"I don't know if I can do it again, Professor," Rogue said. "I suppose I was very motivated."

"I see."

Xavier templed his fingers, almost leaning on them as he pondered silently. Rogue felt incredibly sheepish first for having to hear everyone's reactions and reprimands, then to explain it to everyone, repeatedly, most importantly to Prof X, then analyze it. Over and over and over….

He had already scanned her with Cerebro's help. "Come again tomorrow and we will try something different." It sounded as if the man had an experiment lined up. If Rogue didn't know any better, which was neither here nor there, she, or he rather, would place Beast and Jean there as well.

Rogue sighed as she quietly shut the door behind her. She thought of going for a workout, but had grown somewhat out of that phase when she had taken on the responsibility of her new powers. Still, the other alternative was to see people she wasn't prepared to see. She dawdled in the hall as she tried to decide what to do with the rest of her free afternoon.

"Rogue, there you are, I have been looking all over." Jubes called from behind her.

Rogue turned, a smile for Jubillee, but lost her sense of fun when she saw Kitty. She was not mad at her, but every time she saw the girl, it consumed her thoughts. She wasn't even sure if they were her thoughts or still reminiscent of Bobby's. (she had yet to tell the professor how Logan and Bobby still lingered in her mind days later.) Rogue still adored Kitty, she just wasn't sure how to act around her. Could that have been Bobby's feelings as well, she wondered.

"We're going to Pacino's for dinner, wanna come with?" Kitty smiled, unaware of her friend's inner turmoil.

She pretended to think it over, already knowing the answer. Jubilee tried to convince her though. "It'll just be the girls. Me, you, Kit, Betsy. Maybe some others, but doubtful."

Rogue did have to admit to herself it almost sounded like fun. 'just the girls.'

"But you know we'll end up talking about guys," Kitty laughed. "All the problems we have on our hands, blah blah blah, ya know?"

That convinced Rogue. She did not want to hear about guys from Kitty. She made a polite decline and headed to her room to change. She put on running gear, grabbed a bottle of H20 and headed out. Even as she ran, her thoughts kept up.

She thought about Kitty's comment and her own reaction. That wasn't my reaction.

'Well, whose was it then?"

Drake? I mean he's the only one who would be jealous over Kitty talking about other guys.

'Uh, and Piotr, and Kurt, and every other freakin' guy in the world in love with Kitty.'

But none of them are haunting you, hun.

'Right. Thanks.'

No prob.

What about the Logan part of her brain? He would be upset with Kitty too wouldn't he? He had always looked over Kitty, all the girls for that matter, the same way he looked after Rogue. Perhaps it wasn't Bobby, maybe her inner Wolvie was making her parental. She knew her innerLogan was fuming at Scott. All the time. she felt the wild thoughts more than usual. Just this morning in training, Iceman's first day on return, everyone was working their collective asses off, and Cyke made his usual comments. Rogue's bitter thoughts snapped to her brain, and she felt her teeth grind when Cyclops complimented Jean. She saw the way the two looked at each other. Normally, it would have been enough to make her vomit to begin with. But combining her jealousy over their ability to touch, with Logan's inner feelings, which she had yet to inform him of her knowledge either, she could hardly contain her exasperation at the teamleader. Hence the run.

She needed, abso-postively-feakin'-lutely had to clear her head. Her hardcore workouts had helped before so why not now? she slowed down when she crested the top of a hill, a wide beautiful sunset view before her. How had she made such a mess of things, she asked herself. It always happened. Always.

Once returning to the mansion, Rogue found she was glad she didn't go to dinner. The three girls were home again. And Betsy was throwing couch pillows and kicking over chairs. Apparently, Warren wasn't even home to witness her independent gesture of going out to dinner with her friends.

"Ach! I ate pasta for nothing!" she screeched at them.

"I like pasta." Kitty shrugged.

"Me too." Jubes giggled to herself, trying not to laugh at her pissed off friend. "Now you'll just have to ignore him when he's here, eh?"

"I'll ignore him whether he's here or not!" Betsy stomped from the room, muttering as she went, expletives about feathers and such.

Kitty, Rogue, and Jubilee all looked at each other with wide eyes, disbelieving looks. Rogue snapped. "Damn, and I missed a wonderful dinner out."

"You know it," Jubilee rolled her eyes.

"Oh you did your fair share of talking." Kitty glared at her.

"What?" Rogue sat up. "What did I miss. Jubes has a new man?"

"No, just the same old crush."

