Chapter Three
The First Try
Rogue picked at her food, not really hungry. What she really wanted was to fall asleep right there at the table. She'd been up late last night trying to finish her book and then the newcomer came. She couldn't get the image of his eyes of out of her head. They were just so beautiful. The last time Rogue had seen anything so beautiful was when she was on Magneto's machine. The field of light it created would have fascinated Rogue if she hadn't been in so much pain. It just proves that beautiful things are often the most dangerous.
A shadow fell over Rogue and a voice asked, "Excusez-moi chere, but do y' mind if dis Cajun sits here?"
Rogue looked up at the speaker and her just stared. It was the man she had seen last night. He was wearing his sunglasses but she was sure it was him. After a few moments she regained herself and said, "Ah wont stop you, but you'll find it rather lonely at mah table."
He grinned and sat down across from her, "Well dats why Remy be sittin here, t' make de table seem less lonely. Y' must be Rogue non?"
"Yeah, how did you-?"
"Storm an' de iceman tell me who you were," the man said grinning. He motioned over to Bobby's table where the occupants were still watching him. Remy noticed the way Rogue quickly looked away from the table as soon as she saw him. "Dere a reason y' not be sittin wit dem?" He asked. "Remy know de iceman wanted y' to sit wit him today."
Rogue knew this person for not even a whole minute and was becoming aggravated already. She didn't like people asking her questions like that, "Ah'm sorry who are you?"
The man grinned, "De name be Gambit, but Remy Lebeau to' de ladies," he made a reach for her hand but she quickly pulled it away and reached for her gloves.
"Nothin personal," she mumbled. "It's just not safe to-" she paused, her eyes moving away from his towards the side of the table, "touch mah skin." Remy studied Rogue's face as if searching for something. This was making Rogue uncomfortable so she nodded to the direction of Bobby's table, "Ya should probably go sit with them now. They don't really like being ditched."
"Remy didn't ditch them," he said. "He just gave dem a rain check. He wanted to talk to you."
Rogue looked up at him in surprise, "Why?"
He shrugged grinning, "Jus' wanted t' know who was spying on moi last night."
"Ah wasn't spying on you!" She said defensively. "Ah just thought you were someone else!"
Remy put his hands up in surrender and said in a calming voice, "Sorry chere, didn't mean to make you upset, Remy jus' jokin. Though he really did want t' know who y' were. He was traveling all night, an' y' were de first belle fille he seen fo' awhile."
Rogue's face went red. She'd never taken any French classes but she knew what belle meant. "Ah have to go." She said suddenly and got up and began to walk away leaving her tray there."
"Chere wait," Remy called after her. "Wat Remy do?" But she didn't turn back and soon disappeared from the cafeteria. He didn't get it. When he called her belle his empathy detected her embarrassment which wasn't so uncommon for shy girls to feel when their called that, but he also felt another emotion that he didn't understand. Fear.
Remy looked over at Ice Man's table giving them a confused look. Bobby forced a small smile and shrug, indicating his attempts to talk to Rogue had been the same. Most of the others at the table had the same expressions, except for Carol. Carol was smirking.
xXxXx
Rogue practically ran out of the cafeteria, not even bothering with her food, which she didn't mind. She wasn't hungry anyway. She just wanted to get away from that man. To close, Rogue thought. He had even tried to touch her hand, her bare hand. Once out in the hall Rogue leaned against the cold wall and let her body sink to the floor. She'd been this close to absorbing another person. She knew that even if had touched her she probably would have been able to pull away before the pull started, but still. He didn't know who she was, he didn't have enough experience to know not to touch her, or fear her. It was almost refreshing to not be feared by someone, but she he just didn't know enough to fear.
"Rogue," Storm's voice came. Storm was walking down the hall carrying a vanilla colored folder. Her eyes were on Rogue, staring at her oddly. "What are you doing on the floor?"
"Sorry Ms. Munroe," Rogue said quickly standing up trying to find an excuse for being on the floor. "Ah just don't feel very well," she said. That's it! She would fake sick today. Then she'd get to stay in her room all day and away from people. "Do you think it would be alright if I just stayed in my room today?" She tried to make her voice sound as weak as possible.
Storm studied her for a minute unsure whether to let her or not. As good an actress as Rogue was Storm had no doubt this was just another one of Rogue's attempt to get away from people. Then Storm had an idea, "Actually Rogue I was wondering if you could help me."
Rogue stared at her in surprise, "How?"
Storm grinned and motioned to the folder, "Well since the X-Men have become short on people the Professor asked a few old friends to come and help run things until Logan and Scott return." She pulled some papers out of the folder that looked like applications and handed them to Rogue. "But its been a few years since they've been with us so we need to run danger room tests to make sure they can still handle themselves if the situation calls for it."
"So where do Ah come in," Rogue asked tearing her gaze away from the papers and looking back up to Storm.
"Well I some of these people will have to take over Jean and Scott's classes and I was hoping on getting a student's opinion on them." She smiled at Rogue. "If you volunteer you wont have to go to class all day, plus it'll count as your danger room session so you wont have to go this afternoon."
Rogue's face brightened, "All day?"
Got her, Storm thought happily. "Yes, but if your not feeling well then-"
"No its okay," Rogue immediately said. "I'll go."
Storm grinned and took the papers back from Rogue. Together the two of them made their way to the danger room. As they walked Storm began to slip the papers back into the folder. Each paper had a picture of the applicant on it and one of those pictures was of Gambit.
