A/N: Special thanks to MoonlightPhoenix3 & SperryDee for reviewing my last chapter.

------------------------------------------------------------------

It was early in the evening. Rogue and Jubilee were sitting in the room that they shared together, busy talking about the upcoming Allison Blaire concert that Doug Ramsey had invited them to.

"I still say you should go with Doug 'n me tomorrow night, even if 'Ice-Cubes-For-Brains' says he doesn't want to go." Jubilee said to Rogue as she went through the wardrobe in her closet. Rogue looked up from the fashion magazine she was thumbing through as she sat on her bed.

"I think Ah might. I told him it would probably be good to get out and have some fun together for a change, but he said he didn't feel like it," Rogue revealed as she walked over and sat down on Jubilee's bed, "Ever since that night at the mall, he never feels like doing much of anything. I'll bet'cha that he's locked in his room right now, moping as usual."

Jubilee also had noticed that Bobby had been withdrawing himself from the rest of the group.

"Then you should ask him, point-blank, what his damage is. Whatever's wrong with him isn't gonna get solved by him shutting out the rest of the world." Jubilee said.

"I think we both need to sit down and just have a talk about everything that's been going on lately." Rogue said as she got up to go to Boys' wing of the dormitory, "I'll be back in a little while."

As Rogue walked into a central area in the mansion that separated the two wings, she ran into the one person that she regarded as a friend, mentor, and somewhat of a father figure, all rolled into one.

"Logan, where are you off to in such a hurry?" Rogue asked him as they both stopped for a moment.

"Out to the garage, to finish some work I've been doing on Summer's bike. I wanted to get it done before I cut outta here." Logan replied. He saw the expression on Rogue's face change from somewhat cheerful to considerably less than that.

"Oh. You're still leaving then?" She replied, looking deeply into his eyes.

"Yeah, I got a flight leavin' late tonight." Logan told her.

"Where are you going?" Rogue asked him.

"To the Far East. After Chuck picked at my brain for a while, I remembered spending some time there, a long time ago. I'm going to start in Japan and see what other clues I can dig up there." Logan said.

"So, um…do you know how long you'll be gone?" Rogue inquired.

"I'm not sure." Logan answered as honestly as he could.

"You make it sound like you won't comin' back for a while." Rogue said as she looked down at the floor.

"Don't worry darlin'. This trip is gonna be longer than my last one up north, but I promise I won't be gone for too long. I got ties here now." Logan said as he hugged Rogue.

"You'd better." Rogue replied as she looked up at Logan with a smile on her face, her mind now at ease.

"So, where are you going young lady?" Logan asked, inquiring about her trip to the boys' dorm.

"There's something really important that I need to talk about with Bobby." Rogue explained.

"Well, give my regards to the Popsicle." Logan said with a smirk as he continued his journey downstairs to the garage.

Rogue walked over to the other side of the central area and entered the boys' corridor. As Rogue walked past some of the rooms, she saw one of the younger students, a New Mutant as some of the older students called the younger ones, in the hallway coming towards her.

"Rictor, do you know if Bobby's in his room?" Rogue asked him.

"How would I know, I'm not psychic." Julio Esteban Richter, aka Rictor, replied as he continued past her.

"Thanks." Rogue said sarcastically.

"Rogue, I think I heard Bobby go in his room earlier." Another one of the younger students, James Proudstar aka Warpath, told her as he sat meditating on his bed in his room next to Bobby's.

His older brother John had been a student at Xavier's also, and had fought alongside the X-men for a time. But John's heart eventually led him to leave Xavier's school, so that he could go back to Arizona to help their people on the reservation.

"Thank you, James." Rogue responded.

Finally, Rogue stood in front of Bobby's door, unsure if she wanted to go through with it. But she made her decision, and then knocked on his door.

"Who is it?" She heard from inside the room.

"It's me." Rogue replied.

The door opened and Bobby appeared in front of her at the doorway.

"What's up?" Bobby asked her.

"Can I come in?" Rogue asked in response.

"Oh…uh, yeah, of course." Bobby said as he led Rogue into his room. As they both sat down on his bed, Rogue looked over at the other bed in the room. It was the one that used to belong to John Allerdyce, and she noticed that it was still vacant. Most of John's things were still where he had left them on his side of the room, almost like Bobby was expecting him to come back. She also noticed that the picture that Bobby kept of him and his family on his dresser, was now gone.

"I think we need to talk Bobby." Rogue said to him.

"About what?" Bobby asked her.

"About what's going on with you." She stated.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You've been acting…different lately." She said.

