Chapter 1: Plans for Celebration
November was nearing, about to cast its cold term and icy breezes over Bayville, the flowers in the gardens had long since died of exposure to the frosts that the season shed, and the whitish sky held the promise of a snowfall soon to come – all the signs of a harsh winter and November wasn't even upon them.
Rogue stared out of the window distantly, Halloween was only one more day away, the mansion was already filled with large jack-o-lanterns, paper skeletons and spiders hanging on almost every doorway, and silhouettes of witches and ghosts upon the windows. It had been Bobby and Amara's idea to decorate the Mansion for Halloween.
Rogue smiled slightly amused at how the Mansion looked, she had to admit, Halloween was one of her most favourite seasons, it wasn't anything to do with the fact that she herself was a Goth and enjoyed most things dark and unnatural – such as night when the dead was rumoured to walk amongst the living, and witches would brew potions in their large pewter cauldrons.
The only real reason she could find for her love of Halloween that it was just all about fun – it always had been when she was a child in school, and now even though she was sixteen, she knew she'd find some way to celebrate it.
The library was almost silent, save the ticking of an old Grandfather clock against a wall, and the crackling of the flames in the large stone fireplace on one side of the room. She leaned against the large mahogany table she was sitting at, and turned towards Kitty Pryde, who was wearing a large – and rather absurd looking – knitted sweater with a reindeer on it.
Kitty was flicking through a huge dictionary, "what does tumescent mean," she asked desperately, as if she were trying to break some kind of studying time record to get as much of her reading done as possible before four thirty approached and they could leave their studying for the day.
"I think it means swollen," Rogue replied, she glanced back to the window, "it's Halloween tomorrow, you know…" she pointed out.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Kitty made a face, "Every Halloween something bad happens to me," she stated.
"Something bad?" Rogue raised an eyebrow, "Like?" she was now curious, she leaned a little closer to Kitty, keeping her voice low just in case one of the instructors might be lurking in the hallway outside and perhaps hear them talking instead of studying.
Kitty kept flicking through the dictionary, "when I was twelve me and some friends went trick or treating and at the end of the night they tied me to a tree and I was there half the night until the police found me," Kitty stated.
Rogue pressed her hand to her mouth to stop from laughing, "I need to remember that one," she giggled.
Kitty rolled her large blue eyes, whilst running her index finger down a line of text in the dictionary, "you were right," she stated.
"I know I was right," Rogue stated, "so…what you got planned for Halloween?" she asked.
Kitty turned and looked at Rogue, "oh no you don't…"
Kurt glanced up from his book at the other end of the table, around six feet away from the girls. "What are you two talking about?"
Kitty closed the dictionary, "she's going to try and sucker me into going to the—"
Rogue elbowed Kitty sharply in the ribs, "Shut up!"
"To the what?" Kurt asked.
Kitty blurted it out, "The Asylum."
Kurt raised an eyebrow, "a mental asylum?" he asked naively.
"No," Rogue kept her voice hushed, "lower your voice," she added.
Kurt got up and moved to their end of the table, he stood opposite where the girls were sitting, he put his elbows on the table and leaned closer to listen in. "What's asylum?" He asked in a whisper.
"It's a nightclub – an over 21's," Rogue admitted, "they're having a massive Halloween bash tomorrow night, drinks will sell for a buck."
"No way," Kitty said, she pulled out a note book and wrote something down, "I've followed you into that place twice now, I'm not doin' it a third time," She stated, "You get way too drunk."
Kurt raised an eyebrow, "I didn't know you drank…" he seemed concerned.
"I don't…not really," Rogue rolled her eyes, "It's just…" she ran her fingers through her hair absently, her hair was shorter than it had been in a long time, she'd cut it so that it remained slightly long at the front and shorter at the back, it seemed to make her white streaks even more prominent than they had been ever before. "I drink when I go out clubbing," she said, "But I only ever really got drunk once, and I was really ill the next day," she kept her still in a soft murmur so that it could not be heard from outside the room.
"She was a mess that day," Kitty smirked, "cold sweat, her hair everywhere, make up down her face, she looked like a clown – and all this with her head in the toilet."
Rogue nudged Kitty playfully, "Oh come on…"
"What's it like in there?" Kurt asked curiously.
"Gothic," Kitty said, "loud music, flashing lights, alcohol, and weirdos."
"Tomorrow it will be awesome, c'mon?" Rogue looked at Kitty pleadingly, "Please?"
"No," Kitty sighed, "I can't, I have stuff to do," she shrugged, "sorry."
Rogue looked at Kurt with pleading eyes.
"Sorry, I, uh…also, have stuff to do," Kurt gave a sympathetic glance.
"I'll go alone then," Rogue shrugged.
"You sure that's, like, a good idea?" Kitty asked worriedly.
"I'll be fine," Rogue scrawled her name on the top of her piece of paper, "you remember the last time, don't you?"
Kitty gained a smirk, "yeah…I do, that's what scares me, YOU might be fine, but the rest of the clubbers might come back with no balls," she joked.
Rogue smirked, "If that's how it has to be, then that's how it has to be."
After study period was over, Rogue headed upstairs, her books dangling from one hand, her pen and pencil from the other, just as she got to the top of the stairs she could hear a little ditty being played out from what sounded to be a cellular phone, she stopped, listening carefully.
She recognised it – the tune from the Addams family, it was her phone. Still holding her schoolbooks, she rushed down the hall as fast as her feet would carry her and burst through the door, tossing the books, paper and pencil away and leaping onto the bed to grab her phone from the nightstand.
