Et Tous le Musique Arretee
Chapter Eight: Good Thing
A/N: And here is chapter eight! Originally, I started writing this on my laptop which, sadly, doesn't have Word installed, so I was working in NOTEPAD and doing all the coding by hand. Then I realized I was screwing up the plot and moving something along far too quickly. If you want to see where I left off, you'll have to wait a couple chapters so I don't spoil anything for you.
I've been tossing around two AU-stories- one with Rogue as a patient at a mental institution, and one where she's in a woman's prison, accused of murder. I don't know where I come up with this. Anyways, I have a few more ideas, but those are the most prominent. The summary for the first one would be something like:
"She was broken. A broken mind, and a broken soul. Can he fix her, or will he only break her more?" Or…something. Gah.
The reviews were nice, but I would appreciate more. Eh, I guess you can't ask for too much. Anyways, please review.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, I own Willow, the plot, and Bronwyn. Everything else belongs to its respective owners, I do not claim ownership, no money is being made off of these uses of certain copyrighted things, this is purely for entertainment. That good enough for you?
Dedication: It's dedicated to those kind, kind people who actually take the time to review.
Monday was, of course, the first day of the school week. It was also the day where everyone was running so late that they didn't have time to stop at Starbucks and get their caffeine rush. Rogue was barely awake, blinking constantly and rubbing her eyes. Kitty actually fell asleep on Kurt's shoulder on the way to school. As a matter of fact, only Jean looked to be fully awake.
Rogue tugged the sleeves of her black, pullover, hooded sweatshirt down even further. Her gloves were semi-transparent, showing chipping black nail-polish, and her black jeans were baggy. Kitty, however, wore a tight, pink, tank top and skirt that looked to have come out of Jean's closet. She was shivering even in sleep, and Rogue would have laughed if she wasn't so tired.
With French class also came that test she was dreading. She was sure she knew the answers, but she was almost as sure she'd fail because she was a mutant. Then there was her freaky partner who never did anything and the brunette girl who did about as much. Many people would have told Rogue she, of all people, had no right to call anyone freaky, but the girl scared her. And her hair looked dyed, which was even more disturbing when you thought about it.
Her thoughts finally settled on the matter at hand- reviewing for the test. She flipped through her book, decently sure she didn't need to review. Her partner- what was her name? It was long and weird, that's all Rogue knew- was balancing her pencil on the bridge of her nose, leaned back on two legs of her chair. Some guy walked by- a football player, she could tell because the cheerleaders were looking at him appreciatively- and kicked her chair over, but at that exact moment she jumped to her feet, so he only knocked over her chair. Then the teacher returned and passed back the tests.
Rogue was the first person finished, so she rat back in her chair. The brunette girl was tapping her pen almost as fast as Pietro would have, and it was getting on Rogue's nerves. Suddenly, the girl stopped, tossed her hair, and walked out of the class. The teacher didn't seem to notice. Rogue didn't really care. She would have liked to do the same, but the Professor insisted on them following rules. She yawned and placed her chin in her cupped hands.
"Hey, mutie," some guy whispered at her. "Up late last night with your boyfriend?" Rogue ignored him and toyed with part of one of her white streaks. He seemed a bit put off by her lack of attention, but ignored her as well.
It was cold. Not just the cold that got the popular girls- especially Jean- excited because it meant the Winter Formal was approaching, but the cold that made the popular girls- shockingly, including Jean- put some clothes on that any parent would approve of. It was the kind of cold that frosted over windows. When Rogue looked out the window at the end of the period, she noticed it was snowing lightly, which utterly and completely confused her. Why would Ororo change the weather to be so cold?
Another question popped into her head.
What if it wasn't Ororo?
School was over, but many students were still clustered together in tight groups, hoping to gain some warmth. Jean, oddly, was welcomed back into the popular crowd, but then Rogue realized why. Mid-terms were coming up, and people had figured out that the red-haired mutant would give anything to be accepted again, and they wanted to ace the tests, so, she was popular again.
People still don't know my mutation, Rogue realized as some guy shoved her with his bare hands. If they did, they wouldn't dare touch me.
"Hey, like, Rogue?" Kitty said, snapping her out of her musings. "I'm like, getting a ride with Jean, ok?" she asked her. Rogue only nodded. "But, like, she has to drive Taryn home, so there's totally no room," she explained hurriedly. Rogue shrugged.
