Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men or the related characters and places. Marvel does.
Gambit looked up slowly feeling all too curious eyes watching him. The wild blue eyes of Logan met his.
"I thought you were left-handed," the Canadian borne mutant said eyeing the heavy silver fork in Gambit's right hand suspiciously.
"I'm ambidextrous," Gambit answered hoping to dismiss any further conversation with the feral mutant.
"Prove it," Logan said chucking a dinner roll at him. It was a light toss and Gambit caught it easily enough in his right hand, fork dropped quickly for the catch. Logan threw another a second later and Gambit dropped the first roll in order to catch the second.
"Logan please refrain from starting food fights," Xavier interrupted eyeing an excited looking Kurt.
Wolverine's attention didn't break from looking at the Acolyte's left hand that hadn't made so much as a twitch, "For a supposedly ambidextrous person you don't use it much," Logan said.
Remy relented and shrugged with an easy grin, "Training."
"Gambit, let me see," Rogue said exasperated smacking him on the right shoulder, "I told ya not to hide injuries from me."
"M' not," he protested with an innocence that wasn't quite convincing, "it just didn't come up."
"Yeah right," she said rolling up his sleeve and taking a close look at the brown bandage he had wrapped halfway up his wrist. She tugged at the clasp and started unrolling it to get a better look at the injury. "What the hell did you do to it?" she asked eyeing the reddened and slightly swelled wrist.
"It's fine," he said smiling tightly, tugging her hands away from his wrist and resecuring the strips she'd managed to unravel.
"So where were you for two weeks?" Wolverine asked.
"Logan," Rogue admonished shooting him a dirty look.
"Let's talk about something else," Remy said bluntly taking a sip of his water.
"Let's not," said Logan with a feral grin.
"I don' come here to get interrogated."
"Ya don't havta come here at all," Wolverine threatened.
"Logan, that is quite enough," broke in Xavier refereeing once more. "Remy you are of course, always welcome here. If you don't want to speak about your…vacation…than it's your prerogative."
"Merci," Remy muttered looking down at his plate.
The junior students as well as the senior X-Men and their teachers were in attendance for this particular dinner, a replacement for the dinner that Remy had missed. While they were all in the same room an unending current of nerves leap about. Once the dinner had come and gone uneventfully everyone seemed to relax. Having your boyfriend dining with your friends and family was bad enough, but it was significantly worse in their situation.
There had been an awful tense moment when Gambit's phone had gone off again and he'd had to answer it. There was a shared moment of relfection of the last time it had happened at the mansion and how badly it had gone over. This time however, he'd been able to answer with a short 'yes' and that was all.
Rogue had, prompted by Xavier, formally introduced Gambit to the junior X-Men to avoid any more surprises in the future. Remy's presence was not the event is used to be. Especially considering that when Gambit was around, he was hardly ever seen by the majority of the students. Despite several evenings of varying success at the mansion, the couple were generally solitary creatures when given the choice. At least that's what Rogue told herself. It kept the friction down when they were alone, but it kept the other X-Men from getting to know him for his good qualities, instead of his bad. Most people couldn't see how the charming Cajun Acolyte and the Southern Goth were happy together, but they had disproved their doubters with a standing relationship of five months.
It was Rogue's night for dishes and the Goth grudgingly yanked off her gloves and put her hands in water she knew wouldn't be sanitary for long. Grumbling loudly to anyone in earshot she railed against the unfairness of chores in general and dishes in particular, saving a choice kick for the fully operational dishwasher that for reasons unknown still needed glasses and plates cleaned before loading. You'd think living in a mansion, the appliances would be able to take care of themselves, Rogue thought.
"Come on petite, ain't dat bad. You want Remy to help?" he asked leaning his elbows against the kitchen's marbled island. Rogue rolled her eyes under heavily made up lids.
"No thank ya, I think if they found out ya were helping me they'd just make me do it over again," she scowled.
"Mebbe another time," he said, long auburn hair sliding into his face, chuckling at the sight of his beloved Goth up to her forearms in dirty dishwater, her entire face cringing.
Jamie walked into the kitchen, arms loaded down with glasses. "Jamie, I thought I told ya the glasses have to be brought out first! Now I'm gonna have to get a whole new sinkful of water, or they'll get all streaked," she complained. Jamie shrugged in the insufferable way of children which showed it was really none of his concern.
Passing behind Gambit, Jamie furrowed his brow in concentration, "What's that scar from?" he asked curiously pointing to his neck. Gambit's back stiffened as he turned back to the young Jamie and he adjusted his shirt collar, hiding the marks.
"'S nothin' y' need t' be worryin' 'bout," he advised smoothly.
"Jaime!" Rogue yelled regaining her breath, "That ain't polite, why don't ya go on out and play or sumthing."
"I'm too old to go out and 'play' Rogue."
"Then go do sumthing else," she said steel threat eminent in her voice.
"Okay, okay just chill already," Jaime said putting his palms up in defeat as he left the room.
Rogue willed a smile into place when she turned to face Gambit, letting him know she would not be forcing an answer to the question she so desperately wanted to ask. She was having second thoughts about her pursuit, he'd tell her when he was ready right?
A/N: Promise no more dinner scenes for a Long Time.
sheisbeautiful-sheisnotme- No definitely didn't mean That kind of package. Just needed a generic term so the listeners couldn't pick up anything, Gambit's exact job with Magneto will be getting a closer look a bit later. You almost killed me with this review though, I seriously choked on nothing but air when I read it.
ishandahalf- I'm more familiar with this version of the quote, "It's true every time you hear a bell ring an angel gets its wings, but what they don't tell you is every time a mousetrap snaps an angel gets its wings set on fire." ; )
Many thanks to: Aethena, BJ2, Dark Elf 3, Elmothecajunpuppet, ishandahalf, Puppybaddog, Streetwise Girl, sheisbeautiful-sheisnotme, and X-Storm.
