A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! They're so appreciated and they help me write faster. Someone asked if there would be more couples in later chapters. The answer is yes.
Down below: Mi niña hermosa means my beautiful girl and querido means darling. At least I'm pretty sure it does.
~X~
Remy's Diabolical Plan
Chapter Nine: Rogue's Diabolical Driving
~X~
When Remy was six years old, he liked a girl named Betsy Winger. Remy didn't know Betsy from squat but he did know that she had pretty brown hair that she always kept in a braid down her back. He also knew that she a particular liking for dandelions. And so Remy put two and two together—he liked Betsy and Betsy liked dandelions. So it just seemed like the right thing to do to pick a dandelion for Betsy and offer it to her. Betsy, however, didn't have the same logic. Betsy squealed 'Ew!' and then ran away. Years later Remy would realize that it wasn't particularly him that made her react this way, it was just their age. Yet this did nothing to lessen the hurt. Rejection was never a fun thing to experience, and little six year old Remy's heart was broken.
Eight years later when he was freshmen in high school, Remy asked out a girl (he couldn't recall her name but he could remember that she had the longest and curliest brown hair, all bouncy and thick) to some dance…only to get turned down. It might have been because she looked a little frightened of his eyes, or it could have been because he had stuttered so badly that it had taken him two minutes to get his sentence out. Whatever the reason, she said no, but at least she was polite about it and didn't scream ew.
Four weeks later Remy figured he should sign up for some kind of extra curricular activities. Actually, the principle had strongly suggested it since Remy was what you would call a 'wild child' and couldn't keep out of trouble. Not knowing (and not really caring) what he wanted to do, Remy signed up for what seemed like the coolest thing. There was a guitar program that taught you how to play the guitar. One week after that, his guitar instructor, who had had many a migraine that week, told him that he had absolutely zero musical talent and that it would be pointless to continue. So Remy happily stole all of his guitar picks and then left without looking back.
Two years later, after lots of practicing in the mirror, Remy got his first date. Her name was Samantha and she had dark eyes and dark hair to match and she was the quietest person in school. He had taken her to a movie…only to be turned away because the movie was rated R and he clearly wasn't an adult. This, he thought had ruined the date because he had really wanted to see that movie, but Samantha hadn't minded and they had had a nice time, even though they had fallen into many awkward silences all throughout.
When he finally finished high school, Remy knew what he wanted to do with his life. And that was to be a wonderful, happy, honest to God thief that stole people's hard earned money and took things that didn't belong to him. He wanted to do whatever he felt like doing, and most of time he did. When he needed money he took it. When he wanted a woman he worked for it. When he had the strong urge to blow up rich people's cars, he blew up rich people's cars. And he was happy. That is, until he saw her.
Up until that point in his life, she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She was red and chrome and leather and she was the most gorgeous motorcycle on the planet.
Remy had to have it. He had never known what love really was until he saw that bike. It begged him to rescue it from that behind that window and so he heeded its silent command and marched right into that dealership and said that he wanted to buy it…only to be rejected because he didn't have any credit and he didn't have a legitimate job to prove that he could pay for it. So Remy made a silent promise to his precious bike that he would be back and he stalked out of that place.
It was later that night, when he had successfully broken into the dealership after it had closed and had just taken Roseangela (his name for the bike), that Remy came to a decision in his mind. He wouldn't ever fail again and he wouldn't let himself be rejected because he wouldn't put himself in any situation where that had a possibility of happening.
That is, until he fell for her. Then it all went out the window. There were three things that you learned about Remy from this story. One) he had a developed a deep fear for rejection, two) his fear of rejection had also created a fear for failure and three) he obviously had a thing for brunettes. Although lately just a head of dark hair wasn't enough to satisfy him, now it had to at least have one white streak in it somewhere or it just wasn't worth looking at.
His fear of rejection was still perfectly intact, but now there was different logic. Before it had been—why would I ask her out when I know she's going to reject me? But now it was much more complex than that. He had to ask himself questions like—If I don't try to get her, then won't someone else grab her up? What if she's the only one I'll feel like this about again? If I'm afraid, doesn't that make me a wuss?
No matter how many times he went over it in his mind, Remy felt like he was fourteen years old all over again. He had spent weeks just trying to muster up the courage to ask that girl out, telling himself that he shouldn't, and then telling himself to just do it. If only he had the courage that he had when he was six, this might be different.
