DISCLAIMER: I own none of the characters portrayed, I just manipulate them.
(Firstly, to anon goddess for being a peach; you're a peach!! Thank you for everything! Secondly, to Bloodypassion, for being a sweetheart; you're a sweetheart! Thirdly, a big thank you to LadyMageLuna, and Bianquis! Lastly, thank you to damnedknight. If anyone has been forgotten, tip me a message and I'll spread extra make-up love in my next update. Let me know how you like this!)
~Scarlet Letter ~
Half Time.
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"Taste dat an' tell me how it is," Remy instructed, holding up a spoon whereupon rested the source of the glorious smells that had been wafting around the house for the past hour since they'd come home. Rogue allowed him to tilt the concoction past her lips and closed her eyes with a groan.
"That is beautiful Remy. Ah ain' had nothin' that good fer so long Ah can' even tell ya how good that is..." The grin on his face was triumphant in more ways than one and he turned back to his cooking with a vain flourish.
"Dat's how we do it down Sout'," he said breezily and she giggled at the pose he had struck, one eyebrow raised as he gazed at his cooking like a mother hen with her chicks.
"Ya really are a man o' many talents, huh Cajun?" he nodded in a superior sort of way and said,
"Oui, ma belle chere, but de way y' say it makes me tink y' maybe had doubts, non?"
"Maybe not doubts... Just... Okay, some doubts..." her fingers laced through her bangs as she rested her hip against the counter and twisted her lips together, inhaling the scent of good Southern cuisine and wondering if they made cigarettes that emulated that scent and taste. Likely not, but it was maybe worth a marketing proposal if she could persuade Remy to cook for some bigwigs...
"Chere? Y here wit me?" She shook herself out of her reverie and smiled at him, relaxing before his amused gaze, fingers stilling halfway through combing into a section of her hair.
"Yeah, sure... Jus' thinkin'. We don' even eat this good back at the Institute." He shrugged.
"No one who ain' had ma Tante Mattie t' teach dem t' do dis eats like dis, chere..." She smiled.
"Ah bet she's a real firecracker!" Pyro poked his head round the doorframe.
"Where?" Remy rolled his eyes.
"Go back t' what y' were doin' mon ami. Empty threats is all y' hearin'." Pyro puffed at a tuft of orangey hair that was brushing the top of his eyelashes.
"Typical wi' you people." And he was gone again.
"What do y'all think they're doin' out there? Ah mean, Ah ain' never seen this place so clean and them bein' so quiet an' all, Ah don' think it's raght..." Rogue asked him, and he chuckled.
"Les enfants be doin' whatever Wanda be sayin' dey need t' do." Rogue giggled. She seemed to be getting into the habit since he'd been back in town and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.
"It seems lahkely." She didn't see the subtle shiver that ran over his well-muscled back at the drawled reply.
"Go tell dem de dinner be ready ma chere, I'll take care of all dis," he said with a wink in her direction, and she allowed herself a bit of a sashay as she left the kitchen. He in turn allowed himself a decent eyeful. Both sides were satisfied, and oblivious.
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"Here, Rogue, you take him!" A tittering Pyro was shoved at Rogue who staggered back at the light contact, terrified and breathing as if she'd just run ten miles in ten minutes. He stepped back a full six feet and let her have her space, pretending it hadn't happened.
"Ah – why do Ah need ta take you?" Pyro smirked.
"I couldn't stop laughin' at Speedy's war wounds." Rogue grimaced.
"What does he look like?"
"Cross between Sabretooth's scratching post and those road-kill photos they show ya when you get ya bike license ta scare you off the illegal speeding," he mused, looking thoughtful, and Rogue had to laugh full-out.
"Not that they stopped you though," she said dryly, sovering as she recalled his recklessness earlier. He shrugged.
"Ya don' know me very well Sheila, but ya should know I never really bought inta pain as a scare-tactic. Bit poin'less what with my record an' all." She raised an eyebrow.
"Not somethin' ya wanna know before dinner," he clarified, seeing the curiosity in her eyes.
"There is something Ah do wanna know – why do ya call everyone 'Sheila', but not Wanda?" He made an expressive gesture that told her very little.
