She liked this smart mouthed, dark haired Southern girl that she had to room with. Rogue was what she called herself, but Kat knew better. She was covering something, but WHAT WAS IT?
Kat contemplated quickly what it was, and then the buzzing began. The thought hit her like a ton of bricks in the stomach, so much so that she let out an audible "ooof!"
Rogue turned and glared funnily at Kat.
"Tripped?"
It came out as more of a question than an explanation, but it worked, and Rogue turned back and resumed clomping down the hall.
God she was starting to sound like her socialite mother, but that didn't matter now. What mattered was that she had two more mutie runners in this screwy bunch. She could feel the paranormal buzzing in the back of her head now. The same buzzing she'd felt earlier, after she'd met that scraggly Lance guy.
Logan called it her Neko Honnou. Her Cat Instincts.
She could tell when someone was hiding something, when someone was afraid, when someone was running from something, when someone was upset, etc.
Logan was teaching her to hone these skills, and she guessed that it was working because once she focused on Rogue she could discern a lot about her.
Her breathing was a little erratic and she was trying to act indifferent to the other girl, but Kat senses told her that Rogue was happy about having a new roommate. For what reason? Kat asked herself.
To provide better cover for herself, the little voice in her head told her.
DUH.
If you act like too much of a loner, you stand out in crowd. What you wanted was to blend in. So if Rogue were going to make herself stand out by being the depressed Goth, she would blend in by having an utterly normal roommate to hide behind.
Genius.
"Heah's our room. Don't touch ana a my stuff. That armoire over theah is for yoah hang up stuff an the dressa's foah the rest. If you don' have enough space, y'll just hafta deal. Got it?
"Got it."
Kat's eyes flashed feline yellow as she surveyed the room, her catlike side showing through the dopey valley girl mask she was wearing. The room spoke to her about who Rogue really was.
A scared young woman a lot like herself, trying to hide her past from everyone around her.
Not one picture of family or friends adorned the dressers or walls, telling Kat that Rogue was obviously estranged from any family that she might have had. Clothes had been purposely strewn all over the floor. Kat knew this from the quick glance at Rogue's open wardrobe, which was meticulously neat. Also the floor had not one speck of dirt on it, and the bed was made up perfectly.
Good. This girl's a stickler for neatness. She and I are going to get along just fine together.
Rock posters half-hazardly tacked to the wall with reusable stickees belied the fact that she'd thrown them up in a haste to make her room look the part of depressed Goth.
Kat knew that she'd take them down soon and replace them with the paintings that she'd seen poking out from under the bed.
She could feel Rogue's questioning glare on her face, and decided that she didn't want Rogue to have to hide herself around her.
"You can put things back the way they were Rogue," she said to Rogue.
"Whadaya mean, 'Back the way they were'?" Rogue replied, defensiveness flying to her eyes.
"Your room. You can put it back. You don't have to be messy on my account. I won't tell anyone that you're not a horrendously messy Goth."
A look of pure shock sprang to the girl's face.
"What are ya? A telepath or somethin'? How do ya know what Ah'm like?"
"Good observer," Kat replied with a tight smile.
"Oh really? So what if Ah don' believe ya? What if Ah think ya're lyin'?" Rogue spat sinisterly.
"We both know a way you can find out."
"Yeah, yeah we do." And just like that, Rogue pulled off a glove and placed it onto Kat's face.
Half a second later, they sprang apart; Rogue from what she'd seen in Kat's head, and Kat from the jolting shock to her system.
"Oh Mah Gawd!" Rogue whispered slowly, "Hon, ya're some kinda screwed up."
Kat's eyes slowly reverted from the feline as she caught her breath and smiled, "Tell me something I don't know. But, if I'm not mistaken, we have more than a few things in common."
Rogue blanched and then grinned weakly, "Ya know, Ah've always wondered if people could see inta my head when Ah shocked them. Ah guess Ah know now."
"Oh, people can't see into your mind, Rogue. They're too busy concentrating on the feeling that their brains are slowly being sucked out through their bloody eye sockets," Kat replied with a laugh, "Nope. What I have is a type of USP."
"USP? Doesn't that have somethin' to do with computers?"
"Well, yeah, I guess, but what I meant was Ultra Sensory Perception."
"Dontcha mean ESP?"
