X-Men: Rogue Evolution

It was quiet enough in the dining room that Anna could hear the music softly playing in one of Kurt's headphones as he worked on his algebra homework. It was something subtle with a steady beat, or at least a beat steady enough that Anna found her foot tapping in time to it under the table.

Evan sat next to him and shared the other headphone. Unlike Kurt's face, Evan was screwed up in concentration over something on his computer. When he wasn't tapping at his laptop, he was stroking the patchy stubble at his chin. A soda that he'd taken a single sip from since cracking it at the fridge had, at least by the sound of it, lost all the fight it had left in its carbonation.

The English homework in front of Anna wasn't any more complete than it had been when she pulled it out of the crammed front pocket of her backpack. She managed to fill out her name well enough, but the rest was coming in at a slow trickle, if at all. It didn't help that no matter how many times she read the prompts for the long-form answers, none of the words sunk in an inch. It also may have helped if she had read the book that they were covering.

She heard the heat turn on somewhere in the house, and the vent near her feet pushed the fabric of her jeans against her ankles. The large window behind her lightly popped at the temperature differential. Evan went back to tapping at his keyboard. Tap - tap - tap - tap… tap… tap - tap - tap. 

The song on Kurt's headphones momentarily paused before entering a new chorus.

Tap - tap - tap… tap… tap - tap - tap

The song fades into the bridge.

Tap - tap… tap - tap…

"OH MY GOD." Anna lets her head fall to the table hard enough for it to sting.

"Wha?" Kurt shot up in his chair, nearly falling backward with it.

Evan snapped a bony thorn out of his wrist and nearly tackled Kurt on his way to the window. "Sentinals?" He shouted, peering out the large glass pane.

"No, Ev… No Sentinals…" Anna slowly pulled her head off the table. Her homework momentarily stuck to her skin before falling off and fluttering to the ground. She refused to rub the throbbing spot between her eyes as she stood and felt for her keys on her belt loop. "Who wants to go to the mall?"

"The mall?" Kurt looked down at his work. "But, Ann, I've only got three problems left -"

"Then it sounds like it won't be too hard to finish later." Anna felt for her wallet in her back pocket, dumped her backpack from the ground onto the table to get it out of the way of her feet.

"Anna," Evan, apparently at a loss as to what to do with his spiky thorn, simply dropped it on the ground. "We can't just drop everything…"

"Yes, we can, and I am. Coming or not, this party train is leaving in five." Sure enough, with two minutes to spare, the three were piled in Banana with the garage door opening.

Evan pulled his fur-lined hood over his head. "Does this relic even have heat?"

"Good question," Anna toggled the fat nobs in front of her, and the fan spun, but nothing beyond room temp air puttered out. "Nope!"

"Freaking fantastic…"

"It's not that bad, Ev." Kurt snuggled close to him. "Just means we can use each other for warmth!"

Anna adjusted her rear-view mirror. "Everyone buckled in?"

Kurt looked around, "Actually, I don't -"

"Sounds great," Anna dropped her foot on the accelerator and heard the tires squeal beyond her windows. Banana lurched forward and flew down the driveway. The fence gate barely opened in time to allow the car to pass through.

Evan gripped onto the seat belt he didn't have time to fasten, "You want to slow down to the speed limit, Ann?!" 

"You a cop, Ev?" Anna shouted over the roar of the engine.

"No, but -"

"Then sit back and enjoy the ride. Pretend it's a roller coaster!"

A cloud of powdery snow followed the burnt sienna car as it powered through slush and uneven countryside roads. Anna caught a view of Kurt rolling down the back seat window and sticking his face outside. His hair whipped against the flanks of his face, and streaking spit almost immediately turned to ice.

"Kurt!" Evan pulled at Kurt's sleeve, "What are you doing?"

"Pretending it's a roller coaster!" Kurt stuck both arms out the window and let the wind catch him fully across his body.

