Chapter 7

As Rogue walked to the kitchen to pick up a late lunch she pretended to ignore the funny looks everyone gave her. Gambit had left her bedroom a few minutes before and was probably in the rec room by now. She grabbed what she wanted, then made her way to the rec room herself. It was reasonably crowded, given the time of day, and Rogue joined her friends in front of the TV.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey Rogue. So how's -" Jubilee began mischievously before her eyes widened in shock as she looked at her.

"How's what?" Rogue asked.

"Uhh, Rogue?" said Bobby. "Have you seen your face?"

"Not recently, why?"

Kitty fished out her compact while Pete was making a closer inspection.

"You can do that?" he asked sounding stunned.

"Do what?" Rogue asked, accepting Kitty's compact.

Pete looked towards Gambit, who was watching from the other side of the room and not bothering to hide his smirk. Storm, with whom he was sitting, noticed his inattention and looked over her shoulder to find out what he had distracted him.

Rogue lifted the mirror to see her reflection. The word "SKUNKHEAD" was boldly written across her forehead. There was a picture of an ace of spades on her left cheek and a drawing of a French moustache in the appropriate place. But what really shocked her was what Gambit had written on her right cheek. She knew he had written something, of course, but he hadn't told her what, and now her face was burning bright red as she recognised one of the sentences from her book. She dropped the compact in genuine shock and stood up, pointing her finger at Gambit.

"You... you... you two-bit, pea-brained, low-life, demon-eyed, heinous little scoundrel! How dare ya write on muh face!"

Gambit's smirk grew broader (if that was even possible) as he attempted to keep from laughing out loud at her outburst.

"I was bored, chérie. Usually when femmes have their face in my lap, I'm not wearing pants."

"So ya thought you'd write on muh face?" Rogue said angrily as she stalked over to him.

"Dere was dis pen nearby..."

"And what the hell is this about," Rogue demanded, pointing to her right cheek.

"Ahh, dat would be what I'd love t' do t' yo', if only I could touch your skin."

Pete just about choked on his own saliva, while Rogue's face went even redder. If that was even possible.

"How would ya like it if Ah drew on your face?" Rogue asked, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and pulling him out of his chair.

Gambit reached into his pants pocket and pulled out the pen he'd used earlier. His trench coat was draped over the back of the chair.

"Go right ahead," he said daringly.

It was at that point that Rogue felt inspired. The original plan had been for her to draw on his face, but with her hands still on the collar of his dress shirt, another idea came to mind. She turned her hands so that her fingers went in under his shirt and pulled it open. Gambit's eyebrows raised.

"Uhh..."

Rogue ignored him and pulled off his shirt completely, tossing it behind her before pushing him back onto the chair. She stood back deliberately running her eyes over him to admire the view, both for real and for show. Gambit could only stare back at her.

"Yes," she said finally. "This is a much better canvas."

"Rogue?"

Rogue climbed onto his lap, straddling him and took the pen from his stunned fingers.

"Silence Canvas! An Artiste is at work."

As Rogue started to draw on his chest, Storm caught his eyes and tried vainly to hide her smile and stifle her laughter. Gambit's face started to give way to his usual grin. Well, he sure hadn't excepted Rogue to do anything like this - ever - but hey, if she was going to improvise, so would he. Thus he began slowly trailing his hands up and down her legs and smirked a little as he noticed from her body language that she definitely liked it.

"There!" Rogue said jubilantly.

She scooted off his lap and moved back far enough to grab his shirt off the floor. While she tied it around her waist, Storm, and everyone else who could see what Rogue had drawn, started laughing and snickering. Gambit looked down to see the words "I'M WITH STUPID" with an arrow pointing down to his nether regions.

"Rogue!" he objected, standing up again.

This of course, only improved the view for everyone else in the room. Rogue grinned broadly at him and did a little hip wiggle.

"Whatcha gonna do about it?"

"Come here yo'," he said, moving towards her.

