Deamon Lover

Rogue strolled down to breakfast grinning like an idiot. Stretching like a cat, she arched her back
and walked through the doorway that led to the dining room. The satisfied smile that had been
plastered all over her face faded when she saw everyone but Logan and Professor Xavier around
the breakfast table. Scott was helping Jean sit down and the rest watched in stony silence as Jean
tried to steady her weak body on the chair. As though by silent command everyone at the table
turned and stared at Rogue hovering indecisively in the doorway. Rogue felt her heart drop as she
stared back at all those blank faces. Only Ororo smiled at her, “Rogue, come sit down and eat.”
Rogue shook her head. There was no way she was walking any further into that room without a
kevlar vest. Luckily an excuse popped into her head, “No thanks. Ah’m just looking for Logan.”
Ororo tilted her head inquisitively and Rogue squirmed under the scrutinizing looks from her
teammates. “Ah kinda wanted to git to school early and finish a project and Ah was wonderin’ if
he’d give me a ride.”
Scott glared as best he could at her. “Still can’t stop thinking about your painting?” he asked
snidely. Rogue gd bad back at him, “Well, Ah’m sorry if Ah finally found some schoolwork worth
doing Red Eye.” Everyone in the room flinched. Internally Rogue kicked herself. If there was one
name that Scott hated it was that and Rogue couldn’t figure out how her brain had let her mouth
say it.
“Are you going to stand there all day?” growled a voice from behind Rogue, startling her and
making her jump. She whirled around to see Logan’s grumpy unshaven face looking back at her.
She allowed herself a smile at his timing and her luck. She quickly asked him if he’d drive her to
school early. “Sure Rogue.” he answered, “Just give me a minute to grab some coffee and we can
go.”
As Logan got his coffee Rogue ran upstairs to get her backpack. She glanced at some of the
sketches from the night before and grinned. Hundreds of eyes look back at her but in her mind she
saw only one pair- red on black, glinting with mischief, glowing with lust.
***
The first beang,ang, snapping Rogue’s attention back to reality. She had gotten to the school an
hour early and attacked her painting with a revived vigor. The eyes for her drawing had only
taken twenty five minutes to paint but Rogue had spent the rest of the time letting her mind
wander to the night before. She could still feel Remy’s hands on her skin. ‘Even if it was just a
dream, it was the best damn dream Ah eva’ had,’ Rogue thought. Sighing Rogue grabbed her bag
and headed of cla class.
***
“Well class,” Ms. Wendlen’s voice broke through the mass of chattering and got everyone’s
attention, “You’ve had all week for your projects and now you get to present them to the rest of
the class.” A collective groan rose from the class but she didn’t seem to notice. As she called up
students Rogue let her attention drift back to the window. The sky was overcast but it looked like
the storms that had been plaguing Bayville were finally moving on. For the rest of the class time,
Rogue’s attention drifted from the painting being displayed to the weather outside. There were
only a few paintings that she thought were any good. Surprisingly Todd Tolensky’s painting of
the waterlilies was the best one she saw. It didn’t really resemble Monet’s version but it was
incredible anyway. Rogue especially like the toads Todd had put on the lily pads- his own
personal joke that only the two of them in the class would understand. As he walked back to his
chair she grinned at him and whispered, “Nice picture Todd. The toads rock.” He blinked but
hesitantly returned the grin. “Gotta like toads.” he said as he flicked his tongue out at her. Any of
the other X-men would have flinched back but Rogue just sat there and smirked at him.
“Rogue,” Rogue whipped her head around and saw Ms. Wendlen beckoning, “Bring your picture
up now please.” A wave of shyness flowed through Rogue but she managed to trudge u fro front
of the room with her painting. She set her picture on the easel and simply said, “Deamon Lover.”
Without bothering to check her classmates reactions she grabbed her painting and went to go sit
back down.
Ms. Wendlen blinked from the suddenness of it but instead of commenting she just called up the
last student. After he had shown off his admirable lack of artistic talent Ms. Wendlen took back
her podium and said, “We’ve only got a minute or two left but I just wanted to tell you all that
you’ve done a great job with this assignment. Before you go please stack you paintings- carefully-
against the wall over there. Oh! And you can consider that as your midterm for this class-” after
the cheering quieted down she finished, “Next week we’ll being doing finger painting. With all the
studying you’ll be doing I figured that it would be a nice way to let your minds relax.” The bell
rang and the class jumbled out the door, causally throwing their paintings in the vague direction
the teacher had pointed in. Rogue stayed behind for a moment until the rest of them were out the
door, hesitant to leave her picture behind. “Is there something you wanted Rogue?,” Ms. Wendlen
asked.
