Unfortunately, Jubilee recovered quickly from her near-Remy experience, and quickly set about supplying Rogue with a mountain of clothing to try on.
Rogue was two more trips to the dressing room away from strangling her to death.
"And this!" Jubilee finished off whatever list of outfit choices she had just been going through while Rogue was contemplating from what angle she could get the best grip on her trachea. "I think that should be enough for right now." She threw the article of clothing she had been holding up into Piotr's arms with the rest of them. Rogue was concerned that she couldn't see the top of his head anymore.
"Uh- Jubes." Rogue looked over the massive pile of clothing. "Don't you thing this is enough for… like… ever?"
"Omigosh!" Jubilee suddenly screeched, completely ignoring Rogue. "I forgot about gloves!" She stomped away to where there must have been a glove section in the department store, muttering about how she was going to have to rearrange to color pallet she had been working on.
"Is she gone?" Piotr and Remy both asked in unison, the latter peeking out from inside one of the dress racks.
"Run!" Rogue hissed. "While she's distracted!"
"Someone should be staying here." Piotr argued.
An intense Rock-Paper-Scissors battle immediately broke out between the three of them.
"Haha!" Rogue crowed. Rock. Rock. Scissors. "Seeya Pete!"
"In each war, soldiers must fall." Remy bowed deeply as they both backed out of the store.
"That was a close one." Rogue breathed when they were a safe distance away. "I told you she was crazy." She trailed her shoulder against the wall, far away from the scant other people navigating their own paths in the wide, white, store lined halls as she could get in the small space provided.
Remy seemed to notice and quickly dragged her away from the wall and slung his arm around her so that she wouldn't retreat back. She surprised herself slightly when she didn't shrug the arm off, and instead leaned into his warmth.
"I knew you couldn't resist me." He mumbled into her ear with an unmistakable smirk.
Rogue rolled her eyes and punched him lightly in the shoulder. Or, what she thought was lightly.
"Merde!" He hissed, crumpling to the ground in pain.
"What happened?" Rogue panicked, kneeling down next to him. "I'm sorry!" She said quickly, wringing her fingers together because she was too afraid to touch him.
Remy quickly regained composure. "I'm fine, chere." He said, hoisting himself into an upright position. He smiled at her.
"Remy… You're bleeding." She pointed at the growing red spot on his shoulder.
"Oh… well, how 'bout that." He poked at it slightly and had to dig his fingernails into his palms to keep from crying out in pain. This probably shouldn't have surprised him. Stuff like this happens when you're doing flips over counters the day after you get stabbed in the shoulder.
"We should get that checked out!" She said hurriedly upon seeing that the spot showed no signs of slowing down. "C'mon, there's a-."
Remy turned on the charm faster than she could say 'hospital'. "I think I'll be fine. Just a scratch." He smiled at her and she stared at him, entranced.
"M'kay." She mumbled, unblinking as she gazed deeply into his eyes. He wondered what she saw there. Did she see the devil he did when he looked into the mirror? Or did she see that little voice that was screaming at him that it was wrong to charm a girl just to get out of a hospital visit.
Shut your face! He barked at the voice.
I. don't. have. a. face. It snapped right back. Remy was wondering which was more concerning - That he was getting into fights with his conscience, or that he was losing to it. It always seemed more persistent to have it's way when Rogue was near.
"At least let me take a look at it." Rogue bargained, still looking at him like he was sliced bread.
"Non." He objected bluntly. "I'm fine!"
She put her hand down on his shoulder.
"Merde!" He bared his teeth. His spell over her was broken.
"Right." She said sarcastically, tearing at the collar of his jacket until his blood-stained shirt was exposed. "Shiiiit." She drawled, slightly impressed as well as concerned. "When the hell did this happen?"
"Uh-." Remy searched for suitable lie.
"Did Riptide do this?" She asked, her voice reached octaves unknown to man. The four other people in the entire mall started to stare. "You didn't get this checked out yesterday?"
Was that a trick question?
"No?" Remy tried to catch her eye again so that he could convince her to let him go.
She glared him down.
