A/N: Tell me if you want me to e-mail you with updates. Or go to my site and join the mailing list (mutie.net / orli - under fanfiction). Thanks Tatiana/MiraiXania18, roguefan1309 and evilwhiteraven for the reviews. Here's an update for you. Tell me what ya think. It'll help me write faster.

I. Evanescence

"You know a guy named Remy?"

-----

"Remy?! What?" She stared at the refrigerator as the door slowly closed by itself, her grip loosening around her glass of water. Rogue gave the room a quick glance again, looking left, then right. She could have sworn she had heard him just behind her opening the refrigerator. There was no way he could have moved that fast, especially without her hearing him. He was quick, but… it was not possible, not for him anyway. And he had just been talking to her, she had just responded to one of his jest. He had been right behind her!

She removed her hand completely from her cup and wiped her damp hand on her pajama bottoms, trying to think it over. Was he playing a game? Was he hiding from her? She smiled, not exactly sure if she was amused or not. Were they not a little old for this? She turned to face the refrigerator. He had been standing there only two, three seconds before. She knew it was ridiculous, but she opened the refrigerator and looked anyway. Nothing but food and drinks? What had she expected? To find him crammed on one of the shelves? She rolled her eyes and pushed the door closed, then turned to her left. The pantry door was open… Had it not been closed before? A frown on her face, she moved quietly towards it. Two steps into the movement, she already knew he was not there, yet she continued until she had reached it. The only way he would have been able to hide in here was if the door had been shut upon him. She walked around the other side of the island where her cup of water sat, bent down to look under the tables quickly.

"Seriously, Remy," she proclaimed as she stood up and straighten her posture, annoyance starting to wrap its tendrils around her. This was ridiculous. Why would he just disappear like that? Maybe, he had just left the room entirely. She took up her glass and drank, watching out of the corner of her eye. When no one appeared, she shook her head. Why he would do that, she had no idea. Why he would not announce his departure, she could not tell either. That he would just leave her like that, kind of made her angry, except… It was not possible that he could have left without so much as a sound and without her sensing it! She would have at least seen the movement from the corner of her eye!

A chill took her spine unexpectedly, and she placed the cup down near the sink, wanting to believe the feeling had come from the ice water, and ignoring the peculiar feeling that had accompanied the chill. Deciding against staying to see if he would come back, she started to leave. She moved slowly, taking one last look around the dimly lit kitchen and headed for the exit, her pace quickening as the floor seemingly began to feel colder, almost burning, under her uncovered feet. She almost expected Bobby to be coming around the corner at any moment. But he didn't. Her eyebrows furrowed in perplexity, and she could feel a twinge of unease taint her body.

"What just happened?" Rogue asked herself quietly as she walked down the even darker hallway. Making her way past the lounge, she saw there was no light from the television illuminating the walkway and realized that on her way down here with Remy that she had not noticed that Jones had not been sitting on the couch. She listened. She thought she could hear something behind her. Was Remy playing games with her? She narrowed her eyes angrily. He had to be joking, right? Did the swamp rat not care or realize that by doing this he placed his life at her mercy? She swore if he jumped out at her, she would show none. She would turn her mutation on, and he would still feel and regret this. She slowed her pace and listened closely. It sounded like… ragged breathing. She glanced over her shoulder quickly, trying to make it seem nonchalant. Then stopping to turn completely, she peered into the dark. It looked like there was some sort of figure in the dark. Was that someone in a wheelchair? The Professor? Why would he be down here so late? She squinted, examining the space ahead of her, and saw nothing. There was nothing there, but the empty hall. She turned around, shaking her head. This was idiotic. She was acting on her fear, she knew that, but she ran the rest of the way anyway.

-----

She knocked on his door again, no longer trying to be quiet. He still was not answering. He could have been sleeping. That could have been why he had left in the first place—he was tired. The more she thought about the excuses she was making for him, the more she realized how they did not fit his character. Sure, she had not known him for that long, one month, but she knew him well enough.

