For disclaimers, see chapter one.
Quick author's note: no matter how many years of German I take, Kurt's accent will always be a bitch to write. Another thing, if it seems like I'm bashing Kitty at all… well, she's pissing me off these days. Yeah… Enjoy :o)
Going Home - Chapter 2
Rogue flew as fast as she could back to the huge beach house that was just off the sand. Jean and Scott were cuddling on the hammock as she flew over them. "What was that?" Jean said.
"Partially nude flying Rogue, I think." Scott joked. "I don't see Remy though." He peered through the dark towards the direction of the water. But with his ruby quartz sunglasses and the enveloping night, he couldn't see 10 feet in front of him.
"He's coming. I can see him." Just as Jean said so, Remy made it up to them.
"Y' see Rogue come by here?"
Scott nodded. "No more than a minute ago. What's up with her? She darted by without saying anything to us."
"She jus' excited. She wants to visit Mis'sippi."
"Really?" Jean asked. "I didn't think she'd ever want to go back there."
"Me neit'er, but I gues' I talked her in t' it." He grinned.
Scott's face turned stern. "You do know what happened, right?"
"Oui. But dere's a place she wan' see. Jus' for ol' times sake."
"Are you going to go with her?" Jean asked.
"Dunno yet. Hasn' asked me. She's goin' t' check with de Prof now t' see if she can even go."
"See that you do go. She's going to need someone she trusts with her if she does end up going back. It might not bring back anything but bad memories for her." Jean insisted.
Remy nodded. "Oui, chere. I figured I be goin' anyway." His smile returned brighter. "She can' live wit'out me."
"We'll see about that, Cajun." Scott smirked back. "Another thing… maybe she should get some clothes on?"
Remy laughed and lifted up the blanket. "She had dis on for awhile. But she t'rew it off when she flew back. I'm gonna go find her. Later, mes amis."
Rogue's feet didn't hit the floor till she was outside Xavier's study. It faced the ocean as well, with ceiling to floor windows for a great view. She had noticed Ororo spending time in there as well as she felt more with nature there.
She knocked lightly on the door, hoping she wasn't disturbing the professor. "Yes, Rogue?" He called from inside.
She shook her head smiling. No one likes it when he does that.
"Force of habit, Rogue. Come on in." She heard him chuckle slightly. She pushed the door open enough for her to fit through and then shut it behind her. She saw him sitting by the windows with a lamp on, looking at the moonstruck ocean while reading a book. "Ah'm not botherin' anythin', am Ah?"
"No, please, take a seat." He smiled warmly as he gestured to one of the leather seats near the windows.
Rogue took a seat and stared out to the Atlantic. "Wow, this room has a great view."
"That it does. Now, what brings you here this evening?" He closed his book after placing in a bookmark and set it on the lamp table.
"Ah had a question. Would ya mind if Ah… visited Caldecott?"
His brow furrowed. "You wish to go back home?"
"Yah, just for a couple days at most," she said quickly. "Ah just wanna go an' see how things are there. Maybe see Irene an' visit some old hangouts."
"I see. You do realize that people may recognize you and what you did, correct?"
"Mm-hmm," she nodded. "It's not like Ah wanna go run in ta Cody or anyone from school. Ah just need ta go down an' relax, Ah guess. Ah hope ya undahstand what Ah'm sayin'."
"Of course I do, Rogue. How soon would you like to go back?"
"Whenever's good foh the team. Ah don't want this to cause any problems. It's just a personal thing."
Xavier nodded. "Were you planning to take anyone down with you?"
Rogue smirked. "Do ya really hafta ask?"
"Remy, of course." Rogue blushed under her lightly tanned cheeks. "I see no problem with it. How's this: Since Remy knows how to drive, I'll talk to Scott about lending you his car since we brought it down with us in the Blackbird. He shouldn't have a problem with it. You two can drive down whenever you're ready from here. When you get down, let us know how long you plan to stay and we'll figure out things from there. It's probably best if you get back before the time with leave."
Rogue stood up. "Thanks, Professor. Y'all're the greatest." She made a movement to hug him, but she noticed her clothing, or lack there of. "Umm," she giggled. "Ah'd shake yoah hand or somethin' -"
"I understand. Go find Remy and tell him what's going on." He smiled.
She made her way to the door. "Thanks again." She beamed with joy and then left the room.
She looked around for Remy, but didn't see him at all. She figured the next best place to find him was the TV room. After a pit stop to her room to pull on a pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeved T-shirt, she strolled into the room, seeing Evan and Kurt playing their usual video games while Kitty typed away on her laptop. Rogue took a quick glance at the TV screen and saw that the boys were playing StarFox 64. She rolled her eyes, smiling, and then she took a seat next to Kitty on the couch.
