Kimenomi: I would safely say that Madeline's anger comes from both the rumours and the information Logan has fuelled her fire with. I hope Gambit isn't quite reckless enough to go for Madeline, I doubt she'd respond positively anyway!
Tamazi: Thank you! Yup, it seems so, but Gambit obviously has other plans. He gets around far too much.
Blix: Hehe, yeah it was a nice moment that. Gambit is a flirting machine. He's too damn charming!
Hnyswtypie: Thank you! I'm glad you liked the church scene. And you were laughing at the kitchen scene too! Hehe, it was a big difference the two aspect of the chapter. I thought it would make a good contrast between what Logan is currently doing and Gambit. Gambit clearly doesn't mind his relaxation, but he'll be missing it soon!
Chapter 41
Once back at the mansion Storm had secluded herself in the ground floor kitchen. Since Logan and herself got caught in her downpour, she had quickly pursued to dry off and change into her nightdress, coming out into the kitchen with a dressing gown over her bedclothes. She stood in front of the familiar blue tiled counter, stirring a silver spoon in her cream mug of steaming hot chocolate. The spoon was softly stirred in the mug, clinking gently as it hit the sides of the ceramic. Once down, she placed the spoon in the sink for later cleansing before she picked up her mug and held it comfortingly in both her palms as she turned she look out of the glass doors of the patio entrance.
Just then, the faint light from the corridor was blocked by a shadow; it caused Storm to raise her head slowly from her mug and watch inquisitively as a figure slowly swung through the doorway. With hands rested on either side of the doorframe, Gambit leant in with a faint smirk gracing his lips. He looked like a man with a plan.
"Hey Stormy," he murmured quietly. His eyes glinted in the soft lighting that glowed from the spot light style lights in the kitchen ceiling. It made them shine with such cunning.
Storm managed a small smile his way, ever the polite woman, "Good evening, Gambit." Once she had delivered the greeting she turned her head slowly to look out again through the glass doors ahead of her, watching the long stretch of the grand gardens. The sun had only set recently and there was still a faint brim of golden light on the horizon before the sky pooled off into an inky blackness of starlight.
Gambit slowly entered the kitchen, casually leaning himself forward through the door with his hands still gripping the wooden doorframe. He trailed a calculating look over her form before he released himself and drifted quietly beside Storm with a faint swish of his trench coat. Storm took a slow sip of her hot drink, peering to the male beside her and giving a light bob of her head in a rather shy response to his obviously charming smile. As Storm looked ahead, Gambit followed her gaze, watching out of the large double glazed doors that led out of the kitchen and out onto a quiet patio currently void of life, and the only light being the faint blemish of the moon and the warm glow that spilt out from the kitchen. "It be a nice night," he said quietly, idly parting the opening of his coat as he thumbs hooked upon his front jean belt loops.
Lowering the mug slowly from her face, Storm nodded once, "It is," she said in response.
"Warm for spring," then commented Gambit, looking across to the tall woman beside him. His eyes tenderly studied the reddened slashes across her left cheekbone.
"Mmhm..." murmured Storm, during a sip of her drink.
Gambit turned slowly, leaning his back upon the dark cupboards and shiny work surface. Hands were still at his waist, attached to the belt loops. His eyes continued to study her with the same gleam of usual cunning. Eyes that never missed a trick, "Are ya alright? I mean.. I heard what 'appened out there.. with da Sentinel an' all."
A little surprised at the note of genuine concern in his voice, Storm quickly looked at him, searching his face for any supposed signs of malice. Finding nothing but sincerity (and the same oozing charm) she felt a smile raising her lips at his caring words, "I'm fine, thank you Gambit."
"Ya came out well, Stormy. Only a graze."
Storm lowered her mug to the rectangular wooden table beside her, a slight sound of a gentle 'thunk' of the ceramic meeting the wood as she watched him out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, her head turned some more so both bright eyes were upon him, "That's what you can see," she explained with a faint grimace, "Jumping off moving trucks isn't all that good on the ankles. Logan was alright," she made a faint chuckle, "Adamantium and all."
