This chapter is brought to you today by the letter 'H' for Hanky Panky, and the song 'Possum Kingdom' By The Toadies!
Rogue sighed heavily as she dragged herself down the hallways, forcing herself not to wince with pain every time someone backed far away from her or sneered at her existence.
They hated her.
Individually, they saw themselves as beautifully unique and strong. And the knowledge that there was someone out there who could steal that from them killed them.
And it killed her too.
She ducked her head down until her chin almost touched her chest as she passed the Rec Room, ignoring their catcalls when they noticed her passing down the hallway.
"How's Gambit, Poison Touch?"
"Hope you didn't kiss him to make it better!"
They elaborately acted out her kissing him and them him falling to the ground with a seizure of some sort until he finally went limp. They were in the middle of attempting to revive the boy playing Gambit, yelling out 'CLEAR!' every time they pretended to shock him before she could break away.
She doubled her pace down the hallway, choking back her tears. She wished Logan was there to chase them away. Or Warren to beat them up for saying hurtful things. Or Piotr to assure her that they were just jerks. Or Jubilee to threaten to fry their eyeballs out. Even a possessive arm around the shoulder from Bobby or a 'Like, shut up you guys!' from Kitty would have been better then facing them herself.
But what about Rembrandt? Erik asked her, swinging into his old habit of calling people by their full names. What do you think he would do?
I don't know what Remy would do. She admitted as she opened the door to her room and shut it firmly behind her.
Kick their asses! John whooped. Did you see him and Bobby! OH MAN! Poetry. Pure poetry.
Shut up, John! Bobby snapped.
Both of you shut up! Logan growled. You're giving Marie a headache.
Which was true, but the growling was definitely not helping.
Alright guys, She said, because by some strange stroke of fate all of the people inside her head were men. Most of them furiously protective of her. All of those people were also insane. Shut your eyes!
She hummed to keep herself company as she stripped off her clothes. The gloves were the first to come off. She hated them. Then the long-sleeved shirt. Then the pants that went past her toes. Then the socks that hit her knees. Then the undershirt that grazed her elbows. Then the cardigan that was closed underneath all of her layers.
For a moment or two she stared at her nearly naked body in the mirror, lamenting over how no one would ever be able to touch it, and then pulled on a thin long sleeved sleep shirt and a pair of dark blue pajama shorts. She sighed again to herself at the sight of her bare legs as she sat down on her bed…
…And then jumped back up again as something poked her…
There was a small music player sitting on her bed with a little piece of paper attached to it-
Stop feeling sorry for yourself, because if you run away again I will hunt your ass down and punch you in your pretty face. Yes, your boyfriend is in the hospital (Gambit, not Bobby-the-man-slut) ((And wipe that offended look off your face! You know you like him!)) And Yes, you still can't touch his oh-so-sexiness, but hey, now you have a music player! YAY!
I already loaded it up for you.
Yes, I know you love me.
-Jubilee
Rogue laughed out loud, putting on the headphones and scrolled around the library of music for something to listen to.
Remy staggered out of the med lab, sewn up, taped up, and all around in pain.
"And wear that sling!" Hank shouted after him, throwing a blue sling to hold his arm in.
Remy was pretty sure he made his point about not wearing the sling when he charged it and watched it surrender it's existence to a fiery death. He tore the gauze off of the small hole in his forearm where he had been physically forced to take blood before snorting some obscenities in French and stomping up stairs, feeling a little bit like he forgot something.
Ororo's words still plagued his mind.
I havta tell her. He chanted to himself as he stomped up the stairs. I havta tell her the truth.
He reached the ground level of the mansion and found himself at a fork in the road…
Where the hell was she?
"Goddammit." He grumbled to himself as he ran his fingers through his hair.
I havta tell her…
There was some sort of commotion from down the hall and he figured that if he couldn't find her by himself, at least he could ask someone else where she was.
He turned the corner to find a bleach blond girl mostly dressed in white glaring at a purple haired Asian girl from across the room, Piotr was reading a book on the couch, Warren seemed to be dominating the air hockey table and held his hand out to demand the money he was owed by Jubilee, who was sending out horrible glares to him.
