This is chapter four? Already? Wow! I'm really getting places with this!
Disclaimer: Tainz owns nothing you recognise.
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Logan looked at the clock. It had been hours since Rogue ran off and he was getting worried. Even if he hadn't had that conversation with the Professor, he would have been anxious. She was upset and had been running. He, of all people, knew how badly she needed to be alone right then. What he didn't know was if she'd needed to get away from everyone so badly that she hadn't stopped. For all he knew, she could be on a bus halfway to Mississippi by now.
He went out the front door and caught her scent. He decided to follow it. If she wasn't in any trouble and she was just sitting somewhere thinking, he'd leave her alone, but if he couldn't find her, he'd get the Professor to send the X-Men out to search. He followed the scent straight to the woods and plunged in. He followed the trail at a steady pace.
Coming to a raspberry patch, he found a little piece of her green mesh overshirt. Obviously she'd still been running at this point, or she'd have been more careful about where she was going. Suddenly, he caught another scent. He quickened his pace. Magneto's Cajun lackey was about. The one who had taken up stalking Rogue as a hobby.
He found the creek and followed it, finally coming across her tunnel. He heard splashing and a male voice.
"Woulda been nice you tell Remy about the sinkhole before he fall in."
"Ah told you to go away," Rogue's voice replied.
Logan rushed into the tunnel, enlarging it with his claws. "Get away from her, Gumbo."
Remy looked shocked. "Remy not even touching her!" he exclaimed, not quite sure how to respond to an angry and protective man with six deadly knives protruding from his knuckles.
Logan looked at the pile of clothes and back to Remy. "Likely story, bub."
Rogue came to stand near Logan. "He never touched me, but he wouldn't leave me alone. He followed me here."
Rogue carefully weighed her options. She could tell Logan off and get rid of Remy on her own, or she could let Logan take care of things. If she sent them away, Remy would be back soon enough. If, however, she let Logan take care of it, Remy would either be so mutilated or so terrified that he might think twice about following her again. She didn't stop Logan when he headed for Remy.
"Look, bub. You're gonna leave Rogue alone for good." Logan was a fair bit shorter than Remy, but he was far more intimidating.
Remy backed out of the water, heading for his clothes. "Remy not hurtin' anyone. He just want to see Rogue."
"Looks to me like you wanted to do more than see her." Logan approached and put his claws to Remy's throat, backing the younger man up to a tree. "You don't threaten Institute kids, especially the girls."
Remy put up his hands. "Okay, homme. Remy promise not to threaten them. He not do anything to harm them unless it business."
Logan pointed with one hand to Remy's clothes. "Put those on and get out of here. I don't want to catch you around Rogue again, you got me?"
Remy nodded. You not gonna catch Remy he thought. He struggled to get his jeans on over his wet skin and pulled his shirt on. He gave one last grin to Rogue, which was met by a growl from Logan and then ducked out of the clearing. Heading off on his own, he smiled to himself. At least Rogue was well taken care of and loved.
Rogue turned to Logan and gave him the obligatory glare. "Ah could've taken care of him on mah own," she grumbled.
"Right, Stripes. You wanna come back with me and get some lunch?" He was relieved that she was at least pretending to be angry, trying to stay in the character she'd built for herself. She was still Rogue.
***
"What're you so happy 'bout, mate?" St. John asked as Remy walked into the main living area of the compound, whistling a Cajun love song.
"Nothin'"
"You been off stalking that Sheila again, haven't you?" St. John clicked his lighter and made the flame twist into the shape of a girl, who looked amazingly like Rogue. His control was impressive.
Piotr was sitting in the corner drawing a picture to send home to Illyana in Russia. "Magneto told you to stop going to the Institute. You are going to get caught by one of Xavier's people."
"Got caught by Wolverine, today," Remy replied cheerfully.
Pyro sat up straight. "You're still in one piece?"
"Oui. Remy gonna win the fille's heart. You see."
"May your grave stay empty, mate." Pyro settled back down.
"Maybe you should listen to St, John," Piotr inserted. Remy looked at him in shock. No one ever listened to Pyro. It would be like a mouse listening to a cat who told it to climb into its mouth for safety. "Better to be having a broken heart than a broken spine, my friend."
