Ariesque Presents:
Back in the Day: The Legend of Logan's Kin
Genre: AU/Romance/Drama
Rated: PG-13 for violence, language, and other suggestive parts; I will warn beforehand
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or lyrics of any songs I place in my story, although I do wish I did.
A/N: Huzzah! My goal was to churn out another chapter before winter break ends, so here it is with not a minute to lose! Consider it a late winter break present. Some language to be expected.
21. A Meeting
A few hours before, Maddie's Saloon for Pleasant Chaps: 1877
Victor Creed had on a dumpy cowboy hat, riddled with bullet holes, a favorite of his, as he reclined in his chair with bourbon between his hands. Remy LeBeau took his sweet time approaching the man; his face was certainly not a welcome one. But when Creed glanced up and saw the thief standing a few feet away, he swung his legs off the table and grinned with all his shiny, violent teeth.
"Good to see you, Gambit." He motioned to the chair across from him. "Have a seat."
Remy stuffed his hands into his pockets and did not sit down. "You ain't s'pposed t' be seen in public when I'm around. We agreed on that."
Creed pretended not to hear. "So which one is she, Remy? She can't be so plain if she's a dancer…"
The philanderer cut him off. "There better be a good reason y' asted f' me."
Creed let his hat slide over his eyes. "There have been rumors from the last time we spoke in Tennessee. Thought I'd give you fair warning." He allowed a few moments of silence to finish his bourbon. "Mutant talk; the great Logan lives."
Remy narrowed his eyes. "I don't believe it."
"I wouldn't be so sure of yourself, LeBeau. I know that scent like the back of my hand. It's faint right now, but it's blowing this way. And whatever it's chasing might just end up catching you."
Remy sat down quickly and hunched towards the foreman. "How far?"
Creed shrugged nonchalantly. "I'd give it three days."
"Three?!" Remy was outraged. Creed smirked, not kindly, and reached into his pocket.
"That gal must mean something powerful to Logan. It's good enough for Magneto." He tossed a bag of coins unto the table. "Your payment in advance, as requested."
Remy glared at him. "I asted two weeks ago," he spat, but took it anyway and counted the fifty gold coins inside. Creed looked on with a hint of amusement.
"Satisfied enough?" The foreman traced the edge of his empty glass with one long, sharp fingernail. "Magneto's interested in meeting her, LeBeau, and you know he can't wait forever. Death from a single touch. Now that's power." He said this in mock amazement and laughed, outright and crazed.
The thief cringed. "She ain't ready yet."
"It's been almost two months now, Remy." Creed leaned forward, a wicked gleam in his eye. "Don't tell me you've become attached to this mutant."
Remy got to his feet, stuffing the bag into one of his many coat pockets. "I'll call y' when I need y'."
"No need." Creed dropped a few coins for the bourbon. "I always know where to find you, Gambit. And so does Magneto."
"Thet's what I'm 'fraid of," Remy said, half-meaning it, and went walking back to the front of the saloon as Creed waited until Remy was out of sight before disappearing into the crowd and into the night.
22. Saying Good-bye
Maddie's Saloon for Pleasant Chaps: 1877
The clock on her mantle chimed two in the afternoon as Rogue threw off the covers and dressed quickly, stopping only to stare at herself in the mirror for awhile. The saloon was quiet at this hour, rid of both patrons and dancers alike, and Rogue could think to herself for a bit without being disturbed. She had promised Remy she would return to Piotr's place before the day was over, but there was no motivation to leave right away.
Rogue had slept at the saloon because she did not want to see Piotr and Kitty together in that shack. She did not want to see them make amends and forgive the past and run away together; she was not strong enough to just stand and smile and pretend she was not jealous. Rogue had to get that out of her head, to stop acting like such a ninny as Remy called her, and so she retreated to the only other place she knew in Kentucky, and let Bobby pour the bourbon until he had to help her up to her room after she drank a bit too much for one sitting.