But it wasn't like this with every woman. No, Remy Lebeau was a womanizer. During his later high school years and afterwards was when he perfected his craft and learned how to make a woman say yes to him. All it took was a smirk and a little showing of his dimple. But that was different. He didn't like rejection but if one of those ladies had said no (and that was a rare thing) he wouldn't have cared. They were a dime a dozen; if one said no he would go to the next one and she would say yes. But with Rogue…if she said no…Remy couldn't say exactly how it would feel but all he knew was that the world would end, ice cream wouldn't taste good anymore, picking at Scott wouldn't be funny, and everything that was alive would whither and die. This might be a tad over dramatic but it was how he felt.
Remy was a private person, very rarely sharing his feelings unless he was fighting with Rogue over stupid, non-important things when she made him mad about something. No one knew that he had such deep rooted fears inside of him and no one but Rogue knew that he called his beloved motorcycle Roseangela. He didn't like to talk about his feelings because it just made him uncomfortable to do so. Even talking about his made up feelings for 'Jessica' made him uncomfortable.
But he would put it all aside. He was terrified, but he couldn't care because he had to have her. If he didn't have Rogue…he wasn't going to think about it. No, instead, he was going to think about the book in his lap. He was having some difficulty in thinking up his next move for his plan. So he turned to Alejandro for answers.
Alejandro was the lead male character (and Remy's great inspiration) in the book that had given him his plan in the first place. As he swung quietly in the porch swing, Remy flipped through the pages of Diabolical Seduction as he searched for a clue of how to proceed. Alejandro was nothing like Remy—he was overly confident throughout the whole book that he would make Rosita fall for him and perhaps this was what ultimately gave him success. He stopped on a page and read…
Rosita flung herself into Alejandro's arms, desperate to feel his warm, sculpted body against the contours of her bosom. Just being in this man's presence that reeked masculinity was enough to give her a high like never before. He had changed for her; he had become the perfect man that she had always dreamed of.
"Oh Alejandro, my love, my querido, take me to bed tonight and make me a real woman!" She pleaded with him, wanting more than anything to feel more of him. Just the thought of him drove her wild. If she had to go one more night without him in her bed, she wouldn't be able to keep herself from attacking and ravishing him the next time she saw him.
"Mi niña hermosa, I love you, don't ever doubt that! But, Rosita! Alejandro Rodrigo Diego is an honorable man! I cannot take you to bed when we are not married!"
"Alejandro! Are you-"
Alejandro's pressed a finger to Rosita's red, luscious lips. "Yes, yes my love! You will marry me—tonight!"
Remy nodded in appreciation. Alejandro really did know how to work it. Maybe it was because he always said things so urgently? After every thing Alejandro ever said there was always an exclamation point afterwards. This might have been his secret. But this wasn't the part of the book that Remy had been searching for. He flipped backwards through the pages…
"If you don't tell me who this other woman is-" Rosita screamed in fury, "I will KILL MYSELF!"
Nope, that wasn't the part he was looking for either. Remy turned the page—
Alejandro dropped to his knees, reaching his arms towards the heavens in agony. "NOOOOOOOOOOO! SOMEONE! Someone call a medic! ROOOOOSIIIIITAAAAA!"
"Wonderful writing," Remy murmured as he continued to search the book. It seemed that he couldn't find the point of the story that he was looking for so Remy gave up with a sigh. Instead, he grinned and turned to his favorite part.
"Alejandro! Take me, I'm all yours!" Rosita tore off her dress and threw herself to the bed, beckoning Alejandro to follow.
He did follow, but slowly, patiently, crawling towards her with a look of a predator in his eyes. Alejandro's eyes raked over her body hungrily, trailing over her heaving bosom, flat stomach and all the way to her-
"Hey Rems, whatcha' readin'?"
Remy flung the book over the railing of the porch, into the bushes and turned to smile at Kitty as she sat next to him on the swing.
"Nothin' at all, petite." He said lightly.
Kitty narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Yes you were; I saw you."
"No, I wasn't," he argued as though he had no idea what she was talking about.
"Yes you were! I saw you throw the book into those bushes." She pointed over the railing.
"And I saw you the other day pickin' your nose but Remy didn't say nothin' about it, did he?"
Kitty gasped. "What! When?"
