1Disclaimer: Oh, alright, I don't own anyone from X- Men, just my own characters. Fine, you can turn the tapes and cameras off now. I said it.

Author's Note: Yes, it has been a while since I've posted in this story. I've had a bit of a writer's block but it's gone now and I can write this chapter without struggling too much now.

Chapter three

Practice was finally over, after fourteen hours. Ut was two in the morning and Rose was beginning to feel the effects of the strenuous day. The backup dancers were covered in sweat and breathing heavily. Claire walked by her, talking on her cell phone, and Rose distinctly heard the words, "She isn't even sweating! She acts as if she isn't even tired!" The truth was, Rose was in peak fitness, not just because she was a contortionist, she had always been in shape, it was a part of who she was, she didn't have to work on it, she didn't have to exercise, it was because of what she could be.

Josh decided to go talk to the dancer. He found her slightly attractive, but more than that, the way she interpreted his song, it made it into movements that completely moved him. He cleared his sore throat, coughed, and gulped down the rest of his water as she drank hers. He walked up to her as she began to pack her things back into her bag. He was two feet from her when she picked up her bag and walked into the change room. Slightly embarrassed but never the less determined, e decided to wait for her. Josh began to pace in front of the change room door.

Without warning the door flew open and Rose slammed head long into him, her bag flying through the air and all of its contents sailing in every direction. Josh managed to stay upright but she fell and landed on her side.

"Are you okay?" He moved to help her up. She began to laugh. She wasn't normally this klutzy.

"Yeah, I'm fine, usually I'm a little more graceful." She smiled and took his outstretched hand to help herself stand up.

"I'm sorry, let me help you get your things." They both scattered in different directions to gather her effects.

As she was doing so, Rose noticed a man in full costume lingering with them. She never remembered seeing him before that day, but everywhere she looked he seemed to be there. His costume was really good. He was wearing black leather pants, his chest painted a smoky blue, with ribbed patterns going all over his body and face. His nails were thick and cracked, also blue. His teeth were large and pointed and his eyes were yellow, like hers. His hair was short and dark brown. He even had an anima tronic tail coming from the seat of his pants. She smiled at him and he smiled back, but he looked away shyly.

With Josh's help, everything was now back in place in her oversized duffle bag.

"Thanks." She shook his hand awkwardly, shifting under the weight of her bag. "My name's Rose." He smiled at her, it wasn't his idea of meeting women but if it works it works.

"I'm Josh." There was an awkward pause after this until he broke the silence. "I was watching you perform, your really good." He smiled again.

"Thanks, I guess that was why I was chosen as lead, even though I really didn't want to be."

"Why didn't you want to be? You're the best performer I've ever seen. The way you took all the emotions from the song and made them into a graceful dance of silk and fluid movements was so uplifting, it moved me to the core, my absolute being, Rose laughed at this.

"Boy, you can really tell you are a song writer." She rolled her eyes, thinking he was making fun of her.

Before Josh could reply, Rose's cell phone rang from a pocket in her bag. Wuickly she dug it out knowing exactly where it was and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Rose, where are you? It's Lilia."

"What do you mean where am I?" She asked.

"You are supposed to be on a plane to Russia by now!" Lilia started to panic slightly, wanting her wedding to run smoothly, if her maid of honor was missing, that would not be smooth. In reply to this, Rose swore, checking her watch.

"I just got out of practice, I'll be right there, I just need to run home and pack. I'll catch the next flight." With that, she flipped her phone shut and left Josh standing there, watching as she ran down the hallway and outside into the dark.

Back in her apartment, Logan and "Peter" were rummaging through her apartment again, going as quickly as they could without making a mess. Logan was finishing picking apart the bedroom and Peter was going through the living room. Suddenly, Peter ran into the bedroom, his face stalk white, more then usual.

