Fic: Midnight (1/2)
Title: Midnight
Fandom: X-Men (movies)
Characters: Pyro/Rogue
Prompt: Want
Word Count: 874
Rating: PG
Summary: The origins of John’s shark Zippo. If you look, in X1, Pyro’s just using a plain silver lighter.
Author's Notes: Pre-X2; Part One of Two.
“Well, I wasn’t sure what to get you,” Rogue said, handing over the small, green-and-red wrapped package. “Figured you could at least put this to good use.”
She was standing in the doorway of John and Bobby’s room, leaning against the frame, offering up the gift with raised eyebrows, almost challengingly. With Bobby gone for Winter Break, Rogue had already given her boyfriend his Christmas present. But she’d waited until Christmas Eve to give John his.
From the expression on John’s face, he hadn’t been expecting a gift from her. But the surprise faded and he finally rolled his eyes, taking the present from her but not inviting her in. In fact, he had the door shut halfway and she’d had to wedge her foot in it just to keep him from shutting it in her face.
Rogue made a mental note to skip anything Christmas-y with John next year. Just getting him to have a civil conversation with her was difficult enough; he’d been a royal pain in the ass since she and Bobby had started dating. Rogue figured that the pyromaniac was just pissed off about having his best friend all but stolen out from under his nose by a girl.
Whatever. She did her best to be nice, even if that usually meant that she was snapping at him irritably in response to his own behavior. But if he was going to be a rude jackass when she was trying to spread a little Christmas cheer… well. Then screw him.
“I promise it’s not gonna blow up or anything,” Rogue said with a huff. “Go on, hold it up to your ear. It’s not ticking.”
John scratched his nose, glancing behind him and pushing the door closed a little more so that she could only see a small corner of the bedroom he was trying so hard to keep her out of. “You think about blowing me… up a lot?”
The pause between the words ‘me’ and ‘up’ made Rogue roll her eyes, mumbling something under her breath that sounded vaguely like not in this lifetime. “John, don’t be an idiot.” After a pause, she added, “More than you can help.” She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded to him. “Are you going to open it or what?”
He coughed, shot another glance behind him, looking uncharacteristically… nervous. Rogue didn’t get to see him anything akin to nervous often enough. In fact, he got off on flustering her too much for her to ever get the chance to see him nervous and the fact that he was fidgeting now made her smirk.
“I don’t care if you didn’t get me anything,” she said. She hadn’t expected him to and that hadn’t been why she’d bought him a gift.
John scowled at her. “I did get you a gift. It’s just not wrapped and ready to give to you yet.”
Rogue blinked, a little surprised. And the fact that he kept glancing behind him suddenly made sense --- so did the fact that he had a piece of double-sided tape stuck to the sleeve of his button down shirt. “Oh. Well. Open mine now anyway.”
John stared at her a second before grumbling to himself and tearing into the wrapping paper. Then opened the lid on the small black box she’d put his gift in.
His mouth twitched when he saw what it was. A lighter. A Zippo from the looks of it. With a shark emblem on its flip top. Smirking, John glanced up at her. “You got me a lighter?”
“Like I said… didn’t know what you’d want. Thought I couldn’t go wrong with giving you something to burn things with.”
John snorted and nodded, taking the lighter out of the box and tossing the wrapping and the box aside with little regard for where they landed. He flipped the top open experimentally with a clack, then snapped it shut. “Could get used to that,” he said, repeating the same gesture for effect.
Rogue swallowed a groan. That? The sound of his lighter opening and closing, if he decided to make a habit out of it? Was going to get irritating. Fast.
“Yeah, well. Great. Merry Christmas.” Rogue pulled her foot out from the space between the door and wall, stepping away to head back to her room.
“Hey. Hold on.” John shoved the lighter in his pocket and poked his head out of his room to catch her attention before she left. “Meet me later? In the common room. Gotta give you your present since I’m going to the trouble of wrapping it and everything.”
Rogue’s brow furrowed; he actually sounded… nice. Or something. It was weird coming from John. He rarely smiled at her or said anything that wasn’t either suggestive and vulgar or completely dismissive of her.
She hesitated, looking at him like she was waiting for the punch line, then, finally, shrugged. “Yeah, okay. What time?”
“Midnight.” Though he was already digging in his pocket and pulling out the Zippo, back to entertaining himself with snapping the lid open and closed. Apparently done with their conversation, he disappeared into his room, shutting the door behind him.
Rogue just shook her head and walked away.
