Taunting Repartee

Chapter Nine

Rogue once again ran up the stairs away from him. Her breathing heavy, she raced to her room. Slamming the door behind her she let herself slid down to the ground. Taking deep breaths she attempted to calm down… again.

"Go and take your shower. I will be gone by the time you have finished."

Without thought Rogue stood up and made her way to the dresser. Her body on autopilot, she took out the clothes she would need and made her way into the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, she placed her clothes on the sink, and looked herself in the mirror.

Her face was still flushed from embarrassment, but her breathing was almost back to normal.

'And he's leaving,' she thought with relief, '…but for how long?' she asked herself anxiously. She closed her eyes as tears ran down her face, as she let her head tilt downwards. 'You don't know that he'll come back…' She took a moment to considered her last thought before she sighed. 'Who the fuck am I trying to kid? Of course, he's gonna come back... All that time he's spent with me already… he ain't done yet…'

Another deep breath.

'There's nothing you can do about that,' she told herself. 'Ain't a damn thing you can do to stop him from coming and going.' She wiped tears off of her face as she looked up at her reflection. 'At least he ain't here now,' she thought, realizing this was probably the first time in a week she was alone. 'So, enjoy it… ' she thought as she went to the shower and turned on the water.

"While it lasts…" she whispered.

Rogue took one last look at her self in the mirror before she headed for the bathroom door. During the shower, and even now, thoughts, and speculations were trying to make their way to the front of her mind. With effort she managed to keep her head clear, empty. She knew that she should be contemplating everything that had happened today, replaying the evens and trying to figure out as much about Magneto as she could, but she was too damn tired.

She just wanted to relax for a while. Was that so wrong?

It had been a long day. If she could manage to keep from having to endure any more mental strain, at least for the rest of the night, that would be great!

With her mind pleasantly blank Rogue stepped out of the bathroom.

"Gang way," Jubilee said as she rushed passed Rogue into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

'Well, that was rude,' Rogue thought as she started to towel dry her hair.

A second later it hit her, and she let out a sigh.

'They're back in the mansion,' she thought relieved. With that knowledge stored, she headed back to her room. Just as she was about to open her bedroom door, Kitty phased through it. Rogue gasped as he roommate popped in front of her with a handful of clothes.

"Whoa," Kitty exclaimed as she fell backwards into the room. Rogue quickly opened the door.

"You okay?" Rogue asked startled as she saw Kitty was halfway between their room, and the floor below it. Ignoring her, Kitty stood up, grabbed her garments from the floor, and ran passed Rogue out into the hallway.

"NO…" Kitty cried out. Confused Rogue followed Kitty out into the hall, only to stare at the closed bathroom door.

"What's wrong?" Rogue asked.

"I like totally missed the shower… Who's in there now?" she asked.

"Jubilee."

Kitty let out a groin of frustration as she proclaimed, "She takes the longest showers." Kitty walked back into their room, throwing her clothes on the edge of her bed. "I'm, like, never going to be clean again," she shouted as she collapsed onto her stomach, on the bed.

"She doesn't take that long. You'll be in and out within the hour," Rogue said in an attempt to cheer her up.

"I should, like, go wait outside the bathroom so I don't get skipped again," Kitty murmured through her pillow.

"There are others bathrooms," Rogue pointed out. "How many people have to take showers?"

"EVERYONE!" Kitty yelled as she raised her head to look at Rogue. "We've been playing baseball forever. It was fun but everybody's all icky now, and there are, like, so, not enough bathrooms to go around… You are so lucky you got to take one before everyone came in," she mumbled before she got up and collected her clothes.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she uttered; realizing Eric had done her a favor by putting the idea in her head. She shook her head as she pushed that thought away.

She was not indebted to Magneto in anyway. He had used her for information and. '...I do not wanna think about any of this now,' she reminded herself firmly. It was kind of hard not to think, when she was attempting to have a conversation. 'Okay, new plain, get all your talking out of the way so you can come back up here and go to sleep... Guess I should start with...'

"Hey, do you know if the Prof's back yet?" Rogue asked.

