In the Rain by Yui
Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You made me so happy! I'm sorry I'm slow to update but I'm working on it. Loosing interest in mutli-chaptered stories is my biggest weakness! Look at my story 'A Helping Hand'! I don't think I will ever finish that one! Anyway I'm determined to finish this one because so many of you seem to really like it and I don't want a bunch of angry e-mails! 0_o
Words between ( ) are English translation of French dialogue!
Disclaimer: Sorry, but I don't own any of the characters!
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Chapter Four
A Meeting of Spontaneity
It was Rogue's bad luck that by Monday morning she was healthy enough to go to school. Unfortunately, no one else thought so and she woke up late. When her alarm started to go off loudly, she sprung up, roughly roused from her slumber and with her heart beating wildly in her chest. Wide-eyed, she saw that it was already 7:30! Mumbling angry to herself, she knocked her ringing alarm clock off the bedside table in a huff and rolled quickly out of her bed. Glancing to Kitty's bed, she realized that her roommate was already gone and she quickly dashed to her closet to pick out her clothes.
"Of all the shitty luck!" she growled to herself. "Kitty probably didn't think I was going to school today!"
Her mood was worse than sour; she would probably be late getting to school today and she didn't have a chance to eat breakfast. Throwing off her tousled pajamas, she pulled on a short black skirt with a back tank under a fishnet shirt. She quickly shoved her feet inside her black boots, pulled on her leather gloves, and jerked a brush through her tangled hair. She grabbed her book bag, hastily refilling it with her books and paper, and ran out of her room to the closest bathroom. In her urgency, she almost collided into Storm as the older woman was passing through the threshold.
"Oh, Rogue!" Storm jumped back in surprise. Her usually calm blue eyes were wide with shock as she gaped at the younger girl. "What in the world are you doing up? Kitty told me that you were too sick to go to school today."
"I feel fine now!" Rogue shot back, running into the bathroom to find her toothbrush. "Are they already gone?"
"I'm afraid so," Storm told her from the hallway. "But are you sure you're feeling okay? You were so sick yesterday…"
"I'm fine, Storm!" Rogue replied briskly, brushing her teeth in a hurry. "Just get off my back, will ya? I'm already late!"
"I could drive you…."
"Don't bother," Rogue told her, tossing her toothbrush aside and running passed Storm and down the hall to the lower level, not really paying attention to anyone in her way. In the kitchen, Logan sat at the table with a cup of coffee before him, and was peering at Rogue over the top of the newspaper as if she had lost her mind.
"What's the rush?" he called out, annoyingly levelheaded, as the she raced through the large kitchen, making a noisy rack in the process.
"Kitty didn't wake me up so I'm late!"
Logan frowned, glaring at Rogue. "Aren't you going to eat anything?" he asked.
"Hell no! What part of late, don't you understand, Logan?"
Still frowning, he got up and laid a hand on Rogue's shoulder, making her stop for a moment. She glared at him as he quickly handed her a piece of toast from his plate and forced her to take it with a firm scowl. Then he let her go and sat back down.
"See ya, kid," Logan murmured, picking up his paper and beginning to read once more.
"Thanks, Logan. See ya later!" Rogue replied, hurrying out of the kitchen and stuffing the toast into her mouth at the same time.
She was out of the institute in less then five seconds and half way down the street before she stopping running. Panting, she ran her fingers through her hair and awkwardly adjusted the heavy bag on her back, thinking about her situation. Her school was more than a mere couple of blocks away. At this rate, she was probably going to miss her first class and maybe a bit of her second one, which might mean detention after school. Plus she didn't have any of her homework done and would fall further behind in her damn French and History class. Maybe she should have stayed home after all.
When she arrived at Bayville High, she was tempted to drop dead in the soft grass of the inviting lawn surrounding the large school and rest. But, bearing her teeth in her effort to ignore her nagging exhaustion, she made her way to her locker with a sour frown. In a huff, she flung her bag to the ground and put in the combination of the lock but when she tried to open it, it wouldn't budge. She frowned as she tried it again. It still wouldn't give. Face contorting with her mounting stress, she angrily yanked the lock.
