Gambit sat in the foyer of the X-mansion shuffling his playing cards from one hand to the other. Half an hour before, he had sat in the darkness alone, immersed in his own thought. As time progressed, other X-men filtered in and kept him company. Even though he shared few words with them, their presence was comforting. Bobby Drake was freezing Wolverine's claws while Logan was testing his strength, trying to retract them. Jubilee found endless entertainment in edging the two on with furtive comments and awed exclamations. Hank was quietly reading the day's newspaper, as Jean snuggled on Scott's chest, the two occasionally whispered softly to one another. Kurk Wagner and Ororo were debating two sides of a very deep and philosophical conversation about mutant ethics. Bishop sat shining his boots so that he could see his own stern reflection in them.

"Damn, that's cold. But I did it Iceman. Thought I wouldn't but I did. Pretty good, eh?" Wolverine beamed.

"Nice. But I really should be trying to freeze your big mouth shut." Bobby grumbled.

"Oh Bobby, stop your stupid complaining!" Jubilee ridiculed Iceman, as Wolverine puffed his chest out. "Besides," she continued teasingly "you already know there isn't anything we can do about Wolvie's mouth!" Logan's chest deflated as he shot her a reproachful look.

"Nightcrawler, I cannot, in good conscience, make excuses for the acts of humans. I have experienced their scorn first hand, and do not believe that they would ever think more of us than an enemy, no matter how hard we may try to reconcile our differences."

"Perhaps you are right, Storm. But maybe it is vorth continuing a battle, if not for all ze humans, but for ze children of ze next generation. Let us vash zeir eyes of anger and help zem see de light, frauline."

Gambit couldn't help but smile weakly. After all of the opportunities they had to mistrust him, the X-men still chose to stand by him as family, and be with him when he needed them the most. Right now was definitely one of those times. His eyes darted back and forth between the clock and the door. Rogue and Joseph told all of the X-men that they would be returning from their first date around ten o'clock in the evening. It was now nearly two hours later, and no one had heard a word from the couple. As each minute ticked by, Remy found himself trying to rationalize the situation to the best of his ability.
"Deir car musta got stuck somewhere. Maybe, dey miss de first movie, an' had t'catch de later show. Or maybe…"

His train of thought was interrupted as muffled voices grew louder from the porch outside of the mansion. As the doorknob turned, everyone in the foyer became silent. When the door opened, Joseph held his finger to his lips and shushed Rogue while she stepped over the threshold giggling.

"Oh!" Rogue was now focusing on the congregation of mutants that were all staring at her as she tried desperately to suppress giddy laughter. "Ah hope ya'll didn' wait up foah us. Was anyone sleepin'?"

"No, it is quite alright" Storm spoke first. "Did you have a nice evening?"

"It was amazin'!" Rogue gushed.

"We didn't even end up seeing a movie as we had originally planned." Joseph added tentatively, obviously just as eager and cheerful as Rogue was.

"Aftah dinner, Joe an' Ah headed to the park so we could watch the sun set. An' aftah that, we just walked around the city talkin' about stuff. Oh, but the sunset! We just sat there for a while, starin' at all the colours in the sky! Ah've nevah seen somethin' so beautiful!"

"I have." Joseph looked into Rogue's gorgeous eyes and blushed. Bobby thought this an appropriate time to stick his index finger in his mouth in disgust. Jubilee candidly hit him over the head. However, Rogue didn't seem to notice anyways. She had been taken aback by Joseph's comment and leapt into his arms, kissing him squarely on the lips. The entire room held their breaths. Bobby choked on his finger. Gambit's fifty-two cards flew into the air, only to fall haphazardly to the ground, littering the floor.

"Rogue!" Storm breathed.

"It's okay everyone." Rogue quickly added as she read the uneasy looks that flashed at her from across the room. "Look what Joseph made me!" She outstretched her arm to show off the bright yellow bracelet she was wearing on her wrist. A small red light flashed at an interval of five seconds to show that it was on.

"I fashioned it after the neck braces worn in Genosha. It is a lot more comfortable to wear as jewelry, mind you. Now, Rogue can engage in skin-to-skin contact whenever she wears the activated bracelet."

Everyone in the room appeared to be struggling with their emotions. They wanted to be supportive and share in Rogue's happiness. However, this seemed to be more of a way to solve a problem, as if Rogue's mutancy was nothing more than exactly that; a problem.

"Fascinating" Hank McCoy decided to jump in and offer some sort of impartial reaction.

Rogue beamed momentarily, then spoke again. "Well, it's gettin' late. Ah'm gonna go to bed. See y'all in the mornin'. G'night!" And with that, she floated gracefully up the staircase humming softly to her self.

Joseph turned curtly to the other X-men. "Hope you all sleep well." He then headed to his dormitory at the opposite end of the hall. Once he was well out of earshot, everyone seemed to begin breathing again, but the awkward strain still seemed to linger amongst them. "This is not good." Jean shook her head.

"Gambit?" Jubilee had walked over to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. His eyes, although glowing a fiery red, appeared to be glazed over as he stared aimlessly into space. In one motion, he rose to his feet and briskly walked from the room.

"We must be there for him, every step of the way." Storm addressed her fellow X-Men, and they all nodded in agreement.