Sitting at the corner of the dimly lit bar, Remy Etienne LeBeau, also known as Gambit, took a long puff of his cigarette as his devilish red eyes scanned his surroundings. Tonight was one of those nights where he is in a brooding mood. Lately, all he ever did was brooding over his dark secret. A secret that he held so dear, only for Rogue, the love of his life to have found out through their kiss.
Remy has always been a thief; that part about him is no secret. However, the secret about him being involved in the Morlocks massacre is something he had never told anyone before. And this had jeopardized his relationship with Rogue.
Rogue had not fully known the extent of his secret, but she had been avoiding him and finally had left the X-Men, subsequently breaking up with him. It hurt.
Which is why, he is here in this dingy bar drinking his sorrow away right now.
There were a couple of women who flirted with him, but he wasn't even interested. Under normal circumstances, he would have flirted back, and even bedded one of them, however this time he wasn't even in the mood for this. The breakup is still fresh in his memory and the wound has barely even healed.
Deciding that he had had enough of this place, he got up and walked out of the bar, but not before bumping into a woman.
"Ouch," the woman grimaced and looked at him. "Oh, aren't you a handsome one?"
"An' you're quite a sight f'r sore eyes too, mon p'tit," Gambit said in his soothing, charming tone. "But Gambit's not in de mood tonight."
The woman was about to reply, but suddenly she was interrupted by a rude and rowdy man.
"Hey, pal. If you want what's good for ya, stay away from my gal," the man said in a warning tone and looked straight in his eyes, before recoiling in disgust.
"Wait a minute now… you're a mutie," the man said. "We don't want your kind here."
"Bill, just shut up and go!" the woman said. "I'm not your gal."
"Oh, so you're into mutants now, huh?" he said as he grabbed her arm roughly, causing the woman to yell in pain.
"Ow you're hurtin' me. Please let me go!" the woman begged but to no avail.
Gambit, who had been watching the whole exchange in silence, finally lost his patience when he saw the woman in pain. He reached out and grabbed the man's hand.
"When de lady said to let 'er go, you let 'er go, mon ami," Gambit said as he tightened his grip on the man's hand until he let the woman go.
Disgruntled, the man lifted his hand to deliver a blow to Gambit's face, but the Cajun dodged successfully. Since he was in a sour mood tonight, maybe a good little fight will lift his spirits up a little.
He dodged and ducked a few more punches successfully, before grinning smugly at the man. "Had enough? Ok. Gambit's turn now."
With his trained combat skills, he successfully delivered his blows and attacks to the man's face and stomach, before crouching down and kicked the man's leg, effectively bringing the man down onto the floor.
By now, everyone had gathered around the bar to look at the two men fighting. The man's friends had quickly come to his aid and helped him up. One of his friends began to taunt Gambit about being a 'mutie' and threatened him to leave the bar. Gambit doesn't take well to threats, and when the man's friends had gathered around him, he took his bo-staff out from his trench coat and pressed a button on it to lengthen it.
Using his bo-staff as a weapon now, he beat the men up with little to no effort, one of them landing on top of the pool table. Finally, the first man who antagonized Gambit pulled out a gun and pointed at him.
"Hey hey," Gambit said in a relaxed tone as he lifted his hands up, as if surrendering. "Put dat t'ing away b'fore you hurt yourself or anyone."
"Ya scared now, mutie? Should've thought twice before coming in here," the man said and spat on the floor.
"Gambit scared? Non, non. Gambit is more scared for you, mon frère." As he said this, a card slid out from his sleeve and into his gloved hand. An ace of spade.
He charged it up and without warning, threw the card at the man's hand holding the gun with an accuracy that only he possessed, causing the man to wince in pain as it exploded when it made contact with his hand. This effectively caused the man to drop his gun. Before he could react, Gambit threw another charged card at the gun, causing it to explode.
"Anyone else?" Gambit challenged. "'Cause Gambit got all night to play wit' you."
"Enough!" A voice boomed from behind. The owner of the bar had walked out from his office and stood between Gambit and the other men who were fighting him.
"'Bout time you showed up, mon ami," Gambit greeted the owner with a toothy grin.
"The mutie started it!" Bill, or Bob, Gambit couldn't remember but didn't care, said.
"I don't care who started it. I want all of you to leave. Now. This is a mutant friendly bar, and anyone who has a problem with it, leave! I will NOT tolerate any hate crimes towards mutants in my bar!"
Once all the men had left, Gambit turned towards the owner and smiled. "Aww.. Gambit was just startin' t'ave some fun."
"Not tonight, Gambit," the owner sighed. "Although I appreciate you being our loyal customer, but you've done enough damage for the night. I believe you were about to leave too."
Gambit smirked, before saluting him in a playful manner. "Guess I'll call it a night, then. But you won't see de last of Gambit yet, mon ami."
And with that, he strode out of the bar into the chilly night air, preparing to spend another night alone. In retrospect, he understood why Rogue had left him. He would leave himself too if only he knew how. He had never forgotten about the Morlocks screaming in agony and pain when the Marauders gave them a surprise attack. How could he have known what Mr. Sinister wanted with the Marauders?
There is no way he could've known. And yet, he had never stopped blaming himself and feeling ashamed of what he had done.