Rogue paced the length of her room. She wore her usual uniform. Unlike the others, she didn't have a date for tonight.

In a surge of anger and defiance, earlier, she had called Magneto to meet her at the mansion. She was beginning to regret having done so now. She wasn't like the other X-women. Her powers shut her out, kept her from the most casual of touches, made her an outcast among outcasts. The only men she had ever touched skin to skin were the ones she fought before and after joining the X-men, with the exception of Wolverine after she had saved Mariko's life and her first boyfriend, who she sent into a coma.

In fact, she was resentful of other women in general, and the X-women in particular. Why did they get to have so much, and she so little? Why did Jean get any man she looked at? And how dare Kitty get Kurt and Piotr?! The show-off midget bitch already had more than Rogue ever could dream of. Why did she have to be the only X-man to find all her love in romance novels?

Deep down, she knew she wasn't being fair. But her hatred retorted that she didn't really care.

Rogue turned to her mirror. Her angry green eyes flashed into her reflection's. She wasn't bad looking. She was powerful. Why didn't anyone want her?

She hit the wall full-force, anger driving her reaction. Why bother? She'd better tell Magneto to leave once he arrived. That way she wouldn't have to live with the rejection of every man in the universe, as well as the ones she lived with. Then she could pretend that somewhere out there, someone wanted her and dreamed of her.

She sat, defeated. She was pathetic, really, hoping her dreams would be fulfilled by a psychotic villain, anyway. Why did she ever call him anyway?

--Because you think he's cute, and you hoped it would finally work out.

But it won't.

--It's better to try, isn't it?

Not when you get your heart slammed into the ground.

--What if it would work out, though, and because you didn't try, you never get any part of what you want?

Torn, tormented, she didn't notice the sound of her window opening. She did, however, feel warmth and pressure on her left shoulder. She pulled away, hard, and looked up to see Magneto in full costume looking down at her, red helmet hiding most of his face. "Did I come at a bad time?" he asked.

"I don't know." She got up and started pacing around. Her teddy bear and Arctic fox looked up at her with their black plastic eyes. "I'm not sure why I asked you here."

He stood still, watching and waiting. "You said it was because you were interested in my cause, the cause of mutant freedom."

"Freedom?" She laughed. "I'd never have freedom even if you were king of the universe, Magneto. Just look at me." She flung her arms wide. "I have to cover every inch of skin I can because if I touch someone, they suffer and so do I. Is that freedom?" She stalked closer to him, anger fueling every step. "I can't pet a cat, hold a baby, shake my friends' hands, or even take my change from the cashier at a store without being insulated from every touch. Is that freedom? I'll never be able to have a lover without one of those damned 'full body' condoms from that stupid movie I watched a couple years ago … I don't remember the name of it, but I was the only one NOT laughing at that scene!"

"Naked Gun."

"What?" She stopped a few feet from him, hands shaking violently.

"The movie. Naked Gun." He smiled, gentle and sad.

She considered it briefly. "Okay. Anyway, the point is that now, I don't even get to dream about being touched by anybody. I'm never going to get any control over my powers. And everyone else seems to have someone. Kitty and Piotr are finally dating, and Jean's landed Scott."

"You sound especially bitter about her. Why?" He sat on the bed and smoothed his red cape over the covers.

She frowned. "I don't know. I guess it seems like every man I'm interested in would rather be near her than any other woman in the world. Besides, she's pretty, she's powerful, she can be touched, and everyone loves her. I don't get that. I think maybe I'm pretty and powerful, but I'm alone, and I'm lonely, and it feels like it will never change! Do you have any idea what it's like to be on the outside of everything, never getting a chance to be a part of what everyone else takes for granted, not even being able to dream of fitting in?" She collapsed onto the floor, sitting down hard with her legs crossed, and flopped her torso forward so her face touched the green carpet.

He did not speak for a few minutes, though he made some soft noises of cloth over cloth. He moved around, ending up in front of her mirror. It irritated her that he would not respond to her words, but she was not going to do anything about it.

"Get up," he said at last.

"Get up?" She moved only her head, raising her face from the rug to see a changed Magneto. She sat up straight.

He had removed his helmet and gloves. Now, he was wearing a nice black suit, dress shoes, and was pinning a small rose in his buttonhole at her mirror. His red cape swirled about his form attractively. "Yes. You're not dressed properly."

She rose to her full height. "Dressed for what?"

"Our date." He calmly adjusted his tie and smiled at his reflection. "You have fifteen minutes. Wear something nice." He turned and walked to the door. "I will return in that time. Be ready."

