MAGNETIC ATTRACTION

Part Twenty-Six

Remy awoke at 11am that next morning with the hangover from hell. Body trembling, he barely managed to make it to the bathrooms in time to vomit. Luckily, no one had caught him racing from Rogue's room wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. He couldn't even recall how he'd gotten there at all, and could only vaguely remember tequila and beer in the bar on Oak street.

How'd I get home? How'd I even end up in Rogue's bed? And why am I naked? He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, leaning onto the toilet to support his shuddering body. This reminded him exactly why he rarely ever drank, it rarely ever solved anything in his experience and only tended to make him violently ill the next day. If willpower alone wasn't enough to keep him away from the idea of drink and drugs, the hangovers and come downs certainly were.

"Jesus, what the fuck is that smell?" came a groan at the door. "Someone puked?"

Remy glanced over his shoulder to see Pietro standing in his pyjamas, an expression of disgust on his face.

"Ew, I can smell the booze from here..."

"Now you know how I felt few weeks ago when you stank of the stuff and puke..." Remy groaned as he wiped his sweating brow. "You gonna run and tell daddy now?"

"He's not home," Pietro responded. "But if he was..."

Remy couldn't decide if that was lucky or not. Right now he felt so utterly miserable that he'd have welcomed an argument with Magneto, a reprimand and eventual kicking off the team and out of the warehouse. It'd at least solve a few problems either way.

"Are you jus' gonna stand there and watch me throw up?" Remy grunted, still clutching the toilet.

"Got a question."

"Yes."

"When were you gonna come clean that you're fucking my sister?"

Remy spun around fully, trying to ignore the sickness threatening to erupt, "excuse me?"

"You haven't been in your room all night. I know that because I went looking for you this morning to see if we had training and your bed is still made. I went to check on Wanda afterwards and she was sprawled out on her bed completely naked - which might be the most fucked up thing I've had to see in my life - and there's a used condom hanging from her trash."

"Weren't me," Remy swallowed the sickness back. He wasn't in the mood for this, his head was pounding.

"You think I'm stupid?"

"Pretty much."

Faster than lightning, Pietro was on him, and had him pinned up to the wall.

"Listen here, LeBeau. You so much as lay a finger on my sister again-"

Remy gave a vague laugh, "what you gonna do?" he dared.

And then Pietro punched him. It wasn't the kind of punch that was held back either. It was a vicious, full force, square punch directly to the gut. It was harder than Remy had expected and definitely far more brutal than he'd have given the younger boy credit for. Unfortunately for both Remy and Pietro, the punch hit Remy so hard that it both winded him and caused him to throw up in response; the vomit exploded from his mouth and onto Pietro's bare feet. "

I'll let him away with that punch. It's only fittin'. I fucked his sister after all. I'd have done the same thing. Besides, puking up on his feet is more than payback enough.

"Oh...my...fucking...god," Pietro gaped, looking quite queasy himself, "you did not just throw up on me..."

Remy groaned as he turned back to the toilet to bring up the next wave. After somehow managing to get his breath back, he groaned, "shouldn't..." he heaved, "have punched me when I was gon' be sick."

"You ever-"

"Look, whatever I do..." another heave and held it back, "with your sister ain't your fucking business..." Remy tried to swallow whatever was struggling to come up. "You want to go off on anyone, you go talk to her..." Remy heaved again, "now fuck off and let me puke in peace."

Pietro left to go shower off the vomit from his feet, and Remy lay on the tiled floor in the bathroom for a while, trying to gather the strength and the will to part with the porcelain throne. By the time he'd finally stopped vomiting, it was almost past twelve.

Showering left him feeling slightly better, although not by a whole lot. Even as he dressed, his head was still pounding and he was still sweating profusely. Despite this, he forced himself to go to the wreckage of the gymnasium project and he began to miserably pick up the pieces and clear up what he could.

He'd been at it almost two hours when Piotr came through the door, Lance in tow. They both looked at Remy, exchanged expressions, then approached.

"You do not look well, my friend."

Remy decided to be honest, he picked up a piece of broken clapboard and tossed it into the box of trash. "Hangover."

"I see," said Piotr. "You should lie down."

