Skin Deep
A/N: So the plan (crosses fingers) is to finish Skin Deep by the end of March. Which means y'all can figure on updates coming really quickly and close together. That's the plan. Let's see if I can actually manage it.
Chapter Ten
Remy gave her a week.
One solid week of not bringing up the fight between Rogue and the vampire that he inadvertently interrupted. A week of watching Marie pretend to laugh and have fun with la belle Sookie. A week of her disappearing to her own personal paranoia-project under her house every day, for seven days straight. Seven days and seven nights of no leather, no silk, and no motorcycle. Seven days of not leaving the Stackhouse place unless it was to go do more work at her own place across the cemetery.
Remy let her have that week.
He let her mope and pretend to be happy and spend all her time avoiding any mention of vampires. He let her focus all her energy on crafting her subbasement, he helped her finish the work on a security system that might even be able to keep him out. Might. Maybe….he'll test it when she's not around to check.
Remy encouraged Sookie to go over to Rogue's house and help her paint, thinking that maybe she needed a female perspective or a woman to open up to.
He even lugged boxes and arranged furniture when the interior was declared "perfect" and then assisted sweet Ms. Adele with finalizing the landscaping.
Remy was a good boy and a good friend for a week.
Then Remy got evil.
If Rogue wasn't willing to pull her head out…well.
Remy knows exactly who could fix that for her.
And as far as her "man" troubles?
Well.
He knows someone who would be more than up to the job of taking her mind off them.
Remy just hopes that when all the chips are down his Marie is back, kicking ass and taking names. Even if it means she never talks to him again over the cards he dealt from the bottom of the deck this time.
*l*l*l*l*
Pam watched as her Maker sat immobile on his throne with all the animation of a mannequin for the fourth time in the last week. While enthralling the vermin is hardly Eric's preferred way to spend his time, he usually carries it off with just the right amounts of disdain and menace to keep the blood-bags entertained and paying the cover charge and sucking down overpriced drinks.
It's all that creature's fault.
Ever since she shashayed her cute mutant ass into the bar, Eric hasn't been himself. Her Master is a Viking Vampire God who takes shit from no one and only gives a damn about his progeny, his Maker, and where he can find his next fight, fuck, and feed. Not this…apathetic creature.
Rolling her eyes she spun on her six-inch heels and heads back to the office to try and make some sense of the area paperwork that Eric's let stack up over the last week.
Something better give and soon. She doesn't know how much longer she can stand these…these feelings that her Maker is unconsciously punishing her with through their bond.
And it's all that creature's fault.
*l*l*l*l*
Rogue strolled listlessly through her completed home, taking in the comfortable furnishings with their rich materials, the elegant rugs, the artwork and accents that were all selected to convey a sense of warmth and home combined with a bohemian flair. She took it all in, all the creature comforts that money could buy.
Down below the house in her "lair" as Remy took to calling it, she had a state-of-the-art computer and security set-up that Kitty would die for thanks to the stock she owns in Stark Industries. She also kept her work-out set up in the subterranean rooms: both fitness and combat areas to make sure she doesn't get rusty.
Not that such a thing is really probable with her mutation but it doesn't hurt to keep on top of things.
Yep, Rogue is on top of things and her life has fallen nicely into place.
Why then, is she so fucking miserable?
So far she's kept her dissatisfaction with her life from bleeding into her relationships with her family. Sookie is happy in the flirtation-stage with Remy (who Rogue is avidly avoiding due to his empathic abilities), Jason's back to being his horn-dog self since he was cleared in the Pickens case, and Adele is ecstatic over how the grounds at Rogue's house and the upgrades at her home are going. But it's only a matter of time.
Not being able to read her mind isn't going to keep Sookie from catching on.
The cousins are already asking questions about when Rogue is going to come back to Merlotte's to meet more of the people in town and their Gran has started hinting about Rogue attending church. Now that her house is ostensibly finished…Rogue is out of excuses for her anti-social behavior, especially with another woman, another fangbanger, popping up dead. This time the brunette from Sookie's work, Dawn.
Somehow she didn't think "I had the hots for a vampire who just wanted to add me to his stable of willing females and now I'm half-pissed and half-depressed" wouldn't be received very well.
Right about now she wished she had a mission to go jetting off on…
But she's done playing superhero.
She wanted a more stable life. A more normal life outside of being a vigilante.
She wanted time to come to grips with her parentage.
Now she's getting it and it sucks.
*l*l*l*l*
Remy just about did a happy dance when he got the call.
Stage 1 of Operation: Rogue Reboot is under way.
Time to call in the big guns.
*l*l*l*l*
Ten days after her disastrous second visit to Fangtasia, Rogue found herself being forcibly removed from her own home by the most devious of methods: guilt.
"Come on, cuz." Jase towed her into a brightly-lit Merlotte's with an arm planted firmly around her shoulders. "You've spent long enough cooped up in that big ol' house, getting it just the way you want it. You need to spend some time around people, have a drink, and loosen up."
