Learning to Deal
I don't own X-Men Evolution (or X-Men for that matter) characters or anything concerning the show, comics, ect. No suing! Be civil in reviews (if there are any).
ALSO: the *** means something happening elsewhere at about the same time and ***** means a later time. Just thought I should clear that up now.
There was one more thing that Rogue found herself being envious of, when people could sleep on a bus. She couldn't sleep on a bus; it was the sense of not being able to prevent anyone from touching her skin. So to keep herself entertained during the night, Rogue had fiddled around with her keychain rubix cube. Like most people she knew, Rogue couldn't solve the darn thing but it was challenging to her brain.
About fifteen minutes of working with the darn cube, Rogue dropped it in frustration. It was a mentally stimulating thing to try and complete but it also frustrated her easily in not being able to master it.
The bus suddenly stopped about mid-morning, shaking any sleeping people awake. "Last stop people, everyone out," announced the bus driver.
There was much grumbling as people gathered their personal items and began filing out of the bus. Rogue was the last to leave since she felt safer being behind everyone instead of in front of someone.
As she got off the bus she noticed that she was in a small little town, certainly not Charleston. So, she turned to the bus driver before he closed the door and demanded, "What is this place? It ain't Charleston."
"You're right, it isn't. You're a few miles outside of Charleston girlie," laughed the bus driver before closing the door in Rogue's face.
With a groan Rogue shifted her duffle bag on her should and dug through her pocket for her money. It wasn't much, only $11.67 worth of money. That was enough to get her some breakfast, maybe even something small for lunch but nothing extravagant.
Wandering around the streets, Rogue was busy looking for some place where she could get some late breakfast food. She found a place, it was a small diner that looked something straight from the 1950s and brought into the future.
Easily enough Rogue wandered on inside the nearly deserted diner where there was a woman cleaning the counters, a teenaged boy cleared the tables, a couple sat by the window, an old man in the corner, and the smell of eggs, sausages, and bacon lingered tastefully in the air.
"May Ah help you?" asked the woman with the name 'Marian' on her badge, as Rogue sat at the counter.
"Yeah, what can Ah get for less than ten doll'rs?" Rogue inquired, setting her bag on the floor by her feet.
The woman smiled, she reminded Rogue of Irene except that this woman was not blind. Speaking of Irene…that was another topic she would have to ponder on, but that was for another day and another time, not during breakfast.
"Here hon, take a look in here and Ah'll come back in a few minutes for yer order," she suggested, handing Rogue a menu.
It was a relief to Rogue to finally not have someone flinch away from her touch when she was wearing gloves. Just that simple action caused Rogue to smile gently at the woman before she went off to pick up a plate of food to give it to the old man in the corner.
Glancing over the menu Rogue immediately knew what she wanted, so with her free time she took the time to observe 'Marian'. She was a woman of perhaps 40 or more years with red-grey hair, a contagious smile, and soft, friendly eyes. Then the boy by her side was a redhead too with a lady-killer smile, probably the heart throb of his school.
Her son? Rogue wondered briefly.
'Marian' came back to her. "So, what'll it be hon?"
"Ah'll have a glass of orange juice an' a stack of pancakes," Rogue told the woman, handing back the menu.
"Okay then, anything else?" the woman inquired as she jotted down the order.
"No."
"It'll be right out," promised 'Marian', hanging up the order for the chief then getting Rogue her glass of orange juice. Before she knew it there was a glass of orange juice sitting in front of her, teasing her dry throat.
"Thank ya," Rogue mumbled.
***
"But vhy vould she leave? Ve're her family!" Kurt ranted to Amanda as they walked through the hallways. "Vas it something I did?"
"Kurt you can blame yourself for what happened to Rogue, she probably has her reasons for going and she'll come back eventually because, just like you said, you guys are her family," Amanda explained in her calm, patient way that only she could do.
"She does, but she could have talked to me about her problems!" Kurt persisted as they entered their first hour class, Biology class. "I vould've listened to her."
Amanda took her seat behind her boyfriend and leaned forward a bit. "I know you would have Kurt, but we both know that if she had told you of her plans or her problems you would have told Professor Xavier or tried to stop her from leaving. I'm sure Rogue knew that too," she pointed out, all comfort in her tone leaving.
The German's face fell in defeat as he sighed, "You're right, I jus' vish she had talked to someone…"
At this point Amanda took the opportunity to interrupt, "Maybe she did!" Kurt turned around to face her with a perplexed expression. Who would she have told? "What about that one girl she was friends with?" suggested Kurt's girlfriend.
Vho is she talking about?! Rogue vasn't friends vith many people…could she mean Mystique?! Kurt thought. "Do you mean Risty?" he swallowed and was about to groan when his girlfriend nodded. "No, Risty hasn't been around lately." And hopefully never again, he added as an after thought.
