Due to popular demand (and harassment) (From Bingo) I have gone the extra mile and written a long chapter, even though I think I might have a complex now (From Bingo) And yes, I know the Sinister thing was easy to spot from a mile away, thank you for telling me (Bingo) If I don't update for a while, it's because my computer was stabbed in the face (Courtesy of Bingo)
Extra high five for Azymk for correcting my French in the last chapter, I will fix as soon as I can!
The chapter where things are (finally) set in motion.
-
Remy felt like he was stealing something. Though, he was familiar with theft in itself, usually he was physically taking something. This was more intimate and he felt simultaneously elated and depressed.
Rogue snuggled a little closer to him on the couch and he tried to remember how exactly he had gotten like this. Nevermind, he didn't actually care. How dare she go to sleep! It was only three in the friggin afternoon! …Not that he was complaining… No, seriously, how did this happen? Wait, wait… he didn't care.
He ran the hand that wasn't trapped underneath Rogue through his hair. And the worst part was he couldn't even say crude things to her because she was asleep. Life was so damn unfair sometimes. Except for the part where a beautiful woman had fallen asleep on him… that part was actually pretty sweet.
He groaned to himself as she moved closer to him. She even smelled good. Like… magnolias and vanilla.
"Nonono." He stealthily pushed himself away from her and started pacing around.
Rogue stirred when Gambit -Remy- moved out from underneath her, immediately she blushed by how close they had just been she opened her mouth to say a hurried apology, but she noticed that he was muttering to himself while he was pacing, unaware that she had woken.
"I'm gon' be dead by 'dis time tomorrow… no use gettin' attached… she is pretty though…"
"DEAD?" Rogue heard her voice escape her lips without her consent.
"Merde, You're awake."
"Things bettah start becomin' very clear 'round here, Remy, or people or gon' start fallin' inta comas." Rogue snarled completely done with being understanding now that lives were on the line.
"It's actually a really great story," Remy gulped as Rogue started advancing on him and he in turn started to retreat. "You're gon' laugh when I tell ya." He tried to assure her. She didn't seem convinced.
"Times up." She said, pulling off her glove.
"Woa!" He tried to dodge around her bare hand. She ducked to the ground and attempted to swipe his legs out from underneath him. He leaped out from her reach and landed with a forward roll, swiftly moving into a defensive position from there.
Rogue jumped after him, attempting to get her fingers on any bare patch of skin she could find. The only problem was, the only thing exposed was his face.
She swiped again at his face and he used her forward momentum against her, slipping out his bo staff and using it to knock her feet out from underneath her.
"Oof!" She hit the floor slightly winded but immediately countered by bucking out her legs and catching his chin with her heels.
"I ain't tryin' to hurt ya', chere." Remy complained, rubbing his chin with one hand and spinning the staff around in his other.
"That makes one of us." Rogue growled, lunging at him again. He kept knocking her hands away and she was quickly loosing her patience with this game. Suddenly, she got a horrible wicked idea that she knew would bring a quick end to this encounter.
Falling on purpose into one of chair next to counter all that could be heard for a moment in the entirety of the safe house was the sound of fabric tearing.
"Oh darn…" Rogue said airily, edging forward. "My shirt."
Remy was thoroughly distracted at this point. He didn't notice how close she was until it was too late.
"Hah!" She crowed, grabbing the front of his shirt and dragging him forward until his lips crushed against hers.
If she wanted to rationalize why she had chosen this particular course of action as opposed to touching him with any other part of her now abundantly exposed skin… well… she couldn't… Damn. She had actually just wanted to kiss the bastard.
.Damn.
For a moment or two Remy was just confused… Happy… but confused… and really happy… but still really confused. Was she going to hate him after she found out what he had done? Probably. Was she going to kill him? Probably. Did she just pull him into a kiss while wearing the tatters of what used to be a really hot shirt? That was an affirmative.
It took about a half a second for Rogue powers to start the familiar tug, ebbing away at his life force and pulling at his memories-
He crouched down behind a trash can. Rain was pelting down at an ever increasing rate, plastering his clothes to his body. He was small, skinny, and cursed. None of which were good things when trying to survive on the streets.
All he needed right now was some food. And to get some food, he needed some money. And, to get some money, he needed to steal it.
He spotted a tall man in an expensive suit waiting under the alcove of one of the shadier buildings. Either he was waiting for the rain to stop or he was waiting for someone in particular. The man's shoes had probably been purchased with more money than the boy's soul would probably sell for. The man seemed to have money to share. Remy intended to relieve him of some of it.
A feeling nagged at him, telling him it was a bad idea to try and pick that man's pocket, but he quickly shrugged it away.
It wasn't like that man was the King of Thieves himself, what could possibly go wrong?
