018.

Jubilee clasped her hands over her mouth to confine the squeals and giggles from her mouth. Hayley smacked her over the head with a pillow in an effort to silence her. As Jubilee covered herself with the blanket, face red from holding in her laughter, Hayley glanced over at her closed door, paranoid that someone would come rushing into her room. That someone being Remy.

"And then?!" she hissed.

Hayley took another glance at the door and put her head closer to Jubilee. "Then he helped me down the hill and got into the car."

"And then?!"

"Then, we just talked and sang along to the radio."

"And then?!"

"Then what more do you want?"

Jubilee groaned. "And did anything else happened? You know..." she winked.

Hayley gasped and smacked her again with the pillow. "No, that did not happen!" she shrieked, laughing.

Jubilee looked disappointed. "So then what happened?"

"We got home, said good night and that's that." Hayley laughed at her disappointment grow even more. "I'm sorry that I don't have a juicy story! I'm not you."

Jubilee rolled her eyes but giggled. "I can't believe it.. you and Gambit!" She gave her a sly look. "I knew there was something going on between you two."

"What?"

"Oh c'mon! You and Gambit are always flirt-fighting. He annoys you, you insult him, he annoys you some more, you insult him back even more." Jubilee threw off the covers and grinned. "You two were made for each other."

"Okay let's not go that far," Hayley said with a sigh. "I mean, it was just a kiss."

Jubilee groaned. "C'mon! He told you that he was crazy about you!"

"Correction. He told me that I drive him crazy. That's not exactly the same thing."

The small Asian girl rolled her eyes. "Pfft! Please! He's crazy about you!"

Hayley chuckled but shook her head. "Oh I don't know."

"Do you like him?" When Hayley nodded, Jubilee continued. "Then what's the problem?"

She sighed. "I don't know.."

"It's not because of John, is it?"

"Oh God no," Hayley shuddered.

"Then what is it?"

Hayley sighed and looked out the window. "Remy... he just makes me feel so different. Like.. I feel good about myself around him and maybe it's cause he's always making those stupid compliments.. but it's more than that."

"You feel loved? Safe?"

She shook her head. "God, I don't know. I feel all those things but it's just so different with Remy. So much more."

"Damn he must be one hell of a kisser!" Jubilee sighed.

"Oh God.." Hayley giggled. She drew her knees up to her chest.

Jubilee patted her arm, grinning from ear to ear. "Hayley, I've never seen you so happy ever since I've been here. Obviously that counts for something with Gambit, doesn't it? Hell, even John couldn't make you smile that wide."

Hayley had to admit- her cheeks were ready to explode from all the smiling she had done since last night. She rubbed her cheeks but couldn't stop smiling. "Yeah..."

"I'm pretty sure he's thinking the same way about you, Hayls." Jubilee looked at the clock by her dresser and leaped up from the bed. "Oh shit! We're gonna be late for the meeting!"

"I'll catch up with you later," said Hayley. She rolled her eyes when Jubilee gave her a sly smile and winked before she left.

Hayley sighed and laid down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Last night had seemed like such a blur. It seemed so surreal, she almost didn't believe it had actually happened. Last night had seemed so magical, if she wanted to put in girly terms. Never had she thought she'd be able to really open up to someone like how she used to with John. Never had she thought she'd find someone that she'd be able to connect to since John. She never thought that she would fall for a guy like Gambit.. Remy LeBeau.

Hayley tried not to let the girly side get the best of her but she couldn't help herself. She was excited and scared at the mere thought of Remy quite possibly having some sort of interest in her. She had always thought he said those flirtacious things, did sweet things just to bother her but now, he had confessed that she "drove him crazy." She couldn't help but smile brightly at the words he had said to her last night. What girl wouldn't smile?

Still, she had her doubts about him, about herself, about them. And she felt bad especially since she had told Remy just last night that it was wrong of her to judge him. But this was Hayley- always thinking of the worst possible outcomes in the situations. Remy LeBeau was one of the most beautiful men to ever grace the Earth in her opinion. All the women flocked to him- women who were much prettier than she. How could Hayley compete with that?

