Raven and Pepper followed Rogue back down the stairs and into the common room. Pepper turned his nose to Raven, who nodded in agreement. Rogue gave her a confused look and Raven giggled as the dog wagged his tail. "Did you ever feel like you were being shut out of a conversation?" Rogue said vaguely. Raven giggled.
"Pepper says that you've gotten taller." Pepper nodded again.
"What were ya'll giggin' and tail waggin' about?"
"Because you were so confused." Rogue rolled her eyes and Pepper licked her hand apologetically. The others were sitting on various chairs in the common room as they entered and they all looked up. Pepper hid shyly behind Raven's legs, drooping his head and tail. Raven moved behind Rogue's shoulder, her fire-red hair falling in front of her eyes. Jean stood up and stuck out her hand to shake Raven's.
"Hi. I'm Jean. Nice to meet you."
"Raven," the smaller girl replied. "And this is Pepper." Jean petted Pepper on the head and the dog waved his feathered tail. Scott stood as well.
"Nice to meet you both," he said and Pepper, loosing his shyness, barked and wagged his tail, allowing himself to be petted by Scott and Gambit, who had stood as well.
"This your new boyfriend Chere?" Gambit asked with a laugh. Rogue rolled her eyes.
"Raven and I have been friends since we was born," Rogue said. "Our mammas used to dress us up alike for church on Sundays, remember Raven?" Raven giggled.
"They got away with it 'till we was around six or seven and we said 'enough'. Remember when we ran away from home?"
"You two ran away from home?" Kitty asked. "Where did you go?"
"To the stop sign. Neither of us were allowed to cross the street." The three girls laughed.
"Boy, I bet you two were trouble," Scott said. "Should we get friendly with the warden at the local prison?"
"Raven's the one that's the most trouble."
"Hey!"
"Remember who's idea it was to tag the subway station?"
"Yeah, I also remember who bought the spray paint," Raven replied, arching her eyebrow in Rogue's direction.
"How about letting loose Old Man Cooper's chickens, just so we could see how long it took him to round them up with his arthritic leg."
"You were the one holding the stopwatch."
"What about Mrs. Lyn's cat getting tied to the flag pole?"
"It was your idea."
"Gee, I was trouble," Rogue finally acquiesced.
"Yeah, we were."
"So, basically what we're dealing with is sadistic juvenile delinquents?" Gambit finally said, slipping his arm around Rogue's waist.
"We were kids with no money living in a trailer park in Mississippi. We had nothing better to do," Rogue snapped defensively.
"Yeah, we was livin' in the boondocks. We had no, what is it ya'll got out here, Wal-mart, McDonalds, and Burger King. We didn't have a mall. We had one Winn Dixie that was more like a pantry then a grocery store and we had a general store that didn't even have a coke machine. It's a wonder Rogue and I didn't run off and join a cult." The girls shared a laugh. Jubilee bobbed in and took a second to regard the new girl and the dog before her face broke into a smile.
"New girl, what's up?" she said with a giggle. Pepper stood to greet her, allowing the dark-haired girl to scratch his ears and muzzle, his feathery tail increasing the speed of its oscillation. "He's so cute."
"Uh oh," Rogue said with a giggle. "Let's not get the two of you together or it'll really be trouble." Jubilee giggled along with Raven.
"Rogue was always the level-headed one. She kept me in line."
"I tried and I failed miserably." The girls giggled again as Pepper placed his head on Raven's knee and she scratched his ears, feeling safe at last. She was with her best friend again and, despite everything that had happened to her since her since her friend had left, she felt, finally, like she had a home.