Unlike Remy, Kitty had no fond feelings towards Rogue's hillbilly vernacular. Kitty was well aware of the fact that when Rogue began speaking like an old timey prospector, shit was about to get real. She just couldn't be sure what exactly how real shit was about to get. However, with the adrenaline of their clandestine activities wearing off, she'd been too exhausted to dwell on the oncoming storm. So instead, she had climbed into her own bed in the wee hours of the morning, passing out almost the instant her head hit the pillow, and was virtually dead to the world for a solid 5 hours. It wasn't until she awoke with a jolt the next morning, that the true weight of the situation settled down on her and her fight or flight reflex kicked in.

Kitty's instincts usually tended towards flight.

She quickly dressed and brushed her teeth, hoping she would be able to make a stealthy escape under the ruse of "job hunting" before Rogue made her inevitable appearance, only for her plans to come to a grinding halt when she reached the end of the hallway.

"Mornin', Ma Barker." Rogue drawled, hands folded neatly over her crossed legs, with one elbow casually resting on the island counter behind her. "Sleep well?"

Kitty's eyes flicked over to Remy who gave her a resigned shrug and scratched at the day-old scruff on his jaw, "She stayed up last night Googling famous thieves' names she could call us. As if she ain't already sleepin' with the most famous of 'em all."

Rogue hummed out an unamused little laugh. "Where's the helmet, Butch Cassidy?"

"I already told you chere, it's taken care of."

"Taken care of?!" Rogue let out another humourless laugh, "No, it isn't taken care of, cuz that's why I'm here. I'm here to take care of it. So give me the damn helmet, and I will take care of it. I don't even wanna know the details, plausible deniability an' all that. Just gimme the stupid thing an' we can pretend that none of this ever happened."

"Can't do that, fleur. Sorry." Remy shrugged, setting his mug back down and digging back into the eggs on his plate, shooting Kitty a glance over his shoulder, "There's eggs and spinach here if you want 'em, Sundance."

Kitty took a few tentative steps towards the kitchen and narrowed her eyes, "You two are being… weirdly calm about all of this. And were you just sitting here waiting for me to show up? You could have discussed this without me here…"

Rogue chuckled darkly, "Oh no, we couldn't. See, he has no moral compass. It's kinda like beatin' a dead horse, you know? You on the other hand…"

"I was just helping out a friend, okay? I don't know anything about this job beyond the fact that if Remy didn't do it, Sabertooth would have come back and dangled him from the balcony by his toenails." Kitty moved into the kitchen and pulled a plate from the cupboard, turning to the stove to dish out some scrambled eggs, doing her best to separate them from the spinach as she scooped, "And I don't know anything about a helmet-"

Rogue slammed her hand down on the island, causing Kitty to jump. "Goddammit Kitty! This isn't a freaking game. Do you have any idea what you've gotten yourself into?! You really wanna get on the Avengers bad side!?" She turned to Remy with a scowl, "And don't even get me started on you. I trusted you to watch her for me, not invite her into the goddamn guild."

"Is everything alright?" Piotr asked, paused at the end of a hall with a frown.

The sound of Piotr's voice caused Kitty's confidence to waver, and she turned to give him a disarming smile, "Totally!" she uttered a fake laugh, before lowering her voice and snapping her eyes back to Rogue, "We can discuss this later."

Pyro's face lit up in a wide grin and he held his hands up in front of him excitedly, "Good, cuz I got some amazing news-"

"I see how it is." Rogue propped an elbow up on the counter and dropped her chin down onto her fist with a self-satisfied little grin, "You don't want to discuss this with an audience. As if your actions don't directly affect them in any sort of way. You know like, accessory-after-the-fact."

"Oh. Are we still on your thing? I thought we were done with that…" Pyro's shoulders slumped a bit before a tiny spark of glee glimmered in his eyes, "Unless you found out that Gambit and Kitty are totally messin' around behind your back!" He gave Piotr a smack in the gut- "I told ya they were doin' it."

