Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made by this work.
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Paying the fare once the cab got bogged down in traffic, Remy held the door for Rogue, the two ducking and weaving through the cars stuck at a stand still to join the march of people out along the sidewalks. Hugging herself as if to make her smaller, Rogue found the walk a relaxing end to their evening that had them an audience of two to a man busking and playing all the classics, enjoying fancy café coffees and sharing a petite cheesecake before leaving a generous tip. Despite everything he had said she felt it was a date, one that had been sweet and thrilling and filled with little insights to the man treated her so kindly.
"This way." Remy whispered as he leaned in near to guide her down another street.
Though always careful he never seemed to fear touching her, something she thought anyone should well be fearful of. His touch was something she had never experienced before in her life, filling her with tingles and shivers as her breath came short. The only boy she had ever known in her life had been nice, but he was clumsy and bullish as he took her hand to drag her off full of guileless enthusiasm. Looking to Remy under her primped hair with coy eyes, in him she saw a man full of mystery, secrets and surprises.
Noticing for the first time his hand hadn't left her since alighting upon her shoulder to turn her down the street, he walked aside her with a protective arm draped across her back keeping her close as they walked through the crowded streets. Standing so close his scent was distracting, forcing herself to take notice of the shops and bars they passed and finally noticing some she recognized from her time with the impish friend she had made. The bus ride had been a good fifteen minutes then, leaving her wondering just how long the walk would be back to his apartment.
"Ya sure ya don't wanna try callin' her again?" Rogue asked.
"Non, if she be sleeping I say we let her be. Maybe go sit out on the balcony and enjoy the view..." Remy shrugged off, his lips easily falling into a seductive smile that had her blushing at the thoughts of just which view he might be referring to.
"Does she sleep at yer place often?" Rogue asked, slowly trying to get to know the people she had so easily come to trust.
"Often enough, she have no home and many at the same time. I just be one of those few friends she trusts and can relate to, Cynthia be her oldest and best friend. I made that lady a promise I be sure to keep, to keep her safe." Remy replied looking lost to thought for a moment.
Rogue had made a promise of sorts herself, to keep an eye on her young friend who had she not been there when she had left her wondering just what sort of trouble she would be in now herself. She didn't want to imagine herself anywhere else now, date or not depending on who was asked. Risking getting just a little closer, she slipped a hand in one of the back pockets of his jeans to tie them together with careful yet intimate touches.
"Smell that?" Rogue asked as they neared the peaceful Pacific coastline.
"Be one of the reasons I found the place I call home here, something to be said for watching the sunsets in the most agreeable kind of company." Remy replied.
The sun had long ago set while the sky was cast in the haze of dim darkness that only the strongest of stars could piece, thinking of the spectacular evening skies she had seen off on those lonely bus stops in the wide open spaces left in this country of theirs.
"I wonder how far we'd have to sail ta see the sky like it's supposed ta be seen..." Rogue mused aloud.
"Maybe we find out one of these nights, non?" Remy whispered in her ear.
Coming unbidden, she remembered a time out on the ocean filled with the spray of water crashing against the hull. Smoking a hastily rolled cigarette in one of those rare moments of peace and staring up into the night sky only to think half a world away with hell to be unleashed in the morning she found herself staring up at those same lights. Taking another breath and finding the surf of the sea distant and the cigarette smoke all the more enjoyable than the stale tobacco of her pouch she started at the realization of it all.
"Chere?" Remy asked softly.
"Nothing, it was nothing." Rogue stammered though again wrapping her arms about herself and pulling free of his comfortable embrace.
Nothing but a nightmare, suffering her torment in the waking hours now that she had managed to forget after a few awful splashes of water from the sink. In those dreams she wasn't herself and only realized it after she sat gasping for breath. Twice now she had suffered them in the hours between dusk and dawn, always managing to push it all aside and fall back to sleep.
Trying to pull her back aside him she rebuffed him and hugged herself tighter and longed to get back to his apartment so she could have a nice, long shower. Turning another corner at his urging, halfway down the street she could see the ocean sprawled out there and knew it wouldn't be long now.
Distracted as she was, a nagging sense of danger tugged at her mind only to have the hairs on the back of her neck rising as she neared the door with Remy. A sniff had her smelling her own with a throaty growl rumbling from her chest as her claws slipped from her fingers. Remy froze and looked down to her with his key in the door, something suddenly all too familiar heard just then. Twisting the key and finding no resistance from the bolt, he slowly opened the door to gape at the sight of his apartment ruined and ransacked.
