Hey guys. Sorry for the delay. It's been a very busy time for me and I didn't have time to write it in time. Due to this delay I was forced to change a bit what's in this chapter. For instance the previous time I said that there would be something about Logan's secret assignment in N. Orleans in this chapter. To avoid further delay, I moved that to the next chapter. Anyway sorry again and I hope you enjoy this one.
Tayrion
Small-talk is not allowedRemy, for the first time in his young life, woke up with a feeling of completeness and an eagerness to face the new day. He couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. He never imagined that a woman could have such an effect on him, especially not when no sex was involved. Hmm… each day you learn something new, he mused as he got out of bed. …What are you doing to me chérie? The memory of the woman he was starting to love, still dominated his mind.
Is this what love is like? …Well it must be. It was probably the first time that he gave something not wanting anything in return. He just wanted to make her happy, to see her smiling and shelter her from any harm. He didn't care for anything in return. That's definitely a first… well… except for Vanessa… thought Remy as the memory of his little sister, once again cast a shadow over his blissful mood. He tried to put that thought aside for the moment, as he started getting dressed. Only one thought made that possible. I have to see her.
He got out of his room and made his way to hers. He knocked on her door, looking forward to seeing her face. There was no answer. Is she still sleeping? He knocked once more. "Chérie… It's your favorite Cajun… Are you decent? ... I'm coming in." As he was ready to go in, Jubilee approached him.
"She's not in. She has a session in the danger room. … We missed you yesterday… Where were you?" she said with a playful smile.
"It's nice to know dat my absence was noted… Jubilee… right?" Jubilee nodded her head. "Right. Merci Jubilee. …Danger room you said? …Huh… I still have a lot to learn about this place."
On his way to the danger room Remy was met by Professor Xavier. "Bonjour Professor."
"Good morning Remy. I'm sorry about yesterday. I was very busy preparing a speech for a convention on human rights, that I'm participating. How was your first day here by the way?"
"Just wonderful Professor. Very interesting indeed!"
"Good I'm glad. If you want to I can arrange for you a more detailed tour of the mansion. Maybe Logan can do it. Have you met him yet?"
Remy let out a small chuckle. "Ah… Logan… Yes. I met him all right. Although I doubt he be willing to show me around."
Professor stopped as understanding dawned to him about the meeting between Logan and Remy. "Oh… Well… Logan can be a bit… blunt sometimes… but trust me he is a good man."
"I'm sure he is Professor, it's just dat I'd rather not push my luck trying to find dat out." Said Remy with a smile. "I'll ask Rogue to show me around."
The Professor frowned for a moment making the connection between Remy's words and Rogue's upbeat attitude in the danger room. "Remy… I don't want to intrude, but I feel obliged to ask. You do know about Rogue's condition right?" said the Professor, his smile faded and looking very seriously at Remy.
Remy at once stiffened. Here we go again, another lecture about Rogue. No wonder de girl feels so lonely… dey're trying to shield her from anyting.
"Yes Professor. I'm perfectly aware of Rogue's condition." Said Remy a bit annoyed now.
"It is a very delicate situation and you must tread on a very thin line Mr. LeBeau."
Mr. LeBeau?? Suddenly we're back to last names? Remy looked curiously at the very serious looking Xavier.
The Professor immediately broke a smile. "I'm sorry if I seem overprotective, but I always care for the well-being of my students. I'm sure you can appreciate that. One of these days I'm going to need you to take some tests Remy. Don't worry they're standard procedure for the members of the team. Anyway… have a nice day."
Outside the danger-room Remy was met by Kurt.
"Good morning Remy."
Although Remy had already seen Kurt's true form, he still needed a moment to take in his demon-like appearance. He quickly started acting casually again.
"Bonjour Kurt."
"So how do you like ze institute so far Remy?"
"It is very impressive Kurt. I must admit dat de rumors don't do it justice."
"Heh… I thought ze same ven I first got here. Being a mutant, hunted feared and forced to live in isolation, as I vas, you tend to not put too much faith in stories about a place such as zis."
"I know what you mean, Kurt. Anyways… have you seen Rogue at all?"
"I believe zat she is in ze danger-room practicing self-defence vith Logan. You can go and observe in ze room on ze top of zis staircase. Hank is in zere."
Remy hearing Logan's name raised an eyebrow.
"Is he a martial-arts instructor or something?"
