Author's Note: While the story overall was inspired by and written for Heather, this part is Kori's fault. She's the one who insisted I couldn't just leave well enough alone and not introduce Gambit. For once, I intended to write something without him in it, but, alas, it was not to be.
The day had been warm, appropriately so for the beautiful summer whose close was drawing near. Gambit shifted in his sleep, a sudden chill dragging his consciousness nearer the surface and away from the depths of his wandering dreams. His hands clutched groggily at the covers, seeking a blanket to ward off the cold, but before he found one it had passed. Still, something kept him from sinking back into sleep, a feeling that things weren't as they should be. Slowly, he opened his eyes and saw her. He studied her a moment before letting her know he was awake. She was wonderfully familiar and yet somehow changed as well. Her form was still her own, slender and draped in that sweet little sundress, as she leaned casually against his windowframe. Her hair hadn't changed, beautiful chestnut waves that cascaded around her bare shoulders, the striking white streak, glistening in the moonlight that poured across her. Her skin was beautifully pale in that same light, making her appear delicate, transient, insubstantial. His eyes brushed over all of this before being held on her face. It held her features but was at the same time infinitely more beautiful than she had ever been. Her expression was one of sad longing as she stared at him. Her deep green eyes moved slowly over his thinly-concealed form beneath the sheets, drinking him in with her gaze. The intensity of emotion in those eyes froze his breath and strained his heart near to breaking with love for her. They held sorrow, regret, and painfully firm resolve beyond human limits. As he watched, she turned slowly to leave, soft locks of hair shading her face from his view and breaking the trance that held him spellbound.
"Chere, wait," he spoke hoarsely, stirring dazedly to raise himself from the pillows.
With hypnotic liquidity, she turned back to face him. Those amazing green eyes fixed him again in their gaze, and one pale hand started to stretch towards him in a small but poignant gesture of indescribable need. "Remy," she spoke softly, her voice familiar but changed. He could still hear the warmth, the soft southern drawl, but there was a new resonance, powerful undertones that pulsed with power and emotion beyond his comprehension. "I just came to say goodbye, to see you one last time."
This strange announcement, worlds removed from anything he would have expected to come from her lips, so confused him that he didn't even consciously register the strangeness concealed behind those sensual rosy lips. "You're leaving?" he stammered, staring at her in shock, hoping he misunderstood, his heart wordlessly begging that this vision creature wouldn't be taken from him. Her slight nod shattered those desires. "Why?" was all he could manage.
"I'm not like you anymore," she explained in a resonant voice that quavered with uncontainable emotion. Somehow the remark didn't seem directed at him specifically but intended to encompass all of his kind, as if she were removed from him by differences he could never comprehend. "I can stay here no longer."
"What happened? Where will you go? How can I find you?" the questions poured from him, the flood asking only a fraction of what he needed to know.
"I'm sorry, Remy, you can't," she replied softly, answering only the last of his queries, her voice heavy with pain. Her deep green eyes stared longingly at him as she turned to leave. "I do love you," she whispered almost imperceptibly as she slipped out the window and out of his life.