Remy flashed that smile at any girl that walked around who batted their eyelashes towards him. He prowled and pounced on any woman who flaunted their assets onto him. He was wild and free, something that was a blessing and a curse. Hayley wasn't exactly sure if she'd be able to tame him of his wild ways. He was different, carefree and mysterious. He was the master of seduction.

And Hayley wasn't sure if she was ready to fall for him just quite yet.

She knew that Storm would be pissed if she was late to the meeting. She walked out of the room and down to the professor's office. She opened the door to find Xavier and the other teachers and to her surprise, she saw Remy leaning against the bookshelf. His eyes flashed brightly when he saw her coming in and gave her a slight nod. She gave him an awkward smile and took a seat in an empty chair.

"Nice of you to join us, kid," Logan muttered. Hayley rolled her eyes. "Let's get this meeting started."

Professor Xavier cleared his throat and went over the list of things that he wanted to get done. Most of them were about the classes and the schedules, the circulum, what the teachers and TA's should go over and so on. Hayley's eyes grew heavy. She wasn't exactly a big fan of these meetings.

Storm cleared her throat, shooting a death glare at Hayley for falling asleep. "I'd like to discuss the spring dance."

Almost everyone groaned but immediately stopped when Storm sent another death glare at them. She cleared her throat once again. "Now I'd like everyone to get involve with this. Everyone will be keeping their eyes on the kids during the dance. But we also have to discuss decorations, food, shopping trips for the students."

No one spoke up, avoiding any sort of eye contact with Storm. Warren made the mistake of clearing his throat and was automatically picked to help out with the shopping trips. Hayley snickered under her breath.

"I think Hayley wants to volunteer for that as well," Logan announced loudly, giving her an amused look when Hayley's jaw dropped. He knew perfectly well that Hayley hated shopping with large groups of people.

"Thanks a lot, pup," she muttered.

Along with Hayley and Warren, Bobby and Kitty were chosen to accompany the students to the shopping mall for them to buy new clothes with Storm. Piotr, Logan, Hank McCoy and Jubilee were in charge of the food and decorations. Remy had been chosen to be her co-coordinator, helping out with anything Storm needed help in. Hayley rolled her eyes and chuckled under her breath- she knew why Storm had chosen Remy out of all people. She caught his eye and he gave her a small smirk.

When the dance plans were set aside, Xavier cleared his throat. He wheeled his chair out from behind the desk and came before them. His face looked grim and for the first time, Hayley saw a hint of fear in his eyes. She immediately had chills go down her spine. Xavier never looked fearful, even in the darkest of times for mutants.

"I have some news about Erik," he simply said.

Hayley looked at the rest of the people around her. Only Remy stood with no reaction. Everyone else looked shocked with their jaws dropped. Logan was the only one with his hands clenched into fists. His eyes narrowed at the name.

Erik Lensher, or Magneto as everyone else knew him as, was the world's number one enemy, for humans and mutants alike. And what was strange about this whole situation was that him and Xavier had once been the best of friends. They had founded the school together but both had different opinions when it came to humans. Xavier wanted to unite the world while Magneto wanted to obliterate anyone who didn't have special powers.

But Xavier had won the war when Magneto was injected with the Cure that had wiped away all of Magneto's power. As far as he was concerned, Magneto was now living in the suburbs, doing daily human things and taking walks around the park. He had become what he hated the most. A human being.

But now with the look on Xavier's face, Hayley wasn't so sure if they had won the good fight.

Xavier pressed his fingers together and looked at each of them. "It seems as though the Cure was not as effective as its creators thought," he announced. "The Cure has only a temporary effect on mutants and many of the mutants that have taken this, all the ones that we faced Alcatraz have slowly regained their powers."

Everyone but Remy let out a gasp.

"I have no doubt in my mind that once Erik gets his powers back, he will start recruiting his old Brotherhood members," Xavier said grimly. "So we must be ready for their return. I'll keep track of him and the others daily. But I just thought it would be wise to tell you all ahead of time, to keep you all prepared for whatever may happen." His eyes fell upon Hayley at the last sentence.

