THE KNIGHT AND THE MAIDEN

CHAPTER 5


They lied together on the bed, reveling in the quiet moment. Kitty was nestled close to Peter, his arm around her shoulder. Her head rested against him, feeling his chest rise and fall with each breath. She heard him inhale deeply, breathing in the strawberry scent of her still-wet hair.

"Peter? You awake?" she whispered.

"No," he murmured.

"Ok. I guess I'll just leave then," Kitty said, moving to get up. Peter grabbed her hand and pulled her back, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close. "I thought you were asleep," she said, burying her head in his chest.

"I am," he agreed, his eyes still closed.

"Which is why I should get up and leave because if you're asleep we can't do the activity I have in mind."

"I'm up."

"Good," she said, tilting her head up so they could kiss. "Now you can tell me the story." She looked up at him with her pleading puppy dog eyes "Please?" she wheedled.

"Which one?" he gave in. Kitty's face immediately broke into a grin and she showered him with kisses.

"You know which one."

"And I thought you always said you were the master story teller, Katya"

"I am, most of the time. But you're the one who tells this story best."

"Well I am the one who made it up," he reasoned, his hand reaching for hers. Their fingers entwined and he lifted her hand up to his mouth, kissing it.

"Just tell the story," she said with a giggle.

"If you insist. Once upon a time there was a knight and a maiden......"


"When I asked you what you wanted t'do, dis is not exactly what I had in mind."

Rogue looked down at her cards and smiled, pleased with the knowledge that she had the upper hand.

"You said Ah could do whatever Ah wanted. Ah wanted this. Do you have any eights?"

Remy stared at his hand, a bored, slightly disgruntled expression on his face.

"Go fish."

Rogue raised her eyebrows, giving him a disbelieving look.

"What?"

She continued to stare at him.

"Fine," he muttered, throwing the eight of clubs down on the airplane tray table, scowling as Rogue put down yet another match.

She smiled, amused by Remy's obvious displeasure over her winning. "You know, If you don't want to play this, then next time you should just let me watch the movie like I wanted," she chided. A spark lit up in his eyes at her words, his charming grin returning to his face.

"So there's a next time?" he asked, leaning closer.

Rogue tilted her head until her mouth was right next to his ear.

"If you don't stop trying to look at my cards there won't be," she whispered menacingly, hitting him on the head with her deck before slouching back in her seat away from him. A smug smile was on her face, and if it wasn't for her foot tapping anxiously against the floorboards Remy would have believed she was perfectly comfortable in her surroundings. He leaned forward, looking past Rogue to the window where the ground was just starting to appear.

"We should be landing soon," he noted.

"Good."

"I'm sure everything be fine when we get dere," he added, trying to soothe her nerves.

"Why wouldn't it be?" she snapped.

"No reason," Gambit shrugged. "You have any kings?"

"Here," she said, putting one down. "Do you have any aces?"

"Fish," he said, motioning to the deck. She stared at his again. "I don't have any!" he protested.

"Yeah right. You know what, let's just stop. This was a bad idea. Ah shoulda never picked a game that depends on trustin' tha word of your opponent. 'Specially when that opponent's you," Rogue muttered, throwing her hand next to the deck and turning away to face the window, her arms folded across her chest.

"I really didn't have any," Gambit said quietly, gathering up the cards to set up a game of solitaire. It wasn't until he was on his fourth round of the game that Rogue spoke to him again.

"Black three on the red four," she pointed out reluctantly.

"Merci beaucoup." He watched her from the corner of his eye for a moment, noticing she was still nervously tapping her foot. "So tell me chere, da X-Men. What'd I miss all dese years? Besides you, 'course."

She rolled her eyes at his flirtations. "We expanded the franchise. Y'know, kinda like Starbucks, as Kitty would say," she said with a wry laugh. "There's a team in Europe and D.C. and a school in Massachusetts now."

"Lotta groups I never hearda filled with people I don' know don' interest me, Chere. Tell me 'bout da old team."

"Careful Remy, you almost sound like you miss 'em."

"Well, dose were some good times. 'Specially da days when no one was tryin' ta kill us."

Rogue laughed. "Mosta the teams the same, though there's some new additions. The New Mutants finally grew up, physically at least. Mentally they have a long way t'go. Bobby still thinks freezin' all the toilet seats in the mornings is an acceptable way to practice his powers. Of course, sommathe kids left for more normal lives, but Sam, Bobby, and Berto joined the X-Men and Rhane ended up in Excalibur- that's the team in Europe- along with Kitty and Kurt."

"You didn't go with dem?" he asked, surprised.

"Why would I? My home is here."

"Figured you want to be with your brother and best friend, non?"

No." She shook her head sadly. "They both had their reasons for leavin'. Kurt deserved the chance to be leader and Kitty just needed to get away. She was pretty hard to be around then. No one knew how to treat her."

"Why? Did her and Peter break up?" he asked, a hint of concern in his voice. " 'Cause those two really seemed like dey were in it for da long haul."

"No, it was...that's right, you don't know, do you?"

"Know 'bout what? Last I heard from dem was when I sent him a card after his parents got killed," Gambit told her, a little worried where Rogue's story was leading.