Piotr -and everyone for that matter- ignored Pyro and knit his brow, taking a step forward and tilting his head in confusion, "Uh, accessory-after-the-fact? I think I am missing something-"

"Well, that's the tricky thing, Pete. You don't actually have to be guilty to be charged as an accessory." Rogue patted Remy on the back with a bit more force than necessary and a saccharine sweet smile on her face, "Somethin' your roommates here might have taken into account-"

"It's really not a big deal, Piotr. Matlock over here has been watching too many procedural shows." Kitty flicked a hand in the air dismissively with a nervous little laugh and set her plate of eggs on the counter. "So, what's your big news Pyro?"

Pyro's elation returned at the opportunity to talk about himself, "Well, ya know the erotic novel I've been working on for the last year or so, it's gunna be published!" He shared excitedly, "I just got an email from a publisher an' they're buyin' it! They said it was, quote, 'disturbingly detailed and graphic.' Can you believe it?! That's the nicest feedback I've ever gotten!"

Kitty's over the top enthusiasm about this news pushed Rogue's patience to the end of it's limit and she interrupted the mini celebration with a stare, "These two morons broke into Stark Towers last night and stole a part of Iron Man's armor. That's really not a big deal, Kitty?"

Pyro's eyes went as wide as saucers as he stared at Remy in horror, and Piotr's face went slack with shock. "You did what?"

Kitty shrugged and lamely tried to defend herself, "It's not as bad as it sounds-"

"No, I don't think that is possible." Piotr's face morphed quickly from shock into anger, turning his glare onto Remy, "How could you drag her into this!?"

"Drag her into this?! How could you drag me into this?! You know how I feel about the Avengers." Pyro interjected, suspiciously glancing around the room before darting his eyes to the window, "Especially that Hawk-guy. He could be anywhere, and you'd never even know it until you got a damn arrow between your eyes. He's even got arrows that boomerang. What the hell is that even for, why the hell do you want the arrow to come back to you?!"

"Relax John, nobody is going to shoot you with an arrow. I told you, I have it under control." Remy repeated around a mouthful of eggs, "Just trust me, alright?"

"Under control?" Rogue spat out incredulously, clearly nearing the end of her patience, "Oh! He's got it under control! Comin' from the man who dang-near blew up half of downtown Manhattan last night, but it's alright everybody, he's got it under control."

Remy snorted into his mug as he downed a mouthful of coffee before leveling her with a look, "C'mon Rogue. It was a generator-"

"A Stark Industries generator. In Stark Tower. Where you were caught breaking and entering."

"That sounds…" Piotr worked the muscles in his jaw and carefully measured his reaction, his eyes settling on Kitty again, "Dangerous."

Remy chuckled and inclined his head towards Kitty with a sip of his coffee, "It was pretty amazing, we almost died. A few times actually, ain't that right petite? Tell 'em about the free-fall." He turned to Pyro and pantomimed the fall with his hand, "79 storeys, right through the floors."

Rogue turned to give Remy a troubled glare, "What is wrong with you?!"

"I don't have a death wish! I'm an adrenaline junky! It's like sex… almost. Woulda been better if it had been with you, chere." He gave her a wink, "I swear, I thought of you the whole time."

Kitty balled her hands up into fists at her sides and huffed out a breath, reading the growing displeasure on Piotr's face and feeling a little bit offended, "I've been on dangerous missions before. It's not like this was my first rodeo."

"No, but it was your first felony." Piotr supplied darkly, taking another moment to work the muscles in his jaw in an attempt to cool his bubbling temper, "I knew you two were up to no good. I knew it. But I chose to trust you, because of course you would tell me if it were something this serious, right?!" He shook his head and raked a hand through his hair, struggling to cling to the last shreds of patience he had left, "I just cannot believe you could do something this… completely reckless."

"It wasn't completely reckless, okay? I came home and Sabertooth had Remy pinned up against a wall with… murder in his eyes, and of course when he sees me, he flips his lid even more, thinking that Remy was working with the enemy or something, so I improvised!" Kitty explained, to which Piotr silently worked the muscles in his jaw, looking entirely unsatisfied with her excuse. "What was I supposed to do, just let Sabertooth smear Remy's brains all over the wall?!"