"Hey," Warren shrugged as he leafed through the money. "It's not my fault I'm awesome." He grinned.
"It's just awful when billionaires feel the need to cheat other, poorer children, out of their money." Jubilee growled at him.
"I was not cheating!" Warren protested, pretending to look affronted.
The purple haired girl turned and observed him for a moment.
"He was cheating." She said simply in a startling British accent, smirking a little bit at him before turning back to glare at the blond.
"I knew it." Jubilee snorted as she turned around to the doorway. "Gambit!" Her eyes went wide when she saw him leaning in the doorway. "You look awful!"
Remy looked down at himself.
Right, it was the shirt he forgot. He could remember the gloves, but not the shirt. …Logic?…
"I'll be fine, petit." He assured her with a winning smile.
I havta tell Rogue…
"I do not know if that is the truth." Piotr looked up from his book. "One would think with injury like that you would be wearing sling." He commented.
Remy chuckled a little nervously. "Right…" He cleared his throat and reminded himself that he had a job.
I havta tell her.
"Have any of you seen Rogue?" He asked, looking around at the faces he knew.
The blond girl snorted from the couch, calling attention to herself for the first time since his entrance to the room and breaking away from her glaring contest with the purple haired girl to turn to him.
"Now, why would a good looking thing like you want to hang around with Killer Kiss," She smirked, slinking her way out of the chair into a standing position and strutted her way over to his side. "When you can have so much more fun with a touchable woman?" She reached up to brush some hair out of his face.
He caught her wrist and glared her down.
"Trus' me, fille." Remy growled at her deep in his throat, his eyes smoldered. "Touchable girls like you are a dime a dozen. Now, a femme dat's so perfect de rest a us ain't graced enough t' touch 'er," He let his words settle on the blond. "Dat's something I find myself willing t' chase."
He roughly let go of her wrist and officially decided that he didn't like that girl.
She snorted something very un lady-like and stomped out of the room. He was tempted to charge her scrap of fabric that counted as a shirt as she stormed away, but decided against it assuming that Storm's rule about not killing her students functioned for all of them.
"Wow." The purple haired girl watched the blond stomp away. "Any enemy of Emma's is a friend of mine." She grinned and offered Remy her hand. "Betsy Braddock." She introduced.
He was about to take her hand and introduce himself when there was a sharp stabbing pain in his side.
"Goddammit!" He snarled and looked down at the culprit.
"Sorry." Rahne grinned at him as she retracted her hand from poking one of his bruises. "It looked like a rabbit." She explained.
Remy lifted his arm and inspected the bruise she had just poked.
"Well, how 'bout that…" He poked it a little bit too.
"And that one looks like a butterfly!" She poked one on his back. "And a happy face! And a duck!"
He grunted with pain as she prodded a particularly painful bruise, claiming it looked like a whale.
"Look, petit," He turned to the little girl gently. "I heard that Jamie was lookin' for you. Why don't you go talk t' him?"
Rahne wrinkled her nose as if she found the idea slightly distasteful.
"He's being weird around me." She said. "Whenever he comes around me he starts stuttering and acting all strange and he won't tell me what's wrong."
"Maybe you should talk to him about it." Remy suggested.
Rahne considered this and then after a short moment nodded her head. "Alright. I hope you feel better Mr. Gambit!" She smiled at him and the trotted off her own way.
Remy sighed heavily, just thankful that this particular encounter with the small girl hadn't lead him to more physical pain than he was already in.
"Anyway," He straightened himself, wrapping his arm around his ribs in a way that indicated he felt he needed to hold them together. He had a mission right now, dammit. "Rogue."
"I don't really think now's the right time to be talk-." Betsy started to say before Jubilee tackled her to the ground.
"You shut your mouth!" She commanded, clamping both of her hands over Betsy's face, who was too shell shocked to react at the moment. Jubilee turned to face a stunned Remy with an almost painfully bright grin. "Go down to the kitchen, take a left to the girl's dorms and the last door to the right at the end of the first hall is Rogue's!" She blurt out so quickly that it took him a few moments to separate the words.
"Merci!" He called out as her turned out of the room at a sprint so as not to lose his nerve.
