Chapter 21: Green-Eyed Monster

                It was the last month of summer, and it was one of the hottest all year. Most of the students were cooling off at the pool, while Rogue sat in the kitchen - the coldest room in the mansion. She sat with a frosted bottle of lemonade, cross legged at the kitchen table, sketch book open. There were no other people here, though random students appeared every now and then for a drink.

                "Hey Rogue!"

                She glanced up, shutting her sketch book at the same time.

                "Oh, hi Kitty."

                Kitty was sporting her bathing suit and a sari wrap, sunglasses on her head. Rogue herself wore a long skirt with a tank top with a sheer green shirt and gloves. Kitty looked around, expecting to see someone.

                "Where's Remy?"

                Rogue shrugged, "How should Ah know?"

                She'd sort of avoided him lately.. Not going out of her way to escape his presence, but not actively seeking it either. Kitty just gave her an odd look - it seemed like she had more work to do.

                As if on cue Remy came in and started to rummage through the fridge. He usually looked for Rogue, but had restrained himself from making trips to her room. Between her coming to see him and then keeping her distance he couldn't really sort out the mixed signals. He was always a sucker for the hard to get ones, though. Right now he was more worried about getting a sandwich, and the only hard part was deciding what to put on it.

                Rogue looked up and watched Remy enter, noting he either hadn't seen her or just decided not to look her way. She returned the gesture, flipping to a blank page.

                Kitty blinked, looking between the two of them. Was something going on she didn't know about? Why weren't they talking? Usually they were all over each other.

                Kitty cleared her throat loudly. "Hi, Remy."

                Remy glanced over his shoulder then took another moment before he got up, setting several packets of lunch meats on the counter, a few leaves of lettuce, and a jar of mayo.

                "Aftahnoon dere, ladies, Remy didn' see yo'... His stomach occupyin' most o' his attention right now." He grinned as he found some bread and a knife, then went about making quite a large sandwich.

                Kitty narrowed her eyes imperceptibly, watching as Remy - being the typical man he was - began to construct a very large and complicated sandwich. It was time to get out the big guns. Kitty turned back to Rogue, deliberately speaking loud enough for him to hear.

                "So Rogue, I got another call from Pietro while you were in the med bay. He wanted to know if you were alright, isn't that sweet?"

                Rogue glanced up at her, confused with a hint of annoyance. "How did he even find out Ah was sick?"

                Kitty blanked for a moment, and opted for a fib. "Well, ah, he called before looking for you, and I told you him couldn't talk because you were sick." Hmm, yes. Plausible. Satisfied, Kitty nodded to herself.

                Rogue, on the other hand, was concerned more with his reasons for calling - the last time had been to report that Magneto was back, and look what had happened. His warning was made valid.

                "Did he say what he wanted?"

                Kitty barely hesitated, pretty good at fabricating stories on her feet. She stole a sideward glance at Remy, covering it by walking over to the fridge. "Well he mentioned wanting to go out sometime!"

                Rogue could only scoff.

                Remy flinched at that, really nothing more than a slight hesitation in the meat laying process. Once that was done he spread the mayo and put on the lettuce, then promptly put what he hadn't used away and slammed the fridge shut before Kitty even got there. A few jars rattled in it as Remy took the knife over to the sink and dropped it in before he took a nice big bite from his sandwich, just so he didn't say anything stupid.

                Kitty jumped as Remy slammed the fridge door, stealing more looks at him. Inside she was squealing with delight - she was getting to him. She decided to push the matter further.. what were the chances of Pietro showing up and blowing her story anyway?

                "I totally think he likes you."

                Rogue kept her eyes on the table to keep herself from shooting Kitty and dark looks.

                "And Ah totally think you're deranged.."

                "Oh come ON, Rogue. I know he can be sort of arrogant and macho sometimes, but everyone's annoying like that in some way. You have to admit he's got a totally nice bod." Kitty looked once again at Remy as she said this, and Rogue glance up to catch her look. Just what was the girl playing at?

                Remy just went on with the sandwich and bit off another big piece, then started to search through the cupboards for something. Logan had mentioned tea was good for calming down during their last training session. That guy seemed like he planned on turning Remy into a real samurai or something.

                Remy found some cold-brew instant tea and decided that's all he had the patience to make right now. He set his sandwich down and got a glass of ice, dumped it in a pitcher, and started to fill it with water, his jaw clenched tensely. He'd need quite a bit of tea.

                Rogue watched Kitty for a few moments, not thinking much of Remy's actions. If the girl wanted to play at this game, so could she. She'd trap her in her own design.

                "Ya know Kitty, you're right.. He can be annoyin', but he's not all that bad. Real easy on the eyes, too. Ah think Ah'll take him up on his offer." Rogue watched with satisfaction as the girl's face fell. Gutted, Kitty.

