A/N- Holy awesome reviews Batman! Thank you all very much for the love, and please don't hesitate to keep it coming.

Also, I bet you'll never look at a pack of Twizzlers the same again. ;)

"So, explain to me again why this is necessary?" Rogue asked, sitting down next to Kitty on the couch, eying the months worth of Glen Cove Times she had piled up on the coffee table.

"It's research. Doy." Kitty rolled her eyes as she took the first newspaper off the pile, "I want to know my stuff before I go into the dragons den tomorrow."

"Okay, but just so we're clear, you do realize that the local news paper is not a dragon's den. Right?"

Kitty gave Rogue a sharp look, "Are you going to help or not?"

Rogue sighed and took a newspaper, leaning back in the couch and flipping it open to the fashion column as she kicked her feet up on the table.

They read in silence for a moment before Kitty suddenly stiffened and looked at Rogue through the corner of her eye, "You and Remy didn't..." She glanced down at the couch and grimaced, "You didn't do it on the couch, did you?"

"Ew." Rogue frowned, "Pyro sits here. You think I'd want my naked ass anywhere near somewhere Pyro has been?"

"I guess not." Kitty settled back into the couch and turned her attention back to the paper in her hand, "Then again, I wouldn't think Twizzlers were a turn on so... what do I know?"

Rogue grinned silently to herself as she continued to read.

"See, this kind of information," Kitty held the paper out for Rogue to see, "It's a note from the editor. That's my new boss."

Rogue squinted as she read the editor's note before looking up at Kitty with a frown, "There's no useful information in there at all."

"Yes." Kitty jabbed her index finger towards a particular section of the paragraph, "See? He says that his favorite colour is Poppy Red. That is incredibly useful information."

"Sure." Rogue shrugged uninterestedly, furrowing her brow at Kitty's finger, "Next question; why do you have blue paint on your finger?"

Kitty looked down at her hand and rolled her eyes, scrubbing at the dried blue paint on her finger, "Pete came home covered in paint. I had to help him bag up his hand so he could shower and keep his stitches dry. Seriously, he looked like a member of the blue man group."

"That explains why the shower's been on since I got here." Rogue nodded, "I thought maybe Pyro was enjoying some alone time."

"Ew, he does not do that in the shower." Kitty shook her head with determination, "I clean that shower. With my hands."

"Kitty-"

"No, he doesn't. Shut up." She snapped. Rogue took the hint and clamped her lips shut, looking back at Kitty's blue finger,

"So how exactly did he get paint all over him?"

"I guess one of the dancers got a little lost in the music and lost her space on the stage. She knocked Pete's easel right over, sent a whole crap load of midnight blue everywhere. Totally ruined his painting."

"Yikes."

"Yeah," Kitty nodded, "He was super pissed when he got home."

They heard the shower shut off and Kitty pursed her lips, "Chances are he's still pissed, so try not to be a bitch, okay?"

"I can't promise anything." Rogue shrugged, looking back at the paper in her hand.

The bathroom door swung open, smacking against the doorstop with a bang and Piotr clomped out into the living room, still dripping wet, clutching a towel around his waist with his good hand.

"I cannot get this bag off, Kitty. You tied it too-" He stopped, when he realized Kitty was not alone in the living room, looking down at himself in his state of undress, "Uh... I am sorry, I did not know Rogue was here."

Rogue blinked at at Piotr's half naked body and raised her eyebrows, "Don't apologize..." Her eyes wandered down his wet chest before she quickly looked back at her newspaper.

"Were you able to get all the paint out of your hair?" Kitty asked as she went to the kitchen for a cloth to help him clean the paint off his bandaged hand, "It couldn't have been too easy with the bag hand."

"It was not." Piotr groused, running his good hand through his wet hair, spraying little droplets of water everywhere, "I am sure I will be washing blue out of my ears for a week."

Kitty returned with a dish rag, phasing the bag off his hand and carefully peeling the blue gauze back to inspect his stitching, "Well, at least this blue is a winter colour. It totally made your eyes sparkle."

He raised an eyebrow at her and she gave him a smile to get the point of her joke across.

"You were right," He sighed as she gently scrubbed the paint away from around his stitches, "I am going to have to work from home."

"It won't be so bad. You won't have any distractions, you'll probably get work done even faster, regardless of your gimpy hand." Kitty said with a nod, "And you have lots of photos to work from. You're probably better off this way anyways."

