DISCLAIMER: None of this is mine. As well you know.
~*******************************************************************************************~
~Scarlet Letter ~
Counseling For Beginners.
" – told you Pietro, I don't want to see him. I'm good where I am."
Pietro was standing as he usually was, arms folded across his chest and attention focused on his sister as she lounged on their couch with her boots propped up on the coffee table, looking stubborn.
"Well y' look good gal," Rogue said with a wink, pushing past Pietro and perching on the armrest of the matching red velvet armchair that completed the three-piece suite. She knew Wanda had picked it out – she'd pretty much had free rein to decorate since they stopped the end of humanity as they knew it because the boys didn't really care and Toad was always willing to help make her wishes become reality.
"Rogue, what are you doing here?" cried Wanda, reaching out to envelop her friend in a one-armed hug, and Rogue smiled at her and returned the gesture.
"Felt lahke comin' t' see mah favourite witch – saw what y' did t' Toad by the way," she added, and Wanda rolled her eyes. Pietro, however, got his comment in first.
"He deserved it – he's always sniffing round her, he won't leave her alone no matter how many times I've told him he just ain't good enough for her!"
"Leave it alone, Pietro," Wanda sighed, "you know I hate that whole over-protective thing you do. Toad's just gross, it's not his fault." Rogue grimaced.
"No, but he sure as hell doesn' make it easy for a girl t' let him down gently, huh sugah?" Wanda laughed and rested her elbows on her knees.
"Hey, brother mine, go make us coffee, will you? Make it quick," she joked, and her brother zoomed across to her, pecked her on the cheek, and was gone as quickly as he'd done it.
"Urgh! I've told him about the PDA's!" she said disgustedly, wiping her cheek with her sleeve. Her hair had grown out slightly, framing her face more, and although she'd kept the red parts, it made her look softer. She was as pale as ever, her eyes thickly lined in black and shaded deep scarlet at the outer edges, and she was wearing glossy black jeans and a soft green hoodie she'd borrowed from Rogue. They'd had to acknowledge that all the time she'd spent helping save the world and trying to destroy her father had left her with pretty much nothing to wear. She'd only been shopping once since she left the asylum she'd been in most of her young life, and that hadn't counted since she hadn't paid for anything and she and the Brotherhood had destroyed the mall afterwards to spite the X-men.
Rogue laughed at her friend and crossed her legs, leaning on her knees.
"Y' know he's jus' tryin' t' show you he's there for y' now," she said calmly, and Wanda smiled and looked down at her heavily buckled boots.
"I know... It just gets really overwhelming sometimes. You never had that with Kurt?"
"I didn' spend so much time tryin' to kill Kurt fer sidin' with mah Dad so we were pretty good friends before we found out we were kinda related, an' he knows Ah'm a really private person. Ah don' do all that touchy-feely crap..." her voice trailed off and Wanda nodded and put a hand on hers.
"I understand. It's okay."
Rogue could have kissed her herself for the way she truly did understand.
"Ah think y' should jus' let him do it and once y'all 'ave been together a while, there'll be lines y' don' cross naturally. Y' jus' need more tahme, sugah. Don' stress it."
Suddenly Pietro was at their side, tray laden with coffee and mugs balancing precariously on top of the biscuit tin which he managed to set on the table without spilling anything. Rogue had been surprised to find out that Wanda actually hated mess. Not so much untidiness as actual mess of the spillage and dust-bunny variety. It did nothing for her chaotic state of mind and made her feel trapped for some reason. Rogue was okay with that – it had meant that the Brotherhood house was now almost always spotless due to a combined effort on the guys' part. Mostly through the understanding that the less unclean the house was, the calmer and happier Wanda was, and the less tantrums that resulted in trips to the emergency room. For them.
"Thanks bro," said the Scarlet Witch with a big smile in the direction of her brother who went pink and mumbled,
"Sure sis, anytime..." He busied himself with pouring out the coffee for them, and Rogue felt compelled to ask,
"Did you guys ever talk about how surprised Pietro was that you turned out t' be hotter 'n' a deep South summer?" Pietro actually managed to drop the coffeepot, and it was rescued only by Wanda's calm interference in the form of the halo of sparkling blue that enveloped it and allowed it to hover in mid-air until he took it again.
"I was not surprised – she's my sister! Course she's hot, it runs in the family!" he said with great indignation and a fiercely red face that didn't go well with his hair. Wanda just laughed subtly and said,
"Modesty too, huh Rogue?" and the Southern girl cracked up for real, unable to control the giggles anymore.
"Ha ha, very funny, but you just remember that when you two go out next time – it is you they're staring at! Not the makeup, not the boots or your clothes, you!" he said with force, and Wanda waved it away, accepting her coffee mug from him and taking a tiny sip, breathing in the steam rising from the creamy surface.
"You don't know what you're talking about Pietro," she said coolly, and Rogue smirked.
"Ah think that's an understatement sugah!" The girls dissolved into laughter again, and Pietro settled himself in the other armchair opposite Rogue, looking at her pointedly.
