AN: About the title. Desperado basically means outlaw, which could describe our favourite Cajun and that alone would be enough. However, if you listen to the song by the Eagles, it too has a lot in common with Wolverine and the X-Men's version of gambit. Add this fic to that canon and you basically have Gambits story.

Chapter One

Logan never could get used to these meetings on the Astral plane. He was a man of power, of action, so being in a place that was purely of the mind was taking some getting used to.

"What have you discovered, Chuck?"

"Very little," Charles admitted. "The only concrete piece of information can give you is regarding a thief by the name of Remy LeBeau, also known as Gambit."

"You want me to take him out?" Logan knew that he sounded eager, mainly because he wasn't trying to hide it.

"No! No, we need him."

"You want me to sign him up?" Logan sounded incredulous.

"From what I've been able to gather, he will join the X-Men of his own volition, but by then it will be too late."

"Charles, you're talking in riddles."

"I know," he sighed. "All I can say for certain is that he will steal something that is vital to Apocalypse's rise to power and he will do so in about a years time."

"So he's working for Apocalypse? Figures. Wouldn't be the first time he'd betrayed his own kind."

"Logan, I know this is difficult to believe, but I think you may have misjudged him. He is fondly remembered in this time."

"I still don't see why I can't take him out," Logan grumbled. "That would solve the problem."

"Not exactly. He would stop him from stealing the artefact, but it wouldn't stop anyone else from taking it. Besides which, he will become the leader of the X-Men in a few years time, after you are captured."

"Gambit! Leader of the X-Men? Over my dead body!"

"Please, Logan, just do what you can."

Logan was silent for a moment before finally agreeing. "All right."

"Thank you."

"It would help if you could tell us what this artefact is."

"I know. I have very little information at the moment but I have two leads to follow. One is a journal that used to belong to an X-Man. It is rumoured to contain some details of Gambit's life but it is kept within Apocalypse's domain and will be hard to get to. There is also talk of someone called the Witness, who used to know the X-Men and claims to be the last person to see them alive. We are trying to find him now to see if he knows anything that might help us."

"All right, Chuck, let me know what you find."

The X-men were gathered in the War Room to hear the latest news from the professor.

"You cannot be serious?" Kurt said. "He stole from us for the MRD and he crippled Genosha!"

"I know," Logan agreed. It was hard to convince your team of something when you didn't believe it yourself. "But on the bright side, at least with one of the bad guys working for us, we should be able to keep an eye on him."

"So how do we do this?" Scott asked. He trusted Xavier with his life, so he would trust him on this too. "Where can we find him?"

"Don't know," Logan admitted. "Much as I hate to admit it, he's good at what he does, he's never been caught, least not by the authorities, and when he wants to disappear, he does. The only lead we have is that he belongs to the Thieves' Guild in New Orleans. As a matter of fact, he is the adopted son of the guild leader, Jean-Luc LeBeau."

"Then let's join the guild," Bobby said.

"You don't just join the Thieves' Guild, Bobby."

"Then we'll subcontract him!" Bobby said, seemingly thrilled with his idea. "If we're hiring him, then no one else can!"

"Nice idea, Iceman, but first, the Guild doesn't subcontract and second, Gambit's sold out a client for money before."

"I still don't see how we can ever trust such a man," Kurt added.

Logan wanted to say that he agreed, but he knew the others looked to him for leadership and if he couldn't at least look like he was willing to give Gambit a chance, none of the others would.

Silence enveloped everyone in the room until Rogue spoke up. Her voice was soft but everyone could hear,

"I can do it."

"Do what?" Logan asked.

"Get into the guild."

"Rogue, it takes years of training before they let you join. I know you were able to fool the brotherhood, but these guys actually require you to have skills, like the ability to pick a picket or a lock."

Rogue pulled a glove off and waggled her fingers at him. "You find me a thief, I'll do the rest."

"It still isn't going to be that easy." His patience was beginning to wear thin. "You don't know these people like I do."

