Chapter 10
Gambit was just serving up the rice onto plates when Rogue came through the door of their hotel room. She only took a few steps in when she stopped and looked at Gambit in the kitchenette, scooping rice out of a pot with an oven tray resting on the stove.
"Okay wow," she said. "I know you said you were cooking dinner, but I didn't realise you were cooking dinner."
Gambit chuckled. "I actually happen to enjoy cooking. Besides, when you travel as much as I do, it's nice to have an actual meal and not take-away or pre-packaged food all the time."
Rogue nodded. "Yeah, I can see that." Her eyes fell upon the table, already set with cutlery and wine glasses. "Umm... Is this a date?"
"Maybe," Gambit replied casually, setting the now-empty pot aside and making sure the rice was evenly divided across the plates. "I'll leave it up to you. We both gotta eat."
"Yeah..." Rogue said slowly, then glanced down at her bag. "I'm gonna go put this down."
"Alright."
Rogue headed into the bedroom and set the gym bag down next to the suitcase. She hesitated, then glanced out through the door way, thought again for a moment, and finally closed the door.
Gambit smiled to himself when he heard the door close. He picked up one of the plates and took it over to the oven tray to load it up with chicken and sauce, and repeated the procedure with the other plate. Once he was satisfied, he carried the two plates out to the table, set them down, then knocked lightly on the bedroom door.
"Dinner is all ready, ma chere," he said.
"Okay!" Rogue called back. "I'll just be a minute."
Gambit's grin broadened. He busied himself with a quick clean up in the kitchenette. He had been cleaning up as he went, so there wasn't much to do, and Gambit preferred to keep it that way.
Rogue finally emerged from the bedroom wearing her pink long-sleeved mini dress and a pair of short black gloves. She was still wearing her thigh high stockings and high heels shoes. What Gambit couldn't see as he sat down with Rogue at the table, was that she had also changed her underwear and was now wearing the black lacy set he had washed for her earlier that day.
"Okay so," Rogue said, looking at the chicken breast pieces and rice covered in an orange sauce. "I'm guessing this is apricot?"
"Yeah," Gambit replied with a grin, knowing she'd seen the apricots and apricot nectar he'd bought from the store earlier. "Apricot chicken. Have you had it before?"
"Not that I can recall," Rogue said, lifting her fork to begin eating.
"Well, I hope you like it."
Rogue hoped she would too. It was obvious that he'd gone to a lot of effort and she wanted to like it. She cut off a piece of chicken and scooped it up with some rice. Gambit ate his first bite also, not looking at her, as he didn't want to make her feel self-conscious about her initial reaction.
"Oh wow, this is nice," Rogue said, after swallowing.
"I'm glad you like it," Gambit replied, smiling at her and resisting the urge to comment on there being no need for her to sound surprised.
"Yeah, it's good."
Rogue suddenly felt nervous. As she got her next mouthful together she realised she had absolutely no idea what to say.
"So," Gambit said when the silence drew out. "Did you get all those notes you needed to make before Sybil's personality faded?"
"Oh, she hasn't faded," Rogue said. "Well, I mean, the logical fact stuff has faded and yeah, I got everything we needed. I think. I haven't properly reviewed the notes yet what with just having got back. But I got the contact number for the Hell House—that's how she organised the bounty on your head, through a place called the Hell House."
Gambit nodded. "I know the place. It's popular with mercs. Deadpool hangs out there."
"Ah. Well, I got the password and stuff she set up for it," Rogue went on, "only problem is that they do a voice print now, and I might be able to copy her mind but I can't mimic her voice."
"Voice print, huh?" Gambit asked thoughtfully. "Seems unnecessary, but okay. It won't be a problem. I already have a few samples of Sybil's voice."
"You do?"
"Yeah, I like to collect voice samples of important people. I have a bit of software that can use the samples to piece together almost anything I feel like making them say, as long as I have enough of the right samples," Gambit said, then frowned at the table. "Ah, I forgot the wine. Did you want any?"
"Sure. Just a glass," Rogue replied as Gambit stood. "That software sounds a little scary... You don't have my voice on there do you?"
Gambit chuckled as he made his way to the kitchen and pulled the wine bottle from the fridge. "I wouldn't dare take samples of your voice, ma chere. Your voice is so beautiful, why, I'd be tempted to do nothing but listen to it all day."
