hi,

here is chapter 2, which has a little more angst and background

Chapter 2

The week after her graduation was completely full for Rogue as she got everything organised for her once in a lifetime world trip. Luckily for her the Professor and Ororo had already gotten a lot organised for her. This included all her Visa's, her new passport and all other travelling documents. They were also working on getting all the places for Rogue to stay organised so all she really had to do was get all the vaccinations that she would need from Dr McCoy.

That didn't stop her going into the city everyday on her brand new bike to pick up other non-essential essential items though. She knew she would have to leave her bike at the Mansion for a year while she was travelling the world and Rogue was determined to get as much use out of it as humanly possible before she left. And she also hoped that it would still be there for her to enjoy when she gets back. She knew that some of the newer X-boys and even the older X-men such as Scott were eyeing up her bike with nothing short of carnal lust and she knew from experience that some of them might be tempted to take it for a ride while she was gone. Hopefully their fear of her, and Logan, would keep her beautiful new motorcycle in one piece until she got back to the Mansion next summer.

While Rogue had spent the week getting everything ready for her twelve months of solo leisure travelling she had to endure the jealousy and spite of some of the other students. Namely Jean Grey. Everyone knew that the red-headed telekinetic had a bit of a jealous streak but no one thought it would go as far as it had been going.

It seemed that Jean thought that she was entitled to special treatment by the Professor as everyone knew she was his favourite student and protégé. This jealousy for Rogue's expensive gift meant that Jean was starting to get openly hostile towards Rogue. It got to the point where the instructors had to take Jean aside to "have a word" with her about her actions and her attitude towards her teammate. This distinctive jealous streak of Jean's had been noted by the instructors on several occasions though no one had done anything about it so far. It was also known that Rogue and Jean were not on very friendly terms before Rogues birthday. Somehow Jean had found out about Rogue's crush on Scott and had taken the news rather badly. It didn't help that Scott still stood up for Rogue to Jean on occasion and was still quite friendly with her. And Rogue didn't like Jean because of seemingly perfect life but so far both girls had at least found some neutral ground so they could work together. But not at the moment.

After Jeans 'talking to', both girls had at least managed to be civil to one another inside training, even going as far as to work together in combat simulations and training exercises. Outside training however they weren't actually talking to one another at all. Everyone else was quite surprised at Jeans cold demeanour towards Rogue except for Rogue herself. Ever since she opened the Professor's gift she had expected Jeans angry response. And if she was to be honest with herself, she was slightly enjoying it. This meant that for once the young Goth woman, who had grown up in the care of a blind foster mother, with almost nothing to call her own and having to take care of her carer, had something that the perfect Jean Grey had wanted. And with a sigh Rogue realised that it might never happen again, so she was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

Logan's response to the idea that the girl who he treated as a daughter was going to be travelling the world by herself was entirely predictable as well, at least to Rogue and some of the older X-men. He became a complete over protective father. He spent hours making sure everything was in order, even if he had already checked it over three times previously that day. He had also doubled Rogue's solo training sessions to make sure that she could defend herself if need be. Very few of the X-men felt like they should point out that Rogue had already saved the world, fought countless villains, and could beat all of her fellow team mates in a non-power fight due to being the only X-man who couldn't entirely rely on her powers in a fight. They all knew that she could take care of herself, but again no one felt like pointing it out to an overprotective Wolverine who was overstressed and slightly high strung. They all wanted to keep their genitals attached to their bodies after all.

Kitty's reaction was somewhat more amusing than anyone else's. At first she was rather upset that she would be losing her best friend a year before she had anticipated and got herself quite low because of it. Then she realised that this also meant that she would have the room that she and Rogue shared to herself an entire year earlier than she thought, which made her quite happy. And after that she felt really bad for being quite self centred so went back to being upset, and finally she decided that she should really be happy that her best friend was getting something that she always wanted. This meant that she was excited enough for the entire Mansion combined. This, in reality, scared quite a few of the younger X-men as they didn't realise that that much excitement could fit into such a small package. Especially the newer X-man, Piotr Rasputin, he was used to a quiet life. Before he came to X-men and before he worked for Magneto he had worked on a small farm in Russia with only his immediate family for company and the exuberance from the tiny brunette girl was quite startling for him. Though, luckily for him, after joining with the X-men he decided to escape back to Russia to visit his family, so only had to suffer a few hours of the "Mad Pixie", that was an over-excited Kitty.

