Rowen stared at Remy for a minute. Trying to process what had just happened. Remy looked back. His eyes on the red mark on Rowen's cheek, his shaking hand hovered just above it. Just as he opened his mouth Rowen fled.

Remy took a step out of the room to follow but was thrown in to a wall by josh.

"YOU FUCKING BARSTED! YOU EVER. EVER GO NEAR HER AGAIN AND I WILL KILL YOU. DO YOU UNDER STAND? I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"Josh…"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT."

Punching Remy in the stomach josh walked off down the hall after his sister.

"…Tell her ah'm sorry and dat ah love her." Remy slouched against the wall. One arm on his stomach the other holding him up. "Tell her ah need her." His words fell on deaf ears as everyone walked off, leaving him alone to think about what her did.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Rowen sat on the floor of the shower ignoring the banging on the door of her brother.

"Rowen. Just say something. If you don't I'm going to send kitty in. Come on, we've got a training session in half and hour and Logan wants everyone there. Rowen. Please."

Tears rolled down the girls face and stung her cheek. She raised her hand up and placed it on the warm skin.

I thought my days of this were over. Why do the people I love hurt me?

On the other side of the door, josh was on the floor with his back leant against the wall listening for any sound of a reply.

Rogue and Kitty were leant against the opposite wall.

"Josh, do you want me to go in?"

"Not yet kitty."

"Ah can't believe that Swamp rat. Ah've never known him do anything like this josh. Not since he came here. Ah swear."

"Where was he yesterday?"

"Ah don't know. Ah asked Logan, but he had no idea, and he knows everything in this place. Trainings in 10 minutes. And Limbos got enough problems with out having Logan on her case."

"Yeah. Kitty's coming in Rowen." Josh stood up and moved to the side so that Kitty could get through.

Rowen was still on the floor of the shower as kitty came through the door. Kitty picked up a towel and opened the shower door.

"You can't stay in here limbo. You can't let guys like him win. The best thing you can do is show you're face at this training session." Rowen looked up at the girl and took the towel. The group walked down the corridor to Rowen's room. As the girls went in Josh went back to his dorm to get changed.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Pulling his training top over his wings josh walked out of the room. The rest of the institute's boys were running around trying to find their things that other people had borrowed. As he walked past Remy's room Josh couldn't help but look through the open door. He expected to find the Cajun leaning through an open window having a cigarette like normal but instead he was sat on the bed wearing the exact same thing as earlier looking at a photo frame. And crying. Josh's conscious fought with it's self. As much as he would have loved to walk straight passed and let the Cajun get in to trouble he couldn't do it. "Trainings in 5 minutes." Remy looked up and wiped his eyes quickly.

"How long you been stood dere?"

"Relax. I ain't going to tell anyone you were crying. I think you've damaged your reputation enough."

"Josh about earlier. Just tell her dat ah got drunk last night. My head was hurtin' and ah was in ah bad mood. Ah know it's no excuse, but please ah just want her to know dat I didn' mean what I said."

Josh walked down to the main hall and out the front door. He spotted the rest of the students over by the tree's. He ran over and stopped by his sister. Amara looked over at him and tried to wave for him to stand with her. Josh ignored her. Let her moan. I've got more important stuff to worry about. He looked at his sisters red cheek. He'd seen her with enough marks like it before to know that it would bruise. As if she knew he was staring at it Rowen raised her hand to cover it. Josh leaned in and whispered Remy's message in her ear. As he did She turned to scan the path down from the entrance to see if he was coming.

Logan waited another few minutes then started to explain what they would be doing.

"You're going to split in to 2 teams and complete the obstacle course, collecting the flag at the end. The first complete team back wins and the losers have to take over cleaning duties for a week. Sparks wings you're captains. Choose your own teams."

Josh and Rowen fought their way through the crowd of students to stand by Logan and make their choices.

"Ladies First."

"Fine. Rogue."

"Scott."

"Jean"

"Bobby."

"Kitty"

"Amara."

"Kurt"

"Ray."

"Sam."

"Roberto."

"Peter."

"Jubes."

"Rahne."

"Tabby."

"Hey that's not fair, they've got a teleporter and a telepath. Surely that's cheating?"

"There's an odd number."

"Yeah, Who's having Jamie?"

"I suppose we could split him."

Both teams started shouting to Logan about different things.

Remy ran down to Logan. "Sorry. I got distracted." He looked over to Rowen who blanked him.

"You'll pay later Gumbo. Right theres 2 left now, and the teams are fine as they are. So pick."

"I'm not having Remy."

"Yeah, I'd be too tempted to phase him in to a tree."

"Me neither, or we'd defiantly loose seeing as he'd be left in a pit."

Logan looked at the twins; both seemed as determined as the other. "I'm not going to ask. Gumbo Stay here. I want to talk to you. Jamie join Sparks team. She'll look after you. Remember. First complete team back." All the young mutants ran off towards the woods. "Now what's happened Cajun? Sparks isn't looking too happy with ya."

"Ah've done something really stupid Logan. Ah went to Salem yesterday. Josh had told me about dis shop dat Rowen really loved, so ah went to get her a present. Not for any reason, but ah just wanted to do somethin' nice and try cheer her up. Then on de way back ah got drunk in de club. Ah swear ah only meant to have one, but ah got talkin' to people. When ah got back she was sat on de stairs. Ah was so drunk ah didn' even realize, Ah don' even remember how ah got home. De next thing ah knew I was woken by Rowen bangin' on de door screamin' at me. We go in to a fight. Ah swear ah didn' mean it Logan. I didn' mean to do it."

"What did you do?"

