Chapter Seven
Early the next morning, I was awakened by a persistent tapping noise and it took me a few moments of groggy wondering before I realized that someone was knocking on the door. I glared at the door, hoping that it would stop if I ignored it for long enough. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was only eight and I knew that the training session didn't start until nine which should have given me another half hour to sleep. But, the knocking would not stop so I got off the bed and stumbled over to the door.
Remy was on the other side, fist half raised to start the annoying knocking again but it fell back to his side when he saw me. He looked tired, like he hadn't gotten any more sleep than I had from my own nightmares.
"Hey, I jus'...wanted t' apologize for last night, been a long time since I had a nightmare like dat."
"Uh, yeah, it's no problem," I responded a little nervously. For some reason Remy apologizing to me seemed a little off. Guess I never expected such a thing to happen.
"I didn' hurt y' did I?"
"Nah, you made a pretty good shield."
"Why am I always de one gettin' hurt?" he said with a sigh of mock indignation.
"Bad karma." The bantering was beginning to make me feel a bit more comfortable. He offered up a small smile for me. I think that he was still too shaken by the nightmare to find any real humor.
"Yeah, well…T'anks. For helpin'. Know y' don' like me much. Most people woulda just walked away, or stood by de door laughin'." He tried to say it with some humor but he came up short.
"Well, I couldn't let you kill yourself and I don't dislike you…"
"Mais, y' don' trust me."
"And I suppose you trust me?"
He seemed to think for a moment. "I do now." I looked at him quizzically. "Y' helped last night when y' coulda walked away."
"And that makes you trust me?"
"Well, maybe not wit' my secrets mais I do trust y' t' watch my back in a fight."
I snorted at him in disbelief. "The only one who's going to watch anyone's back in this place is yourself. You can't depend on other people." He looked at me with something akin to pity but I could see a flicker of understanding in his eyes as well.
"Y' really believe dat?"
I shrugged. What was the big deal anyway? "Yeah."
He looked back at me and I just knew that I was about to be lectured. I swear this guy could turn anything into some sort of lesson. "Den let's hope dat you're not right."
"Huh? What no lecture?" I was astonished.
"Y' want one? Alright den." He cleared his throat dramatically. "We are on a team an' a team must trust each ot'er t' work-" I groaned and he quieted. "I can' make y' change y' views mais one day y' will understand."
"Understand what? That if you trust someone to watch out for you'll they'll just stab you in the back or let you down? Well, I understand that fine." I clamped my mouth shut realizing that I had said too much. Why was I opening up to him, even a little?
"Not everybody is like dat," he said quietly.
"Prove it," I sneered at him.
"Dat's what I'm tryin' t' do." I snorted but didn't say anything. "Y' going back t' sleep den?" he asked suddenly, changing the subject for which I was grateful.
I looked longingly back at my bed but my stomach was demanding that I feed it so I shook my head. "Nah, gonna get something to eat."
"Sounds good. Where y' wanna go?" he asked with a grin.
"Excuse me?"
He rolled his eyes. "Dere ain't no food in de house an' I'm pretty hungry too. Someone needs t' go grocery shopping." He looked pointedly at me.
I looked at him in askance. "Why do I always get saddled with the chores?"
"'Cause y' de one wit' de jeep," he replied smugly.
"And why can't you drive the je-?" He got a rather mischievous glint in his eyes and I quickly backtracked. "On second thought, I'll do it."
"Smart choice."
"But, you're paying for breakfast." No way was I doing the shopping and getting nothing in return.
"Fine. Get dressed den or I'll leave wit'out y'." Rolling my eyes I turned away. "I'll meet y' downstairs."
I heard him walk away and headed for my closet to find some clothes, thinking over what he had said as I got ready. Did I really dislike him? No, I realized. I didn't hate him at all anymore. But did I trust him? Probably more than I should. That scared me. There were not many people that I trusted. Only Todd and Fred could be considered to have any of my trust and even that wasn't much. I didn't even trust Kitty all that much but then she had never really given me much reason to. I found myself wanting to trust Remy though I wasn't sure if I could actually do it.
I came downstairs a short while later, having showered and dressed. Remy slipped his sunglasses on and I was glad to see the bruising completely gone, though there was a slight crook in his nose now. Probably wouldn't have been there had he been able to go to a doctor.
"Y' ready t' go den?" Remy asked and tossed me the keys.
"Yeah. Where are Todd and Fred anyway?" Most likely they were still sleeping.
"Sleepin' I guess. What kinda nutcase gets up dis early?" I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "I don' count. I didn' get up dis early, I jus' didn' go t' sleep."
Rolling my eyes, I led the way to the jeep and got in. He slid in next to me and we headed off down the road. We pulled into a bakery that made the most excellent coffee not long after and took seats at one of the small tables inside.
The time passed in companionable silence. We drank our incredibly good coffee and ate a surprisingly good breakfast without sniping at each other once. The fact that we were currently stuffing food into our mouths probably had everything to with that, though. But, inevitably, we ran out of food. The waiter came by with the check shortly after we were done. I smirked at Remy.
