FLUFF! There! I did it! The plot almost got control of the chapter for the first few paragraphs, but I grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him in the wall, and I sat in front of my laptop, writing pure fluff for you all! Rated R fluff! (maybe it's exagerated, but I really didn't want to take chances). And it's probably the longest chapter I've written since I started posting up on FF.N. I thought what the plot wrote was good though, and I sincerely thought he had a good idea on the way, so I left it there. Don't mind it, though, the plot's a little crazy sometimes (or am I?).

MzJenna : The plot thickens, yeah… More like his head, I'd say. I really have to get rid of him, at least for that story… put that "plot-nergy" in my two other fics, so I could have some ideas…

nessie6 : Okay, so I won't be able to finish both stories. This one is coming to an end soon, though (but I say this often enough to know it's often not true…), and I sincerely hope the beginning of the semester won't be too hard on my poor head… so I can write!

ishandahalf : Now, I can't wait to see the review I'm gonna get for that chapter… Notice the change in the rating? Hope you had fun despite the presence of your family during your vacation, and that you saw some cute Acadians out there in New-Brunswick… And I was waiting for you to write… It's just too depressing no seeing your name in my review list. Okay, maybe it was a little because my mother and brother were here, and I barely see them 3 or 4 times a year, them having moved more than 1000 kilometers away, and I miss them… *tear* snif. But they're gone back in Ontario now, so I'm back on my computer!

KatLeBeau : Yay! Well, I finaly managed to put the plot aside (most of the time) in that chapter, so this is (almost) plot-free, and 95% fluff. Have fun.

Panther Nesmith : I'm still trying to figure out what the beginning of the review means, but I liked the end of it. Glad you like it!

Yumiko : I don't think this can be considered as "fast" update, but considering I'm writing three fics at a time *bangs her head on the wall*, then I guess it's pretty good!

xXrogue_demonXx : Phiew! You're the second one to tell me that you like my fic even if it's A/U… But I have a question : since you don't dig A/U and it's written in the summary, what led you to read it? I'm just curious!

Equinox : LOL! Okay, that's a French expression (comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles) I litteraly traducted in English, and I guess it hasn't worked well… It simply means that you're the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time. Like a dog in a bowling game.

MysticSorceror : Thanks! Nice penname!

crazytook : *blinks stupidly at her computer screen* I hate fluff? Now, my friend, you are going to have to quote the line where I said that, because I don't remember saying it… I love fluff, friend! It's just that the plot keeps burrying it under piles of obstacles, and ennemies, and stuff… I'm not in control anymore!!!!!

Warmer Than Fire : Oh well, I'm just glad you're back! And it's a good thing you're having fun with the sun. You have a beautiful tan, by the way. *grin*

charisma5 : Somehow I didn't get your review by email, but I saw it on FF.N, so everything's fine! For the name, I'm sorry for your five… I only got a 2, but the other fleurdelys haven't posted anything since last december, and they won't let me have my name back. Oh, and I'm glad you like the story, but you will have to have some patience, because I'm writing three fics at the time. I've turned crazy, I know, I know… I knew I was going to get a death threath somewhere!

Lizz10 : Well, here's the fluff! Finaly!

ladychopsticks : hehe, here's more!

Solitaire3 : Glad you love it!

Enjoy!

Chapitre huit

(The night before)

He knew he was dead. He had to be. Everyone was.

He vaguely remembered Émile's cell phone ringing during the meeting. And Émile yelling, telling everyone to get out.

Then everything exploded, blowing the place into burnt ashes. He was dead.

He was dissapointed, he had always thought death was a peaceful state. Now his nose was throbbing painfully, and he knew his left leg was broken. His skull hurt where he had bumped it, jumping out of the window, and the loud wheezing sound coming from his nose, along with the white pain shooting through his chest with each breath suggested that many of his ribs were broken.

Breath?

Wasn't he dead?

Deep blue, blood shot eyes opened suddently, and he moaned as he saw his surroundings. Everything seemed to be burning around him, and the flames came out of the broken window he had jumped through, eating away the wooden frame and walls. He was laying two stories down, laying without moving in a pile of garbage. It smelled bad, but even the smell of women's French perfume would have hurt his bleeding nose right now. He tried to move, to get on his feet, but his head began to turn, and spots twirled in front of his eyes. He fell back on hands and knees on the ground, squinting his eyes shut. He couldn't, mustn't faint…

He heard panicked voices near him, and he recognized one. Émile. He opened his mouth to call for him, and raised his head. But a strong nausea caught in his throath, and he fainted, the world turning again, his eyes closing and his body falling back on the ground.

