Risks
Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the Marvel, I'm not making any money.
Belle frowned with concern as Remy hit the roof awkwardly stumbling and falling to his knees. "Yo' feelin' 'kay cher?" she asked pulling him to his feet.
"S'rien," Remy insisted. " 'M feelin' bettah every day."
"Dat's bien. Yo' jus' 'member: yo' almos' dyin' to get m' weddin' ring makes a bettah story dan if yo' actually go an' do it, not to mention weddin's bein' more fun dan funerals... mais, as a general rule."
"What, it depends on de corpse?" Remy asked examining the alarm hooked up to the building's roof access.
"Or de bride an' groom. Got roped into bein' a maid of honor for 'm Aunt Debra, seen plenty of corpses more lively dan dem, me. An' long! I t'ought dey'd be celebratin' dere first anniversary 'fore dey got 'round to de honeymoon. We're havin' a short weddin'."
"An' hopefully a quick, clean get-away wid de ring," Remy commented. "Come on, I got de door."
The teens slipped inside, Remy leading the way, scanning the room for further security measures. Seeing the faint sparkle of a laser beam several inches from the floor he held up a hand, stopping Belle. A second, more careful look revealed a second beam at chest height. Remy and Belle slipped between them easily, grinning at the poor security.
The jeweler's safe on the other hand was top-notch. After spending more than a few minutes futilely trying to crack it and several more moments cursing at it, Remy charged the hinges and simply blew the door off.
Belle smiled appreciatively then started pulling out trays and trying on rings.
She paused to admire one with a large, sparkly stone then regretfully put it back. "It would catch on trigger guards," she explained.
"Don' take all night," Remy said leaning back against the wall, keeping an eye on the front window.
Belle stuck out her tongue at him.
Remy caught sight of a slight figure in red and blue webbed with black checking the gloomy shopping center. "Bes' hurry," he said. "De fun's 'bout to start. Don' even t'ink 'bout doin' anyt'ing permanent."
"Spoil-sport," Belle replied trying on another ring.
By that point Spiderman had spotted them, "You know they have customer service during the day," he said.
"Mais den dey'd 'xpect me to pay," Remy replied. "How yo' been, Spidah?"
Peter stared at the other teen in confusion for a moment. "Gambit?" he asked uncertainly.
"Oui, 'member I mentioned m' girl las' time, like yo' to meet her." Belle waved cheerfully. "She ain't got a codename so I can't introduce her proper," Remy continued.
Peter shook his head, feeling like he'd walked into the twilight zone. "Gambit, you're..." he began, trying to get the confrontation back on track.
"We jus' got 'ngaged," Remy said.
Peter's mind jumped the rail. "Engaged, as in to be married?" he asked.
"Jus' as soon as we get home," Belle interjected.
"But you're like my age," Peter said. "Wow, I can't even figure out how to keep my girlfriends from wanting to kill me and you're getting married."
"Maybe if yo' made it girlfriend, singular," Belle suggested.
Peter felt himself blushing hotly. "Not like that, I didn't mean at the same time, just that they both get mad at me."
"She threatened to kill me not an hour back," Remy said nonchalantly. "Dat be why we're getting married. Life wid her ain't goin' to be dull, mebbe short, mais not borin'."
Belle shrugged unconcerned. "I like dis one, try de mate for size," she said tossing Remy a ring.
"Hey!" Peter protested. "No stealing!"
"Spidah, Spidah, Spidah, where's your sense of fun?" Remy asked trying on the ring, then tossing it back to Belle. "A little small," he said to her. Then turned back to Peter, "I know yo' wanna learn to hotwire a car."
Peter blushed again, wondering how Gambit had known he'd been impressed by the other boy's feat from their earlier encounter.
Belle traded Remy rings.
"The paper blamed me for the statue you stolen," Peter complained.
"I'll write dem a letter 'bout poor journalism," Remy replied. "Printed slanderous rumors, dey ought to be ashamed... Dis one fits."
At that signal, Remy and Belle simultaneously sprinted for the door, as they came even with Spiderman, Belle dropped, sweeping his legs out from under him, while Remy landed a sharp kick to his chest. Peter bit back a curse, only then becoming aware that his spidersense had been screaming and he'd dismissed it without a thought. His surprise bought the pair more time than their maneuver had.
Remy and Belle retreated across the rooftops, fearlessly hurtling themselves from one building to the next, as at home there as they would have been on the streets far below.
"So, yo' got a plan?" Belle called back to Remy. "Since yo' vetoed killin'."