Anna was eventually forced to slow once they were within city limits, or at least what Anna interpreted were city limits, which was the first stoplight she saw. In line with her to downtown Bayville were other cars coated in slush and salt. Probably commuters going home after a long day, or people going from one long day to another at their second job. What stood out among the drab sea of dirty snow and gray was a bright red flag held high over a pickup truck.

Coming from a certain part of the South, at first brush, Anna thought it was one symbol of hate, but as the wind picked up and stretched the fabric, she saw it was another. In large print were the letters FOH, but it had a different background than what she'd seen at school. The letters were plastered over a stylized eagle with its wings outstretched. Divided into two different colors, the top part of the eagle was red and the bottom blue, and plastered over its center were the letters they'd gotten to know so well in white.

"Well," Kurt leaned over the center console of the car. "That certainly looks more official."

"Looks fucking ugly is what it looks like." Anna leaned back in her seat with her hand firmly planted at the noon position on the wheel. "Cheap ass redbubble ass shit probably."

"You know what," Evan popped the door open, "I'm going to let that guy know what I think of his flag."

"Ev, no!" Kurt caught him by the back of the jacket and threw him back inside. From where Anna sat, she stretched back and slapped the door's locking mechanism in place.

"What -" Evan struggled against Kurt's arm, "Why are you stopping me? You know I could take him!"

"You don't know that, Ev!" Kurt wrapped both arms around his neck to hold him in place.

"Seriously, Evan." Anna checked her mirrors to see if anyone had noticed the shuffling in her car. "How stupid can you be? You don't know if that guy has a gun!"

"I can grow spears out of my body," Evan threw Kurt off him, but remained in place despite. "I'm not afraid of some redneck and his gun!"

Kurt gave his boyfriend a withering glare. "You should be."

The rest of the car ride was quiet. Nearly as quiet as it had been back at the dining room table, except now it felt like there was a lead weight on Anna's chest. Pulling up the mall parking lot was like finally stopping after an eight-hour road trip, though the drive only took around fifteen minutes.

When Evan got out of the car, he slammed the door behind him, rocking the entire thing. Kurt was quick to follow, and it wasn't till Anna was out of the car and locked the doors did she saw the boys were already halfway to the mall. She caught Kurt holding two fistfuls of snow and dumping them on Evan's head. He shook off the powder like a dog to water and chased Kurt to the mall doors.

The mall had largely been cleared out of the Christmas and New Year's decorations, but a few of the shops still hung on to the yuletide cheer. By the time Anna had reached the large glass doors, she'd long lost track of the boys but wasn't too upset by that fact. For months now, she'd been stapled to one of her fellow X-Men in one way or another, and it felt like only in class could she be away from any of them. Alone in a mall where no one knew her name was a welcome change. Or at least it was till she went to the cafe for a coffee.

Anna found her way to the same Starbucks that Ororo had taken her to when Anna first arrived. The place was just as clean and corporate as she'd remembered, but still sparkles of personality managed to force their way to the surface. Little origami cranes made of sticky notes sat on the counter to the bakery goods display, and little handmade paper snowflakes hung in the windows. Between the many beeps and the fogging espresso machine, Anna spotted a little Christmas tree sitting atop a pile of espresso bean bags. When she got close to place her order, she saw the tree had paper strands attached to the limbs with names. At the very top, under the star, was paper dangling by a thread that read "THANK YOU XMAN."

When her turn had arrived to place her order, she was caught off guard.

"Ma'am?" Asked the cashier, a young woman with purple highlights in her hair.

"Sorry," Anna stared at the tree. A stilted pause lingered in the air as her mind struggled to put words together. "Little late for a Christmas tree, huh?" She said, preceding something between a cough and a laugh.

"Oh, that?" The girl looked back at the little tree. "Our manager's idea. Her aunt was nearly a victim in that fight downtown. She said the X-MAN saved her from a store she was shopping in."