I havta tell her, I havta tell her, I havta tell her. He chanted again, following Jubilee's instruction down the halls.
"Rogue?" He knocked on the last door on the right. I havta tell her. After a moment of silence he knocked again.
I havta tell her.
"Rogue?"
He could swear he heard someone moving around in there.
I havta tell her.
He took a deep breath and called out, "I'm coming in." Before doing just that.
He stood in the doorway for a moment.
I… I had to do something…
Something predatory in him clicked from 'off and gentle' to 'on and carnal'.
Rogue swung out her hips in time with the guitar rifts that opened the song that was creeping into her ears from the headphones and quickly crawling down her spine. Her fingers found themselves tangled in her own hair as she raised her arms above her head.
"Make up your mind." She snag along, eyes closed. Her voice blended well with the actual vocals of the song. "Decide to walk with me. Around the lake tonight."
Her hips found a more exaggerated swing as she freed one hand from her hair and ran it down her torso.
"Around the lake tonight, by my side." She continued to sing, lost in her own moment. No people. No voices. "By my side."
She slowly bent her knees together and dropped her hips, raising her hands up above her head again, feeling like she smoldered with heat despite being in her pajamas.
"I'm not gonna lie. I'll not be a gentlemen. Behind the boathouse, I'll show you my dark secret." Her voice rang out the words clearly again, barely grazing the same deep tones as the actual vocals, but melding together with them in a mesmerizing way. "I'm not gonna lie, I want you for mine. My blushing bride. My lover, be my lover, yeah."
She laughed to herself as she straightened herself into a standing position again, knowing full well that she probably looked ridiculous. But it was herroom, dammit. She could dance around in a pair of shorts if she wanted to.
Feeling suddenly as if someone was watching her, Rogue opened her eyes and nearly caught herself screaming with shock.
He was leaning against her wall, bare chest exposed with such an array of colors that he almost blended in to the darkness. His red eyes were two beacons of fire in the shadows that covered his face. The door to the hallway was slightly ajar next to him, being the only proof that he hadn't just appeared there. His eyes flicked up and down her form, taking in the information on her bare legs, which he had never seen before.
The smoldering of his eyes seemed to grow more intense.
"Y' have a beautiful singing voice, chere." Remy purred with a wolfish smile. He peeled away from the wall and closed the door behind him with a resounding click. "But I liked the dancing much more."
…Don't be afraid…
The song continued without the aide of her voice in her ears.
Rogue retreated a few steps as he took a step forward, fully aware of how much of her deadly skin was exposed.
…I didn't mean to scare you…
She forgot how to breathe as he planted both of his hands on either side of her head after tugging the headphones off of her ears so that they were hooked around her neck, pinning her to the wall and scorching her with intense heat that radiated off of his body in waves.
He was scorching her.
She found herself savoring in the burn.
"You're too close." She mumbled in an effort to protect him, caught up in the hazy warmth that surrounded him.
"I'd like to be closer." He rumbled with amusement. He pressed his chest into her so that the only barrier between him and her was the thin shirt that she had slipped on earlier.
… So help me Jesus…
She found that she could still hear the music drifting up from the speakers in the headphones.
Her knees nearly buckled and she started getting light headed as he pressed his knee into the wall between her legs and ran one gloved hand down the side of her face.
She closed her eyes and unconsciously arched her back to savor the small touch.
…I can promise you…
Remy leaned into her so that she could feel his breath beating at her throat, which, out of pure physical reaction, she had angled her chin up to expose to him. She wanted him to kiss her there, or anywhere really, just so long as she could touch him.
…That you'll stay as beautiful…
"I don't want to hurt you." She breathed, remembering what exactly it was that was holding her back.
…With dark hair, and soft skin…
"Do you trust me?' He asked her for the second time since he had met her.
"Y-yes?" She stuttered.
…Forever…
"Was that a question?" He chuckled throatily, abandoning his hold on the wall in favor of slipping his hands around her waist.
His fingers traced down her spine and she shivered.
…Forever…
"Do you trust me?" He asked again.
