Replay: Slow Motion

Installment 14

This was a bad idea. A very bad idea the large Russian mutant repeated in his head. If he and Pyro were caught listening in on a private discussion of Magneto's there would be serious consequences. For a man made entirely out of metal having the master of magnetism angry with you was none too appealing. But Piotr's Aussie companion had been insistent and he had become increasingly curious as to of what was going on with their new teammate. So that was that. Curiosity had led them intothe incredibly uncomfortable situation of being stuck in an air vent together.

"I'm still a bit confused as to of why you had me do this." said a rather grotesque looking man. Magneto raised his brow as two fingers went up to his lips.

"And I am equally confused as to of why you think I owe you an explanation." The two men continued to eye one another from across the large oak desk until with a large intake of breath Eric attempted to explain all. "Well you see Mastermind, it would seem that Remy has become quite taken with the young mutant girl Rogue."

"Yes, I was able to see that when going through his memories."

"Then I take it you know that he was at the Institute earlier and saw the others." he said getting up from his seat and moving to look out the window.

"Hmmm.. yes, that was what you wanted me to erase from his memory." There was a slight pause and when the man realized Magneto was not about to explain further he dug for more information. "But I don't understand why."

"Why? Because if he befriended them he might let something slip. From what I understand he does not yet realize just exactly what Xavier's Institute is. He doesn't know about the X-Men yet but if he did we would run the risk of losing him."

"But Lord Magneto, I could tell from what I saw that the boy dislikes humans almost as much as you do. He would never join the X-Men." Erik chuckled and turned to face him.

"I take it you have never been in love."

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The sun shone through the window and fell delicately over the lean body of the room's sleeping occupant. However, he didn't enjoy it in the least. Remy Lebeau ripped the pillow from under his head and proceeded to cover his face with it. Having red on black eyes is not all it made out to be. The Cajun thought to himself when he heard the bedroom door creak open. He felt very alert all of the sudden as a wave of panic washed over him. It scared him. It wasn't his normal reaction to an intruder at all. Yet he felt a sense of dread. It was like some deep, hidden memory was trying to resurface. Before it was able to, someone had ripped the pillow off of his face.

"What you hidin' from under there mate?" Pyro asked with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"What da hell you be doin' in my room!" Remy shot back grabbing the pillow.

"Just wanted to check in on our pal. Make sure you're still alive." It wasn't until John had said "our" that Remy realized Piotr was standing in the door.

"Course Remy alive, why wouldn..." he didn't finish as the memory hit him like a ton of bricks "de accident..." he said as his eyes went wide. Crouching over Remy's covered legs Pyro turned his head.

"Don't you remember?" Remy looked at him like he was lost and John shot a glance over at Colossus.

"Ya. Course I remember. Musta hit my head a bit harder den I thought."

"Guess so" the words had barely been formed when Gambit shot out of the bed.

"I need to find out how Rogue is." He began running around the room trying to pull on clothes. He stopped in front of a mirror and tried to fix his hair. Pyro chuckled at the man's antics.

"Whache. Whache." he sounded while making a "whipping" motion causing a low chuckle to escape the large Russian as well. Heading out the door Remy suddenly stopped in mid-motion.

"Damn it!" he yelled slamming the door and making his way back into the room.

"What's a matter there mate?" he asked the Cajun who flopped back down onto his bed.

"I don know where the belle femme live." he said with a great big frustrated sigh and then threw his hands over his eyes.

"No. Don't suppose you do mate" Pyro added as he met with Piotr's knowing eyes.

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…RING…

"Would somebody..."

"Gotit!" Pietro called yanking the phone off the hook. "Hello?"

"Hey Pietro it's Kitty I..."

"How'sRogue?"

"Well, that's, like, what I was calling to tell you, it's, like, the weirdest thing, she's totally fine."

"Fine?" he asked more than a little confused.

"Ya. She woke up and she, like, doesn't have a scratch on her!"

"Iwannaseeher."

"Well, like, okay. But I mean, I don't know if everyone will like it."

"Idon'tcare."

"Well, okay. Come to the back door and I'll let you in then." She waited for him to reply but heard nothing. "Pietro..." Then there was a soft knock at the back door. "Whoa that was, like, totally fast." she said opening the door. He smiled at the girl and she blushed just a little. "Okay, just try and stay quiet." He nodded as she began leading him up to the room. It felt like it had taken forever by the time they got up to the girl's wing. "Alright it's the third door on the left." she said turning to face him.

"You're not coming?" He seemed surprised.

"Nah. I'm gonna give you two some alone time." she said with a giggle. Pietro's jaw dropped slightly but he recovered quickly and replaced the look with a smile.

"Thanks." She smiled back at him and then left. He hesitantly made his way down to the Goth's room and knocked on the door.

"Kurt, really, AH'M FAHNE! Ya don' have ta keep checkin' in on meh every minute!" Rogue continued to read her book when the door slowly creaked open.

"Uh...hi Rogue."

"Pietro!" the girl exclaimed happily as she jumped out of bed and ran to give the silver haired boy a hug. Even though Rogue's outward appearance was back to normal she was still weak and fell right into Pietro's waiting arms. Her breath hitched in her throat as she looked up to meet his gaze. "Ummm..hi." she said sheepishly then lowered her face to hide the reddening of her cheeks. Next thing she knew she was swept off her feet and a pair of strong arms wrapped around her to carry her bridal style. Neither one spoke as Pietro brought her back over to her bed and sat her down. "Thanks."

"Not a problem."

"And thank ya for bringin' meh here the other night. Kitty told meh it was ya."

"You had me sort of worried there." he added turning to look at her. "So, how do you feel?"

"Pretty good all thangs considered. Logan let meh absorb him."

"Sorta figured that."

"Ummm..Pietro?" the girl asked while staring at her black painted nails.

"Ya."

"Do ya know if Remy's okay?" He could tell she was a bit reluctant to ask him and it made him feel bad. So rather than spit out the first thing that came to his mind like whothehellcares?he just tried to be honest with her.

"He was a little banged up, but other then that, he seemed fine. To be honest I was too worried about you to notice."

"Oh." Was her soft reply when a loud BAMF followed by a cloud of blue and pink appeared in front of them. After the smoke disappeared the young, blue, mutant known as Nightcrawler appeared.

"Vhat are you doing in mein schester's vroom!"

"Don't ya ever KNOCK?" she yelled back. Rogue turned to apologize to Pietro only to find that the speedy mutant had already gone.

TBC>