"What?" Logan started to say, but Peter clapped his hand over his mouth and shoved both of them into the closet, the door slightly ajar. In rushed Rose again, running around frantically. She ran into the bathroom off the bedroom and turned on the shower. Five seconds later, she was back in her room. She began to peel off her clothing. Peter struggled to hide a strangled cry and looked away. Logan kept looking through the crack, knowing he should turn away. Peter looked at him, seeing him staring at her and punched him hard in the shoulder, it ended up hurting him more than Logan but it made him turn his head away. Logan mouthed a silent "Thanks". Rose rushed back into the bathroom and closed the door, getting into the steaming shower. Peter pushed his way out of the closet and began to open random drawers, searching for that lock of hair. He even checked inside the lamp shade on the ceiling, though he figured she wouldn't have hid it there because it would burn the hair. He didn't realise how much of a hurry she was in and two minutes later, Logan grabbed his arm in a vice grip and yanked him back into the closet, closing the door to a crack again. This time, he knew she was going to get dressed so he purposely looked into the dark depth of the closet, and the folds of her clothing. Within seconds, he heard her rushing around the room again, meaning she was done getting dressed. He peeked tentatively through the crack and indeed, she was done, and was now throwing clothes into a suitcase lying open on her bed. Rose moved towards the closet. Logan and Peter had a quick silent tussle and Logan hid behind a long garment bag in the closet and Peter was left to crouch in the darkest corner. She whipped open the door and bent to pick up a shoe box on the floor and throw it on her bed next to the suitcase, then she stood and reached for the very garment bag that was concealing Logan. She was so preoccupied with packing that she didn't even see him standing there, plain as day in the light of her bedroom, right in front of her face. This was the last of her packing, and before she left, she grabbed her pillow from her bed and hucked it across the room. She picked up the lock of hair and stuffed it in her pocket, exiting the room, and the apartment, shutting off all the lights, leaving Peter and Logan in complete darkness. All was silent.

"Under the pillow!" He was shocked he didn't think of it. "I always used to hide my things under my pillow. Jesus, why didn't I think to look there." They both moved out of the closet, Logan contacting Xavier on his phone.

Rose rushed to the teller at the airport, out of breath from running from the other side of the city, her cheeks flushed with the cool air. The line up to get to her was extremely long. It was time for Rose to pull out one of her little stunts. She tapped the man standing in front of her on the shoulder, making her face look drained and sweaty.

" 'Scuse me, sir, I have a really horrible whooping cough, its still at the contagious stage, and I don't want to get you sick. Do you think you could let me go in front of you?" Her voice was raspy from her apparent coughing.

"Bug off!" Was the man's response. Now, Rose began to get impatient. On a normal occasion, she hated to do what she was about to do, but she needed to get on the plane. She took the contacts out of her eyes, showing the true color and shape of the iris. In the airport lighting, they were bright, vivid yellow, shaped like a cat's eye. She let her fangs grow out of her mouth and tapped the man on the shoulder again.

"I really think you should reconsider letting me through, sir." The man turned around with the intent of telling her off again. He took one look at her and stepped back into the man in front of him in surprise. They began to argue. She moved to the woman in front of them.

"Ma'am, may I perform a taste test on your neck for a survey I'm doing?" The women ran screaming for the security guard. Quickly, she moved through the crowd of people, saying things like, "Your skin looks very delicious today", "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us", and reciting the poem, "Awaken to darkness on this place we call Earth, One vampire's bite brings another one's birth. A vampire wakes with blood thirsty needs On the warm rich sensation he feels when he feeds. He stalks in the night like a disastrous beast, And what once was alive will soon be deceased. So when the last bit of sunlight disappears from the sky,
You better watch out unless you want to die."

Even though she was not a vampire, she knew that people would think she was, just seeing the fangs and the eyes. Finally, the teller had turned around as Rose got to the counter so she had a chance to retreat her fangs and put her blue contacts back in. The teller looked behind Rose, to what was a long line up until about two minutes ago. She shrugged and looked back at her.

"Welcome to Russian Air, may I help you?"

"Yes, when is your next possible flight to Russia?" She asked, in a slight hurry. The woman checked the computer.

"You are in luck. There is a plain about to leave right now. I can hold it if you want a ticket." Rose smiled.

"That would be great! Thank you." After everything was set up, Rose was ushered towards the gateway. Just before she got on, the woman who went for the security guard was back, with the security guard, and he stopped her before she got on the plane.

"That's her! That's HER!" The woman yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Rose.