Kitty nodded to Rogue in acknowledgement that she was there. "Whatcha doin', Kit?"
"I'm just typing to my parents, let them know what's going on. Ya know, like, the usual." She glanced up for a moment to smile briefly at her, then looked back down to continue tapping away on the keyboard.
"Ah see," she said, internally sighing. Nice ta know everyone's taken the chance of gettin' outside…
She turned away from Kitty and looked out the window. The TV room did not face the ocean, but had a great second-story view of the small North Carolina town they were staying in. She gazed up at the stars. She didn't wish. She gave up on that awhile ago.
"Hey, chere." She turned her face back forward and saw Remy standing and smiling there.
She grinned back. "Ah've got good news. Xavier's lettin' us go!"
"Us?"
"'Course, us. Ya think Ah wouldn't take ya ta see mah home?"
"Well," he took the liberty of sitting in the space between Rogue and Kitty. After getting a small 'hmpf' from Kitty as she edged away slightly to give him more room, he continued. "I was gon' invite m'self 'long wit' y' if y' didn' say somet'in'."
"Nice ta know ya're still a gentleman."
He grinned charmingly as always, letting her know that her comment didn't faze him. "So, when we goin'?"
"Whenever the Prof talks Scott in ta lettin' us take his car."
"Aww, an' here I t'ought we gon' have t' steal Logan's bike again."
"Ya know, he still glares at me cuz of that."
"It's only been six days since we took it an' left it a half mile away from de mansion, chere."
"Whatevah, Cajun," she laughed. "Anyway, we can most likely leave in the mornin', which is great, cuz we can be back by Friday when the rest of the team goes back ta Bayville."
"How long de trip by car?"
She shrugged. "Came up by plane with Mystique."
"Gues' we jus' gon' have t' find out de hard way, eh?"
"Yup." She smiled broadly. "Ah'm gonna go start repackin'. You should do the same." She got up from the couch and offered a hand for him.
Noticing her hand was still bare, he just smiled and said, "I t'ink I'll join Evan and de Elf in a game."
She looked down to her hand. Her eyes said "oops" and then turned back warm. "Wanna sit on the roof later?"
"Sure. Could Remy say no t' you?"
"Ah didn't think so. Ah'll see ya up there." She blew him a kiss, to the mock-disgust of her eavesdropping brother, and left the room.
"Vhere are you guys going?" He asked inquisitively after putting down his game paddle.
Remy wasn't sure how to answer him. Hell, the last time Kurt gave him that tone, he was asking the Cajun to not get his sister in trouble. And then they ended up in Seattle. "She wants t' go back south for a bit. Jus' to get a feel for it 'gain." He internally grimaced waiting for Kurt's response.
"Mein Gott, can't you just stay with us for vone veek? Ze last time ve left you two alone, for a veekend, what happened? You get captured, taken across ze country, und all zat fun stuff!"
"Kurt, mon ami, what're de chances of anyt'in' happenin'? S'not like trouble comes lookin' for us." He smirked. Yeah right. Of course it did.
Kurt seemed to think so, too. But he reluctantly resigned prematurely. "Fine, but I'm not going to say 'keep her out of trouble' again, because ze last time I did that -"
"I know. We'll be fine. Not'in' is gon' happen. Jus' pop down dere, see how much has changed since she left, an' come back home with a new feelin' of peace. Dat's all!" He put his hands up in defense.
Kurt's pale yellow eyes narrowed slightly but then turned soft. "All right. I'll trust you this time, Mein Freund. You want in," he asked, lifting a spare controller.
Remy nodded, happy to get over that speed bump. He got down from the couch to a comfortable position in front of the TV. Evan, who had just sat by and listened to the argument mutely, set up a new game and the three teenage boys started up a loud game of MarioKart. Kitty looked up momentarily to sigh obnoxiously and then turned her attention back to her laptop to finish off her email.
Rogue glanced to her clock as she lay in her bed. 12:18. She usually waited for Remy to climb up on the roof first and then she would fly up, but she was getting restless. The thought of going home couldn't keep her in one spot for very long. Before going to her room for the night, she had checked in the professor over the status of Scott's car. As he had said, Scott had no problem with the car being used, as long as it came back in one piece.
She picked herself out of bed and tiptoed to the window, since she was still sharing a room with Kitty. She had no idea why. It seemed like the beach house was bigger than the mansion but supposedly they still had the same sleeping arrangements.