"Ah'll walk," she said flatly, shoving her hands deeper into her pockets and blowing a strand of white hair out of her eyes.
"But it's like, really far!" Kitty exclaimed, and Rogue sighed.
"Ah'll be fine," she insisted. "No one will tray to hurt me. Ah'm a mutie, remember?" she said the last part in a voice that was filled with hate. Kitty threw up her hands.
"Whatever," she muttered, and walked off.
Rogue pulled her hands out of her pockets only long enough to pull her hood over her hair, which was already glimmering with tiny bits of ice and snow. She sighed as couples walked home together, pressed close for warmth and because they could. Quite a few threw her disgusted looks for her clothes, then recognized her and glared at her. She didn't mind, though.
People had never really liked her.
She inhaled deeply. It was freezing, but she'd always liked the cold. When it was cold, people never questioned why she wore layers and layers of clothes. They just kind of ignored her, and that was the way she liked it. No uncomfortable questions about pants and long sleeves when it was ninety-some degrees. One guy had asked her if she was Amish once, and she has snapped back that she liked being pale. People stopped asking and started laughing then.
And when it was cold, everyone stayed inside, so finding a private place to think or draw or play her guitar outside wasn't as hard. When it snowed long enough, everyone went outside for snowball fights and the like, but she stayed inside. The new recruits whispered about her. It was amusing that the worst insult they could come up with was 'anti-social' which she readily admitted to being.
The roads were deserted farther along, the couples having stopped their walks in favor of coffee at Starbucks or wherever the hell they liked to go. Rogue slowed down and removed her hood, having become accustomed to the cold by now. The snow was still falling softly, sprinkling white amidst the drabness of Bayville. She enjoyed the stillness, the silence, buy, most of all, she enjoyed the fact that nobody was there to push her or tease or her hit her or-
She stopped that line of thought before she even knew what the last one was going to be. She didn't remember most of her past and she didn't want to. Why worry about the past when you have the present?
She cocked the gun. Again. The body-count had grown, and the police hadn't discovered anything. They didn't even know that those humans were dead.
If they had been mutants, the police wouldn't have cared.
She fired through the wall. Again. It was peppered with bullet-holes and splashed with blood. She giggled hysterically, realizing it looked like some freakish form of abstract art.
"I am an artist," she proclaimed.
Almost an hour later, Rogue burst into the mansion. Snowflakes sparkled in her hair as they rapidly began melting from the heat of the mansion. Kitty looked up from her laptop and frowned.
"Where were you? I know that you can, like, totally walk faster than that?" she demanded. Rogue groaned.
"Ah was thinking," she stated flatly. "Mostly about the sudden change in the weather," she added at Kitty's suspicious look. "Why do ya ask?" Kitty looked down at the ground.
"Scott, like, told me to." She paused as Rogue waited, tapping her foot impatiently. "Gambit's been gone all day and… he thought you two were together," she said in a meek voice. Rogue threw up her hands, anger blazing in her eyes.
"Ah give up…" she muttered, then glared at Kitty pointedly. "Where is he?" she snapped at the frightened girl, who pointed wordlessly towards the living room.
Rogue stormed into the room where Scott was absorbed in his homework. She cleared her throat loudly and he looked up, a pleasant smile on his face.
"Oh, hello, Rogue," he said, then gasped in surprise as she grabbed his collar and hauled him to his feet, her eyes and voice filled with rage.
"Why are you bein' so overprotective?" she hissed at him. "What's it mattah if Ah spend time with mah boyfriend? And is it really any of your business?" He hung his head guiltily.
"Rogue, I just don't think we can trust him-" he began, but she cut him off.
"Ya mean you don't want to, so you're bein' an over-protective ass?" she finished in an innocent voice, but it held an undertone of sarcasm.
"Rogue, he's a thief-" he began again, but he was interrupted once again.
"Well, you're not exactly full of morals, stickin' your nose in mah private life. Emphasis on the private, Shades."
"Rogue, I'm just trying to help you-"
"By making sure that Ah get no alone time with mah boyfriend?"
"I give up!" he yelled, and she released his shirt, shoving him backwards so he stumbled.