Remy blinked confusedly. "Does it matter?"
"No, I guess not." Kitty grumbled, her face turning slightly pink.
"Right," Remy clapped his hands happily and stood up. "So, you don't mention anythin' about my book and I don't mention that you dig for gold in your nose! Deal!"
"Jerk," Kitty crossed her arms and harrumphed.
Remy only grinned in response and leapt over the porch railing to grab his book and then back over again to go inside.
It had been a week since they had arrived at the beach house. During that time they had fallen into a routine that mostly revolved around working, much to most of the team's dismay. After the fisherman (they still hadn't caught his name) had put down the trap that day, they had all gone out that night and staked it out, boringly watching the orange buoy floating on the water. But no one had ever come. The trap had stayed there for three days and two nights and no one had tried to sabotage it. When the fisherman had pulled it back out again, he was surprised to find that he had caught a good many lobsters. It was his first catch of the season, he told them, and happily thanked them all.
But their job was far from done. They still needed to catch whoever it was, so the next day the fisherman put out five more traps and then three days later (yesterday) he had pulled them back out to find lobsters and not one broken trap. Either someone knew that they were there and were watching, or they had given up. Either way, they would have to stay longer to find out.
Their routine was mostly revolved around work because the fisherman watched the buoys during the day, but during the night they kept an eye out. By the time that they got home in the morning, they were so sleepy from staying up all night that they slept all day. They started going in twos every night, everyone getting their own shift. Amara and Tabitha, Jean and Scott, Kitty and Kurt, and tonight it would be Remy and Rogue. Remy was happy about it. Rogue grumbled about it and then went upstairs to try to get some sleep.
In the time that they had been there, Kitty had yet to be go to the public beach and meet with 'hot, hunky, bronze beach guys' as she put it, Kurt had made pancakes everyday for breakfast, causing everyone to become very sick of them, and Amara had accidently caught fire to one of the rocking chairs on the front porch. Tabitha had created holes all over the beach in front of the house because she found that it was very fun to throw her explosives out of the upstairs window and into the sand. Remy had been molested and nearly killed by the upstairs shower curtain when he tried to climb out of the shower the day before and it had wrapped around him. Jean had taken to leaving her bedroom door open at night in an attempt to prove that she and Scott weren't doing the 'nasty' (this was how Tabitha put it), and Scott had almost broken the TV.
They had teased him mercilessly for that one. It actually hadn't been his fault, but no one remembered little details like that. Kurt had stumbled into him, knocked against his glasses, and they had slipped sideways, causing a red beam to shoot into the wall, millimeters from the TV screen. This didn't break the TV, but it did create a blackened spot on the wall next to it. Scott had nearly cried.
Other than the rocking chair and the spot on the wall being destroyed, nothing else in the house had been harmed, amazingly enough. They took off their shoes before coming in, they cleaned after themselves, and they watered the flowers in the backyard as requested.
Rogue loved the backyard. Someone had obviously been taking care of it. The grass was thick and dark green, and there were flowers everywhere. Yellow and red hibiscus bushes lined the tall, white privacy fence, along with purple hydrangea bushes all throughout. In both of the far corners there were pink rose bushes climbing up the fence. When you stepped off of the patio, there was a trail of stepping stones that led you into the yard and then around a bend of more hibiscus to a big trellis that had honeysuckle clinging to it. Underneath the trellis was a swing just big enough for two people that you couldn't see from the house. The best part was the smell. Just the sweet sent of the honeysuckle was enough to make any of them want to stay on the patio all day and breathe it in, let alone all of the other flowers.
Upstairs, Rogue was currently climbing out of bed. She had wanted to catch some sleep before her shift tonight, but that just wasn't going to happen. She had never been able to sleep with the sun out. Plus, it was hard to sleep when Amara and Tabitha found it be perfectly acceptable behavior to come into the room and start talking while she was under the covers.
So she just gave up. While she pulled her shoes on, Tabitha and Amara's voices went on and on in a never ending drone. Rogue was convinced that if she just sat there and let them keep talking that they would probably just keep talking until they died. That might be a little over stating it. But she had to wonder. The clock that she and Remy had picked up at the grocery store now sat on the table between the two beds and it read that it was three seventeen. So Rogue crossed her legs and looked to the two girls, nodding and pretending that she was listening. Every now and then she would glance at the clock to see how much time had passed.
