Instead she found herself staring not at red-on-black but a pair of eyes that were such a deep rich brown that she could barely make out the pupils. Rogue bit back a sigh of disappointment as she watched the parade of emotions flicker within their depths. Not one muscle of his face gave away what he was thinking as he studied her face and she watched as his eyes went from shock, to excitement before they finally settled on amusement. Rogue knew in that instant that no matter the change in their color that these were without a doubt Remy's eyes, because no matter how straight he kept his face Remy could never hide the emotion in his eyes. Even now as she gazed more closely at them Rogue could make out tiny specks of red mixed in with the chocolaty color. Rogue could feel her heartbeat picking up its pace and a blush start to creep up her cheeks. He must have noticed for his lips lifted into a cocky grin and his grip around her waist tightened just a fraction of an inch.
So intent were the two in staring at each other that they did not hear the other two men approach until the one with the deep voice made a loud clearing of his throat. They turned to see the two men looking at them rather sheepishly, the larger one with the deep voice the spiting image of Piotr and the other a little weasel of a man that Rogue had thankfully never seen before. While she was looking at them she was surprised when the man beside her addressed the two.
"Do y' have everyt'ing ready yet mes amis?" he asked the two.
"We were just about to start loading the last of the supplies when we heard someone behind us on the dock and followed," said the one big one.
"Bein Pierre, y' and Jaq go finish with dat and leave dis fille to moi."
The giant called Pierre nodded his head and responded with a "Yes Captain" before turning and walking back down the dock the little man Jaq following reluctantly on his heels. It took Rogue a moment to process the information she had just heard. Quickly she took in his clothes, he was dressed in the simple shirt and trousers of a sailor but over them he wore a fine greatcoat that fell to his knees. The other men had referred to him as "Captain" which could only mean one thing; he was a smuggler. She ripped herself from his hold then spun around to glare at him.
"Damn it Remy, can't ya ever be doin' somethin' legal in any life?" she spat out before thinking.
One eyebrow lifted but the amusement never left the eyes or mouth. His arms crossed against his chest as he regarded her carefully, and gave her figure a good check out while he was at it. The fille was stunning and had a personality to match, even if she did seem really pissed off for no apparent reason right now, he thought to himself.
"Not sure chere who dis Remy be, but maybe he have a good reason for doin' somet'ing illegal, non, but where is mon manners let moi introduce himself. Rene Laurent at y'r service."
"Ah don't care what ya name is and next time keep your paws ta yourself," Rogue said.
"So y' implyin' already dere's goin' t' be a next time, Rene can hardly wait chere. It would help Rene dough t' know whom he had de pleasure of puttin' his paws on dis time."
"If ya must know mah name is Annabelle Devereux. Ah got turned around and somehow ended up down here but trust meh ah will be leaving right now." She began to walk past him but was stopped when one of his long arms shot out and blocked her path.
"Now Belle, y' don' really t'ink Rene can just let y' walk away," he laughed, " Got t' ask y' a few questions t' see just how much y' learned. First one dough is; Who is dis Remy? If he y'r beau Rene must say he is a imbecile t' let y' out of his site."
"He is not mah beau as ya put it." Rogue could feel her lips twitch slightly at the thought of how Remy would react if he knew his past incarnation was insulting him.
"Rene is very glad t' hear it. Now how much did y' hear mon men over dere say?"
"Enough ta know you're a no good captain of a bunch of thieves. Let meh guess ya work for the Thieves Guild too?" Rogue shot back not really expecting any reaction.
Rene's eyes narrowed slightly, "Now what would a fille like y' know abou' de Guild? T' answer y'r question, non we don' work for dem. Dey nothin' but bad news, what with dem and de Assassins always at each other. We deal with dem if we have t' but not if we can help it."
"Ah'm sure. Well, while all this is very interesting, ah think ah'd really like ta be on mah way now and ah'd really appreciate ya not blocking the path."
