Thanks to everyone who took the time and trouble to comment.

I know that Rogue's behaviour is a little odd (even slightly OOC) but hopefully the reasons for this will become clear as more of her past is revealed in upcoming chapters.

Chapter Three

When Rogue had successfully planned her third break in, Remy decided it was time for the real deal and presented her with a new series of plans and security details. This time though, they were proper plans, not his hand drawn ones from memory. She studied them for a moment.

"Remy, this is the John Paul Getty Museum! This place has like a billion dollars of art, there's no way I can plan a break in to here!"

"Not you, us, and not plan, but do," he replied, a smile on his lips.

"You mean, you want us to break in here!"

"Yup." He grinned at her shocked expression.

Rogue wanted to slap that smug smile off his face.

"No! It's impossible."

"It's difficulty but not impossible," he answered.

"I..." She really didn't have any better arguments. She thought that 'it's impossible' neatly summed the situation up.

"We'll need our mutant powers for this one, of course, but I happen to know that the Getty Museum doesn't employ any anti-mutant measures."

"Then why have I been planning robberies the human way if we're just going to use our powers each time?"

"Because if the worst happens, we're prepared."

"You mean that they could have anti-mutant measures in place?"

"It's possible but my contact is good, so unlikely."

Rogue looked at him. "You're insane."

"Yup," Remy's smile widened. "But what if I were to tell you that this job pays four million, half of which is yours."

"Four... four million..."

"Yup."

Rogue slapped his arm. "Stop saying 'yup'! And wipe that stupid grin off your face!"

Remy tried, but he wasn't very successful.

"Who would pay four million dollars for a painting?"

"The homme I met with three nights ago. He's a private collector who's tried to buy the painting three times through official channels, but always been refused. And besides, when it was auctioned 20 years ago, it went for four million. Since then it's been restored so there's no telling what it's worth today, but I'd be willing to bet our client is getting a bargain."

"Two million each," Rogue repeated softly, looking scared.

Remy reached out and took her gloves hands, directing her attention on to him.

"This is not an easy job, Rogue, it will take probably four weeks if planning and prep, not to mention bribing at least one of the guards and a fairly high risk of getting caught."

Her eyes widened at his words.

"But you are one of the most instinctual thieves I've ever worked with, and I'm the youngest Master Thief ever. Together, we can do this, Rogue."

"I wish I could believe that."

"You can. I have broken into the Louvre, the Tower of London and the Kremlin. Two of those jobs I did alone and believe me, my help on the other job wasn't nearly as versatile as you. We can do this."

The reality of the fee was sinking in, not to mention that Gambit's confidence was infections. Maybe they really could pull this off.

"So what do you say, chère?" he asked, noting her changing expression. "Are you in or are you out?"

"I..." She swallowed. "I'm in."

"Yes!" he pulled her into a bear hug and spun her around as he turned. Finally he set her back on her feet. "Oh, this needs celebrating, the first job of Rogue and Gambit! Let's go out, Rogue , and not to a steak house but to a nice place. We'll buy you a pretty dress, I'll even buy a tux, just for tonight! What do you say, chère?"

His pleasure was infectious and she couldn't help smiling.

"Okay, but isn't it a little early to be celebrating?"

"We're celebrating our partnership, not the theft. Besides, when we finish the job and get paid, we'll be going to France!"

"France? Why?"

"Why not? Chère, the world is our oyster."

Rogue laughed. "Okay, swamp rat, let's go out."

Rogue lay in bed thinking about their night out. They had been shopping and she had found a beautiful purple dress, while Remy had bought an expensive tuxedo, which just made him look positively edible.

The restaurant they ate at this time was like the ones she was used to, so she felt relaxed and comfortable, plus Remy's happiness didn't seem to fade, which made the evening even more enjoyable.

Right up until they were on their way home and Remy had tried to kiss her.

He had been flirting with her all evening and she had allowed it, even encouraged it since she was used to flirting in such circumstances. It wasn't until they were walking home that the problem came. His arm was around her shoulder, where she was happy for it to stay, and they were just chatting about things she could no longer remember. Then he stopped and turned to her.

"I just wanted to say, Rogue, the weeks you've been with me have been some of the happiest I can remember in recent years."

She had blushed and looked away but answered truthfully. "For me too."

"I'm glad you came into my life, chère, you've made a far too cynical Cajun very happy."