She thought about it while she waited. She was absent minded sometimes. Maybe she had gone downstairs alone. Maybe he had never asked her to join him. Never tried to convince her they would not be breaking any rules. "What're we gon get in trouble f'r anyway? Bein' thirsty? And dat's if we get caught in de first place, petite," he had asked, an annoying, overconfident smirk on his face. Maybe she had gone by herself to the kitchen, the whole time actually wishing he had been there. Pretending, imagining that it was all happening, and then somehow suddenly got brought back to reality. No, she thought. She knew she was not like that. She knew she was not crazy!

"Remy! Open the door!" She yelled to no avail, not caring if she was disturbing any students. If they were light sleepers, then it was nothing she could help. She got nothing. "I cannot believe you!" Still nothing. She kicked his door vehemently and walked back to her room, slamming the door behind her and not caring if it woke up her roommate, Jubilee. He had better have an excuse for her tomorrow. That was, if she decided she even wanted to talk to him.

-----

The next day, she went to Bobby and John's room, glaring down the hall towards Remy's room, kicked the door once for a knock and walked in. "Remy's an a-"

John was sitting on his bed, soaking wet, the only towel at hand draped over his head as he dried his hair. Rogue's brows furrowed, and she shut her mouth. Well, so much for talking about Remy. John had not looked up when she came in. He was probably was okay with the present situation, unlike her. She did not want to see things like this. He and Bobby were supposed to lock the door when she or others were not supposed to come in. She signed, turned her back to him and closed the door. John never did care for the rules. Not that anyone usually came bursting through closed doors as she had… except her. She turned her head slowly to peek over her shoulder before she caught herself and turned back around, a little embarrassed. She could hear the shower running, which meant that Bobby must have been taking his turn. If it had been Bobby on the bed, he would have freaked. Actually, he would have had two towels.

"Hey, Rogue. I'm going outside to get some fresh air. Wanna come?" John looked up, having finished toweling his hair. She raised an eyebrow and turned around to see that he had stood up and wrapped the towel around his waist. This—his lack of clothes—was nothing to him. She nodded, still uncomfortable being around him dressed in only a towel, despite his ease about it.

"Fifteen minutes?" He looked at her questioningly, completely ignoring her signs of discomfort. She answered with a 'yeah' and rushed out the room. Rogue knew Johnny well, too well sometimes, and he assumed that she was as comfortable with his nudity as he was himself. He assumed she could ignore those types of things like she was another guy. She wondered how and if another guy could actually ignore that. She was grateful Bobby was a little more conservative around her at least.

She walked downstairs where the mansion was at its liveliest on a Saturday and looked around, inconspicuously at first, for Remy. She had woken up kind of late. He might already be down here. She did a three-sixty but saw him nowhere. But there were Jubes and Kitty, standing nearby. She walked towards them, hoping that they would enlighten her a little.

"You seen Remy?" She asked Jubilee, having thrown out the idea of pretending she did not know who he was. Jubilee greeted Rogue with a smile before her brow furrowed with puzzlement. She thought for a second before answering.

"What's that? A movie?" She asked as the noise of the students swarmed around them. Rogue raised an eyebrow, a little confused, a little surprised. Had she just asked what a Remy was? She smiled.

"What? No, the guy that lives here. Remy." Jubilee shook her head, still confused. Still not recognizing the name. She stuck a hand in her back pocket and shrugged, still running the name through her memory. Did not even sound familiar. She turned and pulled Kitty by the shoulder away from another student she had been talking to. Kitty turned towards Jubilee surprised and furrowed her brows, somewhat annoyed.

"You know a guy named Remy?" Jubilee asked her. Kitty's face contorted with expressions similar to those of Jubilee. Rogue looked upon them both with bewilderment. What was wrong with them? This was the guy they had been crushing over since he had arrived here a month ago. His arrival, along with Nightcrawler's three months ago, had been the appeasement to all of the students' constant worrying about another attack on the mansion like the one Stryker had staged three months ago.