"No, Ah give up!" she yelled back. "You all were always on mah back, tellin' me to be more outgoin' an' make more friends, an' not only do Ah make a new friend, Ah get a boyfriend! But are ya happy that Ah did what you wanted? No, you're mad because Ah didn't let you pick mah boyfriend!" she ranted at him, and he didn't look hurt. He looked guilty.
He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word in, Rogue screamed, "Ah don't want to hear it!" and ran out.
"What's with Rogue these days?" Jean asked her boyfriend, Scott, after he told her about the issue over Remy.
"I don't know," he responded honestly. "Ever since that damned Cajun joined and they started going out, she's been really… easily-angered. Short tempered," he added.
"She was always like that," Jean replied in a disgusted voice. "It's like she thinks she's better than us; I hate people like that!" she exclaimed. Scott mentally frowned at his girlfriend's anger towards the X-Girl, but didn't say anything about it.
"Well, I really don't have any business trying to push them apart. They're a couple, and there's nothing I can do about it. It isn't any of my business whether she spends almost no time or almost all her time with him," he murmured guiltily, and Jean scowled.
"Why do you even care so much?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.
"I don't!" he answered defensively. "I just don't trust him." Jean rubbed his shoulder gently, speaking in a soothing tone that he later realized had telepathic influences planted in it.
"Don't worry about it," she whispered, "Just let them have their fun. He seems like a womanizer. He'll move onto someone else."
Had Scott been a telepath, he would have easily picked up Jean's thought: Hopefully me. But he was not, and had no idea about his girlfriend's little infidelities.
Remy, having heard all about Rogue's little outburst, found the girl poking at her dinner- which looked to be untouched- while Logan glared at her from across the table. Kitty stood next to her, wearing an expression that was incredibly similar to Logan's. They obviously hadn't noticed him entering, except maybe Logan, who was probably just ignoring him.
"Ah'm not hungry!" Rogue insisted, and Remy understood why the others were waiting. "Ah had a big lunch!"
"You so did not!" Kitty burst out suddenly, a worried look replacing that of her angry expression. "I saw you! You didn't eat anything! And all you had for breakfast was a roll!" Rogue immediately looked down, not meeting the girl's eyes.
"Ah'm not hungry!" she repeated, after having muttered some obscenity under her breath that Logan raised his eyebrows out. Deciding it wasn't the time to interrupt them, Remy slipped out the door.
"Will, for the last time, shut up!" Tabitha called to Willow playfully. The aforementioned immortal girl stopped muttering rapidly in French long enough to stick her tongue out at Tabby and then went back to murmuring.
"Aw, come on!" Bobby called from his position next to Jubilee, who had recently returned to the X-Men. "You're more mature than that, right?" Jubille laughed.
"Because God knows Bobby isn't," she added loudly, and Bobby responded with a 'Hey!' Willow only rolled her eyes and back-flipped out of the room, but not before her slim, long middle finger made its appearance.
Rogue finally managed to escape from the kitchen by saying she'd eat a big breakfast. She bumped into Remy as she hurried out, and gasped as worry quickly clouded her eyes.
"How long were you standing there?" she demanded. He shrugged.
"Not long, chere," he replied easily, and couldn't help but notice that she breathed a small sigh of relief. He looped his arm around her shoulders, grinning at the fact that Scott wanted to shoot him at that moment, and they walked away.
"So, I was wonderin'," Remy started lazily as they ambled around the grounds. "Do y' wan' t' go see a movie or somet'in'?" he asked her casually, and she nodded.
Up in her room, Jean watched the couple with envy and rage.
Later in her room, sketching, Rogue realized just how happy she'd been recently. Love, which she had looked upon cynically before, now seemed real. Her angry, ticking-time-bomb personality had all but disappeared.
As this thought crossed her mind, she frowned. Because she knew that she was a ticking-time-bomb, and she knew that she always would be.
When you have a-quite literal- kiss of death, isn't that a fair comparison?
She shook her head to clear her mind of those thoughts. Those were the thoughts that boys like Scott had been repelled by. So what was stopping Remy from finding her dark musings disturbing and freaky?
But he cares, she reminded herself, He cares about me even though I can't touch.
She really, really hoped his feelings weren't a lie.
She hoped even more that he would stay with her.
