DISCLAIMER: None of them are mine. I only found this out 6 months ago, when Marvel tried to sue me, and I was heartbroken.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I nearly whipped out my trusty lighter, and torched this fic. So, if it sucks, just know that I was going to burn my draft. Also, I know practically nothing about the Guilds, and anything in America, as I am an Aussie, who doesn't have near enough comics. So forgive me if I stuff something up. eg, describing some place totally wrong. I actually had to check an atlas to find out where Mississippi and New Orleans are in relation to each other.
SUMMARY: What if Rogue and Gambit had met when they were kids? How would if affect their lives afterwards, yada yada.
By the way, anything like *this* is Remy thinking. Now, finally, on with the fic!
WHAT IF?!-GREEN EYED GIRL
Remy LeBeau, thief, gambler, and ladies man vaulted neatly over the fence, and, collapsing his bo staff, dropped lightly to the ground. Turning, he looked sadly back at the place where he had spent so much of his life.
He sighed, and rested his head against the wrought iron bars of the fence around the property of his adoptive father, Jean-Luc. He loved this place, and the people here.
Remy smiled fondly as faces swum up out of the depths of his mind, and seemed to float before his eyes. Jean-Luc of course. Tante Mattie. Lapin, with the stupid name. Henry. Bella Donna...at the last face, Remy frowned, a wrinkle forming on the bridge of his nose between his red and black eyes. Though he cared deeply for her, Remy had to admit to himself that she was a main part of the reason he was leaving. He couldn't get married to her. He just couldn't.
Remy knocked his head lightly against the fence in frustration. He knew that Bella meant much to him, but every time he thought of them together, he could see her eyes again. They would pierce through him like a bolt of lighting, staring. They were so innocent, full of hope and love.
And oh so green.
Remy stopped hitting the fence with his forhead, and stared through the bars at the ground beyond the fence. The thought of her had made up his mind for him, just as it had earlier that night, and he adjusted the strap of his duffel bag so it rested on his shoulder more comfortably. He lightly kissed the tips of his fingers, and waved at the house.
"Au revoir." He whispered softly. That was it. He had kissed his old life goodbye. It was over, and now he had to move on.
For a moment, he felt the urge to go back to the house and his family, but he pushed it aside. Turning his back on the home that he loved, Remy slipped away into the inkiness of the dark. His coat flared out behind him, as he melted from view, and he let his mind wander back to that day ten years ago...
*****************************************************************************
Eleven year old Remy LeBeau peered through the window of the cab, his red and black eyes filled with curiousity as the town of Friars Point flashed past.
"Papa, where we goin' again?" He asked the man sitting in the seat beside him.
The man who had adopted him smiled down at the child. "Ta see an old friend of mine, petite. A former Guild member."
"Oh." Remy turned his attention back to the town, which was rapidly fading as they hit the outskirts, driving alongside the Mississippi River. "Why we seein' him?"
Jean-Luc seemed to consider for a second. "Well, ta see his house, and for me to meet his wife. It's de polite t'ing to do."
"Will dere be any other kids dere?" Remy asked hopefully. His face fell when his father shook his head.
"Sorry Remy, but Phillipe and Kate don't have no children yet." Jean-Luc explained.
"Den why you bring me?" Remy grumbled, slumping back into the cab seat and folding his arms over his chest, a sullen look on his face.
Jean-Luc put his fingers under the boy's chin, and lifted them slightly, tilting up his head, and forcing Remy to meet his gaze. "Because I want you ta meet my friend, and I want ta show you off to dem."
Remy's face lit up. "Really? You want to show me off?"
Jean-Luc laughed. Though only eleven, Remy already loved to be the centre of attention. "Yes I do want ta brag about you to dem."
Remy smiled the winning grin that Jean-Luc knew would be breaking hearts one day. "Of course you be proud of me. Remy goin' ta be de best t'ief dere is!"
Jean-Luc gave him a light slap on the arm.
"Ow!"
"What did I tell you 'bout blabberin' about da T'ieves?" Jean-Luc hissed quietly to Remy in a soft voice only the boy could hear. He shot a quick glance at the cab driver through the plastic panel separating them, who gave no indication of hearing anything.
Remy winced slightly. "Sorry, Papa. Remy remember now. He won't do it again."
Jean-Luc nodded firmly, trying to keep a stern look on his face, but failed when Remy flashed his smile again. He shook his head slightly. "Remy, you should require a permit ta use dat smile. What am I goin' ta do wid you?"
Remy just grinned again.
~~~~~
The cab began to slow down, and turned off the road, and up the white gravel driveway of a large villa. The moment the car stopped, Remy threw open the door, and leaped out.
"Wow, dis place is great!" Remy said excitedly. "I bet you could see de river from de backyard! And it don't smell all dirty, like Nawlins. De air, it be clean!"
Jean-Luc laughed, and ruffled his hair. "You be good, and don't go nosin' around!"
Remy groaned in mock agony. "Aww, Papa, not even a little bit?"
Jean-Luc nodded. "You be good while we're here."
He paid the driver, adding an extravagant tip, and walked up the front steps to the door. "Come on, Remy."
Remy hurried to catch up with him, and they both entered the house when the door opened. Neither noticed the cab driver pulling a mobile phone out of the glove compartment. He glanced at the house to make sure that no one was watching, before dialing a number to repeat what he had discovered after the boy's outburst.
"Hello, Monsieur Boudreaux? It's Marc Guillon. Just callin' ta confirm your guess dat a Monsieur LeBeau was comin' here ta Mississippi..."
~~~~~
Remy jumped up and down a little on the spot as Jean-Luc rang the doorbell. He had been cooped up all day, first the long plane trip for New Orleans to Mississippi, then the agonizing cab ride to Friars Point. He was anxious to stretch his legs, and go explore the new terrain.
The door opened, and Jean-Luc stepped through. Remy followed him, and looked curiously up at the butler who answered the door. The butler, and elderly man, smiled down at him.
"Master Phillipe and Mistress Kate are in the Sun Room." He announced formally with a British accent to Jean-Luc. "Allow me to lead the way."
They followed the butler through the house and Remy's hands itched to hold a few of the trinkets scattered on tables, and hanging on walls. All were very beautiful, and expensive looking in the spacious house.
The butler opened a door, and announced "Master LeBeau, and his son."
Jean-Luc nodded his thanks to the butler, and led Remy into the room.
Remy's jaw dropped as he caught site of it. The room- what had the butler called it?- was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. The walls and roof were made entirely of glass, and the amount of light filtering through hurt his sensitive eyes.
He squinted as his eyes teared up, trying to look at everything in the room at once, and Jean-Luc frowned at him. "Remy, what you doin'?" He hissed.
"De light, it hurts my eyes." Remy whispered back.
Wordlessly, Jean-Luc reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses, then gave them to Remy.
"Merci, Papa." He said, pulling them on. They were oversized, and kept slipping down his nose, but at least he could see now. He realized with a start that there were two other people in the room. One, a distinguished looking man with grey shot through his black hair had stood up, and had come over to them.
He shook hands joyfully with Jean-Luc, while the rooms other occupant, a woman with her eyes closed stayed on the white couch.
"Jean-Luc LeBeau, you haven't changed a bit!" The man was saying, and he gave the Cajun leader of the Thieves Guild a manly slap on the back, before laughing boisterously.
