Hey! Sorry I have been absent lately!

Had a lot of great changes in my life such as graduating college and moving to a new state.

Last chapter's song was I Found by Amber Run

Anyways, I hope you have been enjoying this story and this new chapter

R&R!

Still clad in his clothes from the day before Gambit awoke in a euphoric stupor, minus the splitting migraine that never failed to follow an absorption. His parched lips curled into an innocent, clumsy smile as he recalled the events of the day before. His mind felt completely opposite to the veracities of his physicality. The discernable appearance of Gambit's drained visage glowed a creamy pale instead of his usual tanned gristle. He rode an unimaginable high, the 'Bourbon Street' sign flickered above his head bathing him in golden light as his rough fingers caressed ivory silk. "Rogue," his voice was hoarse from dormancy and barely audible. Calling her by the name he knew best was only fitting after such intimacy. "Rogue," the volume in his beckoning rose with each attempt.

Enflamed ruby eyes suddenly darted about the brick bedroom, surveying its contents and condition. A fear he had never anticipated experiencing crept through his bones as the emptiness of his room seemed deafening. "Rogue!" The shout was automatic and autonomous. Deafening metal crashed and clanged in the distance as a southern voice cursed away its femininity.

"Dammit, Cajun! Gahd forbid a gal try t'make ya' breakfast!"

The harsh tone that cut the air was a beautiful relief to Gambit's racing heart. He allowed his crazed mind to plummet back to the pile of pillows beneath. "Well," her comforting accent penetrated through the walls of his apartment, "cat's out'a the bag, y'want blueberry or strawberry syrup?" He could not hide the chuckle that resided in his throat as color returned to his rugged face. However, the thought of simply her voice pulling him back from a crazed abyss the absence of her led him to in the first place began to petrify Gambit. "Shugah?" Her voice was as patient as it could possibly be, which was not saying much. He glimpsed his own fearful eyes in an aged mirror and perceived no walls. No defense. No— "Remy!" Rogue shouted irritably. The shriek snapped his stream of destructively abysmal thoughts for the time being.

"Strawberry, mah Cherie an' lots o' it!" he hollered back. The clanging and cursing continued from the kitchen in a muffled, exasperated, and yet endearing tone. He caught his expression in the mirror once more and just the thought of her had shifted it back to lovestruck. With a half crooked smile and absentminded doe eyes to match. Gambit was sure this was a sickness of the mind, the best kind albeit, with symptoms akin to withdrawals when the time came. Although he desperately hoped it never came again.

The thought never ceased to amaze Gambit. The unavoidable irony of it all.

The mahogany table creaked under the weight of Rogue's impressive breakfast spread. She must have been mulling over the griddle for hours to create such a banquet, with flapjacks and sausage, syrup and oranges, coffee and juice, she must have seen the sun rise to have enough time. "Well my, my what'd Gambit do to get d'is kin' o'treatment?" he crooned upon emergence from his bedroom, taking note of Rogue adorned in only his favorite t-shirt. She shot him a sinful smirk. "I suppose, I will ov'rlook yo' stealing moi favorite shirt 'cause o'd'is." The joke shifted the smirk that played across her bare lips into a beam.

"Call it a down payment, shugah."

In that blissful moment, it seemed all was right in the world. It was a picture perfect cliché and both were too wrapped up in the fantasy to realize moments such as these could never last. Rogue's rose colored glasses cracked first as she gazed upon Gambit artfully cleaning his upper lip of sweet, strawberry syrup.

"Remy…" her suddenly uneven voice caught in her throat. A stark contrast to the flirty southern belle she portrayed just moments ago. Deep crimson orbs peered into her under heavy lashes. Could she really ruin this moment she had waited so long to experience? This glowing day-after breakfast bliss. She sucked in an uneasy breath as her eyes betrayed her. "Remy," her revealing eyes were downcast. "Ah can't do that again," her mind reeled with the perilous pleasures of their previous night. "Y'give meh exactly what Ah wahnt an' it ain't safe for ya. Ah…" her voice and her nerve broke. "Ah have t'go back t'd'mansion now." Just like that his ship sank, a reality clearly perceptible in the downturned corners of his sweet lips. Once again, Rogue proved to be her own worst enemy, but this time Gambit was not going to let it slide.

"Rogue," his hand cut through the air to her wrist as she turned to leave, yet he immediately backed off at the potential contact. His voice alone was enough to stop her in her tracks. "I am tired, chere. Tired o' yo' running away fo' my own damn good." His voice grew darker, laced with an odd flurry of passion and agitation. "I chose yo' d'same way yo' chose me. Remember d'at?" His words stung and Rogue could not face him. "Rogue." Her hands trembled under his powerful presence. "Rogue, look at me." He had lost her before and it nearly destroyed him, a second time surely would.