"It's just some stuff I've been trying to work through is all."

"Like, what kind of stuff?" Rogue inquired, "Maybe I can help?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Bobby told her.

"Or maybe you just don't want to talk about it with me?" Rogue wondered out loud.

"C'mon Rogue, I don't want to start a fight with you." Bobby said as he looked at her.

"I don't want to fight either, but something's been seriously wrong between us lately. I just want to know what it is." Rogue told him.

Bobby took hold of Rogue's hand, which was covered with her almost trademark glove, and looked at her nervously. Rogue could tell that he wanted to say something, but seemed at a loss for words.

"Rogue, there's something I've been wanting tell you for a while, but there's…no easy way to say it." He said with a serious look on his face.

"What are you talking about?" Rogue asked him.

"Things between us have felt different to me too. Everything just seems so complicated." Bobby paused for a moment before he spoke again, "I think we need to take a break from our relationship, just for a little while."

Rogue was stunned at what she had just heard from Bobby, from the first boy that she had ever truly fallen in love with. At first she thought that this must be some sort of a joke or trick. She looked closely at him, trying to convince herself that somehow a shape shifter must be posing as Bobby, like Mystique had done once before. She used the techniques that Logan had taught her on how to spot a shape shifter, and then Rogue realized the horrible truth. This was no imposter, this was the real Bobby.

"But why?" Rogue asked as tears started to well up in her eyes.

"I don't know, I guess we've both changed from the people that we were when you first got here." Bobby revealed.

"But my feelings haven't changed. I still love you as much as I ever did." Rogue said to him, tears starting to stream down her face.

"Rogue, I would do anything to keep from hurting you. But I don't want to pretend that I feel something that I'm not sure of and I end up hurting you even more." Bobby said as he went to try and embrace her.

"No! Don't touch me." Rogue said as she moved away from him on the bed. "But I guess that's what this is really all about. We can't do the things that normal couples do and you've gotten tired of that, and of me." Rogue said with a hint of resentment in her voice.

"That has nothing to do with it. I still care about you and I still want us to be friends." Bobby said to her, trying to calm her down. But what he hadn't realized was that he had said the three words that anyone getting dumped couldn't stand to hear.

"Friends?! I don't think I even know how to respond to that right now. Here take this, I don't want it anymore!" Rogue said, as she took off the glove from her right hand. She pulled off the promise ring that Bobby had bought her when they first started dating, and threw it at him. She then got up and ran out of his room, crying even harder than before.

Bobby sat on his bed and watched Rogue run out. He sat there, alone with his thoughts and with the doubts he felt about whether he had made the right decision regarding their future.

Rogue hurried out of the boys' dormitory and to her room on the girls' side.

"Rogue, what's the matter?" Jubilee asked her friend, who had ran straight to her bed on the other side of the room and fell down on it bawling.

"Bobby. We just…broke up." Rogue explained in between her sobs.

"What? You broke up. What happened?" Jubilee asked as she went over to Rogue's bed and sat down beside her. Jubilee tried to comfort her as best she could.

"He said that things had…changed between us and that he didn't want us to be a couple anymore." Rogue told her.

"What a jerk!" Jubilee said as she rested her head on Rogue's back, who was face down crying into her pillow, "Don't worry, everything's gonna be alright."

Rogue laid on her bed for a couple of hours. Jubilee tried to comfort her with stories of how she dealt with her own break-ups, back when she lived in California. Eventually, Rogue was able to regain her composure when she suddenly remembered something that she had to do.

"I need to see Logan before he leaves." Rogue said to Jubilee as she sat up on her bed and wiped the last of the tears from her eyes.

"Do you need me to go with?" Jubilee asked her.

"Thank you Jube, but I think Ah'll be fine." Rogue replied as she got up and put on a dark green leather jacket and headed out of the bedroom.

Rogue walked out into the cool night air and headed towards the garage, where all of the cars and other vehicles were stored. As she entered the building, she saw Logan finishing up work on Scott's bike. He had borrowed it from Scott so much, that he might as well have started calling it his own.

"Looks pretty good." Rogue said as she walked up behind him.

"Oh, hey kid. Yeah, it's not too bad if I say so myself. So, what're you doin' out here?" Logan asked, as he was still bent down in front of the bike with his back turned to Rogue.

"I just came to tell you goodbye before you left, I know you'll be heading out pretty soon." Rogue said to him, but her voice faltered as she fought to hold back more tears. Right now, she felt like everybody was leaving and heading in a direction away from her. Logan could hear in her voice that something wasn't right, so he turned around to see a young girl that looked like she had been crying for days on end.

