A series by November

Chapter 54: Coupling

Rogue got up that Monday and got Maggie ready for school. Before they left, she kissed Logan. His hair was tousled from sleep and a five o’ clock shadow had grown on his face.

"Hey. I‘m leaving."

"Kay."

"You look so damn hot right now." His eyes opened at that and he smiled a lazy sexy sleepy smile. He grabbed her wrist. "Stay…" The growl in his voice promised rough, hot sex.

"Hmm… I want to but I can’t. I’ve got to go back to class and I have to get Maggie to school."

He moaned sexily. It was supposed to sound disappointed but it was just hot.

She dropped Maggie off at school and drove on to campus. When she walked into her abnormal psych class Dr. Kahn wasn’t there. Dr. Pileggi was. She gave Rogue a secretive look and Rogue didn’t say anything. She glanced at Rajesh and Darnelle. She knew that this was good. Any reason for Dr. Kahn’s absence was good.

When it was time for class, Dr. Pileggi sat on the desk and said "It has come to my attention that Dr. Kahn was unfairly grading exams. I’ve been hearing allegations of this for years but this was the first time anyone could document it. Dr. Kahn will not be teaching this class any longer.

"Dean Jeffries and I have had a lot of discussion about the fairest way to handle the distribution of grades in this class. We’ve come up with several options: One is to give the grades that independent raters gave on the last batch of exams. There were several people in the class who were unfairly graded and their grades would change. The other option would be to re-give the test. Either way it will be a pain in the ass for you and for me but I feel the most appropriate solution would be to put it to a vote. Are there any questions?"

"When would the test be if we took it over?"

"Right now."

There were no other questions. Rogue and the others who voted to let the independently graded scores stand won by a narrow margin, and the exams were handed back. Rogue, Darnelle, and Rajesh all got A’s. Alex wasn’t happy, but he never deserved his A to begin with.

"Okay. Today we are going to talk about personality disorders. Who can tell me what a borderline is?"

Rogue hadn’t seen Leah in nearly two weeks. They met for lunch in the union. "Hey," Leah said, and hugged her. She was always a comforting presence. "What’s up?"

"Oh my god. Everything." Rogue told her the story of Max D’Ancato and the wallet, omitting the parts about the X men. She told her that she got the wallet from her aunt.

"Oh my god," Leah said. "You must be so freaked."

"I was really freaked. I was in bed for pretty much all of Thursday and Friday."

"So you got to see your ex-boyfriend. How was that?"

"It was really good. I felt so guilty about hurting him and to see him alive and well was good. We talked for a while. It’s funny, everyone in my hometown hates mutants except him, and he was the only one ever hurt by a mutant."

"Is he cute?"

"Yeah. In a not-my-type kinda way. His wife sounds like a real piece of work though. And Logan was obscenely jealous."

"Why? Doesn’t he trust you?"

"Oh, he trusts me implicitly. Logan’s been through a lot of shit. He was tortured, did I ever tell you that? He just has this profound fear of losing me. It was actually good because we had a really good talk about it." Rogue peeled the skin from her orange. "Enough about my shit. What’s up with you?"

"Pete and I broke up."

"Oh, no. I’m sorry honey. What happened?"

"It’s nothing, Marie. Here you are telling me your father is a murderer and your boyfriend was tortured. It’s not exactly the same thing."

"Maybe not, but I wanna hear about it anyway. I’ve done nothing but deal with my own crap for four days."

"It just wasn’t working. He’s a nice guy but..."

"Either you feel it or you don’t."

"Yeah."

They were quiet for a while. "You know what?" Leah said.

"What?"

"I miss Kitty."

"Me too. It’s coming up on a year. You know, it’s funny, I promised Maggie I’d take her to visit Kitty’s grave in the summer, after they buried her, but we never went. I regret that. We should go, you and me and Mags and Jubilee and I."

"We should."

"And you know what, we can. Who cares if it’s October?"

"Yeah. We could still make a day of it."

"I missed you, you know that?"

"We should see more of each other."

"Come visit us."

"Okay."

"Are you going home for Thanksgiving?"

"No, not ‘til Christmas."

"Well perfect. You can come have Thanksgiving at Mutant Central! Plus, you get to meet my friends Ray and Cass."

"Okay. What about Xavier? Won’t he mind?"

