DISCLAIMER: Still belongs to Marvel.
"You ready?" Scott asked Rogue. She popped her gum at him from between purple glossed lips.
"Yeah. Is that stupid boy coming?"
"Bobby?"
"Yeah, the one that follows me around like he's lost."
"Um, no he had a presentation early today so Warren drove him in."
"Good," she said, shouldering her backpack. She had gone with a little variety today, a gray sweater over a black tank and black jeans worn that they were faded gray.
"A little color?" he joked, "What, is it a good day?"
She scowled at him, as he held the door to the mansion open. She managed to catch an elbow in his ribs as she marched out.
"You shouldn't tease her," Jean said from behind him, as he rubbed his sore ribs.
"Would you rather I tease you?" He closed his eyes, shook his head, smiled hopefully at her, and left. Why did his voice always get husky around her? Why did everything he say sound so…so….sexual?
"You like her?" Rogue asked, as he slid in the driver's seat of his convertible. The Professor had given it to him on his sixteenth birthday and it was his pride and joy. Her combat boots were crossed lazily on the dashboard.
"Why do you care?"
"Ah've absorbed her. Ah know her," Rogue said, staring at the cracking black polish on her nails and popping her gum again.
"What? Can you not do that?"
She spit out her gum. "I took it up to quit smokin'. You don't know?" she looked earnestly at him. He hadn't realized how stormy her eyes were. They were troubled. Dark and dangerous. He wished he could see what color they were.
"Know what?"
"Mah powers. One touch and bam! I know all your dark dirty secrets, your life story, and have your powers. But you're left unconscious. Or in a coma. Or dead. Just depends on how long Ah hold on." Her voice trailed off, got low at the end, husky.
"That's awful." He threw the car in reverse and backed down the driveway. She was silent for a long time, then spoke up, in a whisper that he almost didn't catch.
"It ain't as bad as you would think," she said, pulling on her black gloves that lay in her lap. Then she laughed, and she sounded on the verge of tears. "Ah don't know why Ah'm telling you this. You just seem the most normal of them, Ah guess, and that ain't sayin' much. Ah can't control it. Ah hate it. Momma made me come here, to gain control, but it's her fault!" Her voice rose higher, got angrier, stronger.
"Rogue," Scott said awkwardly. "I can't control my powers either. I can't ever take off my glasses or else I'd blow something up."
"But they love you anyway," she whispered. "No one has ever loved me. Not Momma. Not nobody," she was quiet."We're here," she said, and leaped out of the car, and took off for school running.
Scott sat for a moment, staring at the steering wheel. He hadn't expected sorrow. She had been crass and rude from the moment she got there, making it clear it hadn't been her choice to leave the Brotherhood. But as determined as he had been to hate Rogue, to judge her, he hadn't expected her eyes to be so real.
Later that afternoon, Jean was staring intently at her microscope, studying the dorsal root ganglia cells of the frog she had just dissected, after injecting it's DNA with X-factor. She didn't hear him come in, until he dropped a folder next to her. She looked up, pulling off her rubber gloves as she did so.
"What's this?" she asked. Scott just motioned for her to open it.
It was her picture, finished with shading. The page before it had the grading. Scott had gotten a perfect score. And the teacher commented that the only fault was that the woman was so beautiful she couldn't have been real.
"She's wrong though," he said, his voiced low.
"Excuse me?" she asked, not sure whether to be flattered, upset, or just run from the room screaming. She just figured it was from being cooped up in the lab for to long. And teenage hormones.
"You aren't too beautiful to be real."
"Okay," she said abruptly.
"You have this annoying habit of crinkling your forehead when you work. That makes you real." He said, with a smile. "And sometimes your glasses leave little marks on your nose. Here," his finger poked at her, "and here. And then there's morning time."
Flattery. That's what she felt. And lust. He was smiling at her. That smile was sin, pure and simple. The smooth, even line of his lips around his perfect white teeth. The dimple in his left cheek. The cleft in his chin. She found herself drawing closer to his face. His smile disappeared, and it was replaced by something else. Awareness. Then his lips brushed over hers, so lightly…
"Scott?"
He pulled back abruptly, leaving Jean bereft and bewildered. And very, very uncomfortable.
"Oh, Ah'm sorry," she said, with no apology, "Am Ah interrupting?" Rogue asked.
"Oh no, not at all. I was just explaining to Scott my research. You see, the dorsal root ganglia is what transmits what you see and hear and feel, neurologically to the brain and spinal chord, and I injected the specimen with X-factor to-"
"Save it. Ah was just wondering if Scott would lone me his car."
"No way!" Scott said, moving away to give himself distance from Jean. What the hell had he been thinking? He just wanted to show her the picture. But she looked so…appealing at that microscope. And the surprise at the picture. Like she hadn't realized she was that pretty. Had he even realized?
"Ah need to go to the pharmacy," Rogue said hotly. "Yours is the only automatic. Ah can't drive shift," she growled at him.
"I will take you," he said. He had to get away.
"No, Ah need to go alone."
"Why? Come on."
"Ah need tampons!" she shouted. Hank cringed behind her in the doorway, turned on his heel, and marched away.
"Uh," Scott floundered.
"Come on, Rogue, I need a break from this anyways." Jean refused to look at Scott, and smiled at Rogue. Rogue rolled her eyes and marched away. "Thanks."
"For what?" Scott asked. Why did she make him so surly?
"The picture. It's not realistic though," she said.
"Keep it," he said, pushing it back in her hands. She didn't know what to say, but when she looked up, he was gone.
Yay my first reviews! I updated a little earlier than I wanted to, because I was so excited! You like it! Yay!
Ishandahalf: I was gonna drag it out...but I can't wait either. I have to set up a bit of plot around it though, but don't worry! And you, lucky girl, have the honored distinction of being my first reviewer ever! Hope to see you around more!
Jeanl- Thanks for the props-it's was an idea that struck me and I'm having a lot of fun with it! Don't expect it to be too closely related to the movies or the comic though-there's gonna be a bit of Kinsella zaniness!
