Disclaimer: I do not own the xmen
Years . . . it has been years since Remy was inside the LeBeau mansion. Everything was exactly the same right down to the heavy smell of Cajun spices in the air from Tante Mattie's cooking. He felt like a small boy bubbling with excitement. The only thing that kept him grounded and from skipping after Mercy and rushing right past her was the intense anxiety coming off Rogue in waves. She was about as nervous as could be, but she had no reason to be. Remy just knew his Tante was going to love her, after all he did.
"Oui, Tante, c'est moi, et I have some people with me," Mercy called back to the kitchen as they approached. Of course she was in the kitchen. Tante Mattie was always in the kitchen elbow deep into her cooking. He was excited to see his beloved Tante, but at the same time he knew he was going to get an ear full.
"You better have my sweet garcon!" Tante said with a stern voice as they approached the kitchen door. Remy squeezed Rogue's hand as his heart fluttered wildly. True, he had been home for some hours, but seeing Tante Mattie would make it official.
Mercy pushed open the swinging door and strolled confidently inside. Remy followed on her heels with Rogue trailing not far behind. Remy stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her. Tante was standing in front of the stove looking as lovely and plump as ever. Her old well loved orange apron tied tightly around her hips covered in the battle scars of her cooking. She was always wearing dresses since Tante was old fashioned. She still had her light coco-powder skin with her big loving brown eyes. She was scowling at Remy with her fists planted firmly on her hips in an intimidating stance that made Remy feel like he was ten years old again getting caught with his brother trying to steal a cooling pie from the kitchen table.
"We'll look at you garcon skin and bones. Have you not been eating at all?" Tante demanded. "What took you so long to come home?"
"Remy had some things to do, Tante. You look lovely," he told her as he always did. The scowl softened and Tante Mattie smiled before rushing over and enveloping Remy into a fierce hug.
"Now, you are not to leave for a good while, you hear me chile?" Tante gave Remy's arm a quick slap. Remy nodded mutely in reply. "Now are you gonna introduce us to this pretty honeychile or do we have to keep wonderin'?"
Remy smiled and moved back to stand behind Rogue and placed his hands on either side of her shoulders. She was holding her gloved covered hands as close and tight to her body as possible. Rouge's anxiety was overwhelming, so Remy used his power to pull out her curiosity and excitement to counterbalance. He felt her relaxed under his hands almost instantly. Remy's gaze flicked over to Tante Mattie, who was staring intently at Rogue's hands where she had her ring finger tucked underneath her other hand.
Tante Mattie probably knew all about Rogue, and more than likely his whole plan. Remy knew she would play along. She was always one to keep matters of her visions to herself always pretending not to know. Remy always wondered if she was secretly a mutant. The instances where she voiced what she saw were rare and always taken seriously. With Tante there was always and air of mystery, and she used her image well to kept the Guild in its place.
"Tante, Mercy, this is Rogue. You may remember hearin' about her. She is the femme dat helped moi free Jean-Luc," he explained. Remy saw a spark of recognition flash across Mercy's eyes, but Tante simply gave him an unwavering stare. Her poker face was even better than his. Tante rolled her hand in a "go on" gesture.
"So, is she your girlfriend?" Mercy asked before plopping herself down at the table looking tired.
"Non, chere is a bit more than dat. She's ma femme," Remy said before grabbing Rogue's ring bearing hand and pulling it up for display.
Silence followed his statement and Remy simply smiled like the cat that ate the canary. He loved dramatic declarations and dropping unexpected bombs on people. It was always entertaining to watch the explosion that followed. Mercy's face was absolutely priceless. Her mouth was wide open and her eyes wide. She probably had not been expecting that one.
"Nice to meet you," Rogue said bravely. The worry she had carried earlier was completely gone and only bold determination in its place. Rogue simply never ceased to amaze him.
"Wife?" Mercy gasped nearly rising from her seat.
Tante Mattie said nothing as she quickly approached Rogue, her face a complete blank as she stopped a mere foot from the small southern belle. "Well aren't you just the prettiest honeychile I ever saw. I can tell dis garcon finally found a nice fille." Tante moved to give Rogue a hug. Rogue opened her mouth to protest and explain her mutation, but Tante simply said, "Don't worry, petite, your Tante knows to be careful."
