Chapter 6: New Recruit

            The X-Men returned from their training session just after four pm.  Caked in mud, exhausted and well in need of a shower and some time out, they wandered into the grand hall of the Mansion, Logan was just coming down the stairway as they entered.

            "Well well well," he laughed, "talk about getting your hands – and everything else – dirty," He smirked, he looked at Jean, who was by far the muddiest.  "Have fun?"

            "It was a blast," Evan grinned, he had dried mud in his hair, and smeared over one eyebrow.

            "That's good," Logan nodded.  "Professor Xavier is back," he added, "He wants to see you all in his office at five."

            "Have we done something wrong?" Jean asked. 

            "You'll see, he wants to discuss several things, go get cleaned up and be there promptly," He added, and left.

            Rogue headed for the kitchen, "I need a soda…" she muttered, and left without saying anything else.  As she walked along the hall she thought of how angry she was with the others, especially Kurt.  It felt as if they were all turning on her to believe Remy had seen the error of his ways. 

            She found Kitty sitting at the kitchen table, donning pink Pyjamas, and eating a massive slice of chocolate cake.  Rogue gaped.  "Oh…my…god…"

            Kitty glanced up, "what?" she asked, she took a bite of the cake.

            "You're eating…you're actually eating…wait, is that lettuce disguised as a chocolate cake?" Rogue lifted the plate up and inspected it, she took a sniff, "nope, it's definitely chocolate cake…"

            Kitty smirked a bit, "I've changed my mind about the diet thing," she admitted. 

            "Why?"

            "Well…I was like, talking to Gambit and he said a lot of guys these days like a little meat on their women and so—"

            Rogue stopped Kitty from continuing with what she was saying.  "Gambit convinced you to eat…"

            "Yeah?" Kitty shrugged, "so?"

            "I spoke to you earlier today about it and you just totally didn't listen, you wouldn't listen to me and I'm supposed to be your friend – but you listened to some Cajun scumball you've known for five minutes?"

            "He said what I needed to hear," Kitty shrugged.

            Rogue sighed, and left without even getting her soda.  She felt now that Kitty was betraying her also, what else could go wrong?  Rogue felt so hopeless she felt like crying.  Just as everything bad begun to get good at the Mansion, Remy had shown up and started to ruin everything, she wished she'd never met him. 

            Again, she got upstairs and found the only bathroom in the girls dorm area occupied, again.  She couldn't believe the lack of bathrooms in the mansion – especially when everyone needed to take a shower.  She sighed, and grabbed her robe from her room and headed downstairs to go to the downstairs bathroom, as she was about to get there, she saw Remy coming around the corner from the hospital wing, he stopped and looked at her.

            "I'm afraid you're one minute too early to catch me taking a leak," he leaned casually against the wall near the bathroom door, looking at her.

            "You're vile," she muttered.

            "Mud bath with your clothes on?" He grinned, gesturing to her clothes, covered with mud.

"Good for the skin you know," she wiped some mud – still wet – off of her leg and reached over with her gloved hand and smeared it onto his face roughly.

Remy pursed his lips together, "You've got quite an attitude…" he raised an eyebrow and wiped his face with his hand, the mud only seemed to smear worse.

"You too," Rogue opened the bathroom door.

He looked at her, "but you love me anyway…" he grinned cheekily, even with mud all over his face he could get away with looking sexy and smug.

She belted him, "leave me alone, go away."

"I need to take a leak!" he protested, motioning to the bathroom.

"Well, here's a suggestion – go outside and let it loose on a tree like every other dog," Rogue hissed.

"Oh come on, surely you can come up with a better insult than that," Remy dared.

"Okay, here's one…why don't you do us all a favour, and charge your head up with that power of yours, and let it blow up," she stepped into the bathroom and slammed the door behind herself.

"If I did that you wouldn't have anyone to vent all that hostility out at," he called from behind the door.

"Like I care," she turned the shower on, "Now go away."

            After a quick fifteen minute shower, she pulled on her robe, slicked her wet hair away from her face, and wiped the mirror to look at herself, with no make up she cringed.  "Scary," she uttered to herself.  She unlocked the door and entered back in the hall, surprised to see Remy still standing there.

Remy looked at her and raised an eyebrow, face full of amusement.  "Wow…you have a face hidden under all that hair and eyeliner," He remarked.

            "Will you just stay the hell out of my way?" Rogue demanded, she began to head along the corridor.

            "Chere…"

            "What?" Rogue demanded.

            "You have toilet paper sticking to your foot," Remy laughed.

            Rogue looked down, he wasn't lying, she had a long strip of toilet paper stuck to her slightly damp bare foot.  She felt her cheeks flush scarlet, humiliated in front of him.  She kicked it off and ran upstairs out of his site.

