A cool breeze swept through the room that Rogue and Kitty shared. Rogue’s eyes fluttered open in response, and with a blink, she was completely awake.
That’s odd, she thought. She got up to stretch, casually looking at the clock on the stand next to her bed. She almost did a double take when she read 4:00 am. She calmly waited until her eyes would adjust to the digital numbers and the 4 would turn into a 9, at which she would panic, drag her roommate from her bed and run downstairs to convince Ororo or Logan to write them a note to excuse them from their morning classes. But the 4 remained. Yes, it was 4:00 in the morning. It wasn’t really the time of day that puzzled Rogue, but the fact that she was completely awake. It was as if her body or mind didn’t realize it was sleeping only a couple minutes ago.
Ah guess there’s a first time foh everythin’.
And with that thought in mind, she got up, her legs swiftly kicking off her covers and planting themselves squarely on her bedroom slippers. In perfect rhythm and time, she strode across to the window and drew back the curtains. It was still dark, but the early birds were chirping, assuring Rogue that the sun was fast-approaching. A sudden desire to see the sunrise outside in the cold, morning air overwhelmed her, and she felt a strange kind of excitement at the idea. Quickly, she sneaked out of the room with her toiletries and bathrobe.
She had to will herself not to sing in the shower. She caught herself smiling at everything. The sensation of hot water raining on her neck and back. The flowery smell of her shampoo. The plopping sound of lathery soap cascading down her body onto the floor of the shower. Stepping out of the steam, she had never felt so clean in her life.
Quietly, she stepped back into the room. Rogue found herself tip-toeing and holding her breath, almost afraid Kitty might be aroused from her sleep by the slightest noise. She wanted this rare morning to be hers and hers alone. Almost immediately, she rushed her preparations so that she would not miss the coming of dawn. She grabbed her regularly worn black jeans, torn at the knees, her black tank with the black wrap sweater. But her hands stopped, hovering over the soft material of the sweater.
Black was a little too depressing, especially since she was in such a good mood. And when was she ever in a good mood?
Tucking away her normal attire, she got down on her knees to open the bottom drawer of her dresser. She kept a few articles of clothing in here that were either too old to wear, gifts from Kitty in attempts to reform Rogue from her gothic style, and impulse buys at the mall - $2 for a shirt! You can’t even get a cup of coffee with that money anymore! Too bad she never found any occasion that called for fuchsia zebra stripes. She finally found a pair of blue jeans that Kitty bought her. Rogue actually liked the fit, but when Kitty made her swear not to cut holes in the knees, they just somehow ended up in the bottom drawer. Pulling them on quietly, she almost jumped when Kitty grumbled something in her sleep. She started getting second thoughts about ditching her black clothes, when something caught her eye at the back of the drawer. Underneath the fuchsia zebra stripes was a flat, brown parcel bag tied up in string. She pulled it open and was hit with a familiar smell and a hint of freesia. It was the smell of Irene and her old home in Caldecott. She pulled out a white sweater, cashmere so soft that Rogue couldn’t help fingering the material and pressing it against her face. It was a gift from Irene when Rogue graduated elementary school. She remembered receiving it, but it was too big on her that Irene decided to wrap it up until she was big enough to wear it. It hadn’t been open until now. It was way too white to wear in public, but Rogue was curious to how it would fit after all these years. She gently pulled the sweater on. It had a high cowl neck and extra long sleeves that exposed only her fingers. The sweater intimately found all her curves, the cashmere felt sinfully delicious on her skin. She played with the neck, and looked askance at herself in the mirror. It was beautiful. She was beautiful. Self-consciously, Rogue scratched her head, causing a couple of her auburn locks to tumble forward. She looked at herself again. She felt so pretty that she smiled, and suddenly realized that she didn’t recognize her reflection.
Could it be possible that ah don’t know how ah look when ah smile?
The thought disheartened her, but as if to cheer her up, she heard the birds chirping, warning her that the sun would rise any minute now. Before she could chicken out, her legs stealthily carried her out of the room.