~~

She still dreamed about it.

Her parents had died when she was only five years old, in a car accident she had witnessed with her own eyes from the front lawn of her house. She began being a problem for whoever was taking care of her, she doesn't remember who, and was put into an orphanage for her own good, they said. Many years went by before a nice woman came to the orphanage, and picked the 14 years old girl to bring her into her family. A very, very nice family. With a very, very, very nice dad, called Richard.

She always though she would make love for the first time in her life on her wedding night. It was what they said at church and at the orphanage, and she thought it was a neat idea. Richard was going to break her dream, though. When Jade was 15, he lost his job, and slowly sank into alcoholism. Almost each night, he would come home drunk, and would beat his wife half-dead before switching to her. He usualy got tired before her body hit the floor, though, and she usualy could get out of the beating with some sore spots and ribs.

But as her body changed, and she became a woman, he got tired of the beating. Coming home, he would walk straight to her room. She could still taste the reeling smell of beer on the callused hand on her mouth, keeping her silent while he rumaged through the bed sheets with his other hand. One day, she got tired of it, and ran away, knocking on Raven's appartment door, and not coming out of it for weeks. Even today, she still lived with her friend.

She swore to herself she would keep her body for the right man. But now, with Remy, it felt… right. Was he the right man she had been waiting for ten years?

She sobbed in her pillow again. And if he was? Her memory of sex was acid, and she admited to herself that she was afraid of what it could feel like. Here, alone in the guestroom, she felt like it. She wanted to get up again, and head straight to his room where she knew she would be welcome. But once in his arms, she knew she would go stiff again, as the dread of what would be to come made her push him away, pull away from his warm embrace with the fear of being badly hurt again.

Another sob shook her chest. It would never leave her alone.

~~

Strange how humans are the only animals to burry their deads. Also strange that they insist on burrying empty coffins, when the bodies couldn't be found in the smoking vestiges of the house where the meeting took place.

She sighed, and Raven looked at her from the corner of her eye. Jade knew Raven had guessed her feelings toward their host, but she still said nothing, knowing her friend's attitude. And she would say nothing until the day Jade regrets and cries in Raven's arms, like it had happened so many times before. Since the day Jade had broken up with men in general, Raven had been there, trying to steer her back towards the male species. Who could be a better man-specialist than her? It haven't worked yet, but Jade knew Raven was a fighter, and wouldn't give up. But today, the brunette kept her mouth shut, probably because of the atmosphere in general.

It was a rainy day, like most funeral days, and Jade watched as at least two hundred men and women walked away from the Thieves Cemetery, near the LeBeau mansion. She turned around, looking for Remy, and found him a few yards away, shaking hands with some stranger, and accepting condolences from another. The head of the Guild of Thieves finaly broke free, and walked towards a bunch of trees. Jade took in a deep breath, and followed him. He leaned on a tree, and she stopped a few feet away. She stayed silent, but her guess was that he knew she was there.

"It feels like makin' dis official." She swallowed and walked the few steps separating her from him. He sighed, and his back rubbed against the bark as he sat in the grass. After a moment's hesitation, she sat down next to him.

"What's official?"

"Dat I'm alone. And scared lik' hell." His hand played unconsciously with strands of grass, and she hesitated, her hand hovering over his. She finaly sighed, and put her hand on his. He didn't move.

"Yah're not alone, Remy. Yah've got Mercy, and yahr friends…"

"And you?" His eyes lifted to meet hers, and she felt her eyes moisten to see so much hope in his eyes. He wanted her to stay, she could tell that. But still…

"Ah don't count, Ah'm leaving tomorrow morning. Six o'clock." She was surprised herself by the cold sound of her voice, and resisted the urge to look away. His eyes clouded, and the hope dissapeared from the red depths.