Jean-Luc laughed, and gripped the man on the shoulders. "Phillipe, you always were a good liar. How's your business going?"
Remy wasn't paying attention to them though. He was gaping at the woman on the couch. The woman with pastel blue skin and pale green hair. A fellow mutant.
Jean-Luc's friend Phillipe noticed where Remy was looking, and put his fingers to his lips. "She's divining." He hissed. "She has the mutant power to see the future." His voice was full of affection.
Suddenly, the woman's eyelids snapped open, revealing pale pink eyes. "Oh." She breathed. "He's absolutely precious!"
Remy frowned. He'd never heard his father referred to as 'precious' before. Or if someone else had called him that, they probably hadn't lived to tell about it.
Jean-Luc smiled graciously at the mutant woman as she came over to them. "You must be Kate. How nice to meet you." He took her hand, and kissed it flamboyantly.
Kate laughed. "Phillipe, are all your old friends such flirts?"
Phillipe grinned. "Just this one."
Remy was feeling very left out by this time. He wasn't sure what to say, or even if he was supposed to say anything at all. Oddly enough though, as if she had just heard his thoughts, the blue-skinned woman turned to Remy, and began to pinch his cheek.
"He's so precious!" She repeated, and Remy realized that she had been talking about him earlier. He smiled uneasily, as she tugged even harder.
"Bonjour, Madame Kate." He changed his uncertain grin to his award winning one- well, as best as he could with her pulling at him the way she was.
Remy watched her face fill with delight. "He speaks French! And so polite. You are going to be quite the ladies man. I can see it." She finally stopped pinching him.
Remy shrugged, and resisted the urge to rub his sore cheek. "Everyone tells me dat, Madame, but Remy don't agree. He doesn't like girls dat much."
Kate laughed, her pink eyes filling with mirth. "That's what they all say."
Remy cringed, afraid that he was in for another round of cheek pulling. Instead, the blue woman clapped her hands, and called out in her flute like voice, "Mathilda, would you bring in the afternoon tea now?"
They all sat down on the pristine while lounge set around the rectangular glass coffee table. For a short amount of time, he amused himself by admiring all the things in the room. Then, after a mousy looking maid had set a tray of various small snacks and a pitcher of iced lemonade on the table, he ate, and passed the time by counting the number of birds he saw flying overhead. Remy quickly tired of these games though, and began swinging his legs back and forth. His heels hit the base of the sofa with a dull thudding noise.
The grownups ignored him at first. After a few moments though, Jean-Luc began giving Remy evil stares. Remy just smiled at him innocently, and continued swinging his legs.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
"Remy." Jean-Luc said in a strained I'm-trying-not-to-kill-you-voice. "We're tryin' ta talk, petite. Would you please stop doing that?"
"Jean-Luc, leave him alone." Kate scolded, and Remy had to chew on the inside of his lip to keep from laughing. No one spoke to the head of the Thieves Guild that way, except for maybe Tante Mattie. "He's just bored. A child shouldn't be kept inside like this." Kate turned to Remy. "How about you go outside and explore a bit? The door to the gardens is just over there."
"Merci, Madame." Remy said in the most polite voice he could muster. "Dat would be fantastique."
Kate smiled joyfully. "Wonderful!" She trilled.
Remy grabbed a handful of the remaining cookies off the tray, and went out the glass doors that Kate had indicated. He closed them behind him, and walked down the moss covered steps into the garden.
"Wow!" Remy exclaimed softly. He whistled quietly in awe at the velvety green lawns, scattered randomly with statues, many of which Remy politely averted his eyes from.
The backyard- if it could even be called that- bordered on the banks of the Mississippi River. Remy walked down to it, and pressed his face against the chainlink fence between the gardens and the river. He stared in awe at the brown, murky water and the occasional boats that went past.
A faint noise carried along the winds caught his attention, and he listened carefully.
"...Cody, quit pickin' on us!" Came the exclamation.
Remy looked around furtively to make sure no one was watching, and scaled the fence, clambering down to the other side. He began walking down the riverbank in the direction he had heard the voices coming from.
Phillipe and Kate's house was isolated from the rest of civilization, so there was plenty of wild growth on either side of their property. As Remy walked alongside the river, he realized that the voices were coming from within the trees. So, he took a sharp detour, and started wandering through the brown growth, searching for the elusive voices.
Finally Remy came across a clearing about twenty meters across, surrounded by the knarled trees. There were about ten children there, running around and playing what looked like a game of tag. Rather than immediately going in to introduce himself to the kids though, he stayed in the shadows under the trees and watched.
A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes was chasing a girl with a wild mop of black curls. The girl was weaving in amongst the others, and often the blonde boy could have easily reached out and tagged someone else, but he stayed firmly in pursuit of the girl. Eventually, he tagged her.
"Cody, why do you always go for us gahls?" The girl whined, even as she began pursuit of another child.
The blonde boy grinned. "Cause y'all so easy to catch up to." He taunted.
Another girl, this one with white streaked auburn hair pulled up into two messy pigtails, ran over to Cody and slapped him on the arm. "You take that back, Cody, and apologize to Amelia raht now!" She said indignantly.
Cody cringed away, and Remy began to laugh softly. "All raht Rogue, I was just playin'. Ah'm sorry Amelia."
The girl with the black hair shrugged with a satisfied look on her face, and ran off after someone else.
"Hey, Ah got an idea!" Cody yelled loudly, and the other kids stopped running, and looked at him. "Let's play mutants and humans! The girls can play tha mutants, 'cause they're freaks already." He smiled cheekily.
Remy grinned too, as the girl called Rogue went bright red. This should be interesting.
The girl ran at him, crooked pigtails trailing out behind her. "You little weasel!" She shrieked, pushing him to the ground. The other boys and girls began to laugh, as Cody looked up at her with a shocked look on her face.
Remy also began to laugh, and all the other kids looked over at him, identical looks of surprise on their faces. Remy swore slightly, something he wasn't allowed to do at home, and made sure his sunglasses were firmly over his strange eyes before stepping into the clearing.
Rogue stomped over to him. "And just who are you?" She demanded, green eyes flashing with anger.
Remy firmly met her gaze, and was inwardly suprised at the intensity and depths of her eyes. "I'm jus' a person who likes seein' bullies like dat knocked on over." He told her. He took her hand in his, and kissed the back of it, as he had seen his father do to Kate. "My name's Remy."
Rogue snatched her hand back, as the other children began to giggle. "Ah'm someone who doesn't like idiot boys, and that includes you! I'm going home!"
She brushed past him, winding her way through the undergrowth. Not even knowing why he was doing it, Remy began to follow her. "Aww, don't run off!" He called after her, quickening his pace to catch up.
"Go away, Swamp Rat!" She called over her shoulder as they emerged from the trees onto the river bank.
Remy scowled. It bothered im that there was a person he couldn't win over. "Fine den!" He yelled. "You girls, you're all de same!"
She stopped in her tracks, and Remy saw that he'd hit a nerve. She turned to face him, her face flushed pink with rage.
"You're just like Cody and Daddy!" She yelled at him. "You don't think gahls are good for anything!"
Daddy? Remy wasn't an idiot. He quickly figured out that Rogue's father must be hard on her for who she was.
