Confrontations And Togetherness

It wasn't until about a month later that Rogue realized how much her secret rendezvous with Pietro had changed her. She never wore her make-up when she went swimming, that was a given. What was the point, when it would just get washed off? But she hadn't realized that she'd gotten out of the habit of wearing it whenever she was with Pietro, swimming or not. It seemed so natural to go without it, that she never noticed.

At least, not until the morning she accidentally headed to school without first applying her Gothic face paint.

She'd walked down the hall from her and Kitty's shared room, past half a dozen shocked kids, wondering what the hell was up with them. It wasn't until she entered the kitchen and saw Scott and Evan's stunned faces that she got an answer as to why all the other students were giving her the eye and acting as if she'd grown another head, complete with white-striped hair.

"Rogue!" Scott sputtered. "What happened to your face?"

Rogue froze, finally realizing that she'd forgotten a part of her normal morning routine: applying her Goth make-up. Might as well make the best of it, she thought wryly. "Why, Cyke, Ah thought ya lahked the natural look," she said, smiling mock-innocently, and baring her teeth in a vicious grin.

Gulping, and realizing he'd made a grievous tactical error – no man should comment on a woman's makeup for fear of offending her with his ignorance – Scott stuttered, "Ah…er…"

Clapping a hand on his shoulder, Evan smirked. "Don't say anything, man," he advised. "Your foot is already so far down your throat it's digesting."

Scott flushed and backed away from the glowering redhead in front of him before turning tail and hightailing it to the garage.

Rogue and Evan just looked at each other for a moment before breaking out with loud peals of laughter. High-fiving each other, they followed after Scott, who had apparently forgotten he was giving them a ride to school that day.

Rogue spent the whole day fielding disbelieving looks from the other teenagers at Bayville High. The other Institute kids, the Brotherhood guys, the nerds, the jocks… All of them made comments at some point or another.

God, don't these people have lives? Rogue thought disbelievingly.

She ran into Duncan right after first period. God, the boy was annoying; she was so glad Jean had dumped him.

Now if only she'd get together with Scott, who'd been practically pining after her for years…

"So, should I start calling you 'The Skank Formerly Known as Goth'?" came the sickeningly self-assured voice from behind her. "Or maybe we should call the police and report that your make-up has been stolen."

Whirling around, Rogue came to face to chest with Bayville's resident Golden Boy.

God, how she wanted to take him down a peg.

And take out some of her pent-up aggression on his dyed-blond head.

Growling low in her throat, Rogue shot back, "No, moron, Ah don't think so. But why don't you call Dorothy and ask her to take you to see the Wizard?"

Smiling at his friends as if to say, 'This should be good,' Duncan asked her, "And why should I do that, Vampira?"

Rogue smirked at the predictable insult – after all, it was the only thing he ever called her since she and Kitty appeared in the Dracula play. Can we say 'No Imagination' boys and girls? "So ya can ask him fer a brain. Or maybe some courage. Ah'd say ya should ask him for ah heart, 'cept Ah don't think there's room in there fah it and yer enormously over-inflated ego." With that, she turned on her heel and strode away, leaving Duncan behind, steaming, his face turning red.

Unfortunately, before she could make it to her next class, she had a run-in with Shelly, the school bicycle, and her posse of Barbie Doll clones.

The blond cheerleader chuckled as she looked Rogue up and down.

"What're you laughing at, Slutty?" Rogue growled. She was in no mood to deal with little miss fucks-a-lot. Especially on top of dealing with Duncan.

On top – bet that's the way she likes it, Rogue thought, choking back her mirth. Bursting out laughing before she'd gotten in more than one good jibe just wouldn't do.

Blue eyes flashed at the slur. "Decided to give up the Living Dead Girl look, Vampira?" Shelly sneered. "Maybe now you'll actually be able to get a date," she taunted.

Rogue smirked. Talking about a copycat; geez, Duncan's really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this bitch. "You laugh at me because Ah'm different…Ah laugh at you because you're all the same. Carbon copies of each other. At least Ah'm an original." She flipped her chin-length white-streaked auburn hair and headed off down the hall to meet Pietro for lunch. She really needed a break from all this teenage angst.

With confrontations like that happening between every single class, it was no wonder that by the time the bell rang to dismiss them for the day, she was furious.

No, beyond furious, she was absolutely livid.

She and Pietro hadn't been able to meet up for lunch – he'd been serving a detention with Lance and Todd for getting into a fight with Duncan, the (small) prick – which hadn't helped her demeanor any. Her temper had simmered down a lot now that she'd gotten together with Pietro; her bitch-fits were few and far between instead of all the time.

Amazing how a guy who couldn't manage to stay still for five seconds had somehow managed to get b her, the Queen of Mean, to calm down.

Thankfully for her sanity – and the rest of the world's continued existence – she knew that Pietro would be at the Boardinghouse alone that afternoon – Lance having a date with Tabby, and Todd and Freddy going to the afternoon Creature Double-Feature at the cineplex – so she headed over there. He could always cheer her up.

Of course, maybe slamming open the door and bursting inside the house like a storm trooper while wearing a Berserker Wolverine Death Glare™ wasn't the best idea.

"Somehow I don't think that look in your eyes means you're happy to see me. I'm about to be throttled, aren't I?" Pietro said dryly as Rogue stormed through the now-open door of the Brotherhood house. Her expression was what a charitable person could only term 'homicidal.'

Taking a few deep breaths and letting them out slowly, Rogue managed to calm herself enough to answer, "You aren't, but Scott is." And the rest of the student body, starting with Duncan and Slutty Shelly, she thought angrily.