"Illyana was murdered."

"Mon dieu, I didn't know. I would have called or sent them something at the least or-"

"It's okay. It's not like either would have noticed if you had done something for them anyway. They only had her for two years, but they loved that little girl so much. They were a family."

"How'd it happen?"

"Someone kidnapped her. Snatched her right outta her bed one night. We still don't even know why, but we went after him soon as we tracked him down. It was...chaos. These creatures were attacking from everywhere. I remember the whole time I was fighting I just kept thinking this must be what hell is like. And Petey, he was in a rage that would have put Wolverine to shame. And poor Illyana, Peter...I mean...she got killed in the fight," Rogue finished, deciding Remy didn't need to hear the whole truth of Illyana's death.

"How are they?" he asked, stunned by what he had just been told.

"After it happened, Peter just walked away. Just got up and left. Professor claimed he couldn't find him with Cerebro, so Kit spent a whole week recalibrating it to work for non-psychic minds. Never slept the whole time, she was like a woman possessed or somethin'. Ah think she was tryin' to make herself believe that once she found Peter, everything would be okay again But after she located him in Genosha she said she didn't want to go after him anymore. Same day Chuck asked her and Kurt and some of the others to form a team over on Muir. I should have gone with them, but Ah was so wrapped up in my own problems and Ah...ah didn't want to add hers to the pile. Ah shoulda been a better friend, but she just made it so hard. Ah think that's why Ah tried so hard to help Scott after Jean's....I was guilty. Ah had already let one friend down, Ah didn't want to do the same to another.

"Jean died?" he asked, wondering if there was ever going to be an end to all this morose news.

"Yeah, her powers got to much for her to control, and she started sayin' she was this cosmic entity, the Phoenix. Whatever was in her turned evil, so we fought it best we could. In the end, we followed her up ta space, and ta stop herself from killing us, she committed suicide. Rachel was only 'bout three then, and Scott became obsessed with making sure that whatever got Jean doesn't get his daughter, too. He's always sendin' her to Muir for tests, tryin' to keep her safe, but I think part of it is he's afraid of her. He's afraid that if the Phoenix wants her, it'll take her, and he can't stop it. He doesn't want to love Ray anymore than he already does, cause he really believes he's only gonna lose her. Look, can we not talk about this anymore? Let's talk anout something else happy or funny or not involving death. Why don't you tell me what you've been up to?"

"I...stole a bunch of stuff. Doesn't really seem all that interestin' after your story. It was mostly jus'da usual things. Jewels, paintings, whatever brings in the big money and are you really just friends with Cyclops?

"Remy! Like Ah said before, we're just friends."

"What does dat mean, "friends"? I've called lots of women "friends", don't mean dat's what dey are."

"Yeah, ok, thanks for sharing. He's just a friend. He means a lot."

"Why? Because he's your special friend?"

"For the last time, he's just my friend. Sometimes it's just nice, havin' a guy pay attention to you all the time who's company ain't always too bad."

"Oh hell no!"

"Excuse me?"

"All I ever did was pay attention to you, an' flirt with you, an' hit on you, an' all you ever did was insult me, or ignore me, or push me away!"

"That was different!"

"How?" he yelled.

Rogue's eyes narrowed.

"It just was."


"Uhhh," Kitty moaned.

"Shhh. Just rest," she heard a voice say above her. "She's awake," the voice said louder, and this time Kitty found it faintly familiar. His statement was followed by the sound of footsteps. With some effort she forced open her eyes, blinded by the light before it was blocked by a bunch of blurry heads that suddenly appeared above her. Squinting, she managed to make out Logan, Kurt, Storm, Bobby, and Psylocke standing over her.

"Now I'm never going to be able to get rid of them." Beast sighed, shaking his head. "Nice to see you awake, Katherine," he said kindly from behind Bobby's shoulder. Here you go," he added, handing her her glasses. "I know how important these can be. I'm afraid we had to take your contacts out."

She put her glasses on and stared at the faces of her friends gawking at her.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked, trying to sit up. "And where am I?" she asked, looking around.

"You're back in Westchester. We-"

"Is that Rogue?" she asked, spotting the figure on the hospital bed next from her. "Is she ok? What happened?" She looked around to the other side of her. "Where's Peter?"

"Kitty, why don't you rest-" Storm said calmly, her hand pressing on her shoulder, trying to push her back down.

"No! Where's Peter?" she asked, trying to find someone who would look her in the eye.

"I'm afraid, my dear, that when sorrow comes, it comes not in single spies, but in battalions."

"Hank, I don't want to hear some pointless quote, I want to hear answers!"

"Kitten," Ororo said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and putting her arm around her, "Black Air had the caverns booby-trapped, and there was an explosion." She hugged Kitty tighter, her voice starting to waver. "I'm so sorry, Kitten. He's gone."


Angst makes me so sad, yet I write it anyway. I should be sadder, but I'm so full of caffeine I find it hard not to laugh uncontrollably right now. So this chapter didn't move the plot forward all that much, but once I started writing the Romy I just had fun, and the rest was made me sad, so their part ended up longer than planned. Next chapter is almost all Kitty, and the confusion will go away. I promise! And coming soon, a guest appearance from a very special group of students!