"I want to go to the beach already," Amara was saying. "Lets go today! Where did Jean and Scott go?"
"To see the fisherman," Tabitha answered. "They're discussing putting out more traps-"
"That's boring; I don't want to talk about that."
"But don't you think he's kind hot?" Tabitha grinned.
"EW!" Amara wrinkled her nose. "Tabby, that's gross! He's like thirty years older than us!"
"So? Doesn't mean he's not hot. He's got nice arms…"
"Ok, enough of that," Amara said flatly. "Let's get Kitty and Rogue and lets go to the beach before Scott gets back and says we have more work to do. Oh! And first we have to go get new swimsuits. I don't like that orange color on me; it makes my head look big."
Rogue glanced at the clock to see that five minutes had already passed. Five minutes had passed and she hadn't said anything once, yet Tabitha and Amara were still there talking as if she had.
"Everything makes your head look big," Tabitha said, "that's what you always say anyway."
"I have a large head; I'm very self conscious about it."
Kitty walked in at that moment, narrowly avoiding smacking Amara in the head with the door. Rogue sighed. Now they really WERE going to talk until they died.
"What's going on?" Kitty asked.
Before the other two could say anything Rogue answered dully, "Amara has a big head and Tabitha thinks the hairy fisherman is hot stuff."
"Ew, the fisherman?" Kitty squealed. "Well…maybe if he didn't have that big beard and he wasn't a murderer."
"No way," Tabitha argued, "I like beards, I think they're sexy."
Rogue silently agreed. There was something that she liked about a man with a hairy face. Maybe because it accentuated that they were a man or maybe it was because it was different. Whatever the reason, she had always liked it. That was actually one of the reasons that she had been attracted to Remy when he had first joined the X-men. Remy didn't have much hair, just a little on his chin but she still liked it. Not anymore of course.
"Mm, maybe," Kitty shrugged. "Anyway…what are you guys doing? You want to go out?"
"Yes!" Tabitha and Amara both said at the same time. Rogue just shrugged. She had nothing better to do and going to the beach sounded fun, assuming that it was the beach that they were planning to go to.
It was. The girls continued yakking on and on excitedly as they gathered up the beach towels and sun block. Kurt came in to see what they were talking about and said that he would go with them. He teleported downstairs to go ask Remy is he wanted to go, who shrugged, grunted, and scratched his stomach. Kurt came back and told them that Remy was going.
Ten minutes later they were packed up and ready to go and unfortunately Rogue was the first one to grab the car keys.
"Uh…" Kurt looked a little panicked. "I thought I was going to drive?"
Rogue didn't notice his (or anyone else's) look. "I didn't hear that. I want to drive, I never get to…"
"There's a reason for that," Tabitha muttered behind her as they walked down the steps of the front porch.
Last Wednesday they had woken up to find another car in the driveway. Professor X had evidently taken care of their need for another car and had it sent there for them, though they had never seen who had brought it. Right now that car was with Jean and Scott down at the docks. So that left the X-van.
No one wanted Rogue to drive. She was one the worst drivers any of them had ever ridden with. Even Kitty, who had been a terror on the road when she had first gotten her license, wasn't as bad as Rogue was. Kitty still had the tendency to have a lead foot at times, but at least she stayed in the lines. Rogue did not. She also did a large number of other terrifying things that everyone tried to block from their minds the moment that they stepped out of the car.
"You sure bout that, chère?" Remy tried to dissuade her as they made their way around the house and to the driveway. "Remy don't mind drivin'."
"I'm fine," she said obliviously. Rogue thought that she was a fairly good driver. "I like to drive."
This did nothing to soothe any of their fears. They all felt panicked and frightened, Amara even whimpered sadly, and Kurt could have sworn that he died a little inside at her words. They all fought for the backseat. Rogue happily climbed into the driver's seat and then turned to look at them curiously.
"What are you guys doing?" She asked as they all purposely avoided the passenger's seat.
"We're gettin' in the car," Remy said cheerily as he waited for the girls to move from in front of him so that he could get in. They all went back to the farthest seat and he mentally cursed them.
"You know what?" Kurt laughed nervously. "I just remembered…I, um…um…um…um…Oh yeah, I need to go tell Jean and Scott something so I'm just going to pop over there and I'll find you, okay?"