Rushing in, Rogue had lost any of the timidness she had shown out on the street and threw the doors open to the bath and his one bedroom to turn around snarling at another sniff. Still at the door and watching the spectacle, he saw someone else there in that moment with familiar claws flashing to slash the air in frustration and anger. Jubilee's explanation came back to him in that early morning when he had been sleep addled and thinking it just her usual colourful speech, a werewolf.
"Who are you..." Remy asked in a low and dangerous voice as he looked on Rogue in a new light.
"What?" Rogue snarled as she stalked up to him.
"Is your name really Marie D'Ancanto?" Remy asked playing a card he had longed not to.
The shock on her face was his answer, no amount of acting able to see her flush and grow bloodless and pale at her real name spoken by a man but a few days shy of being a stranger. Closing his eyes and breathing a sigh of relief, it was all too short lived as hands stronger than they looked hauled him in and slammed him against the wall cracking the plaster.
"How did ya know that!" Rogue roared.
Charging a fistful of dust caught from the one act that would claim his security deposit, he threw it in her face and did his best to shield himself as it erupted. Clutching her face with a horrid growl, he took his chance and put some distance back between her and himself easily leaping over his sofa. He had no idea what was going on or where Jubilee was, he hadn't time to worry about that daring to reassure the very angry and equally confused girl across from him. That was when he saw the message that had him filled with a rage all his own.
"Sonova!" Rogue yelled wiping the blood from her face that showed no sign of injury.
Looking on him and seeing the rage fill those red on black eyes of his, she felt her blood run hot and her heart hammer in anticipation of a fight. Stalking in with clenched fists, an underlying scent she hadn't noticed for the anger roused at having someone else defile her territory had her stomach twist in a knot, blood neither hers nor Remy's but instead Jubilee's. Following his gaze and feeling the fight knocked out of her as she looked on in horror, Rogue fell to her knees with her limbs going limp.
Written in blood was a number, call me written beneath it, all in what she knew was Jubilee's by the scent alone painted with fear and pain. Stepping past her with his fist glowing with purple energy, Remy punched the wall that exploded as that glow bled from him to the plasterboard. Seething as he stood there he pulled a cell out and dialled, pressing it to his ear with a deep breath and a shaky grip.
"Long time LeBeau..." The voice on the other end answered, clear as day despite the distance standing between her.
"Is she alright?" Remy asked tightly without preamble, a sickening laughter heard.
"Looks s'lot worse 'n it is, girl's a bleeder. Smacked her around a bit, might need a couple o' teeth fixed...providin' she lives that long." Victor said slowly as he savoured every moment of the suffering he knew he was causing.
"What do you want?" Remy asked fighting for control.
"Well ain't this just an interestin' turn o' events, I got what you want and you got what I want. I know ya can hear me kitten, let me hear ya growl fer yer Uncle Vic..." Victor rumbled over the phone.
Renewed with rage Rogue was on her feet and screaming at the phone everything she couldn't find words for, a guttural reply of the most base instincts. Resting a hand against her shoulder and trying to warn her against his games, Remy had lost the luxury of time he thought he had to finding out just who his Rogue was and who was after her.
"Who is she to you? Who is Rogue?" Remy asked.
"A job, a package ta be delivered neatly gift wrapped. Yer just an unexpected surprise in all o' this boy. Oh, and keep yer hands off her, she'll suck the life right outta ya if ya get a lil too frisky and I don't think you'd get off as lucky as me." Victor's laughter was a grating against his nerves as Remy dared find his control seeing his cell glow a dangerous purple.
"What do you want with her!?" Remy snarled losing his patience.
"Just need her to c'mon ta the city so nice they named it twice, New York, New York. Man here who'd like ta have a word with her, has a proposition o' sorts. Don't worry, I'll keep yer lil girlie all nice and safe fer ya, just as long as ya hurry. Don't go gettin' any smart ideas either LeBeau..." Victor said playfully only for his mood to drop to a low warning before hanging up.
Losing the last of his control as the purple glow overtook his phone, he hurled it through the balcony window that exploded outwards in a spray of glass. Looking down Rogue, she looked to have worked through her rage and was left spent and tired at his feet. It was something they didn't have time for, standing in the middle of what would be a crime scene the moment the police arrived. Once again he had worn out his welcome, back on the run again.
"Chere, Rogue?" Remy asked in a soft voice as he knelt down to look into her vacant eyes.
"Marie?" Remy tried, a light brought back to them as she stared at him with tears spilling down her cheeks.
