Hey all, I'm back!!! I should have had this done over a week ago, but I was having trouble getting back on track after my vacation. I got a brand new guitar!!! And I had to clean my room. According to my mum, having a hip-deep pile of stuff covering my entire room is not organised.... Go figure. And I'm not kidding about the hip-deep part. It honestly took me a week to do. And shout-outs follow the story.
Oh yeah! I'm not mad at the Pickle-Jar anymore. He's not totally evil and he's so cute when he apologises!!
Disclaimer: Yeah, I'm back. Tainz owns nothing.
Kurt: Not even me. *sticks out his tongue*
Tainz: *Cries* looks up Also, this chapter is dedicated to the memory of my Cat, Baby, who died last fall at the age of 20.
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Rogue led the way into her two bedroom house, flicking on the light as she walked in. She hadn't taken two steps inside when she was attacked by a flying grey fuzzball. She heard a distinctive 'bamf' and saw Kurt appear in front of her, crouched into a battle stance and ready to protect Rogue from whatever was trying to harm her. His tail whipped back and forth menacingly, and the kitten in Rogue's arms mewed frightenedly.
Rogue looked at Kurt calmly. "Kurt, this is Baby. She's mah kitten. Remember, Ah told you Ah had a cat." She held out the bundle of fuzz and Kurt relaxed visibly.
He took a deep breath. "Hello Baby," he said, as he reached out and scratched the cat under the chin.
Immediately, Baby began to purr with a happy ferocity. She stretched towards Kurt and his face lit up in a grin.
"She likes me!"
"Good. That means ya can stay. Ah woulda had ta kick ya out if she didn't." Rogue grinned happily to show Kurt that she was just kidding. It had been a week since Rogue had found him in the Place, as everyone now referred to it. Kurt had only gotten out of the hospital two days previously and, with everything he'd been through, it was no wonder that he took everything a lot more seriously than he had before.
Rogue handed the cat off to her brother and walked further inside. "Follow me. Your room's just through here."
Kurt followed her closely, nervously taking in his new surroundings as though terrified that they were an illusion that would disappear at any moment. He stepped on her heels a couple of times, awkwardly murmuring an apology.
Finally, she opened a white door, revealing a small, yet open and sunny room. A huge window, complete with a giant window seat, took up most of one of the walls. A messy desk was set up at one end of the room, and a comfy looking bed was at the other.
"This is your bedroom. Ah had been using it as an office, since Ah don't get much company, but Ah'll move mah things out and you can do whatever you want with it." Rogue piled a few papers on the top of the desk idly.
Kurt's eyes were wide as he took in the view through the window. The backyard was filled with tiny crocuses that were starting to peep through the mud and snow. The sun beamed in warmly.
Rogue silently congratulated herself on having her neighbour come in and reverse her bedroom with the office. This was normally her room, but the guest room had much smaller windows, and she didn't want Kurt to be in a room that was at all closed in. The neighbour had done an excellent job of making the room look as though it had been being used as an office. Rogue's new bedroom was about the same size, so she wouldn't miss this one too much. She had known, right from the beginning, that Kurt wouldn't have taken the better room if he'd believed that he was displacing her.
"This is sehr schön. Thank you so much." Kurt spoke softly as he looked the room over in awe. "Has it taken you long to decorate?"
"Ah've lived here for about three years now. Ah haven't had much ta do but decorate. And garden! Wait until ya see the gardens out back this summer. Mah neighbours helped me out, sometimes."
"Are the neighbours nice?"
"Very. Ah have them over for dinner sometimes. They know about mah powers, so we're all careful. Of course, that's the neighbours on one side. The other neighbours are real jerks. Ya'll wanna be careful around them."
Kurt frowned. "Vill they try to hurt us?"
"They're over the whole violence thing now. They haven't attacked me in almost a year. They haven't bothered me at all since they killed mah last cat."
"They killed your cat?"