Kurt had never told Amanda about Mystique and how she used, lied to, and hurt Rogue, or that she was his mother. He knew that someday he would be forced to tell her for the sake of their relationship and his own comfort, but that wasn't not today or tomorrow or next week, but someday.
"Oh," was her only response, but Kurt could feel her curious eyes upon his bent head. She knew something was not quite right with that tale, but she was not one to pry into such matters. "Well, how about that guy who had kidnapped her that one time?"
That Kurt did tell her about, he needed to vent his chaotic emotions to someone after Rogue was safely returned and Amanda felt like the right person to turn to. The thought of Rogue talking to that Cajun didn't quite seem to follow with her behavior towards him, which was usually on the edge of civility.
"She and he are not exactly on best…vait, maybe she did!" Kurt exclaimed as the teacher called the class to attention. Giving Amanda a quick kiss on the cheek Kurt turned back around in his seat to pay only half attention to the teacher.
***
"Here ya go," Marian smiled as she set Rogue's plate of pancakes and syrup on the counter in front of the girl.
"Thank ya," Rogue smiled appreciatively and immediately began slicing her pancakes into bite sizes before drenching it in syrup. The sugar in the syrup should last her for a while, at least until dinner.
Quietly Rogue sat at the counter eating, unaware that almost every eye in the diner was upon her, watching her with caution. She didn't notice them until the teenaged boy came up to her side and tugged on Rogue's trademark trench coat, which she firmly believed the Cajun had stolen the idea from her.
Swallowing the bit of pancake in her mouth, Rogue turned to the teen who was now sitting beside her, starring at her in that searching manner that people do when they are about to ask a serious but embarrassing question-embarrassing for the person being asked that is.
"Yes?" she gulped. Did the town's people already pinpoint her as a mutant due to her white streak?…best not to think about that token.
The kid continued to stare, gathering up all the courage he could muster before speaking. "Are you a follower of Satan?" His voice was innocent but it was just as curious and accusing, that it made Rogue almost want to glare at him yell out, "No, I'm not into Satanism". However, Marian was the person to spare her from doing so.
"Timothy James Maxwell, don't you be rude!" scolded Marian, tossing the boy a rag. "Apologize to the lady then go clean the bathrooms."
The teen, Timothy, muttered an apology then dashed off to the men's bathroom to clean it, and Rogue watched him go with her eyes before turning back to Marian who was blushing with embarrassment at her son's behavior. When Timothy was safely in the bathroom she returned her attention to the gothic girl, wearing an apologetic smile.
"Ah'm so sorry about that, rumors have been spreadin' about these parts for a while now. Rumors about this group of teens..." explained Marian in a low voice as Rogue went back to her food.
"Gothic kids?" Rogue finished before sipping her juice.
Ruefully, Marian nodded, another blush lightly spreading over her features. Rogue watched the woman, knowing that there was more to these 'rumors' than what Marian was willing to tell. Rogue could smell, curtsey of Sabertooth again.
Though Rogue could call upon Jean's powers at times she felt that it was dangerous for then she could lose control, and Rogue felt that it was an invasion of privacy to pry into someone else's mind without their knowing it. So instead, Rogue went with the stare-hard-until-they-break tactic, it's worked on her in the past so maybe it would work on Marian.
The woman tried to ignore Rogue's ever-so-observant eyes but she finally broke. "There's a group of kids, gothic kids-if you want to call them that-who have…" she paused for a moment to find the right word, "supernatural abilities."
Her mouth clenched, her back straightened, and her entire complexion darkened. Slowly, Rogue questioned cautiously, "Do ya think Ah'm one of 'em?" The possibly answer terrified Rogue. What if they did think she was a mutant-though she was? What if she met with the same prejudice she did back at Bayville High School? This time without the other X-Men there to back her up?
Marian leaned forward a bit. "Ya may dress the part hon, but ya don't look it," she assured in a hushed voice.
Relief washed over Rogue. Was there any better feeling than the relief felt when one's worst fear was not realized? Rogue would gladly argue with anyone who disagreed.
However, just because Marian didn't think Rogue was one of those groupie kids didn't mean that she felt completely comfortable. There are mutants here other than meh! The thought alarmed her causing her shift in her seat a bit while Marian went off to attend to the old man in the corner, whose eyes had yet to leave Rogue.
Returning to her food, Rogue ate in silence as well as everyone else in the diner, this time she was aware of the eyes staring at the back of her head and the smell of fear that clung to the air.
Do Ah frighten everyone Ah meet? she wondered, downing the last of her orange juice when the diner bell rang clearly through the tense atmosphere.
THANK YOU: ishandahalf, Blowfish the Monkey Tamer (such a creative name), skye, and Silver Ink (silver ink is always good for writing on anything black). Again, thank you all for your reviews!