Her body trembled slightly. She knew he had looked at her because of John. Magneto would go find John; he had been a favorite of his. She knew Xavier had looked at her, to let her know to be ready if they had to fight Magneto, fight John again like they had the last time.

Xavier called the meeting to an end and everyone walked out, trying to force happy smiles on their faces so the kids wouldn't ask questions. Hayley was the last one to leave the room but Xavier called her back. He waited till everyone left and Hayley shut the door, standing before him. "Yes, Professor?"

"How are you feeling? Logan tells me that your powers have come back to you and have expanded," Xavier said with a smile.

Hayley grinned back. "It sure has, Professor."

He sighed and looked at her. "I know it has been a rough few months for you and this news must be hard.. but I'm sure you know that Erik will try and find John to get him over into the Brotherhood." He paused. "And I want you to let me know if you don't feel comfortable if anything were to come up."

She nodded. "Thank you Professor."

He nodded over to the door. "You may go now."

Hayley walked out of the room, letting out a shaky breath. She turned from the office to find Remy leaning against the wall. A small smile formed on her face when she saw him and he pushed off from the wall to walk over to her. "Cherie, how you doin'?" he asked.

"Doing well," she answered. "What are you doing out here?"

Remy shrugged but had a smile on his face. "I thought maybe you'd like to take a walk out to the backyard with Remy. If you ain't busy."

Hayley smiled. "I'm not. I'd like to."

They walked down the stairs together and out to the backyard. It was a nice, warm day and many of the kids were outside, playing games. Piotr waved hello to them as they walked past, returning the greeting. Many of the younger girls stopped to giggle and point at Remy who kept his attention on Hayley.

"So who's this Erik guy and why are you all scared of him?" Remy asked.

Hayley sighed. "Well, he's our enemy... he goes by the name of Magneto. He controls metal and is a level four mutant."

Remy sat down under the tree and she followed suit. "So, what's his problem?"

"He and the professor used to be friends. Best friends. They made this school together but they had different ideas about how they should run the school, their views about humans. See, Professor wanted to protect humans and get them to understand us but Magneto hates humans and wanted to destroy them." Hayley looked at Remy with a sad smile. "So now they're enemies and Magneto will kill anyone that gets in the way of his plan."

Remy pursed his lips, looking incredibly serious. "So you've fought him before?"

She nodded. "Yeah. We've had a few encounters."

They sat silently together, watching the kids play their game of football. Hayley wanted to bring up last night, she wanted to know what was going to happen now but didn't know where to start. She hoped that he would somehow start the conversation.

"So this Magneto guy had some sort of gang?"

She chuckled. "I guess you can say that."

"Why'd the professor want to see you separately, joli?"

"Cause John was once a part of his gang."

"You serious?!" Remy let out a low whistle. "Firebreather was a part of this Magneto's gang? How'd that happen?"

Hayley sighed. "Well, a few years ago there was a man named Stryker who tried to take over the school. He kidnapped some of our kids. The rest of us managed to escape either with Piotr or Logan. John, Bobby, Rogue and I had left with Logan.

"The professor uses this thing called Cerebro- a machine that him and Magneto built to keep an eye on the mutants. Well, Stryker was building a machine of his own and needed the professor to work the machine. They were hiding out in Alkali Lake. We got there but we were only kids at the time- we stayed on the plane."

Hayley cleared her throat, trying to mentally prepare herself for the next part of the story.

"I don't know why but John just didn't want to be on the plane. I don't know- guess he was just going through some stuff in his head. He just left... and then we found out he joined Magneto."

Remy shook his head. "Firebreather is out of mind."

She smiled. "I guess so. We lost touch over the years but Xavier kept his eye on him." She sighed. "It was a hard time for me.. knowing that he was on the other side and knowing that we'd have to meet each other and fight each other." She picked at the grass in front of her.

Remy laughed. "Do you always do that when you get nervous, petite?"

"I suppose." She let out a small laugh.