"What'd One-Eye do?" Pietro asked curiously.

Opening her mouth to answer, Rogue closed it with a snap before saying a word. She shifted uncomfortably, eyes on the floor. "Ah…he just ticked meh off, is all."

Raising one snowy brow, Pietro said, "Now why do I think there's more to it than that?"

Huffing, Rogue said, "He made a big deal out of meh leavin' off mah make-up today, all right?"

Pietro frowned. "Well, while I do think you look good with the Gothic stuff off, why should it bother you that he thinks so, too?"

"It was tha way he worded it; he made it sound lahke Ah looked awful," Rogue grumbled, tucking one white streak behind her ear and staring at the floor. "And people have been starin' at meh all day long!"

"They're just in awe of your beauty, babe," Pietro joked. "I know I am." Reaching out with one slim hand, he tugged her close and down to sit in his lap. "You're beautiful, Roguey," he murmured, nuzzling her ear. "And if Cyclops was such an idiot that he couldn't see that without you leaving your make-up off…well, that explains why he has such bad luck with women, doesn't it?"

Rogue smiled; yes, Pietro always knew what to say to make her feel better.

After spending a few more hours cuddled up – and making out – with her boyfriend, Rogue headed back to the mansion, heart lightened.

Little did she know, a thundercloud was about to rain on her parade.

Unfortunately, while it is true that every cloud has a silver lining, conversely, this also means that every silver lining has a cloud.

She called Pietro 'Silver' sometimes, for his hair. He had his own dark clouds on the horizon by the name of Magneto, one Erik Magnus Lensherr.

Two Weeks Later

"What's wrong, Speedy?" Rogue asked. They'd been walking through the woods for almost ten minutes, and the silver-haired speedster had yet to say a word beyond 'His.'

Giving her an inscrutable look, Pietro seemed to deflate. "Magneto saw us together the other day," he said in a low voice.

For a moment Rogue was sure she'd forgotten how to breathe. Oh, wow…this is bad, she thought hazily.

And she wasn't thinking about her incipient self-suffocation, either.

"What…what did he say?" she asked faintly, vaguely surprised that she was able to come up with a coherent sentence.

"He went on and on about treason and how I was worse than Lance for dating Kitty since you'd defected, and he thought Lance might actually get Pryde to join us," Pietro said sullenly. He brightened. "But I managed to turn the tables on him."

"Ya managed ta get 'im ta back off?" Rogue asked incredulously. "How?"

"I hit him where it hurts!" Pietro announced. He started pacing back and forth almost too fast to see, obviously powered by the remembered adrenaline high from taking out Magneto.

"In tha balls?" Rogue grimaced at the thought of actually touching Magneto there, even if it would be through at least two layers of clothing.

Pietro snorted. "No, in his ego!"

"Huh?" Rogue said intelligently.

Pietro sighed and slowed down. "I made it sound like he was an idiot for not realizing what I was doing."

"Which was?" Rogue prompted tetchily.

"Trying to get you to come back to the fold, of course." Pietro rolled his eyes at the irony.

Rogue snorted, not believing Pietro would do something like that for one minute. Quite a change from when she'd first been a part of the Brotherhood and had believed the worst of all the boys, Pietro chief among them. "And Buckethead bought that?"

Eyes dancing with mirth at the insult to his father – no love lost there – Pietro said, mock-innocently, "Why wouldn't he? I'm his loyal, faithful son."

"And you hate his guts," Rogue stated confidently, having learned that in the first three weeks she and Pietro were together. They'd talked a lot about their 'parents' – Pietro about Magneto, Rogue about Mystique and Irene – and how betrayed they felt by them.

It was amazing how much they had in common – not all of it good, but shared experiences still brought them closer together.

"You know it, babe," Pietro said tiredly.

They started walking again, side by side, hands brushing up against each other every few steps. Finally Rogue couldn't take the silence anymore.

"What are weh gonna do about Magneto?" Rogue asked.

"Why do we have to do anything?" Pietro asked, though there was a defeated tone his voice. They both knew they couldn't just stand idly by and hope nothing bad happened.

That would be foolish. Criminally stupid, in fact. Especially considering who they were.

After all, Wanda was only now starting to calm down after having her memories replaced – yet again. This time she had the real ones, but she wouldn't be forgiving her father any time soon, if ever.

If she'd been at the Boardinghouse that afternoon, Pietro wouldn't have had to deal with Magneto.

She would have killed him.

"Ah mean, am Ah gonna have ta pretend Ah wanna rejoin tha Brotherhood? Are we gonna have ta stop seein' each other…" Rogue broke off her question as she saw the look in Pietro's eyes.

The light of near-madness. She'd only ever seen Logan wear that expression before – when he was lost in a Berserker Rage.

When Pietro grabbed her and pulled her into a fierce kiss, she knew she probably should have been scared…

But she wasn't.

Was this love?

And if it wasn't…then what was it?

Pietro finally pulled away from her lips, allowing her to breathe once more. The slightly-insane glint in his eyes had faded somewhat, but it was still simmering underneath his regained composure, and in the kisses he continued to pepper her with.

"You're mine, Rogue," he hissed between kisses. "And no one and nothing is going to come between us," he vowed, pulling back from his sensual assault once she was once again out of breath and trembling with arousal.

But she had enough control of her faculties to think. "Not even your father?" she asked softly, her eyes searching his.

His expression softened. "Not even Magneto, Marie," he said, using her real name for the first time since she'd revealed it to him.

She nodded and wrapped her arms around him, secure in that fact that whatever happened, they'd face it together.