There was a tapping at her window. Which was strange, for obvious reasons. She was on the second floor, and anyone in the mansion who wanted to talk to her could easily come to her door themselves. It was that reason in particular, that she was nervous about going to her window.
When she got there she was only slightly relieved. She opened it up and looked out, seeing Viktor leaning casually against her wall with a smile. “Sitting around alone again?”
Rogue glared at him, going back into her bedroom and placing her book carefully on her full book case. “Been watching me?” she accused darkly, zipping up her sweater so she wasn’t quite so exposed. Viktor liked to come around and say hi every so often. She was sure it was just to bug Logan, but she didn’t mind much. Normally however, he would never come to her room. Logan would be able to smell him.
He shrugged. “Can’t help but hear.” He dismissed the thought, wandering in after her and looking around. “So where’s lover boy?”
She turned on him, folding her arms across her chest. “Busy. But you already knew that, or you wouldn’t be here.”
His smile showed his fangs, subtly sharpened. “Well, I did see them doing... what was it, a class?” he admitted. “It looked more like a demonstration for something else.”
Rogue took a deep breath to calm herself and not let him get to her. “Sometimes that is necessary to help the students to learn defence.” She said, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself, not him. Which depressed her. “But whatever, you can’t be here. Logan will rip out your heart if he catches you. Are you trying to get me in trouble?”
“Like you said,” he said with a smile. “He’s busy.”
She glared at him. “Working.” She clarified.
“Sure.”
“Go away Viktor.” She muttered angrily.
“Don’t want some company?” He asked.
“Actually, no” she told him, pushing him towards the window. “I have to get ready to go for a celebratory dinner with Logan.”
“Busy man.” He laughed as he started to climb out the window. He started to step out before he glanced back at her. “You know, if anyone sees me sneaking out of your bedroom window when Logan isn’t around. Kinda looks bad, don’t you think?”
“Go.” She hissed angrily.
“I think I’ll try to make sure someone sees. Can’t wait to see Wolverine’s face.” He laughed and slipped out. So she was alone again. She closed the window with a deliberate slam and folded her arms across her chest, wandering towards the bathroom.
After a long shower of scrubbing her hair with her new favourite peach shampoo, Rogue had completely cleansed herself and convinced herself that there was absolutely no reason to believe that Jean would try anything with Logan, let alone have him return whatever affection it was.
She took her time doing her hair and makeup for dinner with Logan later. She straightened her hair so that it was soft, settling nicely past her shoulders. The white streak in the front did nothing but annoy her, however there was nothing she could do about it. No dye would cover it and nothing could hide it but a wig. So she just learned to love it, and it looked nice straightened.
Rogue wore her favourite classic black skirt and leggings, along with her black corset like shirt that hugged around her stomach with nice lacing down the front, showing not much, but enough skin on her chest and back. The sleeves covered just the ends of her shoulders and only two or three inches down her arms. She was wearing blue eye shadow, which brought out the blue flecks in her green eyes.
Overall, she looked beautiful. And that’s what she wanted. Logan may be able to get his pick of any of the girls on campus, but she could make it clear why he had chosen her.
She headed out of her dorm and down the stairs tucking her hair behind her ears so that she could see a little better. Otherwise it was falling in front of her eyes constantly. She figured she may be waiting for Logan a while, but hopefully she would run into Bobby again. He was a very nice man, and he was her age surprisingly.
Rogue went into the kitchen and saw Kurt, Kitty and John standing there talking. They went silent for a moment when they saw her. Kitty sucked in a breath. “Wow, Rogue you look amazing.”
She smiled at her. “Thanks.” She said reaching into the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water. They continued, thinking that she was just going to ignore them as usual. John had his lighter in his hand as always, starting the flame and blowing it out over and over again as he continued with casual conversation.
They were discussing the science homework from Biology. A subject Rogue had finished a while back. It seemed like they were having trouble with it. “Studying digestion?” Rogue asked as she walked up to them and leaned against a nearby counter.
Kurt look surprised but then thrilled. “Yes.” He said with his thick German accent. “There’s a lot to remember.” He murmured.
“Yeah,” she agreed. “The best thing to do is take as many notes as you can and keep them all together in order.” She watched their expression as they turned from surprised to understanding. “Everyday take the notes home and type them up or rewrite them so that you remember them more. Every once in a while re-read them , and then at the end of the semester study together and try to teach each other parts you don’t understand.” She continued “When you teach something you are so much more likely to remember it.”
Smiles lit up all their faces. “No wonder you did so well on your teaching exam.” John muttered shoving his lighter in his pocket.
