Diclaimer: I don't own the X-Men!
Chapter 6: Coffee.
It's nothingness up there in the high ceiling; just four big lamps, three of which were off. Nothingness inside her ears, as this sound of void wrapped everything, floating on her back, being swung just slightly by the water, which was neither cool not warm, but had this perfect in between temperature that embraced her.
Most people in the mansion came to the indoors pool during the day or the early evening, but Rogue loved it the most at night. The large windows and floors and walls covered in arabesque tiles, gave it this old school vibe; it reminded her of a black and white movie she had seen at some point.
She stopped floating and let her feet rest on the pool's bottom, with the water up to her chest. The tips of her fingers were starting to get all wrinkly.
Suddenly, she heard or saw something, she wasn't sure which one. There was only one door that led to the area, and it was closed. Maybe outside, some of the kids wandering around? Someone arriving late and trying to get off the curfew's hook? She waited, scrutinizing the shadows on the other side of the windows.
But nothing, so she took a little swim from one side to the other, and then back. She opened her eyes under the water, to that distorted and itchy world. And there was something that hadn't been up there before. A shadow, a presence, a…
She emerged from the water, gasping for air as her heart almost stopped:
"Well cherie, this be one fancy hut, I gotta give y' that."
She gaped at Remy, who was removing his trench coat.
"Yah can't be here!" she exhaled.
"Y' broke into Remy's home, only fair he do the same".
"And what the heck are yah even doin'?"
He took his t-shirt off like it was no big deal:
"Gonna join y' for a night dip, of course".
"Like hell yah will!" she propped herself up the border of the pool, and crawled out of it: "Are yah out of your mind? Someone could see yah!"
"So what? Y' can say I'm your cousin Bernard from N'awlins".
She didn't cease to take alternate glimpses from the door to the windows and it was better not to even think about the security cameras:
"Put that back on" she urged him, crossing her arms around her stomach.
He didn't seem to have heard her. Instead, he slid his gaze all over her body and smirked:
"That a nice lil' swim suit, chere."
She huffed and reached for his t-shirt, which was crumpled on a beach chair, and tossed it at him:
"Put it on!"
"Aw, so no pool for Remy t'night?"
She glared at him, reached for her towel and wrapped herself in it.
"No dipping? No skinny dipping, no nothing?"
"NO!" she tried to say this seriously but after the word escaped her lips, she had to chuckle. "Logan could smell yah and then we're dead, well, Ah'm dead."
"He ain't home, cherie" he informed her, finally doing as she asked and putting his t-shirt back on. "Saw him heading out."
"Really? How…?" she jumped into her flip flops. "Yah can't just show up here, yah know?"
"Uh, y' told me to, remember?"
"Yeah but Ah didn't mean like this!"
"Then how?!"
She didn't have the answer for this either. And there seemed to be no one outside the windows, but then, this house was always a mess of people showing up from every direction. So she grabbed him by an arm and headed towards the door.
He picked up his trench coat before following her.
"So, what y' say we go somewhere?"
"Where?" they came out the door. Right besides it, there was another door that led to the girls' lockers room. She pushed it open.
"Your call, we can go to the movies, a play, if y' like that, or just go grab something to eat. Anything y' want."
Once they were inside, Rogue locked the door and heard through it for some seconds. No, not a sound from the other side, thank God.
"Like a date?" she finally said, facing him again.
"We can call it anything y' want, I leave that to y'. In fact, let's not give it a name, let it be just y' and me, out there and maybe afterwards, going to my place."
She frowned slightly:
"Ah don't think that's a good idea."
He took a step closer to her:
"Chere, we don't have to have sex if y' don't want to, of course. We can just do other stuff."
She studied his face for some moments, not sure herself of how things reached this point:
"Why?"
"Why? 'Cause I really enjoy being around y', don't it show? And I'd like to do that more often, not just every once in a blue moon."
He saw her hesitate, like her mind was debating between two or who knows how many choices.
Then, she walked past him and towards a desk that was there on a corner. When she turned to him again, he saw she was holding a pen. Next, she grabbed his arm and started writing something on his forearm.
A digit, then another one… and his eyes started wandering and went to lie on her face, her long eye lashes and the way she looked up at him, smiled and then looked back down, to finish writing the twelve digits.
"In all honesty, chere, this more than I expected when I came here" he said, taking a look at the phone number.
"Call me during the weekend, 'kay?"
"But it's only Sunday t'day!" he complained.
"Yah have to go now."
"Y' keep torturing me, Rogue."
"Go away!"
Why was she such a mixture of so many things? This girl, who was standing there in front of him, wrapped in a green towel, dripping water and make-up free, which made her look with a sort of innocence he had only briefly glimpsed before. She was taking him down some paths he hadn't walked through, him, Remy LeBeau, who thought he knew everything there was to know, plus a little more. He had known many girls and dated many more, and he thought he was quite versed in figuring out the female mind, but somehow, Rogue had sent all of that so called knowledge tumbling down.
"Alright! Alright" he put his trench coat on: "But, there one thing I gotta do first."
"What?"
He cupped her face between his hands and before she could do anything about it, he kissed her.
And at first she didn't move, but then she kissed him back, feeling unexpectedly vulnerable there, barely covered, in a place where anyone could catch them at any moment and find her with this man, a stranger, or not; someone she knew, but didn't. It was ambivalence, at its best.
"Now get out" she said looking down, trying to breathe calmly.
"This so unfair, y' know?"
"BYE!"
He winked at her after opening the door:
"See y' on weekend."
And then he was gone.
(…)
When Rogue sneaked into her bedroom, Kitty was all curled up in her bed, snoring, oblivious to her roommate wandering around the house and making out with intruders.
She took a shower and put on some pants and a t-shirt, then crawled into her bed. It was almost entirely dark, which made it look like everything around was tinted with a blue grey color. Even her cell phone, which lied on her nightstand and underneath her stare.
This wasn't a part of then plan. Everything was supposed to be only physical and then goodbye; he was the exact type of guy who would be cool with that, who was used to that. When was it? When did things start to take a different shade? When he started stalking her in the park, maybe? Stalking her… she shut her eyes tight and smiled, at the thought of the word itself and at the memory of him, obstinately waiting for her behind a bunch of trees and bushes. Was it then? Or when they met in the train station? He had asked for her number several times before all of that, sure. So maybe it was a progressive thing. Or maybe he wasn't used to a girl giving him this treatment, and the novelty of it was appealing to him. What did he see in her? What did he want? Going to the movies, was he serious?
And what did she want?
It took her at least a couple hours to get to sleep, her limbs a little tense from the pool, and the taste of him still in her lips.
Note: If you're wondering why this chap is called "Coffee" and there's no actual coffee in it, it's because the chapter happens at night, and Rogue couldn't sleep much at the end, so the whole thing keeps her awake, you know, like coffee does? Yeah, that's what I tried to do there. So thanks for reading and reviewing! (*wink wink*)