Rogue smiled. It was a very closely guarded secret between the three of Jubilation's interest in a certain fire-handler. Betsy would know if she ever paid attention to something besides herself. But other than the girls, Jubes kept it under tight wraps.

"We did your fair share of talking for you though, don't worry." Jubilee smiled at Rogue.

"Thanks. Nice to know I was and wasn't missed."

The next day Betsy found any and every male other than Warren to talk to, in hopes he would notice. She flirted with John, she felt Piotr muscles, scheduled a private work out with Logan, anything to make herself desirable and yet unavailable. She upped her mysteriousness by going out at night, only dropping vague hints to her whereabouts. Warren took no notice.

Or so it appeared. Rogue and Jubilee sat in the control room, overseeing a student session when the winged man made leaned in the threshold. He cleared his throat, casually and yet not.

Jubes shrugged. "Eh, Betsy's not here."

"Yeh, okay." He seemed unfazed. "Have you seen my X-band? I believe I lost it." He gestured around his biceps as he mentioned the communicator. He couldn't open the garage or Blackbird without. Among other things.

"That like your jock strap?" The girls snickered.

Rather than respond he, rolled his eyes and left. Jubilee and Rogue cracked up, nearly falling on the floor before remembering their charge in the danger room. Jubilee sat back up from her close encounter with the ground, red from her laughter.

"Look what I found." She snapped the elastic strap that held the thin metal piece. It flew at Rogue.

"Ay." Rogue ducked as the object flew towards her face. She caught it nonetheless.

"I'll watch Junior," Jubilee sighed. "You go track down the birdbrain. Hey, I made a joke."

As Jubilee laughed at her own joke, Rogue rolled her eyes and left the control room. She glanced in the rooms she passed, not sure where to find Warren. It wasn't until she peeked in the library she found Angel. He stood gazing out the window, where outside Betsy was teaching a medley of martial arts styles, judo, aikido, tai chi , taekwondo, karate, to the students. Logan hung by a tree watching over.

"Hey," Rogue forced herself to interrupt him. She didn't want to disturb him, but knew he needed his equipment. "Found this." She dangled the band on one finger.

"Thanks." He grinned at her from the window. She tossed it to him and he slipped it on.

Rogue hesitated, but chanced to say something before leaving. "No worries."

"Wait," he said, "Rogue."

"Yeh, Warren?"

"Angel."

"Angel," she repeated.

"I prefer it."

Rogue nodded, at a loss for what to say.

"Within good reason I believe." She flashed her bright eyes and a brighter smile. He came closer.

Not one to back down, Rogue stood her ground, not understanding his game. He leaned against the doorway next to her. "You know, I never noticed before, but you have true emerald eyes." He laughed. "It compliments your garnet hair."

Her eyes darted to the side. "Eh, thanks." I guess.

"Your white looks life a feather in your hair."

That got her attention and she looked over to him. He cocked his head to the side and his blond mane fell onto his shoulders. Warren's white feathers stood up on his wings. It was too much for her, and way to apparent what was going on.

"Sorry, Angel." Rogue said his name like an endearment. "I can't help you there."

"What?" Warren said with a confused look.

"We both know you're tryin' to make Bets jealous."

"Oh, Rogue," he laughed. "So full of delusions."

He winked at her before leaving. Rogue gathered that he was agreeing but wasn't going to say as much. Rather Rogue knew that he knew that what she said and knew was true. they were friends, but nothing more. Maybe another time, another place, but not this time and place.

Her head still spun at the fact of another issue to deal with, luckily the disaster had been averted. She could just see Betsy freaking out on her. Or Logan threatening the winged playboy. It was bad enough to have ten thousand other people and worries in her head, Rogue didn't need one more. One more. She was still pushing everyone out of her head, but they kept pushing each other around as well. It was utter chaos in her head.

"I told you," John laughed, "Cyke is pmsing."

"I would offer him some midol if I thought it would help," Kitty made a face.

Rogue remained quiet as her friends made jokes. Cyclops had ripped everyone a new asshole with his disappointment in their performances. His claim was that the enemy would not be easy on them, so neither would he. Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. He went on for an hour and a half on the flaws of the day, yet another hour on the whole week and month, and if Storm hadn't intervened, he would have gone into every X-man's flaws. So the day ended on a relatively low mood.

"He is right, you know." Bobby didn't manage to sound as convinced as he usually did. His first few days back had been rough, Scott had given him no leeway.

"He could have given you some recovery time." Jubes patted him.

