Marie felt like she was suffocating. She had spent the past two days in her hotel room, loosing herself in poor television shows, ordering room service, eating and drinking all the contents of the mini-bar. 'What a pathetic way to splurge' she thought to herself as she looked at the pile of empty candy wrappers, and tiny bottles of liquor reminding her of the many attempts she tried to get some sort of buzz off of them, but in the end she decided it was hopeless. The bottles were just too damn small.
She continued to pack, well at least attempt to but she failed miserably each time. The other day she started cleaning up the mess she made when she tore her suitcase apart in search for the perfect outfit for her and Remy's dinner. Marie smiled at the now distant memory. She would have never guessed in a million years that the night would end in such away. Sharing an almost kiss. Playing in the rain. Having a panic attack. Waking up to be greeted by his aunt. Having a blowout fight with him in the middle of his family's property at 1 in the morning. "What a magical night that was," she said to herself with sarcasm dripping from her voice.
And now Marie was packing. She had bought a plane ticket for tomorrow morning. She hadn't bothered telling Scott she was leaving. She was in no mood to deal with him or anyone. She loved her privacy and being alone and independent. But what was that saying--too much of something can kill you.
Marie then made her way over to her proclaimed Remy's corner. She stood there for a moment debating what to do with it. The obvious choice was to throw the stuff out but for some odd reason she kept the bourbon and trench coat and threw out the rest. She placed the bourbon on the table as she walked over to the bed where her already full suitcase laid. She folded the trench coat and placed it on top of the pile. She quickly shut the top of the suitcase, as if performing a sneak attack to try to trap her unaware clothes in their dungeon. But it was unsuccessful. She was now taking back more than she arrived with. She pressed her right hand down on the top to add some pressure, and struggled to zip it with her other. Finally after many attempts, she succeeded. She looked down at her left hand. It was still swollen from her fall. But the bruising went down, and she was able to move it more as the day went along. It was just another souvenir from her trip.
She moved her black suitcase over to the corner by the door so she would not forget. She sighed. It was 7 at night and she was bored out of her mind and there was no way she was going to spend her last night in a hotel room. She was going to make this night memorable. And what better way than to treat herself to a nice dinner. She grabbed her purse and was on her way.
Being tired and full after eating a full-size dinner, Marie decided to walk around the streets before heading back to her room. Marie headed towards the craziness of the French Quarter, in hopes that some of that craziness will rub off on her or at least make her feel like she was apart of it. She walked down the busy streets, smiling at various people wearing different extravagant costumes who smiled back. Despite their friendly attempts, Marie felt out of place. She was only dressed in a black tank top and jeans, while the crowds were lavishly dressed with bright colors and glitter. They looked like they were going to attend an extravagant royal costume ball. And she looked like the woman who cleaned the castle's windows.
Marie then turned a corner down a street that was less busy. It was away from the crazed crowd but that was quite all right with her. She was feeling a bit too overwhelmed. She smiled as she passed an elderly couple walking hand in hand. She continued down the street loosing herself in the loveliness of the night. How the night was so contradictory, peaceful yet so full of madness.
The almost out of nowhere, Marie then felt an arm around her shoulders. Surprised she looked towards the person who was heavily leaning into her. She shrugged of the arm, "Can Ah help yah?"
The man lazily nodded as he continued to walk in stride with her, "Ahhh, yes I believe you can." He then leaned in closer and in one quick motion pushed back her hair that was covering her ear. He opened his mouth to whispering something, and Marie could just smell the alcohol ooze off of him. She pushed him back and looked at the man. He was a decent looking man, tall, blonde and brown eyes.
She stepped back away from him. She knew he could be an angry drunk, and his irrational actions could mean dire consequences for her. But she also knew that she could be a very angry person, and that seemed to outweigh it. "Look yah better leave meh alone. Don't do anything that yah might regret," she warned, hopefully trying to reach the sober or sane part of him.
"Oh, honey, there is nothing I could regret if I did it with you," he said in a sleazy way that he might have thought was charming.
Marie had enough. She was not going to stand her and try to make a sleazy drunk see sense. "Back off." She gritted through her teeth as she pointed at him. She walked away only to be followed by the drunk again.