"Ah…Ah hit her. Ah don' even know why, It was like ah had no control, like when I was back working for magneto and that Mesmero guy had me under his control. Merde. Ah think ah lost her for good. And ah'm terrified."

"Jesus kid. Firstly you're grounded. For the rest of the summer. No powers. You're helping whichever team that loses take over cleaning duty and washing all the cars in the garage. Second. As soon as this lot get back, we're telling Charles, 'Ro and Hank. And by we I mean you. If you're lucky they'll agree with my punishment for you. The only way you're going to get out of this is by running away. And if you do,

I'll make sure you're never allowed back. The only thing you were under the influence of was alcohol, which you should have even been drinking."

XxXxXxXxXxX

Rowen's team stood by hidden in the trees, waiting for the other team to reach the flag.

"So does everyone remember the plan?"

"Yeah. Second tree."

"I don't get it."

"That's ok J, Just stay with Jean."

"They're already at the flag."

"Ready?"

"Ready." Kurt grabbed Kitty and teleported to the others.

"Guten Tag." Kurt grabbed the flag out of Josh's hand as kitty phased him in to the ground. Grabbing kitty again Kurt teleported them back to the rest of the group. Rowen stepped out of the trees and threw a field up.

"Go."

"Rowen you cheat."

"We're not cheating josh. We just came up with a plan."

"I can't move."

"That's cos you can get through the field."

"Rowen. We're there."

"So long bro. Kurt." Kurt took hold of Rowen's arm and teleported them back to the rest of the group.

XxXxXxXxXxX

The team walked out of the woods.

"Did you see Scott's face?"

"Yeah. Was he mad or what?"

"Are we just going to leave josh stood there?"

"Relax the there'll get him out."

"Eventually."

Logan looked over at the emerging group and noticed the evil smiles on their faces. "What did you do now? And where is the other team?"

"They're trying to get their almighty leader out of the ground."

"And despite what you may hear there was no cheating involved."

Rowen smiled and joked along with the rest. But she was still crying inside. Remy was sat on the bench next to Logan. His head in his hands. Rowen concentrated, looking into his aura for answers, but all she got was a mix of emotions, confusion, pain, fear. Like her he was crying inside, trying so desperately to hold it in, and only just managing.

XxXxXxXxXxX

1 month later.

Rowen sat on her windowsill watching Remy clean the cars on the drive. She missed him. She had tried to forget about him, but it was hard when they had training together, and when she couldn't stop thinking about him, all she wanted was an explanation and an apology, but with nearly everyone at the institute ignoring Remy and hanging around her, she couldn't get a chance. Would he even want to explain? He'd said some hurtful things that must have come from somewhere. Maybe he didn't care anymore. Despite rarely being left on her own, she'd felt so alone.

Remy pulled his top off and looked up to the window where Rowen was sat. Her missed her. Rogue had started to sit in his place at meal times; Logan refused to pair them up in training, and the rest of the time she was always with somebody. He just wanted to talk to her and explain, not that he fully understood what had happened himself. It was his birthday next week and all he had to look forward to was being stuck in the institute with most people avoiding him. None of the girls had talked to him in past month nor half of the guys too. He felt alone.

He turned as he heard a car drive up behind him. The SUV was covered in mud. Josh got out of the drivers seat and threw the keys at Remy.

"I want it clean for tonight."

"I cleaned it yesterday Josh, And I only have to do each car once so it's you're responsibility."

Rowen frowned. Her brother and Remy were arguing yet again. She cracked her window open slightly and listened in.

"She's never goin' to speak to me again thanks to you anyway so why should I do as you say?"

"It's your own fault. You hit her."

"Ah didn' know what ah was doing."

"Yeah how convenient that you can't remember anything until the point you smacked her one."

Bamph. Rowen's eavesdropping was distracted by a loud noise and a distinct smell of sulpher and brimstone. "You really pick you're moments Kurt."

"Sorry Limbo. I was just wondering if you vould like to come to the cinema with me, Katzchen and Rogue?"

"I…" Rowen thought for a moment about the conversation she had just heard and looked out of the window again. "There's something I need to sort out Kurt sorry. Will you do me a favor? Josh is talking to Remy, Just bampf down and tell him that Amara is looking for him."

"Ok." In another cloud of smoke Kurt disappeared and reappeared down below. Rowen heard the murmur of voices and returned to window in time to see her brother walk off. She grabbed a notebook of the desk behind her and wrote a quick note.

You know where I am. We need to talk.

Ripping the paper out she screwed it up and threw it out of the window.

Something hit the back of Remy's head. He turned around and saw the ball of paper. Picking it up he looked around. Rowen was still up by the window, No longer trying to hide the fact she was watching him. He looked at the note and smiled up. Throwing his sponge into the bucket he walked off.

There was a knock at Rowen's door. She stood up quickly and let Remy in before anyone would notice. He raised his hand to stoke her face, but Rowen flinched back.

"Don't touch me. Just tell me why."

"Ah don' know. Row ah swear. It's like I wasn' in control of what ah was doin'." A tear escaped from his eye. "Ah'm sorry." Rowen stared in to his aura. She could tell that Remy was desperately trying to remember that morning. He wasn't just pretending. Then Rowen realized that he was scared. He had no idea what had happened to him, and because of it he'd lost the one thing that he felt was truly important.

Rowen walked to the bed where Remy had sat and lifted his head to face her. She stared in to his eyes, as they searched her own. Tears were rolling silently down Remy's cheek. Closing her eyes Rowen leant in and pressed her mouth to Remy's. His hands went up around her waist. One grabbing her butt as the other slid up her back. He pulled her in to him as he laid back on the bed.