Disclaimer: I do not own and am making no money from the X-Men. Vixen belongs to her creator Corrinth. Blaze is mine. That is all.

Scene Four

Gambit bounded upstairs athletically and took a left down the girl's corridor. Kitty's room door was open and her indignant voice came from inside.

"Honestly Lance, I'm just so sick of them treating me like a baby," she paused, then giggled. "I don't mind being your baby… No you can't have that in writing."

Despairingly Gambit shook his head and moved on. Blaze's room was four doors further down. He didn't bother knocking but just went right in. Blaze was sitting on her unmade bed with her chin in her hands. The curtains billowed in the breeze from the open window and Remy had to hop around several floor stacks of books and CDs to reach his girlfriend. He sat down besides her and kicked away her abandoned soccer boots.

"What d'you t'ink they gonna do?"

"I dunno," Blaze replied glumly, "I was just wondering if I could convince Ilehana to move back into our flat in town again."

"You wanna move out?"

"I'm thinking about it."

"Oh," Remy replied. "Okay Cherie, if dat's what you want. All I know is it a hell of a lot easier to sneak down one hallway in the middle o' the night than it is to sneak down the hallway, down the stairs, out the door an' halfway across Bayville."

Blaze glanced at him for the first time and he grinned lopsidedly, before planting a cheeky kiss on her cheek. That made her blush and look away again. They were still a new couple. They'd only been dating a matter of weeks, after their ex's Rogue and Angel dumped them. Blaze was still a little shy around Remy when they were alone. For all her outward bravado and confidence, when you got past all that she had a vulnerable streak a mile wide, and Gambit couldn't get enough of it. As she coyly avoided his red-on-black eyes, her gaze fell on his burned hand and she cried out in shock.

"What happened?"

"You happened," Gambit admitted reluctantly, lifting his hand so they both could see the damage.

"I did that?" Blaze was appalled, and there was genuine concern in her liquid brown eyes as she took his hand in hers. "I don't remember, Remy, I'm so sorry. What can I do?"

Gambit had the perfect suggestion, "You could kiss it better…"

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It turned out the Professor had the perfect punishment for the girls. What better way to bring them into line than to send the five of them off on an urgent mission on their own? So with great reluctance and no small amount of desperate pleading to be grounded instead, the five girls piled into Jean's SUV and headed out of Bayville. Under the Professor's orders they were travelling incognito, so the girls wore their usual assortment of sensible jeans, trainers and t-shirts. Only Blaze had differed, instead donning black kitten-heeled sandals that matched her black vest top and ebony jewellery.

It was her car, so Jean was behind the wheel with Rogue in the front passenger seat. Tabby and Blaze filled the middle row, whilst Kitty sat in the back with the assortment of overnight bags. The Professor hadn't given them any details about the mission, insisting during their briefing that all would become clear when they arrived. All he had given them was an address, a map, and instruction to take overnight things. They were barely out of the mansion's driveway when the arguments started again.

"Hey Jean," said Rogue, "doesn't this heap go any faster?"

"I'm hardly going slow Rogue," replied Jean tartly.

"Any slower," observed Blaze, "and we'd be going backwards."

Sensing the growing tension, Kitty leaned forward between Blaze and Tabby's seats.

"How about some music you guys?"

"Great idea Kitty," Jean decided, reaching out a hand to turn on the CD player. Cheesy pop filled the car, drowned out only by Jean's off-key singing. Blaze put her fingers in her ears and winced.

"What on Earth is this rubbish?"

"My car, my music," Jean insisted.

Not very discreetly, Tabitha dug out her MP3 player from her pocket and stuck in her earphones. Rogue was impressed, "why didn't Ah think of that?"

A period of gloom descended over the car, and no one spoke for a good while. Jean's music provided the accompaniment until Rogue finally and defiantly turned it off. Silence then reigned, apart from the buzz from Tabby's earphones.

Outside the car Bayville's built-up streets gave way to gardened suburbs. Manicured lawns and neat driveways rolled by, kids played on bikes on the sidewalks and dads washed their cars. Lovely detached houses painted a picture of blissful prosperity. Jean took a left, leaving the suburbs behind. Out-of-town business parks and malls rose up and just as quickly faded away. The highway beckoned, taking the girls west. As they travelled, the traffic bloomed and then dwindled as the lunchtime rush hour came and went. Soon they were turning off the highway onto rural roads, and into the unknown...