"Hmm, yeah," Kitty said as she made her way out the door. "He, like, just got back," Kitty said before she stopped walking. "Do you still have to talk about what happened with Magneto?" she asked forlorn as she turned to face Rogue.

"Yeah, I probably have to talk to him, but I kinda don't want to anymore."

"If it's important you, like, have to."

"I know," Rogue said as she looked past Kitty, and saw the door to the bathroom start to open. "Kitty, bathroom!"

Kitty's eyes widened as she turned around, and saw Jubilee coming out of the door in her fuzzy yellow robe. Kitty ran as fast as she could towards the door as she saw that Jean was headed for the same destination. Just as Jean was about to enter the bathroom, Kitty managed to phase through her and close the door in Jean's face.

"That was rude," Jean commented.

"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around today," Rogue said bitterly before she could stop herself.

"Guess, I'll just have to wait," Jean sighed as she turned around to face Rogue. "Where have you been all day? You missed a really interesting game," she said with a grin.

"I… slept in pretty late. Needed the rest, I suppose," she answered trying not to say too much.

"Feeling any better?" Jean asked.

"Not really," she said. "I feel worse, actually," she said looking away from Jean's face. Why was she being so honest all of sudden? 'I don't want to talk about all this, remember?' she asked herself.

"What's wrong?" Jean asked.

'Nothing I can say out loud,' Rogue thought sadly.

"Why can't you talk about it?" Jean asked confused. Rogue quickly looked up at Jean. "I am so sorry," Jean said rapidly as she realized. "I didn't mean-"

"It's okay," Rogue said immediately. "Really, it's not that big of a deal."

"What's not a big deal?" Scott asked as he walked down the hall towards them.

"Nothing," Rogue said. Jean was about to say something else. Probably another apology, if the guilty look on Jean's face gave any indication. "Seriously, Jean, it's fine. Accidents happen, " she said before turning her attention to Scott. "What's up?" she asked him, trying to change the topic.

"Baseball," he said dryly.

"Scott, you didn't have fun?" Jean asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I did… for the first three hours," he said before shaking his head, dismissing the thought. "Anyway," he started to say, as he looked up at Rogue, "the Professor wants to see you. He said to go to his office whenever you're ready."

"I'll go now," she declared as she started to walk down the hall.

"Like that?" He asked in disbelief.

"Like what?" she asked, turning around to face him.

"You don't have gloves on," Jean pointed out.

"I-" she started to say before she looked down at her hands. She didn't have her gloves, or sleeves of any kind. Her arms were completely bare, exposed. Not to mention she still had the towel around her neck. Her hair was still wet, she hadn't brushed it yet. Her feet were bare too. She wasn't ready to talk to anyone.

'What was I thinking?' she asked herself.

'You weren't,' the fragment of Magneto offered. Rogue quickly shook her head, pushing him back with the others. She sighed. It felt peaceful: not thinking, coasting through the rest of her day on autopilot, but it was…

'Dangerous,' Rogue thought to herself with a sigh as she glared at her bare skin. 'Okay, no more not thinking. Not until I'm alone.'

"I didn't even realize," Rogue muttered with a sigh as she headed back towards her room. She opened her door, and threw her towel on the bed before she went to her dresser.

"Rogue, are you okay?" Scott asked. She glanced up to see that he was in her door frame, a look of concern on his face.

'I really wish I could talk about it,' Rogue thought to herself, knowing that she couldn't say anything to him out loud. "I'm… I'm fine," she lied. "Just tired I guess," she said as she took out a pair of black gloves. She took a second to count how many pairs she had. 'Yup, they're all here,' she thought as she closed that draw and opened another.

"But you slept in," Jean added. Another glance up, and Rogue saw that both of them were standing in her door way. Jean's facial expression mirrored Scott's.

"Maybe I over slept," she said as took out one of her green sheer shirts, she slipped it over her head. Rogue took out her brush faced the mirror and started to tend to her hair. She could see Jean and Scott through the reflection of the mirror. Their concerned gazes had intensified.

"Is this about Magneto?" Scott asked. "Did something else happen?"

