A/N: I just found out that Pyro's crossing over to 'the dark side' in X-Men 2. Nightcrawler's going to be joining the cast, and Lady Deathstrike and General William Stryker, too. I'm a little disappointed about John, but I'll try to finish this story before 2003 when the movie's due, so it'll make sense.
(Thursday, 11June 2002)Friday, 2 August 2002 – Friday, 9 August 2002
V(IV, ii). Boxers
'You're not that bad, and I sorta need you. We're more alike than you think. We are two of the few people Logan likes, and we both hate him,' Tess had said. Should I thank her for the compliment? How did she assume I hated Logan? I definitely disagreed about us being more alike than I thought.
We walked downstairs, through the halls, and into the dining room. Almost everyone was at dinner. It seemed unusual being down here going through the routine again. It had seemed so long ago, even though it had not been.
"Rogue!" Kurt welcomed.
"Long time no see," Sam greeted as I sat down between John and Kitty and across from Tess and Jubilee.
"Four days," I said. Tess looked Sam up and down. I guess she never really paid attention to him when she was dating Bobby.
"Pass the salt, please," Kurt requested.
"Bobby, five o clock," Jubilee reported.
"Jubes… it's seven," Kitty stated looking at Jubilee, as if she was stupid.
"Shut up!" Jubilee yelled.
"You shut up! You need an attitude change!" Kitty yelled back.
"I don't know what's wrong with you, girl!" Jubilee responded.
"Girl? That's Misses Girl to you!" Kitty retorted, hopefully not realizing what she had said, and too caught up in the altercation. Sam and I looked on amused. Kurt was busy with his food, and Tess and John paid them no attention.
"Do they do this every night?" I asked turning to John.
"Usually," he said. Bobby sat next to Jubilee.
"Misses bit-" Jubilee stopped and turned to look at Bobby slowly.
"Hey," he said casually.
"Hi," Kitty said quickly and turned back to Jubilee, "What were you about to say?"
"Hi," Jubilee said and looked at Kitty, "Shut up!"
"Both of you shut up," Tess snapped noticeably in a bad mood now that Bobby had showed up.
"Hey," John, Kurt and Sam all greeted. I went back to my food.
"Rogue?" Bobby asked. I looked up slowly.
"What made you lower yourself to eating dinner with us tonight?" he asked. I stared at him confused and somewhat angry. Why the hell was he patronizing me?
"Cuz her boyfriend's on a mission," Kitty told him smugly apparently not catching the sarcasm of the statement.
"Don't even start picking on Rogue, Bobby," Jubilee warned him with a glower defending me.
"Yeah, be careful, she might rag you," John added jokingly.
"Boyfriend?" Sam asked. I shrugged.
"Scott. Don't worry, Rogue, if you and Scott get together I won't be mad," Kitty stated. Was she always contradicting herself? He was my boyfriend, but we weren't dating?
"So, I heard you've been dumped for the first time, Bobby," Kurt stated. Jubilee cleared her throat loudly looked at Kurt wide-eyed.
"Something wrong with your eyes, Jubes?" Kurt asked.
"She's sitting at the table," John whispered to him.
"Oh, where?" Kurt asked looking around wildly.
"Right next to you!" Kitty yelled looking at him like he was extraterrestrial. Kurt looked at Tess who was fiercely stabbing at her food.
"Oops," he laughed nervously.
"Obviously he didn't know they were dating, Kitty," Jubilee pointed out.
"How could he not?" she asked.
"So how bout those Lakers?" Sam asked changing the subject.
I looked at Bobby who caught my glance and stared back. I went back to my food.
"How are you going to get into Logan's room?" Kitty asked.
"I know the code," Tess stated.
"Why do you want to get into Logan's room," Kurt asked. Yes, why?
"To talk to him about last night," she stated. Seven pairs of eyes landed on her.
"I don't want him to think he can control my life. What? He won't hurt me," she responded.
"You wish," Bobby commented. Tess ignored him.
"Rogue, isn't Scott a little old to be your boyfriend?" Sam asked.