-
To say Tante Mattie was a quick tempered woman would be like saying a shark was just a guppy. She was going to murder him when she found the broken plate. Oh man, he should have written up a will while he was still young. Not that seven was old but, quite honestly, everyone was surprised he had survived this long. First the streets, then the Thieves Guild. He certainly lead a charmed life.
He scrambled around the kitchen floor, attempting to pick up all of the shards of porcelain that had once created a full piece.
Oh God, she was going to kill him! The only question was how? Was she going to bash him over the head with her rolling pin until his brains leaked out? Was she going to tie him up and then throw him into the swamp? Was she going to tell Belle that he stole her markers?
He was dead!
He heard a slight whining from somewhere. His demon eyes shot around rapidly, searching out the source. Finally, he looked down at his hands.
Why were the pieces of the plate glowing pink?
That was weird.
He dropped the pieces of the plate quickly back to the ground.
BOOM.
-
There was blindfold over his eyes and the rest of his body was completely covered. He was trying to get control over it, but nothing was working. He couldn't even sleep in the same house as his family for fear of charging something accidentally and sending the entire mansion to kingdom come.
That's why he was here. This man promised he could help. He said that he could make the pain stop. He said that he could keep everyone safe.
Nathaniel Essex.
He just wanted to take the blindfold off and be accepted by the first family that had ever cared about him. He wanted to playfully punch Henri, get into a 'who-can be-more-stubborn' contest with Jean Luc, have Tante Mattie scold him for something evil he had done, beat his cousins at poker, laugh with Belle, flirt with pretty girls, sleep in his own bed, walk in his own paths.
That's why he was here.
He wanted to live.
-
Screaming while he was strapped down, charging everything in sight and fighting against everyone trying to hold him down, he tried to claw his way out of this mess.
"Liar!" He screamed out, fighting to get away from the metal slab.
"Liar…" Essex mused, turning over the word, standing away from the brawl with a cool demeanor. "I'm just giving you what you asked for Remy."
"I never asked for this!" He spat.
"I'm solving all of your problems." Essex tried to be diplomatic. "I'm making the pain go away."
"You never told me what I'd have to do in return! You lied to me!" He blew up some of the medical equipment and sent those trying to pin him back a few feet, but they just kept coming.
"What are you going to do if you get out of here, Remy?" Essex asked. "Who are you going to turn to? Who will take you in with your demon eyes and no control? Whether you like it or not, Remy. I am your only choice."
"You're a liar!" He screamed again, tears brushing against his eyes, but he sounded less convinced of his words. His struggles became less pronounced.
"Remy." Essex took a step forward. "Wouldn't it be worth it? To be able to touch things. To be able to look at things. To be with your family. To know that they were safe from you and your uncontrollable powers. Wouldn't it be worth whatever I ask for you to do?"
His flailing limbs started feeling thicker, unwilling to fight. It would be worth it. Whatever it was… it would be worth it.
He stopped fighting. And started hoping.
-
Oh, yippee… The X-men were here.
He was on another job from the boss man, still squaring away his debt, but at least he had control. He had to steal the MRD files on all of the mutants they had captured, and for some reason the boy scout group known as the X-men had found out.
Again- yippee.
"Find something you like, bub?" The short, hairy man that seemed to qualify as their new leader asked in his grating voice. Wolverine.
"Actually," He swung around so that he could look at all of them, swinging out his bo staff and a deck of card simultaneously. He was going to wipe the floor with them. His resolve to do so faltered slightly when his eyes landed on a delicious looking thing standing to Wolverine's left. The uniform she was wearing was skin tight, leaving very little to the imagination, though he had no qualms with that. Her eyes were an impossible green and her hair had a white stripe the left him wondering if it was natural or not. "Yes."
The girl hadn't missed the look had given her, and apparently so had Wolverine.
"Watch it," They both said in unison only breaking when one said 'Bub' and the other said 'Swamp Rat'.
"Let's get this show on the road." One of the others, a short brunette, declared, obviously annoyed she wasn't getting the same attention as her teammate. Though, if she had been paying attention she would have noticed that the ice boy was more than willing to oblige.
"Couldn't agree with y' more." He said charging the deck of cards and casting them at the roof above the 'hero's' heads, all except the girl with the stripe, effectively buried them under a mountain of concrete and metal.
"Hmm…" She looked around at his boldness in singling her out for a fight. "Bad move." He noticed for the first time her Mississippi drawl. It reminded him of home.
"We'll see, chérie." He said with a smile, waiting for her to make the first move.
She charged at him and he swung around his staff. She phased through it and her fist caught his jaw.
So we got a phaser. He thought, figuring that in with his attack strategy. This time when he swiped at her, he feinted left before striking right to catch her off guard. It would have worked if she hadn't suddenly appeared behind him.
