The rating has been upped for this chapter in particular. I stuck with a rather traditional telling of Little Red Riding Hood for this one, and well, it's not a child's story. Most fairytales aren't, but this one is enough to get a higher rating. Feel free to skip this chapter if necessary but I'm rather proud of it. Leave reviews, good or bad at the end. Hope you enjoy.

Through the Woods

It wasn't what Rogue wanted to be doing, going to visit her mother. She didn't even know why she was going, let alone with the basket under her arm. Had Kurt convinced her that this was the best way? That she needed to make sure that Mystique would survive in order to completely redeem herself.

No that didn't make sense.

She tried to turn around but found herself continuing down the path.

"Bonjour cherie."

She looked up at the tall man before her. He was grinning down at her, his red/black eyes flashing at her cheekily. Remy LeBeau. Definitely on her encounter list. If anything else she wanted to avoid the man completely but he seemed to have other ideas.

She tried to get around him, but he continued to block her way by moving the ways that she did. Aggravated she finally snarled, "What do you want?"

He didn't seem the least bit phased, but instead his smile deepened. He looked away from her for a second to look at the forest around them. "It's a lovely day isn't it?" he asked cheerfully as he turned his gaze back on her.

As common sense did not appear to be working, Rogue moved to push past him. "I don't have time for you. I'm going to visit my mother."

He reached out and caught her by the gloved hand. "I was under the impression that you and your mere were not on the best terms."

"She's ill, I'm just making sure she sur…" she shook her head, wondering what had possessed her to tell him so much. "I have to go," she said, pulling her hand free and attempting to brush past him.

"Come on now Rogue," he said, this time grabbing her by the arm. "There's so much out here. I'm sure she won't mind if you just take a few moments for yourself." His other hand came up and began toying with the ends of her hair. "She probably doesn't even expect you're coming."

"That's not the point," she insisted. "I want to spend as little of my time on this journey as possible."

His grin only deepened. "But you miss so much by being so focused," he said lightly, in what she assumed was an attempt to tease her.

It wasn't going to work.

"No, I have to keep going." she tried to wrench free but she found it was more difficult than she had originally anticipated. "Let go."

His hands slid wordlessly off of her and she glared at him. He held his hands up in front of himself, attempting to pull off an innocent look. She turned quickly on her heel and stormed off down the path.

His voice carried down to her ears. "I shall find you later cherie."

Rogue snorted at his arrogance and continued down the path away from the seductive man and towards the cottage in the woods that her mother was staying in.

As she continued memories of before she left lingered in her mind.

"Don't spend too long in the woods, all sorts of dark things lurk there, including your mother, Stripes. In and out without any stops, you got me?"

"Yes Logan. I've got you."

It couldn't really be that dangerous, she thought to herself. Logan was notorious for being overcautious at times, especially when her mother came into play. Besides she was a grown woman, or nearly, and she was fully capable of taking care of herself. There was no need for him to worry that she was going to do something stupid and get hurt.

Not that she wanted to stay in the woods longer than was really necessary, but it wasn't as if she was going to get herself killed. What the hell did he think of her? If she wanted to sit by the lake and collect her thoughts for a few minutes, what was going to stop her? And what was really going to hurt her?

Nothing.

Upon reaching the clearing where the lake was she set down the basket and removed her cloak. Rogue slipped out the book that she had within her cloak and began to do what she had intended to do that day. It would not be for too long and no one would ever know the difference.

By the time she reached the clearing where the cottage was it was getting dark. So maybe she'd drifted off a bit while she'd been sitting at the lake. It wasn't like it was going to be a real problem She'd just drop the stuff off for Mystique and run back to the mansion if she had to. No problem.

She finally got to the door and knocked. No response.

"Mystique?"

Still no response. There were some days she really wished her mother had died when she had pushed her off of that cliff.

With an aggravated sigh she finally called out, "Momma?" She grimaced as the word passed her lips. "Do I really have to call you that?"

"Come in Rogue."

There was definitely something wrong with the voice that echoed back to her, but that normally was not a strange occurrence when her mother was playing someone else. "Why Momma, how funny your voice sounds," she called out as she opened the door and stepped in.

"It's just from being sick my dear," the voice called back, making Rogue suspicious, her mother was never sick. "Come closer."

She stepped a bit closer and noticed that the form of her mother was not the one she was born with, nor was it one of the ones she normally took. It actually looked quite masculine. "Why Momma, how strange you look," she commented, starting to wonder if this was not her mother.

"I'm having trouble controlling my powers." Accented and rough the voice sounded wonderful to Rogue's ears for reasons she couldn't understand. "Come closer."

She didn't by that excuse either, her mother was nothing if not constantly in control of her powers. But till she stepped closer, not quite sure why. "Why Momma, your eyes are glowing."

The lips of the person laying in the bed curved upwards in a smile that she could have considered being her mothers, but it had a bit more humor in it. "They're prone to do it, you know that. Come closer."

She practically threw the basket down as she inched even closer. "Red?" she spat as she was right beside the bed.