"I don't got time to lie down, I have this to fix," Remy gestured to the mess.

"I told you I would help-" Piotr tried.

"No. My responsibility. Magneto said so," Remy explained quietly. "Where you guys been."

"Getting some of the parts for Rogue's car. You owe us three hundred and eighty," Lance said, he stood casually with his hands in his pockets.

"Fine...I'll get you it in a little bit," Remy promised. He thought to where his wallet was and realised it was probably in Rogue's room, in the pocket of his pants...wherever he'd thrown those. "Is it enough to get the car running?"

"It's enough to get it running decently enough to get her to school and back but it's gonna need a lot more maintenance," Lance explained, "And...I want money for working on it."

"Yeah, you'll get it," Remy said irritably. "I don't have my wallet on me at this moment in time..."

"So...I was asked to tell you that you're invited to Kitty's surprise party," Lance stated, "she doesn't know anything about it."

"That's usually what a surprise is," Remy dusted his hands off, "probably not a good idea I go," he thought. Rogue is probably gonna be there, and she's probably pissed as hell at me.

"How'd you figure?" Lance asked, "we're all invited. It's supposed to be some kind of gesture of good will or somethin', the way Summers made it sound when he called this morning."

"Gesture of good will?" Remy raised an eyebrow.

"You know, that we're not enemies any more and blah blah blah," Lance said. "Besides, you're pretty cosy with Rogue, wouldn't she want you there?"

Remy suddenly remembered that Lance had been responsible for causing the argument between himself and Wanda. At least partly. "Piotr, can I have a moment with Lance?" he asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"Of course," said the large Russian, "would you like coffee?"

"I'd love coffee," Remy responded.

Piotr left the two, and Lance stared across blankly at Remy.

"What is it?" asked the younger boy, he flicked his dark hair out of his eyes.

"You...spreadin' rumours, about what you think you saw..."

"What are you goin' on about?" Lance shrugged.

"You told Wanda that me and Rogue were seeing each other!" Remy kept his voice low.

"No I didn't," Lance made a face, "she asked where you'd been. I said you'd been at the horror convention with Rogue."

"And that she was wearing my coat?"

"Was that meant to be a secret?" Lance shrugged again, "'cause I don't see why that would be an issue. What's it matter?"

"What matters," came the voice of Pietro as he approached from the area of his bedroom, "is that he's been seeing Wanda. In fact, I just spoke to her and she says it's been pretty much going on for a month now..."

Remy winced.

"You...and...Wanda?" Lance gave a strange laugh, "oh man."

"He's also been seeing Rogue," Pietro added casually.

"I'm not seeing Rogue, for gods sake," Remy made a face, "she's my friend, and my team member, I'm not-"

"What would you call it? You spend more time with Rogue than you do with Wanda."

Lance made a face, "man...you...really dug yourself your own grave, didn't you?"

"Thanks for that observation," Remy uttered, he went to pick up more of the wreckage.

"Wanda is pretty much determined whatever you guys do together isn't going to be stopping. If that's the case, then you better cut it out with Rogue," Pietro warned.

"Cut what out with Rogue?" Remy shrugged innocently, "what have I ever done with Rogue that even suggests I'm into her?"

"You took her on a date, you redneck hillbilly motherfucker."

"Motherfucker?" Remy smirked, "no. Can't say I ever did fuck your mother. Your sister on the other hand..."

"You-" Pietro rushed to punch him once again.

"Whoah whoah whoah!" Lance got in the middle and pushed his hand against Pietro's chest. "Remember what he did last time!"

"I'm not scared of him now. He can't scare me. See, my dad doesn't know about this...but I'm sure he'd like to. And the next time this hick decides to start his crap with us, all it's gonna take is one word to good old dad and-"

"And what? He's gonna kill me?" Remy dared.

"I'll kill you if you ever-"

"Pietro, leave him alone!" came Wanda's yell from above in the living room area, her expression dark as she held onto the rail. Remy glanced up at her, wondering how much she'd actually heard. Had she been there all this time?

"Defending him now, are we?"

"He's the leader and you'll treat him as such."

"He has you completely fooled, doesn't he?" Pietro demanded, "you think he actually cares about you? All he cares about is himself. And apparently Rogue."