Rogue was silent for a moment as she watched him swagger back to the table, wine bottle in hand.
"You don't mean that," she said finally. "You just don't have my voice recorded because I'm not 'important'."
"You are important," Gambit said, grinning knowingly at Rogue as he opened the wine bottle. "But if I want to steal anything more from Forge's laboratory it's his voice I would need to get in, not yours. So, Sybil's personality hasn't faded then? She's still in your head?"
Rogue nodded as Gambit poured the wine.
"Yeah. She'll be in my head permanently, but since I only absorbed her a bit over an hour ago her voice is still relatively loud. It'll fade over the next few hours. By morning, I won't even notice she's there," Rogue said. "Well, I mean, I'm always aware of the voices in my head, but when they're that quiet it more like background noise, you know?"
"I suppose," Gambit said thoughtfully, setting the bottle back. "What about mutant powers? How long do they last?"
"Depends on the strength of the absorption and on the strength of the powers. It varies a lot. Sometimes I can only have them for a few minutes, other times I can keep them for hours," Rogue replied with a shrug as she scooped more dinner onto her fork. "Skillsets in general vary a lot. Things like say...bookkeeping. That fades pretty fast. But last year I absorbed five Yakuza assassins trained in bushido, which is the Samurai code of conduct. I'm a little fuzzy on the moral values aspect of it, but I can still do things with a katana I was never trained to do."
"Huh," Gambit mused as he lifted his glass to his lips. "We should have had you and Deadpool have a sword fight."
Rogue laughed. "Maybe some other time. Besides, I have a feeling that his daily experience with his katanas would outweigh my borrowed experience."
As they ate they continued to chat about their respective mutations. Gambit found it a little strange to actually talk about what he could do with someone. Normally he avoided the subject, preferring to keep things mysterious. But talking to Rogue was quite different to talking to others. She, unlike almost everyone else the subject came up with, didn't look at him like a freak or treat him like one, and her interest was genuine, not feigned or ghoulish.
"How long do you think Sybil will be in a coma for?" Gambit asked after awhile, as he scooped up the last of the apricot soaked rice.
"A few hours at least," Rogue replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I can cancel the bounty, but then the next step is in making sure that Sybil doesn't reinstate it."
Rogue nodded thoughtfully and swallowed. "Well, Sybil's the only one who knows about the bounty, at least as far as I know. She caught you in her office and noticed after that her computer wasn't quite as she left it so that's what inspired her to get rid of you."
Gambit raised his eyebrows. "Okay, while I admit I've been through her computer, someone else must have gone through it that day, or else her memory sucks. I did not go through her computer the day she caught me in her office. And she didn't really 'catch' me neither. She was the one who wanted us to meet. Not my fault if she was late."
Rogue giggled at his indignant tone.
"But, I guess that's good news in itself," Gambit went on thoughtfully, cleaning off his plate. "If Sybil was the one who chose to set the bounty, then she's the only one we need to convince not to reinstate it."
"Hmm. Any ideas on how we're going to do that?"
Before Gambit could respond, they were both distracted by the sound of the heavy hotel door opening. Their date was completely forgotten as they got to their feet. Gambit mentally cursed for not thinking to have the bounty cancelled before they started dinner. He had a card in one hand and his retracted staff in the other as Rogue moved to intercept.
In walked Bella Donna, sliding something into her sleeve with a smug smile on her lips as she took them in.
"Ah, here you are Remy," she said, looking him over, then glancing at the dinner table, her eyes landing on the wine bottle. "I've been looking for you."
"So I gathered," Gambit replied warily.
Bella Donna looked from the wine bottle to Rogue. Rogue looked stonily back at the woman she thought she'd managed to ditch at the other hotel.
"This is the new girlfriend, huh?" Bella Donna asked, looking Rogue up and down. "The X-Man Rogue, how amusing. You always did like to make trouble."
"What can I say?" Gambit said dryly. "I learned from the master."
"Hmph. I do hope, Rogue," Bella Donna said, catching and holding Rogue's gaze, "that you're not getting too attached to this little charmer. I don't know what lies he's told you to convince you to help him, but you should know that the only woman he loves is me."
"And yet, here you are, coming to kill him for money," Rogue retorted.
"You're nothing to him," Bella Donna said, refusing to respond to the jibe. "Except maybe another notch on the belt."
