Chapter 4: High

            It was late that same night – or early the next morning depending on what way you might have looked at it – that Kitty Pryde awoke from slumber, her stomach grumbling madly.  She rolled over and tried to ignore it, but persistently the monster in her belly seemed to be trying to pop up and say 'hey, I'm hungry'. 

            She switched the little desk lamp next to her bed on, and she turned it towards the wall to make sure the light wouldn't wake up Rogue – whom she shared a room with.  The last thing she needed was to wake up Rogue at 3am, Rogue always got so angry about things like that.  Kitty took a quick glance at the clock, threw the covers off, stepped into her furry slippers, and stood slowly, tiptoeing. 

Rogue was asleep soundly on the other side of the room, her covers half thrown off, her makeup smeared, the girl even slept with her makeup on, Kitty always found this odd about Rogue, but never questioned it anymore – Rogue got defensive about such things.

The whole Mansion was quiet, not a soul awake save herself, she was as quiet as she could be, creeping in the dark, and instead of opening the kitchen door, she simply phased herself through it.  She switched on the kitchen light, taking a quick glance around, everything in place, tidy.  She knew when everyone awoke for School the kitchen would be a disaster zone. 

            She fixed herself something to eat – a simple salad – and she sat quietly in the kitchen, eating her food, drinking a Diet soda, and thinking to herself.  She found herself thinking about this afternoon, with Rogue's extraordinary strength at basketball.  She was worried perhaps some part of Miss Marvel had somehow remained with Rogue, despite having been in a coma for almost four weeks.

            Kitty shook off the feeling, finished her salad, washed her plate and glass, disposed of the soda can, and headed back upstairs into her room. 

            Her first reaction was to go over to her bed, she would never understand why she chose to look around to check on Rogue again, but she did.

            The bed was empty, the covers half draping off the mattress.  For a moment Kitty contemplated maybe going to find her, to make sure she was alright, but decided to leave well alone. 

            Just as she was about to get back into her bed, almost from nowhere it seemed, Rogue fell from the sky, and onto the bed she'd been laying upon, there was a loud thwapping sound as she hit the mattress and feather pillow.

            Kitty, startled, jumped up, "what the—"

            Rogue seemed to be still peacefully sleeping, unaffected by falling.

            Kitty got up and walked over, "Rogue?" she asked, just to be sure, but Rogue gave no reply, remained sleeping silently.  Kitty watched a few moments, just confused, not sure exactly what had happened, it had almost been as if Rogue had just dropped from the sky – but that wasn't really possible, was it?

            We're mutants though…it is, Kitty realised.  She was about to step away again, when something stopped her.

            Rogue was slowly raising into the air, as if being levitated, her arms dropped at her side as she drifted higher up.  Kitty gaped, she'd never seen Rogue do this before, and although she'd seen Rogue fly – as part of having used someone else's powers through her own – she'd never seen it quite like this.  Without no conscious realisation, she was levitating.

            "Rogue?" Kitty asked, she stepped back a little.

            Rogue did not stir, just continued to sour upwards, almost like a helium balloon, so smoothly and weightlessly towards the high ceiling.

            "Rogue!" Kitty screamed out loud.

            Rogue gave a gasp, and moved to sit in an upright position, banging her head hard on the ceiling, she made a noise of surprise, and she fell hard to the bed, Kitty heard one of the wooden slates under the mattress snap loudly under the sudden strain of having Rogue dropped onto the bed.  Rogue's arm flailed out and the lamp on her bedside cabinet caught her hand and fell over smashing loudly onto the wooden floorboards.

            "What the…" Rogue put her hand to her head, squeezing her tired eyes together tightly.

            Kitty chewed her lip, "sorry, are you alright?" she asked.

            Rogue looked around, then looked up, she could remember banging her head on something, "what did I bang my head on…"

            "The ceiling…" Kitty stated.

            "What?!" Rogue asked.

            "You banged your head on the ceiling…"

            A puff of greyish-black smoke appeared with a poofing sound, and followed Kurt Wagner in his Pyjamas, "I heard a noise!" he was holding a baseball bat, he looked dishevelled, his hair matted and hanging to one side, his fur a little mussed, and half asleep, he'd been startled by the noise.

            "Kurt!" Kitty grabbed the baseball bat off of him, "don't you know you're meant to knock on the door before entering a girls room," She smacked him in the backside playfully – but lightly – with the bat.

            "What happened?" Kurt noted the lamp.

            "I…I don't know," Rogue knelt on the bed, "Ow, my head," she winced at the pain.

            "Rogue was like…levitating…" Kitty pointed up to the ceiling, "she bumped her head."

