DISCLAIMER: I own none of this.
(Anon goddess you rock big time and I am devoting a big Jonda scene which is in the works to you because you've just been fantastic. LadyMageLuna, thank you, I'm glad you liked it, rogue-scholar07 thank you so much and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Laceylou76, you're wonderful and I am devoting a huge up-and coming Romy scene to you to thank you for all your help!)
~Scarlet Letter ~
New Rules.
~*****************************************************************~
"Wanda – "
"What? We're kind of doing something here!" Lance looked past her to where Rogue was sitting on her bed sipping something warm from a black mug and made a mistake.
"It – uh – doesn't look like you're doing anything – "
"Well that shows how much you know doesn't it!" The door was slammed in his face. Wanda operated on a strict 'if it's locked, stay out, if it's open, do whatever' policy. He heard the lock click.
"Wanda – You have to come and deal with this," he whinged through the door, feeling desperate.
"You deal with it!" The muffled reply was aggravated and the edges of the door glowed blue.
"But – " There was a hand on his shoulder and he looked over to see Pyro shifting him out of the way casually before knocking on the door and saying,
"Wanda luv, someone ta see Rogue." There was a silence that spoke volumes.
"Who is it?"
"Friend o' mine." There was more silence.
"Which one? Creed can go to hell, he smells and sheds and I don't want him in the house." John chuckled.
"This one doesn't smell or shed or do much other than pine after your pretty friend there an' flick cards at bottles," he said in a tone that implied the hilarity of the situation was clearly lost on everyone but him. There was a sound of something banging against the wall from within the room and Wanda's voice again, clear and shrill.
"We'll be down in a minute!" John nodded, satisfied, and turned to Lance who was looking at him as though he had three noses. He only had the one shapely specimen so he assumed there was another reason for the look.
"You – how are you doing that?"
"No idea what you're on about mate..." Leaving the befuddled Lance in his wake he went downstairs to join Fred and their newest arrival.
~*****************************************************************~
"Oh mah Gawd Wanda what am Ah s'posed ta do?" Wanda shrugged and threw the eyeliner her way.
"Talk to him. Isn't that what you wanted?" Rogue caught it and began to apply a fluid line along her upper lashes that ended in an elegant point in the outer corner.
"Yeah, but – can you an' Pyro, lahke, make sure it doesn't get awkward?" Wanda laughed in a way that seemed almost private and Rogue looked at her sideways.
"Pyro is never awkward," she said certainly, and Rogue sighed.
"Ah hope not..."
"Trust me – all that stuff going on in a person makes you good at pretending and deceiving. Gambit does the same thing. They deflect attention from anything potentially awkward and make it look like nothing. Unlike people like Todd who stare humilation right in the face and asks 'Don't I know you? Let's do lunch sometime!'"
"How do you know that?" Wanda shrugged.
"I just know. Purple or red?" She held up two tubes of lipstick and Rogue pointed to the one she preferred.
"Do Ah look alraght sugah?" Wanda rolled her eyes.
"And you claim to not like him... You look fantastic. Let's go and see what he wants, shall we?"
~*****************************************************************~
"I don' tink dis was a good idea – "
"Get over it or I'm slappin' ya you daft bastard," John said cheerily. Remy just sighed.
"Okay, you just dropped by to make sure I haven't murdered any of 'em yet an' she happens ta be 'ere so ya wan'ed ta what?"
"Apologise." John nodded.
"Good. Oh fer the love o' God would'ya try ta look happier?" Remy gave him a dirty look and plastered on his all-purpose smirk.
"Better, even if ya do look like a righ' perv." Remy scowled at him.
"Whose idea was dis?"
"Does it matter? Look sharp mate, dream girl comin' through." John gave Wanda a smile over Remy's shoulder, and the Cajun turned to say hello to –
"Hey..." John jabbed him discreetly in the ribs and he tore his eyes away from what she was wearing and gave her a grin.
"Bonjour, ma chere..." Rogue bit her lip and crossed her arms over the black tank top she was wearing. He had to threaten himself with physical harm to avoid his gaze sliding down over her legs which were encased in a pair of Wanda's skin-tight PVC jeans. She also had no mesh top on over the black cotton tank and apart from that night when he'd stayed over and seen her in her nightie which incidentally was fairly decent, this was probably the raciest he'd ever seen her at. And she was even now covered up within normal limits.
"Rem was jus' poppin' round ta see how I was gettin' on and when he heard you were 'ere he wanted ta ask if you were alrigh'," Pyro said, somehow contriving to make the whole scene seem quite ordinary and not at all tense. Rogue briefly wondered how far that power extended.
"Oui, I hope I didn' upset y' famille too much chere," Remy said contritely and Rogue shook her head.
"No, no, Ah jus' wanted ta get away from them for a while – they were getting really pushy an' Ah kinda needed ta breathe so Ah decided t' come stay with Wanda until things calm down, ya know?"