Rogue couldn’t help but beam. She was in an incredible mood. She would have something to do around here finally, and she could focus more on getting along with Logan, while getting to know more students while she taught. With any luck, by the end of this year, maybe Bobby and Logan wouldn’t be the only ones who didn’t hate her.
“Thanks.” She said humbly. “Has the defence class gotten back yet?”
Kitty nodded. “I just saw Logan and Jean in the TV room.”
“Thanks again.” Rogue called over her shoulder, trying to sound as nice and non-threatening as possible as she headed into the other room. Just outside she paused at the mirror in the hall and quickly fixed her hair. She wanted to surprise him. He had never seen her like this.
Trying to be quiet she crept around the corner and stood in the entranceway about to say “Ready to go?” as nonchalantly as possible. But what she saw caught her words in her throat, a deadly possibility of choking on them as she stared at Logan against the wall with Jean pressed against him far too close to be normal. Her face was only inches from his, her wrist was on his shoulder with her fingers casually stroking the back of his neck and her other arm was wrapped around him. One of his hands however was on her bare, thin waist.
Rogue’s shallow breathing gave her away as she tried to make herself believe she was imagining it. But it wasn’t disappearing. She wasn’t waking up.
The smell of vanilla hit him like a ton of bricks, overpowering the scent of candy apples that Jean had. It was because he liked vanilla more. When Rogue was around it always seemed like a bakery. His hand pushed Jean to the side as he saw her. “Rogue?” he murmured, surprised by her appearance and then the fact that she was there. He realized immediately what she was seeing because Jean stayed close, almost gripping his arm as she tried to look innocent.
“Logan...” She choked out desperately before she spun around, not willing to see anymore and ran down the hallway towards the first exit she saw. The sliding door opened immediately without her even touching it as she rushed past the students who were still there. Out on the balcony she looked up and saw the ledge that she would sit on, but she didn’t want to go there. Out at the edge of the field was the inviting and empty gazebo. A place to hide.
She was there in an instant as the wind swirled around her, carrying her there without any effort whatsoever. It used to take a lot of concentrated power, but now somehow she accessed every power she wanted to at once. It was easy. Sitting inside the gazebo, she pulled her legs up against her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She looked out and saw the sunset lighting up the golden field around her. It was beautiful and so was she, but she didn’t feel like it. Not anymore. She wasn’t anything in comparison to Jean. She thought she was stupid for even thinking there was a competition. It was like placing a prize winning poodle against the runt of a litter of border collies.
Rogue crushed her face into her knees, trying to comfort herself and not think about it at the same time. She never wanted to hate Jean. She didn’t want to hate anyone. But Jean had done it. She had made Rogue hate her, and that was not a good thing. Next time Jean did anything, she wasn’t going to get away with it.
She knew she couldn’t hide out here forever, and since she had been thinking about how angry she would be if Logan came out here, he probably knew not to from the professor. But she didn’t want to be alone. It was the last thing she wanted.
Rogue heard someone coming, but didn’t bother to turn around and look. She thought it would be Logan. And she didn’t want to look at him right now. She couldn’t do it without seeing Jean’s snake like arms around him. So she sat there staring out at the ocean, thinking about how nice it would be to just run away. But she couldn’t.
“I know what it feels like...” a voice she didn’t expect started. “Except I’m the jealous type, so it’s much worse.” His voice sounded almost humorous and she glanced beside her to see Scott sitting there.
She sighed looking straight forward again closing her eyes. “I don’t get jealous.” She muttered under her breath. “I just get confused.”
Scott glanced over at her, but she couldn’t tell where his eyes were looking because of his sunglasses. “Confused about what?” he asked, truly interested.
Rogue shrugged slowly, letting her legs down and touching the floor with them again. She pressed her palms against the wood on both sides of her hips till it hurt. “Why I’m not enough.” She admitted.
“Ah,” Scott understood and thought about it for a while. “So you blame yourself for someone else’s actions?”
She hadn’t thought about it that way. “I suppose so.” She murmured.
He took a deep breath and turned towards her, leaning against the fence. “Look, I used to worry about Jean and Wolverine all the time.” He leaned his head back and looked up at the gazebo’s ceiling. “They used to have something. They’ll always be close. It’s just something I’ll have to deal with.”
Rogue didn’t want to tell him what she had seen because she knew it would hurt him as much as it was hurting her. It wasn’t much, but the way she was looking at him. It had been like a anaconda looking at its prey that it was about to take control of.
“I’m fine Scott. Really.” She lied carefully, an easy assurance. “It just surprised me. I’ll be good. I promise.”
He smiled at her. It was just a curl at the corner of his mouth. He patted her on the back as he got up and started to walk back to the mansion.
“It’ll turn out fine.” He insisted. “You two have tons of time to make it work.”
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