WHERE: Pyro's suite WHEN: A few days after Atlantis WHAT: Rogue got some of Pyro's power, and his psyche, during the Atlantis battle. Feelings need discussing STATUS: Complete VIEW WARNINGS: Cute adorable idiots being cute, some kissing
It’d been a few days since the Kraken attack, and to be honest, Rogue was starting to become annoyed that the person who’d become one of her best friends was avoiding her. She was pretty sure she knew why - there had been some pretty obvious thoughts and feelings when she’d picked up his power, and the fact that he knew she probably knew had, she figured, sent him running.
Which was stupid. And annoying.
Plus, there was the fact that she had some feelings in regards to it all too, and after that little power sharing she’d had to work on separating hers from his, which hadn’t been easy. Now, though, she was tired of this avoiding game and she decided to track him down. Rogue had visited a few of his preferred lurking spots on the ship, before finally heading for his room when there had been no sign of him. On reaching it, she lifted her hand and knocked sharply, then waited, arms crossed over herself.
He knew he was avoiding Rogue. He knew that it was a shitty thing to do. But he also happened to know exactly what she’d have gotten from him when she borrowed his powers. And he should’ve said no, but he figured his powers were better than unpredictable powers, and at least he could coach if she needed some coaching. Once the fire was manifested, a lot of his power was instinct, and a little misdirection in the heat of battle wasn’t a terrible thing.
But in the wake of things calming down and people settling with injuries and all the bumps and scrapes healing up, John was left with the very real awareness that all those jumbled thoughts and new feelings that he hadn’t really processed himself were all up in Rogue’s head now.
Being John, he fled.
At least to the confines of his room, avoiding the network and talking to Rogue, possibly meeting Rogue, anything really. His suite-mate was absent when the rapping on the door came, but the guy might have some family and friends around, so someone coming looking for him wasn’t out of bounds. Deciding to be nice, answer the door and tell them he wasn’t there, John regretted it instantly, eyebrows lifting when Rogue was standing -rather stiffly- on the other side.
“...hey.” Stellar start.
“Hey,” she replied shortly, then stopped there for a moment. Really, she hadn’t thought through what she was going to say, and she hadn’t decided what she was going to do, but Rogue couldn’t ignore the fact that she was glad to have finally tracked him down. Thanks to the brief thoughts she’d picked up from him, she knew that he wasn’t a talker, particularly when it came to feelings; he was a do-er. With that thought in mind, she lifted her hands, glad she’d worn the skintight power-dampening suit with the hopes that she’d find him.
Stepping forward before he could react, Rogue’s hands slid into his hair, then tugged his head down so that she could press her lips deeply to his.
Feelings in general weren’t a strong suit, he hadn’t exactly had the inclination or encouragement to vent or express things vocally, least of all how he felt. Rogue showing up at the door wasn’t the worst thing, although he wasn’t exactly prepared for it and didn’t know if this would be a ‘we need to talk’ or a ‘let’s pretend nothing happened and we don’t know anything’ sort of deal.
Bypassing both those options would count as quite the surprise and John was still figuring out if she’d decided to comatose him (but with some level of subterfuge) or if Rogue was just going for broke. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t surprised him, because she did, and it took a minute or two for his brain to catch up that it wasn’t him getting punched before John could stop leaning on the doorway, lean towards Rogue and drop a hand to her hip for balance while she grabbed his hair.
When it took him a minute to actually respond, she nearly pulled back. A hint of doubt started to creep in, and Rogue started to wonder if maybe she’d read things completely wrong - but then he leaned in. When his hand touched her hip, she moved in a little closer as the kiss continued, subtly nudging him backwards just a little so that they could get out of the hallway. She was too private of a person to want news about this spreading all over the ship before she even knew what this was.
Inside was better, definitely better. He wasn’t sure what brought it on, why or any other things that probably should be mentioned, but he wasn’t about to ask. Not right then. It was easy, once they were inside the suite, to wrap both his arms around Rogue’s waist, keeping her in close.
It was a good thing she’d opted to damper her powers, not that John knew the ins and outs of that, but he wasn’t on the floor with no powers, so he took that as a good sign.