"Come on, you piece of worthless crap!" she snarled under her breath. "Why don't you open up?!" After another failed attempt at the combination, she finally settle on smashing her hand against the metal to vent her frustration, leaving a significant dent in the metal that would amazed even a man like Logan. However, the impact left her gloved hand numb and the fierce pain shooting through her fist to her arm made her eyes sting with hot tears.
"Rogue!" There was a high-pitched voice shouting behind her that could, unfortunately, make even a man like Logan shudder in fear. "Just what in the world do you think you are doing to that locker?"
Spinning around, Rouge saw her prudish English teacher frowning at her with the utmost disgust and Rogue's anger quickly became uncontrolled. She glared back at her teacher, nursing her maltreated hand; she never really had a soft spot for Mrs. McPherson in her heart. She was an old, religious, high-hat hag who assumed that Rogue was a dumb punk who worshiped Satan on weekends because of her strictly gothic appearance and poor grades she earned in English class.
She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at the patronizing woman. "Are you blind?" Rogue snapped. "I'm trying to get into my locker."
Mrs. McPherson's frowned deepened until her lips all but faded into her multiple wrinkles. "You will address me as 'ma'am' and I can see very well, I assure you. However to me it looks like you are destroying school property, miss."
"Well if this school didn't have such crappy property I wouldn't be destroying it, now would I, ma'am?" Rogue retorted angrily; she was too furious to care if she was being rude.
A slender white eyebrow raised slightly on Mrs. McPherson's pale forehead and a haughty distaste passed through her brown eyes, as she glared at Rogue. "I don't care for the way you talk to me, Rogue. You'll serve detention with me after school today and for the rest of the week, 3 o'clock to 6. Is that clear?"
"What?!" Rogue gapped at her in stupefaction.
"Is that clear?"
Rogue bit the inside of her cheek, stopping herself in time from shouting at the old hag of a teacher. After a moment, she nodded her head stiffly.
"What was that?" the older woman asked innocently. "I couldn't hear you."
"Yes, ma'am. It's very clear," she replied loudly, not giving into the urge to scream. You stupid, snooty, high-hatted, ugly woman, Rogue continued in her mind with grim satisfaction.
"Good. I expect you to be on time for once." With that, she walked away, her high heels tapping loudly on the floor as she moved. Rogue glared daggers at her back before turning and facing her broken locker again. Just then, the bell rang, calling for the end of first period. Before she knew it, students were filling into the hall and Kitty was besides her, looking astonished as thought she was looking at a ghost or something.
"Hey, Rogue, I didn't know you were coming to school!"
Rogue frowned and glared as she turned to the younger girl. "Yea and thanks for the wake up call, Kitty."
"I'm, like, totally sorry," an insulted looking Kitty replied. "I just didn't think you were, like, coming since you were sick and all."
"Well I'm fine now, aren't I?"
"Hey, don't get angry with me," Kitty told her. "You could have, like, told me last night that you were coming to school or something."
Rogue's frown deepened. Then Kitty's blue eyes moved to the abused locker.
"Hey, what happened to my locker?"
For a moment, Rogue's eyes grew wide with surprise and she yelled at herself mentally for her stupidity. No wonder the combination didn't work!
"Um…. It was Avalanche," she quickly lied. "He was messing around with it."
"Really?" Kitty sounded genuinely surprised. "That jerk. I just hope I'll be able to open it! Hey, Rogue! Where are you going?!"
"I gotta get my things for second hour! See ya later, Kitty!" Rogue shouted back as she set her way further, loosing herself in the large crowd.
Unfortunately, Rogue's day didn't brighten much after that. Although she was on time for her second hour, she didn't have any of her homework done, which made the teacher pissed. Her third hour was biology and during the course of the hour-long lab, Rogue's mind began to wonder and she ended up accidentally dropping acid on her beloved boots. The acid burned them badly so Rogue was forced to walk around in her old, stinking gym shoes for the rest of the day. In her forth hour, she forgot that there was a major test in geometry and she was positive that she absolutely flunked it. When it was lunchtime, Rogue realized that she didn't have any money to get something to eat and she was so hungry! Too proud to ask Scott or Jean for some cash, Rogue stalked out of the cafeteria, famished and mad.
It was all too much for Rogue and, had she been a weaker soul, she would have ended up in a trembling, sobbing ball of blacking clothing in the corner of the girls' bathroom. However, Rogue didn't become downhearted. She got angry.
