Disclaimer: I'm running out of witty things to write here. Insert your own, you know how it goes! I don't own the X-Men, blah blah blah…

A/N: Guess what? My sister somehow convinced my Mom into letting us adopt a bunny. So you know what that means - I've gotta go feed it some crack! I'll tell you what happens. On to the reviews – looks like a lot of you should start a Clock-hating Club, it'd be good to get all that anger out in constructive ways.

Oh, before we start, I'm going to address the whole power issue! If you all return to Chpt. 2, Remy charges up his cards in the meeting. Which would mean he does indeed have his powers! As for Rogue, I haven't gone into it yet. You'll have to come back next chapter, when I finally get to it. Good? Okay then.

Lightspeed Suzuka, Mysterious Fan Girl, AyLee Cambell, De-Femme-O-Da-Night, Rogue4787, roguelebeaux003, Tokyobabe2040, Anime addicted, bacon the pig, Michelle, Araya-Michiru, lonewolf, MidniteAngelGoth, Loki Eyota, plague, frozen fire, The Rogue Cajun, Cloud of Blood, SadYear, Rogue14, mAd RoGuE, Geminidragon, Katrina5, ladychopsticks, Star-of-Chaos, SassyGrl024, vespie, Rogue77, Midnight Selene, Personage, & Ellavira - Alright, I've given out thank-you cards and medals. Logic dictates that a cake is next in line. Vanilla or chocolate?

Calliann & Remy's Angy – Yeah, I loved the "Bad, naughty, sexy, good places" line too. Imagine me typing that and then drifting off into a lovely fantasy land… oops, there I go again. I've gotta stop that.

Eileen Blazer – I'm glad the pyjamas captivated you. I think I like the 'y' spelling better, doesn't it just flow? But what's this, you've almost finished an update? I almost fell off my chair when I read that in the review, so imagine my reaction when I actually get to read it!

Krac – That's right, Romy goodness, just as it should be! Notice I managed to actually start in all in one fic! ;-) Nahh, I'll stop taunting you now, cuz you've started it in your new arc, and I'm eternally grateful.

Misa1124 – Ooh, a new convert has entered the fold! Excellent. The answers to your questions regarding the powers are above, and regarding the fics: they were We've Met Before by Eileen Blazer, Hazard by Neurotic Temptress, and Medieval Times by XxFleurdelySxX. Everybody should read their works!

Panther Nesmith – I'm not gonna ask about the duck and duct tape, just smile and nod. But I love maid's outfits, they're so classy! In that kinky way.

Princess of Monkeys – I don't think Canada is AS obsessed with standardized testing. We have general ones in Gr. 4, a math one in Gr. 9, and a literacy test in Gr. 10. Which I think is officially the stupidest thing ever, cuz if you can't read or write by the time you're in Gr. 10, then how the hell did you get there in the first place? But ooh, methinks you might be right about bad stuff happening soon! Bwa ha ha.

Aro – Two bit twit? Wow, that just flows oh so nicely! I think I'm gonna have to start insulting people with that. I just can't see Pyro as a thief. I always wondered why he didn't become a firefighter… Hmm, maybe it's the whole evil/insanity factor.

Goldylokz – Ooh, here's your cameo chapter! Sorry I don't have you waiting on gussied-up transvestites like I did (which, once again, I LOVED), but you get to flirt with Remy. Does that make up for it?

Green Eyed Lilys Daughter – Great, now every time I eat Cheerios cereal I'll think of sausage. I hope you're happy!

Gothic Cajun, heartsyhawk, & Jukebox – Thanks guys, I'm finally informed about the pyjamas/pajamas. It's just craziness! But nice to see two cultures coming together, aww! As promised, you're my heroes. I'll make you all badges or something.

Seven Sunningdale – Reviewer #300, YAY! showers you with confetti and gold stars And yes, I didn't want to steal all of Remy's thieving glory. Oh, steal! Pun! It's funny cuz he's a thief… hey-o! I'm sorry, I haven't had my coffee yet. But yeah, as much as I love Rogue's strong personality, I didn't want her to overshadow Remy in that aspect, cuz it's pretty much all he's got. Aside from his dashing good looks, sexy accent, and all-around spiffiness. But other than all that, he's got nothing!

btch – I completely agree with the nerve-wrackingness of some Romy fics! I mean, there are some excellent ones out there, and I love angst as much as the next person, but I've got a certain level of saturation, at which I start screaming at my computer, "Why can't you just be happy, dammit?!". It's not pretty. Henceforth my attempt at as much fluff as I can possibly fit in, in accordance with a plot.

Mercury Dream – Here's your barman chapter! Hopefully I didn't mutilate his character too much. He was a pleasure to work with though, didn't give me attitude like some other characters. Anyhoo, I got your comments about giving into tempting Remy, and not-quite fluffiness. Maybe my understanding of your insanity getting worse is a sign that my own insanity's getting worse too… I just confused myself.