She fixed her face and put her bleached bangs behind her ears. She had to be happy for them. She would be happy for them.
Rogue stared into the mirror and threw her powder puff at her reflection. "When are yah gonna stop lying tah yahself, coward?" She got up and walked to her window to view the back of the saloon and was surprised to find Kitty Pryde loading her suitcase into the carriage as Tabitha talked loudly and Bobby pitched the horses to the carryall. She watched as Kitty went to hug the girl good-bye, making Tabitha break down sobbing.
"So she's leaving for Piotr's." Rogue snorted. "Figures." She walked down the stairs and out the back door just as Kitty came through, wearing her best blue dress and pelisse. Her face was carefully powdered and prim with hair pulled high behind her head with a matching blue ribbon, and when she saw Rogue she flushed a little and looked uneasy.
"Sayin' your good-byes?" Rogue asked the girl as she crossed her arms in front of her. Kitty smiled ruefully and looked away.
"Yes."
"Well, then, good luck. Piotr must be very happy."
Kitty glanced at her quickly. "Well, I don't know about that." She picked up a hat box by the door and held it against her hip.
"Where will you two go?" Rogue further prodded. Tabitha made a small sound and Bobby stopped working the horses long enough to stare at Rogue.
Kitty calmly stepped into the carriage but left the door open. "Ride with me to the station, Rogue."
The girl was surprised, not expecting that offer, let alone from the likes of Kitty Pryde. Rogue walked up to the carriage and noticed Kitty watching her coldly. They stared at each other for a silent, tense moment before Rogue climbed inside and took her seat across from Kitty as Bobby whipped the horses alive.
As the saloon fell away behind them, Rogue shifted uncomfortably as Kitty looked out the window. "Dis is all mighty unusual, Miss Pryde," she said, minding her words carefully.
Kitty did not turn towards her. "I wanted to talk."
"Look, if Remy said anything, then Ah apologize. Ah know Piotr will only love yah and dat things would work out dis way and Ah'm happy for yah, Ah really am." She squeezed the last few words through set teeth, hoping it sounded truthful at the very least. Kitty hardly seemed to notice as she continued to stare out the window.
"We avoided each other for two months. This is the first time we've actually talked since then. I was mad at him, and I guess he was angry also. We're practically the strangers we were the day we met."
"So why save him?" Rogue was not sure what Kitty was telling her, but she was determined to find out.
"I suppose I wanted to see him again. It was convenient that way."
Rogue nodded; sure, she could understand that. "He must've liked dat surprise. Reckon he got it all wrong, accepting a note you didn't write…"
"Oh, so you've decided to believe me."
Rogue glared at her. "Lahke Ah said: reckon."
Kitty allowed herself a smile. "What else did he tell you about me?"
Rogue narrowed her eyes, wondering why Kitty was suddenly so curious. "Romantic, silly things. He's not much of a talker, yah know."
"I do." She closed her eyes.
"But he loved yah all dis time while yah were with Alvers. And he respected dat all raht and let yah go. He would do it all over again if he had known different."
"Funny how things go sometimes." She was being so calm and irreverent that Rogue was becoming more than a little annoyed.
"Hey. Piotr's done good, even if he's just a miner."
Kitty nodded lifelessly. "He's a good man. Distant, quiet, sure, but good all the same."
Rogue blinked. "Kitty, what are yah getting at? Where is Piotr takin' yah?"
Kitty turned her head to face Rogue, suddenly, finally. The girl had never seen Kitty Pryde so sad before. She was just this broken, hopelessly beautiful girl that Rogue couldn't stop staring at.
Finally, Rogue understood. "We aren't meeting him, are we?" The words tasted strangely stale.
The ride was bumpy and tossed Kitty back and forth, robbing the silence as the wheels rammed through rocks and dirt and dust. They sat in their own disbelief for awhile, allowing the world to turn and life to go on outside that carriage.
"Does he know?" Rogue asked, her rage neatly contained. Kitty nodded.
"I told him I couldn't stay."