Once they’d cleared the door, Rogue kicked it shut behind her and let the kiss go on for a couple more minutes, before she finally had to break it in order to catch her breath. Opening her eyes, her hands were still in his hair as she drew her head back a bit, slightly surprised by her own intensity with the kiss.
“....Hey,” she finally said belatedly, before her eyes narrowed a little. “Quit avoiding me.”
Drawing back gave John some time to actually process things. Things like Rogue hunting him down -it wasn’t too difficult, it wasn’t like he’d left the ship- and then just kissing him in place of the potential awkward talk. It did mean potential awkward talk afterwards, but…
“Yeah, okay.” There was a chance that maybe he was over-reacting about feelings, and maybe those feelings weren’t a big deal really because maybe Rogue was feeling similar feelings. It was getting muddled again. “You make a very good argument for not doing that.”
“Damn right I do,” Rogue muttered, shooting a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure his roommate wasn’t around, then returning her gaze to his. Now is when things started to seem a little more awkward, and she suddenly was back to not knowing what move to make next. Letting her hands slide out of his hair, they dropped lightly to his shoulders, a little more comfortable on the material than that close to his skin, and she gave him a faint smirk.
“So what have you been up to? Hiding away in here?” She was itching to kiss him again, but now that they’d said a couple things it seemed a little strange to just randomly do that a second time, even though she wanted to.
He didn’t really feel like backing up from her. Putting some space there to make things seem more polite maybe. Or at least a little more normal. He wasn’t used to people in his space, but gradually Rogue had just gotten closer and he’d taken a liking to her more and more. The lack of distance wasn’t an issue. Not at this point of things.
“Kind of, yeah.” He’d gone out a time or two, mostly because even a fancy suite felt cloying after too many hours staring at the same walls. But he’d been pretty careful about avoiding places he thought she might go. “Read some books.” Because there was nothing else to do.
His thumb traced a small pattern on her hip, hand mostly resting than holding at this point, “I’m an idiot, I hide.”
For someone who couldn’t really touch or be touched, having hands on her - and feeling that slight movement - was somewhat magnified, and she fought back a shiver at the sensation even though he was tracing patterns on that damn black suit rather than her actual skin. It took her a moment to find her bravado enough to maintain it so that she could respond.
“Hope the books were worth it,” she said shortly, before grinning. “Yeah, you are an idiot. But hopefully now you’re an idiot who will quit hiding from me. S’not like I’m gonna bite, sug.” On that note, she leaned in close to his ear, still grinning, mostly just looking to tease at the moment. “Unless you want me to.”
They were fairly dull, all things considered, although it did make him consider potentially just putting his head into it and writing something himself. It wasn’t like he was blocked, he’d just not bothered since getting to Tumbleweed because why bother? It wasn’t like he put his name on the books he wrote back home anyway.
It almost seemed like they’d skip right past the awkward, maybe even bypass the talking about it? And settle into a new normal. He’d support that option, really. He was all in on that one. The teasing managed to coax out a quick blush, “Um, that might be up for discussion, later. As in, not off the table.”
The blush surprised her, and she dropped back onto her feet so that she could smirk at him, a little pleased she’d brought that out - though his words also had her thinking this over a little more. Like John, Rogue was more of the ‘let’s skip the serious talk’ mind right now, or ever, because that was a good way to fuck things up in her experience.
“Do you...want to go get some food? Or we could stay here. Hide together.” Kiss some more went unsaid, but it was definitely implied in the way she took a small step closer to him.
Food was something important, and John wasn’t above admitting that while it was mostly free he planned to eat like it was going out of fashion. But, it wasn’t like he really wanted to be wandering around pretending like nothing was different or whatever, or trying to subtly work out if anything was different. And really, he’d need to actually put on something clean to really leave the suite and fuck that.
“I mean, there’s always room service? My roommate is… somewhere.” Somewhere that wasn’t here too. “Wanna call something up and just… stay in?” If talking came up, it was fine, but if there was just the opportunity to feel this thing out, the potential closeness and feelings well, why not do it where no one was going to pry?
“Room service works,” she replied. Especially since the roommate wasn’t around. Since he didn’t seem to be too willing to move, Rogue took one step back so that she could grasp his hand, then headed over to the couch to sink onto it and pull him down with her, tucking one leg underneath herself.
“Let’s order something not seafood or roast pig,” she said with a grin, motioning for him to make the call. “And then we can relax.”
