Hello again my fellow readers, I'm happy to present the next chapter of the Fallen.
I'd like to say thank you to the people that reviewed: azure blue espeon, Tmntfreak1996, RAZzEN, Jordanand all the people that don't have an account. It's all thanks to you guys that helped me decide to keep this story afloat! You guys rock! I hope you all enjoy my latest chapter! :)
Rogue glanced half-heartedly through her book from her spot on the couch. After this morning's Danger Room's disaster, the place was abuzz with gossip courtesy of the Institute's resident valley girl. The southern belle rolled her eyes at the mere thought of her petite roommate. It was obvious that Kitty couldn't take a hint and keep her big mouth shut.
If only it were that easy. She groaned, shaking her head.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jubilee and Amara in the corner talking in hushed tones about something. The southern belle had a pretty good idea about what they were yakking about to each other.
Gossipmongers. Rogue snorted disdainfully.
Turning her attention back to her book, the southern brunette flipped the page and skimmed the words slowly. With the current gossip aside, today was just another normal day here in X-Land. 'X-Land'. Rogue rolled her eyes at the ridiculous word that Kurt came up with. Honestly, what kind of word was X-Land? It sounded like an Alice in Wonderland rip off, for Pete's sake.
She closed her book with a jaded sigh, and pushed herself off the tan couch. The brunette teen needed to find a quiet place to get away from all this annoying gossip. She walked past the two gossiping teens wordlessly, closing the lounge door behind her. Making her way into the large foyer, the southern teen could see Bobby and Sam off to the side. The two teens looked like they were arguing about something. Judging by the way Bobby was flailing his arms around, it was probably over something stupid.
Rogue turned attention to the stairs as she continued on her way to find a quiet place to finish her book. She walked past Jean and Scott, who were making their way down the steps. The southern belle gave them a wordless greeting when Scott nodded to her. Stopping in front of the door that led into the library, Rogue reached out to grab the door handle when the faint sound of a piano caught her ear.
She stopped to listen to the soft melody for a moment. Not a lot of people here knew how to play the piano, so who was playing it? She could already rule out Jean, just having passed her and Scott on the stairs. Normally, she wouldn't have given it a second thought, but a part of her needed a distraction from all the gossip that was currently going on.
Deciding to find the source of the faint music, Rogue continued down the hall until she reached the doors leading to the second floor lounge. This was the only room in the entire Institute that had a grand piano in it. She noted that whoever was playing the piano must have purposely left the door open a crack. Curiosity got the better of her as she moved closer to the door to peek inside.
The southern belle glanced over to the right side of the room where the piano was set up. The mysterious piano player's back was facing her as their dark blue long sleeve covered arms moved fluidly across the keyboard. Now that she was closer to the source, Rogue noted how the soft melody sounded mysterious, and yet almost sad. If she listened closely, she could almost hear a faint humming sound coming from inside the room.
"Shining constellations pierce through the night sky." A voice whispered.
Rogue almost jumped, almost, as the mysterious player continued to play the haunting melody. The voice sounded both sad, and at the same time almost devoid of any emotion.
"My heart is endlessly lost in the darkness," A humorless chuckle this time. "Ah, wandering."
That's when she realized that the voice belonged to the mysterious piano player. She pushed the door open a little wider to get a better look, and winced to herself when the old door hinges squeaked lowly. Quickly looking over to the piano, she almost sighed in relief when she noticed that the person hadn't notice that they had company. They continued to play like nothing was happening around them. Rogue squinted to get a better look at the person, but the bright sunlight coming from a nearby window prevented her from getting a better look at them.
"...Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's rude to eavesdrop?" The mysterious player asked suddenly, causing to Rogue to jump in surprise. Hitting one final key, the pianist ended the song prematurely and turned their head to the door.
It was then that Rogue got a good look at the mysterious piano player behind the sad melody. His pale locks and skin were illuminated in the sun's golden rays, giving him an unnatural glow to his thin form.
"...Well? Are you just going to stand there all day, or are you going to come inside." Michael stated more than asked. He sounded genuinely curious, rather than sounding annoyed that someone was spying on his private piano session.
The southern teen sighed; there was no use in trying to stay hidden now. She entered the room as the blonde turned on the stool to look at his mysterious onlooker. Although he didn't show it, the pale teen was surprised to see that the southern belle was the one spying on him.
"Well, this is a surprise." The blonde said, hiding his amusement. "I was half-expect that oddball valley girl to be the one spying on me."