"So how'd you and Firebreather end up back together?" he asked.

Hayley sighed. "Well it took a while. Remember the whole Cure issue?" When Remy nodded, she continued the story. "Magneto wasn't for the Cure at all. He and his Brotherhood went to Alcatraz to destroy it. We went to fight them." She looked back at the grass. "One of the hardest fights I had to fight.

"I didn't want to.. not with John, at least. I tried convincing him to come back with us but he wouldn't. He wanted me to fight him- he wasn't the same John that I knew. It was as if Magneto had brainwashed him to this completely different person.. a hateful person that wanted to kill anything that came his way.

"It was terrifying. I thought he'd kill me and I'm sure he would've if Warren hadn't gotten involved." She looked up at Remy who looked like he wanted to kill someone himself. She patted his hand reassuringly. "I didn't fight him. He tried to rough me up a bit and -,"

"Wait a minute. He touched you?" he snarled. His red eyes lit up with anger.

"Remy-,"

"Just answer the question, cherie."

"Yes."

She sighed and shook her head. "You don't understand." She turned away from him. "I thought if he saw me, he wouldn't fight and that he'd snap back to reality. But he didn't and so I had to fight him in the end-,"

Remy grabbed her face and held it up so they'd be able to look at each other. "Wait, so he hit you? He touched you?"

"A little bit but-,"

"What the fuck were you thinking? So you let him hit you? Why would you do that, joli?"

Hayley pushed his hands away, glaring at him before she closed her eyes. She held her breath, trying to calm herself down as the memories of John throwing the first punch came to her mind. Her heart pained when she saw herself having to fight back, throwing her own fury of fists, using her abilities to get John off of her.

She reopened her eyes and glared at him again. "Get your ears checked, Cajun. He threw the first punch out of nowhere and I fought back, okay? I didn't want to but I did."

"You should've blasted his fucking ass to a crisp, joli," he growled.

"You can't fight the one you love."

He snorted. "Tell that to Firebreather."

She rolled her eyes. "You know what? Forget it. I'm going back to my room." She got up but Remy grabbed her hand and looked up at her with an apologetic look.

"Petite, Remy's sorry," he said softly. "But the thought of that fucking bastard touching you makes Remy sick to his stomach." He pulled on her hand. "Sit."

Hayley sat back down, understanding that he was only feeling protective of her.

"So what, Firebreather came back to the school and now you two got back together?" he asked.

She nodded. "Came back and apologized for everything. And.. we took him back. I took him back."

"Took him back after everything he did to you," he said out loud, rolling his eyes.

Hayley narrowed her eyes but didn't say anything to him. "It wasn't easy to trust him again if that makes you feel better about my story."

"Joli, he seems like a loser to me," Remy commented.

Hayley glared at him. He caught sight of her face expression and rolled his eyes, raising his hands up. "Alright, sorry," he apologized though he didn't sound like he meant it.

She sighed. "But you're not."

Remy shrugged. "I'm not. I'm sorry that I'm not sorry about your relationship." He looked back at the football game and then back at Hayley. "Cherie, you deserve better than someone who'll even think of putting their hands on you."

"It wasn't-,"

"Baby, he hit you. I don't give a shit if he was brainwashed in the head. I don't even care that you fought back. He hit you, he fucking hit you and joli, no woman deserves a beating," Remy said. "Look at the way he treated you back at Centerport."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "So why did you want to take a walk out here with me?" she asked, changing the subject hastily.

Remy chuckled. "Well, I was gonna talk to you about.. last night," he said slowly, watching her carefully. "But after this conversation, I don't know if it's the right time, cheri."

"What are you talking about?"

He smiled. It was a sad smile and it scared Hayley. "Well cherie, you still hung up over Firebreather. And I don't want to be no rebound guy."

Hayley repositioned herself to face him. She wanted him to know her real feelings. Staring at him straight in the eyes and mustering up all the confidence she had within her, she spoke up again. "I'm over him, Remy. I really am."

He chuckled. "So. Last night."

"What about it?"

"What'd you think, cherie?"

