Chapter 6- New Beginnings


Rogue sat at a table by herself, her arms and legs crossed. Her eyes narrowed as she watched her date flirt with that slut of a girl. Luckily, she didn't see Lance or his date anywhere. To watch the two of them draped over one another wouldn't help her bad mood.

"Hey, is this seat taken?" Rogue looked up in surprise.

"Lance?" The dark-haired senior stood over her with a nervous grin. She quickly arranged her surprised expression into a fixed scowl. "What do ya want, ya yahoo? Why aren't ya rubbin' up against slut girl?"

"Because slut girl's rubbing against yours." Lance pulled up a chair and sat down next to her.

"Oh!" She stared at the girl her date was freaking with. "She's yer date?" She hadn't recognized the girl as Casey Miller.

Lance nodded as he watched his former date and Rogue's former date rub up against one another.

Rogue's face softened as she watched Lance's brooding face. "Ah'm sorry," she said softly.

He looked over at her and grinned wryly. "Don't be. I'm not crazy about her anyway."

"Oh."

The two looked at one another before looking away. Lance finally opened his mouth. "So, how you been, Rogue?"

"All right," she answered shortly. "You?"

"Same here."

More silence. Lance finally sighed. "Look, Rogue, I missed you."

Rogue's heart almost stopped before she quickly quelled her emotions for the boy sitting next to her. "Ya sure had a funny way of showing it these last couple months," She informed him coldly. She looked away.

Lance was silent next to her. "Well, you didn't seem to miss me much either."

Rogue turned and glared at him. "Like Ah was really going to let ya know that ya hurt me!" She spun back around and put her back to him. The past, it was something that neither wanted to remember. Nothing had gone wrong. Nothing had gone right. They'd been two individuals who'd closed themselves off to others for so long that when they'd found each other, they found a likeness. But the feeling had been too enclosed by each of their own inner obstacles and past. It was what had eventually forced Rogue to leave the Brotherhood. The real reason. Mystique had merely been the ruse.

But now, things had changed. They'd both learned to open up. They both had families they were comfortable with and who accepted them like their own. They'd received love, and while not meaning to, had ended up giving it back. But not to each other. Yet they'd wanted to. And this time, they were ready. They could do it if they tried.

Lance took a deep breath. "Look, you know I'm not good at saying this sort of stuff." He looked at the back of Rogue's head. She still refused to look at him, but he knew she was listening. She always cocked her head to the left side when she was pretending to ignore someone. Lance sighed again. "Maybe I messed up. Maybe we both did. But we weren't ready for a relationship then. But it's been several months and things have changed. I've learned to open up and I've seen you, Rogue. I know you can too. I think we're ready to see each other, for real this time. I think I can give more to you this time, Rogue."

Rogue sighed, and when she answered, her voice was slightly husky. "Ah don't know, Lance. Ah don't want what happened before to break us up again." They had both been scared to get hurt. She remembered times before she'd joined the X-Men and before she'd joined the Brotherhood. Every time she'd opened up to someone, they'd somehow ended up hurting her in return. She didn't want it to happen again. Not when she truly believed they wouldn't hurt her.

"You know I don't want to get hurt either." Lance said softly. "But-," he stared down at the floor. "I don't want to lose you either, and I guess I'm willing to take the risk this time."

Rogue turned to look at him. She wasn't crying, but Lance knew that she was touched. He nervously bit his lip. The dance music around them stopped and it switched to a slow Dido song. Lance remembered that she'd always listened to that CD. It had been the one singer outside the heavy techno and gansta rap genre that she'd listened to. This song was 'Thank You.' He'd danced to this song with Leslie Gellar one night to her car radio. But it hadn't been special that time. "Listen." He said quietly. "I know that if we do this, we'll have to take it slow. But I don't know, I think it's worth trying."

"Ah don't know," Rogue sighed. She looked over at the dance floor. All the couples were turning in slow, tight embraces. The desire to be out among the other couples won her over. She didn't want to sit here alone. Suddenly, a new feeling came over her and she smiled. "Ya wanna dance?" She gave him a sideways glance and a teasing grin.

Lance just gave her a confused look. First at the quick change of topic, then at the teasing lilt that had suddenly entered her voice.

Rogue just grinned. "We have ta start somewhere, don't we?"

He smiled. "Yeah." The two stood up. Lance took her hand and led her out to the floor. At an empty corner, they faced each other. Lance put his arms around her waist as Rogue put her arms around his neck. They touched chest-to-chest. Lance put his cheek against her hair. Rogue leaned against his chest, counting each heartbeat to the steady bass beats of the music. The music and the feel of Lance against her soothed her into a trance-like state. It felt like the rest of the world was gone and all that existed was their own surrogate existence. She knew that one dance, one moment, wouldn't mean anything in the long run. Their relationship was too complicated and it would take months or even years to work through that. There were no promises. There would always be pain. But this time, she let herself relax. The problems would always come, but she didn't always have to give in to them. This time, Rogue let the warm nostalgia take her over. She put her arms more tightly around Lance. This time, this night, she wanted to enjoy this dance.