"No. Why? Is he new?" Kitty asked curiously. Rogue opened her mouth and closed it again. What? She narrowed her eyes. What? Was this a game, too? Was this a game of Remy's planning? Another joke? Ha, ha, not funny. Especially not after last night, which he still needed to apologize for. How was just disappearing like this considered funny anyway? He had not even tried to scare her afterwards. Maybe he would make his appearance now. Rogue glared around the room quickly, glancing over both her shoulders. Nowhere was he in sight.

"Where is he?" She demanded, annoyed, speaking more to herself than them. She did not give them a chance to answer before she stormed away, searching for him through the thin crowd. Was she going to have to explain to the swamp rat that his jokes were getting less and less funny? And was she going to have to explain to Kitty and Jubilee that just because he had a pretty face it did not mean that they had to follow along with his stunts? Especially the stupid ones. Chances were he was hiding somewhere in here or outside rather than in his room. She would check outside later when she went with Johnny. She checked around a corner then headed towards the kitchen. Theresa and Jamie were both there with some others. No Remy.

"Hey…" she greeted them, feeling stupid about what she was about to ask them. Maybe if she played along with the little game, they would give her hints. This was so childish. "You know a guy named Remy?" Or maybe they would look upon her with confusion at why they would not know who Remy was?

Again, confusion. She also received the same responses she had gotten from Jubilee and Kitty. She blinked. Wow. He was good. He actually managed to get this many people to follow along with his game. She nodded and left, wondering how many other people were in on this.

"You know a guy named Remy?" She asked random people as she made her way back to the main hall. She received the same answers, the same looks, the same confusion. But now she was getting pissed. Well, if he wanted to play it that way… John had come downstairs, fully dressed and ready, waiting for her. She stared at him and decided she really did not want to find Remy right now anyway.

-----

John lay on his back, his hands behind his head, and Rogue was on her stomach beside him, her head resting in her hands, elbows in the grass.

"Much love to my shoes. K-Swiss®™©," John sang nonchalantly. She looked at him with a questioning smirk on her face at his sporadic tune. He sounded like he was in a good mood. She mused as to the reason as she rolled over and sat up, crossing her legs. She leaned forward, rested her elbows near her knees, placed her fists under her head and let her hair fall in front of her face, partially blocking John from her view.

"Rogue, can I tell you about my date last night?" he asked, smiling, watching her. So that was why he was in such a good mood. She nodded and smiled back, not minding at all. She liked listening to him talk. If she paid attention, or if he was angry, she could hear his Australian accent. She remembered him and Bobby talking about a date from before. She had not paid much attention. With her and Remy spending more and more time together, she had not really cared, but she did remember that John was gone last night. He started talking about how he gone last night on a blind date with a girl Bobby knew through Piotr, who knew her through some other connection at the mansion.

"They let you go off campus at night?" She asked confused at how he could have been allowed off campus during the night un-chaperoned, especially since the rules and security had been beefed up after Stryker's attack on the mansion.

"I got back before curfew," he offered. "Barely."

"Oh," She responded, thinking that she and Remy could have gone somewhere together other than the game room, lounge, kitchen and their rooms. Had John gotten back before they had gone to the kitchen last night? Probably. She did not remember what time they had gone down there, but she knew it had been later than curfew. John continued about his date, and she started thinking about how it was possible that everyone she had asked had no idea who Remy was. There was just something so strange about this. The peculiar feeling from last night had faded but still lingered in the back of her mind. She knew he could not have convinced that many people. Maybe… she had fabricated some kind of fake character—maybe she had some kind of mental disease, like schizophrenia or maybe it was some kind of side affect of her mutation. She searched, but could not find a probable explanation.