"Reckon he said somethin'?"
Kitty swallowed hard. "He agreed."
"Ah don't believe it," Rogue said. He couldn't have. Kitty was so close to being his, it seemed a shame to let her go without a fight.
"My leaving doesn't involve Piotr. This isn't about love, Rogue; not this time." Kitty reached inside her breast pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She handed it to Rogue who hardly gave it a second glance.
" Yah cain't juss run out on a rail, Pryde. He doesn't deserve dis from yah." Rogue was vaguely aware that she was fighting for Piotr, and therefore losing miserably.
Kitty went back to staring out the window. "I know." Suddenly, the carriage came to a stop. Outside, the train station could be seen from Rogue's seat. "Perhaps in another time, we could have been remotely happy together. But some things come before love. You should know that from running alongside Remy." She pried open the carriage and Rogue watched as Kitty stepped out and waited as Bobby unloaded her things. "When you find what you're looking for, you best take off. Run from Remy as far and as fast as you can, and you might never get yourself hurt." She picked up her suitcases and smiled sadly at Rogue who just stared, dumbfounded and outraged all at once. "Take care, Rogue. Remy was wrong, you know; you could dance some pumpkins after all." And she went on her way, a suitcase in each hand, her pelisse pitched out by the wind. Rogue threw open the carriage door and stepped out, watching in wonder, but at a loss of what to do with a girl who had clearly made up her mind to leave once and for all.
When Kitty disappeared into the sea of people on the platform, Rogue opened the paper the girl had given her and saw that it was the missing person poster which had been on Kitty's vanity, dated a few months back and advertised by a Mr. and Mrs. Pryde from Deerfield, Illnois. Something clicked inside her mind as she gazed into Kitty's picture smiling back at her, and Rogue didn't know why, but she was suddenly dashing in the opposite direction, wanting—needing to find Piotr Rasputin.
23. Three o' Clock Train to Chicago
Kentucky: 1877
The train lurched forward, suddenly, snapping her eyes wide open. The movement dragged Kitty from sleep; she rested her head on the cold glass of the window and wiped at her eyes, her mind numb and her mouth dry.
She was on the three o' clock, heading straight to Chicago.
Again, she drifted, but then she made the mistake of remembering where she was heading and her heart took off like a piston, drumming into her head until all she could see was Durham falling away outside her window, her plans of California buried right alongside Lance, and the saloon given away like a pair of socks she didn't need.
He had not come to see her off.
Deerfield would have rain by now. It would be pretty with orange and red leaves draping the sidewalks, a brisk, familiar chill riding in with the fall. The wind would be so cold, your very bones would freeze.
But he had not come to see her off.
Kitty didn't need this town. She was the air, could blow away with the wind if she wanted, but a train was quicker. No one would miss her.
Probably, she planned her escape with nothing to lose. She skipped over details, pondered reason after reason until she was determined to leave completely. No one would miss her.
That's where it all went wrong.
Kitty had it in her the moment she went into that shack, that she would be able to skip right out, unscathed and intact, her head on right and just as sharp as when she went in. But it didn't turn out that way.
There was something sad looming in those bare walls, a certain loneliness that settled between the floorboards, cold and worn and silent with secrets that pointed all to her.
Kitty found her old room boarded, locked; she took a chance and phased right when Piotr came through the front door. She knocked into his many portraits stacked and abandoned, found a letter among them, and sat down to read it.
And when Piotr ripped through his own barricade outside that door and tore through the lock, Kitty stared at him as if seeing him for the first time and didn't know what to think.
"What happened, Petey?" But she already knew. Things had changed. Worse, a man fell in love and the rest was history.
They spoke in hushed whispers.
Piotr apologized about Lance. As if he had to. He was blundering, blubbering; everything she didn't want, he was. And yet, something struck her suddenly, a memory of some sort, of two strangers who became friends in that very room. And it haunted her, because it was a happier time. Happier than she ever was in Kentucky.