Hayley laughed nervously. "It was.. you know, nice," she spit out.

"That's it?"

"Well, what do you want me to say? I'm not good at these things," she pouted.

Remy threw an arm around her and brought her close to his body, laughing as he did so. He made a surprise move and laid down on the grass, pulling her down with him. She giggled nervously and rested her head on his shoulder, hand draped lazily over his stomach. Her eyes stared up at the clouds as she heard him speak.

"I want you to admit, petite that I, Remy LeBeau, is the best kisser in the world," he started off but started gasping for air when Hayley hit him in the stomach. "And... that you feel the same way for Remy as Remy does for you."

She lifted her head from off his shoulders to look at him. He stared at her right back with such intensity and passion in his eyes. Their fingers entwined with one anothers and she smiled.

"You, Remy LeBeau, Gambit, the Ragin' Cajun, the man wanted for stealing many, many hearts," she winked at him flirtaciously, "You sir, are the best kisser in the entire world and no other lips could ever match up to yours."

"Damn straight, petite. And what else?"

This time, Hayley hesitated. "Remy..."

"Hm?"

"I-," she paused, nervous as hell. "I feel the same."

Remy's grin grew wider and he sat up. She sat up with him and looked down at the grass. She had an urge to pull at them again but her hands were captured by his.

"Now we're getting somewhere, joli."

"But-,"

Remy's grin fell.

"I don't know." She sighed. "I just don't know if this is.. the right time."

"What's not right?"

She sighed again. "I really like you, Remy. Honestly, I really do. You can go ask Jubilee or something. You make me feel so.. alive and free. I haven't felt this way in such a long time. And it scares me."

He chuckled and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. She could feel that very spot getting warm and she knew that her face would be looking like a tomato in a matter of seconds.

"What's life without risks, petite? This is scarin' me too but it's a chance I'm willing to take with you."

"But.. why? You know you could do better."

He raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

"I mean, you're Remy LeBeau, the man who can get any girl that he wants. And I'm sure there are better girls out there. So why me?"

He leaned forward to kiss her other cheek. "Petite, if there were anyone better than you, I wouldn't be here right now. You're the one for me. I wouldn't have it any other way."

Hayley smiled and looked down at the grass again, a little embarrassed.

"Ahem."

The two looked up to the direction of the sound and saw Logan standing there, arms crossed with a disgruntled look on his face. "Put your damn hormones away. Dinner's about to be ready and we need everyone's help."

She rolled her eyes. Remy got up first and helped her up to her feet. He let go of her hands after a small squeeze. "See you inside, cherie," he said with a wink. He gave a nod to Logan who didn't return the greeting.

"Logan-,"

"You really like Gumbo, don't you?"

She looked at him straight in the eye. "I do," she answered with confidence. "I really do, Logan." She paused. "I hope this is okay with you." She always did things on her own terms but with Logan, it was different. He had done a lot for her when she first arrived at the school that she felt she needed to do certain things to please him, to make him proud.

Logan let out a disgruntled noise but sighed. "Kid," he said, patting her shoulder, "Ever since we brought Cajun here, you've been glowing like hell. I've never seen you so.. happy before. If Cajun's making you this happy and less annoying, then of course it's going to be okay with me. But if he hurts you, I'm gonna take his head off, got it?"

Hayley laughed and threw her arms around him. He wrapped his arms around her, chuckling. "I wouldn't expect anything less if Gambit hurts me." She looked up at him. "Thanks, pup."

"Now you really gotta quit it with that nickname."

"But I love it!" she sighed happily. She paused, remembering what he had said. "And what do you mean 'annoying'?! How am I annoying?"

"Example number one, kid- that fucking nickname."

"So what do you prefer, pup or Wolfy?"

Logan rolled his eyes and threw an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go eat. I'm starving."

I am terribly sorry for taking so long to update. I've had writer's block and a busy schedule filled with school and birthdays. Hopefully I can get this ball rolling again.

But thank you very much for your kind words in reviews, favorite story alerts, etc. etc. You are the best.