status complete
prompts gambit and rogue's kisses in "x-men: the animated series"
warnings implied fluff?
pairings gambit&rogue
disclaimer i do not own x-men
episodes in which the kisses occur the final decision (season 1), till death do us part, pt1 (season 2), the reunion, pt2 (season 2)

HARD CANDY

One rainy afternoon, Gambit would realize that all he had from her was three kisses.

It was raining outside, preventing the young Cajun from leaving the Mansion and heading downtown for a drink - or at least three, since this is Gambit, after all. He could have gone, but getting soaked to the bone was not exactly what he needed at the moment. So, there he was, lying on his bed, alone, tangled in his thoughts of her.

Rogue.

The woman he loved with all his will.

Their relationship was complicated and dysfunctional, anyone could point it out, with Rogue's absorbing powers preventing any kind of physical contact without clothing barriers, but Gambit did have some really nice memories of their times to reminisce in moments like these.

Three single kisses.

The first kiss they have ever shared was not a direct touch of their lips, because Rogue had placed her gloved hand atop of his mouth and kissed the back of it, but it was the closest thing to a kiss he could get from her without causing him harm. They were fighting against the Sentinels that had gone crazy and taken control, wanting to turn all the leaders of the US into robots and take over the world. The Sentinel base was located underground and thus, the X-Men had been divided into two teams in order to eliminate all of them. The first one, consisting of Rogue, Storm and Jubilee, were to stay on the surface while Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit and Jean, the second team, would go underground to destroy the Sentinels base.

Long story short, Rogue had gotten worried when he hadn't showed up and the underground facility was collapsing. But before she could go personally looking for him, the Cajun emerged from underground with Scott and Logan to find a very pissed slash worried Rogue. She had fallen into his arms and gave him the aforementioned kiss, mumbling "I hate you" in a playful tone when she pulled back. Then, she had wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, leaving Gambit with a puzzled look on his face, saying "I don't understand this woman", but returning the embrace nevertheless.

The second time he kissed her, it was rather painful. Well, painful may not have been the right word to describe how he felt; it was more like exhausting. She had drained his energy to the smallest bit. Truth be told, he wasn't going to kiss her, hadn't it been for that shapeshifter, Morph, who had taken her form - wanting to take revenge on the X-Men for leaving him behind - and walked up to him with a swagger of a seductress, telling him that she could touch people without draining her energy. She had taken off her gloves and stroked his cheek in order to prove her words. And Gambit fell for it, because his lust for her was too overwhelming to let him think clear and see that Rogue was acting completely out of character.

So, he went to the Rec Room, where (fake) Rogue had told him to meet her, to find her sleeping on the couch. Thinking that she had fallen asleep while waiting on him, Gambit came up with the brilliant idea of waking his sleeping beauty up with a kiss. However, as soon as his lips brushed against hers, he felt his energy fade away and drifted into unconsciousness, leaving a now-fully-awake Rogue wondering what the hell had happened. When he awoke from the long slumber, Gambit had one hell of a headache and felt extremely tired, so much that he slept twenty hours that night. But he could never say it wasn't worth it. Even if he got to claim her soft lips as his for just a short moment, it was all worth it. And Gambit never regretted it.

Not in this life, anyways.

So far, their kisses could perfectly be described as one-sided. The first time, she was the one kissing him, giving him no chance of responding, with her hand being the barrier between their mouths. The second time, he had been the one kissing her, as she was asleep. And when she finally woke up, he was half-dead, which didn't leave her much chance to kiss him back. However, as people say, third time's the charm. And it was, indeed.

The third kiss, Gambit had to admit, was the best one. That was back when all the X-Men, minus Wolverine, had been captured by Mister Sinister and been held his captives in his hideout, in a tropical rainforest in the middle of Antarctica. A machine, used by Sinister, had somehow turned off their powers the moment the X-Men had set foot on the land. And with Rogue's powers gone, physical contact was the new thing. But the thought of touching her, let alone kiss her, hadn't crossed Gambit's mind until the moment came. While they were on the ground, in Sinister's cage, exhausted by suffering a heavy blow of magnetic energy from one of his followers, Gambit had collected Rogue in his arms and held her close. After Rogue proclaimed her fears, Gambit took her face in his hands and told her,

"Be brave, chére. Gambit never said this to anyone before, but Gambit, loves you."

Then, his lips had crashed down on hers, and this time, Rogue had kissed him back with all her might, partly happy that her absorbing powers were gone for the moment and that she was free to touch him and kiss him all she wanted. Had they not been Sinister's hostages at the time, Gambit could say that the moment was perfect.

That was all he had from her - those three kisses. Not much, not even enough. Gambit knew that kisses like the last one they'd shared may never occur again. But knowing that there was even a tiny chance that Rogue would learn to control her powers and that he could be able to kiss her freely, without worrying about falling unconscious, kept him stuck on her. Because it wasn't just about the kisses. There were the hugs, the teasing, the jokes, the smiles, the smirks, and the affectionate ruffling of his hair when they had escaped Asteroid M. But on top of all, it was Wolverine's words that sent his mind on cloud nine and made him believe that all the waiting was worth it.

Logan had told him one day, when the two of them were out for drinks and the claw user was enough drunk to talk to him about everything, that while searching for Gambit with Rogue in Asteroid M, she had stated, "We don't find him, we don't go." Gambit couldn't tear the smirk off his lips for the next five days and Rogue was curious about what had caused the handsome Cajun to smirk like that, but was pretty tempted to wipe it off his face nonetheless, since it was getting on her nerves.

Gambit wasn't sure if he could maintain a relationship that involved no touching, no kissing, and eventually, no sex, even if he loved Rogue more than she would ever know. He had a reputation of being a womanizer, and he didn't knew if he could put an end to his life as a ladies' man, and try to enter a relationship under those terms with her. It was a tough decision to make and he didn't know what he was going to do. But one thing he knew for sure.

Even if she drained all his energy - which he had plenty, making him drift to unconsciousness every single time, Gambit would definitely steal more kisses from the lovely Queen of his Heart. Because he was Gambit and three kisses from Rogue were not even close to being enough for him, Le Diable Blanc. No matter how much it hurt him physically when she drained his energy at the slightest skin to skin contact, or how many times she had turned him down, he would always come back for more. And he would be damned if he'd say that Rogue didn't care for him and wasn't attracted to him with animal magnetism.

Gambit smirked. Three kisses were only the beginning.