He didn't move. He was almost completely sure she had heard nothing of importance and he had no real reason to keep her but for some reason Rene did not want to see this girl walk away. He looked to the horizon judging that he still had a few minutes of solid daylight left before the sun sunk completely form the sky, just enough time to play with her a little before directing her back to where she needed to go. Reaching up he rubbed the bridge of his nose and gave a mock sigh of impatience.
"Look Belle, we could do dis one of two ways, y' can tell me exactly what y' heard mon men say and Rene will let y' go or…."
"Or what?"
"Rene can take y' back t' the ship to make sure y' stay quite. Personally Rene like de second option best," he sent her a mischievous grin, "Make de trip more interesting, non?"
"What's keeping meh from telling someone about ya when ya let meh go?"
"Den de ship it is, seein' as how Rene can' afford de risk y' so helpfully pointed out. So tell moi how much of what's under dat dress is paddin'?"
That did I, Rogue finally had had enough. Gently she reached down and removed one cotton glove. Since she was going to hit him she was at least going to take the opportunity to feel the exact moment when her hand connected with his cheek. Her delicate little palm was just inches from his face when his hand shot up and grabbed her by the wrist.
"Wouldn' do dat petite if Rene was y'," his eyes growing serious as they looked down into hers.
Her mouth went very dry, as she stood almost transfixed by his gaze. Rogue opened her mouth to respond but was prevented by a loud blast that echoed through the calm evening air. The crate next to her exploded causing tiny slivers of wood to rain down on her.
Rogue barely had time to register what had happened when she felt Rene grab her arm and pull her behind a high stack of thicker crates. The weight of his body pushed them both to the ground as their breaths came in short pants due to the sudden burst of energy.
"What was that?" Rogue gasped, damn she was really starting to hate this corset.
"Dat chere would be a shotgun," Rene said trying to peek cautiously around the side.
"Ah know it was a shotgun. What ah'd like to know is whose shootin' it?"
Rene merely shrugged, "Best guess, dissatisfied customer."
"Do all your dissatisfied customers shoot at ya?"
"Actually most do," he flashed a smile.
Rogue groaned as overhead they could hear a series of smaller blasts from the other direction. Before Rogue had time to inquire where this new gunfire was coming from when she saw Rene give a slight gesture with his hand, and in seconds Pierre appeared beside them, a still smoking pistol gripped in his hand.
"How many?" Rene asked.
"Just two. Only one seems to be armed. When I fired he ducked behind some barrels across from us. The other is over to our right somewhere. I believe he thinks I didn't notice him and he is trying to sneak up on us while the armed one holds us here."
"Not to smart, dis should be easy den," Rene said as he made a quick note of there surroundings, thinking obliviously to himself. It didn't take to long though for him to reach a decision for just as quickly he turned to Pierre, " Y' stay here and protect her. If de other man makes it over here, take care of 'm. Moi will take care of de trigger happy homme." Then before either could protest he slipped out from behind the crate.
"What is he doin'? He's gonna get himself killed." Rogue whispered fiercely to Pierre.
"Not sure, but I hope he has got some sort of plan."
They listened for what seemed an eternity to the silence. It seemed everyone was afraid to move since nobody knew for certain what the others were doing. Only one person saw fit to make a move as Rogue noticed a slim figure creep slowly around the side of their makeshift hiding place, He had just barely made it completely into view when Pierre gave him a swift knock on the head causing the man to slump unconsciously to the ground.
"One down," he gave her a reassuring smile which didn't last long as the sounds of a struggle drifted down to them from the other side. Rushing into the open they found themselves watching a fierce struggle between Rene and the other man, the gun somehow wedged between them. It was hard to tell who was winning for both men appeared to be an even match for the other. It wasn't until Rene stepped on a loose board causing his balance to waver slightly that the other man was able to get the gun under his neck and pulling tightly cut of Rene's supply of air.
The next moment moved in slow motion to Rogue. The man bent his head closer to Rene's as if to tell him something, the malicious grin on his face showing he was enjoying this. The man's head was bent at just the right angle that his cheek brushed just briefly against the side of Rene's face, and that brief touch seemed to be all that was needed. With a loud howl of pain the man reeled backward, dropping the gun to grasp his face. Rene seized his chance, picking up the gun he delivered a sharp blow to the man's head. With a whimper the man crumpled and all was still again.
