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).
The bell rang and the sounds of laughter came from the door as, judging by the number of footsteps Rogue could hear, three people entered the diner. Not wanting to turn around Rogue glanced at the old man in the corner who had been eyeing Rogue earlier. His attention was no longer on Rogue, it was upon the newcomers and he was no longer just observing people, he was glaring at them.
Why has everyone stopped talking? Rogue wondered, taking notice of the complete lack of sound in the diner. The silence made it easy for her to hear one of the new customers whisper amusedly, "Jumpy crowd, ain't they?"
Pretending to work out the kinks in her neck, Rogue turned her head slightly in the direction towards the door. There was indeed three people, teenagers no less, each were about her age, give or take a year.
One of them, the only boy, was chuckling to himself and Rogue deduced that had been him to make the crack about the other customers being a 'jumpy crowd'. He was a bit short and had unruly black hair that hung in front of his eyes. He seemed to be the only person truly amused by the silence of the diner. The other two were girls, one with fiery red hair that reminded Rogue of Jean's hair, and the other girl had midnight black hair that reflected blue when hit by light.
The trio sat down at a booth and immediately Marian went to attend to their orders.
"What can I get ya'all today?" she inquired.
The group smiled as the male took charge of ordering for the group. "Tessa will have a bowl of frog eggs and cow blood to drink," the guy listed off-handedly.
Rogue tried not to think about the order too much, but she heard quite a few other people gag a bit on their food.
"Theresa will have…mmh…let's see, a raw crocodile tail with newts on the side and snake skins to drink. And I'll have tape worm and fresh shrimp, uncleaned, with a snail intestine slushy," the guy finished.
Snail intestine slushy, appetizing, Rogue thought suddenly not hungry for her pancakes anymore.
Marian took the orders with a straight face and returned to counter, handing the note to the back for the chief. "Kids an' their imaginations," she muttered.
"Are those 'the kids'?" Rogue asked in a soft voice as everyone else in the diner returned to quieter conversations.
"That's only some of them, and they're skipping school again, as usual," Marian nodded, casting a scolding glance at the kids in black.
So she was right, they were high schoolers like herself. "Do they always come here when they're not at school?" Rogue inquired, pushing her plate away.
"Only for food, but most of the time they go somewhere else to 'chill'," Marian told her as she took the plate away. "Sorry that they made ya lose yer appetite."
"It's okay, Ah was full anyways," Rogue lied. "So, why ain't yer son at school?"
"In-service for the junior high," Marian replied, getting the meaning of Rogue's question. "I would never let Timothy skip school just to work; it would be immoral in my opinion."
"Oh." Marian grabbed two plates to place on her tray, one had scrabbled eggs with hash browns on the side and another with steak and eggs. "How do you know what to get them?" asked the southerner as she eyed the food.
"Easy, they always order the same thing everyday they're in here," Marian smiled as she place a bowl of fruit and three different glasses of juice on the tray. Before picking up the tray Marian had cast a glance at the occupied booth. "Looks like Sydney has his eye on ya. Don't pay him any heed an' he ought to go away, if he does approach."
Rogue just sighed after Marian left to serve the kids their food; it was not that odd that some guy would take notice of her. Cody had liked you, a thought, not her own, had pointed out to Rogue.
Marian set each dish of food in front of the respected person. When she served Sydney his food he grabbed her hand and asked, "Hey Marian, who's that girl at the counter?"
"I wouldn't know, she just came in today, but I wouldn't try anything if I were you," she warned him before leaving.
"On the rebound already Morph?" Theresa commented, digging into her scrambled eggs.
"No, just…interested," he corrected, sliding out of the booth and making his way to Rogue. "Hi there," he greeted.
Rogue said nothing; she didn't even look at him as she pulled out her rupix cube and began twisting it around.
"I'm Sydney James, but you can call me Morph." Morph took a seat beside Rogue and watched her as she tried to solve the complex cube problem. "What's your name?" he asked.
"What's it to ya?" Rogue retorted.
"Well, normally I like to know the name of a pretty face," Morph shrugged, giving her a dimple grin as he reached out a hand to touch Rogue's cheek. Rogue noticed his action though and slapped Morph's hand away with her gloved hand.
"Don't touch meh," she growled.
Morph was affronted, what had he done to her that would warrant her growling at him. "Do I disgust you or som…" he was starting to ask.
"I jus' don' like bein' touched," Rogue quickly explained.
"Generally?" Morph raised an eyebrow as Rogue nodded. "Wow, must be a pain for your boyfriend when he wants to kiss you, eh?" he remarked offhandedly, though he was just trying to see if Rogue did have a boyfriend.
In return Rogue rolled her eyes and replied, "A boy would have to be insane to be mah boyfriend."
This answer pleased Morph greatly; it even made him advance a bit towards Rogue. "Well, I think I just make that profile," he muttered.
Rogue's eyes grew wide and she would have pushed Morph off the stool if he wasn't already pulled off of it.
