AN: So far setting the foundation for our story. I have a few ideas in what direction I want to go, but it's still at a tentative spot. I'm a little discouraged by the lack of reviews :( hope people are enjoying the story.
She doesn't talk to Bobby for five days.
She reasons that she's being immature, yes, but she can't help but be angry about what he had said. She makes sure to push herself to the max during her and Logan's solo training sessions. She's going to prove that she won't fall behind in the team sessions.
She can't fall behind in the team sessions.
Because if she falls behind, it'll just be another way to prove that the cure had done nothing good for her. All it did was give her false hopes of bettering her relationship and alienate herself from her team mates.
She's brought back to the present when the wind is knocked out of her. A painful wheeze escapes her chest as she rolls to the side to evade a kick to the ribs. She sputters for a mouthful of air before pushing herself back onto her feet.
"That was a cheap shot." She says jokingly, holding her gut.
Logan just gives her a grin as he grabs his towel to wipe his brow. "Not my fault you weren't payin' attention darlin'. You were the one who told me not to go easy on ya." He leans against the wall as they talk. "It'd probably be easier to pay attention if you weren't concentratin' so hard on proving the ice cube wrong."
She sputters for a moment. "Ah, but, ah mean…." She gives him an empty glare. "How'd yah know about that?"
He lets out a low chuckle and approaches her, ruffling her hair. "Kids gossip Rogue, and with hearin' like mine you don't even want to know half the things I find out about." His voice is full of amusement.
Ducking her head out from under his hand she laughs. "Yeah, yah are probably right. Ah'm sure ah don't want to know." She makes it to the door before she feels his heavy hand on her shoulder.
"I'm here if you need me, Rogue. You know that, right?" Logan doesn't do sentiment well, and she can't help but feel touched that he feels the need to.
"Ah know." Her brows are furrowed as she looks at him.
"I know it's got to be hard with the return of your powers. I'm sure it's not what you wanted. But for whatever it's worth, I'm here if you want to talk."
Logan's always been there. Since the day he found her as a runaway hitching a ride in the back of his van he's done nothing but be her rock and crying shoulder. Whether it was settling into the mansion, the whole Ellis Island incident, or even her doubts about her powers Logan had always been there for her.
She feels a sense of guilt sweep over her.
She'd been taking the cure when he needed her to be there for him.
"Ah'm sorry ah wasn't there to help, Logan. With Jean, ah mean." It's the first time she's addressed it since the tragedy. She doesn't know why she never did. "Ah should have never taken the cure. Ah should have been there tah help my team mates, tah help you."
To say he hadn't expected her to turn this around on him would be an understatement.
"Don't worry about it kid. There's nothin' you could have done to change the outcome. I'm kinda glad you weren't there, you might have got hurt." He's itching for a cigar right about now, and she can tell the conversation is making him a little bit antsy.
"Logan?"
"Yeah kid?"
"Do yah think ah'll prove him wrong?" She asks, if for no other reason than to change the subject.
A smirk plasters itself across his face. "Yeah Rogue, I do. But I don't think you should have to, either."
He stops going to the club.
He's decided to stop thinking about her at all.
Instead, he throws himself into work. New York's a magical city, and magic doesn't come without a price. He takes odd jobs here and there to pay his rent and support his expensive habits.
Odd jobs of the criminal nature.
It's why he's parked outside of an abandoned warehouse. Feels so cliché, he thinks with a smirk. Of course his employers would want to meet at a 'discreet area to discuss the details of your employment'. To him, the morally corrupt people of New York he does business for are much more naïve than those from New Orleans.
Taking one last drawl from his cigarette, he snuffs it out under his boot and looks at his watch impatiently. He hears a distinct 'click' before he hears the voice.
"You're early." The voice isn't complimenting him, nor does it sound amused or enthralled in any way whatsoever.
Pushing off from his leaning position on the wall he looks over at the person addressing him. He ignores the boy's statement with a shrug.
"You John?"
He thinks the boy is grinding his teeth.
"Pyro."
"Whatever. You de person I'm supposed t' meet with?"
