AN: Thank you so much to all of you for your nice feedback! I had intended to make this story a one-shot (it was originally titled "Intolerable") but have decided instead to continue it as a longer, chaptered work. The story will occasionally switch POV in later sections. I am so happy to see other fans of the Magneto/Rogue pairing, and I sincerely hope my upcoming chapters don't freak you all out as I have some rather unconventional pairings in mind for this one.

In this chapter, Rogue makes friends with a former enemy on the first day of school.

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Chapter 2

Rogue put her books in her locker and slammed the door slightly harder than was necessary, a small indication of her displeasure in being back at Bayville High. After what had happened with Apocalypse, sitting though Math class seemed rather…juvenile. Pointless. She walked with Kitty through the hallways towards her English class, feeling oddly discontent. Though she supposed she was happy that it was her senior year and then she'd be done with this place for good.

It wasn't that Rogue hated school. She didn't. She just hated the way they were treated, her and the other mutants, as if the administration was doing them some sort of favor by allowing them to stay at Bayville. The students had alternated between teasing her and ignoring her last year, and this year didn't appear to be much different and it was the first day. It wasn't just her, either. The "normal" kids seemed to treat the rest of them like they were freaks.

We saved y'all's life, and you can't even sit with us at lunch?

What did they think she was going to do? Pull her gloves off and go crazy, rushing at them with her hands bare and waggling her fingers, laughing maniacally like some sort of comic book supervillain? As if she wanted to have all those people in her head. As if—

"Um, Rogue? You're coming with me to history? Didn't know you liked it so much you'd want to go twice."

Rogue blinked, realizing that she'd by-passed her English class entirely and was still walking next to Kitty. "Oh. Right. Sorry, I'm just…distracted, I guess."

Kitty gave her a warm smile and patted her on the shoulder. "Yeah. It's so weird being here. Like, last month we saved the world, and now…" she waved her hand. "First day of class and we're back to having to take notes."

Rogue nodded. That Kitty understood her disquiet made her feel better, a little. At least it wasn't just her. "Gotta go. See you later." Just as she was about to turn around, Lance Alvers sidled up to Kitty and put his arm around her waist. Lance gave Kitty a slow smile, and Kitty blushed and smiled up at him charmingly. Rogue immediately headed back for her English class, rolling her eyes at the two of them.

If they were an item again—as it appeared they were—it was going to mean drama. Rogue thought she might not be spending a lot of time in her room for a while. Kitty and Lance liked to talk on the phone a lot, which meant they would fight a lot. The two of them could have arguments about whether or not the sun was going to rise in the morning, even if they both agreed it would.

Rogue arrived at her classroom, her muscles protesting the change in position from standing to sitting as she slid into her seat. That morning during training in the Danger Room she'd taken quite a beating, which wasn't unusual as she was usually the weakest fighter among them no matter how hard she tried. She didn't have any long-range powers to protect herself, and she tried to avoid touching her teammates if she could help it.

Besides, the whole "I'll know your thoughts" thing sort of freaked them out. Rogue wondered how Jean and Professor X could stand to be telepaths. Then she remembered that they had control over their powers, because they actually got to use them, and she felt a little miffed that she didn't have those kinds of options.

Unbidden came the thought of Magneto, grabbing her in the kitchen. There's a lot I could teach you, young Rogue. He'd been in the training session that morning, leaning casually against the metal wall of the room as he'd watched them run through the scenario. She'd felt his cold eyes on her when she'd fallen to the floor, and when she'd looked up, he'd been staring at her with a little smug smile on his face.

Rogue scowled at the memory, then shifted her attention to Pietro Maximoff who was seated a few seats over near the window. She studied him covertly, trying to ascertain the similarities he shared with his father. She wondered briefly what he thought about Magneto living at the Mansion, if he liked living in that filthy house south of town with no supervision.

Pietro's hair was the same shock of white as Magneto's, but Pietro's eyes were dark like his sister's. He had his father's chin, similar cheekbones, and the same sort of sardonic expression on his face that Rogue associated with Magneto. Pietro was leaning back in his seat, talking to Toad (how in the hell had Toad managed to pass last year with all those absences? Rogue wondered if maybe Principal Kelly was trying to get them out as fast as possible and just didn't care that Tolansky was never in class), gesturing wildly and laughing loudly every so often.

Rogue dismissed Toad with barely a glance and went back to watching Pietro and his jerky, quick gestures. The rhythms of his speech were incredibly fast; she wondered how Toad could keep up with what Pietro was saying. Maybe he wasn't, or maybe he was just used to Pietro by now.

Watching him made Rogue tired. Pietro had none of that quiet stillness about him that his father did.

"Staring at my brother, Rogue? Didn't know you liked punks."

Rogue looked over as Wanda Maximoff sat down in the desk next to her. Wanda was giving her a hesitant sort of smile, as if she wasn't sure if the gesture would be returned or not. Rogue actually sort of liked Wanda, even if her constant angst was occasionally tiresome, so she smiled back easily enough. "Hey. Just starin' out of the window. Your brother's in the way." Her smile turned into a grin. "He is a punk, though."

