New Beginnings

By: Krystopher

A/N: Extremely AU. First movie only (no Stryker, no Gambit, no Nightcrawler). Toad got hit by lightening but was then found and taken in by Robbie, he was contacted by the Professor, escaped Robbie. Rogue is no longer with Bobby. Toad is at the mansion and the X-men don't like it. That's our story so far.

" I don't like how much time she's spending with that green waste of a human." Logan growled, staring sullenly from the kitchen stool he was occupying.

" Neither do we but we don't really have a choice. The Professor made it clear that we were to treat him like a normal student." Jean groused, staring at the tabletop as Scott absently put his arm around her shoulders.

" I hit him with lightning… how did he survive that and the fall?" Storm questioned, having been annoyed by that problem since Toad had showed up three weeks earlier.

" Humans have been known to survive lightning strikes. Not to mention when he hit the water he was probably as loose as a rag doll so he didn't need to worry overly so about breaking anything."

" Why is Rogue so… into him, I guess?" Jean had turned her head to look out the window in the kitchen, watching Rogue and Toad doing homework under a tree in the yard, away from the rest of the student body.

" Into him? Jean you sound sixteen." Ororo laughed, coming out of her sour mood for a minute.

" She likes Toad because, well. I'm not really sure why. Excuse me Mr. Summers." Kitty answered Jean's question, coming into the kitchen for a drink.

" Does anyone?" The four adults straightened up to stop Kitty from seeing their discomfort.

" No. I think it's mostly that she knows more about him than he does and she tells him things, the nice things. They kinda need each other." Kitty shrugged, already headed out the door. " Least they're gettin' their homework done."

" Is it possible that we're just being prejudiced against him because we know all the bad things that he's helped Magneto do?"

" Rogue knows all and more." Scott pointed out, shaking his head. " She's just able to look past it. Like the Professor asked us to do."

" You're right Scott, I did ask you to do that. I didn't have to ask Rogue. She was willing to do it whether I had wanted her to or not."

" Why?" Jean questioned. Logan looked up from the counter and growled.

" It doesn't matter anymore." He spat out, moving to leave the kitchen, ignoring the window looking onto the yard.

" I'll just go see what's wrong…" Storm followed the angry Canadian on his exodus out of the room.

" She knows what he did before the Statue of Liberty incident, she knows every bad deed Magneto's group ever did. Why is she so willing and ready to spend every waking moment with him?"

" Simply because he isn't afraid of her. In case you haven't noticed, Toad is always touching her in someway. Holding her hand, hugging her, giving her human contact without any fear lurking behind."

" Bobby gave her that." Jean argued, knowing there was no point but going ahead anyway.

" No, Bobby was afraid. He was hesitant. Everyone here is. They're cautious-"

" As they should be. Rogue's mutation is dangerous."

" So is everyone else's. Their cautiousness is a good thing but its forced Rogue to withdraw into herself. For someone with Rogue's personality it was killing her that she had to always be careful of even just brushing against someone. Toad's skin seems to be more resistant than normal human skin. It would probably be like if Rogue tried to drain Piotr while he was in armor."

&

" No, you're doing the problem wrong. It's… never mind, how about we get away from math and work on English. At least that's easy." Toad kept his mouth shut, not bringing to notice how close Rogue was sitting. She didn't seem to worry as much around him.

" What was the English homework again?" Toad questioned innocently, having been told at least three separate times since English that morning. Rogue growled, much like Logan, and smacked Toad with her English book.

" Vocab sentences. Do you have paper?" He nodded, mock-rubbing his head as he pulled out a neat lined sheet of paper. " Good, now, do try not to misspell things on purpose."

" But it's so much fun." Toad teased, nettling Rogue just to see her smile/glare at him. Toad took getting Rogue to loosen up and forget about her mutation as a way to make-up for the awful things she had told him that he did and the awful things he barely remembered doing.

" I'm starting to think you get off on pain."

" Only if it makes you happy." Rogue backhanded him with a small hardback without even looking up from her math homework. " Ow." Toad mumbled rubbing his forehead. Rogue had developed wicked aim.

" Now please, make me happy, and spell correctly. I know you can, you do it all the time."

" Yes ma'am." Toad grinned, keeping his face down to his assignment as he worked through the vocabulary list.