"I'm glad she did anyway, I get really bored around here all day," Wanda said with a grimace.
"Wanda! How quickly does a Sheila forget! Ya can' be bored when I'm around luv, it ain' possible," John said, pouting convincingly and Rogue bit back giggles.
"Sure I can, you're not at home all the time – you have to run around saving X-Men in distress and going out with Gambit and all sorts of other things!" Wanda defended herself, and John shrugged.
"It's what happens when you're the only responsible adult in the building," he said to Remy, who nodded sympathetically.
"I feel y', mon ami, it sucks."
"Responsible adult? You've got to be kidding!" Rogue laughed incredulously, and John feigned hurt.
"Well we are! Or, Rem is, and it rubs off on me. Sometimes. Maybe..." They all had to laugh at that, and Rogue noticed that Remy's gaze cut to her sneakily before there was a tremor that could only be Lance's doing and shouting from outside.
"What the – " Another tremor shook the building and Wanda stumbled, John catching her by the arm despite having been three steps away when she fell. Fred appeared in the doorway, red-faced and worried, and looked to Wanda who was holding onto Pyro's arm as though certain death was equal to letting go.
"Wanda, we have a problem, we need you," Fred said quickly, and Wanda looked at Rogue and took a deep breath.
"Come on Fred, let's go," she said, unhooking her fingers from John's sleeves and walking briskly out, closely followed by Rogue and the former Acolytes.
~*****************************************************************~
Backed by Fred and flanked by Rogue, Wanda exited the house to complete chaos. Scott Summers, Logan and Kurt were facing off in the middle of their driveway to Lance who had a cowering Toad next to him. The noise was awful.
"We just want Stripes back, Rocky – "
"Give me back mein schwester!"
"Surrender now and it'll all be over soon!"
"Forget it Summers none of you are coming in – if she wanted to come back she'd come back!"
"She stole my car!"
"Get used to it, it's what chicks do!"
"How would you know, you can't even keep Kitty happy!" The ground sliced open in front of Scott who toppled backwards, barey regaining his balance before he was flat on his arse.
"Lance! Stop it!" Wanda stepped in front of him and put her hand on his shoulder, looking out at the X-Men and back at him.
"They're not worth this." He nodded and pushed past her, growling,
"Get them for me, Wands. Get them good." She nodded and looked at Rogue who was biting clean through her bottom lip and looking as if she'd love to be ordering her own casket right now rather than dealing with this.
"It's okay, Rogue," she said, trying to make it sound as if she knew it would be. Scott had other ideas.
"Rogue! Get over here right now! You've no idea how worried we've been, how irresponsible it was of you to – " A hex bolt landed square in the pompous X-man's chest and lifted him into the air crackling as it shocked him through and although it dissipated after a few seconds his uniform was smoking when he slumped to the ground, coughing hard.
"How dare you come to my home at this hour and stand about outside screaming and shouting so the whole world can hear you?" Wanda yelled, outraged, as Kurt took a step back and Logan held his hands up, sheathing his claws.
"Easy there now Wanda, we just wanted to talk to Rogue – Rocky there was in the way." Wanda made a noise of total scorn and folded her arms under her breasts in a way that should have told Logan to start running.
"I just vant mein schwester to come home, I miss her and I wanted to tell her it's okay with me whatever she does, I understand..." Kurt said sadly, and Wanda rolled her eyes.
"So you come here to lay siege to my house because you want me to hand over my best friend when the only reason she felt she had to seek refuge here in the first place was to get away from your insufferable control? And then you practically attack Lance because he's 'in the way' of your supposedly peaceful errand to talk to her? Get a grip. I'm not letting you in. If you wanted to talk to her you could have called or come in plain clothes, knocked on the door like normal people and asked to see her. This is practically a declaration of war. Get out of my driveway before I kill you all." Her tone was pleasant and polite and when she'd spoken her piece it was clear that it took them a minute to register her last comment.
"Now look here, Wanda, we were worried sick when she wasn't here this morning and considering the fact that Gambit's been stalking her and actually been caught in her room twice now surely you can see it's reasonable that wehad to come and look for her?" Scott tried, his hand halfway to his visor. Fred noticed that.
"You shoot at Wanda and I'll squash you," he said angrily, and Wanda smiled at him.
"Thank you Freddy." The big youth flushed at her grateful look and resumed glaring at the offending persons in his driveway who didn't seem to want to back down.
"I was only trying to – "
"Gambit would never hurt Rogue. She's told you, he's told you, the Professor doesn't believe he would, and really the only one who's still banging on about that is you so get over it already! It's pathetic this one-man vendetta you're running just because Gambit bested you and your ego couldn't take the hit!" Rogue was nodding in assent at everything Wanda said and Scott's face was getting increasingly purple.
