Hi again! Short turnover time in writing from chapter 2 to chapter 3. Originally I'd planned them as one chapter, so once I wanted to post this once I had everything worked out the way I wanted.

Huge thanks to thehazeofdusk again for giving thoughts and suggestions pre-publishing. You're incredibly good at helping me find my way to what I'd wanted to write.

Thank you to everyone who's stopped by so far and all the kind words. I'm happy to have people enjoying this fic like I am :D

ALSO! For anyone curious about Remy's hair, it's based on this pic by starrrtt27

starrrtt27/art/Southern-Cooking-COLORED-361755722

Chapter 3

She feels everything like the snapshots of a camera: A firm arm around her hip, hand gripping at her waist. Hot breath in her ear. Another hand cradling the back of her head, holding her to a steadily rising and falling chest. The hard, rigid crates to her back, contrasted with the warmth of his body basically molded to every curve she had. Intense heat (not from Gambit's close proximity) followed by smoke stinging in her eyes. A ringing in her ears she recognized as the sensation that followed larger explosions, since she'd unfortunately felt it several times before.

Rogue tried to blink some of the smoke out of her eyes and turned her face upward to see Gambit looking around quickly, scanning the area. She awkwardly and blearily tried to follow his gaze, more focused now on where the attack had come from than how fast her heartbeat was going in her ears. There was too much smoke to see anything and what she could see was limited even more by Gambit's broad shoulders.

She put her hands on his chest to push him back and allow her to try and see but he held firm and tightened his grip on her waist, not looking down at her. He narrowed his eyes in the direction he'd been looking in. Something was there, and it wasn't friendly for either of them, it would seem. She'd barely had a second to poke at his chest, trying to get him to give some indicator of what he knew so she wouldn't be so in the dark before his eyes narrowed. His jaw tightened and he again moved faster than she'd have thought he could, swooping them both downward and against another crate few feet from where they'd stood.

This time she knew what he must have predicted was coming (how was he able to predict that so quick? Were his ears not ringing? Were his eyes not stinging?) and was able to prepare herself better, squeezing her hands over her ears just as he slid them to the ground, crouched around her. She could feel the tension in his jaw against her hair and distantly heard him grunt as another blast of heat hit closer to his back this time. He pulled her tighter still, almost hunched over her entire form and she found her hands had moved from her own ears and were now fisted in his duster up by his collar bone. She panicked slightly for a moment, remembering one hand was lacking a glove, before remembering his uniform covered his neck and part of his face. Although the blast of the explosion was done, she still had no clue what could be out there; but she knew the timer on figuring it out quick enough was steadily ticking down.

Whatever was out there, she wasn't getting up easily to fight it without Gambit going first-in his rush, he'd squished her between his legs and was basically sitting on her bent knees as well as his own heels. That combined with his arms pulling her waist and head snugly against him was overwhelming sensation for her. He'd always invaded her personal space, but this was potentially the closest anyone had gotten to her in years. Scratch that. This was the closest anyone had gotten to her ever. By a longshot.

She knew it was him just trying to help her not die in a fiery explosion, but being so close to someone was such an odd sensation she couldn't help herself from stopping to savor it for a moment and imagine briefly what it would be like to be someone else; just a girl being held tight by someone who loves her. A silly impossible fantasy, but one she allowed herself for the briefest moment before remembering herself. She couldn't allow herself to want for someone to touch her like this, it wasn't safe. But in this moment, she could let herself appreciate (a little bit) what she couldn't have.

She wasn't sure if it was her rising anxiety that they were going to get hurt with him being so close to her (especially with his fingers dug into her hair in those fingerless gloves and his cheek and nose turned into the top of her head, only the fabric of his uniform and her hair keeping him safe) or adrenaline kicking in again, knowing a fight was about to hit, but the longer he held her tightly to his body (even though the immediate danger seemed to be past them again) the faster her heartbeat seemed to race on.

She was comforted when she started hearing his breathing again, glad to have her hearing returning. His breath was surprisingly calm and contrasting his heart rate, which seemed to be going a mile a minute under her fist. The ringing in her ears clearing, she slowly moved her head, giving him time to move his skin safely out of the way. He obliged, but didn't look down to meet her eyes.

