Characters: Bobby "Iceman" Drake and Rogue Location: Rogue's dorm room at the Institute Timeline: Flash back -- after this scene. Description: This addresses a lot of the issues about why Bobby and Rogue couldn't function as a couple and why Rogue would eventually leave the X-Men.
Rogue returned to her room a dejected girl. Earlier she had a Danger Room session with her mentor that left her more than just bruised and battered. She wanted to cry but she couldn’t it was important that she save face – she had pride after all! It made her feel weak and incapable. Damn her useless powers. What was she doing with her life…why was she here? She wasn’t ever going to control them.. on more than one occasion Rogue mulled that inquiry over her head. She wasn’t going to be any use to anyone here… and the chastising she received today just deepened her feelings of melancholia so much so that she skipped dinner. And if anyone knew Rogue, she loved to eat and rarely missed the opportunity to stuff her face.
She had holed herself up into her dorm room where she could nurse her wounds in piece. She was laying face first on her mattress, her body creating a groove in the puffy quilt that billowed around her. Rogue had stripped down to a tank top and an icepack melted across a giant welt on her back. The flesh had blossomed red with color mingling with yellows and blues as it developed into a bruise.
There wasn't a lot of peace and quiet in the mansion, and most of it was outside Rogue's door, it was silenced after a moment when Bobby walked down, waving kids off from running up and down the corridor before he knocked on her bedroom door.
"Rogue?" he called, hand on the handle for when she answered. "I heard you'd had a danger room session, wanted to see if you were okay?"
Rogue only tilted her head slightly at the sound of Bobby’s voice from the other side of the door. There was a generally feeling of contentedness that came with being the object of one’s concern, but all the same she was embarrassed. Her mind was filled with paranoid thoughts of the whole school talking about her failed Danger Room sessions. Not that she wasn’t one of the few with the most clocked hours for her age and grade. Regardless she always took things too hard, or the wrong way for which she berated herself.
Her cheeks were red and when she lifted her face from out of the pillow the air around them felt cool. A long moment of silence slipped between them. She hated to do this, “Go away, Bob.” Nice one, Rogue…be mean to the only person who cares…that’ll win you points. Why was she saying this when she secretly didn’t want to be alone. (Women!) She plopped her face back into the pillow and sucked in a hot breath of air letting it out in one exacerbated/frustrated sigh. “Ah just don’t want to see anyone, Bob,” her voice strained to be even.
Bobby paused and frowned for a moment before he tried the door handle and pushed it open. "Lucky for me I'm not just anyone then," he said with a smile, shutting it behind him with a soft click. "How'd the session go?" he asked, approaching the bed, already chilling his hands to re-freeze the icepack across her back.
Crap, she must have let the door unlocked. There went her whole argument for wanting to be alone. At first she didn’t react , she didn’t even move although she could hear that, now, he was in her immediate vicinity. Planting a hand on the mattress of the bed, she shifted, lifting her face to greet him. Her expression, however, betrayed Rogue’s true feelings. She was obviously in discomfort due to be sore and stiff. Her mouth pulled into a deep frown, “Ah just…Ah just…” She rolled onto her side, the ice pack, flopping off to the side. All five feet nine inches of her, curling up, pulling her knees to her chest and looking, all in all, pretty pathetic. “Ah just can’t do this anymore..Ah just feel like Ah’m letting everyone down…” she began, hesitantly. Reaching behind her head, she pulled the pillow to the forefront and smothered her face with it. She let out a dampened holler.
Bobby raised an eyebrow and reached over her to grab the ice pack, frowning at the mottled bruises he had caught a glimpse of. "You're not letting anyone down," he said, the ice pack instantly freezing beneath his touch again before he wandered around the bed to sit down and press the pack against her back again. "What the hell happened? You've been beat to hell."
