Chapter Seventeen:


She wore a pair of her new shoes the next day.

Since it was sunny out and pretty humid, she wore the sandals, with a pair of black jean shorts and a tank top. She'd gotten pretty comfortable wearing normal clothes, since all of the boys kept a respectful distance so she wouldn't be uneasy. She was grateful for that, because in the tropical heat it would have been stifling to have to wear pants and a long sleeved shirt.

She had been going to wear a black tank top, but Carol had, of course, muttered that she needed to add some color to her wardrobe. To shut the other girl up, Rogue had donned a green one, instead, and all of the boys had commented on how nicely it brought out her eyes.

I told you, Carol had declared triumphantly.

Rouge had decided to merely ignore her.

They were all gathered outside on the beach, relaxing in the sand. Magneto had no need of his Acolytes today, so the boys-with the noticeable, and somewhat welcome, absence of Pietro-were enjoying their time off basking in the sun. Fred was leaning against the base of a tree, Piotr doing the same nearby, but Evan, Remy and St. John were propped up on their elbows, faces tilted up towards the sky, letting the sun's rays warm their skin.

Rogue was sitting with them, far enough apart that she didn't have to worry about one of them shifting and accidentally touching her, and she found she could not help watching Remy. She hadn't seen him like this before, completely relaxed with not a single worry or concern, just enjoying the moment. He had his eyes closed, but somehow she knew that he was aware of her watching him. He didn't seem to mind, which pleased her, so she continued to trace his features with her eyes, drinking him in.

Oh for the love of- Carol began, but never got to finish her sentence, because Rogue immediately brought up her mental shields to block the other girl out. She was getting better at it, and even though it still took a great deal of concentration to get her shields up, she found it was easier to keep them that way now.

Maybe practice did make perfect. She could only hope, anyway.

"Dis be de life, eh, chere?" Remy drawled with a cocky little smile, not opening his eyes. She wondered if he knew how handsome he looked when he smiled like that. She decided he probably did, it was Gambit, after all. "De sun be shinin', the waves be rollin', the breeze is nice an' cool. What mo' could one ask fo'?"

Freedom? Rogue answered to herself bitterly, but didn't say that aloud. Everyone was enjoying themselves right now, why spoil the mood?

"A girl could go fo' a drink," she replied instead. "Somethin' tropical, since we're out on the beach an' all. With one o' those weird li'l umbrellas in it an' everythin'."

Remy opened his eyes, giving her a wicked look that made her heart skip a beat. "Why, chere, you a li'l young t' be drinkin', don' you t'ink?"

"Ah could say the same t' ya, swamp rat," she retorted smugly. "Last Ah checked, ya were only a year older than Ah was. And that in no way makes ya legal."

"De rules, dey meant t' be broken, non?" Remy said with a grin.

"I think I'd pass on alcohol if we had any," Evan said with a grimace. "I remember what happened the last time I drank even a sip, man. The school gym got torn to pieces."

Rogue blinked and turned to fix him with a sharp glance. "Ya'll were drinkin' on the night o' the school dance?" she asked incredulously.

Evan gave her a sheepish glance. "Uh, yeah," he admitted. "Ray and I."

Rogue rolled her eyes, forcing herself not to think about the fact that Ray had been among those killed in the mansion's explosion. That would only lead to a dark place that she didn't want to go to right then. "Go figure it would be Beserker who goes lookin' fo' trouble. As if we don't get enough o' it as it is."

"Hey, man, we weren't the ones who caused the trouble that night," Evan protested, giving her a pointed look. "It was the elf who was responsible for that one."

An' how much Ah'd give t' see his face right 'bout now, Rogue thought, somehow managing to keep the flicker of sorrow that washed through her from showing on her face.

"That was one night I would like to forget," Fred grumbled. "Little freaky dinosaurs trying to eat you is not what I call a fun evening."

"Dinosaurs?" St. John echoed with a snort, not bothering to open his eyes. "What were you mates high on?"

"Nothing," Evan barked out a dry laugh. "We got to meet some real live dinosaur type monsters that night, man. They just came out of nowhere, and ended up terrorizing the whole dance."

"They didn't come out of nowhere, Daniels," Fred grunted, popping a handful of chips into his mouth from the bag beside him. "Your little blue friend Kurt brought 'em along."

"By accident," Evan snapped defensively. "He didn't know that it would happen."