"Take dese two and tie dem up," he said hoarsely to Pierre, "Get Jaq t' help y' dump dem somewhere dey will be found. Dey goin' have one hell of a headache when dey wake-up but other den dat don' hurt dem."
Pierre merely nodded in understanding and made his way down the dock calling for jaq to come and bring rope. Rogue walked over to the man who was lying before Rene on the ground. At first she didn't see anything wrong but when she looked closely at his face she let out a small gasp. The left side of the man's face was horribly burned. She looked from him up at Rene, who was trying desperately not to meet her eyes. She wanted to say something, anything to make him feel better. Rogue opened her mouth but a small voice interrupted her.
"Hey Mister do that thing with your face again."
Both looked down to see a very impressed Logan standing beside Rogue.
"Logan what are ya doin' here?" Rogue said, surprised at seeing the little boy here.
"Y' know dis homme?" the shock of Logan's appearance seemed to wake Rene from his daze.
"Yah she knows me, she's my friend," Logan said confidently, eyeballing Rene now, "I have really good hearing and when I didn't hear your door when I drove away I turned around. I saw you walking down the street and decided to follow and make sure you were ok. Lost you once but picked up your scent down here and well here I am. Now how did you do what you just did?"
Rogue couldn't help but smile at Logan's protectiveness, but she could see how he was making Rene uncomfortable. "Logan will ya go and get the horse ready ah think ah'd really like ta get home."
He didn't seem to want to go but he knew his friend wanted him out of the way for some reason so with a slight huff he walked away to get the cart.
"Not sure Rene likes de company y' keep, chere."
"Trust me he's alright. Now hat did happen?"
Rene sighed. He should have known this fille would have to have an answer to what she had just witnessed. He didn't like to tell people about what he considered his curse, in fact only two people knew.
He knew it would scare people and they wouldn't understand. He looked at her trying to think up one of the many lies he had told before to explain situations like this when he was caught by something in her eyes. It seemed impossible but she wasn't looking at him in horror waiting for a story to explain everything away, she was looking at him with understanding and he found himself telling the truth.
"Don't know how it happens, chere, just woke up one day and it started happening. Anytime Rene's skin touch anybody else it burns dem, can' control it. Dat's why Rene stopped y' earlier from hittin' 'm didn' want t' y'."
Rogue couldn't believe what she was hearing. She remembered Xavier telling her once that mutants had been around longer then most people thought but since they were so scared of public reaction many went undocumented, even within their own families. Rene was a mutant, and not only that he was completely untouchable. His confident behavior earlier had merely been a cover, she realized, since unlike Remy he really hadn't tried to invade her personal space unless he had too, like when he was saving her.
He looked so miserable, she of all people knew that feeling. Slowly she walked over and reached up with one gloved hand to stoke his face. His eyes met hers and merely stared, there was only one person he let this close to him especially after he knew they knew about him but he didn't have the heart to pull away from her.
A small growl caused Rogue to pull her hand back as Logan announced the horse was ready and they really should be going. Looking at the sky she saw that the sun had completely disappeared and the first stars were beginning to dot the sky.
Rene took her gloved hand and kissed it gently.
"Goodnight Belle, until we meet again," he smiled a sad cocky smiled before turning to walk towards his ship.
She watched him melt into the growing darkness, then taking Logan's hand she let him lead her to the cart. Once again he helped her up and when he was seated beside her he said, " You know what Stripes, I don't think I like that guy."
Smiling she replied, " Logan trust me that doesn't surprise me in the least."
A/N: HaHa chapter 7 is finally done. Sorry it took so long the inspiration fairy was out to lunch, plus had a fun time trying to find time on my breaks at work to get any ideas down. Hopefully this will be enough until chapter 8, I know it is longer then my other chapters and there are still a few more twists yet to come. I thank all my reviewers as always, you guys make it worth the effort, not to mention all my co-workers who are now addicted and keep asking what happens next. : )