Rogue jumped out of the SUV and looked at Logan. “Are the bags in the back?” she asked. When he nodded, she went around and started pulling out duffels even as the rest of the team pulled up in the other SUV and got out. Jubilee pointed out which bag held Rogue's uniform. She grabbed it and headed into the building, trailing the others behind her. She led them through the pale blue hallway and up the backstairs to the third, and top, floor. Rogue fished her keys out of her purse and opened her door, gesturing for the team to go in first.
Rogue's apartment consisted of a large living area, a nondescript kitchen tucked off to one side with appliances that might have been purchased around the time of her birth, and a bedroom that fit her king-sized bed and little else. The best part, and its one saving grace, was that it had an inordinately large bathroom for its size. Rogue watched those who had never visited before take in the amenities, especially Logan. He walked around looking at her sparse hand-me-down furniture, and she could see his nostrils flaring as he sniffed. She wondered what it was that he was looking for.
“Just make yourselves at home. Ah wouldn't suggest changing into your uniforms until closer to the time to meet. It'll get pretty hot in here with all the body heat, and adding leather to t hat is like asking for heat stroke! Bathroom's through the first door to your right. If anyone wants a nap, my bed's available,” Rogue said, struggling not to blush as she realized how that sounded. Jubilee smirked at her, and since her friend was close enough, Rogue smacked her lightly on the arm.
“Does the TV work?” Logan asked as he dropped onto her couch and looked dubiously at the old set she had purchased recently.
“Of course it does!” Rogue replied indignantly. Trying to control the urge to smack him somewhere a little more damaging than his arm, she turned to the others who were prowling around. Jubilee had already made herself comfortable in her favorite chair, a black leather thing that she insisted always went well with her yellow. Piotr joined Logan on the couch, and Bobby, Scott and Ororo settled for the small dining table against one wall.
“Can Ah get any of you something to drink?” Rogue asked as she headed toward the kitchen. A chorus of “No, thank you”—or variants—followed her even as the TV was switched on. The guys were lucky in that she had been watching a hockey game last, so ESPN was on.
Rogue was pouring herself a glass of water when her doorbell rang. Glass in hand, she headed toward the door and looked out the peephole. Glowing red eyes stared back at her. Grinning, Rogue opened the door and gave her visitor a hug.
“Remy! Ah thought we said we wouldn't meet until tonight!” she said as she pulled him inside and closed the door quickly.
“Eh, petite, Remy wanted to meet these friends of yours. Remy sees a dangerous one in here already,” the red-haired man said with an answering grin as his eyes light on Jubilee, who had jumped up. “Chere, you lookin' good!” He let go of Rogue's waist and moved to take Jubilee's hand, dropping a kiss on it. Rogue watched in amusement, rolling her eyes a bit at the way Jubilee's glazed over at that kiss.
Rogue sipped her water to hide her smirk as Remy greeted Ororo. He hadn't been in town when Ororo visited last, although he had been the one to call the mansion and talk to her after Rogue's run-in with Carol Danvers. Watching the interaction between the serene beauty and the too-suave Cajun was highly entertaining. Apparently Remy wasn't used to his lines falling flat like that. Hell, even Rogue had given in for a short time, albeit grudgingly and with an eye toward seeing if maybe that charm could help her get over a certain mutant glowering on her couch. Unfortunately, that plan hadn't worked very well, although the effort had been enjoyable in and of itself.
“Remy, what are you doing here?” Rogue asked again after she introduced him to the men as Remy LeBeau, otherwise known as Gambit among the thieves.
“Petite, Remy think maybe we go over the two groups' plans, come up with just one,” Remy told her, moving back to where she was leaning against the wall next to the table.
Rogue grimaced. “You're right, Ah guess. Ah wasn't sure how they'd react to our ideas,” she said, silently amending that she wasn't sure how Logan would react to them. She was aware that she had caught the X-Men's attention, though.
“What idea is that, Rogue?” Scott asked, his eyebrows raising over the ruby-quartz lenses of his sunglasses.
Shrugging, Rogue replied, “Well, Ah figured that you'd have made plans to distract most of the guards while getting the prisoners out as safely as possible. Ah told my friends, and they made a pretty valid point. We don't just need a distraction. We need bait.”
Of them all, only Logan seemed to understand at first. “No fucking way!” he growled predictably.
Rogue ignored him. “We need a mutant, preferably female, who will appeal to their greed. Oh, if only they can take her during the fight, defeat the rest of these meddlesome mutants, breed little mutant babies on her to sell to the highest bidder...just think, they could be rich!” she said, sarcasm dripping from her lips like poison. “It will have to be someone who looks fairly weak in the physical sense and with a mutation that they think is more defensive than offensive, one easily tamed with drugs and valuable on the black market after she pushes out so many brats she loses the ability to breed more from exhaustion or something.”
Realization came quickly for the rest of the X-Men. Rogue was pleased to note that most of the expressions were considering, not forbidding in the way she had feared. There was, of course, one glaring exception—literally. His hazel eyes burned her as he tried to get her attention, but she persisted in pretending that she didn't notice.
“So you want to play bait, Rogue? Do you know what that means?” Scott asked as he leaned forward over the table.
Rogue nodded. “Yeah, Ah do. Ah'll have to let them get pretty close to me, and Ah won't be able to use most of my new mutations until we have enough of them out of that building to make sure that the team going in will have an easy time getting pregnant women, weak men, and children out,” she said. Chin high, she told him, “Ah can do it. They won't be able to trank me, so there's no way they can get their hands on me. Ah'm the best one for the job.”