Rogue and Kitty had grown very close to each other over the three years that they lived in the same room. It was a necessity for peaceful living to be civil and cordial, but no one had realised that they would find enough common ground to actually form a real friendship. Even the Professor was surprised with this turn of events. They had both also had positive influences on each other. Rogue was starting to lose her prickly Goth persona and was actually starting to open up to more people, gradually. While Kitty had explored more music, film and literature through Rogues recommendation. This resulted in many trips for the two girls to places like the mall and the independent cinema, as well as a few clubs. It also had an effect on each girl's appearance. Kitty had begun to acquire a more grown up look while Rogue had slowly started to shed her heavy Goth make-up and clothes and begun to wear more period clothing. Though she still wore dark make-up and colours.

Kitty realised that she was really going to miss her roommate once she left for her world trip and then left to go to university. So, Kitty threw herself into helping Rouge pack and nobody wanted to get in her way. Not even Rogue, as packing and organising was the one thing Kitty could do wish a passionate determination, except perhaps shopping. Everything was categorised and cross referenced for when and where she was going to be in the world, so her backpack would be have everything she would need without being too heavy, her only condition was that everywhere that everywhere that Rogue stopped she would receive a postcard. This meant that she could follow her on her trip even though Rogue promised to e-mail her. But Kitty wouldn't be derailed; she wanted a visual trail of Rogue's trip around the world to be on her wall so it felt like she still had part of her with her in their room.

While Kitty packed for her Rogue began to plan her trip. She had had her original trip planned from the time she was twelve and she thought that would be it, but now she had others people opinion and recommendations to go on. She had promised Kurt that she would be in Southern Germany for Christmas so she could spend the holiday with his family again. This, of course, made her change some of her original plans. She hope that she would only spend four months total in Europe, but now she had to spend almost five just to make sure she was still in Germany for that time of year. But, she just couldn't say no to Kurt when he looked up at her with his big yellow pleading eyes. It had been quite an argument though, and all in German. Kurt had begun to teach her German since he found out that she was his sister. This meant that Rogue could get around Germany without much help, although she was nowhere close to fluent. Kurt hoped that each year when they visited Germany that she would get more fluent so eventually she could even consider living in Germany with him, at least for little while.

"I'm really getting soft," Rogue said to herself as she had to adjust her trip again. It seemed that since she agreed to the prolonged detour across Europe so that she could visit Kurt's parent it had opened up the trip to more detours. Piotr had asked her, through Hank as they corresponded by email, to visit his village in Russia and had asked his younger sister to show her around St Petersburg, where she went to school. It seemed the young girl was looking forward to finally meeting a member of the X-men who had saved her and her family from the evil mutant who had kept them hostage for nine months the year previous. So, once again she couldn't say no. After that Ororo had approached Rogue about the time she was going to spend in Africa. It seemed that Ororo still had some relatives there and she had asked a few of them to make sure Rogues stay in their country would be worthwhile. This meant that another extra month had to be spent in Africa. Amara had then also offered up her family and her home for when Rogue got to Brazil and Scott had offered Alex as her guide through Hawaii. Alex himself had offered his foster parents home for her to stay when she did get to Hawaii as well as himself as her personal surfing instructor. This might have caused another argument between Jean and Scott which exasperated Scott as he could see something was going on in the redheads mind, but she was still unwilling to talk about what was really upsetting her.

When Rogue finally thought she had finished the trip plan Hank and the Professor had given her a list of old University friends who were located across the world and who had volunteered to show her around their parts of the world as well as host her in their homes. And of course she couldn't say no, as everyone was going to so much trouble for her and she felt that she would be insulting the Professors and Hank's friends if she didn't accept their offer to stay. So, once again everything had to be planned again. In fact, it was only two days before she was due to leave that Rogue finally had a working itinerary to give to Professor X and Logan.

The day before Rogue was due to leave she was due to have one final lesson with the Professor. Since Rogue lost control the year at the start of her junior year she had been working with Professor X on both control of her powers and control of the psyches. The lessons on control were going very slowly and although she had been working on it with him for just over a year she could only manage about two minutes of skin to skin contact. And that was only if she was completely calm and focused. Professor X had told her not to be disappointed though, as even a little control was still a great achievement. He told her that all she really needed was more practice, like every other mutant in the school.

However, her other lessons were proving to be more fruitful. Thanks to Professor Xavier's guidance she had learned to eliminate the psyches from her own mind so that she no longer had to listen to their voices in her head or see their nightmares when she slept. It took a total of eight months for Rogue to learn how to do it, but the night that she finally achieved it she had her first good nights sleep in three years. Now, of course, she could do it automatically, so she no longer had to put any conscious effort into eradicating the psyches so she could entirely focus on her control. Professor Xavier had assured her that once she did learn control she would actually be able to just absorb what she wanted, instead of the entire psyche of the person. Though he still insisted they had a long way to go, since her absorption power was set on a permanent defensive position.