"Oh, that's just perfect," Pyro threw his hands up in the air with a panicked whimper, "So now Sabertooth is involved too?! He was in our home, Gambit. He's gunna want his Breaking Bad boxset back, and I can't find it. My brains are gunna be up on that wall next to yours!"

Remy muttered, "It's under control-"

"If you say that one more goddamn time, Remy…" Rogue interrupted him tersely and he let out a long, resigned breath, dropping his fork onto his plate with a loud clank.

"Look. Magneto crossed a line sendin' Vic here and demanding that I perform like a monkey. Plus, Kitty got herself involved, and for some goddamn reason I felt a sick sense of responsibility to not get her killed, so I…" He sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, "I went to Wolverine."

Kitty's head snapped to balk at Remy, clearly having been kept out of this part of the plan, and some of the fight drained out of Rogue as she skeptically narrowed her eyes at him, "Wolverine?"

"I figured if any one of the X-men were morally gray enough to understand where I was comin' from, it'd be him. There's no way Chuck woulda still let the heist go through. Wolvie's got more street smarts than that. Anyway, the helmet I turned over to Magneto is a decoy. Just looks like an internal security measure fried the circuits, so as far as he knows, I did my job. Wolverine's got the real one tucked away for Stark, he'll get it back." He sniffed at Rogue with a frown, picking his fork up and tucking back in to finish off his eggs, "No moral compass my ass."

"Why wouldn't you have led with that?!" Rogue punched him in the shoulder to punctuate her question and Remy stabbed a slice of tomato on his plate with a bit more force than necessary.

"Plausible deniability." He parroted her earlier phrasing, earning him another punch to the shoulder.

"There, see? Everything's… fine." Kitty flicked a hand towards Remy with an eye roll, "Although you probably could have filled me in on that, but whatever…"

"Everything is not fine. You don't get it, Katya." Piotr pinched the bridge of his nose, beginning to lose his battle to control the anger burning beneath the surface, "You could have died, do you understand that?!"

"I think you're overreacting, Pete. She was an X-man, for crissake, she's fought worse. She's fought us." Remy pointed out, sitting a bit more upright when Piotr's angry gaze turned onto him, "You don't get all bent outta shape when I do something reckless, why the hell should she be any different anyway? Don't be sexist."

"You think I am overreacting?! She was there because of you!" He jabbed a furious finger towards Remy and took a few threatening steps towards him, "If anything would have happened to her, it would have been your fault. I'll show you overreacting-"

"Pete!" Rogue jumped to her feet, inserting herself between Piotr and Remy with her hands outstretched and pressed firmly against Piotr's chest, "Nothing did happen to her, she's fine."

Piotr relaxed a bit, still glaring daggers at Remy from over Rogue's head, when she dropped her hands from his chest and gave him a curious look, "I gotta say, I kind of agree with Remy. You are overreacting. I mean, trust me, I'm pissed off too. Kitty's my friend too, but I-" She paused, quizzically looking between Kitty and Piotr as the puzzle pieces slowly began to align in her brain, "She's more than just your friend, isn't she."

Piotr kept his mouth firmly shut, exchanging a silent and very pregnant stare with Kitty before she finally squared her shoulders and lifted her chin in a false show of confidence. "Yes, and apparently that means he is entitled to grant me permission before I-"

"This isn't about permission!" Piotr interrupted sharply, "This is about making sure you don't have some crazy… death wish. We are supposed to be a team, I need to know that you are safe, Katya. I need to know that you will come to me and tell me these things!"

"Why?!" Kitty barked back at him, her brow pinched with frustration, "So you can berate my dumb choices?! Because you think you can do better than me!?"

"No! Because I love you!" He shouted back, before swiftly clamping his mouth shut and shooting out a breath in the sudden silence that followed. Remy's eyes flicked between Piotr and Kitty before desperately settling on Rogue for clarification and Kitty's face slowly morphed from anger to shock as she registered what Piotr had said. Her mouth opened and closed a few times while her brain jumped between a myriad of different emotions at light speed, and eventually she uttered a flustered little scoff.