"Remy's sorry, chere." He said sincerely. "And he's not like dat at all. Remy jus' want ta get your attention, dats all. Give me a chance, and you'll find out dat I'm not so bad."
Rogue's face softened a fraction. "Well...alraht." she said finally. "Do you like to climb trees?"
Remy nodded, and smiled his most charming grin. "Remy loves ta climb trees."
Finally, she smiled back at him. "Well, come on then."
Together they walked down the Mississippi, in the opposite direction to the villa, and Remy found himself telling her stuff he had only told a few people about.
"...After Jean-Luc adopted me, I went ta live wid him at his home." He said, finishing off his tale of how he had come to live with Jean-Luc, but conveniently leaving out anything about the Thieves Guild. "So, is Rogue your real name, or a nickname?" He asked, changing the subject.
Rogue's face became downcast. "Mah mother died when Ah was born, and Ah was named after her." She explained, "But my daddy used to get real upset for callin' me that, so he started callin' me Rogue."
Remy was about to ask what her real name was, but changed his mind when he saw how sad she looked. He had already decided that for a girl, she was all right, and very pretty. And, he had also decided that he loved her eyes. They were large and green, framed by long dark lashes, and Remy liked the way how they always showed what she was feeling. Right now though, they were dark with emotion, and glistening with tears.
"Aww, Roguie, don't cry!" He exclaimed, stopping and touching her cheek lightly. She smiled a watery smile at him.
"Ah'm sorry, Remy. Ah just get upset when Ah think about mah mother. Ah never knew her, and mah daddy doesn't like to talk to me, let alone about her. At this, Rogue dissolved into tears.
Awkwardly, Remy drew Rogue into a hug. After all, they were eleven, and at that age it was strictly against the boy/girl code for them to be holding each other. But Rogue didn't pull away- rather, she hugged him back, and Remy began to feel a little more at ease.
After a few minutes, Rogue calmed down, and she withdrew smiling sheepishly. "Ah feel so stupid." she admitted. "And selfish. You didn't even know your folks, at least Ah got my dad."
Remy smiled at her, and wiped a tear off her face. "It's ok. I don't mind. Now, where's dese trees you were talkin' 'bout climbing?"
Her face lifted, and she grabbed Remy's hand, leading him down the river. Remy let her lead, trying to sort out the whirl of emotions inside him. She was a girl. He wasn't supposed to hug her, or hold her hand- not unless she was family, or he was made too.
*I don't care* Remy told himself firmly.
Rogue stopped all of a sudden, and Remy nearly crashed into her. She dropped his hand, and ran over to a tree with low, wide branches spreading in all directions, even over the water. "This is mah favourite tree. If you sit on the branches over the water and close your eyes, it feels like you're flyin'." Her green eyes shone with excitement as she described it to him. Without waiting for a reply, she grabbed a branch, and swung herself up.
Remy waited until she was safely in the tree before he followed her up.
They met at a fork in the tree. Rogue grinned happily at him. "Isn't this tree great?"
Remy grinned back. "Sure is."
Rogue frowned at him. "Why do ya wear those sunglasses? They're too big for yah." Before Remy could stop her, she reached out and took them off.
Remy gasped in suprise, and quickly shut his eyelids, hiding his red on black eyes which so clearly showed that he was a mutant.
"Remy shugah, what's wrong?" She sounded worried. "Why won't you open your eyes?"
Remy lowered his face. "Because Remy t'inks you may be frightened of him." He said softly.
He heard Rogue laugh. "Now why would Ah be scared of you?"
He tentatively opened his eyes, and watched shock flicker across Rouge's features. "They're red!" She exclaimed.
Remy grabbed his glasses off her, and began to put them back on, but Rogue stopped him. "Wait!" she smiled shyly. "Leave 'em off."
Remy breathed a sigh of relief, and put the sunglasses away into one of the pockets of his shorts. She wasn't scared of him for being a mutant. She didn't call him Devil Boy, something he had heard all his life.
Feeling more at ease, he began to edge out along on of the branches hanging over the water, and Rogue followed him. They were about halfway along though, when Rogue stopped. Remy kept going until he was right out over the river.
"Remy, come back!" Rogue called. "Ah think you're too far out. The branch could break!"
Remy swung his legs over the branch, and let himself dangle from it upside down. "Roguie, it's ok. Even if de branch does break, it's not too high up."
"Remy, come back, please!" Rogue pleaded.
With a sigh of disappointment, Remy swung up again, feeling the rough bark of the tree bite into his hands. "Alright Rogue, but jus' for you."
He started to crawl back along, when there was a cracking sound. Remy watched, horrified, as the branch began to break, just in front of him. With a snapping sound, it broke, sending Remy falling into the brown river with a cry of shock.
"Remy!" Rogue yelled.
Remy stood up. The water was only about waist high. "Ick." He pronounced, wiping some damp hair off his face. He looked up at Rogue. Too his shock, she was laughing at him.
"Now you really are a Swamp Rat!" She said between laughs.
He glared at her, and waded back to the shore. He climbed back up the tree, and this time climbed up onto the branch just above Rogue. Plucking a few leaves off the tree, he began dropping them into her hair.
"Hey!" She yelled indignantly. "Stop that!"
Remy dropped down onto the branch that Rogue was on, and sat down on it, back to the river. Remy looked at her, right into her eyes. The seemed to bore into his mind, and imprint themselves on to his soul.
Rogue stared back at him, her green eyes filled with a mixture of emotions that Remy could hardly sort out. A white strand of hair that had escaped from one of her loose pigtails was blown across her face by the gently breeze, and Remy reached out and brushed it aside. All around them, the leaves rustled, a gentle, soothing sound.
"Roguie, have you ever kissed a boy before" He asked her uncertainly.
"No." She said shyly. "Have you ever kissed a gahl before?"
"No." Part of him wanted to look away, but he was totally enraptured by her eyes. "Would you like me ta kiss you?"
"Ah guess so." She said blushing furiously. She closed her eyes, her dark lashes forming crescents on her cheeks.
Gathering up his courage, Remy squeezed his eyes tightly shut, puckered up his lips, and gave her a quick peck on the mouth.
They both opened their eyes. "Ah don't see why adults like that so much." Rogue admitted.
Remy laughed. "Me either." He glanced over Rogue's shoulder as she said this, and noticed something moving in the bushes. He narrowed his eyes, and peered at it closely.
It was a person, dressed entirely in black, right down to a ski mask, and they were creeping stealthily towards Rogue and Remy. And if that wasn't enough to make the naturally skeptical boy suspicious, the small logo on the right shoulder of the person's black top, one he had seen before, was enough to convince him it was time to leave.
Assassin!
"Rogue, quick!" He yelled, dropping off the low branch to the ground.
Rogue dropped also, landing heavily beside him. "Remy, what is it?" She asked, sounding frightened.
"Run!" He yelled, grabbing her wrist, and dragging her to her feet.
They began to run up the river in the direction of Kate and Phillipe's villa. Remy knew that all they had to do was get there, his father would know what to do after that.
Their feet pounded on the ground, sending clouds of soil up behind them, and the person in black cursed in Cajun, as he fought his way through the trees to catch up to them.
"Remy, who's that man?" Rogue said, terror seeping through her voice.
"I t'ink it's an Assassin! Move!" He yelled, and willed himself to run faster. Rogue sped up too, and remarkably kept up.