"He talked about you." A smile, faint and small but there, appeared on his face. "All this time, I thought you loved him for the profit he made, robbing those trains." And then the smile disappeared, replaced with melancholy. "I know better now."
That was Piotr, so polite. So contrite. He was sweet and gentle and it would be a real shame to break such a man's heart. It was always harder with the nice ones, because no matter which way you turn, you can't find a sore spot on them. But you can't keep them either.
But it was so difficult. There was love there, so cosmic, so grand that it caught her off-guard and knocked her senseless. She knew he loved her. A fool could see it plain as day on his face. It was all in that look.
She saw it in those bare walls of stale, water-stained wood, the boarded up room with his paintings carefully placed and safely packed away. She saw all of this, saw it and for the life of her didn't know what to make of it.
"I'm leaving," she told him, from one sensible person to another. They both knew she couldn't stay. There was nothing left to keep her in Kentucky. Lance was dead, buried along with their reckless dreams of California and fruit crops and mutants. Piotr himself told her she was an intelligent girl; she could come and go when she pleased, could be lifted by air and clear out of Kentucky. It wasn't that she had gotten too good for this town; she just wised up and began thinking backwards.
Kitty always said she believed in love, believed it right and worthy and hers and every other thing a girl could hope it could be. She blamed love for taking her to Kentucky, blamed it for starving herself sick when she ached to see Lance, and now she saw it in Piotr, in the bare walls, in the abandoned paintings lining the room she once took residence in. Guilt seeped into her heart and she got to her feet.
"Well, I'm sorry, but I've got to go. My train leaves in two hours and I still need to pack." Sunlight, dense and pure, streamed through the only window in the room. He was gazing at her now, seeming distant, certain, and perhaps a bit sad. Kitty swallowed hard and tried to be positive, but that long stare caught her in a place where she could not look away.
They stood there for an eternity, it seemed, until at length he finally spoke.
"Where to?" Dad-blame it, could he not stop staring? Kitty fidgeted uncomfortably beneath his gaze.
"I'm heading home. Even wrote my parents to wait for my train". She had been so sure that this was what she wanted. For weeks she had been planning her grand escape from this hopeless little town where the coal dust could coat your throat so thick, it could choke you. She was ready, Kitty told herself, over and over again and pinned the Missing poster on her mirror and bought her train ticket a week in advance, placing it on her nightstand in case she ever woke up and failed to remember that she did not belong here. The saloon was given away to Tabitha and Lance was let go, and there was nothing left in Durham, nothing at all to hold her back.
She saw him and forgot.
They had not spoken once since she left his side two months before. She might have seen him passing by, a cap on his head and pick at his back, but there were always distractions—excuses that kept her clear out his way. Perhaps she thought of him occasionally when drawing up water for the horses or helping Bobby stock the vodka, but never had she given much thought to the miner who had faded away as quickly as he came.
But when she saw him dancing with Rogue, something sweet and sad throbbed in her heart, and everything she kept back came flooding forward. She had been so sure that he would never give her a second glance and she was determined to keep it that way, but seeing that shack and its bare walls and boarded up secrets made her think otherwise. Suppose he had actually loved her all this time and she never even had a clue.
It was why she went into that mine to draw him out herself. She forgot why she kept away all this time; constantly reasoning with logic and thinking with her head, just her head, that Piotr was a part of her past. He had given her a reason to move on, her independence; that no man, not even he, could keep her tied down and there was no reason to feel so rotten over something so obscure as love; and now, when she could have made him proud, she saw him crumble, and the irony of it all was so heavy it might have crushed her.
He smiled—actually smiled—at her. "You told me you would never return there. What made you change your mind?"
She credited that to him, but didn't think it was appropriate to say. "It's something I've been meaning to do on my own…and now that Lance…" She broke off, her throat tightening so quickly, it loosened tears from her eyes. "You see why I can't stay. There's nothing left for me here." That, she realized too late, was not completely true. In fact, the only reason holding her back was standing right in front of her. But her words took its toll; Piotr grimaced outwardly and his face hardened almost automatically; he quickly dropped his eyes to avoid meeting hers.
