365 Days

1: Feeling Normal

This is a Romy fic carrying on from X-Men: Legacy 224 where (at long last!) the Professor helps Rogue control her powers after finding her in Maynard Plains, at the old X-Men base. That issue is a Romy fan's dream, and I couldn't help myself but think this up! I know it was released over 2 years ago, but it's taken me this long to catch up with the series. I feel that I should clarify, in this AU, that is where canon ends. San Francisco remains a safe haven for mutants and the Dark X-Men/Dark Avengers: Utopia is disregarded. Sticking to it and the new island Scott creates at the end was too limiting, in my mind. I'm having some problems getting breaks between paragraphs working, no matter how many times I replace the chapter with them in, hence the excessive line breaks. It will be fixed when I can!

The stars seemed brighter in the sky across the plains, she felt like she could feel their light on her skin, cool and soothing. She leaned back on the rock behind her, hands above her head and closed her eyes, a wide grin across her face.

"What'ya tinkin', cheré?"

Rogue opened her eyes at that voice to see a familiar face, red eyes glinting in the dim light as they watched her. He lay down next to her on his side, head propped up on an elbow. She hadn't felt like this in his company since Valle Soleada. "Ah feel so... normal." She sighed at length, "Ah didn't think it would feel so ordinary."

A smirk lit up his face and made her breath catch in her chest. He trailed a finger up the inside of her arm, "I can think of a few things dat might make y'feel special again."

She batted a hand at him playfully, rolling her eyes. "Ah'm serious, Remy. Ah expected it tuh be a conscious effort. Ah thought ah was looking for an off switch. Ah never thought that it would be that mah on switch was just stuck."

"What's it like?" The Cajun asked, "To have silence again?"

Rolling onto her side to face him, and relishing in the warm feeling of his touch as his hand came to rest on her hip, she frowned slightly. "Bit of an odd question from someone who's always had silence."

"But a big one, Petit, to someone who hasn't known it in a long time."

"Ah was almost beginnin' tuh forget what it sounds like." She replied quietly, reaching out and fiddling with the collar of his coat, "Ah can't tell yuh what it's like t'hear myself think without there being a reply."

He stroked the side of her face- God, how right did that feel without gloves in-between his fingers and her skin? "Are y' happy, Rogue?"

She didn't reply straight away. "Right now? Ah still got a lot uh stuff to get mah head around... but ah feel like ah could be." Her eyes welled up, "In fact, ah'm sure ah'm getting there, Remy."

"Den I am happy too, cheré. Enough of dem tears, non?" He shuffled forwards and wrapped her up in his arms, closing his eyes and holding her tight. It had been far too long since he had last seen her, let alone held her so close. "Enough of dem tears."

"Y'sure you wanna come back, Petit?" Gamit asked for what felt like the millionth time as waited to board their flight at the airport. After remaining a few days on the plains, they had decided to go to San Francisco to the new X-Men base, like the Professor had suggested.. "If y' wanna stay out dere for longer I can wait for you."

She smiled and linked her arm through his, "Remy, ah wouldn't be here now if ah wasn't, would I? Chill out."

He noted that she still hadn't taken her gloves off yet but said nothing, nudging their hand luggage forward as the queue moved. "I just don' want y' to do anything y' not comfortable with yet, Rogue. If y' need more time, dat's ok with Remy."

"Quit yer naggin'!" She laughed, "A gal can change her mind, y'know, and ah would miss yuh terribly. Besides, be a waste of an afternoon having got here already." She handed their boarding passes over, sniggering quietly to herself as the attendant looked at the two of them and then gave a second look at Gambit, who winked an offending red eye at her. "Try not to scare the help, sugah." She teased as they passed. "I call shotgun on the window seat."

He shook his head, "Non! Y' used to fly, femme, no fair!"

Turning and batting her eyelashes, she pulled a face, standing in his way "But it's easier tuh appreciate without the cold wind, Remy. You wouldn't deprive me now, would yuh?"

"Oh, cheré, de emotional blackmail is unbecoming on you." Prompted more by the muttering of the people who couldn't get past them than desire to cut short their flirting, he turned her around, keeping an arm across her shoulders. "If y' really wanna talk about cold winds..."

She scowled, "Low blow, sugah. Ah though we were done will all that?"

He gave her shoulder a squeeze and kissed the top of her head lightly, "I kid, Rogue. You can have de window seat. But if I end up next to a lunatic, I blame you, mon cher."