                There was a twitch in Remy's upper lip. He grabbed shoved his hand into the box and jerked some bags out then tossed them in the water, though he at least had the mind about him to keep the strings out. He searched through the drawers, not being very gentle with them for a spoon to stir the tea with, making no small amount of noise in the process. His day had suddenly taken quite the dive.

                Kitty followed Rogue's confused gaze to Remy, who seemed to be having a disagreement with the kitchen as a whole. Excellent. On one hand, she was totally making Remy jealous. On the other, Rogue wanted to go out with Pietro! That was disturbing enough in itself, but for the fact that Kitty would certainly be caught in her lie. But it couldn't be true.. Rogue was pulling her leg. she could play at that, too.

                "Great! I'll call him then to tell him." Kitty made immediately for the phone as Rogue's face dropped in turn - she couldn't be serious. Kitty turned to look at Remy while she looked up Pietro's number.            "Hey Remy, are you, like, okay over there?"

                His search had thus far yielded no results and he slammed another drawer shut as he looked over at her with a very forced smile.

                "Why, Remy jus' peachy, cher, jus' bad at findin' t'ings is all."

                With that he resumed his search, though he tried to be a little less obviously agitated. Finally he found a spoon that would do and stirred the tea a bit then grabbed his sandwich and took a vicious bite as he waited for the tea to finish, whenever that was supposed to be.

                Rogue watched Remy curiously. What was his problem? Her attention was once again seized by Kitty, who had her hand on the receiver. Rogue jumped up from her seat, forcing Kitty to hang up.

                "Ah can call him myself, thank ya very much!"

                "Fine then." Kitty stood back, arms folded as she waited. Rogue scoffed.

                "Ah'll call him when Ah feel like it."

                "Oh. Alright.." Kitty conceded, and both girls mentally sighed in relief. Crisis now averted, they both turned their attention to Remy, who was still acting agitated. Kitty exclaimed suddenly.

                "Hey, is that tea! Let me help." She walked over to Remy, moving to take over the stirring while Rogue's heart rate began to slow once more. What was that Logan said about tea helping you calm down?

                "Ah could go for some tea."

                Remy shrugged and headed for the doorway. Suddenly he wasn't thirsty.

                "Help yo'selves... Remy jus' fine wit' his sandwich..."

                He walked off toward his room, munching at the large sandwich as he mentally cursed himself for not making a move sooner. He'd been waiting for her and bam, someone else swoops in. It was his own fault, really. He'd just missed his window.

                Kitty watched Remy leave, smirking inwardly while pouring her and Rogue glasses of tea.

                "I wonder what was up with him." She faked a gasp of realization. "Hey, do you think he was, like, jealous?"

                Rogue shot Kitty a dark look. Is that what she was playing at?

                "Why would he be jealous?" Rogue wasn't sure what that had to do with anything, but it seemed like a good thing to say at the time.

                "Oh come on Rogue, Remy totally has a thing for you."

                The goth girl scoffed once more. That simply couldn't be true.

                "No he does not."

                "Sure he does!"

                "No he doesn't."

                "Well of course he -"

                "He does not, Kitty! He's got some girlfriend down in New Orleans." That came out more bitterly than she'd meant it, but Kitty's insistence was getting on her nerves.

                "He- what?"

                "Ya heard me, he told me about her. So he does *not* have a thing for me."

                Kitty stared into space for a long moment. But.. she couldn't have mistaken the way he'd acting towards Rogue before, and he had just been totally jealous, she knew it. But if he already had a girlfriend.. It simply couldn't be true.

                Rogue ignored Kitty's confused look, anger simmering just under the surface. What business was it of hers anyway, to start setting her up like this? The fact that it wasn't true - neither Pietro's invitation nor Remy's alleged affection - was the most hurtful part. Guys simply didn't go for girls they couldn't touch. Didn't Kitty get that?

                Glass of tea in hand, Rogue gathered her belongings and stormed out of the kitchen not long after Remy, leaving behind a very confused Kitty.

                                                                         * * *

A few minutes later there was a knock at Remy's door, a cheerful Kitty with a glass of tea as an offering.

                Remy peeked out then ushered her in with a sigh, still with half his sandwich. He took the tea gladly and sat in one of his chairs heavily, still not looking particularly happy.

                "Yo' need somet'in, cheri?... Yo' can go on an' sit if yo' wanna... So how yo' li'l match-makin' goin' wit' p'tite an' who's-his-face?"

                "I just came by to see how you were, you looked kind of upset earlier."

                Kitty looked around his room curiously before sitting down, sipping her own tea. She noted his unhappy demeanor. If he was so bummed out over Rogue going out with Pietro, then Rogue's story didn't make sense.