* * *

Kurt glumly stood by the refreshment table eating cookies. Charlotte had decided that Laney, while no longer competition, was a plain irritable nuisance. To show her who was better, Charlotte had decided to go chasing after Laney's date, Mark Holmes. Of course, that left Kurt out in the cold. While he hadn't enjoyed being with Charlotte, he didn't enjoy getting dumped either. So much for a great Homecoming. Kurt sighed and grabbed another cookie and started bringing it to his mouth, when BOOM!

He gagged as the cookie exploded. Wiping the crumbs from his face, Kurt looked around furiously. What the heck had happened? His attention turned to a giggling blonde on the other side of the table. When she saw him looking at her, she smiled. "Hey Blue, you looked a little lonely over there so I thought Boom-Boom needed to liven it up for you."

"Who? Who's Boom-Boom? What-, who are you?" Kurt looked incredulously at the girl. He'd never seen her before. How had she made the cookie explode? How did she know he was blue? His holowatch was on. His clothes were black. Was she a mutant?

As if to answer his question, the girl grinned. "I'm Tabitha Smith. I just moved into the Institute." She jerked her thumb in the direction of the mansion. "I heard all about you. After I unpacked, I decided to check out the dance."

"What, you sneak in or something?"

"Something like that." She grinned as she formed a tiny energy bomb in her hands. "The guy at the door had no idea why his pants suddenly came down out of nowhere. Maybe it'll motivate him to lose the extra pounds." Her cherry smile was so contagious that Kurt was forced to grin. "Hey, looks like you lost your date. You wanna have some fun with me instead? I saw this couple over in the corner. I think they were a little too close. It's really not appropriate for a school dance." She frowned in mock seriousness.

Kurt grinned. "I have a better idea. There's this girl named Charlotte Russell. She's with this guy named Mark Holmes. They're probably going to be a lot closer than this other couple."

"Hmm, Charlotte Russell." Tabitha aka Boom-Boom tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Isn't that the girl who's your date?"

"Was." Kurt corrected her.

"Ohh..." Tabitha grinned. "I see."

"You want to?"

"Do I want to? Let's do it Blue!"

"All right, I'll take us over to them." He took her arm.

"Is this your power?"

"Yep. If the Professor didn't tell you, my code name is Nightcrawler."

"Nightcrawler, I like that name!" She smiled as she formed an energy bomb in one hand. "Let's go, Blue!" And with a poof, they bamfed away from the refreshment table.

* * *

It was the last dance. Scott and Jean had been dancing together. "Hey," Jean said softly. "You want to go outside?"

"Sure, why not?" The two broke apart and walked towards the doors where the lights and tables had been set up. It was probably empty anyway. They wanted to spend some time alone before the dance was over.

However, there was another couple out there. "Hmm, who's that?" Jean whispered. Was that...Todd and Kitty? Jean blinked in surprise. "Is that who I think it is?"

"Who?"

"Todd and Kitty?"

Scott laughed. "Of course not, like the two would be caught dead together. It's-," He broke off when he realized that it was indeed their youngest member of the X-Men with the youngest member of the Brotherhood. "It's Todd Tolanski! Kitty's in danger!" His hands immediately went to his visor.

Jean rolled her eyes. "Come on, do they really look like they're causing trouble? Let them alone." Their feelings were easy to read, even without trying. It was almost impossible to not feel it. She couldn't help but feel touched by the feeling that emanated from them. They were actually a good couple. At least the feelings were true.

However, Scott wasn't following her train of thinking. "Those two, it's trouble, I'm telling you." The only reason he wasn't charging over to them was that Jean was holding him back.

"It's Homecoming. Let them be together, Scott. There's another empty corner over there." She nodded her head over to the opposite corner. "No one will be watching us." She smiled.

Scott hesitated between doing what was right and his desire to be with Jean. His hormones won him over. He allowed Jean to lead him away from Todd and Kitty. Looking back, he figured he could have a talk with Todd after the dance. "Stop thinking about them, Scott!" Jean hissed at him. She'd read his thoughts. "I'm right here, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Scott answered distractedly. "I just-," the thoughts of the younger couple were blanked from his mind as Jean's face came incredibly close to him.

"Come on Scott, do you want to think about them or me?" Scott didn't have a chance to decide as Jean's lips suddenly met with his own and all that he could think of now was Jean.