"Of course." He nodded, making himself believe it. "Go then." He took a hold of the girl at arm's length. "Go and forget this place. It never did you right." I never did you right. He did not have to say so for her to know that was what he meant.
"I didn't write that note," she said. His eyes flashed.
"I know that now." He absently kicked at the floorboards, making them creak. "And I wonder how it would have been if I had known then."
Something gnawed at her, and there it was again, that sad, forlorn stare that sent her reeling between determination and guilt. "Piotr…"
"Of course." His arms fell limp to his sides. "I take it you are leaving for good."
"Yes." She had been certain there would be yelling on his part. Confessions, proclamations of love, anything to keep her in Durham. But he just gazed at her knowing that there was no use in trying. She would not go to him. Lance had barely just died and she scheduled herself to leave this town today. The timing, as it turned out, was just all damn wrong.
"Well, Kitty." He crossed his arms and nodded. "Well. Good-bye." He stuck out his hand and shook hers. She watched his face carefully, but Piotr would not meet her gaze again. He had already moved away, and now the space between them was a chasm, a giant yawning hole that stretched as far away as he stood from her.
She wanted to run, to close the distance between them, but she knew it would make no difference. He could not change her mind because it was already made up. And what more could she do? If she had broken his heart before, it could not possibly compare to what she was doing to him now.
Kitty walked out. She would not look back.
And now? After all that was said and done with good riddance and happy trips and swift good-byes and that haunting, persecutory glare from Rogue, would it have been any different if Piotr had never received that confounded letter and she had not been so proud to see him herself?
She looked frantically from her window, searching the straggling faces, those happy, sad, relieved, worried faces, all rushing past her window as the train picked up speed. She found not one of them familiar.
He had not seen her off.
Would it have been different? That notion, that possibility, that opportunity now thrown to the wind, gnawed at her viciously. There would be no telling from a place that buried its secrets along with its dead.
And the train charged forward and took Kitty with it.
All this time I knew that there was something missing
And only one thing left to do
Had to leave behind this life that we've been living
The only thing left there was you
It's gonna make it hard to tell you that I'm leaving
Now that I know just how much you care
You've finally gave me one good reason
And I suppose being alone, is my worst fear
And staying here is my worst fear. (1)
24. Move on Out
Piotr's Shack, Durham, Kentucky: 1877
"Piotr!" She was running against the wind, her hair whipped out and falling all over face. Rogue ran up the porch steps breathlessly, calling his name and threw open the door to find Remy LeBeau at the other end, pulling on his trench coat and looking rather peeved to see her show up so late.
"Where is he?" She pushed passed Remy and ran to each room, only to come up short. "Where did Piotr go?"
Remy shrugged, smoothing out his collar. "No idea."
Rogue whipped her head around and stared at the thief in dismay. "Dammit Remy, now's not dah time tah fool with me."
"Who's foolin'?" He walked up and took her arm. "But we've got t' move on out of here, Rogue. I risked it waitin' f' y' t' show while y' nursed y's poor, tender heart back at t' saloon."
This seemed to bring her to her senses. "Leave? Now?"
"Y' heard me." His hold was tight around her wrist and she struggled to stay back.
"Now hold on, Rems, we cain't juss high-tail outta here so fast. Ah need tah talk tah Piotr…"
"Now's not de time t' be de hero, chere. We cain't wait f' him. I caught word thet de law's been chasing us, and it's pretty damn close t' gettin' us good."
"But Kitty's left town and Piotr's got tah stop her."
"See what I mean? Y' cain't juss stay here and git caught, chere. If Piotr loves her, he'll follow her home."
"So yah knew." She pulled free of his grasp and faced him angrily. "Yah knew she was leavin' and yah never told him?"
"You're probably all rattles and horns more than Petey," Remy observed, and cracked a smirk. "I like y' riled." That earned him a punch in the gut.
