A/N: This is my new favorite chapter :) And just to let you know, this is going back to Rogue's pov. No more Remy chapters. That was annoying as all get out. I'm sorry, I know everyone loved that chapter but...sheesh...I can't do that anymore...
...
Alright, I'm awake. Let the hilarity ensue.
After turning off my alarm, I stretch widely across my bed and then roll out and onto my feet, happily making my way towards the bathroom. I like the morning time—the singing birds and the smell of the early morning dew and the approaching sunshine all make me happy inside.
Especially when it's five in the morning and I've started my morning routines again. Getting my mornings alone back is the only solution that I could think of for my current problem. Because mornings alone equal inner peace which equals a clearer mind.
Yes.
And I need a clear mind. Day before yesterday I made out with Remy. And day before yesterday I really liked him. And here I am today, knowing that I still like him. This inner peace/clear mind combo really works for me. I'm not sure why I stopped doing this.
But yesterday morning I had woken up, not quite refreshed since I hadn't gotten so much sleep, but still happy to be alone for a while, and it all came to me so easily. It was like my stupidity dam was broken and out came all these thoughts.
Thoughts about how stupid I was for pushing Remy away when I liked him, how stupid I was for not pouncing when I had the opportunity to be able to touch, and how stupid it was for me to try to bury my own feelings inside of myself.
Though don't get me wrong, I still hate it that Remy was right, and I am going to have admit that to him. And I still have this urge to get up and run away from him, though I'm not sure why.
I forced myself to go find him yesterday to talk to him about this. But when I found him, he was passed out on his bed, for some reason that guy Pyro was on the floor, and I found out through the grapevine that they both had hangovers.
Looking at Logan, I couldn't tell if he had drank anything at all, so I wasn't sure if he had joined them in drinking at whatever bar they went to. And even if he had, I doubted that he had drank so much to become drunk like they had…Did he?
Probably not. I just can't picture that.
But anyway, Remy was asleep most of yesterday, and when he wasn't, he apparently felt too bad to come out of his room. His door was still blown apart, but Piotr had started to work on fixing it the last time I saw him.
So here I am today, my mind clear and honest, and I know what I have to do today.
Today Ororo and Logan are getting married. This is the day that Remy is supposedly going to 'date' Lumberjack Lady. So to prevent this, I have to…I can't believe I'm going to say this…But today I have to let him know I how I feel.
Don't worry, it's not Armageddon, I'm just being honest.
Wait…Maybe it is Armageddon…
But today I have to tell him how I feel about him, how I feel about Lumberjack Lady, and…how I want…I want to…I can say it. I can.
Today I have to tell him that I want to be with him.
Whew.
This is not something I look forward to, but also something that I can't wait for. I'm so nervous just thinking about it that I've chewed my lip raw thinking it over. What am I supposed to say? How do I phrase my words just right? Is there any way that I can say it so that he won't give me that arrogant 'I won' smirk?
He's going to give me that smirk. And if he does I swear—I am going to slap him so hard…
Anyway.
I shower and dress at a slow pace, and think that maybe I'll go for a walk around the block like I used to. That might be fun. But I'm surprised when I shut my hair dryer off and hear voices in my room. I can distinctly hear Kitty and Jean arguing over something.
But I don't mind, it's morning!
Well, except that day before yesterday when they had discovered my hickey I had been a bit embarrassed. Though I tried to convince everyone that it was just a bruise—I highly doubt that any of them had bought that excuse. They had all given me skeptical looks when I stuttered that I had fallen when Logan had come into the room and hurt my neck. They still looked very unbelieving, but we became so engrossed in the fight between Remy and Logan that everyone forgot about my hickey.
I walk out of the bathroom and greet them.
"Good morning!" I say cheerfully.
They both turn and look at me with confused expressions on their faces. I guess it is weird to see me so happy. Now that I think about it, I don't know if they've ever seen me like this before. They've never seen me this early before. And I might be happy for another reason…It MIGHT be because of Remy, but I don't bother myself to think about it because it's morning!
