Title: The Love-Hate Chronicles
Pairing: Rogue and Remy
Rating: Teen/Mature
Warnings: May contain heartbreak or happiness. It depends on my mood.
Disclaimer: I don't even own the rights to any of my college degrees and will not for many, many, many years… It's called a starving ex-student, and by the state of my fridge, I'm living the dream.
Summary: Unrelated tales describing the many different fates of our star-crossed Southerners. Wear your heart on your sleeve and have hope in your heart because not every story has a clean beginning or a happy ending. ROMY.
AN: Read first chapter for rules to the game. :) These don't necessarily have anything to do with each other OR need that you know anything more than what is presented.
The Love-Hate Chronicles
The Second Fate
Baby
The sharp sound of a phone vibrating on wood startled Remy out of his sleep quick. He grunted in response to the buzzing; if it was Henri, Theo, Lapin, or Emil prank calling him again, he would make good on his promise to call them in their wee-hours of the morning. If anything, he'd just call Henri super early, wake up baby Jacques, which would wake up Mercy, which would put Henri in a horrible predicament. That would fix things fast.
Without opening his eyes, he groped for the offending phone on his nightstand and breathed a sleepy, grumbly, "Bon nuit, qui est-ce?"
"Um, hey…This is Remy right? This is um… this is Kitty, Rogue's friend…"
The voice sounded just as tiny and girly as the girl he thought she was. Rogue's friend? The petite phaser? He pulled the phone away from his face and squinted at the phone. It clearly said "Anna Marie Cell" on it.
He mooshed the phone back onto his cheek and sighed a response. "Oui, what'sup?" He was sleepy and nowhere near ready to be coherent.
"Well, actually, I was hoping you could come pick Rogue up..."
He lifted his phone again and looked at the time. Dieu, it was late.
"Why? What' happened?"
"Well, we kinda snuck out to go to a Brotherhood party… And she got really drunk…" There was background rustling.
He swung his feet of his bed and sighed. "She okay?"
"Well, she was great… and then she kinda started off on the… Cody thing again…" And wailing. There was definite southern-flavored wailing.
"Mon Dieu, what's happening right now?"
"Well, she's still drunk. And upset. And she wants to go home, but we obviously can't and since she drove us and I still don't have my stupid license AND we've both been drinking AND- Rogue, get back here!"
Remy held the phone away from his ear as Rogue's friend got louder and more hysterical.
"Chaton, I'll be there in a few minutes, just keep her calm, hein?" He didn't know if she answered, but he hung up anyways.
He shook himself awake and splashed some water on his face. Well, so long for sleeping today.
When he rolled up to the infamous Brotherhood dwelling, he wondered how the cops hadn't been called yet. Cars parked as if the lawn was a dirt patch (which is what it was starting to turn into regardless) and drunk people were flung around, on, and in said cars. The music was loud and the smell of stale beer only increased as he marched closer. He wished he told Kitty to put Rogue in an easy to reach spot.
In any other circumstances, he would have had enjoyed a party such as this. There was dancing, there was drinking (although he liked to think he was classier than the average teenage beer-drinker by far), and there were slutty girls he could enjoy for a night. But alas, tonight was not such a night.
He made his way through the hot, beer-scented house and was stopped as he went through the kitchen.
"You!" exclaimed a gothy girl with red and black. She looked familiar. "I've been looking for you all night!" She swayed a little, making the red liquid in her red cup dangerously close to spilling all over her.
"Oh really?"
"Yes! I've been on the lookout for Rogue's hot friend." She stopped briefly to take a drink. "You are Rogue's hot friend, right?"
He smirked. "I suppose so. Got any idea where she is?"
The girl pointed out back, seemingly unable to produce a sentence without taking a drink. "Just listen for the death threats. She shouldn't have gone far. I think Kitty phased her to a chair."
"Merci," he saluted, making his way out the back door and past a fair group of people smoking legal and illegal substances. As he passed the group, he heard the increasing wailing he heard on the phone.