"Nope. I don't have a sixth-sense or anything like that; it's just that all of my senses are amplified somehow. They have been even before I mutated. Logan calls it my Neko Honnou. My Cat Senses. I can tell when people are lying and upset and scared and stuff like that. In fact, right now, you are kinda freaking out. Your heart rate jumped from barely discernable, what it is when it's normal, to stupendously high. I understand that some of that has to do with your powers, but a lot of it has to do with what you saw in my head. Am I right?"
"Yeah, Ah guess ya are. But ya can tell all that just from my heart rate?"
"Some of it's derived from that, but there are multiple things that are alerted to me. Your eyes, for instance, are just about fully dilated to where you can't even discern your irises. Another thing is the way you smell. When you're frightened, you're body pours adrenaline into your blood and that causes most people to sweat, sometimes quite profusely. It can get pretty disgusting for me at times. And I'm sure that if I could touch your skin right now, you'd have either the chills, or a minimal fever. All of that and more tell me that you're kinda scared of me. If you ever get the chance to shock Logan, I would so envy you, because his USP is ten times what mine is. And he has this totally awesome healing factor thing, where he's virtually invincible."
Rogue just stared at Kat in astonishment and said, "Wow. Yer life is really screwed up."
"Tell me about it. So, Rogue, what's your real name? You should know by now that you can trust me. I knew instinctively that I could trust you, else I wouldn't have let you touch me."
"Ya want me ta tell ya my name? We only just met ten minutes ago and ya say Ah can trust ya?" Rogue replied incredulously. "Ah haven't even tol' anyone here my real name!"
"Well I figure that it's only fair. You know everything there is to know about me. I figure that I should at least get to know your real name," Kat replied, nonchalantly shrugging her shoulders and turning about to survey the room further.
"Murrmle…dernnn."
"WHAT?" Kat exclaimed, spinning around to face Rogue.
"Ah said, Marie. My name's Marie," Rogue replied scowling.
"Don't you have a last name?"
"It's DeNoir, okay? What else do you want to know?" Rogue sulked, turning and plopping on her bed.
"Nothing. You can tell me more about yourself when you feel more comfortable around me. That'll be pretty soon, if my instincts are correct, and they usually are. Besides, I like you Marie. You seem like the kind of person that a person like myself can trust. I only hope that you'll feel the same way about me," Kat replied with a smile just as Kurt, along with half her baggage, popped into the room.
"KURT! How mana tahmes do Ah hafta tell ya ta knock!" Rogue screamed.
"I am sorry, Fraulein, I vas just delivering Keety's bags. I vill try to vemember next time, okay?" Kurt replied, holding his hands up defensively and backing away from the startled woman.
"Whateva, just get out. Now," Rogue snarled, flinging one gloved hand towards the door, "An use the damn door!"
"Okay, okay, cheel out! I vill be back in a sec, Keety, vith the vest of your stuff," Kurt replied, turning to Kat and bowing out of the room.
"Like, thanks!" Kat grinned hugely as he bounded out of the room.
"Gawd, that's annoyin'!" Rogue exclaimed as soon as she was sure he was out of hearing range.
"What? My talking or his porting?" Kat laughed.
"Both, if ya really want the truth, but ah was talkin' bout his portin' without warnin'," Rogue scowled.
"I understand. It's got to be especially trying if you're trying to hide something, knowing he could pop in any second and blow your cover," Kat replied. "We'll have to scare that habit out of him."
"Scare? How?" Rogue replied, suddenly very interested. "Did ah happen ta mention that he's mah brother and it would be extremely gratifyin' ta scare the crap outta him?"
"Kurt's your brother? How come you got a Southern accent, an he's got a German one, and he's blue and you're not?" Kat asked, interested how she kept her cover with a brother there at the Institute. " And does he know that you're a runner?"
"Yeah; cause ah grew up in the South, and he grew up in Germany; we have different mothers; and no, ta answer all of your questions," Rogue smiled.
"Does he know that he's your brother?" Kat queried next, interested in this girl so like herself.
"Naw, as far as ah know, he doesn't. The Prof. only just tole me. So, how're we gonna get him?" Rogue grinned as she picked up the clothes lying around.
"It all depends," Kat grinned evily. "Who's powers have you absorbed, and what are they?"
Just for those who didn't catch it, Neko Honnu means "Cat Senses" in Japanese.
Stay tuned for the next chapter, and pleeeeeeeaaaaaasssssseee REVIEW!