"Uh…Morning," Kitty says uncertainly, looking a little nervous by my greeting. "Why are you so cheery?"
I grin. "It's morning!"
They both continue to stare at me.
Jean leans closer to study my face. "Are you stoned?"
I take a minute to think about whether I should be insulted by this or not. Oh I'm sure she's just messing around because it's morning! Morning makes people act weird, in case you hadn't noticed how weird Kitty and Jean are acting. Finally, I just slap her on the arm playfully. "Oh, you!"
They continue to stare at me worriedly as I skip over to make my bed.
I don't know what their problem is. But I'm not going to bother with it because it's—wait, you know what it is.
…Morning!
"UM…Ok," Jean shakes her head as if she's trying to get rid of a thought, "well, Kitty and I brought your dress in for you."
"I hate it!" Kitty crosses her arms and pouts at me and Jean. "You should have let me pick it!"
Jean rolls her eyes and pulls a dress out of a bag for me to see. I don't know why Kitty hated it, I suppose because it was modest. It wasn't any big deal, but it was pretty. It looked like it would go just past my knees, it had long sleeves, a v-neck and it was one of those wrap around dresses. Oh, and it's red.
It seems like there is something about that color I should be remembering…What is it?
Hm…I can't remember…
Anyway, I really like this dress. So much, in fact, that I don't mind that I'm going to have to put it on later.
"I love it Jean, thank you," I smile at her. Jean is awesome for picking such an awesome dress on such an awesome morning—Oh CRAP it's red. Remy likes red. Remy will want to rip the dress off of me if it's red. Remy has washboard abs. Remy—Wait, why did I just think that?
Oh my God…If Remy and I do get together…Washboard abs, here I come.
Oh yeah.
"Rogue, are you blushing?" Jean asks.
"What!" I say, a bit startled that my thoughts went so far. "No…Uh…Why do hate it, Kitty?"
"She was trying to get that backless dress you saw," Jean answered for her as Kitty continued to glare.
Thank God I had asked Jean to get the dress. Not only because I knew that she wouldn't pick anything backless or frontless, but because she wasn't a pushover and wouldn't let Kitty have any say. Plus, I really like the dress that she picked out.
Plus, I like washboard abs.
Ah! I knew I shouldn't have thought of them! I've opened up a can of washboard abs and they're flying everywhere! …Now there's an image for you. That's definitely an image I'll be thinking about…I really have problems.
"You're blushing again," Jean points out as she and Kitty continue to stare at me.
I bend down to resume making my bed, letting my hair fall down over my face as I go. "It's hot in here. What are you two doing up so early, anyway?"
Kitty seems to forget that she was looking ready to murder two seconds ago. At my words, her face lights up. "It's wedding day! Everyone is up!"
After she says this, I notice how excited they both look. I guess they were so anxious about it, they couldn't sleep? Sheesh…It wasn't their wedding. But I guess some people do find this type of thing fun.
"Everyone?" How strange. Everyone is up at the crack of dawn?
Kitty nods enthusiastically. "Of course, silly, it's the wedding day! Everyone is busy."
Now I remember Ororo mentioned something yesterday about how there would be a bunch of strange people in the house today. I guess this must be decorators, cooks, musicians and people to set all of this up. I suppose I missed the part where she said they would be here at dawn.
This can't be good. If everyone else is awake and running around already, then I won't have my morning alone. This would be catastrophic to my newly non-stupid mind. This would build the damn again that would lock the stupidity up in there forever.
The only solution that I can think of to maybe help with this is going for that walk I was thinking of. After I say this to Kitty and Jean, they both give me a strange look.
"The sun is hardly up yet—and it's freezing," Kitty wrinkled her nose as she stared out of the window.
"Yeah, the news said there was a forty percent chance of snow today," Jean added as she too, went over to the window.
I just shrugged and told them I was going anyway. I didn't mind the cold; just as long as I got my morning alone, I was good. And if I don't get this morning, out of ALL mornings, all hell will break loose. And when I say hell I mean my stupidity will come back in waves, I'll probably be mad for no reason, the whole thing with Remy will go down the drain, and the washboard abs will be lonely if I'm not there to lick whip cream off of them.