Rogue opened the window on the side, instead of using the balcony doors, for the sake of doing something different from the mansion. She flew back over to her nightstand for a moment to grab her gloves and then flew out the open window. She hovered above the house for a moment while she pulled on her gloves. Then she landed on the roof and moved quietly over to the ledge that oversaw the ocean. She sat and let her legs hang over the side, being careful not to swing them against the house.
She breathed in the salty air and sighed happily. Ah'm goin' ho-ome. She sang in her head.
She wondered for the first time in a while how much things really did change since she left. Sure, she had reminisced about how much she missed the place, but she really didn't think over how much the changes would effect her. She hadn't been given a chance to really absorb what was going on. She was at a local club for teens on the waterfront and all of a sudden this blond boy Cody was asking her to dance.
"Uh, dance? Ah mean, would ya like to? With me that is, together… uh…"
"Look, Ah'm really just hangin' out here." She thought it was all a joke that he and his friend had set up on the lonely girl until his face showed sincere disappointment. "Hey, sure, why not? After all, where's the harm in one dance?" She smirked and walked ahead of him and his friend inside.
The next thing she knew her and Cody were dancing and he was pushed on top of her. He got up first and reached down to her extended arm to help her up. Unfortunately for the both of them, he grasped onto her wrist where her sleeve had pushed up.
Rogue snapped herself back to the present. Cain't be thinkin' like that. You'll just chicken out of goin'. She couldn't help but go right back to where she left off in her memory. She remember not knowing who she was and when she finally had a hold on some things, which was hard since she was being tailed by the 'X-Men', she touched Kurt. Time it was different. She had his powers and she could teleport. She loved that feeling. And what was even better was when she touched Storm. She got to fly for the first time, and what she thought would be the last. Finally, she disappeared using Kurt's power once again and got away. She found Irene and the blind woman introduced the frightened girl to Raven Darkholme., who promised to take care of her up north. All of it happened in the span of a few hours.
Had Cody ever gotten better? What had the other people at the club thought happened? "Guess Ah'll find out soon 'nuff," she mumbled somberly.
"Find out what?" Rogue whipped around and saw Remy there.
Rogue just shrugged and patted the spot next to her. He took a seat and stared out to the ocean. "Sorry I'm late. Couldn' leave 'til I beat Evan in Super Smash Brot'ers."
She laughed. "Soon yoah brain is gonna be as warped as his an' Kurt's. An' then what am Ah ta do with ya?"
"Dunno, chere. But jus' f' de sake of it, let's not find out."
"Gotcha." She pulled her legs in after feeling pins and needles in them from lack of blood flow. She crossed her legs in Indian style and leaned back on her hands.
"Kurt asked what we were plannin'."
"Oh great." She sighed. "What did he say?"
"He figure we gon' get in trouble… 'gain."
"Ah love that boy dearly, but Ah liked it betta when he wasn't playin' mah bodyguard."
"I t'ink it's sweet." He tried to hold a poker face, but a small crack of a smile peeked through.
"Don't play with me, Swamp Rat. Anyway, don't you have a brotha back home?"
"I tol' y' 'bout him?"
"Ah dunno, but remember, you've been in mah head… or Ah've been in yoah's… howevah it works." She smiled evilly and turned her attention back to the water. "Y'all packed?"
"Oui. Did a li'l aft'r de games. Ev'ryt'in' set wit de car?"
"Yah. Ah'm really excited about this. Ah cain't wait." Except foh the fact Ah'm scared shitless…but y'all don't need ta know that. She smiled against her internal thought.
"What time y' wan' leave?"
"Whatevah's good foh you, Remy. You're drivin'."
"Seein' as how y' actin' now, I should be gettin' some sleep. Y' gon' wan' t' leave by six -"
"Could we?" She asked eagerly.
"I was 'bout t' say dat wasn' an option. How 'bout we shoot f' somet'in' 'round nine?"
She pouted for a minute in deliberation. "Ah guess," she relented. "No later than, though."
"Okay, chere. You be at de car at nine sharp an' we leave." He stood up, tugging on one of her hands. "Y' get some sleep, too."
"Ah doubt Ah'll be able ta sleep, but Ah'll try." She smiled brightly as Remy pulled her up. "Ah'll see ya in the mornin', sugah."
"Night, chere." He kissed one of her hands and then walked over to the part of the roof with his room and leapt down onto the balcony of the room he shared with Scott.
Whoevah made up these arrangements is nuts. She thought jokingly as she hopped off the roof and flew to her room.
TBC…
Please r&r :o)