She reacted to the icepack on her back by jumping a little – the coldness catching her off guard. “Bobby, be careful….Ah don’t want t’touch you,” she said from beneath the pillow. “Ah don’t want to hurt you…’ She held perfectly still her powers didn’t work like everyone else’s – she just couldn’t turn them off. It put an obvious strain on their relationship, both of them wanting to go to the next level, but not being able to. Not now, not ever… It was for his own good really, she knew the pain it caused when she touched someone else and Rogue couldn’t take the guilt knowing that she hurt someone who cared about her. Yet…right now she wanted to be held and coddled – not that she would ever admit as such.
“I fell.” She offered in simple and grossly understated explanation. What could she even say about what had happened? Student and mentor had fallen into an abusive trend, which up until tonight had been left to a minimum of button pushing and jeering. It had reached explosive levels and both were particular volatile to one another. Lines were definitely crossed. Her explanation of what had occurred wasn’t very telling – why was she holding back?
Bobby frowned. "Did Logan do this to you?" he asked, eyes darkening a little, emanating a chill from his body that seeped through the room. "Don't worry, you won't hurt me. I promise. I'm alright." he pressed the ice pack against Rogue's back and shook his head slightly, looking around for something he could drape over her so that he could give her a hug.
Her heart thudded into her chest. Bobby certainly had her backed into a corner now…more than just physically. Logan was, like, her best friend ever! But Bobby was her boyfriend… she didn’t want to keep things from him or lie to him. Yet, she didn’t want to snitch out her friend. And when it came down to it, she really had done this all to herself. She blew off her DR exam (and inadvertently taking advantage of her friendship with Wolverine.) But Rogue didn’t expect the repercussions of her actions to be this…. intense. “Danger room,” she muttered.
“Ah just feel all useless,” she went on, opening up a little bit. “Ah just can’t…Ah just can’t take this all anymore.”
Bobby sighed and stood up for a minute, grabbing a couple of towels from Rogue's cupboard and draping them around her, covering her skin before he lay down and curled up behind her, one arm over her waist, whole body chilled to ease her aches and pains. "Can't take all what?" he asked softly, "You're not useless and you don't let anyone down. You have it tough, Rogue, and it sucks, but you'll learn to control it one day, that's for sure.
Her skin was sensitive and the towel felt rough against her shoulders and arms, but it was the best they could do for now. It felt nice to have someone who wanted to cuddle up next to her, who wasn’t afraid. Her body curled into his as his arm snaked around her waist pulling her near. “Ah just don’t think Ah want to do this any more, Bob. Ah don’t want to be alone but……..” Gripping the sides of the towel, she tugged them tightly around her body and pulled away slightly. She swallowed and there it was…that all too familiar knot in her throat. “All Ah do is hurt people..that’s all Ah can do. An’ Ah’m not talkin’ ‘bout just my skin…”
"Ah know you’re all studious an’ shit, but its never really been my thing…an’ Ah don’t want you think t’think Ah’m dumb neither…Ah did somethin’ stupid today.” Rogue hid her face underneath the towel for a moment before she shifted on the bed. Rotating her stiff shoulder, she winced slightly and stood her full height. She backed away from the bed to the full length mirror on the closet door. Bending forward, she pulled the tank top over her head so she could better look at her back to see just why she was hurting so much. Disgusted with herself and growing increasingly angry at wolverine she righted her clothes. Next thing she did was find an over sized hoodie and shrugged into it, pulling the hood tightly around her face. She returned once more to her boyfriend and got back into to bed with this, this time, facing him.
Bobby reached out and cupped the side of her face through the hoodie and, not for the first time, wished he could hold her properly, if not just to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. He had even averted his eyes when she pulled off her top, he wasn't that much of a masochist. "You don't hurt people," he said quietly, arm sliding down hers to squeeze her elbow. "And I don't think you're dumb." he reassured, tipping his head to look at her. "What did you do?"
He hated how his stomach dropped and twisted a little like he felt he had to prepare himself for bad news, and he hated being suspicious of his girlfriend, of anyone he was close to.
