17

The next day, Colossus continued to take her to school. Rogue had woke up feeling groggy, so she didn't question it when Colossus told her he was giving her a lift and Gambit was no where to be found. As much as she wasn't in the mood to talk, she did feel upset that Gambit wasn't around like he said he would be. She spent the car ride telling Colossus about explain tried to say sorry, but just felt like she couldn't because of the cake being ruined. He explained how she should have talked with Gambit and explained why she had baked the cake. Rogue had said nothing in response to that. She already felt stupid. Baking a cake had been a stupid idea. He probably would have just laughed at her anyway or something. Colossus then moved onto discussing school. He told her that he would handle the cheerleaders for her and that she should just focus on Duncan. Rogue closed her eyes at that. She was not in the mood to play fake or nice today with anyone.

Rogue didn't say anything more during the car ride. When they approached school, however, Rogue forced a smile on her face as she left the car. Colossus got out and came around to her side.

"Have a good day." He said, smiling down at her.

"I will." Rogue said, smiling back.

Then, just as she was moving away, the cheerleaders pounced on him. Rogue turned after a good few steps away and watched Colossus. He was smiling down at them. Rogue didn't like how Stacy was throwing herself at him, even though she'd told her not to.

Rogue turned away though and kept walking. But, before she could get far, an arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"Hey, long time no see, huh?" Duncan said.

Rogue decided to hiss out this time, making Duncan drop his hand.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot. Skin condition, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rogue said, rubbing her shoulder where Duncan's hand had been. She really was not in the mood for this, but she had made her own grave. "Hi," she said.

Duncan smiled down at her, but she noticed his eyes looking everywhere else. Looking for Jean, no doubt.

"So where've you been? Why'd you sit with those dorks the other day?" Duncan asked.

"Oh, I mainly sat there because I wanted ta talk to Kitty. She's nice. She actually tried ta help meh out when those benches fell on me." Rogue said.

"Oh, sure. But Summer's is a bust! He thinks he looks all cool and stuff with those glasses of his on. You really shouldn't hang around with him." Duncan said.

"Oh, really?" Rogue said, getting an idea, "Jean sits with him, so I kinda thought it was ok. Oh, I heard you and Jean are a thing now!" Rogue said, pretending to beam in joy for them.

"Errr," Duncan said, looking a little taken back.

"I'm really happy for you both." Rogue said.

"Wait, you are?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course. Everyone in the school thinks she's the prettiest girl here. They all keep saying that she deserves to be with a guy like you." Rogue said.

"Oh, well, yeah. But-" Duncan said.

"I'm sure I actually overheard one of the footballers say that it was about time. That the two of you were on and off for a while and it was about time you two made it official. I don't know they're names, but your team seem really happy for you too. Sounds like the two of you were finally able to make it official after so long, huh?" Rogue said.

"Well, yeah. There was something between us." Duncan said, now looking a little awkward, "But, errr,"

Duncan's eyes then seemed to land on something behind Rogue.

"We're gonna be late for class. Come on Rogu-" he began to say, reaching out and grabbing her arm.

Rogue yelped out as Duncan's hand grabbed where her burn was. Duncan quickly dropped his hand, hearing her cry out. Rogue pulled back her sleeve to check on the burn. She didn't realise she had an audience. Duncan and the newly arrived X-Men now glanced down at the redness on Rogue's arm.

"I-I'm sorry." Duncan said.

Rogue glanced back up at him. It hadn't actually hurt that much, but, from hearing that, she saw her way into something.

"Oh, it's just ma stupid skin condition. I burn up at the slightest touch." Rogue said, actually, feeling horrible about lying about it again. Her conversation with Magneto last night was just making her feel down about everything.

"Oh, err, right. Well, I'll, erm, see you in class." Duncan said before running off.

Rogue watched him run, not noticing Kitty stood besides her.

"Ouch! That, like, looks nasty." She said.

Rogue then turned to see the X-Men had just gotten out of Scott's car and were walking towards her.

"Erm, yeah. It's just ma skin condition." Rogue explained.

"Oh, so, like, this is what happens?" Kitty asked, pointing at her arm.

"Yeah," Rogue said, covering it back up at Kitty's disguised look.

"No offence, but that's kinda gross." Kitty said.

But, somehow, that did offend Rogue. All those little kids who avoided her as a kid because of her made up skin condition came back to her head. They all thought she was gross too because of it. Because of her skin. She thought she'd actually got over that and got away from them. But there was that memory. Then, when she actually did get cursed skin, people were disguised at it because of the after effects of touching her. Yes. Yes it did hurt to see both Kitty's and Duncan's reactions.

"Yeah, I know." Rogue said, pulling her bag further onto her shoulder and walking away from Kitty.

"Oh, wait, I-" Kitty started to say, but Rogue was already zooming off as fast as she could.