Before she even knew it, she was shutting the front door to the mansion closed. When she turned, the courtyard stood before her in the twilight before dawn. The lamps were still on, radiating a hazy glow amidst the morning mist. Sweet, dewy air wafted up her hair, caressing here face. She felt a shiver of excitement.
Calm down, girl, it’s only the wind, she chided herself, a little disgusted with all her uncharacteristic romance. But it sure is pretty though.
She stepped down the main steps of the mansion, grandly. Taking an appreciative glance back at the courtyard, she picked up her pace across the front lawn, and sidestepped onto a dirt path. The path led into a wooded area that would then ascend onto a top of a hill that gave a good view of the lake below, the rooftops of the mansion behind and nothing but sky up ahead. From here, she would watch the sunrise. She sat down on a patch of grass, it was wet, but she was going to change out of these clothes before she went to school anyway. She hugged her knees, setting her chin on top of her folded arms. Her chin rubbed at the soft material. She looked up at the sky; it had gotten a lot brighter. Most of all the stars were already faded, but the moon was still visible. Another gust of cold wind tossed her hair back away from her face, uncluttered by her normal layers of dark make-up.
"Look at me... Ah’m the regular child o’ Mother Nature here," she whispered to herself, but was surprised to find her voice sounding happy.
Why am ah so happy, anyway? What the hell was so great about today that ah’m up here in this ungodly hour with my butt soaking wet? Today was probably going to be just as any other day. Breakfast with the gang, where she would scowl at her cereal, scowl at Kitty, scowl at Kurt, scowl at Jean, and scowl all the way to school. Where she would undoubtedly scowl at her teachers, her books and the questionable cafeteria food. Then it would be another one of those grueling, redundant training sessions in the Danger Room. Which usually left her is such a state that her scowl would easily turn to scathing glares if she was rightly provoked. Just as any other day, only today, she would be possibly more crankier because she did not get enough sleep.
But she didn’t believe it for a second. She felt too good. She felt alert, her senses felt like they were honed to a point. She could hear the twitter of the birds, the beat of their wings, the rustle of the leaves, and the sway of the grass. Everything felt so tangible... so alive. At this moment, the sky turned a coral pink hue, and a glowing sliver of red broke over the top of the eastern skyline. Rogue stopped in awe. Her eyes took in every detail as the light crept up to hit her face. She didn’t even blink, her green eyes glittering back, challenging the beauty that she beheld. Finally, she took a deep breath of sweet air, held it and exhaled musically. Then broke out into laughter. The mirth in that tinny sound shocked her, causing her to laugh harder. When she stopped, she looked up to find the sun had already come up halfway over the mountains. It was a beautiful clear day. She got up and looked down at the lake, it glittered peacefully. She smiled. It was like the morning air was clearing her mind out. Her mind was clear.
Her mind was clear.
And there it was. The silence. The hum of voices in the back of her head that was always there, all the ghost psyches she absorbed that resided in the recesses of her mind: they were quiet. Or were they gone? She searched for them, almost frantically. But they weren’t there. She heard nothing. She placed a hand on her head, trying to make sense of the naked peace that invaded her mind. The tips of her fingers pressed into her scalp, trying to physically make her brain work. She was thinking back. But nothing was out of the ordinary ... ordinary meaning fighting off Sabretooth before he bit her head off, taking down an Acolyte and using his powers against his own teammates... wait. Who had she absorbed? She couldn’t remember. Alert as she was with all her senses perked and ready, her memory seemed slow and lethargic. Squatting down, she grabbed the earth beneath her and dug her fingernails into gravel and grass, struggling to remember what happened the fight from the night before.
Ah remember grabbin’ somebody, takin’ him down...ah remember having his powers...
Rogue had unknowingly grabbed a couple of rocks off the ground and as she tried to remember, the rocks whined as they began to illuminate a bright pink light. She looked at her hands, startled at the glowing rocks she tossed them aside in a hurry. The rocks shot forth from her fingers, sailing uncharacteristically through the air ... Knowing what would happen next, Rogue ducked and covered as the rocks blew up on the grass, leaving charred patches on the forest floor marking where they landed.
Rogue looked up, breathing fast. Now she remembered.
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