"Wanda's not you, is she? There's your diff'rence. I'll leave ya to it – they're jus' patchin' up Speedy an' the fun wears off after a bit. I'm off." And he left her standing there with some very mixed feelings, chief among which were annoyance and complete confusion. She opened Pietro's door and entered, having to squeeze past Freddy in the process. Wanda was sitting by her brother, applying antiseptic to his various cuts and lumps. Rogue snickered. The guy really did look like something Sabretooth might have whetted his claws on.
"John, I thought I told you to – Oh, Rogue. Thought it was John back to gloat again. He was having way too much fun over this," Wanda said crossly, a little furrow marring her brow.
"Remy's got dinner fixed downstairs, y'all gotta come down," Rogue choked out past her giggles as Freddy turned and made for the door like it was going to seal tight shut in a matter of seconds unless he hurried.
"Fred! You wait 'til the others come down!" Wanda called after him, and he said something in the affirmative before vanishing. It was Freddy's other mutant power, the ability to completely disappear and reappear in the prescence of the food going.
"'M wanna stay here... mad freak... going..." Pietro mumbled, and Wanda sighed.
"Pietro you're coming. You don't have to eat it if you don't like it but Rogue and remy worked hard over this dinner and you are going to drag your ass downstairs and try, damn you!" she growled, and her brother got up stiffly and attempted to stalk out, which didn't go well. The egg-shaped bruises covering his torso made him too stiff to stalk convincingly. Lance put an arm around his shoulders and led him downstairs and Rogue sniggered.
"Honestly Rogue, you're as bad as John..."
"John had every reason to laugh."
"John always has every reason to laugh. It's called being a maniac. He may be a great guy but Pietro's wounds still weren't that funny..." Wanda's responsible-sister act crumpled as she dissolved into tears of laughter, slumping over Rogue.
"Okay, okay, it was funny, it was funny!"
"It was so much more. We're so takin' pictures once he's asleep!" Nodding between wheezes of laughter, Wanda took Rogue's hand and dragged her downstairs, the mouth-watering scents drifting up to them from the hall and the kitchen overwhlming her sense of dignity as they scooted into the kitchen and took their seats.
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"Freddy, you're not taking seconds until everyone else is ready!" Fred blushed at the admonition and the sternness of Wanda's gaze and put down the ladle.
"Sorry Wanda."
"Toad if I see that tongue out so help me I will nail it to the wall!"
"Sorry Snookums. I'll be good."
"Lance, don't eat with you mouth open, it's disgusting. I don't need to see the first stages of your digestion."
"Hmmm..."
"So, chere, y' goin' back or are y' stayin' here wit Miss manners an' her happy troupe?" Rogue blushed under Remy's glowing eyes and John sighed loudly.
"No adulation at the dinner table, mates. This ain' good with suger." Wanda nodded.
"I second that."
"Carried."
"Thirded."
"John, there's no such thing..."
"Yes there is. People say there's no such thing as unicorns, but guess who's seen one?"
"You?"
"No, Sabretooth that time we had Jase mess about with him for destroyin' the couch in the rec room when he had Mystique over for a little Pyjama Party sans pyjamas."
"That's gross yo!"
"That's just vile!"
"Get down!" Remy's outburst caught everyone's attention as he leapt up and promptly dived out of the open kitchen window to the tune of,
"Like, Gambit! Get off me!" There was a screeching of chair legs over tiles as Lance left the scene of the crime and the clunk-clunk of boots told them he was running and fast.
"Ah, pardonnement, petite, Remy cannot tell y' how sorry he is," there was motion outside the window.
"Remy? Kitty? Bring her in!" Rogue cried, leaping up and running out to the front door.
"No phasing! No windows! Front door!" Wanda added in a delighted yell, running after Rogue, John slipping out silently to shadow them.
He witnessed a joyful reunion at the front door that was all tears – Kitty's – hugs – Wanda's – and questions – Rogue's.
"Why are ya here sugah?! Gawd Ah missed ya so much!"
"I, like, needed to get out, see you two, you're the only sane people I know right now!"
"Come in honey, come in – is that a bag? Are you staying with us?" Kitty looked at them both very seriously, her mascara slightly smudged.
"I am moving in with you guys."