"Yeah. I know." Wanda reached into her bag and pulled out her notebook and a pen. "He's impossible to live with."

So is your father. Rogue didn't say that out loud, though, because she didn't want to do anything that might upset the other girl. Wanda was sort of…unstable…and this little conversation of theirs was actually going rather well.

"What period do you have lunch?" Wanda asked, though it sounded more like a demand than a question, especially if she was going to follow it up with a request to join her. It occurred to Rogue that while Pietro might look a bit more like Magneto, Wanda acted more like him.

"Fourth," Rogue answered, twirling her pen around her gloved fingers. "Everyone else has it after me. I swear they want to stagger our lunch periods so we can't start a revolution or something."

Wanda grinned fiercely. "A revolution? That sounds like fun."

Rogue shook her head. "Yeah? We just stopped one, didn't we? That wasn't so much fun as…" she faltered, trying to find a word to describe what it was like to stop a mutant would-be god from taking over the planet.

"Terrifying?" Wanda supplied, flipping her notebook open as she began to doodle stars on her paper.

"I was going to say, horrifying. I think they're probably synonyms."

The two girls exchanged a laugh at that, and Rogue felt something inside of her loosen, relax a little, as they settled down to take notes. Maybe everything would be okay, after all.

ooooooooOOOOoooooooo

Wanda and Rogue sat with Pietro and Kurt at lunch. It was strange to share a table, as if they were all friends instead of former enemies, but there was something easy about it, too. They didn't talk much about being mutants or Apocalypse or any of it. Instead, they talked about American Idol and video games and movies until the bell rang for fifth period.

Wanda walked with her down the hallway as Rogue made her way to her History class. "So, you want to maybe go to the mall or something after school? I, um…this time I could probably not destroy it."

Rogue clapped her hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh. She turned amused eyes to Wanda, but when she saw the other girl was smiling, Rogue dropped her hand and laughed aloud. "That'd be fun. But I have training after school. Professor X is all psycho about us stepping up the training in case, you know, some other mutant overlord shows up to try and rule the world."

"I thought my father was living with you guys?" Wanda deadpanned, rolling her eyes. "Surely you should be able to keep an eye on him."

She laughed again at that. "Yeah. He's our target in the simulation. Real nice of him considering how many times we had to do that for real." Rogue stopped that train of thought, not wanting to remind Wanda of when they were enemies.

Wanda didn't seem to notice. "Well, then, you'll know how to stop him if he ever decides to go back to being a bad guy." She sounded very matter-of-fact about it.

"Uh, Wanda? Can I—can I ask you something?" Rogue paused in the hallway, letting the students flow around her.

Wanda shrugged, but she tensed slightly. "What is it?"

"Does it bother you, about your father? Living with us? Cause if you wanted to, maybe you could—" Rogue never got the chance to finish her sentence, as all of a sudden, a blur flew down the hallway and materialized into Pietro.

Pietro didn't appear to have the same sort of qualms about using his powers at school as some of the rest of them did. Of course, his powers were convenient. Rogue felt a momentary flash of envy at that.

"Sis. Been looking for you. Toad's trying to find you, because I think he wants to walk you home or something and thought he'd annoy you into agreeing even though school isn't even finished yet." Pietro scowled, and he put his hand on Wanda's arm proprietarily. Rogue watched the interaction between them with interest.

Wanda didn't pull away from him, but her expression was unfriendly. "I was going to go to the mall now and blow off fifth period—it's only just study hall. Besides, don't you trust me to deal with Toad myself?" Her voice was laced with an edge of anger, the kind that reminded Rogue of when Wanda had first shown up and the lights would go out and the windows would break in her path.

"Just trying to be helpful," Pietro shrugged, turning his gaze to Rogue. "Hey, Stripes. What's up at the X-Mansion? Do you guys call it that? You should. I would, if I lived there. Do you have an X-Room? And an X-Toothbrush? And—"

"Shut up, Pietro, God," Wanda said, rolling her eyes and halting her brother's diatribe. She reached out and tugged her brother's hand. "Rogue's got better things to do than listen to you babble. Come with me to the mall."

Pietro gave his sister a smile, though Rogue thought she saw the slightest hint of bitterness behind the expression. "Whatever you say, sis," he said with a shrug, and the two of them took off down the hall.

"Later," Wanda called over her shoulder, and Rogue noticed she was still holding on to Pietro's arm. "And to answer your question, I don't mind about my father. But we can talk later if you want."

Rogue waved and wondered if they would make it out of the school without anyone seeing them cutting fifth period. For a moment, she wished she could just blow off class and training and go with them to the mall. Rogue flexed her fingers in her gloves as she made her way to History class, wishing for a moment she didn't have to be so restrained all the time, wishing she could ditch class and do something fun.

All the restrictions she was under were necessary, she supposed, but sometimes they chafed. Magneto's words echoed in her mind. Doesn't it make you angry?

She shoved his voice to the back of her mind and tried to concentrate on class, but every now and then, her wrist would tingle and she would remember when he'd grabbed her in the kitchen, would remember the heat of his body and the feel of his breath against her ear.

You intrigue me, girl…