She felt the same way but looked into his eyes instead of replying. She really had loved her time with him and for the first time in her life, she felt that she had someone, a brother figure who didn't treat her any differently just because of her gift, who wasn't afraid to be close to her and would always be there for her. She knew that thoughts like that were dangerous but despite all her betrayals, she had been unable to quell the hope in her heart that he might keep her around for a while.

Then he was leaning into her, his unusual eyes smouldering with some odd emotion, making him look almost hungry. At least, that was the closest thing she could liken his expression to.

Rogue's body responded to the look and she felt that same feeling of nerves that she had before, but this time it was accompanied by warmth too. She felt powerful under his gaze, even while at the same time, feeling like his prey.

Unconsciously, she had leaned into him too.

By some miracle, a car had honked loudly at another one at that moment, and the interruption was enough to finally snap Rogue back to her senses. She pulled away and flew all the way back to their apartment. By the time Remy got back, she was changed and in bed. He had knocked on her door but she didn't answer, feigning sleep instead. Then she heard her door creep open a fraction and a strip of light fell across the room.

"Je suis désolée, chere. Bon nuitl. Dors bien, mon ange." [I'm very sorry, darling. Good night. Sleep well, my angel]

Rogue spoke French so she knew exactly what he had said, which only confirmed her worst fears. They couldn't be just friends, meaning that she had to leave, for his safety if nothing else.

She still had nothing though. Well, she had almost six thousand saved from a few poker games, but that wouldn't get her far. If she could just make it through another four weeks with him, she would have her share of four million. With two million, she could literally disappear, go wherever she wanted, as far away as she wanted, somewhere that he felt safe.

She felt safe with Remy, of course, no matter what was happening but her powers meant that she was clearly destined to be alone. She knew very little of romantic relationships, but she had gleaned enough from her missions to realise that they involved a lot of touching, the one thing she couldn't do.

She just hoped that when the time came, she was brave enough to make a clean break.

Rogue got up the next morning to the smell of a cooked breakfast again. Though hesitant to face him after their almost-kiss the night before, she was no wilting flower. She brushed her shoulder length hair, thinking that she would soon have to get a trim, quickly dressed, then headed into the kitchen.

Remy was hovering over the hob as he cooked various fried delicacies. She thought that was going to be as big as a house if he kept cooking all these friend treats for her. Then she remembered that she was leaving in four weeks, so how much damage could she really do in that time?

"Morning, Rogue," he smiled easily.

"Morning." she answered with a small smile of her own.

As he chatted easily over breakfast, it quickly became apparent that he intended to ignore the events of last night, which was fine with her.

Once they had cleared away, they got down to work on the job and any remaining feelings of awkwardness on Rogue's part were soon swept away.

They were stealing a painting by Dosso Dossi called Allegory of Fortune. It was rather large (seven feet wide) but Remy assured her that they would be cutting it from the frame, therefore able to roll it up which made it much more manageable. She hadn't even thought of removing the canvas from the frame.

She offered Remy a few suggestions while they worked, but mostly she just listened to him. He was the Master Thief, after all and she trusted his judgement.

Remy and Rogue had moved on and made their way to Victorville, about seventy miles from the museum. Here they had rented not an apartment but a warehouse. One corner they made into a sort of living space, using space heaters to keep that area warm. The rest of the space had been turned into the Getty Museum, specifically the rooms that they needed to travel through go get to the Dossi in question.

They had made the trip to the museum the day after renting the warehouse, so that they could see the space and the layout for themselves. That had been nine days ago. When they returned, they used the plans and security details to mock up a replica they could practice with. It was a shabby replica, made with wood, cardboard and whatever else they needed to get the job done, but it was accurate to within an inch.

Remy had also purchased (or more likely, stolen) replicas of the alarm system and sensors, so that he could practice overriding the portions that they needed to.

Rogue had laughed when she had come upon him trying to override a keypad door lock. The practice door and frame had simply been bolted to the concrete floor after all, so he could have just walked around it. Thankfully Remy shared her humour at the ridiculous situation and wasn't offended.

Next he had to learn to hack into their system and disable the sensor behind the Dossi, without making it look like the sensor was turned off.

He soon got that down pat and they had moved onto the lasers that protected each room. Using the security details, Remy had placed lengths of wool exactly where the lasers would be in the museum. Each length had a small bell, like the kind you would find on a cats collar, which would alert them if Rogue crossed one beam (or hit the string). The problem was, they went floor to ceiling in a criss crossed pattern, so no one, not even Rogue, could simply fly in a straight line through them. They were accessed only from the security office, where they were turned on and off by the head security guard as the other guards made their rounds through the rooms, so Remy couldn't turn them off without taking out perhaps a half dozen well trained security guards, who were in or around the security hub.