"I know what the Thieves' Guild is, Logan, and I'm pretty damn sure that someone breaking in and stealing from them will get their attention."

"And just how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"Easy, I'll use Quicksilver, Kurt and Kitty's powers."

"Look, I know your control is improving but you don't have total recall yet. What if you get stuck?"

"Then I'll get caught, which is pretty much the point of stealing from the guild in the first place."

Logan knew that Rogue could hold her own among bad guys. He also knew that her mutant powers and her recently developed ability to recall previously absorbed powers would make her the perfect thief. Plus she was probably the only woman alive who wouldn't fall for Gambits cheap lines and womanising ways. She was the perfect choice for this mission, so why was he hesitating so much?

"Okay, maybe I can't join this guild, but I guarantee you that I have enough skills to get Gambit's attention at the very least." Rogue continued to argue as if she thought that Logan was about to say no.

"All right, fine." Logan sighed. "I'll go through what I know about the New Orleans Guild's with you this evening, Beast'll hack into the MRD and create a criminal record for you under the name of Bandit, it'll make you seem more authentic. You leave for New Orleans tomorrow."

Rogue was smiling.

"What?" he asked,

"Bandit and Gambit?" she asked.

"Do you want the MRD to have your mutant name?" Logan asked. "You can have Gambit call you whatever the hell you want, but I ain't tellin' the MRD anything useful."

"Fair enough," Rogue said with a shrug, though she was still smiling at the absurd names.

Rogue and Logan stayed up into the early hours of the morning discussing the guild and various plans. It was probably the most civil conversation that they'd had in a long time, and was only so because they were discussing work.

They both missed the easy relationship that they used to have, but with Logan always running off and Rogue's rather convincing defection to the brotherhood, they hadn't been friends in a long time now.

When they had finally talked through as many strategies as possible and they were headed to bed, Logan stopped her on the landing by grabbing her arm. Rogue's heart skipped a beat at the serious expression on his face. She dreamed of words like 'Take care of yourself,' or 'Be careful,' or maybe even 'I'll miss you, kid,'.

"Whatever you do, don't underestimate Gambit."

Rogue pulled her arm out of his grip and stormed off towards her room.

"Don't worry about me, Logan, I'll be careful. And I'll miss you too!" She slammed her bedroom door after her, not caring if she woke anyone else up.

Logan sighed, then walked past her room and into his own. He still loved Rogue like she was family, but for some reason he just couldn't talk to her like he used to, like he wanted to. Instead they always ended up arguing.

Now Rogue was going off to convince a thieving, lying, backstabbing traitor to join them, and she was leaving thinking that he didn't give a damn what happened to her.

He paused outside his room and looked back down the hallway to her room. He should probably go back and apologise, but he knew that they would just get into a worse argument if he did.

Now that she was here, Rogue was actually looking forward to spending some time in the south. Even though she was here for work, there was something calming and relaxing about being back here. Not that she'd been to New Orleans often, but enough for it to be familiar and comforting.

She booked into a plush apartment in the French Quarter, after all, no thief worth their salt would stay in any old motel, and pulled out her map. Last night she and Logan had highlighted the properties where the Thieves' Guild and the Assassins Guild had their respective headquarters. Though she wasn't here for the Assassins, she had to be wary of them because of their long running rivalry with the Thieves. Logan had given her a crash course on both last night, though even his knowledge was sorely lacking in many ways. The Guilds were almost like the Masons, secretive to the point of paranoia.

Still, Rogue had a plan and after pulling on her green coat and raising the hood, she set about enacting it.

Remy LeBeau loved stealing. Each job was different and tested his skills in different ways, since no security system was the same. He viewed a heist almost like some would view a puzzle, and he couldn't rest easy until he had 'solved' the puzzle and the loot was safely in his possession.

Of course the heists were the pinnacle of his chosen career, but he wasn't above pickpocketing just for the hell of it. It wasn't like he needed the money but there was a certain thrill, knowing that you were stealing from someone, right under their nose.

It didn't matter what was going on in his life, thieving could always distract and cheer him up.

