Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men -.-
Two months later, many things were different on the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters and in the lives of the ones who lived there, especially within the X-Men. Many of the students who had left after Xavier's "death" were returning and, as a consequence to all the positive attention, the place was now an interest for the media after the events at Alcatraz.
There were plenty of new faces around too. Dr. Hank McCoy decided to stay at the mansion to help as a teacher and doctor, since a house full of mutant kids was always in need of one. Besides, he joined the X-Men as a permanent member along with other students, some of them just recently arrived but who had proved they could handle the task. Scott was still the team leader, but he wasn't always around. Often he would go on small trips to work on the projects Jean had started to give more good visibility to mutants. Surprisingly, Logan took upon himself the job of training the young X-Men, which made the Professor extremely satisfied, but made the students change the name of the Danger Room Sessions to the Death Room Sessions. Ororo was having a bad time dealing with Jean's death but, her way to deal with it was to make sure to stay as busy as possible, giving lessons, helping at the Danger Room Sessions, helping Hank every now and then, taking care of her greenhouse, and even taking the younger students on excursions.
Rogue's mood had brightened up a little, even though there were moments she felt suffocated by the people around her, almost like there was too much going on for her to keep up. This worried her friends, Jubilee in special, since they were roommates. She and Kitty were always trying to drag Rogue somewhere so she could get distracted and have some fun. This time, the place chosen was the mall where a huge clothes sale and a diamonds exposition was going on. In Jubilee's words: diamonds and clothes are a girl's best friends, so that probably would cheer Rogue up. Bobby and Piotr were the other victims, since boys were always good for carrying the bags.
Rogue usually appreciated all the effort the girls put on cheering her up, even if their choices of places to go weren't very good. But at least they were trying, something that Bobby hadn't been doing lately. In fact, they were growing more distant every day. She had to admit it wasn't just his fault since she had been pushing people away more than usual. The problem was that he was letting her push him away, without fighting back or doing anything to save their sinking relationship. Since the incident in his room when her powers returned, he seemed to always be alert when they were close to each other and getting too close was a tense thing to do. Again, she couldn't blame him. It just wasn't fair and whenever she thought of that, she felt like leaving. But she wouldn't leave. These were her friends and, more than that, her family, no matter how bad things got at times. However, right in that moment, thinking about spending a whole afternoon with Kitty and Jubilee screaming and fighting over clothes wasn't very appealing. They had just stepped into the mall and she was already feeling a little bit of panic with all those people pushing each other, struggling to get into stores, and carrying as many bags as humanly possible.
"Hey, guys…Ah think Ah'm really not in the mood for clothes shopping. Can't we split up in to groups?" She crossed her arms tightly, trying to stand still as a crowd rushed past her.
"Yeah, we could do that, but you'll miss all the fun." Jubilee said, looking around with a very concentrated expression.
"Ah don't mind." Rogue shrugged. "Ya know, getting into these tiny stores full of people… it's just…"
"Ok, ok. Kitty and I will have a look at the shoes stores. Are you really sure you don't want to come?" She stopped for a second and looked straight at Rogue. "We thought you would have some fun shopping."
"I'm not very much into shopping, Jubs, but it doesn't mean Ah can't have fun. There's the exposition and Ah've been excited about it for the whole week. Anyways, if Ah change my mind, we can always contact each other, remember?" Rogue pointed at the small communicator they always carried with them 'just in case', as Logan used to say. Jubilee considered that for a moment, then shrugged.
"Alright. Let's go, Kitty!" Jubilee took Kitty by the wrist and started pulling her.
"Kitty, aren't you coming to the CD store with me?" Bobby asked. "Remember the new album you wanted to check out?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Rogue, come with us!" Kitty smiled. She looked to Piotr but felt too embarrassed to ask him to join them as well.
"Hmm… actually, Ah was going to check the diamonds. Don't ya want to come with meh?" Rogue asked Bobby.
"Oh… Sorry Rogue, I promised we would check out this new CD. It's a total hit and it probably has nearly sold out of the store. We will be quick, I promise. Can we meet you later at the exposition?" Bobby asked, looking apologetically at her.