"It's just a matter of switching your power setting from a defensive to an offensive," Professor X had said to her when she finally managed to touch someone without the instant pull.

"When your power first manifested it was quite a traumatic experience for you, so it seemed to make your powers hypersensitive and always on. What we need to do is work out a way for us to reduce its sensitivity to the world," Professor X continued.

"So, if I had experienced my power manifesting in some other way, do you think it would be easier to control?" Rogue asked.

"Possibly," Professor X answered after a moment of contemplation.

That conversation had taken place a few months ago, and although Rogue had started to gain some control, she still had a long way to go. Sometimes Rogue wished that she could go back in time and change how they had manifested. But wishing didn't accomplish anything, so now she had to work hard for her control.

After her last lesson with the Professor had finished Rogue felt pretty happy. She was able to touch someone, for a very limited time, she felt like she belonged somewhere and she was going to be leaving for her adventure in less than eighteen hours.

As she entered her room she found Kitty finally closing her backpack, but noticed the tears on her face and a very sad looking Kurt in the corner of their room.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Rogue said as she closed the door. Both Kitty and Kurt looked up to find Rogue looking at them. That was all it took for Kitty to suddenly burst out into hysterical tears and throw herself at her Goth friend.

"Kitty, what's wrong?" Rogue said, fairly startled by the overt show of affection.

"I'm totally going to miss you!" The young brunette eventually managed to wail out.

"I'm only gonna be gone for a year!" Rogue said as she was frantically looking at her younger brother for help.

"No, your not! After this you're going to NYU! And we won't be together anymore and it'll, like, never be the same again!" Kitty continued to cry out.

"Kitty, it will be fine! I promise I'm not gonna leave you guys completely. Look at Scott and Jean, they've gone to college and they're still here."

"But it wont be the same," Kurt eventually spoke up.

"I know, but does that mean it's gonna be bad?" Rogue said calmly. This caused Kitty to look up expectantly.

"I mean, when I get back you guys are gonna be going off to university too, and who says we won't still all end up in the same place?" Rogue said. She didn't actually believe it; she just wanted to get Kitty off her before she started to absorb her again.

"I guess your right," Kitty said, finally letting go of Rogue, "Sorry, guess I'm just a bit emotional. I finished packing for you."

"Thanks Kit, you know I could have done it myself though," Rogue answered.

"Yeah but you would of done it all at the last minute and forgotten like half of what you actually needed, like last Christmas. Kurt told me you totally didn't pack enough underwear for the trip to Germany and you weren't even there a week!" Kitty said with half laugh. This caused all three to burst out laughing.

"I can't believe your going," Kurt eventually said.

"Neither can I, but I'll be back, probably a lot sooner than y'all would like," Rogue answered as she picked up her backpack.

"No, you won't," Kurt said forlornly, "I will miss you, meine schwester."

"And I'll miss you too, meinen bruder," Rouge said with a smile.

Kurt took the backpack off of Rogue and carried it down the stairs for her. He didn't want her to see him start crying. He knew that he was going to see her again in four months, a lot sooner than anyone else, but it didn't change the fact that his only sister was going to be travelling alone for about a year. A sister who he had only found three years ago and he felt like they needed far more time together. Their relationship was different, but Kurt was hoping that with time they would have a very strong relationship. He hoped to share a lot with Rogue, he had even persuaded her to accompany him to church once a month. Kurt just hoped that after this year apart they could work on being a family together. He hoped that one day that Rogue would take him up on his offer and actually join his family, so they could share the same last name.

After Rogue had finally managed to calm Kitty down and promised her that when she was in Italy she would stop in Milan for Fashion Week and have a picture taken there she decided to head downstairs to the library. Even though she was going to be travelling the world, she would still need something to read on the plane from New York to Dublin. Her first stop was going to be Ireland where she was going to stay with one of Hank McCoy's old university friends, who was teaching English literature there. Hank assured her that they would get along really well.

As Rogue entered the library she noticed that one other person was hiding there. Someone who she had been avoiding as much as she could during the last week. Jean Grey. It looked like she was working on one of her lesson plans for the newer students, and she didn't seem to notice that Rogue had entered.

"Well that's fine," Rogue thought, "If she hasn't noticed me I'm not gonna draw attention to it."

Unfortunately, that's the problem with living with telepaths. As soon as you think something loudly in your head they tend to hear it. So, as Rogue was passing the table Jean looked up and she received a very intensely displeased look.