"What?" Rogue started to ask what he was going to tell Jean and Scott but before she could say anything he smiled toothily at her and teleported. "Fine then," she rolled her eyes, wondering why everyone was acting so strange all of a sudden. Glancing into the rearview mirror, she saw the three girls on the back row and Remy all alone on the front, all of them buckling their seatbelts and tightening them as far as they would go. Yes, very strange behavior. But there was nothing she could do about it. She started the car.
Everyone cringed and clung to their seatbelts tighter. Remy gripped his so hard that it dug into his hips and caused his knuckles to turn white. But he didn't want to die today and he wouldn't!
Rogue started down the driveway slowly, driving at a safe speed but none of them were naïve enough to think that she would keep this up. The driveway went on and on and the further they went down, the faster they went. It still wasn't a very fast speed. And then Rogue realized that the radio wasn't on. She took her eyes off of the road for two seconds to push the button…and started driving off of the road.
"Look out!" Remy yelled and gripped his seatbelt as tight as he could—
But Rogue jerked the wheel back onto the road at the last second, narrowly avoiding an oak tree. "Whoops," she said as though this were no big deal. "Sorry about that. Everyone ok?"
Everyone was too scared to talk. Rogue just shrugged and continued driving…until out of nowhere she jerked the wheel, causing the tires to squeal and the van to lurch to the left. Everyone screamed, Amara closed her eyes and wouldn't open them, Tabitha nearly started hyperventilating, Kitty's heart nearly burst out of her chest and Remy kept telling himself that he wasn't going to die! He wasn't! Then Rogue jerked the car back on the right course and slowed down as she sighed in relief.
"Sorry," she said again. "There was a squirrel in the road."
Kitty was torn between crying in relief, yelling at Rogue for nearly killing them over a squirrel, and thanking Rogue for sparing the squirrel his life. It was a tough decision. "Oh, well, thanks for not killing it…" she said in a small voice.
"You're the only reason I tried so hard to avoid it," Rogue told her. "I knew you would have killed me if I had accidently hit it."
Everyone slowly turned accusing eyes on Kitty who shrugged weakly.
They were able to drive down the rest of the driveway without any incident, and amazingly, down the empty road on the way back to the town. It was when they finally reached the town and Rogue saw a billboard that they nearly crashed.
"Oh look!" She completely turned her head and took a hand off of the steering wheel to point. "There's that picture thing with the monkey I was talking about! Why are you guys screaming?" She saw, too late that she had drifted to the right, run off of the road and onto the sidewalk. She braked and tried to turn back onto the road but not before running into a speed limit sign and creating a long, deep scratch all along the right side of the van.
"I'm not going to die, I'm not going to die," Remy opened his eyes when he felt the car come to a stop. "Oh good, I'm not dead."
"No we're not," Kitty said breathlessly. "Can you believe it?"
"I can't." Tabitha answered her.
Amara was too scared to talk.
"Everyone ok?" Rogue said sheepishly as she pulled onto the road.
No one answered her but she didn't notice. Instead, she drove on to the top of the hill. And then when they started going down, she couldn't get it to stop. Thankfully, there was no one else on this road at the current moment, but that was the last thing on her mind as they barreled down the hill and every time she pressed into the break nothing happened.
"AAAHH!" The girls screamed.
"This is it, I'm going to die!" Remy screamed.
"OH MY GOD!" Rogue screamed. "It won't stop! It won't stop! I can't get it to…oh wait, I'm pressing the gas." She pressed on the brake and the car slowed to a stop. "Sorry," she turned to look back at them. "I forgot which was which…"
Remy was breathing heavily as though he had just run a few miles. His heart sure felt like he had. He just couldn't believe that he was alive!
Kitty was less happy. "I'M DRIVING! Get out of the car, Rogue!"
"OK," Rogue said, "I know why you're so freaked, but it's ok! I've got it all under control!"
"NO!" Everyone in the backseat said in unison.
"Oh good grief," Rogue grumbled as she unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of the car. "Big bunch of babies...I forget where the brake is one time and they fly to pieces…"
The rest of the trip was very uneventful. Kitty drove a lot slower than usual, probably because her hands were shaking so much and her stomach was in knots from her near death experience. Never again were they going to let Rogue drive. Never again would she willingly get in the car when Rogue was behind the wheel. She wouldn't let it happen, no matter what.
To Be Continued...