Rogue scampered backwards out of the way, then dashed around the pool table. Gambit approached from the other side, and they circled around it for a bit before he managed to grab her wrist. Rogue immediately put her hand around his wrist, attempting to loosen his hold by applying pressure to his pressure points like they had been taught. It worked, but not before Gambit was able to pin her up against the wall with his body and his free hand.

"Got yo'," Gambit said, his voice low.

"It would appear so."

He leaned in towards her, slowly, enough time for her to place her hand over her mouth as they'd planned (at least some of the original scheme remained). He kissed her hand then went further, kissing up her arm. Rogue moved that hand to his shoulder as he continued to kiss it. Gambit's hands were on her waist, one massaging her hip, the other discreetly untying his shirt, under the guise of playing with hers. Rogue became brave enough to place her free hand on his chest. Although why she would need the courage to do this now, when she was just writing on his chest only a minute ago, she had no idea.

Actually in one way Rogue was a little annoyed about this. Mostly because she was enjoying it way too much, and in addition to being well versed in the bedroom arts, Rogue knew Gambit was pretty quick on the whole body language thing. So he was probably well aware that he was turning her on.

It was at that point she saw a flash of fuchsia in the corner of her eye and she pushed him off. Gambit grinned back at her, pulling his shirt back on. He didn't bother doing the buttons back up.

"Hey," Rogue objected. "Ah stole that fair and square."

"So, I stole it back," he grinned back at her, leaning on the wall next to her. "I did start off my t'ieving career as a pick pocket, y'know."

"Ahem," Logan coughed from the doorway. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Oh, hi Logan," Rogue giggled.

"You're awake."

"Yeah."

"Next time, let me know if you're too tired, Rogue, or stay in bed. Don't dose up on the caffeine."

"Ah won't. Ah'm sorry."

"Hey Logan," called Bobby. "Can we pull the bad nightmare thing to get out of danger room too?"

"Sure thing Ice, the night you spend five hours wandering aimlessly around the mansion and throwing up at irregular intervals, you can miss danger room the next morning," Logan replied shortly.

He glanced over at Rogue and Gambit again, decided he really didn't want to know, and left.

"Well, ma chére," Gambit said. "I'm t'inking we should get cleaned up, no?"

"Yeah, probably," Rogue agreed.

The original plan had been Rogue freaking out, drawing on his face and then the kiss with a little dip. Hey, if people were going to insist on talking, then Gambit wanted to give them something to talk about (preferably something he had control over). It amused him just how far on a tangent they'd gone. He wondered just how far he could take it.

Gambit leaned in closer so she could feel his breath against her cheek and his eyes twinkled with mischief.

"Shower?"

"Right, like that'll work," Rogue snorted contemptuously.

"Where dere's a will, dere's a way."

And without another word, Gambit picked her up in a fireman's hold and carried her towards the door.

"Hey! Put me down, ya great lummox!"

"Sure t'ing chérie, and den yo' can put me down, no?"

"Put ya down? What - oh. Oh! Hey!"

Gambit chuckled as they left the rec room and made their way to the nearest bathroom. He put Rogue down and locked the door while she cracked up laughing, and had to support herself on the basin. Tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"Oh that was priceless. Man, Ah wish we'd set up a camera in advance. Y'know, so we could have watched everyones reactions. Especially Kitty's. Ah bet she's totally freakin' out right about now."

"Dat was good improv on the shirt," Gambit replied, grinning. "Although, 'I'm wit' stupid'?"

"Ah saw it on a shirt once. It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Isn't the arrow usually pointing t' the side though?"

"Not on this one."

Gambit snickered, then snapped his fingers.

"Damn, I left my trench coat in dere."

Rogue giggled, and turned on the taps to start washing ink off her face. Gambit shrugged.

"Hope yo' don't mind chérie, but I t'ink I will have dat shower."

"Seriously? Okay well, I'll just -"

"No, stay. It'll add t' the illusion. I'll just change behind the curtain."

"Yeah because we have a gatherin' outside the bathroom door right now, waitin' ta hear if the shower does in fact start runnin'," Rogue said cynically.