Though they were both running as fast as they could, and they had a head start, the man was older, with longer legs, and was steadily gaining on them. Suddenly, Rogue stumbled, and fell to the ground with a cry of alarm.
"Rogue!" Remy called out, anguished, and stopped to go back for her.
"Remy, run! Ah'll try to stop 'im!" she yelled.
Ignoring her pleas for him to go, Remy picked up a rock and threw it at the Assassin with all his might. The stone flew through the air, and hit the man in the chest. He swore, but kept coming.
"Swamp Rat, go!" Rogue yelled. She had picked herself up of the ground, but Remy could see that she wasn't going to run anymore. Her face was stubborn, and he knew that she was going to hold her ground and make sure he got away. "Just go!"
Remy took one last look at her, her beautiful green eyes wide and determined, then ran for the villa. With his back turned, he didn't see Rogue dive at the Assassin's legs, tripping him over. He was a safe distance away when the second figure in black stepped out of the bushes a minute later.
Julien Boudreaux glared contemptuously at the man at his feet, who was struggling to get the wriggling girl off him. With a sigh of annoyance, Julien grabbed the back of her overalls, picking her up, and threw her into the scrub. She hit a tree trunk, and with a yelp of pain slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Julien glared at the man, who had climbed to his feet, and was staring at the ground shamefully.
"Marc Guillon, dat was pathetic." He spat in disgust. "I should have sent you back to Nawlins the moment you phoned your information in, instead of letting you come along today."
Marc sighed. "I'm sorry. I had no idea dat de kids would put up so much resistance."
"You didn't t'ink, non?" Julien accused.
Marc nodded. "I didn't t'ink."
Julien stared in the direction the boy had disappeared in. "De boy is gone. Wid him, we could have manipulated de leader of dat pathetic T'ieves Guild easily. Now, we have not'ing. I have killed men such as you for dis! Merde!"
Julien stomped back into the tree line, and disappeared.
Marc waited until he was sure Julien was gone, before scooping up the little girl who had attacked him. He felt sorry for her, and was going to take her into town, where someone was sure to know her. His fight was with the Thieves Guild- not an innocent child.
She sighed, and squirmed a little in his arms, before mumbling something. The only word which Marc was able to pick out was 'Remy.' Her auburn and white hair had fallen out of one of her pigtails, and was tumbling across her heartbroken face. It stuck to her cheeks in places, and Marc saw that she was crying in her sleep.
Cradling her against him, he began the trek though the growth alongside the river to where he had parked his car.
~~~~~
Remy scrambled up and over the fence, and ran through the garden, throwing open the doors to the glass room, and running into the house.
The three adults, who were still sitting around talking, looked up startled.
"Papa!" Remy yelled. "DerebeAssasinsindetreesand-"
"Remy, slow down!" Jean-Luc interrupted. "What did you say?"
Remy took a deep breath to try and calm himself. "Dere be Assassins out dere in de trees, and dey come for me and Rogue! Dey got Roguie, but I came here to tell you dat dey are here, and WE GOTTA HELP HER!"
"Remy! Take a breath between sentences!" Jean-Luc said, leaping to his feet. "Are you sure dey are Assassins? And who's Rogue?"
"Rogue is his friend." Kate said clearly from where she was sitting. She looked fairly calm, except for her hands, which she was wringing. "And there is a threat out there, something which separates them."
"Kate, did you see this?" Phillipe demanded.
Kate nodded. Then shook her head. Then nodded again. "I saw part of it. I saw Remy, and a young girl playing. Then, a clear barrier came down between them both, cutting them off from each other. And try as they might, they couldn't touch each other." Her blue forehead wrinkled in confusion. "But that doesn't seem right for this time in his life...If you wait, I'll try to make sense of it."
"I'm sorry Kate, but if Remy's friend is in trouble, we must help her." Jean-Luc said.
Remy had been tugging at Jean-Luc's hand through all this, trying to get him to move towards the glass door. Now he was though, and Remy dropped the hand and ran beside him as they jogged down the steps and through the garden. The two climbed over the fence when they reached it, and continued down the river, to where Remy had left Rogue.
All that was left when they arrived though, was a few scuffled marks on the soil, and one of the hair ties that had pulled up one of Rogue's pigtails. Remy picked up the thick, green elasticy band, and stared at it, horrified. A strand of white hair was loosely wrapped around it, and fluttered against his hand in the breeze, tickling him.
"Rogue!" He yelled, anguished, and started to run into the bushes, but Jean-Luc held him back.
"Non, petite! Dere could be Assassins dere!"
"Non..." Remy sobbed, his body trembling as it became wracked with unshed tears. "I gotta 'elp her..."
Jean-Luc drew his son into a hug. "I'm sorry Remy." He said, stroking the boy's hair. "I'm sure she jus' went home."
Remy buried his face in his father's shoulder so no one could see his tears. He knew she wouldn't just go home without telling him, and in his mind, he saw all sorts of horrible things being done to Rogue by the Assassins Guild.
He gripped the hair band tightly in his fist, and cried harder.
After that, his mind went into shock. He had no recollection of being brought back to the villa, or of the long cab ride to the nearest airport. All he could see was two big green eyes in his memory. At first, he imagined that they were staring at him accusingly, asking why he had left her. Then, they were just telling him not to worry about her.
Remy snapped back to reality as the plane they were in flew over Baton Rouge much later that night. He glanced out the window briefly at the twinkling lights below, before looking away disinterestedly. He didn't even notice Jean-Luc watching him, worried. Not too long later, he fell asleep, still clutching Rogue's hairband like a drowning person would grip a life preserver.
His dreams were haunted by her. And he continued to see her eyes whenever he closed his.
*****************************************************************************
He walked through the darkness of the New Orleans swamps, not knowing where he was going, or even caring.
Reaching into one of the pockets of his jacket, Remy pulled out a small object. It was a green hairband, still with it's white thread of hair wrapped around it. Though he could barely see it, just the feel of it was enough to provoke enough memories, and make a lump grow in his throat. He missed her so much! Just like he had every day for the last ten years.
After that day in Mississippi, Remy was a changed person. He had become withdrawn, and moody. Whenever one of his friends asked him if he wanted to play tag, or climb trees, Remy would politely decline. Often, if one of those friends came up behind him, quietly so he didn't even know they were there, they would look over his shoulder and see that he was drawing a pair of green eyes, over and over again. However many times he tried though, Remy couldn't quite capture them.
*You changed me.* He thought accusingly at Rogue, even though he didn't know where she was in the world. He had tried so many times during his life to get angry at her, so he could forget that she ever existed. But then, he would just start berating himself for leaving her behind that day. He had tried to push her aside by going out with as many women as possible, of all types. They all seemed lifeless, and dull, compared to the bright green eyes, framed by dark lashes in his memory.
Even as he walked through the swamps, Remy LeBeau made a vow to himself. He would search for Rogue until he found her, or died- whichever came first. And even in death, he would find a way to reach her. He didn't care if he had to go to the ends of the earth for her. It would be worth it.
He wouldn't stop until he had found his green eyed girl.