With her frayed and tattered copy of Interview with the Vampire in her gloved hand, Rogue sought for an isolated area around the school so she could sit and read in peace before her lunch break was up. She found a secluded spot by the parking lot and flung herself to the ground, leaning her back against the large trunk of a tree, and pulled open the book and began to read. But she was in such a state of frustration, that the words blurred on the yellow pages and became a load of unreadable rubbish in her mind.
Rogue sighed, about ready to fling the book down and just mediate when a long, resonant honk, like that from a car, made Rogue jump. Quickly as her eyes flew to where the sound came from but, at first, she just saw the row of shiny cars. Then in the corner of her eye she noticed something that made her heart stop in spite of herself.
She saw a familiar black motorcycle with an even familiar body perched upon it. Although there was some distance between them, Rogue saw a smile on Gambit's face. And hell if it wasn't contagious. Before she knew it she was smiling too and climbing to her feet.
"Surprise, surprise. What are you doing here all of a sudden?" Rogue asked him when she was close enough, her bad mood suddenly forgotten. "If Magneto wants something from the school all you'll get is a load of cockroaches and some brain-dead students."
Gambit's smile widened as he laughed. "Hello to ya too, chère," he told her, his eyes bright. For the first time, Rogue noticed that they were normal - white were the usual black was with deep, warm, brown irises – and was completely amazed.
"Hey, what happened to ya? You look almost normal, Gambit," she joked.
"Almost?" That made him laugh. "There is only so much that Gambit can do! So how does he look?" he asked, winking at her. "Gambit loves to be complimented by a beautiful lady."
Rogue stood back, let her eyes move up and down his body. His hair had been washed and brushed nicely away from his forehead and his goatee trimmed a bit. He wore a nice pair of jeans with a black shirt that was just right to flatter his fit torso. She had to admit, he looked very nice indeed, but she was sorely missing the trench-coat-wearing-leather-pants-demon-eyes look. L
"Not bad," she told him teasingly with a deep nod. "You clean up nicely, monsieur, but…"Before she could stop herself, she reached over and ran her hands through his hair, disheveling the perfect auburn locks for a more rebellious look. "I prefer this look."
Gambit winked at her when she pulled her hand back.
"So why are you all dressed up? What are you doing here?" she asked, earning a little pout from the handsome southerner that made her weak in the knees.
"Gambit is enrolling," he muttered darkly.
Rogue blinked in surprise. "Here? At Bayville High?"
"Oui."
"Why?"
"Magneto," Gambit replied, his voice softly, but he didn't say anything more so Rogue let it drop.
"You don't seem to happy to be enrolled here," she pointed out, scooting a little closer to him.
Gambit shrugged and glanced at the busy school building, a look of loathing and agitation passing his face. "No. Gambit never did too good in school. Trop stupide." (too stupid L )
"I don't want to be here either," Rogue told him firmly with a sigh. "God, I'd rather be anywhere but here."
"Gambit thought you were sick," he said, eyeing her suspiciously in the corner of his eye but his smile told her he was just teasing, "so why are you here?"
"My cold passed, I guess," she replied, shrugging. "Still I wish I never got up out of my bed. Pretty crappy day I'm having."
"C'est seulement celui de ces jours." Gambit nodded, frowning and looking down at her ugly white shoes. (It's just one of those days). "It all began when you dressed yourself in the dark, no?"
Rogue glared at him. "No, I didn't dress in the dark. I ruined my boots when I spilt acid on them. So I'm stuck with my gym shoes."
"Gambit is not making fun! They are very…er…a la mode." (Fashionable)
"Shut up!"
Gambit laughed, flashed a quick smile. "You don't have any of you black make-up on either, chère," he told her. "Gambit almost didn't notice you."
Sheepishly, Rogue looked down, gingerly touching her face with his fingertips. "It feels weird not to wear any of it. But I didn't have time this morning."
Gambit shrugged and replied, "Chère would look beautiful in anything, even a trash bag." When she looked up at him, he winked at her and kicked his motorcycle into gear. "You wanna skip?"
"What?"
