Hey dearies! I am sad to say that this might be the last you hear from me in a little while. Jamie has been grounded. Why? She may or may not be failing English. (Analytical writing can. Kiss. My. Ass.) So the 'rents have stepped in and decided the best way to solve this is to take away Tamara. Logic?
Ah well, I'll be back in a week or two!
Alos, I rewrote this chapter SEVEN times. 7! 1234567. That's a lot of frikkin writing for one (still lame) chapter. I hope you appreciate my labor of love!
Piotr watched darkly as Kitty dragged Rogue down the stairs.
"Ah don' undahstand what this is all about, Kitty." Rogue yowled, her accent showing her irritation.
Piotr, on the other hand, knew exactly what this was about. Bobby had been plotting it ever since Rogue had left. Kitty had been dragged into his scheme by a guilt trip he sent her on, convincing her that it was her fault Rogue left.
Fortunately, Piotr and Jubilee had prepared for such an event.
Piotr walked forward resolutely, keeping an even pace even when he dropped his shoulder so that it was level with Rogue's hips and hauling her away with him as Jubilee popped her hand in front of Kitty's face so that the younger girl was stunned enough she couldn't respond.
"Interception!" Jubilee whooped, flashing a few complicated hand gestures at a now unseeing Kitty.
"Where am I going now?" Rogue was very close to whining, trying to fight her way off of Piotr's shoulder. "The people in this school are so weird."
"I believe that is the entire point of the school." Piotr said smartly, friendly smile on his face despite the fact Rogue couldn't see it from her position on his shoulder.
Piotr never wanted anyone to be hurt, but felt especially responsible for Rogue. If he had told her about Kitty and Bobby before she had walked into that room, he felt like he could have gotten her to stay, like he could have spared her from the last year of pain. In a way he felt responsible, and he wanted to make things good again.
"You still haven't told me where we're going." Rogue pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest and letting her head fall so that she was staring at the floor as the Russian walked away with her.
"Jubilee and I are going to be taking you to get some new clothing." Piotr said. Ororo had suggested that they get her outside and take her to get some necessary things.
"S-shopping?" Rogue stuttered. "With Jubilee?"
"Yes."
"Let meh down! Somebody! Help!" She began struggling ferociously against him. "Injustice!" She cried when Piotr just tightened his grip around her waist. "They're forcing me to go shopping!"
"Oh, calm down, chica." Jubilee laughed from where she was trailing behind Piotr and Rogue. "You know how much I love me some shopping!"
"SHE'S TRYING TO TAKE ME SHOPPING! HEEEELP!" Rogue screeched at the top of her voice.
"Owie." Jubilee clamped her hands over her ears.
"Please be calming down, Rogue." Piotr said diplomatically. "If you would like, we could ask Gambit to come along with us." He offered.
Her body went stiff on his shoulder.
"No!" She sounded mortified.
"Woohoo… What's this?" Jubilee sounded intrigued by the latest development. "Trouble in Gambittown? What'd he do?"
"Nothing!" Rogue was quick to defend him.
"Then why don't you want him to come?" Jubilee was obviously perplexed. "You two looked pretty cozy yesterday." She winked suggestively.
"It's complicated." Rogue said and Piotr could feel her finally go completely limp, giving up on fighting him.
"Ah well, more for me." Jubilee chuckled deviously.
Piotr could tell from the tenseness of Rogue's body that she didn't like that way that sounded.
"Still, I am thinking that we should bring some male other than myself." Piotr said. "I am no good with picking out clothing for women."
"I'll go get him!" Jubilee crowed, taking off down the hallway before Rogue could get her gloves off and kill her.
Jubilee chuckled to herself, passing a Kitty that was rubbing her eyes painfully, zapping her again, and running off down one of the halls searching for Gambit. Why was Rogue being so weird about him? The man was smokin'.And he seemed to genuinely want to get closer to Rogue, even rebuffing a few Jubilee-flavored advances.