"I suspected as much."

Rogue snickered and Gambit grinned at her as he started taking off his boots.

"Ya have no shame, do ya, swamp rat?"

"Oh I have plenty o' t'ings t' be ashamed about. Dis just ain't one o' dem."

"By the way... this is what you'd like ta do with me if ya could touch muh skin?"

Gambit chuckled as he stepped behind the curtain.

"Chére, I do that all the time. I just liked the way dat book o' yours described it."

Rogue tried to ignore the way her face blushed in her reflection on the mirror as she continued to clean it. Gambit grinned at her silence and dumped the rest of his clothes outside the curtain.

"Chérie?"

"Mmm?"

"I can understand why yo' would read romance novels, but I have to ask... Do yo' get off on romance novels like Bobby gets off on dirty -"

"Don't ya dare finish askin' that question, swamp rat!" Rogue exclaimed, her face going bright red.

"I'll take dat as a yes," Gambit chuckled, turning on the water.

"Shut ya mouth, saloon boy. Not all of us can get the real thing, so don't mock muh guilty pleasures."

"Oooh guilty pleasures is it?"

"If ya don't drop the subject right now Ah promise ya Ah will track down Kate and tell her all sorts of naughty, untrue stories about what we get up ta."

"What kind o' naughty stories? Can I be dere when yo' tell her?"

"Maybe I'll tell her we're engaged."

"Well, dat's no fun. I was hoping fo' somet'ing more along the lines o' what I wrote on your cheek."

"It'll be fun for me ta watch her slap ya."

"On the other hand, mebbe dere'll be a cat fight, no?"

"You're insatiable. Is this ink never gonna come off? Seriously. Did we pick up a permanent marker by accident or something?"

"I'm not having any problems, but den, mine's fresher dan yours."

"Meh."

There was silence for the next couple of minutes then Gambit turned off the shower and asked Rogue if she'd pass him a towel, which she did with eyes averted. She went back to the basin, finally making progress on taking the ink off.

"So, chére... what was that Logan was saying? About wandering aimlessly around the mansion and throwing up?"

"Oh... well..." Rogue stammered a little, then shrugged. "These bad ones - the really bad ones like last night? That's usually what Ah end up doin'. Can't sleep, so Ah just wander around. Ah think Ah just have trouble stayin' still, especially with some of the imagery Ah get. Like with Logan and him getting his adamantium skeleton? He was being held in place and..."

Rogue swallowed and closed her eyes, unable to finish.

"Was dat what yo' were dreaming about last night?"

"Don't know. Ah'd say it was probably somethin' Pyro related, except Ah didn't think he had any psycho memories like that. Maybe it started out with Pyro and Magneto and that fed off inta one of Magneto's memories of the holocaust. That gets me every time. Hell, Ellis Island? Absorbing Magneto and Logan in one day? Ah had nightmares that bad for a month."

"Hank mentioned somet'ing about that," Gambit commented, picking his clothes up off the floor.

"Yeah, well, it was the worst month of muh life. The first couple of days weren't too bad, because Ah had absorbed that much of Logan that Ah was heavy on his personality traits, and that helped a lot. But after Ah lost those traits, Ah was afraid ta go ta sleep. Ah was dosin' up on the caffeine something fierce. Kept wanderin' around the mansion at night, throwin' up and occasionally they'd find me collapsed somewhere on the floor in the mornin'. Ah was a complete and utter mess. Ended up in the medlabs with dehydration and a seriously bad case of exhaustion. They had ta drug me inta sleep and then of course, the dreams would come again. The Professor was able to help me though. He'd already been teachin' me how to make this brick wall in muh mind. Ah'm much, much better at it than Ah used ta be, but Ah haven't quite managed ta keep it from deterioratin' overnight."

"Which is why yo' still get nightmares huh?"

"Yeah."

Gambit pulled open the curtain and stepped out to put his boots back on. He looked at her with a contemplative expression on his face.