Piotr grunted, "I appreciate your optimism, but I do not think I can agree."

"Do you think da Vinci had it easy? I bet it was super frustrating for him, working with a subject who totally refused to smile. Talk about a diva." Kitty shook her head as she cleaned his hand and the faintest hint of a smile danced across Piotr's lips, "But he powered through, and he stuck with it. And look where he is now."

"Dead?" Rogue grinned.

"No, famous." Kitty said over her shoulder to Rogue, who was peeking at Piotr from over the top of the newspaper, "I mean sure, he went a little crazy and chopped off his ear, but I think it was worth it in the end."

Rogue shook her head, putting the paper down on the coffee table before pulling the next one of the top of the pile and flipping it open, "That's van Gogh, dork."

"Uhh, no. I'm pretty sure da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa." Kitty rolled her eyes at Pete with a condescending little smirk.

The tiny trace of a smile turned into a full grin and Piotr chuckled, "I suppose you are right."

"I'm totally right." Kitty elaborated, "You're beyond awesome, and you have nothing to worry about."

"Cheerleader Kitty to the rescue." Rogue rolled her eyes from behind the news paper and lowered it in time to see Kitty give her a frown.

"I'm not cheerleading. I'm being optimistic."

"It's the same thing." Rogue shrugged, "Trust me, I know. This is what you do."

"Whatever." Kitty shook her head at Piotr as she continued to dab the paint away.

"It is. You did the same thing with Kurt when he wanted to become a magician."

"Kurt is..." Piotr knit his brow, trying to recall his X-men knowledge.

"Blue guy, teleports, smells like Pyro after he eats too many Doritos." Kitty summarized and Piotr grinned,

"Ah, yes."

"You went all Rah! Rah! on Kurt when he wanted to quit, refused to let him give up," Rogue continued with a head shake, "Insisted that he could actually improve if he just stuck with it."

"Is that a bad quality?" Piotr shrugged, "I think it is endearing."

"Sure, but Kurt sucked. He couldn't even make himself disappear." Rogue snorted at the memory, "The guy can teleport but somehow the disappearing act alluded him."

Kitty put a hand on her hip and looked back at Rogue, "What's your point? Pete is good, it's an entirely different situation."

"My point is that your obnoxious optimism always comes back to bite you in the ass." She turned to Piotr to explain, "Kurt developed a huge crush on Kitty and ended up entering some stupid illusionist contest to impress her. Needless to say, nobody was impressed. People were actually throwing tomatoes on him to get him off stage, it was like some old Bugs Bunny cartoon, except way funnier."

"That is totally an exaggeration." Kitty cut in with a frown, "First of all, he developed a minor crush on me, which was not entirely my fault. I mean, can I help it that I'm just so damn lovable?"

Piotr smirked and Kitty crossed her arms hotly, "And secondly, only one person threw a tomato. Don't make it seem worse than it was."

Rogue looked back at Piotr and pursed her lips, "It was pretty bad." She shook her head and looked back at the newspaper in her hand, "Not as bad as the time you tried to teach Logan how to use Microsoft Word though."

"Yeah..." Kitty knit her brow thoughtfully, "You really can't teach an old dog new tricks. He made me do extra pushups for a month, just because he couldn't figure the stupid thing out."

"See? Bite you in the ass." Rogue concluded with an air of finality.

"I am sure Katya's optimism will go unpunished this time." Piotr looked down at Kitty as she patted his stitches dry carefully, "I promise I will not make you do pushups."

"See?" Kitty grinned smugly at Rogue, "Nothing to worry about. And as difficult as it might be, I'm pretty sure Pete can keep himself from falling in love with me."

Piotr chuckled and gave her a nod, "I will try."

Rogue rolled her eyes and muttered, "That's not what I meant."

She finished drying Piotr's stitches, promising to help him wrap it in clean dressing once he had clothes on. Rogue watched appreciatively as he walked back down the hall, lifting the news paper back up once he was out of sight.

Kitty turned to her and smirked, "Enjoying the view?"

"If the guys in the mansion looked like that when they were walking around fresh out of the shower, I'd spend a lot more time hanging around the bathroom." Rogue shook her head, "I'm starting to see the benefit of living here, I'll tell you that much."