*****************************************************************************
Ok, I know it sucked. It was my first attempt at anything serious though. I am considering writing a whole bunch of 'What If?! fics, but then again, I may not. I only write what the little voices in my head tell me to say. And I decided that I shouldn't ever listen to them again, as they made me write this. I'm babbling. Review.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I nearly whipped out my trusty lighter, and torched this fic. So, if it sucks, just know that I was going to burn my draft. Also, I know practically nothing about the Guilds, and anything in America, as I am an Aussie, who doesn't have near enough comics. So forgive me if I stuff something up. eg, describing some place totally wrong. I actually had to check an atlas to find out where Mississippi and New Orleans are in relation to each other.
SUMMARY: What if Rogue and Gambit had met when they were kids? How would if affect their lives afterwards, yada yada.
By the way, anything like *this* is Remy thinking. Now, finally, on with the fic!
WHAT IF?!-GREEN EYED GIRL
Remy LeBeau, thief, gambler, and ladies man vaulted neatly over the fence, and, collapsing his bo staff, dropped lightly to the ground. Turning, he looked sadly back at the place where he had spent so much of his life.
He sighed, and rested his head against the wrought iron bars of the fence around the property of his adoptive father, Jean-Luc. He loved this place, and the people here.
Remy smiled fondly as faces swum up out of the depths of his mind, and seemed to float before his eyes. Jean-Luc of course. Tante Mattie. Lapin, with the stupid name. Henry. Bella Donna...at the last face, Remy frowned, a wrinkle forming on the bridge of his nose between his red and black eyes. Though he cared deeply for her, Remy had to admit to himself that she was a main part of the reason he was leaving. He couldn't get married to her. He just couldn't.
Remy knocked his head lightly against the fence in frustration. He knew that Bella meant much to him, but every time he thought of them together, he could see her eyes again. They would pierce through him like a bolt of lighting, staring. They were so innocent, full of hope and love.
And oh so green.
Remy stopped hitting the fence with his forhead, and stared through the bars at the ground beyond the fence. The thought of her had made up his mind for him, just as it had earlier that night, and he adjusted the strap of his duffel bag so it rested on his shoulder more comfortably. He lightly kissed the tips of his fingers, and waved at the house.
"Au revoir." He whispered softly. That was it. He had kissed his old life goodbye. It was over, and now he had to move on.
For a moment, he felt the urge to go back to the house and his family, but he pushed it aside. Turning his back on the home that he loved, Remy slipped away into the inkiness of the dark. His coat flared out behind him, as he melted from view, and he let his mind wander back to that day ten years ago...
*****************************************************************************
Eleven year old Remy LeBeau peered through the window of the cab, his red and black eyes filled with curiousity as the town of Friars Point flashed past.
"Papa, where we goin' again?" He asked the man sitting in the seat beside him.
The man who had adopted him smiled down at the child. "Ta see an old friend of mine, petite. A former Guild member."
"Oh." Remy turned his attention back to the town, which was rapidly fading as they hit the outskirts, driving alongside the Mississippi River. "Why we seein' him?"
Jean-Luc seemed to consider for a second. "Well, ta see his house, and for me to meet his wife. It's de polite t'ing to do."
"Will dere be any other kids dere?" Remy asked hopefully. His face fell when his father shook his head.
"Sorry Remy, but Phillipe and Kate don't have no children yet." Jean-Luc explained.
"Den why you bring me?" Remy grumbled, slumping back into the cab seat and folding his arms over his chest, a sullen look on his face.
Jean-Luc put his fingers under the boy's chin, and lifted them slightly, tilting up his head, and forcing Remy to meet his gaze. "Because I want you ta meet my friend, and I want ta show you off to dem."
Remy's face lit up. "Really? You want to show me off?"
Jean-Luc laughed. Though only eleven, Remy already loved to be the centre of attention. "Yes I do want ta brag about you to dem."
Remy smiled the winning grin that Jean-Luc knew would be breaking hearts one day. "Of course you be proud of me. Remy goin' ta be de best t'ief dere is!"
Jean-Luc gave him a light slap on the arm.
"Ow!"
"What did I tell you 'bout blabberin' about da T'ieves?" Jean-Luc hissed quietly to Remy in a soft voice only the boy could hear. He shot a quick glance at the cab driver through the plastic panel separating them, who gave no indication of hearing anything.
Remy winced slightly. "Sorry, Papa. Remy remember now. He won't do it again."
Jean-Luc nodded firmly, trying to keep a stern look on his face, but failed when Remy flashed his smile again. He shook his head slightly. "Remy, you should require a permit ta use dat smile. What am I goin' ta do wid you?"
Remy just grinned again.
~~~~~
The cab began to slow down, and turned off the road, and up the white gravel driveway of a large villa. The moment the car stopped, Remy threw open the door, and leaped out.
"Wow, dis place is great!" Remy said excitedly. "I bet you could see de river from de backyard! And it don't smell all dirty, like Nawlins. De air, it be clean!"
Jean-Luc laughed, and ruffled his hair. "You be good, and don't go nosin' around!"
Remy groaned in mock agony. "Aww, Papa, not even a little bit?"
Jean-Luc nodded. "You be good while we're here."
He paid the driver, adding an extravagant tip, and walked up the front steps to the door. "Come on, Remy."
Remy hurried to catch up with him, and they both entered the house when the door opened. Neither noticed the cab driver pulling a mobile phone out of the glove compartment. He glanced at the house to make sure that no one was watching, before dialing a number to repeat what he had discovered after the boy's outburst.
"Hello, Monsieur Boudreaux? It's Marc Guillon. Just callin' ta confirm your guess dat a Monsieur LeBeau was comin' here ta Mississippi..."
~~~~~
Remy jumped up and down a little on the spot as Jean-Luc rang the doorbell. He had been cooped up all day, first the long plane trip for New Orleans to Mississippi, then the agonizing cab ride to Friars Point. He was anxious to stretch his legs, and go explore the new terrain.
The door opened, and Jean-Luc stepped through. Remy followed him, and looked curiously up at the butler who answered the door. The butler, and elderly man, smiled down at him.
"Master Phillipe and Mistress Kate are in the Sun Room." He announced formally with a British accent to Jean-Luc. "Allow me to lead the way."
They followed the butler through the house and Remy's hands itched to hold a few of the trinkets scattered on tables, and hanging on walls. All were very beautiful, and expensive looking in the spacious house.
The butler opened a door, and announced "Master LeBeau, and his son."
Jean-Luc nodded his thanks to the butler, and led Remy into the room.
Remy's jaw dropped as he caught site of it. The room- what had the butler called it?- was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. The walls and roof were made entirely of glass, and the amount of light filtering through hurt his sensitive eyes.
He squinted as his eyes teared up, trying to look at everything in the room at once, and Jean-Luc frowned at him. "Remy, what you doin'?" He hissed.
"De light, it hurts my eyes." Remy whispered back.
Wordlessly, Jean-Luc reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses, then gave them to Remy.
"Merci, Papa." He said, pulling them on. They were oversized, and kept slipping down his nose, but at least he could see now. He realized with a start that there were two other people in the room. One, a distinguished looking man with grey shot through his black hair had stood up, and had come over to them.
He shook hands joyfully with Jean-Luc, while the rooms other occupant, a woman with her eyes closed stayed on the white couch.
"Jean-Luc LeBeau, you haven't changed a bit!" The man was saying, and he gave the Cajun leader of the Thieves Guild a manly slap on the back, before laughing boisterously.