So you see, it is imperative that I get my morning to myself.
…
AH!
Ok, going out was a bad idea. Why, you ask? Well, there are a number of reasons why. First off, it's freezing outside—not the unendurable kind, I could have stood that—but the wind blew so harshly and unrelenting the whole the time, if felt as if I didn't have any clothes on at all.
I thought that the sun would surely help me warm, just a little, but the sky is clouded over with fluffy, grey clouds and the sun is no where to be seen.
Then—someone had wet the sidewalk the night before and it had iced over. My poor, unsuspecting self walked right over it, slipped, and banged my elbow. Then, as if this wasn't enough, I might have been able to salvage the morning, if the next thing hadn't happened.
A giant, stupid bird flew overhead—and took a big, juicy crap on my arm—ON MY ARM! That stupid thing CRAPPED ON ME! I hate hunting—I just think its wrong—but if I'd had a gun right then, that stupid thing would have been in birdie heaven. Or...Maybe not. I could never hurt an animal. Even though it CRAPPED ON ME!
I thought: at least it's on my coat and not on my bare arm. I thought this before I took my coat off and was forced to battle the cold and the hard winds in nothing but my thin, long sleeved shirt.
So by the time I get back to the house an hour later I am understandably NOT happy.
I don't count them, but there's got to be at least thirty to forty strange people here setting things up. Pretty white chairs are being set out on the lawn and I realize with a sudden dread that they want to have the wedding outside. WHY WHY WHY they want to do this, I will never know. Outside weddings are pretty, but it's so cold out here we're going to freeze to death before the ceremony is even halfway through. I doubt Logan had anything to do with it, so I assume that this is all Ororo's doing.
She's trying to kill us.
People were wrapping white Christmas lights around the bushes and trees everywhere—that is going to look pretty later. Three guys are struggling to roll out a white cloth on the ground that I assume is supposed to make an isle for Ororo to walk down. There's a lone man setting up an arch towards where all the chairs are facing where Logan and Ororo will get married.
I carefully ease my way through everyone, trying not to bother them or mess anything up. I've just about made it through when I knock into a man who is trying to get through the front door at the same time I am.
"Oh, I'm sorry-" My apology dies on my lips as I notice who it is that I ran into.
Oh. My. God.
It's Coconut Head.
I stare at him in bewilderment "Coco—I mean," I say quickly, "Eric? What are you doin' here?"
He recognizes me and smiles. "Hey Rogue! Tabitha invited me to the wedding."
This I don't doubt. It sounds just like something reckless (inviting the stripper that we were supposed to be keeping a secret) that Tabitha would do. But it's so early and this was weird. "But…It's six thirty in the morning." I say to him.
He shrugs. "Yeah, Tabby told me that I could come at any time and I was already awake, so I came now." He grins stupidly at me and I can't help but want to smack him. That might sound harsh, but I couldn't help but think what would have happened if no one had been awake yet and this ignoramus had come to the door.
"But…" I say again, "its six thirty in the morning."
"I know." he says confusedly, "I have a watch." He holds out arm for me to see his watch. I continue to stare at his face, wondering at what age he had hit his head so hard.
"But…It's six—Oh nevermind—" I stop talking when I notice how confused he looks.
I run inside, ditching him there on the doorstep. People were setting up in here too. Hey, is that a stage? I don't have time to inspect it before Tabitha comes hopping down the stairs to greet Coconut Head.
Wait, Tabitha hopping down the stairs? It's six thirty in the morning! WHY is everyone up? OH, right, the wedding is at noon. But this is still weird.
I run up the stairs, leaving Tabby and Coconut Head to do—whatever they were going to do. I caught a glimpse of Coconut Head waving goodbye to me and I ran faster.
…
When I get back to my room, Remy is on my bed, naked.
Ok, half naked.
OK…He isn't naked at all.
Except for that he is buck naked.
Yes, I'm kidding.
