Capítulo 24: 23. It's rude

Although Rogue gives him an annoyed glare, "It's rude ta skulk around you know."

He gives her an playful affronted look, "I wasn't skulking. I was exploring this place. Then I heard you two talking," he walks and sits down next to Kitty and leans back,

"Which reminds me, we need to make sure Logan doesn't get any ideas for training from here. I'm pretty sure we can get sued for child abuse."

Both women nod in agreement as Kitty says, "You know I was thinking the exact same thing."

"Ditto."

A few seconds of silence pass before Kitty places a hand on his shoulder. He doesn't need to look at her face to know she has a pitying look, "Are you okay?"

He doesn't respond. How could he? He feels like it's his fault that one of his closest friends is dead. And why wouldn't he?

He helped capture a lot of the Avengers. He may not have known what the Rasputin siblings were doing, but that doesn't matter considering the result was a good friend's death.

"Did you know him personally?"

Rogue's question snaps him out of his thoughts. He looks at her, "You mean did I know who he was underneath the mask? Yeah, I did."

She nods and seems to hesitate with what she says next, "Was he… someone important?"

He narrows his eyes as he looks at her strangely, "Why are you asking?"

She shrugs, "It's just- everyone seems ta be taking his death hard and all. So-Ah don't know- It just seems like they might be overreacting."

"What d'ja jus' say!"

Bobby and they jump to their feet in fright and look to see a familiar orange rock monster charging towards them with his sights set on Rogue.

Kitty immediately raises her hand in a stopping motion as The Thing comes close, "Woah there big fella, she didn't mean anything by it."

He stops but keeps his angry sights on the southern girl, "You had no idea da type of guy he waz, so ya better keep yer trap shut!"

Bobby sees Rogue has her fists by her side in preparation for a fight in case The Thing keeps going after her. That is not what they need right now. He needs to do something.

Iceman steps in her defense next, "Ben, take it easy man. She just didn't know him like we did, alright."

The Thing turns his glare at Bobby and he recoils because now it's more hateful, "Only my friends call me Ben. And you and I Icy, we ain't friends."

Bobby gets a guilty look on his face, "Look Ben, I know-"

"You don't know squat!" He loudly interrupted him.

"Hey!"

Bobby and them hear and turn their attention to the source of the shout and see the Wolverine walking to them. He's got to admit, he's never been so relieved to see the most dangerous X-man just pop up out of nowhere.

He stops just a few feet away, "Any reason why you all look like you're about to have a cage match?"

The Thing angrily jabs a finger at the southern girl, "She sayin' that Spidey dying ain't that big a deal 'cause he wasn't nobody important to her!"

"Ah didn't say that!" She retorts heatedly. She then shifts her gaze to her fellow X-man, "Logan, Ah was just saying that people die all the time. Especially people like us. We do everything we can to protect the world and sometimes we die trying. All Ah meant was that Spider-Man did what a lot of us would do."

"And that's suppoze to make it okay!"

"No! Course not! It's just Ah don't get why everyone is taking it so hard when not a lot of y'all liked him!"

Kitty gasps in shock, "Rogue!"

"Well tell me I'm wrong! I didn't know him like most of y'all but I got eyes and ears. And I've seen and heard y'all talk how annoying the guy was and how hardly any one ya hanged out with him outside the mask and costumes."

That gets everyone to quiet down. Except it became even tenser. The only sounds are birds chirping and Ben Grimm's stone fingers grinding into his palm.

"Tell me some'in, SkunkHead," Bobby sees Rogue twitch at the nickname, "You got a family outside dese guys," he gestures to everyone else present, "someone who can't fight for demselves."

Bobby can see Rogue try to think of someone, but comes up with nobody. He could say the same. He's not very close with his own family.

Ben closes his eyes as he lowers his head, "Everyday, dat guy put on dat mask. No one made him. No told him to. He just did it to help people. And sure, dere are other ways he could help. He was a smart guy that even Reed waz impressed by," Grimm looks down somberly, "but as big as his brain waz, his heart waz even bigger. He always put others over himself. And the people he loved most seemed to pay da price if he wasn't careful. It's why he wore da mask. Why he had a hard time trusting people," he opens his eyes to glare at Iceman, "because too many times do people that he considers friends turn to enemies."

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