Authors Note: yeah I've been writing again. Dangerous isn't it? Gives me ideas above my station...I wrote this because I bought a really awesome album recently ('2' by All Girl Summer Fun Band), and theres a video on there for a really cute song called "car trouble" and I got inspired. I encourage you to check it out. Anyway, this is an utterly pointless one shot (when is my writing not pointless?), but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Car Trouble
Rogue knew she should have taken the bus today. Retrospect was such a bitch.
When she had thrown herself into her car this morning, she hadn't stopped to think about how the engine had been playing up a little recently, even though Logan had warned her it might not hold out just yesterday. All she had wanted to do was get away from that place, and now she was paying the price for it.
She could feel hot tears begin to prick at the corners of her eyes, but she kept driving, ignoring the very unhealthy sounds that were coming from the front of her vehicle, hers the only car on the dusty road.
Rogue hadn't driven particularly far, nor did she plan to, she had just wanted to get away from that house for a few hours. She had had just about as much as she could take today, especially from Jean.
Why was it that girl's like Jean got everything in life? They were perfect, they had no problems, hell, they probably didn't even know what a problem was. Rogue could just about take things like Jean's popularity and academic success, but she should have known that when her and Jean came head to head over something that there was no way that she, the underdog, could have won.
But in the end, their silent fight had been settled for them when Scott Summers, the very thing they had been fighting over, had decided it for them, and picked Jean over her. Now, every corner she turned and every room she went into she seemed to run into them, kissing, touching, holding hands...all those little things she could never do. She had been stupid to think he could ever want an untouchable like her when he could have a perfect, flame-haired princess instead.
That was why she had escaped for the day. The thought of another day at home nursing her broken heart whilst receiving smug looks from Jean and pitying ones from everyone else who knew was just too much. She just wished she had chosen her method of transport a little more carefully.
A sound not all that dissimilar to a cat being strangled suddenly erupted from the car. Rogue started slightly in alarm, she didn't realise it was that bad, now it didn't look like it was going to get her home. Wisps of steam began to curl over the bonnet and the car started to grind to a pathetic halt, it was all Rogue could do to get it onto the side of the road.
Shoving the brakes on, she got out to examine the damage, noting a couple of cars pass her by, completely ignoring her predicament. The bonnet felt hot to the touch, even through her glove. With a deep breath in, she quickly opened it up, standing out of the way as a pillar of steam rose from inside.
'Great,' she thought sarcastically. 'First Jean an' Scott, now this. Can mah day get any better?'
Securing the bonnet in place, she took a look down into a maze of wires and metal. She knew a fair bit about mechanics, and she knew what the problem probably was, but out here with no tools, she had no way to fix it anyway. She was screwed. Despairing, she shut the bonnet and perched on the car, resting her chin on her palms with her elbows on her knees, trying to think of a solution to her problem. In her head, she weighed up her options.
She could trudge however many miles it was to the nearest bus stop and come back to get the car later. The only problem with that was she had no clue where a bus stop was, and a quick look at her watch told her it was now a quarter to one so there were no buses running. Not even one. (1)
She could hitchhike, except only three cars had passed by in the whole time she had been on this road, the chances of anyone stopping for her were small. The only other one she had left was calling the mansion, but deep down, she didn't want to do that, it seemed like defeat.
"Yah really picked tha best tahme ta break down didn't ya?" she said accusingly to her car, which looked very sad, broken by the edge of a dusty highway.
She had just about given up hope and was about to go and get her cell phone to call home, when her ears suddenly picked up the dull murmur of a souped-up engine approaching on the road in front. Soon, the sound was accompanied by a small dark shape surrounded by heat shimmer, growing quickly bigger as it got closer and closer. Rogue's jumped up from her seat; finally she might have a way out of here!
It was a motorbike, a nice one too, and unlike the cars that had so selfishly ignored her and just kept on driving, it pulled up alongside her car. Rogue was just about to launch into a tirade about her broken car before asking if there was anyway she could get a lift into town him when the stranger, who's face she still couldn't see because of the helmet he was wearing, got out of his seat and started to walk towards her and her car...
