A/N: Here is the next chapter for all my loyal and above all, patient
readers. Thank you for waiting! Please enjoy and stop to review.
Disclaimer: If I really owned X-Men, do you really think I'd spend my time writing fanfics?
Chapter Four
Later on that night Rogue was in her room, studying with Kitty for her chemistry test. "If I don't get an A on this test it'll like, bring down my whole average!" Kitty was ranting while Rogue just rolled her eyes. Kurt ported into the room and looked first to Kitty then to Rogue and shook his head.
"Let me guess, she's stressing over the chem. test?" Kurt rolled his eyes when Rogue nodded. "Chill out Kitty, you've aced all the other tests." While Kurt tried to reason with her Rogue went out onto the balcony and started to write in her diary again.
~Diary, I think I really screwed it up with Gambit today... he wasn't too pleased with me when Kitty yanked me to Lance's car. Ugh, that boy should have his license revoked. What am I going to do about Gambit though? He probably thinks I care more about Scott then him. Which isn't true, I gave up on Scott a long time ago. We're just friends. I better go, I want to take a walk before bed.~
She slipped it beneath her mattress and slipped on a lightweight jacket. "I'm going to go for a walk for a while, Kitty." Rogue said loudly as she zipped up her jacket, so Kitty would hear her over her ranting.
She slipped out the door in the kitchen and put her hands in her jacket pockets. Walking slowly down a path that wove through all the Institute's property she sighed. 'He was so cold when he let me go...'
Rogue crossed her arms and leaned against a tall oak tree with twenty or so branches. It had just gotten dark and her eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet when she heard a voice from above her.
"Lost cherie?" He drawled as he dropped to the ground and stood up, shuffling another deck of cards.
She tried not to act too overjoyed that he was talking to her. "More like trying to think Cajun."
"About what?" He took her by the arm and led her to the small bench and sat down next to her.
"What happened earlier." 'I can't think of how it's my fault... I didn't do anything wrong.'
"Hm, let it go cherie, it's not important." He said wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
She raised her eyebrows. "You seemed pretty upset earlier..."
"Upset?" He said stiffly.
Now Rogue was giving him an odd look. "Jealous."
Gambit swallowed. "Jealous? This homme? Impossible."
Rogue stiffened in his embrace. 'So he wasn't jealous? Of course not Rogue... your falling for this dumb swamp rat! He's nothing but a play boy!' Getting to her feet she tried to push the thoughts out of her mind.
"Cherie? Rogue! Where are you going!"
She was already gone, her head whirling with the painful thoughts. 'That's all I am to him, some prize to win... it was stupid to think he'd ever even date someone exclusively, let alone me...'
By the time she got to the room, Kitty was already asleep. Sneaking in silently, she slipped under her covers and hugged her pillow tight. 'Forget him!'
*****
Gambit had just sneaked into the kitchen when Logan's claws shot out, nearly missing his shoulder (and when I say 'nearly missed his shoulder' I mean it was by a damn hair)
"Cajun."
"Wolfie."
Logan narrowed his eyes and sipped his coffee. "Planning on going some where swamp rat?"
Gambit's tolerance was wearing thin, he needed to get to Rogue and this stupid bear of a man was in the way. "Yeah homme, to my fille's room."
"I just saw Rogue, she doesn't want to talk to you." He informed him, his voice dripping with disdain.
"Never trust a wolf," Gambit growled, "Now get outta my way." His staff was instantly in his hand and Logan eyed him.
"You must've really screwed up to get her looking' like that. No way in hell I'm going to let you pass." Logan snarled letting his coffee cup hit the floor with a smash!
Before Gambit could even swing his staff Professor Xavier wheeled into the room with Storm. "Logan!"
"What on earth happened in here?" Storm asked, looking from the shattered remains of the coffee cup to Logan and Gambit's furious faces.
Gambit quickly put on an innocent facade and slipped his staff back into his coat. "Nothing, just on my way to check in on my fille." He snatched an apple from the fruit bowl and quickly exited.