“Why the fuck do we need bait, anyway? We're not exactly lacking in firepower just with the people in this room, not to mention the reinforcements the Cajun can get us,” Logan asked loudly, still staring at her.
Rogue swung to face him, hands on her hips. “We need bait because that will draw out the ones with the real firepower. Those are the people we need out of the way while the rescue is underway. Otherwise, one of those poor women might get killed, or one of those babies, and no fucking way am Ah gonna let that happen if Ah can avoid it!”
“What happened to being bullet proof and all that shit? Why do you need to put yourself out there even more?” Logan was really shouting now, which made Rogue raise her voice to match his for the second time that day.
“Because Ah want to, Logan! If Ah didn't have these damn extra powers Ah'd be just as vulnerable as those other women to predators like these! What good would my skin have done before against tranquilizer darts or beatings as long as it it was covered? The bullet proof skin and the strength and everything make it my responsibility to stop what's going on now that Ah know about it, because they can't! It's my life, so butt out!”
Logan opened his mouth to argue, but he was cut off. “I agree with Rogue. This is something that will help the plan succeed. The more effective the distraction, the easier it will be to extract the mutants being held,” Scott said, calm and cool.
Rogue smiled tightly at him. “Thank you, Scott. Now, Ah need a little fresh air. Ah'll be back in a minute,” she said. Draining her glass, she put it in the sink, ignoring the looks that Scott and Ororo exchanged.
Rogue stalked past the crowd in her living room and out to the small balcony attached to it. Even that wasn't enough space for her raging emotions after a few minutes, though, so she glanced inside to make sure no one was watching, then took the fire escape up to the roof. Once she reached the flat concrete expanse, Rogue tried to breathe deeply as the Professor had once taught her. Centering her emotions was a little difficult at present, though, so Rogue decided that physical activity was in order despite the muggy heat of the afternoon. She looked at the opposite side of the roof, smiled a little, and ran toward the edge. Jumping lightly, she was airborne.
Logan watched Rogue go out to her balcony and ran a hand through his hair. Why the hell was the damn woman insisting on doing this? Okay, so admittedly she might be the best one for the job, but did she have a death wish? She was right. They would see her as a prize to be gained at all costs, especially if all she was showing was that deadly skin. In the past he had considered things like that, how valuable his various teammates would seem to the government. It was something that had to be taken into account when they were on some types of missions. Who do you try to keep out of the government's reach the hardest? He had talked about it with Professor Xavier several times. In fact, they had come up with a vulnerability chart for every student and former student of the place so that they could keep their eyes open for the ones whom the government would be all too glad to get their hands on.
When Logan saw Rogue go up the metal steps of her fire escape out of the corner of his eye, he decided to follow. The others were pretty absorbed in figuring out who would do what out of the two groups, so he slipped out onto the balcony and went up the rickety stairs himself. He reached the top just in time to see Rogue run for the edge and jump off. Yelling in horror, he ran for the spot she'd disappeared. A strange and incredibly beautiful sight met his eyes.
Rogue soared just above the level of the top windows of her building. She shot up high into the sky, twisting lazily in the sunlight. Logan felt his breath catch in his throat. If he had thought her beautiful before, he thought her gorgeous now. So full of energy and power, her whole body seemed to vibrate with it as she flew. She must have seen him standing there because she landed lightly after a few corkscrews and a dive that had his heart in his throat until she pulled out of it at the last second.
“What do you want?” she asked. Okay, so she was still angry.
“Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry, alright? It's just that the thought of you going into danger...I've never liked it,” Logan admitted. He was startled by her snort.
“You're so predictable, Logan. Ah knew you wouldn't be happy with my decision. That doesn't mean Ah'm gonna just give in and stay on the sidelines. Ah meant what Ah said. These new abilities of mine—Ah feel wrong if Ah'm not doing something with them when Ah know it can help. Ah feel like her life—and her death—was wasted,” she told him as she sat on the edge of the roof looking out, away from him. Logan realized that she meant the Danvers woman.
“You said yourself that she was going to kill your friends, Marie. You did the right thing,” he told her, laying a hand on her shoulder.
Rogue finally looked at him. “Ah still killed her, Logan. Ah felt every beat of her heart through her wrist, felt when the blood stopped flowing. Just because it was the right thing doesn't make it easy,” she said bitterly.
Logan nodded slowly. “Yeah, I know. And I guess I can see how you'd want to do what you can to make up for that death. I feel the same way sometimes,” he admitted, thinking about Jean, about things that haunted his sleep some nights that he couldn't remember in the daylight.
Rogue was silent, but she did reach up to grip his hand even as she turned to look back out at the city.
After a few minutes of silently standing there like that, grateful for that one touch if nothing else, Logan asked, “If you want to make a difference so much, does that mean you'll be coming back?” He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
She opened her mouth, hesitated, and then replied, “Ah guess so. Someday. Ah just...Ah can't live there like Ah did before, Logan. Ah can't stand...Never mind. Thank you for the apology.” The smile she gave him was overly bright, but he wasn't sure what to say, what to ask.
Logan moved back when she swung her legs back over to the roof and stood up. He stared into those eyes that were so different and yet held so many familiar, nameless emotions. Well, emotions he had never tried to name before. She smiled again, a small, sad smile this time, then took his hand.
“C'mon. Let's go back to the planning before all the good jobs are taken. After all, Ah have to have some fun after being 'bait',” she said, drawing him along behind her. He allowed her to, marveling at the feelings her small hand in his were producing inside him.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
Now, at Rogue's apartment...
Chapter End Notes:
Okay, I just had to lighten things up for them a little. I'm not going to let it go too fast, though, if that's what you're wanting and/or worried about. This one's going to be as slow and winding as the Mississippi River itself.