AN: Hello! So I have several, SEVERAL stories going on right now, and even more plot bunnies hopping around in my head. I really liked this one and wanted to write for WXM instead of XME for a bit though, so here goes! Story starts right after the mansion gets blown up, I may or may not keep the same plot points that the show covered. I kind of suck at writing accents, but I'll try. I think I might under-do Rogue's and overdo Gambit's. Review with any tips on writing them, though, because Gambit honestly doesn't get enough screen time for me to have a good idea of how he talks. He never gets enough screen time in the cartoons, it's totally not fair. But I do love the freedom to decide if he has a way around Rogue's powers or not. I long to do so in my XME fics, but I value continuity with my life. Anyway, read, enjoy, review!

TRANSLATIONS:

"bonjour, soleil brille" = "morning, sunshine" (loose translation)

"chéri" = "darling" (loose translation again)

DAY ONE

Rogue struggled, trying desperately to slip out of the MRD's grip. How great. First the mansion got blown up, leaving her without a home, and then the very next day she gets herself captured? Just her luck. The MRD typed in a passcode in a console next to a thick steel door. It slid open, and she was thrown in. Her head hit the back wall, hard, and she couldn't register anything about the room before darkness seeped into her mind.

Needles. Lots and lots of painful, stinging needles. Her breath came in ragged gasps into the oxygen mask secured to her face, quickly turning into screams of agony. She opened her eyes, only closing them immediately again when whatever liquid she was immersed in stung them. Another needle poked through her skin, her muscle, into her bones. It. Hurt. Like. Hell. She screamed, struggling against the bindings securing her to the bottom of the tank. A faint beeping sound seeped through the liquid and into her ears, accelerating faster and faster until it became difficult to hear the space in between. Another needle poked into her leg; she saw red. The beeping stopped, becoming one long, monotonous note. The red leaked away, revealing black; a dark, comforting black...

And then the black rolled away, her eyes snapping open as the beeping began again. She had died, and now she was alive. And she was done with the pain. Six sleek, metallic claws broke through her skin, clouding the tank with blood. The wounds healed quickly, and she tore at the bindings and needles. The people with the needles scrambled back, yelling for backup. She leaped out of the tank, oxygen mask falling away. There was no longer pain. Just rage. Murderous, bloodthirsty rage. She blindly ripped through the room, cutting up everything she could find.

And then she ran.

"Bonjour, soleil brille." Rogue groaned and rolled over, pulling the sheets above her head. Who was in her room speaking French at all hours of the morning? She reached across the bed, which she didn't remember being so small, to turn the lamp on. Her hand fell through air. Her eyes snapped open as she recalled the mansion being destroyed, Logan leaving anyway, and getting herself caught by the MRD.

"Crap," she mumbled, pushing herself up. She cried out and fell right back down again as a stabbing pain erupted behind her forehead.

"Shouldn' bruise, but 't'll hur' like hell fo' a while." She carefully turned her head, looking to the speaker who was standing next to the bed. He had a mop of brown hair cut just above his ears, tan skin and glowing red and black eyes. Beneath his heavy trench coat he wore a tight, dark red t-shirt, loose black cargo pants and heavy black boots. A metallic glint at his ankles clued her in to the shinguards probably covering his boots; chances were that were was body armor under the rest of his clothes as well. She didn't have time to flinch away as one of his hands (which were both covered in leather fingerless gloves) brushed against her layered shirt and reached up to probe her forehead. She winced, both from the pain and waiting for her powers to kick in.

They didn't.

He pulled his hand away and she reached up, brushing her green gloves against her head.

She hadn't absorbed him. He had touched her, skin to skin, and she hadn't absorbed him. Despite the ringing in her ears and the soreness in her skull, she snapped her body up, forcing herself to stay sitting until the vertigo wore off. She blinked for a moment, clearing her vision, before looking up at him.

"Do they have power inhibitors in these cells?" He shrugged, pulled a playing card out of his pocket, and held it up. It lit up with a soft magenta glow.

"Guess not," he said. The glow faded away and he slid the card back in his trench coat. Rogue scooted back on the bed, leaning her back against the wall. She ran a hand through her hair, blinking.

"Somet'in' wrong, chéri?" the guy asked.

"Mah powers didn't work."

"Am I t' assume I was under attack?"

"They didn't work."

"What 'xactly are yo' powers, chéri?" She looked up at him skeptically.

"What're yours?" The man smirked. Rogue held her breath as he took her gloved hand and kissed her knuckles.

"Gambit, a' yo' service. Molecular kinetic energy chargin' an' a touch-based an' telepat'ic power-proof static shield." She smiled slightly at his antics.

"Rogue. Ah suck the life out of people when I touch them."

"Dat could come in useful."

"Ah can't control it." There was a moment of silence.

"...well dat sucks."

"But it didn't work on you."

"Dat would be the static shield." She blinked. She could touch someone. Granted he was a complete stranger she met in an MRD cell, she could still touch him. It had been what, five years since she'd touched someone, skin to skin? Without the fear or purpose of absorbing them? It felt like a miracle to her. A slightly weird miracle, but a miracle all the same.

"So...how'd you get caught?" she asked, trying to get out of the somewhat awkward silence that came up.

"Never pickpocke' a Mardy. Dey can smell you a mile away," he muttered, looking a bit put out. Rogue quirked an eyebrow.

"You tried to pickpocket one of them?" He nodded.

"Dat's what I do. I'm a t'ief. What abou' yo'?" he said, sitting down on the corner of the one cot provided in the cell.

"The mansion was destroyed, two people went missin', everyone else left, and Ah made the mistake of tryin' to walk past the Mardies without gettin' caught. False hope. And from what Ah could tell on the way here, this isn't the normal MRD prison." Gambit nodded, although she saw a flash of recognition, almost, when she mentioned the mansion.

"Apparen'ly dis is de containment center fo' level 4 an' 5 mutants."

"Mm." There were a few minutes of silence before Gambit spoke up.

"So, mansion?" Rogue shrugged, nodding.

"Y'heard of the X-Men?"