In the nearby vicinity, she heard several explosions and lots of yelling from familiar and unfamiliar voices. At her hip, she felt her communicator buzzing endlessly and hurried to disentangle her arm from his to get her hand down to her belt to reach it. If it was buzzing this intensely, the team must be starting to freak out that she wasn't answering the conversation on the other end of the earpieces. Too late Rogue realized how close her waist and belt were to the apex of his thighs. Glad his gaze was focused off in the distance and doing her best to school her face in case his eyes did turn back her way, Rogue carefully slid her hand down her side to avoid brushing against the inside of his thigh as much as possible, like an incredibly terrifying game of Operation (except instead of an alarm sounding if she touched where she shouldn't, she would instead have to live with the mortification of accidentally coping a feel on the Cajun Cassanova, who she was sure would never, ever let her live it down. Ever).

Finally, with a mental sigh of relief, Rogue successfully picked up her communicator to turn her earpiece on. She must have forgotten to turn it on before taking off on her own, something she was sure she was going to hear about from both Logan and Scott. Gambit looked down, watching carefully as she struggled to listen for any clear message, but there was too much chaos. She looked up at Gambit and slowly shook her head. He gave one small nod, affirming he understood she'd received no helpful information.

Instead of turning back to look outwards for danger after their exchange, Gambit's eyes had stopped on her face, locking her in place. There was an intense look in his eyes, curious yet beguiling, and she wasn't sure if it was her imagination that the red of his eyes were almost glowing in contrast to the smoke. Something about the way his eyes roved over her face, a look in them she had no idea how to interpret, made her entire body feel hot and cold at the same time. She had to fight the urge to back down and break their eye contact.

Very slowly, never breaking eye contact, she felt his hand in her hair untangle itself and slide out. Rogue barely had time to consider his hand's intended path; it suddenly felt like the little air she could breathe in wasn't enough when he was looking at her so fervently. Rogue was hit with the sensation of being incredibly hyper-aware of not only how close their bodies were, but also their faces. With her face now titled up to meet his stare, if he were to lean down any further she was terrified their noses would be touching. Just as she was ready to give in to her anxiety and push away from him, creating the space she desperately needed right now, she discovered where his hand had ventured as his fingers softly, carefully brushed back some of her bangs from where they'd fallen in her face.

She froze, aware the fear gripping her was obvious on her face. Was he insane? His gloves had no fingers and here he was almost millimeters away from skin on skin contact...and apparently instead of considering how absolutely reckless and dangerous that could be, his face was calm, his lips softly turned up at the edges in a way she'd never seen before, as he glided her unruly bangs to tuck behind her ear before reburying his hand back into her hair like the whole action was no big deal.

Clearing her throat to break the tension weighing down the air, she nodded her head towards her hand, still holding the communicator, thinking it might be important right about now to give her team a sign she was at least okay, when he slowly shook his head. He (again slowly) disentangled his hand from her hair and held up one finger. His intention was clear-he didn't think they should talk, but he had information she should know and could know with the touch of a finger. She carefully latched her communicator back to her belt, and half heartedly raised her ungloved hand to meet his before panic overtook her and her hand dropped to Gambit's thigh.

What if she knocked him out? How would she be able to return the favor and save him back while she sorted through his memories to figure out the important information he wanted her to know? She hadn't absorbed anyone since Apocalypse-what if Scott was right and her lack of practice would make her even more dangerous in the field if she did use her powers? What if the time she'd spent not using her powers would make this one touch even stronger and Gambit ended up in a coma like...

He must have read the anxiety in her eyes, because he immediately, yet still slowly, moved his hand to her waist, both of his hands now resting on her hips. He smiled at her in what she hoped was understanding and leaned his mouth down to her ear. "We gonna try not movin' too quick or makin' sound. Second attack came after we started movin' 'round again."

Although it felt incredibly intimate and very foreign to her, especially given their current position, she turned her lips to his ear, thankful his uniform covered it. "Someone you know?"

She felt him tense, but didn't feel guilty necessarily. What was she supposed to think?

When he whispered to her again, his tone was tighter. "Non. M' thinkin' Sentinels. Newer models'r supposed t' track by movement and sound." Newer models? Trask had been busy, apparently, and she wasn't sure she wanted to see the new results. There was definitely a tone of defensiveness when he whispered again. "Was here t' look into Trask's new research and development. 'pparently th' first model of machines weren't catchin' enough mutants so he's been busy workin' t' fix that. Thought everythin' I found was jus' designs, but I guessin' he's further along buildin'm than the plans say. Guessin' he decided on a test run once y' guys showed up and the ruckus started."