"Morph that is no way to treat a lady you just met," came a Scottish accented voice that caused Morph to stiffen. "Now, go sit down and stay out of trouble."
"S…sure thing Lucas," nodded Morph as he got to his feet and went back to the booth where there was one other girl at the booth now, a blond who seemed like she should be a super model.
"I am sorry about that…" Lucas apologized to Rogue, flashing a grin, "Rogue."
Not about to be intimidated by Lucas' knowledge of her name Rogue just stared at him in an amused manner. "No need to apologize as long as your lackey over there doesn't try anything on me again."
"I'll tell him just that," Lucas assured with a smirk as he left her.
Turning back to the counter Rogue sighed, A telepath, that's always fun.
"Your total is $9.35," Marian told Rogue, snapping the girl out of her thoughts.
Startled, Rogue took a moment to understand what exactly Marian said before pulling out her wad of cash. All her money was singles and each one was crumbled from when she just shoved it into her pocket the night before.
As she counted out the money she owed Rogue didn't notice Marian's raised brow.
"Hon, come with me for a moment," Marian whispered to her, motioning to the kitchen.
Taken off guard again, Rogue numbly nodded and picked up her duffle bag, she didn't want anyone from the booth getting noisy and start picking through her stuff. That was the last thing she needed.
In the kitchen Marian glanced around for sight of her chief, but he was outside on a cigarette break so they were all alone.
"Hon, where are ya from?" was the immediate question.
"I don' know where Ah was born," Rogue answered honestly.
"No, before ya came here," clarified the woman.
Rogue bit her lower lip for a moment, was she caught already? "Westchester, New York."
"Did ya run away?" The question was voiced completely straight forward and in a stern tone.
Was it that obvious?! Rogue had hoped that it wasn't but apparently Marian wasn't being fooled. How was Rogue supposed to answer such a question? Yes, could possibly get her sent back to the X-mansion. No, would mean she was lying and Rogue was never a good liar to begin with, it was always her tone or expression that gave her away.
Marian didn't need a confirmation it seemed for she sighed ruefully.
"Don' try to send or take mah back, please," Rogue appealed to her. "Ah need time to think, space to…breath."
"Family problems," Marian assumed.
"Ah wasn't livin' with meh family, only at a boarding house of sorts," Rogue corrected. There was no way she was going to come right and say, 'Actually Ah live in a mansion with a bunch of mutants'.
There seemed to be an expression of relief washing over Marian as a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Are yer supervisors aware ya're gone?"
"Ah left 'em a note explainin' mehself," she nodded getting the sense that the interrogation was leading to something completely different.
"Do ya know where ya're stayin' at?"
Rogue pulled a bit at her hair as she muttered, "Ah kind of left with a very half-baked plan." When the Cajun had kidnapped her and convinced her to 'runaway' with him there was a plan on the Cajun's half, whereas Rogue didn't have a real plan at the moment.
The look in Marian's eyes made it appear as though she was laughing. "Okay, I'll make a deal with ya. My son is at school for most of the day and usually has something goin' on at night. If ya work here for me, I'll let ya stay with us."
Whatever powers that may be seemed have decided to smile upon Rogue at that moment, but Rogue wasn't about to go jumping at the offer without being at least a little cautious about it. "Really?" she inquired.
"Really," smiled Marian. "Do we have a deal?"
Rogue thought about it. Ah'd have a place to stay and not have to live on the streets like a pauper, plus Ah would have a job to keep mah occupied while Ah thought. Still, Ah'd be intrudin' into their lives without their knowin' of meh powers, what if Ah accidentally touch Marian or Timothy? How would Ah explain that?! Yet, if Ah stay covered an' maybe warn 'em not to touch mah under any circumstances…but if Ah lose control again, what then? It's not as though Ah have the Prof to help mah build another wall…that can be torn down again, Rogue sighed. Am Ah really willin' to risk it? Ah mean Ah can be helpful to Marian without havin' to use mah powers or fight off other mutants, unless Lucas' lackeys decide something, but he looks too smart to start anything for now.
"Yeah," Rogue barely heard herself say.
"Good, we'll start ya tomorrow," Marian grinned, clapping a hand on Rogue's shoulder.
Knowing that most of the time word agreements were worthless and most of the time one half of the partnership, mainly the half that held the advantage, could withdraw from the agreement Rogue suggested that they write the negotiation down.
"If that'll make ya feel more comfortable about it than sure, we can write it down tonight, at home," Marian nodded. "In the meantime, you can sit at the counter and perhaps help me every once in a while until my lunch break. I have some other questions to ask you."
The higher powers seemed to have withdrawn and left Rogue with a queasy feeling in her stomach. Other questions was never a good sign, or at least usually wasn't a good sign.
"O…Okay," gulped Rogue following Marian back out into the diner.
Taking her seat at the counter again, Rogue pulled out the frustrating rubix cube and thought, What have Ah done?
Thank you ishandahalf and Louc S. Swarm for reviewing.