'A lot has happened. Too much… too much that I can't talk about,' she thought sadly.

"Magneto?" Jean asked puzzled.

'He didn't tell her already,' Rogue thought incredulity. "Magneto's been trying to recruit me," Rogue explained, looking at Jean through the mirror. "I keep saying no, but he's still trying… It's kind of annoying," she added quietly as she continued to brush her hair. "He's very annoying," she said with frustration in her voice. "Look, I'm fine," she said again, meaning it a little more this time. "I'm gonna go talk to the Professor and everything's gonna be okay," she said, forcing herself to smile at the end of her comment. She looked in the mirror again. 'Good enough,' she thought irritated, just wanting to get out of the room, and away from their apprehensive gazes. "I'll see ya all later," she said hastily as she made her way to the door. Pleased when they moved out of her path, and didn't pry any further.

Rogue stood outside the door to the Professor's office. Taking a deep breath, she opened it, and stepped inside. There she saw, Professor Xavier, Storm, and Mr. McCoy, sitting, slipping coffee.

"Ah, Rogue, how nice of you to grace us with your presence," Mr. McCoy said as he noticed she had entered the room.

Rogue froze. How many times had he said that to her today?

'Too many,' she thought as she remembered how to command her body to move. "Sorry, about skipping out on the session today," she said as she took a seat in one of the vacant lounge chairs. "It's been a pretty bad week," she replied yet again.

"Never the less-" Mr. McCoy started to say before he was interrupted by the Professor.

"I believe we can forgive, Rogue, this one transgression as long as this type of behavior does not become a habit,' he said, addressing her.

"It won't," Rogue reassured them. Xavier nodded.

"Nor did I think it would be," Xavier said with a smile. She guessed he was trying to make up for his rudeness last night by letting her absence go unpunished, which was fine by her.

'Ain't about to look a gift horse in the mouth,' she thought as she let herself smile back.

"Now, where did you and I leave off from our conversation? And do you mind if Ororo and Hank participant?" he asked before taking another slip of his drink.

"We're not gonna look at my memories right?" she asked uneasily. The Professor seeing her and Magneto kissing was one thing, but letting Mr. McCoy, and Storm see that too. She shuttered at the thought. She wasn't comfortable with that, not at all.

"…No, of course not," Xavier said after a moment. Rogue wasn't sure if he hesitated because he was surprised by the question, or because that was exactly what he had in mind.

"Then, no, I don't mind if they're here…" She took a second to replay the conversation they had last night. It only took a moment. It was a rather brief exchange. "After you look at what happened at the café we didn't really talk about it. I asked if-" she stopped short. 'he knew that Eric was telepathic… I don't know if Eric telepathic. I really don't think so, but I can't say that,' she reminded herself firmly. 'I can't say anything I found out today. I won't be able to explain where it came from… This sucks! Why'd I agree to this?' she asked herself.

"Because if you do decide to divulge certain information to Charles I will have no choice but to remove you from Xavier's permanently," Eric threatened. She looked up to see that Magneto was standing outside of the mansion, and was communicating to her through the open window. Eyes widened, she opened her mouth to talk, but the cold stare he aimed at her left her speechless. Magneto lifted his hand up, brought a finger to his forehead, and tapped twice. She understood his meaning.

'You said you were leaving,' she shouted. She knew that he was going to come back eventually, but she didn't think it would be so soon.

"I promised to depart from the mansion, and so I have."

To is credit he was standing outside.

She stared at him in astonishment.

'We never specified the mansion, Jackass,' she thought infuriated beyond belief. 'You just said you were going to leave.' She was too furious to be terrified like she knew she should be. Here she was yelling at Magneto through the window, and three of her guardians were staring at her blankly.

"My mistak-"

'And you promised that you wouldn't force me to leave. What the fuck do you call this?'

"Blackmail," he said calmly. Her anger diminished slightly, starting to turn into something less useful: fear.

'Why isn't the Professor reading my mind right now?' she asked in a panic. 'I've been sitting here for five minutes looking out the window. You'd think-'

"Charles doesn't fine anything remotely suspicious about your behavior. But then why should he? You have done this before, my girl, for a far longer time span, with a more erratic range of emotional display."