Yumiko – I took a career test and it told me to be a vending machine engineer. Yay, I'm headed straight for a life of luxury!

dragonfire99 – I do NOT always forget to give you a shout out! May I direct your attention to Chpt. 6? And you weren't in 7 because you reviewed it too late, so there! sticks tongue out at you ;-)

Alright. Just to let you know, I've borrowed Mercury Dream's beloved bartender and the waitress is Goldylokz. I obviously don't own them, unless I've unwittingly started a slavery ring. Which I'm pretty sure I haven't. On a related topic, go read their stuff, it's great! Recommending their fics is the least I could do, since they so kindly let me borrow their character/them. Ok, that's out of the way, I bet you're all really curious now – a bartender and a waitress, where could they possibly be? Well, read on and find out.


February Fifteenth

Chapter Eight – Bar talk

Walking away from Rogue and down the street, Remy turned the corner and quickly circled the block. He had said that he wouldn't go after her, but he had to. Just for a few minutes. His head told him that she could take care of herself; she was a thief after all, which was a fairly dangerous profession. Yet his heart disagreed – he had to shadow her for a while, if only to reassure himself that she would be fine. She was entering Assassin territory, and as the name suggested, it was full of trained murderers. They wouldn't hesitate to kill her if they found out what her true purpose was, and that scared Remy. Or maybe it was the fact that he was scared which scared him.

He had only spent a few hours with Rogue, and he already cared deeply about her; it was even stronger than what he felt for his own fiancée, and he knew her much more intimately. Once again, his head and his heart were locked in battle; one said that it wasn't logical to feel so much for somebody, especially after only knowing them for such a short period of time. The other said that rationalizing and analyzing the situation wouldn't help; it didn't matter why he felt what he did, the important thing was that he did. As usual, Remy disregarded logic, and followed his feelings. Luckily, all of them were telling him to follow Rogue.

He had to be at his wedding rehearsal at the moment, but this was more important; not only because Rogue could get him out of the event, but because her well-being mattered to him. Remy couldn't remember ever feeling this way before; their conversation had completely driven away all of his negative thoughts. They had been accumulating in his head over the past few years, as the wedding drew even closer – now that the moment of truth was so near, he hardly ever thought about anything else. Yet Rogue easily changed all that, since his thoughts were currently focused on her.

She was walking along a block ahead of him, making her way through the city streets as if she was a local. Heading in the direction of various bars the Assassins frequented, Remy wanted nothing more than to accompany her – preferably to join her in a few drinks and continue their chat. He knew that was impossible, but it didn't stop him from wanting it.

He trailed her for a few more minutes, trying to convince himself to leave. 'Come on, Remy. Y' got places t' be, y' can' make de Assassins suspicious now. T'ings are happenin' now, fo' better or fo' worse.' With one last yearning glimpse at Rogue's disappearing figure, he abruptly turned around and headed for the church.

Remy didn't actually hate weddings; he even thought they were rather nice. Henri and Mercy's wedding was a beautiful event; although they constantly bickered, the love surrounding the two was palpable. The ceremony was their dream come true, the melding of two lives into one, now completely devoted to each other. He wanted to have that one day, not the sham that was set to occur in twenty-four hours.

'Wonder if dey'll be able t' tell dat Remy don' love Belle when dey up at de alter,' he wondered. He was sure that they would; as good as his acting skills were, he honestly didn't know if he would be able to pull this off.

"Remy should get a damn Oscar fo' all dis," he muttered while walking up the cathedral steps.

Pausing before he entered, he took the moment to breathe in deeply and prepare himself for what he was about to do. Plastering on a smile and trying to remember his plagiarized vows, Remy walked inside to his own personal hell.

While Remy was going through the motions, Rogue was barhopping, searching for Julien Boudreaux. He was the key to all of this; unfortunately, he was nowhere to be found. Remy had told her that he wouldn't be at the wedding rehearsal, because he had vehemently refused to have any part in marrying off his sister to "swamp trash".

'Lahke he should talk,' Rogue thought.

Hours passed; she had been to several bars and flirted with countless bartenders, each one directing her someplace else, yet to no avail. She was getting sick of smoke-filled air and men drunkenly eyeing her. Quickly contemplating Remy's proposal of simply making up a plot, she let that thought drop in less than a second; she was going to find out one way or another. She cared about what happened to Remy, and there was no way in hell she was going to let some power-hungry Assassin kill him!

Rogue never gave up easily, and this was no exception. Coming across another tavern, she took a final breath of fresh air and walked inside. The place was fairly large, with dark wood all around and dim lighting. 'A stereotypical dive, how lovely,' she sarcastically commented to herself.