Remy turned to raise an eyebrow at Rogue. "Dat de kind o' t'ing you kids at dat Institute do fo' fun on a Friday night, chere? Get chased by monsters?"

"Unfortunately," Rogue replied with a faint smile. "Ya'd be surprised how many times things like that have happened t' us. An' how many times our school gym was destroyed."

"Happened like, what, four times last year?" Evan mused.

"Sounds about right," Fred said with a nod. "The first time was when Kelly became the new principal and Lance decided to give him a nice little welcome."

"That wasn't funny, though, man," Evan replied, though he couldn't help smiling at the memory. "Kelly would have been squashed if Jean hadn't used her telekinesis to knock the scoreboard aside."

"But would that have been so bad?" Fred snickered. "He was a creep!"

"Ah think he got what he deserved anyhow, Fred," Rogue assured him. "He's goin' t' need a lot o' therapy after that dance. Not only did he see monsters appearing out o' thin air an' tryin' t' eat his students, but Ah think he got a glimpse o' Kurt teleportin' him an' Amanda outta there. Poor guy's probably had a mental breakdown by now."

"Dis Kurt sound like he caused quite a bit o' trouble dat night," Remy commented.

"It wasn't his fault," Rogue said quickly, feeling the need to defend her friend. "His power is teleportation, he teleports through another dimension. Somethin' went wrong an' he left a tear behind between that dimension an' ours, lettin' the monsters escape into our world-"

"And right into the center of our school, man," Evan finished.

Remy blinked. "Dat not good."

"Ya think?" Rogue asked dryly. "We had t' use our powers to beat 'em, an' even then we were hard pressed t' do so."

"Hey, we helped, you know," Fred reminded her indignantly. "You X-geeks weren't the only ones fighting the monsters. The Brotherhood took some down, too."

Ignoring the X-geeks remark, Rogue smirked. "No, Tabby took some down. You boys jus' watched. At least Lance ran 'round with us tryin' t' get rid o' em before they could hurt anybody."

"He was biased," Fred scoffed. "He would have followed his precious Kitty into hell if he thought she was in danger." He rolled his eyes. "He is so whipped."

"He's in love with her, ya big lug," Rogue replied, reaching over to smack him lightly with a gloved hand. She didn't need to watch her strength with him, Fred was strong enough that she couldn't really hurt him unless she wanted to. "An' Ah think it was sweet o' him t' stay with her. He didn't want her t' get hurt or nothin'."

"Oh, not you, too," Evan moaned, shaking his head in exasperation. "Man, do you have any idea how much I've had to listen to all that talk about how romantic the whole Kitty and Lance thing is? Between Jubilee, Amara and Rhane, I've heard enough about the 'power of love' to last me a lifetime."

"Tabby's the same way," Fred grunted. "Always smacking us around for giving Lance a hard time about dating the enemy. You'd think if she liked Kitty so much, she would have stayed at the mansion!"

"Datin' de enemy?" Remy asked curiously, looking at Rogue.

"Lance is the leader o' the Brotherhood," Rogue explained, purposely ignoring the significant glance he tossed her way. "Kitty is an X-man, mah roommate back home. They went t' the same school back in their home town, an' Lance tried t' get her t' partake in some trouble with him."

"Now that you mention it, he really does have a track record for demolishing school property, doesn't he?" Evan said, tilting his head thoughtfully.

"When Jean an' the Professor recruited Kitty," Rogue continued, ignoring him. "Mystique recruited Lance. Though we was always fightin' one another, somehow the two o' them fell in love with each other, an' it jus' got really messed up."

"Lance got soft," Fred muttered. "He kept little Pretty Kitty safe during that fight where we kicked your asses at the mall!"

"You didn't-" Evan began, his eyes flashing.

"Wanda kicked our asses, sugar," Rogue corrected with a light chuckled that eased the tension. "That girl is a one-woman army."

"Kinda like you, chere?" Remy said with a lopsided smile.

Rogue ignored the way her stomach fluttered when he smiled at her like that. "Now, Ah suppose," she conceded. She smiled broadly, eyeing Fred with a wicked gleam in her eyes. "If Ah'd had all these powers back then, that fight would have gone down differently, that's fo' sure."

"We would have still won!" Fred insisted, folding his arms over his chest and raising his chin defiantly.

"Maybe," Rogue shrugged, her lips curving into a small smirk. "But Wanda would have been the only one still standin'. The rest o' ya boys would have been laid out flat within the first few minutes."