Jean had decided that enough was enough. She knew that Rogue would be leaving on her trip tomorrow and so far that was all the Mansion could talk about. It seemed that somehow everyone was involved with some part of the trip, whether it was requesting pictures of certain places or organising a place for her to stay. Jean just couldn't get away from the talk. She thought that the library would be a sanctuary from all the inane chatter. Everyone was finished school for the summer so very few students would actually venture into the library if they didn't have the threat of immanent homework. She had of course forgotten that Rogue was an avid reader and often took advantage of the quiet, well stocked, personal library in the Mansion. Jean could remember seeing both her and Hank discussing the same books every once in a while, like a miniature book club. It irritated her that Rogue could have such an easy relationship with the most of the instructors. She didn't really need to try and get their approval; she didn't even seek it but would get it anyway. And now everyone was bending over backwards for this free trip she was being sent on. Something that she never got to do when she graduated, as they all had to go and stop Rogue from awakening Apocalypse.

That was something that always irritated Jean about Rogue. She was dangerous if she lost control again or decided to work against the X-men she could almost be unstoppable. Rogue could easily steal everyone's powers again and become just as powerful as Apocalypse. She knew deep down that that wouldn't happen, and she also knew that deep down that wasn't the problem she was having with Rogue. But Jean didn't want to admit, even to herself, that her problem with Rogue was jealousy.

Rogue seemed to be able to do everything her own way and yet was rewarded because of it.

"Hey Rogue!" Amara called out as she walked into the room with Tabitha, who had moved back into the Mansion after Apocalypse. This caused both the young women already in the room to look up.

"Hey Rogue, how you feeling bout tomorrow?" Amara asked sweetly as both younger girls came up to stand beside the Goth woman, neither noticing Jean at the table. Something that Jean couldn't fail to notice.

"I'm feeling alright, bit nervous though," Rogue answered, sneaking a sideways glance at Jean and meeting her angry gaze.

"Oh hi Jean didn't see you there," Tabitha said as she followed Rogue's line of sight. Amara just gave a small, sweet wave of acknowledgement.

"Hi girls, don't worry about it, I'm sure you were just too interested in what Rogue had to say to notice me," Jean said with mock cheerfulness that caused anger to flare in Rogue's eyes.

"Well of course! I can't believe you get to go to Paris to party with all those hot French guys! You think your gonna have a holiday fling with one of them? That'll make us all so jealous!" Tabitha ranted excitedly.

"I think you can only really have a fling with someone if you're able to touch them," Jean said coldly while she packed away her books and lesson plans.

"What the hell is your problem?" Rogue yelled, startling both of the younger girls.

"My problem, I have no problem. Except maybe some people getting things they don't deserve," Jean said as she slung her bag over shoulder and walked out of the library, leaving Tabitha and Amara in a state of shock. Rogue on the other hand was enraged and was sick and tired of taking it.

"What the hell was that supposed mean?" Rogue yelled as she caught up with Jean in the entrance hall.

"You heard me," Jean said coldly as she turned around to face the younger woman.

"Yeah, I did. So you think I don't deserve this trip then?"

"No, not really."

"And I suppose you do, do you?"

"Well, yes I do. And so does Scott. We didn't get a chance to do anything last year cause we were chasing you halfway around the world trying to stop you from releasing Apocalypse," Jean stated very matter-of-factly.

"Of course that's what you think, little Miss Perfect Jean Grey is entitled to everything, isn't she?" Rogue said lacing each word with as much venom as possible.

"More than you are!" Jean spat back.

"Why don't you go ask your mommy and daddy to go and sort it out for you then," Rogue hissed out in an angry whisper.

"Why don't you! Oh right, you can't, can you!" Jean yelled back. As soon as Jean said it she knew she had crossed a line, but she couldn't back down, not even after seeing the look of pain that spread across Rogue's face. Or the intake of breath from the other mutants who had gathered while the two fiery women argued in the entrance hall.

"You do whatever you want and you get away with it all the time, while the rest of us have to play by the rules. You go off when you want and do whatever you want while the rest of stay here and have to worry about the time when you become like Mystique and betray us all!" Jean ranted spitefully, getting every mean thought out of her head and literally stabbing her team mate with ever barb she could think of.

"I don't need to take this," Rogue said quietly, holding back the tears that were threatening to fall. With that she turned on her heel and stalked off towards the garage. After a few minutes the gathered mutants heard the squeal of a motorcycle as it sped out of the Mansion's grounds.

This left Jean standing in the middle of the entrance hall with most of the Mansions inhabitants staring at the angry and upset redhead. She couldn't look any of the others in the face and couldn't stand to feel their shock and displeasure.