Gambit's eyes darkened a little at the mention of Logan, and his expression proved clearly that he did not care whether Logan jumped off a moving lorry safely or not. Although the concern continued in his voice for Storm, "Did ya hurt ya ankle bad?"
"Nothing I can't handle," then said Storm with a flash of a smile being sent his way, "Probably just a sprain, it'll heal." She shrugged slowly, spending a short moment to push her fringe from her eyes, "Cuts and bruises go with time."
"Dat be true," replied Gambit smoothly, giving her a gentle smile. One that Storm returned. She much preferred him when he wasn't angling for a fight with Logan. However, just as Storm was about to say something, the lighting above them gave a tired sort of flicker before it shut itself off with a weak fade of light. "Aw no," said Gambit quietly, looking up in the dark room to stare accusingly at the faint outline of where the light was inside the ceiling. "Power cut?"
"No, the lights are on across the garden." She was looking out of the window, and Gambit saw that in the remainder of the building, which curved around the lawn, still had soft rectangles of glowing light. Storm turned round slowly, trying to navigate herself.
A hiss of a breath sounded, "Dat was my foot."
"Sorry, Gambit!"
A clatter sounded.
"Gambit, that's the oven!"
"Well I don't know where I'm goin'!"
"Just don't move!" said Storm desperately. A creak sounded, "Gambit! Stop moving."
"Sorry.." Gambit instead remained stood on the spot instead of trying to make a bid for freedom. He stood glancing around carefully through the blackness. He could see various utensils glinting in the moonlight and shadows stretched ominously over the work surfaces. He could see the gleam of Storm's ivory hair shine at him, and for safety, his eyes latched upon it.
He felt Storm's lithe form brush past his gently as he carefully walked across towards the sink. He saw her hair tumble as she looked up, "I'll check the light, could you bring me a chair?"
"Sure," said Gambit in a calm voice. He walked slowly across the room, hands spread, ready for any possible blockage in his path. His hands clasped the surface of the wooden table; he slid his fingertips along it carefully before he found the top of a wooden chair. He pulled it from under the table and carefully navigated himself back to Storm, only recognised by the very same gleam of her hair and the pair of sparkling eyes that glinted in the blush of the moon. He quietly placed the chair beside her and watched as she steadied it again the cupboard door so it wouldn't slide and she climbed up upon it. Gambit felt her hand jerk out to grab his shoulder precariously as she tried to pull herself safely upwards upon the chair. Gambit gently took the hand in his, steadying her, "Be careful," he said quietly, "You're injured."
"It's alright," said Storm quietly as she straightened on the chair, looking at the light above her which was a circular piece of rounded glass inserted in the ceiling, "This light has always been a little faulty.. normally a tap sorts it out.." She gave it a few energetic prods of encouragement with a finger whilst Gambit surveyed the scene from below.
"Not worked," Gambit pointed out unhelpfully.
Storm gave him a faint glare, "Indeed." Even through the darkness, Storm saw the suave and enchanting smile of his rise up to her. The frown melted off her face and she chuckled quietly before looking back up to the light, "A little zap of electricity sometimes helps." She gave it another little prod, this time a faint spark of electricity jetting out of her fingertip and colliding with the light's wires.
A few poor flickers blearily waved, before the light came back on fully and the spotlights of the room glowed again. The circuit mended. The revival of the light was a blinding resurrection and both mutants squinted in the now oddly bright kitchen. Storm turned carefully on the chair, sharing a grin with Gambit as she made a satisfied little chuckle.
"Good," said Gambit cheerfully as he raised his hands to the woman, taking her gently by the waist, supporting her as she slowly began to lower herself off the chair.
"Yep," said Storm as she went to just the ground again, but just as she put a foot upon the hard flooring, the foot gave a nasty twitch - being her injured ankle - and with a surprised little cry she stumbled forward off the chair and unstably onto the floor. Luckily, Gambit already had his hands upon her to help her off the chair, but whilst he supported her, he was surprised at her fall, and his tightened hold had been a little too enthusiastic. In fact, whilst he had held her quickly upright, he had caused her to be pressed against his torso tightly, a subconscious response to keeping her stood in the fast reaction.