Rogue suddenly realised where the conversation was headed, and she didn't want it to go such horrible places on Kurt's first day home.
"Are ya hungry? Ah don't have the ingredients ta make anything fancy, but we can order Chinese."
Kurt seemed to relax again at the mention of food. "Chinese sounds delicious, danke."
Rogue led the way to the kitchen, where she picked up the phone and dialled a number off of a fridge magnet.
"Hi, it's Emily Manning? Yeah. Ah'm good, thanks. Yeah. Uh huh. Um.... Ah'd like the dinner for four, with extra sweet and sour sauce... mm hm. And chicken balls. Rice and noodles. Yeah. That sounds good! Twenty minutes? Great! Ah'll see ya then!" Rogue hung up to notice Kurt staring at her suspiciously.
"Vhy did you call yourself Emily Manning? I thought you were Rogue, my sister." He looked about ready to kill her if she took a step towards him, so she calmly stepped backwards.
"Ah am Rogue. It's just... After the mansion was destroyed, Ah needed a new identity. The government had called open season on mutants. Rogue was a revealed mutant. Emily Manning was an orphan girl who was tryin' ta get through high school while supporting herself, and then survive four years of university, still all alone. Ah majored in computers, something inanimate that Ah wouldn't be at any risk of zapping and being revealed. Six years after the Institute was destroyed, they finally passed the Mutant Equality Act, which gave us our rights. By then, I'd been Emily Manning so long that I couldn't go back to Rogue. I got my job at the FBI only a matter of weeks after they passed the Act. Just after the end of the Dark Ages."
"Vhy didn't you tell me this before?" His body was still tensed up like a cobra, poised to attack her.
"It never came up. I was so overjoyed to see you… I never even thought about how much things have changed in the last ten years. I lived in them. You got thrown ten years into the future."
Not easing his posture any, he sat in a chair by the fridge. "I think that you had better fill me in."
Trying to appear as non-threatening as possible, Rogue moved to the chair directly across the table from Kurt. "Where do ya want me ta start? There's been so many changes."
"Vhat exactly is this "Mutant Equality Act" that you mentioned?"
"Basically, it gives us exactly the same rights as humans or "X-Gene Negative Individuals." It also requires us ta prove that we know the full extent of our abilities and know how ta prevent them from harming others."
"So ve are required to register vith the government. How is that any better than the Mutant Registration Act?" Kurt looked utterly disgusted.
"No. Not at all. Everyone is required ta go ta the Testing Offices every five years, whether they're Positive or Negative."
"Vhat do you mean by "positive" and "negative"?"
"Human or Mutant. Mutants are called "X-Gene Positive." Humans are Negative. We all have ta go, just in case someone shows up a latent ability and because it prevents anyone from bein' discriminated against. We go, get tested, and come home. If ya don't know how ta control your powers, ya hafta go ta a special school for a couple of weeks. They don't even keep records of your bein' there after ya prove ta the testers that you're safe."
"How do you trust the government that they're telling the truth?"
"That's part of mah job. The Mutant Protection Squad is in charge of all mutant related files. By rights, they should call us the "X-Gene Positive Individuals Protection Squad", but it's too much of a mouthful."
"You're lying. Humans vould never accept us on even ground vith them. You did tell me about your neighbours." He didn't yell, but he may as well have. His statement stopped Rogue dead in her tracks as she tried to portray life as perfect for mutants.
"Lots of them accept us. Some of them are still... backwater. Considerin' that the Act only got passed four years ago, we've come a long way. We even test babies for the X-Gene at birth so they can get special education if their parents want it."
"And is all this good enough for Magneto?"
"He's dead. He died three years ago."
Kurt looked utterly astonished. "Vhat about Mystique? And the Acolytes? And the Brotherhood? Vhat happened to them?"