And super speed? He turned to her with disbelief.
She cocked back her fist and hit him. He flew across the room.
And super strength? That was just cheating.
"What exactly is y'r power?" His speech effected by the growing bruise on his jaw.
"What's your's?" She asked with a smirk as she took of one of her gloves with relish, but the use of all of those powers seemed to be wearing her out and she didn't sound nearly as sassy as she had a few minutes ago.
He didn't know what her ungloved hand would do- Electric shock maybe?- but he knew it was something he should be wary of because of all the bravado that surrounded it.
He backed away slowly, feigning retreat while he composed another plan. Pulling out another deck of cards, he charged a good percent of them and threw them at her. She leaped out of the way and, to his horror, stayed suspended in the air. The metal around the facility began to groan.
"Magnetism?" He looked at her. "This is just ridiculous!"
He saw the cold sweat break out across her brow as she aimed her hands at the mass of destruction that had trapped her teammates. She rose higher in the air, grunting with the effort it took to lift all of the metal material she could off of them.
He watched in awe. The girl was powerful, no doubt, but it looked like it was killing her to use all of that power. He knew what that felt like.
The mountain she had been moving suddenly crashed to the ground, a small distance away from where it had been, as she passed out from the effort it took.
"Merde!" He leaped out to catch her, making an attempt to make sure she didn't become mortally wounded by the fall. He tried to guild the landing with a forward roll so that they would both be unscathed by this little adventure, but he over compensated her her weight and hit the ground hard.
"Dammit!" He clutched his side. Broken ribs. Plural. He looked around, still holding the girl in his arms and looked around at the damage they had done. Well, well, well. It wasn't every day he ran into someone as destructive as he was.
Her breath hitched in her throat in what sounded like an unconscious gasp of pain.
"Merde!" He repeated, swear words being the only thing he could communicate at the moment. He had almost forgot that she could be hurt. He ran his fingers down her rib cage, checking for any breaks that could hinder her breathing.
Snikt.
He felt the blood leave his face as he looked up at Wolverine. Whoopsie… forgot about Wolverine.
"It's not what it looks like!" He quickly withdrew his hands from the girl's chest.
"Oh, it better not be." He growled taking a step forward, probably so that he could run the Cajun through.
"Logan," The girl coughed in his arms, coming to. "Stop. He saved me." She sat up and Wolverine pulled her over to him, swiftly checking her over for injuries. "Let him live."
"You sure, Rogue?" Wolverine asked incredulously.
Rogue.
He smirked.
Her name was Rogue.
-
"Rogue?" He looked from Essex to the picture on the file, and then back to Essex. "You want Rogue?"
"Yes." Essex said simply with only the slight undertone of superiority he always kept with him.
"No." He glared directly at Essex. "I won' do it."
"Remy, Remy, Remy," Essex clucked his tongue. "What did I tell you about saying 'No' to me. Though you were a bit of a failed experiment, I still gave you what I promised. I gave you a life. If you say 'No' to me, I can take it back just as easily. You are going to find the girl. You are going to bring the girl to me."
He was conflicted. Could he actually hand Rogue over to this man?
Could he kill her like that?
-
He shocked himself
-
He let the card burst against his skin.
-
He charged his shirt.
-
.Damn.
Rogue pulled away, feeling disoriented. The contact had only lasted seconds, but it had felt like a lifetime. Remy fell to the ground, unconscious. It took her a moment to digest everything she had learned.
"Remy Etienne LeBeau!" She roared. "You are the dumbest Swamp Rat that has ever crawled around on the planet!" Fuming, she almost didn't notice her gloves start to turn a bright magenta.
Quickly stripping them off and throwing them away from her, she ducked behind the couch when the exploded. Dammit, why was the world so bright? Surely there wasn't this much light in it a minute ago.
She stumbled away into Remy's bedroom because it was darker, straightening to find a mirror in front of her.
Nice. She ran her fingers across her abdomen. "No!" She physicaly slapped herself. She was Rogue. Not Remy. Rogue. She rooted around his stuff until she found a shirt that covered her up and a pair of gloves that fit her and swiping a pair of his glasses to cover up the red on black eyes she had borrowed, all the while mumbling about the horrible things she was going to do to him.
Why don't y' jus' run? Remy's unconscious an' he was already gon' let you go. He won' take it too hard. The Remy in her head told her.
Because you're stupid. She told him. You're not gonna die. Not if I have something to say about it.
How exactly do ya' plan to keep Remy alive den? He mocked her.
She didn't answer him.
Chere. He seemed to figure out her plan all own his own. Don' do that! Remy's not worth it!
Isn't he? She thought as the phased through the floor.