Fifteen minutes? A date? What? She frantically checked the clock on her dresser, then threw her closet doors open. Riots of color met her gaze, but a black dress she'd bought for a dance she never got to because she left to join the X-men stood out. (Mystique had sent it along a year later, after she begged a little.) It was mid-calf length, sleeveless, and miraculously preserved in its bag from the dry cleaners. She skinned out of her uniform and started getting ready.

She was fastening the clasp of her necklace when he walked back into her room. She turned around, a little shy, and pirouetted. "Well?"

The dress left her arms, shoulders, and upper chest bare. The velvet bodice fell straight to just below her waistline. The skirt was made of a stiff, shiny material which flared a little, then fell straight past the small bow at her right hip. She had put on some shiny green earrings and pulled her hair up. The emerald heart of her necklace rested a few inches below her neck. She even had some long black gloves on, stretching nearly to her shoulders.

He touched his fingers to his lips. "Enchanting." He took her hand and touched the glove lightly. "You can leave these behind."

"Are you sure?"

He looked at her seriously. "Trust me."

She kept her eyes on him, suspicious, as she slowly peeled the gloves from her arms. "I don't know that I should."

"My dear." He walked up to her and tapped the side of his head. "I am not a fool. I have fought with the X-men countless times. I have invented devices to stop the strongest mind reader known to mutants the world over. Did you really think I could not come up with something that could stop you?" He took her naked hand in his.

Her power did not activate. She might as well have been touching a beach ball.

He put her hand on his wrist. She felt a solid band there and pushed his sleeve up. Inside was a gray strip of metal, about the size of an average man's watch. She touched it and looked into his gray eyes, which regarded her with amused patience.

"May we go now, my dear? I do not want to be late for our meal." She nodded, a little stunned, as he escorted her out of the mansion and into a silver Mercedes.

The restaurant was a sparkling paradise. Somehow, he had gotten a reservation at On The Waterfront, a place with dark wood paneling, live piano playing, one whole wall of glass so the patrons could look out onto the water, and a small dance floor. They spoke about music, they danced, they ate. The night was full of touch. Warm. Normal. Perfect. Magic.

He took her back, then, and she hesitated at the door. "Come in with me?"

"Are you certain?"

She blushed a little. "I don't want the night to end just yet. Please."

He considered her, white hair gleaming in the light from the door, shadowed eyes looking her up and down, and nodded.

She took him up to her room. He stopped at the door and gave her a gentle kiss, hands clasped. She opened the door. "Come in?"

He frowned. "Is this what you want?"

She took a few paces into the room, then turned back, skirt swirling around her legs. "Yes."

"Are you certain you know what you're saying?"

She pulled him into the room and held him close. "I said I don't want this night to end. I meant it, Magneto."

"Erik."

She nodded. "Erik. I want it all. If it's just going to be once, I want it to be here, and you, and now. Unless you don't want me."

He closed his eyes and breathed a couple of times, then opened them again and looked at her in her elegant dress, burning her skin with his regard. "My dear, I do not believe anyone could not want you." He kissed her again, firmly, as his hands grazed her shoulders.

He made slow, patient love to her, despite her protests in frustration, and she eased into sleep afterward, his warm body next to hers.

*****************************

She woke up late the next morning, of course, and sleepily reached out to him. He had been by her side. She touched her teddy bear instead.

She opened her eyes. Her yellow bedspread covered her body and no one else's. Her shoulders slumped with disappointment.

Oh well, she thought. He isn't one of the X-men and long-distance relationships don't really work out, do they?

She rolled over and looked for the clock on her dresser. There was a rose there and an envelope. His rose from last night!

Sitting up, covers pulled to her chest, she savored the smell of the rose and then read the envelope.

"Dear Rogue,

"You were right. I am not the king of the universe, and even if I were, not only you, but many others would not be freed by my assuming said title.

"However, you were also wrong. I can give you some freedom, despite not being royalty.

"--Erik"

She opened it and took what was inside it out. Her mouth fell open. Joy, disbelief, surprise, sadness, all welled up from her soul and were expelled in a wail and then furious tears. She sobbed, unable to bear the rushing feelings within.

***************************

"Rogue?" Kitty phased through the wall quickly, the heartwrenching sounds from the woman's room drawing her in. She saw Rogue crying, moaning in despair, holding a rose in one hand and in the other, a strip of gray metal that was about the size of Kurt's watch.