Riiiiiight and we're back!

000

4: Home Truths

Tires screeched to a halt, another car crunching into the back of the first as they skidded, swerved and broke harshly to avoid more collisions and accidents.

Eventually the whole crossing had become congested as cars knotted around each other and people crowded around the young woman sprawled on her back, her dark hair flowing out around her head, eyes blearily opening and face contorting into a dazed, spaced out form of concentration.

Pushing past the crowd, Gambit had once thought the woman had been lying when she said she didn't know how the card changed, but after seeing the poor girl almost crushed and acting on pure instinct, did he turn to believe she had in fact no idea of the mutant genes coursing threw her. She was put in danger and as the panic flushed threw her, so did the apparent power she held, her brain working on it's own as it put thoughts into action with out her even realising.

The sight was quite remarkable and he was somewhat amazed to witness such a thing, a young woman preparing to take a hit from the car as her hands shot out on impulse and like a fly to the windscreen of a speeding truck, the vehicle that came hurtling towards her crunched into the unseen screen before her hands, an odd tangle of purple lined cracks jutting out like a spider's web as the invisible barrier took the hit, the cracking force shoving her back and as her hands fell away so did the lines, leaving the car at a stand still where it's front had been crushed.

"Miss, you ok? How many fingers am I holding," A tall man questioned as he spread all five digits out in front of Lucy's face, while the roots of the almost accident slowly came to a stand behind the man, watching closely as Lucy's brows contorted in effort as she lazily took in the hand above her before mumbling what she could count.

"…Six,"

In a second a frown fell over Gambit's face a fast as the odd flash of colour flicked around Lu's iris and with a note of the colour he instantly turned his attention to a woman's shriek.

A middle-aged woman also on the scene had managed to slap a hand over her gaping mouth as she pointed towards the man trying to get sense out of Lucy, with his six-digit hand. He in turn gave his own startled cry as he caught sight of the extra finger, falling back onto his arse as he shook his hand furiously, the add on digit vanishing as quick as it came.

"I got it from here folks," The mutant quickly jumped in, grabbing one of Lucy's arms, pulling her into a floppy sit before bending to shovel her over his shoulder.

His strides where strong and fast, he needed to create some distance before they realised what she was, the majority of the world refused to accept mutants so it would only end one way, and that was bad. The now unconscious Lucy didn't even know she was a mutant and even thou she did nothing wrong and the only person harmed was the driver, which wasn't all that bad, no one would see it that way.

A mutant girl saving her self from death and the driver getting whiplash and a few bruises…disgusting and unforgivable.

A human girl getting hit by a car and killed while the driver swerves to stop, possibly hitting other cars or pedestrians…acceptable.

The world was a cruel chaos, so the least he could do was remove her from that exposure, not that he was doing it purely for her, he'd benefit in someway.

000

With blurry vision, Lucy slowly came too, her hazy eyes opening to take in the oddly coloured, tasteless, tacky pattern of the fabric under her. She'd never seen the material before and the smell was foreign, being like that of cheap laundry detergent.

After a blink it registered the fabric was a bed sheet and this wasn't her bed. Pushing her arms out she flung herself back with a gasp; her hair falling where ever in pleased in a mess as she quickly took in her unknown surroundings. A small room that seemed oddly grey and empty, the one chair and small desk being the only other items filling the room while two bland pictures hung from the walls.

Her breathing hitched up in panicked gaps as she raked threw her mind of what happened, she couldn't place it, how did she get here, she was hit by a car… right? Where is here?

Sweeping a hand up her forehead she roughly pushed her hair from her face before swinging her legs over the bed and jumping to her feet, something she quickly regretted as something similar to jumping on firecrackers went off.

With a surprised scream and stumbled jumps, more tiny, explosive burst erupted from under her feet before all stopping as she fell back on the bed.

"What the?" She exclaimed breathlessly as she clawed her way onto her hands and knees on the bed, looking down at the floor of the room where various playing cards lay out in lines, the area where she had stepped now homing burn marks.

"Rise 'n' shine," Came the smooth accent belonging to Remy.

Instantly Lu's head snapped in the direction of the doorway where the man stood, an oddly smug look on his face.

"…I've died and gone to hell," She stated with a lifeless voice, simply staring at him.

000

"What happened?" She crossed her legs as she sat more comfy on the bed, staring at the strange man across from her after waiting for about ten minutes as he picked the remaining cards from the floor.

"And why where there exploding cards all over the floor and why the hell have you abducted me!" She blurted out a flurry of questions, growing more nervous as she watched him simply straiten out the cards before plucking the top card, his eyes flicking over it's strait edge and towards the unknowing, mutant.

"What card am I holdin'?" His question was odd and random.

