Disclaimer: Nothing here is owned by me.
Chapter Ten
Suddenly, everything changed around the Mansion.
If Rogue thought that people had tiptoed around her before, then she had been utterly naive.
Now they didn't just treat her as though she was breakable, but they openly told her so.
It started with Kitty, not an hour after she had agreed to be part of the undercover operation to take down Mystique, she had found herself in her bedroom and under interrogation from the two people she thought were her best friends.
Kitty was standing awkwardly beside Rogue's dresser, and the moment she cleared her throat Rogue knew that she was in for a difficult conversation.
"So" Kitty started, "Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea."
"How so?" Rogue asked, feigning disinterest as she dug through her closet. She needed to find the perfect outfit for her first meeting with John in a decade, the little pyromaniac had always nursed a soft spot for her and she was hoping her more mature body would help rekindle that flame.
"It's just" Kitty sighed, "Well Rogue, you couldn't hide the fact that you had a crush on Logan for the first year you were here!"
Rogue pulled her head out of the closet and turned to face her friend, "Jus' spit it out, gal."
"It just seems unlikely to me that once you get in front of your mother that you'll do anything other than just freeze up" Kitty signed, "You were practically hyperventilating at the sound of Sabertooth's name."
Rogue turned to Jubilee.
The little firecracker shrugged, "She might have a point, Rogue" she said sheepishly, "It's been a long time since you pretended to be someone you're not.
"It ain't somethin' yah forget" Rogue said, turning her back on the two of them and trying to push aside the memories of everything that Mystique ever taught her.
"We just don't want you to end up getting hurt" Kitty said softly, "Mystique is dangerous."
"Yah think Ah don't know that?" Rogue replied, digging through her drawers to find things she had long since buried and hoped to never use again. "She raised meh, Ah know what she's capable of."
"Then maybe it's best-"
"Best if what?" Rogue finally burst, standing up and throwing the bag she had surfaced from the depths of her drawers onto her bed. "We just sit around an' hope she shares her plans with us?"
"Well no-"
"If yah don't trust meh, at least trust Gambit" Rogue sighed, turning her back on the to move towards her bed. "He's the best performer Ah ever did meet."
She could feel Kitty and Jubilee sharing a dubious glance towards each other.
"But Rogue, you don't even trust him" Jubilee pointed out.
"Look, if yah don't wanna help that's fahne" Rogue huffed, sitting down on the bed and sifting through the bag she had just found. "But leave meh alone, Ah got a lot tah do."
She at least expected Logan to be supportive.
Though he never actively said anything, she saw how he looked at her and felt how much harder he pushed her during their training sessions. She could almost forgive him, as he had spent the whole time they had been friends believing it was his job to protect her. Given the way they had met, she couldn't really even blame him.
But the worst by far, was Bobby.
He cornered her in the kitchen one morning and wasn't shy about sharing his feelings with her.
"Rogue, don't do this" he said.
She glanced up at him, "Ah'm jus' gettin' maself some coffee, Bobby."
"That isn't what I meant" he said, shaking his head. "Don't go after Mystique."
Rogue sighed, a sensation she seemed to be getting used to lately. "Ah really ain't in tha mood foar this" she told him.
Bobby however seemed to have been building himself up to this for a while, and was not one to be deterred.
"You're not like them, Rogue" he pressed, moving closer to her. "People like Mystique and Remy are dangerous and you shouldn't be around them."
Rogue looked up at him, his ice blue eyes were imploring.
"How do yah know?"
"Because I know you" he said, reaching to take her hand.
She pulled back and not because she wasn't wearing gloves.
"Yah know meh now" Rogue said quietly, "Ah ain't the person Ah was then.
"Exactly, you've changed!" Bobby's eyes brightened as though had had finally gotten through to her. "You belong here with us."
"The X-Men do what's right" she breathed
"Yes!" he reached for her again.
She ducked out of his way, "This is right Bobby, stoppin' mah Momma is right."
"Rogue-"
"Ah'm real busy jus' now" she said, turning and leaving him alone in the kitchen.
She didn't seek out people's company much after that, the date of the mission was fast approaching and there was much to be done to keep her mind occupied.
According to their intelligence there was a diner that John frequented and was often spotted there in the afternoons, she and Remy were to pretend they had been out for a stroll and stumbled upon it. Perfectly innocent.
Then hopefully, John would do the rest.
Rogue sighed as she glanced at her reflection staring back at her from the mirror.
She was tired, tired of being overlooked and treated like some sort of delicate china doll. Perfectly poised, fine to look at all day long but never to be touched.
A small part of her could even understand it, she knew all the reasons why the boys didn't want to spend their Saturday nights with her or why the girls avoided training next to her in the gym. But she would not have them questioning her abilities as a mutant or as an undercover agent.
