Authors Note: woo! Many reviews! Well for me at least, your all very, very nice to take the time to do them for little me. I should clear up something though, Rogue and Remy have never met, and he doesn't work for Magneto, none of it. That's the AU portion of the story. Everybody with me? I hope that made sense....

EvilWhiteRaven, Allimba & lutteur: heheh, I wonder indeed. I got lots of cool reviews, so like I promised, you get a quickish update. Thanks for your reviews!

Ishandahalf: nude beach? Mind out of the gutter ishy! ;-) As for their meeting, I'm going to taunt and tease you for just a little longer, but wont it be worth it when it comes around? I certainly hope so anyway...

Freak87: I was hoping no one would mind about the lack of proper plot. My last story had a plot so maybe I've burnt myself out or something! Anyway, sometimes a little airport trash is what's needed!

Allycat588: aww, I'm very glad you like! I will try to make the next chapters a bit longer, but I promise nothing. I find it surprising difficult to write long chapters, a friend of mine told me maybe I needed to "develop as a writer" before I could. Scary. Thank you for your lovely review.

Star-of-Chaos: not so much stalking as pure coincidence. I always manage to forget about him being an acolyte when I start these things. One day I'll write something with a proper Evo timeline, promise.

DemonicGambit: the fluffy romy goodness will be here in not too many chapters time. I like to keep my readers waiting a bit ;-)

RoguesTale: yep, laidback, carefree and other wonderful things like that. Thank you for the reassurance, I will try not to worry too much. You should post something! It took me ages to work up the courage, but in a way its very liberating, and it makes it very worthwhile when you get lovely reviews like the one you wrote me!

Abaiisiia: you're on a roll with interesting words. I like the word Quink, except its not a real word, just a brand of ink...that's product placement right there!

MorriganFearn: a west coast holiday eh? I hope you had fun! If I'm honest, I don't think your gonna have much to say about this whole story, like I said, it really has no plot, just description and fluff. I'll try and think of something with a plot soon though, just for you. You keep those dust bunnies under control now...

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Footprints in the Sand

Chapter Three (Sightings)

Remy LeBeau, prince of thieves, was on holiday. Well, it was a working holiday, but a holiday nonetheless. He had been hanging around this strip of beach for a few days now. The houses here were nearly always empty and full of lovely things that Remy felt he might like to...procure.

He had plenty of time though. Although he had taken off pretty abruptly, he had left a note, his Tante Mattie knew where he was and not to expect him back for a little while.

As hard as it was for him to believe, the life of a thief was starting to grow old. After all, he had been doing it for as long as he could remember. Now though, he wanted some time to himself, away from his father and the thieves guild, away from his psycho ex-girlfriend who he suspected was in fact trying to kill him and her crazy brother whom she was most definitely in cahoots with.
Stretching out like a big cat on the large flat rock he had found to bask on, he was about to have a little nap when something caught his eye. A trail of footprints in the sand leading from one of the houses he believed to be empty and up the beach away from him. Taking off his sunglasses and being careful not to be seen, he went to get a better look.

At the end of the footprints, he found what he had been looking for. She was the first person he had seen on this beach in the whole time he had been here, though granted, that wasn't all that long. But wow, if there was only one person to look at, Remy was very, very glad that it was her.

Getting closer, he could see that she had very strange hair, auburn, but with two white stripes that framed her beautiful face. Her skin was very pale, it was obvious she didn't go out in the sun much, but it was as flawless as untouched snow. Already Remy longed to touch it.

The mystery girl looked almost lost, staring out to the ocean with an unfixed gaze. She was a million miles away. Suddenly, she seemed to snap out of her reverie and realised just how far she had walked. Now she turned around and began walking back the way she had come, purposely treading over the footprints she had made in the sand on her journey.

The moment Remy laid eyes on her he knew he wanted to get to know her better. He was a handsome ladies man that no femme could ever resist and he hoped his charms were going to work on her...

---------- Rogue had thrown all the clothes she had brought with her on the large double bed in her room and surveyed the scene. It seemed that she hadn't really packed for the right occasion. It was hot outside and she had only brought long-sleeved tops and trousers with her.

When she had heard about this place and then pictured it in her mind, she had imagined it to be very busy with people all over the beach, but this was not the case. For once, it looked like she could walk around fairly safely with exposed skin.

She decided to get in the car and drive to the nearest town, it wasn't far away, or at least that was what her map said. Picking up her keys and money, she left the house.

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Remy watched the car leave its parking space outside the front of the house and, concluding that his beautiful stranger had indeed gone out, decided to do a little private investigating.

Breaking into the house was easy. Ok breaking into anything wasn't hard for him, but security was so lax around these places he suspected that even a child could do it. Although he had had a look in a couple of the houses down the other end of the beach, he hadn't got around to this one yet.

It looked much the same on the inside as the others and indeed, the one he was staying in at the moment that belonged to his father. Wandering around, he picked up an expensive looking ornament before putting it back in its place and reminding himself that he wasn't here to steal.

Upstairs, it looked like she was in the process of unpacking, but hadn't really got very far as yet. Clothes were strewn over the bed and a suitcase sat partially empty on the floor. Remy took a little look through but there was nothing to give any clues as to who she was. Only a couple of photographs of people he guessed to be friends or family. Some of them were very strange looking, but with his eyes, he couldn't really comment.

Remy had to say he was disappointed. He hope he would be able to get more information than this, he was usually pretty good at these kinds of things, but you have to work with what your given he guessed.

Figuring he would have to find out about her the old fashioned way, as opposed to a little good-natured stalking, he made sure that everything was back in its proper place before leaving the same way he had entered.

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For some reason, Rogue had expected the town to be some small, sleepy village, only two streets wide and with shops you didn't actually need. However what she found was much more useful. The town in fact, was pretty big, with a mall and a decent food store and everything. It was busy though and Rogue was glad she had covered up, making a mental note to do so if she came back here.

Before she knew it, an hour had passed but she had already got a few of the things she came out for. Now she just needed things like bread and milk that hadn't been in the house when she had got there and she reckoned that she'd be done. She was already looking forward to going back to the beach and maybe swimming in the sea.

Now, with her food shopping done, she made her way home. The evening was beginning to draw in. It was easy to forget how quickly the day had gone when she had spent most of it driving.

She put the food in the kitchen and went to put her new clothes with the rest of her stuff upstairs. As soon as she walked into the house, she felt something wasn't quite right but couldn't quite put her finger on what.

Now in her room, she had that feeling stronger than ever, but couldn't see anything out of place or missing. There were no signs that anyone had been in here other than herself or anything like that, but the heightened senses she had through constant battle training told her something strange was going on.

Suddenly something on her bed in amongst the clothes caught her eye and she bent over to pick it up. There it was, neatly placed on top of some shirts, a playing card, the King of Hearts....


I'm starting to wonder, does anywhere like this actually exist in California? Are there any California readers who could tell me? I can't say I've ever been fortunate enough to go myself...

Anyway, the next update will not for a while I'm afraid as I'm going to visit family. As a compromise, I will update the minute I get home. In the meantime, please please please review!