Now that she knew not to move, she wasn't sure if it was safer to nod and potentially be detected around Gambit's back or whisper back create noise, so she settled instead for squeezing her hand on his thigh, uncomfortable as the idea was for her. He squeezed her hip back, still way more gently then she ever would have guessed he would, and they both resumed listening for signs of anything around them. Rogue was finding it hard to listen around her, however, with Gambit's mouth still pressed so close to her ear and hers to his. This development had somehow managed to make their already impossibly intimate position even more. She was incredibly aware of his jaw and cheek so close to her own. She couldn't tell if she was so aware because of how easily he could get hurt, or because his face pressed so close to hers was giving her a strange tingly feeling in her face.

This time, Rogue heard the source of the explosion fire off a shot at the same time as Gambit, but his reflexes proved lighting fast again as he tensed and tucked Rogue's head back into his chest as tightly as before as the next explosion sounded, this time from further away. She was embarrassed to find her hand had moved from his thigh and now had wrapped around his back inside his duster and was resting between his shoulder blades in the process of bracing herself for the explosion. Her hand seemed to have a mind of its own today and Rogue didn't appreciate it at all.

Even more embarrassing was Rogue's recognition of two voices coming closer, yelling to each other as a set of feet pounded on the ground through the maze of crates away from the direction the most recent explosion had come from. No way in hell was she going to be able to explain any of what was happening to herself, let alone one of her teammates. The incoming feet skidded to a halt as both Rogue and Gambit's names were called out in unison.

Rogue peaked out from Gambit's arms as they both moved to stand and disentangle all their limbs, Rogue quickly doing everything she could to make their position less awkward to be caught in, almost stumbling as she stood too fast on legs that had fallen asleep. Gambit watched her catch herself as he righted himself as well, but made no move to grab her again. She was grateful for the space; the amount of anxiety in her chest their proximity had caused lessening, even if she was having trouble getting her body to forget how it felt to be held so tightly or how his breath had disturbed the hair by her ear, almost tickling her or how even in a series of explosions, knowing he was there had given her a small sense of security, like having a partner to watch her back again.

Jean landed softy on the ground and went to Rogue as Pyro hurried over to his teammate.

"Mate, we gotta go! I got a feelin' these aren't the Sentinels 1.0 anymore!" Pyro then took off sprinting.

Gambit snorted as his teammate took off running and continued to look in Pyro's direction but didn't move yet. Perhaps his legs were also on pins and needles and he needed a second, Rogue thought as she smoothed her hands over her own thighs, trying to get the blood moving again quickly. He scoffed again almost affectionately as he watched his teammate continue sprinting away from the direction Sentinels would soon be coming from. Although she'd expected him to, Gambit didn't follow suit with Pyro, but instead confusingly turned to look at Rogue.

Rogue knew Jean was searching her face and trying very hard to not accidentally read her mind to find out exactly why the Cajun was so close to Rogue's proximity. When it came to Gambit and New Orleans, Jean knew roughly the same story everyone else (that he'd taken-with air quotes from Scott and Logan- Rogue to New Orleans because he needed help and she'd helped him). Although Rogue was sure no one fully believed her, the only people who technically knew the full story were her and Gambit. They could guess at her editing the truth, but unless someone read her mind, they couldn't prove her wrong. That didn't stop Logan, Scott, and Kurt from aggressively hating Gambit from that moment on, but it did give enough reasonable doubt Rogue could yell at them to stop bitching about it.

Luckily the older girl didn't seem to be taking on the same attitude her boyfriend no doubt would have, had he been there. Jean watched the Swamp Rat cautiously, but Rogue could see her choosing to take cues from Rogue rather than go on the attack immediately. If Rogue wasn't fighting Gambit, things were clearly okay enough that the Sentinel was their most pressing issue. There was a gleam in Jean's eye as she looked back and forth between the two southerners that Rogue wasn't sure she was a fan of, but there would be plenty of time to care about that later.

