Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Rogue asked.
"Totally, can't you hear the music?" Jubilee asked walking up the drive to the mansion.
"Yeah, but..." Rogue started.
"No buts! Just get those feet going one after the other, hup one, hup two!" Jubilee urged on pushing at her from behind.
Ever since the taxi had pulled past the famous Beverly Hills sign Rogue had been suffering her doubts in silence, staring off at the manicured lawns and immense houses. Back when Jubilee had said there was a pool party with her friends she never imagined anything like this. If it were true she felt sorrily underdressed, wearing just some of the things their shopping trip had scored. Without even knocking Jubilee let herself in with the music blaring.
For one panicked moment Rogue thought the whole thing were untrue with the surprise some around showed as Jubilee lead the way, letting go of her held breath as an older girl rushed to snatch the petite skater girl up in a hug.
"You made it!" The tall twenty something blonde cheered.
"Puhleaze like I'm gonna miss one of your parties CynJenn!" Jubilee laughed as she was set down.
"Finally making some friends your own age are we? Call me Cynthia, brat there's the only one still calling me that god awful nickname." Cynthia introduced with a hand offered to Rogue.
"Rogue, hi. How...do you know each other?" Rogue asked trying to clear the confusion.
"Used to babysit for the Lees, earned me my own little protege. Alright kiddo the pools drained and the band's set up, go have some fun. Behave yourself and I just might look the other way if a few glasses of something or other go missing." Cynthia said with a wink, pushing Jubilee off towards the end of the house.
About to follow after her, Rogue felt a hand at her shoulder and couldn't help herself from jerking away. Looking apologetic to her host, instead she found an understanding smile and her hand offered again.
"Lets go get you a drink and go sneak off somewhere a little quieter, get to know each other." Cynthia said, leading the way to the kitchen.
The party was everything Rogue had ever imagined or had seen glamorised in film, bottles lining the counter with people revelling it up. Glimpsing out the windows she could see just as many out in the back of the estate, people from their teens to their twenties having the time of their life with even a few thirty sometimes in the mix. When the red solo cup of beer was pressed in hand Rogue was about to protest only for something within her to stir with a strong thirst, savouring a sip that calmed the sudden need.
"So, Rogue...hippie parents or just reinventing yourself?" Cynthia asked trailing them off towards the stairs to the upper floor.
"New life, new name..." Rogue replied hesitantly.
"Another soul looking to make it big or just run away from the life mundane? Here, there's a balcony we can keep an eye on her at." Cynthia said, opening a door and leading into some master bedroom.
With appraising eyes Rogue looked around thinking it would have put most of the main floor of her former home to shame for how spacious it was, walking off to the french doors which lead to the balcony. Sitting in one of the rattan chairs Rogue looked down to the drained pool to see Jubilee leading the way with a pack of boys behind her as they ripped around. The band played some hyped up covers of classic rock to which most of the guests cheered and hollers, those that weren't too busy making amorous advances on another.
"Wow..." Rogue said, stunned to find herself at such an event.
"So how did you two end up meeting?" Cynthia asked, kicking her feet up on the railing.
Mulling over the question and just how to find enough truth in it, in the surest sense Jubilee had saved her. Having another sip of her beer with a blush, back home she never would have entertained the idea even at the odd house party she had been to that seemed so silly in comparison to where she was now. Just a bunch of teens playing while their parents were away, filled clumsy boys making advances on the girls and whatever was raided from the liquor cabinets.
"At the beach, someone...tried to hurt me. She helped me get away..." Rogue related as she stared into her cup.
"Oh, helped like...skateboard upside the head or helped like..." Cynthia asked, wiggling her fingers.
That she knew surprised her, but what shook her sense of self was that she looked to not give a damn that Jubilee was different and more than anything had a look of pure sympathy held in her startling blue eyes. Nodding as she couldn't find the words to say yes, seeing Cynthia look down so fondly of their shared friend had her warming to the older woman.