"Non!" Remy exclaimed, thinking he should have kept talking. It would have been so easy to convince Spiderman to simply let them go, even considering the pain it cost him to lower his shields while his mind was still so raw, but more than that it had felt wrong to twist the other teen's emotions, especially since Spiderman was very nearly a friend. For a moment Remy's vision grayed out, a lingering effect of the drugs, the stress of using his powers and the adrenaline acting on his body, he stumbled as he landed, recovering himself a fraction of a second later.
Behind them Spiderman was rapidly catching up. The next building loomed up before them, a fire escape zigzagging it's way down its face, a huge gap between it and the roof they currently were sprinting across. Belle dove toward it without a moments pause. Twelve steps behind her, Remy threw himself into the void.
Amazed at their insanity, Spiderman perched on the ledge of the building they'd just abandoned and paused to watch the show. Five stories below and across the street, Belle's fingers found purchase on one of the fire escape's landings, she swung around like an acrobat and planted her feet against the side of the building. Her momentum still not spent, she arched backwards, releasing the landing to catch the railing on the level below. For a moment she held herself in a headstand, ten stories above the pavement then rolled onto the landing, safe and sound.
A split-second before he would have duplicated Belle's feat, the strain of the last few days caught up with Remy again, a spell of dizziness so short it shouldn't have been worth mentioning occurring at just the wrong time. Instead of catching the landing with his outstretched hands, Remy collided with it, failed to redirect his momentum and a moment after his hands made contact with it so did his head. Bonelessly, Remy tumbled toward the street.
"Remy!" Belle screamed, making a doomed attempt to catch hold of him as he fell. Above them, Peter felt horror twist his stomach into a knot, but even as guilt and fury shot through his mind his body reacted, he threw himself off the roof on an intercept path with Remy's body, using his enhanced strength to launch himself after the other teen in the desperate hope that he could make up the distance between them.
Peter snagged Remy around the waist then they both slammed into the opposite wall, Peter doing his best to shield Remy from the impact. A second later Spiderman's wallcrawling abilities kicked in, overcoming gravity and leaving them hanging three stories about the street and twelve below where they'd started from. Peter's shoulder and knees ached from the impact with the wall, Remy hung limply from his arm. For a moment Peter was frozen by the realization of how close he'd come to seeing a friend splatter his brains across the pavement over a couple of rings, over nothing.
"Remy?" Belle called again hopefully as she raced down the stairs and Peter crawled across the face of the building to the nearest landing. Remy's deadweight meant nothing to his strength, but the other boy was a head taller than Peter and an awkward burden. Remy began to stir weakly as Peter moved to lay him down. Belle dropped to her knees beside them, helping to support Remy.
" 'M head..." Remy groaned, reaching up shakily to make sure it was still in one piece, his hand came away covered in blood, Peter and Belle flinched.
"I'm calling an ambulance," Peter said his voice harsh, his hands shaking.
Belle was up in a second, in Peter's face, a knife in her hands. "Yo' won'," she snarled.
Peter grabbed her hand, squeezing until she had to drop the knife, not caring if he left bruise. "Why not?" He yelled. "Cause you'll get in trouble? I don't give a damn! It'd probably be good for you. I can't believe how moronic the two of you are. He almost died, he's probably got a cracked skull or a broken neck or something!"
"Yo' don' 'stan'..." Remy said his voice slurred.
"What don't I understand?" Peter demanded. "That you're an idiot and a criminal? What should I do? Let you go cause I like you? Read in the papers about you getting shot by some cop a few months later, or maybe about you killing some security guard or maybe a bystander who just got too close to one of your explosions?"
"Yo' take him to a hospital he'll disappear, dey'll take him 'way," Belle said desperately. "De government's started takin' mutants 'way to some concentration camp."
"Oh god," Peter said. "I didn't really think it would happen. Gwen asked and he, Scott I think, said he thought it could happened, but for real? I didn't think it could happen for real."
"Scott's dead," Remy said flatly, not really knowing if they were even talking about the same Scott.
"Mais, it did happen," Belle said. "Hospital's be out."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Peter asked.
"Oncle Luc," Remy said.
Belle nodded in agreement. "I can hotwire de car, mais yo're goin' to have to get de door."
"Tol' yo' pra'tice," Remy said.
"No, we're not stealing any cars," Peter declared. "We'll call you're Uncle, he can come get us."
Belle and Remy shared a look, "We're caught eider way," Belle said, extracting her cell phone. The conversation was brief and pointed, Peter heard a few colorful curses from the other end of the connection then Belle hung up. "He's on his way," she said.
Peter leapt off the fire escape to perch on the sheer face of a vertical wall, staring out into the night.
"No car," Remy commented to Belle quietly.
