Todd actually paid enough attention to his history book that he could tell the difference between MLK and HPN. Usually, he was certain to find something (anything really) to distract him from his homework. But X-23 and Rogue walked him home after his detention. Now he desperately sought something to keep his attention off the two girls sitting on his bed.

Which of course made him sneak a peek out of the corner of his eye. Rogue sat at the foot of his bed with her boots on the floor, history book in her lap and wearing a secretive smile as well as her usual ensemble. Could she suspect what was going through his head? He hoped not.

X-23 had curled herself into a tight ball with her back against the wall, leather jacket and combat boots and all. She flipped a page in her history book, glanced at it, looked up at the ceiling and then flipped to the next. Toad wondered what exactly was so interesting about his ceiling. Was that something he was supposed to clean as well?

"Like what you see, shug?", Rogue asked without looking up.

The boy was completely flustered. He attempted to recover with asking X-23 a question. "Are you actually reading?"

X-23 glared at the ceiling for a moment but did not turn the page. "I thought we were supposed to be studying, so we could answer the questions on the test we'll be given."

Todd and Rogue nodded. The girl continued. "Well, I'm using a memorization technique for stealing the information from classified documents that must not be found stolen. At the test, I'm sure I'll remember the pages well enough to pick the answer."

Rogue sighed. "The test is a means to an end. You're supposed to learn this stuff, so you can use it. The test is just to make sure you did."

"Then why set up a scoring system and reward us on that? And not on how much we learn?", X-23 asked.

"Exactly.", Todd agreed. "The only thing I learned is that America values civil rights movements as long as it's blacks or gays but not ours. These books talk about how all these leaders were so great but don't say anything about what the feds have done to us or Mags. Or even professor X.

"Plus, we're the only group that's had its existence discounted."

Rogue pursed her lips. "That's not quite true, Todd. When you look at The State of the State of Virginia and the response in An Appeal in Four Articles, you can see how people like even Thomas Jefferson tried to cover up the oppression they were committing by dismissing their victims while embracing their actions. It wasn't until very recently that we had enough brain scanning technology to know that the LGBT community are born the way they are - people thought they were just a behavior."

"Plus, most revolutions fail.", X-23 pointed out. "When you're inside a history changing one, you'll never know because the forces in power are still producing propaganda to discredit you. If we want change, we'll have to fight now and worry about Magneto or Dr. Xavier or Sinister getting a place in a library later."

Rogue smiled and raised her book. "Come here and I'll show you."

Todd stayed seated. Rogue patted the spot next to her. X-23 looked at her and then Todd. "It's your bed anyway.", she said while managing to make herself smaller to clear space.

"You don't want to?", Rogue said sarcastically.

X-23 looked up at Rogue and then back at Todd. She furrowed her brow in confusion.

Todd hesitated. "I...No one's wanted me around before, is all. I feel like I shouldn't want to sit next to you, like I'm doing you wrong by wanting to."

"Well, that's dumb.", X-23 assessed. "Even if I believed that people in general didn't want you around, it's like Magneto says. We're mutants - we're going to be wildly different than anyone else. Rest assured, both Rogue and I want to be here. And near you. Why else would we have come to your room instead of the mansion's library?"

Todd couldn't really argue with that. He still moved slowly but sat on the bed. X-23 moved in to smell him. "Who could get enough of that scent?", she wondered with a smile.

Todd instantly remembered what people thought of his hygiene. He dared to look Rogue in the eye. Rogue appeared thoughtful. The girl slowly leaned in as if approaching a skittish cat. When her hair was dangerously close to Todd's face, she took a deep breath in through her nose. It wasn't her expectations. Honestly, she didn't know what her expectations were. She was close enough to tell that he was sweating nervously. (It wasn't like she felt heat off him like he was sweating due to exercising, or hot. But how many amphibian characteristics did he have - was he cold blooded?) So she was certain that his scent was...accurate? representative? The closest thing she could compare Todd's scent to was maybe a menthol cough drop but more, maybe less. It held no plastic attempt at some ill conceived fruit flavoring made out of mostly corn syrup, but just clean. It was strong like a hospital or dentist's office but without the unnaturalness. She gently took his arms in gloved hand by his shirt's elbows to breathe in again and it was as if her sinuses were clear for the first time, like she had finally caught her breath and the whole world had been this muggy, sweltering mess. Rogue realized she had no imagination for what a bouquet he seemed to be to X-23.