But,the lastguy who had been that way kinda maybe betrayed her and made her run away from home and made her live on the streets and… You know, maybe Rogue should be second guessing Gambit.
"Y'see, these are called Tension Wrenches, and they are essential in picking any lock with an inner cylinder." She heard from one of the rooms. She turned in to see Gambit sitting with one of the younger students, Jamie, with a rolled out set of tools in front of them. He was pointing out one of the 'L' shaped tools.
"I thought you said the Half-Diamond Pick was the most essential." Jamie said, bewildered by the conversation.
"Non,I said it was the simplest." Gambit corrected gently.
"Ohh…"
Jubilee didn't really want to dwell on what exactly Gambit was telling the child, or on how exactly this conversation got started, so she just cut in.
"Hey Gambit," Gambit turned to her expectantly, not at all surprised by her presence for some reason. "Me and Pete were taking Rogue to the mall, do you want to come too?"
He looked confused for a moment. "Does she want me to come?"
Jubilee's smile became forced. "Yeah."
"You're a bad liar, petite." He stood and ruffled Jamie's hair. "I guess I'll go." He paused. "Was she the one who was just screaming about shopping?"
Jubilee shrugged and gave him an 'It's a long story' look and Remy just accepted it for the moment as a question he wasn't going to get a logical answer to. He followed her down the hallway after collecting his tool set and saying a quick goodbye to Jamie, who was growing on him.
"Wasn't she going to talk with Bobby?" Remy asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He was going to wait until the jackass made his move, see how Rogue responded, and then respond accordingly.
"Well…" Jubilee laughed a little nervously as they passed Kitty kneading her eyes in the middle of the hallway.
"Do I want to know?" He asked seriously.
"Like, when I can see again Jubes, I will end you!" Kitty swore, running into a wall.
"Bye Kitty!" Jubilee called cheerily as she bounced past her.
Remy decided he didn't actually want to know.
They rounded another corner to see the tall Russian arguing with the significantly smaller figure that had been tossed over his broad shoulder.
"But Pete!" The figure complained and Remy took a moment to appreciate the view of her backside. "You knowhow she gets when I let her take me shopping!"
"Would you rather walk around without clothes?" The metal man shot back with a grin.
She considered this.
"Can you put me down now?" She asked.
"Are you going to run?" Piotr replied.
"Like Seabiscuit."
"No."
"Damn you."
"Come on people," Jubilee shouted impatiently, donning a yellow jacket that made Remy think his eyes were going to bleed. "We have shopping to do!"
Rogue groaned and peeked over the side of Piotr's wide chest to look at Remy. Her face was red from hanging upside down so Remy wasn't sure if when her face turned redder she was blushing or not.
"Hello, chere." He tried to keep his voice neutral, stance uncaring. "'M liking the view." He commented.
She was definitely blushing now.
"Pete! Put me down!" She demanded, struggling with new found vigor while trying to cover up her back side.
"I could carry her." Remy offered smugly.
Rogue swore. "I can't win in this situation, can I?"
"Not with Logan out for the rest of the day, you can't." Jubilee shot back, ushering everyone out the door.
Rogue was very acutely aware of four things at the moment- That all the blood in her body was about to explode out of her eyes if she stayed upside down any longed, that Piotr's shoulder was a very uncomfortable place to be slung, that Jubilee was not going to stop in her quest to get Rogue to wear a dress until the universe ended, and that Remy was shamelessly checking out her ass.
How had this happened?
One moment she was talking to Kitty, the next, Piotr had snatched her up, Jubilee had blinded Kitty and screeched something about an 'Interception'. What on earth was going on?
Pete tossed her into the passenger's seat of one of Mr. Summers' old cars and searched his person for a moment when he circled around to the driver's side.
"I could have sworn I had keys on me when I left." He checked his pockets again. Rogue would have tried to escape, but Jubilee was leaning against the door.