"It's jus' not fair!" He heard a screech. He'd know that drunken southern shriek any day. He saw her stumbling around, with a smaller girl following her around, attempting to comfort her. "No! Ya don't know!" And then she took a chug of whatever beer was in the can.
"Rogue, honey, put the beer can down," he heard Kitty ask calmly.
"No! Ah need this! This is mahne!"
He figured this was a great time to take the can away when she was focused on Kitty. "Chérie, I think you should listen to her."
Rogue whirled around and fell on her ass. "An' you! Why the hell are you here?" she pointed at Remy. Kitty bent down to help pick up the squirming Rogue.
"Jesus Christ, I'm so glad you're here. She keeps switching between angry and angry-sad and she- Jesus, will you stop drinking!" she hollered, as she yanked away a flask Rogue had produced from god knows where.
Remy sighed. "That was only flask number one. She got another one in her boot. Give it to me, I'll make sure she don't find it." He hid the flask in one of his coat pockets and reached over to hoist Rogue over his shoulder. She screeched and pounded on his back. He took this opportunity to lodge the other flask out of her boot and into a pocket. She pounded harder.
"You no-good," pound, "stupid, thievin'," pound-pound, "Swamp rat! Gimme back my stuff!"
"You need a place to stay too?" he asked Kitty, completely ignoring the livid, drunk Rogue on his back.
"Uh, no," Kitty twirled her hair nervously. "Lance offered me his bed…"
Remy raised his eyebrows.
"I'll be good, promise."
"You got her phone?" Pound, grunt, pound.
Kitty fumbled through her shirt for it. "Got it!"
"Call if you need anythin'. I'll bring her back in the mornin' to drive you back."
"Thanks for picking her up, Remy!" he heard Kitty call as he walked back through the party-goers. He saluted in response, still ignoring Rogue's profane verbal attacks.
"Y'know, ma chérie, you keep misbehavin', I'll have to spank you. I got a good angle."
"Don't you dare!"
And they made it through the house and after the third surprised "Hey!" he had realized she was stealing other people's drinks. He promptly set her down and carried her the rest of the way bridal style, all the while, she spit venom and anger.
Getting to the car, he stuffed her in the passenger seat and locked the door before she could make a drunk dash. He slid into his seat and started the car easily. She hit him.
"Rogue," he began warningly.
"Stupid Swamp Rat, gimme back ma drinks!"
"Rogue."
"You ain't got no right! No right, ya hear me!"
"Rogue."
"Ah've never taken yo' drinks away!"
"Anna Marie."
And her face crumpled up into sobs. "No! Don't you call me that!"
"Why not?" he asked calmly, ready for the onslaught.
"'Cuz it's jus' not faaaair!" she sobbed. "Why did ma powers havta suck so much!"
And he began the fairly short drive back to his apartment. He figured he could make it in time…
"Stupid, stupid, stupid boy who decided he wanted to try an' kiss the mutant vampire! Stupid!" she wailed.
Remy pulled up into the parking garage and helped her stumble out of the car. She was definitely more easygoing than ten minutes earlier, and definitely more wobbly. They would make it…
She stumbled through the building halls and in the light he could finally see that she had some killer stiletto boots instead of her normal combat boots. She was also dressed a little more fetish-y than normal. Her make-up was running down her face as she wailed. Oh dear.
All in all, he was just glad nobody was around. This situation probably didn't look pretty from the outside.
They were almost at his door when she just gave up walking and near collapsed on the ground. He hoisted her up again bridal style as she wailed. Jesus, she smelt like she was dipped in alcohol.
He threw open the door and made inside, just to start the countdown.
5…
"Stupid, stupid mutation!"
4…
"An' stupid everyone, with all their stupid touchin' an' stupid relationships!"
3…
"It's jus' not fair!"
2…
A low, mourning sound came out of her mouth. He grabbed some water and crackers in passing the kitchen.
1…
"Rems…" she moaned.
He set her down next to the toilet. "We're in the bathroom, chérie," he reassured, already tying up her hair.
"Oh, god," she moaned…
"'Member that time?" she whispered, lying limp on his bed.
