Chapter Eight
Remy looked down at the girl under him and releasing one of her hands, he pushed her hair off her neck so that he could kiss her there. Rogue smiled, her free hand grabbing a handful of his hair and pulling him away slightly.
"Are we supposed to be fighting or loving?" she demanded, but she couldn't stop being pleased that Remy couldn't keep his hands off her.
Remy got off and sat on the floor beside her.
"You tell me?" he stated.
Rogue sat up, wondering at the change in his mood.
"Look, Rogue... I thought we were using the inhibitor while we fought so that you could learn to use your powers while it was on."
The last of Rogue's happiness fled and she pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around her shins. He was right.
"I saw how frightened you got in Area 52 when we entered the dampening field, I don't understand why you keep resisting this."
It had been two months since they had rescued Pietro but even before then, her heart hadn't really been in this. She had told him that the bang he heard when he woke up from his coma, was her powers overcoming the field for the first time. It was also the last time.
"Please tell me what's wrong?" he asked.
"I'm frightened," she admitted in a small voice.
She looked at him quickly, then turned away. Remy uncurled her arms from her legs and pulled her into his arms.
"Frightened of what?"
"Losing this," she admitted, taking his hand in her ungloved one. "If I learn to overcome this dampening field, we'll never be able to touch again."
"I don't want to lose this either," he admitted. "But I want to lose you even less."
Rogue snuggled in closer to him, putting her hands around him and holding him tightly.
"It's not just about sex though, I feel normal with you, Remy, and I want to continue to feel that way."
"I know, chère, I know." He didn't want to be the bad guy here, but he also couldn't stand the thought of losing Rogue. If the people who had kept her ever caught up with her, they would likley have power inhibitors and they wouldn't be afraid to use them. "Will you at least try, for me? I don't care if I can never touch you again, Rogue, I will always love you. You know that, right?"
She nodded against his chest. "Okay, I promise I'll try."
"Thank you." He kissed the top of her head. "Ten more minutes, then we'll call it a day, no?"
"Okay."
They continued to spar and this time Remy could see that she really was making an effort to access her powers. She wasn't succeeding though, so Remy decided to surprise her. It seemed that his waking from the coma had shocked her into accessing her powers the first time, so it might work again. He never used his powers when they sparred, it wasn't fair since Rogue couldn't, yet, so he lightly charged a few cards and aimed them at her feet. The bang was enough to make her jump but not seriously hurt her. She didn't know that though.
Rogue was surprised by the glowing cards and tried to back flip out of the way. She ended up hovering a few inches above the floor for a few moments, before losing her concentration and falling. Remy caught her, smiling.
"See, told you you could go it."
Once she had regained her footing, she pushed him away. "That wasn't very nice!"
"No, but it worked, didn't it?"
Rogue huffed.
"How about we hit the shower, then I'll make it up to you."
"If you think I'm going to shower with the man who just tried to blow me up, you have another thing coming!"
"Aww, don't be mad, chère, you know I wouldn't hurt you."
Rogue did indeed know that, but she wasn't ready to forgive him yet.
"We are taking separate showers, then you can spent the rest of the evening making it up to me and if you don't, I'm sleeping in the spare room tonight."
"Chère! How can you be so cruel?"
"Because you tried to blow me up, that's how!"
She locked him out of the bathroom and proceeded to use all the hot water. When she came out an hour later, Remy looked disgruntled but Rogue ignored it, sailing past him and into their bedroom to get dressed.
When she was done she came out into the living room and stood by the power inhibitor. While she really didn't want to lose Remy, she did want to get rid of her last weakness. This little contraption, no larger than a dinner plate, was the key to her freedom, the only problem was, which freedom? Did she want to be free of her captors but always alone, or did she want to be freed of her power and loved, yet always looking over her shoulder.
If only she could control her own powers, then she wouldn't need this infernal machine to be with Remy, but it didn't matter how well she could control other peoples powers, or how hard she tried to stop absorbing someone, she just couldn't get it.