"You know a guy named Remy?" She asked John quietly, looking up through her hair almost meekly and suddenly nervous fearing what his answer would be. What if he answered like the rest of them—his expression turning pensive as he tried to dig out some memory of recognition of the name she had just mentioned? Her thoughts swam back to the notion that maybe they really were all joking with her. She bit the inside of her cheek and stared at him, hoping because he had the decency and maturity to not be playing along with them in their little prank that instead his countenance would contort with confusion at her asking such an irrelevant question.

"No," he answered dispassionately and continued talking as if she had never spoken. She felt her insides drop and a dull aching pain formed in the hollow pit of her stomach as disappointment and anger started to rush over her. How was this seriously happening? How could Remy have just evanesced from existence on the memory of everyone over night? She blinked back the wetness that had begun forming her eyes and could feel her jaw clench in exasperation. How could this have happened? What was happening?

"It was like having Stuart Little shoved in my ear…. She wouldn't shut up, and when she did it was only when she ran out of things to talk about. So we'd be sitting there quietly for about twenty minutes, and I'd be arguing on whether I should say something or keep my mouth shut and avoid another episode of –" She did not want to sit here any longer and listen to him talk about how bad his date with this girl had gone. He hated his date. What more was there to talk about? She stared at him through narrowed eyes, droning his voice out and watching as he continued narrating about his date whilst he stared upwards into the sky, the expressions changing and dancing across over his face, and the resentment mounting inside her. He turned to her with a grin on his face and made some vulgar comment about how her chest had almost made up for her lack of intellect. Rogue rolled her eyes and turned away from him, glaring out into the distance, watching some other kids playing basketball, one cheating and using his powers. Was this world full of liars and cheaters or something? She turned, looking away from both John and the students, farther out where the grass looked like it spread for acres till it met up with the towering hedge. She tried clamping her teeth together as hard as she could in an attempt to allay her anger, but only succeeded in making her teeth feel as if they would crack in any second and propelling more tears forward and adding pathetic to the list of adjectives explaining how she was feeling.

"Rogue?" John asked softly, worry in his voice and in his face as she turned to look at him. Remy could not have just ceased to exist, and she could not have just been dreaming him up. They had talked. They had touched. She knew he had been real. John reached out, and she looked down to see him take her wrist in his hand.

"This isn't funny," she stated, her voicing unexpectedly straining out over a sob, causing her to take in an uneven intake of air. He moved his hand from her wrist up her forearm as he pushed himself up with the other arm. She took it as a chance to push him back down and yank her arm free from his grip before she stood up, pushing herself up with now weak arms and began to walk away on weaker legs. The goal was to start running, but she was already struggling with seeing where she was going on the account of the tears she could not push back fast enough.

"Rogue! What are you talking about? Where are you going?" John yelled out from behind her having, from the distance of his voice, already stood up and started following her. She ignored him and wiped her eyes as quickly as she could while she ran back towards the mansion, wanting to get away from the lies, him and his date.

When she ran through the mansion entrance, she closed the door behind her, quickly turning to look out the window behind her to see that he had stopped running after her and was standing out in the courtyard looking confused. She rolled her eyes and turned around. At least he knew to leave her alone. As she started down the hall, she walked into Logan leaving the kitchen.

"Hey, you okay?" he greeted her having already caught the scent of tears and anger, a coke situated in his hand, the top popped off. She stayed quiet, contemplating whether to ask him about Remy or not. Logan would not take part in this little game of everyone's. He was an adult, lacking that kind of childish immaturity. He would not lie to her. He would sense the gravity of her body language and scent, and he would tell her every kind of truth there was about what had happened to Remy, she thought. She mumbled out that she was fine. He nodded, knowing she would come to him if it were serious, and started to walk away around her to the lounge, taking a drink from the coke in his hand.

"Logan-Logan…?" She started in a whisper, raising her voice as she called his name a second time. He stopped and let out a 'yeah', his voice deep as usual in its guttural kind of way. She turned her head and looked into the kitchen where Remy and she had talked only last night and swallowed as she furrowed her brow still contemplating her next question. She looked at him and knew she had to ask him. He raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

"You know a guy named Remy?" She asked him quietly, an anxious expression on her face that she had failed to hold back, her heart racing in anticipation of his answer. He stared at her for a second, no sign of his hearing her registering on his face, then took a swing from his soda and answered.