She sucked in a breath, recognizing that he was right. There was nothing she could do right now that would seem irregular to him. She looked over at her teachers. Mr. McCoy was staring at her with a puzzled expression, and curiosity. Storm was giving her a look of pity, and understanding. The Professor looked comfortable: it was his office. She realized how many time she had done this before, gotten lost in a silent conversation while he waited for her to be ready to speak.

As good natured as his intentions were, she was starting to agree with Eric, a little, that he was idiot. There he was, one of the most powerful telepaths in the world, sitting, drinking his coffee: completely oblivious, that Magneto was among them, that she was in serious danger.

'They can't help me,' she thought sadly as she looked away from.

"No, they can not," Eric said. She turned her gaze back to his face.

'If I say no to keeping your secrets, then you take me with you?'

"Yes."

'I don't wanna go with you. I wanna stay here,' she told him.

"You will see me from time to time," he informed her, "some days more than others." She had thought as much, but if it was a choice between seeing him full-time or part-time, she was going to choose part-time. "Any conversation we have from this point on will be subject to this agreement."

'Okay,' she thought softly, not knowing what else to think, feeling that she had no other option but to agree.

"Do you understand the choice I am presenting you with?" Magneto asked directing her mind back to the topic. She took a moment before she nodded slowly, looking away from him. "I need to hear you say it, Anna. A comprehensive sentence listing the terms you are agreeing to." She took a deep breath, as a few tears rolled down her face.

Rogue looked up when she saw that Storm was standing in front of her holding a tissue. Rogue took it from her before she wiped the water from her face.

"Thank you," Rogue whispered.

She vaguely heard Storm say "Your welcome."

"Anna," Magneto said, calling for her attention.

'I understand-… I understand that if I tell anyone about today-'

"What about today?" Eric asked.

'That if I tell anyone about our conversations today-'

"And anything you have learned within them," Eric added. She nodded promptly. "Repeat it," he commanded.

'And anything I have learned within them that you will take me from here…'

"permanently," she finished out loud.

"What's permanent, Rogue?" the Professor asked softly. Her eyes widened. Had he read her mind?

"I-" she started to say before Eric interrupted her.

"You said it aloud, Anna," Eric screamed, his anger showing. "Understand that if the X-Men become aware of our arraignment they will forget immediately afterwards. That includes Charles," he informed her. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself in a hug, needing the comfort. "Therefore, it would be pointless for you to attempt to convey your situation to them. And a waste of my telepath's time, and my tolerance, if she had to spend a day reconstructing your family's minds because of a slip of your tongue." Rogue nodded.

'It won't happen again… anything else?' she asked before she looked up at the window.

He was gone.

So, that's it for this chapter! I know, short. I should have kept going, but it's been almost a month since I updated. I'm starting to write the next chapter tomorrow night. I'm free this weekend, and I have the basic outline for the plot in my head already, So, I'll post again soon time next week. Probably Thursday.

Till then,

I hope you all liked this chapter and please review!!!!!! I want to know how you feel :)

Speaking of which...

Forgotten Silver Angel: Thank you! I'm very glad you enjoyed chapter eight! I hope chapter nine was worth the wait! Let me know :)

RogueNya: I LOVE making people speechless. I'm glad you liked the chapter. Personally, I want them to end up together too. ^.^ But Magneto is a bit of an ass-hole who keeps putting Rogue in cruel situations. If he hadn't spent the last few months in her head, talking to her, I don't think she would like him very much.

Anyway, it'll still up in the air, and I have a loooooooooong way to go before we get to the end of season four! So, keep reading, and we'll see.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I can't wait to hear from you again.

Night Foliage: Nothing what so ever. ;) By all means please keep writing these awesome reviews! I enjoy reading them so much! Any time I need a little pick-me-up I reread some of my favor reviews (Yours obiviously included!) and that gets me back into the flow of writing.

Where they will have smooches and more drama indeed! I smile ever time I read that!

I can't wait to hear from you again! I hope you loved this chapter.