"The jet is a straight shot this way. Logan moved it once the craziness started," Jean gestured. "We gotta move-the Sentinel I met took no damage from Pyro, Colossus, and I combined. I chucked the biggest solid object I could find at it and it got back up and found each of us right away." Rogue nodded, readying herself to run. "You need a lift?" It was nice of Jean to offer, but with the way the telekinetic's powers had been fritzing lately, it was probably safer for Jean to just worry about floating herself and for Rogue to make like Pyro and sprint.

"Nah, I'll be fine. Just tell Wolverine I'm putting Scott's Danger Room training to the test."

Jean laughed and rolled her eyes. "Deal. Hurry though. You should probably get out of here too, Gambit," Jean said, addressing the Cajun politely as she took off.

Rogue was already moving, Gambit keeping pace at her side, before Jean had gone too far. Although his legs were longer than hers, he seemed to be choosing to keep her speed.

"Ol' One Eye takin' over trainin', huh?"

"Gambit, I think we have more pressin' issues right now," Rogue said incredulously.

"More important than Cyke? My, my how times have changed."

They were in a life or death situation, but that still almost took her out of the moment with how out of the blue it felt. What the hell did he mean by that? And where did he get off making comments about Scott like that? Remembering herself, she filed it away to examine later (once they'd survived) knowing all the same she was probably not going to understand even with some hindsight. Based on his competitive tone, it was probably some weird grudge or an inside joke with himself about Scott's leadership abilities. "I think new and improved robots programmed to hunt an' kill mutants is more important than who's leadin' the X men in the field, Gambit!"

"What, I ain't allowed t' be curious?"

She didn't respond, choosing to try to focus her energy into running as fast as she could, but he continued anyway. "Always thought your Professor'd wise up and pick someone less insufferable than Mr. Perfect to lead y' team."

A laser hit just to Rogue's left and she dodged, almost running into him as she heard the sounds of the Sentinel coming closer.

"Like I said, Gambit, I think the killer robots might need to take precedence right now."

"Aw, c'mon, chère. Live a little."

More lasers fired upon them as the Sentinel closed the gap.

"Yes, Swamp Rat, I would like to live a little more. Thus, spendin' energy runnin' and not gossipin' about Scott."

She barely had time to see his small frown before another blast came towards her, nicking her shoulder. As she struggled to move out of the way, knowing more hits must be coming in her exact direction, she felt him already tugging her towards him and out of the direct line of fire. She was distinctly reminded of him similarly pulling her back from gunfire in Blood Moon Bayou. She'd just showed up to get him and his dad out and...

...and she suddenly realised he was probably currently doing the same thing she suspected he'd purposefully done back then from the second she'd shown back up for him. Although she hadn't realized it until getting home, every second until they'd both been safe, Gambit had pulled her out of any danger he saw and watched her like a hawk (whether she'd needed it or not) until they'd made it out of the bayou. Even his dad asking about her powers she remembered he'd immediately shut down. She wasn't sure where the sudden prioritization of her safety came from back then (or now), but she'd assumed he just hadn't wanted her to die on his account since she'd come back to finish what he'd started. They'd fought and worked together fairly harmoniously before that moment in New Orleans, but something had changed when she'd shown back up to bail him out and it was seeming to carry over to their current situation as well (if she was reading him right).

They sped up and Gambit maneuvered them so she was even more slightly ahead of him as they tore down their path, the Sentinel hot on their heels as Rogue finally spotted the X Jet, ready for lift off with Wolverine waiting at the open door for her to jump in.

Gambit steered them in the jet's direction, feet pounding in time with one another. She'd assumed as soon as she was close enough to the jet he would take off to wherever Pyro had gone, but clearly she was wrong. He put his hand on her back, pushing her to go even faster until they finally reached the jet. She tried to turn and look at him, but the second her foot touched the jet Gambit launched himself to the right where she could distantly see the large form of Colossus and picked up to full speed, racing a Sentinel that was far too close to him for Rogue's comfort.

She moved to step off the jet, but Logan stopped her. She turned to her mentor, hair whipping in her face as she gestured wildly in Gambit's direction. "He's not gonna make it!"

Logan frowned. "You go out there and he's gonna come running back instead of going to safety, Stripes."

Rogue shook her head in disbelief. "Why would he do that? He's the one in more danger right now, not me, and he's not stupid - "

Logan sighed and raised a hand as he cut her off. "Trust me. He'd be in more danger if you stepped off this jet, kid."

