X-Men: A New Battle, Part 4
Summary: An X-Men: the Movie sequel. Rogue finally meets Gambit.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gambit (damn), or Rogue, or any of the other X-Men. They are Marvel's, and the movie is Fox's. I am not making any money from this (damn again), so please don't sue.
Author's Note: The character of 'Mack' is mine. You can use him if you want to, though. I don't really care. Although I don't know why you would want to use him. He doesn't do much.
~*~
The next day Rogue showed up for a Danger Room session, but was told that she still was not ready for action, whether it was against real or holographic enemies.
So she was going out. Technically, she wasn't supposed to do that, either, but if no one knew about it, they couldn't stop her.
She walked into town, and found herself at Mack's Diner. She'd been there twice before, but never by herself. Mack was a known mutant, capable of mild telekinesis. He was a big guy, with purple eyes that blazed brightly when he used his powers. The customers were not primarily mutant, but were usually mutant-friendly. Occasionally the diner would be attacked by anti-mutant groups, but there were several people willing to help with the cost of such damage, Charles Xavier included. The idea of a mutant owning their own business was embraced in the mutant community.
She sat down at the counter. "What'll you have, hon?" asked Mack kindly.
"Tuna fish sandwich and a Coke, please."
Her food came and she ate it quietly.
Someone else cam in and sat at the bar, a couple seats down. She didn't look up, instead staring at her sandwich, seemingly fascinated by tuna salad and wonder bread.
"Bonjour, mon ami." The man's voice was as smooth as dark velvet.
"Hey, Rem'. What'll you have?"
"Bourbon, s'il vous plaît."
"Remy, every time you come in here you ask for a bourbon, and every time I tell you we don't serve drinks to minors."
"Je sais, je sais. Coke, den." A minute later, after the sound of a drink being placed down: "Merci."
Rogue finally gathered the courage to look at him, and her heart skipped a beat. He was gorgeous. His long russet hair was tied back in a ponytail; several strands had escaped and were hanging in his face. His eyes were obscured by dark glasses. His features were finely chiseled, almost delicate.
He noticed she was staring. She looked away quickly, but not fast enough. He was walking over to the seat next to her, soda in hand, grinning easily.
"Bonjour, chére."
"Hello," she greeted quietly, not able to look at him. Marie, do not get involved with a human, she told herself. Humans bad! Humans bad! He'll hate ya when he finds out what ya are. And it's not like ya could evah touch him or anythin'.
"Aw, Cajun, leave the poor girl 'lone," Mack reprimanded.
"Shhh!" He waved him off with one elegant hand. "Remy talkin' t'de femme belle." He turned back to Rogue. "What y'name, chére?"
"Ah'm Marie," she answered after a slight hesitation, still blushing from the compliment.
"Marie. Dat's a pretty name." It wasn't until he said it, the French 'r' catching in the back of his throat.
Marie turned a deeper shade of red. "And ya are…?"
"Remy LeBeau." He took her gloved hand and brought it to his lips. Damn powers, she thought. "It's a pleasure t'meet y'."
"Nice ta meet ya too," she managed.
He paused a moment, considering. "Mississippi?"
She was confused a moment, then realized he was referring to her accent. "What? Oh, yeah, Ah'm from Mississippi. Yer from Nawlins."
He smiled. "Oui."
His easy-going manner was making her bolder. "So what're ya doin' up heah, sugah?"
"Work," he said simply. "What 'bout y'?"
"Same." She didn't ask what he did; she wasn't curious enough to risk being asked the same.
He pointed to her now-empty glass of soda. "Y'wan' 'not'er one, chére, or are y'leavin'?"
"Sure, Ah'll have- but Ah can- pay for-"
"'Not'er Coke for de femme," Remy interrupted her.
"No, that's okay- ya don't have ta-"
"Shh," he hushed. "Remy know he don' have t'. But mebbe Remy wan' t'."
"Okay," she agreed quietly.
"So," he continued the conversation casually, "do you have un petit ami, chére?"
"A what?"
"A… boyfriend."
"Oh." Bobby… "No, Ah don't."
He grinned. "Bien."