            By the time she had dressed, dried and styled her hair and applied her makeup again, it was almost five pm, she headed down the stairs, seeing Kitty in the hallway downstairs wandering around, still donning her pink pyjamas.

            "Aren't you meant to be resting or something?" Rogue asked.

            "Meant to be," Kitty gave a shrug, she was munching on an apple, "I can't lie there in the hospital wing, there's nothing to do," She complained, "Besides," Kitty stated, and then took a bite of her apple, chewed a little, and said "Hank came in and told me the professor wanted to see us all."

            "Don't talk with your mouth full," Rogue turned away in disgust.

            "Sorry," Kitty laughed a little, "c'mon, lets go find out what he wants to see us all for."

            Rogue followed Kitty to the back of the mansion where Professor Xavier's office was located, Jean, Scott and Kurt were already in there.  Professor Xavier was sitting behind his desk, Storm was sitting at the bay window, and Logan was standing with his back against the wall.

            "Hi, Professor," Rogue greeted.

            Professor Xavier smiled a little and acknowledged her. "We're just waiting on the others," he stated.

            Evan rushed in, "am I late?" he asked, "its impossible finding a bathroom in this place that isn't occupied you know," he stated, he was still slightly damp from a shower, but he was dressed.

            "You're not late…ah, here they are now…" Professor Xavier gestured to the door, Hank and Remy stepped in, Remy now wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt. 

            Rogue threw Remy a look of disgust, and then looked away from him.

            "Alright, you're probably all wondering why I asked you to come here, a few things need to be discussed," Professor Xavier began.  "As you know, Summer Vacation has begun – you all had an early start on this, of course, with being expelled from school, but not to worry, this was unavoidable, and would have happened sooner or later," he looked at them all.

            Rogue glanced at Remy out of the corner of her eyes, he was looking right at her, she frowned, she wished he'd stop.

            "Anyway, I've thought long and hard about what we're going to do and rather than try to enrol you in another school, I decided that it may be best to teach you here, where you'll be safe.  Hank, Logan and Myself will be home schooling you as much as we can with the knowledge we have, for any other classes we cannot cope with, we will bring in another teacher…" Professor Xavier explained, "this, I think you already assumed would happen, but just to clear up any confusion, I thought it would be best to confront you all with this," he added, "Ororo will be teaching you English, and Geology, Hank, will teach you Mathematics, Chemistry, and Computer studies, I myself will teach you History, Biology and Physics, and Logan will be training you up on many kinds of martial arts, self defence, and other fighting styles,"

            Logan coughed, "And mechanics," he added.

            "Mechanics?" Kitty gaped, "we didn't even take mechanics at Bayville…"

            "You will now," Logan stated, "you guys need to know how to fix things, you won't just be learning how to fix a car that won't work, we're going to teach you kids how to get the complex computer systems working if they should break down, in case – god forbid – anything should happen and we're not here."

            Jean spoke up, "What about languages?" she asked, "me and Scott both took German…"

            "If needs be we will bring in language teachers…" Professor Xavier stated, "there is time to arrange this.  In the meantime, it is summer vacation and you are free to spend the next few months as you wish…"

            "Yes!" Evan said excitedly.

            "Except," Logan walked nearer to the desk, "Over the entire summer you'll still be doing training sessions every morning at 10am except from Saturdays and Sundays, unless we spring an emergency one on you all," he added, "and for six hours every week you'll learn Judo."

            "Fair enough," Scott nodded.

            "And on to the second subject," Professor Xavier cut in, "I'd like you to welcome the newest addition to the X-Men – Gambit."

            Rogue spun around and looked at Gambit, gaping, she turned back to Professor Xavier, "You're letting him JOIN the X-Men, are you crazy?"

            "Rogue, please…" Professor Xavier raised his hand in defense.

            "No, please nothing!" Rogue shrieked, "this guy is the enemy, he tried to take me from here to Magneto, and for ALL You know he could be planning to do it again…"

            "Rogue, I have looked into his mind and seen that he has no such intentions…" Professor Xavier explained.

            "Tell us why he switched sides," Rogue demanded impatiently.

            "It is best that the reasons for this remain in the dark – for now," Professor Xavier answered.

            Rogue looked at Remy, "tell us!"

            "I'd rather not," Remy remarked.

            "I can't be one of the X-Men if he is one of y'all, I can't," Rogue turned and headed towards the door, "I'm out of here!" she hissed, and left, slamming the door behind her.

            "Kurt, go after her…" Kitty shoved Kurt.

            "Why me?  She's mad at me!" Kurt threw his hands up.

