DISCLAIMER: None of the characters or places belong to me, I just manipulate them.
(SilverWolf77, LadyMageLuna and rogue-scholar07, thank you so much for your reviews.)
~Scarlet Letter ~
The Dating Police.
~*****************************************************************~
Sneaking out wasn't difficult. Sneaking in was actually much harder, which made little sense considering it was an Institute full of hormonally driven teenagers and they needed to keep tabs on their movements. Movements which often had to do with circumventing the curfew rule. But it was probably best not to tell Logan about any of that. He'd take it badly and turn the Institute into a kind of Fort Knox to keep them all in. Wanda's mobile was turned off but she'd left a message and figured that should be it – she might just be in the shower or something and she'd told her that she'd always have a bed there if she needed to get away. It wasn't like the guys would mind. Stealing Scott's car was a no-brainer. She still didn't see why he loved the damn thing so much. It was like a big, flashing neon sign illustrating the fact that he was less than well-endowed and had serious self-esteem issues. Real men had bikes. Fact of life. Didn't Remy ride a bike..? He did, but then, so did Logan. Must be a matter of good taste then.
And so she pulled up to the Brotherhood house and rang the bell, greeted by Freddy who gave her a big smile and a hug. He really was like a sort of teddy-bear. A gigantic, constantly hungry teddy-bear.
"Hey, Rogue! Come in, come in – all the guys are pretty down right now and Wanda's not here but you can crash out if you want," he said jovially, leading her into to kitchen where Lance was slumped over the table with the phone in front of him looking utterly depressed.
"Kitty won't call," Fred said in an undertone, and Rogue looked nonplussed.
"Why? They have some kinda fight?" Lance heaved an enormous sigh and said,
"Kitty left me..." in a tone that made her think of a man who's just been told he has two days to live and his family have perished in a freak accident.
"Why? What'd you do?" He looked up at her, confusion and misery warring for supremacy on his face.
"I just told her she looked hot!" Rogue nodded.
"And?" Lance shrugged.
"And she left! Said she wouldn't hear that from me and that I wasn't one to judge her and shit and I still have no idea what I did!"
"How did ya tell her she looked hot? Maybe y'all said it wrong?" Rogue sat down opposite him and folded her arms over the table. Fred appeared to be making coffee.
"I don't know! I just – I think I asked her if there was something different about her, if she'd done something different and she said no and I said well she looked different than usual and that's it – and she freaked!"
"Well you did something... You must have done something. I'll ask her later. So you guys are over?" Lance nodded, looking suddenly very young and lost.
"Y'all will make up. Buy her somethang pretty. Take her out. Propose. I don't know, whatever it is you guys do. Ya know you're crazy about her," she said indifferently, and Fred handed her coffee.
"Lance can't propose until he gets a job," he said sagely, and Lance shot him a poisonous glare.
"Shut the hell up, Blob!"
"No, Fred, really? Why? Lance, why?" Rogue was intrigued. This could only be juicy.
"Because he wants to give her a good life," Fred explained, and Lance almost launched himself over the table at the larger youth.
"Makes sense I guess... But Lance... Ya know Kitty loves you ta pieces – she'd say yes and it would all work out in the end – "
"Urgh, no it wouldn't! You don't get it! Kitty's like, a princess Rogue – she wants the big-ass wedding and the huge fucking cake and all her friends and family and dresses and churches and shit and there's no way I could give her any of that! Even if I could, what the hell would we do after? Where would we live? What if that stupid registration act passes – we'd never be able to just have a normal life together! I want Kitty to have everything she's always dreamed of and that's just not happening on my kind of salary. I'm broke as shit. I won't do that to her..." Rogue just stared at him.
"Men are such total morons..." she muttered, rising and taking her coffee with her and making her way up to Wanda's room leaving behind a confused Lance and a Fred who just nodded in accept.
~*****************************************************************~
When Wanda and John finally came home the house was quiet and they parted on the landing, Wanda opening her door and turning on the lights to see Rogue in her bed, fast asleep. She gasped at the surprise and backed up two steps, bumping into John whose hand landed on her left shoulder, warm and reassuring.
"Wanda..? You alrigh'?" she nodded slowly, turning to face him.
"It's just Rogue... must have gotten too much for her back there. I'm fine, I'll talk to her in the morning. Goodnight, John..." she smiled at him and he gave her shoulder a light squeeze before letting go and waving to her before closing his own door. She entered her room as quietly as she could and dressed for bed, not wanting to disturb her friend, but when she came back from the bathroom Rogue was up and waiting for her.
"I tried t' call," she started, but Wanda just smiled and got into bed next to her, settling down.
"Talk about it in the morning, okay?" Rogue smiled in relief and lay down next to her, closing her eyes, and sighing. No questions. Perfect.