"…I dunno," Lu quickly chirped after she recovered from her confusion at the question, her shoulders shifting up and dropping in a shrug.

"Guess,"

"…I still dunno," She shrugged again; unsure of where this was going.

With two easy strides Gambit had crossed the room, causing Lucy to shift back away from him a little as he took a seat at the end of the bed, staring across at her, his eyes never leaving.

"Think of a card and picture dis being dat card," He held the card up closer to her face, the picture facing him while the back stared teasingly at her.

A frown pulled at her face lightly as her eye contact withered under his, resulting in her forcing herself to busy herself by doing as she was told, staring at the back of the card while thinking what the picture could possibly be.

"Three of clubs," She whispered quietly.

Her eyes wandered sheepishly back up to his; almost expectantly as she waited for the reveal, the smirk on Remy's lips had an unknown meaning.

Flicking the card around he showed her the spoken card, three of clubs.

"Well done," He nodded.

"It was a guess," Lucy shrugged, still confused.

"Was it?" He raised a brow towards her watching as she simply blinked at him.

"Tell me Chéri, what do you think of mutants?"

The question was like a slap to the face, views on that subject where highly divided and she didn't want to go saying the wrong thing or it could easily escalade.

"As in, do I have a problem with them?" She tried carefully, raising a brow and watching as he gave a nod.

"Well…no, I have nothing against them, it not like my life has changed drastically because of them… Why, you gunnu hurt me if I say I hate them, coz you're really one?" Her wide eyes took on an innocent curiosity, despite her statement-sounding question; she waited for the stranger across from her to finally explain at least something.

"You jus' playin' dumb or somethin' Cher?" He questioned harshly, causing the brunette to shift some more distance between them.

"Sorry for playing it safe… and I did ask what was up with the cards," She shot on the defence.

"What makes you think it was the cards?" Remy shuffled the remainder of the deck, his eyes dropping down to it.

"What else could it have been… So how did you do it, I mean, I can only assume that you are a mutant, so what can you do?" She took on a look of curiosity, leaning forwards over her crossed legs.

"You don' seem all that surprised to be meetin' a mutant," He observed though his eyes stayed on the cards.

"We'll no… I already know two mutants, and one of them texted me about you…she mentioned you could do something with cards but that's all she got," Again her shoulders raised and dropped in a small shrug, like an ender for every time she spoke.

"That be why you ain't surprised it was the cards," He gave a nod with a small grin.

"So…how do you do it?"

"Tell me yours and I'll tell you mine," He grinned, his cunning eyes flicking up to lock on to hers, happily soaking up the confusion set on her face.

"Umm I…don't have one, sorry to disappoint," She bit at her bottom lip lightly before waiting for his answer.

"I can manipulate kinetic energy … I also have, a some what hypnotic charm about myself," at the last part Lucy gave a small scoff and disbeliving eye roll.

"Yer, right… did you have to add the second part?" She questioned.

"Would you be sat here with a stranger in his hotel room, as calm as you are?"

Lu opened her mouth to protest and found herself easily becoming dry on what to say, she was oddly calm, she felt little threat and danger from this unknown man who had stalked her for half of the day and swept her away to his shanty little hotel room.

"See, Gambit has a hypnotic charm," he nodded with a smug grin.

"Not when he talks like that," Lucy mumbled, looking around the room to avoid his eyes.

"And you Belle, have a vivid imagination,"

"Meaning?" Lu shot in defence thinking there was a bad meaning behind his words.

"Meanin' what ever your tiny mind thinks up, happens," He flipped the three of clubs back around before flicking it down on the bed between them.

"I don' know how you managed it, but it was an eight of spades," He dug a hand into his pocket and brought out the Ace of spades that had been in question, flicking it down next to the three of clubs.

"And dat was the Queen of hearts" Rmey leveled his eyes to rest on Lu's permantly confused face.

"You saying I did that? That I changed the cards?" She finnaly spoke up.

"Changed the cards and stopped the car from hittin' you," He nodded, watching as her brown eyes glided the room before dropping down to the cards in disbelife.

"But…How?" She mumbled.

"You're a mutant belle, so lets find out how you work," With a firm confident nod Remy stood, a smirk tuging at his lips as he extended a hand down to the bewilderd, young woman, waiting for her acceptance.

"Why are you helping me?" She questioned causiously, watching his every move and looking for the truth in his face.

"For the good of my fellow mutants and to see a smile on that pretty face," As his grin widend, her face dropped down into a very unimpressed look.

"Right… you want something," She nodded, clearly seeing what he wouldn't say.

"We can help each other," Gambit corrected, raising his brows and nodding towards his waiting hand.

000

Hmmm... what does he want and should she accept his help?

ohhhh the wonder

wooooooooooooooooooooooo