Kitty then got questioned by the other X-Men who asked why Rogue was taking off at such a pace. Kitty then explained to them what had happened when Duncan touched her arm.

Xxxxx

The day actually passed quite quickly without anything eventful happening really. When it came to lunch, Rogue and Risty actually managed to sit alone together Outside. The cheerleaders had let on and said hi when they passed. Duncan had glanced away from her quickly when he saw her and went back into a conversation with his football friends. It looked like the popular kids were leaving her alone.

"Well, I don't know how you've done it, but it looks like you've managed to defend off the entire cheerleader squad and Duncan." Risty said, smiling at Rogue.

"Yeah," Rogue said, eating her food.

"Hey, what's got you in a huff?" Risty asked.

Rogue sighed, "Nothin really. Last night I tried ta make a cake for Remy."

"Oh, he came back last night?" Risty asked.

"Errr, yeah." Rogue said, forgetting her lie about Gambit. "Yeah, he came back and I wanted to, well, do something nice for him. To say I was sorry for treating him like a jerk and all."

"What happened? He didn't take it well?" Risty asked.

"No, I burnt the cake." Rogue said.

"Oh. But, surely you explained that to him? Made him see the cake was a peace offering of sorts." Risty asked.

Rogue snorted, "No. I felt so stupid stood there holding a burnt cake. It was the first time I'd properly baked something, erm, at ma stepdad's, that is. Now he's gonna think I can't cook and I'm gonna get mocked or something."

"Well, if he does, then he's a jerk! Besides, you already said you were sorry, right?" Risty asked. "If you ask me, you don't need to do anything more than that. And if he can't accept that, well, he isn't worth it!"

Rogue stared at Risty for a time. She wondered if she was right. Colossus was an overly nice person after all. Maybe he was wrong about her needing to keep apologising. Then again, he was still distant. Sure, he came to her room last night after her text message, but... She just didn't know what to do there.

Then, Kitty appeared besides them.

"Hey," Kitty said.

"Oh, hey." Risty said.

Kitty smiled at Risty, but then looked uneasy at Rogue. Rogue gave the girl a small smile, hoping she wouldn't sit with them.

"Errr, Rogue, about earlier. I'm, like, so sorry if what I said about your arm offended you or anything. I really didn't mean it in that way." Kitty said.

"Your arm?" Risty questioned, looking at Rogue.

"Oh, it was nothin'. Just Duncan touched meh and set ma skin allergy off." Rogue said.

She didn't see it, but Risty's face had dropped. Rogue had turned to face Kitty though, pulling a big fake smile on her lips.

"It's alright. I didn't take offence. I just needed to put some cream on it. It was starting to hurt." Rogue said.

Hearing that, Kitty seemed to relax and smile more. "Oh, really? That's great! I mean, it's not great that, like, you know you had to go put cream on because your skin was breaking out or anything. Just, I thought I'd said something to upset you and I really didn't mean to."

"No, we're cool." Rogue said, still holding the smile. Honestly though, she didn't feel like she could stay mad at Kitty. She knew from talking to her in her mind that one time that she was a nice person and, well, it was nice to hear her saying her sorry.

Rogue then began to think about that. Kitty hadn't apologised straight away. She'd said sorry later on and, to be honest with herself, if she'd tried saying it before when she was running for the hills, she wouldn't have really listened to Kitty's apology. It wouldn't have meant much. Was that how Gambit felt?

"Awesome! Hey, like, me and a few of the girls are going shopping after school. Do you wanna join?" Kitty asked.

"Oh, erm, today's not a good day for me. Remy got back last night and I kinda wanna check up on him to see if he's alright." Rogue said. She knew Magneto told her to learn from the X-Men's mistakes and to write down information on them, but she really didn't want to get that close. Plus, it might make Magneto tell her to get those files updated faster, which she didn't want to do.

"Oh yeah, like, totally understand." Kitty said. Rogue watched Kitty's face fall and straight away felt guilty. Did she think she was avoiding her because of what she had said? "Just let me know when your, like, free, you know and we'll totally sort you out with clothes and stuff." Kitty said, now beginning to walk away back to the X-Men table.

"Yeah, we'll hang out again soon." Rogue said, feeling guilty as she watched Kitty walk away.

"Erm, what did I miss?" Risty asked.

"Huh?" Rogue said, now looking at Risty.

"Duncan touched you?" Risty asked.

"Oh, yeah. He grabbed hold of ma arm and set ma skin off." Rogue said.

"He did! But your fully covered." Risty said, staring down at her arm.

"Yeah, it can still happen through clothes." Rogue said.

Risty looked rather horrified by that. Rogue blinked a few times. Was Risty as freaked out by her skin as Kitty was? Was Magneto right? Would human's not accept mutants? Well, Kitty was a mutant herself, but… didn't that speak volumes? Kitty, a mutant, was disguised at her skin and Risty, a human, was disguised at her skin too.

"I, errr, I think I better go. I'm not really hungry." Rogue said, starting to get up.