2 hours in, 12 hours to go. Rogue winced as another peanut bounced off her forehead and glared at the man next to her, who was chuckling to himself next to her. "You'd never know that yoah a grown man, Remy. If yuh don't quit that, ah'm gonna put you out for the rest of the flight."

"Play cards wit Remy, Petit." He held up a deck and gave her a lop-sided grin, "He forgot to bring a book."

She closed her own book with a snap and glared at him. "Yoah a rotten cheat, Remy LeBeau. Ah told yuh before, ah ain't gonna play cards with yuh."

"But cheré, y' so good, I don stand a chance otherwise."

This raised the corners of her mouth, but she was resolute. "Flattery will get yuh nowhere. Don'cha have any other ideas?"

"Many, many other ideas, Rogue. Mostly involving dat bathroom over dere. I jus don think dat dey are appropriate, non?"

Rogue met his eyes and winked. "Interesting as that sounds, could yuh do me a favour?" He nodded, she opened her book again, "Shut up."

That lasted all of fifteen minutes. "So what are y' readin'?"

Slowly tearing herself away from the book, she met him with a blank look. "A book, Remy. Ah know yoah not fully acquainted with the concept, but in order to read, ah do rather need yuh t'be quiet."

He gave a mock shrug and leaned his head against her shoulder, pretending to try to read it. "No pictures, eh? What's dis book about?"

"Gambit, sugah, if yuh carry on like this ah'm gonna seriously consider hurting yuh." Finger on the middle of his forehead, she pushed him off. "Ah don't know how the Professor put up with yuh comin' out here."

"Easy, Remy remember his book on the way here." He started absent-mindedly dealing a game of solitaire on the tray. "'sides, the Prof doesn't have your sparkling personality."

She tried to concentrate on the page before her, but kept finding herself glancing at the game he was playing, before sighing with irritation and reading the same sentence a couple more times. She was certain that he was playing deliberately badly to draw her in, and it was, to her irritation, working. She snapped the book shut again. "For God's sake, Remy, there's an Ace right there."

"I thought y' were reading your book, Cheré?" He smirked, and began wagging a finger at her, "Now don' you interfere. Y' didn' wanna play, remember?" He looked back at the game and gave an exaggerated shrug and scratched his head, looking for a move. "Now, dere was something Gambit was gonna move."

"Look if yuh just-" She reached out only to have him slap her hand away and cross his arms.

"Could y' do me a favour, cheré?" He snapped dramatically, "Shut up."

Making a noise of indignation, she punched him on the arm. "Yoah an ass, yuh know that?"

He scooped the cards up and began shuffling, grinning broadly. "Does this mean y' wanna play wit me?"

After several games alternating between beating and playing awfully to let her win, the two slept for most of the flight. When it was announced that they would be landing soon, Remy woke with a start. His cheré was curled up asleep against him under a blanket, her head on his chest and hand tightly closed on his shirt, as if hanging on for dear life. She had looked so peaceful these past nights. What he remembered of her sleeping before was plagued with unsettling dreams of the psyches she had absorbed and had stuck in her mind, and was fretful, restless. He stroked her hair gently with one hand. The quiet was a welcomed change, by all accounts.

Much as he would rather have left her to sleep, he knew he had to wake her. He shook her gently, "Rogue, mon cher, time to wake up."

She gave a quiet groan and nestled closer, moving her gloved hand lower and holding just as tightly. Gambit winced slightly, feeling a stir at her touch, and tried to ignore her hand. "Already, sugah?"

"Already."

With a heavy yawn she sat up and stretched, keeping one eye trained on him. "Hope ah didn't snore an' keep yuh awake. Ah'm so tired, ah dunno why."

"Plenty of time to sleep at de base," He shrugged, "And of course y' didn' snore, Petit."

She didn't reply, and instead busied herself looking out of the window. He could tell that something was bothering her from the way she had started twisting her hands in her lap. He reached across and took one of her hands in his own, giving them a squeeze. "Y' don' wanna go back to de base yet, non?"

Rogue turned back, frowning. "Ah... ah don' think ah'm ready quite yet. Ah thought ah was, but..." She bit her lip and looked down, "ah probably should have thought of this before getting on the plane."

He raised her hand and kissed the back of it, "Rogue, don' fret. Plenty o' places to stay. Remy find us a place. Y' don' have to tink of dat now."