"Maybe, but I'm still a guy, and one thing I know is that most of the time we see the girl in the clothes before the clothes, and that's what decides whether or not any drooling takes place. By the way – you come from the same place as that Gambit guy? You sound pretty alike," he said with a raising of his eyebrows.
Rogue narrowed her eyes at him. He couldn't know. No one had told. It wasn't possible – most of the Brotherhood had no ties with the X-men at all, it was mostly her, Tabby, and Kitty that saw them on an even slightly regular basis.
"Ah'm insulted. Not everyone with a Southern accent used t' be neighbours Pietro, an' have you ever heard me speak French in the middle of a sentence?"
He shrugged at her and said, "Guess not. Just asking."
"Well no, he's a Swamp Rat from New Orl'ns an' Ah'm from the Mississippi area. Nowhere near each other."
He held up both hands at her defensive tone, and smiled disarmingly. "Alright, I get it, nothing to do with him, sorry," he said quickly, and Wanda reached over and slapped his arm. Not hard, Rogue noted with a secret smile of approval.
"Told you not to talk about him in front of her – the guy kidnapped her and tricked her to get what he wanted, that's not really the kinda guy you want to be discussing over coffee with your friends now is it?" she grated with a look at him that promised retribution. Rogue put a hand on her shoulder and said,
"It's okay, Ah'm over that. He's not a bad person, he's just been through a lot, just lahke the rest of us," she said evenly, and Wanda gave her hand a little squeeze.
"Long as you're sure honey. What happened to him anyway? He hung out here for a while and then he just disappeared? Did he stay in New Orleans?" Pietro gave an I-don't-know-and-I-don't-care look over the rim of his mug, and Wanda sighed.
"What's the use of having a guy on the inside if you can't give me any gossip? I need to know these things!"
"I could tell you sweetums," came a voice from behind the couch.
"What the –" Toad hopped out from his hiding place and Wanda was about to hex him to kingdom come when Rogue stopped her by flinging her hand out in front of the beam of sparking sapphire hell before it reached the trembling green menace.
"What would you know about it, you little eavesdropper?" Wanda spat instead, clearly upset that her plan to hex him had been thwarted.
"Thanks, Rogue," Todd said to the Southerner in an undertone before practically prostrating himself on the rug in front of the table before Wanda and saying,
"I wasn't dropping no eaves, I swear! I just heard you mention that card-carrying guy and I know where he is – I thought you wanted to know!" Wanda sighed and crossed her arms under her chest.
"We do. Out with it then," she said in a longsuffering tone, and Todd stood up as though standing to attention and began to relay the details in a voice that told Rogue he had been trained the hard way to deliver short, concise low-downs of events before his ass got hexed again. Poor thing.
"He's back in town – seen him a couple times over the last few weeks, maybe three. He just hangs around mostly, it's kinda freaky, he's always alone," Todd delivered, his attention to details perhaps not his strongest suit but the information still intriguing.
"Ain' never seen them other two guys with him an' he doesn't take his shades off much if he can help it. Don't know where he's staying though."
Rogue digested this. Had he been hanging about waiting to make his move? Was it all some elaborate scheme to get closer to her and the others? If so, why bother? Wanda just nodded and said,
"Okay, great. Now we know. Leave," and transferred her attention to Pietro, leaving Todd to scratch his left leg with his right heel making him look like an ugly dejected stork before he slumped off out of the room.
"Sis, he can't help being totally into you. Try and cut the guy some slack, huh? I'm not saying date him, I'm just saying he's not a criminal or anything..." Wanda just waved her hand at her brother's attempts at reconciling her to the idea of Toad being a human being with feelings, and sighed.
"Yeah, yeah, but that's not important right now – Gambit's back in town! Either he got used to the place or he's up to something, what do you think Rogue?" The Southern gal shrugged and twirled a section of hair between her fingers.
"Ah dunno.... He's not mah responsibility..." and although Pietro gave his sister a meaningful look over the rim of his coffee-mug, he said nothing. Perhaps wisely. Wanda, however, noticed only the odd twitch of Rogue's fingers at the mention of Gambit's business in Bayville and made a mental note to ask her more later. Even if it was just the latent issues from being kidnapped and that she harboured feelings of trepidation about a possible repeat performance, Wanda wanted to know. They'd done so much to help her, she wanted to be the best friend she could to them.
"Hey you know, we should go shopping or something, just the two of us – and Kitty, if she and Lance aren't sucking face somewhere –"
"Unlikely," snorted Rogue good-humouredly.
"True," Wanda nodded, and Pietro made a gesture of melodramatic defeat.
"Well I guess if you're leaving me that's fine, I'll just waste away here then..." Wanda laughed at him and got up, draining her coffee in one long draught.
"Thanks for that," she said to her brother, who flashed her an affectionate smile.
"Anytime. Have fun you two – try not to scare any of the nice citizens!" Rogue shook her head a little sadly.
"We can't promise anythang..."
~*****************************************************************************************~