Wanda looked down towards Remy, her eyes squinting.

"Wasn't Rogue I was with yesterday, was it?" Remy pointed out to her. "Was you I was with."

"Threaten him again..." Wanda warned, "and see what happens to you."

Remy looked away from Wanda. This felt horrible, this was public. Not only was she fighting his battles for him, which was humiliating enough, but now they had somehow just unintentionally made this relationship a public thing and eventually Magneto was going to find out about it. And much worse, it would be even harder to escape once that happened.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Why couldn't I just have kept it in my fucking pants? And for that matter, he rubbed his head trying to remember clearly, where are my pants anyway?

Rogue sighed as she climbed into the drivers seat of Lance Alvers' Jeep. Her heart sank as she thought of how horrible a day it had been. She hadn't managed to get most of her studying done, and she hadn't been able to catch up fast enough in class meaning that she was behind on almost everything already. The Professors had shown no mercy today either.

As she checked her phone, she found two missed calls from Kurt Wagner, and a text message inviting her to a surprise party at the mansion for Kitty's birthday. She supposed she was going to have to go. She didn't really feel like seeing any of her friends from the X-Men right now, but she supposed she would need to sacrifice.

She had slept poorly on the couch in the living area. She'd been too afraid to sleep on her own bed with Remy lying there. His attempt of initiating some kind of sexual act with her had left her reeling. She wasn't sure how to feel about it.

She sighed as she leaned back in the seat, closing her stinging eyes. She'd never felt so aroused. It'd been a first for her. Nothing had ever left her feeling quite like that before. Even just thinking back to it left her uncomfortably aching.

This is hell, she thought. It had never truly occurred to her that she might possibly want Remy LeBeau until Saturday night when he'd bought her the necklace, and it had never even crossed her mind that they could possibly have anything remotely sexual until he'd pushed himself up against her and she'd felt him.

Suddenly she understood exactly why Remy let his member do a lot of the decision making for him. It seemed to her these mistakes were a lot more easily made than she might have realised before.

As she drove back to the warehouse, her mind raced with thoughts of his nude body, of how hard his muscle had been, and how strangely excited she'd felt even as reluctant as she'd been, when he'd ground himself up against her and told her he wanted to be in her.

The saddest part, she realised, was that for one brief moment, she'd wanted it too. If things had been different, she might have given in, just to know, just to feel it. Just to know why Remy LeBeau had such a reputation.

How far would it have gone if he hadn't passed out again? Rogue asked herself as she parked the car in the yard in the spot Lance always parked it. She was surprised to see Lance working on her car, apparently installing a different engine. She approached, clutching her college books to her chest.

"Hey," she said.

Lance glanced up, "You hear about Kitty's party?"

"Yeah," Rogue responded. "What's all this..." she nodded at the various parts laid out on a dust sheet on the ground.

"Gambit paid for some of the parts you need to fix the car. I can get it running. It won't be one hundred percent reliable, but it should get you from point a to b, and in the meantime I'll keep working on it and see if I can sort out the more permanent issues."

Rogue felt her stomach churn at the thought of Remy buying the parts for her car. Why would he do that? Did he feel guilty about something? Was he trying to apologise for last night?

"You might want to steer clear of Remy for a bit," Lance warned, he wiped his greasy hands off on a rag he'd tucked into his jeans pocket.

"Huh?" Rogue asked, she'd been about to head inside.

"Him and Wanda pretty much made it public that they're going out. And she's got this whole jealous streak going on. So...just giving you a heads up."

"Oh."

"He's made it clear there's nothing between you guys, that there could never absolutely never be," Lance shrugged, "But Wanda is...you know..batshit crazy sometimes."

Rogue stared at Lance, she couldn't explain why she felt quite hurt by the fact that Remy had actually been discussing the situation with Lance at all. What hurt even more was that he'd made it clear there could never be anything between them. After knowing he was sleeping with Wanda again, she'd never really expected there to be, but to hear that he'd said these words out loud made it seem even more...definite.

Breaking out of her dismal thoughts, she responded to Lance, "Don't worry, Ah'll have no problems keepin' my distance from either of them."

