Whether because she was completely emotionally exhausted or because of some sort of sedative she assumed she had been pumped full of after nearly destroying the mansion, Rogue's sleep was dreamless. A fact that she was more grateful for than words could describe. She was so tired of waking up with a life that wasn't hers playing behind her eyes.
Maybe she should ask Hank for more.
Then again, she would probably get addicted too fast.
"Roguey?" Someone's voice pierced her void.
Rogue groaned faintly and opened her eyes. Fire and coal eyes were staring right back at her.
"Ah!" She started, throwing her now completely aware body against the wall and making sure that every patch of bare skin on her body was covered up in a spastic flurry of movements.
The same string of French apologies he seemed to always have ready at his lips when he was dealing with her slipped out and he reached out to help steady her.
She winced away.
"I'm sorry. I just-…" She looked around. She was in the med bay. …Remy was in the med bay… Remy was in the med bay? "What?" She said out loud.
He gave her a look.
"What do you mean 'What'?"
"Why are you here?" She said defensively. Why was he still around her? "Where's Logan?" She asked before he could respond. She wanted Logan. She wanted a conversation consisting of grunts and the mutual understanding that life sucks. She wanted to get away from those damn midnight valentine eyes.
"Please, Rogue," Remy tried to say something, reaching out and putting his bare hand on her gloved one.
"Don't touch me!" Rogue panicked. "You shouldn't be near me!" Why was he pushing it? He saw what she did! He should stay as far away from her as possible.
Now, there were three things Logan prided himself on and they were 1.) The claws, 2.) The snappy one-liners he delivered in battle usually ending with the word 'bub', and 3.) His ability to time an entrance.
"Don't touch her." He leaned against the doorway. His voice was firm.
Rogue pulled herself away from the wall, skillfully avoiding Gambit's frozen body, and running up into Logan's arms.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled into his chest.
"It's alright, kid." Logan stroked her hair.
"Remy…" Storm cooed from the doorway. "Come on, let's go get some dinner."
Remy took a moment to glance at Rogue, he knew she could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't turn to meet them.
"Sure." He said, shrugging. He remembered saying to Logan that he would stick around until Rogue told him she didn't want him around anymore. Though she hadn't directly said she didn't want him around anymore it did sound like he should be packing his bags. He sighed once and turned to Ororo.
"Good," Ororo perked up, taking his elbow and leading him forward out of that damn med lab. "The students are very excited to meet you."
Remy rolled his eyes.
Children.
Remy LeBeau and children were a bad mix.
Rogue kept herself tucked into Logan's chest for a long few minutes, slowly gaining control of the tears in her eyes. Logan let her stay there, comfortably wrapping his arms around her and humming soothing songs despite himself and his 'feral' ways.
He would never ever admit it out loud, but he genuinely loved that girl like his own child. He had no idea what had made him so protective of this one girl, but she reminded him of himself. And he wanted to protect her from that.
Eventually, she pulled away and wiped at the wetness on her face.
"You alright?" He looked down at her, concerned.
"What did I do?" Her eyes filled with tears.
"You just had a little episode," Logan assured her. "Kinda like that time I almost killed Jean the first time I woke up here. 'Member?"
Rogue gave a watery giggle. "Yeah…" She mused.
"What drove you over the edge?" Logan asked.
Rogue sighed, planting her butt back down on the cold steel table. "They were yellin' at meh." She shook her head. "They called me a freak." Her throat started to constrict with tears. "They called me a leech."
"Shh," Logan soothed, sitting next to her. "It wasn't your fault, kid. If anything, we should blame Gambit."
Rogue was confused for a moment. "Why?"
"I don't know, but he wasn't wearing a shirt when we found him next to you, and that's good enough of a reason for me." He said resolutely.
Rogue laughed, probably for the first time in a year. "Well, I don't think you're going to have to worry about him anymore." Rogue said.
"I get that he can't touch you." Logan said, misconstruing her words. "But I don't trust the sneaky bastard."
"Aw, come on," Rogue nudged him with her elbow. "You said earlier that you changed your mind about him."
"That was when he was punching Bobby in the face." Logan said, smiling at the memory. "The awe has faded."
Rogue laughed again. The sound was an entirely welcome relief to the sobs that had been escaping her chest earlier.
"How long have I been out?" She asked suddenly.
"Long time." Logan supplied that remarkably unhelpful estimation.
"Long enough for everyone to replace the lights." She looked up at the ceiling.
He nodded. "It only took a couple of minutes. What's the use of having a house full of kids that can fly, levitate shit, and generate electricity with their goddamn minds if you can't employ some slave labor now and again?"
Again, with the laughter thing.
Rogue rolled her eyes and her stomach growled.
"Long time, huh?" She teased. "I think we should go get some dinner."
He nodded curtly and helped her down from the table before slinging his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her close to his chest as they walked down to the elevator to take them to the upper floor.
"Oh no!" Three obnoxious little boys pretended to cower against the wall when they passed. "Back up, she'll suck us dry!"
The resonating growl of Logan's snarl was effective in the terms that there were three little boys who desperately needed to change their shorts.
Rogue couldn't help but chuckle a little bit.
They rounded the corner to the cafeteria, where a good percent of the student and teacher population would be for dinner and they both stopped dead in their steps.