"Which time?"
"That time. When you started the fire…"
A smile quirked his lips. "When I stole Henri's lighter for the first time?"
"Mmmmhm," she sigh. "An' we thought the entire swamp was gonna go up in flames?"
"And Stormy happened to be over and saw it happen," he remembered fondly.
"An' right as we thought we were gonna die, the rain fell from the sky."
"Didn't even know it was Storm back then."
"Ah couldn't believe how hard it came down. It was like magic," she murmured into the pillow.
"We couldn't even get out, there were puddles the size of you all around."
"An' then…the clouds cleared… an' everythin' was burnt and it looked horrible… tragic…"
"And we still got whooped."
She chuckled sleepily and was silent for a minute. Maybe she had finally passed out.
"How old were we back then, Rems?"
"'Bout five, methinks."
He saw her smile into the pillow and curl up more into the long sleeve shirt he had lent her. A few more minutes later, she was still breathing steadily. Was she finally passing out?
He grabbed a blanket and covered her, before grabbing a spare pillow and blanket and attempting to make it to the couch.
"Waiiiit," she moaned, limply flailing an arm in his direction. "Please stay…"
He made it back to the bed and lounged again. He could swear the sun would be rising soon.
She reached out with her gloved hands and tried to find him through closed eyes. He chuckled and just held her flailing hand.
"'Member that time you were tryna impress me… an' you climbed that swamp tree… an' you fell out an' broke a leg?"
He groaned. She just had to bring up that story, didn't she? "Ouais, how could I forget?"
"An' you cried an' moaned an' you wouldn't let me leave to go get help, so I tried to carry you like a baby…"
"But you couldn't, so I hadta climb on your back."
"I 'member how it felt… an' how Henri called you a girl cuz you wouldn't stop cryin'…"
"Still does call me a girl," he muttered.
"An' how old were we back then?"
"Think I had just turned thirteen. You were still twelve."
"It seems so long ago…"
"We've seen some hard times, ma chérie. That's why it seems so long ago…"
"I wish… things were easy… like they were back then…" she sighed, drowsily melancholic.
He frowned. "Things'll get better, chérie."
She lapsed into another silence. He was just about to drift into sleep himself, when she squeezed his hand.
"Hey," she whispered.
"Mmmm," he sounded.
"Thanks for comin' an' takin' care of me an' carryin' my drunk ass…" she mumbled. "You didn't havta…"
He chuckled. "Ma chérie¸ you know I'll always come for you, no matter what."
"Really?"
By the sound of her voice, he wondered if she was just sleep talking at this point.
"I've come for you before. Across the sea, mountains, deserts, fire, mist- no element could keep me from comin' to you."
"Apocalypse related events don't count," she muttered.
"'Course it does. It's too extreme to not count. In fact, it just proves my case even more." And in response, he thought he heard something akin to "stupid swamp rat."
He scooted down and stroked her hair.
"Hey."
"Mmmm?" It barely qualified as a sound on her part.
"You know…If you ever need me, if you ever feel like breakin' down… just call me. There ain't no good reason why you gotta do it alone."
He leaned over and kissed her gently on her forehead.
"You know I'll carry you home any day."
AN: I had a huge creative OOMPH and decided to just spit this out. It's a quick little story, based on The Bird and The Bees' song "Baby". Now, it doesn't have the word baby, but Remy and Rogue aren't really the "Baby" type. If you're trying to wrap your head around how this fits into the canon, just assume they know each other from an early age and Remy isn't associated with the X-Men (yet) and thus has his own apartment to which Rogue could crash. Obviously, they aren't together, but they have important history together. Other than that, I hope you enjoyed this pointless fluff. I'd recommend listening to The Birds and The Bees- they're one of my favorite bands and I have a few more songs I'd like to sample from them. In any case, I hope you enjoyed this little ficlet and another thank you to those who reviewed and those who added me to their alerts/favorites lists! And if you haven't, please review! I adore them and need some life encouragement. Ciao! MidnightManic
