Chapter 5: Breakfast with the Others

It took Jaina a few moments to get her bearings after waking in an unfamiliar room. A glance at the digital time readout beside her bead revealed nothing but the red haze of unfamiliar characters, so she fumbled around for her chronometer. She hadn't actually slept as she'd promised, preferring to slip into a Force induced meditation trance a couple of hours before. Naps always left her feeling groggy and disoriented. Meditative trances had a tendency to sharpen her senses and leave her amazingly clearheaded after the initial confusion cleared.

Feeling more awake and rested than she had in months, Jaina pushed herself off the floor and went to clean up. Her late night workout with the burley mutant had left her more fatigued than she liked to admit, so she'd neglected to shower again when she returned to her room, having settled down into a cross-legged position on the floor the moment she'd returned. It took considerably less time to cleanse herself than the night before, and soon she was dry and shrugging on a dark blue flight suit over a white undershirt. She grinned to herself as she pushed a hair tie into her pocket. It was such a relief to be in her own clothes again. She'd have to remember to thank Logan for showing her where they were keeping the Falcon and letting her retrieve some of her belongings.

Jaina made her way back into the main room she'd been given and absentmindedly triggered a switch at the base of C-3PO's neck, effectually reviving the annoying protocol droid. She didn't particularly relish the idea of putting up with him, but she didn't feel right just leaving him shut down. His circuits thrummed to life as she plopped down on the end of the bed to pull on her boots.

"Wh-where am I?" the droid asked, managing to sound both worried and annoyed at the same time. "Mistress Jaina! What's happened?"

"You remember the crash?" she asked without bothering to look up and reached for her other boot.

"Yes."

"We're staying with the nice people who rescued us the other evening," she explained. "At least until the Falcon's flyin' again."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Threepio asked. "We don't know anything about them."

"I've been awake a bit longer than you, Threepio," Jaina answered and stood. "I've had a chance to get to know them. They mean us no harm."

"What about us harming them?"

"It'll take the Vong a long time to make it all the way out here," Jaina said and headed toward the door. "I doubt we'll be here that long." She opened the door and looked back at the droid expectantly. He shuffled over and through the door at a respectable pace. Jaina exited as well and led the way to the kitchen.

Rogue sat staring at her breakfast, aimlessly poking her eggs with her fork. She couldn't believe it. Xavior hadn't called either her or Remy to the meeting last night when the mystery girl finally came out of her weird coma. Sure, Bobby's death was still fresh on everyone's minds. And, granted, she and Remy were young, technically just training to really join the X-Men team. But that didn't mean they shouldn't be included in one simple meeting!

"Dem eggs already cooked, cher." Rogue looked up to see Remy grinning down at her. "You gonna bern 'em sta'rin like dat," he continued as he took the seat across from her.

"Aren't you mad they left us outta the meetin' last night?" she asked the charming Cajun.

"Remy not happy 'bout it none," he agreed, "but I's thinkin' we'll just have ta meet her un our on, cher."

"Speak of the devil," Rogue muttered, gesturing toward the door with her fork. Remy turned to join her in watching a petite young woman no more than two or three inches taller than five feet with unruly brown hair enter the kitchen. Her blue flight suit stood out against the sea of teens in jeans and tees, but more striking was the shining gold automaton shuffling in behind her. "Sure stands out don't she?"

"Dat she does," Remy quietly agreed with a small nod.

Rogue groaned as she recognized the expression on Gambit's face. He was completely taken with the mysterious girl. It was painfully obvious to anyone who knew what to look for, and as his current object of consideration, she did. The slight pang of jealousy she felt was surprising. Remy's constant flirting was charmingly innocent, but annoying and somewhat terrifying for her. She should be relieved their visitor would take at least a little of the Cajun's attention away from her.

The girl, Gina So-something, took the plate Jean offered her and a glass of orange juice. She turned, obviously searching for a place to sit. Rogue managed to get her attention and waved her over. The girl looked somewhat hesitant, but she made her way over to the table.

"Hi," Rogue smiled. "Welcome to Xavior's School for Gifted Youngsters. My name's Rogue."

"Jaina Solo," the other girl answered, accepting Marie's offered hand and shaking it. Then, she turned to Gambit.

"Remy LuBoe," he introduced himself leaning down to place a kiss on the back of the Jedi's hand. "But ya can call me Gambit."

Jaina chuckled as she withdrew her hand and took a seat. Marie thought she seemed awfully comfortable with Gambit's gesture, but immediately reprimanded herself for such a notion. Perhaps it was just a common greeting where Jaina was from.

"Well, if we're going to go by nicknames," Jaina began. "I guess you can call me Sticks."

"Sticks?" Rogue asked. What kind of nickname is that?

"Don't ask," Jaina answered with a shake of her head. "I'm kind of an army brat, and I make it a point never to try to explain fighter pilots."

"Fighter pilots gave you your nickname?" Rogue asked again, her voice high pitched in her surprise.

"Members of a squadron my uncle founded actually," Jaina agreed. She paused, her fork full of eggs suspended halfway between her plate and her mouth, before a large grin spread over her face. "Actually, you share a name with them."

"I do?"

"Yep," Jaina answered. "They're called Rogue Squadron."

"Oh," she sighed. "Cool!" Rogue started to ask more about the squadron she shared a name with, but the gold android's rapid shuffle toward their table distracted her. Apparently the droid didn't think much of straying far from Jaina.

The other teen looked somewhat annoyed before she introduced the automaton. "Gambit, Rogue, this is C-3PO."

Rogue and Gambit greeted the automaton, unsure of how to react to an artificial intelligence.

"Hello, I am C-3PO, human cyborg relations," the droid began, taking the introductions as an invitation to launch into his usual greeting. "I am fluent in over six million forms of communication, and can readily…"

However, Jaina had heard the speech far too many times in her relatively short life and cut him off with a wave of her hand. "You'll have to excuse Threepio," she apologized for him. "I have no idea why he was programmed with that particular little greeting speech, but we've been unable to erase it from his systems."

Rogue knew she looked like an idiot sitting there watching the pair with her eyes bugging out of her head and her mouth hanging open, but she couldn't seem to regain control of her face muscles. It was really real. A walking, talking robot was shuffling into a chair across the table from her. Did it actually say it could speak six million languages? Who knew there were that many of them to begin with?

"No…no, don't apologize," she finally stammered as she recovered. "It's nice to meet ya, Threepio."

"A pleasure, Mistress Rogue," the droid returned.

"Tell me, cher," Gambit began, leaning slightly toward Jaina and grinning impishly as he did so. "When is Gambit goin' to show ya tha town?"

"I appreciate the offer Mr. Gambit," Jaina began, "but I have months worth of repairs to do before my ship will be anywhere near flying condition again."

"But you have to have a little down time," Rogue argued. "Otherwise, you won't be able to think clearly enough to make the repairs in the first place. Besides, we've got to get you some different clothes."

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Jaina asked defensively.

"Nothing really," Rogue answered. "But they do make you stand out from the crowd. I got the feelin' you were more tryin' to blend in."

"You're not wrong," Jaina agreed.

"Then it's settled," Rogue grinned. "We're goin' shoppin' this evening."