Jean-Luc laughed, and gripped the man on the shoulders. "Phillipe, you always were a good liar. How's your business going?"
Remy wasn't paying attention to them though. He was gaping at the woman on the couch. The woman with pastel blue skin and pale green hair. A fellow mutant.
Jean-Luc's friend Phillipe noticed where Remy was looking, and put his fingers to his lips. "She's divining." He hissed. "She has the mutant power to see the future." His voice was full of affection.
Suddenly, the woman's eyelids snapped open, revealing pale pink eyes. "Oh." She breathed. "He's absolutely precious!"
Remy frowned. He'd never heard his father referred to as 'precious' before. Or if someone else had called him that, they probably hadn't lived to tell about it.
Jean-Luc smiled graciously at the mutant woman as she came over to them. "You must be Kate. How nice to meet you." He took her hand, and kissed it flamboyantly.
Kate laughed. "Phillipe, are all your old friends such flirts?"
Phillipe grinned. "Just this one."
Remy was feeling very left out by this time. He wasn't sure what to say, or even if he was supposed to say anything at all. Oddly enough though, as if she had just heard his thoughts, the blue-skinned woman turned to Remy, and began to pinch his cheek.
"He's so precious!" She repeated, and Remy realized that she had been talking about him earlier. He smiled uneasily, as she tugged even harder.
"Bonjour, Madame Kate." He changed his uncertain grin to his award winning one- well, as best as he could with her pulling at him the way she was.
Remy watched her face fill with delight. "He speaks French! And so polite. You are going to be quite the ladies man. I can see it." She finally stopped pinching him.
Remy shrugged, and resisted the urge to rub his sore cheek. "Everyone tells me dat, Madame, but Remy don't agree. He doesn't like girls dat much."
Kate laughed, her pink eyes filling with mirth. "That's what they all say."
Remy cringed, afraid that he was in for another round of cheek pulling. Instead, the blue woman clapped her hands, and called out in her flute like voice, "Mathilda, would you bring in the afternoon tea now?"
They all sat down on the pristine while lounge set around the rectangular glass coffee table. For a short amount of time, he amused himself by admiring all the things in the room. Then, after a mousy looking maid had set a tray of various small snacks and a pitcher of iced lemonade on the table, he ate, and passed the time by counting the number of birds he saw flying overhead. Remy quickly tired of these games though, and began swinging his legs back and forth. His heels hit the base of the sofa with a dull thudding noise.
The grownups ignored him at first. After a few moments though, Jean-Luc began giving Remy evil stares. Remy just smiled at him innocently, and continued swinging his legs.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
"Remy." Jean-Luc said in a strained I'm-trying-not-to-kill-you-voice. "We're tryin' ta talk, petite. Would you please stop doing that?"
"Jean-Luc, leave him alone." Kate scolded, and Remy had to chew on the inside of his lip to keep from laughing. No one spoke to the head of the Thieves Guild that way, except for maybe Tante Mattie. "He's just bored. A child shouldn't be kept inside like this." Kate turned to Remy. "How about you go outside and explore a bit? The door to the gardens is just over there."
"Merci, Madame." Remy said in the most polite voice he could muster. "Dat would be fantastique."
Kate smiled joyfully. "Wonderful!" She trilled.
Remy grabbed a handful of the remaining cookies off the tray, and went out the glass doors that Kate had indicated. He closed them behind him, and walked down the moss covered steps into the garden.
"Wow!" Remy exclaimed softly. He whistled quietly in awe at the velvety green lawns, scattered randomly with statues, many of which Remy politely averted his eyes from.
The backyard- if it could even be called that- bordered on the banks of the Mississippi River. Remy walked down to it, and pressed his face against the chainlink fence between the gardens and the river. He stared in awe at the brown, murky water and the occasional boats that went past.
A faint noise carried along the winds caught his attention, and he listened carefully.
"...Cody, quit pickin' on us!" Came the exclamation.
Remy looked around furtively to make sure no one was watching, and scaled the fence, clambering down to the other side. He began walking down the riverbank in the direction he had heard the voices coming from.
Phillipe and Kate's house was isolated from the rest of civilization, so there was plenty of wild growth on either side of their property. As Remy walked alongside the river, he realized that the voices were coming from within the trees. So, he took a sharp detour, and started wandering through the brown growth, searching for the elusive voices.
Finally Remy came across a clearing about twenty meters across, surrounded by the knarled trees. There were about ten children there, running around and playing what looked like a game of tag. Rather than immediately going in to introduce himself to the kids though, he stayed in the shadows under the trees and watched.
A boy with blonde hair and blue eyes was chasing a girl with a wild mop of black curls. The girl was weaving in amongst the others, and often the blonde boy could have easily reached out and tagged someone else, but he stayed firmly in pursuit of the girl. Eventually, he tagged her.
"Cody, why do you always go for us gahls?" The girl whined, even as she began pursuit of another child.
The blonde boy grinned. "Cause y'all so easy to catch up to." He taunted.
Another girl, this one with white streaked auburn hair pulled up into two messy pigtails, ran over to Cody and slapped him on the arm. "You take that back, Cody, and apologize to Amelia raht now!" She said indignantly.
Cody cringed away, and Remy began to laugh softly. "All raht Rogue, I was just playin'. Ah'm sorry Amelia."
The girl with the black hair shrugged with a satisfied look on her face, and ran off after someone else.
"Hey, Ah got an idea!" Cody yelled loudly, and the other kids stopped running, and looked at him. "Let's play mutants and humans! The girls can play tha mutants, 'cause they're freaks already." He smiled cheekily.
Remy grinned too, as the girl called Rogue went bright red. This should be interesting.
The girl ran at him, crooked pigtails trailing out behind her. "You little weasel!" She shrieked, pushing him to the ground. The other boys and girls began to laugh, as Cody looked up at her with a shocked look on her face.
Remy also began to laugh, and all the other kids looked over at him, identical looks of surprise on their faces. Remy swore slightly, something he wasn't allowed to do at home, and made sure his sunglasses were firmly over his strange eyes before stepping into the clearing.
Rogue stomped over to him. "And just who are you?" She demanded, green eyes flashing with anger.
Remy firmly met her gaze, and was inwardly suprised at the intensity and depths of her eyes. "I'm jus' a person who likes seein' bullies like dat knocked on over." He told her. He took her hand in his, and kissed the back of it, as he had seen his father do to Kate. "My name's Remy."
Rogue snatched her hand back, as the other children began to giggle. "Ah'm someone who doesn't like idiot boys, and that includes you! I'm going home!"
She brushed past him, winding her way through the undergrowth. Not even knowing why he was doing it, Remy began to follow her. "Aww, don't run off!" He called after her, quickening his pace to catch up.
"Go away, Swamp Rat!" She called over her shoulder as they emerged from the trees onto the river bank.
Remy scowled. It bothered im that there was a person he couldn't win over. "Fine den!" He yelled. "You girls, you're all de same!"
She stopped in her tracks, and Remy saw that he'd hit a nerve. She turned to face him, her face flushed pink with rage.
"You're just like Cody and Daddy!" She yelled at him. "You don't think gahls are good for anything!"
Daddy? Remy wasn't an idiot. He quickly figured out that Rogue's father must be hard on her for who she was.