Running up the stairs three at a time, he quickly reached Rogue and Kitty's door. Slipping in he quietly closed it behind him and started to creep towards Rogue's bed when a shaft of moonlight from the balcony doors touched her face, making her seem to glow. Keeping his eyes on her face he crept closer...
He was almost at her side...
When he tripped over Kitty's chemistry book lying on the floor. (A/N: Well done! Well done indeed)
Cursing he hit the carpet leaving a nasty rug burn on the side of his face when Kitty awoke with a shriek. "MR. LOGAN!" She screamed, seeing only Gambit's back in the dark, assuming he was a burglar.
Rogue sat up straight in her bed as Kitty pummeled Gambit's body with objects from her nightstand, her alarm clock, the bottle of Nyquil, a mystery paperback, (that was Rogue's) her compact, the shell her and Kurt had found at the beach, and the hard candy dish. "GET OUT!" She cried and he struggled to get up from the ground when Logan kicked in the door.
The light from the hallway spilled into the room, lighting Gambit's back, but it didn't matter. Logan could smell him from a mile away. Grinning he strolled in and grabbed Gambit's trench coat neck yanking him and the trench coat into the air.
"Well, well, well... looks to me that I've caught myself a swamp rat." And with the look on Logan's face, it was pretty clear he intended to drown it.
Rogue swallowed hard in her bed, 'He was sneaking in to talk to you, this is your fault!' "Logan! Put him down!"
Meanwhile Kitty was out of her bed, scurrying to pick up all the things she'd thrown and apologize profusely. "I'm so sorry Gambit! I thought you were a burglar!"
By now Rogue was out of bed too, her hand on Logan's arm, which was still clutching Gambit's trench coat. "Please put him down Logan."
Logan looked at her, and she could see two emotions battling in his eyes. One, his feelings for Rogue. They were strong and father like, very protective, but there was also the fact that he didn't want to upset her, or get her too upset with him. Two, there was the fact that he just damn hated Gambit, and wanted nothing better to boot him out the door.
Essentially it all came down to happiness; his or Rogue's. Kicking Gambit out the Institute would make him happy, but allowing him to stay would make Rogue happy.
Finally he looked at Rogue, her eyes pleading with him to let go.
Gambit hadn't said a thing since he'd been snatched, figuring he was toast.
"Hn, get to bed rat." Unceremoniously Logan dropped him, and then stood with his arms crossed. He may have let him stay, but that didn't mean he was going to allow him to stay in Rogue's room in the middle of the night. Jerking his thumb over his shoulder, a not-so-subtle hint for Gambit to get lost, Logan glared.
Grinning, Gambit ran a hand through his hair and gave Rogue a meaningful look before yawning loudly. "I appreciate it homme, I owe you. Night cherie, Kitty cat," He gave a cheeky wave and left slowly, leaving a scowling Logan in his wake.
"Get to bed, the both of you." He ordered but Rogue grinned at him before pecking him lightly on the cheek.
"Thank you Logan, I appreciate it too."
He snorted but his face became slightly flushed and he pointed to her bed. With a wink to Kitty she climbed in and pulled the covers up to her chin.
"Goodnight daddy!" Rogue and Kitty chanted at once making Logan flush again, and he slammed the door angrily behind him.
*****
Rogue was in a good mood at breakfast, eating happily between Kitty and Logan. Or at least she was until Kitty told her that Lance agreed to give her a ride to school as well.
'I knew I shouldn't have eaten so much at breakfast...' She thought glumly walking along side Kitty on the way to first period clutching her stomach.
"How come you're not affected from his driving?" Rogue demanded and Kitty giggled.
"Well he's got his arm around me so I'm not bouncing around like you do in the back."
Rogue felt the urge to grunt like Logan but decided against it, 'it's too early to be getting stares.'
She said good-bye to Kitty and met up with Lance and Evan by their lockers, her and Kurt had first period together. "You all right Rogue? You look a little green at the gills." Evan noticed and she hitched her backpack higher up on her back.
