Hey All!

Here it is! Fixed up and ready to go! Woot!

Disclaimer

I own nothing on a stick. Do not use this without my permission.

***

Rogue watched the man across from her very carefully. He was the man she'd been hunting for a while now. It was amazing that he wold try something so arrogant and stupid. It really, actually, shocked her. That anyone who obviously knew she was hunting them would voluntarily break into her business. He had to know it was her he'd run into back in Barbedos.

It wasn't like she tried very hard to keep her identity a secret while she was hunting. She had a reputation for being very open with her prey. This one had even been a commision. That was unusual as well. This whole thing felt weird to her. She wasn't a big fan of weird.

Beside that, the man had seemed familiar to her from day one. She had to barely glance at his picture to memorize what he looked like. It was a little disturbing. It was also making her a little uneasy. Things didn't happen like this.

She let her mind stray back to her usual (but not first (if you'll pardon the pun)) profession. He was a very fine example of a man. Tall, good hair color and length, nice build, obviously deft with his hands, and the eyes were a very desirable characteristic.

Red and black was very rare. Red had taken grey's place as the most unusual, but not impossible, eye color. People whose eyes were entirely a non-tradititonal color were especially good for her line of work. He might replace John, whose eyes were light blue, surrounded by bright yellow, like the fire he was obsessed with, as her most unusual man.

Not to mention the way her captive spoke; his voice, facial expressions, and there was just something about him that was undenyably sexy. Not that any of this affected her judgment in the least. Really. He was just another man to her, below her boys, because he was someone else's problem. He would be worth a little less dead, or missing his fingers. However, he would be worth getting new fingers for. For business reasons of course. And if she chose to train him, well, that was her business. She was well known for turning a profit from situations, and men, like this. Even if he would be without his fingers.

That was Raven's intention. But, Raven had said that as long as she had the man's fingers, The rest of the body was Rogue's, if she wanted it. New fingers would be easy to find, and Rogue could get rid of one of the mainly useless boys she'd aquired. The thought made her a little more at ease with er current situation.

---

Gambit was mentally kicking his own ass. He'd know going in that while what he was doing was the only thing to do, it was stupid at best, fatal at worst. The plan had been simple. Sneak in, steal anything not nailed down, then frame someone else. Generally people get distracted from someone else's commission when they've been robbed blind. It was basic psychology, and his uncle had made sure he knew psychology very well.

Gambit had underestimated his opponent, and that was dangerous. The woman had caught him in her safe, and without a word pulled two guns seemingly from thin air, and warned the shadows that if they moved, they would be shot.

Gambit was glad he'd decided to do this alone. After the safe, which had a trap on the inside, the dogs, and the people everywhere, coming in, going out, laughing, drinking, kissing, and such, he had never expected to be caught by the woman he'd been trying to rip off.

A partner would have been put in here with him, and the rest of the thieves were like his family. Not that he didn't have enough family on his own. HE wasn't sure he could live with he guilt of having them die too, if he managed to live after being given to however had set teh price on his head.

He looked at the woman holding the control to his bonds. She had beautiful green eyes, and hair that was mainly light brown, but with a few stripes of black running through it, like tiger stripes; back when they were still alive. She was watching him with an intensity and attention that even the best security camrea couldn't hope to imitate.

Gambit wished desperatly that the woman after him had been anything but a madame. Getting her guard down and sleeping with her, then leaving as soon as she was asleep would have been the best way to end his night. But, he already knew that was out the window.

The man decided it couldn't hurt to try. What could this woman do that was worse than losing his fingers? He tugged on the bonds on his hands, trying, once again, to distract her attention so he could sneak a little bit of charm in.

"Ah hope you don't plan on figitin' much more. Ah've got a good old fashioned whip in the closet ovah there, an' Ah know how ta use it. The comission said dead o' alive. Ah wouldn't even loose sleep ovah killin' you." [Not that Ah had so much sleep ta begin with.]

Gambit gave her a smile that sent all but members of the oldest profession's managment teams into a girly swoon. Rogue gave him a look that spoke of her resistance to his charm, and how little se really thought of him as a man.

"Soun's kinky." Rogue smiled sadistically, and Gambit felt his smile start to fade. He wasn't sure that what he'd said had been the best move.

"Ah only have ta given Raven yo' fingers, and proof that they belong to you. The rest is mine to do with what Ah will, if Ah'd like. An' trust me, death is bettah, even a slow death from blood loss." The sadistic look was still in place. Rogue was tired of his trying to escape, even if he hadn't done anything drastic. Honestly, Rogue couldn't wait until the whole thing was over. A sentiment she shared with Gambit.

The whole thing was giving Gambit a bit of deja vu. Not that he'd ever been captured, obviously, but something about it all seemed like it had been done, or something like it had been done, or maybe it was just the woman in charge. He knew everything about her, the feeling he was having had been pretty strong when he was studying up on the pertinent information. Now it was back. Had to be her, as much as the idea worried him. She was strong. She'd caught him herself. Knowing a woman like that was only an advantage if you knew her as a friend.

---

Gambit's mind flashed back to the study. Everything had been going well enough. He'd gotten into the safe, and except for a small needle prick, he was unharmed. Then the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up, and he turned around just in time to see Rogue walk into the room. She had a gun drawn, and Gambit watched another one follow it at almost lightning speed. She had kept one pointed at him, and casually told the shadows that if they moved they would be shot. He had to respect the woman. She had balls, figurativley speaking.

Rogue watched him, trying to look merciless, when she wasn't sure that was the case. The bare room seemed to close in around her and the man, like a cloak, or a straight jacket, while the table stretched immpossibly long, separating the two of them by so much it was unbelieveable. It was probably the man's paranoia changing the psionic controls to the room, which had made it look like an interrogating room in those cheasy last century police shows in the beginning. If her psycology didn't fail her, he was feeling uncomfortable about being closed in, and isolated from everyone, including her. It seemed familiar somehow, but she couldn't put a label on it. But part of ehr was taking great satisfaction in the fact.

Gambit was desperate for a way out. The room felt like it was closing in, like a coffin, a cocoon, a premature burial. Under any other circumstance, he would have been alright in this room. But something about being trapped makes everyone feel claustrophobic. At least that was his view on the situation.

The table was pushing him against the walls. It was going to suffocate him, and the woman would watch him with those eyes the color of new life, and watch him die slowly, and probably never care that the room had killed him.

He felt like screaming, just to get her to blink. His mind flashing with the ways he'd screwed up, how he should have covered his tracks, it was chaos inside while cold reality was easy enough. The woman was killing him with his own mind. He would die or go insane. Then the room widened, and the table went away. Gambit forced his body to stop panicing.

Rogue had the controls to the room in her hand. She sighed as the room went back to the way it usually was. Gambit's chair went from wood to metal, and hers did the same. The table went away, but the intercom that had been sitting on it hovered next to her. The room turned a grey tone, like metal that didn't shine. Rogue's eyes stayed on Gambit, but she noted the door, which was now much heavier looking, and had twice as many locks as Gambit had imagined. This made her smile a little bit.

Gambit looked around him. He'd heard about these kind of rooms, but they were illegal in most counties. Then again, so was prostitution, and Rogue didn't seem to have too much of a problem with that.

***

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Peace and Love,

Panther Nesmith