"We're leaving." She said. She turned around and dragged him towards the store Jubilee and Piotr were still in.
"What do you mean she left?" Jubilee was screeching at a pale Piotr with five shopping bags hooked in her fingers when Rogue stomped by them.
"We're leaving." She relayed the message to them without sparing them a glance, applying pressure to Remy's shoulder when he tried to slip her grip again.
"Dammit!" He cursed. "Y' don' need to be so mean t' me, chere."
-
The drive back to the institute had been much less eventful than the one away from it. Mostly because Piotr was driving and Remy was sitting in the back with Rogue, arguing about how he wasn't going to the damn med lab.
"You're goin' to the mad lab, swamp rat, if I havta drag ya down there myself." She snarled, yanking him out of the car and straight into the mansion before he could slip his way out of her firm grip on his shoulder.
"Stormy!" Remy felt like a child trying to escape punishment. "Make 'er let Remy go!"
Rogue dragged him into the elevator of the X-mansion before Storm could hear his pleas for help.
"Now, take of your shirt!" She barked as she dragged him through the chrome doors into a wide room that reeked of antiseptic and pain.
Remy paused momentarily in his struggles. "You should have opened the conversation wit' dat, chere." He commented glibly. "I would have put up much less of a fight." His smile was to cover up the dread filling his stomach. He hated hospitals.
"Just do it." She growled.
"Another poorly worded sentence." He tried to smirk, but simply complied when she glared at him.
Oh. My. God. Rogue held her breath as she watched him remove the blood soaked article of clothing. If perfection had a visual guide, it would have been Remy LeBeau's body. Even streaked with blood and littered with pale scars, the heat that radiated from it made Rogue want to do very un lady-like things to him.
A warm feeling that Rogue greatly associated with teenage hormones washed over her.
He gave her a funny look all of the sudden.
"You feelin' okay?" He asked.
"Y-yeah." She stuttered, looking down to hide her blush. Friends, friends, friends. She chanted on the inside of her head. Can't touch, can't touch, can't touch. Soon followed. "Shut up and sit down!" She snapped, going the Logan-route with her confusing emotions and just converting them to rage.
He put his hands up in mock surrender and sat down tentatively on one of the stainless steel tables, for some reason he was grinning like a fool.
"I'll go get Hank and he'll check you out." She said.
"You step out that door, I'll be gone faster than a flash." Remy smirked back at her.
"Fine," She grumbled, pulling off her cloth gloves and replacing them with a pair of surgical ones. "I'll do it."
"I don' know how much I can trust y'r medical schoolin'." Remy protested.
"Hush up." She sniffed, collecting gauze and wrap, noticing that the wound wasn't deep enough for stitches to be an appropriate response, even though she did want to stab him. "For your information, as an X-man I know a great deal about medical… stuff."
He chuckled at her. She was sorely tempted to throw things at him.
"Just be quiet and I won't havta hurt you." She snipped as she started wiping up the blood on his chest. He winced away once or twice when she got close to his ribs. "Are your ribs hurting too?" She asked. She was no good with ribs.
"Uh.." He stalled. "Yes."
"That was a pretty shaky yes there Cajun." She mocked, mood lightening significantly. She decided to try something. Instead of patting at his flesh like she had been, she ran the cloth in her hand down the side of his chest in one sweeping motion.
He burst into laughter. "Stop it!"
"You're ticklish!" She accused, laughing at him.
"Am not!" he crossed his arms over his chest defiantly.
She swiped at his ribs again.
"Now you decide to try an' be fun?" He questioned in the middle of his laughing fit.
"Yes!" She reached out to get him again, but he was faster. "No!" She screeched as she tried to escape his grip, gasping for air as his fingers raked along her sides at the exact spots that made her laugh the hardest. "Nooo!" She giggled.
"Am I interrupting something?" A cold voice asked from the door of the med lab. Bobby Drake did not seem to be very pleased with finding Rogue wrapped in the arms of a half naked man.
-
Jamie will get back to this 'plot' nonsense soon enough. Right now, she has a Remy/Bobby showdown to coordinate.