"I'm who? I beg you pardon, but is there a problem?" She asked.

"Were you threatening this woman with tales that you are a vampire?" He asked, looking extremely tired.

"Oh, gosh, no. I would never do that." Rose put on her most innocent face.

"She's lying!" The woman was hyperventilating. "She had glowing yellow eyes, a- and fangs! She had FANGS!" She clutched at her chest defensively. The security guard sighed deeply and turned to the woman.

"I don't see any fangs, or yellow eyes." Rose chirped in.

"I'm sorry that you thought that, I don't remember seeing you before. Did you happen to have an egg salad sandwich for lunch? From the airport? I heard they were gone bad." Rose patted the woman on the arm consolingly. The woman thought hard for a moment.

"Well, yes, yes I- I did have the egg salad for lunch. Yes, maybe that was it. I'm t-terribly sorry for holding you up, I'm sorry for accusing you so." The security guard patted her awkwardly on the shoulder and offered to buy her a cup of tea as they turned to leave. Rose boarded the plane and took her seat.

"Here, you take the window seat, I hate window seats." The girl sitting in her row said. Rose thanked her and moved into the seat. She was getting extremely tired now, and she looked it. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, bags forming under her eyes. Her young pale skin was growing still more pale with tiredness. Her body was slow in its movements. Everyone was told to buckle up their seatbelts as the plane roared to life and began its short trip down the runway. When they were in the air the stewardess began to hand out pillows and blankets and Rose willingly and gratefully accepted hers.

As she moved to make herself more comfortable, one of her contacts fell out, not having been put it properly after the little scare fest she had.

"Oh crap." She closed her eye while she tried to find it, not wanting to scare the teenage girl next to her.

"What?" The girl asked.

"Oh. Nothing, I just lost my contact." She fished around on her lap and the girl began to help her, looking between the seats and on the floor. Finally, Rose found it and thanked the girl for her help, but the girl did not turn away as she had hoped as she proceeded to clean the contact and put it back in.

"Cool, it's blue." At that moment, as she reached her hand up to put it back in, the lights dimmed and the little bit of light that was left caught in the yellow of her eye, making it glow.

"HOLY SHIT!" The girl yelled and jumped out of her seat, disturbing all of the other passengers aboard the coach part of the plane. The flight attendant rushed up.

"What seems to be the problem?" She asked in a somewhat perturbed voice.

"This chick is creepy, she's not human! I want a different seat." She backed into the seat across the aisle and the man sitting in the seat grumbled.

"I'm sorry, I lost my contact and the light must have glared against my eyes. She just thought she saw something I guess.-"

"I did see something." She yelled loudly. Her fiery red hair seemed to bush wildly about her face and her eyes went wide.

"Now, now, please, you are going to have to keep your voice down, miss."

"It must have been the egg salad sandwiches in the airport, they already got one woman sick. She was hallucinating too." Rose put on a serious face. The stewardess didn't give the girl the chance to talk.

"Oh, dear, that's horrible. I'll give her a seat to herself farther up the plane, don't worry, we'll take care of her." The girl tried to argue but she was ushered away quickly and given a seat to herself.

Rose took a deep breath, dug her mp3 player out of her pocket and put the ear buds into her ears, nice soothing music filled her buzzing mind. Within minutes, everything that had just happened in the last few hours was forgotten as she covered herself in the blanket and laid her head against the pillow as she drifted off to sleep.

Author's Note: Okay first of all, the quotes, "We gladly feast on those who would subdue us." Is from the Addams Family Credo, and the quote, "Awaken to darkness on this place we call Earth,
One vampire's bite brings another one's birth.
A vampire wakes with blood thirsty needs
On the warm rich sensation he feels when he feeds.
He stalks in the night like a disastrous beast,
And what once was alive will soon be deceased.
So when the last bit of sunlight disappears from the sky,
You better watch out unless you want to die."

Is from Victoria Boatwright.

Thanks for reading, I hoped you all liked it, and please don't forget to review, I want to hear what you think and want me to do with some situations. I like reviewers, their ideas are usually pretty cool. So, as I said, PLEASE R&R! LUV U ALL!

Lyss