"Remy's sorry, chere." He said sincerely. "And he's not like dat at all. Remy jus' want ta get your attention, dats all. Give me a chance, and you'll find out dat I'm not so bad."
Rogue's face softened a fraction. "Well...alraht." she said finally. "Do you like to climb trees?"
Remy nodded, and smiled his most charming grin. "Remy loves ta climb trees."
Finally, she smiled back at him. "Well, come on then."
Together they walked down the Mississippi, in the opposite direction to the villa, and Remy found himself telling her stuff he had only told a few people about.
"...After Jean-Luc adopted me, I went ta live wid him at his home." He said, finishing off his tale of how he had come to live with Jean-Luc, but conveniently leaving out anything about the Thieves Guild. "So, is Rogue your real name, or a nickname?" He asked, changing the subject.
Rogue's face became downcast. "Mah mother died when Ah was born, and Ah was named after her." She explained, "But my daddy used to get real upset for callin' me that, so he started callin' me Rogue."
Remy was about to ask what her real name was, but changed his mind when he saw how sad she looked. He had already decided that for a girl, she was all right, and very pretty. And, he had also decided that he loved her eyes. They were large and green, framed by long dark lashes, and Remy liked the way how they always showed what she was feeling. Right now though, they were dark with emotion, and glistening with tears.
"Aww, Roguie, don't cry!" He exclaimed, stopping and touching her cheek lightly. She smiled a watery smile at him.
"Ah'm sorry, Remy. Ah just get upset when Ah think about mah mother. Ah never knew her, and mah daddy doesn't like to talk to me, let alone about her. At this, Rogue dissolved into tears.
Awkwardly, Remy drew Rogue into a hug. After all, they were eleven, and at that age it was strictly against the boy/girl code for them to be holding each other. But Rogue didn't pull away- rather, she hugged him back, and Remy began to feel a little more at ease.
After a few minutes, Rogue calmed down, and she withdrew smiling sheepishly. "Ah feel so stupid." she admitted. "And selfish. You didn't even know your folks, at least Ah got my dad."
Remy smiled at her, and wiped a tear off her face. "It's ok. I don't mind. Now, where's dese trees you were talkin' 'bout climbing?"
Her face lifted, and she grabbed Remy's hand, leading him down the river. Remy let her lead, trying to sort out the whirl of emotions inside him. She was a girl. He wasn't supposed to hug her, or hold her hand- not unless she was family, or he was made too.
*I don't care* Remy told himself firmly.
Rogue stopped all of a sudden, and Remy nearly crashed into her. She dropped his hand, and ran over to a tree with low, wide branches spreading in all directions, even over the water. "This is mah favourite tree. If you sit on the branches over the water and close your eyes, it feels like you're flyin'." Her green eyes shone with excitement as she described it to him. Without waiting for a reply, she grabbed a branch, and swung herself up.
Remy waited until she was safely in the tree before he followed her up.
They met at a fork in the tree. Rogue grinned happily at him. "Isn't this tree great?"
Remy grinned back. "Sure is."
Rogue frowned at him. "Why do ya wear those sunglasses? They're too big for yah." Before Remy could stop her, she reached out and took them off.
Remy gasped in suprise, and quickly shut his eyelids, hiding his red on black eyes which so clearly showed that he was a mutant.
"Remy shugah, what's wrong?" She sounded worried. "Why won't you open your eyes?"
Remy lowered his face. "Because Remy t'inks you may be frightened of him." He said softly.
He heard Rogue laugh. "Now why would Ah be scared of you?"
He tentatively opened his eyes, and watched shock flicker across Rouge's features. "They're red!" She exclaimed.
Remy grabbed his glasses off her, and began to put them back on, but Rogue stopped him. "Wait!" she smiled shyly. "Leave 'em off."
Remy breathed a sigh of relief, and put the sunglasses away into one of the pockets of his shorts. She wasn't scared of him for being a mutant. She didn't call him Devil Boy, something he had heard all his life.
Feeling more at ease, he began to edge out along on of the branches hanging over the water, and Rogue followed him. They were about halfway along though, when Rogue stopped. Remy kept going until he was right out over the river.
"Remy, come back!" Rogue called. "Ah think you're too far out. The branch could break!"
Remy swung his legs over the branch, and let himself dangle from it upside down. "Roguie, it's ok. Even if de branch does break, it's not too high up."
"Remy, come back, please!" Rogue pleaded.
With a sigh of disappointment, Remy swung up again, feeling the rough bark of the tree bite into his hands. "Alright Rogue, but jus' for you."
He started to crawl back along, when there was a cracking sound. Remy watched, horrified, as the branch began to break, just in front of him. With a snapping sound, it broke, sending Remy falling into the brown river with a cry of shock.
"Remy!" Rogue yelled.
Remy stood up. The water was only about waist high. "Ick." He pronounced, wiping some damp hair off his face. He looked up at Rogue. Too his shock, she was laughing at him.
"Now you really are a Swamp Rat!" She said between laughs.
He glared at her, and waded back to the shore. He climbed back up the tree, and this time climbed up onto the branch just above Rogue. Plucking a few leaves off the tree, he began dropping them into her hair.
"Hey!" She yelled indignantly. "Stop that!"
Remy dropped down onto the branch that Rogue was on, and sat down on it, back to the river. Remy looked at her, right into her eyes. The seemed to bore into his mind, and imprint themselves on to his soul.
Rogue stared back at him, her green eyes filled with a mixture of emotions that Remy could hardly sort out. A white strand of hair that had escaped from one of her loose pigtails was blown across her face by the gently breeze, and Remy reached out and brushed it aside. All around them, the leaves rustled, a gentle, soothing sound.
"Roguie, have you ever kissed a boy before" He asked her uncertainly.
"No." She said shyly. "Have you ever kissed a gahl before?"
"No." Part of him wanted to look away, but he was totally enraptured by her eyes. "Would you like me ta kiss you?"
"Ah guess so." She said blushing furiously. She closed her eyes, her dark lashes forming crescents on her cheeks.
Gathering up his courage, Remy squeezed his eyes tightly shut, puckered up his lips, and gave her a quick peck on the mouth.
They both opened their eyes. "Ah don't see why adults like that so much." Rogue admitted.
Remy laughed. "Me either." He glanced over Rogue's shoulder as she said this, and noticed something moving in the bushes. He narrowed his eyes, and peered at it closely.
It was a person, dressed entirely in black, right down to a ski mask, and they were creeping stealthily towards Rogue and Remy. And if that wasn't enough to make the naturally skeptical boy suspicious, the small logo on the right shoulder of the person's black top, one he had seen before, was enough to convince him it was time to leave.
Assassin!
"Rogue, quick!" He yelled, dropping off the low branch to the ground.
Rogue dropped also, landing heavily beside him. "Remy, what is it?" She asked, sounding frightened.
"Run!" He yelled, grabbing her wrist, and dragging her to her feet.
They began to run up the river in the direction of Kate and Phillipe's villa. Remy knew that all they had to do was get there, his father would know what to do after that.
Their feet pounded on the ground, sending clouds of soil up behind them, and the person in black cursed in Cajun, as he fought his way through the trees to catch up to them.
"Remy, who's that man?" Rogue said, terror seeping through her voice.
"I t'ink it's an Assassin! Move!" He yelled, and willed himself to run faster. Rogue sped up too, and remarkably kept up.
