Still a little off [ota]

[marauding_miss]

While the mission with Wade was counted as a success, Rogue hoped to hell that they didn't use her for anything like that again. She understood how helpful it could be, she understood how much easier it was, but it was still her head and her mind and her feeling the strain of too many foreign memories. Carol always got louder when someone else

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[marauding_miss]

If things were different, Rogue would probably have been a house wife somewhere in Louisiana with a dozen children running around and a lazy, no good husband driving her mad. Rogue wasn't about to believe that her life could be so much better without her powers, it could be less dangerous, maybe. But she wasn't completely unfortunate. "Yeah, but Ah don't see me sitting for days with mah nose in a book."

Matching Ric, Rogue pushed herself off the floor and lay out on her stomach over the end of the bed, twisting one of the loose white strands of hair around her finger. "Ah dunno, it feels too college dorm for me. Ah reckon y'd have ended up in some bachelor pad, like a studio apartment, an' just come an' go as y' please, bringin' all the pretty boys an' girls home an' breakin' their hearts."

Rogue had first hand experience of 'living' with Rictor, back in Africa. She knew he probably would've cleaned when it got to the point of needing it, but she'd always lost her patience before then and done it for him.

"Ah've actually got a place like this in New York, in Harlem? Ain't as big, but got 'bout the same feel in it. Lost mah security deposit when Ah tore the door off the hinges, so Ah just went an' bought the place. Figured it was easier. Didn't know Ah'd be off all 'round the world like this."

[movetheearth]

"But you've got great people skills." Ric lays with his head hanging off the bed, watching Rogue from this off angle and ignoring the rush of blood to his head till it gets too much and he is forced to sit up. "You think so huh?"

She's probably right, Ric would have ended up wasting his time and money on luring the 'beautiful people' in and breaking hearts left, right and centre. It had been the way he always worked before he joined the team and ended up sort of reasonably settled with one person in Martini.

"Really?! I've been to New York, but never seen the sights or stayed more than a day or two. Should really go sometime and do the tourist routine. So what's it like, your place in Harlem? I bet it's classy and retro." He rolled over onto his front, head pillowed on one arm.

[marauding_miss]

Good with people, her? "Darlin' Ah'm a train wreck. Y' don't remember when we first met? Ah barely said three words t' ya, and it wasn't cause y' never let me get a word in edge ways." Really, she was a lot better now, with the likes of Ric and Mark pulling her out of her shell. Angel was nice to talk to and Remy tried with her. She knew that people were making the effort, so it was safe to say she was starting to talk more.

"Lived there since Mama took me in, been other places, sure. But New York 'came like home." And it was, really. Raven and Irene made it home. The first house she'd lived in with them had been this pretty little townhouse and before she knew it, Rogue thought of it as her home, of the women taking care of her mothers and then that was it. She adopted New York much like she adopted Rictor.

"Nah, it's just a little place, cute little apartment on the main street. Y' ever seen that Sex and the City show? It's kinda like the building Sarah Jessica Parker's character lives in. Only not nearly as big inside." Rogue had a bedroom, living room combi like that, but her bathroom was tiny and her kitchen barely had enough room for a fridge and a cooker. And her wardrobe was non-existent. "It works."

One day, she wanted to own a proper apartment, maybe even a house. But she doubted she'd be moving out of New York.

[movetheearth]

"Well at least it wasn't just because I've got a big mouth and an inability to shut up." Yes, Ric is well aware that he talks more than he ever listens but then again he has usually is running his mouth off for some reason or another. Like to get himself out of trouble or the such like. But Rogue is right, she used to be far more of a wall flower and now? Well she's getting there and Ric can't help but be proud tohave been a part of that.

"I know the type you mean." It was easy to picture Rogue in a place like that, somewhere that gave her the space and freedom as well as the opportunity to just simply blend in with everyone else. And somewhere like New York? Where else was better to disappear into the crowds and just become another face in a sea of endless nobodies.

"Can't wait to go home. I miss sunshine and the beach, I miss Mexico."

[marauding_miss]

"Yeah, not just because o' that." Rogue knew for sure that she'd gone through a lot of changes. From her boisterous self before Carol, the simpering girl after Carol, scared of her own shadow and what it might do. But now, mostly thanks to her friends, she was starting to come back to herself, personalities and minds inside her aside. Since she had people who actually cared about her.