Logan walked to the front of the jet, yelling orders to take off. Rogue kept her eye on Gambit, but curiously noticed the figure of Colossus seemed to be coming closer rather than staying stationary or running away now that he'd flagged down Gambit.

Something was wrong.

The second Colossus got close enough, Gambit changed directions, now following his teams trajectory towards the X Jet, some unheard communication passing between them. Rogue squinted and vaguely saw three more figures behind Gambit and Colossus.

"Wait!" Rogue shouted, turning to the cockpit. "Don't take off!"

Jean and Kitty rushed over, trying to see what she was looking at and immediately spotted the four sprinting figures and one floating overhead Rogue was focused on, all being followed by three Sentinels, poised to fire.

"Logan, hold for take off! They need help!" Jean turned and ran back to make sure he could hear over all the noise.

It felt like everything stopped as Rogue and Kitty stood there in the jet's open door, waiting for their fellow mutants to make it in. Moments like this, when something crazy like killer Sentinels sent by a branch of the government to exterminate all mutants appeared, Rogue was reminded how arbitrary the enemy team lines felt. In moments like this, grudges and differences of opinion on laws and morals be damned, they were all on the same team.

Forced onto the same team, she corrected herself as she recognized the first two mutants who made it in the jet; Magneto followed quickly by Mystique. Kitty quickly looked at Rogue and then to Kurt, watching her friends for any signs of distress when Mystique entered. Gambit slid into the jet behind them, followed swiftly by Colossus and finally Pyro before Kitty hollered out "anyone else?". Upon seeing headshakes, slammed her fist on the button to close the door and Logan immediately took off.

Unsteady though the take off was and as hot as her face felt, Rogue managed to calmly walk her way over to Kurt with Kitty closely behind, doing her best to hide any reaction or microreaction she could have about anything the last hour had held. Blankly, she sat in the row next to her brother's and she was joined quickly but half-unexpectedly by Scott.

This was the friend Rogue remembered, she thought absently to herself, knowing he must have turned over the metaphorical leadership reigns to Logan so he could come support her and Kurt in case Mystique tried to come too close. This was the guy they'd all wanted to follow. She wished Scott could see it and understand leadership and kindness came naturally to him when he didn't get stuck in his own brain.

Her musing about Scott aside, Rogue's mind was racing. Mystique was back in town. Mystique was working with Magneto and up to something and back in town. She was stuck in an enclosed space with her crazy mother who was always planning something underhanded on this jet until they could land, and she couldn't do anything but sit and hope Mystique had the good sense to not try to talk to her.

Mystique was back.

And Gambit had known Mystique was there. He'd known Mystique was there and hadn't given Rogue the slightest heads up. On top of that, Gambit was working with Mystique. He was working with Mystique, but trying to joke around with her and act like they were still...Whatever they were? Acquaintances who saw value in saving each other's lives when convenient? Friends maybe? Enemies with a tentative truce sometimes?

She glanced in his direction quickly and saw the look of guilt on his face, his eyes asking something from her that she was too worked up to interpret. Whatever it was, his expression was far too genuine (she thought, but did she know anything for real? He was working with Mystique so he could up to anything for all she knew) for her respond well to in this moment with all the anger she felt towards Mystique and the situation and him for not trying to tell her or giving her some sort of heads up. Instead, she chose to not respond at all and stubbornly crossed her arms as she turned away to look out her window.

Next to her, Rogue felt Scott stiffen as he caught her quick glance in Gambit's direction. She turned to him and knew exactly where he was looking even without observing the murderous glare he was directing the Cajun's way.

Rogue took a deep breath and spoke to Scott softly. "Did you know?" Scott turned back to her, questioning what she meant. "That he was back. Did you know he was back and that's why you put him in the session this morning?"

Scott let out a deep breath, understanding now what she was asking. When he answered, she could tell from the expression of genuine shock on his face that her friend wasn't lying to her-he was just as surprised to see Gambit back as anyone. "No. I had no clue."

She breathed a sigh of relief and felt a weight lift of her chest that she hadn't realized had been there. At least that was one less thing to worry about, she thought to herself, feeling at least one pair of eyes (if not a second alternating between her and her brother) boring into the side of her skull. Rogue chose to not give either of them the satisfaction of looking over and instead chose to continue to look out her window. It was going to be a long plane ride, she thought to herself as she heard Logan and Magneto begin arguing about the best course of action.

A very long plane ride.