A/N: Yeah, I know. I suck. Making another story when I have yet to finish any of my others is bad. Bin on this website for ages and I just keep deleting my stories before I finish them. However I am rid of The Black Flame (for now at least) and on to brighter, better things! So here it goes, It's short, but then my first chapters never are long are they? Except HOTD but that doesn't count coz it was supposed to be a one shot…

Fade

Chapter 1

The scream pierced the air, and ripped through Remy's eardrums painfully.

He sat bolt upright and had mere minutes to recover before Katherine Pryde-One of his many housemates- pounced upon him and threw her arms around his neck.

Mind still fogged with sleep. Ears still ringing with pain, Remy blinked back into focus and became aware of another very important thing: He couldn't breathe.

Desperately, he tried to pry her frame from his own. She wouldn't budge and he had to gasp her name three times before she realized she was choking him.

At least she had the decency to be bashful, he reasoned wryly, rubbing his neck to force his blood back into circulation.

Ear drums still throbbing, he questioned her, why did she scream, and did she know the time?

"It's half six." She replied breathlessly. "And I screamed because the most exciting thing of all exciting things has happened. And you and I will be the only one's to know!"

Sighing, he looked around the still dim room. No one else would have heard her; his room was sound proof. Though what she was doing in his room in the first place, besides screaming, he didn't know.

Light was seeping around the edges of the heavy, dark blue drapes. He disentangled himself from Kitty and moved toward them. Pulling them back revealed the sky and air to be thick with humidity, a murky gray that caused the rising sun to appear as a thick, dull ball.

Turning around, he took a good look at Kitty for the first time that morning.

Her petite, muscled frame was still adorned in hot pink pajamas that made Remy wince. Her shoulder-length hair –newly streak with honey blonde tones –was down and unbrushed, curling at the ends.

She was knelt on the bed, hands twitching with excitement and fidgeting with a piece of screwed up, creased paper. She looked every bit as tiered as Remy felt but her cornflower blue eyes were wide, bright and happy. She appeared to be on the verge of getting up and dancing with excitement.

"…And so I came to see you and accidentally strangled you (sorry for that by the way) and…Oh my god I can't wait to see her again! And I can only imagine the look on Logan's face and Scott's face and Kurt's face and…"

If ever Remy were to write a book, it would be called ' How To Survive At Xavier's School For The Gifted.' And his very first rule would most probably go something like this:

'If you are woken at half six in the morning by one Katharine Pryde, then almost get choked to death by her, and then she proceeds to say a sentence without saying the words 'like' or 'totally' even once, she is one of four things. Happy, sad, angry or excited. If indeed she is anyone of these things, Do not approach under any circumstances.'

Wincing at the pitch of her voice, Remy requested she start again, perhaps a little slower this time?

She nodded vigorously and took a deep breath in attempt to curb a little of her excitement.

"She…She's been sending me letters." Eyes flashing with happiness, she explained. "Only she asked me not to breathe a word to anyone. She said she trusted only me and if she…if she wanted anyone else in contact with her she wouldn't have changed her name.

We've been writing for ages. Ever since she left. In every letter she reminded me not to tell anyone I didn't explicitly trust with all my heart. That's why I'm telling you, only you. You see, I know you won't spread this any further, with all the secrets she's kept for you. And…well she wants it to be a surprise of sorts. Something to brighten everyone's spirits."

Her voice cracked with the raw emotion only someone like her could hold. The youngest Lebeau child's heart thumped wildly. It had to be Jean. It had to. There was no one else he trusted…loved as much as her in order to tell all his secrets. Maybe she and one-eye had had an argument in which she confessed her undying love for him.

He urged Kitty on and her eyes brimmed with tears. She opened her mouth, nothing would come out. Chest swelling, she tried and failed again. A solitary tear ran down her cheek and she thrust the letter into his hand. Now bawling her eyes out, she ran toward his En Suite bathroom and left him alone with nothing but a crumpled piece of paper in hand.

Dear Kitty,

I know you'll be as shocked about this letter as you were with the last. However I am afraid this one is shorter and to the point as I will be leaving shortly to go to the theatre. Emma and Betsy's gift to me.

Quickly, I'd like to thank you for the chocolates (though how you got them here I'll never know) they were greatly appreciated, especially by Pete who decided to eat the entire box to himself.

Now onto the actual point of my writing. A few days ago I received a letter addressed to Fade. At first, I thought it only fan mail and was going to throw it away. But upon closer inspection I realized I knew the writing. Kitty, Professor Xavier was writing to ask Fade to the X-men! Maybe I should have told him, maybe even declined the invitation. But instead I wrote to him, as Fade, and said I would be happy to take the position. And if not too much trouble I would like to bring three friends with me.

Of all the X-men, you're the one I have missed the most. You have every right to throw this away and deny my request. But think about it, I am returning to the X-men! And so I ask you to meet me at the New York's central air travel, 5:00 on Thursday. Please come, It would be a comfort to see one of the X-men before I meet the rest. And it seems fitting that I ask you, seeing as I am desperate to get you better aquatinted with Pete, who will be escorting me.

I am not ignorant of you natural desire to tell someone what you know. And so I ask you to choose one trustworthy person that you know, and tell them of our secret. I also beg you not to tell Logan, Kurt or Scott. For reasons I am sure I do not have to explain to you.

See you soon,

Fade

Remy stared at the creased paper in his hand. What on earth was going on here? He'd read the letter five times and he still couldn't deduce what this had to do with him.

Steeling himself, he strode toward the closed bathroom door and banged on it.

Kitty appeared in a flurry of tissues and tears. She sniffed. "Isn't it great?"

No, he thought sullenly. No it wasn't. About forty-five minutes ago he had everything in his life down to a tee. Where he slept at night. What he did for a living. His love for a taken woman…and growing affection (he didn't know if it was love yet) for a woman he'd joined the good side for, a woman who disappeared before he'd even moved in…

Jesus, that memory still stung like hell. But no, nothing was great. As far as he knew, some woman named Fade was moving to the X-men. No, not just to the X-men, Back to the X-men. Which means she had to have been here before…

Finally deciding he'd had enough, he frowned bitterly and asked " Who de hell is Fade?"

Kitty, in the middle of a happy dance, froze and stared at him. Wide-eyed she searched his features as if looking for some sort of joke there. Then she clapped a hand over her mouth and did something he didn't expected her to do…

She laughed.

Laughed at him. Frustrated he asked her why he was so funny to which she replied: "Not you. Me! I'm such an airhead at times! Of course you wouldn't know!"

Flabbergasted, he sat and watched her giggle at her own stupidity. "I totally can't believe I forgot! I was so excited that I had found the perfect person to tell, what with her only trusting killers and thieves. She says you worthy allies to have on her side. But," she added in after thought, "she always claimed she'd never become one.

She changed her name when she left to stop people tracking her down; she went to England you see, after the illness. Eventually though I got her."

"Who Kitty?"

"Fade." She replied happily. "She was the one you kidnapped before you came here. She was that one you gave that special card to, you know…uh…what's it called…Queen Of Clubs?"

"Hearts." Remy corrected softly and quietly, there was only a handful of people in this world he'd given that card to, but he hoped to god Kitty wasn't referring to the one he thought she was…

"Yeah that's right." She said happily. "I knew it was something like that. Anyway, what I'm getting at here is that it's Rogue Gambit. When she moved away she became a national hero in England instead. Fade is Rogue."

And all of a sudden, that tiny bit of affection grew to a monster and swallowed his heart whole. Enveloping his chest into tight knots of pain.

To be continued…