"You wanna skip school with Gambit?" Gambit repeated, smiling up at her. "There is no sense in staying if you are having a bad day, non? Being with Gambit will lift your mood in no time."
Oh, I just want to melt, her mind screamed. But she looked back at school and frowned.
"I don't think I can. The others will…" Rogue chuckled as he flashed her the saddest (and cutest) pout she ever saw. "Ah, who gives a damn what the others will think?" She found herself smirking at the tempting idea. At the moment, she really wanted to go with the handsome Cajun and leave all her problems behind. Who cared if she pissed everyone off? She could take care of herself! Besides, Gambit…he just seemed like he wasn't the enemy right now. She would go. She'd be stupid to throw away this chance.
She surprised herself when she gave a nod, saying, "I'd love to skip school with you," and climbed on to the humming bike behind Gambit with unexpected familiarity. "Where should we go?" Rogue asked, not caring if she left behind her belongings or the fact that she would probably get into major trouble with Mrs. McPherson for missing detention.
"How about we go eat? Gambit saw that you weren't eating and Gambit knows this very good southern restaurant on the other side of town."
Rogue smiled, recalling how much she loved that kind of food and how long it had been since she had the real stuff, and said, "Why does that surprise me? Is it genuine or just a sad imitation of it?"
"No, it's de real thing, chère," Gambit told her, laughing. "So, you wanna go then?"
"As long as you're the one paying."
"Ah, Gambit is too much of a gentleman to let a woman pay for her meal," he told her. With that, he pulled out of the parking lot and race away from school with Rogue's arms wrapped tightly around Gambit's waist.
As they rode down the streets, crossing the city, they didn't speak. The harsh wind was too much to deal with. So she was sat back, viewed the scenery, and enjoyed Gambit's body heat warming her arms and thighs. To think that Rogue, one of the x-men, was having lunch with the enemy! Well Kitty got to talk to Lance all night with no one telling her to stop. Although Lance was the enemy, he'd shown that on more than one occasion that he wouldn't side with Magneto. But Rogue knew that Gambit was part of the new group Magneto formed himself which meant that they would probably battle with one another on the battlefield if a fight occurred. But she didn't care.
A few minutes on the rode and they were soon pulling up to a small, brick building. Gambit parked in the parking lot to the side of the restaurant and helped Rogue off. Once she was standing on her own two feet, Rogue closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could smell the spicy southern cooking in the air and for a delirious moment, thought she was back in Mississippi. She smiled and opened her gray eyes, noticing that Gambit was looking down at her and saw, for a split second, that his face was soft and unguarded. She blushed and they both looked away, embarrassed.
"Ready to head inside, chère?" Gambit asked her. His voice was soft. Her sides quivered when she noticed that his accent thickened deliciously when he whispered.
"S-sure." Rogue followed him as he led the way around to the front of the building. After a couple of steps, Gambit reached back and casually grabbed her gloved hand. Rogue paled for a moment, her eyes growing wide at his bold actions, and she hastily looked up at him. But he was looking forward and didn't see her shock. She bit her lower lip and let her hand rest easily in his, blushing as her heart pounded wildly in her chest.
Didn't he care that she could hurt him if he touched her? Unusually shy, she shot a quick glance at his handsome profile through he dark lashes. Probably not, she told herself with a little smile. She looked down at their interlocked hands. Through her glove, she could feel the heat and softness of his hand. She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. No one hand ever held her hand so…carelessly, not even Scott. Everyone always seemed to make sure that she was totally covered up so they could touch her.
Her thoughts broke when Gambit held open the front door for her. Smiling her thanks, Rogue walked inside and was immediately surrounded by warmth and noise. She looked around and saw that the restaurant was a small and intimate affair with a lot off seating and light, almost like a kitchen. The atmosphere was friendly and inviting too, like you could stay all day without having someone push you to the door.
An older woman, in a knee-length blue dress and a pink apron with a mop of thick brown hair met Rogue and smiled down at her. She had an air about her that was motherly although she wasn't quite that old.
"You by yourself, sugah?" she asked her, her big blue eyes friendly. She had a warm accent that was just as amiable.
"No…"
"She's with me, Madam," Gambit said from Rogue's side, flashing a smile at the woman.