St. John snickered. "I don't know about that, girl. Blob here looks pretty hard to knock over."

"Yeah," Fred said with an arrogant grin.

"Freddie?" Rogue said in a low, overly sweet tone. "Ya saw what Ah did t' Pietro. Would ya like fo' me t' try out mah new powers on ya, too, sugar?"

"That's okay," Fred said, wincing. "I think I'll just take your word for it."

"A wise decision," Piotr commented, his eyes still closed.

"Ah like this fella," Rogue said with a grin, winking at Colossus, who seemed to know and smiled slightly. And she did like him. Though he never spoke much, when he did, he was always polite and kind. Not at all the type of person she would expect to find working for Magneto.

Then again, Remy wasn't exactly the kind of person she would have pegged for an Acolyte, either.

"At least Wanda never destroyed the school," Evan pointed out. "Can you imagine how much damage she could have done at that dance?"

Rogue winced at the thought.

"Especially if she'd had one of her little episodes," Fred muttered, and Rogue decided she probably didn't even want to know.

"The dance was a disaster even without Wanda's help," she reminded them. "Though Ah guess we shouldn't be surprised. Even when we try t' have a normal evenin' out, somethin' always comes along t' remind us that we ain't normal. We never will be."

"Yeah, I know," Evan sighed, kicking at the sand at his feet with a frown on his face. "That night was a mess. And I'd finally gotten the courage to ask Tina Rowels to go with me, and she agreed, and, of course, the dance gets ruined."

"At least you had a date," Fred grumbled. "I had a Tabby."

"At least ya'll got t' dance," Rogue said quietly, staring intently at the grains of sand at her feet. "Not like Ah could have anyway, what with mah power an' all, but still."

No one replied to that, which didn't surprise her. She looked up, and, seeing the crestfallen expressions on all their faces, she hurriedly changed the subject, as much for her own benefit as for theirs. The last thing she needed was anyone pitying her.

She hated pity.

"But Ah really do feel bad fo' ya, Freddie," she said, putting on the fake smile she had perfected over the years. Only Logan ever seemed able to see through it. "Ah saw the dress Tabby was wearin' that night. She looked like a cross between a circus performer an' some kinda hooker. Definitely not the most fashionable choice she's ever made. Kitty an' Ah thought she'd come dressed in a Halloween costume."

Evan laughed. "Kurt thought she'd come wearing a circus tent." He sighed, lowering his eyes. "I miss that fuzzball."

"Me, too," Rogue said quietly, sighing as she turned her gaze back out to the ocean. "Me, too."

There was a long moment of silence, and Rogue's thoughts began to drift, as she knew the eventually would, back to her fallen friends again.

That train of thought, however, was broken abruptly when a spray of sand hit her in her face. She cried out in surprise, jumping to her feet. Sputtering, she wiped at her mouth, spitting out the sand, and glared at Remy through the white strands that had fallen across her face.

He grinned at her playfully, a dark glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

St. John was laughing, but Evan and Fred recognized the look on her face and knew better than to be that stupid.

"This means war, Cajun," Rogue warned, dropping to her knees and scooping up a handful of sand to hurl at him. He tried to dodge, but she'd anticipated that, and he got hit squarely in the face by her second handful.

Rogue grinned triumphantly as Remy spat out sand, eyeing her mischievously.

"Dat wasn't nice, p'tite," he told her, smirking.

"Never claimed t' be nice, swamp rat," she retorted dryly.

"Non, don' s'pose dat you did. Dat's okay, though, cuz what Remy about t' do, not dat nice, either."

Rogue's sixth sense tingled, and she propelled herself sideways, but not in time, and Remy kicked a large cloud of sand up at her that swirled around her, stinging her eyes and making her cough.

This time, the boys did laugh, but Rogue paid them no attention.

"Remy LeBeau!" she shrieked, but she couldn't help laughing, "Ah'm gonna kill ya!"

Remy smirked. "T'do dat, you gotta catch me first, chere," he snickered, and took off down the beach at a dead run.

Growling, Rogue started after him, then stopped, smirking. "Oh, that won't be a problem, at all, Cajun. Ah got an advantage ya f'got 'bout."

"What's that?" Evan asked, trying hard not to laugh.

"Swamp rats can't fly."

And with that, she took off into the air, and took up chase, the laughter of Evan and the others wafting through the air behind her.