"Oh please. You don’t know Xavier. He’d never mind."

"But I’m not a mutant."

"Neither is our cook. Neither is our nurse. Neither is our new Headmaster. We don’t care. People are people."

"Okay."

"Besides, everybody is coming this year. And Le, there are some damn fine men who will be there,"

"Oh really? Do tell."

"Okay. Bobby, you thought he was cute. John, he’s bi, but he’s cute. Remy Lebeau is supposed to show up and he’s freakin’ gorgeous. Scott’s brother Alex."

"Oooh, does Alex look anything like Scott?"

Rogue nodded. "Only blonde. He’s fine. And Warren Worthington."

"The third? I saw him in GQ. Jesus, he’s hot."

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course."

Rogue leaned over "He has the most gorgeous white wings. His wingspan is as long as this table."

"Get out! Can he fly?"

"Yep. And he hit on me once."

"Ohmigod, Warren Worthington hit on you and you never told me?"

"Warren hits on everyone."

"So what did you say?"

"Well, he asked me if I had a boyfriend. He’s hot, he’s rich, but he’s not subtle. I think I said something vague like ‘it’s complicated.’"

"Because you were madly in love with Logan."

"Well… yeah. But I was also fucking Carter at the time. I wasn’t in love with Logan yet. That was during his probationary period."

"Do you think you guys will get married?"

"Yeah."

"You sound awfully sure."

"I am."

"So why don’t you ask him?"

"I will, once I’m satisfied we’ve worked out all our issues. If he doesn’t ask me first. So are you really okay with this Pete breakup thing?"

"Truthfully I’m relieved. It’s like cutting out the dead wood."

"We’ll get you hooked up at Thanksgiving."

"Such a fucking yenta."

"That’s me. Speaking of..." Rogue nodded toward one of the entrances where Rakim stood, surveying the crowd. She waved him over.

"Hello ladies."

"Hey Rakim."

"Can I join you?"

"Yes you can," Rogue said. "You have an admirer."

"What?"

"Well, I don’t know about an admirer as much as certain individuals making inquiries about your… shall we say availability and sexual preference?"

"Oh? And is this person of the preference that I prefer?"

"Oh yeah. And he asked if you like white meat."

"I just like meat, period."

Leah laughed.

"That’s what I told him," Rogue said with a mischievous look. "No you didn’t - wait, who are you talking about?"

"Who do you want me to be talking about?"

"Well, you didn’t say blue meat, so I know it ain’t Hank. It wouldn’t happen to be a certain graduate student from Eckerd College, would it?"

"I think you’re blushing!"

"Tell me!"

"He tells me that you’ve been talking a lot on the BBS."

"Oh my god, did he really ask about me?"

"Yep."

"She’s trying to hook me up too," Leah said sympathetically.

The conversation with her friends lifted her spirits. She studied until her next class and then picked up Maggie. Her life was so different with Logan around. There were so many people in her life who were good and rich and real. It made her father matter less, despite the mismatched cards.

"Hey Mags."

"Hi Momma. I made you a picture today."

"Cool. I can’t wait to see it."

"We got another mutant in class today."

"Oh yeah? What’s the mutant’s name?"

"Billy."

"And is Billy nice?"

"He’s my boyfriend."

"Really?" Rogue was slightly shocked. "How do you know he’s your boyfriend?"

"Because he napped next to me."

"Wow. Sleeping together already? You kids sure move fast. Hey, Mags, I have a question for you."

"Shoot." The girl got cuter with every passing day.

"How would you feel about Logan moving in with us?"

"I thought he already was."

Later that evening Logan came home with a wrapped canvas.

"Hey sugar, what you got there?"

"Painting. Tell me what you think of it."

She dried her hands off on a dishtowel and walked over to where he was unwrapping it. It was a portrait of her in her bridesmaid's dress.

"Oh, wow. Logan, that's gorgeous. You make me look good."

"You do look good. And Chuck has been buggin' me to show it to you for months."

"Months? When did you paint it?" She gingerly touched the white streaks, feeling their texture.

"I think it was the day after their wedding."

She looked up at him, stunned. "You painted me, back then?"

He just nodded. She could see the blush below his five o' clock shadow. She didn't want him to feel embarassed so she just wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, hard, until he was breathless.