"Nice. So, what is this, emotional manipulation, Piotr?" She spat back at him, her words not quite holding the same bite as they had before.

Piotr's shoulders dropped, the fight draining out of him completely, feeling the heat of everyone's eyes on him.

"No, Katya. This is not manipulation." He rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers with a heavy sigh, "Do you not get it yet? I love you, and I am worried about you. I just want you to be okay. I'm sorry that I- that it came out like this, I didn't intend to-" He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to arrange his thoughts, "I am not mad that you made a dumb choice, I am mad that you could have gotten hurt. If the roles were reversed, you are telling me you would not care? If I had gone off to secretly work for Magento on some dangerous job, which could easily have gotten me killed, you would have been fine with that?"

"Of course not!" She hissed, feeling the tight twist of panic begin to claw at the back of her throat, "Of course I would care! This isn't-" She tried to keep her breathing even, only managing to suck in a few shallow breaths which didn't seem to make it anywhere past her throat, "It's not the same, you can't just-"

Her eyes darted desperately around the kitchen as cold panic began to overwhelm her, "I can't do this right now, you don't… I can't-" She swallowed the rest of her sentence and phased herself through the kitchen wall to the closet at the front door where she messily fumbled with her shoes.

Piotr followed her through the living room to the front foyer with Rogue hot on his heels.

"Kitty," Rogue began carefully, "Don't leave like this-"

"I don't even need my coat, it's- no I'm gunna take my coat, it's cold. It's cold." She snapped at no one in particular as she wrenched her coat free of its hanger, snatching a set of keys out of the bowl next to the door with shaking hands, and tossing one last demand over her shoulder as she left, "Don't follow me."

And then she rushed through the closed front door, leaving nothing but empty silence in her wake.

Eventually, Remy set his fork down on his empty plate and pushed back from the island counter, swiveling around to frown at Piotr, "We had one rule when she moved in. One goddamn rule; Nobody sleep with the new girl. I thought Pyro might struggle with it, but I expected more from you-"

Piotr opened his mouth to clip something back at Remy when Rogue beat him to the punch, "Now is totally not the time, Remy. Read the damn room."

"I'm just sayin', of all the women in the world, you have to pick the most emotionally stunted- not to mention the one paying a quarter of the goddamn rent." Remy tiredly rubbed his forehead, "This is just… it's a lot to wrap my mind around on two hours of sleep."

"I can only imagine how difficult this must be for you." Piotr responded dryly before moving towards the front door, with Rogue a few steps behind him.

"Wait, where the hell d'ya think your goin'?" Pyro rushed to block the front door; his arms stretched out in front of him to form a human shield.

"Where the hell do you think I am going? I am going after her." Piotr snapped, looming down over Pyro with a menacing growl, "Now move, or I will go through you."

"She said not to follow her." Pyro pointed out, firmly holding his ground with his chin held high, "Doesn't anyone around here watch movies?! You never follow the girl right away. She needs some space!"

"This is what she does, the second things get rough, she runs. Someone's gotta make sure she doesn't do anything stupid, like secretly move out of her boyfriends house to live with three men." Rogue countered with a pointed look.

"She's a grown-ass woman, let her work some shit out on her own!" Pyro huffed and Remy sighed and gave his eyes a dramatic roll,

"Much as I hate to admit this, ever, Pyro's right."

Pyro dropped his arms and raised his eyebrows at Remy in surprise, before smugly turning back to Piotr and Rogue, "See? I'm right. She's like a cornered kangaroo. You go after her like this, she's bound to fight back, gouge a hole in your stomach that leaves all your entrails spillin' out."

"… Okay, he's mostly right." Remy backpedaled a bit, shooting Pyro a slightly disturbed look.

"She's made it clear that she doesn't like other people buttin' in on her business. That's why she left the X-men in the first place, right? That stick-up-his-ass Summers? Hmm?" Pyro crossed his arms and quirked a brow, "She needs to be free. It's like the emancipation of Mimi. She's like a butterfly. There's emotions. And… glitter."