"And you all know Rogue hangs out over here all the time, she's my best friend. You really think I'd let anything happen to her? Gods you are an arse, Summers. Why don't you just take your car and get the hell out of here before I get angry." He muttered under his breath as he stalked back to the X-van and vanished behind it.
"Logan, I understand that you were worried, but you know that if anything was wrong with Rogue and she needed you or she was over here and I could see she needed to go back home, I'd call you. There was never any reason for you to worry, she's been here all along." Logan sniffed the air.
"I smell Gumbo and Pyro and you tell me my Stripes is safe here?" Rogue flinched as someone laid a partially gloved hand on her arm and said,
"Oui, Wolverine. Rogue is always safe wit me."
"And yet you've got your paws all over her!"
"Logan, Rogue and Remy have put all that behind them, they're actually trying to build bridges between our groups – Pyro lives here now and he's behaving himself just fine as well and honestly, you think I'd let anything happen in my house? Please..." Wanda said, and Logan growled.
"I don't want that no good piece of Cajun slime anywhere near my Stripes and that's non-negotiable!"
"You have no say in who comes here and who she talks to so forget it – "
"I don't want any of those assholes in my house and specially not anywhere near my sister!" Pietro, appearing quite suddenly near Logan who looked very, very angry, had entered the discussion, glowing red cheeks and all. He pointed to somwhere just behind Wanda and spat,
"I want you gone, I want you as far away from my sister as is humanly possible you freak and I want it done today!" Logan looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"Your sister and Pyro?" Pietro nodded as though it pained him and said,
"It has to stop, I know," and Logan gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
"I feel your pain, bub." There was a moment of total silence and then a shrieking bolt of blue impacted with Pietro and he was flung twenty feet back, sliding into the gravel in a noisy way that made everyone think of friction burns.
"You dare!" Pietro was lifted up again and flung into a tree. Twice.
"You dare insinuate lies like that you liar, you liar!" Wanda screamed, her whole body encased in blue light, her hair lifting with the energy around her as she directed all her anger towards her hapless and now-unconcious brother.
"None of you know what you're talking about, none of you have any right to come here and lie like that, none of you have a clue!" Rogue looked on in total horror.
"Wanda! Sugah, stop it he just got it wrong!" Wanda looked at her with narrowed eyes, teeth tightly clenched as she said,
"It's our life we can do what we like and they have no right to try and control us like this!"
"I just want what's best for Rogue," Kurt said sadly, "I want her to be happy..."
"Then you're a better brother than mine is!"
"Pietro just doesn't understand," Fred said soothingly, and Wanda breathed in deeply and let go of some of the excess energy pulsing around her.
"None of you have any say in who we talk to or where we go or what we do. None of us belong to any of you and if Scott Summers ever comes round here again I'm mailing him back to you in a small envelope." There was a shrill squealing noise from behind the X-van. Logan nodded and looked at Wanda.
"Rogue can stay. But you better be taking care of her or – " Wanda's hands crackled threateningly and blue shoots of energy sparked off them.
"You trust Rogue and she trusts me. That is, if you still trust her at all, which you have every reason to. It's a different game. Different rules. You want to get something good back you have to make an effort and put something good in. Rogue is staying here until you learn to trust your own and judge based on fact instead of feeling. And I told you all to leave five minutes ago..." an eerie glow was in Wanda's eyes, and the she could feel the pent-up rage inside her screaming to be let loose on these intruders, these wreckers of her peaceful day, her quiet life –
"Luv, douse the sparklers. They're leaving." The quiet voice in her ear brought her back and she saw Kurt wave forlornly at his sister who waved back and smiled before he ported over to her and gave her a big hug, wailing in her ears.
"I miss you so much! I want you to come back! I'll visit you every day!" Rogue hugged him back, repeating over and over,
"It's gonna be fahne Kurt, Ah love you, Ah'll see y'all real soon..." Kurt shot Remy a look that promised bad things.
"You be good to my Roguey or else," he said, sniffling a little, and Remy looked helplessly at Wanda.
"I'll take care of everything Kurt, don't worry. Go home and tell Kitty we want her to come over as soon as she can – why isn't she here? She wouldn't miss this!" Kurt sighed and looked around.
"Ah, he left. Good. She's still crying at home because Lance broke her heart. And she's siding with you guys on this so Scott said she couldn't come. She got really upset..."
"Tell her we want to see her and she's welcome to stay the night if she wants to. We'll deal with Lance... And you too Kurt, you're welcome any time," Wanda said earnestly, and Kurt blushed purple and gave her a hug too.
"Mein schwester has the best friends... You be careful too, okay?" Wanda nodded and smiled and hugged him back and he ported back to the X-van and got in, driving off all the saw of any of them was Kurt's tail waving through the window.
Turning back with the others, Remy's arm snaking syly around Rogue's shaking shoulders as she finished crying over the emotional farewell she and Kurt had shared, Wanda suddenly paused and said,
"Fred? Could you go scrape my brother off that tree please?"
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