If Rogue couldn't fly a path through the lasers, that is indeed what he would have to do but he hoped, as with all of his thefts, to keep casualties to a minimum, or better still, zero.

Hoodwinking the security cameras was actually so easy that a child could do it. Rather than hacking into the system and playing the feed on a loop, as Hollywood likes to depict, Remy opted to take a still of the cameras feed, then place that picture on a special stand which could be attached to the cameras. Rogue was so used to Hollywood movie heists, that such a simple idea didn't occur to her.

Getting the image was fairly easy too. After running background checks into all the guards employed, he chose the one with the most debt, thanks to an ex-wife, three kids and a nasty habit of betting on any sports game going. Remy then offered him 50 grand for details of the guard's schedule, screen captures of the camera feeds he needed, plus at the appointed time, he would spill a cup of coffee on himself, thus creating a brief distraction while the photo's were placed in front of the cameras.

With most of the details worked out, now all that remained was for Rogue to try and fly her and Remy through the laser field, blindfolded. Unlike in movies, real lasers aren't very visible to the naked eye; Remy could see them thanks to his odd eyes, but Rogue was the one who would have to fly them, and she had to be able to do it blind.

Due to the small spaces between the lasers, Remy had to lie flat on Rogue's back while she manoeuvred through the field. That alone took a day of practice to perfect, then they moved on to trying to manoeuvre through the beams. It took another two days without the blindfold before she made it through without touching a single string, and three days with the blind fold before she had perfected it.

All that left them two days until the actual heist.

Rogue wanted to keep practising but Remy knew that you could be over prepared and stopped her. He would allow her to practice again on the day of the robbery but until then, told her that she was to out it out of her mind.

With nothing much to do in the warehouse, other than play cards and practice breaking and entering (both of which they were sick of) Remy dragged her out. First they played mini-golf, which Rogue had apparently never heard of before. She enjoyed it though and they were laughing most of the way around the course, then after a lunch of hotdogs and pretzels, he took her to the cinema, where they gorged on popcorn and ice cream while they watched the latest action movie.

Remy was actually kind of worried that Rogue was going to leave after this job. He had picked up on her coolness after he had tried to kiss her, and he had done his best to appear friendly without being too friendly ever since.

Part of him would actually be relieved if she left because a relationship, any relationship, was a bad idea, but another part of him would miss her company. Her fierce temper, her innocence and shyness when he showed her something she wasn't familiar with, her trust him him and his abilities, all were things that he would miss immensely.

Her coolness had tapered off as they began to work on the job, but he knew that she was likely to wait until after she got paid to leave him. He vowed to watch her closely after the job was done to see if she became withdrawn again and if she did, he intended to apologise and explain that he didn't want them to become involved any more than she did. He knew that he was bad news in the romance department and he liked her far too much to risk such a thing.

The next day they slept until gone noon, knowing that they were going to have a late night, then they did a last minute practice for the heist. Rogue only hit one "laser" the first time through and her next five practises were perfect. Remy too got the keypad lock open first time and the picture sensor overridden in under three minutes.

After that, time seemed to drag until it was 2am, when they suited up and were ready to go. Rogue hid her hair under the black beanie, while Remy also donned a beanie, as well as special contact lenses to hide his distinctive eyes.

They didn't plan on getting caught, or even seen, but only a fool didn't plan for such eventualities.

Rogue flew them straight there from the warehouse so that there wouldn't leave any tell tale vehicles or tire tracks close by. She easily flew past the security on the outer wall and Remy had devised a route into the building that was a blind spot for all the outside cameras, though they did have to pause occasionally until a moving camera panned around to face the other direction.

Remy quickly and efficiently hacked the keypad lock, then he picked the three manual locks on the inner door. They slipped into a maintenance closet there a few junction boxes were housed. Remy picked the lock on the one he needed, got his netbook out and set about hacking into the internal computer network. Remote hacking was again, something for Hollywood movies... and inept security systems. It took slightly longer than anticipated, almost four minutes, but Remy had allowed for that in his plan. A heist always had some problems or delays.

Once done, they made their way out of the closet, through a security door and slid along the wall until they were in a corner, under a camera. Though public, this was just a hallway and had no art in it, so there was just the one camera. Finally Remy's watch beeped twice and they got to work. They had exactly 60 seconds to get all the pictures mounted in front of the cameras, since that's all the security guard could guarantee that he could distract the others for. Thanks to their placement, once each picture was placed, it allowed Remy and Rogue to then get to the next without being seen. Rogue had to fly above a laser to get to the final two cameras, but they had practised and she was fine.