She should've bolted when Sookie and her friends Tara and Lafayette barged into her master bath while Rogue was in the middle of attempting to relax in a bubble bath. She should've back 'em off when they talked her into letting them loose in her walk-in closet, now filled to the brim from a whirlwind of shopping courtesy of her credit card and her friend Jubilee being set loose with her sizes in Saks. The shipping alone from New York on everything was outrageous.
But the main mistake she made was letting Jason pick her up and toss her into the front seat of his truck…whether she liked it or not. She should've just dropped his ass, kin or no.
So now here she is: wearing a pair of knee-high sky-high-heeled boots in murderous red, silk stockings with garters in smoky grey, a leather skirt that screamed to a stop above mid-thigh, and a skin-tight long sleeved silk top in red to match the boots. Lala had himself a field day with her hair and make-up which combined with the outfit they bullied her into made her nothing but suspicious.
Jeans and a cotton T-shirt would've been more than dressy enough for the bar-and-grill.
What the fuck were they up to?
Watching through narrowed eyes as Remy sauntered on into the bar with an arm around Sookie – her suspicions started to dig in and grow roots. Slapping a sweet smile on her sexed-up face – smoky eyes and red lips to match her outfit – Rogue walked on over to her best-friend after they joined the friendly crowd around the pool table consisting of Jason and his friends Rene and Hoyt plus Sookie's friends Lala and Tara. Together with Remy, Rogue, and her cousins it made for a loud and lively grouping.
"Excuse me, Sook." Rogue shot a dazzling smile at her cousin, wrapping her hand in a biting grip around Remy's forearm. "I need to borrow Remy for a quick sec."
"Everything ok?" Sookie watched them out of concerned eyes.
"Everythings peachy." Rogue waved off her concern as she tugged Remy into step behind her. "Just peachy." She gritted.
Dragging him behind her to the alley back between the bar and the owner's trailer, Rogue blasted through the door and shoved Remy up against the outside wall.
"What the fuck is going on?" She demanded furiously. "What did you do?"
Before he could answer she heard a low chuckle coming from the shadows. A low chuckle that danced along her nerve-endings and sent shivers up her spine and tingles between her legs. A low chuckle that she would recognize anywhere. A low chuckle belonging to somewhere who should be anywhere but Bon Temps.
"Hey Stripes." Victor Creed stepped out of the shadows, grinding out his cigarette under one heel. "How's tricks?"
Glaring at Remy, refusing to look over at the man right under Eric on her "want to but won't" list, Rogue tossed him away from her inadvertently slamming him back up against the wall while she was at it.
"You called him?" She accused, voice disgusted. "Of all the people you coulda sic'd on me to get me outta my funk, you called Sabertooth?"
Ignoring both men, thoroughly pissed at the entire male gender, Rogue stormed back into the bar.
I need a fuckin' drink. She growled to herself.
Right there with ya, kid. Logan growled back. I'm right there with ya.
*l*l*l*l*
Victor Creed just raised a brow at the bruised body of Gambit in a gesture common to both his brother and Stripes – that they both stole from him anyway.
"She been like that long?" He asked, the Cajun who sent him an S.O.S. several days ago. Not that he was put out by any means. Getting a chance to talk Stripes into bed now that she's not living with the runt isn't a shot he's about to pass up.
Have you seen the curves on that woman?
"Ten days, now." Remy said with a wince as he felt his minor healing factor working on the bones she almost snapped out of place when she threw him against the wall – twice.
Victor just grunted, Gambit gave him the run-down when they talked earlier that week.
"Jimmy headed this way?" He needed to get a bead on how long he has to soften up sweet little Marie before the runt-sized cock-block known as his little brother comes riding to her rescue. Nothing like a good fuck to shake off a funk and Marie's been in a funk off-and-on for years.
"Stormy said they're out workin' a mission somewhere. Be a couple more days at least before he gets the message."
"Excellent." Victor's grin was nothing but predatory as he clapped on clawed hand on Remy's shoulder, making the smaller male wince again.
*l*l*l*l*
Storming back over to the pool table Rogue picked up a shot of bourbon left there for her by a thoughtful Sam and shot it back before slamming it back onto the table.
"Rogue?" Sookie eyed her carefully.
"Your boyfriend is an interfering asshole." She snarled in response before turning and picking up a pool cue. "Who's up?'
"Boyfr…" Sookie spluttered, taken aback.
Remy just shrugged at Sookie's helpless look when he and Victor joined the group, Remy going through the introductions quickly as Rogue resolutely ignored both males.
As Victor walked up behind Rogue, bracketing her hips in his clawed hands and leaning down to nuzzle her ear, subsequently blocking her from the view of the rest of the bar, the doors were thrown open as three new arrivals took the place by storm.