"Oh probably," Rogue replied agreeably.
"Wait, what?" Gambit said, completely taken aback by Rogue's response.
"But you're just another notch too," Rogue said, and glanced at Gambit. "It's okay, sugar. There's no need to pretend. I'm not under some delusion that we're going to magically fall in love and live happily ever after." Rogue looked back at Bella Donna and added slyly: "Unlike some people."
Bella Donna's eyes flashed. "Ooh, and here I was generously planning on letting you live."
In a flash of movement, Bella Donna threw a knife. Before Rogue could react, or even work out where Bella Donna pulled it out of, Gambit had deflected it with his still-retracted staff. The knife went flying off to the side.
"Getting a little slow, Belle?" Gambit asked the same time Bella Donna said: "Huh, someone's been practising."
The looks Gambit and Bella Donna gave each other in that moment made Rogue feel like a third wheel. Gambit's staff extended, Bella Donna was suddenly armed with a long knife in each hand, and then they were at each other.
"We don't really need to do this, Belle," Gambit said, blocking her dual knife strikes with his staff.
"Oh, I really think we do," she replied.
She lifted her leg to kick him in the guts, but he dodged out of the way.
"I don't want to hurt you," Gambit said.
"Advantage to me then."
"Is this all I am to you now, chere? A dollar sign?"
"And the seven figures that come after it."
Rogue frowned as she took off her gloves, watching them. There was something about the fight that felt off. Earlier Gambit had sounded so certain that Bella Donna would kill him if she caught up with him, yet watching her, Rogue had to wonder if Bella Donna actually would. Was the assassin just playing with Gambit or testing him out? Or was she really not interested in killing him after all?
There was little time to ponder this, and no chance for Rogue to find an opening to cut in, for there were noises at the hotel door again, as if their intent was not merely to unlock the door, but break it down.
And break it down they did. Three assassins, the same ones Gambit had fought earlier while pretending to be Cyclops, came barging in. They showed signs of their earlier encounter, but apparently being knocked out cold hadn't dissuaded them for long.
"Where's Gambit?" demanded the big guy.
"Umm..." the woman said, tapping her friend on the shoulder with one hand and pointing with the other. "Right there."
Rogue pressed her fist into her other hand as she stood in front of them, between them and Gambit and Bella Donna. "I'm sorry, Gambit's a little busy at the moment, but if you want I can take a message."
The woman glanced at her male companions and gave them an indicative nod. The men grinned and lunged for Rogue. Rogue dodged and kicked and managed to land her bare hand on the bigger mans' bare arm. He dropped to the floor like a stone. The shorter man sneered.
"If you think I'm going to be stupid enough to let you touch me—" he began to say.
"Oh don't worry sugar, I can still kick your ass without using my powers," Rogue retorted.
He doubted her but was quickly corrected. Likewise Rogue realised that he was a significantly tough and experienced opponent. The fact that Gambit was able to take out him and his two companions earlier while unable to see increased Rogue's respect for Gambit as a combatant.
As they fought, Rogue noticed the female assassin slowly move away from them, her eyes on Gambit. She removed the hairpin from the bun her black hair was in and readied herself to throw it the moment she had an opening. Rogue attempted to intercept, only for the shorter man to press his attack, determined to keep Rogue away from his companion.
Undeterred, Rogue twisted away from the shorter man. The woman noticed her out of the corner of her eye and shifted further away, but kept her gaze on Gambit where he continued to fight with Bella Donna. Rogue swung herself around, intending to kick the hairpin out of the woman's hand. The scrapper grabbed at her, throwing off Rogue's aim but not quite enough to stop her from kicking the woman's arm the moment she threw the hairpin.
Gambit swore as the hairpin embedded itself in the wall, inches away from his head. He and Bella Donna stopped in that moment and Bella Donna's eyes narrowed as she pulled the hairpin out of the wall.
"Excuse me?" Bella Donna demanded of the other female assassin as Rogue and the other man continued to tussle. "This is my target, bitch. Back off."
Whatever she might have said in reply was cut off by two things. The sound of breaking glass as the window and door leading onto the balcony smashed, and the sound of voices coming down the hall. The already broken hotel door burst open with the entry of more assassins in street clothes, looking like they were doing just as much arguing amongst themselves. The curtains were opened, revealing a half dozen more assassins, dressed in black.