"No, actually he's almost twenty four," Kitty answered for me. "And she's almost seventeen, that's only six years. My dad is , like, ten years older than my mom."
"I'm not dating Scott," I said. How did she know our birthdays?
"Oh yeah, I forgot. Not yet," Kitty added. "You're waiting until he's not your teacher."
Where was this coming from? Was she deciding this as she went along or had she planned out all our lives?
"Are you dating while you wait?" Bobby asked and added jokingly. "Cuz I'm free."
I looked at him, and then Kitty.
"I think it's time you shut up," I told Kitty. She looked surprised.
"Or she'll rag you," John added.
"Why's everyone ganging up on me?!" Kitty asked.
"You shut up, too," Tess said scornfully to John.
"She can rag two people at a time," John replied teasingly. I think. She flicked him off.
"What's with the attitude?" Bobby asked Tess. It was time for the sparks to start flying.
"Fuck you," she retorted glaring him in the eye, if you can say that.
"Don't think you could handle it," he replied.
"You shouldn't be talking about how I would handle a situation because if I'm not mistaken, Logan made you shit in your pants yesterday," Tess retorted nearly growling and still looking him in the eye.
"I don't know how he found out that I was using you for sex. I was just about through with you anyway," he stated.
"So you could move on to who? Everyone knows how you are now, if they didn't know before," she replied.
"Look I'm trying to eat, so if you two want to argue, do it over someone else, okay?" Jubilee said, interrupting them. No one said anything for the next ten minutes, except Kurt occasionally asking for something to be passed to him.
"Rogue, are you done?" Tess asked looking at me. I nodded. She stood up and I took the hint that she wanted me to leave with her.
"Rogue's never going to come back," Kurt said as we left.
"I didn't know they were friends," I heard Sam say.
"Of course, they're bonded together by Logan," Kitty said. I was not so sure about that.
"Come on, Kitty. Let's go," Jubilee said.
"I'm not done," Kitty said. I turned around to see Jubilee stand up and take Kitty's plate and her own before I rounded the doorway into the kitchen. Tess took a seat at one of the tables.
"Are you okay?" I asked not knowing what to do.
"Of course. It's not like he dumped me," she stated. I stood there awkwardly before taking a seat. What was taking Jubilee and Kitty so long? They knew how to handle this kind of stuff.
"Tess?" Jubilee said walking into the room. "Bobby was being totally heartless."
"Yes, very cold," she giggled at her pun. "How are we going to get revenge?"
"Revenge?" I asked.
"Shut up, Kitty," Jubilee said. Kitty gave her a pathetic glower.
"I know what will cheer you up!" Kitty suddenly exclaimed.
"What? Peppermint face mask?" Tess asked.
"Na-ooo," Kitty said. "A trip to Logan's X-Men locker. And Scott's, too, of course."
"That sounds fun!" Jubilee said. "I know the lockers are somewhere near the medical lab. Let's go!"
"How's that going to cheer me up?" she asked.
"Don't try to cover it up Tess. You know deep down your still in love with Logan," Jubilee answered. She and Kitty stood up. Tess looked at me. Was this my decision? I nodded. She stood up, I did the same and we started for our 'adventure'.
"This is gonna be so fun," Jubilee said as we stood in the elevator going down to the sub level floor.
"Are we allowed to be down here?" I asked as the door opened and we walked out. What was I doing? Why had I followed?
"There was no password," Jubilee answered. "And the medical lab's down here."
"Where do we go?" Tess asked.
"Um, that way," Jubilee answered pointing to the right. We walked down a slightly curved hall and came to the medical lab.
"Oops, wrong way," Jubilee said turning around.
"Wait, I've never been in here before," Tess replied walking in.
"You've never been down here before," Kitty stated. We all followed her into the lab. Jubilee walked over to a rack of test tubes. Tess was by Jean's desk and computers.
"What's with the metallic theme?" Tess asked.
"What's this?" Kitty asked. I walked over to her.
"A CAT scan I think," I replied, looking at the tunnel-like machine.
