Note: I don't own Marvel or the X men yadda yadda yadda! You get the picture!
Chapter 1: The New Arrival
It had been four months after the fall of Apocalypse and the prevention of the total destruction of the world. However, much to Remy's pleasure opportunity falls into strait his lap because of this ordeal. It fell into his lap just like many women he has encountered… well accept one he notes with a smile. This time the means to have that girl fell into his lap unfortunately he need the girl to get the item. It wasn't going to be easy but he loves a challenge which would explain the appeal he felt for this girl. He has been in much trickier situations, yet the pay off has never been like this. His mind went over all the plans for the next few months as he drove down the highway in his brand new, illegally acquired motorcycle. Despite the chill in the wind and the changing leaves he was wearing only a tank top and a helmet on the upper half of his muscular body. A car of teenage girls drove by giggling and smiling seductively in his direction to which he smiled and winked. One the girls gasped startled by his hypnotic black on ruby colored eyes. He grabbed the throttle hard as the light turned green making the tires squeal in protest. The girls sigh in disappointment watching the daredevil gaining distance between them.
On the opposite side of New York at the exact destination the stolen motorcycle was headed teenagers and adults alike were playing in the yard and enjoying the multi-colored foliage. One teenager, (19 to be exact) was leaning against a large oak tree reading her copy of pride and prejudice. She yawns and slides her book mark, a queen of hearts between the pages and shuts it with a snap.
She wonders why she reads it so often when the book is very unrealistic to real life…No not to real life just mine.She reminds herself.
"Everyone ends up with a happy ending…an ending with love and marital bliss" She scoffs at the idea then she remembers the newlyweds enjoying that very thing on the fountain right now. The redhead and her "husband" (wearing sunglass as usual) were staring into each other eyes not talk just smiling. She looks away from before her stomach can churn at the love birds.
"ROGUE!" Her friend Kitty's voice forced her out of her thoughts. Kitty's petite figure was sprinting toward her not even bothering to maneuver around the other kids. Instead she just ran right thru them making many of them shout out warnings or just look up curiously "Rogue…" Finally reaching her and need to catch her breath before she was able to continue. "Rogue guess what!?""Someone put Jello in the pool again?" Rogue wondered how many property damages that would be this month. She was sure it must be another prank between the boys and girls dorms. Boom Boom (Tabitha) pretty much started an inter-mansion war.
"Nnnoooooo…, well actually I am not sure but guess what else?!"
"Ah don't know Kitty. What?" Rogue wasn't in the mood for guessing games.
"I heard the professor talking with Mr. Logan and they were arguing about someone who wants to be admitted to the institute. Anyways Mr. Logan was pretty mad about him coming in fact he said 'If he even showed up here he'd cut him into pieces."
"…So Logan threatens to dice people daily." Rogue replied dryly but inside her interested had peaked a bit.
Kitty looked a little annoyed at the lack of enthusiasm but she continued. "Let me finish, the reason I told you is because the last thing I heard before Storm send me away Mr. Logan was asking the professor if he thought about what kind of impact it would have on 'the kid.' HE CALLS YOU KID! Whoever is coming has something to do you!" Kitty was pretty much jumping up and down by now in anticipation.
Rogue was now curious although she had no idea who they could be talking about. "And you missed the name of the mystery person?"
"Well ya, but the professor said he'd probably be here by tonight!!"
Rogue and Kitty sat in the parlor at 10:00 both eyes nervously glancing between the door and the clock.
Kitty was bouncing up and down and couch, while Piotr tried to engage her in conversation but Kitty was too distracted to be distracted even for a guy.
Rogue was nervous she couldn't imagine what kind of tie this new tenant might have to her. She could feel the sweat on her forehead as she idly played with her gloves. She tried to take her mind off whoever was going to come through that door by watching the others around her.
Most were on the couch watching a sitcom. On the couch Boom Boom quietly slipped a small explosive in the popcorn bowl then passed it to Bobby (Iceman) and Kurt (Nightcrawler.) The bowl exploded sending kernels in all directions. Kurt disappeared in a puff of smoke and was now up on chandler wobbling dangerously. Bobby was not as lucky and now covered in butter and had a burn mark on his jeans. He was jumping up and down in anger.
Suddenly Xavier voice reverberated off the walls of every room in mansion. "We have a new occupant who will be arriving any minute. We ask you all to accept him and welcome him as you would like to be if the situation were to be reversed."
A flood of mutants ran, flew, and "poofed" to the front door of the academy to see the new comer. Kitty pulled on Rogue's arm and they were swept up in the flood.