Rogue bit her lip but then sighed and said, "Fahne then." And she left.
She was tired of her boyfriend behaving like there was nothing to be jealous of. He was always looking for an excuse to be around Kitty. It was getting on her nerves, but at the same time, she sadly thought he deserved better than herself. But whenever she tried to say that to Bobby, he insisted Kitty was just a friend, and they started to argue. She sighed, knowing what she should do. Still, she didn't want to feel even more isolated. Rogue just leaned on a column for a moment as some people passed by, and took a breath. It was happening again: the same old fear taking a tight grip of her heart. The fear of being alone. At least, it was what she imagined to be, since every time she started thinking about that subject and others similar to it, she felt her body trembling slightly and her mind seemed to be too full. 'Chill.' She thought, deciding to get into a bookstore that was partially empty. She felt dizzy for a moment and nearly stumbled on a book shelf. A young man who worked on the place hurried to her side.
"Are you okay, miss?" His face was full of concern as he put the shelf on place and turned to her.
"Yes. Ah just felt a bit dizzy. Mah pressure probably dropped. Thanks." She was feeling her hands cold underneath her gloves, and rubbed her hands. "Is there any place where Ah can sit down?"
"Sure!" He led her to the back of the store where there was an empty chair by a small round table, for people sit down and read the books. After offering her a glass of water, which she refused, the man walked away, and Rogue was left alone. She closed her eyes and focused on calming down. As her strength returned, she stood up to leave. She was walking out when she found a book that she had been looking for, so she decided to give it a read before going to the exposition.
Meanwhile, at the diamonds exposition, a man kept walking between the display glasses, his face half covered by a hat and sunglasses and a long brown trench coat covering most of his body. He looked carefully at the security guards while preparing his plan. When he took this mission, he had gotten a detailed map of all the alarms. Now all he had to do was to place this little special device in the right diamond glass to shut down the whole system. He approached a tall brunette wearing a security uniform that was standing by the side of a glass with a huge blue diamond inside it. He smiled lightly, trying to look as innocent as possible, glanced at the diamond and then looked at her.
"So beautiful…" he said.
"It's the African Blue Giant. It is a very rare type of diamond." She stated, smiling back to him.
"I wasn't talkin' about the diamond, chérie." The woman blushed and he went on, removing his sunglasses, revealing shocking red irises encrusted in black ocular globes. "In fact, I barely noticed it. I've been overshadowed by something else." He turned on his empathy with full force and stared right into her eyes, even if he felt he didn't need that… she had already taken the bait. There was a brief moment when he was overwhelmed by all the different emotions suddenly getting to him, as if a wave had just passed over him. His head felt strangely light but he controlled himself, keeping his face straight. "Can I come closer or do I need t' keep a safe distance?"
"You can come as close as you want." Her eyes were a little blurred and her voice sounded almost automatic. She pressed a button on the wall that turned off the alarms surrounding that area.
"Maybe y' could turn off the camera as well. Ya' don't want t' be caught talkin' to a stranger while in service, do ya'?" She nodded slowly and pressed two other buttons. The man closed the distance between them in a second, never breaking eye contact. He wondered that even if his main mutation was much more aggressive, this one was just as useful, especially for his type of job.
"Merci." His hand touched her face softly and she closed her eyes. He took this chance to put the tiny device on the base of the glass with the blue diamond inside. "There ya' go, p'tite." He whispered in a thick Cajun accent.
He smirked, all the innocence gone. He took his mobile, pressed a number on speed dial, then let it ring twice before turning it off and putting it back in his pocket. The woman was looking into his eyes again, standing still as he moved backwards slowly, turned away and put his sunglasses on again, mixing with a group of people that was just coming into the room. Only then did she blink and look around confused.
In a matter of seconds, sounds of screaming came from the other side of the mall. Suddenly, hundreds of people were running towards the exposition area, and a big confusion started as everyone tried to make it to the exit, just as planned. "Mutants! Mutants!" Some people were screaming and the security woman left her place to try to calm people down. As the hysteria went on, the man with the trench coat stealthily approached the diamond again, removed the glass over it, and took it with his agile hands. It seemed to glint before being put in a black bag, which he put in his pocket. He turned, and with a grin across his face, started running with the rest of the crowd towards the exit.