"Rogue, what did you do?" he asked again, rubbing her arm gently and reassuringly, waiting for her to talk to him.
She lifted her head as he guided it upwards with his thumb and finger, but she pulled away, not wanting to look him in the eyes. Her arms wrapped around him, underneath his shoulder, finding that comfortable grove against his body. Rogue tucked her head underneath his chin, while her leg found a spot between his. “Ah appreciate that Ah guess…Ah just don’t feel very smart right now.” Now it was her turn to feel that queasiness in her stomach as he asked his question a second time. Rogue just swallowed and let the silence fill the air.
”Ah…”
“Ah…uh.. Ah skipped my Danger Room exam…”
She winced as the words came out of her mouth. Did it really sound as bad as as she thought it did?
Bobby's eyebrows raised as she curled closer to him, but didn't complain, just held her against him as best he could without wanting to hurt her too badly. He was pretty sure his eyebrows hit his hairline at her admission like some kind of cartoon character and his arm tightened a little.
"You what?" he asked, really shocked. "That's really not- that wasn't a good idea. What did Mr Summers say?" he asked, worried about her.
Again she winced, this time at the sound of his voice. Rogue rolled over and out of the bed. She jarred her back against the edge of the mattress, but she managed onto her feet. She just couldn't lay there anymore. She had come to a low place and now that she was retelling the story to Bobby, the anxiety was brought to the forefront of her mind once more. "Ah don't know!" she shouted at him. "It just happened today! Ah don't know what Ah'm going to do!" Rogue began pacing frantically in her dorm.
"Ah just don't get what the big deal is, y'know...Ah just didn't want to. An' now yer all mad at me, Scotts going to find out. Logan...was...pissed. Why can't everyone understand that..." A deep breath was inhaled and she circled around and faced her dresser. She leaned forward and let her head sag a little bit, before balling her fist up and hitting the dresser's surface. "God damnit..."
Composing herself some, she straightened and faced him once more. "Don't be mad at me..." Rogue snagged her lower lip in in teeth and bit down in an attempt to prevent her chin from quivering. There was so much more that she wanted to let out, but she didn't even know how to quantify it in her own head. It was shocking, really, all the things that were floating around in her head -- things that came to life in the Danger Room -- memories that didn't even belong to her. She sank to the floor and hid her face in her hands, it was the only thing she could hide since she was letting all the crazy hang out.
Bobby got to his feet when she pulled away and held his hands up when she shouted, not lowering them even when she softened her voice and even then, when she slid to the floor and hid.
He never really knew what to do about it, what to do about her temper tantrums and when she talked to him like this. And he felt like a heel and the worst boyfriend ever, not just because he couldn't touch her to reassure her physically - something he did with John whenever the other boy would let him close enough and needed it, usually after a nightmare of some sort when he wasn't fully with it.
"I'm not mad at you, Rogue," he promised, wanting to approach but not daring in case she lashed out at him. "I'm just worried, you show up here having had that crap beaten outta you be someone who's supposed to be a teacher, supposed to be your teacher... God, he could be reported! It's bordering on abuse, Rogue!"
He might have sounded mad, but he was worried. He was really worried, and that was clear in his blue eyes, the way they lightened whenever they did when he was sad, upset or worried, the way that his mouth tipped down a little at the corners and his shoulders where held, taut and tense.
Her hand moved from her face, yet the tips of her fingers remained against her forehead where deep wrinkles have formed. However, she couldn't bear to lift her eyes to him. Rogue was certainly confused now when Bobby was tossing out words like...'reported'....and 'abuse'... "No, its not like that!" She inhaled again, slowly and deliberately, as if she had to remind herself to. She lifted her knees to her chest, resting her arms there. "Its...its complicated, Bob. An' ah don't even know how to explain it.."