Rogue scoffed in irritation. "Yeah, she's a few screws short of something alright. At least you don't have to share a room with her."
Mike shuddered at the thought. He didn't even know the petite girl yet, and he already felt the need to avoid her at all costs. He did sympathize with the southern teen. The two girls seemed like two completely different people, personality and clothes wise anyways.
"...So, what brings you by?" Mike asked, turning back to close the lid over the keyboard.
"I've been trying to find a quiet place where I can read in peace." Rogue answered matter-of-factly. She lifted her book up to emphasis her point. "Kinda hard when the entire Institute is abuzz with annoying gossip."
The blonde teen's eyebrow rose at that.
"Gossip, you don't say." He retorted sarcastically. Rogue snorted at Mike, who didn't bother to hide his amusement this time around.
"Yeah, and you're in the center of it all."
"Is that so?" Mike rolled his eyes and scoffed aloud to himself, he was here for a day and people were already talking about him. The pale teen didn't know whether to be irritated or worry about what was being said about him behind his back.
"Well, you did manage to destroy the Danger Room." Rogue retorted matter-of-factly.
The blonde groaned. "Ugh. Don't remind me, I'm already on thin ice as it is."
"Is that why you're up here hiding in the first place?" Rogue asked the blonde indifferently.
"In a way, yes." The pale teen answered, turning to face the piano again. "Normally, I find that playing piano helps me relax, especially after all the crap that's happened."
Rogue took a moment to look at the biracial teen in front of him. Today he was dressed in primarily dark colors, mostly ranging from blues and blacks. The dark blue long shirt he was currently wearing looked good with his pale skin. He had on a pair of black jeans, black socks, and a pair of black and white checkered vans. The outfit suited him very well. But what really caught her attention was the bluish purple bruise that marred his pale skin.
Mike raised an eyebrow at her. "...Is there something wrong?"
"U-uh, it's nothing." Rogue retorted, looking away from the pale teen. Mike reached up and gently touched the bruise on his cheek. He winced when his fingertips made contact with it.
"Oh, this little thing." The blonde gently removed his hand from the bruise. Rogue walked closer to get a better look at it, not missing how Mike shifted slightly as she came closer.
"That's quite the shiner you've got there." Rogue whistled.
"It really only hurts when you touch it." Mike answered, moving to sit back on the piano stool.
The southern belle nodded wordlessly. She moved over to the closest armchair near the piano. The two teens sat there in silence, neither of them speaking with one another. A minute went past before Mike finally broke the awkward silence.
"So, uh, how long have you been at the Institute?" The blonde asked.
"Too long." Rogue retorted sarcastically.
Mike raised an eyebrow. "You make it sound like this place is some kinda prison or something."
"I guess you could call it that."
The blonde teen gave Rogue a look of understanding before turning back to the piano and lifted the lid for the keyboard. He played a few notes with his right hand.
"If you don't mind my asking, what song were you playing earlier?" Rogue asked, listening to Mike play one handed.
"Kagayaku Seiza." The blonde answered, letting his hand dance across the keys. "It's Japanese for Shining Constellations. It's kinda a personal favorite of mine."
He continued to play with one hand, getting lost in the soft melody of the piano. Even one handed, the song still retained the sad and mysterious melody it had when he played with both hands. Mike moved his left hand to join his right on the keyboard. The melody started to pick up as Mike started to play faster.
"Your silent lips reflect the stars." The blonde whispered, closing his eyes as he played. "Life flows on, and all existence is, ah, an illusion."
Rogue continued to watch Mike play. There was something about the pale teen that the southern belle didn't quite understand. How could someone like him single-handedly destroy the Danger Room on his first try? Just what kind of powers did he have to cause that level of damage? It just didn't make any sense.
"You're staring again."
Rogue jumped for what seemed like the tenth time today. The blonde had just finished playing, and was now standing in front of her. He cocked his head to the side, his face betrayed no emotion.
"Would you quit doing that?" Rogue scowled angrily.
"Sorry, old habits die hard." Mike retorted. He moved to sit in the armchair opposite of Rogue. "So, what book are you reading there Ms.-? You'll have to forgive me; I'm really bad with names. I barely remember my own name sometimes."
Rogue rolled her eyes, handing her latest book to Mike. "Rogue, and take a look for yourself."
"Edgar Allan Poe, huh?" The pale teen smirked. "A rather dark and creepy book choice, but the guy really knew how to paint a picture in your head. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that appreciates his work."