"Really?"

"Yeah. So she decided to put that tree together with the names of everyone that the X-MAN and his friends saved that day."

"That's… a lot of names."

"It is. Crazy, some people are actually blaming them for some stuff going on, huh?"

"Like what?"

"Like that attack at the Atlas facility. Some say it was the X-MAN's group."

"That doesn't make any sense, though!" Anna caught herself and rubbed her collarbone, "I mean," she started, "Like, why would they help people then blow up a building, right?"

"Don't know. But I know that I'm glad they were at least there during the attack. Saved a lot of families that day. All I know is if they did blow up that place, it was probably for good reason."

Anna stared at the tree. "Yeah… maybe…" She collected her drink, a venti mocha frap, and hunted for a place to sit, when, "You've got to be kidding me..."

The only free spot in the packed cafe was a single chair at a table where a woman in a long tan trench coat sat. Her boots, tall and black, and been dripping outdoor slush on the ground for so long that the puddle had solidified into dirt. Her coat, tattered at the hem around the ankle, lay limply to the side to expose long legs trimmed with pockets, some more bulbous than others. Her hair, long and black, was tied back and hung down the back of the chair. Her face was buried in a book that Anna was just a little too far away to read the cover of.

The door wasn't that far away. It wouldn't have been hard to simply excuse herself from engaging with this person whom she had last seen at a hospital where the Brotherhood escaped with medical supplies. A place where they exchanged blows just before she escaped without a trace. And now, here she was, just reading a book at Starbucks.

"This seat taken?" Anna watched as the freshly purchased copy of 'Icebreaker' was lowered, and a pair of fire-red irises looked up at her. 

"Well, now…" Droned a Cajun accent freshly bathed in the Mississippi. "Look what the cat done dragged in…" Gambit's cheshire cat grin was enough for Anna to wonder if this was such a good idea. "Always got a free seat for a fellow sister from South of the Mason-Dixon line." Gambit kicked out the seat and into Anna's awaiting hand.

"Thanks…" Anna hadn't realized till after she sat that Gambit was wearing glasses till she stowed them away in a slim case and into a pocket in her jacket. "Is it any good?" Anna nodded toward the book.

"This?" Gambit turned it over as if inspecting an interesting rock she'd found on the ground. "Passed the time on the bus getting up here. Got a couple of weird looks though."

"Not sure if that was from the book or…" When Gambit looked at her, Anna gestured toward her eyes.

"Oh, these?" Gambit waved her hand, "Just say it's allergies."

"Allergies can do that to a person?"

"Can do it to me if I tell people it does." Gambit nodded towards Anna's drink. "It any good?"

Anna took a sip. "It's alright."

"Is it?" Gambit leaned over and took a sip from Anna's straw.

"Hey!" Anna pulled her drink back and… didn't allow herself to enjoy the honeysuckle scent of Gamit's perfume to change her hardened expression.

"Hmm," Gambit stroked her chin. "It is alright. I prefer coffee personally."

"This is coffee!"

"It's coffee flavoring in ice cream. You want real coffee, there's a little place back in New Orleans I need to show you. Make you rethink the whole drink."

"Like I'd ever go anywhere with you."

Gambit shrugged her shoulders and opened her book back to the page she was reading. "No one's forcing you to do nothin', Chere."

"What are you doing here anyway?"

"Me? Same as you, I figure. Get me somethin to sip while enjoy a little somethin to read -"

"You know that's not what I'm talking about. I'm asking what you're doing in town."

"Ah, well, Bayville's become quite the little hotspot for mutant activity." She set her book down on the table and crossed one leg over the other. Her body didn't face Anna, but instead the busy cafe around them, with her eyes bouncing from table to table. "Seems like just about anything can happen in this cozy little burb for our folk, and I figured I'd get a front row seat of the action."