"Hey, turn it up!" someone in the bar called, and the bartender duly turned the volume up on the television. Rogue and Remy couldn't help but turn to look. On the screen was a middle aged man with greying hair and a widening waist. The caption said he was Senator Lawrence.
"... believe that mutants are a potential threat to out society and until we know who they are and what they can do, the American people will forever be living in fear. That is why I am proposing the Mutant Registration Act."
"But didn't Hitler do something similar with German Jews? Isn't this bill worrying?"
"Of course not." He chuckled a little, looking like everyone's favourite uncle. "We licence people to drive and to own guns because both have the potential to be dangerous. This is exactly the same thing and we no more want to take a mutants liberty away, than we want to revoke someone's driving license. If a mutant stays within the laws of society, they have nothing to fear from the registration act."
Discussions were breaking out around the bar now, so the bartender turned the volume down again.
"They hate us, don't they," Rogue said quietly. "We're always going to be running."
"Now, chère, we don't know what the future holds. Don't start worrying about something that may never happen."
"But even normal people hate us. I saw a poll on the news this morning, and 78% of people think that mutants are dangerous."
"78% of people are morons. People are afraid of what they don't understand, but that doesn't mean they won't change their minds."
Rogue just sulked into her beer.
"Hey," he said to get her attention. "Listen to the two men at the end of the bar," he told her, pointing to a couple of elderly gentlemen who were discussing mutants.
"What about the one who walkes through solid objects?" said the one dressed in blue. He looked to be about 60, with a fashion sense that was at least a decade out of style.
"Oh, scary! What's she going to do, walk over my grave?" said his friend, who had a kindly sort of face, a little like the senator on television, but this man's kindly features weren't practised like the senator's were.
"What about that shape changin' one?" the first friend argued.
"My wife does that every day. I wake up next to a dog but by the time I leave for work, she's a real glamour puss."
"Well the one who controls weather ain't good!"
"Sure as hell is! If I knew where to find her, I'd befriend her myself. I'm sick and tried of my barbecues being rained off and my tomatoes failing!"
"This ain't a joke, Bill!"
"Sure sounds like a joke to me, and a dumb joke at that."
"They can teleport!"
"So could Captain Kirk, and he wasn't a bad guy." The friendly looking one chuckled.
"What if they teleport into your house to steal stuff?"
"Any decent thief could get into my house, Don. Yours too, your window locks aren't worth shit." Remy had to smile at the truth of that statement. "Look, anything these mutants can do, we can do. Humans have either found another way to do, or a way around it. 'Sides, it's not like I've got anything worth stealing anyway."
"Frigin' mutie lover, that's what you are, Will."
"Frigin' bigot, that's what you are, Don."
Rogue cheered up a little as she listened to Don and Bill's debate. Maybe not everyone was against them and maybe, just maybe, common sense would prevail.
Debating mutant rights wasn't exactly the evening Remy had planned when he said he'd make their fight up to her, but she did seem happier than went they'd left the apartment and by the time they got home that evening, Rogue had forgiven her Cajun.
After the drink in the bar, she had been fed at one of the best bistros in town, and she had drunk some of the finest wines while there. Remy was slowly teaching her to appreciate wines and which ones were worth ordering. After all, he reasoned, if she couldn't get drunk, she should at least be able to enjoy the finest tastes.
As they lay in bed that night, with the power inhibitor on beside them as it was every night, Rogue tried her best to access her power and levitate off the bed. It took three hours of trying, but finally she rose an inch or two and was even able to lower herself back down gently.
As well as their daily sparring sessions, each night she practised levitating once she thought Remy was asleep, not allowing herself to sleep until she had succeeded. She still worried about losing Remy once she could access her powers with the dampening field on, but she had decided to trust that he would always be there for her, and that she was in more danger of 'them' capturing her again than she was of losing Remy.