"But I don' want'y t'leave." He turned a little more to face her, his eyes connected with hers. She felt glued to them and swallowed nervously. "I want'y t'stay a bit longer with me, Jade." She knew her name was written the same in French and English, but the way it sounded in Remy's language, with Remy's voice, coming out of Remy's mouth… It felt sweet as honey to her ears, and she shivered with pleasure at the sound. He saw it, and smiled. "Why do I feel like I know'y for a long time? D'ye feel it too?" She opened her mouth to say 'no', but her head bobbed up and down without her being able to stop it. His hand reached up and cupped her face. She closed her eyes, expecting his lips on hers. After a few seconds of nothing, she cracked her eyes open, to see his eyes an inch from hers. "Say you'll stay, Jade." She closed her eyes again, and kissed him. He put his hands on her shoulders, gently trying to push her away, but she circled his neck with her arms and kissed him harder. He uttered a deep sigh and his hands stopped pushing to slide down to her waist, pulling her near, and she felt a guilty feeling gripping her guts, for once drowning the warmth his embrace lit in her stomach. Suddently, he broke free of the kiss and held on to her arms. He looked at her face, then shook his head, licking his lips as if he wanted to erase the kiss, or taste it again.

"Can't y'answer me?" Jade looked down at her hands in her lap. She closed her eyes, and sadly shook her head. The warmth of his hands on her arms was replaced with cool air as he let her go, and she looked away as he got up and walked away, his head bent down and his hands in his pockets.

~~

Her hand hovered over the pearl white wooden door, before balling into a fist. She couldn't be doing this, couldn't she? She felt stupidly indecent in her white nightshift, a cream satin thing that covered her shoulders, and went down to her knees. But she took a deep breath, and her fist pulled back a few inches. Then, after a moment's hesitation, it came forward, gently knocking on the door three times. It sounded too loud to her ears, and she quickly withdrew her hand from the door, clapsing her hands together between her breasts. But not a sound came from the room inside, and she sighed.

She turned to leave when she heard the sound of someone walking behind the door, and she turned back to the door in time to see Remy leaning in the doorframe, eyeing her with a blank face. He looked like he was going to frown at her, but instead one of his eyebrows lifted in an interrogative way. "In what honor am I gettin' your visit?" he asked. He tilted his head, looking behind her, and the ticking sound on the wall told her he had just looked at the clock hooked up on the wall in the corridor. "At 2 in de mornin'?"

"It's not 2 yet, Ah know it's only 20 past 1." He smiled, and her arms came around her chest as she hugged herself. "Besides, Ah know yah haven't been in bed for more than half an hour, sugah. At what temperature do yah set the air conditionner in here? Ah'm cold." His smile widen, his white teeth showing, and he opened the door wider.

"Well, it's hoter in de bedroom, chère. Why don' you come in?" She froze on her feet, staring at him, and he chuckled when he saw she wouldn't move. "Well, den, do you mind explainin' t'me why you're up in de middle o'de night? Not dat I mind, but…"

"Ah couldn't sleep" she interrupted.

"Havin' wicked dreams, chère?"

"Ah needed to see yah." He opened his mouth to reply, but closed it. He took a step back, gesturing to her to come in, and she walked in. She heard the door close, and looked around, feeding her eyes with the beautiful antique furniture that garnished the bedroom. A gigantic maplewood bed covered with deep blue blankets layed in the middle of the room, and she took a deep breath with the hope of slowing down the beating of her heart. She looked back at Remy, silently standing behind her, and it occurred to her that he wasn't wearing a lot, aside some black boxer shorts and a blue T-shirt that didn't leave a lot to her imagination. His hair was untied, deep auburn locks brushing his shoulders, and a shorter lock falling across his face. The efforts to slow down her heartbeats became futile, and she felt blood rushing at incredible speed in her body, flushing her face. She flushed even more when she noticed he had come to the same conclusions about her night dress, and his eyes travelled from her head to her feet and back to her face in an appreciative look. Her eyes locked with his, and her breathing stopped, her heart out of control.

"You wanted t'talk t'me, Jade?" His voice was a tad lower and hoarser, and she shivered with pleasure at the sound of it. She walked to him, and put a light hand on his chest. She felt a twinge of satisfaction when she felt his heart, beating as loudly as hers in his rib cage. He saw it in her eyes, and the corners of his mouth turned up. She smiled too, wondering where the hell was this side of her coming from.

"Ah never said Ah wanted to talk, sugah." The smile faded from his face and she felt him tense up.

"What do y'want, den?" He wasn't smiling, but the fun he was having at the very moment was clear as water in his voice.