"Yeah, you'd only be a few doors away from a candy-infested booty call." Kitty grumbled, going back to work with her news paper.

They went back to work, silently scanning the contents of the fashion column for anything useful. Rogue had plowed through seven papers and Kitty was on her fifth by the time Remy got home.

He tossed the mail on the island counter, "Your stupid magazine came. Are we going to get one of these every month?"

"Yeah, that's usually what a monthly subscription means." Kitty mumbled, knitting her brow at the paper before looking up at Rogue with a grin, "He likes coffee. That's totally useful."

Rogue looked up at her with a frown, "Seriously? That's the best you could get? I'm pretty sure that's probably the first thing you'll find out on the job tomorrow."

Remy turned his attention to Rogue, leaning on the island with a smug grin, "Hey."

Rogue gave him a grunt of acknowledgment before looking back at Kitty, "Does it say he likes donuts too? That's obviously crucial information."

"He's in the fashion business Rogue, he doesn't like donuts. They eat fancy things like scones."

Rogue gave Kitty a level stare, "Scones are not fancy. Remy, are scones fancy?"

"No." Remy gave his head a shake as he picked up Kitty's magazine and inspected the cover, "You know what's fancy? Croissants. French is fancy, I should know."

Rogue snorted with a little chuckle, "Crumpets. Crumpets are fancy."

"Very fancy." Remy nodded, "The Queen eats crumpets."

"He's not the Queen, he's a fashion editor. He eats scones." Kitty frowned.

"This is the Glen Cove Times, Kitty. Ten bucks says he eats sprinkled donuts." Rogue grinned, turning back to Remy, "Am I right?"

"More than likely." Remy agreed as he flipped the magazine open and began to leaf through the pages slowly, "So, what are you doing tonight?"

"Not this, I'll tell you that much." Rogue grumbled, going back to her reluctant research.

He smirked to himself as his eyes scanned a perfume ad, "I bought some more Twizzlers..."

Kitty looked up sharply and glowered at Remy, "Could you please refrain from the sex talk while I'm here? Please?"

"I thought maybe we could hang out tonight?" Remy continued, ignoring Kitty's plea.

Rogue gave Remy a sidelong glance, lowering the newspaper slightly, "Like... a date...?"

"No. Not a date. Not like a date." Remy dropped the magazine back on the island and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh, "I knew this would happen. They always get clingy."

"What?" Rogue narrowed her eyes at him, "I am not clingy. You just asked me on a date."

"I didn't ask you on a date, I just wanted to have some fun." Remy frowned.

"Well, you'll have to have some fun with someone else tonight." Rogue looked back at the paper, "Logan is making me help teach combat training."

Remy knit his brow and blinked at her, "And you're okay with that."

"Of course I'm okay with it, it's my job, sort of. I guess."

"No, I mean you'd be okay with me having some fun with someone else." He raised an eyebrow, "You're okay with that?"

Rogue shrugged, "Why wouldn't I be? Knock yourself out. Just don't catch anything."

"Huh." Remy's shoulders slumped slightly and pursed his lips thoughtfully, "I mean, I didn't want you to get clingy, but I kind of thought you'd be a little... dazzled or something."

"You promised things would be the same." Kitty interjected, "She wasn't dazzled by you before, she's not going to be dazzled by you now."

"I know," He shrugged with a tiny pout, "But would it kill her to be a little dazzled?"

Rogue folded up the paper and tossed it onto the table with a sigh, "Don't take it as a knock to your ego Gambit, I just have better things to do than fawn over you."

"I don't want you to fawn over me." He frowned, casting his eyes down to the island as he fingered the counter top idly, "A compliment would be nice..."

Rogue rolled her eyes, "You dazzled my socks off. Is that better?"

He gave a tiny shrug, "A little."

"Good." Rogue said with a nod, turning to Kitty, "I've about gone cross eyed looking at this stupid column so I'm going to go. I'll come over tomorrow night to hear how your first day went, okay?"

Kitty nodded happily as Rogue stood up and crossed the room to Remy. She invaded his personal space, pressing her body flush against his with a smirk,

"I'll bring some sprinkled donuts with me." She whispered, giving his rear a sharp squeeze to get her point across before giving Kitty a final wave and heading out the door.

"See?" Remy smiled back at Kitty who was grimacing at the scene she'd just witnessed, "Things won't be awkward at all."