"I'm surprised I don't resemble a Kermit, I rode with Lance and Kitty again today."
Evan winced, "Ouch, harsh, glad I just had a pop tart for breakfast."
"Ditto." Kurt agreed both had turned a bit paler at the thought of ridding with Lance. "I don't know how Kitty can take it."
The warning bell rang; they only had a few minutes to get to class. Evan left in a hurry, said he had some last minute homework to get done, so Rogue and Kurt walked to room 153, 20th Century History with Mr. Matthews.
Half way through the school day she got let out of her 3rd period (apparently she looked greener than she thought) a few minutes early for some water, when she saw those punks who'd hassled her a while ago.
Rogue was going to just go find another fountain but they'd already spotted her. "Hey, freak!"
With a groan she turned to face them. "I wouldn't, not today." She warned.
The guys ignored it, "Thought we'd pay you back for sending your dog after us."
Rogue looked surprised. "What are you talking about?" Only then did she really look at them. One had a black eye, another had a fat lip, and the other idiot was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, so she could see the bruises on his arms.
"Your little mutt jumped us," The leader snarled. "So we thought we'd take it out on the owner."
'Gods, why me?' Rogue groaned inwardly taking a step back when there was a shout from behind her.
"Back off Stebbins!"
Rogue's eyes widened as she turned to see Lance angrily coming towards them, his fists clenched.
"This doesn't concern you," Stebbins said quietly, Rogue noticed they didn't seem so keen on being verbally abusive now.
"Oh yeah? She's my girl's best friend, there's no way I'm going to let you punks gang up on her." Lance spat and Rogue suddenly felt really grateful that she hadn't stood in the way of Lance dating Kitty. "Now get lost!"
Mumbling the three stooges backed off leaving the two alone. "Lance... thanks, I owe you big time."
Lance shot one last glare at the boys' backs before facing her. "Forget it Rogue, it's nothing." He left before she could say anything more, though Rogue was sure she'd mention this to Kitty, that way he'd get some kind of reward.
Disclaimer: If I really owned X-Men, do you really think I'd spend my time writing fanfics?
Chapter Four
Later on that night Rogue was in her room, studying with Kitty for her chemistry test. "If I don't get an A on this test it'll like, bring down my whole average!" Kitty was ranting while Rogue just rolled her eyes. Kurt ported into the room and looked first to Kitty then to Rogue and shook his head.
"Let me guess, she's stressing over the chem. test?" Kurt rolled his eyes when Rogue nodded. "Chill out Kitty, you've aced all the other tests." While Kurt tried to reason with her Rogue went out onto the balcony and started to write in her diary again.
~Diary, I think I really screwed it up with Gambit today... he wasn't too pleased with me when Kitty yanked me to Lance's car. Ugh, that boy should have his license revoked. What am I going to do about Gambit though? He probably thinks I care more about Scott then him. Which isn't true, I gave up on Scott a long time ago. We're just friends. I better go, I want to take a walk before bed.~
She slipped it beneath her mattress and slipped on a lightweight jacket. "I'm going to go for a walk for a while, Kitty." Rogue said loudly as she zipped up her jacket, so Kitty would hear her over her ranting.
She slipped out the door in the kitchen and put her hands in her jacket pockets. Walking slowly down a path that wove through all the Institute's property she sighed. 'He was so cold when he let me go...'
Rogue crossed her arms and leaned against a tall oak tree with twenty or so branches. It had just gotten dark and her eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet when she heard a voice from above her.
"Lost cherie?" He drawled as he dropped to the ground and stood up, shuffling another deck of cards.
She tried not to act too overjoyed that he was talking to her. "More like trying to think Cajun."
"About what?" He took her by the arm and led her to the small bench and sat down next to her.
"What happened earlier." 'I can't think of how it's my fault... I didn't do anything wrong.'
"Hm, let it go cherie, it's not important." He said wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
She raised her eyebrows. "You seemed pretty upset earlier..."