"Anyway, you can catch a ride with me to the mansion if you want, I think Tabitha and Piotr are coming too. The others don't want anything to do with it."

"Thanks," Rogue realised she still had the keys to his jeep and she tossed them to him, "thanks for the lend of the car, also."

"Any time, long as you fill it up and don't wreck it," Lance shrugged.

Jesus, I never figured him to be so...nice. Is he softening up? Rogue thought. Ah guess Kitty has more influence over him than Ah thought.

Rogue went inside, seeing that some of the wreckage from Saturday night's chaos was in the midst of being cleaned out. Remy was the only one doing so it seemed, his hair soaked with sweat, his t-shirt collar circled with it, his face slightly red, his breath heavy.

"Hey..." she said uneasily as she closed the door. She felt it would be easier to act naturally than ignore him altogether. She could still be angry with him and be his team mate. Judging by the fact he'd decided to be with Wanda after all, it was definitely all he ever could be now.

Not that it was ever gonna go anywhere. He's made that quite clear already, by the sounds of it, Rogue thought unhappily.

"How was school?" Remy asked casually, his voice was slightly hoarse.

"It was...hell. Ah didn't get any homework done over the weekend because Ah was hurt."

"I'm sorry," Remy responded, his expression clouded with guilt as he tore his eyes from her and tried to focus on the task at hand.

"You...goin' to the party?"

"Your friend Kitty's party?"

"Yeah...that party," Rogue responded, glancing to the floor uneasily.

"I...I don't think so," Remy bent down to pick up a piece of broken wood. "I got too much to do here."

"You have to do this on your own?" Rogue glanced around.

"My mess, I'll clean it," he answered simply. "Rogue..." he turned to her, he lowered his voice in case anyone was in the vicinity and would hear, "what happened last night?"

"Huh?" she asked, moving closer to whisper with him.

"I woke up near naked in your bed..." he explained, "I don't know how I got home...or...naked...or in your room."

"You were drunk, that's all," Rogue shrugged, she began to head towards the stairs towards her room.

"That's all that happened?" he raised an eyebrow, his expression curious and worried.

He doesn't even remember about the bed...about us...about him doin' what he did, Rogue realised, feeling incredibly disappointed. Although she'd hoped he would have forgotten, part of her had wanted him to remember, to bring it up, to ask if it might be possible there was something between them worth exploring.

That's not gonna happen now that he's with Wanda and everyone knows about it too. And certainly not now that he's told everyone that there's nothin' between me and him.

"Ah found you in my room," Rogue said quietly, she held onto the rail. "Ah guess you were so drunk you forgot we'd switched rooms and just went there thinkin' it was still yours. You just undressed and passed out. That's how Ah found you."

"Oh," Remy said. "Where'd you sleep?"

"Couch. It wasn't the most...comfortable...of sleeps."

"I'm sorry...I didn't think I was gonna get that hammered."

Rogue ignored this, although part of her wanted to query why he'd felt it so necessary to let himself get in that condition in the first place, she thought it unwise to ask, and so she tried to change the subject. "Ah...Ah heard about you and Wanda."

He was still, his expression dark, and almost hurt. "What'd you hear?"

"That you're..." she trailed off, trying to find a way to put it so she didn't have to admit that they were now boyfriend and girlfriend. "...an item...officially Ah guess."

Remy gave a deep sigh, his eyes averted from her.

"Maybe...it's a good thing?" she asked carefully, she exhaled slowly hating that she'd said it. Of course it wasn't a good thing. It was a terrible thing. He wasn't happy, clearly, she could see it in his face.

"Is...that what you think?" Remy asked, looking almost hurt by the suggestion of this.

"She...obviously loves you," Rogue shrugged, "why else go to extremes of nearly killing me..." she feigned a laugh, as uncomfortable as it made her.

"It's...it's the right thing to do...to give this a chance," Remy said, the words sounding horribly forced and untrue. "It could work out."

"Ah see."

"Are you still mad at me?" Remy asked, he moved closer.

"No," Rogue said, "but Ah'll never trust you again, either. You went on about friendship and telling each other stuff...and you withheld. And it nearly got me killed..."

Not to mention you led me on then Ah had to hear you don't even like me that way from someone else.

"You don't know how sorry I am-"

"Remy!"