She then returned for Remy, who strapped on her blindfold (making sure that she was in exactly the same position as they had started for their practices), and they made their way into the exhibit halls.

Thankfully none of the lasers cut too close to the exhibits and they were able to land in front of the Dossi, though they did have to stand either side of one beam that hit the wall a few feet below the painting. Remy got his knife out and cut one half of the picture, then handed it to Rogue to cut the other half. Careful not to drop it into the laser, they carefully rolled it up, then put it in a circular drafting tube to protect it.

Remy threw the strap of the tube over his shoulder, then used duct take to secure the lower end, lest it slip into the path of a laser on their way out. Rogue levitated, landed in front of him, then once he was secured on her back, they made their way out.

Remy once again had to hack the keypad, though this time from the inside, then they were home free, Rogue flying them straight up, then back to the warehouse, though they had changed position so that she was carrying him bridal style. Rogue was grinning as they flew.

"You enjoy that, chère?" he asked, unable to hide his own smirk.

"Oui!" she grinned.

Remy had watched Rogue closely all evening, ready for her fear to get the better of her (as it did for many thieves during their training) but she had been so cool, so calm, and so nerve free that Remy was now positive that she had some kind of covert ops training.

He wondered about SHIELD, but they didn't keep their operatives as sheltered as Rogue seemed to be. Same went for the military actually, so he was stumped as to who exactly had trained her. And while he thought about it, why had they trained her to be at ease in high class restaurants and with breaking and entering, yet apparently she had never been to a steak house, or played mini-golf, or been to a supermarket. Even at the cinema, she hadn't known how to work the machine to buy the tickets. Granted, they weren't always child's play, but Rogue was completely clueless.

She was an enigma wrapped in a mystery, cloaked in shadow. And he loved it! She couldn't leave him, he decided, he simply wouldn't allow it. He would beg if he had to.

Since they were still on adrenalin high, once they got back to the warehouse Remy opened a bottle of champagne for them and they sat down to enjoy it with microwaveable pizzas. Hardly the classiest combination, but Rogue wasn't about to complain.

When the food and champaign was done, they moved onto Southern Comfort as they sat chatting, reliving the experience. Remy was currently suggesting places that they could for a holiday go once they had their money, and Rogue just sat and listened, a small smile playing at her lips.

She had really enjoyed herself tonight, more so that she could remember in a long time. She remembered her promise to leave once she had her money, but Remy had been so good since that night, and they had so much fun planning this, that she was loathed to keep her old promise to herself.

She told herself that she simply didn't know enough to do such a heist on her own yet; where did one get building plans and security system information? Plus, she didn't have any contacts to hire (and pay) her for such a job so if she left now, one pleasurable pastime would be gone.

She would soon have the money from her share of the heist, so if Remy did become inappropriate again, she could leave at any time.

He had still been touching her all the time (as well as during flying practice) but Rogue had watched him closely and it truly did seem to be unconscious on his part. Something about him just meant he was naturally tactile and she was certain that he wasn't ever trying to make a move on her. Well, not since the almost kiss, which she had to admit was partially her fault; she had lost her head for a moment there too.

Besides, it actually felt nice to be touched, even if it was platonic and through her clothes. She had spent so much time with people who put at least a foot of space between them, though often much more, and even when her powers were deactivated. She couldn't remember the last time anyone touched her for anything other than a medical exam, and latex gloves and stethoscopes just did count as touching. Well, not nice touching anyway.

She had a few memories when she was younger of someone holding her hand, but usually she was being dragged along. It wasn't like when Remy took her hand as they strolled, side by side, in no particular hurry. Or sometimes he'd offer her his elbow to take, like a true southern gentleman. What she liked best though, was when they were watching a movie. He always put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. Sometimes her back would rest against his chest, sometimes she'd rest her head on his shoulder or chest, and one time she she was looking tired, he had eased her down onto his lap and told her make herself comfortable. She had even fallen asleep in that position, her head in his lap and one arm wrapped around his thigh!

She couldn't help it, she loved him touching her, and feeling free to touch him in return. She remembered the first time she had touched his shoulder to get his attention; she had hesitated for much longer than was normal but when she finally plucked up the courage, he just turned to look at her, a smile on his lips. No horror, no freaking out, no jumping back in fear.

Basically, she didn't feel like a freak with Remy and to Rogue, that feeling was priceless.