"Den come in, ma petite, dinner's ready an' i Freddy hasn't eaten de lot dere's a plae wit your name on it," Remy said kindly, and she gaped at him. His eyes glowed brightly in the dark around them.
"Thanks, Gamb – I mean, Remy..." Taking Rogue's hand as Wanda relieved her of her luggage – two pieces, both weighing roughly what Stonehenge would weight if hacked into rubble and poured into pink bags with rhinestone tags on that read 'Kitty'.
"Give me theose, luv, go get her in the kitchen. Rocky gave us the slip," John said discreetly, taking them from Wanda and winking at Kitty as they passed him.
"Pyro!"
"'Ello there little Sheila!"
"Freddy, Todd, Kitty's here to see us – Fred you put down that damn ladle!"
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Kitty was snugly seated between her two best friends licking her spoon clean before she set it down on her plate again and sent Remy a winning smile. Pietro had slunk off to feel sorry for himself but had contrary to his previous vow that he would eat nothing cooked by a mad freak and his psycho accomplice cleaned off two heaped helpings and was at least well-fed.
"You are, like, an amazing cook, Remy," she said with a little flutter of eyelashes and he grinned.
"Dat's awful kind of y' petite."
"Now you Sheila's run off and have a chinwag before you all burst and we have ta clean the kitchen again, we'll take over from here," John added, getting up and starting to pile the plates.
"I'll take the leftovers," Freddy said with a big smile at Remy.
"Are you staying as well?"
"Perhaps, mon ami grande," Remy said with a grin and a wink for Rogue who was ushering Kitty and Wanda out so they could talk in Wanda's room.
"Ya think those girls have any idea how much shit this is goin' ta mean for us?" John asked sarcastically, and Remy sighed.
"Tink dey know and it don' matter, mon ami. Femmes... dey de same all over..."
~*****************************************************************~
Kitty's tears flowed freely as she unpacked the important things and shimmied into her nightie, a pastel pink thing with scalloped edges and a v-neck that Lance had once seen her in at the Institute and said she looked like an angel... She'd been spying on them through the window. The Brotherhood and Rogue and Remy – and Pyro. How Pyro managed to be so invisible and stand out so much at the same time was beyond her but he had seemed so calm and – normal – just like the night he'd driven her home and she'd asked if he had no life... Remy on the other hand stood out on purpose. Everything about him oozed appeal and attraction and that something that just made him so different – and it was all directed towards Rogue, who seemed not to notice the full-bore attention scope on her and when she noticed just the tiniest things would go into fits of awkwardness. Wanda seemed to accept the whole thing as though it were nothing – but Kitty supposed how would she really know? If Rogue didn't admit it maybe Wanda didn't do more than suspect and assume. Kitty could tell though. She knew boys and she knew Rogue and she knew that Remy was acting – for all his suave worldly charm – like the puppy that hopes to be taken for walkies. Kitty could see that Pyro knew, but couldn't place his actions in any of it. Too soon to tell what his motives were, best keep an eye on that. And Lance and Pietro amping up the angst in the little family picture, the sullen teens acting up. Pietro looking like he's been mauled by an angry cat and Lance looking... lost. And empty. She hoped it was because of her, she thought with a sudden spite. Him and his stupid words and his stupid – she took out her anger on her hairbrush as she fluffed out her hair and took out the ponytail, putting the pink bobbles away carefully in the sidepocket she kept for them.
Wait and see, Kitty, wait and see... The knock on the bathroom door woke her up and she dried the tears quickly.
"Yeah?"
"You coming out? We got ice cream!" Wanda called, and Kitty put all her toiletries back in their case.
"Coming!" Opening the door she was met by the smiling witch who held up a tray of assorted B&J with spoons stuck in them.
"Great!"
"I know – we went shopping earlier – "
"Suicide mission!"
"Shopping!" Wanda said sternly at the Southern screech from her room.
"Now come one, lets go and eat this before it all melts – we don't have a Bobby around." Kitty sniffed and smiled a little.
"Yeah, okay... By the way... Who cleaned the bathroom?"
"The boys did, while I was shopping with Rogue... After this morning I figured it would boost morale." Kitty giggled. Swinging Wanda's door shut after her she breathed for the first time that night. She was glad she'd come.
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