Gambit took her coffee and that same hand softly began to glow purple, and a moment later, more steam began to rise from the black beverage. "Mmm," she said between sips, "Cudose on the battle with that raging boar downtown a few weeks back. City should give you and your folk a damn key to city. Or at least a key to what's left of it, that is."

"Why are you telling me this? That wasn't me."

Gambit's fiery eyes snapped back at Anna, and the edges curled as she smiled. "My mistake, it must have been the other group of superhero do-gooders. I apologize, Miss XMAN."

Anna snapped her hand across the table and covered Gambit's mouth. She looked around, and when she realized that none of the other patrons were paying them any attention, she saw what she did. A couple of inches away from Gambit's covered mouth was her steaming coffee, where she'd been planning to take another sip. She was until Anna pierced the other woman's personal bubble with the hot-red point of her fingers. "Sorry." Anna sat back down in her chair and averted her eyes after she withdrew the offending hand.

"Think nothin' of it." Gambit's smile turned not only the corners of her eyes but dimpled her cheeks in a way Anna hadn't noticed before. "It's what I get for poking the bear -"

"Is it that obvious?" The question shot out of Anna almost as fast as her hand had to Gambit's mouth. "Me in that photo, I mean."

"Can't see your face, sure. Still got that short hair and build with your shoulders and neck."

"Damn it…" Anna clutched her head between her hands. "I need to shave it all off, don't I? Just to be safe."

Gambit held a hand as if calming a bull, "Easy, easy. No need for nothin' so dramatic, I'm just pulling your leg. No one could ever tell it was you unless they were looking for you in it."

"Seriously? Are you positive?"

"Has anyone approached you about it?"

"Well… no."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"What isn't there to be worried about? The FOH, giant robots, the guy living in my head!" The last one flew out of her mouth before she could catch it and throw it back down her throat.

Gambit gently wrapped her fingers around the base of Anna's frappuccino and pulled it away from her. "Maybe that's enough of that… How's a nice jasmine tea sound?"

Anna dropped her forehead to the table. The cool laminated top felt nice on her head for a moment, till she could now see her feet and found that at some point she'd stepped in a wad of gum.

"Look," the playful air in Gambit's voice dropped and was replaced with something a little more genuine that Anna had yet to hear from her. "I dropped out of school pretty young, and it wasn't exactly by choice either. Since then, I've traveled across the country a few times with different folks to do whatever I could to get by. Sometimes things got serious and seriously scary. When that'd happen, I'd sometimes help to imagine myself after everything had resolved. When the money was split, and what I'd do with it, or maybe go downtown for something nice to eat. All the while looking back exactly where I was then and thinkin 'boy that sucked, glad that's over.'"

"Once in Jasper, Alabama, I had to get out of town before this gang caught up to me. Turns out they weren't a fan of the work I did for a guy back in Tuscaloosa, where I was paid to steal a water feature and put it in the bed of the guy the leader was having an affair with…"

Anna looked up at Gambit, her head featuring a long red line just above her brows.

"Look, the details don't matter. I was there in Jasper, and the gang was looking for me. It felt like every eye in town was on me, and like a giant target was on my back. But what helped me get through it was old Marv's coffee back in New Orleans. I just pictured myself sitting on the pati,o soaking in that sweet sun with somethin' just as hot in my hand. Because I knew I'd get through it, and I'd get that damn cup of coffee no matter what it took. It was just figuring out how to get there."

Anna rested her forearms under her chin on the table. "How did you get out of there?"

"I didn't, I died." Gambit smiled that smile of hers and stood.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Can't take in the breathtaking sights of Bayville by sitting inside the comfort of a Starbucks, now can I?" She stuffed her book in the breast pocket of her jacket. "I'll catch you around, Chere." After she fastened her jacket around her form, she walked out the door and into the snowy day beyond.

Anna caught herself staring at the door for a while before her gaze fell back on her half-melted frappuccino. "Whatever, it's still coffee." She said, taking a watery sip.