Despite the large amount of mutants in the room the silence was piercing.
The large wood door slowly opened as the former enemy of the x-men confidently strode in. "This is a grand reception… fit for a king." A smirk appeared on his face grew more pronounced as he gauged the reactions. Responses varied from gasps and open mouth stares to giggles from several girls. Rogue's reaction fit in the category with gasping but hers was more like choking since she couldn't breathe properly. Before she had a chance to catch her breath Kurt, her brother was standing in front of her protectively. He hadn't forgotten this was the same man who had kidnapped her the last time they'd seen him.
Piotr went to greet his former teammate with a handshake and Tabby introduced herself flirtatiously. Gambit leaned down and kissed her hand in response to which more giggling girls erupted, however when he leaned back up Rogue's eyes connected with his. "'Scuse me, Tabby" He kept his eyes focused refusing to let her break eye contact as he walked toward her intently through the crowd.
Rogue was saved when Kurt stepped into Gambit's path blocking his sister from view. With that Rogue was able to regain her composer. Folding her arms and glaring through her brothers back into Gambit. If looks could kill it would have gone though her brother and killed him but Rogue was not that lucky. Everyone stared in confusion. Gambit smiled at Nightcrawler "Well at least I know I didn't lie when I said you'd always have someone looking at for you Cherie."
"You have no idea Bub" drawled Logan menacingly from the top of the stairs. "The professor would like to speak to you Cajun… about you staying here. If it was up to me you'd be staying in the local cemetery."
The first thing Rogue did when she got back up to her room. She roughly grabbed Pride & Prejudice from her bed ripped out the Queen of Hearts and tossed it in the garbage.
Rogue did a good job avoiding Gambit. Staying in her room and having Kitty bring up her meals but she couldn't avoid him when he was already inside her head. Maybe she was getting paranoid but she felt like he was watching her even in her room. Once she even woke from a dream and thought she saw the slight glow of red eyes through the window.
Kitty and Kurt tried to coax her out of her solitude once or twice. Honestly she didn't know what the big deal was it is not like she doesn't spend a lot of her time alone anyway.
Thursday night there was a hesitant knock at the bedroom door "Come in." Rogue called expecting Kurt.
Instead Kitty walked in. Rogue was confused. "This is your room too Kitty you don't need to knock." She usually didn't knock; in fact normally she'd just walk straight through the door, literally.
Kitty looked worried. "Yeah I know…"
Rogue read the look immediately "What is wrong Kit?"
"Don't flip out ok?"
"KITTY, WHAT IS WRONG?" Rogue reminded herself to keep her temper in check after all it wasn't Kitty's fault Remy decided to haunt her.
"FINE! Just don't shoot the messenger, Ok? We have a danger room session tomorrow morning and we are training with Kurt, Piotr…and Remy, I mean Gambit." She add the last part on quickly.
"Since when are you good friends with 'Remy?'" Rogue couldn't help herself she lost it.
"SINCE you refused to come down and of course Jean is busy with Scott so I got really bored! Piotr was really sweet enough to keep me company and you know he is friends with Gambit. It just sort of happened." She turned to her mirror before continuing. "He has been asking about you, he seems truly concerned maybe you should give him the benefit of the doubt."
"Once a thief always a thief" Rogue mumbles as she pulls open the window to get some fresh air.
Rogue sighed climbing into the elevator to the basement. The door started to close shut as a gloved hand caught it and it opened it back up.
His eyes glittered and his smile lifted half his face into a crooked smile. "'Morning Cherie. Did you sleep well?"
Rogue could not believe her bad luck! "Ah'm still in a nightmare so nah not really."
His grin widened. She loathed him, it was like any reaction she had to him he enjoyed. The bigger the better.
"If you're having nightmares you can share my bed till they go away."
Rogue turned around letting her shock turn to anger and boil over. She swung the back of her hand toward his face.
He dodged it and caught her hand on the other side of his head. "Now, now this is not the way a young lady should behave." He leaned down and kissed her hand but his eyes never left her face. She tried to pull away but he held on tight.
"You're not exactly a gentleman yourself, Swamp Rat!"
He reached behind her and hit the emergency stop button.
"Just what do you think your doing?" she was outraged
"Just giving us a little more time to become reacquainted, Cher." She reached for the go button with the hand he didn't have a hold on but he snapped her back trapping her between his muscular arms and the back wall.
"Ah swear…" she began but lost her train of thought as he leaned in closer.
"Let me guess 'If ah don't let you go you will kill me'?" He tried his best to mimic her accent. His face was so close and his breath went into her mouth and his cologne filled her mind while his eyes once again locked into hers.