The seemingly prone body catapulted forward and seized her by the arms. "So you've caught me cherie," Remy said with a grin, seemingly delighted with the idea.

Disgust contorted on Rogue's face as she tried to pull out of his grip and get away. "God! Not you again."

Instead he shook her and caused her to look directly into his glowing eyes. "You want me."

"No," she insisted weakly, even to the point where she didn't believe it.

"You do cherie, you do, you just don't know how to admit it." He let her go but she made no movement towards the door. "You look warm Rogue, why don't you remove that cloak?"

Her hands flew to her neckline where the cloak was tied. "Alright," she said without argument as her fingers curled around the tie and quickly undid it. She let it slide silently to the floor.

"And your shoes," He instructed. There was a tug on her hand and she looked up from her shoes to stare at him. "Come sit on the bed. There aren't many seats in here."

She sat down on the bed and removed her shoes. Something was telling her to run but something else was keeping her tied to the bed. His hands began to move over her arms, she could feel the warmth and weight of them through her shirt. Rogue let people touch her so rarely but the feeling of this man touching her was heavenly.

Rogue could not seem to tear her eyes away from his, it was if there was a tether between the two. All of a sudden she felt a jolt of cold air grace her shoulders and she tried to pull away. "What--"

"Shh." he said, slowly easing the top shirt off of her shoulders. "It's alright."

And for some unknown reason she believed him when he said so. She heard herself say, "Okay." She seemed to floating. It was a comforting feeling and she never wanted it to end. If she could stay like this forever nothing would be better.

A hand moved gently through her hair and she closed her eyes and leaned into the touch. How little it seemed that anyone would touch any bit of her. "You will be alright, ma cheré ," the accented voice told her once again. When Rogue opened her eyes again she found them focusing on his and she felt herself feeling sleepy.

"I know," she murmured, wanting to stretch out in the large bed and be touched some more. It felt so right.

She thought she saw him nod along with her words. "It's good that you know. I mean you no harm."

Her tank top came off and cool air bombarded her upper torso. Gloved hands rubbed up and down her torso, along her back. Even though it was not skin to skin contact it felt so wonderful. Lips pressed to the top of her head as she felt the gloved fingers came to play with her bra. Eventually she felt the straps ease down her shoulders.

"Mmm," she heard herself moaning softly as she felt his hands skim over her unclothed torso.

She could see his face before her and she moved to touch her lips to his. She had done it once before, and she wanted to feel them again.

Instead of warm lips she got a leather glove. "Not just yet," his rough voice echoed.

"But--"

"In time Rogue, in time."

"So nice," she said with no force behind the words. She felt like she was floating on air and Rogue never wanted to come down.

"It is, isn't it?" he murmured, his grin encompassing her vision and making everything else seem to blur. "Lay down. It'll be fine."

She listened without protest, for some reason he got to her in ways that she never intended for him to. A part of her brain told her that this was wrong, but she wanted so badly to be wanted, to not be feared by someone who knew. Others would not think to let her remove one layer of clothing, let alone all of them. But this man had no fear of her.

It was a dream come true.

Suddenly things began to spin out of control. The warmth that was radiating off the close body was wrenched away and she cried out for the lack of heat waves given off by another human body. The haze that had sunk in around her was still much too thick for her to get a grip on what was going on. It sounded as if there was a large struggle going on. She really should get up and help, she was trained.

The longer she sat there, the more and more clear the world became to her. The other creature in the room looked familiar. She should know him. She should.

And then things were still again.


Rogue looked from the man who lay next to her on the bed, now with blood seeping out of him and to the man who was looming over her bed, claws shooting out of his hands. The fog that had covered her mind was starting to clear. "Logan?"

He quickly moved the body off the bed and was glaring at her. If Rogue didn't know any better she would have sworn he was shaking. "I told you straight here and straight back to the mansion. Damn it Rogue you could have been killed."

Her gaze was focused on the bloody sheets. "I'm fine."

"No thanks to yourself."

Rogue looked down ashamed and realized with a shock that she was completely naked. "God!" She quickly grabbed the clean top sheet and wrapped it around herself.

She let out a gasp as Logan pulled her into a close embrace. "You scared the hell out of me Rogue. Don't do it again."

This was nice too. The one person she trusted above all others, she hadn't meant to frighten him. "I'm sorry Logan. I… I didn't… I…"

"It's alright stripes," he muttered, shifting her around to get a different hold on her. "He won't get to you again. I've got you."

It should have made some sort of sense, she needed it to make some sort of sense. "I know," she murmured, knowing he wasn't lying to her.

And she wasn't sure what she regretted more. Nearly losing herself in Remy's spell or having the one person who lacked all fear of her being snatched away from her. She was half furious with Logan, but was too tired and confused to sort all of it out in her mind's eye.

Rogue allowed Logan to lift her off the bed and begin the trek back to the mansion. She wanted to be away from the cottage when her head was completely clear so she could figure out what everything meant to her and what she was going to do about it.

The bird that had watched the events unfold flew off.