Then Tante Mattie was hugging Rogue being careful not to touch the few bare patches of skin. Remy felt his heart burst with smug satisfaction. He knew Tante would simply love Rogue, and he was right. Mattie was never one to pretend to like a person. Either she did or she didn't and that was that.
"Well, congratulations and welcome to de famille," Mercy said to Rogue still somewhat shell-shocked.
"Thank you," Rogue replied and offered everyone one of her rare genuine smiles that reached all the way to her sparkling emerald eyes.
"You two sit down and let your Tante fix you some food while we catch up, oui?" Tante finally released Rogue. "Go on, sit. You must be exhausted. And, you my petite are to call me Tante from now one," she said directly to Rogue. With that statement Rogue was officially one of them for better or worse. Now all that was left to do was for the Guild to accept her, which Remy did not expect to be difficult. Jean-Luc would be practically drooling over the idea of having such a powerful mutant being connected to their Guild.
"Yes, Tante," Rogue said and allowed Remy to guide her to the table.
"When did you get married?" Mercy asked.
"Saturday," Remy replied leaning back into the familiar chair. For a minute he was tempted to lean back until he rested only on the back two legs of the chair like he had done as a petite garcon. But then, Tante would probably smack him with a spatula as she had back then.
"So you just got married?" Mercy said to clarify sounding immensely surprised.
"Yes, we just got married. Remy wanted to well tell all of you in person and introduce us." Rogue explained. Remy placed his arm around Rogue's shoulder and pulled her to him to rest against his side. She was handling this wonderfully. She was a better actress than he ever could imagine.
"Oh, and nous avons un video of de wedding. De famille can watch it demain (tomorrow)," Remy added. It was best to be up front with the proof of their "marriage" straight from the start. He tried to sound excited and proud, like a newlywed husband.
"This is just so shocking . . . Remy married. I just never thought he would get married. Him skippin' out on Belladonna was not all that surprising. But I have to say, from what I see of you Rogue I like. You're a far better belle-sœur than dat horrid Bella," Mercy said with a bright smile. Remy was a little shocked, but then Mercy always did say what she thought even when it was not always appropriate.
"Thanks," Rogue replied sounding uncertain.
"Why did you not contact us Remy? We would have come. Well Tante, Henri, et moi would have come." Mercy asked. Remy could tell from her big blue eyes that she was a little hurt.
"Now chile, I'm sure you can figure out why with all that Assassin nonsense." Tante chastised making it clear with a few simple words and a tone to drop the conversation.
"The wedding was sort of a spur of the moment thing. Remy only asked meh to marry him a week ago," Rogue added and placed her hand on his knee. Rogue turned to him and her large soulful eyes searched his.
"Wow, that's rather quick. Any reason why you got married so fast?" Mercy asked looking quickly back and forth between Remy and Rogue. Remy knew what his sister-in-law was actually asking . . . was Rogue pregnant and that was the reason behind a speedy wedding.
"Ah'm not really into big productions," Rogue said and gave a small shrug obviously not wanting to go any further into the matter. Silence followed for a moment.
"Oh, it's so wonderful to have another femme in de famille! We just have to go to town and go shopping!" Mercy said trying to break the sudden tension. The statement was in typical fashion of her fevered excitement for putting his poor brother in debt with plastic. It was even funny picturing his dear sister-in-law dragging Rogue shopping since his chere hated shopping.
"Mercy, get a hold of yerself chile. Give the poor fille some breathing room she just got here. Not need to be subjecting her to dat kind of torture just yet," Tante Mattie scolded as she stirred a pot.
Mercy frowned at the strong woman's back before turning back to Rogue with a renewed interest. "So, we all know about Remy abductin' you, how did you go from dat to marriage?"
"Uh . . . we'll he kept houndin' meh until ah gave in and went on a date with him," Rogue said smiling wickedly.
Remy leaned over to give Rogue a quick kiss on her cheek. Mercy's eyes simply sparkled with excitement from the simple act. Remy knew that something innocent like that would speak volumes coming from him, the notorious player. To the distant cousins he had to make very public and visual displays to make them all know Rogue was without a doubt taken and very much his. However, it was a different story with his famille. He wanted those closest to him to see the sincerity of his actions to Rogue. It was almost frightening how easy it was to want to be romantic and attentively tender with Rouge.