… "What the hell?" They said in unison.
"Oh…" One of the children, Rahne, crawled out from behind an overturned table. "Hi… uh… He started it!" She pointed at Remy, who seemed to be the only clean person in the room.
"What?" He glared at the little girl. "Nu-uh!"
"Remy…" Storm cooed from the doorway. "Come on, let's go get some dinner."
"Sure." He said, shrugging.
"Good," Ororo perked up, taking his elbow and leading him forward out of that damn med lab. "The students are very excited to meet you."
Remy rolled his eyes.
He nodded his head again to appease her.
"Stop sulking." Storm smacked him lightly on the arm.
"Ow!" Remy pretended to be deeply wounded. "Don' be hittin' Remy." He straightened up. "I'm as fragile as a peach."
"Hmm." Storm shot him an amused look. "Were as fragile as a peach when you tackled Henri to the ground and tore your-."
"We don't talk about that." Remy cut in.
Storm chuckled to herself.
"And to our left we have the Cafeteria!" She announced like a tour guide.
"Yippee." Remy pretended to be excited.
"Come on." It was Ororo's turn to roll her eyes as she pulled him forward. He broke away from her as she went to go get some food out of the line and nearly ran over a small redheaded girl. The little girl fell to the ground.
"Sorry, petit." Remy smiled at her and bent over to help her up.
She kicked him in the shin. "I don't need help! I'm a big girl!" She snarled.
"Goddammit!" Remy cursed under his breath, clutching his leg. The little girl packed a punch.
She gasped. "You said a bad word!"
"Did not." Remy said indignantly, bending over at the waist to be eye-to-eye with the girl. People around the room started staring.
"Did too!" She crossed her arms. "I heard it."
"It was more of a prayer." Remy dismissed her logic. "And trust me, when y've heard some of de creative words I have, it sounds more an' more like holy speech evr'y day."
"Your accent's funny." She sniffed in the face of defeat.
"Says you," Remy stuck out his tongue at her.
"Didn' your mum ever teach you how to treat a lady?" She stuck her tongue out right back at him.
"Y' ain't a lady." Remy retorted. "Y'r afillette."
"Hey!" A new voice interrupted. Remy turned from his spat with a little girl to an only slightly larger boy. "Don't be mean to her." He demanded, taking what could count as an eight-year-old's fighting stance.
"She's beingmean." Remy cried. "I was just trying to help her up."
"I don't need your help, Jamie!" The little girl barked at her would-be savior.
"Yeah," Remy backed her up. "She's a big girl. Y' know, not every girl out there needs to get saved."
"Exactly." She seemed pleased with his logic.
"Besides," Remy winked at Jamie. "She's way out of your league."
Obviously this struck a nerve with the child, he charged forward. Obviously, Remy wasn't about to get into a fist fight with an eight year old, so he simply stepped out of the small path of anger. Jamie tripped and fell to the ground, and suddenly there were five Jamies. And they were all very angry with Remy.
"Merde." Remy rolled his eyes to the heavens as he was tackled to the ground by five little bodies. "Ah! No biting!" He tossed one of them to the side, still struggling with the other four. He preformed a slightly hindered back flip and they all fell off.
The Jamies hit the ground and fractured in to even more Jamies.
"God. Dammit." Remy looked around. The entire cafeteria was very confused.
"Hey!" The little red head said again. "That wasn't very nice. And you said another bad word!"
"Technically it was the same one." Remy pointed out. "Now, please, call off y'r boyfriend!"
"He's not my boyfriend!" She shouted before morphing into a little wolf and advancing on him in the same line as the many Jamies. They all pounced at once.
Ororo was adding a salad to her plate, humming to herself lightly because she was in such a good mood when Remy crashed through the wall to her right, covered with little Jamies and being hounded by what looked like a little red dog.
"Remy!" Storm fell backwards with the momentum. "What are you doing?"
"Winning!" Remy shouted, extending his staff and knocking off the excess Jamies before flipping over the counter that had all the food on it. "HAHA!" He crowed, charging the counter.
This can only go bad places. Storm thought before being pummeled by mashed potatoes. Similar instances occurred throughout the cafeteria as the majority of the mutants of the Xavier Institute found themselves covered with food items.
Remy crossed his arms, pleased with himself as the few dozen people in the room sat shocked, covered in soups and various other menu items.
"That was so awesome!" The one and only Jamie screamed, covered in steak sauce. "Can you teach me how to do that?"
"It's an acquired skill, kiddo." Remy smiled. "No hard feelings?" He held out his hand to the little boy.
"Only if you give me tips on how to get Rahne to go out with me." Jamie said.
"Y' drive a hard bargain." Remy nodded, not minding the kid now that there was only one of them.
Jamie flashed him a smile that was missing a few major teeth and shook his hand. Remy turned just in time to see Rogue and Logan walk in. Remy couldn't help but notice that Rogue allowed Logan to put his arm around her shoulders.
They both looked around the room for a moment with the same exact expression on their faces.
Remy put his hands over Jamie's little ears.
… "What the hell?" They said in perfect unison.
The little red head wiggled her way out from underneath a table. "Oh…Hi…uh…" She looked up at the very agitated Wolverine. Her finger shot out in Remy's direction. "He started it!"
"What?" Tattle tale! "Nu-uh!"