"Yo' wit' the Wolverine's personality. Now dat woulda been interesting."

Rogue snorted.

"Ah think that's when everyone first started avoidin' me, actually. That and the fact that Logan nearly died."

"But still... I'm just picturing yo' going around callin' people 'bub', drinking beer, smoking cigars and just generally being aggressive."

Rogue looked over at him, then laughed.

"Well, they did manage ta keep the beer and cigars away from me, but yeah."

"Looks like yo' finally got it all off."

"Just about."

"Damn," Gambit said as he regarded his shirt. "Rogue?"

"Mmm?"

"Yo' ripped buttons off, river rat."

"Oh. Oh no, Ah'm sorry," she said, trying to stifle a giggle. "If we can find 'em Ah'll put 'em back on for ya."

"I'd appreciate that."

Gambit walked up to her, put one hand on her waist and held his shirt in front of her face.

"Present."

Rogue poked her tongue out at him as she took the shirt from his fingers. She made a final inspection of her face as she tied his shirt around her waist again. Satisfied, and with his arm still around her waist, the two returned to the rec room.

Rogue rejoined her friends on the lounge and picked up her late lunch.

"Oh good you got his shirt back," said Jubilee, watching Gambit as he made his way to the other side of the room.

"Yes, yes I did," Rogue nodded.

"Is his hair wet?"

"Possibly."

"Did he shower with -"

"Jubes!" Kitty cut her off in complaint.

"What? That man makes awesome eye candy. Now, if I can only get him to stop calling me 'petite'..."

Rogue giggled and Jubilee drooled happily watching Gambit as he retrieved his trench coat and bent over to pick something up off the floor.

"Rogue? Can we switch places for a day? Please?"

"I don't see what the big deal is," said Bobby.

"That's because you have wimpy abs -"

"I do not."

"Now, Pete here could probably give Remy a run for his money."

Pete coughed and Jubilee laughed at him. Before any more could be said on the matter, Gambit approached them.

"Ahh, chérie," he said to Rogue. "Found 'em."

Rogue held out her hand so he could give her the two buttons he'd found.

"Now, when you're done sewing them back on, I really t'ink yo' should wash and iron it before giving it back t' me."

"That's not really a whole lot of incentive ta return it. Maybe I'll just keep it as a souvenir and sleep with it under muh pillow at night."

"Whatever turns yo' on, ma chére," he replied, leaning over and kissing her head through her hair. "Later."

Rogue couldn't resist the urge to pinch his behind as he moved past. Especially as her eyes were on Kitty's and she promptly winced in disgust. Rogue giggled.

"Oh man," Gambit heard Jubilee complain as he headed out the door. "I wanna get away with doing that."

"Aww, poor Jubes," Bobby said. "If it makes you feel any better, you can pinch me on the ass any time you want."

"Really?"

"Umm, was that the wrong thing to say?"

Gambit chuckled as he left ear shot and headed to his room to grab a clean shirt. This had certainly turned out to be an interesting day after all. He certainly enjoyed seeing how far he could push boundaries and today he felt the boundaries had definitely shifted.

A wicked little smile crossed his lips as he pulled his shirt on, followed by his trench coat. There had been something he'd joked about giving Rogue some months back, but never actually went through with, mostly because he didn't think he could get away with it without upsetting her. But now they had this mutual hobby in freaking out Kitty, and Rogue had been the one to take the initiative and take off his shirt and pinch his behind so there appeared to be a rather nice window of opportunity here he could make use of.

Gambit made his way down to the garage and his motorcycle. He'd already bought Rogue a Christmas present, but he didn't think she'd complain about a second one. And it would have to be a public present, not private like his original intention. Otherwise, they'd miss out on a prime opportunity to freak Kitty out again (and possibly others). Christmas wasn't all that far away now either. Still, he should test the waters out between now and then, just to make sure he actually could get away with it. Rogue was his friend first - one of the closest friends he'd made in a long time - and he didn't want to lose her on account of an ill-thought out gift.