The past had not been what she had expected. She had expected to live the duration of it fighting for her life as the world backlashed against Mutants for eternity. She expected to never be able to truly live her life because she would be too busy helping others. She hadn't expected it to only take about 3 years for humans to accept mutants into their society. In fact, it still puzzled her.
She had also expected to live out her life without real human contact. She had expected to be haunted by the psyche of Carol Danvers for the duration of her life. She hadn't thought that she would actually find the key to controlling her mutation. She had never thought that Xavier would find a way to return the mind of Danvers to her own head, not only so they both were separate, but so they both maintained the same strength, invulnerability, and flight abilities. It happened though.
All in all, every cynicism she had of the world had proven to be false, making her feel a little silly. There had, in fact, been a happy ending. So why wasn't she happy?
Maybe it was the unthought consequences that happened after the fairy tale ended. Without a reason to fight, or protect the X-Men had disbanded. The Xavier School remained open to help kids control their powers, but she had no place there. She had barely understood her own gifts, let alone the powers of other new mutants. So she left. As did many of her friends.
Jean and Scott stayed of course. Kitty and Lance finally were able to be together when they no longer had to fight each other, and they had married and moved back to Illinois. Kurt found his own calling and became a monk in a monastery somewhere in Germany. Evan helped the Morlocks re-introduce themselves into society and then moved out west with his family, including Ororo, who was quickly followed by Dr. McCoy. Logan, ever the rover, had gone to Japan searching for answers, and no one had heard from him since.
As for the former New Recruits, she had no idea, they all returned to their families and scattered to the winds from there. Though she heard they had a reunion party every now and then.
The Brotherhood stayed together, except for Lance. They recognized that they were still pretty much outcasts since they didn't do much except cause problems. Todd, Wanda, Fred, Pietro, and St. John (who had joined up soon before the peace came) were one big happy family. Especially St. John and Wanda, who had been married and had twins.
As for the rest of her former enemies- Raven, Erik, Creed (Sabertooth) had all been successfully jailed for general crimes against all of humanity, including mutants. Piotr had gone to the Institute to help out, and Remy... She really didn't want to go there. After all, she had loved him. She hated to admit it, but she did. At least the feeling was softened by the knowledge that he had loved her too. It never worked out though.
They had been on separate teams for so long, and then right before humans and mutants set aside their differences he disappeared without a trace. Right before they could have been really been together, instead of staring at each longingly across the battle lines, he left. Irony sucked.
As for herself, she simply lived up to her name. She was a Rogue, the Rogue. She didn't belong at the institute, but she couldn't go back to Irene either. She had no home, no connections, and nothing holding her back. So she decided to leave her footprints all over the world. She shed her Goth image, in a way. She still wore all black, and sometimes a deep green or purple, but now she did it in a much more stylish way. She was mysterious instead of scary.
Her first stop had been New Orleans, a futile attempt to locate her Gambit. Of course, she didn't have the connections to locate an extreamly talented thief, or the knowledge of whether of not he had really returned to his old profession. He had gotten out of his marriage to Belle, so she didn't have to worry that he was locked in her loveless embrace at least. She finally decided to move on.
She traveled to Europe, and visited all the places that made it so famous-namely the famous cities. She grew tired of the crowds, having never been able to accustom herself to them, and caught a flight to South America where she enjoyed the humid heat that reminded of her Southern home. Which of course, prompted her to return to the States and settle down in Mississippi awhile before she grew tired of the monotony and went off on a whirlwind tour of Asia.
She had flown to London afterwards, intent on crossing the Atlantic by way of boat when she had met a mutant with blue-on-black eyes and the power to Charm and fell back into the past. The sadness she had put behind her caught a red-eye flight back into her heart and she spent a loveless night with the man trying to put it behind her.
She then caught the first Cruise home and made a surprising discovery a month and a half later. The one-night stand had given her a child.
She had no hope of trying to contact the father, she didn't know where he lived (which judging by his accent, wasn't London), she didn't know his name, and she didn't know how to find out. So she came to the realization she was going to be a single mother.
She probably could have gone to the Institute for support-but she didn't have the courage. So, she went back down South, intending to settle down in her home state, along the banks of the great Mississippi River. She slipped a little on the way down though and ended up buying a small house in the outskirts of Baton Rouge.
Her baby was born 7 and a half months later, and when her new daughter opened her eyes Rogue nearly cried as she stared into the green-on-black orbs that she had secretly imagined would be what her child would look like if it had Remy as a father.
