Chapter 1: Reunion
Remy LeBeau stood at the precipice, looking down at the ocean, the waves crashed monstrously against the large black rocks. The wind swept his long brown hair away from his face, and the light rain sprayed his cold flesh. He looked across the landscape before him.
He sighed deeply, his thoughts playing around in his mind, a swirling chaos of hate and love, anger and pain. There was something that wasn't quite right lately in his life.
Namely, Rogue, the young woman he loved.
He'd been on the island for several weeks, working hard at helping pinpoint areas with low security, there'd been a number of break-ins, chemicals and equipment stolen – it was his job to make sure it didn't happen again. He was determined it wouldn't.
Remy had known that long distance romances were the worst kind, that it was easy to quickly lose interest in someone when separated for them for a period of time, he'd just always thought that he'd be the first one to lose interest – not Rogue.
He'd been trying to make it work despite he was in Scotland and she was in America, he'd called, he'd email, he'd written letters, but her response was very vague, and then last week, she'd more or less stopped making effort altogether.
That had been his first clue that something wasn't quite right. When he'd called her and asked her if she'd requested taking time away from the institute to come visit him, she'd said she'd 'forgot to ask'. She'd always claimed before that he was the most important part of her life, and if that was so, how could she simply just forget to ask to be with him? It seemed unlike her.
Even the last time he'd spoken with her she had seemed distracted, and the end of that conversation had resulted in Remy hanging up the phone on her. He supposed he'd overreacted a little, it wasn't like him to do something so dramatic. But something in her voice that day – something suggested that she was hiding something. Usually it was himself who'd be hiding things, not her. She'd always been particularly honest with him.
He couldn't understand what had changed.
And it had yesterday since she he'd hung up, she had not emailed or called, and he was beginning to wonder if this time he'd screwed up and wrecked any chance of reconciliation.
Remy wanted to call her right then, but told himself sternly that he had to wait, it was her who needed to make the next move, if she loved him, she would make the effort, and if not…it might be time to move on.
The thought of moving on from her broke his heart, but if it came to that, he knew he'd be able to do it, despite being devastated.
Dwelling on the thoughts of that, he tossed away his cigarette, he glanced at his watch, realising he'd been on a cigarette break generally longer than he was meant to be. He gave a deep sigh, and turned to head back to the research centre, he was not prepared for who he saw standing a few feet away.
It was Rogue.
Her hair was stirring in the wind, she was wearing a long black cardigan that tied up at the front, coming down past her knees, hiding the rips in the black jeans she always wore.
"Chere…" he let out a breath, her beauty always caught him off guard, there was always something almost unearthly about her that made him weak inside. And every time he looked at her, he would feel almost obligated to drink in her presence with his eyes.
Rogue gave a weak smile, she was holding a large bag with both hands in front of her, it was hanging almost to the ground, dangling by the straps from her gloved fingers. She looked tired, as if she hadn't slept. "I thought I'd surprise you…"
He moved over slowly, inside debating if he should be happy or not, or if he should quickly query her about her behaviour over the last week of their relationship and why she'd been so distracted.
He didn't have a proper time to respond really, because before he'd known it, Rogue had dropped her bag and rushed to him, throwing herself into his arms in an almost desperate way, her arms thrown over his shoulders, she jumped onto him, wrapping her legs around him in an attempt to keep holding onto him even tighter.
Remy was slightly amused, "you missed me?"
"You have no idea," she sighed, holding on tightly, her head against his shoulder.
He ran his fingers along her spine, "Yeah, I missed you too," his voice sounded unenthusiastic. Rogue seemed to pick up on it, and she let go of him.
"You're still mad?" she asked.
"A little."
"Remy, I'm so sorry, I was just tired, there was a lot going on at the mansion, the punishment…the stress of things…" she tried to explain.
Remy sighed, "I really thought you were about to ditch me."
"As if I'd ditch you," Rogue smiled a little, but then it faded, "I was just being stupid…I'm sorry…" she reached up with her gloved hand, moving his hair away from his face tenderly, letting her fingers gently brush against his cheekbone.