"Ah'll stay an' wait f' him."
Remy rubbed at his throbbing stomach and returned, "an' what will y' say when the police catch up here? You'll put Piotr in a bind, thet's what. He'll be arrested right along side y' an' they might juss hang him too."
"Ah said Ah'm staying!" She pushed him away from her, hard.
But Remy was obstinate. "An' what if he never comes back?"
Rogue gazed up at the thief, doubt suddenly clouding her eyes. "Is dis something else yah know and never told nobody?"
Remy smiled and carefully fitted his arm around her. "A hunch. If Kitty ain't here, Piotr might not stay. So who knows? Maybe he's heading after her right now and out of Kentucky as we speak."
Rogue had not thought of that. She stood there feeling suddenly very tired; after all, she had run the whole way to get there, and so she leaned into Remy who kept her close at his side.
"We should at least leave a note," Rogue conceded.
Remy smiled and reached for a newspaper, a pencil suddenly appearing in his hand. "Thet's more like it."
"Tell him Ah'm sorry we couldn't stay." She curled her lips and squeezed her eyes shut. "Tell him Kitty's gone on home and dat he should do whatever it takes tah get her back. And dat Ah'll always remember…"
"Putain, Rogue, I cain't write a fuckin' novel…" He tore out the paper and placed it on the kitchen table so that Piotr might see it. "It ain't proper, but we're in a hurry. He'll understand."
So they hit the road again, on another horse Remy had stolen, with the wind howling its regrets behind them.
25. Fooled by a Friend
Durham, Kentucky: 1877
Piotr Rasputin, in the meantime, had taken to watching the stars appear as he headed back to his place from the train station. He had gone to watch the three o' clock train chug away, taking the only thing worth wanting out of this lonely town. He saw her load but stayed out of sight, looking from a distance as he had done this entire time.
And from a distance, he watched her go.
There were many things he wanted to say. He could have told Kitty the truth; that he stayed in Kentucky as long as she did, until she might see him in a different light. But as long as Lance was in the picture, there would be no room for him, so Piotr waited for the day when she might give him a chance.
He wished he had known better. He should have been running down those roads, shouting her name and telling her how much he loved her. He could not do so now. It would ruin her plans for leaving, a plan he no doubt spawned from their conversations. She had given up on starving herself and waiting on Lance. Now, all she thought about was going home.
Piotr saw it in the way she stared at him, pleading—imploring him to understand. She could not stand to stay here. She deserved to run back to where she came.
And how he wanted to follow because he could not convince her to remain in a place she hated, but she had said she wanted to do this on her own.
Sometimes, he was so in tune with her feelings, he forgot his own. He watched and loitered long after she was gone, deciding what to do now that there was no point in staying. He could leave also. He could find work in the West and probably pick up painting again. Yes, he could do that. He could even sell his work, for side profit.
Piotr was thinking all these possibilities as he entered his shack, the sun well down and the stars dappling the evening sky overhead.
He found his quarters empty, void of all company, and it shook him to realize that everyone was gone and he was the last to leave. He found the clipped newspaper on the table and read it.
Piotr,
We've gone to the North. If anyone asks, you don't know the likes of us. Take care, friend; we will see you again one day.
Remy and Rogue
Piotr smiled briefly, knowing Remy was always on the run; it was in his nature to wander. And then he noticed something he never thought about before; it was the writing, yes, the handwriting that struck him. It was familiar. He searched for that letter that was not from Kitty, the letter that he had read over and over again and cursed and pondered and analyzed inside and out. Piotr grabbed both notes and compared the two side by side.
It was uncanny.
They were written with a like hand.
"Remy," Piotr said. His friend had been deceiving him all along, probably from the day they first met as miners.
And he had taken the Rogue with him.
26. Bribe
A few months before, Maddie's Saloon for Pleasant Chaps: 1877
Kitty was dancing on stage with the rest of the girls as Remy took a seat across from Lance Alvers, who sat languidly behind the table. He wore a kind of malicious expression that only Remy knew had to do with Kitty Pryde.