"Upset?" He said stiffly.
Now Rogue was giving him an odd look. "Jealous."
Gambit swallowed. "Jealous? This homme? Impossible."
Rogue stiffened in his embrace. 'So he wasn't jealous? Of course not Rogue... your falling for this dumb swamp rat! He's nothing but a play boy!' Getting to her feet she tried to push the thoughts out of her mind.
"Cherie? Rogue! Where are you going!"
She was already gone, her head whirling with the painful thoughts. 'That's all I am to him, some prize to win... it was stupid to think he'd ever even date someone exclusively, let alone me...'
By the time she got to the room, Kitty was already asleep. Sneaking in silently, she slipped under her covers and hugged her pillow tight. 'Forget him!'
*****
Gambit had just sneaked into the kitchen when Logan's claws shot out, nearly missing his shoulder (and when I say 'nearly missed his shoulder' I mean it was by a damn hair)
"Cajun."
"Wolfie."
Logan narrowed his eyes and sipped his coffee. "Planning on going some where swamp rat?"
Gambit's tolerance was wearing thin, he needed to get to Rogue and this stupid bear of a man was in the way. "Yeah homme, to my fille's room."
"I just saw Rogue, she doesn't want to talk to you." He informed him, his voice dripping with disdain.
"Never trust a wolf," Gambit growled, "Now get outta my way." His staff was instantly in his hand and Logan eyed him.
"You must've really screwed up to get her looking' like that. No way in hell I'm going to let you pass." Logan snarled letting his coffee cup hit the floor with a smash!
Before Gambit could even swing his staff Professor Xavier wheeled into the room with Storm. "Logan!"
"What on earth happened in here?" Storm asked, looking from the shattered remains of the coffee cup to Logan and Gambit's furious faces.
Gambit quickly put on an innocent facade and slipped his staff back into his coat. "Nothing, just on my way to check in on my fille." He snatched an apple from the fruit bowl and quickly exited.
Running up the stairs three at a time, he quickly reached Rogue and Kitty's door. Slipping in he quietly closed it behind him and started to creep towards Rogue's bed when a shaft of moonlight from the balcony doors touched her face, making her seem to glow. Keeping his eyes on her face he crept closer...
He was almost at her side...
When he tripped over Kitty's chemistry book lying on the floor. (A/N: Well done! Well done indeed)
Cursing he hit the carpet leaving a nasty rug burn on the side of his face when Kitty awoke with a shriek. "MR. LOGAN!" She screamed, seeing only Gambit's back in the dark, assuming he was a burglar.
Rogue sat up straight in her bed as Kitty pummeled Gambit's body with objects from her nightstand, her alarm clock, the bottle of Nyquil, a mystery paperback, (that was Rogue's) her compact, the shell her and Kurt had found at the beach, and the hard candy dish. "GET OUT!" She cried and he struggled to get up from the ground when Logan kicked in the door.
The light from the hallway spilled into the room, lighting Gambit's back, but it didn't matter. Logan could smell him from a mile away. Grinning he strolled in and grabbed Gambit's trench coat neck yanking him and the trench coat into the air.
"Well, well, well... looks to me that I've caught myself a swamp rat." And with the look on Logan's face, it was pretty clear he intended to drown it.
Rogue swallowed hard in her bed, 'He was sneaking in to talk to you, this is your fault!' "Logan! Put him down!"
Meanwhile Kitty was out of her bed, scurrying to pick up all the things she'd thrown and apologize profusely. "I'm so sorry Gambit! I thought you were a burglar!"
By now Rogue was out of bed too, her hand on Logan's arm, which was still clutching Gambit's trench coat. "Please put him down Logan."
Logan looked at her, and she could see two emotions battling in his eyes. One, his feelings for Rogue. They were strong and father like, very protective, but there was also the fact that he didn't want to upset her, or get her too upset with him. Two, there was the fact that he just damn hated Gambit, and wanted nothing better to boot him out the door.