            "Levitating?" Kurt asked, "I did not know you could do that."

            "Neither did I…" Rogue looked up at the ceiling curiously, "Maybe it was Jean's telekinetic powers absently moving me in her sleep?"

            "No way, Jean needs to concentrate hard to move things with her mind, its not something that happens accidentally – not recently anyway, she's got more control over it now," Kitty folded her arms.

            Kurt took his bat back from Kitty, "Maybe we should wake the professor…"

            "No…" Rogue pleaded, "Please, I don't want him starting tests on me again…if he knows about this…" Rogue looked afraid.

            Kurt and Kitty both looked at Rogue, both concerned, but with all that she was dealing with lately, they did not want to put her under any more strain. 

            "I…." Kurt tried, but finally gave in, "Alright…but if it happens again…"

            "It won't," Rogue tried to assure, "Kurt, please, it's late, I'm tired, we have school…" she wanted rid of him, she didn't want to talk about this anymore.

            Kurt gave a sigh and rubbed the back of his neck absently, "I still think you shouldn't be ignoring the problem," he shook his head.

            "I appreciate the concern but—"

            "But what?" Kurt looked at her, expectantly.

            "I'll—" Rogue was about to speak.

            "Yes, I know, you'll 'deal' with it, just in the way you 'deal' with everything else," Kurt looked at her, "why you just won't swallow your pride for once and let us help you, I'll never know…" He rolled his eyes, getting quite upset with her.  He'd spent the last month holding a vigil by her side, and trying to be there for her even after school all this week, now she was trying to isolate herself again.  He didn't want to see it happen.

            "It's not to do with pride!" Rogue yelled.

            "Sssh!" Kitty threw her a look.

            "Sorry, but I've had it up to here with this," Rogue rubbed her bruising head.

            "Don't you think we have?!" Kurt demanded, his voice raising, Kitty swatted him.

            "Quiet! You'll wake the whole mansion!" Kitty hissed.

            Kurt ignored her words, "I've put up with as much of this as you have, Rogue!  I try to be there for you whenever, I can, I help you with all your class work, even when I don't have to, I sat beside your bed when you were comatose, I've tried to be nothing but a good brother to you—"

            Rogue looked at him, her eyes widening, she couldn't believe he was yelling at her.  She stood up, her eyes blazing with anger, "You're not my brother!" she spat at him.

            "Yes I am!  We have the same mother!"

            "She was only my adopted mother!  And we've already been through this!" Rogue walked away over to the window, turning her back to Kurt and Kitty, she folded her arms stubbornly.  "And back to this thing with the levitating,  It's probably just a fluke," Rogue tried desperately to make him drop it.

            "Maybe," Kitty sighed, she sat on her own bed, "but I think you should get it checked out anyway, you've just come out of a coma after having rendered another mutant brain dead for maybe the rest of her life – don't you think there's a slight chance you might have absorbed more of her powers than you usually do?  Kurt said she could fly…"

            "And she was really strong," Kurt added, "and you broke the basketball hoop at School, there's no way you could have done that before."

            "It's quarter to four in the morning, can you guys just leave me alone so I can get to sleep?" Rogue looked over her shoulder at them both.

            "Fine," Kurt sighed, "But I'll talk to you in the morning about it," He added, "don't think I'm going to drop this."

            "It's not your problem, it's mines!" Rogue yelled as he was heading towards the door.

            "You're family, that makes it my problem," Kurt remarked coldly, almost as cold as she always spoke towards him.  He closed the door behind himself, and was gone.

            Rogue headed towards her bed and threw herself down on it, "God, could things GET any worse?"

            "Yes, they could," Kitty muttered, "you could have woken up the whole Mansion," she kicked off her slippers, turned off the light and slipped under the covers, "you know you really hurt Kurt's feelings," she added.

            "Huh?" Rogue asked, she fixed the covers on her bed.

            "You hurt his feelings," Kitty rolled over so that she could see Rogue from where she lay, she could just make out Rogue's silhouette in the darkness, "you're the closest person to an actual blood relative that he has," she stated softly.

            "But I'm not blood…" Rogue fluffed her pillow, her voice was dripping with bitterness.

            "His mother raised you, Rogue, his mother didn't even raise him," Kitty reminded, "and you're damn lucky he doesn't resent you for the childhood he never got to have with Mystique," Kitty yawned.
            Rogue realised Kitty may be right, and began to feel bad.

            "You don't have a real family, Rogue, why not just accept Kurt as a brother and have done with it," Kitty rolled back over and went back to sleep, leaving Rogue with her thoughts.