Neither seemed to notice that the hold was starting to look suspiciously like a tight embrace, as Gambit was busy looking carefully at Storm searchingly as the woman was preoccupied with pain for she winced quickly, closing her eyes in aggravation. "Are you alright?" asked Gambit hurriedly.
"I'm fine.. it just twinged.." she made another slight grimace, testing her foot upon the floor a moment before she raised her head to look at him, only just now realising that his hands were securely clasped at her hips, hers upon his arms, and their chests blatantly shoved tightly against each other.
Gambit too seemed to have come across the recognition of their closeness, but he didn't look quite as apprehensive as Storm did. In fact, his eyes lowered gracefully to her lips as his mind gently pondered.
It was almost ironic that at the next moment, somebody chose to walk past the open door. It was even more ironic that this person was number one on Gambit's hate list. At the creak of footsteps, both Gambit and Storm spun their heads to stare at the corridor beyond the door, almost fearful as if they were doing something horrifically wrong. Logan passed by, only glancing in idly. He disappeared from view within the second. However, he had backtracked almost instantaneously and cast a wide-eyed glare into the kitchen.
"Hello, Logan," said Storm breathlessly, disentangling herself from Gambit as the pair almost shot away from each other. After the initial surprise, there was a slight reluctance in Gambit's eyes.
"Hey.." said Logan in a very controlled voice as he walked slowly into the doorway. He looked like he was trying to delve something out, it was the way his eyes trailed them both very unhappily. He may argue for Aurora taking a shine to Gambit, but it really had nothing to do with him where Storm was concerned.
Storm quickly decided to bring up a form of conversation, to, at the very least, divert the pair away from another argument, "Did you notice the light go out earlier Logan?"
"No," answered Logan bluntly, not taking heed on stretching out the topic any further than he had to.
Storm looked a little deflated at the abrupt end, "Oh.. I think it's this light in the kitchen, it's playing up.. just suddenly went off when we were stood in here, did it Gambit?" A slight emphasis was put on the word 'stood'.
Gambit spoke for the first time since Logan's arrival, and Storm was downhearted to hear that the playful and charming quality of his voice had crumbled away to a cold and purposely indifferent tone of sound, "It did."
It seemed both Logan and Gambit had suddenly developed a favouring to short answers.
"Right," said Logan quietly, looking sharply between the pair.
"I'm going to bed," quickly decided Storm, "It is quite late.." She glanced cautiously to Gambit before heading to the door, as she slipped past Logan, an almost missable, "Don't cause trouble," was whispered. Heard by Logan alone. At her words, he frowned, passing her a gentle glance as she exited by him.
From out in the corridor, Logan heard the cheerful farewell of Storm to a hidden body, which then replied with a gentle, "Goodnight, Ororo." It was Aurora, and sure enough, she was coming along the corridor. Half tempted to exit the room and disappear before anyone could see him, Logan tensely turned to the door. Any escape plans he had were ruined as Aurora walked past the room, doing a similar repeat of Logan as she calmly strolled past out of view, then backtracked with a surprised face to see two bitter looking men. "What's wrong?" she asked tentatively.
"Nothing's wrong, petite chere, I be going upstairs now," said Gambit sensibly, seeming to have learned from his mistakes of causing trouble with an X-Man member, "Just 'ad a minor loss o' de light. But it all be fine now."
"Why don't you tell her the truth, Cajun?" suddenly said Logan in a low growl.
Gambit's angry eyes spun so fast upon Logan, the blur of black and red spurred a sick feeling in Aurora's gut. However, a politely puzzled expression came across her face as she took a few steps into the kitchen, reaching Logan's side, "What? Remy, is everything alright?"
Gambit opened his mouth to truthfully defend himself, but Logan was in there first, "Gambit decided to try and share himself with Storm," murmured Logan darkly, "Didn't you, Cajun?" Gambit's eyes flashed dangerously.
But that was nothing to the sudden upheaval that soared through the normally calm pallid irises Aurora had. The soft grey was now a cloudy rage of a storm. Logan, feeling his work was done, turned calmly on the spot, sliding his hands into the jean pockets before he passed gently out of the room, only uttering a faint, "Hurts, doesn't it?" to Aurora before he exited into the corridor to complete his night time stroll.
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