They both looked to the area of Wanda's room, where Wanda was standing looking slightly aggravated they were talking to each other. Remy looked down to the floor, his face red with anger and humiliation.

"Ah need to go, Ah've got studyin' to do and a party to get ready for."

"I'll...see you later...maybe," Remy uttered, then headed off in the direction of Wanda's room. Rogue watched them go into the room together, and the door closing behind them both. She felt that horrible sensation that behind that closed door, they would be intimate. Right now, Wanda may be kissing him...doing things to him...

And Rogue would never know what that would feel like with Remy LeBeau.

Remy stared at Wanda as the bedroom door was shut behind him, and Wanda slid the latch shut so that it locked.

"I don't want you being friends with her."

Remy raised an eyebrow but had no response to the black-haired beauty before him. He simply listened.

"You spend too much time with her...I don't like it."

"We're just friends. I've told you."

"I don't care. I see the way she looks at you."

Remy wasn't sure Wanda understood what she was seeing any more than she could tell genuine feelings from going through the motions.

"She wants you...she wants to fuck you..." Wanda remarked crudely.

Remy sighed as he moved to the dresser to flick through a magazine Wanda had left there, pretending to be quite bored with the conversation, "everyone wants to fuck me."

"I know I do," she moved up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, even her hugs were rough.

"Gentle," he took her arms and released them from him, "I'm sick of bein' hurt. I'm covered in bruises, a lot of which you gave me on Saturday, and I'm sick of them bein' pushed and prodded upon."

"A little pain can be pleasurable," Wanda turned him towards her.

"No, I don't like pain. Not in the way you do. You like pain, fine, that's your business. But I'm not into it."

"You've always liked it rough."

"I told you, I'm sick of rough. Maybe I just want...a little tenderness..." he inwardly sighed as he slipped his arms around her waist and tried to make the best of it for the sake of keeping things calm.

Wanda was very dissatisfied with this. Her eyes spoke her frustration, "but it takes...ages to get off that way..." she slipped her hands up the back of his t-shirt, her nails digging in a little.

"That's why it's the best way...'cause the build up makes it more intense."

Wanda moved away from him, folding her arms, "intense? Are you kidding? Yesterday was the lousiest sex I've ever had...I didn't even get off."

Although he deliberately hadn't wanted her to have the best time possible, hearing that he'd been lousy still was a kick to his ego. If there was one thing he was definitely good at, it had always been sex, and it had been always being able to satisfy. Knowing he hadn't suddenly made him feel strangely inadequate. He tried to push it to the back of his mind, and spoke up, "So sex is all this thing is to you. That's all I am to you."

"No...of course not..." Wanda responded.

"Sure seems like it is. Seems to be all you want."

"It isn't all I want...but...there's things I do need...so...can't we compromise?"

"Not right now, no. And we shouldn't be at it too often either, or we'll just...burn out."

Her expression was full of disappointment. "How...often?"

"I don't know...couple times a week at most maybe."

"That's bullshit! We used to do it two or three times a day."

"Don't you want it to be anythin' other than sex?" he asked seriously. It seemed to him most girls wanted something more. It seemed that Wanda only wanted the sex...and to own him.

"Right now, I need it to be sex," she chewed her lip.

"Well, right now, I need to get to work out there, because you destroyed everythin' it took weeks to work for."

"But-"

"Wanda...I ain't got time. So if you want to explain to your dad why I don't have time to do what he told me to do..." Remy gestured to the door, "by all means..."

"No...not yet. He's not ready to know."

"Then I need to go..." he paused and looked at her, he supposed he should kiss her, and keep up the act, keep her happy. At least until he could come up with a plan to get Rogue out of the place so she wouldn't be in danger any more. Hating himself, he moved to kiss her tenderly on the lips, and brush the backs of his fingers against her cheek, wishing it'd been Rogue instead.

End of Part Twenty-Six

Thanks to everyone for their reviews and making this story their favourites. Makes my day to know people are enjoying this. I'm glad so many of you are enjoying the frequent updates (I'm definitely enjoying writing this one). I can't wait to get more parts of the story up (especially since the story is getting a lot more juicier as it gets on ;) ). 3 you all 3