"No," and started walking around her again into the lounge. "Why?"

"…No-no reason," she answered.

-----

She lay in her bed, her face pressed into her damp pillow, sealing the air out. Logan was not lying. Remy could not have gotten Logan to go along with any of his tricks for anything. She had held on to the notion that this whole situation was a joke, but she knew it was not anymore. She pressed her face harder into the pillow, hoping that somehow the suffocation could magically help make things clearer, push Remy out of her head as if he was a dream because he had to be a dream. She had to have been dreaming of him. Logan, John, the entire school. They would not have all lied to her. He could not exist.

But she remembered. She remembered first seeing him…

Tearing at the grass, uprooting individual pieces of Xavier's probably rare, expensive and imported grass and carefully shredding each one into the thinnest slices, she attempted to try to ignore Bobby and John, who were sitting above her on the bench, holding an idiotic conversation.

"So I'm asking," John said, his hair slicked back from his face as usual, lighter in his hand, the normal undertone of arrogance in his voice, "what would be worse, to be burned to death or frozen?"

…She remembered everything as it had gone. When she had first seen him…

She had rolled her eyes at their ensuing boy-drama and pushed a strand of snow-colored hair out of her face before looking up just as the door to the mansion opened. Someone she did not recognize walked out and looked around inquisitively.

"Then," Bobby had continued, explaining to them how freezing to death went, "the moisture in your lungs starts to freeze, so that even breathing is painful."

"This conversation is painful," she had mumbled. She decided to ignore them both and turned back to the mansion curiously to investigate the figure she had seen before. He had not gone very far and was standing near the fountain watching the students. Her first instinct would have been to think Scott. He was wearing glasses, ruby tinted for all she could tell, but his hair, his clothes and his stature negated the notion. His hair had a far more auburn tint to it than Scott's did. It was longer, not combed nearly as neatly, partially covering his ears and probably coming down to his check bones in the front but stopping no farther than his hairline in the back. He was wearing a long brown overcoat and was shuffling something in his hands. She squinted her eyes trying to get a better focus on his face, but the glasses and his hair only blocked her attempt. She did notice a stick or staff of some sort sticking from the bottom of his jacket. She turned back to Bobby, who was still giving his informative little report on death by ice.

"Hey, is he new?" She had asked, breaking into Bobby and John's little argument, pointing him out, "In the overcoat with the hair and the glasses."

"Oh yeah, the guy with the hair," John said with jocular sarcasm. Bobby stared for a moment, narrowing his eyes trying to make out who the person was. He had been slowly circling the fountain, watching the students in what seemed like amazement and wonderment or maybe just confusion. She would not have even noticed the various students demonstrating their powers anymore. She wondered if this guy was even a mutant or if he was just some visitor taking a look around the zoo. They had not gotten any visitors since Stryker's attack on the mansion two months ago, much less any new students. It looked like he was heading back inside; he had started walking back towards the door.

"Yeah, I think he is. I've never seen him before," he answered. "Looks like a student."

"It's been awhile since we had one of those," John commented, glancing at Rogue and then Bobby.

"Finally," she had stated almost inattentively and smiled," … someone who can replace the two of you."

"Right," John commented sardonically, suddenly snapping his hand closed, extinguishing his flame he had harbored there. "You wouldn't last a day without us, Roguey."

… How could those memories be wrong? Fake? She was freaking crazy. She had to be or everyone else had to be. And she knew the answer to that. Or maybe since she knew something was wrong, maybe since she was not oblivious to what was happening, she was not crazy yet. Maybe she was stopping it by realizing it, by not denying it. She knew the Professor could help her with this, but something held her back. Something stronger than her own will told her she did not want to bring this to him. Like a whisper in her mind, it told her she did not want to become their test subject again. She did not want it to turn into something bigger than she wanted to handle. It was better than having Magneto's personality resurface in her mind after she had worked so hard to lock it away, she thought. She needed to find Bobby.

