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).
It was rare, now that Kurt thought about it, to have a photo that had Rogue in it. He just happened to be among the few people who had a picture with her in it. Granted it had all of the X-Men, the Brotherhood, and Magneto's men, so Rogue's face was tiny and a bit hidden amongst the several other faces.
Smiling gently at the picture, Kurt set it aside with a rueful sigh. Kurt had just found out a few hours ago that he and Kitty were the only two students receiving counseling for Rogue's disappearance.
When Scott had told Kurt the news, Kurt almost laughed at the irony of the situation. First, the Professor wants to counsel all the students so that they all know how to behave towards Rogue when-rather if-she returned to the mansion. Now, the Professor found the counseling sessions useless. To say the least, it hadn't surprised Kurt terribly.
"Zree veeks," Kurt muttered, fingering the picture as it laid on his nightstand. "She's been gone zree veeks and you still can't get over it. Rogue, vherever you are, I hope zat vhatever you're doing gets done soon so you can come home."
With two weeks having gone by since Kitty had asked a favor from that Cajun one would have thought that the man would have left New York, but no. Gambit was still in Westchester and he still lurked about the high school on some days.
Kurt knew this because in trigonometry he had a window seat and had spotted the Cajun stalking about or leaning against a tree. What was his reason for doing all that when he should have been in ---, South Carolina speaking with Rogue?!
It was seriously getting on Kurt's nerves to the point where he was tempted to skip class and teleport out of the school to have 'a word' with the Cajun. However, Kitty kept making-Kurt called them excuses-reasons as to why Gambit was still in New York. Kurt refused to buy into any reason but that the man was lazy.
Teleporting off his bed, Kurt reappeared in front of his closet and opened the doors. At the bottom of the closet laid a ragged backpack already packed with clean clothes and all of Kurt's saved allowance from his German parents.
Reaching out to grab the back, Kurt stopped for a moment as he heard the knob of his door begin to turn.
Quickly closing his closet doors, Kurt teleported underneath the covers of his bed and pretended to be asleep as the door opened.
"Kurt, it's time for sup…oh…" came Kitty's voice. She saw the lump underneath the blankets of the bed and assumed that the elf was fast asleep. "I'll leave you to sleep."
Quietly, Kitty exited the room, closing the door silently behind her.
Once Kurt heard the soft click of the door, Kurt sat up in bed. Maybe I should talk vith ze Cajun before I decide to go after Rogue, Kurt decided. I'll speak vith him after school and if he's not leaving soon zen I'll go see Rogue for myself.
With this rock-hard resolution in place, Kurt got out of bed and mused his hair a bit for a disheveled appearance before he went downstairs for dinner. He was hungry after all, a fact his stomach continued to remind him.
It was 9 pm and Rogue was sitting outside on the porch swing, rocking back and forth as she laid staring up at all the stars she could see, trying to make out as many constellations as she could. Astrology was never much of an enticement for Rogue, but there were times when she liked to just sit around and test her knowledge of the stars.
Her knowledge of stars was very little as the only constellations she could name were 'The Big Dipper', 'The Little Dipper', and 'Orion'.
Ah'm so pathetic, she stated, laughing a bit at her lack of knowledge.
"Rogue," Marian's voice broke through the quietness of the night.
"Hey," replied Rogue, cocking her head toward the woman. "Ah'm sorry."
An inquiring expression took over Marian's features as she cranked her head to the side. "What do ya need to apologize for? You haven't done anythin' that Ah can think of that ya need to apologize for."
"For chasin' all of the local customers away with mah powers," clarified Rogue, adverting her eyes back toward the sky. It hadn't taken long before the entire town had heard about Rogue's powers and the prejudice had started. So far though there had been very few threats but there were always the fearful, disdainful looks that people gave Rogue.
"Ah…that," Marian nodded in understanding, "don' worry about it Rogue. Ah have told as many people as possible that there were no 'powers' in the incident. Only that Sydney had frightened ya and ya punched him unconscious. Ah think that explanation will be believed more firmly than the truth, especially since children with their imaginations have a knack for makin' up stories."
Rogue snorted her doubt.
"Either way, we still have our tourist customers an' Lucas with his friends, especially Sydney." There was a hint of suggestion in Marian's voice.
In response, Rogue glared at Marian a bit until the smile on Marian's face found its way onto Rogue's.
"Mind if Ah sit with ya?"
Sitting up, Rogue made room for her friend, who was currently wearing rubber gloves since she had been washing the dishes, a task that hadn't been done in over four days.
"Takin' a break?" teased Rogue as Marian sat down with a sigh of relief.
"Ah had forgotten how much work it is to actually do the dishes. Next time, you're in charge of them, you've been here long enough that ya can start taking some responsibility for cleanin'," Marian stated, leaning back on the swing and putting an arm on the back. "What a beautiful night."
Rogue didn't reply, but she nodded her agreement numbly, as her thoughts were elsewhere.
"Marian?"
"Mmh?" Cocking her head toward Rogue, Marian saw that the girl's head was tilted down and she was staring at her gloved hands.