"She helped me in a bad situation once too, back when life was simple and I was still sitting for her parents." Cynthia whispered, having a sip of what Rogue could easily tell was some fine scotch by the scent alone.
"What happened?" Rogue asked softly feeling her curiosity gnawing at her.
"Classic mistake, was taking care of little Miss Lee there when she was nine and ten months as she always said, wanting everyone to know she was just shy of such a mature ten." Cynthia laughed, shaking her head at the memory.
"Well, I was eighteen myself and instead of studying for exams like I should have been I had my boyfriend over, my now ex-boyfriend thank you very much. Some piece of eye candy I hooked up with at a party a couple of months before who was already in his second year of college." Cynthia added, looking down on the party as someone called her name to give them a wave.
"Well, one thing lead to another and we were getting hot and heavy when we were getting ready for the deed. Told him to use a rubber and he kept trying to feed me some line, oh baby I'm clean, it ruins the feel, usual bullshit." Cynthia sighed, a look of clear embarrassment mixed with shame.
"What happened?" Rogue found herself asking, feeling she knew the answer but still needing to know.
"Kept telling him no but he kept forcing it, he...tried to rape me." Cynthia whispered, her face flushed with a tear rolling down to fall into her drink.
"But he didn't?" Rogue asked hoping she was right.
Cynthia managed a smile against the pain she had recalled seeing the concern her guest had expressed, looking back on down to Jubilee tearing it up in the empty pool earning cheers from those watching.
"He had my hands over my head and was trying to get my pants down when it all happened, I guess she woke up when I screamed. I saw her on the stairs, just scared outta her little head seeing something no girl her age should have to. I, I remember he had the balls to tell her it wasn't what it looked like..." Cynthia said with a shaky breath.
"I screamed for her to run and call the cops. She ran but he took off up after her, that was when..." Cynthia finished unable to say the words, just wiggling her fingers.
"The cops came and didn't even ask why he had burns on him, they thankfully just took him away. Between both our parents they got some lawyer that had the book thrown at him, attempted rape, assault...assault of a minor...whole nine yards. I still have nightmares sometimes about what would have happened if she hadn't...if she wasn't..." Cynthia cried out with a sputtered sob, fighting against the dredged up memories.
"I'm sorry..." Rogue whispered.
"I'm not, not really...because I was his last and the case got so much press others came forward and it turned into the twisted kind of alright that's the normal in LA. Everyone trying to make monsters out of mutants just need to step back and look in the paper to see what monsters we can be..." Cynthia said with a sad smile for the girl down having the time of her life.
"Something else happened didn't it?" Rogue asked remembering the diner and the moment her friend's facade had fallen.
"Not even six fucking months later someone killed her parents, some robbery gone bad another night I was sitting so they could go out to celebrate Missus Lee's birthday." Cynthia revealed with a pained sigh.
Staring down in shock, Rogue wondered just how this girl that had become her friend could seem so carefree with all that had happened. The smile she sported was clearly genuine, the laugh wholly real as she played for the crowd that cheered her on. Turning back to the older woman across from her, Rogue saw a knowing smile in her eyes as they met.
"I don't know how she does it either, but she just keeps on smiling and laughing and that's all that matters. Keep an eye on her for me will you? I know she's got a lot of friends out there, right along with the one that just showed up fashionably late." Cynthia smiled, climbing from her chair to lean over the balcony and wave.
Joining her feeling renewed with hope, Rogue looked down to find that other person who had saved her mingling in the crowd only to look up to them. Remy was dressed for the party at hand with a drink already in hand, but as he looked to them she felt his eyes fall on her in particular in a way that stirred something not in the back of her mind this time but a fluttering in her belly. She knew she surely was blushing as Cynthia looked to her with a 'Cat who ate the canary' smile.
"I see you've already met Remy then, c'mon Rogue...enough of this depressing stuff. I know they say I can cry if I want to, but this is my party and I want to dance!" Cynthia managed with a laugh to lead the way on.