"…Alright, now I don't know what the hell he's talkin' about." Remy shook his head as Pyro muttered something about Mariah Carey under his breath, turning his attention back to Piotr and Rogue, "What are you planning on doin' if you find her? Drag her back kicking an' screaming? If she doesn't wanna stick around, you can't force her."

Rogue pressed her lips into a frown and squared her jaw, "She just needs someone to talk some sense into her-"

"No, she doesn't. Give her some time to work some shit out on her own." He said with a final nod of his head, turning to Piotr, "An' in the meantime, you can explain to me what the hell happened to that hot blonde Amazon we bagged you at the bar, and how the hell Pyro knows about all this before me?!" He irritably jerked his thumb towards Pyro, "This guy?!"

Pyro took the underhanded insult in stride with a casual shrug as he meandered into the kitchen, "I caught 'em doin' it in the shower a few weeks back. Kitty bribed me to keep my mouth shut."

"The goddamn spider in the shower! Of course!" Rogue blurted, remembering the event in question, "I knew that was freakin' weird…"

Remy sniffed and rolled his eyes, "You didn't know jack shit."

Piotr pinched the bridge of his nose and shot out a breath, "If I wanted to discuss the relationship, I would not have kept it a secret."

"Well, look at the bright side." Pyro commented absently as he piled a mountain of eggs onto his plate, "We weren't the ones who scared your girlfriend away this time. You did that all on your own."

Remy huffed out a laugh, only to be met with a piercing glare from Piotr and a smack in the ribs from Rogue.

"I have a painting to finish." He clipped, turning on his heel and clomping back down the hall to his room.

Rogue turned to glare at Remy, "Nice."

He widened his eyes and gave her a shrug of innocence, "What? I didn't even say it, Pyro did!"

"It's true." Pyro said around a mouthful of egg, thoughtfully adding, "I bet the Amazon from the bar wouldn't have been scared away so easily. She seemed like a fighter."

"Look, I think they probably made a stupid ass mistake too, but you don't gotta be so insensitive about it." Rogue chastised with an eye roll, choosing to ignore Pyro as she usually did and turning to Remy with her lips pressed in a line, "I'll be back in bit. I need to go down to the police station and make a goddamn statement, no thanks to you. Just… don't antagonize him, okay? I'm sure he feels bad enough without you two morons rubbin' salt in the wound."

"Look at you, actin' all maternal." Remy cooed, standing to drop a kiss to her temple.

She rolled her eyes again and gave him a nonchalant shrug, "Well, you'll still have to live with the guy, whether Kitty makes a run for it or not. I just figure you might wanna be on his good side if this all blows up in his face."

A/N- So... wow.

Long time no see, eh?

Do people even read stuff on this forum anymore? I feel so old and out of touch. What is Tik Tok?

I won't go into an insane amount of detail as to why this thing is half a decade late, but I will say that pandemic brain is real, and this website only saves your work for a year, and if you think to yourself "Ah, I'll remember to log in and save it at least once before 365 days are up!" you would be wrong. So... back your work up, bitch.

Anyway, I wrote a lot of this chapter in May 2020, and then my world kind of got shaken, and everything went on the far back burner. Fast forward to May 2021, I'm busy finishing up my overwhelming load of schoolwork so I can graduate college on a rushed schedule while suddenly homeschooling my kids, and I'm like, oh dang. I didn't back my work up, bitch. Anyway, my kids are all on Christmas break, and the Christmas rush I get from my small business has dissipated, and I found myself with all this free time on my hands now that I don't have college work to hyperfocus on, so ding dang if I didn't just crack this chapter out in a day! And then fiddled with it for another week until I was at least a little bit happy with it. And also tortured my dear Lizzieturbo to death with a story she hasn't read in at least 7 years. She's such a trooper.

I'd like to think losing the original chapter was a blessing in disguise and that this one might even be better, but I honestly don't remember. There's no hidden lesson in here folks. Just, you know, back your work up, bitch. That's the hidden lesson.

At this point, I'm really just writing for myself. For that stubborn part of me that refuses to admit defeat. And if a few people out there enjoy it, that's a super amazing bonus! Fingers crossed that I'll get this thing done within the next five years!