Disclaimer: Don't own Gambit; do own pretty much everyone else.
A/N: Please read and review?
06
All was quiet when just after dawn Blaze returned to the apartment currently called home. She ditched her biting shoes, her purse and Lance's phone number in her room, and then went to take a shower. Someone else had had the same idea though, the door was locked and the enticing patter of water could be heard on the other side. Sighing she turned and went to peek around the door to Gambit's room to find out who was hogging the bathroom.
"Bon matin," she chirruped breezily when she saw it was Remy on his own in the bed. He glared at her through bleary eyes, making her laugh. "Wanna coffee?" Remy nodded so Blaze went and brewed up promptly. With the two mugs steaming on the rickety bedside table, Blaze perched on the edge of the mattress and inhaled the delicious caffeine smell.
"Good night Cherie?" Gambit asked her, reclining against the misshapen bedding bare-chested. It was highly likely he was naked under the sheets, but Blaze was trying very hard not to notice.
"Comme ci comme ca," Blaze denounced flippantly, tucking her feet up under her and leaning back on one hand. "Et tu?"
"Bon," Gambit grinned, stretching his arms out and cricking his neck. "Oui, tres bon."
"You're an arse," Blaze told him, meeting his eyes levelly. "Too much frigging detail, as usual."
"You talkin' weird again mon belle Petite," he chastised her.
"Sez you!" Blaze laughed, illustrating his point. "Its only coz I'm knackered, I've just come over all broad… Its about time I taught you some Northern English anyway."
"I don't t'ink I wanna learn," Remy protested with a smile that would have made a nun blush.
"Its easy, just repeat after me," Blaze giggled. "Hey up our kid, wots hap'nin'?"
"Hey up what?" Gambit leant forward, pressing his thigh against hers through the sheet and brushing her hand with his. "What the hell dat mean?"
"Um, I think I'm too tired to translate," Blaze flopped over to lie on her back diagonally across the bed. "Do you think the ceiling was meant to be that colour?"
Gambit twisted, lying back down and moving round so he was nearer Blaze. Blaze herself arched her body up for a moment so he could reposition the covers to his satisfaction. When she settled again, she found her head cushioned by his upper arm comfortably. At the opposite side of the bed their bare feet touched accidentally, but didn't rebound in distaste.
"Non," Gambit replied after a few moments considering the ceiling. "Nobody got dat poor taste."
"Even you?" Blaze teased in mock-shock. Gambit didn't deign to reply. Instead he just kicked her in the ankle with his bare foot. "Oi!" Blaze grumbled, kicking back herself and laughing. "Git! Give it up!"
"Or what?" Gambit challenged, dragging his arm out from under her head. He lifted himself up and rolled again, putting an arm on Blaze's far side to support himself on. He looked down at her, filling her field of vision, as Blaze wrapped her leg around one of his now-exposed calves to stop him from kicking her again.
"Or I'll knock you out like I did some bloke earlier who tried to mug me," Blaze giggled. "I don't think he knew what hit him."
"You get in a fight Little One?" Remy's joking abruptly dissipated and he met Blaze's eyes seriously. She squirmed, looking away across the bed to her left, looking anywhere but at him in case he knew just how compromised he had her then.
"Only a small one, that's good going for me," she couldn't help it, she looked at him. The world stopped turning as for a heartbeat there was only the two of them. His eyes explored hers, looking for any clue as to what she was thinking. Blaze wasn't thinking at all. She was lost in his scent, his warmth, his strength as he held himself so close to her that she could feel his pulse. She could feel more than that of his through the sheet. A blush crept over her skin and her lips parted in a delicate gasp. Gambit dropped his face to hers as both of them let their eyelids flicker closed.
"Remy! How could you?" Electra screeched like the brakes on a train. Remy remembered who and where he was, lurching upright and turning to protest his innocence to the girl he'd spent the night with. Blaze turned her face away and swore under her breath, but still loud enough for Remy to hear. He looked from one girl to the other, the one he wanted and the one he'd had. The one it would be dangerous to get involved with and the one it would be foolish to let slip through his fingers at this stage in a crime.
"Jennifer it ain't what it look like…" he protested weakly to the young woman bristling with static in the doorway.
"First name terms already?" Blaze asked snappily, climbing off the bed and walking round to pick up her coffee. Remy felt the barb more keenly than Electra ever could, that was for sure. He had no idea what Blaze's real name was. Just one more thing she didn't trust him with, not that he could blame her. Not when he did things like this to her. "Move bitch," Blaze ordered the bath-robed Electra hotly. "Unless you want to be doused in hot coffee?"
"That the best threat you can come up with?" Electra snarled, raising a blue thunderbolt trapped in her fist, ready to strike Blaze down.
"Jennifer please, come back to bed Cherie," Gambit begged, sitting over the edge of the bed. "Blaze, elle ne rein de particulier…" meaning, "She's nothing special!"
"Whatever," spat Blaze, shaking her head and sidling round Electra who went to Remy. The redhead left the room with her mind made up. If Gambit didn't want her, she'd damn well find someone who did. The clock on the wall touching five am didn't stop her from reaching for the phone and the receipt with Lance's number on. It rang for a few seconds and then clicked onto his voicemail.
"Hey this is Lance, leave a message," the recording cut out and the tone bleeped. Blaze took a breath and did as she was told.
"Hi Lance, how's it going? If you're interested, I'll be at the club again tonight. Maybe we could meet up? I'll see you there."