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The Professor wants them to go to the beach. This is kind of a terrible idea.'The swimsuits are going to be a problem,' says Kitty, looking at the Professor seriously. They're supposed to be in the middle of class right now, which is why he chose now to tell them all his plans, Rogue supposes - all the students in one convenient place, but it means she can't escape. 'I mean, not for everyone, but for some of us, kind of a serious problem.' She isn't talking about anyone in particular, but Rogue can't help the blush wanting to travel up her neck. She folds her arms in front of her defensively.'Hank's blue and hairy,' Alex points out from the back of the assembled mob in the Professor's office. 'He's gonna be about as undercover and stealthy on the beach as a … big blue hairy thing on a beach.' Hank elbows him. Rogue steps sideways to avoid contact with either of them, just on autopilot. She really hopes Kitty can get the Professor to see sense. Kitty ignores the boys. 'More importantly, Sean and Alex both need bits of their uniforms to be able to safely use their powers. What if we have a situation?'The Professor smiles gently at her. He smiles gently at everyone, though. It's kind of what he does. 'This is supposed to be a holiday, Kitty,' he says. 'Yes, we are hoping to touch base with a potential new student and speak to her parents. But it's informal. Erik and I will deal with that side of it. I simply thought that you and the others would like to come along and enjoy the time away from school, that's all.'Kitty makes a dissatisfied noise in the back of her throat, but she does pipe down. Everyone resumes putting their books in their bags and getting the hell out of Dodge. 'I tried,' Kitty murmurs as she passes Rogue on the way out. She brushes against Rogue's elbow, not her solid self, just the weird-feeling shadow of her, and Rogue leans into the touch for as long as it lasts, craving the contact. 'S'okay,' she says. 'Thanks anyway.'The thing is, it would be nice. It would be great. Rogue misses things like going to the beach. She'd love to go, to wear a cute bikini and play in the ocean with her friends. She could use kicking back for a few days, trying to put reality out of her mind. But this is the way things are now. She is what she is, and what she is is dangerous.***She tries again a few days later, in private.'How come Hank gets to stay at home?''Because Hank put forward both a logical set of reasons for why he didn't want to come, and a logical set of reasons for why his time would be more valuably spent at home working on his research without the rest of you to distract him.' The Professor is kind of smiling, in that way he does. 'You, my dear, have no good reason to not have a good time.'Rogue knows when she's beaten.***'It'll be fun,' says Kitty, head dangling off the edge of Rogue's bed and heels kicking up high in the air. Rogue is sitting on the floor trying to concentrate on her physics textbook. Of course Kitty doesn't need to study that hard on the states of matter, so she's decided to spend the time left before they leave trying to … like, enthuse Rogue about the joys of summer holidays, or something. 'Yeah, I know,' says Rogue, closing the textbook and smiling at her friend. 'I'm sorry, Kitty. I don't mean t'be a downer.'Kitty's returning smile is upside down. 'You're not a downer. I get it.' She rolls over and half-falls off the bed to sit next to Rogue, landing a careful inch away, which Rogue appreciates. 'It totally makes sense that you're worried, but trust me. It's going to be okay.'She gets to her feet as fast as she dropped to the floor, and grins. 'C'mon, you gotta pack.' She hauls Rogue to her feet - by her gloved hand - and pecks her on the cheek mostly phased, so it's just a tingle, too quick to do anything more than leave Rogue with a lingering awareness of Kitty's excitement and happiness and warmth. It's like being touched by sunshine. Kitty's out the door before Rogue can even press a hand to her cheek and try to unravel what just happened. ***Rogue gets shotgun in the minivan, so that no-one has to sit right next to her. Erik's driving. He lets her choose the music, for some reason, and it's nice of him, but she keeps seeing in the rearview where everyone's playing corners and generally horsing around. don't cry, don't raise your eye, Pete Townshend is wailing out of the cassette deck. Erik raises his eyebrow at her, eye contact in the mirror, and shuts it off before the lyric finishes. 'Hey, I was enjoying that,' she protests.He's looking at the road again. 'Were you? Didn't look like it.'***'You can't wear that, you'll die of heatstroke,' says Alex, tying up his swimming shorts and eyeing Rogue's kaftan, and then the sunshine outside the window. You can practically see the heat rising in wavy lines. Maybe he has a point, but so does Rogue. Her full-length evening gloves are going to look even stupider with the polka-dot swimsuit, but no-one ever seems to object to Rogue wearing those. At least the kaftan is beach appropriate and stuff. 'I will not, now leave be!' Rogue says, crossing her arms in front of her. 'I don't even wanna be here, so back the heck off!'Kitty steps up in front of her. 'If that's all you're wearing, you better go put on a whole bottle of sunscreen, Alex,' she points out. 'Or that pasty white skin of yours is gonna go redder than a lobster.' To one side, Sean snorts. 'That goes double for you, Cassidy.'Rogue turns away and starts to go through her bag for a sarong. Better safe than sorry, right? ***'I hate the beach,' Rogue tells Kitty quietly. It's too hot, but she doesn't dare risk stripping off, not with everyone playing frisbee and volleyball and the way they all seem to trip over each other and over her all the time. She wants to swim, but she doesn't know if she still remembers how and what happens if she gets in trouble and some lifeguard comes to help her -'You'd like it better if you weren't so bundled up,' Kitty points out equally quietly. 'C'mon, we can move higher up the beach and be out of their way.''But … I'll get sunburn,' Rogue tries, lamely. 'I can't reach my back properly.''Oh, is that all?' Kitty asks mischievously. 'I can help with that.'***Rogue is always jealous of how well Kitty can control her power. Like now, when she's so close to being fully phased out that Rogue can barely feel her touch, but she's solid enough to be smoothing sun cream all over the bare, finally blessedly cool skin of Rogue's back and shoulders. There's nothing for Rogue's stupid leech of an ability to latch on to, but there is something there, contact and pressure. A human touch, something Rogue hadn't felt in what seems like years before Kitty came along with her sweet smile and her inability to leave be, and her power of not touching, almost the perfect mirror of Rogue's, that lets her do things like this. They understand each other somehow, through that. Rogue has missed having a friend.Kitty's sunscreen technique kinda tickles, but it feels so good. Rogue looks back over her shoulder and Kitty is sitting straddling her thighs, the tip of her tongue poking out of her mouth as she concentrates on getting every last inch of skin. Rogue can feel her cheeks getting red, and it isn't from the sun. She buries her face in her towel so Kitty can't see.'You okay down there?' Kitty whispers into Rogue's ear. 'You're all ready to go.' She slips off, but Rogue catches her by the ghost of her hand before she can really move away. 'I'm good,' she says, blushing furiously. 'Real good.'This time, the phantom kiss is pressed to Rogue's mouth, sweet and long and slow. Rogue's gloved hands find Kitty's shoulders, and they sink to the sand together, heat and company forgotten.'Yeah,' says Kitty, when they break for breath. She smiles. 'You are.'