A/N: Gah. I don't really like this chapter. It's just really supposed to be filler. And don't comment on the weird weather. All will be explained if you are good little readers and REVIEW, DAMNIT.
As for the Rogue-no-eaty- thing, I'll explain that later. I actually have a decently solid evidence to base this theory on, so XPXP.
I'm working on a theory for Rogue touching. I had one, but it turned out to be tragically like D-Ark of Spirits' in River of Dreams. Grr. But I'm working on another one, so yay for me. I know I'm evil for getting through the eighth chapter without even presenting a theory on her touching.
Please don't hate me. xx
Shout-outs:
Star-of-Chaos: Holy crap, I completely forgot about that! Um, AU! Artistic license! And stuff. But anyways, I'll have to brainstorm that… thanks for pointing that out, I'll have to think of something. Anyways, I muchly appreciate the review, and it's nice to know you consider my story kickin' awesome, yo.
Lonewolf: Hah! I love being bowed to! Ask my sister, heh. Anyways, yeah, I thought that Remy being an asshole over her particular choices in fashion would just be grr, hence the non-grr-ness. Moving right along, I'm ecstatic you enjoy my excuse for a piece of literature, and I'm sorry about the long wait…
Enchantedlight: Eh, sorry it took so long. However, I'm so indescribably happy that you love this story! I worship you for worshipping me! ("And they love me, and I love them for lovin' me, and they love me for lovin' them. And that's because none of us got enough love in our childhoods.")
Yumiko: Haha, 5P34K L337? I L0/3 L337-5P34K3R5, j0!! Ahem. Sorry it took so long, the update-y-ness, I mean, but it's here. I live on! Somewhat. Eh, blame the Angels. On second thought, don't, because Angels rock! Ahem, anyways, I'm bewaring the l337, I suppose…?
SickmindedSucker: Yeah, ass-kickage is needed. rubs hands together and cackles evilly Ahem, anyways, glad you thought it was cute. I've been told I'm too sarcastic and have too bleak of an outlook on life and too dry of a sense of humor and too sharp a tongue, so congrats on my effort to be fluff-ish and file away my pokey, boney edges are appreciated mucho-mucho. Schpanks!
Ishandahalf: Bunnycrack acknowledged but, apparently, not engaged. Damn. I'm trying, really, but apparently my metaphorical bunny has an immunity to crack. Ahem. Anyways, update is here, and the metaphorical-bunny sends his love, not rabies. Hope you liked this chapter, too, the FFX-2 music is giving me a headache in the background.
Psychotic Raven: Yeah…. It'll be explained. Eventually XPXP. It is trippin' awesome, right? Eh? Anyways, how was Japan-land? Did you have fun? Anyways, slap that review button and type-type-type!! Glad you liked chapter seven, hope you think chapter eight is as good!
Rogues Heart: Not the monkeys!!! Noooo! If you really must know, they're already after me, so HAH, but no, really, I tried, but my sister kept bitching about the crappy shape of our FFX-2 guide, so I couldn't get a type fest in edgewise. It's the first time my story has been called Fantasmic, so, yay!! Review again, pretty please?
Evosmylife: Eh, I tried to update soon, I just didn't succeed. I'm glad you like this story, and I'm especially glad you reviewed, because reviewing makes me worship you for life. Anyways, hope you liked this chapter too.
Lyrics: "Good Thing" by Reel Big Fish, "Cheer Up!":
(metallic voice)You and I are mortal, but rock and roll will never die!
I never felt too good,
But in this world who would?
I was always thinkin' somethin' wasn't right
But then you came along
And helped me sing a song
And now I feel OK
I hope it can stay
This way
You know we got a good thing goin'
And I don't wanna see it end
You know we got a good thing goin'
And I don't wanna see it end
Are these the goody days that I've
Heard so much about?
There goes the heartbreak that I can live without
I've been so frustratedBitter, mean, and jaded
I've taken for granted all the things I've got
But now that you are here this
Anger disappears
And I feel happy too
This is sappy but it's true
You know we got a good thing goin'
And I don't wanna see it end
You know we got a good thing goin'
And I don't wanna see it end
Are these the good days that I've
Heard so much about?
There goes the heartbreak that I can
Live without
I adore this song. It's really good. TGFS: Thank God For Ska.
Please review?
-The Tourniquet