My Own Private Antarctica
Story notes: I dislike what Marvel did with their "let's have Rogue leave Remy to die" plotline about Antarctica, so this is my own take on what happened in my X-universe instead. In my universe, Gambit and Rogue aren't together because I honestly think they're too much alike, but they did date for a while. Also, this is a depressed Remy POV story, so what you read isn't necessarily The Truth, just what Gambit believes is The Truth at this time.
Anyway. On with the show.
After the trial, Rogue rose into the air with Gambit, took him outside, then dumped him in the snow and stayed airborne. She looked at her gloved hands, and he slowly picked himself up from the cold hard ground, feeling tears well up from his soul. "What'd you do that for, chere?" he said, bitter, miserable, cold outside and in.
She shook her right hand out. "I just couldn't take it any more."
"Take what?" Take him? She had defended him! She understood, didn't she? What was wrong?
Distantly, she said, "I couldn't take having you so close. You're in my head, under my skin. And what you did…I'm having a hard time dealing with it."
SHE was having a hard time with it? He gave a bitter laugh. "Try living with having done it, chere."
She turned a hard gaze at him. "I am. Thanks to you," she bit out, forcefully.
Oh. That was different. His heart ached for her. "Chere, I'm so sorry you have to…"
She turned and faced the sun, moving a short distance away from him, and he was gripped with fear. She wouldn't just leave him here to die, would she? "Rogue, you not goin', are you?"
She looked at him again. He saw disgust in her gaze and wished he could sink through the snow to avoid it. "No," she said slowly. "Not without you. Even though on some sick level, you want me to. That'd be doing what you did to them. I'm not a killer any more."
He felt queasy. He knelt and vomited into the snow. She watched him, not helping or hindering him. He wiped his mouth and got up again afterward, shaky and ill. Then she lifted him from the ground and flew steadily away.
She didn't say one word to him for the entire flight.
He tried to get her to talk. He would have preferred anger, loathing, shouting, anything but this frozen silence from her. He needed passion, something to hold on to. All she gave him was quiet, and the cutting frost of the wind. He told her he was sorry. He said he loved her deeply. He railed against his own weaknesses, gave her his feelings, and she flew on without showing any concern for his pain. Finally, he gave up.
Back at the mansion, she put him on the ground, then walked away. She didn't even look at him. "Rogue?" he called desperately after her.
She didn't react at all, not even breaking her stride as she swiftly walked away.
The others had seen his trial…apparently Magneto had been "kind" enough to broadcast it to all of them. Wolverine clapped him on the back and took him to a slimy little dive later that night, where they played pool, drank the time away, and got into a few fights. Storm gripped his hand and asked him to trust the group more, that he was a valued team member despite this one mistake from his past. He thanked her. Charles sent a brief telepathic message of support. Some of the others were more diffident, but none of them rejected him outright.
None, that is, but Rogue.
Even after some time, she still was colder than absolute zero to him. She avoided him and ignored him. He pleaded, he railed, he sighed…he might as well have been asking a brick wall for sympathy. He loved her, and she had said she loved him, yet Storm was more kind to him after his trial than Rogue!
He had a revelation, playing poker with Logan at three a.m. Even a small straight couldn't distract him. Finally he understood why Rogue didn't leave him in Antarctica. She didn't have to. She had brought it here with her.