~*****************************************************************~
When the girls came down the next morning it was to a kitchen smelling of freshly done bacon and eggs and sounding like an Eighties rock channel. Neither had any problem with either anomaly which was what such a thing was in the brotherhood house. Wanda was in her usual faded T-shirt – Iron Maiden this time - and her little hotpants, and Rogue was wearing her long black nightie. The minute they entered the kitchen, John turned with the frying pan in his hand and did a greatly exaggerated double take.
"Morning John," Wanda said, cheeks peach-tinted, and he winked at her.
"Mornin' Wanda luv. Mornin' Rogue. Now, I thought no makeup and jammies was meant ta be a Sheila's wors' nightmare but this ain' half bad! Very My Girlfriend's Girlfriend," he teased, and it took Rogue a minute to cotton on to what he meant.
"You like Type O Negative?" she asked incredulously, and Wanda nodded.
"He has all the CDs." Rogue made a noise that suggested it really was impossible to judge a book by it's orange-haired Australian cover and sat down to eat a massive amount of breakfast, which appeared to greatly please the kitchen-savvy pyromaniac.
"So: why did you come round last night?" Wanda asked between mouthfuls of what she had been informed was actually a Full English Breakfast and obviously cooked by a master. The last bit was her own assessment.
"Got fed up with other people runnin' mah lahfe sugah. Gal needs some privacy!" She noticed that John had vanished into thin air and looked around her.
"He been takin' lessons from Gambit?" Wanda shrugged.
"Think he's just like that." Rogue pursed her lips in thought then decided it wasn't worth taking a break from a truly wonderful meal and resumed scoffing it down.
"Ah think they're all lahke that deep down. Ya just gotta dig. Ah sure as hell found that out..." Wanda raised an eyebrow. And Rogue laid down her fork and opened her mouth and the whole stupid tale just came tumbling down the hill, steam-rollering Jacks, Jills and just about everything in it's way. Wanda listened with interest and made no comment until Rogue said,
"... and that's it. Ah don' know what the hell's goin' on Ah jus' had t' get outta there!" Wanda gave her a sympathetic smile and reached over to squeeze her hand.
"Honey – I think it's pretty obvious that Gambit's – sorry, Remy's got a real issue with you. Why else would he risk his life the way he's done?"
"But Ah have no way of checkin' that any of that shit's even true!"
"Call Warren."
"Warren? Why'd Ah wanna call Warren? Ah mean, he's a sweetheart an' all but what's that got ta do with anythang?" Wanda's smile grew sly.
"If anyone knows what's going on in the world of the chronically wealthy, it's Warren. Ask him about the stuff that's been stolen, things going missing. Ask about private collectors and all that shit. He'll know. If it turns out all those things really were stolen or sabotaged, you'll know that at least some of what you absorbed from Remy can't be all lies. Can he even lie to you if you absorb him like that?" Rogue bit her lip.
"Ah'm not sure... Ah think if you could, he'd find a way. But he just didn't seem like he was lyin' to me... Ah dunno, Wanda..." Her friend grinned at her.
"Yes you do. You want to know if it's okay to feel this way. So let's find out! You deserve the certainty, you deserve to be sure about this so you know he doesn't have some creepy alterior motive! Weren't you the one who told me you think that he's really just a good person with skewed morals? And I think even you'd be a bit – damaged – if your dad was some kind of massive player in the taking-things-that-don't-belong-to-you industry... Make the call."
~*****************************************************************~
Unbeknownst to them, in another room, John was making his own call to a certain Cajun who had a good deal of explaining to do.
"Oui..?"
"What's this I hear about a search-and-destroy crusade ya wen' on fer a certain stripey-haired Sheila?" John demanded, and there was a groan on the other end.
"How do you know about dat?"
"Sheilas in pyjamas. Answer the question." Remy paused for a moment.
"How much did dese pyjama femmes tell y'?"
"Everythin'. I'm just lookin' for my mate ta back it up so I know how hard ta kick 'im an' where when next I clap eyes on the bastard." Remy winced.
"John, mon ami, I had t' go alone. I needed t' do it alone."
"Ya left a mate behind ta go an' slay monsters and have a righ' ol' time so ya could win the princess' heart. Now, I've seen 'er in 'er nightie so I can sympathise. But ya could at least have told me what the hell you were plannin'!"
"Non – y' wouldn' have let me go. Y' would've said it's not our fight an' I would've backed out. I couldn' back out."