"Remy got a surefire plan. It not fail."
"Are we talking about the same Sheila? She hates you." Pyro's fire girl shifted and she looked more like Wanda.
"Not for long, homme. In about a week's time, she love Remy."
"Aren't you ever going to give up?"
Remy grinned. "And give up the thrill of the chase? Remy think not!"
"There are other goths out there, Remy. Why does this one matter so much?" Pyro looked at his fire-Wanda. "Wanda's pretty hot, but you'd have to get in line."
Remy rolled his eyes. Leaving the other Acolytes shaking their heads, he headed off to his room. Instead of whistling his Cajun love song, he was singing it.
"Pour la fille qui est tres belle et amour,
Les araignes filent les toiles en l'or."
The rose was sitting on his windowsill and the first thing he did was check on it. It still had water and the blossom was still closed too much for him to see the stone. He went over to his bookshelf and picked a CD off of a pile there. It was a compilation of jazz love songs.
As the music washed through his mind, he thought about his time with Rogue earlier that day. He didn't understand why she'd been running. If she was so unhappy, why hadn't she gone further? He couldn't see what bound her to the Institute. From what he knew about the place, there were far too many rules and the students had to spend all their time training.
Lying on his bed, he picked up a picture of Rogue from his bedside table. One of her school photos, he'd gotten it from the files Magneto had on her. Like all school photos, it wasn't of the greatest quality. In fact, it was probably the worst photo in her file. The lighting was a little off, and made her skin appear greenish. Her hair had, of course, gone crazy the second the lights touched it, static making her hair form a faint messy halo of flyaways around her head. What he liked about the photo, though, and what had made him print it off of the computer, was the expression on her face. Someone must have been standing behind the photographer doing something stupid while they waited in line, because she had this smirk on her face that looked like she was trying not to smile. Instead of making her look horrible like it would anyone else, it gave anyone who looked at the photo this beautiful glimpse at the girl behind the makeup and facade.
He'd spent hours looking at the picture, trying to figure out just what went on in her mind that no one saw. He knew that she had a reputation as a cold Goth, but he couldn't believe that that was truly her. No one who could look that gorgeous in the clothes and makeup she wore could have a soul as dark and ugly as everyone said she had.
One of his main sources for discovering as much as he could about Rogue was Todd. The kid would do anything for a bit of money and he'd never tell anyone that Remy had been asking questions, provided Remy paid him on time. Todd said that Rogue was a "moody bitch" who had made his life miserable the entire time she'd been with the Brotherhood. One useful thing that Todd had been able to tell Remy was that Rogue had never gotten along with Pietro, always saying he was too arrogant, or Lance, calling him a selfish idiot.
Remy sighed and rolled off his bed, photo still in hand. He went and stared out the window. In the time he'd spent with her in New Orleans, he'd seen some of her other side before she absorbed him. At least, he thought he had. From her guilt over Mystique's "death," she'd offered to help him find and rescue Jean-Luc. He felt bad for manipulating her into helping him. She'd been nice and almost polite to him until she found out what he'd done.
"Probably ruined any chance with you that day, hahn?" he said to the picture, stroking the image of Rogue's cheek and wishing she were there with him.
He wished he could just start all over with her. He wished he'd never entered into a contract with Magneto. He wished he were a couple years younger so he could go to school with her and try to get to know her better. He hoped and prayed that giving her the ring would make her forgive him.
He looked up to the sky outside. "Benez-moi avec son amour, s'il vous plaît."
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Translations :
"Pour la fille qui est tres belle et en l'amour,
Les araignes filent les toiles en l'or." : For the girl who is very beautiful and in love, the spiders spin their webs in gold.
"Benez-moi avec son amour, s'il vous plaît.": Bless me with her love, please.
I don't know any Cajun songs, although their music is very, very beautiful I made up the lyrics Remy sang based on an old Cajun legend about a beautiful girl whose father had spiders imported from France for her wedding and they spun a canopy among the trees in the bayou. Gold dust was sprinkled upon them, making the sky look as though it were made of golden spider's silk. It's a very beautiful story, like so many of the Cajun tales and I adapted it into that couplet for my story. I don't claim ownership of that legend.
Thank you for reading!