“Burgers. It’s impossible to screw up burgers.” And the ship seemed to have a handle on how to make a decent one. And if he maybe got some fries and onion rings and oh, what the hell send up some apple pie and ice cream and some small snack stuff to go with it, well, it was only because he didn’t want to not have enough food. Not because he was hoping that maybe it’d take a while to get through relaxing.
He’d managed to go a couple of days in moderate isolation. He’d practically healed up in that time too, and he was glad that none of the damage was lasting. And usually he was fine with his own company, but in the same way he’d gotten attached to Rogue’s company too. Prolonging it didn’t seem like a terrible thing.
“Burgers works,” she said with a nod, picking up the phone on the table by the sofa and passing it over to him as she pushed the button. “Other stuff, too. I’m pretty hungry. Might take you up on that biting offer if you don’t get enough.” The grin she gave John was completely cheeky, and she shifted a bit on the couch so that her other leg was stretched across his lap casually.
Once he placed the order and the phone was set down again, she asked, “Expecting your roommate back anytime soon?”
The burgers and ‘other stuff’ were ordered, a mix of a bunch of fast foods that were ideal for just hanging out and stuffing faces. Important mix for right now. He shook his head at Rogue’s teasing, although the smirk was impossible to wipe off his face.
The leg over his lap just got him resting his hand on her ankle, careful about contact, but sure it wasn’t really an issue at the moment because she had kissed him and it worked just fine. “No, not really.” The comings and goings weren’t really something that Pyro kept an eye on. “Worried I’m not going to be enough company?”
“Just don’t feel like being interrupted,” she shot back, but grinned a little. As she sank back against the arm of the couch, Rogue hesitated for a long minute, then finally spoke up again as her grin disappeared.
“So...I talked to the Professor, like the other Rogue suggested. Fat load of good that did. He’s not gonna help me,” she told him. “Funny how he’s a freaking telepath and he doesn’t get why someone like me needs help with this kind of thing.”
He could get with that line of thinking, it wasn’t the end of the world, but it wasn’t like it was much fun minding what they said or did due to company. But at the slightly more serious direction things took, John frowned slightly. “What? He just said no?” For a guy that was supposed to help mutants, he was really damn picky about just what mutants deserved his help.
“My Rogue gave up her powers, just to touch someone.” And he was a little bit miffed that she did, but Marie was constantly scared she’d hurt someone. He could understand if the idea of control was never an option. “Well, fuck him. He’s not the only telepath we know, right? What about Emma? She seems a whole lot less holier than thou.” Maybe Jean. Jean didn’t seem too bad. Pushy at times, but she didn’t appear to be on the brink of going evil and killing everything.
“Apparently I haven’t done anything that makes him think that I’m worth helping and that I should be able to control whether or not I hurt somebody on purpose.” The bitterness in her own voice was a slight surprise to Rogue herself, but she really wasn’t happy about the situation. Pulling out her phone, she pulled up the discussion she’d had with Xavier, then handed it over to John so he could read it. She ignored the faint sting she felt when he said “my Rogue” and instead just stared at him for a moment.
“Well, hell - why didn’t I think of that? Emma’s probably who I should’ve gone to from the start. Just goes to show that I shouldn’t have listened to my counterpart, I guess.” Shaking her head a bit, she inwardly firmed up her resolve and tried to manage to drum up her own confidence again. A seed of doubt remained - what if Emma refused to help her, too? Who would she go to next - Jean? Betsy? She didn’t know either of them well, but maybe the Professor not helping wasn’t the end of the world.
“I’ll talk to her later, see what she says.”
John wished he was surprised, but it wasn’t like he had a great opinion of Xavier anyway, it just proved that he was full of shit when he talked about giving people chances and being there for mutants. Magneto was clearly onto something about the complex. “Seriously, fuck ‘im.”
Emma was far more approachable, and seemed to give a fuck beyond who bought into the stupid X-Men mantra where they all fell into Xavier’s little plan for mutants and didn’t disagree or have some doubts. “She was probably trying to help, one Rogue to another and all that, just the old codger likes to have control.”
John gave Rogue’s leg a light squeeze where it rested, his attempt at comfort and encouragement. But he wasn’t exactly sure where it would fall in the scheme of things. “Want me to burn his cue-ball head?”