The girl also inherited her mothers auburn locks, with a few stray strands of snow-white. In most ways, she resembled her mother, in fact she could find no resemblance to the man who had helped create her outside of the eyes-which Rogue pretended she had inherited from Remy anyway. Though she tried not to think about that. She still missed him, still missed his eyes, his smile, the way he smelled when he held her close, the way his old brown trenchcoat whipped in the wind as he made an artful escape, the way his tendrils of hair hung around his eyes, efectively framing their magnificence. It hurt, it really did.
Her precious daugher helped her though. She named her Alora, because in her secretly nerdy soul she had always wanted to name her child after the powerful child in Willow. Little Alora spent most of her infancy in her mothers arms.
Rogue didn't have to work, since Mystique had transfered all her many assets to Rogue before she was thrown in jail, after all she couldn't use them, and Jurt didn't want them. It was at least a small gesture of love, either that, or a stab at the government since they wouldn't be able to get their hands on the cash-which, for the most part, rightfully belonged to them anyway. Of course, Rogue chose to ignore that fact. It was worth it, if it meant she could concentrate all her time on her tiny baby.
She spent all of her time with the child, chosing to not involve herself in the community, and not to make any friends. Alora had soon started Kindergarten though, and made her own little friends, most of which came from the neighborhood.
Not wanting to alienate the girl she allowed her to play with the kids, and subjected herself to their kind-hearted parents, who happened to be her watchful neighbors. They noticed she never went out. They knew she had no boyfriends. They knew she was only in her mid to late twenties. So, being the kind souls they were, they decided on a plan of action that consisted of dropping slightly subtle hints about Alora needing a father figure. When that hadn't worked, they planned a party, and a sleepover for the kids at one women's house, and shipped Rogue off to New Orleans for a night of relaxation.
Of course she couldn't refuse the kind gesture.
So here she was. Brooding on a sidewalk of the wild city that probably housed the man who haunted her dreams.
To give herself some comfort she had bought a bottle of bourbon that she inteded to take back to her comfortable hotel room with her and spend her free night getting smashed-alone. She knew she was doing the opposite of what her neighbors had hoped for-but then again she was Rogue, so what did it matter?
She looked up at the beautiful architecture she passed, remembering that she had never paid it much mind when she had been here last to search for Remy. She had been busy searching faces, looking for one that matched the image she held in her heart. Now, however, she had lost pretty much all hpe and ignored the passing faces as she concentrated on the intricate lines of buildings she passed.
Of course, fate has a funny way of shoving what you're not looking for right in your face when you least expect it-literally.
She was busy examining the pretty lights that caught her attention when she was suddenly knocked to the ground quite forcefuly by a rather rowdy man who hadn't been paying attention to his own path.
She closed her eyes as she fell, squishing them tight on reflex as if to prevent the inevitable landing-though in reality it wouldn't hurt her. The man above her didn't move immeadiatly, after all, he was pretty shocked that HE had lost the balance he took so much pride in during his work.
Rogue kept her eyes closed to evade the embarrassing situation she had been forced into. However, her other sences remained open, and she smelled the long-lost perfect mix of spice and cigarettes that she had associated with HIM. Still too afraid to open her eyes, she used her fingers, which had reflexively grabbed onto the man as she fell, to determine the kind of coat the man used to grace his rather lithe figure. She decided it felt like a leather trenchcoat softened by age alone. Her fear of her eyes continued, this time because she didn't want the shread of hope in her heart to be snapped.
Meanwhile the man who had done the knocking over cursed inside his head a string of French. His head had landed in a mass of soft curls, and their density obscured even his superiour vision that was a consequence of having red-on-black eyes. His leather clad hands were apparently nestled in the curve of the person's hips who he had accidently attacked. This curve, along with the copious amounts of curly hair, clued him into the fact that it was a women. He silently cursed himself again, preparing to go into his most charming mode to apoligize for the embarrassment.
Before he could revert to the charm he hadn't used since leaving behind a pair of emerald eyes so long ago, he took a moment to inhale the scent of the hair that curled across his features. It smelled like Vanilla, with a soft hint of something spicy. Feminine, yet wild. Just like he remembered his chere smelled. Now that SHE flitted through his mind for the millionth time that day, like most days, he noticed that the curves he held seemed to be just like the ones he used to wrap his arms around when he would sneak up on her when she wasn't paying attention.
He didn't want to let go, not yet. He wanted to hold onto the hope that he had found HER again, before he looked at the women's face and felt his heart fall apart again.
They two supposed strangers held onto the moment for a long time. The passerby's looked on the scene with mild amusement, after all it was New Orleans.
Finally, they both knew they couldn't delay the inevitable, and sighed deep within themselves and chose to look into each other's faces at the exact same time-expecting nothing but dissapointment, but finding nothing but sheer surprise.
Rogue's eyes opened wide as Remy lifted his head out of her curls to stare in her face. Both her emerald pools and his demonic orbs widened in shock, while their mouths both dropped open.