Even at her touch, the cold leather of her gloves slightly jarring him, made him feel more alive than he had in a long time. He smiled a little, and moved over, wrapping his arms around her lithe body, and held onto her tenderly, "I'm sorry too, I guess I over reacted just a little," he let go of her and picked her bag up from the ground, "c'mon, we should go inside, its too cold out here," he stated.
Rogue put her arm around his waist and walked with him, letting his arm slide comfortably around her shoulders.
"So…how'd you get here?" he queried.
"The blackbird, Wolverine dropped me off," Rogue said.
"Dropped you off?" Remy looked at her, "You mean you're not chaperoned?"
"Not this time," Rogue stated, "Remy, I'm nearly 17, I don't need chaperoning," she pointed out.
Remy smirked, "I guess not. Not that it makes much difference here, you're gonna find yourself bein' chaperoned anyway," he stated, "Sean Cassidy…jesus, the man checks up on me every two hours, its' frightening."
"How do you deal with that?"
"I have to 'be good', as according to Professor Xavier's instructions," Remy sighed, "Fortunately Sean and Moira left for the week, they went to Edinburgh, for a series of parliamentary hearings regarding Mutants or something. I wasn't paying attention when they told me," He smirked, "So their absence is why I'm getting away with taking thirty minute cigarette breaks," he chuckled.
Rogue looked at him, "cigarette breaks, do they have you on schedule or something here?"
"I'll tell you when we get upstairs."
Remy led Rogue into the large foyer of the research centre, and up a staircase to a dormitory area, the same room she'd stayed in on her previous visit was unoccupied, he swung the door open, "I suppose you'll be staying here," he shrugged, "if Moira or Sean was here, they would put you here anyway," he gestured, "My room is opposite," he added.
Rogue stepped in, watching Remy place her bag on the bed. "So…Professor Xavier told me what you're up to over here," she admitted, she closed the door.
"He did?" Remy grimaced.
"Why didn't you just tell me in the first place…?" Rogue asked.
"Professor Xavier's orders," Remy shrugged, "Besides…it was too soon after…y'know…" he looked at her, she knew he was referring to the rape. "Too soon to have you know…" he explained, "I was scared of…reminding you."
"I'm over it," Rogue shrugged, "even told the professor," she went to the window, and opened the blinds, glancing outside, the view was breathtaking, a clear view of the beach and the waves rolling in.
"You've handled it pretty well, y'know," Remy said, "I gotta admit, you're a lot more together than I thought you were," Remy looked down, "so much stronger than I could have imagined…"
Rogue ran her fingers through her hair and yawned, "So…what's going on? Have you had any leads on who's stealin' the stuff – or how they're doin' it?"
Remy sat down on the edge of the bed, "I think this is an inside job," he kept his voice low. "Right now I'm posing as a research assistant so that I can move freely around the others here, see what they're doing…" he explained, "I haven't had much chance to pinpoint where all the lax security is," he admitted.
Rogue closed the blinds again, "what makes you think it's an inside job?"
Remy scratched the bridge of the nose, "just a hunch."
"Oh come on, is that the best explanation you can come up with?" Rogue put her hands on her hips. "Remy, you said in those emails you could use my help on whatever you were working on…I can't help you if I don't know the score."
"Alright, alright," Remy put his hands up in defence, "I'll tell you – but not now…later…" he stood up, he glanced at his watch, "I was meant to be down there with the other research assistants ages ago," He grumbled, "they're such a pain in the ass."
"You going to introduce me?"
"Later…get unpacked, and settled…and get some sleep, I can see you're tired," he walked over to her, he placed both hands on her shoulders, "when you're well rested, and settled a little, then we'll talk about it."
Rogue looked up at him, "Why can't you just tell me now?"
"Because I got things to do…and you're tired. I promise you, we'll discuss everything," He smiled softly, "see you later."
Remy left the room, and Rogue remained alone. She sighed, realising she should have just told him straight away about Jared's advances, as opposed to what she'd told him, claiming she'd just been tired and stressed. She wondered if she told him, would it cause them more arguments after they had just reconciled again.
She kicked off her shoes and lay on the bed, closed her eyes and let herself drift into a deep but troubled sleep.