"Ah don't know. Mystique disappeared just after the mansion... blew up. The Acolytes were still doin' their thing until Magneto died. Then they just kinda.... stopped poppin' up in the news. The Brotherhood wasn't that organised in the first place. Ah stayed there a month at the beginnin'. They didn't feel like fightin' anymore at that point. Ah think they just thought they couldn't let us win. Ah got letters from Toad up until a year ago. He took up showerin' and he was about ta go ta medical school. Apparently the rest of them went off their separate ways. Ah don't know where they are now." Rogue fiddled with the tablecloth as she remembered the month she'd stayed with the Brotherhood. She'd spent the whole time waiting for Kurt to come find her, but he never had. She'd been so distressed at losing her family that Toad had actually had to remind her about personal hygiene.
"That's it? That's... Everything's gone?"
Rogue started to nod, then shook her head. "Not quite. Ah.... Ah kept your parents posted over how mah search for ya was goin'. They're still livin' right where ya left 'em. Even have the same phone number."
Kurt perked up and looked from the phone to Rogue and back again. "So they know that I am safe?"
"No. Ah wanted ta wait 'til ya got outta the hospital so ya could call them yourself." Rogue pointed at the phone and grinned. "Ah have the number written down if ya can't remember it."
Kurt shook his head and didn't even waste time running to the phone. He teleported right over and started dialling frantically, cursing the slightly clumsy design of his tri-fingered hands.
Rogue sat in silence until she heard Kurt's mother's voice.
"He Mutti!" Kurt exclaimed.
Tears filling her eyes, Rogue went to the living room, where she could give Kurt his privacy, but snippets of conversation still filtered out to her ears.
"Weinst nicht, Mutti! Ich bin gesund und wohl."
Don't cry Mum. I am safe and sound, Rogue translated in her head. Kurt's parents didn't speak English as well as Kurt did and, over the years, Rogue had learned a fair amount of German by speaking to them.
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Rogue went to pick up the food.
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It's that time again!! That's right... Shout outs!!!!
Kosumi: Wait for it hon, and it may just happen. I'm glad you like.
ChaosCat: You know you like secret spoilers... that way if you don't want spoilers, you can just ignore them!!!
Well, I just imagine that all of his organic material got burned. So nyah. And the Gambit-Wolverine's skeleton question is a good one. I think I have an answer. At the end of the second book of three Ultimate X-Men comics (I'm not good at terminology, so sue me... no... don't) there is a Gambit special. In it, Gambit appears to charge and explode a guy's head, which, as we all know, he can't do. How could that work? Well, Gambit stuck his hand in the guy's mouth, so I propose the theory that he charged the guy's fillings. Therefore, if you liken Wolverine's metal skeleton to metal fillings, Gambit can charge Wolverine's skeleton.
And yeah... Wolvie does tend to wander.... sometimes for years!
Sigma1: You're welcome. Is this chappie more to your taste?
roguehobbit: I know nothing of the X-Files, so no, Mulder and Scully won't make an appearance. Sorry! :)
Freaky Rogue: You're right, but I can't say anymore than that without creating a spoiler.
Rogue151: Yeah.... I'm good at telling him off. Luckily, he's also good at apologies.
horses4fun12: You want one? Sure! *Hands you a Kitty Pryde plushie*
Green Eraser: More Clues.... hmmm.... Ummmm... Kapow!!! That help any? I hope so! And yeah, I'm proud of the pickle-jar thing.... Go me!!!! I am an empowered woman who doesn't need my bf's approval to live my life!!!!
Blahb: I liked it. I'm glad you did too!!!
jacombo: You're welcome, and I think you got the clue. The trouble with those translators is that both Karte and Junge have several synonyms....
Lucky439: I love Kurt too!!!!
ishandahalf: Thanks for the awesome review. Unfortunately I can't comment to much without revealing the entire plot of the story.
Gub-man: She's not going to do either.... It's a little more complicated than that. Keep reading, and all will be revealed.
Yumiko: I'm glad you like your prezzie!!!
I love you all!!!
Tainz