The house tonight was a grand old mansion in the French Quarter, the home of Judge and Mrs Connors. Remy loved the idea of stealing from a judge, after all, it wasn't like he was going to get caught.

He had been planning this job for two weeks, researching the house, the alarm, the safe and the security firm that had installed both. Finally he was ready to go.

The sensors on the windows were easy enough to override. The motion sensors were a little harder, but Remy was practised at moving slowly enough not to trigger them. He made it into the Judge's office but since this was where the safe was, he decided to disarm the motion sensor in here. The system used tunnel-diode oscillators, so Remy just had to aim another tunnel-diode oscillator at it, which resonated at the same frequency. That done, he headed over to the fireplace and pulled up the rug which lay in front of it. Then he pulled out the floorboards to finally reveal the safe.

Remy liked going old school with safes, so he pressed his ear to the metal as he turned the dial. He already new that it was a six digit code, now he just had to find the right digits. A few minutes later he was rewarded by the lock springing open.

He opened the door and looked inside. His eyes soon found the black velvet jewellery box, which he took out. It's important when you're a thief that you steal the right thing, and not say a copy or a fake. As such, Remy puled out his loupe to examine the stones with, however when he opened the box he was in for a shock. There was no ruby and diamond necklace or earrings as he had been expecting, and instead there was a folded note.

'Gambit, if you want your loot, come to K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen at 7 o'clock this evening. X'

"And sealed with a kiss, no less," he said to himself.

Judging by the handwriting, the fact that they wanted to meet in a restaurant and the kiss, Remy thought that the fellow thief was a woman.

He realised that he should be upset by this; it was supposed to be an easy job with a more than decent pay off but really, this was the best thing that had happened to him in months!

Knowing Gambit's penchant for seducing women, Rogue had decided to take a leaf out of Emma Frost's book and use her sexuality for a change. She couldn't dress nearly as revealingly as Emma because it just wasn't safe, but she was still sexy, she thought. The dress was red satin with a fitted, off the shoulder bodice that showed ample cleavage. Rogue had then bought some red lace in the same colour and body stocking to line the lace. She had sewn full length arms and a high collar, then attached them to the dress. To top it off she had red gloves, opaque, flesh coloured pantyhose and red heels.

Not many people knew this about her, but Rogue actually enjoyed sewing. She didn't do it very often because she couldn't wear much in the way of pretty clothes these days. Well she could, but they were likely to get ruined in a fight or when the mansion was blown up, or when Scott lost his glasses and took a chunk out of a few rooms...

This dress had been her recent exception and she had spent many nights sewing it and getting it just right. Then she had stashed it in the back of her closet, so that she didn't have to look at it every day and remember that no one ever took her anywhere nice enough to wear it.

Now, as she sat at her table on the balcony of K-Pauls, she was glad that she had the dress. She sipped her wine and waited for Gambit to arrive. He was easy to recognise from Wolverine's description and as she saw him cross the street to the restaurant, she saw him spot her and offer a smile and salute. Rogue felt her pulse quicken and wondered why Logan hadn't said anything about how handsome he was.

She kept her composure, took a large sip of wine for some Dutch courage and waited for Gambit to be shown to her table. She saw his face light up as he realised that she was his dinner companion.

"Mademoiselle," he said, taking her gloved hand hand and bowing over it to kiss the back. "What a pleasure it is to meet you."

Rogue just watched him, trying to gauge how to react. She gestured to the seat opposite her and he sat down.

"I must say, you are not what I was expecting when I read your note."

"Who were you expecting?" she asked.

"Not someone so belle."

"Does your flattery usually work?" she asked with an amused smile.

"Oui," he grinned back. "But I can see that for a woman such as you, I shall have to work a lot harder."

"And what exactly do you expect in return?" she asked as she poured him a glass of wine.

"Why the necklace, of course, cher, and maybe if I'm a very good boy, you."

"Something tells me that you're not the type to be good for very long."

He flashed her a wicked grin then sipped his wine. "Mmm. Tres belle and good taste in wine. You seem to have it all, cher."

