Not well

The words still echoed in Rogues heads like the ringing of a church bell. ' I'm sorry, rogue. I don't think we can make this work right now. So we will try just being friends, and if we can love again, we will, but not now.' Gambit had said before walking away towards the gymnasium as she stood there shocked.

She went through so many emotions all at once—shock, anger, sadness, and a few others she just couldn't quantify—before she tried to chase after him to try and change his mind and convince him he'd been too hasty with Descion. Before it hit her, had he really been hasty? That though caused her to stop and her lips to shut before she could call out after Gambit.

Who was she kidding? Really, she had been the one to get with a man who had tried to kill them on multiple occasions. Now she wanted everything to go back to normal like nothing had ever happened, like she hadn't stabbed Gambit in the back with the worst person she could have picked. God, she was a horrible person for even thinking like that much less trying to get Gambit to go along with her delusion.

No, if she wanted things to get better between them and hopefully start dating again one day, she needed to earn his trust, and she honestly should be glad that Gambit was even giving her an opportunity to do that. So she gave Gambit space for the rest of the day, well, trying to figure out how to earn his trust back.

That was a couple days ago, and she wasn't having any luck as there hadn't been any missions to prove herself as a teammate, and well, she wasn't his girlfriend anymore, so dates were off the table, leaving the usual fiend activities. The problem she had was that Gambit was spending all of his time with the boys, which she wasn't, which left her with no way forward at the moment to build trust between them.

This was making her rather nervous, as without a way forward she was stuck in limbo about how to better their relationship, and to make matters worse, it had gotten around campus that it was off between them and Gambit was on the market even if he wasn't actively looking for a partner. So now she had to be worried about someone else stealing her former spot as his girlfriend while she was still trying to get into his good graces.

As she was going through her situation and how to get out of it, she heard a ringing coming from her pocket. She picked up the phone and saw it was Charlia. "Go for Rogue." Rogue answered, wondering why Charlia was calling her and what she could need from her.

"Hello Rogue I've just called to tell you that Mrs. Grey would like to have a word in her office." Charlia said in her usual professional tone. Rogue replied with a sure before the phone call was ended. Rogue stared at the phone, wondering what Jean could want from her. She then shrugged and made her way over to Jean's office.

Once Rogue made it to Jean's office, Charlia waved her in. So she quickly walked in where Jean was waiting for her at her desk. "So what did you want, Jean?" Rogue asked, wondering what this was all about as she took a seat in the chair in front of Jean's desk.

"Oh, nothing big, just need to make sure you're ready for your therapy session." Phoenix stated to Rogue, who was about to ask what she meant as Rogue didn't have a therapy session planned for today. But her mind blanked out before she could ask, and the next thing she knew, she woke up with a strange burning sensation running through her skin.

"So I think you're ready for your appointment with Dr., don't you?" Phoenix asked Rogue, who nodded a happy yes, eager to begin her session as she had been looking forward to this for the last couple of days. She was hoping the therapist's advice would help her with her relationship problems. Phoenix gave Rogue a wicked smirk at seeing her eagerness for the session and waved her to get going.

Meanwhile, John had been studying, getting ready for Rogue as he had the latest two patients. He had been informed about the need for an appointment by Charlia, and they had scheduled accordingly. So he was going like last time the session would go well, but he had been told the point of this session was to focus on her problem with touch as she had some special disorder that kept her from comfortable touching people.

Once again, his alarm rang, warning him the time for his appointment was approaching, so like last time with Gambit, he put away his study material and tidy up his office. So that way he appeared as professional as possible, and then he waited for Rogues arrival in what he hoped was perfect professional posture for a therapist.

He had been waiting in that professional pose for about a minute when he heard a knock on his door. "Come in," he called out through his door and had Rogue walk into his office in her usual outfit. "Rogue good, your right on time. Please take a seat." John said, gesturing for Rogue to take a seat in the chair in front of him.

"Well, don't mind if I do, sweetie." Rogue said in her typical Southern accent. As she took a seat across from John, taking a relaxed posture in the chair. She gave John a wide, pretty smile, which blinded him a moment before he began to ask his starting question.

"Well, how are you doing lately, Rogue? Is there anything you feel you need to talk about?" John asked, figuring he should start with what she wanted to talk about. He figures she was sent here because of relationship drama with Gambit, but he was acting as her therapist, so he would try to deal with the problems she wanted to talk about and go from there.

"Well, I've been doing about as well as can be all things considered. As you've probably been told, I've got a skin problem that has made my life difficult and has caused me to have problems with being touched." Rogue said in a sad voice, giving John a sad, frustrated sigh.

"Problems with being touched, hmmm." John said to himself while running his chin, thinking about how to help her with a phobia of being touched. He then remembered a kind of shock therapy that let you get used to phobias by getting exposed to them in small doses that got bigger over time. This way, the patient was normalized to them.

John looked at her, trying to see how he would go about such a thing and not come out sounding like a creep because he would be asking to touch her so she could normalize being touched through the exercise, which was rather easy to take in a bad way, especially as a woman. But sadly, this was his best way to help her; luckily for him, he noticed her gloves and figured he could start there.

"Well, Rogue, in therapy there is something called shock therapy where you become accustomed to what frightens you through being exposed to it on a regular basis. So if you don't mind, how about, as a way to start, I hold one of your hands hiding in your gloves?" John said he was hoping he didn't come off freaky like he was afraid he might have.

Rogue just looked at him a bit in shock at the suggestion before she nodded. "Sure thing, sweetie, I'm happy to hold your hand." Rogue said in an eager voice. John was curious about the eagerness considering she's supposed to be afraid of touch but figured she had a legitimate reason, and soon enough one of Rogues gloves were off and he was holding the ungloved hand.

Rogue didn't say anything, just enjoying the sensation of skin-on-skin contact as her hand wrapped itself around John's. She eventually had to ask a question. "Would you mind if I held the other hand too?" Rogue asked, trepidation filling her voice. John just nodded curiously at why she was so eager but figured she just had bigger limits when it came to skin-to-skin contact.

So John found himself holding both his hands and wrapping around Rogue's as she wrapped her fingers around his, and so that's how the rest of the session went—her not making a sounds; she just sat there enjoying the feeling of his hands on hers. John turned a few times to a nearby clock on the wall, watching the time go by until eventually the time for their session was up and Rogue had to go.

"Well, it seems the session is up, Rogue. I am glad we've come to an agreement on the plan going forward and hope we schedule an appointment soon." John said politely as Rogue finally separated her hands from John's and got up to leave, but just as she was through the doorway, she turned back and said two words 'thank you' before moving quickly down the hall.

"Well, I think I made progress with her. Probably?" John said to himself, not really sure what to make of Rogues behavior. He brought back out his study materials and went back to trying to be ready for whatever his next patient threw at him. Meanwhile, just like last time, the Phoenix watched through her psychic eye.

"Mmmmm, I think Rogue will be Master's happy little exhibitionist." She said once again, finding pride in her handy work as the corruption she had put in Rogue amplified her excitement at the effectively romantic handholding she had just done with Master. Which had been far better than whatever she had gotten up to with Gambit or Magneto. So by the time of the next session, she will probably be a lot less clothed.

She said this to Charlia, who was pleasing her mistress between her legs, as unlike next time with Gambit, she didn't have to be as on guard as she had already put in implants into Rogue to prevent her from doing any harm to her master. So she could just enjoy her little break from breaking the nasty girls as they were now. Though she did wonder who was next up for a session to be twisted to her master's pleasure.