Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men, but I do own characters of my own creation.

Thanks to all of my reviewers and readers! I really appreciate all the attention all the readers give my story. ^ ^

The silence that surrounded the room weighed heavily on my chest, making it hard to simply breathe let alone think. Remy didn't make it any easier by standing as still as a statue in front of me with a blank look on his chiseled face. His bright red eyes watched me with such deep emotions that I felt a nauseous wave of guilt run through my stomach.

"I," my brain continued to run in slow motion as a few words began to fall out of my mouth, "I didn't mean to upset anyone. I just had to know. I had to know why the hell people were screaming in my head and why every power I had absorbed wanted to explode or burst out of me. I just, I had to figure some things out-"

Remy moved forward suddenly, and cupped my chin in his gloved hand. I stared into his eyes as his thumb stroked my cheek gently. The Cajun whipped out a small handkerchief sized cloth, and before I knew what was going on, he placed the item over my lips delicately and suddenly placed his own over the fabric in a passionately forceful manner.

The shock of the kiss left my body in a somewhat limp state, until Remy finally pulled back and I crumpled onto the edge of my bed. As I sat in shock and surprise, my strength started to come flooding back to my legs. With a sudden bolt of energy, I stood up on my feet and stared at the Cajun as he placed the cloth back into his pocket. How dare he?! After everything that happened?! Why would he pull a stunt like that now?! The emotions started to swirl inside my mind as Remy once again stood still and watched me.

"Did you really look?" I finally whispered out the words and forced myself to watch his face for any sign of deceit.

"Yes."

"Why?"

Remy sighed softly and ran a hand through his untamed hair, "You really can't see it, Cherie?"

"See what?" I had no clue why my words came out so stressed. Maybe I was too busy worrying about everything going on around me, to care about how my tone sounded.

Remy approached me slowly and only stopped when I landed on the bed because I was trying to back away. "How many times do I have to tell you?" He offered me a crooked grin and tilted his head to match the angle, "I care about you, Rogue."

"Yeah right..."

Remy caught my chin again in his hand and looked into my eyes, "It's the truth, mon Cherie." He let go of my chin as a sour look began to grow on my face, but did not step back from me, "After everything that had been going on with you, I had to try and find you." He held up a finger and wagged it playfully in front of my face, "And Remy didn't do too bad it seems."

"Oh great, we are back to third person land." I crawled away from the uncomfortable position and stood on the other side of my bed. The chills his body gave me were unnerving and made my mind swoon into a place that I couldn't think in. If I was going to face Remy, I would need all of my wits about me, and with him trying to act charming it was going to take a lot of effort.

"You have to admit Cherie, Remy had a right to be worried."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You barley got out of the medical ward, and then you sneak off-"

"I did not sneak off!" It seemed like a cowardly insult to imagine myself sneaking away instead of just boldly leaving. Even if that was what actually happened…

"Cherie, you pulled off a rather good escape you know." Remy tapped his chin as if he was thinking about how to critique my work, "Waiting until no one was around and leaving no trail behind you. That's classic thief skills right there."

"I am no thief Remy LeBeau!"

"'Course not." He scoffed and played with a card from his pocket, "That would take years of training and skill. But it is a good start." He grinned that annoyingly crooked grin of his and watched me with amused eyes.

"Shut up," I growled at him and watched as his expression grew more serious.

"Always got that fiery temper, eh?"

"If I have a temper it's because of the people that follow me like some damn lonely dog."

"Remy only here to make sure you alright, Cherie."

"Well for your information, I am fine. And I don't need a babysitter. I'm a grown woman; I can look out for myself!"

"Oh yes," Remy rolled his eyes slightly and seemed to grow a tad annoyed, "You've proven that so far."

Why the hell did every boy I meet give me that damn line?! Over the past years I had managed to take care of myself with little trouble. Okay, so there was some apocalyptic stuff, but that could have happened to anyone. "The only person I would ever need protection from is you anyway."

"What makes you say that?" He looked at me with curious eyes and offered one more of his classic lines, "'Cause you're afraid of the animal magnetism between us, no?"