"Which story is your favorite?" Rogue found herself asking before she could stop herself. What was with her today? Normally she wasn't this talkative with anyone.
Mike thought for a moment, trying to think of one. He had read a lot of Poe's work some time ago; trying to narrow it down to just one was pretty hard.
"I would have to say The Raven, for sure." Mike answered.
Rogue smirked at that. "It's a little repetitive, but probably one of Poe's best works."
They spent the next twenty minutes discussing which books they've read and which ones that shouldn't even be consider literature. The bulk of the conversation was spent on how much they both hated the Twilight Series. What real vampire sparkles in the sunlight, seriously? They burn in sunlight, not sparkle for Pete's sake!
"I just don't understand why people like it." Mike said, leaning back in his chair.
"That makes two of us." Rogue retorted.
(-)
"You're kidding, right?" Logan scoffed, raising an eyebrow.
All of the adults, plus Scott, Jean and Forge, were all gathered in Charles' office on the first floor. After retelling the events of this morning's Danger Room fiasco, they were deciding on where they should go from there. Hank and Forge were already busy with thinking of ways to improve the Danger Room after repairing the damage.
"Yes Logan, why would I make this up?" Charles stated, suppressing a smirk.
Scott and Jean chuckled to each other, but quickly stopped when the gruff Canadian shot them a steely glare.
"Getting back to the matter at hand," Ororo said, clearing her throat. "What are we going to do about this?"
Charles sighed, recalling the blonde's words from earlier. "It's ultimately Michael's choice. Regardless if we agree with it or not, we must still respect his decision."
"I don't know about the rest of you, but the idea of just waiting for a ticking time bomb to go off sounds pretty ridiculous if you ask me," Logan snorted, crossing his arms. "Who's to say that the kid won't blow up the entire institute because of one or two wild mood swings?"
Everyone in the room shot him a look. The short man snorted in response. The room fell into uncomfortable silence. After a moment of silence, Scott was the one to break it.
"The question is what to do now?" Scott asked.
Charles sighed in defeat. "I'm afraid all we can do is wait, see what develops."
"If you all just want to sit here and twiddle your thumbs, be my guest," Logan snorted, pushing himself off the wall and made a beeline for the door. "But I'm not just going to sit around and wait for something to happen."
"Logan, where are you going?" Ororo asked, watching the short Canadian walk past her.
"Out." He answered, without looking back.
The door closed with a small slam, plunging the room into silence once more. Everyone in the room shared a look before shaking their heads at Logan's exit. This was just a typical Logan thing to do. The man himself was a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma to be put it bluntly.
"Putting Logan's usual lone wolf attitude aside, where is mister Soletta?" Hank said, putting down the blueprints that he was currently working on.
"Last time I checked, he should still be in the second floor lounge." Ororo replied.
"And he's not alone." Charles added.
Everyone turned their attention to him, waiting for him to elaborate. The wheelchair bound telepath merely smiled knowingly to himself. He had felt Rogue's familiar presence in the same room as the blonde's. Normally he didn't like to spy on his students, but this time he made a small exception. Michael's behavior after this morning's Danger Room disaster worried him. He seemed so adamant against the idea of using his powers again.
"Well Charles, who is it?" Hank inquired, passing the finished copy of the blueprints for Forge to look at. The young builder took it eagerly, scanning each and every detail thoroughly.
"It's Rogue." Jean supplied finally. Everyone turned to look at her in surprise, in Scott's case total disbelief.
"Rogue? Jean, are you sure it's not somebody else instead?" Scott asked incredulously.
"Yes Scott, Jean is telling the truth." Charles retorted, clearly amused by the brunette's skepticism. "I was a little surprised myself, but I guess kindred spirits are easily drawn to one another."
Scott and Forge shared a confused look, while Hank and Ororo merely smiled at each other.
"I'm sure that those two will be good for one another." Ororo mused, forming a small raincloud to water the plants in the room. "It'll give them both a chance to socialize a little."
Scott snorted lightly. "This is Rogue we're taking about, Storm."
"Now, now Scott." Jean scolded lightly. "We shouldn't be too quick to judge either of them."
All of the adults nodded in agreement. From what they knew about the blonde so far, he was very quiet and mostly kept to himself. Most people would immediately assume that both of the qualities made someone seem impersonal and aloof. But in a way, that was probably the best way to describe the blonde's personality. He seemed guarded in more ways than one. However, there were those moments where that protective wall would crack. But those moments were quite infrequent and didn't seem to last very long.