"Good afternoon," came a voice to her right, belonging to the bartender. Turning, Rogue came face to face with a tall, handsome man. He had curly black hair, brown eyes, and smiled at her while wiping down some beer mugs. "I haven't seen you in here before, you new around these parts?"

"Ah'm not exactly a regular," she told him, returning the smile.

"My name's Dan, pleased to meet you," he said, reaching out to shake her hand.

"Nice t' meet ya too," she replied, accepting his gesture.

"Not that it's any of my business, but this isn't exactly the most respectable place for tourists to hang out in, especially the ladies. There are some pretty tough guys that drink here, I'd hate to see you get into trouble."

Biting her tongue to keep a scathing remark from coming out at his slightly chauvinistic attitude, she decided to play up the innocent girl angle. "Really? Aww, thanks for lookin' out fo' meh, sugah. Ah really appreciate that. But don't worry, Ah'm not exactly a tourist. Ah'm lookin' fo' someone," she informed him, her eyes inconspicuously scanning the area.

There were hardly any people inside the establishment at this hour. A blonde waitress with short curly hair sat at the other end of the bar, seemingly oblivious, although Rogue could tell she was discreetly listening to every word exchanged as she read her book. The Princess Bride, Rogue noticed and silently approved; it had always been a favourite of hers. At one of the tables, a man was asleep amongst a plethora of empty beer bottles. There was nobody else there, except for an attractive young man sitting alone in the furthest booth from the door. He glanced at her, and Rogue gave a coy smile. 'Well, thing are startin' to look up.'

Dan noticed where she was looking, and frowned. "Again, I don't mean to interfere, but you might want to stay away from him. He's bad news, always with different girls, and from what I hear, he's involved in some pretty shady stuff. He might be dangerous."

Rogue turned back to him, and gave a genuine smile. He might've had a slightly annoying tendency to pry, but he seemed to honestly be concerned. He was definitely a good guy. "Thanks, Dan. Now why can't all bartenders be lahke ya? Seriously though, don't worry 'bout it. Ah know him, we go way back. Now if ya don't mind, could ya pass me that bottle? Ah'm gonna go show him some good ol' Southern Comfort."

He complied, giving a good-natured groan at the pun as he passed over the alcohol and some glasses. Giving a nod of thanks, Rogue took them and sashayed away, swinging her hips seductively. She knew that men found her attractive, and she was fully prepared to use that to her advantage. Luckily, the bait was taken. The man keenly observed her, with a grin growing on his face as he realized that the vixen walking through the bar was heading straight for his table.

"Hey there, sugah," she greeted him, in her sweet Southern twang. "Mind if Ah join ya?"

"Not at all," he answered, patting the space beside him; this was definitely his lucky day. "T' what do I owe de pleasure o' such a belle fille? (beautiful woman)"

"Well, Ah needed a drink, an' Ah hate t' be alone. Was wonderin' if Ah could have th' company of a fine gentleman such as yo'self," she told him with a wink as she sat down, although a bit too close to him for her comfort.

"I'd be honoured," he let her know with a sly grin. Grabbing her hand and placing a sloppy kiss on the back of it, he introduced himself. "M' name's Julien. Et vous? (And you?)"

Rogue forced herself to giggle when in reality she wanted to wipe the leer off his face. "Mah name's Marie," she easily lied, as she cleared a place for the bottle of alcohol on the table. He had already had a few drinks; that would make her job easier. Pouring them each a shot, she handed one to him. "So Julien, tell meh 'bout yo'self…"

Downing the liquor, Julien gave the sexy woman sitting next to him another grin. He had come to the bar to drink away his frustrations about Belle getting married to that mutant freak LeBeau, but a much better way for him to take his mind off things had presented itself. Leaning into her, he seductively whispered, "What y' wanna know?"

A large empty bottle of booze later and she was practically sitting in his lap, lazily drawing circles on his chest with a finger. The pair were fawning all over each other, and didn't notice somebody watching them from a table in the shadows. Somebody with eyes that, if one looked closely enough, seemed to almost glow behind the pair of sunglasses he wore.

Remy had left the rehearsal as soon as he could, giving Belle the excuse that he had to go enjoy his last free night as a bachelor. She had advised not to get into too much trouble; she told him that if he got into another bar fight with a jealous boyfriend and had a bruise for their wedding, she'd give him plenty more. He didn't doubt it, but he just charmed himself out of the situation, and went to track down Rogue. He ended up in this bar, watching her cozy up to the man he hated with a fiery passion.