Todd felt two hands stretch over his back. "See what I mean?", X-23 said lazily. "It's like everyone else is a partially cooked sack of meat. And he's the cure." She spread her hands and laid her head on Todd's back so she could listen to Todd...more than she could otherwise.

Todd was pressed closer to Rogue. She pulled her head to the side, so as to avoid contact with his skin. She licked her lips and smiled at the expression Todd made watching her lick her lips. At this close, she could whisper and have him hear her as well as X-23. "Do you...want to kiss me? Or have me kiss you?", she corrected remembering his reluctance.

The boy nodded. "But...", Todd began to object. He did not want to spoil this moment or the offer. But she was still Rogue, and her touch was, well, he did not even want to think it too loud.

Rogue rubbed his arm. "I know, shug. But apparently you can. You just have to, um...cover your lips with...your...you know" Now it was her turn to try to not mention his mutations. Somehow this had gotten awkward between them while X-23's soft purrs while she rubbed her gloved hands across his shirt seemed to comfort the both of them.

"Okay.", he whispered. Todd opened his mouth slightly and hoped, wished, hoped his tongue would not lash out violently or worse - poke Rogue dead in the eye. But it snaked out carefully and coated his lips, his nose, the bottom half of his face with a thin sheen that Rogue could just barely see. At his hopeful look and not coming closer, Rogue chose. She would have nodded but that might have had their foreheads touch at this range. She leaned into press her lips to his.

And it worked. She wished she could remember the feel of her copy when she had used Jamie's ability to compare, but the actual act of kissing Todd wouldn't let her leave this moment. And again her expectations were dashed. She had anticipated an exhilaration, a sense of accomplishment: that she had managed to side step her power's biggest limitation and actually managed to get around it. Instead, she found herself filled with empathy. She wanted to let him know that his powerful scent seemed absent from whatever he had coated himself with. She wanted so many things. Her heart filled with concern.

Rogue set a gloved hand against his cheek. "I want you to know...I ain't just choosin' you because you's the only one that what could.", she drawled. "You're a good man, Todd. Even if you don't believe it, and everyone downstairs doesn't want you to be. Or at least you can be when ya want-ta-be."

Todd's eyes glazed over as he was about to consider the things he had done in the past, and what that might mean for his future. But Rogue interrupted that thought process. "Did you want ta kiss me again?", she asked, batting her eye lashes.

Todd greedily gave in. If she had not been holding his elbows, he would have enveloped her in a tremendous embrace along with pressing his lips into hers as strongly as he dared. He felt she parted her lips and again he dared not hope. She breathed out and he nearly could smell her breath but not quite and it reminded him to breath. She heard no moan but could feel a long croaking that she took as a good sign.

"Didja like that?", Rogue smiled. Todd nodded. "I think someone else might want a kiss, too." She arched her eyebrows over his shoulder.

X-23 pulled away before Todd could even turn. This was the first time he ever saw her nervous. He understood that she did not act the way she was because she was extraordinarily brave, even if she was. She just had an astounding lack of self-consciousness. (He worried more and more that it was washed out of her by being locked away in a lab and watched every moment of her life.) "It's not that I don't want to.", she began. "It's...well..."

"You don't have to come up with an excuse if you don't want to.", Todd assured her. "I understand."

"No you don't.", she stated plainly. Finally she growled in frustration. "Well, you two were nervous about how your powers would act in this situation."

Rogue looked confused. "What? You think your healing factor might do something with his...I don't want to call it 'secretions'..."

Todd's eyes widened. "Yo."

"Exactly.", X-23 agreed.

Rogue's attention bounced between the two of them.

X-23 shook her head and explained. "I'm super sensitive, remember?"

"Oh.", Rogue began to understand.

The other girl continued. "Even through my gloves and the leather coat, feeling him is just so intense. And then seeing how a kiss affected the two of you. I just don't know how I'll react."