Finally, the helmet came off and Rogue felt her breath catch in the back of her throat. He was the most gorgeous man she had even seen, with dishevelled coppery hair that had been made even messier by his helmet and completely captivating red on black eyes. He was handsome, he was rugged and suddenly all lingering thoughts of Scott Summers were pushed out of her head.
"Y' got car trouble chérie?" he asked her suavely, his accent slurring the words and making them drip from his tongue in a way that made her want to melt.
"Hmm," she nodded, "tha engines gone and Ah ain't got a way ta fix it, so Ah'm kinda stuck..."
"Well lemme take a look."
Gratefully she let him open the car back up, a little more steam rising from inside when he did so. He frowned, peering into the space, assessing what was wrong.
"Yeah I see de problem..." he finally said, emerging from the car. Rogue rolled her eyes. That was very helpful, but she bit her tongue in case he left her stranded and she was back to square one.
He pulled off the thick leather gloves he was wearing with his teeth and gave them to Rogue to hold before he pulled up his sleeves and reached into the car. Rogue saw what looked like a spark, a flash of pink, accompanied by a low hissing sound. She had never seen anything quite like it. All of a sudden, he came back up, took his gloves back and put them back on in preparation to get back on his bike.
"Dere, it ain't a great patch up job but it should hold until y' get home, jus' make sure y' get it looked at properly."
"What? How? Ya had no tools!"
"Magic chére."
Suddenly, his striking eyes and lazy grin were beginning to look a little too familiar; she had definitely met him somewhere before....
"Wait, aren't ya one o' Magneto's acolytes? Ya tried ta blow me up!"
"Ah chérie, that was just business, y' understand..." He started to move closer to her and she started backing towards the car. "Besides, hasn't Gambit made it up t' y' now?"
"Yeah, thanks for fixin' mah car Cajun, but Ah should get goin'..."
"It was a pleasure chére, couldn't jus' leave a damsel in distress."
Rogue's eyes flashed at the comment, which made only made Gambit smirk more. She was very beautiful when she got angry...
"That's it, Ah'm goin' home. Thank ya again." She said curtly.
"Wait," he called out, realising he might have gone just a step too far. Catching her round the waist; he pulled her to him, making her yelp in surprise. "A brief encounter needs a proper goodbye non?" With gloved fingers, he caressed her cheek, stirring up sensations she had never felt before.
Rogue was hit with a wave of emotions that seemed completely foreign. Lust, longing, desire, passion...it was frightening and at the same time, completely exhilarating. But he pulled away, and the feelings all faded, no matter how much she tried to cling onto them.
"Goodbye chérie," he whispered, releasing her and going back to his bike.
With a small smile, he pulled his helmet back on again, snapping the visor into place. The bike revved up, and then he was gone, just like that, and a bewildered Rogue was left standing by the edge of the road.
She shook her head, snapping herself out of her reverie. So far, this had been one of the strangest days ever, and that was really saying something. Silently, she climbed back into the driver's seat, ready to go.
Her seat was uncomfortable but she wasn't sure why, it was as if she was sitting on something. Groping around behind her, she eventually reached into the back pocket of her jeans and found something that hadn't been there before. Pulling it out, she took a look at it. It was a playing card, the queen of hearts. Smiling to herself, she started up the engine.
Jean could keep Scott.
(1) Why did you wait till a quarter to one, when there are no buses running not even one...a line from the song 'car trouble' by AGSFB
So I finally wrote something in keeping with the Evo timeline! I just can't remember when exactly...also, I know nothing about cars, I can't even drive (my car is the bus!), but y'know, engine trouble is quite vague. If theres problems there, I'm sorry in advance.
Anyway! Please, please, please review and tell me what you thought, you always encourage me to actually write something for a change, rather than just complaining that I can't!
SweetRevenge