"CAT… Kitty," she said climbing in and sitting down. "Push a button."
I looked on the side of the machine, and pushed a button on a control panel. The lights in the CAT scan started to come on in sets.
"Oh wow," Kitty stated sarcastically. "This is fun."
She climbed back out, and I pushed the button again, turning it off.
"Look at this," Tess stated smiling. We walked over to her.
"Jean's birth control!" Jubilee exclaimed.
"Why does she keep that down here?" I asked.
"She's down here a lot. Maybe she makes her own," Jubilee suggested.
"Let's flush it!" Kitty proposed. They walked over to the restroom, and I followed. Tess dropped the birth control container into the toilet and flushed it. It spun around in circles, and then got stuck in the hole. They burst out giggling, and I stared at them fairly scared.
"Come on. We have tarried too long," she said with a fake English accent. We left the lab, and headed back the same way we came.
"Wait!" Kitty said. "Look."
We looked to the right, and another hall that we had passed up extended farther than we could see. We all walked that way. There was a dead end.
"Okay, what's the point of this?" Jubilee asked. I looked closely.
"I think it's a door," I stated.
"You think it's Xavier's loot?" Jubilee asked.
"There's some kind of scanner you have to use," Tess said, pointing at a panel next to the door.
"I'll check it out," Kitty stated, running through the door. We heard a shriek.
"Uh oh," Jubilee said.
"I hope she's not dead," Tess said, starting to leave with Jubilee. Kitty came running out.
"Where are you going?!" she screamed.
"Nowhere," Jubilee lied. "What was in there?"
"Nothing. It was a big empty round room, with a computer and a helmet at the end. The walkway was really narrow, too. I thought I was going to fall when I ran in," she proclaimed. The cerebro?
"Nothing important. Let's go," Jubilee said. We walked back out to the main hallway, and past the elevator.
"Yay! We found them," Kitty exclaimed. She ran to a locker and opened it.
"Storm's, I think," she replied, and moved to another.
"Here's Logan's," Jubilee stated, pulling Tess to it. I stood there quietly.
"Come here, Rogue," Kitty said. "This is Scott's."
I walked over to her.
"I'm taking his glasses," she said. "Oh, you should take these! No wait, you can see them when we get back upstairs."
She hid whatever it was behind her back, closed the locker and walked over to Jubilee and Tess. Why had she called me again?
"Hand me those. I'm giving these and those to Rogue when we get upstairs," she giggled. There was a group of giggling.
"I want some," Tess said. I waited patiently until they were done. Had Kitty said she was taking Scott's glasses?
"Okay let's go," Jubilee said. Kitty walked ahead of me wearing Scott's glasses, and hiding what she had in her hands, with a big grin on her face. We walked back to the elevator just as we heard the jet landing.
"They're back!" Tess shrieked. We all jetted into the elevator, and Tess quickly pressed the button.
"We made it," Kitty said, still wearing Scott's glasses as we stepped out. The elevator closed behind us. They burst out giggling and laughing once more as we stood in the hall.
"Everything's red. Oh here!" Kitty said, handing me two pieces of cloth. I shook them out.
"Oh my goodness…" I said. I was holding two pairs of boxers.
"The red ones are Scott's, and the black are Logan's," Kitty stated grinning wildly. I stared at the boxers in disbelief.
"I got a pair of Logan's," Tess stated, hugging them against her face, and took a long and deep breath, then quickly brought them down from her face. "Oh course, right now, I'm still mad at him."
"Oh my-" I started. The elevator started to open behind us. Tess, Jubilee and Kitty screamed, and we all started running.
"What?" I heard Logan's voice ask as he came out wondering who had screamed. We ran past some of the students leaving the game room on the way upstairs.
"Why are you running?" I heard Kurt ask, but we did not stop until we had made it upstairs. We stopped in front of Kitty and Jubilee's room. We were all panting like crazy, and once again they started giggling.
"Please, stop that," I requested. Tess walked with me to our room, changed into her pajamas (with Logan's boxers underneath) and left for Logan's room.