                "Oh, Pietro? I doubt she'll call him." Normally she wouldn't have let up so soon, but Remy looked very, very agitated. She glanced up at the poster of the swampland. "So you must miss New Orleans. Do you have any family down there? Parents, siblings, girlfriends.."

                Kitty wasn't really a master of subtlety.

                Remy was just about to question the whole show they'd made of talking about Pietro's good points, and then Kitty basically pushing that aside. Then he sighed and took another bite of his sandwich as he thought for a moment.

                "Jus' Pa an de othah T'ieves... He had some sweethahts, sho', aftah all, Remy jus dat cha'min'." He managed a trademark grin. "Dat all behind him now, dough... Yo' know?" He shrugged and took another bite of his sandwich.

                Kitty thought about it, weighing it with what Rogue had told her. Alright, so what if he had an old flame? He didn't seem too hung up on her now. Then what was Rogue's problem? Kitty looked at Remy again, smiling a bit.

                "Do you feel better now?"

                Now? Now that what? She didn't say it outright, but suspected it easily enough.. Even she knew it'd be a million years before Rogue would ever go out with Pietro.

                Remy arched a brow at that as he chewed, then swallowed and took a nice long drink of the tea.

                "Wha' do yo' mean? Feel bettah now?" He frowned. "An' how do yo' know dat p'tite ain' gonna be callin' dat guy latah?" He watched her and leaned forward, looking at her.

                She giggled, waving a hand dismissively in the air.

                "Oh, Pietro totally annoys her, always has. Besides, do you really think she'd go out with Magneto's son?" She shook her head at him as if he were crazy, though it had been her idea originally.

                Remy blinked and stared at her, then leaned back a bit and thought for a moment. Maybe he'd not understood correctly, but he thought that Kitty had started the conversation, and that Rogue had acted with interest. Though, at first she hadn't... Could he have missed some sarcasm there? He blinked again and sighed, then shook his head.

                "Don' know wha' Remy was t'inkin'... Den again, she don' seem ta show interest in anyone... Course, if Remy couldn' touch people, he prob'ly wouldn' be lookin' fo' someone eithah."

                Kitty shifted in her seat uncomfortably, face suddenly gloomy.

                "Yea, well, she did have that thing for Scott once. But even though she has crushes just like anyone else, she doesn't really act on them. It's hard to get closer to someone if you, like, can't touch them. That's part of the reason she shuts herself in all the time."

                Remy chuckled as he finished off his sandwich.

                "Oh, Remy know dat, sho' nu-" He stopped and blinked. What had he just said? He shut his mouth and looked around, then sipped his tea and tried to think of a way to get out of that slip... The fact was, he did know how hard it was getting close to Rogue, but he couldn't admit this. Kitty was Rogue's friend, after all, he had to be careful about what he said around her.

                Kitty blinked as she watched his gaze flounder for a moment, but inside she was beaming. Oh, this was most definitely in the bag. Outside, though she maintained a casual expression, not so gloomy now as matter-of-fact.

                "Well we all know that, it must be really tough on her." She paused before giving voice to a new thought. "But that woman, the one who took over Rogue... Well, she had control over Rogue's powers, right? So like, now we know its possible! Rogue will eventually learn to control them, too." At least, Kitty hoped.

                Remy cleared his throat and nodded.

                "Remy'll keep his fingahs crossed fo' her..." He sipped at his tea against and thought for a moment. "So, cher, does p'tite have any crushes right now? Yo' can trust Remy, he good wit' gossip." He chuckled and winked at her as he finished the tea and picked up a deck of cards and started to shuffle them.

                Kitty gave thought to the question. It wasn't too long ago when she was certain Rogue had at least a small crush on Remy. She had been closer with him than she was with anyone. But lately she seemed to be avoiding him. Did they have a fight or something? No, that couldn't be.. Kitty shrugged.

                "I don't know, or at least I don't think so. But Rogue's not exactly the type of girl who'd show it, much less admit it." Kitty's face took on a confused expression. "Still, there were times when she was, like, totally obvious with Scott. Dunno how he missed that."

                He blinked at that. What if he had missed something? Or maybe he hadn't. Well, this turned out to be raising more questions than it answered, which was never a good thing. It seemed that he still had time, though... He smiled and stood, his cards put down on the arm of the chair, and took the empty glass.

                "Remy need ta do some t'ings, cher... yo' mind takin his glass back fo' him? He really appreciate it." He gave her his best charming smile, though he still felt off his game. Probably would be all day. Oh well, he'd just make plans for today and move in the next, if everything went well.

                Kitty returned his smile with a grin, standing up. "Sure, no problem. I'll see you later Remy!" Taking his glass, she disappeared into the hallway.