Risty shuck her head, as if coming out of some sort of trance.

"Rogue, wait? Where you running off to?" Risty asked.

"I just need to be alone for a minute." Rogue said, walking off with her tray.

Rogue stopped at the entrance back into the school. She wondered if she'd been a bit too harsh on Risty by just upping and walking away like that. Rogue turned to see that Risty had gone to join Kitty with her lunch. Rogue stared at this. Were… those two talking about her? About her skin?

Rogue left then, deciding she really wanted a break from people.

Xxxxx

Gambit had overheard Rogue and Risty's conversation. Now the cake Rogue was baking made sense. He felt a little bad for not picking up on it last night. He thought she was just mad because she'd burnt her cake. Not because she was trying to bake him one to say sorry. He'd wanted to snort at that. That was actually a really nice thing of her to do. He had a feeling that she didn't come up with that idea on her own though and from the way Risty was talking, the girl hadn't given her the idea.

He then heard the conversation between Shadowcat and Rogue. He watched Risty's reaction. He wondered why she looked so shocked. He found the question about Rogue's fake skin condition being affected over clothes odd too. He was sure Rogue had explained that. But now, Risty seemed shocked. If that was Mystique, then maybe she was confused because she knew Rogue didn't have a skin condition and was wondering what Rogue and Shadowcat were talking about.

He watched Rogue go, looking uncomfortable. He guessed, from the way Kitty was apologising to her, she did take offence to whatever Kitty's comment had been. She looked hurt. He did guess it had something to do with how Rogue felt about her own powers. He was sure she had mentioned once that she was worried Colossus and Pyro weren't going to be alright with her because she had absorbed them. How, no one ever really liked her once she absorbed them. He guessed she probably got disguised looks after she absorbed someone. Like the look Kitty probably gave her.

Gambit dropped his attention from Rogue and returned it back to Risty who was now sitting with the X-Men. From what he could hear, she was intel gathering. Risty asked Kitty what had happened with Duncan. Kitty, of course, then explained to all the X-Men what it was she saw. Risty still seemed to be a little confused, but understood more what had happened. She got up to go and find Rogue and left the X-Men to it.

"So, it was really red?" Scott asked.

"Yeah. It looked like it stung." Kitty said.

"I can't think of any mutations that would result in someone getting hurt from the slightest contact." Scott admitted, looking at Jean.

"No, me neither." Jean said, "I guess she really isn't a mutant."

"Well, she did say she had the condition from her childhood and that it wasn't going anywhere in her future. We all got our mutations in our teens. She's almost out of them as well. If she was going to develop a mutation, I think we'd know it by now." Scott said.

"Right," Jean said, "So, err, Duncan was really with Rogue?" Jean asked Kitty.

Although nothing had been said about asking the Professor to drop his search on Rogue, Gambit assumed that the X-Men now believed Rogue wasn't a mutant and would back off from her now.

He'd pieced together how she'd fooled them all as well with the red mark she showed off. He'd watched her when she was rushing to take out the cake. She had hissed and pulled back her arm when she touched something hot in the oven. He guessed she must have actually burned her arm and he hadn't realised it. So, the mark she was showing off to prove that she had this skin condition was actually a well timed burn mark. Cleaver, he thought.

Xxxxx

After school, Gambit tried following Risty again, only the same thing happened. He saw her leave her classroom, but he couldn't see her among the other students.

He saw Colossus being hounded by a lot of cheerleaders and Rogue walking towards him, seeming a bit annoyed, but unsure how to approach them all. That was when Colossus brushed a wall of cheerleaders aside to reach out for Rogue and get her an entrance into the car.

Colossus seemed to be actually pretty smooth with the ladies as he said goodbye to them. He was impressed with the gentle giant. But he still wasn't happy that he had lost Risty again.

xxxxx

Risty had tried to catch up to Rogue earlier that day when she was at school. She kept asking questions about her skin which annoyed Rogue. She seemed to finally shut up after she showed her burn to Risty.

After school, she'd walked up to Colossus, stopping briefly to see cheerleaders sounding him. She couldn't hear completely what was said, but he reached out to her, like a gentleman, putting her first as he escorted her into the car. He seemed to be able to brush the ladies off with ease.

"How'd you do that?" Rogue asked.

"I was firm, yet kind." Colossus said, as he began to drive.

Rogue was impressed. Then again, he was a handsome man after all. He must have been used to fighting women off.

"We were thinking of watching a movie tonight." Colossus said, "If you are free to join us, you would be more than welcome."

"Who's we?" She asked, wondering.

"Pyro and myself. Sabretooth and Magneto never join us and I am not sure if Gambit will." Colossus said.

Rogue sighed inwardly to herself. Of course, he might not be there. He was avoiding her after all. Rogue went back to staring out the window, thinking about those files Magneto had told her to write up.

"We'll see." Rogue said.