Her place wasn't very her. It was simply where she occasionally resided. She wanted somewhere more uptown, wanted something more brownstone, wanted something more free for her to decorate. And someday maybe she would.

"That where you boys are plannin' on settling?" Mexico wasn't far, she could fly to Mexico in a few hours, from New York to Mexico, it was nothing. Distance at all would suck, but surely that was a little while away anyway, she still had her time then.

[movetheearth]

When it comes to leaving team and finally moving on with their lives Ric has already given it some thought. He's invited Mark to move with him to Mexico, already deeming his home to theirs if that is what Mark wants. That said he is also pretty aware that his time manipulating boyfriend has probably glimpsed ahead to their future and the fact that Mark isn't adverse to the idea is good enough for Julio for now.

"Eventually I'd like us to but that's not completely up to me, you know Mark can be about these things." Not to mention Ric wouldn't mind touring the world and seeing the sights with Martini as well before they settle down. He wants security but there is no harm in having fun before right?

"You'd love it I bet. Could get you a place down there too if you wanted, I know a great real estate agent." If Ric had his way he'd move everyone of importance within ten minutes of where he lived. But life isn't like that and he is startign to learn that, all be it slowly.

[marauding_miss]

Really, Rogue can understand the desire to build a home. And she could absolutely see Mark and Ric happy and at home in Mexico with little to worry about. It's not like she plans on being part of the team forever either.

"Ah don't think he'll mind too much, darlin'. Y'r both settling a little, an' y' know he'd say if there were somewhere else he'd wanted to settle." And Mexico is just as nice as California, probably quieter too.

But it possibly wasn't for her. "Ah dunno, sugah. Ah like cities, an' buildings, an' too many people an' noisy subways. Ah like polluted air an' idiot cab drivers. Maybe Ah'll just take a time share on a villa nearby though." Rogue couldn't ever give up New York city, not after making it home. But a home from home was always on the cards.

"Maybe brush up on mah Spanish first."

[movetheearth]

"I hope so, funny huh? Guy like me settling down with a guy like him? I think most people envisioned I'd be a bachelor till the day I died with all these kids by different Mom's all over the place." Ric picks at the stitching on his bedding, letting out a soft sigh. "Sometimes I worry that the only thing keeping us toghether is the team."

It's a stupid train of though but not completely unfounded. They've only been together whilst in this weirdly constucted military/unreal environment so there is no telling how they'll survive out in the big wide world.

"We've got pollution too, but I understand. I love the city but I need to have open space and dirt, soil and earth beneath me rather than concrete, subways and sewers." Ric wouldn't survive living in the city, sure staying there from time to time in a place like New York wouldn't be an issue but anything more than a month and he'd be getting restless. Always has done.

"Mark and I can teach you all you'll ever need to know!"

[marauding_miss]

"Ah think it's sweet." Rogue figured a long time ago that their little fights weren't as mean spirited as they liked to make out; sure they had their friction to begin with, but everyone bonded over something. She was glad they got their heads out of their asses. Even if they did destroy half of Africa. "Look at us, do we have t' be as close as we are? D' we gotta sit in each others rooms and bullshit 'til we can't see straight? Nah, Ah ain't friends with half of 'em, an' it's cause Ah don't wanna have t' be. We're t'gether, all o' us, 'cause we wanna be. So don't make me slap y'r noggin' ya dolt."

She would do it, the team may have brought them together, may have been where they met, but it didn't define their relationships, and Rogue refused to believe they'd fall apart after the team. She wouldn't lose her brother because he moved to Mexico and lived a quiet life, Ric wouldn't lose Mark because they weren't being ordered to remain in the same place, and Ophelia, well, no one really could tell if she even planned past the morning.

"Ah know a little, Ah was workin' for Mama one time, an' we were doin' something a little illegal," as 'little' as breaking and entering was, "an' on o' the guys Ah had t' incapacitate, he was Spanish. Ah got a little bit in mah head, but it ain't much."

She could probably passably speak like a tourist, her accent would always give her away. Unless she hit up another Spanish person before rolling into Mexico, but she highly doubted she would. "But Ah'm a good study, really. Ah'd be an easy teach."