Rogue watched her friends as if she weren't there, as if she were watching from a distance, or on TV. She could almost hear their thoughts before they said them, like her hearing was off, the parts of them with her, she knew enough to know how they would react.

"He already did." Bobby sighed. "I need to, we all need to, up our game and do our jobs."

"Right." John sighed, having heard it all a million times.

"As for a shiny change of topic," Kitty pointed away, "Are we still going to go get a new movie tonight? I could use a stress breaker."

John grinned and Bobby shrugged. The fire wielder prodded the iceman, poking him in the ribs, the latter finally giving in with a small smirk. "Okay."

"Goody," Kitty clapped her hands together, in her best fifties girl routine.

Jubes cocked an eyebrow at the lot, but Rogue didn't see. All she could see was Kitty and Bobby in her head. Kissing. It had been so burned into her brain as of late, it didn't upset her as it did before, but it disturbed her she couldn't control it. she couldn't see beyond it. she blinked hard, and successively. The image didn't move, but then gradually shifted. She heard her friends voices.

"You okay, Roguey?" Jubes put her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Yeh," she lied. "Just, I think I scratched my eyes."

"Let me see."

Rogue couldn't tell who said it, but she ducked away. All she could now see was Jean and Logan. It was even more disturbing to see those two because she felt extremely out of place. The kiss was intimate, passionate, and yet not, it was so complicated, complex even, that as an outsider she couldn't understand. But the Logan in her had feelings bubbling around.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Rogue said. "I'll see y'all when you get back."

She quickly ducked out and headed for her room. She fell down on the nearest mattress, but sitting on the bed brought no comfort so she flew out the window and up to the roof. Her room smothered her, at least up on the roof she was outside. She found Remy sitting up having a smoke, but it didn't bother her. It was a relief to be around someone she hadn't absorbed, no foreign memories, images, voices, or feelings came to her. Mostly. Remy still had some foreign affect on her.

He looked over but said nothing. Rogue was not going to break the silence either. So they sat. Finally, when his final drag gave out, the smoke used up, he flicked away where it joined many a dead soldier.

"Long day?"

He surprised her by asking, by even speaking, let alone first. She wasn't sure how to respond after her strange day, bizarre week. First Drake, then Angel, and Cyclops exploding. Her visions from Logan hadn't yet disappeared.

"I suppose one could say that." But then again, they were all long days.

"It's not just Cyclops," Rogue started. "I mean, it's never been easy."

"Oui."

"All in a day's work." You just need to shut up, Rogue told herself. What has got you so chatty?

"I'm not too harried by Scott." She told him.

"No need t' be." Gambit agreed.

"After all, I think he has his own problems. Right? I mean, bein' a leader isn't easy. Not that I'm tryin' to sound like Drake here, but I know we're not an easy lot to corral." She kept talking, she wasn't sure why. Stress. No doubt, it was the stress. "He could be a powerhouse, but he isn't because he has control over himself. That is enviable."

"Not to be a powerhouse?"

"His absolute control over his life. He could punch a whole through a mountain with his eyes, but the one who stops him is him. Can you imagine an evil Cyclops? Cyke needs to be in control, cuz no one else will do it for him. He" Rogue said. "I can relate to that."

Gambit shrugged.

"I mean, some one has to be the pain in the ass leader, right? Better him than me." Rogue let it go at that. she wasn't overly fond of the leader, there were some issues there. but then again, she wouldn't really want, or couldn't really picture any one else, in charge. It was either self-control, or no control with Scott. She got that.

"Sometimes control be de only t'ing y' got, an' dats not sayin' much." Gambit pulled a leaf of a nearby tree. "If y' fightin' so hard fo' control, somet'ing else must be wrong."

"I guess." Rogue leaned her chin onto her hands gloomily. The cajun's comments sounded all too true, per usual.

"I just got so much goin' on inside my head, it hurts." She told him, she didn't know why, but she did. "I feel like if I don't control it, it'll take me."

Remy didn't say anything. Just watched her. she continued. "It's so hard to know what to think or do sometimes cuz I have a thousand voices in my head. It's never been a problem before, but I think…well, I think I need to deal with it. Not repress it, ya know? That's why I wish I had the kind control Scott has. The kind that everyone doesn't understand and rips him about."

"Sometimes it not be about control, chere," he said casually. "Sometimes it be about channeling." He seemed half-focused as he filled his leaf with energy. He glance up at her with grinning eyes.