"No. He is just really good at self-defence." Answered Kurt casually.
Remy remained silent for a while, undecided whether he could trust Kurt with the question he wanted to ask. Kurt, sensing that Remy wanted to ask him something, decided to make things easy for him.
"Remy… I know zat being new here must be hard for you. I mean… you still don't know who to trust. But I tell you… you don't have to be so defensive here. I came to realize zat zis is a place of family and trust."
Remy smiled at the inherent goodness and kindness that Kurt seemed to be filled with.
"Heh… Merci Kurt, but even de best of families dey have secrets, non?"
Kurt shrugged his shoulders and smiling 'extended his hand' to Remy once more.
"Either way, if you ever vant to talk, I'm here."
Remy looked at Kurt filled with respect. Despite his own condition and inner struggles, he still had enough resources of strength and faith for everyone around him. So he decided to ask.
"Ok… Here you go den… and don't take did de wrong way… What is de deal wit Rogue and Logan? And de reason I'm asking is dat when Logan realized dat for some reason I was interested in Rogue, he was ready to take my head right off."
Kurt remained thoughtful for a while, thinking on how to better answer this question.
"Look Remy… Logan can sometimes be a bit crude, but his heart is in ze right place. He is also very overprotective of Rogue. From vat I know, Scott and Ororo found zem together and saved zem from Sabretooth. Zey are not related and zey are not or have been together if zat's vat really interests you. Although Rogue used to go out vith Bobby, anozer kid here in ze institute. But now zat I answered your question, I vant you to answer one for me."
Remy more than satisfied with the answer he got, smiled and motioned 'shoot' to Kurt.
"Vat exactly is your interest in Rogue?"
Remy knew he couldn't tell Kurt the whole truth. He couldn't even believe that he was in love with a girl he only knew for 3 days, how ridiculous would it sound to Kurt? But he did owe Kurt a decent answer.
"Heh… dat's a good question Kurt, and I wish I could give you a complete answer, but de truth is dat I'm not sure myself. It's just dat… ever since I met her, I can't get her out of my mind and I certainly can't stand seeing her like she was when I got here. So full of pain… I just feel like I should do something."
Kurt smiled with understanding.
"She is a wonderful person Remy, and it also pains me to see her like zat." Kurt turned to leave but stopped and smiling turned to Remy again. "You're not so bad yourself Remy. I really think zat you will do good." And with that he left.
Remy smiled to himself. It was good to have someone on his side for a change. But then he felt the cold sting of guilt, as he realized that he couldn't live up to Kurt's expectations and that ultimately he would let him down.
He took a deep breath and went up the stairs to the danger-room's operating room. In there he saw Hank McCoy for the first time. He had heard about him and he even sensed his feelings the night before, but he didn't know what to expect.
One of Remy's constant worries was that most of the times he didn't want for other people to be able to tell what it was he was feeling. As a mutant, alone so far, one of his greatest advantages in confrontations, violent or not, was that he could always sense what his 'opponent' was feeling exactly, while his own attitude and feelings were never betrayed, mainly due to his outstanding self-control and the cool poker-face he wore so easily. But when he saw Hank even he was stunned silent, even if it was only for a second.
"So you must be de great Dr Hank McCoy de professor is always rambling on about." His devil-may-care attitude and smile were once again on his face.
Hank remained silent for a while. Behind the blue fur, the teeth, the overgrown muscles and the beastly face, lay an intellect too great by the standards of normal humans. An intellect that was now put to the task it was so used to performing, of finding any hint of fear, disgust or even pity in the person that was facing him. He really didn't know what would come out of these scrutinous observations, except perhaps a confirmation of his own self-loathing for his appearance. Even intellects so great as McCoy's were put to the test of doubting their own self worth because of their appearance.
Strangely enough though Hank couldn't find any of the signs he was looking for in Remy.
"And you must be the new Cajun resident of the institute Mr. LeBeau if I'm not mistaken?" Remy nodded his head.
"Well I see Mr. LeBeau that you live up to your surname. You must be quite a hit with the ladies."
Even though it was not intended as such, Remy caught the subtle bitterness behind Hank's words. It made him feel even worse about himself.
Hank turned his attention to the large panel in front of him once more, changing some parameters of the simulation program he was running for the danger-room. "So Remy, what brings you to this marvel of Asian and western electronic craftsmanship?"