            "But you're her half-adopted, whatever brother, she'll listen to you," Kitty shoved him again, "go…"

            Kurt sighed, and he teleported himself into Rogue's room, where he knew she'd head to.  He got there before she did, Rogue entered the room and looked at him.

            "Don't even try to stop me," Rogue muttered, she grabbed a large bag from under the bed and she threw it on her bed and opened it, then headed for the dresser.

            "Rogue, think about it, where are you going to go?" Kurt asked.

            "I don't care," Rogue looked at him, "anywhere but here, anywhere away from that creep…"

            "Why does he bother you so much?" Kurt asked.

            "I don't KNOW why he bothers me so much, he just does!" Rogue sighed, she grabbed a handful of underwear from the top drawer of the dresser, and she shoved it into the bag hastily.

            "I think you're being stupid," Kurt admitted.

            Rogue rolled her eyes, "Thanks a lot, 'brother'."

            "Okay, me and you are family," Kurt stood up, "and as family, we're obligated to be honest with each other, and honestly I think that you're being unreasonable.  So WHAT if he was the enemy, he's not now."

            "And as family we're meant to stick by each other and support each other, and right now you're not supporting me, Kurt," Rogue looked at him, "we've had this argument, and why are you still here, anyway, I'm not talking to you," she walked past him and headed back to the dresser to grab some clothes.  "And as family, you should respect my decision to leave," she muttered.

            "Family don't run out on each other," Kurt looked at her pointedly.

            Rogue noticed his reflection in the mirror, she knew he had a point – and she hated that he had won the argument.  He was right, family didn't run out on each other – she'd had experience of family running out on her before, and it struck a nerve in her when he'd stated his point.

            She stopped, closed the drawer she'd been digging around in, and turned towards him, "Kurt, how am I gonna live under the same roof as this guy?"

            "You'll manage somehow, just…ignore him…" Kurt suggested.

            "Kurt, how the hell am I gonna ignore him, he's gonna be living here, training here, and probably hanging you all – now my friends will be HIS friends," she frowned.

            "Is that what you're so scared of, that he's going to steal us from you or something?" Kurt sat on the bed slowly.

            "No," Rogue said under her breath, "but…just as things were getting good, and I was happy, and getting along with everyone, this happened, and now, I feel…I don't know, angry…and betrayed, I feel like you all are betraying me, bringing in the one person who I truly hate – one of my worst enemies…"

            "We didn't betray you," Kurt stated.  "I didn't betray you," he added.

            Rogue sat down on the bed beside her, she felt so hopeless.

            "Rogue, you've gone through a lot in the last couple of months, the fight, absorbing Miss Marvel's powers, the coma…then Miss Marvel trying to take over and then discovering that you'll have her in your head for eternity," Kurt began, "and when Gambit arrived…"

            Rogue rubbed her forehead, "And when Gambit came, it was the straw that broke the camel's back."

            Kurt hadn't heard the expression before, but he nodded in agreement, "I agree, that's the last thing you needed to happen is for one of your enemies to end up living under the same roof," he agreed.  "But all you have to do is live with him.  You don't have to like him, you don't even have to talk to him if you don't want to," he reminded.

            "And what about if we're fighting with someone, Kurt?" Rogue looked at him, "and Gambit ends up in trouble, and I'm his only hope – and I can't even bring myself to think about savin' him."

            "Rogue, you and me both know you'd save him regardless of liking him or not…" Kurt stood up.

            Rogue looked at Kurt, realising he was beginning to sound older and older every day, suddenly she felt as if Kurt was more like an older brother than a slightly younger brother. 

            Kurt looked at her, "Better unpack your things," he suggested.

            Rogue looked at Kurt, understanding why Kitty liked him so much.  Despite his somewhat goofiness, it was easy to look past the blue fur, pointed ears and fangs, and see a real person beneath it all, a wonderful person at that.  "Okay…" she stood up also, looking across at him.

            Rogue had never been easy with affection, but she reached across and hugged him, as best she could, without skin to skin contact, Kurt patted her back. 

            "I know I'm a bitch, Kurt, I don't mean to be…" she moved back and looked at him, "thanks for putting up with me…"

            "You're my sister, I don't have a choice," He joked, "it's almost dinner time," he pointed out, "you coming downstairs?"

            "In a while," Rogue nodded.

            "Okay, I'll leave you alone for a bit," Kurt recognised her want for solitude, "I'll be downstairs," he remarked, and with that, teleported out of sight, leaving only a slight puff of smoke where he'd once been.

            Rogue sighed and walked over to the window, and stood looking outside.  She silently swore to herself that somehow, she would find out why he'd come to the X-Men, why he'd switched sides, and why he'd been stabbed.  The questions she knew she would go crazy if they remained unanswered, but she promised herself she'd get the answers sooner or later – even if she had to hurt him.

- The End.