For a moment she stared at him blankly, not following the train of thought his rattled brain had hinged on then she caught on. "Non, Jean-Luc flew up," she whispered, stealing a quick, amused glance at Peter. "What'd he t'ink if he knew yo're oncle be stealing a car hisself right 'bout now."
"S' who still needs be tol' 'bout..." Remy trailed off, glancing toward Belle's stomach, his thoughts flitting from one topic to another at random.
"Tante and Daddy know, like I tol' yo'. 'Lores and Singer, course..." Belle replied. "I t'ink Singer might of tol' Pierre, I tol' dem not to tell Lapin, he's a motor mouth."
"Oui mais non, not 'portant stuff," Remy defended his friend.
Belle made a face but didn't argue. "Daddy yelled a bit. Someone might've overheard, pro'ly bot' Guilds be gossipin' 'bout us 'fore we get home."
"Weddin', dey be any case," Remy replied.
"Oui, it's weird. 'M not 'mbarrassed, mais I am," Belle said then trailed off with the realization that Remy's attention had strayed.
His disoriented gaze paused on Spiderman for a moment. "He be mad?"
Belle glanced over at the young superhero sitting off by himself where neither of them could follow, the breeze carried the sound of him muttering indistinctly under his breath. "Oh oui, de'inately oui," she said.
"Je desole," Remy said.
"What?" Peter asked.
"He says he's sorry," Belle translated.
For a moment Peter didn't react, then he leapt back to perch on the rail of the fire escape. "Just try not to do it again," Peter said, choosing to ignore the traces of amusement in Belle's expression at that order.
Below them a car pulled up in the alley. Belle stood, calling the tall, dark eyed man's attention with a low whistle. Lithely he jumped and caught the bottom rung of the fire escape's ladder pulling himself up like he did this sort of thing every day. He gave Spiderman a suspicious look. Belle shrugged, nodding toward Remy. "He trusts him," her gesture said.
Jean-Luc frowned, then turned his attention to Remy, "What happened?" he asked.
"They broke into a jewelry store," Peter began.
"We were travelin' roof tops," Belle interrupted. "Don' know what went wrong, Remy didn' catch hisself. T'ink he 'bsorbed some of de force wit' his arms, mais he cracked his head."
Jean-Luc nodded. "Remy, does your neck hurt?" he asked, stilling the teen's head when Remy tried to shake his head. "Talk, don' move till I've check it ain't broken," he said, feeling for damaged vertibrate or misalinment with fingers made sensitive by years of persuading locks and cracking safes. "Not as bon as Mattie's magic or even an X-ray, mais it'll have to do for now," he said after a few minutes then pulled out a small pen light and inspected the blood gash along Remy's scalp.
"Yo' t'ink he'll need stitches?" Belle asked with concern.
" 'M fine," Remy protested.
"Non," Jean-Luc said to Belle. "Dere's more blood dan cut."
Peter and Belle looked relieved, Remy was starting to look irritated.
"They were trying to rob a jewelry store," Peter told Jean-Luc.
"Take your contacts out, I need to look at your eyes," Jean-Luc instructed handing Remy a contact case as he helped him to sit up. "What year it is?"
"Nin'y-nine," Remy replied shortly, the other two teens looked worried at his response.
"Wid your eyes, dis is goin' to hurt," Jean-Luc warned, before using the penlight to check the response of the boy's pupils.
Remy hissed in displeasure.
"Yo're pro'ly concussed," Jean-Luc said. "I ain't sure how bad, mais dere ain't much we can do 'bout it 'xcept keep yo' from sleepin'. We're goin' to have to risk rien serious be wrong."
"So what are you going to do?" Peter asked.
Jean-Luc glanced over at the costumed crime fighter. "Yo' don' need to know. Bes' yo' go on your way now."
"But about the store, don't you care?" Peter protested.
Jean-Luc spun around, standing to glare down at the slight masked teenager, "Oui, yes I care! Dere are more 'mportant t'ings dan m' nephew actin' de fool an' tryin' to get hisself kilt, or captured. Makin' shor he don' succeed for one. Dis is none of your business. Leave!"
"Spidah, merci," Remy said standing unsteadily. He glanced toward Jean-Luc, "I guess I jus' wasn' t'inkin' too clear tonight. Merci for keepin' me from dyin' 'cause of dat."
"Yeah, well, you're welcome," Peter said shooting a web-line to the corner of an opposite building. "Could we not do this again?"
The three Cajuns watched Spiderman disappear into the city.
"Come on," Jean-Luc said, his voice kept level with an effort as he and Belle helped Remy down to the street. "De sooner Mattie can look at Remy de bettah."
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