"You are a feisty, and mighty pretty," he said as he tried to reach her but his hand was slapped away by Marie. "Oohh, honey just-" But he never got to finish that sentence.
Remy had spent the past two days looking for Marie. Well if you count drinking at bars and playing poker as looking for her, then yea he spent night and day searching for Marie. But when he did walk around the streets, he wondered if he would bump into her. But he knew that he wouldn't and if he did want to find her all he would have to do was go to her hotel room. But no, he couldn't do that. He just couldn't find strong enough reasons as why to go. He didn't know what to say to her, how does he apologize after fighting with a girl he just met? He asked himself many questions but he didn't know any of the answers, so he just took his mind off of it by other means.
When he became bored from walking the streets, he scaled the side of a store and jumped from building to building. He loved how it was dangerous that he might not make it to the other side, but he always did. The way his stomach seemed to flutter as he jumped off in anticipation of landing on the other side. He almost loved that as much as he loved the feeling of being flightless and free in midair.
He was getting restless at his house. He asked his dad if he could go on the next heist to try and rid him from everything. But Jean-Luc just smiled in return. He loved his son's anxiousness and commitment. But he let his son down easy, saying that it was an easy job and that he was giving it to the younger thieves so they could build up experience. But Remy knew what he really meant.
Of course Remy was one of the best thieves in the world and could practically succeed with any "job" but he knew his father believed strongly in the trite cliché "We are only as good as our weakest player." So Jean-Luc would assign the numerous easy jobs to the young inexperienced thieves while Remy stood on the side lines waiting for a big job to do. In the mean time, he spent his time in bars, and getting his thrills elsewhere.
And here he was running on top of a tall building, preparing himself for the long jump to the next building. A jump that an average man could not even make, but Remy was anything but average. He leapt of the building and anticipated the landing on the next, but while he was in mid-air, he broke his concentration when he saw the familiar auburn and white hair below him. The same person that he tried so hard to avoid, but now looking at her, he could not remember any of his reasons why he did not go and see her. He stared below at her, making sure he did not loose her. But quickly regained his concentration when he sensed the wall to the other building was near. Due to the lack of his concentration he missed landing safely on top of the roof but instead clung to the edge of it, hanging 30 feet in the air. He quickly swung his feet around, and flipped himself over on top of the building. He stood on the edge of it and watched Marie from above.
She was beautiful. Here she was among a crowd of people wearing beautiful extravagant clothing, and she was only wearing a tank and jeans but stood out amongst them as a princess among peasants. He was intrigued and curious of what she was doing, so he followed her. He jumped from roof to roof to keep up with her fast past. He looked down as she crossed the street, and then watched as a man walked up to her and put his arm around her. Remy deduced that the guy was drunk from the way he staggered. He then watched as Marie shoved the guy off.
Remy smiled. He knew she could take care of herself and she just did. He thought the guy would get the hint and leave her alone after that but he still persisted. He saw them stop and exchange words but he couldn't hear what they were saying, but the message was clear, Marie wanted the guy to leave her alone. Marie then started to walk away and the guy started to follow.
Remy burrowed his eyebrows as his smile turned into a frown; he had enough of this. The guy obviously knew Marie wanted him to get lost. Hell, Remy was on a roof on a building across the street and he got the message. He hated to see women get treated this poorly. Especially since a woman he knew was being harassed by a drunk asshole. He had to intervene. He swiftly jumped off the roof and from years spent training he landed softly on his feet. He stood up and looked. The guy was about to grab Marie. Remy gritted his teeth and quickly ran across the street but he was too late.
Remy stood still as he saw Marie quickly turn around and swung her left fist at him with tremendous speed as she screamed, "Fuck off." She swung with enough speed and force that caused a loud crunching noise when her fist met the guy's noise. Marie followed through on her punch enough to send the already staggering drunk to the cement where he hit his head and was knocked unconscious.
Marie looked down at the man, and shook her left hand trying to relieve the sting that was now pulsating up her arm. She was too involved in the situation that she did not notice Remy walk up, and only when he spoke did she notice his presence.
"Y'know, one punch out t'have done it, chere," he gruffly said as he looked down at the man who's nose was now at a 45 degree angle to his face. It slanted horribly to the left and his eyes were now hidden by the enormous amount of swelling, and blood that was now smeared all over his face.
