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(no subject)

Rogue had been good at pool before she got to the island. Now she was a master. She cracked the racked balls with one deft shot and sunk two. She gave a low, pleased whistle and moved around the table to set up her next one. The jukebox was playing an Emmylou Harris song. She'd finally gotten it to play real country.

"J'ai fait tout, j'ai fait tout. Ce que j'ai pu. J'ai fait tout, j'ai fait tout ce que j'ai pu.'

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With Rogue too close to him to see clearly, his eyes blurring out of focus, Ned smiled and closed his eyes.

"Mmph."

She smiled widely, biting her lower lip to keep it from spreading and failing completely.

"Hi," she said quietly.

"Hey," said Ned, his thumb brushing the hollow of her throat. "Remind me. What's my name again?"

She laughed softly, swallowing, flustered by the touch of his thumb. Her eyes were closed when she kissed him again, fleetingly.

"Ned..."

"Ned." He nods, his thumb still moving against her throat. "Yeah. That sounds about right."

She shivered faintly and tilted her face up to brush their mouths together again, more a nuzzle than a kiss, eyes still shut and pulse still racing. She tucked the bridge of her nose against the slope of his cheek.

"Good," she said softly. "I've forgotten m'own name before. Ain't fun."

"When'd you forget your name?" he murmured, trailing his fingers up her throat to the point of her chin.

Rogue let her head tilt back a little as his fingertips traversed the line of her neck, before she dropped it back forward as he touched her chin.

"Couple times. Sometimes, if I'd just touched someone, my head'd get all mixed up 'n I wouldn't know who I was. Their thoughts 'n memories would be at the surface, 'n my own would get shoved down 'n blocked out." She chewed the inside of her lip for a moment, warring with herself. That stuff couldn't happen anymore- she had no powers here, and Ned had nothing to do with her former life. But the thing was, it was a big part of her, now, and as much as she decidedly didn't want to, she felt as though he ought to know.

She wasn't going to keep secrets and bury her head in the sand. Not this time around.

"'n sometimes, I'd just... forget. An old memory, the residue of someone I'd absorbed- touched- would just push its way up. I wouldn't even know, I'd just think I was someone else until my- my self could fight its way back t'the forefront."

Ned frowned, his hand smoothing over her shoulder, a small comforting touch.

"Not anymore though, huh?"

"Hopefully not," she said, looking down, but not pulling away from the contact.

"I've never not had my powers for so long. There were- a man, a professor, he's been helpin' me since I was a teenager. He put safeguards in check, t'help me. But if powers don't work here, then neither do those, 'n... I dunno," she said, much more quietly.

"It's been okay, so far." She shook herself slightly, then looked up again, offering a smile. "Just take it one step at a time, right?"

He tilted her chin up and bent his head to give her a small, sweet, reassuring kiss.

"Baby steps."

She curled up against him, leaving her face tipped up into the kiss. When it broke, she rested her temple against his shoulder.

"Yeah," she sighed. "It'll work out."

"Course it will," said Ned, with a confidence he hadn't felt up until right then, with his arm curled around, holding her against him.

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