The waiter came back for their orders so they took a quick glance at the menu, then got back to their conversation.

"So, cher, what is it going to take to get that necklace back?"

"Are we done with the flirting?" Rogue asked, doing a decent job of hiding her disappointment.

"Never! But we can combine business and pleasure, non?"

"What about rule number three?"

Gambit regarded her for a moment before answering. "Rule number three only applies to clients, and as far as I can remember, you haven't hired me."

The look he was giving her was hungry and Rogue felt quite flushed under his gaze. He reached across the table and took her hand, tracing patterns on the back of it with his thumb. It felt positively delightful and she was forced to wonder, if he could make her weak at the knees just touching her hand, what could he do if given access to her body.

"You can't sell that necklace, you know," he kept his tone seductive. "You don't know why my client is."

Rogue smiled. "Says who? But if you really upset me, I'll just pawn it. I don't think your guild would be too happy about you botching a job to such a degree."

"You seem to know a lot about this guild, cher."

"I make it a habit to get to know organisations that I want to join."

He hadn't been expecting that and his eyebrows went up in shock.

"You want to join the guild?"

"My daddy always said that I should join a union."

Gambit laughed, positively thrilled by this turn of events.

"So I get you a meeting with Jean-Luc, the leader of the guild, and you give me the necklace back?" he asked.

"Something like that."

"And what if he turns you down."

"He won't," she said with certainty.

"What makes you to sure?"

Rogue looked down to the hand he was holding so that his attention was focused there too, then she puled Kitty's psychie out and used it to phase through Gambit's hand. He grinned.

"That's a neat trick, cher."

"It's no trick."

"So you're a mutant?" he asked softly.

Rogue nodded. She didn't need to ask if he was because of his eyes.

"What else can you do?" he asked.

Rogue looked around for a way to use her powers discreetly.

"Do you like roses, Gambit?"

"Who doesn't?" He followed her gaze down to the street, where a street vendor was selling single roses. He felt a breeze, then looked up to see Rogue holding a rose out towards him. He accepted with a wide smile. "I must say, it's usually me giving the flowers."

"A change can be nice sometimes," Rogue smiled back.

Remy looked down to the street. "Did you really get this from him?"

"Of course."

Their appetisers arrived then, Remy had ordered Chicken and Andouille Gumbo while Rogue went for the Fried Green Tomatoes with Shrimp Caper Dill Remoulade.

Rogue couldn't help but moan as she ate.

"You like it, cher?" Gambit asked, his eyes alight with mirth.

"I'm sorry," Rogue blushed. "I live up north so I don't really get much decent Cajun food."

"Ah, I understand." He sipped his wine and wondered just what it was about this woman that he was finding so irresistible. Sure, she was beautiful but then so were a lot of women. She had confidence which was attractive, but hardly unique to her. The white streak in her hair was interesting, but in these days of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, unusual hair was becoming positively common place.

"So, cher, will you tell me your name?"

"They call me Bandit."

"Oh now, cher, we were having such a nice evening, why you have to go and lie to Gambit?"

"I said that's what they call me, I didn't say that was my name." Her answer was stiff and he knew that he'd caught her in a lie, even without his empathy to help.

"So what do you like to be called," he pressed.

She looked at him for a few moments before answering. He could feel her uncertainty and hesitation but when she replied, her answer was truthful.

"Rogue," she said softly.

"Nice to meet you, Rogue."

Their dishes were collected and they ordered more wine before resuming their conversation.

"So, what happens now?" Remy asked her.

"First you follow me back to my hotel, search it when I'm out. It's a waste of time because the jewellery isn't there, but I don't expect that will stop you." She looked in her purse and handed him a key. "I'm staying in the Pontchartrain, penthouse suite. I'll be out between noon and four tomorrow."

"I'm a thief, cher, I don't need a key."

"I know," she smiled. "I'm just making things easier for you."

"Okay, so then what happens?" He was enjoying this conversation.

"You have me followed in the hopes that I'll lead you to he jewellery. It won't work though, I'm not that dumb."