"We are so not getting the deposit back on this room," Gambit muttered as Rogue struck the scrapper hard in a place where Gambit must have injured him earlier, sending him down to the floor.
"Gambit is my target!" Bella Donna shouted shrilly while Rogue slowly straightened up, took in the number of new opponents to fight, and kicked off her shoes. "I'm the only one who gets to kill him!"
Bella Donna threw the hairpin back at her owner. The woman's reflexes were just good enough that instead of piercing her jugular as Bella Donna intended, the hairpin only scraped by the side of her neck.
"First in, first serve," retorted one of the other assassins as Rogue quickly ripped off her thigh high stockings. "Get him!"
The newly arrived assassins leapt into the fight, Bella Donna turning her attention from fighting Gambit to fighting the other assassins. Rogue pulled off her second stocking, only to realise that the scrapper she'd just been fighting had an excellent view up her dress. She frowned at him and absorbed him through her big right toe. With that problem dealt with, Rogue tackled the assassins coming in the door.
One assassin jumped up on the table and took aim at Gambit over the head of the hand-to-hand and melee-weapon armed assassins. Gambit saw him almost immediately and sent a charged card at him blowing the gun right out of his hands.
"Didn't your mama ever tell you not to bring a gun to a knife fight?" Gambit said.
"Less yapping, more fighting, Remy," Bella Donna growled at him, otherwise busy with a ninja.
"Where's the fun in that?"
Back to back Gambit and Bella Donna fought, both knowing they could trust the other, even if it was only for a little while. The hotel room wasn't really big enough for all the combatants, especially with part of the floor covered in glass. Gambit fought to keep everyone at a distance, at the same time trying to figure out how to get out of this before he got overwhelmed.
Gambit was under no delusions: Every single person in this room except Rogue was out to kill him, and if he wanted to save his own life, he needed to be prepared to kill too. He saw Rogue being shoved up against a nearby wall and knew there was nothing he could do to help her.
Likewise, Rogue also knew how bad the situation was, and there was only one way she could think of that they could get out of this without anyone getting killed. She reached up for the zipper at the back of her mini dress and pulled it down while trying to fight at the same time. It wasn't easy, and it was harder still trying to get out of the dress altogether, but she managed.
Most of the assassins had only hands and faces exposed, and the ninjas even less, so the exposure of her own skin didn't guarantee an absorption but it did increase the chances of success. And with each new absorption, Rogue's fighting skill increased.
Gambit spotted Rogue again, wearing nothing but her bra and briefs, and gawked momentarily. Under normal circumstances that pause wouldn't have meant much, but in the current ones it led to give his nearest attackers an opening. Bella Donna deflected the assault and Gambit woke up to himself.
He charged up his staff and grinned at the nearby ones with a whole new plan of attack. Using his staff as a conduit, he charged up the clothes of those around him. There were only relatively light charges, but they were enough to create holes in their clothes for Rogue to utilise.
Some of the assassins started to realise that Rogue was causing the real trouble, and more turned on her to disable her before getting back to trying to kill Gambit. One ninja (with their clothes still intact) attempted to assault Rogue with his katana, only for Rogue to catch the blade between the palms of her hands. She kicked at him, her toes touching the ninja in the gap in his mask for his eyes, and down he went. Rogue rotated the katana in her hands and continued her assault, using the katana to disable weapons and create openings for herself to absorb more.
Then, at long last, there was only Rogue, Gambit, and Bella Donna still standing. All exhausted, all panting for breath. Rogue and Bella Donna stared each other down.
"Bring it," Bella Donna said challengingly.
Katana and knife clashed against each other, but it was short lived. Rogue's hand only needed to graze across Bella Donna's and she was out of the count. Rogue whirled around to face Gambit...
Her katana stopped a hair's breath short of Gambit's neck...
"Rogue?" he asked.
Breathing hard from her adrenaline fuelled fight, Rogue stared hard at Gambit in silence for what felt like an eternity to him. The one person he believed wouldn't try to kill him...
"Run," Rogue said, throwing the katana away from them like it was burning her hand.
"Chere?"
"Run. Run now," Rogue said with real fear in her eyes, clasping her hands to her chest. "I just absorbed way too many people who want to kill you and I don't know how long I can hold them back."