"Madam?" she questioned in shock as she stared at Gambit. She pulled out menus from her apron and smacked him on his head, making Rogue gasp. "I ought to skin ya alive, Lebeau!" Did she know Gambit? "Or at least throw ya into de kitchen to work! Madam?! Hah!" The woman looked a Rogue and smiled. "I'm only 30, sugah. Don't let him fool ya."
"Désolé, mademoiselle," Gambit murmured, rubbing his head with a little frown. "Remy n'a pas signifié de mal!" (Sorry, miss. Remy meant to harm!)
"Dat's more like it, cutie," the woman told him with a nod. Then she suddenly frowned and smacked him on his head again. "I haven't see you in over two weeks! One day you were sittin' here then the next moment you were gone. Didn' even pay! Didn' even come here 'til now. I've been worried 'bout you, Lebeau! And if I heard dat people found your dead, worthless body in some gutter somewhere, I'd 'ave put a curse on your soul. I'm too old to worry about a boy like you!"
"Oh, elle s'a été souciée de Remy! Désolé mais j'avais des affaires," Gambit told her. Even thought, Rogue didn't understand much French she could understand the grief in his voice. (Oh she's worried about Remy. Sorry but I had business.)
"Business?! A boy like you doesn't 'have business'!" she told him, smacking him again. "You're business is in school not on da streets like some thug!"
Finally having enough with the abuse, Gambit dodged behind Rogue for sanctuary. "But you should be proud of Remy!" he told the woman quickly. "He enrolled at Bayville High! Starting tomorrow."
She looked at him, narrowing her eyes as through trying to see through him. "Are ya lyin' to me, Lebeau?"
"I would never think to do so!"
The woman sniffed and then smiled, her warmth returning quickly. "Then I be proud of you, Lebeau," she said. Then she glanced down at Rogue who had been silent thus far. "Now quite being rude and introduce her."
"Rude?!" Gambit sputtered out in disbelief. "At least Remy doesn't hit people with menus!"
"Don't listen to him, sugah," the woman told Rogue in a whisper with a smile. "He deserves to have some since smacked into him sometimes."
"Bah! Rogue this is Jeannine De Molineus," Gambit told her, smiling. "She's the owner of this place. She's very nice, a good friend, but don't make her mad. Her temper can make the Devil cry."
"Um…it's nice to meet you," Rogue replied.
"You too, chère. I hope I didn't scare you!" Jeannine looked over at Gambit and murmured, "Elle est une belle fille. Est-elle votre amie?" (She is a beautiful girl. Is she your girlfriend?)
He just offered a mysterious smiled and looked down at Rogue, who had no idea what was being said.
"I will get you guys a table," she told them. "Follow me, s'il vous plaît." She led then to the back of the restaurant, it was almost completely empty, and gestured to a booth. Gambit flung himself down into a seat and Rogue shyly sat across from him. "Here are your menus. Look 'em over and I'll be back in a minute to take your order, all right?"
Rogue nodded. When Jeannine disappeared, she looked over at Gambit and blushed when their eyes meet. Embarrassed, she looked down at her menu, idly looking over the meals. An awkward silence soon settled between them and she grew uncomfortable.
"So…um…she seemed to know you pretty well, Gambit," she spoke up, looking up at him through her lashes.
He smiled and shrugged. "When Gambit first got up here from Louisiana he had no idea where to go. Didn't have much at the time, ya know? So he wandered a bit around the city, mapping it in his mind like a good little thief should, and Gambit stumbled onto this place out of luck. For a moment, he thought he was back home. So, he went inside and meet Jeannine. She offered him a warm meal and a place to stay when though he had no money and looked like nothing more than a common scoundrel. She's from New Orleans, too, and we, I dunno, connected?" He shrugged and continued. "All Gambit knows is that she's looked after him like a mother and that he owes her a lot."
When Gambit looked back at Rogue, she offered a small smile, at a loss for words. Her stomach knotted up from nerves as the restless silence came again. Slowly, she dropped her eyes to the menu.
"How long have you been a Bayville?" she asked after a moment.
"Oh…probably seven months," he replied.
"You must think it's really boring compared to New Orleans."
"Everything is boring compared to my hometown, petite!" he chuckled. "What about you? Do you like it here?"
