*Chapter 13*
~Trust~
Another day wasted. Kitty thought darkly. She and Piotr had wandered all over half of Paris it seemed and they hadn't learned a single thing. The only difference between today and yesterday was her partner. Normally she was paired with Jean but today Piotr had accompanied her. That seemed strange to her, especially since Piotr informed her that it had been Jean's idea. She's planning something I just know it! But the question is what? Shadowcat's mind began imaging various plots against her and most of them involved Bobby. She shuddered.
"What are you thinking about Katya?" Piotr asked, using his Russian pet name for her.
"All the horrible things that Jean could be planning with Bobby right now." She growled, not looking the least bit pleased.
"Now, now they are probably doing the same things we are. There is no reason to suspect them of doing anything of that sort, and they are both friends, they'd never do anything 'horrible' to you." The Russian ex-soldier soothed.
"I'm not so sure about that. Jean's been trying to get me to accept Bobby's advances since before we left home. You said it was her idea to switch partners today so I bet she did it to plot with Bobby." Kitty declared.
"That could be I suppose. But is that such a bad thing?" Piotr questioned.
"Of course it is! He can be a nice person and he is a decent friend but I'm just not interested in him that way." She cried, quite frustrated by the situation.
"Come now, Bobby isn't that bad is he? If you gave half a chance you might find that you like him." The Russian suggested.
"Where have I heard that before? That's right, Jean told me the exact same thing before we left England and several times since then. And still I have no romantic interest in Robert at all; it is not going to change. How many times do I have to say that?" Shadowcat moaned. And even if I did feel something other than friendship for him I'm not free to act on it. She added silently, not wanting to answer any questions about it.
"Alright, we won't talk about it anymore. No need to get upset over it." Piotr said with a small chuckle.
"Good, now that that's settled what do we talk about? How pointless today's activities were? Or something else?" Kitty wondered.
"I don't know, whatever you want to talk about is fine with me." Piotr replied.
"Well, how about Paris. What do you think of this city as compared to other cities that you've visited?" Kitty asked.
Piotr answered by comparing Paris to London as well as Moscow and St. Petersburg. All in all he found Paris to have to best weather, London had fog and good theater, and the two Russian cities had beautiful buildings but terrible winters. Kitty continued to ask Colossus all sorts of questions about Russia and other things to pass the time as they made their way back 'home' to the Black Fox.
***
"Wait, are you saying we may actually have a lead?" Bobby asked in confusion. The group sat around a table eating their dinner when Logan revealed his run in with the French thief.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. The question now is can he be trusted and can he deliver?" The feral man said. "So what do you all think, can we trust him?"
"He speaks English?" Bobby asked incredulously.
"Yes, he speaks decent English." Logan growled.
"Well what are your impressions of him?" Jean questioned.
"For one he's a thief, he could steal from us if we aren't careful. That's the biggest problem I can think of. If we decide to trust him we all have to be careful of our things around him. In fact I suggest we don't meet with him here but somewhere else just in case. Aside from that I didn't see anything about him that bothers me." Logan answered.
"Anything else about him?" Kitty inquired.
"Not that I noticed no." Logan replied. "So what's the decision?"
"This is the only lead we've come across in two weeks, it may not be completely trustworthy but it's better than nothing. I saw we go for it." Kitty said firmly.
"I agree; it's worth the risk." Jean concurred.
"As do I." Piotr agreed.
"Me too." Bobby answered.
"So it's settled then. The next time I see him I'll grab him and set things up." Wolverine said decisively.
"Logan," Kitty said warningly. "Don't grab him, that's rude. Can't you just walk up to him and talk like a civilized person?"
"Not my style Kit. Don't worry, I won't hurt him. Unless he gives me a good reason to anyway." He grumbled.
"So are you going to take anybody with you?" Bobby asked.
"Well yes I am." Logan replied, with a small but evil grin. This made Bobby very nervous. The feral man rarely smiled. When he did it usually meant that he would enjoy something at someone else's expense.
"Who?" Bobby nervously asked. It better not be me!
"You of course, thanks for volunteering." Logan replied.
By this time everyone had finished eating and headed back to their rooms for the night. They all settled down for the night, most falling asleep quickly, enjoying the luxury of sleeping on a real bed. Not Bobby though, his mind was to busy bemoaning his fate to let him sleep. He had been planning on putting Jean's advice to good use tomorrow but Wolverine had made that impossible. He'd be too busy following Logan around to talk with her at all, and he also had to worry about the man's temper. If he angered Logan it was almost certainly a death sentence. I'm going to die!
***
The next day was a windy one. Some gusts were so strong they stripped laundry from the drying lines. But most of the time the wind was only a mild annoyance. It was more than enough to drive one Robert Drake mad. The morning had started off badly with waking up late due to his sleeping troubles the previous night. This caused him to almost miss breakfast and when he did finish eating, he immediately had to leave with Logan to seek out this helpful thief. Now they were wandering the narrow, filthy streets of Paris in the area this Remy person was last seen hoping to get lucky. No luck so far.
"Can we go back now? It's almost lunch time and we haven't seen a sign of this man." Bobby whined.
"Will you stop whining and be patient? We're not going back until we find him or it gets dark. If you're hungry then go buy something to eat." Wolverine growled. He swore this boy was whining simply to annoy him. Perhaps it was a mistake to bring him along to find Remy. But Bobby's stupid question had given him an opening he couldn't pass up. It was a chance to give Kitty a break from her tireless and unwanted suitor and he knew that if he didn't separate the two she just might explode, again. So if he wanted to help his prized sword student he'd have to put up with this for a while longer. Thankfully the wait was over.
"Bonjour, are you looking for me?" A French voice inquired. Bobby just about jumped out of his skin while Logan remained perfectly calm.
"Yes we were. Now are we going to talk or are you going to play games?" Wolverine growled.
"Remy will talk, he offer to help so here he is." Gambit replied smoothly.
"Good, so let's talk. Any place you prefer?" Logan asked, remembering what Kitty had asked of him the day before.
"Here be fine." Remy replied, calmly leaning against the rough wall of a nearby alley. "So what you want to know?"
"We're looking for something that was stolen from a place in Northern England. You wouldn't happen to know anything about the Destiny Scrolls would you?" Wolverine questioned. He noticed the thief's strange eyes but said nothing, filing away that little piece of information for later.
"No, Remy know nothing about that. But he ask around if you want. If it here then the Guild knows, maybe even stole it already. Want Remy to see?" The thief asked helpfully. Wolverine narrowed his eyes suspiciously, this was too easy and the thief hadn't even demanded pay for his services. But so far so good, he'd play along and see where things went.
"Sure, it can't hurt. Do you mind if we follow you?" Logan asked as politely as he could. Remy seemed surprised at the request and took his time deciding.
"Alright, if you really want to follow Remy you can. But you better keep up, Remy not stopping if you get lost." The Frenchman warned.
"Good, lead on then." Logan replied. The thief gave a mock bow and proceeded off in some random direction, the feral man and a somewhat bewildered Bobby following behind.