All she could manage was a "Mmm-hmm." As his fingers traced patterns in her back, distracting her from the ability to form coherent words.
…Make up your mind. Make up your mind…
"How much?" He breathed hotly on her throat again.
…And I'll promise you…
"Enough." She groaned out loud as his hands ran the length of her spine again and then trailed lightly over her behind.
…I will treat you well, my sweet angel…
He grinned his devil's grin as he knocked her wobbly knees out from underneath her with his own. Rogue found herself stuck between a bed and a Cajun.
.Not that she was complaining.
…So help me Jesus!…
His hands switched from exploring her back to running down her sides and across her stomach, barely calling themselves back as they reached the edge of her shorts.
The intimacy of the situation crawled under her skin and made her shudder with a desire she couldn't instigate.
…Give it up to me. Give it up to me...
She barely held back the urge to rune her bare hands down his torso, which seemed to be constructed of hard surfaces and clean lines.
…Do you wanna be…
Her back arched again as one of his hands 'accidentally' grazed her chest, and instead of chuckling at her like she had half expected the blazing well of heat in front of her to do, he didn't something she wouldn't have ever expected in her wildest dreams.
…My angel?…
In her state of mid-gasp, he crushed his lips against hers. The raw passion of the kiss demanded her own physical response, which she gladly gave.
It took a few moments for her powers to kick in, and even when they did, absorbing him was the equivalent of oil in water. She could feel the two components combine, but neither of the elements seemed to affected by the interaction.
…So help me!…
'She pushed him off roughly.
They both perched themselves on either side of the bed, panting.
"What did you do?" She asked, slightly thunderstruck.
"Chapstick." He popped his lips.
Rogue felt a little dumb. "Why didn't I think of that?"
He grinned and was on her once again.
…Be my angel?…
She smiled against his lips, though it didn't protect him from all contact with her.
…Be my angel?…
Like the wrists.
He had done nothing to protect the wrists. …
…Which brushed against her thigh…
…Do you wanna die?…
Rogue forced him off of her in a hot second, barely getting anything off of him through the very small absorption.
"Are y' alright?" She asked desperately, speech slightly impaired by a minor Cajun accent.
…I promise you…
"I'm fine." He grinned at her.
…I will treat you well…
"Kiss dat knocks y' out, no?" He chuckled and tried to move forward to her again.
…My sweet angel…
"No." She said firmly, planting a hand firmly on his chest. "I don't care how damn sexy you are! Ah'm not gonna kill yah!"
…So help me Jesus…
"Y' think I'm sexy?" He grinned again.
Her face flushed bright red.
"Out!" She commanded, pointing her finger out the door.
…Jesus…
He pretended to get up and fall back down.
"Oh no!" He cried out in mock pain. "My shoulder! I can't move! Damn!" He settled himself on her bed. "Looks like I'll just havta stay here."
"And where the hell am I supposed to sleep?" She demanded.
He threw a blanket over his bare chest and patted the bed beside him.
She rolled her eyes before crawling up next to him and settling beside him, not admitting that she really didn't want him to leave. Even if she didn't get to touch him.
…Jesus…
"You're hella annoying, you know that?" She asked as she wriggled her way as close to him as possible and rested her head against his covered chest gently.
"But y' think I'm sexy." She could feel him grinning at her.
"Maybe a little bit." She allowed, unhooking the headphones from around her neck and reminding herself to thank Jubilee later as she tossed the music player onto the dresser beside the bed.
"A little bit!" He scoffed as he wrapped his arms around her. "Woman, you lie like a rug."
Rogue laughed at him
… Jesus. …
They both eventually drifted off.
Rogue, grinning to herself.
Remy, harassing himself once he finally remembered what he had gone up there to do. Just before he fell asleep he solidified his resolve to tell her tomorrow.
"Yes," He yawned as he watched the sleeping girl in his arms. "Tomorrow."
I admit that I'm no Jane Austen at Hanky Panky, but that was way better than my first attempt… which we aren't going to talk about… I dunno, I just get all red a giggly. So I enlisted The Toadies to help! (It seemed like a good idea at the time…)
My, my. A chapter without Riptide. What on earth could our crazy psycho killer be up to now?