"Ah got all these things goin' on in my head...don't look at me like Ah'm crazy..." She licked her lips, noting that they were dry. "An' before y'say anythin'...it was the Danger Room..." she gestured to her body referring to the bruises. "It wasn't..." She just shook her head, it was ridiculous that the subject of absue even got brought up. Rogue wasn't a cry baby! Or a snitch!
"You can't say anything, Bob... but, y'know those Wolverine-only programs?" At this she looked up, her green hues searching his face to see if there was any understanding to what she was saying.
"He's been training you with his simulations?!" Bobby exclaimed, utterly outraged. It wasn't Rogue he was pissed at, it was Logan. "You're not invincible, Rogue, you're a fucking teenager, is he trying to kill you?!"
God, it just kept getting better and better, Wolverine was abusing Rogue, she was defending him like he actually meant something to her, more than just a teacher and yeah, maybe he felt a little jealous, but then at the same time, he probably wasn't as jealous as he should be.
"And those Wolverine-only programs are labeled like that for a reason, Rogue, you could die in a situation like that. Is that what you want? To end up dying in the danger room because you pushed yourself too hard and too far trying to make yourself better? Trying to push yourself to a point you can't reach at the moment because you're still, technically, a child?"
She flinched and squirmed as Bobby went on about it. "No! It was just...it was just today... Ah'm not a kid! Ah'm eighteen...Ah'm gonna be nineteen in September..."
Maybe Bobby shouldn't have been jealous, she didn't know. It was no doubt that Rogue and Wolverine had a unique relationship -- they were certainly old souls. He had found her, lost and alone...and had taken responsibility for her, more or less, by letting her tag along with him. Her fingers found her way into her hairline raking through white bangs. That was...four years ago? Their relationship since then seemed to complicate as Rogue grew up. One more than one occasion had she absorbed Wolverine and now she was haunted with his memories. She needed him to be a father less and a friend more.
Rogue swallowed, this was going to sound bad. She tipped her head, "They were rubber bullets." Oh, okay, like that made it all better. "We went through my normal work out an' then...he was all like pressin' on me t'confess 'bout not takin' the test, an' he was all like 'Ah can smell when yer lyin' to me, darlin," she recounted in her best impression of Wolverine, all menacing. "An' then he was like, 'Ah can't make you take the test, but Ah'm gonna teach you a lesson..' then all off a sudden there's a program loaded an' Ah don't know what happened..." Her brows furrowed together and her stomach dropped, as she recalled the session. "It was...bad." She didn't mention the fact that she had remembered the scene without ever being there before...
Bobby just threaded his fingers into his hair for a moment before dropping his hands, exasperated and shaking his head again, at a loss for what to do, how to help. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do here, didn’t know how he was going to make Rogue feel better. He knew what the right thing to do was, it was to go to Mr Summers and tell him that Wolverine had been training Rogue with his simulations, it was to go and tell someone in the faculty that Wolverine was abusing his power over Rogue.
But something stopped him, maybe it was her asking him to not tell, maybe it was just because he was an idiot and didn’t want his girlfriend mad at him, but if it happened again he made a mental note to go and tell Mr Summers. He wasn’t going to watch Rogue go through this again, she couldn’t go through it again, not right now. She shouldn’t have to go through it ever.
“He still shouldn’t have done that. I don’t get why you’re defending him, Rogue. You have no reason to, he’s hurting you on an almost regular basis and you’re still sticking up for him!”
Bobby's words hit her like a slap in the face. Rogue was certainly scrappy, no one could deny that. And she was athletic too, she went out for almost every sport out there. Track, soccer, kick boxing, weight training, gymnastics, so the occasional bruise or sprain was to be expected. But when was it too much? At what point did Rogue need to be concerned that her injuries weren't normal? She strove for perfection and in a way she thought if she was the best she could make everyone happy. It was her unattainable quest for approval that made her push herself - often to breaking points. When she came up against Wolverine's simulation and failed, it hurt.