Without thinking Jean had left everyone bewildered in the entrance hall, ran up the stairs and was lying on her bed in a complete state of shock and disorientation. She had her face in her pillow, trying to block out the sounds of confusion downstairs, but she heard it all through her silent angry tears.

"Jean?" Scott's soft and soothing voice came from behind the closed door, but Jean just ignored him. She didn't want to face him either. Yet that didn't deter Scott who simply knocked and called out her name again, before realising that the door wasn't locked.

Scott opened the door softly to see Jean lying face down on her queen sized bed. Most students had to share rooms and only had a single bed, but both Jean and himself had single rooms with queen sized beds. A fact that wasn't overlooked by many of the other teenage residents of the Mansion.

"Jean?" Scott called out softly again.

"I don't want to talk about it," Jean's muffled voice came from the pillows.

"Jean," Scott said again as he sat down on the bed beside his long term girlfriend. He began to rub soft circles across her back, knowing that eventually she will start talking.

"I can't believe I said that to her," Jean said softly after about five minutes. Scott simply kept quiet and continued the slow circles across Jean's back.

"I don't even know why I said that to her. I mean she's leaving tomorrow, I should of just kept my mouth shut and then this wouldn't of happened," Jean said after another five minutes, but now she had raised her head from off the pillow. Scott quietly continued his ministrations.

"I just, I don't know, I just snapped. I mean everyone kept on talking about that stupid trip! She shouldn't even be going on that trip! What has she done to deserve such special treatment anyway?" Jean had now fully sat up so Scott couldn't continue to rub her back. Yet he still sat there quietly. He knew that when Jean was trying to work through her emotions, especially extremes of emotion, she had to speak them out loud to figure them out. He first thought she was just angry for some unknown reason, but now he was starting to figure out why his girlfriend had been so openly hostile towards their friend and team mate. He just had to wait for her to work it out.

"She always does he own thing you know. And she always seems to get rewarded for it. I mean, she doesn't have to be what everyone else wants her to be. No! She gets to come in and do whatever she wants and she still gets special treatment."

By this time Jean was up on her feet and pacing the room as she ranted. Letting all of her pent up emotions about the young Goth woman out. And Scott still sat there, silent, just letting her rant to him.

"Did you know that Wolverine gives her extra training sessions? Five days a week! I mean, we all know that she's his favourite but to show that much blatant favouritism! And can you believe that bike he got her! That was in no way fair to anyone. What made her so special as to be getting all this extra treatment, especially from Wolverine?"

"Well," Scott said cautiously, "Wolverine gives her the extra training so she can stand her own in a fight, so she doesn't need to rely on her powers. I mean, her head must get pretty crowded with all those psyches floating around."

"Are you defending her?" Jean yelled, completely outraged.

"No, I was only saying…"

"I should of known! Its not enough that she comes here and has every instructor giving her special treatment. Including the Professor. He works with her almost everyday! But now your on her side too! What else does she need? She already gets to do everything that she wants and doesn't have to answer to anyone. Or have to live up to anyone's expectations. Oh God! I really wish I was free like that. I mean just think how perfect her life is! I really wish I had a life like that!"

This caused Jean to stop mid rant and Scott to look up at her expectantly.

"Did I just say that?" Jean asked in a shocked whisper.

"You did," Scott answered simply.

"Why, why would I say that?" Jean asked as she sat down next to her boyfriend.

"You know, you and Rogue would actually get on really well if you both finally took the time to sort through your jealousy against each other," Scott said simply, with a slight smile on his face.

"I'm jealous?" Jean asked and Scott simply replied with a small nod of his head.

"I'm jealous. Why would I be jealous?" Jean asked dumbfounded, as if she couldn't process this knew information.

"Well, you said that Rogue gets to live her own life while you have to live up to expectations that might be something to do with it."

"Oh. I cant believe I didn't realised it. I mean, I should of realised shouldn't I? And after I said all those things, she must hate me."

"I don't think she would hate you, but I do think you need to apologise."

"How can I look at her after everything I said?" Jean asked as her eyes suddenly glazed over with tears.

"Well, its either that or you don't apologise, then you don't see her again for about a year then, when she comes back and she will come back, you two cant be in the same room with each other ever again and miss out on what could possibly be a really good friendship," Scott explained simply as he put his arm around Jean's shoulder and drew her closer to his body.

"Why do you make everything sound so simple?" Jean asked, looking lovingly into her boyfriends eyes.

"Alright, I'll talk to her as soon as she gets back. I promise, I will make everything right again. Maybe even better." Jean said with a sigh and a sad smile.

Hope you all enjoyed that

TFG