"What's the matter, Marie? I told you earlier that I was coming back when I got through takin' care of things." Logan said as he looked at Rogue.

"It's not that. Me and Bobby…we had a fight." Rogue said as she fought even harder to hold back more tears that she thought were all but gone.

"What were you two fighting about to get you this upset?" Logan continued to inquire.

"I was asking Bobby about what was wrong with him. He said that he didn't feel the same way about me anymore and…we broke up!" Rogue revealed, as she couldn't hold her tears back anymore.

Logan sat Rogue down on the seat of the bike he had been working on. He went over and grabbed a clean towel for her to dry her eyes with.

"Do you want me to go and have a talk with him?" Logan smirked as he popped the claws out of one of his hands, in an attempt to try and cheer her up.

"No, Logan don't, that won't change anything. You can't make somebody love you when they don't." Rogue said to him.

"I know it doesn't seem like it now, but take it from somebody's who's loved and lost more times 'n he can remember. The hurt'll eventually go away, it just takes time." Logan said as Rogue finally stopped crying.

"I know, it's just getting to that point that's so hard." Rogue replied, "Logan, I don't know what Ah'm going to do?"

Logan was becoming more concerned about Rogue, it seemed like her life was coming down all around her. He wondered whether in his absence and with her and Bobby having problems, if Rogue would run away like she had done before?

"Listen, Rogue. If you get your gear together, there's room for one more on this bike," Logan said as he offered her a chance to travel with him, "That is, if you're interested."

"Wow, sure I am." Rogue replied. She stopped crying and her face seemed to light up.

"Go get packed and get the passport Xavier had issued to you. I'm gonna get my things and tell McCoy that you're comin' with me. We'll meet back here in an hour, alright?" Logan told her.

"Okay." Rogue confirmed with him.

Rogue hurried back to her room and packed at a feverish pace. Jubilee helped her and then they sat and talked for a moment.

"You sure that you want to head half-way around the world?" Jubilee asked her.

"Yeah, I think it'll do me some good to get away for a while. It'll give me a chance to clear my head and decide how I feel about Bobby now." Rogue replied.

"Okay, just promise me that you'll call as soon as you get there. You have my cell number, right?" Jubilee said to her.

"Uh-Huh." Rogue said as she stood up, "Well, I'd better get downstairs. Me and Logan have to get to the airport and get checked in."

Rogue and Jubilee hugged each other for quite a while. Then Jubilee spoke again.

"Look I don't do that crying thing, so all I'm gonna say is that we'll hook up when you and Wolvie get back." Jubilee said as she sat back down on her bed.

"All right, I'll see you." Rogue said as she grabbed her bags and headed for the door before her emotions took over again.

"Yeah, I don't do that crying thing." Jubilee said to herself. But, Jubilee's pillow told a completely different story, as she thought about one best friend that was leaving and the other one that had already left to comfort Peter.

While the two girls were talking in their room, Logan had grabbed his bag and headed to the lab below the school, where Henry McCoy was busy working on his latest project.

"McCoy, sorry to interrupt scientific progress and all, but I need to talk to you for a minute." Logan said as he walked inside of the lab.

"No apologies are necessary my good man. I'm just continuing some research that I started with a colleague of mine on unstable molecules. I tell you, the potential that they possess is fascinating." Hank told him.

"I'm sure. Look, I'm getting ready to hit the road, but I wanted to let you know that Rogue's going with me." Logan said, "She said that she wanted to do some sightseeing in Japan."

"Studying abroad, what a wonderful idea. Logan, you have my permission." Hank replied.

"I wasn't asking for it, but thanks anyways." Logan said as he left the lab and headed for the garage.

Hank watched him leave and just smiled at Logan's statement. He then turned his attention back to his work.

Finally, Logan and Rogue met at the garage.

"Here, put this on." Logan said as he handed Rogue a helmet.

"Where's yours at?" Rogue replied as she put the helmet on.

Logan just looked at her as Rogue realized what she had said to a man that healed in minutes from gunshots to the head. Logan then started up the bike.

"You ready?" Logan asked her.

"As ready as I'm ever gonna be." Rogue replied.

With that, Rogue and Wolverine set off for whatever new adventure awaited them.

A/N: Rogue and Wolverine's story continues in a separate fanfic I'm writing, Land of the Silver Sun, coming soon!

Next chapter: Professor X, Kitty, Peter and Theresa arrive in Russia in 'Goodbye Salem Center, part 2'.