5 minutes before in another part of the mall:
"Pete, what do you think of these yellow ones?" Jubilee asked while holding a pair of shoes in her hand. Piotr sighed and said it was ok. "You know, you should cheer up. It's not like Kitty is dating him or something. After all, Bobby is with Rogue."
Looking alarmed, Piotr blushed deeply and whispered something she couldn't understand. Jubilee shook her head and got in line to pay for her shoes. They waited for a while when suddenly a big commotion started outside. "I think they just announced a big discount…damn, I'm still in here!" The girl said to herself, checking her watch anxiously.
"Jubilee, we have to go!" Piotr grabbed her by her arm and easily dragged her outside while she tried to resist with no success at all.
"Hey, my shoes!"
"Bobby, Kitty, Rogue, come to the north part of the mall. We have a big problem." He said into his arm communicator. They ran in the opposite direction of the crowd only to find a familiar face, laughing maniacally in the middle of the mob.
"Oh…So the mess is not because of the sales, after all." Jubilee took a fighting stance, angry because her shopping day was ruined.
"What the…?" Bobby said when he came running to Piotr's side, along with Kitty. "Pyro!"
"Ohhhh, things are about to get entertaining! The X-Babies are here!" Pyro screamed after turning around to face them.
"Yeah, I remember the 'X-Babies' kicking your butt last time, 'mate'." Bobby said sarcastically while turning into his ice form. Pyro stared at him madly and the flames around him became bigger.
"Let's see what happens this time…" Pyro snarled, sending big fire birds in their direction.
The trench coat guy went inside a broom closet and away from the crowd. He took the diamond from his pocket and smiled, admiring the rare gem. His eyes were shining a red light from behind the sunglasses as he looked into it. He threw the diamond in the air and caught it with a swift movement of his hand. With a quick look outside the door, he got out quickly and suddenly ran into someone who was running in the opposite direction. His sunglasses flew from his face and he stumbled back, putting a hand on the wall to regain his balance. He looked down with a quirked eyebrow to the girl who was sitting on the floor and looking up in surprise.
Rogue had never seen such a handsome man. She forgot to stand up and only realized her mouth was open when the man gave her a slight grin and offered his hand. She grabbed it and he pulled her up a bit too hard, nearly making her bump into his chest. She was able to keep her balance and stared into his eyes, which were half hidden behind locks of wavy auburn hair. Red on black eyes. That caused her heart to skip a beat.
"Sorry 'bout dat, chérie." He said in a husky voice, making her feel like something cold was going down her spine. He noticed her subtle reaction and it made him quickly interested in flirting a bit before getting his job done. No one would catch him anyway. He leaned a bit closer and removed a lock of white hair from her face. 'Such a belle face.' Was what came to his mind while he admired her green eyes and her lips.
What he didn't expect was that she would suddenly move away when he made his move. From the look in her eyes, he could tell she was strangely scared or surprised that he had gotten so close. 'Now dat's new'. He frowned and asked: "Are ya' alright?"
Rogue was still tense that he had gotten so close to touch her and sighed.
"Ye-yeah, Ah guess."
It was the first time in months someone got that close to her without hesitating at least a little bit. 'But after all, he doesn't know, does he?' Her eyes filled with sadness for a moment and this got the man even more intrigued. Never had a girl reacted like this to his presence. Maybe they got nervous, but not scared or upset.
"Rogue, where are you? We need some help in here!" Bobby's voice through the communicator snapped her out of the trance, and she shook her head as if trying to wake up.
"Hm, sorry for bumpin' into ya." She said in a hurry, and then started running in the direction that he had come from.
"Wait!" He tried to say but she was already gone. 'Why is she runnin' in dat direction?' The man thought, confused. He stood there for a few seconds and then ran to the exit of the mall, carrying the diamond in his pocket, with a name in his mind.
'Rogue.' He thought with a grin.
It took me a long while, but believe me: it was worth it! I hope everyone likes the changes! :D
Please review! ;*