Opening her mouth to say something, Rogue closed it and shook her head, deciding to say something else. "How did ya meet yer husband?" Rogue inquired casually.
Sensing that was not what the teen had meant to ask Marian raised an eyebrow before answering. "Ah met him at the diner; his father owned an' ran the place. When his dad died about ten years ago the diner was entrusted to my husband and me in joint ownership. However, when that happened, James, my husband, had been gone for three months."
"He left ya?!" Rogue hadn't expected that, if nothing else she would have thought that Timothy's dad was killed somehow. "Do ya know why?!"
Marian held up a hand to signal for Rogue to stop before she ran too far with her train of thought. "No, not at all. James didn't leave me like how you're thinkin' he did. James had to leave, that's what he claimed, for one of his former students was havin' trouble an' called upon my husband for assistance," Marian explained and Rogue gave her a dubious look. "That was probably the same look Ah gave him when Ah heard that story."
"Why would a former student call up yer husband?" Rogue questioned, still maintaining her dubious expression.
"As Ah told ya James was a psychology teacher at the high school, an' well, my husband had several degrees in the area of psychology an' psychiatry. Knowin' this, the student requested my husband for assistance with a patient; the student was at the time a psychiatrist. The patient was having some difficulty…adjustin' to his…new situation in life," continued Marian, having paused to find the appropriate words.
"Ya mean the patient was a mutant," assumed Rogue, staring down at her gloves. "Like meh."
Pulling over a glove, Marian reached over and took Rogue's hand, giving it a comforting, motherly squeeze. "There's nothin' wrong with that in the least, for that makes ya who ya are. Come here an' tell me a story about ya," Marian smiled, pulling Rogue toward her.
Rogue hesitated, taking time to assess the situation. There was no skin showing on Marian for she was wearing a long-sleeved turtle neck and one rubber glove, about the only area of skin exposed was her one hand and face, but Rogue could avoid those areas fairly well.
Slowly, Rogue lowered her head to rest on Marian's shoulder while the older woman's gloved hand stoked Rogue's hair in a soothing, motherly manner.
"What would ya like to know, seein' as we're no longer 'strangers'?" Rogue inquired, still a bit stiff with paranoia.
"Well, how about boys?" suggest Marian, feeling Rogue unconsciously tense up at the subject. "Oh, Ah can see that this is a topic that is truly goin' to be worth hearin'. Tell me as much as ya would like."
Where should Rogue start? Should she even go into her ineffective love life? Sure, there was that crush on Scott, which still stood strong in Rogue, somewhere deep inside of her, despite the fact that Jean and Scott were an official couple.
Sensing that Rogue was not going to willingly talk about the subject, Marian decided to just ask questions until Rogue found herself sort of rambling. "Well, do ya like any boys?"
A small smile cracked on Rogue's lips. "Yes."
"What's his name?"
"Scott Summers," Rogue answered, closing her eyes to enjoy the sensation of Marian's hand brushing through her hair, even if it was with rubber gloves.
"Scott Summers," Marian echoed, testing the name out a bit. "Ah like that name, Scott, it's a classic name an' rarely do Ah actually hear of someone young with that name. Is he cute?"
Shaking with silent laughter, Rogue nodded, "He's very cute; in fact, he's rather on the handsome side especially when his bangs fall the right way on his face and when he gets that appreciative smile on his face…" Rogue stopped and blushed a bit as she realized what she was saying and how easily she had began to just randomly describe the X-men leader.
Marian grinned down at the child, for Rogue had subconsciously relaxed on the woman's shoulder.
"What is Scott like? Personality wise," asked Marian in a low voice.
"Very kind, undiscriminatin' for the most part, smart as far as strategy but Ah'm not sayin' he's lacking academically," Rogue listed, realizing again that she was rambling. "In fact, he was really the only person to truly try to become mah friend after mah powers were discovered."
"Wow, what a guy," remarked Marian, generating a very pretty picture of this Scott character.
"Yeah," Rogue agreed softly, "what a guy with a girlfriend." Marian looked down at Rogue in surprise. "Scott's been in love with this girl, Jean Grey, for longer than Ah've known him an', well, they finally got together a little bit before graduation last year."
Able to empathize with Rogue's position, having been a teenager once herself, Marian gave Rogue a small hug but had to stop herself from kissing the top of Rogue's head.
"Ah…well, is there someone else?" Marian inquired.
"No," Rogue said quickly. "No one else."
"Are ya certain? Not even someone who might show ya interest but you're not interested?" offered Marian, getting the impression that there was someone else but Rogue didn't like the boy.
Narrowing her eyes a bit, Rogue shrugged.
"What's his name?"
"Gambit."
Yes, another 'cliffhanger'-although, I'm not quite certain anyone would call this a cliffhanger.
Thank you to: Fiona12690, DaughterofDeath, TheDreamerLady, EvilWhiteRaven, ishandahalf, EmeraldKatsEye, and Alyssa-Anime-Angel. Thank you all very much for your support, I know this chapter has been a long time coming.