Rogue watched him, looking at her. She couldn't help but smile at his peculiar eyes. She liked the excitability it stirred in her, those black red lights. Most peoples eyes act as windows to the soul, or so the saying goes, but Remy's were like spotlights, big, brilliant, and not letting anyone in, but seeing into others.

He didn't look away. He never did. The look of his always teased her, tempted her. She had yelled at him many times before about it. but she still liked it. Rogue was fairly certain he didn't look at anyone else like that. In the moment, frozen but not, he seemed to be amused that she was meeting his gaze for longer and longer. His sideways smile and crooked eyebrow suggested he was encouraged by her.

Channeling, Rogue thought, as she made a move to control something without completely smothering it (ala Cyclops). She reached her had forward and covered Remy's mouth. His eyebrows shot up together in surprise. But before he spoke, or she lost her nerve, she leaned forward and kissed the back of her hand, placed strategically over his lips. Remaining so close to his face, inches away from the ghostly eyes, she paused, trying to see into him and read the reaction of the man who gave no reactions. She was mesmerized.

Remy slowly pulled hand down from his mouth, and just as slowly, incredibly calm and careful, leaned towards her touched his lips to hers.

She felt nothing. And she felt something. She felt her heart bubbling up, coming into her throat, her fear threatening to choke the life from her, strangle words from her mouth, cries for help. But then, she noticed she felt nothing else. She felt no surge of energy, no memories invading her. She had no creeping sensations entering her veins, no new powers or life energy spikes or drains. She only felt Remy.

The kiss wasn't long, but for someone who kissed so rarely, it was long enough. In shock, she was disbelieving as he gently pulled away from her. Part of her almost cried out 'No!' She now saw the black and red mystery eyes had turned the tables on her once again and were staring into her.

Neither spoke, but the roof top door squeaked open, breaking the silent moment. Neither looked over for a second, each awakening from the privacy. A moment not easily broken. But, both turned then to look. The wind had caught the door she thought. Rogue twisted around, not bothering to get up and she felt her hand graze Gambit's. She smiled inwardly, but was caught as she pulled into him. Unlike the kiss, her powers flicked on and she felt a memory snap to her brain even as her hands warmed. The wall under her grew red but she didn't see, she only saw a strange woman with angry eyes in her mind.

"Chere," she heard Remy call to her from very far away. "Don' move y' hand."

Rogue blinked away the image from her eyes and saw that Remy was no longer sitting beside her but standing above her, his face leaning down next to hers. She looked down and saw that she had filled the wall they sat on with kinetic energy. She must've touched him and left her hand on the wall when she saw that woman. She had released his energy without intention, which surely meant it would explode if she weren't careful.

"What do I do, Remy?" she quivered, not taking her eyes from her hand.

"Jus' try and take de energy back in."

Right, Rogue thought. Reverse the flow, just as she had done with Logan's healing factor for Bobby. She didn't remember what the intake of Gambit's power felt like. Bobby's had always had a notable chill, obviously. But Rogue thought of Logan again, knowing he was still swimming around in her head. Once more, she picture she had his claws, instead of shooting them out, she imagined drawing them in, like she drew peoples powers in. It was difficult to control the latter, so she pictured the claws to help her.

She heard Remy's sigh of relief. When she opened her eyes, she saw that he sat next to her, facing the opposite way, his back to the open view. She hadn't figured him for a nervous type, but could imagine the anxiety if someone else with your powers, not knowing how to use them. The woman, who was the woman though?

A flood of women entered her mind: Jean, the mystery blond, Kitty, herself—a strange picture still to see, other women and girls, Jubes, Betsy, then John, Peter, Kurt, and more. Pictures from everyone's past flipped through her brain like a slide show. She had to claw her way out of it to be free. She stood up, unaware, and nearly fell off the balcony of the roof.

"Easy der, chere." Gambit caught her.

She laughed half awkwardly, half amused. "Thanks."

He tossed up an eyebrow, giving her an appraising look, but a doubtful eye. He knew she was acting weird, and she knew it was time for her to go. "Thanks for everything cajun."

She lifted in to the sky, in eagerness to get away from the pressure building on her. It was not Gambit that scared her off, but his little bit mind in her mind, Logan's memories, thoughts and feelings messing her up, the pictures from Bobby. Everyone's blasted thoughts but her own. She flew off from the rooftop, and around down the mansion and into her room, going straight to bed.

Sorry so long. Haven't forgotten, Jus been busy. There still be plenty left…jus needs to get written…Gambit is Freakin hot, non?