A fully dressed Remy is lying on my bed, wrinkling the bedspread that I had made earlier. He's reading something—I wasn't sure what at first, not until I noticed my backpack open and my notebook out on the bed.
"What are you doing?" I snap at him after I slam the door closed behind me.
It is six thirty in the morning. Six THIRTY. Did no one decide to sleep at all last night?
"Readin your history notes," Remy responds without looking over from the paper. "At least I'm tryin, you have terrible handwriting."
What! I do not! I mean, it ain't the best handwriting in the world, but it ain't terrible. What's terrible is that he has no sense of self control and goes through my things whenever he wants. I could have VERY private stuff in that backpack for all he knows, and he's just—just—just…stupid.
"Remy…" I say warningly and finally he looks over at me.
"Hi." He says and grins.
Oh no. He needs to stop grinning like that. Now that my mind is not so clouded over with stupidity, I can clearly feel my knees going a little weak, my palms sweating, and my heart thumping a little faster as he grins like that.
But I don't like him.
AH! No! The stupidity is coming back!
I do like him.
A lot.
Go away stupidity.
Remy tosses my notebook down and hops up. I just stand there as he comes over to me, too excited, nervous, and afraid of what I'm feeling to run. I don't know what he's going to do when he gets here but I can't imagine that it would make my hands shake like they're trying to do now.
Or maybe it would.
Finally in front of me, he takes my left hand, pulls off my glove, and kisses my palm. Ok, that's not so bad. That actually feels nice. This does nothing to calm my nerves though, because now I'm nervous in a whole other way—a way that I can't really explain because I've never felt it before.
He kisses me again, this time on my wrist, and again I feel something I've never felt before. Except for once when he kissed me at Trask's factory, and once when he kissed me the other day, that is. Little trickles of pleasure emanate from where he kissed me, making me go hot and cold and tingly all at the same time. I'm not sure what to make of this, either, but I enjoy it all the same.
"Someone said you tried to come and talk to me yesterday," he says leisurely as he turns my hand over and kisses the back of it.
I can't talk—my tongue feels very thick all of a sudden so I just nod at him instead.
"What did want to talk about?" As he rolls my sleeve up and starts kissing his way up my arm, I completely forget what I wanted to talk to him about yesterday. Something about a…coconut? No, but déjà vu with that one…
Something about…Oh yeah, kisses. He kissed me and we should talk about it—he kissed me like he's kissing me right now. Only then it was fast and hungry, now it's slow and relaxed, and somehow I think this is better. Though everytime he kisses me they seem to get better.
I swallow, hard. I have to get a hold of myself. If this was going to happen everytime Remy touched me then the other parts of my life were going be majorly neglected. On the other hand, if he does keep going like this, I doubt I'll care all that much.
"I think we need to talk." I respond, finally finding my voice.
He nods in agreement and pulls back from my arm. Hmph.
"You're right, we do," he takes my hand and leads me over to the bed.
"No!" I jump away from him. I ain't fallin for that bit. No way am I getting too near that bed with him. "You sit there!" I point to the chair that he had brought into my room when I was sick. I have yet to bring put it back where it belonged, and now I'm grateful for it.
He looks at me amusedly but goes over and gets the chair anyway. He drops it next to the bed and sits down. Ok, this is much more comfortable. As long as he's not touching me, I can have a clear mind about this.
Just as I pass him to go sit on my bed, he reaches out and grabs me by the wrist. "No," he says, "You sit here!" And he pulls me onto his lap before I can stop him. In the back of my mind, I realize that what he just said was a mirror of what I had said five seconds before. But of course, this is the back of my mind.
And now we're at the forefront. My first fear is that someone will walk in on us. This is a strong possibility since the universe hates me and everyone here is nosy.
Then, my stupidest fear is that the chair will break. Though, that might be funny. And my biggest fear—if you could call it a fear—is the realization that I'm on Remy's lap and trying to have a serious conversation when I KNEW I shouldn't be touching him.
And then with a horrifying realization, I feel something pressing into my thigh.
"Remy!" I burst angrily and start trying to get up.
But he holds tight. "What? Just sit with me."