"Well? Pay the man, Remy."
With a glare he did so but then the glare turned to a sort of evil grin. "Y' know," he said casually, "people are gonna be t'inkin' dat we're toget'er."
"What the heck are you talking about?" I watched him warily as he stood and walked over behind my chair. He leaned over me slightly and spoke lowly.
"Me takin' y' out t' breakfast, payin' for y' an' all, an', dis early in de morning, it could only mean dat we spent de night toget'er, non?" He, then, quickly pulled my chair back and surprised the hell out of my by flopping down on my lap, wrapping his arms around me and bringing his face unbearably close to mine.
"Get the hell off of me!" I shoved him off so that he lay sprawled on the floor looking up at me with a hurt expression.
"Cher, does dis mean dat we're fightin' again?" I looked at him in disgust and got up to stalk out the door. I stopped when I got to the door though and glared back at him. He was shrugging up at the waiter, who was looking at him in bemusement. "Don' worry, he gets like dis somet'imes, not enough sleep," he whispered to the waiter but loud enough so that I could still hear him.
I turned away, shouting over my shoulder as I left, "I hope you enjoy your walk home, darlin'." I could hear him curse from behind me and scramble to his feet.
"Merde, Lance! No, wait, I didn't-" But, his voice was drowned out when I started up the jeep and took off down the road.
#
When I got back to the house, I found that Todd and Fred were awake and milling about in the living room trying, unsuccessfully, to watch the TV. They looked up when I walked into the room.
"Where have you been?" Todd asked, though he obviously was not very interested in the answer.
"Out." I sat down on the couch and thought for a moment. "What do you guys think of Gambit?" They both looked at me odd. I glared at them. "Well?"
Fred shrugged. "We wouldn't have any food or money if it weren't for him." Todd nodded in agreement.
"Actually, I think that's Magneto's doing. That's not what I meant anyway. Do you like him?"
Again Fred shrugged; he obviously didn't care one way or the other. Todd looked less than happy though.
"He chased my girlfriend away, yo!"
"Guess I'll take that as a no," I mumbled.
"He tried to blow me up!"
"Alright I get it." This wasn't helping me at all. But then what was I expecting? That I'd actually be able to have a deep conversation with these two? They didn't really care about anything that didn't directly involve them. They would take orders from Gambit and follow them but I guess they never bothered with anything beyond that. And what was beyond that? Friends? Gambit and I, were we becoming friends? That didn't bother me much, come to think of it, it didn't bother me at all. Maybe I was in the twilight zone.
Thankfully, the door slammed open and provided the perfect distraction from those thoughts. I was expecting Remy to walk into the room, but was shocked to see Pyro walk in like he owned the place. He ignored us to scan the room.
"Where is Gambit?" he asked finally, sounding irritated.
I had to hide a grin. "Out." I wonder how far he'd managed to walk by now.
Pyro. scowled. "His bike is still here."
"Then I guess he's walking," I pointed out to him. "What do you want?"
"I have an assignment from Magneto for him."
"Looks like you'll have to give it to him later."
He grinned at me and leaned against the wall. "I don't mind waiting."
It was my turn to scowl. I had a feeling that he was trying to piss me off and it was working brilliantly. It would be awhile before Remy got back and I didn't want to deal with Pyro in the meantime. I heaved myself to my feet and walked over to the door. It looked like I was going to have to go and get Remy if I ever wanted to get rid of Pyro. Pyro watched me leave but didn't say anything, even though I had expected him to stop me or at least demand to know where I was going.
It didn't take me long to find Remy walking along the sidewalk and looking rather dejected. His face brightened into a smile when I pulled up next to him, though.
"Cher, y' do love me!"
I rolled my eyes. "Just get in." He did so and we headed back to the house. I gave him a sidelong glance. "Just so you know, I wouldn't be picking you up if I didn't have a reason."
He raised an eyebrow at me. "An' what is dis reason?"
"Pyro showed up. Says he has mission for you."
Gambit groaned. "Great." I wholeheartedly agreed with him.
A/N: Wow, I say a few days and it ends up being a couple weeks. Sorry 'bout that. Mais, I've had relatives over and so have not had as much time for writing as I would like.
SailorWade: Patience, dear, patience. They will get together eventually. Besides, I'm told that I tend to rush into the romances therefore these two get to take at least a bit more time. But it will happen one day!
WildfireFriendship: I don't think it would explode the moment Remy let go of the lamp because if things did do that, he probably wouldn't even have his hands anymore. Also his cards would never make it to their targets, cause they would have already exploded. Instead they explode on impact, in this case when the lamp hit the table. Or he can do that time delay thingy, where the object doesn't explode until a few seconds or minutes later. Like Under Lock and Key. When he charged the bus it didn't explode right away cause he had to give himself a few seconds to get a safe distance away, had it blown as soon as he let go he probably would have died. I'm rambling though, I do that sometimes. Anyway, I hope that explains my thinking and gets me off the hook yes?