In a way, Rogue was the same way with most people. She projected a 'don't screw with me, or else' aura about her. Her use of sarcasm, snarky deadpan remarks were proof of that. The very nature of her powers made her a very guarded person. The southern belle always kept herself at a distance from everyone, never letting herself get close to someone without fear of hurting them.
Mike and Rogue are so much alike in so many ways. Charles thought sadly.
(-)
"Sounds to me like your roommate has a classic case of a love-bipolar." The blonde rolled his eyes. The two teens spent the last ten minutes talking about various topics and Rogue's boy crazy roommate.
Rogue snorted loudly.
"Tch, classic doesn't even begin to describe it." She retorted.
Mike chuckled quietly to himself. Rogue was rather descriptive about some of the things that this Kitty did to annoy her and what she wanted to do in retaliation. Some of it was overly ridiculous and silly, but he seemed to agree with most of it. The bulk of it seemed rather excessively violent to say the least.
"She sounds like a real barrel of sunshine." Mike said sarcastically.
"Ugh, can we please stop talking about her now? I'm getting a migraine just thinking about her." Rogue snapped.
The pale teen held his hands up in defeat. He knew when and when not to pick his fights, and this was one of them.
"So, aside from reading dark literature, what else do you do for fun around here?" Mike asked, switching gears.
Rogue cocked an eyebrow. "Depends on what you mean by 'fun'."
"Touché."
The blonde hummed a quiet tune under his breath. The southern belle almost had to strain her ears to hear it. It almost sounded like an Adele song. Rogue didn't peg the blonde as an Adele fan. Then again, she didn't know that much about the blonde's tastes in music. The only thing she had to go on was that he was humming Adele's latest song under his breath. Actually, now that she stopped to think about it, Mike had a good singing voice.
"You sure like to sing don't cha?" Rogue said before she could stop herself.
Mike cocked an eyebrow at the remark. He must have started humming under his breath without realizing it. He chuckled humorlessly.
"Aside from playing violin and piano, it's the only thing I'm good at."
Although it was subtle, the southern belle picked up on the bitterness in his voice. She must have struck a nerve without meaning to. Rogue saw a brief flash of anger behind the blonde's icy blue orbs, but it was gone in an instant. The blonde's emotionless mask had quickly resurfaced.
"So, what's your mutant power, Rogue." He stated more than asked.
The southern belle was almost caught off guard by the pale teen's biting tone. One moment he was calm and composed, and the next he was cold and impersonal. These mood swings were almost as bad as Kitty's on most days, and that's saying something. Steeling herself, she sent an equally frigid glare to match the blonde's icy tone.
"Why should I tell you?" She countered frigidly. "Why don't you tell me yours?"
Mike smirked almost smugly at her. "Sorry, but I asked you first."
"Well, tough luck blondie, cause I'm not telling you." Rogue retorted with a smirk of her own.
She didn't expect the half Italian half Japanese teen to let out a small chuckle at her smart-ass remark. The southern belle didn't know what to make of him anymore. This guy was such a walking contradiction. She watched him swipe an imaginary tear from his right eye.
"I can tell you right now that we're going to get along just fine." He smirked, pushing himself to stand up.
He reached out a hand to the southern goth. The brunette started at it for a few moments before reaching up to shake it.
"Just try to stay out of my way, and we won't have any problems with one another." Rogue said retracting her gloved hand from the blonde.
The smirk never left his pale lips. "I'll try to remember that, and the same to you, Rogue."
There you have it everyone, chapter seven has finally been completely! I'm really, really, really, REALLY sorry for the very long wait. Life of a college student is just full of ups and downs, but you learn to adapt to the bulk of it.
I know this chapter is a little on the short side, but I originally intended for this and previous chapter to be just a filler to see where I'm at in the story. I made some major revisions to my plans for future chapters. I also wanted to say this right now:
This is NOT a RoguexOC story.
I just wanted to make that clear for some of my readers. Although Rogue is one of my all-time favorite X-Men characters, I don't believe in putting my characters in romantic relationships with already established characters and their comic book love interests. Call me old fashion and unoriginal for that, but that's how I see it.
Please let me know what you think of this story! I want to hear YOUR opinions on this! If there's anything at all that I missed or forgot to add, like a typo or missing a word: Please, please, PLEASE let me know so I can go back and fix it!
Feel free to write me a review and let your opinions be heard! Constructive criticism is welcome, but please don't flame me. Until we meet again my fellow readers and writers!
-Cyprin-san.