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Taking Cynthia's hand in his for a chaste kiss, Remy bowed to her before pulling her into a friendly hug with a whisper of thanks for the invitation to the party. At her side Rogue stood sheepish, taking her hand in his for another performance though this time stepping in closely to stare into her eyes as he pressed her knuckles to her own lips with the kiss he had just placed there. The blush that darkened her cheeks was nearly lost in the kiss of the sun that had her breaking out in freckles, taking a step back to give her the space she needed.
"I find myself in the company of the two most beautiful ladies at the party tonight, may I fetch you both a drink?" Remy asked of the pair.
"A scotch if you would my good man and do find something to wet those dangerous lips of yours Remy." Cynthia purred, drawing Rogue to her side with an arm wrapped about her shoulder.
"A...yes, that too..." Rogue said in a few sputtered words, that curious thirst coming again strongly.
"Bon, then I shall be back shortly." Remy purred, heading off to one of the kitchen come bar.
Looking around he saw the many faces that were regulars at the parties thrown by Cynthia, carrying on in the tradition of her parents before her as he had heard from the people themselves. As interesting a heritage it was to pass on from generation to generation, Remy indulged himself in the distraction from his foul mood that had fallen over him earlier in the day. By the time he found his way back to the pair of lovely ladies, his Petit Ange was there with a fluted glass in hand as he passed out the drinks in hand.
"Don't worry, it's just sparkling juice! Got too much skating left to go gettin' stupid." Jubilee assured passing the glass up to him for a sip.
"Well, if you be partaking of the champagne tonight you just have to give me your board oui? No hurting yourself now." Remy said, handing back the glass to her.
"Duh, I now I'm a light weight. God, I don't know how you guys can drink that stuff anyway. I tried a sip and it just tasted like burning and gross." Jubilee huffed with a look to the trio and their Scottish whisky.
"It's an acquired taste brat." Cynthia said with a sip.
"Yeah, acquired like the Hep C, I'll stick with my occasional bit of the vino thank you very much." Jubilee said with a face.
Looking to his Rogue he could see she had mixed feelings on the whole thing even as she savoured another sip of her scotch. It felt wrong to be drinking it out of the red solo cups, but this was a party instead of an event. That Jubilee had her own fluted glass showed the preferred treatment she always earned wherever she went, Remy suddenly fearing the day she got old enough to start sneaking into clubs and bars on her own.
"So Chere, what do you think of your very first Beverly Hills party?" Remy asked as he leaned in to whisper.
"I, I still can't believe..." Rogue sputtered, looking around once more clearly enamoured.
"Good to have friends who know people, non?" Remy teased, guiding her off to where Cynthia and Jubilee were off in some debate over stuff the younger of the two shouldn't have any knowledge about.
"When she said it was a pool party..." Rogue carried on looking to the skaters ripping it up.
"Way Cynthia tells me, the pool was always for her. When she younger she say she liked to swim in it, now...she doesn't swim so much so they think this be a better use. No more throwing money down the hole in the backyard either as far as her parents say she tells me." Remy chuckled.
"She's really..." Rogue whispered looking again to Cynthia.
"Tres Belle?" Remy offered.
"Nice!" Rogue laughed suddenly, swatting Remy.
"That too, I may flirt but I know they be too close to ever think of her in that way..." Remy conceded, wrapping an arm about Rogue as he stood with her watching the antics before them.
Feeling her stiffen for a moment, Remy was pleased as she melted into his embrace trailed a finger down to her waist to sway with her to the music. Jubilee had passed off her empty flute to Cynthia before rushing off back to the empty pool to show up the boys egging her on, the hostess offering a wave to the young girl before rejoining them.
"Well look at you two, that reminds me I have to go find someone I've had my eye on. Remy, behave yourself, perfect gentleman oui?" Cynthia purred, looking to the pair.
"Am I ever any other kind, mademoiselle?" Remy questioned lightly.
"Just behave yourself, you smooth talker you." Cynthia chuckled, winking at them as she vanished off into the crowd.