Then Remy noticed the room he was in. It was full of computers, screens and a large control panel that was in front of a large window-screen that was overlooking a large round room seemingly empty. The walls were covered with what seemed to be metal-tiles. In the middle of the room stood Rogue and Logan. They seemed very small in that huge empty room.
So dis is de danger-room. Hmm… It certainly is big… although it doesn't seem all dat dang…"
Before Remy had a chance to finish his sentence, two of the tiles rotated, revealing guns that immediately fired a sort of a laser-beam towards the two mutants in the center of the room. The two dived out of the way of the beams and kept on running and evading various projectile beams that suddenly started sprouting seemingly out of nowhere. Remy's jaw dropped momentarily. "Ahh… I see…"
Then Rogue was hit by one of the beams and tumbled to the floor. Remy banged his fists on the screen in front of him.
"ROGUE!!!"
Hank startled by Remy's outburst got up really quickly and restrained the young man, before he could harm the screen or himself.
"Calm yourself Remy. She's fine. They are relatively harmless. They just produce a little shock to the system. That's all."
Remy's pounding on the screen was heard inside the danger-room and both Rogue and Logan turned to see who was behind it. Their respective reactions were so different, it was almost comical to Hank who tried hard to suppress a laugh. Logan seeing Remy up on the control room frowned, whereas Rogue's face lit up. She got up and waved excitedly at Remy. Remy's worried face immediately changed to that of a deep satisfaction at seeing the woman he thought he loved, happy. He waved in return and motioned to her to go outside. Rogue after saying something to Logan that caused him to frown even more, exited the room.
Hank turned to Remy smiling knowingly. "A pity… for a minute there I thought that you came because you appreciated the fine elaborate intricacies involved in this wonderful system of electrons, chips and hardware that were I to name them all to you, would probably bore you to death and we wouldn't want that now would we? Especially not when such a wonderful lady is waiting for you. Oh… look at that I'm babbling again. I tend to keep talking unless someone actually stops me."
Remy let out a chuckle. "Dat's ok Hank. Maybe one of dese days we'll talk about dis danger-room, as I'm actually quite into technology, weapon and security systems myself. It's kinda like my hobby." Said Remy smiling to himself.
Hank's face immediately lit up. "Are you really? That's splendid! Then we will definitely talk about this again. But don't let me keep you. Rogue is still waiting for you."
Remy shook Hank's hand. "It was a pleasure Hank." Then he left to go and meet Rogue.
Hank was left smiling in the control room. "Just splendid!"
To be continued…
Ishandahalf- thanks again for your compliments. (btw I laughed for 5 minutes with the batman comment, I was a big fan of the old batman live action series lol.) Sorry that this time it wasn't a fast update but it was a very busy two weeks. I'll try to make up on the future.
Roguefan 1309- I'm glad you like it. I hope you'll enjoy where it will go from now on. Dark times ahead (Kind of… :) )
Jinx- As I'm not that good with accents I'm going to take a guess… that was Cajun talk… wasn't it? Thanks for your compliments (at least I thought they were… wait… weren't they? :) )
Personage- phew… it's nice to see another use of the knife than the one I had in mind :) Sorry for the late update. I'll try not to do that again.
Southern Spell- Sweet? That was sweet? But… I wasn't going for sweet!!! I was going for brutal, raw realism!!!! Arrgh!!!!!!! What did I do wrong!!!!!!! :)
Pyro-hi – As you see I haven't cut the accents, and there's more Kurt in this one too. Am I good or what? :) And yes I had a very good teacher when I was young (my mother), but it also helps that I lived for about 5 years in England.
As for the descriptions of things you are right. I don't do that enough but mainly because whenever I'm reading something I find it more interesting to find out about the characters and what they're thinking and feeling than what they're wearing or how they look like or where they are. So I tend to write like that too. I know that it must be annoying for some people and for that I appologise. I'm trying to correct that. Honestly I really am. :)
Acacia Jules- You are right about Remy's powers. I was aware of this when I was writing it I just didn't think that anybody would mind. I mean… there are so many things in the comics themselves that are beyond explanations and others that are just plain wrong, so I figured that it wouldn't hurt if I used his powers the way I did as it adds to the dramatic element more. It makes the scene much more intense. If you were bothered by that I appologise. I hope you liked the rest.
Cyberlink42- Thanks I hope you'll stay on board for the rest of the story. :)