Hand Holding

"Eh?" I ask questioningly,

"Back up a bit here, both in the conversation and physically," I tell Rogue, who is currently only centimeters from my face. "I don't entirely understand why you want to come with me in the first place, and also, you could have just asked me privately at school instead of tracking me through a forum of all things."

"There are always other people around, so that would be difficult, and if I did manage to get you in private, I think Gwen would get jealous," Rogue complains. I don't think Gwen would get jealous just because of something like that, though.

"And as for why I'm doing this, I just need some time away from the mansion. Honestly, things have been a bit strange for the past few weeks, and I don't feel like being there, so coming with you seemed like a good reason to stay away." Rogue explains, "Don't worry, I asked for permission from Ororo, and she thought it would be a good idea since you are mostly very well-liked by people. Seeing a mutant together with you would probably increase our reputation in people's eyes as well."

"Hmm, I guess I don't mind you coming with me," I tell rogue, and she pumps her fist in victory.

Yuri did say she could use all the help she could get after all…

"Thanks. Oh, and if we stay busy till late, could I crash on your couch tonight? Before you ask, I also got permission for that."

"Well, as long as it doesn't ruin my relations with the mutants… but you really don't wanna go back home, huh? What's been going on there?" I ask, wondering if me stealing away Danger did so much damage to them that one of their core members is just inclined to run away from home.

"Ahh, well…" Rogue looks troubled hearing my question but begins to speak anyways. "I may have told everyone in the team about how the professor tried to read your mind when you first met. They didn't believe me at first, but when Ororo confirmed what I said was true, it kind of ignited a spark…"

"Logan started questioning whether the professor had anything to do with his memories not returning to him, and when the professor refused to answer, he just straight up left the mansion. We haven't heard from him since, but the professor has reassured us that he will return." Rogus recounts sadly, "The weirdest one, however, has been Scott."

"What about Scott?" I question.

"Hmm, in the beginning, he really didn't react well when he heard about the mind reading and even voiced the idea of leading the X-men on a different path, leaving the mansion and the professor, but one day the professor invited him to his office for a private talk and several hours later when he returned he was totally different."

"Scott reassured everyone in the team that there must just be a misunderstanding or that you were lying to us as the professor would never do such a thing as to invade someone's mind without permission. Ever since then, Scott has been different, more controlling, and…" Rogue pauses for a second to find the right words, "Full of himself, much more than before."

I nod, hearing her story, "I guess I can see why you need a break from there."

Hearing me, Rogue returns a smile to her face, a sharp contrast to the sadness that was there while she was telling me about the situation back at her home. "That's right. It's a break, so let's stop talking about that. More importantly, what do you have planned today, and how can I help?"

"Sure, sure, I'm helping the police take out a maggia family later in the evening, so I was just going to swing around and patrol the city until then, but… Rogue, how exactly are you planning to come with me?" I ask her.

Rogue tilts her head and looks confused until she finally realizes what I meant. She has no realistic way of following me as she lacks any movement methods fast enough to keep up with my web-slinging. Unless, of course, she brought the Blackbird with her, but I highly doubt that.

"Um… piggyback ride?" She says hesitantly after thinking it over for a bit.

"You want me to carry you for the whole day? I mean, it would be good training for me, but no, not a chance." I say and watch as Rogue looks increasingly downhearted at the thought that she may just not be able to come with me after all.

"No need to worry, though. You're in luck," I say and put my hands behind my back where she can't see them to take out something from my inventory.

Bringing the items out and presenting them to Rogue, I hear a gasp, "These are… web-shooters?" She asks, taking the two web shooters from my hands.

That's right, with a little bit of experimentation as well as a fair bit of help from Diana, I was finally able to make several new pairs of Web-shooters that are basically identical to the ones I am using. It doesn't have any of the enchantments like self-repair on it, as I would need to learn enchanting through the system to add those, but at the very least, they are as good as the ones Peter in the comics can make.

"Correct, I had some backups ready to go just in case, so I'll let you use them for today. I was gonna spend some time patrolling the city, but instead, I guess I will take you through a crash course and teach you how to use these." I say and watch as she puts on the received web-shooters. "The 'crash' in 'crash course' is quite literal, by the way, as you will be doing that a lot."

"Please go easy on me…" She pleads.

"No."

Hearing the direct rejection, she looks up at me with puppy dog eyes, but I do not break… I do not break… I do not break… I break

"Ok fine, I'll do something to make it a bit easier for you," I say and take off my glove, revealing my bare hand.

Before Rogue is able to react, I place my finger against her forehead and use the [Teach] skill to pass [Wall Crawling] to her. That should make the whole learning process less painful.

There was no need for physical contact to use the [Teach] skill. I just did it to easily explain it as part of my spiderman powers, but… Rogue was definitely not the right person to do that on.

"Huh? What did you do?" Rogue asks as I pull back my hand "Wait a second…"

Rogue's eyes widen as she realizes what just happened. "You just touched my skin, but… nothing happened? I didn't get any memories, and it didn't hurt you???"

"Nope, must be one of my powers." I make a quick excuse for that and hope to move on with the conversation. It's not entirely false, as the system now also protects me from her despite it failing to do so earlier. There was a minor update fixing that "bug" a few days ago.

Before I am able to put the glove back on Rogue manages to take off her own gloves at lightning speed and chuck them on the ground as she grabs my hand in hers.

"It's true, nothing is happening." She says in amazement.

"Yeah so let's get to…" I wanted to say training but a quick glance at her tear filled face tells me that won't be happening any time soon.

As expected it took me a whole half an hour to calm her down enough to a point where we could begin our web swinging practice, during which time she never let go of my hand.

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Note: A chapter.