians - especially Catholics - have absolutely no tolerance for anyone different than them, in all aspects. In religion, they had little tolerance for Christians outside their branch. I mean, think about all the strife between Catholics and Protestants to this day. To my biological father's family, I am a bastard child because he was Catholic and my mother was Protestant. There has to be a huge ceremony for almost everything. I agree with the original idea of Christianity, I just do not like all the trappings they added to it. The last true Christian died on the cross, and he wasn't even Christian - he was a Jew."
"So ya've got a thing against all religions?"
"Pretty much all the major ones. If I were to follow a major religion, or any that others follow, I'd choose Taoism. That's about as pure as you can get."
"What is it?" Rogue remembered hearing briefly about it, but nothing more than its name.
"I can't explain it. If I tried, that would mean I didn't really know what it was. Technically, it shouldn't even really have a name, but 'Tao' means 'The Way', and that's about as vague as you can get."
"So, what religion are ya?" Rogue mostly asked questions and let Nire talk, trying to learn all she could about the girl.
"I'm not really anything of this world. I guess I take the best out of all religions and incorporate it into one, plus other things. I guess it could best be described as… hmm… well, a little bit of Wicca, except the main gods I worship are Mystra and Mielikki. I take in bits of Buddhism and Taoism, especially Zen Buddhism. Then I've added in a lot of things from 'The Dark Tower' books by Stephen King. Especially the importance of riddles and the ability to think around corners. It's more of a culture than a religion, and one practiced only by me. Nireism will die with my last breath."
"Interesting. Umm… who are Mystra and Mielikki?"
Nire laughed - the first laugh Rogue had heard pass her lips. "They are goddesses from my favorite book series. But the gods are just a name for your heart. Those two called to me more than any Earth god. Mystra - the goddess of magic, Lady of Mysteries - and Mielikki - goddess of rangers, the true, old type - are my heart and soul."
"What does your family think of this?" Rogue knew that her parents would not have been happy, had she followed any of the paths Nire had mentioned.
Unfortunately, this question caused Nire to slam her mental door shut. "I don't like talking of my family. G'night."
A slight noise brought Rogue back to the present. She thought Nire might be crying - that's what the noise sounded like - but she wasn't sure, and there were no other noises that she could hear before she fell asleep.