She looked up at him, trying to see through his sunglasses. Good? Good is… good.
Remy put a hand on hers, and looked at her face to see if she had any objections. Seeing none, he gently stroked the back of her suede burgundy glove with his thumb.
This guy's not forward, no, not at all, Rogue thought. Not that she was complaining.
"Why d'y'wear gloves, chére?"
"Uh…" Marie's mind raced over possible reasons (other than the truth, of course). "Ah got a skin disease." Brilliant idea, Marie. Just brilliant. Now he'll think Ah'm disgustin'.
"Dat's too bad, chére."
Yeah, it is.
"So, would y'-"
A lady- a mutant- with green hair burst into the diner, cutting him off. "LeBeau! Let's get a move on, neh?" Mocking him.
Remy granted her a half-twisted smirk. "Une minute." He turned back to Marie. "I see y'again, non?"
"Sure," replied Marie, assuming she'd see him around.
He didn't move. "When?"
The full connotations of this struck Rogue all at once. "Ya mean like a date?" she blurted out.
"Oui, dat was the implication." He wasn't laughing at her, merely waiting for a response as Green-hair became more impatient.
"Uh, uh…" Rogue managed to collect her wits. "Friday?"
Remy smiled, but she couldn't tell if it was real, if it had reached his eyes. Damn glasses. "At seven? I pick y'up?"
"No!" she exclaimed, a little loudly. If he knew where she lived, he'd know she was a mutant. An X-Man. "Ah mean, seven's fine. But, uh, Ah, uh, Ah'm gonna be at the, uh, the library, so could ya pick me up there?"
"De library?" He raised an eyebrow.
Rogue merely shrugged.
"D'accord. De library, at seven. Bon, il faut que je parte."
"Au revior," she called after him, knowing that her accent was bad and praying he wouldn't care.
He didn't. He turned back to her and grinned. "A plus, chére." Seemingly impulsively, he brought his hand to his lips, then flung it out in a large gesture.
Marie blushed uncontrollably.
"He never paid, the bastard."
She snapped her head up to look at Mack.
"Check your purse, hon," he instructed.
"What?"
"Guy's a thief. Check your purse."
Rogue did so, unbelieving. Yet when she opened the small black bag, a crisp white note stared up at her. The handwriting was precise, yet undeniably masculine.
You'd better keep a closer eye on your money, ma chérie. -Remy
She merely gaped. When had Remy even touched her purse? She was impressed, despite herself. She finally thought to check her wallet. Her money was all there- $35.46- plus the exact price of their combined bill. He was good, damn good.
"He left a note, and money." She gave Mack the extra money.
He shook his head, lifting the money to the cash register telekinetically. "Smooth talking bastard."
She ignored his comment. "Hey, Mack, what does 'chére' mean?"
"It means 'dear,' or something like that." He glanced up from the register to look Rogue in the eye. "You stay away from him, okay, hon? Don't want you getting hurt on account of my diner."
But Marie paid him no heed, leaving the diner walking on air. Ah have a date! Me! A date! Ah have-
Once she neared the mansion what she'd agreed to began to sink in. -a date. With a human. A human that Ah don't even know. Maybe this wasn't the brightest idea in the world.
"Hey, Marie. Where'd you go?" asked Bobby as soon as she got on campus grounds, immediately getting on her nerves.
"Out," she replied in passing.
"Hey, we're still on for that movie Friday night, right?"
Marie froze. "Uh… sure," she answered cautiously. "Why wouldn't we be?" Rogue didn't wait for a reply before sprinting inside.
She needed to talk to someone. Normally she went to Logan when she had a problem that just couldn't be kept to herself. But somehow, she couldn't this time. Jean, she immediately thought. Logan would tell her to talk to Jean.
Marie knocked hesitantly on Jean and Scott's door, praying that Cyclops would not answer. He didn't.
"Marie, honey, come in. What do you need?"
"Uh, Ah need ta talk, act'chally." She swallowed hard, twisting at a belt loop nervously.
Jean frowned. "Sure, what's wrong? You were very happy just a few minutes ago; I could sense it very easily." She paused, brushing the girl's mind ever so slightly, making sure to preserve Rogue's privacy. "You met a boy."