Rogue gently put her picture down on the stack, “Umm yeah, Ah was wonderin’ when Ah could
git this back.” Ms. Wendlen smiled, “Well, I already know what grade you’re getting on this so
you can take it home with you today.” Her smile widened, “This is the best work I’ve seen come
from this classroom in awhile Rogue. It’s an incredible piece of work and if there was a higher
grade than an A+ I would give it to you. I’m really glad I gave you this title. You did such an
amazing job on it.”
Rogue smiled back at the exuberant teacher. “Ya know,” she said, “Ah’m glad you gave this title
to me too.”
******
A week later Rogue collapsed on her bed at glanced at her painting from it’s place on the wall
next to her bed. Her brain hurt from all the studying she had done and the tests she had taken but
she was happy. Spring Break had officially started and there was no school next week. And better
yet, training had been put off for the past week so all of the X-men could study. For the rest of
the afternoon all Rogue had to do was absolutely, blissfully nothing.
Stretching out on her bed she let all of the tension run out of her body and relaxed. Rogue let her
head roll to one side and stared up at her painting. She had gone shopping with Kitty last
weekend and bought a frame for the picture as well as some new clothes. Kitty had tried to drag
her into crappy stores like the Gap and Ambercrombie and Fitch but Rogue had flat out said that
she refused to become an AmbercrombieZombie. So instead Rogue had dragged Kitty into
HotTopic and to their amazement Kitty had bought some clothes from there. Granted, she had
bought pink raver pants and a matching pink Josie and the Pussycats tanktop but it was still an
impressive moment. Bonding had ensued between the two of them and Kitty had even helped
Rogue put her painting up later that evening.
Reaching out to touch the frame Rogue sighed heavily and wondered if she could ever have
another dream like that. Remy had made a few appearances in a couple of dreams over the past
week but it didn’t feel the same. It was like the memory of him flashed up in her nightmares and
then disappeared when worst was over. She smiled at that thought, it was as though Remy was
protecting her from herself. But she missed the feeling of him being with her. On Wednesday she
had actually caught herself wondering if touching Jean again could bring back the realistic dreams
but as quickly as she had thought it she had rejected the thought. It had taken two days after the
accident before anyone would talk to her again and Rogue wasn’t about to throw that away for
some dream. If Jean hadn’t sat and chatted it up with her all though breakfast on Saturday the
others probably still wouldn’t be talking to her. Scott was still distant but Rogue didn’t feel so cut
off with everyone else being friendly.
“Hey Rogue!,” Kitty phased through the door and beamed at Rogue, “Professor Xavier wants us
all to meet him in the library. He’s got good news according to Jean. But he won’t say anything
until we’re all there. So hurry up!” Kitty phased back through the wall and Rogue rolled off the
bed and wandered down to the library. As she was opening the door she heard a *Bamf* and a
cloud of sulfuric smoke watered her eyes as she walked into the room. Everyone but Kurt and the
professor were there. Another loud *Bamf* sounded to the right of her and Rogue turned around
to see Kurt standing there with a ham sandwich in his hand. He stuffed half of it into his mouth
and everyone stared at him. “Vat?,” he sputtered. All of them raised an eyebrow at the half a
sandwich in his hand. He shrugged at their pointed looks and said, “I vas hungry. And its not like
da professor is here yet.” Everyone grinned at his fuzzy, blue, bread-crumb-covered face and
Rogue was tempted to have him port out and grab her a sandwich too.
But then the sound of the door opening drew their collective attention and they watched as
Professor Xavier wheeled into the room. He smiled at their attentiveness and grinned slightly at
the silence that fell over the group. “I just wanted to gather you all together and say
congratulations for the excellent work you’ve done this week on your midterms,” he paused as he
saw Ororo and Logan exchange knowing smiles over the heads of the students before continuing,
“I feel that you all deserve a break so I was thinking that a trip for Spring Break was in order.”
The kids looked at each other wide eyed and excited. Scott stood up and asked, “Where are we
going?”
Professor Xavier looked at the group and smiled, “You students get to decide. Just let me know
at dinner and I’ll make the arrangements.” With that said, Professor Xavier, Logan and Storm
walked out of the library.
When the cheering died down the group sat down and started discussing where they should go.
Spyke’s choice of Chicago was shot down because Kitty said too much wind would wreck her
hair. Scott’s suggestion of skiing in Colorado was rejected by almost everyone because, as Jean
put it, “Spring Break should equal warm weather. Let’s go where the snow isn’t.” Soon petty
bickering broke out and Rogue got an idea. “How ‘bout we go to New Orleans?” The group
stopped dead and stared at her. When no one argued they looked at each other in surprise. Scott
stood up, “Well, I know I wouldn’t mind going there. Does everyone agree on New Orleans?”
When everyone nodded Rogue smirked. Scott raised his eyebrows in astonishment that they could
all agree on something, “I’ll go tell the professor and get everything arranged. We’ll probably be
leaving tomorrow or Sunday so why doesn’t everybody get started on packing?” Kurt bamfed out
and everyone else but Scott raced up to their rooms to get packing.