For a split second, Remy's heart had plummeted to his stomach; the woman he wanted was all over his archrival. But that unpleasant feeling quickly passed. He wasn't jealous, he knew very well what she was doing; getting Julien drunk wouldn't be a problem. In fact, it appeared that he already was. He just hoped that Rogue could get the information out of him that they needed without any trouble. She almost certainly would; Julien tended to run off his mouth when he was inebriated. However, he also got violent, as could be seen by the bruises on women's faces after they pissed him off. There was no way that Remy was letting him hurt Rogue, which was why he was currently tormenting himself by sitting and watching him press up against her, run his fingers through her hair, and whisper sentiments in her ear. Everything that Remy wished he could be doing to her. But he wasn't jealous, not at all. 'Jus' cautious, 'cause y' be worried 'bout her,' he reasoned. 'Y' definitely not jealous. Remy LeBeau never been jealous.'

His eyes never strayed from the pair, watching and waiting for any sign that indicated he would have to step in and gladly beat Julien to a bloody pulp. He wished he could just charge Julien up like one of his playing cards and watch him explode; that would be intensely satisfying and cathartic. Remy was paying such close attention that he barely noticed the waitress come up to him until she spoke.

"You're wasting your time."

"Pardon?" he started, looking up into the face of a pretty blonde girl.

"You're wasting your time pining over her," she told him.

"Remy ain't pinin'," he indignantly replied.

Pulling up a chair, she plopped down across from him, and continued. "Oh, please. What is she, your girlfriend? An ex?"

"Non."

"Unrequited love, then? You've been watching them ever since you came in. I hate to break it to you, but they've been going at it for a while. She came in looking for him, they're old friends apparently. Real good friends, if you get my drift. I'm sorry, though. You love her, don't you?"

Remy had only been half-listening, until she spoke those last few words which made him rapidly turn his attention back to her. "Quoi?! (What?!)"

"You love her. Anybody can tell, with the way you're staring at her."

"T'ink y' wrong 'bout dis one, petite," he told her, although he couldn't repress the annoying voice in the back of his head that piped up and asked him, 'Y' sure 'bout dat?'

"Whatever." She easily brushed his comment away, gave an inviting smile, and said, "My advice is to get over her, and I definitely wouldn't mind helping you with that. My name's Rae."

Normally when pretty girls introduced themselves to Remy, he would give them his most seductive grin and thickly lay on the charm. This time however, he returned with an unenthusiastic "Nice t' meet y'" and went back to watching Rogue and Julien.

"Oh, come on! Get over it!"

"Leave the poor guy alone, Rae," spoke up Dan from behind Remy, who turned around to see who else had joined the conversation he desperately wished he wasn't having. Getting advice about his love life wasn't high on his list of favourite pastimes. Getting it from complete strangers made it all the more annoying.

"What? I can't cheer him up?" she pouted.

"You can see that he's hung up over that girl over there, so just let him wallow in peace."

"Wallow? Remy certainly don' wallow!" he firmly told them.

"Well, you are now. Don't worry, I see it a lot, guys trying to drink away memories of their loves. If you want my advice –"

"No t'anks," Remy interrupted him.

Dan just calmly continued. "- then go tell her how you feel. Anybody can see that you love her by the way you're looking at her, so let her know."

At this, Remy fell silent and just stared at the bartender. Why did everybody think that he was in love? Or more importantly, was he in love?

"Hate to rush you, but you might wanna get on that soon," Rae chimed in. "Cause your girl's leaving."

Quickly turning around, Remy could see Rogue and Julien exiting the bar through the rear doors, stumbling slightly and with their arms around each other's waists. Grabbing his trench coat, he ran after them, yelling back, "T'anks mes amis (my friends)," to Dan and Rae, who just stood there and watched him hurry out.

"He's got it bad," he told the waitress.

"Yeah, I know," she sighed. "Too bad, he'd be a great catch. You just had to butt in, didn't you?"

"What can I say? I'm a romantic at heart."

While the two went back to their business, Remy sprinted towards the door. He had to get out there to make sure the man didn't do anything that he would have to kill him for – Julien and women alone in dark alleyways were not a good combination. Throwing open the door, he stepped outside. Hearing a noise further down the alley, Remy silently made his way towards it.

As he turned the corner, the unpleasant feeling of his heart plummeting returned. Right in front of him stood Julien and Rogue, kissing.


Dun dun duhh! Wow, I can see a whole riotous mob of Romy fans with pitchforks and flaming sticks descending from the hills to kill me. Ahh! I'm sorry, but that had to be done. I don't like it any more than you do, believe me. Actually I lied, I really enjoyed this cliffhanger. Ooh, the tension!

Next chapter – Rogue, Remy and Julien in an alley, I wonder what will happen! And once again, get your minds out of the gutters.

So, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, complete with cameo appearances. It was pretty fun to write, I have a thing for bar scenes. Is that weird? Whatever. No clue when I'll get the next chapter up, I'll try for within a week. Just remember, review!

Kisses,

ish