Quickly, Rogue pressed 'receive' on the phone and put it to her ear, "hello?"
"Bonjoir."
Rogue felt her heart thud in her chest. It was who she'd hoped it would be, Remy LeBeau, calling from New Orleans, where he'd gone to for some time out. She hadn't seen or heard from him in two weeks – when he'd left Muir Island.
"Oh, Remy, it's only you," she stated in a very calm uninterested voice, to trick him into believing she wasn't sitting there smiling like an idiot that he had finally called.
Remy LeBeau, on the other end of the connection, gave a laugh, "of course it's me, who else would be calling you?"
"Oh, I don't know, the string of boyfriends I have who are totally in love with me," Rogue gushed with a smirk.
"Only one I know of," Remy replied.
"So…" Rogue trailed off, "why'd it take so long for you to call me?" She demanded, "I mean you went off to New Orleans, not a letter or a phonecall to say you even arrived, I was sitting here wondering if the Assassins hadn't, uhm…assassinated you."
"I'm still alive, but barely, been in a few brawls, but nothing big," Remy replied, "how did Xavier respond to you when you got back?" he referred to the fact that when they had been in Muir Island, they'd had to tell Hank McCoy some white lies that they were a couple to cover up for a break in at the Mutant Research Centre that they had not even been involved in. Disapproving of the four year age difference between Remy LeBeau and the girl known as Rogue, Hank had immediately informed Professor Xavier – and Rogue and Remy were to be reprimanded upon their return.
"I got a telling off, but that was about it," Rogue stated, "I just hope he doesn't go nosing through my head to find out the truth – or anything else for that matter," she admitted.
"Same here," Remy admitted.
"So, do you have things sorted out there? Have you ditched Bella Donna yet?" Rogue referred to Bella Donna, the woman who Remy was unwillingly betrothed to marry, Remy had intended to go and break off the engagement – it was one of the conditions that Rogue had stated were in the understanding that she would be with him only if he did so.
"Not yet…" Remy trailed off, "things right now here are hectic, you wouldn't believe the shit that's goin' down…" Remy admitted, "I got bigger fish to fry," he stated.
"I…see…" Rogue trailed off.
"Don't worry, Chere," Remy sounded suddenly as if he were making excuses, "I'm going to do it, seriously, I just haven't had time yet, but I will…" he said.
"How much longer do you think you'll be away?" Rogue asked.
"Chere, we said three months," Remy reminded, "its been two weeks…"
"I know, but two weeks seems like forever when you're in this miserable place," Rogue sighed, "Remy, I never thought I'd say this, but I want you here right now…there's this party tomorrow I'm going to go to and I want you there with me – I don't want to have to go alone."
"I just…I can't do it, Chere, I'm sorry," Remy said, "Not gonna lie to you, I have bigger problems, believe me…"
Rogue suddenly felt concerned, "Is everything going on alright over there?" she asked worriedly, she sat up, holding the phone to her ear.
"No, everythin's not alright, but I'm not gonna trouble you with the details right now," Remy admitted, "I have to go, I'm on a payphone…"
"Oh, okay…" Rogue was disappointed.
"Chere, I'm doin' everything in my power to get this all sorted out as quickly as possible…you know what I told you about my family and Belle's family…it isn't easy to just ditch the daughter of the leader of an Assassin's guild and walk away alive…" he reminded, "I gotta do this with tact…"
"I…understand," Rogue sighed, "You better go."
"You mad at me?" Remy asked, his voice slightly concerned on the other end of the phone.
"Yes, but you'll get a chance to make it up to me later…bye," Rogue said and hung up. The minute she put the phone down she picked up her pillow and screamed into, the fabric muffling her voice.
"Something wrong?" Kitty was standing at the door, Rogue realised she had only been there for the last portion of the phone call.
"Remy called," Rogue sighed, "He's going to be in New Orleans for a while," she shrugged.
"So?" Kitty also shrugged, and walked over to her nightstand and placed her school books upon it.
"So I wanted him to go to the party with me tomorrow night," Rogue whined, she tossed the pillow at the wall stubbornly. "Instead of being here with me, he's off in Cajun land with some girl he's going to marry!"
Kitty had heard this a thousand times in the last two weeks, Rogue had finally given in and told Kitty about Remy's future wife, and the feud between the guilds. "He isn't going to marry her, he told you he'd break the engagement and he will," Kitty picked up the pillow Rogue had thrown and tossed it back onto Rogue's bed.
"Maybe I should go to New Orleans to make sure they don't kill him," Rogue said wistfully.
"You can't, your responsibility is to be here, get your school work done, and be a bitch to everyone who crosses your path," Kitty joked.
Rogue smirked a little, "That I can do."
"Stop worrying about Remy so much, he'll be fine. Instead, worry about how the hell you're going to sneak out of here with Professor Xavier and Logan in the house."
"Oh, that'll be easy," Rogue admitted with a grin upon her pale face, "because you're going to short circuit the security system in the war room which is going to take a couple of days to fix, that should distract him long enough for me to leave without him even realising it, and he'll probably STILL be trying to fix it and reconfigure all the alarms by the time I get back."
"You want me to do that?!" Kitty gaped, "Oh come ON, Rogue, that's so not fair dragging me in on this."
"You're my best friend, aren't you?" Rogue raised an eyebrow.
Kitty winced, "yes…"
Rogue smirked, "Then you'll do it for me."