"Don't make me slap that mouth of your's clear off your face, Remy LeBeau." The grumbled threat was met with a sly grin. I walked closer to him and poked his chest roughly, "You're the one who kidnapped me the first time. Or have you conveniently forgotten that mess?"

Remy's look grew slightly more serious as he watched me try and keep a convincing glare. The young man waited for a moment, then took my hand in his two and stared into my eyes, "That is nothin' like this, Cherie."

"Oh please, Remy." I jerked my hand from his grasp and turned my back to him. I wasn't sure why I felt this anger in my gut. All I knew was as long as I kept myself angry, I wouldn't have to address the more strange emotions he gave me. As long as I could just keep a strong resentment towards the smooth talking thief, I would be okay.

Remy had other plans though…

The tall boy slinked his arms around my waist and pulled me to his chest with one gentle movement. My body shivered as he leaned down and rested his forehead on top of my head. "When you were lying in the medical unit," He whispered the words into my hair as if he believed they would stick in my head better that way, "You kept mumbling about things and lettin' out these whimpers."

Everything in my body told me I should push him away and keep my hollow anger up as a barrier. But my mind couldn't convince my body to move. As I stood there in Remy's warm embrace, my legs once again started to feel slightly numb. I tried to take in a deep breath but all I could smell was the damn Cajun's musky cologne. Man, I hated the power he could wield over me with a few touches and a small grin.

"You kept asking for someone to save you." Remy moved his face down so he could whisper into my ear, "It was truly heartbreakin', Cherie."

"Well sorry for breakin' ya," I felt my own accent start to slip into the conversation as I lost control of my thought process.

Remy hugged me tighter and buried his head into my thick brow curls, "No need for an apology, mon petite. Remy already fixed everything."

"What? Wait, what did you fix, Cajun?"

Remy chuckled softly and turned me around so that we were chest to chest, "Remy fixed his problem."

"Problem?" If there was anything worse than a flirty Cajun, it was a vague one.

"After seeing you so crushed, Remy began to think about how much he hated to see such a belle femme en tellement douleur."

"In English?"

Remy chuckled and tilted his head down to mine so he could stare me in the eyes, "What Remy means is, he made himself a promise."

"What kind of promise?"

"He promised himself that he would make sure his Cherie never had to go through pain again."

I stared at him in slight confusion and curiosity. So Remy wanted to promise to be there to cheer me up now? As far as I could figure, he and Jude must be sharing ideas or maybe I just brought that out in guys. "Let's be realistic here, Remy."

"Remy always is," He winked at me and still held me close.

"You can't promise to stay with me and be some kind of cheer up man."

"Pourquoi pas?"

I knew enough French and enough about Remy to gauge what he said, "Because you are going to have to go back with the X-men. You have to go back to Earth."

"So do you, Cherie."

"Actually…." I sighed and pulled from his grasp finally, "I'm not going back to Earth."

"What?"

"I thought you understood Remy." I had no right to expect him to know anything about the Lenox dimension, but the longer I talked the easier it seemed to make a possibly painful point. "I'm staying here… I, well, I have commitments here."

"The princess thing?"

"Yes," I sighed and looked at him with an honest expression, "Between you and me, I don't know if I am even the girl they think I am, but I owe them too much not to help out by taking the role."

"What about what you owe yourself?"

"What?"

"Don't you think that after all you been through, you deserve some kind of good fortune?"

"Hey," I tried to protest, "Most girls dream of being a princess. Isn't that good luck?"

"For those who dream of that kind of thing it is."

"What makes you think I don't dream about it?"

"Remy knows his Rogue."

"First off, I ain't your Rogue." I poked his chest again, "and second I doubt you know anything about what I dream."

Remy smirked, "Remy knows you want to be a writer of everything from songs to novels."

"How do you know that Cajun?" I was slightly taken aback by his correct answer.

"You get A's in English, tutor the mansion students who beg long enough, you keep a journal, and you have an interesting collection of spirals under your bed."

"Remy, how do you know that?!"