Her hands went up to his face his answer, and she felt the growing beard under her fingers. She gently caressed his cheeks and her fingers slided behind his neck, pulling him down to her face. He bent down at her demand and kissed her fiercely, his arms circling her and squeezing her against his chest. She held on tight as well, her arms around his neck, standing on tip-toe, and his hands went on her buttocks, lifting her so her face was at his level. Her legs came around his waist, her ankles crossing behing his thighs.

She felt dizzy with desire and blood rushed behind her eyelids. She was surprised when she felt her body fall in an horizontal position and the softness of the mattress in her back, though, and her breath came short. She tried to fight the fear, but the cold feeling of panic seeped back in her spine. She panicked, breaking free of the kiss, and pushed back Remy, crawling rapidly back on the bed. She caught back her breath, avoiding his eyes. She finaly looked up at him to see him standing near the bed, leaning on his arms on the mattress, and looking at her with angry eyes. He straighten up and glared at her.

"Are'y playin' with me, Jade?" His voice came out cold, and tears stung her eyes. She slightly shook her head.

"No" she whispered. "Ah'm afraid." He didn't answer, and she looked up. His face had softened to her words, and he sat down on the bed.

"Afraid of what, chère?" She blushed like a teenager.

"Afraid it will hurt." He was mouth-agape again, but controled himself and closed it back.

"You've never slept with a man before, chère?"

"Yeah, Ah did… but… It hurt. A lot." He frowned, and she saw his eyes glow an eerie red in the dimly lit bedroom as realization dawned on him. She looked down at her hands, and spoke as fast as she could. "Ah wanna do it, Remy. Ah really do. And Ah trust yah don't wanna hurt me, but… Ah'm scared." She heard the shifting of the blankets as he moved closer to her on the bed. He layed on his back, and opened his arms.

"You've just said de magic words, chère."

"What words?"

"Trust me." She smiled shyly. "It won't hurt, Jade. I promise." She nodded, and took a deep breath before laying down next to him. He hugged her, and bent down to kiss her, more gently this time. His hand travelled on her body, softly cupping her breasts, raising gooseflesh on her arms. His mouth moved away from hers, dropping slow, light kisses around her ear, on her temple, in her neck. His hands still worked their way on her body, coming up her legs and lifting her night dress. She lifted her arms above her head so he could take it off her body, and she fought back another feeling of panic as she felt cool air on her naked body. She had been sincere. She trusted him. He let out a shaking sigh, and she looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" She suddently felt shy, and pushed away the urge of  pulling the blankets over her body. He looked at her face, his features soft, eyes full of desire.

"Jade… You're de most beautiful femme I've ever seen." She chuckled.

"Glad yah like it." He smiled dreamily and bent down to kiss her again. He tasted good, and she asked herself if she could ever have enough of these kisses. The feeling of panic slowly withdrew, replaced by a growing desire of the body she held in her arms. She let her fingers run on his skin, pulling the t-shirt up over his head. He threw it somewhere on the floor and bent back to her. His mouth came on the tip of her breasts and she inhaled sharply, the pinching sensation raising incredible sensations in her body, and she moaned when his hand went between her thighs.

A few moments passed by when she thought she had lost control on herself completely, and she barely noticed as he took off his boxers, putting on some necessary protection,  and kissed her again. She came to her senses when she felt him, and she froze. He saw the fear in her eyes, though, and held her chin, looking at her face.

"Look in my eyes, Jade." She blinked, but didn't look away. He waited for her to relax, and entered her, slowly.

She moaned. It didn't hurt, like she was afraid it would. It raised sensations she never thought she could feel before. Strong waves came crushing over her body, and she gripped at his shoulders like a lifesaver in stormy waters.

Her release came with his, and he crushed her against his chest, trembling and burrying his head in her neck. She turned her head and kissed his temple.

She had never felt so good.

~~

The sun in his face woke him up. He moaned, lifting an arm to protect his eyes, but froze when the memory of the night came to his mind. A wide smile on his face, he turned, happy to finaly have her face to look at in the morning sun. But the smile froze in his face, and he sat up.

The blankets were pushed away, and he could still see the hollow in the pillow where her head had been. But he was alone in the bed, and he turned to his alarm clock, a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

And he moaned, when he saw the alarm clock showed 7:30.

To be continued!

Muahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Ain't that bad? Ain't I'M bad? Oh, I love making people suffer. Even the reviewers!