Left alone with empty cups and the music playing, Remy spun to stand before Rogue and look down to her for some hint to the musings of her mind. Taking her gloved hands in his he lead her off closer to the impromptu stage to join the rest in listening to the slow rock playing.
"Now this, this be the kind of music that one should dance to..." Remy said softly staring into her eyes.
"Free Bird?" Rogue questioned with a hearty laugh.
"What be wrong with Free Bird?" Remy chuckled, though she still held his hands as he swayed with her to the classic rendition played.
"Nothin' Sugah, I...I just never took ya ta be a fan o' this sort o' music..." Rogue recanted.
That he had coaxed a genuine smile from her had him offering his own, guiding her hands to his chest that he could slip his to her hips. She seemed hesitant at first but soon relaxed, the handful of others dancing with them having a crowd all of their own watching from afar.
"There be a whole lot you can get to know about this N'awlin's boy, as much as I do enjoy the finer things in life I know how to enjoy the simpler things too..." Remy said.
"That almost sounds like an insult Mister!" Rogue laughed as she swatted him.
"Oh trust me Chere there be no such thing as a simple lady, every last one of you be the most complex beauties the world has to offer, it be we men who be the simple ones." Remy whispered.
That she blushed said everything she needed voice, dancing with her to the slow opening to the song knowing it was the calm before a very enjoyable storm. Leading her off, as the guitars picked up he turned her to the pool for just what he expected. Sure enough many joined around in anticipation, Jubilee leading the way with some others tearing up the pool in time to the song. Weaving with another they ripped up to the edge and caught air, landing perfectly ride that concrete wave.
The display was hypnotic standing there watching the riders roll with another in a sinuous circuit. Out of the pack some broke off after a time to find their breath, standing in the centre calling on the rest. Standing there watching it all with Rogue at his side, it let him forget the blade they lived under for another day that they could just enjoy themselves this night.
"I gotta try that sometime..." Rogue said watching their friend tire herself out to the new song playing.
"Trust me, she make it look easy. See, even the big boys she playing with now have a time keeping up with her." Remy noted.
"Still want ta try." Rogue sniffed, her foot put down.
"Well, how about we worry about that another time non? Lets go get another drink, try and find our Petit another sparkling juice and some water." Remy said, slipping his arm through hers to lead her off.
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Laying in his arms at the edge of the empty pool, Rogue wondered if she shouldn't have been feeling something after the indulgences she had partaken of. The many glasses of scotch and the few beers she partook of had her suffering nothing, looking on to the many still lingering at the party in its late hour flushed and fatigued in their inebriation. Jubilee was nearby curled up with Cynthia, the two both enjoying a glass of champagne each to round out the evening.
"Sleepy..." Jubilee yawned, having another sip then.
"Good, you're past your bedtime brat. You can all crash here tonight." Cynthia teased, extending the offer.
"Merci Cynthia, always the perfect hostess." Remy thanked with a yawn of his own.
"You don't mind?" Rogue asked sleepily.
"Nope, got the place to myself. Little miss Lee and her friends always got an open invitation from the folks anyway. Well, I better get her stumbling off to bed so I don't have to carry her. C'mon brat, down the hatch." Cynthia said, the pair putting back their last swallow.
Watching them head off to the house, Rogue lolled her head back and felt safe and secure in the arms that held her just then. Gone was the fear of being touched and hurting him, throughout their night he had earned her trust in countless gestures of endearment.
"Thank you Remy..." Rogue said softly staring up to him as he looked down to her curiously.
"For?" Remy asked with a grin.
"For being a gentleman, just like you promised." Rogue offered, taking his hand to place a kiss to it.
"De rien, a lady always deserves to be in the company of a gentleman." Remy said with a kiss to the top of her head.
Again without knowing why, lying there with him and catching the spicy scent of the whisky on his breath and his own unique aroma Rogue knew he was speaking the truth. Feeling her eyes grow heavy only from the late hour, blinking once, twice, then thrice darkness took her most easily falling into a sound slumber without a fear in the world.
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