John or Pyro he corrects himself, whatever, nods and stops approaching him when they're close enough to talk. He realizes the clicking noise came from the kid's zippo lighter that he's still opening and closing.
"Yeah. How much did they tell you?"
Remy's growing annoyed by this point. It's obvious that Pyro isn't the person in charge and it's also evident that he's not nearly as efficient at handling his bosses business as he should be. Either way, he knows not to bite the hand that feeds him so he appeases him with an answer.
"Just dat I was needed for m' particular set of skills for procuring somet'ing they wants." He continues, "Didn't tell me what or where. S'pose dat'd be your job, non?"
Pyro actually lets a grin cross his face by this point. Apparently he's decided he likes Remy.
"Yeah, that'd be my job." His voice is amused, "So we'll be attending-"
Remy cuts him off right there. "I'm sorry, we? Gambit works alone." Involving other people just makes room for things to get messy.
Surprisingly, this little interruption doesn't ruin Pyro's newly found good mood.
"Yeah, we. Don't worry man I'm not going to be following you around while you grab the shit, I'm just going to be the distraction." Something crosses his face that Remy places as amused, maybe even anticipation.
"Distraction?" This is an interesting turn on what he expected to be a heist job.
Pyro pulls out a cigarette and lights it before inhaling. He lets out a smoky breath and nods. "Yeah. Like I was saying, you're going to need a distraction during this job because we'll be attending a fundraiser with a shit ton of important people."
"I'm good at not bein' noticed, mon ami. Dat's kind of why they call me a professional."
"Look, I'm not going to sit here and argue with you, ok? If I tell you you're going to need a distraction, just fucking trust me." Pyro seems to be getting impatient with him, running his free hand through his hair. "There's going to be a specific group there to insure that shit like this" he refers to their job "doesn't go down."
He's still not sold. He's pretty sure Pyro isn't going to do anything but cause him trouble and maybe even cost him this job. "I'm not worried about security, if dat's what y' getting' at."
"This isn't just security, 'mon ami'," he actually smirks at Pyro's impersonation of his accent, "it's the fucking X-Men. Maybe you've heard of them."
His eyebrows lift, Pyro finally saying something that has actually caught his interest. If this job was so important that even the 'notorious X-Men' were going to be involved in making sure it didn't happen, it sure as hell was going to be worth the money.
"Alright John," he catches the pointed glare, "desole, Pyro, tell me de details."
She's so anxious she thinks she may vomit the day of their group danger room session. She's so determined to prove Bobby wrong that the mere thought of her messing up cause's knots to bunch in her stomach. She's gotten there early, waiting with Piotr inside the metal chamber.
They're talking about Piotr's upcoming trip back home when the doors open with a distinct swoosh. Logan enters with Bobby, Kitty, Ororo and Jubilee following behind.
Piotr helps her up on to her feet where she dusts her pants off just to busy herself with something other than looking at Bobby.
"Alright first things first, Rogue's back on the team." Logan says cutting straight to the chase. "Secondly we're gonna run the Juggernaut sim." There's a collective sea of protests and groans, seemingly unhappy with his choice. He raises an eyebrow at the kids that shuts them up immediately.
Ororo tries to hide her amused smile as she addresses them. "Right, so today we're going to go ahead and let Logan run the control room and I'll be supervising down here. Kitty, you'll be team leader."
Kitty looks flattered and she even blushes a little bit. "Me? But Bobby's usually team leader."
"Yes, but what's going to happen if at one point Bobby gets stuck in an indisposition where he can't be there to lead the team? We're going to have to train you to know what to do when that happens." Ororo had a good point.
"Besides, you've already taken the Juggernaut down once before." Ororo gives Kitty a wink with a proud smile. That seems to be all the reassuring Kitty needs.
"Right. Okay, awesome." Kitty lets out a nervous laugh. "Let's do this then!"
Half an hour into their sim the team was barely still holding up. Piotr had an unconscious Jubilee thrown over his shoulder while he crouched beside Bobby behind a medical table in the government holding facility that the Juggernaut was currently broken out of. They'd been separated from Kitty and Rogue since the first half of their 'mission'.