"You are disgusting, you know that?" I snap angrily as I try to wriggle away from—that.
"What?" He looks confused, "How is this disgusting?"
"Let go of me you rubber—" I stop short and narrow my eyes at him when I see his lips twitching. "DON'T laugh."
"I won't—tell me why…" He seems to realize something, "OH…Rogue, that's my cell phone." Keeping one arm in a tight grip around me, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. The pressure on my thigh is gone and I know he's telling the truth.
He laughs as I feel my face burn red. My urge to run is much greater now. I had actually wanted to spend time with Remy for two seconds before I made an idiot out of myself. Again.
"Ok, moving on," He says and tosses his phone to my bed. "What did you want to talk about?"
This is something that I like about Remy. He doesn't hold things over my head or talk again about my dumb moments after they've happened. Like when we kissed for the first time—he didn't go around and tell anyone and he didn't even talk about it with me. He didn't point out that a few moments before that kiss happened I was thinking of pushing him off of the roof and arguing with him. Instead he laid back and made me feel—dare I say it—comfortable…Kind of.
One of his arms is holding me to him right now, but he's using his free hand to play with my hair. This is very distracting.
"Can't I talk over there?" I motion toward the bed.
"Why can't we talk here?"
"Because it's…weird."
He shrugs and continues to wrap my hair around his fingers. "It's not weird for me."
Of course it's not weird for him, he's not the one sitting on my lap…Though he'd probably like that just the same. But I'm still afraid that someone is going to walk in, and obviously Remy isn't going to let go of me any time soon so I better get it over with.
I try to look serious—as serious as one can look when you're being held like a five year old. "Fine. We need to talk about um…Um…" That fear of what to say is coming back. I can't believe I have to say this. "Us." For some reason, I've always hated when I hear people say that.
Remy nods. "Ok. What about us?"
I clear my throat awkwardly. "Erm…You know…this and that…"
"You mean how we kissed the other day? And how you're sittin on my lap right now? And how I'm gonna kiss you again?"
I just barely dodge him as I turn my head. He catches my ear instead, and for me, this is no better than my mouth. But he pulls back and pouts at me.
"Why'd you do that?"
"Because," I say crossly, "we have to talk."
He shrugs and pulls me a little closer. "Ok, talk." And he starts nuzzling my neck.
Oh brother. I knew I shouldn't have stayed on his lap. I knew I shouldn't have let him touch me in the first place—his touch is way too demanding of all of my senses for me to be able to think clearly. And most importantly, I shouldn't have let him known that this is ok.
"Remy," I complain and start trying to wiggle away again. "Will you please stop that for two seconds?"
He pulls back and looks at me. "Ok. Go on."
I sigh, grateful that he's stopped acting like a child. "Ok, well—"
"Two seconds are up!" He says happily before diving for my neck again.
This feels good and all but…I feel that familiar itch of irritation scratching at me. "Stop it! Will you—oh."
He's got my ear—I have to think—I have to keep a clear head. I pull away and slap him across the face.
I'm serious. Though I didn't slap him all that hard. It didn't even hurt my hand, but it certainly got his attention. I expected him to either be hurt, angry, sad, or just to keep completely ignoring me and keep going, but he did none of these things.
Instead, he lifts his gaze to mine and looks almost…disappointed. "That's all you've got?"
Ok, I heard wrong. "What?" I ask quickly.
"Hit me harder baby—show me—OW!"
This time I slap him harder—hurting my hand in the process. I scramble out of his lap quickly and glare, seething at him. "YOU—are so infuriating! Why can't you go a day without being a pervert?" I ball my hands into fists at I yell at him. "Why can't you go a day without being annoying? You are undoubtedly the most infuriating person in the WORLD! And yes, I realize that I haven't met every person, but I'm one hundred percent sure that you are the worst of the worst!"
He says nothing through this. Instead he watches me with a satisfied little smirk on his face—and something that closely resembles admiration. But maybe I'm wrong. Why would he admire me? I've just slapped the man and insulted him, yet he still gives me that look.