"I need your help," Alvers said, his voice sounding almost desperate.
"Help." Remy said the word slowly, knowing no good could come from this meeting. Lance nodded, crushing his lips together.
"I know your side job. I know you find mutants to report to Magneto."
"Oh?" Remy leaned forward, looking as though uncertain whether to kill him for knowing this or listen to what he had to say.
"And I need your help."
"Ah." Remy shifted back into his seat, a serene smirk stretched across his face. "A bribe, then."
"I know where the Legend resides."
Remy smiled at him sympathetically. "That's a myth, mon ami."
"Rumor has it he lives with a girl. Probably his daughter."
"Probably." Remy feigned boredom. "And what do y' want in return f' his location?"
Lance cocked his head at the stage. "My girl's been straying." He nodded at Kitty Pryde who smiled his way. "She don't act the way she used to."
"Well, thet's probably because y're never here."
"That's not the point," Lance spat, giving him a murderous look, although he was heading back to California that same evening. "She's in cahoots with that miner friend of yours."
"And y' want me t' keep them apart?" Remy gave Lance a sympathetic look. "Mebbe if y' gave up de West and the Scarlet Witch y' could do thet y'self."
"I'll tell them if you don't." Lance set his teeth. "You've been giving information about them to Magneto. I'll tell them and you'll never be able to come back here."
Remy snorted. "I'm surprised y' aren't including y'self in de crowd, mutant."
"I've worked for Magneto before. He knows about me by now." Lance turned his hat over in his hands. "I'm losing her, I know, but I can't give up the Gang right now. Buy me time, Rems, just this once."
Remy stole a glance at Kitty who was taking a bow with the other dancers, and might have told Lance there wasn't much he could do, but then again, he was not entertaining any good intentions at the moment. "All right, Alvers, I'll help you. Reckon y' can put thet pretty location in writing, eh?"
Lance took a moment, penning it on the table: Caldecott, Mississippi.
"Ah." Remy said, smirking. He looked up at the robber with a settled gaze. "Y've got y'self a deal."
Lance knew Remy would do the job, and do it well. He was known for this sort of thing. And Lance was confident the thief would not let him down.
Because unlike Piotr, Remy's timing was always right.
(1) Lyrics from Rascal Flatts' My Worst Fear
allyg1990:Welcome to my very messed up world of mutant romance then! I am planning some Romy in the future (maybe as soon as the next chapter?) but being that Remy is, well, Remy, things might just not end up the way they could...or will they? Thanks for the positive remarks and I hope you keep coming back for more!
ishandahalf: Thank you for the review; like you said, it's been awhile! But I'm glad you're still around when this story does make a chapter debut :D I debated a bit with Lance's dying, with all those Lancitty shippers out there, but I figured that if I at least gave him a chance with a POV, that should even things out a little. It must've worked because people miss him...
Verre: Hmm, I wonder if you saw this chapter in your near future also :D I agree though: Remy definitely needs more screen time, and I hope some tidbits from this chapter gave you a hint as to what Remy might be planning for Rogue. I think that fits the bill perfectly for a good Romy sequence to come! Oh, and here's to hoping the finals went well!
ShadowFax999: Interesting. I just might use your Scott idea...;D
me: Thanks for noticing...I've always been a bit one-sided when it comes to Lance, so I thought I'd make him more than a jealous, girlfriend-abandoning shallow drunk and give him actual feelings. And I think it turned out all right.
Doesn't Matter: Why, thank you very much; it keeps me confident in my story when I see returning reviewers like you. Oh, and your comparison of Remy to a kicked-puppy--well, I would look forward to more of that, btw.
Crack4sure: Well, you have to admit, he was fun when he lasted...
Thank you all for your continued support! Your reviews mean so much to me!
Join me next time to see where their adventure takes them now, probably a detour to safety...or treachery. Stay tuned!