Tante Mattie appeared at the table with two steaming hot bowls of what looked was reddish creamy bisque and placed them in front of Rogue and Remy with two spoons. Remy instantly recognized it as Tante Mattie's rarely made Cajun crab bisque. She knew it was one of his favorites.
"Do you like crab, honeychile? Your Tante can make somethin' else if you don't," Tante asked specifically to Rogue.
"No, ah love crab. Thank you," she told the older woman before scooping some onto her spoon and blew gently on it before placing it into her mouth. Remy felt relieved to see Rogue finally eat. Tante Mattie was beaming at his chere with that tender look.
"Would you listen to her? What a polite southern fille. You should be more like your charming femme, Remy," Tante chastised. Remy frowned not liking that his position as Tante's favorite was suddenly threatened. It was odd, the bond between the two women was instant . . . what did the old woman know?
Suddenly, as if sensing his stare, Tante Mattie's big brown eyes locked on Remy's face wielding him in place with a look. After a moment she gave him a wink and turned her attend to something in the kitchen.
"Now, eat you and den fais do-do (go to sleep) for both of you," she commanded sternly as she filled the sink full of dishes with water. "You both look half dead on your feet. Jean-Luc and Henri won't be home till early in de matin."
"Oui, Tante," Remy told her as he began to eat resigned to the fact that he would never know what went on in her head or what exactly she knew. Then his thoughts turned to sleep. He certainly was not tired enough not to revel in the fact that Rogue was to spend the night in his bed next to him. With any luck he would be able to hold her curvaceous body against him . . . after she fell asleep of course.
Pain sharp and centered to a focused point caused Kurt to wake up with a small groan. His head felt as if someone had shoved a nail right between his eyes. At least his bed was soft and he was warm, but his vision was blurry. Blinking away the last few moments of sleep, Kurt slowly realized that he was not in fact in his room. Sitting up a thick blanket slipped off him. The bed he was sprawled on was completely unfamiliar. The room was plain with concrete walls lacking any windows. There was the bed, a wide plush loveseat, and a small old television. The air smelled stale and the room slightly cold. Where was he?
Kurt felt his heart begin to beat wildly in his chest as his last memories came to the forefront of his mind. He had been drugged and kidnapped by someone who posed as Kitty . . . someone with yellow eyes. Mother. Why on earth had Mystique kidnapped him? His first instinct was to teleport, but Kurt had no idea where he was, and if the lack of windows indicated that teleporting might be a bad idea. The idea of ending up crushed by the earth was none too appealing.
"You're awake," a hoarse voice said behind him. Kurt sprang to his feet and whirled around to see his mother standing at the threshold of what looked like a small kitchen. She was smiling at him, which in years past would have comforted him. However, Kurt knew the real Mystique, the woman who did horrible things to his sister. Thanks to the woman before him he almost lost Rogue more than once.
"Mystique," Kurt said in acknowledgement. "You vont get away with this. Volverine will find you." She seemed unaffected by his words.
"He will certainly try, which is what I am hoping he will do," she said standing perfectly still like a statue. Kurt had never noticed before how rigid the woman was.
"Vat did you do vith Kitty?"
"She's back at the mansion. I only drugged her and tied her to a tree. Even if the x-men did not find her she most certainly woke up on her own and simply phased through the binding. I did nothing to harm her, I only wanted her out of the way so that I could take you."
"Vat do you vant vith me?" Kurt demanded. A long time ago he craved his mother's attention. Back when he first found out Mystique was his mother he would have given anything to spend time with her. Now that he had her attention he realized he did not want it.
"I need your help as being a distraction for Wolverine," she said and shifted her weight slightly.
"Vhy vould I help you?" Kurt hissed and took a step back. His tail swished behind him in union with his rising anger. Why could she not just stay out of his life? Kurt thought he had made himself clear after the Apocalypse incident.
"If you won't help me how about your sister?" she asked and an evil smile crept onto her face in response to Kurt's obvious sudden interest. When she had posed as Kitty Mystique had said that Rogue was not okay. Waking up he assumed it was just a ploy to get him closer, but what if she knew something? Kurt knew without a doubt that something was going on with Rogue.
"Alright, I will listen to you. I promise nothing more," Kurt said knowing his sister came first.