But thank you for the reviews, they make me so happy! I'm pretty hopped up on caffeine, so if I sound really crazy and make completely random references in the shout outs, and I probably will, blame the Pepsi-Cola Company.

Lucas'sgirl- Scouge IS weird. It even sounds weird. I mean, Romy and Kiotr roll right off your tounge and Kurmanda is just fun to say. Scouge sounds like what Bubba from Duck Tales would call Scrouge McDuck. That's just a bad sign for a pairing when the name reminds you of a character from a good eighties cartoon that was brought in after the show jumped the shark. Although Duck Tales did always had a very peppy theme song, which I'm currently singing as I type. Back to the actual topic, the Kiotr started to pop up again in this chapter. Next chapter will learn a lot more about what's going on. It wont necessarily be happy, because torturing fictional characters is fun.

Dark-Bat- It's ok, it was supposed to be confusing. This chapter's even more confusing than the one before it. But it will make sense soon. And I'm trying to keep the romy away from the angsty side, cause I think they're meant to be a little more fun then dark and broody. That's Piotr's territory. But, oh my God, you mentioned liquid soap! I seriously love liquid soap! Whenever I go to a restaurant the first thing I have to do is go and see what color soap they have in the restroom. And I make one of the boys go in their restroom so I can make sure the colors are the same in both. When I was little my parents used to think I was OCD cause I was always washing my hands every time we went somewhere, and then they figured out it had nothing to do with germs, I just wanted to see all the pretty colors of the soap. But I never thought about how liquid soap should be hot. Now I'm confused too. Knew I should have paid attention in chem class.

RikaTabithaStarr- It's not Rachel fault for being mean, she has an excuse that will be explained in the next chapter! Ok, well didn't have one in the first few chapters, but she...actually she was pretty mean to Rogue then too, but it was only to try to keep Scott and Rogue apart, so in a way, it was a good thing. And who knows, maybe somewhere down the road she'll end up doing something nice for her. ;)

B- I like plot twists! It's fun to confuse people, mainly because I spend most of the time confused myself. Everything for the most part gets seemingly explained in the next chapter, but there might be some new mysteries popping up. And yay, you liked the Kiotr kiss! Because really, the entire plot is superfluous. It's just an excuse for me to write Kiotr kissing scenes, kind of like how salad is just a reason to eat dressing. ;)

ishandahalf- Ok, so now you got me all sucked back into watching Passions again. The Fox and Whitney scenes are disturbing. And when will they ever kill Charity? I've been waiting for that moment for years, and it never comes! I think her, Whitney, and Gwen should die together to get rid of all the annoying characters at once. Maybe they can all be killed be Kay the evil Hound from hell, and then Miguel can go crazy with grief over losing his precious Charity and actually get a personality. Sigh. At least one of the Lopez-Fitzgeralds is finally dead. But poor Pilar is dying. She can't die! She's the only sane person in her family. Her children have already resorted to kidnapping, extortion, blackmail, trying to murder each other, and all of them have pretty much qualified as stalkers at one point with her alive. Imagine how out of control they'll be when she's dead! Oh yeah, I should get back to the actual story. Yay! You liked the romy! Getting them together will not be easy, but I think it's safe to say there's hope. Oh, and even though I'm not sure where it's going to be placed, I have written an in depth conversation on the reasons for the Scott- Rogue friendship that I'm pretty pleased with and I think you'd enjoy. It has to come later so there can be more remy jealousy. And I've got you hooked on the Kiotr part? Yay! Everyone should love Kiotr, as all Kiotr is full of awesomeness!

Sanity: Questionable- Well, a little bit of Kitty and Piotr's whereabouts were answered in this chapter, but the next one explains it more fully. Glad you're enjoying the story!

KagInuLuv- If you loved the romy in chapter 4 then hopefully you liked this chapter too! They kind of took over the story. Next chapter will get back to the Kiotr, but the romy pop up again.

KittieKat8- Sadly, you didn't miss anything with Kitty and Piotr. It was just a dream....or something close to it. I'm glad you liked the romy! They were a lot easier to write in this chapter since it was my second try. And sorry, no Scott death yet. But there's always hope.

DemonRogue13- Thanks! I'm so glad you liked the Romy, you interpreted it exactly the way I hoped it would be. There's some more romy and some other conversations that explore a little more of Rogue's feelings and motivations in later chapters, so stay tuned for those!

The Uncanny R-Man- I'm so glad you like their accents, I debated over not even giving them any for a long time. I kept changing them to regular english and then having to change them back because I was afraid there were some parts were Remy either sounded like he was trying to rap or he had a cold. But when I finished I ended up with the habit of trying to spell "I" and "Ah". But sadly, as seen in this chapter, Piotr and Kitty are not together.

epona04- Rachel may seem like a cow right now, but I promise she's not. Eventually she'll find a way to redeem herself for all the Rogue fans. And sticking Rogue with Remy was evil, but it was too much fun to pass up!