"It's all my fault..." Rogue croaked hoarsely.
Taking her gloved hands in his own he pressed them against her cheeks to hold her in his gaze, his devil like eyes filled with purpose and drive. Risking a kiss, just a butterfly press of lips that had an electric jolt shock him as he felt his breath stolen, he hoped it was enough to bring her around.
"Non, you didn't ask for this, but we still be in this mess together. We get out of it together, I promise you that. Now, I don't need you be strong for me or even yourself. I need you be strong for Jubilee, we need to go now and we don't have much time. Okay?" Remy said quietly but with a voice filled with granite hard conviction.
"You promise?" Rogue asked with her voice cracking weakly.
"Oui, be just as important as another promise I be planning to keep. Lets go." Remy swore as he helped her to her feet to vanish into the night as only a thief could.
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Leaning against the car leisurely smoking a cigar with a bottle of bourbon in easy reach on the roof, he had to admit that these were the nights that made life worth living. Blowing a lazy cloud into the night, he heard the first cricket chirp ever since he'd pulled up after waiting around in town for that call. Flicking ash and having a swig, he chomped down and sighed thinking there was still some work left to be done before his ride came.
Opening up the back door of the luxury sedan with those nice, dark tinted windows he found her still sleeping off the beating he'd given her along with a few pills out of LeBeau's medicine cabinet to keep her quiet. Finding them in there had him figuring he might have been having trouble sleeping some nights, wondering if he was the reason for it or maybe something else. He had her hands tied behind her back just as a bit of a precaution, getting a face full of fireworks for a lack of a better word to describe what she could do had him figuring to handle her with care just incase she was libel to explode.
"Sweet dreams, pup." Victor said slamming the door, flicking his ash for another swig.
Walking around back to the trunk and digging for the keys, he opened it up and found his benefactor staring up grimly at him with sightless eyes. Just like Vince all it took was a quick twist of the neck for it all to be over, having to exercise some restraint until it was all over and he got paid. Hauling the body on out and throwing it over his broad shoulders fireman style, he took his friend for a walk to throw him in some scraggly brush.
"Dinner's served boys." Victor said to the night, a sniff telling him of the coyotes prowling off in the distance knowing there was a bigger and meaner predator around in their turf.
Just on the edge of hearing was the thing he had been waiting for all this time, heading back to the car to finish off his bottle preparing for his trip. At first nothing more than flashing lights in the night sky, slowly emerged from the darkness a single engine Cessna making its approach. A couple of calls and dropping a name had been all it had taken, El Tigre still a boogy man from here to Colombia. Opening up the passenger door and checking the glove box, at least the dearly departed had been good for something other than a ride as he pulled out the snub nosed revolver that hadn't done its former owner any good.
Taking a walk and lighting up a fresh cigar, he stuffed the pistol in his belt nice and visible so that the plane would land between him and the car. Bait wasn't good dead after all, blowing a lazy breath of smoke and grinning in anticipation of what was to come. Thinking on it again he realized all too late maybe he should have brought a change of clothes, shrugging and standing ready as the door was opened up.
"You the gringo that calls himself El Tigre?" The first ornery hombre asked filing out of the plane.
"Well, I sure as hell ain't Heisenberg shithead." Victor answered.
Joining the first who was asking all the questions was another with a knockoff AK-47, Victor hissing in aggravation at the sully to the next best thing Russia exported after Vodka. Flicking his ash and having a slow draw of his cigar to savour the fine quality of the contraband Cuban, he blew a few smoke rings toying with the two cartel boys posturing and posing.
"You got any last words?" The first of the two asked.
"Don't miss." Victor replied reaching for his revolver.
The report of the counterfeit AK was joined by a fast drawn pistol pumping bullets into his flesh, falling over for all intent and purpose dead to the world with enough lead in him to leave the cause of death redundant. Listening to the feet crunching over the scraggy grass to lord over him, at the glint of steel of a machete being drawn did he then let his dead eyes show life. Crying an oath, Victor hoped it was a good one as he fell upon him and savoured the kill all the while leaving the message that El Tigre was still alive and well for whoever came looking for their boys.
Stripping off his shirt and digging out a few stubborn bullets with a claw, he walked back to the car and opened the side door to find her still in her drug induced slumber. Throwing her over his shoulder and walking off to the plane, his next stop the Big Apple with a few layovers here or there for refuelling and maybe a burger.
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Author's Note : As that last scene played out I couldn't resist a tip of the hat to a certain drug related show with the chemical formula for pure awesome.