Short and terribly OOC. My apologies.
Gambit remembered the time he first found out X-23 was cutting herself.
It had always been a vague suspicion. She would disappear too long to the bathroom, and come back with traces of blood on her. He always figured she was sick, or had some sort of small wound. He had ignored the obvious specifically because he hadn't wanted to think about what she was doing to herself. He would wake up in the night and see the lights of the bathroom were on, but he always ignored it.
It hadn't been a particularly eventful day. They were sitting in a hotel room that they were staying in. X-23 was reading a book, he was playing with a deck of cards. They had been waiting for a contact to get back to them. Gambits phone was resting on his lap. He glanced down at the cellphone, once again checking that he hadn't missed any calls. He looked over at X-23, who was concentrating on her book.
"Petite." He said. She glanced up at him, waiting for him to say something. "I'm going to go get some coffee. Want to come?" There was a coffee machine in the lobby, and as it got later and later, he had begun to crave it more and more.
X-23 shook her head, and returned to reading her book. Gambit got up, making sure to pocket his cellphone on the way out. He got the call as he was walking back up to the room. He whipped out a piece of paper and a pen, and proceeded to scribble down all the information that he needed. When he was finished talking with the informant, he glanced at his watch. He had been away for 15 minutes. He hurried back to the room, not wanting Laura to worry about him potentially disappearing. When he arrived back at the room, he was surprised to find that it was empty. X-23's book was lying on the night table by her bed. He walked into the room slowly, at first thinking that it had been an attack. He paused when he noticed the light coming from underneath the bathroom door, and the sound of quiet sobs.
"Petite?" He asked, knocking on the door gently. There wasn't a response, but rather, the noise of a flurry of movements from behind the door. "Laura, I'm coming in." He pushed the door open to find her frozen, staring at him. The first thing he noticed was the fear and sadness in her eyes. The second thing he noticed was the blood trailing down her arm, dripping from the cuts on her wrist. The third thing he noticed was the way her claws were unsheathed, poised above her wrist as though to cut herself.
As though she already had.
Gambit reached over turned on the water faucet. He grabbed her injured arm and forced her wrist under the water, washing away some of the blood.
"Gambit, it is fine, I heal-" Gambit just looked at her, and she stopped talking. She realized that it was not about cleaning her cuts, or about keeping the bathroom clean. It was about him desperately trying to find a way to do something, anything, in a situation where he felt completely powerless. When the blood was washed away to Gambit's satisfaction, he turned off the water. They stood there in silence for a moment, the water gently dripping from the faucet being the only sound. Gambit finally reached his arms around X-23, pulling her against him into a tight hug. She resisted at first, standing stiffly and uncomfortably. Then, there was the gentle sound of her claws retracting, and she melted against him. She buried her face into his coat, and she cried. She didn't wrap her arms around him. Rather, she held onto the front of his coat, tugging him closer to her until she was all but enveloped in his coat. Her knees buckled, and he lifted her up, holding her tightly against him.
"Petite." He said softly. He carried her over to her bed, where he sat, and she stayed curled up in his lap. She was too big for it, and her legs hung over awkwardly, but neither cared. She continued to sob with a sick sort of desperation. Every muffled whimper racked her body. Gambit said nothing, just held her against him and stroked her hair. He buried his face in her hair and kissed the top of her head gently. He understood that she wasn't just crying about the way she had been driven to hurt herself. She was crying about how she had killed so many people, about how she had been so lost, and there had been nobody. How she didn't understand how to be normal. This was years of tears, saved up until a time when she could hold them in no longer.
The sobs faded away at some point, but neither moved. Gambit's shirt was soaked with X-23's tears. He opened his mouth to talk, and paused for a moment before asking the question that had been bothering him.
"Does Logan know?" X-23 stiffened at the question.
"No." She said softly. Her voice was raw and sore from the crying. "Do not tell him."
"Petite, he's your father."
"He is busy. He has to take care of Jubilee. I do not want to bother him." Gambit heard the slight bitterness in her voice.
"He loves you." Gambit said. X-23 didn't respond to this, just buried her face against his coat. Gambit had always suspected that X-23 noticed the difference in the way Logan treated her and Jubilee, and he knew that it bothered her, but not to the extent where she would begin to hide things from Logan. Logan had been her one and only friend for the longest time. Of course it would hurt her that he paid so much attention to somebody else to the extent that he simply stopped seeing her anymore. It had been months since Logan had talked X-23. Logan would occasionally call Gambit to check up on her, but every time Gambit offered to give the phone to her, Logan would make some excuse about being busy or being in a hurry.
"I love you." Gambit offered. She probably already knew it. The way he treated her and protected her, the way he always stopped what he was doing to listen to her, and the way she would do the same for him. They didn't just have a partnership, but a close friendship. They never left each other behind. X-23 didn't say anything at first, to the point where Gambit wondered if she had heard him. She finally turned to him and disentangled her arms from between their bodies, and returned his embrace. They stayed like that for a moment, feeling their hearts beat against each others chests. She finally got up from his lap, and he got up from her bed. They readied themselves for sleep in silence, neither looking at the other. When they had both finally crawled into bed and Gambit turned out the light, he heard her say something quietly from her bed.
"What was that?" He asked her. He could barely see her silhouette in the darkness.
"I- I love you too." She said softly. Gambit smiled to himself, but said nothing. He didn't know where things would go from here. Maybe he would tell Logan. Maybe he wouldn't. He would worry about it in the morning.