"That was one punch," she snapped back to him as she made her way to the opposite side of the unconscious body, farther away from Remy.
"Remind me t'never get on yo'bad side," he whistled surveying the damage she caused. He pitied the man for underestimating her strength but hell the man deserved it. He was a complete jackass and was expecting to get what he wanted from Marie, but she wouldn't let him.
Remy had to admit that he was slightly disappointed. He was expecting to come in and save the day. To not only pulverize the sleaze bag, but at the same time to become Marie's hero, to be her knight in shining armor, and they would some how continue as things once were. But maybe that was just his male ego talking.
But Remy was even more impressed with Marie and how she took care of herself so well, and she knocked this big guy down in one punch. Not many girls possessed that quality. She was a knock out, not only in the looks department, but she could also knock your ass to the ground if she wanted to.
"Little bit too late for that, LeBeau," she said as she gave on last glare to the man who now regained his conscience and was slowing glancing to each side of him, looking at Remy and then Rogue with confusion plastered on his face.
Remy stooped down to the man, "Y'be careful now y'hear. If you treat any ot'er femme like de way y'treated mon friend, I will let her," he motioned to Marie, "use her right hook on you. 'Nd her right hook is far worse den her left." He grinned as he stood up and watched Marie turn around and begin to walk again. Remy looked down at the man who was lying there and continued low enough for only the guy to hear, "And dat's not'in compared t'wat I'll do t'y." Remy gave one last glare to the whimpering man, "Yo'just lucky dat she got to y'first." And with that Remy ran to catch up to Marie.
"What do yah want, LeBeau?" Marie bitterly asked when she sensed him near her. Her tone was bitterer than she intended and she had no idea why.
"Chere," he replied as he lightly touched her shoulder, trying to slow down her quick pace. She stopped at his touch and turned around to glare at him. Remy threw his hands in defense, "Easy, chere. I dun' wanna look like dat homme back dere. Mon face is too beautiful t'be wrecked, now dat would be a real crime, non?" he grinned causing Marie to put her hands on her hips and raise an eyebrow. Remy continued, "Besides riddin' de streets of sleazy drunks wit' one punch at a time, wat are y'doin?"
"Is there a point tah this?"
He had no idea what she meant by that. Did "this" refer to his poor attempt at a joke to break the ice or to him appearing out of nowhere or their relationship? He had no idea, he always knew what women wanted or meant but he was just clueless when it came to Marie. She was one mystery after another. Not knowing the right thing to say he shrugged his shoulders in response.
Marie nodded her head, and turned around again.
"But I know we need t'talk. Would y'want t'chere?"
Marie stood still for a second. Her head rushed with a million thoughts at a time. Why didn't she just say "no" and walk away? Why did she hesitate? They only met a week ago, and already she was being overwhelmed with everything. And having a talk always led to many things, it never stayed as just a talk.
She kept telling herself to say "no", but she was too damn curious as to what he wanted to talk about. She tried to remind herself of the saying, "Curiosity killed the cat" but she didn't care. Anyway she was leaving tomorrow, so maybe this talk would provide some closure for her.
Her curiosity got the best of her, and she nodded hesitantly, "Yea, come on, we can go talk in mah room." He smiled, and walked by her side as she led the way to her hotel.
Well, originally this chapter was much longer but I cut it in half, it had too many things happening for one chapter. Well I wanted this chapter to show their thoughts and what's going on, but most importantly I wanted to show Marie as a very independent person and some one who is used to taking care of herself in situations, that she's not one of those "woe is me" type of girl that everyone loves, haha.
Well I updated before Sunday, so I hope you guys are happy about that, even though there isn't really alot of Romyness in this chapter. But I pinky swear that there will be in the next chapter, and the fluffness factor should be somewhere between cheezy and sickening, lol! The next chapter should be up by next week!
I really hope you guys like this story! Your reviews really do make my day! I just hope you guys continue to enjoy reading the story and reviewing it (you like how I slipped the reviewing part in there, I really am shameless, lol)
Thanks for the reviews guys, positive reinforcement does wonders for my self-esteem, keep it up, lol. You guys are the best! If you guys have any ideas or comments feel free to tell me.