We All Care About You

Storm's optimistic prediction of Remy being back in a week came and went. None of the rest of the team was that worried about him, but they were all worried for Rogue's sake. Remy had proven to be a loner before, and had even gone away for periods of time to be with his thief guild, but this was the first time he was essentially abandoning Rogue. For a while, everyone in the house kept Rogue busy, going out to eat, shopping, watching movies, training, anything to keep her mind off of her missing boyfriend. And one by one, they helped in any way they could.

The weather outside her window was sunny and bright. She could hear the laughter of Kitty, Bobby, and Kurt as they enjoyed the beautiful day. Birds were singing, and the flowers were out in full force, as if nature itself wanted to cheer Rogue up. Rogue pulled her curtains shut. She would blame Storm if she actually thought Storm was behind this, but what Rogue really wanted was a dark day full of thunderstorms, one that matched her mood, one that was violent and vicious. Gambit had been gone for two weeks. Two weeks of worrying like crazy, two weeks of crying her eyes out, two weeks of beautiful weather. Rogue lay back on her bed, eyes brimming with tears for the third time today already, when she heard a dull clunk. Leaning up to investigate, she felt an icy blast as Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, swooped in through her curtains.

"You see a Frisbee come in here, Rogues?" He asked.

"Yeah, ovah there." Rogue pointed. She lay back down.

Bobby frowned. It wasn't like Rogue to wallow in her misery. For as long as he'd known her, she was the most spirited and spunky person he could think of. Before, when she and Remy fought, she seemed to enjoy the verbal spars, a chance to get out her aggression, and she was always back to flirting and making sarcastic comments by the next day at least. "Some of us were thinking about going out dancing tonight. You have to come."

"Ah don't hafta do anything." Rogue spat at him while rolling over with her face into a pillow.

"Yes, you do", Bobby countered, "because if you don't go, no one will be here to take care of you as you cry and generally make yourself miserable. We'll be too busy getting drunk and flirted with." He ended this with a quick grin. He knew she couldn't see him, but charm was never wasted on the ladies.

"Ah don't want to go dancin', Ah don't flirt cause Ah'm taken, an' I shouldn't get drunk cause then Ah lose control of mah psychic shields so all them voices in mah head are worse." Rogue murmured more to the pillow than to Bobby. It looked like she was determined to stay home by herself tonight.

"Rogues!" Bobby yelled with a smirk, "You used to always go dancing with me, and you flirted your ass off every time. And you don't need to drink. Logan and I'll drink enough to make up for you too."

"Ah may have gone dancin' with you, but that was before…" her voice trailed off and she swallowed a sob.

"Before you met him" Bobby finished, sitting gently on the bed beside her, finally morphing back into the more human version of himself. "I know. He changed you a lot, Rogues, and that's not really a bad thing, but you used to go out all the time, flirt with anybody and everybody, you used to have crazy fun. When you met Remy, you stayed in more, became more introverted, you weren't any less secure, but he got rid of that party girl façade you used to wear."

Rogue turned around to face Bobby. "Bobby…" she started softly, with tears in her eyes, "You're drippin' on mah bed."

Bobby laughed. Here was that girl they all knew and loved. "Well, I bet my ice bridge is doing worse right outside your window, care to see?" With that, he picked Rogue up into his arms and carried her out to the window. Rogue was about to fly out of his arms, but she looked at how carefully Bobby had protected their skin, and realized that she had missed her friends these past two weeks. She had given into their ways of keeping her mind off of the situation, then had isolated herself when Remy didn't return right away. Maybe that wasn't the best move. Rogue wiggled out of Bobby's arms onto the ice bridge he had created to get the Frisbee in the first place, sliding down two stories to land safely on the grass below.

"You're looking pale, mein sister", Kurt greeted her. "Fun in the sun is a smart prescription for you."

"As long as you don't mind wrinkles and gross leathery skin from too much sun," Kitty interjected. "No one needs that." Rogue looked at her three friends and realized that she had been making herself so much worse by missing out on the things she loved, and silently vowed to keep her life going until Remy came back to her.

Rogue stared at her reflection in the mirror. She couldn't believe she let Kitty dress her up like this. "Why, oh why didn't Ah go to 'Ro or Jean? Why'd Ah let that little ditz dress me up?" True, Kitty was practically a genius, she had this great aptitude for computers and science. True, Kitty was only a few years Rogue's junior. No matter what, Kitty had an exaggerated idea of how people dressed up to go out at night, and in the interest of helping Rogue, had forced that idea upon her.

"You look good!" Kitty had said. "You'll have everyone's eyes on you and you alone."

Now that Kitty was out of the room, though, Rogue washed off a good amount of the eye makeup, and changed her shoes. Other than that, the outfit wasn't bad. It was a black dress cut low at the neckline with a short skirt. She had gloves on, but her shoulders and neck were still bare. Rogue compromised by wearing a choker necklace and reminding herself to be careful if she danced with anyone. The shoes Kitty had picked out were basic black pumps, and that left her entire leg exposed, which was just a bad idea, especially since all the other X-women were wearing short skirts, it was an accident waiting to happen. The shoes Rogue picked out were high heeled boots that went up past her knee, leaving only a small stripe of leg exposed between the top of the boot and the bottom of the skirt. Rogue had learned from experience that stockings weren't much coverage from her powers, and made a mental note to be careful about that too.

"We're going, ladies", Scott yelled from downstairs. Rogue grabbed her ID and turned out the lights. She wasn't sure if they were only waiting on the girls, or if Scott was just calling everyone ladies, like in the military, but she didn't want to give them any excuse to say women take too long to get ready. She'd heard this Scott and Jean fight too many times already. Rogue paused a moment at this thought, and was surprised to realize that the thought of fighting, and the thought of Scott and Jean as a happy couple didn't hurt nearly as much as she thought it would.

"He'll be back any day now", she whispered to her closed door, and ran down the hall to meet the others.

By the end of the night, Rogue was sure that she had made the right decision about going out. She had gotten lots of offers of drinks and to dance from relatively handsome men. While they were confidence boosters, she had politely declined every one, deciding instead to just hang out with her friends. She had had two drinks without losing any control, danced with everyone in a large group, and every X-man had slow danced with her at least once, even Kurt, so she wasn't left out. He had taken her hands, smiled, and told her, "We all care about you. Remember that. We're your family. We love you." Rogue knew that when he said family, he didn't just mean the two of them and a shared parent. The team was a big family that looked out for all it's members. Rogue was a member of this family, and so was Gambit. No matter what happened, there would always be a place for each of them, and there would always be support for both of them.
Remy woke up suddenly, his sheets wet with sweat. He supposed he must have been having a nightmare, but he couldn't remember about what. He rolled over in bed, hugging a pillow like a man would usually hold a woman in bed. The way he wished he could hold Rogue right now. He had been gone for two weeks, and he didn't know if he was ever going back.

A/n: Sorry about lengthy clothes description, which may be boring for some readers, but I really wanted to give a sense of how much control Rogue's powers have over her life, even down to the clothes she has to wear to go out. Also, I know these chapters are short, but I can update more if the chapters are shorter, and since my big pet peeve is being left hanging with a story I'm into, I'll try it like this for a while. Thanks for the reviews!