17 February
Confront. –v (used with object. 1. to face in hostility or defiance; oppose 2. to present for acknowledgment, contradiction, etc.; set face to face 3. to face and deal with boldly or directly 4. to stand or come in front of; stand or meet facing 5. to be in one's way 6. to bring together for examination or comparison
Rogue awoke to a humanoid shadow hovering inches from her face. It pulled upwards and away before she had time to gain control of her limbs and whip around in bed to better face it. Suppressing a scream, she scrambled into a sitting position with her arms up. The shadow chuckled. It sat on her wall, faintly glowing eyes watching her reaction in scrunched up amusement.
"Kurt?" Rogue said into a heavy exhale. She lowered her hands beside her. "What are you doin' on mah wall?"
He chuckled again. "Es tut mir Leid, Rogue. We're playing a game. Hank gave me a head's up, and we're spreading the word."
Rogue blinked slowly and focused on the readout on the alarm clock beside her bed. "It's two in the mornin'."
Kurt shrugged. "You don't have school today."
Rogue blinked again and scrubbed her eyes with her hand. "What are we playin' at two in the mornin' on a not school day?"
"Hide and seek tag!" Kurt replied enthusiastically. "Scott thinks it's beneath him, Jean thinks she has an unfair advantage, so we're hiding from … Bobby. This was Hank's idea, but he chose Bobby as It."
"Besides Scott and Jean, are we all playin'?" Rogue asked through a yawn.
"Oh, Jean is playing," Kurt amended. "She is hiding with the rest of us. We're waking everyone up before Bobby has a chance to tag them in their sleep." He pushed off the wall, somersaulted midair, and landed perfectly on his feet on the ground, as naturally as anyone would walk.
"Does everyone else know we're playin' a game?"
"No," Kurt snickered.
"Am Ah the first you woke up?" Rogue wasn't nearby Bobby's room. If Bobby could win by walking into a room and tagging the first sleeping person, Rogue was a poor first choice.
"No. Hank woke Warren first, then me. I woke up Peter and Sean, then 'ported over to this side of the school. You are the first girl." He took a step toward the door, and then stopped to look back at her. "Do you want to play? You can opt out. This is a game."
Rogue felt a small flutter of an emotion she couldn't place in her chest. Kurt chose her first on the girl's side of the dormitories.
"Liebchen?"
"Yeah," Rogue said. "Yeah, Ah'll play along. Ah'll go get Ororo."
"I think Jean already woke her." He held out a hand, reaching toward her. "Want a lift?"
Rogue lifted a hand to take his before realizing that she wasn't wearing any gloves. He stepped aside as she got on her feet, took her gloves from off her nightstand, and put them on. "Where to, Sugah?" She took his hand in hers, offering a light squeeze and a faint smile.
"Anywhere inside the mansion," he told her with a smiling flash of his fangs.
Rogue licked her lips as she thought about it. "What if we run through the hall like idiots until we figure it out?" she asked.
Kurt held his free fingers up to his mouth to physically hold in a laugh. "Ja, I love it." With a gentle tug, he stepped toward her door, tried the handle, and burst out of her room without looking. Rogue followed, giggling in his wake.
The halls were dimly lit with nightlights near the floor. Despite Kurt's claims of a mansion-wide game, no one else moved about the corridors with them. Their feet thundered over the carpet, slowing only for the hallway to change directions. It was as abandoned as the first.
"Downstairs?" Rogue said to Kurt.
He said nothing, but pulled her down the hall to the stairs. Without missing a beat, he skittered down the stairs at an enthusiastic pace. Rogue overstepped one stair, but Kurt's balance held her upright in their flight downstairs. They stopped at the bottom, neither out of breath, but both softly giggling between inhales. Their eyes met, albeit briefly, and they both quickly looked for their next pathway.
Kurt moved first, guiding her along with a small tug at her hand, and they darted through the next hallway toward the kitchen and eating area. Piotr appeared before them, standing steadfast in the middle of the way. Rogue nearly crashed into Kurt as he came to an abrupt stop.
"Lost?" Kurt asked him.
Piotr smiled. "I need not run," he said.
"You need also not hide?" Kurt snorted.
"Da," Piotr said with a shrug. "Bobby is not here."
"Great. You can let us know when Bobby comes this way."
Piotr rolled a hand in a smaller shrug. "Or I become It and know where to find you for tagging."
Rogue's mouth quirked up. Stepping around Piotr, she brought Kurt along with her, and led the way to the kitchen. They crossed the threshold, and Rogue let go to send him an amused look. "Ah feel like you wanted here for a reason."
Kurt's face lit up. "Midnight snack!" he crowed. "Did you know there gives pudding cups in the cupboard?" He skipped over to that cupboard and pulled two out, waving them in front of himself by way of presentation.
"I don't think those were for midnight snacks," Betsy said from the table. She sat with her hands folded before her.
"They are now," Kurt said. He held them up higher. "Want one?"
"Sure."
Kurt grabbed a third from the cupboard and gently tossed one in her direction. She managed to catch it with a small fumble, but didn't let it hit the table too hard to explode. Kurt carried Rogue's over to her, setting it into her hand. No sooner did she grab hold of it that he had the lid of his own pudding cup off.
"Bobby's probably looking for you specifically," Betsy said as she stood up from her chair. She crossed the kitchen to pull open a drawer and procure a spoon. Wordlessly, she held it up to Rogue in silent question. Rogue nodded once.
"Rogue?" Kurt asked.
"No, you," Betsy replied. She grabbed a second spoon and brought it over to where Rogue stood.
"Thank-you."
Betsy returned to her place at the table, settling into the chair before opening her pudding cup.
"Why me?"
"Either you, Sean, Remy, or Ororo," Betsy clarified.
"Why's that?" Rogue asked, intrigued.
"Because those four have never been caught in a game like this before," Betsy explained. "I think Kurt cheats."
"Teleporting?" Kurt asked innocently. "I was never told that I wasn't allowed."
"The other three – they've never been found. Jean said she's never tried finding anyone with her psychic powers, but I have. Just to see. I still can't find them. Remy has an unfair advantage psychically, but I don't know how Ororo and Sean hide so well."
"You've only been It once," Kurt said around a mouthful of pudding.
"Yeah, because I absolutely keep track of where It is, but that's a little difficult when I'm asleep."
Kurt held up his free hand defensively. "That wasn't me. That was Jean."
"I know; you've never been It."
Rogue finished scraping the last of the pudding out of her cup. "The buildin's really big for a game of hide'n seek," she observed. She threw out the cup and returned her spoon to the sink. "How long's a game usually last?"
A crashing sound interrupted Betsy before she could get a word out of her mouth. Kurt whipped around and poked his head through the kitchen threshold to investigate. "Oh," he said. He scrambled, throwing what remained of his pudding on the counter and leaping toward Rogue. "Want to handle this on your own, or?"
Bobby slid into the doorway, full Iceman form, eyes alit at the sight of his quarry.
Rogue quickly grabbed at his shoulders and immediately suffered the squeezing and pulling sensation of Kurt's teleport. Nearly doubling over at the other end, she looked up in time to see Piotr swing a fist at a glob of ice at his feet. She held up her arm to shield her face.
Kurt tapped her arm as he darted away, bouncing excitedly as he ran. "Good luck, Liebchen!" he called before disappearing again. Rogue watched him and then turned around, avoiding Piotr gently brushing past her. Betsy left the kitchen at a hastened pace behind him, and Rogue had a pretty good idea that she was now It.
She felt the thrill of the chase as adrenaline fueled her body. Taking off, she quickly overcame Piotr and ran down the hallways to find a new place to hide.