Rogue could not even get her mind clear enough to answer him so she just nodded.
"That's better." He smiled looking rather proud of himself. He lifted his hand into her hair, catching a white lock twisting softly between his fingers.
"What..? Ah….need to get to training." She pointed at the door weakly.
"You've been hiding from poor ol' Remy since he came, Cher." His hand slid smoothly from her hair to her neckline on her uniform and traced the seam. "We can't have that at all. It just doesn't fit well with my plans."
"What pl..." He put his gloved fingers to her lips.
"I'm not done. You try to hide from the world lock yourself in your books and make-up because you're scared. You simply refuse to let anyone in because you might get hurt."
His hold over her was broken as anger took its place "Ah'm not scared of anyt'ing ya hear! Ah don't know where you get off tellin' me…"
"Is the elevator broke? No one is able to get it to respond on either side." Xavier's voice broke thru hers. Rogue was actually a little relieved that Xavier was giving Gambit his space and not forcing himself into his mind. Not that she cared for him but she was blushing enough without someone else knowing about exchange.
"Yeah, Professor." He said grinning at a furious Rogue as he restarted it. "but don't worry I fix'd 't."
He smiled the rest of the way down knowing that she will not hide anymore for the sake of keeping her pride intact. First goal accomplished.
"O.K. the purpose of this exercise is to secure the black parcel on the left end of the danger room without being detected by the search light or the laser beams. You will have 30 minutes. GO." Cyclops and Logan faces disappeared with the control room as the terrain appeared. "This will be easy." Kurt smiled and disappeared in a puff of smoke but was falling from the air in the next moment. Shadow cat and Rogue ran to him follow by the Colossus and Gambit. "Ooowww!! That is going to bruise! Scott never said anything about force fields!" he pouted.
"Get to cover Kurt." Rogue order while she reassessed the situation. Nightcrawler just nodded and limped away.
"Let Remy handle this after all I am a thief." He winked at Rogue.
"We'll see!" with that she took off expertly dodging the spot lights closely follow by Gambit.
"We are supposed to work as a team!!" Kitty yelled exasperated but following. Right then someone must have hit a low lying laser because guns started firing in all directions. Kitty grabbed Piotr and pulled him behind a large rock blocking them from the blasts for now.
"We need to find Rogue and Gambit before they kill each other! Don't let go of my hand we should be fine, the blasts will go through us." With that they took off. By the time they caught up to the pair they were still trying to reach the target neither one will to give up or be bested by the other. Neither one was being as cautious about the guns as they should. Kitty was not quite there when a shot went off strait toward Rogue's back.
"ROGUE!!" Kitty screamed. Gambit hit Rogue full force knocking her out of the way.
Kitty and Piotr got to them and Rogue was still pinned beneath his body. Realizing how it looked she blushed. "UGH! Ya get off me now Cajun!" The terrain disappeared suddenly which meant they definitely failed.
"Nah I think I'm comfy right here. I think you like it too." He grinned. Rogue shoved against his chest with all her force accordingly he rolled off on the ground.
She jumped up in fighting stance. Remy lazily got up. "You fight the hardest against the things you want the most Rogue."
Embarrassed about being called out in front of other people she acted in the spur of the moment.
She twisted tapping Colossus. She was too mad to care when Kitty shouted at her or when Piotr fainted to the ground. Instead she turned her now steel eyes toward Gambit. It took one kick in his lower gut and he was several feet away.
Cyclops was infuriated. If he took off his shades, his face would be one shade of red from top to bottom. "Rogue we never attack a teammate! It was supposed to be team training!"
Logan got up slowly "next time aim lower kid, it immobilizes your enemy faster…since I can't do it someone should be able too." With that he left.
"Sure thing Logan" Rogue mumbled turning her eyes slightly to glare at Gambit.
"Double training for both of you until you can work as a team." Lashed Scott as he ran down the hall to chastise Logan for his encouragement.
Remy was still leaning against the wall staring at her and looking as cocky as ever.
Rogue rounded on him her eyes shown with the need for blood and she took advantage of their seclusion to let loose. "What are you REALLY doing here Swamp Rat!?"
He pulled out a card to which Rogue responded by getting in defensive position expecting a fight not that she'd mind a fight with the mood she was in right now. He threw it on the table unlit and face up. "My king of hearts was missing his queen."
She straitened up and glared "Ah could have just mailed it."
Remy looked at Rogue from head to toe, chuckling at her oblivion. "I don't think those curves would have fit in the mail box."