"You're going like that?" I asked.
"Yeah, taking the casual approach."
"Really, I recommend that you don't go to his room at night, unless he knows you're coming. I'm talking from experience," I advised.
"Bye," she said smiling.
"Bye," I replied, still high on adrenaline. I sat down on my bed, and leaned back to lay on my back with the boxers still in my hand. That had been actually fun. I switched into my pajamas, and laid back down on the bed next to the boxers. What was I going to do with them?
There was a knock at the door then. Had we been caught? I walked to the door with the boxers in my hand, and opened it. John was standing there in Superman pajamas grinning.
"Hello," he stated. My eyes widened, and then I laughed.
"What?" he asked defensively. I shook my head.
"Those yours?" he said, looking at the boxers in my hand.
"No," I said, trying not to sound embarrassed. I walked into the room, moving to the dresser with the boxers.
"Yeah they are," he said walking in, following me.
"No, they're not," I responded. He came up behind me, and took them from my hand.
"A little too big for you don't you think," he stated, moving away from me as I tried to get them back.
"Are they…Logan's?" he asked teasingly. I did not answer.
"Dude, they are, aren't they?" he called. "Wow, Roguey, are you turning into Kitty?"
"Shut up, I didn't take them. Kitty gave them to me, and only one's Scott's. I mean Logan's!" Too late, damage already done. His eyes went wider than before. He dodged my attempted to take them from him again.
"Scott's!" he proclaimed almost laughing. "You've been hanging around Kitty too long."
"Be quiet, and give them back!" I yelled. There was a knock on the door.
"You should go see who that is. It might be Scott wondering where his boxers are," he laughed teasingly still not giving me the boxers.
"Shut up, and give me the damn boxers!" I yelled. The person knocking most likely heard.
"It's probably Tess," he said ignoring me, running to the wall beside the door, and getting ready to throw the boxers at her. There was another knock.
"Open it," he whispered. I glared at him and walked to the door, swinging it open with a scowl. John jumped in front of the person, and threw the boxers. We both gasped when we saw who it was. Logan was standing there with the boxers covering his head, and with Tess behind him. She started laughing, but stopped when he brought a hand up, and shot his claws out. He picked the boxers from his face with them. He looked at them, and then us. John backed slowly away until he was behind me. I bit my bottom lip to keep from laughing as I took the boxers from Logan.
"Are those mine?" he asked, recognizing them somehow. I handed the black pair back to him. Tess burst out laughing. He stared at me, surprised, as he took them. He looked at the red pair.
"Scott's," John notified, stepping beside me. My eyes went wide; I turned to him, and glared.
"Shut up!" I screamed.
"What?!" Logan growled. "Did he give them to you? Fucking pervert! Is that how he seduced you, Marie?!"
"No! I was never seduced, and he didn't-" I said.
"Kitty gave them to her," Tess told him. "And yours, too."
"How did Kitty get them? From Scott? Did he tell her to give them to Marie?" he asked angrily taking the boxers away from me. No one answered him. Logan looked at John expecting an answer.
"I don't know!" he stated. Logan looked at his pajamas, and raised an eyebrow.
"What?" John asked defensively.
"What are you doing here?" Logan asked. He shrugged.
"Hanging out," John stated. Logan looked at me. I knew what he was thinking.
"John, go back to your room," Logan started. "You two want to 'hang out', do it downstairs in some clothes."
He walked away obviously satisfied that he had gotten his way with out any trouble (and his boxers). I looked at Tess.
"He said I was 'inappropriately dressed'," she said sarcastically.
"I want my boxers back, Tess, and wash them," he added, not looking back as he walked away. She scowled at him.
"I think he used the 'inappropriately dressed' thing for an excuse to not talk to me because he was expecting a certain slut," Tess said fumingly, after he had left. "Certain slut known as Jean. Can't keep the bitch waiting."
Well, at least I would not have to worry about what I would do with either of the boxers, but, shit, what if he told Scott?
V(IV, ii). Boxers