Marie nodded. "He asked me on a date and I said yes."
Jean raised her eyebrows. "You only just met him, and you agreed to go out with him? Marie, you don't know him at all-"
She had already thought of all that. "What's he gonna do- rape me?"
Jean smiled at the thought of what would happen to a potential rapist. "Well, maybe not, but he could still hurt you. Especially if he's a mutant, too."
Rogue looked down at the floor. "Uh, I don't exactly think he is a mutant."
"Does he know you're a mutant?"
She mumbled a reply.
"What?"
"Not exactly."
"Marie, Marie, Marie. He could belong to some anti-mutant group, or-"
"Well, Ah met him at Mack's Diner."
"When were you at- never mind, I don't want to know."
"There's another problem," the teen hedged. "Ah kinda already agreed ta go ta a movie with Bobby at the same time."
Jean closed her eyes. "Rogue! Of course you have to make this all as complicated as possible."
"Could ya maybe tell Bobby that Ah got sick again?"
"I will not like for you, Marie. Whatever you decide to say, you'll have to tell him yourself." She paused for a moment, taking pity on Rogue's dilemma. "However, I'll back up anything you say to him," she added, smiling kindly.
"Oh, thank ya thank ya thank ya so much, Jean!" She gave the older woman a hug, careful not to touch her skin, then skipped happily out of the room.
Jean watched her leave, shaking her head and smiling.
"Hey, Jeannie."
Her eyes immediately snapped to the speaker, her pulse coming just slightly faster. "Logan! You startled me!"
"Sorry, darlin'." He looked to where Rogue had last been seen, turning the corridor corner with a good extra measure of bounce in her step. "Why's she so excited?"
"She met a boy." Jean smiled, remembering when she'd felt the same way, when she'd first met Scott… Scott. What was she doing here with Logan? She loved Scott. But her attraction to the man they called Wolverine was… undeniable, to say the least. She shoved her thoughts aside. "Puppy love."
"She's hardly a pup anymore, y'know. All of 'em are so grown-up now. Even Jubilee's getting older, becomin' a young woman," he said, naming one of the youngest students when he had last been at the mansion. "Can I come in?"
Jean stepped aside, allowing Logan into her room. He sat down in one of the overstuffed chairs; Jean took the other.
"I've missed a lot while I was gone, haven't I?" Logan asked after a prolonged, not quite uncomfortable silence.
"Yeah, you have." She waited a moment, debating whether she should tell him or not. "Logan, Scott and I are engaged now." She couldn't look at his face, instead concentrating on a speck of dirt on the rug.
"Very funny, Jeannie."
She just shook her head.
Logan leapt up from his seat. "I can't believe you're planning on marrying that dick!"
Jean stood up as well. "Scott is not a dick! He's… dependable," she finished lamely.
Logan snorted derisively. "Dependable?" He grabbed her wrist, pulling her to him, staring into her eyes. "Is that what you want?"
She weakened under his intense gaze. "I- I don't know."
He released her abruptly and turned to leave. "Then I guess I was wrong about you."
"Logan, wait!" she called after him.
He did so. "What?"
"I'm sorry," she apologized lamely.
"You did what you wanted to do, didn't you? You have what you want. What are you sorry for?"
It wasn't anything she could put into words, so she ignored the question. "Can't we just be friends?" she pleaded, walking over to where he stood.
He was silent for a long time, eyes searching her face. "I think you know the answer to that as well as I do, darlin'," he answered quietly.
She didn't say anything.
"Well, I'm not one to stay where I'm not wanted." He turned away, toward the door.
"Logan, stop being so childish. It's not like that and you know it."
"No, I don't know it, Jeannie. What is it like?"
"Logan-" she began, becoming frustrated.
He cut her off with a kiss. Her arms immediately went around his neck, pulling him closer. The kiss quickly grew deeper, and the rest of the world seemed to fall away as nothing mattered anymore but each other.
Neither one noticed the door opening and closing. Nor did they hear the footsteps, or detect the third presence in the room. Until he spoke.
"What the hell is going on here?" Scott demanded.