“Maybe she was.” She shrugged again, taking her phone back after he read the conversation, and she settled back again. The squeeze on her leg felt nice, and she was glad for that much, at least. It meant that he was at least paying attention to what she was saying.
His offer had a laugh escape, and she shook her head after a couple seconds of pretend consideration. “Nah, that’d just get you in trouble. It’s not really necessary. But thanks for offering, sug.” Rogue relaxed and smiled at John. “The thought counts for something.”
Relations between that world and this world and another world, it seemed like it would be hard to match up, there was probably a tug of war about letting things be or trying to help. Pyro wasn’t sure he could figure out what someone would do if a version of themselves showed up, he really wasn’t sure what he’d do, it was probably one of those things you’d only ever really understand when you did it.
“I’m used to being in trouble with Xavier’s, it was why I was always paired up with the golden child.” Bobby had been everyone’s favourite after all. “Offer stands, whenever, y’know. Or you can borrow the powers again, have some fun.” The idea of her getting some more of his memories wasn’t a big deal with the major thing was out of the way. Sure his past was a little touchy, but he got the impression she knew a bit about that herself and was unlikely to really bring it up.
Her smile grew a little brighter at his offer, and she reached out to lightly brush her fingertips through his shaggy hair since it was right there. “That’s an even more fun offer. Maybe I’ll take you up on that soon. We can see what all I come up with.” She absently trailed her hand down to brush his cheek, then let it drop back into her lap.
“Hope you don’t mind me surprising you at the door like I did. ‘Cause you play your cards right and I might do it again sometime.”
He wasn’t used to casual touch, although it wasn’t unwelcome, Pyro leaning a little towards Rogue’s fingers before they trailed away. “Fire forms over the starboard…. Whatever.” Ship terms weren’t his strong point, but he didn’t think it would matter much anyway.
“That was… probably up there with the best greeting I’ve had.” He wasn’t kidding either, it probably was the best really. Especially given his own stupid panic and avoidance of the issues rather than talking to her. It was the epitome of best case scenario. “I’m wondering if that shouldn’t just be how we greet each other, from here on out, that’s our handshake.”
Rogue was just as unused to casual touch as Pyro, but the suit made her a little less afraid of it, and she was finding that she liked this. Small, light touches with no expectations involved. “Starboard bow, I think it is?” She replied with a grin. “Man, maybe we should watch some pirate movies while we’re here, just to get the lingo down.”
Letting out a laugh at his words, she considered them for a moment, then gave a nod. “Hey, I’m okay with that. I say let’s do it.” It could definitely make for some interesting times, and it’d have the bonus of funny reactions from others probably.
Pirate movies wouldn’t be too bad in all honesty, they were entertaining at least and they might get somewhere with the lingo, that was for sure. “So long as it’s not Muppet Treasure Island.” He’d seen that one enough, thank you. He’d seen all the Treasure Island movies enough, no more adaptations needed.
But not talking about what should maybe be talked about, the fact that they were both down for some lip smacking greetings rather than anything remotely platonic, it worked really. Since John knew himself enough to know he’d deflect any seriousness on the conversation. “Seems like we’re in agreement there.” He was pulled away from the sofa with the knock of the door, the announcement of room service and their food the only reason he actually went to retrieve the trolley of food from whatever robot came up with it.
“You wanna find one of those pirate movies and we can pig out while educating ourselves on nautical terms?”
“Never seen that one,” she said absently, and when Pyro stood to get their food, Rogue sat up and stretched, then shifted so she sat cross-legged on the couch. Once the robot was gone and the food was in front of them, she nodded and grabbed the remote to turn on the television and start flipping through, looking for something.
She reached out to snag some fries as her gaze focused on the TV, and finally she stopped on something that looked promising, though a little old. “This work for you?” She asked before setting the remote down again and picking up one of the burgers to take a big bite.
“Looks fine.” He didn’t really mind what they were watching, not really. So he barely really gave it much attention when Rogue asked what he thought. It’d be fine whatever it was. Settling down again, not even minding when they bumped because it wasn’t a big deal now, Pyro just tucked into his own food with a smirk.
Probably the best twist this day could’ve taken, and he didn’t really mind that development at all.