"I would never think that you were dumb, cher, but you're right, I would have you tailed, just in case."

"You only have until Friday, when you're supposed to meet with Mr Samms who hired you. With time running out, finally you'll see that my way is your only hope of getting the jewellery back in time, so you'll take me to see your father, Jean-Luc, who will string me along until I give up the jewels, then shut me out of the guild."

"If you're so sure that we'll double cross you, why do you want to join?"

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained," she shrugged and gave him a cheeky smile. "I could be a real asset to your guild and I think that you know that. Now I'm just waiting to see if your family are smart enough to realise that too."

"You drive a hard bargain, cher."

Rogue just shrugged again. She didn't think that a real thief would think twice about driving a hard bargain.

Their main courses arrived, Rogue had chosen Blackened Stuffed Pork Chop Marchand de Vin, while Remy had opted for Duck and Shrimp Dulac.

"So, cher, why don't you tell me something about yourself?"

"What would you like to know? How long I've been a thief?"

"I was thinking more about you. Where you're from, what your folks are like, why you live up north now?"

Rogue didn't like those kinds of questions and kept her eyes focused on her plate as she refused to answer.

"Let me guess, that accent got to be Mississippi, right?"

Rogue looked up at him and nodded once.

"You don't like to talk about your childhood, do you." It was a statement, not a question. "Bad memories?"

Rogue nodded.

"I can relate."

His expression was so sincere that she truly felt that he could relate.

"I was abandoned when I was a child," Remy began explaining. "Probably because of my eyes."

"You were born with them?"

Remy nodded. "I wasn't exactly popular in the orphanage so I ran away, lived on the streets and learned to pick pockets to survive. I did okay."

"How did you get into the guild?" she asked.

"I picked the wrong pocket," he said with a cheeky smile. "Jean-Luc LeBeau's, to be accurate. He was so surprised at my gall that he took me home with him. He didn't realise that I had no clue he was the head of the Thieves' Guild. He adopted me and taught me the ways of the guild."

"They didn't mind that you were a mutant?"

"Non," he shook his head. "They're my family and never treated me any different 'cos I was adopted or a mutant."

Strained as relations with some of the X-Men were at the moment, Rogue had found herself a family of sorts, but they weren't humans, they were fellow mutants like her.

"What's it like? She found herself asking. "Being accepted by people, I mean, not the guild."

Remy smiled warmly. "It's nice. Doesn't matter what I do, I know they'll be there for me. It's comforting."

"You could do anything and they'd still accept you?" she asked. She knew from bitter experience that the X-Men's affection came with strings attached, such as not joining the Brotherhood. She could actually see why the Brotherhood felt the way they did, and she understood why they did the things they did. Part of her had wanted to stay with them, especially after the X-Men had made it crystal clear that she wasn't welcome at the mansion any more, in any capacity. And that had come from Beast, who was easily the most diplomatic of the X-Men.

"I think so," Remy answered, feeling her pain and confusion. "They may not like what I do, but they'd never abandon me."

"Even if you joined the Assassins?"

"I'm no assassin, cher," he sounded affronted by the idea. "But yes, I know for a fact that they would still love me. You see I used to date the heir to the assassins. Papa didn't like it but he didn't forbid it. It was Belladonna's fathers who forbid us from seeing each other and ended our relationship."

"That must be nice," she smiled sadly.

Remy put his cutlery down and reached across the table for her hand. "It is."

He felt sorry for her, she realised, and her defences came crashing down. She pulled her hand away and stood up.

"Cher?"

"I have to get going. I'll pay for dinner on my way out."

"But-"

"Goodnight, Gambit."

Remy watched her leave, wondering what could make such a beautiful woman look so sad. Maybe that was why she wanted to join the guild, maybe she was after family?

He remained where he was as he thought about the puzzle that was Rogue. He didn't need to follow her tonight, not because he believed that she was staying in the Pontchartrain, though he did, but because he had placed a tiny tracker on the lip of her glove so that he had no need to follow her home.