Rogue shrugged deeply. "I'm getting use to it," she admitted. "At first, I thought it was just a small, hick town and I really didn't like the winter here. We don't get much snow in Mississippi. I don't really miss my home but I do miss Mississippi, especially the food, and the way people talked, and the hot summer nights. When I was a little girl…" Rogue stopped suddenly, sheepish, and shot him a glance. "I'm talking like a maniac or somethin'. You wouldn't wanna to here that story."
"Come on, ma chère!" he pleaded, clasping his hands together as if in a prayer. "Gambit shared something with you and now you have to share something with Gambit. It's only fair."
Rogue frowned and slyly asked, "Where's the restroom in this place?"
"You ain't goin' anywhere!" Gambit laughed. As Rogue tried to shimmy out of the booth, he raised his long legs and settled a foot on either side of her lap on the seat, blocking her exit. "But nice try though."
Rogue glared at him as she settled back into her seat. Gambit flashed a wide smile at her and said, "You were sayin'?"
"All right! Fine!" she scoffed and ran a hand through her hair. "I was sayin' that when I was a little girl we didn't have an air conditioner for awhile so it got mighty hot in the house durin' the summer. And when it got too hot outside, I would sneak out of the house in my pajamas and run all the way to the bayou in the back of the house, take off all my clothes, and dive right in for a night swim."
"That's dangerous, chère," Gambit said with a smile. "You got some guts to do dat."
Rogue rolled her eyes and answered, "Guts?! Yay right! I stopped goin' when I got attacked by an alligator!"
"Really?"
Rogue nodded, chuckling at his stunned expression, and pulled up the sleeve of her shirt. She extended a naked arm so that he could see the pale white scar running up her forearm like an angry lightening bolt.
"Yay," she told him. "Luckily it was just a baby one. Got my pretty bad by the arm, started to drag me down, when I grabbed a branch and started to beat the crap out of it. I raced home, bleeding and naked, and woke up my mom by screaming at the top of my lungs in the front yard!" Rogue laughed at the memory. "We went to the hospital and the doctors said I got a broken arm but nothin' else. My mom wanted to skin me alive for going to the bayou by myself but instead she grounded me for a year."
"How old were you?"
"I think I was six," Rogue replied. "I got quiet a reputation for beating up alligators around my hometown."
"Well it's quiet an accomplishment, chère."
Rogue laughed and answered, "My mom didn't see it that way. She that I was crazy for something!…I wonder why I remember that. I have a fuzzy memory when it comes to my past," she explained, a thoughtful frown on her face. It was then that, she realized that she had her hands on the lower part of Gambit's shin that were settled so friendly beside her. Mortified, she quickly moved them to her lap as if she had been burned and refused to look at Gambit. He, no doubt, probably knew what she was doing the whole time and enjoyed it.
"So what can I get ya two?" Jeannine questioned, suddenly appearing by the table. Rouge thought her timing was excellent since it saved her a lot of embarrassment.
Smirking like a cat that finally cornered a mouse, Gambit said, "I'll take your fish courtbouillion."
"All right, sugah," Jeannine murmuring, writing down his order on her notepad. She looked over at Rogue and asked, "What about you, darlin'?"
"Oh…um…I'll have the catfish gumbo with an order of hush-puppies," Rogue said, quickly looking over the menu.
Jeannine nodded. "Great choice, sugah. Our gumbo is mouth watering! Now what do ya want to drink?"
"I'll have a water," Rogue replied.
"The regular, s'il vous plait," Gambit said which earned him a sour look from Jeannine.
"Never drink in front of a lady, Lebeau," she admonished him with a frown, picking up the menus and smacking him on the head again. "You will just have to make do with water like your bien-aimé." (Sweetheart or girlfriend) With that, Jeannine turned and walked away.
When she was gone, Rogue turned on Gambit and pushed his legs away, muttering "You big jerk!"
"What did Gambit do?" he asked, pouting.
She just glared at him, kicking him underneath the table. "Just stay over there, will ya?"
Gambit laughed as he rubbed his throbbing shin. "Jesus, you got some strength in you body, petite! Ouch!"
"I ain't sorry," she replied, crossing her arms and looking away. "It's your own fault anyway."
"Aw, but Gambit enjoyed his little massage!"
Rogue flushed and decided to change the subject. "So what's 'the regular' anyway?"
