Title: Teaching
Fandom: X-Men
Rating: Teen
Length: 376 words
Content notes: Also for my X-Men A-Z, with the prompt, "Teach"
Summary: Rogue has a bad day in the Danger Room


Rogue sank down the wall outside the Danger Room and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was useless in there.

She had no active power that would be useful in a battle; all she could do was suck out her teammate's powers – knocking them out of the fight – and use them herself with half of the finesse. Half if she was lucky.

She didn't even know why the Professor insisted that she attend the training sessions. She wasn't even useful for playing a civilian who needed protecting, because as soon as her teammates tried to "protect" her, she accidentally zapped them. If they were fighting against humans or other mutants, then she could try to steal their powers, but against the automated machines of the Danger Room... there was nothing she could do.

Professor Xavier kept saying that it would be a good lesson for her, that she could learn some very important lessons from the Danger Room, but so far all she had learned how to do was dodge too slowly.

The rest of her classes were going slightly better, though that wasn't saying much. She had always been a decent student, so she did well in the academic subjects. However, the mutant subjects were all useless for her. She had no powers to aim, or strengthen, or improve. She couldn't practice on her classmates like the others, or even on the teachers. She just sat in the back, watching, tapping her pencil and feeling useless. Storm didn't even bother to try to teach her anymore - there was nothing Rogue could learn from their carefully structured lessons.

Ironically, she had learned the most from Logan, from the way he treated her. He was the only one that didn't treat her like a pariah - even Bobby was still afraid of her, though he often gave her icicle presents. He was the only reason that she hadn't left again. Rogue still didn't think she had found a place where she belonged, but Logan thought that the Professor had something to teach her, and they had made an agreement.

So she stayed.

But staying didn't mean she belonged, and sitting in a class or standing in a room didn't mean they were teaching her anything.