"Mind if I drive, homme?"Remy twirled the keys around in his fingers.
"Oh… I must have dropped them." The Russian smiled lightly, it wasn't like him to misplace things. "I would not be minding if you drove." He took a seat in the back and Jubilee finally relented her post at Rogue's door to take the seat behind her.
"You make a move and I'll zap you eyes out." She warned from behind Rogue's head. Rogue wasn't about to test Jubilee's love of shopping against her love of seeing.
Remy chuckled from where he sat, slamming the car into gear and taking off down the long driveway like he was in a drag race.
"Good Lord, boy!" Jubilee clutched at the upholstery. "Where did you learn to drive?"
"Get away cars." Remy laughed, taking a corner at sixty. Everyone was thrown against the side of the car.
"Make it go slower!" Rogue demanded, gripping the 'oh shit' handle like her life depended on it.
"Aw, chere,you're no fun." He pouted, but didn't make a move to make the car go slower.
"So you've told me." She gasped as the tires screeched against the asphalt when he started to go faster."Is that it? Do you just do these things to piss me off?" She asked, covering her eyes as he swerved around oncoming traffic.
"So you admit that y'r pissed." He shot back. "Why?"
"It doesn't matter why." She bit off. "What matters is that you keep your distance."
"Metaphorically or literally?"
"Both." She growled. Could one die of overexposure to angry car horns and rude hand gestures coming from other drivers?
The car sped up.
"What if I don' want to?" He asked.
"Then you're gonna get the life sucked out of you." Her fingernails dug little holes in the seat as they narrowly avoided collision.
"On purpose or accident?"
She shot him a death glare, tearing her eyes away from the road. Why was he pushing this? Wasn't he smart enough to know when to leave things alone?
"Hey, it was just a question. Jus' trying to find pieces to the puzzle." He smiled at her, not breaking eye contact.
"KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!" Jubilee screamed, covering up her own eyes as a truck nearly clipped the side of the car.
"Oops," Remy allowed, laughing as he made the car swerve into another lane.
"I'm gonna die…" Jubilee whined.
"Y' didn't answer my question, chere," The car accelerated faster. "Would you drain me on purpose or on accident?"
"It doesn't matter." She growled. "You'd be dead just the same."
"It matters to me." He said gently, which was a drastic contrast to the obscenities being shouted at them from the outside world.
"You still won't be able to touch me if I tell you." She snarled. "It. Doesn't. Matter."
The car accelerated again.
"I think it does." He snipped back.
"No it doesn't."
Faster.
"Yes."
"No!"
Even faster.
"Just tell him before he kills us all!" Jubilee shouted.
Rogue crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.
"It's a simple question, chere."Remy said. "On purpose or on accident?" He repeated.
"Accident." She said, a few tears collecting in her eyes. "It's always an accident, but it always happens. I don't want to hurt you."
The car slowly inched back to a normal pace, the screams and blaring horns faded away to nonexistence as he started obeying traffic laws. The car rolled to a stop at the mall entrance, completely unscathed. He got out at a leisurely pace, circled around the front of the car, opened her door and helped her out.
"Accidents happen, Rogue." He said to her, his ruby eyes meeting her emerald ones. "Even if they cripple you, you have to learn to walk with a limp, because they aren't going away. You just have to hope that maybe you can find a cane."
"Are you offering to be my 'cane'?" Rogue asked him suspiciously.
"Oui." He smiled at her, picking up her gloved fingers and kissing them individually. "Cane, friend, whatever you want."
"Friend." She said quickly.
He smirked and his eyes sparked with mischief. "For now." He drawled, taking her hand and leading her forward towards the front doors.
Jubilee crawled out of the car. "I think part of my soul just died." She gasped, clutching her chest.
Piotr sat where he had been sitting the entire ride, hand covering his eyes, metal covering his body. "It is over?"