Ok, I know it has been a long time since the last. Sorry. This is thrown up without edit. Just wanted to get something up to show I hadn't forgotten. I havve something in mind, obviously, just trying to figure out how to work it in just right. It is right there, but it needs help.
"That's a goofy grin if I ever saw one," Kitty said as she entered and saw Rogue on her bed. "Is it Bobby? I just saw him in the hall are you guys talking?"
"Huh?" Rogue was brought back to the room from whatever fantasy had gripped her. "Yeah. We're friends again." She paused. "Nothing more. If someone wanted him."
Kitty shrugged as she fell onto her own bed. "Don't know who. He's been pining over you for so long, think everyone knows to stay away."
Rogue opened her mouth to say something and shut it again. She shrugged. "Things pass."
That night Rogue had dreams. They weren't anything that she could remember in the morning, but that left an imprint on her. She lay in bed when she awoke, trying to make sense of things when she didn't really know the reason.
A pillow hit her in the head and she broke out of her reverie. "Miz Lee, are you missin' a pillow?"
Jubilee had the most innocent face she could muster. So innocent, it told it all. Besides, her bed had no pillows on it. "Um, no. Not a one."
The other pillow lay on Kitty's bed, with a body dead to the world. Kitty was sleeping in, even as she threw the pillow across the room.
The team practice was all the same, and something amiss. Rogue went through the motions as usual, trying to find missing, but weird thought from the past few days and weird dreams in her head. She felt the weird sense of déjà vu without really believing it. She wasn't outside her body watching herself, but neither was she herself. She couldn't put her finger on it.
Cyclops had taken spot in the dangerroom that day, choosing to lead rather than to critique. Rogue was sure that he saw and felt a difference being involved than watching from afar. He called out directions as best as she could while he fought, which took most of his concentration. When the simulation came to an end he called everyone around.
"Good day today team." He panted a bit, but it quickly went away. "Just a few quick bits and we'll be done."
Oh boy, Rogue thought. One, few and short were really not in Scott's vocabulary. Second, if he were making it short, he must have other plans for his night. She didn't really want to think about that part.
"I know I'm always harping on everyone to be a team, but also, don't rely on it, folks. We've—you've got to be able to hold your own against opponents. No one expects you to KO Juggernaut on your own, but you should be able to give him a struggle. We're X-Men. We fight 'til the end."
"Secondly, When it comes down to—" He was cut off as shots rang out across the room. The dangerroom was once again active.
Everyone broke apart, but the time they were ready to fight, the system had been shut down again. Rogue glanced to the rest, just as puzzled as she. Cyclops growled, unlike him and more like Wolverine. "I thought it had already been turned off!"
He dismissed the team as best he could and stomped up to the room to ream the attendant. Rogue didn't wait to see what 4th year he had trusted the job to. Perhaps it was a tried and true X-Men, she didn't care and was gone.
Spinning in her head were the words he had said. But she didn't know what or why. ALREADY turned off. I thought it had already been turned off! What? She asked herself. Ugh, get out and shut up. She told herself.
She didn't even know where she walking and walked right into someone. She looked up. Her head cocked to the side.
"Couldn' stay away, non?"
"And what do ya want, swamp rat?"
"Wha' don' I want, Cherie?"
"Don't got time, Remy." She walked passed him. "I feel like I left my kid in the car or something. I don't know what, but something, I forgot something, or I need to do something."
"Gambit has dat effect." He grinned.
"Ya wish, Swam Rat." She gave him her best grin. Indulgent and amused. When he took that as encouragement and stepped closer, her insides wiggled.
"Last nite," he trailed off with a smile, and before she knew it his arm was around her waist and he was close to her.
He spewed his regular Cajun lines, and she half ignored them. She half listened too, but she would admit it to herself. She pulled away eventually. "You got some crazy notions, Cajun."
She walked off quickly before he could chase after her. She laughed as she did so, not to hurt his feelings. It wasn't she intended, but she needed the time alone undistracted to figure out some things. Something about her day wasn't coming together….
Even though she went through every minute or so of her day, Rogue couldn't place the oddity. Was it in fact the day? Or the night before? Remy, well, her brain did want to think about him. Her thoughts jumped to Logan. Was it something about him she was supposed to remember or do something about?
She fell back on to the couch in the lounge. Luckily it was deserted in the rec room. The younger kids were outside, the older ones studying or what not. She didn't really know or care anymore. She leaned back and stretched, secretly wishing she had the powers of telekinesis to bring her popcorn from across the room. She looked longingly at the counter.
"Rogue, is in fact a southern term for lazy," Bobby said as he walked in, catching her stretching towards the counter from across the room, making the jedi noise to pull the food to her by force.
She reddened. "yeah, well, guess it's better than yankee, for douche, also know in the OED as Bobby."
"Ah, how I will miss your lovely banter." He smiled, rather condescendingly at her.
"Miss? What?" she shook her head. "What are you talking about, Drake?"
He put his joking to the side and sat next to her. "I put in for a study abroad, if you will, and am trying to spend some time with another team. Scott thinks it will be good for me too, to see how other teams work, learn some new things."
"Oh."
"You sound disappointed." He actually sounded skeptical and it caught her even more.
"Of course, Bobby." She couldn't hide her hurt. "You are my friend….but if it's what you want."
He smiled. "I think it would be good for me. Yeah."
"For how long?" she asked
"Dunno. We'll see. Maybe a month, maybe a year. It all depends."
The awkward silence took over the room. The unsaid that kept coming between them, being said, and reverting to something other than. A something that would always be there.
"I need some time," he simply said.
"I," she stuttered. "I understand."
There wasn't much more she could say but that. She did and didn't understand. She couldn't reciprocate his feelings. That was one thing, but he couldn't be around and watch her and Gambit. That was the other thing.
"Well, you have to do what you have to do," she finally said.
"And so do you."
He looked in the distance and then to her in a way she couldn't describe. It was significant, odd, angry, indulgent, sorry and every contradiction she could think of. He mumbled something about talking to her later and left.
"Wha' was dat about?" Gambit came in from behind her. She jumped at the noise, in her own world.
"I dunno." She said after she had settled from the startle. "I really don'…."
Another silence came into the room and strutted around and neither she nor Gambit spoke. He sat sideways in a chair and watched her for a moment. The moment turned into a long moment. Rogue hardly noticed as her brain ran through the day, the night, the past few days and weeks. Everything that made no sense. What was it she was missing?
"You t'ink too much."
The words, all too accurate, broke into her and she looked up at him. He wasn't grinning like a devil. He was watching her. "Turn off da brain. And come for a ride."
He only said it once, didn't try to talk her into it. He simply stood up, tossed his leather jacket at her, and left. The leather sat on Rogue's lap for a minute as she processed what he said. She could use a ride to clear her head. She stood and went for the garage, where she presumed he went.
He was on a bike, starting the enginge as it echoed through the chamber. He glanced at her as she came in and simply offered her a helmet. She put on the helmet, for posterity, and tapped his. She climbed on and wrapped her arms around him. Time to clear the head.