"No, Bob, its not like that," she said again, she didn't know how many times she had to reiterate that sentiment. Her green eyes followed him pace back and forth. It made her nervous to see him like that...usually he had his head about him, he was the calm one. The voice of reason. And now she had upset that. She held her hands up, "Look, it ain't his fault...Ah just..Ah should have just taken that stupid test. That's what it comes down to. C'mon, Bob, don't say that. An' y'know, anyways, what's done is done.." Like that fixed it all. "Ah just needed a break.." It must of been hard for Rogue -- not having any family to speak of, to be here at the mansion one hundred percent of her time - knowing there wasn't anyone else waiting for her. Of course the stress of eating, sleeping and breathing the X-life was going to get to her.
She rose to her feet and blocked his path...blocked him from wearing a rut into her carpet. Letting the sleeves of her hoodie flop over her naked hands she gripped him by the shoulder and gave him a bit of a shake. "Snap outta it. Ah ain't stickin' up for him...Ah just...Ah dunno, the bar is set high." She lifted her hand into the air to exemplify just how high. "Ah can take th'heat."
Bobby blinked as she grabbed his shoulder and lifted his eyes to look at her, shaking his head a little. "You don't get it, Rogue, you're pushing yourself too far, it's gonna seriously hurt you. Without taking Wolverine's invincibility or something... you're gonna end up in the sickbay. You should be there now. You should be in Hank's lab right now."
He sighed and touched her covered wrist, squeezing it and then said, softly, "You cant Rogue, not right now. Don't push yourself too hard, you might end up going somewhere we can't get you back from."
With the excess material gathered around her hand she reached up and covered his mouth. "Shh.. Bobby.." Rogue hesitated then sighed. "Ah'm fine," she said, her eyes locked onto his and she nodded. "Ah'm going to be fine. Now Ah don't want to hear another word 'bout it, sugah." She feigned a smile. "Everything's fine." Wasn't she trying to tell him something before? This is how Rogue kept getting sucked back into vicious cycles... "Now, you ain't gonna say nothin', cause nothin' happened..." She let her hand drop from his mouth, to his shoulder where she dusted off his shirt and straightened it some. The next thing she did, wash wrap her arms around him, her hands finding the way to his back. She eased the tension out of his shoulders before sliding down and founding their way into his back pockets. "Just love meh."
Bobby curled his arms around her and held her tight, shifting the hood up and resting his head against hers properly. He leaned against her, a little more when her hands slipped into his pockets and closed his eyes. "Everything's not fine, Rogue," he said seriously, rubbing one hand over her lower back because he didn't want to hurt her at all. "Everything's not fine because you're hurting and there's some way that it coulda been stopped, it can be stopped from happening again."
She bumped into his hips with hers, she might have been laying it on a little thick, but Rogue didn't want to talk about it any more. She slipped into calling him 'Bobby' again, something she did when she was feeling playful. They weren't going to solve anything and they were running around in circles. "C'mon, Bobby...shh.. you ain't gotta worry like that. Ah appreciate it, but Ah'm a big girl, Ah can take care o'myself....please just drop it." She mumbled in the affirmative, "That feels nice, sugah," as Bobby caressed her back. She could be strong, she had to be and if nothing else but for his sake. "Its okay, Bobby, its all workin' towards somethin'...Ah'm gonna be the best and when we're in the field Ah want people to know they can rely on me.." She tilted her head up to look at him. Rogue snagged her lip, once more, with her teeth. She tried to numb out the ache in them to meet her lips with his and find out what they tasted like.
Bobby shook his head and kept brushing his fingers over her lower back, glancing down at her lip caught between her teeth and wanting to close the gap, though he took a breath and just tipped his head a little. "Rogue, you're not- I know we can rely on you, but you can't hurt yourself doing it, okay?" he glanced down at her lips again and took a breath. "I just worry about you."