Essentially it all came down to happiness; his or Rogue's. Kicking Gambit out the Institute would make him happy, but allowing him to stay would make Rogue happy.
Finally he looked at Rogue, her eyes pleading with him to let go.
Gambit hadn't said a thing since he'd been snatched, figuring he was toast.
"Hn, get to bed rat." Unceremoniously Logan dropped him, and then stood with his arms crossed. He may have let him stay, but that didn't mean he was going to allow him to stay in Rogue's room in the middle of the night. Jerking his thumb over his shoulder, a not-so-subtle hint for Gambit to get lost, Logan glared.
Grinning, Gambit ran a hand through his hair and gave Rogue a meaningful look before yawning loudly. "I appreciate it homme, I owe you. Night cherie, Kitty cat," He gave a cheeky wave and left slowly, leaving a scowling Logan in his wake.
"Get to bed, the both of you." He ordered but Rogue grinned at him before pecking him lightly on the cheek.
"Thank you Logan, I appreciate it too."
He snorted but his face became slightly flushed and he pointed to her bed. With a wink to Kitty she climbed in and pulled the covers up to her chin.
"Goodnight daddy!" Rogue and Kitty chanted at once making Logan flush again, and he slammed the door angrily behind him.
*****
Rogue was in a good mood at breakfast, eating happily between Kitty and Logan. Or at least she was until Kitty told her that Lance agreed to give her a ride to school as well.
'I knew I shouldn't have eaten so much at breakfast...' She thought glumly walking along side Kitty on the way to first period clutching her stomach.
"How come you're not affected from his driving?" Rogue demanded and Kitty giggled.
"Well he's got his arm around me so I'm not bouncing around like you do in the back."
Rogue felt the urge to grunt like Logan but decided against it, 'it's too early to be getting stares.'
She said good-bye to Kitty and met up with Lance and Evan by their lockers, her and Kurt had first period together. "You all right Rogue? You look a little green at the gills." Evan noticed and she hitched her backpack higher up on her back.
"I'm surprised I don't resemble a Kermit, I rode with Lance and Kitty again today."
Evan winced, "Ouch, harsh, glad I just had a pop tart for breakfast."
"Ditto." Kurt agreed both had turned a bit paler at the thought of ridding with Lance. "I don't know how Kitty can take it."
The warning bell rang; they only had a few minutes to get to class. Evan left in a hurry, said he had some last minute homework to get done, so Rogue and Kurt walked to room 153, 20th Century History with Mr. Matthews.
Half way through the school day she got let out of her 3rd period (apparently she looked greener than she thought) a few minutes early for some water, when she saw those punks who'd hassled her a while ago.
Rogue was going to just go find another fountain but they'd already spotted her. "Hey, freak!"
With a groan she turned to face them. "I wouldn't, not today." She warned.
The guys ignored it, "Thought we'd pay you back for sending your dog after us."
Rogue looked surprised. "What are you talking about?" Only then did she really look at them. One had a black eye, another had a fat lip, and the other idiot was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, so she could see the bruises on his arms.
"Your little mutt jumped us," The leader snarled. "So we thought we'd take it out on the owner."
'Gods, why me?' Rogue groaned inwardly taking a step back when there was a shout from behind her.
"Back off Stebbins!"
Rogue's eyes widened as she turned to see Lance angrily coming towards them, his fists clenched.
"This doesn't concern you," Stebbins said quietly, Rogue noticed they didn't seem so keen on being verbally abusive now.
"Oh yeah? She's my girl's best friend, there's no way I'm going to let you punks gang up on her." Lance spat and Rogue suddenly felt really grateful that she hadn't stood in the way of Lance dating Kitty. "Now get lost!"
Mumbling the three stooges backed off leaving the two alone. "Lance... thanks, I owe you big time."
Lance shot one last glare at the boys' backs before facing her. "Forget it Rogue, it's nothing." He left before she could say anything more, though Rogue was sure she'd mention this to Kitty, that way he'd get some kind of reward.