She pivoted on bare feet to reveal a desperate countenance. Without blind anger as her crutch, walking away from Gambit was the hardest thing she had ever attempted to do, and this was a woman who had faced Apocalypse and won. Her rosy lips parted in protest, yet only a squeak escaped. Gambit realized what she was trying to do and somewhere deep down appreciated her for it, grasping that he could never do the same, he was far too selfish for that. However, at the current moment and after all their progress, the side of him that was rational and collected was taking a backseat.

His tone was almost maddened when he spoke again, "So don' act like I didn' know d'risks, girl!"

There it was. That blind anger. All she needed was for him to raise his voice to her and suddenly it attacked...

"Don't act lahke y'thought this would work out, Cajun!" Her tears dried as she was all consumed by venom, so much so it dripped off her lips. Gambit's own vehemence was not enough to shield him from the sudden shock of hers and his jaw went slack if only for a moment. "Oh come on," she continued ripping into him. "Ah wasn't just a'challenge? A'conquest? A'trophy?"

"Anna!" He lunged towards her, shaking the furniture in his lavish apartment. "Yo' know yo' are so much more! Yo're scared, I get it. So am I!" The words came out in roars. "But gal yo' take pain away I didn' even know I still had!"

"So do you!"

…

The pause was painfully long, each with eyes and proverbial horns locked. Chests heaving after their shouting match, neither knew what move to make next. They were dangerously close for both displaying offensive body postures and the air grew thick around them. Gambit was the first to break with a simple, "goddamn," as he gripped her waist with enough force to leave bruises as she entangled her hands in his auburn locks and flung her petite figure on to his table. The dark mahogany a perfect contrast to her alabaster skin. Appraising her, Gambit bit into his bottom lip with an animalistic desire burning behind his eyes. A desire which admittedly frightened Rogue, she had never experienced someone burn that way especially just for her, yeah she had been hit on and catcalled and one unlucky guy endeavored to pick her up in a bar once but this was something different, and she worried that he would not be able to keep a sensible distance from her skin with it.

"You sho'd wear my clot'es more oft'en." The words were modest yet flushed her whole body with erotic connotations. As Rogue's breathing hitched she could clearly see Gambit overtaken by a darkness that was anything but malicious. Lunging towards her figure, sprawled across his kitchen table, his hips bucked against the polished wood as he whined because she was not at the very edge. His fervor grew as he desperately swung his knees on to the mahogany and clawed his way to a position hovering above Rogue. Her body was glued down, trapped under his imposing gaze coupled with her own tension. Adrenalin betraying her as it transformed into lust and the beautiful onyx of her eyes overtook the jade. Their chests still heaving causing their heated breath to mingle and dance about the two mutants' separated lips. Gambit traced a line down the center of her covered body with his fingertip as they both shuddered. He paused at the hem of his shirt, suspended above the gap between her inner thighs. Rogue whimpered as she felt the heat radiating off his hand so close to where she desired it. Their eyes locked as they searched one another's lustful countenance for silent permission.

However, hunger was the only emotion seeded deep within the crevices of their faces. Unbridled, needy hunger. And it was dangerous. It came without discretion and as tempting as it was to feed, Gambit froze. Exclaiming with such passion that he knew the risks of this relationship was no lie, and here he had a chance to prove it. To prove that he understood one of those risks was not only his own physical health, but Rogue's mental. She was absorbed by that hunger, ready and willing to let him do his worse. Gambit's bottom lip bled as he gnawed it between his teeth, mentally cursing at what he knew he must do. This Rogue, this lusty, uninhibited Rogue was the one he dreamt about for so many months, and yet he had to stop, he knew he could not be trusted tonight to keep away from that velvet soft skin that simply begged to be touched. And knowing Rogue, and who she was and what she's done, he knew that if he messed up and anything were to happen to him while she was in such a state, there was a good to fair chance she would never let herself return to it, and damn did he want to see her like this again.

Her high-pitched whimper as he dismounted the table almost made Gambit reconsider. "Chere, I can't—" he trailed off as his eyes stalked each uncovered curve. Devouring her skin with his hellish eyes. Rogue understood immediately as tears sprung to her eyes. "Wait!" Gambit grasped her shoulders, "It's not d'at—"

"Rem, calm down," a genuine chuckled escaped past her bare lips. Shining emerald orbs pierced his very soul as Rogue's affectionate tone whispered out a simple, "Thank you."

Disclaimer: I do not own x-men evo