Throwing all caution to the wind, Remy immeadiatly lowered his lips to hers, taking advantage of the passionate moment to engage Rogue in a long desired kiss. His lips pressed against her soft ones and he reached up a gloved hand from her waist to gently tangle in in her hair and press her against him. Not that he needed to, after all, she had eagerly accepted his lip's embrace.
Both of their hearts soared in the moment, before banging against the ceiling of Reality that reminded them that they had no idea where the other's lives had taken them.
They pulled away from each other, and Remy lept up with his cat-like abilities and quickly pulled his Rogue with him, not willing to let her body stop touching his quite yet.
They stared at each a moment before finally Rogue made a vague connection between his eyes and her daughters and mustered enough courage to open her mouth.
"Ah think we need ta talk."
She told him to follow her to her hotel room, which was coincidently only a little ways down the street. He wordlessly nodded his head, too entranced with her beauty to speak. The years had been good to her.
He followed her closely, managing to stare at her the entire way to the room. Her figure hadn't changed too terribly much, she hadn't grown any taller, and she still had a slim figure. Though it no longer had a girlish quality to it. She was all women now. Her curves looked more dramatic, and her breasts looked more rounded. Her hair had grown longer. She had finally let it go into its naturally curly state instead of taming it with a hair dryer. He couldn't help but notice that she looked even more radiant then his old pictures of her.
Once they arrived at the hotel and entered her small suite, Rogue sat down on her bed, and motioned to him to take the chair she faced. He sat down in his normal lazy sprawl, reminding Rogue that he hadn't lost any of the joys of his fine-tuned body over the past few years. After all, he was still in his late twenties, and as a master thief he had a high level of physical fitness he had to maintain.
Looking into his eyes, Rogue knew she didn't want to beat around the bush to sample his feelings for her, or his current situation in life. She needed to know now. So she started.
"Remy, it's been too long since Ah last saw ya. Ah've missed you. Ah've changed a lot ov'er tha years, but Ah still want you. Ah haven't had any serious relationships, though Ah do have a bit of a family..." She briefly wondered how to explain Alora. "But Ah have always only ever wanted you." She left out the bit about her loving him, unable to say those words and then hear he was married with 5 kids and a golden retriever.
Her brutal honesty, in conjunction with her sweet souther drawl left Remy with a peculiar sense of dreaming that caused him to forget about his usual walls of secrecy and tell Rogue the same truth she had related to him.
"Chere, Ah can' even go a day wit'out t'nking 'bout you. Rem- Ah've missed you since da day Ah left, and Ah haven't been able ta lova nobody else since you chere. All Ah want is you."
He went on to explain why he had left, citing the need his family had for him at the time that required his immediate attention, and how when he was able to go back to Bayville he couldn't find her anywhere. He told her honestly that he was still a thief, though he wasn't really a intricate part of the Thieves Guild anymore. He preferred to work on his own, only helping out on Guild Jobs for family, and when he was fairly paid. He told her he hadn't had any relationships, only a handful of shameful one-night stands when he couldn't fight how lonely he felt anymore.
He looked into her eyes and knew she understood everything, but also saw that she had some things to explain of her own.
She told him about her traveling (and searching), giving a few details in order to delay the inevitable that she feared he wouldn't understand, but she found the courage, and she told him. She had a daughter from a guy she barely even knew, and that he didn't know about it. She told him why she had come to New Orleans this time, and how Alora was with her kindly neighbors up in Baton Rouge right now. She told him about how they felt she needed a father figure, only silently praying he would want to fulfill that position, but not letting herself hope. She found her wallet and showed him a picture of her child, and watched at how his breath halted when he noticed she had what could be mistaken for his eyes. She even managed to gather her courage and tell him that she had always pretended to herself that Remy was the father, since other then the eyes there was no way to really tell.
He watched her as she revealed her life to him, and he watched as crystal tears slipped down her cheeks as she confessed her secret desire for him to be the father.
His own eyes almost burned with the thought of him being a father. He never thought he would settle down, since he knew he could only settle down with his Rogue. Now he felt how much he wanted to be this sweet little girl's daddy, and how much he wanted to be his sweet Rogue's husband. He wanted to live with her in her quiet neighborhood just a short ride from his hometown. He wanted to have more children with green-on-black eyes and have one big happy family. Most of all, he was fucking tired of waiting, and wanting, and playing games. He fucking wanted to settle down with her, and he could tell in her eyes she wanted it too.
So, he took her in his arms kissed away her tears, and whispered all the words he had thought into her ear.
They wanted to be together, they wanted to finally have the happy ending that every other mutant that had fought each other had surprisingly found.
So they did.