Fandom: X-Men (movies)
Characters: Pyro/Rogue
Prompt: Want
Word Count: 874
Rating: PG
Summary: The origins of John’s shark Zippo. If you look, in X1, Pyro’s just using a plain silver lighter.
Author's Notes: Pre-X2; Part One of Two.
“Well, I wasn’t sure what to get you,” Rogue said, handing over the small, green-and-red wrapped package. “Figured you could at least put this to good use.”
She was standing in the doorway of John and Bobby’s room, leaning against the frame, offering up the gift with raised eyebrows, almost challengingly. With Bobby gone for Winter Break, Rogue had already given her boyfriend his Christmas present. But she’d waited until Christmas Eve to give John his.
From the expression on John’s face, he hadn’t been expecting a gift from her. But the surprise faded and he finally rolled his eyes, taking the present from her but not inviting her in. In fact, he had the door shut halfway and she’d had to wedge her foot in it just to keep him from shutting it in her face.
Rogue made a mental note to skip anything Christmas-y with John next year. Just getting him to have a civil conversation with her was difficult enough; he’d been a royal pain in the ass since she and Bobby had started dating. Rogue figured that the pyromaniac was just pissed off about having his best friend all but stolen out from under his nose by a girl.
Whatever. She did her best to be nice, even if that usually meant that she was snapping at him irritably in response to his own behavior. But if he was going to be a rude jackass when she was trying to spread a little Christmas cheer… well. Then screw him.
“I promise it’s not gonna blow up or anything,” Rogue said with a huff. “Go on, hold it up to your ear. It’s not ticking.”
John scratched his nose, glancing behind him and pushing the door closed a little more so that she could only see a small corner of the bedroom he was trying so hard to keep her out of. “You think about blowing me… up a lot?”
The pause between the words ‘me’ and ‘up’ made Rogue roll her eyes, mumbling something under her breath that sounded vaguely like not in this lifetime. “John, don’t be an idiot.” After a pause, she added, “More than you can help.” She crossed her arms over her chest and nodded to him. “Are you going to open it or what?”
He coughed, shot another glance behind him, looking uncharacteristically… nervous. Rogue didn’t get to see him anything akin to nervous often enough. In fact, he got off on flustering her too much for her to ever get the chance to see him nervous and the fact that he was fidgeting now made her smirk.
“I don’t care if you didn’t get me anything,” she said. She hadn’t expected him to and that hadn’t been why she’d bought him a gift.
John scowled at her. “I did get you a gift. It’s just not wrapped and ready to give to you yet.”
Rogue blinked, a little surprised. And the fact that he kept glancing behind him suddenly made sense --- so did the fact that he had a piece of double-sided tape stuck to the sleeve of his button down shirt. “Oh. Well. Open mine now anyway.”
John stared at her a second before grumbling to himself and tearing into the wrapping paper. Then opened the lid on the small black box she’d put his gift in.
His mouth twitched when he saw what it was. A lighter. A Zippo from the looks of it. With a shark emblem on its flip top. Smirking, John glanced up at her. “You got me a lighter?”
“Like I said… didn’t know what you’d want. Thought I couldn’t go wrong with giving you something to burn things with.”
John snorted and nodded, taking the lighter out of the box and tossing the wrapping and the box aside with little regard for where they landed. He flipped the top open experimentally with a clack, then snapped it shut. “Could get used to that,” he said, repeating the same gesture for effect.
Rogue swallowed a groan. That? The sound of his lighter opening and closing, if he decided to make a habit out of it? Was going to get irritating. Fast.
“Yeah, well. Great. Merry Christmas.” Rogue pulled her foot out from the space between the door and wall, stepping away to head back to her room.
“Hey. Hold on.” John shoved the lighter in his pocket and poked his head out of his room to catch her attention before she left. “Meet me later? In the common room. Gotta give you your present since I’m going to the trouble of wrapping it and everything.”
Rogue’s brow furrowed; he actually sounded… nice. Or something. It was weird coming from John. He rarely smiled at her or said anything that wasn’t either suggestive and vulgar or completely dismissive of her.
She hesitated, looking at him like she was waiting for the punch line, then, finally, shrugged. “Yeah, okay. What time?”
“Midnight.” Though he was already digging in his pocket and pulling out the Zippo, back to entertaining himself with snapping the lid open and closed. Apparently done with their conversation, he disappeared into his room, shutting the door behind him.
Rogue just shook her head and walked away.