DISCLAIMER: I do not own the X-men, but I do own the first season of X-Men: Evolution on DVD.
The bullet bounced off of Rogue's chest, and Raven put the gun down, hiding it again in its holster at her side.
"Got all the anger out, Momma?"
Mystique ignored her foster daughter's comments.
"Well, where's the girl?"
"Straight to the point, ain't you?" She turned to gesture to Marie, and the three of them headed down the stairs. About halfway down, Remy whispered to her,
"It's good to know dat you'd take de bullet for me." She replied, "Ah'm invulnerable. Ah'd take a bullet for a tin can."
"T'anks."
Marie stepped forward and let her grandmother take a look at her.
"Well, she looks healthy."
"I AM healthy."
"Doesn't seem developmentally challenged. That's a surprise." Raven looked at Remy to let him know that the comment was directed at him.
"I'm NOT challenged. In fact, I'm smarter than you are."
"Doesn't know when to keep her mouth shut."
"Guess where I get that from?"
Remy was surprised. He had only ever seen one other person stand up to Mystique like that. Personally, he was terrified of the woman. Not that he would ever let her know that, of course. Mystique, for her part, was handling being talked back to fairly well. She resisted the urge to pull out her gun and fire off a few rounds into the girl's chest. Rogue was trying her best to fight back the laughter that was threatening to erupt. Marie was totally unafraid of the woman. Rogue knew that nothing irked her mother more than not having the upper hand. It was one thing for someone who was unfamiliar with her to be unafraid, but for someone who knew all about her to not flinch when she talked to them was completely different. Marie enjoyed watching her grandmother squirm. It was a little trick that her mother had taught her.
Raven changed the subject. "So, where do we want to do the whole family bonding thing?"
"In hell." Remy got a punch to the gut from Rogue for that statement. "Ow, Chere! You know dat hurts!"
"It was just a little tap, you big baby."
"Mebbe t' you."
"As endearing as this little exchange of yours is, I was hoping for as little interaction between the two of you as possible. Makes me feel ill, you see."
Marie laughed. Some things never changed. Rogue grabbed Remy's hand, which surprised him, and led the way to the kitchen. Rogue wasn't much into public displays of affection, for obvious reasons, but she enjoyed doing as much as she could to bother her mother. Remy didn't object, and even started to swing his arm, which she put a stop to quickly. When they reached the kitchen, they found Jean and Scott sitting at the table, whispering about something. Wolverine was sitting on a stool at the counter, drinking a beer and watching television. As soon as they all noticed Mystique, the conversation ended and the television went off.
"Ace, what are you doing bringing this trash into my house?" He picked up his beer and chugged the last of it.
Rogue rolled her eyes. Jean and Scott stood up. It was always hard for them to be relaxed around Mystique, even though the Professor had lectured them repeatedly about how when she was there to see either Rogue or Kurt, she was not to be thought of as the enemy. Logan just didn't care. She was always the enemy to him. Scott looked up at her.
"Hello, Ms. Darkholme."
"Shove it."
Mystique, however, had different rules about who was the enemy. To her, the only person in the room who was not her enemy was her daughter. And that was a hard thing to tell herself sometimes as well. Scott had turned red, and mumbled something before leaving the room.
Jean followed him out after turning to Mystique and telling her, "It's uh, nice to see you again." She at least made an effort, for Rogue's sake. Her friend had told her about some of the more kind things that Mystique had done, including adopting her when she was younger.
Logan remained seated at the counter, which bothered Mystique.
"Is the little hairball going to be here for this?"
"It's my house, ain't it?"
Rogue spoke up. "Raven! Logan! Give it a break, willya? You're acting like little kids."
Raven made a face at him, and he unsheathed his claws.
"Ah said cut it out!"
They stared at each other, and at Rogue. Logan retracted his claws and turned to her.
"I ain't doin' this for her, stripes." He grabbed another beer from the refrigerator and left the kitchen. Moments later, Nightcrawler teleported into the kitchen.
"Mutter! Jean told me you were here. What is the occasion?"
"Hello, Kurt. I stopped by to see Marie."
"Ah, right. Well, come by the library before you leave."
"Of course."
"Auf Wiedersehen."
He teleported out again, and Remy reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.
"Anyone else?"
Rogue raised her hand, and he tossed her a bottle. Mystique grabbed it from her.
"I'll not have any child of mine becoming a drunk, thank you."
Rogue snatched it right back. "No, ya won't."
It took less than half an hour until Remy could no longer bear the constant attacks that he received from Raven and the reactions of Rogue and Marie. He excused himself and grabbed a six-pack from the refrigerator and a bag of chips from the cabinet. He left the room, and went looking for Logan. He found him in the rec room.
"Hey. Brought you somet'ing."
He slid the six-pack across the table and threw the bag of chips down next to it. He pulled a pack of cards out of his jacket.
"Poker?"
"Sure, Gumbo. You got chips?"
Remy pointed to the bag.
"Poker chips?"
"Oh, non. Bobby had dem."
Logan just grunted and opened up the bag of chips, spilling them out onto the table and splitting them in half.
"So, you couldn't stand being in the room with her either?"
"Non... none of dem... when dey are all dere, its like t'ree Rogues sitting in a room squabbling wit' each ot'er."
Logan shuddered.
"An' it's bad enough wit' one of her sitting in a room squabbling wit' herself."
"I hear you." He dealt the cards. After awhile, they had both started to eat their chips, which made betting a hard thing to do. They gave up on betting and instead just played, exchanging jokes and stories. Logan hadn't warmed up to the idea of Gambit dating Rogue very quickly, but once Marie showed up, he decided that there was nothing he could do about it. He still threatened the Cajun on a regular basis, but they both knew that that was mostly just for the sake of doing it. They had reached an understanding between them and found that they actually got along very well. They were also the best card players in the house, and that made them feel even more linked. Logan dealt out the next hand as a group of students came into the room. He turned to them and raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't you supposed to be in class or something?"
"Uh, it's Saturday."
"So go work out in the danger room."
"We aren't allowed to run it ourselves."
"So find someone to run it."
"Everyone's busy."
He looked at the students, and then at Remy, who shrugged and tapped the empty bottle next to him. Logan turned back to the students.
"You can stay on one condition. Go get us another six-pack."
"But we're not allowed—"
"You are now."
Two of the kids walked out, and some of them went over to the TV and started flipping through the channels. Soon, the two students who had gone for the beers came back, out of breath. They locked the door behind them, and Remy turned to them.
"What? What's wrong?"
One of them was trying to talk, but couldn't. The other was able to choke something out.
"M...Mys...Mystique. In the kitchen."
Remy and Logan laughed, and Remy reached for the beers.
"Now you know why we din't want t' go in dere, non?"
"You knew she was here?"
"Oui. She's here a lot."
"WHAT?"
Logan laughed. He loved making the kids feel uncomfortable, but only to a certain degree.
"She's not here to kill anyone." He reassured them. They didn't seem any less frazzled, though. The students who had been watching TV now were paying attention to what was happening, and one of them asked Logan, "Are you sure she won't kill anyone?"
They had all heard stories, of course. Logan smiled at the kid and answered him, "Well, she might kill LeBeau here, but that's alright."
The students were still as scared as before, if not more so. Remy took a swig of his beer and clarified, "Mystique is here t' see Rogue. She don' like me none, because Rogue and I have a..."
"Ravaging affair?" One of the students offered.
"I was t'inking somet'ing like 'history'."
A/N: Well... I tried to get this up as soon as i could. Hope you like it. and review. please?