He winked at me and dangled one of the pocket sized notebooks I had thought was still hidden under my bed back in Earth, "A little detective work goes a long way, Cherie."

"Remy LeBeau you were snooping in my room!"

The boy chuckled and dodged my attempts to punch him. As I kept trying to smack the damn Cajun, he managed to avoid being cornered. In fact, Remy managed to not only avoid being cornered, but he also wiggled his way around so that we were moving in pointless circles. If I ever got a hold of the man responsible for his dodging skills, I'd beat him senseless.

"Too slow, Petite." Remy taunted me and offered one more wink, before I lost my patience and just flew at him. We collided rather quickly and landed on the floor, as a mass of tangled limbs. "If you had told Remy you wanted to snuggle, he would have given in earlier." Remy grinned and turned his body so he was laying on top of me instead of beside me.

"Either you get off in five seconds, or the I throw your ass into the wall."

"Aw Cherie, that is so cold." He tried to move off of me, but found a button on his jacket was snagged in my sweater. "Looks like fate wants us together." He grinned widely and made no effort to untangle our clothing. I started to work on the button, but had little luck. My efficiency was cut even lower since Remy merely laid on top of me grinning.

"Seems strange," Remy spoke aloud and watched me work with annoyance yet care, "You must be enjoying this little snuggle."

"Hell no." I hissed at him and kept fumbling with the button and fabrics.

Remy chuckled, "Well the Rogue I know would just rip it off, but you seem to want the slow route."

"If I could afford to replace this sweater, you would already be laying on the ground unconscious." I grumbled the words out as the button started to grow more tangled due to my movements, "I'll just have to beat your ass in a few minutes."

"Already bringing up the sexy talk, eh?"

I furrowed my brow and used my strength to push the Cajun over so I was on the top and he was on the bottom. Amazingly, the button and sweater remained combined. "Just shut up Cajun!" I began to work quicker at the button problem, while images of beating the grin right off the Cajun flooded my mind.

"Remy thinks of other things," He grinned and took advantage of the fact I was leaning down, by wrapping his arms around me and pulling me towards him. "But they always seem to leave him when he thinks about you."

"Let go, Remy!" I pulled from his grasp but found myself stuck a second time since my locket had twisted into a piece of his hair. "Crap!" I groaned and now tried to get the jewelry untangled while Remy took the advantage to keep trying to cuddle. "Remy LeBeau I swear if you touch me one more fucking time!"

A loud clearing of the throat interrupted our insanity and I turned my head to see Jude standing in the doorway with a rather interesting look on his face. The young prince looked to me first then to the Cajun who still held me around my middle while our torsos stayed close together and my neck was mere inches above Remy's lips.

"This isn't what you're thinking it is." I tried to defend myself as I finally resorted to ripping the button and sweater apart as well as pulling my locket from Remy's hair, which earned a small grunt of pain from the boy.

Jude shook his head and kept his diplomatic face on as he answered my hollow defense statements, "You don't owe me an explanation." He looked at me, and I could see the large amounts of hurt, anger, and sadness in his eyes. "I should have knocked. I'll talk to you later, your Majesty." Jude offered me a curt bow like move and left the room in a slow walk as if nothing had happened at all.

"Jude!" I called after the boy as a wave of guilt hit my system, but Remy held onto my wrist and stopped me for a moment. "Let me go, Remy, I have to go talk to him."

"Why?" He looked at me and for the first time I could remember in a long time, showed a deep jealousy in his eyes.

"Because he is my fiancé…" I sighed and turned from him before he could demand any more explanation.

Why did this all have to be so complicated? It would have been easier if I could at least say I honestly disliked the boys. Why couldn't Jude be like Griffin and think I was just some kind of stupid Earth brat? Why did he have to care for me? And for that matter, why did I have to care for him as well…. Maybe everything would be easier if I just stuck with the princess story line. But then again, there never was a princess story where the girl had to pick between the suave pauper and the caring prince. Why the heck did I have to be the one to try a new princess story anyway?!

Translations-

belle femme en tellement douleur – beautiful woman in so much pain

Pourquoi pas? – Why not?