AN: Welcome to the sequel. I hope you will enjoy it as much as the first one.

Big whoops for sharky who made this all possible. I worship the mighty Goddess. Sharky also totally talked me off a ledge and allowed this chapter to be posted so soon! I hope you appreciate all Sharky's hard work!

Song (does anyone actually listen to them?): Cut - Plumb

When Rogue let the man up and turned on the light, she gasped. If she didn't know better she would have sworn blind that a young, handsome Magneto was standing in front of her.

With effort she pulled her faze away and moved to sit on her bed. It was then that Joseph began to speak.

"The first thing I remember is waking up in an alley with no memory of how I got there. I had a name tag around my neck with 'Joseph' and a date on. I assume it is my date of birth. I saw you on the news and I know that you are a member of the X-Men. Apparently they can help me."

Rogue sighed and rubbed her forehead before glancing at her alarm clock. The red numbers read 3:02.

"Alright. I'll call Professor Xavier in the morning. Right now I'm going to bed. For now you can sleep in the spare room. It's opposite mine." She brushed past him and held the door open. He nodded to her "Thank you and goodnight, Miss Rogue." He opened the door she pointed to with a gesture and promptly got smacked in the back of the head.

He spun around and held his hands up in a "What was that for?" motion.

Rogue used her telepathy to say "No powers!" she held back her surprise that Mag's doppelganger had his powers.

Joseph carefully went into the room and shut the door behind him. Rogue did the same.

"I'm sorry Rogue but you'll have to keep him there. He sounds like a clone to me but I can't do anything right now. There's no space in the mansion after the raid on the Purifier base. Most of them will be leaving but not until they are healed and have somewhere to go."

"Alright. There's a spare room next to mine and he doesn't seem to be a threat. If he does anything I don't like I'll knock him into the middle of next week."

"You are the soul of thoughtfulness Rogue." There was a crash from the other end of the line.

"Professor?"

"Armour decided to demonstrate her powers in a confined space. I will talk to you another time. Goodbye Rogue."

"Bye Professor." She hung up.

Sighing, Rogue put her phone on her desk before leaving her room.

She knocked on Joseph's door and it swung open. Slowly entering she saw him sitting cross legged on his bed.

"Okay you can stay. But rule 1 is no using powers around the humans. That includes the door opening tricks. No one here knows you are a mutant and I'd like to keep it that way."

"My apologies. So the Professor is unable to assist me?"

Rogue shifted her weight "Not exactly. Things are just really crazy at the mansion right now. Until then you're stuck here. Unless you want to go somewhere else?"

Joseph hadn't stopped staring at her since she entered. And it wasn't 'I'm paying attention' staring, it was 'every fibre of my being is concentrating on you' staring. And it was making her slightly uncomfortable.

"No thank you. I'd like to stay here. With you."

"Great. I'm going to breakfast."

She had turned and was at the door when she heard his voice "May I join you?"

Breakfast was a ...tense... affair. Remy wasn't downstairs yet and Rogue was dreading his arrival.

"So Joseph" asked Luke, with his mouth full of Shreddies. "What brings you to visit our fair Rogue?"

"One of her friends is going to help me with a project I need for my degree."

Rogue exhaled slowly and relaxed. Most of her housemates had bought Joseph's story.

But she stiffened when Joseph shuffled closer to her.

She was saved when Remy entered. Rogue immediately leapt to her feet, grabbed Remy's hand and pulled him out of the room with a "Be right back guys." Aimed at everyone sitting at the table.

In the living room Remy pulled his hand from Rogue's and said "Who was dat?"

"His name is Joseph and he arrived last night." Remy raised an eyebrow. "Okay arrived last night actually means 'snuck into my room at 3 in the morning.'"

Remy grabbed her arm and started looking all over her body. "Did he hurt y'? I swear I'm gonna kick dat salud so hard he won't remember his own name!"

Pulling her hand from his, Rogue placed her hands on either side of his face. "Remy. Calm down. I'm fine. If he had tried anything he would be a smear on the wall right now." She pressed a quick reassuring kiss to his lips.

Remy's expression of anger didn't change. He pulled away from Rogue and sat down on one of the sofas.

Rogue was concerned about Remy but she didn't understand why he was acting this way. "Look, Rems. You can either like this or lump it. That man needs our help and I have promised Xavier that I'd look after him-"

"Screw Xavier chère! I t'ought y' were done with dat shit. Y' left de X-Men for a reason!"

Rogue looked at him in shock. She'd never seen him so angry.

"Well." She said in a soft voice. "If that's the way you feel." She turned and walked out. When she heard a bang and glanced back she saw that Remy had slammed the front door on his way out. A single tear slipped out before it was wiped away. Plastering a smile on her face, she returned to the kitchen.

"Here's some bedding and a towel. The bathroom is just in here and you can use the rec room whenever you want. There's a games console down there too. But don't break it as it belongs to one of the boys and he'll throw a fit. Is there anything else you need to know."

"No. Thank you very much for all of this, Rogue. It means a lot to me that you trust me and are trying to help me with this."

Rogue blushed "It's no problem. I'm sure you'd do the same for me. Anyway. I better get goin' I've got a lecture in 10 minutes. I'll see you this evening. The boys have got me cookin again. I hope you like Southern food!"

Joseph smiled "I do not know if I like it. But as you are cooking it I am sure it will be divine."

Rogue smiled at him again and hurried off, pulling on her coat as she quickly walked out of the house.

Joseph watched her leave with an almost wistful smile. He was thinking about Rogue and how nice she was and he was so absorbed in these thoughts that he almost missed Remy's voice.

He followed the sound to one of the empty downstairs study rooms and heard:

"-care what he says, I don' wanna do this no more. I can't keep lying to Rogue!"

Joseph snuck closer and peered through a small gap "And what should I tell her? Chère, I love you more than life itself but I was sent here to spy on you? Oui. Dat will go down really well! You imbecile! I will be lucky she doesn't throw me through a wall!"

Joseph had heard enough. He snuck away from the door and hurried to his new room. He got in the room and leaned back on the door. He allowed himself a smile. This was a shiny nugget that he planned to use to the fullest.