It was upsetting...naturally, that they couldn't be physical with each other. Sometimes a girl just needed some....loving. It was a point of fixation and frustration. Rogue had all these ideas oscilating around in her head, fun ideas. But ones that would never come to fruition, much to her chagrin. So much so, that she was driven to the brink...maybe that's why she needed to express her energy in other ways, hence all the sportly activities.
"Promise me, Bobby, promise me y'ain't gonna say another word 'bout it...look, y'don't gotta worry 'bout me. Lets just worry 'bout what we're doin' now.." She persuaded the issue, it was her problem and she was going to deal with it on her own. "Lets just worry 'bout you 'an me.." Her arms snaked around his neck and pulled him into a hug, her lithe body stretching taut against his. His hands slipped from the small of her back...to something equally as pleasing...something a little further south. It was totally her intention to distract him from what was going on, with flagrant expressions gratuitous physical contact and suggestion.
Bobby's breath stuttered inwards when her hands trailed lower and he bit his lower lip, eyes fluttering for a moment before he pulled away, fingers trailing down her arms before he backed up properly.
"Rogue..." he started, "We can't." he flushed and scrubbed his hand over his face. He couldn't deal with wanting her so much and not being able to deal with it.
If there was one thing Rogue hated more than ever it was being reminded of her curse. "God damnit, Bob," she exclaimed. "Don't you think Ah know that?! Did you think that Ah just woke up today and forgot? Huh?" This was one of those moments she wished she was different. She had a temper, everyone knew that and it was no secret she on more than one occasion flew off the handle. She was all actions and no thought - never was. Rogue was a creature of reaction.. not logic. Coupled with one or two people who had been known for their temper rattling around in that brain of hers. She gave him a sturdy push. "Why don't you ever wanna ...Ah dunno, try? We can experiment?" Her face was a mixture of panicky insistence and hurt...
Bobby rubbed his hand over his face again and shook his head. "I've wanted to try, Rogue, don't think that I haven't. But I don't wanna try something and then end up getting a taste of what we can't have, or you getting frustrated because it's something that we can't do."
For a teenager, Bobby had extremely good self control, over himself and his libido, at least. The jury was still out on his powers. "It's not that I don't want to, Rogue, but we can't- we can't push this. Not until we're both ready. Even if we did... experiment, I don't want it to be just because you're tryna stop me thinking about something that you've done in the danger room, I don't want it to be just something you do because you feel we're not working... Or because, y'know, you want me to be distracted. I'm not that guy, Rogue. Whatever we do, it has to mean something."
Call him an old-fashioned romantic or an idealist, sure. But he meant that. With every fibre of his being.
It only seemed to fan the fire of her anger when Bobby tried to be rational. The nerve! Rogue wasn't there yet as far as processing things like he was. She often did things without much forethought, call it a character flaw, but that's just who she was. Coupled with the fact that she was fixated so much on what she couldn't do or couldn't have just fueled her obsession. Her eyes narrowed slightly as Bobby pointed out all the reasons why they couldn't and shouldn't. Frustrated by their inability to effectively communicate, Rogue through her hands in the air and circled back - now pacing as Bobby had been just moments before. "Ah can't believe you! Ah want those things too!" Or so she claimed. "But why d'ya gotta make it seem like a chore? You never even wanna try! We gotta start somewhere," she continued, bringing in bits and pieces from previous arguments - grasping at straws really.
They were two opposite forces working against each other. Bobby represented control, discipline and stability - everything Rogue lacked. It was the definition of her being, she couldn't even control her powers for God sake! Even children younger than her could master that trick! And it wasn't for lack of trying either. Imagine her embarrassment in the girl's locker room when she sat and listened to the other girls swap stories about the things they did on their Saturday nights with their boyfriends. She was eighteen, going on nineteen, and still could count the number of people she kissed on one hand. It was her greatest fear to let her life slip by without having any of the glorious experience other young adults had as they fumbled their way to first base.