His smile was mischievous when he replied, "Whiskey."
Rogue face faulted. "Whiskey?! Really? She lets you drink that stuff here?" When Gambit nodded, she said, "That isn't legal!"
He shrugged and replied, "Do it anyway, petite."
"You're crazy! The first time I even drunk liquor it was just a little sip and I blackout!"
"Can't hold your liquor with that small body of yours," Gambit told her, smiling. "When did you drink it?"
"Oh, Kitty dared me too," Rogue told him. "It was some stupid game we were playing because we were bored and had nothing better to do."
"Kitty, huh? She de spunky, brunette?"
Rogue nodded, remembering that Kurt and Kitty had ran into Gambit outside of the Movie Theater last Saturday. "Yay, she's my roommate and a freshman at Bayville High."
At the mention of school, Gambit immediately frowned.
"Er…sorry about that," she replied softly. "I forgot that you don't like school. But it's not really that bad after awhile. Even I've had some fun times there. Sure some teachers are mean but some are really cool and there are a lot of clubs to join. There's even a French Club! Maybe you could join!"
Gambit only smirked at her joke but continued to look depressed. "School is bad if we never went after middle school," he murmured.
"You stopped going after 8th grade?" Rogue asked. "Why?"
"Education's not really big where Gambit comes from," he told her, looking more than a little contrite. "Gambit learned on the streets after that but sometimes that's not good enough. Since he enrolled in Bayville, Gambit was told that he would be a held back a grade even though he's 18."
"So, you'd be a junior instead of a senior?"
He nodded sullenly. "That's nothing something that Gambit can be proud of," he murmured under his breath.
Rogue frowned. Gambit seemed so confident with everything else but when it came down to school, he was so insecure that it was endearing! So, he's human after all, she thought. But she didn't want him to sulk too much. Leaning over the table, she put a hand over his and squeezed it gently, making him snap out of him brooding.
"Our seniors this year are a bunch of losers," she told him, smiling. "I wouldn't want to be clumped together with them at all! You're better off without 'em!"
That seemed to help Gambit out of his despondent sulk. He returned her smile, but only halfheartedly, but it was a magnificent start.
~*~*~*~
After their lunch was over, it was 3 o'clock so Gambit rode Rogue back to school. When they got there, he helped her off the motorbike in the parking lot.
"You sure you don't want Gambit to take you home, petite?" he asked, stilling holding her hand in his.
Rogue blushed and looked down. "Yea, I got detention to go to and all. Thanks anyway though."
"No problem." Gambit smiled as she climbed back on the bike.
"I had a good time today," she admitted shyly.
"Gambit, too, chère. It was a very enjoyable date."
Rogue blushed. "Yay, I guess it was a date."
"Would you like to go on another one again?" he asked.
"I'd never that you'd ask! I'd really like to, Gambit."
"All right, chère," he replied, winking at her as he started the bike. "Gambit will see ya tomorrow."
"Okay. Bye." She smiled, as she watched him rode out of the parking lot and disappeared down the street. She sighed when he was got and raised a hand to touch her burning cheeks. Dear God, she hoped that he didn't think she was a ditz. But she couldn't help herself! Any girl who didn't want to turn into a pile of goo at his feet was not normal!
Still sighing out of happiness, she turned around and made her way back inside the building. She would just collect her stuff from her locker before heading to Mrs. McPherson's class for her detention. But when she rolled a corner, she noticed a human barricade of Scott, Jean, Kitty, and Kurt standing by her locker. Obviously, they had been waiting for her. Scott and Jean looked more than a little mad and Kitty and Kurt looked concerned more than anything.
Rogue stopped and gaped at the group. Oh no!
To be continued!
Author's note: mwhahahahhahaha! Oh, I think this is my favorite chapter! **hugs it** Insecure, pouting Gambit is so cute! Okay, sorry to those people who think these characters are a little OOC but I wanted their interactions to be different! 0_o Oh well, if I want Rogue to be a gooey mass of hormones or if I want to have Gambit sulk I can do it since I'm the one writing it! ^.^ Thanks to all of you who like the fic and enjoy reading it (even if it's just for the leather pants -.0)! I luv you all! Please review! ^.^ **kisses**