12/13

Apparently, he was wrong. Because of some weird circumstance, Scott Summers slept soundly that night. Apparently all that late nights contemplating and thinking finally caught up with him and with the indefinable weight lifted off his chest, this was as good time as any for his body to regain the lost sleep.

When he woke up, saw that his alarm clock did not go off, and that it was five hours when he was supposed to wake up. Normally, he would've panicked. But this day, he was feeling an abnormal sort of calmness around him. He got up with a smile on his face and took his time preparing for the day that he was going to have.

As soon as he got down, he would find Rogue--who was probably sitting in the Rec. room watching the morning rerun of her favorite weekly show--and talk her out of the stupid trip to Europe. He'd apologize first, of course, and try very hard not to call the said trip 'stupid'.

But for him to do that, he needed to look his best. So he took his time showering and fixing his hair. After forty-five minutes of grooming, he finally deemed himself worthy of outside light.

And so Scott Summers went out of his room whistling. Yes, he was whistling some stupid tune that he can't remember where he picked up. The younger trainees were giving him weird looks; as well as they should, because this is one radical change from the state he was in these past few days.

As soon as he entered the kitchens, he immediately scanned the room for her but it was a fruitless effort as in the said room were only the new comers in the mansion, hoping to avoid the bustle of the kitchens during lunchtime.

He walked out of the room and headed towards his second destination, the Rec. room. Again, Rogue wasn't there either, as the mansion's male population filled the room, watching a rerun of last night's wrestling match.

He was about to head outside, thinking that she was probably out by the fountains brooding when he spotted Kitty walking from the general direction of the Med. Lab.

"Hey Kitty," he greeted her with a smile. "'Morning."

She looked up at him, apprehensive. The sudden switch of moods probably confused her. "Hi Scott. Good morning to you too,"

"Have you seen Rogue? Is she outside? I've got something to tell her,"

She gave him a weird look. "Don't you know? She's in our room. She hasn't gone out since I left her there this morning."

"Why?" He asked her, his face painted a look of perplexity. "It's a Saturday morning. Shouldn't she be outside already?"

"Yeah well her trip with Warren to Europe is already tomorrow before dawn, and in the true-blue Rogue fashion, she's just decided that she needed to pack."

"She's already packing?" he asked, the tone of bewilderment apparent in his voice.

"Uh-huh. As well she should! She's got tons to pack for. Scott?" But her last sentence went unheard as Scott Summers ran to Kitty and Rogue's shared room.

With his chest heaving and his hair disheveled, he turned the knob without knocking and found the room neat and tidy but the person he was looking for was not present.

'Think, think, think.' He said to himself. If he were Rogue, and clearly she's finished packing, where would she be now? The answer dawned upon him after a few seconds and it took him less than that amount of time to run down to the garage.

He bumped into a few people along the way and to his credit he did shout out apologies behind his back as he was berating himself thoroughly for wasting too much time fixing himself up.

He reached the garage and found her, thankfully enough, alone. She was putting what looked like the last large suitcase inside the trunk of Warren's car and her back was to him.

"Rogue," he said, his voice raspy and sounded like the wind was knocked out of him. He took the opportunity to gather his breath by bending forward, supporting his upper torso by putting his hands in his knees. He noticed idly that the hair he spent so much time fixing was now in a different level of disarray. He didn't want her to see him like this looking pathetic but he didn't have any other choice, did he?

She turned toward him, a number of expressions painting her face. The first was mild surprise, the second was puzzlement and then the third was the ongoing feeling of anger that had been boiling inside her for a few days now. She took a defensive stance; her arms folded with one of her eyebrows raised.

"I don't want you to go to Europe with Warren," he spat out. Okay, wasn't as smooth as he planned but what-the-hey.

The only reaction he received was a look of incredulity.

"Not that I have any right to dictate your actions. You're your own person, after all and if there was an independent person in this mansion, it would be you," Scott backtracked quickly. "But still, I don't want you to go to Europe with Warren Worthington III."

She looked at him with a piercing gaze and after what seemed like eternity, after he thought that she would just walk out on him, she replied. "Why not? I heard Europe's quite nice this time of the year,"

"I don't' want you to go anywhere with him," he said. "I want you to stay here in boring-old-Bayville. With me."

She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off. "I know that doesn't sound much, as compared to what he's offering. I mean, how crazy would you be to turn down an indefinite trip to Europe with such a perfect man like Warren, right? But I'm begging you to reconsider your choice. I'm pretty sure that Warren's exactly what you're looking for in a guy, and he's ready to offer you everything. If you're already in love with him, then I can't anything anymore but I've got to get this out of my chest: I think I'm in love with you"

"I'm not in love with him," Rogue said, after a long stretch of silence. A look of relief flooded through Scott. "And neither is he in love with me, okay? It's not like that."

"What? But I thought you were going to elope with him and get married in his hometown."

"You thought what? I just turned eighteen, Scott! How can I possibly be thinking of marriage? And eloping? Eloping? Me?"

He shrugged. It all sounded plausible in his head. "Well if you're not going to run off with him, then what's this whole stupid trip for?"

She looked at him exasperatedly and cracked him a smile. "It's for his wedding, okay?"

"His . . . wedding?" he repeated dumbly.

"Yeah," she answered. "His wedding to his long time fiancée, some lady named Betsy. He just wanted me to come and watch it. I suppose he felt sorry for me because I spent almost all of my life with my powers that he invited me to his wedding. I think he thought it to be some kind of vacation for me."

Scott was silent, trying to digest everything that she's just said. So Warren and her weren't in love with one another. Man, did he need to work in his paranoia or what?

"Scott, really, I thought you knew me better than that," she remarked with a smile. "What I have with Warren is something familiar, brotherly, okay?"

"So you don't love him?"

She shook her head no and took a few steps towards him. Suddenly, there was a very dark shade of pin in her cheeks and she looked up at him shyly. "Wh-what were you saying earlier?"

It suddenly came back to him, and the heat rushed up his face just as quickly. To hell with it; he already came this far, he's not going to back out now. "I think I'm in love with you, Rogue. It took me a while to realize, and I hope you're not turned off by my stupidity about this whole thing, but I sincerely hope that what you're feeling for Warren isn't the same as the emotions you feel for me."

A smile slowly grazed upon her lips. She's very pretty when she smiles, Scott thought idly, noting that this is probably the best time to kiss her.

So he did.

And the moment their lips met, his world went black.

tbc