"Fer fuck's sake ya dingbat – I wouldn' 've said it wasn't your bloody fight! Personally, I think you won major points ownin' up to 'er about all this crap, but if you'd told me 'John mate, I'm off ta prove myself worthy o' Rogue's love an' I don't want you ta come' I wouldn' 've stopped ya. It's your bloody life ya can do whatever ya want. But if ya don' trust me ta tell me what you're up to, then we're not mates. We're just ex-teammates who get plastered and beat up mutant haters together every once in a while." Remy chuckled on the other end.
"Can y' forgive me f' bein' a fool, John?" John snorted.
"Give over. Beer's on you nex' time." Remy's rich, delighted laughter brought a real smile to his face.
"Y're a good man, John, an' a good friend. Even if dis Cajun's a fool an I shoulda trusted y'."
"'Ere now – all that pretty crap you're talkin' ain' gettin' you nowhere here mate. Save it for you know who. An' ya know the rules – if there's a Sheila involved – specially a pretty one like that – bein' a total arse ain' an issue. Jus' remember ta leave a note next time ya go runnin' round the globe lookin' fer mass-murderin' zombie megalomaniac mutant-lords an' their welcome mats or whatever the fuck you're after."
"C'est une promesse, mon ami. Now... why is ma chere in her nightie an' why are you aroun' t' see dat?"
"She's over here with Wanda, Institute got a little crazy for 'er an' she bailed on them. Sensible Sheila if you ask me. I made em breakfast an' listened to them talkin' and decided ta ring you an' swear at you."
"Tink Remy would do de same ting. Look after dem. I don' trust dose boys."
"Like I do? Got it covered. Come round later, she's bound ta still be 'ere."
"Maybe, mon ami. Maybe."
John hung up and stashed his mobile in a pocket before leaving his room again. The girls were laughing downstairs at something and as far as he knew Fred and Lance were in the garage, Toad was asleep and Pietro was off shagging some Sheila called Tabitha or something like that. Oh, the peace to be had!
~*****************************************************************~
"So... you an' Pyro, huh?"
"There is no 'me and Pyro'. I just live here," Wanda said haughtily and Rogue scoffed.
"Don't give me that shit – ya know as well as Ah do that nothin' an' Ah mean nothin' goes on in this house unless you've given the all-clear. That means you let him live here. Why?"
"He asked nicely, actually showers regularly, doesn't go on and on about Kitty and knows how to cook."
"You didn't know that when you said he could move in," Rogue pointed out and Wanda sighed.
"Well now I do, okay? And he's not such a bad guy. He took Kitty home because she had a big fight with Lance and he took me out to dinner last night."
"Yeah, what was that fight all about anyway?"
"Lance said Kitty looked fatter than usual." Wanda smirked at the way Rogue's jaw dropped.
"What?! Kitty is like the thinnest person alive!"
"Like." Rogue glared at her and she laughed.
"Oh come on, it is a little funny!"
"Not even a little!"
"Fine... But me and John think it's some kind of misunderstanding. Lance would never say that and Kitty's not fat so there's got to be something we're not seeing or they haven't told us here..." Rogue nodded.
"Probably. You and John?"
"Shut up." Rogue's smile became serious and she put a hand on Wanda's.
"I just want you to be careful sugah..."
"And I wish you didn't. I don't feel anything for anyone much and I don't know what all that boy-girl stuff's about so don't start on that... I don't know what it's like to be into someone like that so even if I did feel something I wouldn't be able to tell you what it really was. And I don't want to try. I don't want any more complications right now." Rogue nodded, understanding perfectly.
"You shouldn't have to have any complications sugah. Ah'm sorry. Ah won' mention it again. Ah mean, he's kinda cute an' all but Ah don' see him as your type anyway," she teased, and Wanda laughed along with her, but it was a thin laugh and quickly over.
"I'm not sure I'm okay with you and Gambit talking either but I'm not going to tell you not to go there if you want to," she said seriously.
"Thanks honeypie... Ah don' know what Ah'd do if Ah couldn' talk to you..."
"Me too..."
~*****************************************************************~
Unfortunately, Pietro, speeding from the front door to his room and back outside managed to catch a few snippets of conversation. Things like 'you and Pyro', his sister laughing, and 'he's kinda cute' reached him, and once outside he stopped to take stock of it. Pyro? And... his sister? Surely not! And yet... it could be. They were spending way too much time together. Perhaps Wanda had her eye on him. Or worse, he had his on her. That was unthinkable. It wasn't allowed to be. There wasn't a man in the world good enough for his sister and a pyromaniac with serious violent tendencies and weird hair was the last person on earth he'd want his sister to be into. Toad wasn't in the equation because there was no way any woman would willingly be with Toad, certainly not Wanda, and therefor he was unimportant. The issue of Pyro, however, would have to be addressed. Later. When there wasn't a freakin' gorgeous Tabby in the shower in a hotel across town awaiting his imminent return.
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