"STOP SMIRKING!" I yell at him and I can tell he's fighting hard not laugh.
"Oh, now my anger is amusing to YOU?" I shout angrily, getting madder when I see his amusement. "Well let me tell you mister—you're—you're—you're the stupidest most irritating person and I won't have anything to do with you again!" He stands up and I automatically back up a few paces. "NO! Don't try that thing with your lips again! OK, cause it won't work, no matter how hard you try!"
He lifts an eyebrow at this. "Is that a challenge?"
"NO!" I yell hysterically, knowing that if that were a challenge, I would definitely lose it. "Stay away from me Remy LeBeau—I mean it! If you touch me I'll—I'll do something horrible to you while you're sleeping!"
He smirks at me again. "Something horribly dirty I hope."
This is the comment that makes me completely snap. So many curses and insults come to me, I don't know which to hurl at him first. I would really like to smack him again, but seeing as how he likes that, and I don't want to get within his reach, I'm not taking any chances. Instead, I gape in anger at him, taking a few angry, shallow breaths to steady myself.
"YOU SON OF-"
"You are so sexy," he says appreciatively, freely roving his eyes up and down my form.
This stops me short of my curse, but does nothing to ease my anger. If anything, it makes me madder.
"Shut-up!"
He smiles, just a little. "Didn't you want to talk about somethin?"
Oh, he is too much. I could never be with him, I know that now. I would rip my hair out just trying to cope with things like this.
"I told you to shut-up." I tell him coldly but he doesn't seem a bit bothered by it. He actually still looks slightly amused. The pompous ass.
"Ok, I'll talk then." He shrugs and then reaches out and takes my hand. I move to pull it away but he keeps it in a death grip which infuriates me all the more. "I promise I won't ever ask you to hit me…Ok, that's a lie, I enjoy it too much to give it up now. I promise I won't purposely try to annoy you…Ok, that's a lie too. You're too sexy when you get mad for me to stop doing that."
I lift an eyebrow at him. This speech better get better, and mighty quick before I karate chop his head off.
He sets his eyes, big and wide on mine. "I have a lot of flaws—too many to count. I know that, I know you know that. But I'm so very fond you, chérie, that I can promise that if you give me a chance, I will make it all well worth your trouble."
I wish he wouldn't look at me or say things like that right after he's made me so mad. I'm getting dizzy. Not only that, but my heart is hurting my chest it's beating so hard and my stomach is doing this weird fluttery thing.
Who knows what that means.
Seeing my changing expression, he draws me close and puts an arm around my waist. "I'll be good to you, I promise."
My hands are shaking again. I don't know why, either. Maybe because it's cold in here. Yes, that must be it.
I look up at him slowly, wishing I was just as brave about this as I was about yelling at him. This is what I've wanted to do since the other day. I'd hardly thought of anything else. And now that the time has come, I still feel my stubbornness pulling me one way, my desire to hit him another way, and another feeling altogether pulling my heart towards him.
"Ok." I say in a small voice that I hardly recognize as my own.
He grins then—a big happy grin that takes over his features and shows in his eyes. "Really?" He asks excitedly.
I nod—still not brave enough to say much out loud. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm happy all of a sudden too—everything that I was angry about just a moment ago feels so far away now, almost as if it had never happened. ALMOST as if…
Hm.
"So, you'll be my date to the wedding?" Remy asks, almost bouncing on his feet he looks so excited.
I nod. "Yeah, sure."
"Then I guess I should go and pick up my suit. I wasn't gonna wear it if I didn't have you to look good for."
He seriously needs to stop making my heart melt with these little comments. Soon it's going to be a big puddle of nothing if he keeps this up. Then again, with the way he goes from annoying to sweet I'm sure my heart will keep solidifying and then melting over and over again.
Not that I'd mind.
He leans down and I hold my breath in anticipation, knowing he's going to kiss me.
But instead, he kisses the tip of my nose and says, "See you later chère," before skipping out of my room.
…
Next Chapter: Evan comes back, Coconut Head leers, Remy is James Bond, and SOMEONE gets married.