Remy was right, when she had been with Mystique things had been different. Maybe she had lived in constant control and fear, but she had known who she was and she had never doubted her abilities. She had become soft since she had moved here, allowed people perceptions of her to influence her behaviour
She had lost her edge.
Well, she thought as she liberally applied red lipstick, no longer.
Rogue would take back that power she had lost and she would show everyone just how strong she could be.
Little did she know, it wouldn't be long before she had the chance to prove herself.
She had just finished changing into her get up and was her way down to meet Remy and get the show on the road, as it were. Things were fairly subdued around the mansion and she didn't run into anyone until she heard voices in the kitchen.
She paused in the kitchen, as the two voices happened to be ones that she recognised.
"You over-estimate her" came Bobby's voice first, she could just imagine the way his brow would furrow together like a wrinkled pug.
"Non, mon ami - yo' underestimate de catin" Remy's voice replied, causal as you like. "She be stronger dan yo' know.
"Ten years ago maybe" Bobby scoffed, "She hasn't seen active combat in just as long."
"She trains wit' de cheverette Wolverine, non?" Remy countered.
"With training wheels" Bobby snorted, she could just imagine shaking his head. "We all know he could take her out with one foul swoop if he wanted to."
"She be de only choice" she could just picture the shrug that accompanied that comment.
"Well fighting aside" Bobby pressed, "She can't lie, she'll be found out in about two seconds flat.
"Sho' yo' be surprised."
"No, I'm sure you'll be surprised when she turns the colour of a tomato as soon as you put your hand on her ass."
"Had his hand in worse places than that" Rogue swung around into the kitchen, raising her eyebrows. "Ain't that so, Cajun?"
His eyes glowed red and that wicked little grin lit his lips, 'An' it sho' was enjoyable, non?"
"Rogue" Bobby stuttered, "I didn't mean-"
"That's alright, Bobby" she said, pressing a gloved finger to his lips. "Yah gotcha concerns, how about Ah calm those foar yah." She turned her eyes to Remy, who was watching her under a hooded gaze. "How 'bout it, Swamp Rat?"
He held his arms open to her, "All yours, chere."
She stepped toward him, her hips swaying and the leather cradling her backside. She looked good, she knew she did, that was the whole point after all. She pushed a stray curl behind her ear and pressed her red lips together.
"But where to start?" She had reached him now, and slid her palms up his chest before coming to rest on his shoulders.
Remy wasn't shy, but then she had never expected him to be. "How 'bout on dose ten years we missed out on?" His hands snaked her waist and slid down over her backside.
In spite of all his words of praise, he was testing her too. Though she couldn't tell if he was seeing how far he could push her, or if he was just using any opportunity he could to touch her.
"Now, now" she tisked, "We got company."
He reached down to grab the backs of her thighs and pull her up so her legs were wrapped around her waist, "Can't a man admire his lady?" He grinned, moving to deposit her on the counter top and stepping between her thighs.
"Mebe if yah could look not touch" she chastised, as his hands slid down her thighs.
"Ain't hardly my fault dat yo' feel so good" Remy grinned.
Rogue leant forward so they were a breath apart, their lips practically touching. "But do Ah taste as good?"
She pulled the back of his neck into her and kissed him deeply. He tasted like fire and cinnamon, he tasted like desire and like everything she had forgotten from ten years ago.
Rogue had forgotten how it felt, to have his palms warming her back and his crotch warming her thighs. It would have been too easy to fall back into this feeling, to allow him to take control and to do all the things her body was practically begging him to do.
That, however, was not the point.
She pushed him off and turned to Bobby, "Convinced?" she asked.
Bobby looked slightly nauseated, "A little over the top, don't you think?"
Rogue slid down off the counter, "Not for Remy."
Speaking of the devil, he grabbed her waist and pulled her back into him, "Ain't done wit' yo' yet, chere" he said softly into her hair.
"Tsk" she pulled his hands from her waist, "We gotta get goin' Cassanova, this ain't playtime."
"Non?" His breath made the back of her neck tingle, "Den why de bedroom eyes."
"Just gettin' into character" she said, stepping towards the door and pulling a breath of air into her lungs. "Yah take a while tah warm up to."
"Seem pretty hot t' me, chere" he called after her
"Be ready in ten, Cajun" she called, not looking back as she left the room.
She didn't stop until she reached the stairs, leaning against the banister and taking several calming breaths. Remy LeBeau was like a tornado, sucking in everything in his path. He took her breath away and made her hot and itchy in places she didn't even remember having.
The man was impossible to resist, which was problematic, because that was exactly what she had to do.