"That's okay.", Todd told her.

"No, it's not.", Rogue objected.

Todd looked over his shoulder to her.

Rogue elaborated. "Do you want to kiss him?", she asked. X-23 nodded. "Do you want her to kiss you?", she asked Todd. The boy shifted when put on the spot but nodded in honesty. "Then it's not okay to not even try."

Rogue reached around either side of Todd. The boy tried not to think of her pressing her chest into his back but slowly realized he probably had permission to at least think about it. "Give me your hands.", she instructed X-23. The other girl scooted closer to Todd and put her gloved fingers in the palms of Rogue's gloved hands.

"I'm going to point your claws away from everyone, okay?", Rogue told her. "So just feel what you will. And remember that both me and Todd are right here if you need anything."

X-23 smiled and nodded. She scooted closer to Todd, making him wonder how flexible she actually was since she still had folded her legs between them. Her adimantium bones should prevent that, unless she was just grinding her cartilage to paste all the time. The girl gave him a quick peck. "That wasn't so much.", she said. Then she paused and licked her lips. "Oh wow.", she corrected. "That's heady."

Rogue lost X-23's hands as she tried to keep Todd's head crashing into hers as the other girl pulled them tight against her. The three of them were knocked into a lying position as X-23 licked the boys lips and then pushed them aside with her tongue as she tried to lick his teeth clean. Todd frantically tried to neutralize whatever she was trying to drink from him.

After a moment, she restrained herself. "Thank you...for, well, allowing me to catch myself.", X-23 told him.

Todd had his hands on her back as lightly as he could, not knowing where to let them land. "I didn't want to make you/"

"Don't go there.", Rogue told him.

X-23's eyes lit up. "Oh, no. Todd - you have my total consent to kiss me. And Rogue too. Right?"

Rogue said, "I could use some more."

X-23 laid her hands on Todd's chest and looked thoughtful. "Look, you consent to us at least in part because of how we look, right?"

Todd did not know how to respond to that. "That's not all. I mean, sure, you're both beautiful but/"

"And what about my constantly beating up people in the Danger Room for exercise? Or Rogue's ridiculous purple lipstick and eye shadow? Are we somehow tricking you or making you do anything?", she asked.

"No, of course not.", he replied.

X-23 continued. "What about my healing factor? I have completely unblemished skin all over. I'm perfectly and self-correctingly symmetrical. In some small ways, other girls can't be as pretty as me the same way I'll never have a swan like neck. Or my senses? I can probably know your moods before anyone else does if I tried, and react accordingly. Am I using my powers to make you do something you don't want to?"

And Todd actually considered the point. "Yeah, I guess you're not a telepath changing my thoughts, yo."

"Rogue's psionic.", X-23 told him matter of factly. Todd could feel Rogue's sigh of indignation. "When we leave, are you going to feel manipulated by her if she happens to leave with a stray memory of yours?"

"No.", he realized.

"Then don't think that you're making me do anything just because you're attractive in the way that you are. Some girls like the fact that Nightcrawler is blue or has fur. Jean finds some reason to find Cyclops attractive, and if it turns out that she can sense all the energy running around behind his eyes what does it matter? What if Jubilee or Magma and Iceman are the only people whose powers allow them to be properly excited together?

"So when I say...or react...or maybe over react...when I kiss you, believe that I want to, okay?", she finished.

Rogue ran her gloved hands against his sleeved arms. "We need to get our boy some self-esteem."

"Okay.", Todd agreed.

"Good.", Rogue said. "Now let me up. It feels like there's four of you on top of me."

X-23 kneeled off of them and Rogue felt three quarters of the weight leave her. "Sorry.", Todd told her when he sat up.

"It's getting late anyway.", she told him. "We have to get back."

The two girls packed up their things. X-23 pecked his cheek. Rogue looked amiss but settled for blowing him a kiss. When they opened the door to his room, the entirety of the Brotherhood was there wearing the biggest smiles. Rogue shoved her way past them and X-23 followed through the hole. Wanda waved each finger individually, "Bye-bye girls."

Todd wondered if he had additional lung capacity as power, because he super-sighed.