Though they were both running as fast as they could, and they had a head start, the man was older, with longer legs, and was steadily gaining on them. Suddenly, Rogue stumbled, and fell to the ground with a cry of alarm.
"Rogue!" Remy called out, anguished, and stopped to go back for her.
"Remy, run! Ah'll try to stop 'im!" she yelled.
Ignoring her pleas for him to go, Remy picked up a rock and threw it at the Assassin with all his might. The stone flew through the air, and hit the man in the chest. He swore, but kept coming.
"Swamp Rat, go!" Rogue yelled. She had picked herself up of the ground, but Remy could see that she wasn't going to run anymore. Her face was stubborn, and he knew that she was going to hold her ground and make sure he got away. "Just go!"
Remy took one last look at her, her beautiful green eyes wide and determined, then ran for the villa. With his back turned, he didn't see Rogue dive at the Assassin's legs, tripping him over. He was a safe distance away when the second figure in black stepped out of the bushes a minute later.
Julien Boudreaux glared contemptuously at the man at his feet, who was struggling to get the wriggling girl off him. With a sigh of annoyance, Julien grabbed the back of her overalls, picking her up, and threw her into the scrub. She hit a tree trunk, and with a yelp of pain slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Julien glared at the man, who had climbed to his feet, and was staring at the ground shamefully.
"Marc Guillon, dat was pathetic." He spat in disgust. "I should have sent you back to Nawlins the moment you phoned your information in, instead of letting you come along today."
Marc sighed. "I'm sorry. I had no idea dat de kids would put up so much resistance."
"You didn't t'ink, non?" Julien accused.
Marc nodded. "I didn't t'ink."
Julien stared in the direction the boy had disappeared in. "De boy is gone. Wid him, we could have manipulated de leader of dat pathetic T'ieves Guild easily. Now, we have not'ing. I have killed men such as you for dis! Merde!"
Julien stomped back into the tree line, and disappeared.
Marc waited until he was sure Julien was gone, before scooping up the little girl who had attacked him. He felt sorry for her, and was going to take her into town, where someone was sure to know her. His fight was with the Thieves Guild- not an innocent child.
She sighed, and squirmed a little in his arms, before mumbling something. The only word which Marc was able to pick out was 'Remy.' Her auburn and white hair had fallen out of one of her pigtails, and was tumbling across her heartbroken face. It stuck to her cheeks in places, and Marc saw that she was crying in her sleep.
Cradling her against him, he began the trek though the growth alongside the river to where he had parked his car.
~~~~~
Remy scrambled up and over the fence, and ran through the garden, throwing open the doors to the glass room, and running into the house.
The three adults, who were still sitting around talking, looked up startled.
"Papa!" Remy yelled. "DerebeAssasinsindetreesand-"
"Remy, slow down!" Jean-Luc interrupted. "What did you say?"
Remy took a deep breath to try and calm himself. "Dere be Assassins out dere in de trees, and dey come for me and Rogue! Dey got Roguie, but I came here to tell you dat dey are here, and WE GOTTA HELP HER!"
"Remy! Take a breath between sentences!" Jean-Luc said, leaping to his feet. "Are you sure dey are Assassins? And who's Rogue?"
"Rogue is his friend." Kate said clearly from where she was sitting. She looked fairly calm, except for her hands, which she was wringing. "And there is a threat out there, something which separates them."
"Kate, did you see this?" Phillipe demanded.
Kate nodded. Then shook her head. Then nodded again. "I saw part of it. I saw Remy, and a young girl playing. Then, a clear barrier came down between them both, cutting them off from each other. And try as they might, they couldn't touch each other." Her blue forehead wrinkled in confusion. "But that doesn't seem right for this time in his life...If you wait, I'll try to make sense of it."
"I'm sorry Kate, but if Remy's friend is in trouble, we must help her." Jean-Luc said.
Remy had been tugging at Jean-Luc's hand through all this, trying to get him to move towards the glass door. Now he was though, and Remy dropped the hand and ran beside him as they jogged down the steps and through the garden. The two climbed over the fence when they reached it, and continued down the river, to where Remy had left Rogue.
All that was left when they arrived though, was a few scuffled marks on the soil, and one of the hair ties that had pulled up one of Rogue's pigtails. Remy picked up the thick, green elasticy band, and stared at it, horrified. A strand of white hair was loosely wrapped around it, and fluttered against his hand in the breeze, tickling him.
"Rogue!" He yelled, anguished, and started to run into the bushes, but Jean-Luc held him back.
"Non, petite! Dere could be Assassins dere!"
"Non..." Remy sobbed, his body trembling as it became wracked with unshed tears. "I gotta 'elp her..."
Jean-Luc drew his son into a hug. "I'm sorry Remy." He said, stroking the boy's hair. "I'm sure she jus' went home."
Remy buried his face in his father's shoulder so no one could see his tears. He knew she wouldn't just go home without telling him, and in his mind, he saw all sorts of horrible things being done to Rogue by the Assassins Guild.
He gripped the hair band tightly in his fist, and cried harder.
After that, his mind went into shock. He had no recollection of being brought back to the villa, or of the long cab ride to the nearest airport. All he could see was two big green eyes in his memory. At first, he imagined that they were staring at him accusingly, asking why he had left her. Then, they were just telling him not to worry about her.
Remy snapped back to reality as the plane they were in flew over Baton Rouge much later that night. He glanced out the window briefly at the twinkling lights below, before looking away disinterestedly. He didn't even notice Jean-Luc watching him, worried. Not too long later, he fell asleep, still clutching Rogue's hairband like a drowning person would grip a life preserver.
His dreams were haunted by her. And he continued to see her eyes whenever he closed his.
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He walked through the darkness of the New Orleans swamps, not knowing where he was going, or even caring.
Reaching into one of the pockets of his jacket, Remy pulled out a small object. It was a green hairband, still with it's white thread of hair wrapped around it. Though he could barely see it, just the feel of it was enough to provoke enough memories, and make a lump grow in his throat. He missed her so much! Just like he had every day for the last ten years.
After that day in Mississippi, Remy was a changed person. He had become withdrawn, and moody. Whenever one of his friends asked him if he wanted to play tag, or climb trees, Remy would politely decline. Often, if one of those friends came up behind him, quietly so he didn't even know they were there, they would look over his shoulder and see that he was drawing a pair of green eyes, over and over again. However many times he tried though, Remy couldn't quite capture them.
*You changed me.* He thought accusingly at Rogue, even though he didn't know where she was in the world. He had tried so many times during his life to get angry at her, so he could forget that she ever existed. But then, he would just start berating himself for leaving her behind that day. He had tried to push her aside by going out with as many women as possible, of all types. They all seemed lifeless, and dull, compared to the bright green eyes, framed by dark lashes in his memory.
Even as he walked through the swamps, Remy LeBeau made a vow to himself. He would search for Rogue until he found her, or died- whichever came first. And even in death, he would find a way to reach her. He didn't care if he had to go to the ends of the earth for her. It would be worth it.
He wouldn't stop until he had found his green eyed girl.
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Ok, I know it sucked. It was my first attempt at anything serious though. I am considering writing a whole bunch of 'What If?! fics, but then again, I may not. I only write what the little voices in my head tell me to say. And I decided that I shouldn't ever listen to them again, as they made me write this. I'm babbling. Review.