"Ok, there's got to be something in here we can use for Jubilee." Bobby said, getting up and looking through the cupboards. "She's still out, right?"
Piotr nodded at him, setting Jubilee down on the table.
Rogue panted as she ran to keep up with Kitty, clutching the smaller girl's hand as they ran through the walls. She slid to a halt abruptly in one of the rooms, causing Kitty to jerk back into her in surprise.
"What is it?!" Kitty asked in shock. They'd finally lost the Juggernaut when they phased to the lower level of the building but they were still trying to find their other team mates. She followed Rogue's line of sight to the row of computer monitors along the wall.
"Aren't you supposed tah be lahke, some computer genius?" she asked her, a grin spreading across her face as an idea came to mind. Kitty didn't seem to grasp it, her face contorting in confusion.
"Yeah but what does that-", realization dawned on the lithe mutant's face, and she dove right into the rolling chair, pulling up the security system screens. She typed maniacally until she could see all of the security camera's views.
"There are the others, let's go find them!" Kitty said, pointing to the view of the medical room where they were currently looking through the cabinets. She got up and grabbed Rogue's hand.
"Kitty wait," she pulled her to a stop again. "Ah've got anothah idea. If yah trust me, that is."
Kitty looked at her for a moment and then nodded. "Yeah Rogue, I totally trust you."
Jubilee gasped, shooting upright. "Oh man, that's GNARLY! What the hell Bobby!" She coughed, waving her hand in front of her face. "Man, my head." She whined, rubbing her forehead.
Bobby sighed in relief, throwing the smelling salts Piotr had found in the cabinet away. "You've been out for almost the whole mission. Juggernaut threw you into a Piotr."
Piotr rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I was in my metal form. I'm sorry."
"We've better go find Rogue and Kitty. Come on," Bobby helped Jubilee off the table.
"As if you could even catch me, you big jerk!" Kitty shouted as she ran from the Juggernaut, looking over her shoulder. She ran into the adjacent wall, coming to a halt on the furthest side of the room.
Breaking through the wall the Juggernaut grinned at Kitty who had seemed to run out of steam. "That's a lot of talk for such a small package. " He picked up a nearby writing desk and held it high above him, "Although, it isn't so much your size rather than what you do with it!"
"Sure ain't." Rogue said, phasing up through the floor behind him. He'd barely registered the new addition when her hand reached from behind him and grabbed his face until he lost consciousness.
"YES!" Kitty clapped excitedly. "My first lead mission and we totally kicked ASS!" The two girls high five as the scene around them fades back to the bare metal room.
"Language Kitty." Ororo chastised lightly as she approached them with a smile. "But in all seriousness, great job."
"Whoa, you mean while I was passed out cold thanks to tin can over here" Jubilee stuck a thumb in Piotr's direction, "you two took the Juggernaut down by yourselves?"
The doors swooshed open and Logan entered.
"Good team work you two." He addressed an elated Kitty and Rogue.
"I mean, to be totally honest, it was Rogue's idea." Kitty said bashfully.
"Yes, but a good team leader knows when to take a team mate's advice." Ororo said. "You're all dismissed."
As everyone began to shuffle out of the room Bobby asked Rogue to stay behind and finally she listened to him.
"Look, I just wanted to say I really am sorry about what I said at dinner the other night. It was stupid. Really stupid, and really insensitive." The genuine look of regret was painted across his face, his icy blues watching her for a reaction.
She sighed, nodding.
"It's okay Bobby. Ah'm sorry too, ah overreacted a little bit." She smiled, "Ah know yah didn't mean it that way."
He looked happy that she apologized also, and for a moment the thought crossed her mind of whether he apologized to make her feel better or to make himself feel better. She shoved it away when he took her gloved hand in his, kissing their linked fingers.
Her heart fluttered.
"So, does this mean you'll be my date to the fundraiser?" Bobby grinned at her, because it was settled months ago when they heard about Warren Worthington Jr.'s fundraiser that they would go 'together', even though it was technically work.
She grinned. "Ah suppose ah can do the honor of gracin' yah with mah presence." They laughed as he led her out of the danger room.