Bobby took a breath and held his hands up again in the face of her tirade. He didn't want to be the one that the centre of her anger again, didn't want to be the one that was blamed for everything when she got frustrated as he so often was because it was difficult for him too, she seemed to forget that half the time. It was difficult for him to hear how John got laid by some woman in a bar when he snuck out of the mansion, it was difficult for him when he heard what the guys did with their girlfriends. He had kissed one other girl, a sweetheart from before he got to the mansion and he was holding off doing anything else so that he could do it with Rogue.
It would have been easy for him to find someone else just to satisfy him with sex, he was sure, but that wasn't what he wanted. He wanted his first time to be romantic, special, or whatever, with a girl that he truly cared for. And it did annoy him that she didn't understand that, or if she did, that she didn't care.
"For God's sake, Rogue, I'm not having this argument with you again." Bobby said with a sigh, not angry, just... tired, hurt.
She watched his mannerisms carefully as he lifted his hands up. "What?" She snapped, now it was she who was outraged. The swell of her hip stuck out, as it did, when she was in a mood or feeling particularly sassy - her hand coming to rest on its curve. Maybe she wasn't as understanding as she should have been. But in her mind, Rogue felt totally justified. She acted on things that bothered her without fully explaining herself - ever. "What do you want from me, Bob? Ah can't...Ah just..." She fell quiet and turned her back to him. A staggered breath was inhaled and she pulled the hoodie around her face as she fought to succumb to flippant actions like crying. She just didn't. Pressing her hands into her face harshly she turned to him again. "This is what Ah was talkin' 'bout - if it ain't one things its another an' no matter what it is Ah do Ah just end up upsettin' someone. An' Ah don't want you to think Ah want t'break up with you, cause Ah don't, not at all...but you drive me crazy! Ah just need," Rogue hesitated again, not at all sure what it was that she need. "Ah just want to feel normal. An' Ah just feel like the biggest freak in' the world...like Ah'm trapped in this horrible body. Ah don't feel good 'bout me at all," Rogue touched her chest as she went on. "Ah just don't feel like you never wanna do anything and it makes me feel like Ah'm just absolutely un-sexy." Which lead to feelings of being untouchable...which lead to feelings of being undesirable. But Rogue wasn't necessarily able to express that in so many words.
"Ah just don't know what to do anymore," she said shaking her head, coming to settle on the edge bed. She slouched forward and grabbed the back of her neck as she leaned down. There was tension in her movements apparent in the way her shoulders held still. "Ah just need something." Rogue wasn't looking at him, hell, she wasn't even facing him. She just couldn't right now.
Bobby wanted to approach, moved as if he was going to approach her and then wondered if, in her unpredictable state, she would lash out at him verbally again. She wasn't up to doing it physically. He closed his eyes for a moment and pinched the bridge of his nose, not mentally strong enough to be there and do this while she was freaking out on him again. It wasn't that she did it often, but he was going through his own problems, partly frustration because he couldn't do what he wanted to with his girlfriend and felt like a lot of the time she was blaming that on him, that it was his fault for wanting to not get hurt, not be put into a coma, and yes, a tiny part of him didn't want her in his head knowing his thoughts and secrets. A guy needed some privacy.
"I don't know what you want from me, Rogue," he admitted, "And when you work that out, you know where to find me." he said, soft and resigned, he couldn't do anything, couldn't tell her what she wanted to hear or be what she wanted him to be, and that hurt too. He was frustrated and hurt and just, for the moment, he'd had enough. He took another glance at her before he turned and left her room, pulling the door shut behind him, fingertips turning blue as his emotional state got the better of his powers.
"Goddamnit," he swore under his breath and headed away from the room towards his own dorm room, just needing the escape and something familiar to ground him. He hated when he got thrown out of whack, knocked for six by his girlfriend turning on him. Hated that there was something about him that made her do that.