Leech had awoken.
That was what Storm had knocked on her door for, anyhow. Rogue had been laying on her bed, staring at her ceiling when the knock reverberated through her room. Yes, she was Rogue again. It had been stupid to think she could ever return to being Marie. As she listened to the stillness after the knocking, she had wondered briefly if Logan had decided to face her after all.
When the white-haired woman entered upon her grunt of approval, Rogue was not surprised.
She had left equally calmly, and Rogue wished she had the emotional balance and control of the older woman. It seemed as though nothing could penetrate her smooth demeanor.
The statement that Leech was awake had not been just some form of notification. Rogue wasn't stupid. Storm and the Professor wanted her to come down and visit with the boy, even though they never asked her to.
They wanted to make sure he was not afraid of her.
She remembered his face as she reached out to touch him. He was so scared. The team had wondered whether the boy would automatically put up his defenses and turn Rogue's skin off before she could touch him and steal his life force.
She kind of wished he had.
Leech: his last name would suit her better, she thought. He didn't take powers; he just suppressed them. That didn't hurt anybody.
She was the vampire mutant.
She was pacing her room now. She'd been cooped up in there since the incident in the combat room today.
Incident. Ha. That made it sound like some machine went on the fritz or something.
No, she just crossed the line with a man who meant everything to her, and watched as it blew up in her face.
It didn't matter, anyway. Soon she would be the girl with the deadly touch, a leech in every sense of the term.
Before she realized it, her pacing had ended up with a direction and she was outside the medbay doors, staring through the window at Leech, his mother, the Professor, and Storm, all talking and smiling.
When the glass doors hissed open and she entered, the talking and smiling ceased.
"Hey, Ah heard you were up," Rogue managed to say. She remained next to the doors, her arms crossed over herself. She had her usual attire on, fit to protect the world from her presence. When he smiled politely at her, she added, "Are you feeling okay?"
Leech, still smiling, nodded.
Rogue dared a glance at his mother, who was looking at her. While not outright glaring at her, the woman definitely was not smiling. She made no move to say anything, however, and finally looked back to her son, whom she was sitting next to.
"So how does it feel to know you saved the world?" Rogue braved another question, preferring anything over the deathly quiet that had blanketed the room upon her entrance.
Leech's polite smile turned into a general, childish grin. "Well, you saved the world."
"But we couldn't have done it without your powers," Rogue added. She had purposely said 'we' instead of 'I.'
Leech nodded understandingly, but he bit shyly at his lower lip, as if debating whether to say something. Rogue looked questioningly at him, but the Professor interrupted before she had the chance to ask.
"Dorian here was hoping to ask you a couple questions regarding his powers," he said, maneuvering his wheelchair toward Rogue. He looked to Leech's mother. "May I offer you a cup of tea in my office, Ms. Leech? I'd like to discuss some options about Dorian's schooling."
Ms. Leech looked at Rogue hesitantly, but nodded politely as the Professor made his way past Rogue and into the hallway. Ms. Leech refrained from looking at Rogue again as she followed, but as Storm passed she squeezed Rogue's shoulder reassuringly.
The doors hissed shut and the silence quickly enveloped the room again.
"Dorian, huh? That's a cool name," Rogue finally said, walking over to the boy and sitting in the chair his mother had been sitting in.
"I don't really like it," he replied, making a face.
"Oh. Well, what would you like to be called?"
"I like Leech. My mom thinks it's silly to call me by my last name, though. But it fits, for a mutant."
Rogue frowned a bit. "Dorian fits as a mutant's name, too."
Leech smiled at her. His pale green face may have made someone else cry monster, but to Rogue, it made him seem so innocent. His expression, however, was far older then it should have been for a boy his age. He had to grow up way too fast, she realized sadly.
"Rogue's not your real name, is it?" he asked innocently.
Rogue smiled at his quick observation. The boy was smart. "No, it's not."
Silence reigned for a little while before Leech finally asked, "What's it like?"
"What's what like?"
"To borrow powers?" Leech looked shyly down, obviously afraid to offend Rogue, but curiosity getting the better of him. "Does it hurt?"
Rogue sighed a bit. "It doesn't feel good, but it doesn't hurt." Leech looked up again, perplexed. "It's kind of like running really fast for a long time. You know, when your legs get heavy but you keep moving?" Leech nodded. "It feels that way all over. It drains me, Ah guess, to use my powers, but then Ah start to feel the other person's powers, too."
Leech nodded, seeming to understand.
Rogue hesitated a bit, shifting her sitting position nervously. "Does it ... did it hurt you?"
The boy, to his credit, only slightly flinched at the memory. "No, not really hurt. Just felt really tired, really fast. Kind of like what you described with the running, I think."
Rogue nodded, but frowned slightly. She wondered if the draining feeling she felt was the use of her own powers, or her feeling the other person's feelings of being drained themselves. She shuddered at the thought, but wondered if maybe that was what she got, for taking their powers the way she did. A taste of her own medicine, so to speak.
"You were able to control my powers?" Leech broke her train of thought. Rogue nodded. "Do you think you can teach me?"
Rogue smiled at Dorian. "Ah can try."