-----

She staggered down the hall, using the wall as a guide as she turned the corner to get to Bobby's room. As she neared it, she thought about the possibility of John being there, stopped against the wall next to the door and sighed. He probably thought she was crazy, and she did not feel like explaining to him why she had run off before. She actually did not want to talk at all, but she did not want to be alone in her room again.

Yet, she still did not want to face John. She moved closer to the door to see if she could maybe hear if he was there. She heard nothing for a moment, and then muffled voices traveled through the door. Both Bobby's and John's. She bit the inside of her cheek, wondering what she should do next. Go back to her room? Go try someone else? Jubilee and Kitty were out of the choices. They were down stairs with everyone else, and she was not going back down there to explain why she needed their company. She stared down the hall. She did not think she would ever go back to Remy's room, if it had even been his room. What if someone else had lived there this entire time? Would that prove that she was crazy?

She averted her eyes angrily and moved closer to the door, turning to slide her hands against it lightly and wondering what she would hear of their conversation if she listened from outside. Would Bobby or John care if they caught her? Then again, that was the catch: if she got caught. So, she would not. She would listen for a while, and if it sounded like something she was not supposed to be hearing, she would stop listening. She hesitated, thinking about it for a second. Should she actually violate their privacy like that? Yeah, sounded like a plan. Bobby and John should not have any secrets that she did not know about anyway. She pressed her head down against the door between her hands. When she could only hear a few phrases, she pressed her head harder and her ear closer against the door for full access.

"…understand…She was crying…talking about…she doesn't even know her…now she's angry…my date…didn't even like her anyway…more your type…never again," John's voice spoke, the door still only allowing her to hear a limited amount of their conversation. He sounded frustrated, and she knew he was venting to Bobby about what had happened outside. From what she could hear, she knew it. She waited for Bobby's reply.

"...don't know…didn't tell me anything…naked…bed…K-Swiss®™©…Stuart Little…maybe…likes you…something?…your type." She pushed herself from the door, her arms moving at light speed at what she had just thought she heard. It sounded like Bobby had just proposed the idea that she liked John, not Remy, who to everyone but her did not exist, but John. The idea was incestuous. That would be like her dating Bobby, or Bobby dating John, or... uh, something like that. Her thoughts were cut of by the ceasing of the talking, and she realized she had maybe pushed too hard against the door, making a sound. She closed her mouth, bringing up her lower jaw, and moved hastily to the side away from the door just as it opened and John walked out in front of the doorway. He turned the other way, looking for who had knocked on their door. She was moving before her decision had even been consciously made, bumping into John as she slipped into the room through the space he had left open, and then closed the door, pushing him completely out from behind.

"Hey! What's-" She heard him exclaim as she closed the door on him and he tried to stop it, but only too late. She slammed the door shut with all her weight and locked it behind her, apologizing to him in her head. She shook her head, and turned to offer Bobby a weary sigh. He was sitting up in his bed, staring at her, eyes reflecting his shock. He raised an eyebrow curiously. At least he had clothes on.

"Hi," She greeted him as John banged at the door and yelled to be let back in. There was the Australian accent she loved so much. "Don't let him in, please. He'll go away soon. Bobby, I need you."

She would have needed John, too, if it had not been for the incident outside in the courtyard. She walked dismally towards him, kicking her shoes off next to the nightstand between their beds resignedly, and with a sigh fell next to him on her stomach onto his bed. He looked back at the door, the pure confusion still on his face as he contemplated over which friend he was supposed to help. She looked liked she had been crying. John's yelling and pounding were dying down. He knew John would understand when Bobby explained it to him later. Bobby lay back down on his back next to her. He knew he should probably keep silent. She wrapped an arm through his and turned her head the other way, not facing him. She had thought she had cried all she could before in her room, but she found herself wrong.

I. Evanescence